"The problem of the last three decades is not the 'vicissitudes of the marketplace,' but rather deliberate actions by the government to redistribute income from the rest of us to the one percent. This pattern of government action shows up in all areas of government policy."
Dean Baker
"When the modern corporation acquires power over markets, power in the community, power over the state and power over belief, it is a political instrument, different in degree but not in kind from the state itself. To hold otherwise — to deny the political character of the modern corporation — is not merely to avoid the reality.
It is to disguise the reality. The victims of that disguise are those we instruct in error."
John Kenneth Galbraith
And unfortunately the working class victims of that disguise are going to be receiving the consequences of their folly, and then some.
Secure in their monopolies and key positions with regard to reform and the law, the corporations are further acquiring access to the protections of the rights of individuals as well, it appears, at least according to Citizens United.
Maybe our leaders and their self-proclaimed technocrats will finally do the right thing. I personally doubt it, except if by accident. They are loyal to their donors.
More likely, the right thing will eventually come about the old-fashioned way— under the duress of a crisis, and the growing protests of the much neglected and long suffering public.
History will look back at us with the same wonder that we look back on the mad excesses of certain nations founded in devotion to extreme, almost other-worldly, ideologies of the last century.
Gold was trying to rally, but just could not seem to crack the overhead resistance at 1250. Silver was unchanged most of the day.
There was an incident outside the UK Parliament building. It sounded like a terror event, but the markets did not react over much to it. These sorts of actions are never justified, and are truly appalling.
Existing home sales came in weaker today.
The hopes for a big fat tax cut on the back of 'Trumpcare' seems to be receding a bit, as the House conservatives keep resisting what they call 'Obamacare-lite.' This tax cut and deregulation was the basis for much of the 'Trump rally.'
Apparently the slashing of health benefits for the unfortunate is not severe enough in the proposed Trump/Ryan plan. Our GOP house neo-liberals are enthusiastic to unleash the wonders of the cure-all deregulated market on the American public, again. Like a dog returns to its vomit.
Better if they start breaking up corporate health monopolies and embrace real reform at the sources of the soaring costs. The US pays far, far too much for drugs and healthcare, and deregulating the markets is not the solution. We do have the example of the rest of the developed world for what to do about this. It is called 'single payer.'
But players keep on playing. And politicians and their enablers in the professions will not see what their big money donors do not wish them to see. And that is one of their few bipartisan efforts.
Might one suggest that our political animals stop trying to do all the reforming and cost controls bottom up, while applying the stimulus top down? That approach they have been flogging to no avail for about thirty years is a recipe for a dying middle class.
Here is a short video from the Bernie Sanders WV town hall that shows The Face of American Desperation. By the way, the governor of West Virginia is a Democrat. He wasn't there.
Let's see if stocks can hold these levels, and if the metals can muster the buying momentum to move higher.
Have a pleasant evening.
