The Wealth GAP

This country will not be a permanently good place for any of us to live in unless we make it a reasonably good place for all of us to live in." 

―Theodore Roosevelt, June 17, 1912

The Fed balance sheet grew eight-fold in the period from 2007-2020 (FRED Economic Data 6/30.2010), inflating financial assets and slowing the growth of the "real economy."  The period corresponds to the growth of an acute wealth gap between the top 1% and the bottom 90%, driving a massive wedge between those holding financial assets and those relying on economic productivity to earn wealth through rising real wages.  

We believe that the Fed's massive and persistent intervention in capitalism through quantitative easing and zero interest rate policy temporarily suspended basic laws of economics, finance, and math - destabilizing market mechanisms and productive price discovery.  We all see it.

 “If a business borrows to buy a machine, it’s a good thing, not a bad thing.  During the past six years, America—its government, its families, the country as a whole—has been borrowing to sustain its consumption.  Meanwhile, investment in fixed assets—the plants and equipment that help increase our wealth—has been declining.” 

- Joseph E. Stiglitz - Nobel Laureate in Economics

 “America had created a marvelous economic machine, but evidently one that worked only for those at the top.  

Of the 1%, for the 1%, by the 1%” - Joseph E. Stiglitz 

"The facts shouldn't get in the way of a pleasant fantasy."  

- Joseph E. Stiglitz