this type of disparity builds resentment

[nadinbrzezinski]

Left unchecked, this type of disparity builds resentment. Until the captains of industry find ways to share more of the wealth with those in the trenches, they risk a political backlash against the policies that have made them wealthy.

_________________________

This was on a USA today article sent to me today... from one of today's stories.

Let me introduce you to what the reporters are dancing around. It is called the Misery Index, and rarely if ever you will see it in a paper. But you will see indicators of that index...

Folks they are trying to prepare the very rich for the riots, and this tells me that we have passed the 60%... and are quickly moving into the 70% territory, nationwide. This is when riots break... once you reach 90% or above we are talking of revolution.

They are hard to put together in a working economy, but they are not that hard to reconstruct after the fact... we have gone from 30% MI during the Clinton years, worst case, to doubling and well on its way to the magic numbers of social unrest in four short years. I say, batten down the hatches, as we all know the economy is in shambles.

Now is the time we need leaders, for this social force can be harnessed for good, or for evil...

In the long term, if current trends continue, things are gonna get very ugly indeed.

[Eric J in MN]

1. Don't worry about the gap between rich and poor!

Worry about Scott Peterson!

Worry that the "secularists" (Bill O'Reilly term) will steal Christmas.

[nadinbrzezinski]

3. Let them eath cake!

What happened when that famous person said such? Distractions only work for so long....

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

2. I have been saying that for a while now.

I figure the lid is gonna come off this thing in 2006-7, barring some mind-roasting move by the chimp to speed that up.

Blood in the streets is a distinct and growing possibility. Frankly, I expect it. I do not welcome it. No way. That would be insane, but it is the turd in the punch bowl and it is floating to the top.

[nadinbrzezinski]

4. You are not the only one that has been saying it

but now they are dancing around it on the MSM... which makes me wonder just how bad thigns are... and how bad the economy is doing... after all we have turned a corner.

Reminds me ever so more of 1929

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

8. Consider these two facts, re: The Economy:

1. Insider selling, IE: the exercising of stock options and then quickly selling said stock, in their own company, is at an record pace. Why do these guys crave liquidity right now?

2. OPEC: A report was just leaked that in early-mid 2005, there is going to be a very significent downturn in US oil consumption. Why?

These are only indicators of something way out on the horizon. I do not pretend to see the future. I do find them, and a lot of other facts, troubling.

[nadinbrzezinski]

10. And add the two

shots across teh bow of the ship of state from Japan and China (T-Bills and floating the debt they own)

There is much going on...


On and the insider selling, it has happened in those numbers twice:

1985

1929

You draw your own conclusions

[NEOBuckeye]

13. Oil Consumption? More like Oil PRODUCTION

Peak Oil is going to show up on the scene soon, with a very dramatic impact upon EVERYTHING that we do.

Read more about it.

[nadinbrzezinski]

14. It is one of those concepts

that are so hard to explain... I have tried with my mother, and I am about to give up....

on her that is.

And yes once that happens, in an obvious manner, watch out.

By the way, some of us think we already HIT peak oil

[AliciaKeyedUp]

5. Is this new?

The old misery index used to be a combination of inflation and unemployment or something like that.

[nadinbrzezinski]

6. and it is the same

but you will not see it in the MSM... they used to run the numbers, no more

[yorgatron]

7. EAT THE RICH!

:evilgrin:

[shraby]

9. That's the reason under Reagan

they quit having people sign up for their unemployment checks at the county office, but started having them send in their job search information in the mail.
That way, there were no long lines for everyone to see.

[nadinbrzezinski]

11. But yuo now see more and more homeless

Hell we "adopted" a couple vets. We get them food when we can, but still

[pansypoo53219]

23. no, eat the poor!

there are more of them.


but but but what about the corner? and and and that retard woman at georgie's economic do said the econ was going gangbusters.

[mitchum]

12. Up against the wall!

[kineneb]

15. I could see it coming years ago

When "welfare reform" was first enacted with the 5 year max, I was the manager of a Farmers Market in a low-income area. The co-manager and I expected that when the folks on assistance ran out of time things would start getting ugly. Seems to me we have just about arrived at that point. And in the meantime, the economy has gone into the toilet and stayed there.

We are refugees from the DotCom bust. We sold the house in SF Bay Area to avoid losing it. It gave us the oppertunity to buy out in the country, where even if there are major upheavals, they will be at some distance.

