The "economic crisis" predates September 2007.

[mix]

It begins, at least, in the early 1980s under Raygun when the poverty rate jumps to above 30 million and stays there.

[kenny blankenship]

1. You can also date the radical divergence in income to the Reagan Era

or perhaps I should say, "to the beginning of the Reagan Era", since it's clear now we're still stuck in that larcenous epoch. You can also date the explosion in private sector debt as well as public sector debt to the Reagan years, along with the explosion of the trade and current account deficits, the explosion of military spending as % of GDP, and also the erosion of real economy manufacturing vs. the bullshit FIRE financial-insurance-realestate sector composition of GDP.

All Hail the New Reagan.

[mix]

2. The New Gilded Age.

When the impoverished are forgotten and privatization is the cure.

[lib2DaBone]

3. Yes..it all fits. Trickle down, Union busting,offshoring..

consolodation of all media into the hands of a few corporations..... manipulating the Evangelical bible-nut-jobs in the Republican party to control public opinion...

[mix]

4. And the real estate, tech, and financial bubbles...etc.

our problems are systemic, not to mention the rot of our public infrastructure, the loss of our manufacturing base and the challenges of global competitors like China and the EU.


Where is this road going?

[lib2DaBone]

5. Where road is going... doesn't look good..

I hate to think it or even say it, but I'm thinking World Government, led by a few of the Multi-National Corporations.

If the dollar collapses this winter, I would look for them to bring in the Amero currency for Canada, U.S. and Mexico.

After all, we have already ceded control of our money supply to a group of foreign bankers who refuse to be audited or come under any scrutiny. The Fed and Goldman Sachs are firmly in control of the purse strings and it will only get worse.

Then again, they may skip the Amero and go for a world currency right away... maybe the Euro or the Renminbi. (Yuan) Our manufacturing base is so gutted, there is no way in a hundred years we can ever re-pay our obligations to China... so the Renminbi may not be such a long shot in the future.

I have been reading where the Chinese are making great strides in South American brokering oil trades based in the yuan (not dollars).

If I was Obama, I wouldn't be worried about giving billions of dollars to Colombia to fight Marijuana... I would be more concerned about billions of barrels of oil floating around the world in Chinese tankers.

[mix]

8. political fragmentation is more likely than world government nt

[Hannah Bell]

6. your chart shows *number* in poverty over 30 million, not *rate*.

rate from ~1967 on stays between 10-15%.

[mix]

7. i see what you're saying...

good point, my mistake

[MisterP]

9. well, I'm sure the answer is to continue Reaganomics as under the last 5 Presidents

it just needs more cheerleading, and more voting for the slightly-less-rancid party

[mix]

10. Obama is tonally different, but still very much a neo-liberal.

i.e. he's a continuation of Reaganomics and market based solutions to public matters.