The Root of Economic Fragility and Political Anger

[Joanne98]

Missing from almost all discussion of America's dizzying rate of unemployment is the brute fact that hourly wages of people with jobs have been dropping, adjusted for inflation. Average weekly earnings rose a bit this spring only because the typical worker put in more hours, but June's decline in average hours pushed weekly paychecks down at an annualized rate of 4.5 percent.

In other words, Americans are keeping their jobs or finding new ones only by accepting lower wages.

Meanwhile, a much smaller group of Americans' earnings are back in the stratosphere: Wall Street traders and executives, hedge-fund and private-equity fund managers, and top corporate executives. As hiring has picked up on the Street, fat salaries are reappearing. Richard Stein, president of Global Sage, an executive search firm, tells the New York Times corporate clients have offered compensation packages of more than $1 million annually to a dozen candidates in just the last few weeks.

We're back to the same ominous trend as before the Great Recession: a larger and larger share of total income going to the very top while the vast middle class continues to lose ground.

And as long as this trend continues, we can't get out of the shadow of the Great Recession. When most of the gains from economic growth go to a small sliver of Americans at the top, the rest don't have enough purchasing power to buy what the economy is capable of producing.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-reich/the-root-of-economic-frag_b_644465.html

[EmeraldCityGrl]

1. Where is the money coming from? Most American's are not investing in

the Stock Market or their 401K's anywhere near what they use to. Institutional money also has to be negatively affected by
job loses and lower wages. How are these Wall Streeters ( Rich New Yorkers) experiencing growth in this economy?

[DonCoquixote]

2. sssh it's a secret

But it has to do with the fact that the wealthy are moving their assets to Asia, especially corporate bordellos like Dubai. They won't need us to buy their crap anymore.

[Cassandra]

3. Raping the companies, themselves.

Fewer workers, lower wages, no R&D, cheaper ingredients makes for larger salaries at the top. For short-term thinkers, who cares if the company or the economy falls off a cliff?