I know our MI is high; our income is less than half what it used to be. Two of us live on my income of under $20K/yr (w/no benefits). We had to clear out what little we had in savings to be able to get public health care- just try getting insurance for someone who is an insulin-dependent diabetic.:-(

[nadinbrzezinski]

18. Not quite insulin dependent

but I know exactly what you mean... National Health Care is what we need

[kineneb]

22. Take care

This country is a tough place to be if your job lacks group health insurance. We did ok when Hubby was working, but now I am the only person in the office where I work and, of course, there is no insurance.

Getting on social services is becoming more difficult. Now they want people like us to reapply every 3 months - to prove we still have no assets and Hubby is still "sick"...aargh. Like his health will improve...not likely. He is on the slow slide to dialysis.

[nadinbrzezinski]

27. You too,

I do believe that out of this mess a very different country will emerge, assuming the country survives... and it will not be quite what the Right wants... not quite... rather what they hate

;-)

These damn Cheap Labor Consevatives can run their scams only for so long before people react in ways that they don't expect.

As that piece said, "it is this kind of disparity that breeds resentment," well I see it now all over...

That resentment can lead to places that they will not like...

[Magari]

16. Bring it on, I say!

There is no question that this economy is in a shambles and no amount of improvement in the stock market is going to change that anytime soon. The jobs simply are not there and neither are the social benefits for those who are SOL!!! And the debt just keeps on growing. And, if that were not enough, Bush and his cronies are even trying to screw the people out of their social security benefits.

Well, I'm sure that I don't need to tell most of you what that adds up to and what needs to be done!! If you don't get the gist of what I'm saying, check out the first few paras of the Constitution. Moreover, I'm a social scientist who works as a consultant in the international arena, so I know what I'm talking about. Besides, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to know what happens when the gap between the haves and have-not widens to the point that virtually only two classes remain. Or, as Nadin so aptly put it, the Misery Index encompasses the bulk of the population.

Yes, siree, like the lady said: "...if current trends continue, things are gonna get very ugly indeed."

[nadinbrzezinski]

20. Hi welcome to DU

[Magari]

28. At it again, I see? ;-)

Hi Nadin!:hi:

I see you're at it again ;-) Keep up the good work! :)

[newyawker99]

40. Hi Magari!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[Tsiyu]

17. "Imagine no possessions"

The biggest mistake Fascism Lovers make is assuming that a poverty-ridden populace is ripe to do their bidding.

Quite the contrary. Human beings crave freedom and happiness and abhor bondage and oppression.

Unemployed people can:

A) Form new bartering economies; become self-employed filling a local need

B) Contemplate and research their current government with the aim of bringing it to a state where its principles are upheld; and criminal, fraudulent activity is punished. ( of course, one can get suicided once one is published. I'm just saying.)

C) Become depressed and ineffective - especially true among isolated people. In this category would also be those who give in by becoming part of the evil.

or

D) Riot

I hope we do the former two and not the latter. After Christmas there will be more unemployed people, friends. Holiday sales aren't looking so good. One in our household has already been laid off.

Things are gonna get interesting....

[nadinbrzezinski]

19. I am sorry for your plight

as to the holidays, well we saw it today, we tend to avoid stores or swap meets, but we went today to the swap meet, and found that the sellers are having a down year... not a good sign...

Then we went to the store to look for a couple things we needed, sales are at 60% + and this is not the 26th folks.

[Tsiyu]

32. hey, we're doing better than the Iraqis, anyway

But thanks for the kind words. :)

[Tinoire]

21. hahaha! It's you. The Angel of gloom and doom

The other angel of doom and gloom! :hi:

Good to see you still posting.

Things are going to get very bad indeed and rather quickly. We are like lobsters being lowered into the boiling water. We may not feel each degree but pretty soon it's going to be boiling hot!

Japan is threatening the US with selling off sell off its multi-billion-dollar holdings of US Treasuries because it can't afford to slide down the with us and wants to cushion its fall while at the same time begging Europe to intervene- something Europe will never do because they've been waiting for this moment. A big part of the war against Iraq is to keep the dollar as OPEC's currency.

Saddam was switching to the Euro.

Iran is still working on it.

Chavez is going Euro or gold.

Meanwhile all of OPEC is dumping the dollar & America can't get those pumps & pipelines in Iraq working.


There's a world of hurt coming. People are going to be weeping as we watch the empire go down. And no one, mark my words, no one will come to our aid because for too long we've thumbed our noses at the world.

[nadinbrzezinski]

24. Angel of doom and glom? I like it

maybe I should change my name...

By the way, it is that damn training as a historian, I can see this one coming a mile away. Oh and guess who is replacing us as the next super power?

CHINA.

