Tag Archives: 10%

Business/Economics

Economic Martial Law U.S.A.: Federal Reserve admits their efforts to save the economy makes the rich richer, and everyone else poor!

06 September 2014 (15:55 UTC-07 Tango)/11 Dhu l-Qa’da 1435/15 Shahrivar 1393/13 Gui-You 4712

“Families at the bottom of the income distribution saw continued substantial declines in average real incomes between 2010 and 2013, continuing the trend observed between the 2007 and 2010 surveys.”-2013 Survey of Consumer Finances

Every three years the privately Jewish run U.S. central bank known as Federal Reserve releases data called Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF).  Their latest survey has them admitting that all their efforts to save the U.S. economy, since 2007, has only resulted in making the rich richer and everybody else poor.

The SCF says overall ‘mean (average) income’ went up 4%, but when you look at income using the ‘median’ method it actually dropped 5%.

The Federal Reserve calls making the rich richer “income concentration”.  This means the majority of money being made is going to a small elite, specifically to the top 10% of “families”:   “…all but the highest quintile saw declines in median income between 2010 and 2013, with second and third quintiles seeing the largest declines (7 percent and 6 percent, respectively).  Median income increased 2 percent for the top income decile.  Mean income declined strongly for the bottom two quintiles and barely budged for those between the 40th and 90th percentiles, whereas the mean income of the top decile increased 10 percent between 2010 and 2013.”

“Families in the middle to uppermiddle parts (between the 40th and 90th percentiles) of the income distribution saw little change in average real incomes between 2010 and 2013 and thus have failed to recover the losses experienced between 2007 and 2010.    Only families at the very top of the income distribution saw widespread income gains between 2010 and 2013, although mean and median incomes were still below 2007 levels.”

“Overall, between 2010 and 2013 there was little movement in median and mean net worth, as the median fell a modest 2 percent and the mean increased slightly…..families at the bottom of the income distribution saw continued substantial declines in real net worth between 2010 and 2013, while those in the top half saw, on average, modest gains.  Ownership rates of housing and businesses fell substantially between 2010 and 2013.   Retirement plan participation in 2013 continued on the downward trajectory observed between the 2007 and 2010 surveys for families in the bottom half of the income distribution.  Participation rebounded slightly for upper-middle income families, but it did not move back to the levels observed in 2007……decrease in stock ownership rates was most pronounced for the bottom half of the income distribution.  The decrease in ownership rates for housing and corporate equity holdings was concentrated in the bottom and upper-middle parts of the income distribution, though the decrease in business ownership was concentrated among higher-income families.”

The Federal Reserve has noted a new trend involving education; instead of seeing a high school diploma as increasing your income, it is now seen as reducing the amount of pay you might lose, compared to somebody with no high school diploma.  Apparently having a college degree is still the best way to attain income security: “The median income of households with a high school diploma or less fell between 6 and 9 percent, whereas the mean income of those without a high school diploma fell much more than that of those who graduated from high school (a 17 percent decline versus a 2 percent decline).  The median income of those with some college decreased 11 percent, whereas the median income of those with a college degree increased 1 percent.  Mean income for those with a college degree increased 5 percent.”

Overall, the net worth of the average U.S. citizen is down: “…the median net worth of all families fell a modest 2 percent…..mean net worth was effectively unchanged….the 2010 SCF showed dramatic decreases in median and mean net worth in the 2007–10 period….driven by the boom and bust in house and other asset prices. The bust, in particular, had a disproportionate effect on families in the middle of the net worth distribution, whose wealth portfolio is dominated by housing.

….Families with higher levels of usual income reported greater levels of net worth…..Median net worth decreased between 2010 and 2013 for most usual income groups, falling between 10 and 17 percent….Those in the lowest usual income quintile saw small decreases in median net worth (12 percent,….), but they also saw the largest proportional decrease in mean net worth (21 percent,….).  Households in the second and third quintile of usual income saw large declines in median net worth (10 percent and 17 percent, respectively),….The fourth income quintile was the only group that experienced increases in both median and mean net worth: 16 percent for median net worth and 14 percent for mean net worth.

Those without a high school diploma saw no change in median net worth between 2010 and 2013, but their mean net worth fell 9 percent. Those with high school diplomas or some college both saw 14 percent declines in median net worth; the former saw a 15 percent decline in mean net worth, while those with some college had 9 percent higher mean net worth in 2013.  Median net worth increased 5 percent for those with college degrees, while their mean net worth declined 2 percent.”

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

More proof the Occupy movement is right: When cost of living is included almost 50% of Americans are poor, yet the top 10% got big pay raises in 2010 and their employers lied about it

According to corporate research firm Global Market Insight (GMI), Corporate America’s CEOs got big raises in 2010, even though many companies did not perform well!

