For decades you had the ultra rich, the ever expanding middle class, and the poor. Now you have the ultra rich who's lives are easy and the poor (including the bulk of those who were formerly middle class) who work themselves to death and subsist on mac and cheese.
As opposed to what, a one class system, ala what Hitler wanted? Funny thing is, many of the "poor class" have still have cell phones, television, heaters, refridgerators.... the uppoer class in 3rd world nations are lucky to have these amenities.
Yeah, well, former executives are taking janitor jobs to make ends meet, and 20,000 people applied for concession stand jobs at Dodger Stadium, including accountants, when the typical number that show up is 800-1,200. The market has no clarity right now, and I wouldn't be surprised to see 600k to 800k, which is a fairly broad range. These are surreal times. Everyone keeps assuming it's cyclical, when it's structural and secular. The shouts are already arising in many countries, including the UK, for protectionism.
Have you seen the development in Asia? As a buddy of mine said "It's over for this part of the world". You will see a continuation in the rise of the middle class in Asia and the destruction of the middle class in the developed world.
China has lost 30 million jobs in the last 6 months. It was reported on MarketPlace tonight. They said communist party delegates are getting shouted at and even assaulted by laid-off factory workers, which is almost unprecedented in China.
Is the media supressing the real state of China? If they have lost 30 mm jobs, it sure doesn't seem like it. If anything, seems like good ol USA is in the gutter, while China and Russia are flying high. I stopped trusting the media long time ago, though.
The middle class not being able to bankrupt themselves to live a fake upper class existence going forward is not destruction of the middle class. I would call it a reality check.
I read 20 million a couple of months ago. I don't remember where but 30 million seems just about right for the time frame. Population ratio is about 4.5 to 1 but there are a lot more 'poor' Chinese than 'poor' Americans. lj
The forex market moved on rumors of a negative 1 million print on NFP. My first instinct was to laugh, but at this stage of the game, anything is possible.