Professor Kennedy said such back in the early 1990s in the Rise and Fall of Great Powers, but what would he know?

[Tinoire]

29. Yepper... And here's a gloom & doom article for you

You're right about China... Oddly enough, for the last few days I've been thinking of our old friend Nikita

I once said, "We will bury you," and I got into trouble with it. Of course we will not bury you with a shovel. Your own working class will bury you.
Nikita S. Khrushchev



Yahoo quicky scuttled this off. Thank God for Google cache. here's more gloom for you.

Tuesday December 7, 01:43 AM

Bank for International Settlements says OPEC slashes dollar exposure - report
HONG KONG (AFX) - Oil exporters have sharply reduced their exposure to the US dollar over the past three years, according to data from the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), the Financial Times reported on its website.
Members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) have slashed the proportion of deposits held in dollars from 75 pct in the third quarter of 2001 to just 61.5 pct.
Middle Eastern central banks have reportedly switched reserves from dollars to euro and sterling to avoid incurring losses as the dollar has fallen and prepare for a shift away from pricing oil exports in dollars alone, the newspaper said.
The BIS data, in the organization's quarterly review, state that OPEC countries' stock of dollar-denominated deposits has fallen by 4 pct in cash terms since 2002 in spite of OPEC revenues surging to record levels this year, according to the newspaper.
OPEC officials say the cartel is trying to protect its purchasing power per barrel, as Europe is its largest trading partner, the report said, adding that they also point to political motivations after the 2001 terror attacks on the US.
Hans Redeker, global head of foreign exchange strategy at the French bank, said the Patriot Act, introduced after Sept 11 to stop US financial institutions being used by terrorists to launder money, was worrying private investors, according to the FT report.
wpf/

http://64.233.179.104/search?q=cache:z4q8HsvkukMJ:uk.biz.yahoo.com/041207/323/f811w.html+%22Bank+for+International+Settlements%22+OPEC&hl=en

[nadinbrzezinski]

30. let the games begin

after all they DO HAVE nukes... and are quickly working on a blue navy....

;-)

We are living the Chinese curse, no pun intended.

[Tinoire]

34. Well... Here's more doom and gloom

I think I had told you that before he passed away 7 years ago, my father had predicted (had been predicting) to a T everything happening now - down to the oil war, down to Israel's invovement, down to Russia, China, all of it. He was a historian by hobby with a solid classical education but all of that he coupled with very deep independent biblical study.

China is the "Yellow River" in the bible. And let's not forget the "bear" waking up. I know you've been following what's going on in Russia but were you aware of this?


Russia, China to conduct joint military drill 12/14/2004 -- 10:59(GMT+7)

Beijing (VNA) - Visiting Russian Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov and his Chinese counterpart Cao Gangchuan on Monday agreed to conduct a first-ever joint military drill next year. The same day, State President and Chairman of China's Central Military Commission Hu Jintao and his deputy on the committee Guo Baxiong also held talks with Minister Ivanov.

http://www.vnagency.com.vn/NewsA.asp?LANGUAGE_ID=2&CATEGORY_ID=34&NEWS_ID=131122


China, Russia to conduct first joint military drill
www.chinaview.cn 2004-12-14 07:28:15


Defense Minister Cao Gangchuan(R) gestures during a welcome ceremony with his visiting Russian counterpart in Beijing on December 13.


Chinese Defense Minister Cao Gangchuan (L) holds a welcome ceremony for visiting Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov in Beijing Dec. 13. China and Russia will conduct the first-ever joint military exercise next year. (Xinhua photo)


President: Sino-Russian strategic coordination reaches unprecedented level

BEIJING, Dec. 13 (Xinhuanet) -- Sino-Russian strategic coordination has attained an unprecedentedly high level, said President Hu Jintao here Monday during his meeting with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov, according to Foreign Ministry sources.

Hu, also chairman of the Central Military Commission of the Communist Party of China, said bilateral relations between China and Russia had entered a new phase of overall growth, since the two nations forged strategic partnership of coordination.

Cooperation in various sectors has been practical, in-depth andfruitful, he said, adding that growth of relations between the two armies have maintained good momentum.

China and Russia now face the same task of maintaining peace and stability and promoting common development, and it is in the fundamental interests of the people of every nation in the region to further deepen Sino-Russian bilateral strategic coordination, to tighten coordination and cooperation between the two countries and their armies within the framework of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and to join hands in combating terrorism and other evil forces, Hu said.

(snip)

Relations between the two armies are an important part of the partnership, he acknowledged, adding that Russia is willing to work with China to promote this relationship and to maintain peace and stability in the region and the world at large.

