Our 'Lawnmower' Economy
Financiers Skim Profits While Main Street Stagnates
With Charles Hugh Smith & Gordon T Long
27 Minutes - 21 Slides
Charles Hugh Smith and Gordon T Long share their thinking on why the middle class in America has been experiencing a steady decline in their real standard of living over the last four decades and why the decline has recently accelerated. Their is a fundamental reason why productivity is falling while corporate profits soar and the employment participation rates falls.
The "Crippled" Capitalist System
The Capitalist System is based on the construct that savings are invested into productive assets which increase productivity and in turn increase the standard of living of the whole society within which it operates. This mechanism has worked well for a century and and half. It no longer is working.
Savings come from two sources:
- Household Savings
- Corporate Profits
Today Household savings borders on being an extinct concept and what there is of it, is invested in financial securities. Therefore savings to be invested into productive assets comes primarily from corporate profits or "Wall Street" financing. We would argue that the capital is no longer flowing into productive assets but rather being directed to other venues which are unproductive and fail to increase the standard of living for society. Be assured how22$100M going to change in their lives?
In fact three approaches today are skimming billions of dollars of that "savings" from investment that will lead to rising standards of livings. This is one of the reasons that standards of living are falling for the vast majority of Americans.
Three of those major skimming mechanism are analyzed in this video:
- High Frequency Trading (HFT)
- Stock Buybacks
- The "Carry" Trade
A Financialized Economy Flows profits to The Fiancial Sector
There is nothing wrong with making profits. However, there is something wrong in an economy when those profits don't flow into productive assets but rather "circularly" flow back into financial products.
The Financialization "Skim" is Killing The Middle Class in America
This insidious and effectively "unsupervised" process has resulted in:
The Results
Falling Real Incomes
The Wealthiest Now Almost Eclusively ReapThe Benefits
The Middle Class Has Effectively Been "Gutted"
There is much, much more in this 27 Minute video discussion which is illustrated with 21 slides.
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Author: Gordon Long
Gordon T. Long
Publisher - LONGWave
Gordon T. Long has been publically offering his financial and economic writing since 2010, following a career internationally in technology, senior management & investment finance. He brings a unique perspective to macroeconomic analysis because of his broad background, which is not typically found or available to the public.
Mr. Long was a senior group executive with IBM and Motorola for over 20 years. Earlier in his career he was involved in Sales, Marketing & Service of computing and network communications solutions across an extensive array of industries. He subsequently held senior positions, which included: VP & General Manager, Four Phase (Canada); Vice President Operations, Motorola (MISL - Canada); Vice President Engineering & Officer, Motorola (Codex - USA).
After a career with Fortune 500 corporations, he became a senior officer of Cambex, a highly successful high tech start-up and public company (Nasdaq: CBEX), where he spearheaded global expansion as Executive VP & General Manager.
In 1995, he founded the LCM Groupe in Paris, France to specialize in the rapidly emerging Internet Venture Capital and Private Equity industry. A focus in the technology research field of Chaos Theory and Mandelbrot Generators lead in the early 2000's to the development of advanced Technical Analysis and Market Analytics platforms. The LCM Groupe is a recognized source for the most advanced technical analysis techniques employed in market trading pattern recognition.
Mr. Long presently resides in Boston, Massachusetts, continuing the expansion of the LCM Groupe's International Private Equity opportunities in addition to their core financial market trading platforms expertise. GordonTLong.com is a wholly owned operating unit of the LCM Groupe.
Gordon T. Long is a graduate Engineer, University of Waterloo (Canada) in Thermodynamics-Fluid Mechanics (Aerodynamics). On graduation from an intensive 5 year specialized Co-operative Engineering program he pursued graduate business studies at the prestigious Ivy Business School, University of Western Ontario (Canada) on a Northern & Central Gas Corporation Scholarship. He was subsequently selected to attend advanced one year training with the IBM Corporation in New York prior to starting his career with IBM.
Gordon T Long is not a registered advisor and does not give investment advice. His comments are an expression of opinion only and should not be construed in any manner whatsoever as recommendations to buy or sell a stock, option, future, bond, commodity or any other financial instrument at any time. While he believes his statements to be true, they always depend on the reliability of his own credible sources. Of course, he recommends that you consult with a qualified investment advisor, one licensed by appropriate regulatory agencies in your legal jurisdiction, before making any investment decisions, and barring that, we encourage you confirm the facts on your own before making important investment commitments.
The information herein was obtained from sources which Mr. Long believes reliable, but he does not guarantee its accuracy. None of the information, advertisements, website links, or any opinions expressed constitutes a solicitation of the purchase or sale of any securities or commodities. Please note that Mr. Long may already have invested or may from time to time invest in securities that are recommended or otherwise covered on this website. Mr. Long does not intend to disclose the extent of any current holdings or future transactions with respect to any particular security. You should consider this possibility before investing in any security based upon statements and information contained in any report, post, comment or recommendation you receive from him.
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