Bernanke is "concerned" that wages and salaries might rise!!!!!!!

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

Can you freaking believe that?

That is about the ONLY sector of the economy that HAS'NT kept pace with inflation (as we all know) and that is an area for his concern !

Is he concerned about the inflation in CEO salaries and bonuses? I bet not. Is he concerned about the percentage of upper tier salaries and bonuses weighted against median worker pay? I bet not. Is he concerned about publicly funded companies being effectively looted by their BODS and upper tier? I bet not.

But, be very concerned that Joe Shit might ask for $2.00 more an hour.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. Would it be impolite for me to suggest that

such an august and important personage as Bernanke might go fuck himself? Sideways?

[baldguy]

2. He has people to do that for him.

And he pays them very well.

[DearAbby]

5. It's been outsourced to Dubai

and they do it with bells on...ting-a-ling-a-ling ding.

[bahrbearian]

9. Also a, " LOL"

[bahrbearian]

8. LOL

[Lasher]

3. It's always this way.

If wasges of the unwashed masses happens to go up just a tad, it's cause for hand wringing over inflationary concerns. If average CEO salaries double, rejoicing time is here.

[whistle]

4. Well, fuck you very much Ben Bernacke, let prices on everything

...go through the stratosphere, keep working wages low and tax the shit out of the lower 80.0% of working people. Now that is an economic program if ever there was one. Right out of the 19th century!

[JonLP24]

6. This really grinds my gears

Usually the job the requires the hardest work is the lower paying, exceptions are there. But many warehouse, construction, and other labor jobs pay from $6.50 $12.00 per hour. Many of them have to work alot of hours to even maintain a living, that is not livable for even a single person if you're married with kids, the other spouse will have to work or maintain some type of income to even live.

With the job market the way it is, I have a tough time putting my job experience and skills effectively in a resume so instead of taking the day off and attending an interview which my skills are bad at and I don't like the feeling of putting on a show to prove I'm a reliable worker who learns after you show me one to two times how to do it I attend temporary day services and I recently landed a long term position starting at clean up working 30 hours a week for only 6.50 per hour, the wage increases when you move up to picker/wraper. It's Shamrock Foods and I work in a freezer warehouse which is 10 below. Regardless I do my job as best to my ability because it is best thing I have. My wife is working as a customer servicwhich is bringing home about $300 a week and we're behind on bills and we have kids. Finances or lack thereof causes alot of marital stress so I feel those working hard to attain a livable life still have difficult stress of problems that shouldn't be a factor should deserve an extra $1.00 $2.00 per hour

[WindRiverMan]

7. He wants the United States to become and Oligarchy

it would make stuff so much simpler. I mean, Mexico has one, so why can't we.

[stillcool]

13. My favorite book..

regarding money in the United States is..
THE RICH AND THE SUPER-RICH. Copyright 1968 by Ferdinand Lundberg.
available for free download...
http://www.soilandhealth.org/03sov/0303critic/0303socialcriticism.html
this from the Chapter "Oligarchy by Default"

The American System

Treatises on American government often with scrupulous accuracy tell how the government operates formally--the federal system, separation of powers, checks and balances, popular election of officials, judicial review, administrative agencies and the whole remaining bit. None of these treatises depicts how the government actually works in the application of the forms, how it works informally. What really takes place constitutes a considerable deviation from the formal script. Rules are freely bent, especially in the conduct of the legislatures, which make their own rules. Police, too, function pretty autonomously. For a starter let us notice that most of the precious electorate in most elections--state, federal and local--do not vote at all. Many, even though unconstrained, have never voted; and these, under one possible interpretation, may be politically the most sensible of all. For most of those voting haven't the least idea what it is all about.

Power not exercised by dilatory members of any functioning organization will of necessity be exercised by more diligent members, a universal rule applying to corporations, fraternal societies and labor unions as well as to government. To a very considerable extent, then, we see in all organizations, including the government of the United States, rule by default, by a self-selected oligarchy. If the citizens won't run the show the endless procession of Bobby Bakers, W. Judson Morhouses, Everett Dirksens and Lyndon B. Johnsons will.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

17. " rule by default, by a self-selected oligarchy"

Shit. Powerful. And they knew all this stuff in 1968.

Oligarchy by Default

due to the laziness of the electorate.

I have never heard a more truthful description.

[stillcool]

19. If you have time..

I highly recommend downloading it. Whether you haven't read it in a while, or have not yet read it, it is so worth the time to take another gander. It is well sourced, well written, and it has forever changed my perception of wealth and government in this country.

[warren pease]

10. A capitalist's dream is zero labor costs...

That's why, as long as there's one practicing capitalist left on the planet, slavery will never completely go out of style. Unfortunately, we're next on the list of countries where slavery is the backbone of the economy.

Just like the plantation economy, only lots much more better.


wp

[defendandprotect]

12. globalization = harvesting slave labor ---

[defendandprotect]

11. Yes . . . because we don't have economic democracy . .. this is a job that

the Congress should be doing --- it's political ---

It's the Fed making economic policy for our nation --- !!!

And Greenspan has always screwed up what he could keeping things going for the elites.

[razors edge]

14. Whats up Bennie,

Printing press operator's wages cutting into your caviar funds?

[Speck Tater]

15. Giving the serfs and peons a living wage

is just bad policy for the wealthy lords and barons of corporate royalty.

[SmileyRose]

16. i call him Barnacle Bob.

every so often we have to get in there and scrape these guys off before they cause the whole ship to sink.

[SoCalDem]

18. back in the day, WE had wage/price freezes..Nixon did it to curb inflation

http://www.econreview.com/events/wageprice1971b.htm

President Nixon Imposes Wage and Price Controls

August 15, 1971. In a move widely applauded by the public and a fair number of (but by no means all) economists, President Nixon imposed wage and price controls. The 90 day freeze was unprecedented in peacetime, but such drastic measures were thought necessary. Inflation had been raging, exceeding 6% briefly in 1970 and persisting above 4% in 1971. By the prevailing historical standards, such inflation rates were thought to be completely intolerable.

The 90 day freeze turned into nearly 1,000 days of measures known as Phases One, Two, Three, and Four. The initial attempt to dampen inflation by calming inflationary expectations was a monumental failure.


In 1971, the U.S. was also in the process of leaving the gold standard, which was intended to allow the value of the U.S. dollar to fall. Compounding the situation were such events as Fed Chairman Arthur Burns and the Committee on Interest and Dividends (part of the controls apparatus) strenuously opposing banks attempting to raise the U.S. prime rate from 6% to 6.25% in February 1973. Inflation rates were below 4% at the start of 1973, but reached 9% by the start of 1974, which would have made the real prime rate a negative 3%. At the same time, interest rates were going up in foreign countries, putting enormous pressure on the dollar.

The wage and price controls were mostly dismantled by April, 1974. By that time, the U.S. inflation rate had reached double digits.

While there were skeptics in August, 1971, there were a great many who thought "temporary" wage and price controls could cure inflation. By 1974, this notion was thoroughly discredited, and attention gradually turned toward a monetary approach to inflation. In a complete reversal, the policy to curb inflation in now thought to be an increase in interest rates rather than an attempt to hold them down