(snip)

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-12/14/content_2330766.htm



http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-12/14/content_2330766.htm

[Tinoire]

35. Part 2 - PNAC's latest letter - RUSSIA (notice Dem signature & Albright's)

Letter of 100 on Democracy in Russia, September 28, 2004

An Open Letter to the Heads of State and Government
Of the European Union and NATO
September 28, 2004

As citizens of the Euro-Atlantic community of democracies, we wish to express our sympathy and solidarity with the people of the Russian Federation in their struggle against terrorism. The mass murderers who seized School No. 1 in Beslan committed a heinous act of terrorism for which there can be no rationale or excuse. While other mass murderers have killed children and unarmed civilians, the calculated targeting of so many innocent children at school is an unprecedented act of barbarism that violates the values and norms of our community and which all civilized nations must condemn.

At the same time, we are deeply concerned that these tragic events are being used to further undermine democracy in Russia. Russia's democratic institutions have always been weak and fragile. Since becoming President in January 2000, Vladimir Putin has made them even weaker. He has systematically undercut the freedom and independence of the press, destroyed the checks and balances in the Russian federal system, arbitrarily imprisoned both real and imagined political rivals, removed legitimate candidates from electoral ballots, harassed and arrested NGO leaders, and weakened Russia's political parties. In the wake of the horrific crime in Beslan, President Putin has announced plans to further centralize power and to push through measures that will take Russia a step closer to authoritarian regime.

We are also worried about the deteriorating conduct of Russia in its foreign relations. President Putin's foreign policy is increasingly marked by a threatening attitude towards Russia's neighbors and Europe's energy security, the return of rhetoric of militarism and empire, and by a refusal to comply with Russia's international treaty obligations. In all aspects of Russian political life, the instruments of state power appear to be being rebuilt and the dominance of the security services to grow. We believe that this conduct cannot be accepted as the foundation of a true partnership between Russia and the democracies of NATO and the European Union.

These moves are only the latest evidence that the present Russian leadership is breaking away from the core democratic values of the Euro-Atlantic community. All too often in the past, the West has remained silent and restrained its criticism in the belief that President Putin's steps in the wrong direction were temporary and the hope that Russia would soon return to a democratic and pro-Western path. Western leaders continue to embrace President Putin in the face of growing evidence that the country is moving in the wrong direction and that his strategy for fighting terrorism is producing less and less freedom. We firmly believe dictatorship will not and cannot be the answer to Russia's problems and the very real threats it faces.

The leaders of the West must recognize that our current strategy towards Russia is failing. Our policies have failed to contribute to the democratic Russia we wished for and the people of this great country deserve after all the suffering they have endured. It is time for us to rethink how and to what extent we engage with Putin's Russia and to put ourselves unambiguously on the side of democratic forces in Russia. At this critical time in history when the West is pushing for democratic change around the world, including in the broader Middle East, it is imperative that we do not look the other way in assessing Moscow's behaviour or create a double standard for democracy in the countries which lie to Europe's East. We must speak the truth about what is happening in Russia. We owe it to the victims of Beslan and the tens of thousands of Russian democrats who are still fighting to preserve democracy and human freedom in their country.