The CEOs of the top 500 companies got as much as a 36.5% increase in pay. The next 3,000 U.S. corporations gave their CEOs a pay raise averaging 27%!  Researchers with GMI said they were surprised, and considered the pay increases way out of line with the poor performance of many of the companies.

This news comes at the same time the U.S. Census Bureau is unofficially calling almost half of the population of the United States poor!

“SPM rates were higher than official poverty rates in 2010, overall and for most groups”-Brookings/Census Bureau Meeting on Improved Poverty Measurment, November 7, 2011

The new poverty statistics take into account “nondiscretionary” cost of living expenses such as income taxes, child care, health care, commuting to work, etc.  When cost of living is factored in it raises the official number of poor people in the U.S.

The “official” poverty surveys consider before tax income only!  This means the “official” poverty numbers have been way off for decades.  However, the Census Bureau says the new SPM poverty numbers “Will not replace the official poverty measure” and “Will not be used for resource allocation or program eligibility”!

The new SPM numbers also include some types of welfare benefits a family might be getting, plus child support, and yet even with that data the number of poor people still went higher than the “official” poverty numbers.  This is more evidence of how inaccurate the “official” count is, and how rampant poverty is in the U.S.!

The new data was released on November 7, 2011, yet I don’t recall any mainstream U.S. media reporting it. The data covers the year 2010 only, it’s called Supplemental Poverty Measure: 2010 (SPM).

When using the SPM (aka Improved Poverty Measure) a big jump in the number of poor people were found in the age group of 18 to 64 year olds.  But the biggest jump in poverty was found in the age group of people 65 years or older.

If I read the Census Bureau graphs correctly (and if I understood the Bureaus’ explanations of how they figured it), when you add the “official” poverty numbers to the new SPM numbers you get 146.4 million people who are poor  (49.1 million “officially” poor + 97.3 million SPM poor).  Even if you go by just the new SPM data that’s nearly 100 million poor people in the U.S.

Officially there are 312 million people in the United States.

Back to Corporate America’s big pay raises for their CEOs.

The top earning CEO in 2010 was John Hammergen of McKesson Corporation, getting $145 million, not counting his stock options or retirement benefits!  According to GMI, McKesson has essentially lied about how much they paid Hammergen.  They reported they paid Hammergen only (hmph, ‘only’) $46.1 million.

GMI researchers said McKesson refused to explain the difference.  GMI says Hammergen not only got $145 million in pay, he got $112 million in stock options, a retirement plan worth $13.5 million, and, if he ever got fired his severance package is worth $469 million! For getting fired!!! And the right wing neo-conservative ass holes complain about the average unemployed worker being on unemployment pittance (it certainly is not a “benefit”)!!!

Just like it says in HR 1905, we are slaves!

 

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? The United States ranks as World’s 4th worst for income disparity. Another official study that proves that the Occupy movement is right! Proof the American Dream was a lie!

“The income inequality level of the United States ranks only after Chile, Mexico and Turkey in the 29 OECD countries. Inequality among working age people has risen steadily since 1980, in total by 25%.”–John Martin, OECD

The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) released its latest report on income disparity, and the United States came in as fourth worst, after Mexico, Chile and Turkey.

The report is called: Growing Unequal? Income Distribution and Poverty in OECD Countries.

The report says the trend for the wealth not being spread evenly within the U.S. actually began in the 1970s.

Here’s some interesting facts from the report: “The average income of the richest 10% is US$93,000 US$ in purchasing power parities, the highest level in the OECD. However, the poorest 10% of the US citizens have an income of US$5,800 US$ per year – about 20% lower than the average for OECD countries.”

“Redistribution of income by government plays a relatively minor role in the United States…effectiveness of taxes and transfers in reducing
inequality has fallen still further in the past 10 years.”

“Wealth is distributed much more unequally than income: the top 1% control some 25-33% of total net worth and the top 10% hold 71%.” 

Richard L. Trumka, chairman of the Trade Union Advisory Committee, said the growing disparity in income in the United States is not because the average person isn’t willing to work harder, but because wages and benefits for the average worker have actually been going down (when adjusted for inflation), while salaries, benefits and other forms of revenue for the top 10% have been going up!

A video presentation by the OECD says this latest study is the most detailed ever.

The study also discovered that low income families stuck in countries with high income disparities, can not expect to ever prosper in those countries: “…but what we find is that in very unequal societies they get stuck. Their incomes don’t reflect their true talents and they stay much poorer on average…”-Mark Pearson, OECD