Where is the US economy headed?

My impression is the EU powers believe Cypress had a banking system that was far too big, and lightly regulated - for the tax hungry EU powers to tolerate, and too big for the Cypriot government to effectively regulate. Even the Swiss are a big pain in the neck for the EU powers, and the Cypriots aren't Swiss. It appears pretty clear that the remedy just approved by the IMF & EU (working together) will shrink the Cypriot banking system by a large fraction, and with it the sectors of Cypress' economy that depend on it.

DUH, but let's be honest, no one cares about Cyprus.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-21933473

put your money into an EU bank and maybe it will be taken from you, that is the take-away here.

crossing Putin can cost both oil/gas and your life, EU bean counters might want to keep this in mind. sure a lot of this money that is being confiscated belongs to Russians he does not like very much, but much more importantly Russia has been pissed on here. that will have consequences.

I'm just wondering when the next country of the Euro goes belly up, if that will be the straw that breaks the Euro? They're getting pretty damn close if they're not there already! Germany can't prop up all those countries.

The DOW is improving, but the economy is still sluggish...

consummer confidence is in the crapper, and I hear the exact same thing from small business owners. All of this happy-talk from government and in the media reads to me as propaganda.

Not quite "propaganda." Please explain all those media reports that you deem as "propaganda?"

Here's a reminder of where it has been:

“Incomes for the bottom 90 percent of Americans only averaged a mere $59 more in 2011 than in 1966. For the top 10 percent, by the same measures, average income rose by $116,071 to $254,864, an increase of 84 percent over 1966.
During the same period, members of the top 1 percent saw their incomes grow by 275 percent.
And the top 1 percent of the top 1 percent - their 2011 average income of $23.7 million was $18.4 million more per taxpayer than in 1966.
Another way to illustrate the huge disparity: the six heirs to the Walmart fortune had a net worth equivalent to the bottom 41.5 percent of Americans combined in 2010."
Let that sink in.
How can anyone support vulture capitalism? America has been a plutocracy for decades now, controlled by these greedy socio/psychopaths.

Most of us are "aware" of this trend in the lopsided gains for the top 10%. The biggest problems are the CEO's themselves who are too greedy to say 'STOP,' and the Board of Directors that continue to shift the company's wealth towards the CEO over all the workers of the company.

They are harming our economy with this idiotic trend; it's the middle class that can keep our economy growing. They need a bigger share of the company's profits that grows beyond the inflation rate.

It's simple math that those in Boards do not seem to comprehend. I'd fire all of them!

One might speculate POM that there is a reason why an insufficient number of the 99% do not vote to end the situation you describe when it looks so obvious that they should do.

Declaring that those who don't are stupid does not answer the case.

Media is owned and managed by the 1%. So are most other significant institutions. And they have presided over making the USA the greatest country in the world, by all accounts apparently, and the envy of all.

In the Soviet Union, and, indeed in the Church, the top 1% do not receive more than a fair proportion of money. (That's a joke btw). They are content with having the use of the facilities which the 1% in the USA have, often going considerably further, and thus, as one might expect, they are wary of elections and especially fair ones.

Same result really. It's just that the USA is more honest and up front. (If you will pardon the expression.) And the 1% are there, sat clucking on their golden branch, to be taxed, Cyprus style, should it prove necessary. A reserve fund one might say. Taking it off them now and distributing it more in keeping with your compassionate nature, would result in all sorts of two-bit projects from the bottom of the pork barrel and, in my estimation, would contribute to global warming, pollution, and restaurants putting their prices up.

It seems to me that the USA is going downhill as the disparity in income and wealth gets worse.

Our plutocracy limits economic growth, and also focuses power in the top one or two percent.

BTW, interestingly, the top 10 percent in income own 93 % of the wealth, with the rest of the people fighting over the deminishing 7 percent of the wealth. Also, the top 400 people in income are worth more than the bottom half of our populaltion.

I guess it is a matter of time before we have some type of revolution such as France, Russia, Cuba, Dominican Republic, et al., had. Off with their heads!!!!!!!!

It's the "getting back to normal" period that is the problem. It probably won't be over with in your time.

You certainly identify with some interesting movements.

Income disparity caused most of those revolutions.

you are an idiot.....a lack of faith that the good life was possible to get for ones self is what was the cause, not the current state of possession.

the problem in America right now is that well over 100 million people think that they have a sh0t at getting money when they dont. this keeps America broken.

When you're right, you're right on the button.

That the best you can do? Take a post from another thread and post it out of context.

Actually, for you, that's quite smart.

great, spurts back . Must have gotten early release for time served.

I see that the banks are controlling the amount of daily withdrawals to be less than most of our ATM's, its like 300 Euros?
Gonna take some people a loooong time to withdraw to miss the tax.