Urban Ahlin Madeleine K. Albright Giuliano Amato

Uzi Arad Timothy Garton Ash Anders Aslund

Ronald D. Asmus Rafael L. Bardaji Wladyslaw Bartoszewski

Arnold Beichman Jeff Bergner Joseph R. Biden

Carl Bildt Max Boot Ellen Bork

Pascal Bruckner Mark Brzezinski Reinhard Buetikofer

Janusz Bugajski Michael Butler Martin Butora

Daniele Capezzone Per Carlsen Gunilla Carlsson

Ivo Daalder Massimo D'Alema Pavol Demes

Larry Diamond Peter Dimitrov Thomas Donnelly

Nicholas Eberstadt Uffe Elleman-Jensen Helga Flores Trejo

Francis Fukuyama Jeffrey Gedmin Bronislaw Geremek

Carl Gershmann Marc Ginsberg Andre Glucksmann

Phil Gordon Karl-Theodor von und zu Guttenberg

Istvan Gyarmati Pierre Hassner Vaclav Havel

Richard C. Holbrooke Toomas Ilves Bruce Jackson

Donald Kagan Robert Kagan Craig Kennedy

Penn Kemble Glenys Kinnock Bernard Kouchner

Jerzy Kozminski Ivan Krastev William Kristol

Girts Valdis Kristovskis Ludger Kuehnhardt Mart Laar

Vytautas Landsbergis Stephen Larrabee

Mark Leonard Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger

Tod Lindberg Tom Malinowski

Will Marshall Margarita Mathiopoulos

Clifford May John McCain Michael McFaul

Matteo Mecacci Mark Medish Thomas O. Melia

Sarah E. Mendelson Michael Mertes Ilir Meta

Adam Michnik Richard Morningstar Joshua Muravchik

Klaus Naumann Dietmar Nietan James O'Brien

Janusz Onyszkiewicz Cem Ozdemir Can Paker

Mark Palmer Martin Peretz Friedbert Pflueger

Danielle Pletka Florentino Portero Samantha Ravich

Janusz Reiter Alex Rondos Jim Rosapepe

Jacques Rupnik Eberhard Sandschneider

Randy Scheunemann Christian Schmidt

Gary Schmitt Simon Serfaty Stephen Sestanovich

Radek Sikorski Stefano Silvestri Martin Simecka

Gary Smith Abraham Sofaer James Steinberg

Gary Titley Ivan Vejvoda Sasha Vondra

Celeste Wallander Ruth Wedgood Richard Weitz

Kenneth Weinstein Jennifer Windsor R. James Woolsey

[nadinbrzezinski]

39. My, they are gonna let Condy play wiht the russian bear

and Rummy use his nukes? He has wanted to use them since 1973

[Tinoire]

42. Condy...

Condy Rice Is Not the National Security Advisor ;)

[nadinbrzezinski]

38. Yes, the ruskies

are also selling the Chinese the Aircraft Carriers they need for blue water naval operations (and power projection), they are nuclear, and though they are not too adept at Carrier operations, the operative word is YET. It will take them at most 15 years to learn all we leanred in the last sixty.

They are also selling them the Naval Fighters that you need for them Carrier task forces.

No we are no longer the only kids in the block but Rummy is busy making our forces far more mobile and unconventional, while in the horizon rises a real conventional threat capable of projecting power.

I will also say that the cold war with the Ruskies has restarted... in full force...

As I said, may you live the Chinese Curse, for we are.

;-)

And as a historian I see the patern emerging... heck I have used it for the fluff for a game we are writing... and I foresee some of the events I prediced in that book occuring, mostly out of need... as a tri power world emerges with us at the bottom. Only reason we are still a power... are them cute nukes.

[kineneb]

25. Lots of doom and gloom

at my favorite news website, Asia Times. They have been having some good articles by one of the investment guys. No one has any confidence that BushCo will do anything to slow the dollar's demise.
The world is going to the Euro and going to ditch the dollar. Get out your wheelbarrows, we's all gonna need em soon.

[nadinbrzezinski]

26. It will not get to that point immediately

but if radical things are not done... it will by 2008

Oh and by the way, Asia Times is also one of my favorite places... they seem AHEAD of the curve anywhere from one to three months depending on the issue.

[Tinoire]

31. Love Asia Times!

Nadin says 2008... I'm not sure it will take that long but I'm no expert. Whenever it happens though it will be very painful.

Do you know where I can find a picture of the Germans pushing around wheelbarrows of paper bills to go buy bread before they started WWII? I've been looking for one but to no avail.

[nadinbrzezinski]

33. Yuo can look for any of htose photos

on the web... look under 1929 great Depresion and Germany.

Oh and 2008 is the outside, but it will not be that sudden. The reason, first economies have to ensure they have no exposure or very little in their own central reserves.

And if this is sudden it will throw the economy into the kind of crisis the world cannot afford. Hence you are seeing the preparation... in nations and cartels moving central reserves to Gold and Euros.

Once they are ready.... the inflationary pressures will be such that people will be dizzy... a year... after that point of we are ready to ahem declare full economic warfare on the US.... and lets hope for the sake of humanity our children don't decide this is war and decide to respond in kind (with nukes)

[Tinoire]

37. I will again.

Tried once for 30 minutes but didn't find them. Will try again and when I do, lol, you'll be seeing it :)

[Magari]

36. Me Too! :)

It seems that quite a few of us read the Asian Times ;-)

As for 2008, I seriously doubt it will take that long; namely, because we aren't going to last that long. How does end 2005 or early 2006 sound? After all, we have already achieved the status of a Banana Republic :eyes:

All I can say is that we are going to be in for a very rude awakening very very soon.

[Tinoire]

43. Welcome Magari!

:hi:

[mogster]

41. Well...

> And no one, mark my words, no one will come to our aid because for too long we've thumbed our noses at the world.

Some will, but I'm so poor no one will notice anyway ;-)