Tuesday, December 06, 2016

Our "Gaslight" Economy

If you don't like what these charts are saying, please notify The Washington Post to add the St. Louis Federal Reserve to its list of Russian propaganda sites.
Yesterday I described our gaslight financial system. Today we'll look at our gaslight economy. Correspondent Jason H. alerted me to the work of author Thomas Sheridan ( Puzzling People: The Labyrinth of the Psychopath), who claims to have coined the term gaslighting.
As noted yesterday, gaslighting has often been used in the context of personal relationships to describe a manipulative person's attempts to undermine and control their romantic partner.
In a larger context, these manipulative techniques can also be applied to our perception of the entire economy:
1. Questioning, belittling, discounting and undermining our experience of economic "animal spirits" and general conditions.
2. Overwriting our memory of the economy of the past, again by undermining, questioning and belittling our memories.
3. Discrediting and marginalizing our definitions of economic well-being, in favor of the manipulator's definition of our well-being.
4. Using authority and "experts" to disqualify and discredit dissenting views.
5. Denigrate and deny our lived experience of economic conditions by repeating the institutionalized authority-approved narrative of "what actually happened."
6. Disorient, discredit and destroy dissent with a torrent of false statistics, false narratives, false accusations and false claims of our errors.
It seems obvious to me that we are being gaslighted to forget the widely distributed prosperity of the past and accept that the stagnation of the past 16 years is equivalently prosperous--in direct contradiction to the lived experience and memories of the bottom 80%.
Please compare the following four charts of unemployment, real hourly pay, inflation and full-time jobs with your economic experiences of the past two decades. The mainstream media and financial media are saturating us with claims that the economy is doing great: unemployment is a historically low 4.6%, real wages rose an astonishing 5% this year, millions of new jobs have been created, interest rates are at all-time lows, inflation is subdued and all in all, the U.S. economy is doing great--and if you disagree, well, you're a Russian propagandist because legitimate dissent is impossible.
Here are the charts that illustrate our phony gaslight economy, with my notes.Please note the charts are from that well-known website of Russian propaganda, the St. Louis Federal Reserve (FRED).
Over the past 60 years, an unemployment rate of 4.6% correlated with a booming economy of strong job growth and rising wages. Do you think the economy is booming, outside of hotspots such as San Francisco, CA and Portland, OR? The top 5% have done very very well over the past 16 years, but what about the bottom 95%?
Official inflation as measured by the Consumer Price Index shows a mere 10% total inflation since mid-2008. Does this align with your experience of real inflation? Here is my view: The Burrito Index: Consumer Prices Have Soared 160% Since 2001 (August 1, 2016)
While hourly compensation has gone up 60% since 1970, when adjusted for inflation it has declined. If this is prosperity, then what does stagnation look like?
Here's a chart of full-time employment. Does that tiny blip higher after eight years of "recovery" look like a widely distributed boom to you?
What else can we make of the vast gulf between the status quo's ceaseless projection of "the economy is strong" and these charts--and our own experience? As for memory-- those of us who have been working for the past 40+ years recall real prosperity--and the past eight years are not at all like periods of prosperity in the past.
Rather, the few at the top have amassed vast wealth while the bottom 95% have experienced stagnant wages and declining real wealth.
If you don't like what these charts are saying, please notify The Washington Post to add the St. Louis Federal Reserve to its list of Russian propaganda sites.

For what it's worth, my copy editor reckons Inequality and the Collapse of Privilege($3.95 Kindle ebook, $8.95 print edition) is my best book. It is, if nothing else, highly relevant to today's economic/social schisms.


Join me in seeking solutions by becoming a $1/month patron of my work via patreon.com.
Check out both of my new books, Inequality and the Collapse of Privilege ($3.95 Kindle, $8.95 print) and Why Our Status Quo Failed and Is Beyond Reform ($3.95 Kindle, $8.95 print). For more, please visit the OTM essentials website.

NOTE: Contributions/subscriptions are acknowledged in the order received. Your name and email remain confidential and will not be given to any other individual, company or agency.
Thank you, Lloyd S. ($5/month), for your superbly generous pledge to this site -- I am greatly honored by your support and readership.
Thank you, Harvey D. ($5/month), for your splendidly generous pledge to this site -- I am greatly honored by your support and readership.

Terms of Service

All content on this blog is provided by Trewe LLC for informational purposes only. The owner of this blog makes no representations as to the accuracy or completeness of any information on this site or found by following any link on this site. The owner will not be liable for any errors or omissions in this information nor for the availability of this information. The owner will not be liable for any losses, injuries, or damages from the display or use of this information. These terms and conditions of use are subject to change at anytime and without notice.


Our Privacy Policy:


Correspondents' email is strictly confidential. This site does not collect digital data from visitors or distribute cookies. Advertisements served by a third-party advertising network (Investing Channel) may use cookies or collect information from visitors for the purpose of Interest-Based Advertising; if you wish to opt out of Interest-Based Advertising, please go to Opt out of interest-based advertising (The Network Advertising Initiative). If you have other privacy concerns relating to advertisements, please contact advertisers directly. Websites and blog links on the site's blog roll are posted at my discretion.


PRIVACY NOTICE FOR EEA INDIVIDUALS


This section covers disclosures on the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) for users residing within EEA only. GDPR replaces the existing Directive 95/46/ec, and aims at harmonizing data protection laws in the EU that are fit for purpose in the digital age. The primary objective of the GDPR is to give citizens back control of their personal data. Please follow the link below to access InvestingChannel’s General Data Protection Notice. https://stg.media.investingchannel.com/gdpr-notice/


Notice of Compliance with The California Consumer Protection Act
This site does not collect digital data from visitors or distribute cookies. Advertisements served by a third-party advertising network (Investing Channel) may use cookies or collect information from visitors for the purpose of Interest-Based Advertising. If you do not want any personal information that may be collected by third-party advertising to be sold, please follow the instructions on this page: Limit the Use of My Sensitive Personal Information.


Regarding Cookies:


This site does not collect digital data from visitors or distribute cookies. Advertisements served by third-party advertising networks such as Investing Channel may use cookies or collect information from visitors for the purpose of Interest-Based Advertising; if you wish to opt out of Interest-Based Advertising, please go to Opt out of interest-based advertising (The Network Advertising Initiative) If you have other privacy concerns relating to advertisements, please contact advertisers directly.


Our Commission Policy:

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. I also earn a commission on purchases of precious metals via BullionVault. I receive no fees or compensation for any other non-advertising links or content posted on my site.

  © Blogger templates Newspaper III by Ourblogtemplates.com 2008

Back to TOP