by The Fed’s casino isn’t just rigged; it’s criminally unstable. The decay of America’s middle class has been well documented and many commentators have explored the causal factors. The bottom line is that this decay isn’t random; the income of the middle class isn’t going to suddenly increase at 15 times the growth rate of the income of the top 0.1%. (see chart below) The income of the top 0.1% grew 15 times faster than the incomes of the bottom 90% because that’s the only possible output of America’s distorted financial system. The same can be said of the rising asymmetry of wealth: the top 10% own 2.5 more wealth than the middle class (51% to 90%) and 34 times the wealth of the bottom 50% as a result of the asymmetric structure of our financial system. . In
Topics:
Charles Hugh Smith considers the following as important: 5) Global Macro, 5.) Charles Hugh Smith, Featured, newsletter
This could be interesting, too:
Frank Shostak writes Assumptions in Economics and in the Real World
Conor Sanderson writes The Betrayal of Free Speech: Elon Musk Buckles to Government Censorship, Again
Nachrichten Ticker - www.finanzen.ch writes Bitcoin erstmals über 80.000 US-Dollar
Nachrichten Ticker - www.finanzen.ch writes Kraken kündigt eigene Blockchain ‘Ink’ an – Neue Ära für den Krypto-Markt?
|
The Fed’s casino isn’t just rigged; it’s criminally unstable. The decay of America’s middle class has been well documented and many commentators have explored the causal factors. The bottom line is that this decay isn’t random; the income of the middle class isn’t going to suddenly increase at 15 times the growth rate of the income of the top 0.1%. (see chart below) The income of the top 0.1% grew 15 times faster than the incomes of the bottom 90% because that’s the only possible output of America’s distorted financial system. The same can be said of the rising asymmetry of wealth: the top 10% own 2.5 more wealth than the middle class (51% to 90%) and 34 times the wealth of the bottom 50% as a result of the asymmetric structure of our financial system. |
 . |
| In a truly market economy, risk avoidance is rational as risk can wipe you out.
In a financial system rigged to reward the biggest and most aggressive speculators, risk avoidance is irrational because all the gains generated by the economy go to the biggest and most aggressive speculators rather than to the most productive workers or enterprises. The Federal Reserve has stripmined savers and the risk-averse to funnel all the gains to its predatory, parasitic cronies–Wall Street banks, financiers and global corporations, turning rational risk aversion on its head: it’s now rational to gamble in the rigged casino, as that’s the only avenue left to protect one’s stake. |
 . |
| For 12 long years, savers have been eviscerated while gamblers have been ceaselessly backstopped and bailed out by the Fed. In the Fed’s rigged casino, it’s not only rational to make high-risk bets, it’s rational to borrow as much money as you can to increase your stake and leverage your bets–because the Fed has our backs and so every wager on markets lofting higher will pay off.
It’s crazy not to max out credit and leverage because the Fed has guaranteed every punter will be a winner. I explained the feedback loop this creates–the more the Fed guarantees markets will never be allowed to decline, the greater the incentives to borrow and leverage ever riskier bets in the Fed’s casino–in my post The “Helicopter Parent” Fed and the Fatal Crash of Risk. |
 . |
| The middle class has finally surrendered the last of its rational risk-aversion and gone all-in on bets in the Fed’s rigged casino. Big players don’t use margin accounts in brokerages; they have immense lines of credit and tools to leverage their bets. It’s the so-called retail traders who use margin, and so the unprecedented highs in margin debt are evidence that the middle class has gone all-in on bets markets will only loft higher forever. (see chart below)
Record inflows into equities adds more evidence that the middle class has been suckered into the Fed’s rigged casino. (see chart below) Why lose money every day in savings and money market accounts when newbie punters are raking in $250,000 a month playing options on Gamestop? Alas, the majority of this “wealth” is phantom, as revealed by the chart of tangible (real) / intangible (financial) assets. The Fed’s casino prints trillions of dollars and gives them to the biggest gamblers for free, and so the artificial semblance of free money for everyone who gambles is compelling. |
 . |
| Unfortunately, the Fed’s casino is only rigged to benefit the Fed’s cronies. Everyone else is suckered in to lose whatever they have. The Fed’s cronies have been impatiently waiting for the suckers to surrender their rational risk aversion and flood into the rigged casino to share in the Fed’s limitless wealth machine: the more you risk, the more you win!
But the wealth is illusory. The Fed can create currency out of thin air and give it to its predatory, parasitic cronies, but this isn’t real wealth. Real wealth has to be generated by work and investing in productive assets. The Fed’s casino isn’t just rigged; it’s criminally unstable. Once the phantom wealth evaporates and returns from whence it came (i.e. thin air), the unfairness of the Fed’s financial system will trigger a |
 . |
You Might Also Like
Weekly SNB Sight Deposits and Speculative Positions: SNB selling euros and dollars
2021-04-12
Update April 12 2021: SNB selling euros and dollars. Sight Deposits have fallen: The change is -0.5 bn. compared to last week, this means the SNB is selling euros and dollars.
Health, Wealth and What Kills Most of Us
2021-03-29
If health is wealth, and it most certainly is the highest form of wealth, then we would be well-served to take charge of our health-wealth in terms of what behaviors we can sustainably modify.
Gains Are Unreal, Losses Are Real
2021-02-12
Why would anyone sell when further gains are guaranteed? Because the gains are unreal but the losses are real. When markets are soaring and your portfolio is rocketing higher, the gains seem unreal.
2021: If It Wasn’t For Bad Luck, We Wouldn’t Have No Luck At All
2021-01-11
If we have indeed begun a sustained "reversal of fortune", it might be prudent to consider the possibility we’re only in the first inning of a sustained run of back luck.
The Coming War on Wealth and the Wealthy
2021-01-06
Here’s looking at you, Federal Reserve–thanks for perfecting ‘legalized looting’ and neofeudalism in America.
Don’t Blame Covid: The Economy is Imploding from Over-Capacity and Corrupt Cartels
2020-11-17
Now that the bubble has burst, the hope is that removing the pin will magically restore the burst bubble. Sorry, it doesn’t work that way. Here’s the fantasy: if we stop the shutdowns, the economy will naturally bounce back to its oh-so wunnerful perfection of Q3 2019. This is a double-dose of magical thinking and denial.
No Wonder the Super-Rich Love Inflation
2020-11-10
Asset inflation benefits the super-rich more than anyone else because they own the vast majority of these assets. With the reflation euphoria running full blast, maybe central banks will finally get all that inflation they’ve been pining for. So let’s ask cui bono–who will benefit from inflation?
Forget GOAT, Look at GBOAT: The Greatest Bubble Of All Time
2020-11-09
So enjoy the GBOAT (greatest bubble of all time) but watch the clock. Sports fans debate who qualifies as GOAT–the greatest of all time: in hoops, Kobe, Jordan, Kareem, Magic; in boxing, Ali, and so forth. What we have today is GBOAT–the greatest bubble of all time That it’s GOAT is beyond doubt, as the charts below reveal.
Tags: Featured,newsletter