Gee, I'm overjoyed that the stock market has shot back up to the 15,000s.  We wouldn't want the 1% to miss one cent of profit, now would we?  The powers that be want us to believe that rigging the system to make Wall Street gamblers more prosperous will somehow make the average Jane and Joe financially secure.  That's like saying that a bunch of rich people in evening gowns and tuxedos gluttonously gorging on caviar and foie gras in front of poor, starving folks will somehow, by osmosis feed them.

The many perversities  that drive stock market prices up or down usually have no bearing or have a negative bearing on things that affect our everyday life.  Translation, what's good for Wall Street usually isn't good for the average person.  In their constant quest to improve the quarterly bottom line to please Wall Street, corporate CEOs have become merciless cost cutters who have resorted to shipping American jobs to places like China and India.  The workers who are displaced by job offshoring create a huge pool of desperate people that other greedy CEOs, who have to answer to Wall Street, not to us, can exploit to keep the wages that they pay their employees low.

The most insidious aspect of the above is that job cuts and stagnant wages cost our country tax revenues which then cause our corporate owned electeds to try to balance the budget on the backs of those who can least afford it by cutting so called entitlements like Social Security and Medicare.  That would give many Americans less money to spend, costing more jobs. Did I hear you say vicious circle?  If you thought that all of that was the entire mess,you would be wrong so read on and you will be outraged.

Let's suppose that, by some miracle, you had a few bucks to spare and wanted to start a small nest egg for either retirement or a rainy day.  You open a savings account at your local multinational bank because you are only able to put away a small amount of money at a time.  You are shocked to find out that your “friendly” local bank is not only paying you close to or zero percent interest, but has the nerve to charge you all sorts of fees.  Yes, you are paying them to keep and use your money.  That's because our “friends” at the Federal Reserve Bank are giving banks money for nothing at around zero percent interest.  Guess who wins when they compete with you, the small saver?

I have just scratched the surface in this article.  I didn't talk about our rigged healthcare system that denies care to many people and bankrupts others with huge bills.  I didn't talk about the endless, gratuitous wars for fun and profit that sap our country of its youth and tax revenue that could be put to better use saving lives.  They will be addressed in future articles and have been addressed in previous articles.  At this point, you might want to know what you can do about the situation?  The answers are in the articles on this website.  Read, read!