INCOMES DROP MOST IN 20 YEARS … Consumer spending in the U.S. rose in January even as incomes dropped by the most in 20 years, showing households were weathering the payroll-tax increase by socking away less money in the bank. Household purchases, which account for about 70 percent of the economy, climbed 0.2 percent after a 0.1 percent gain the prior month, a Commerce Department report showed today in Washington. The median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of 76 economists called for a 0.2 percent advance. Incomes slumped 3.6 percent, sending the saving rate down to the lowest level since November 2007. − Drudge
Dominant Social Theme: How did this happen? Why doesn't capitalism work?
Free-Market Analysis: Drudge today is carrying a troika of headlines on the decline and fall of the West.
– (US) Incomes Drop Most in 20 Years
– Eurozone Jobless Hits a Record
– Britain Slides Toward New Recession
Drudge runs his headlines in a clever fashion, often building a larger story simply by presenting several sides of a trend – what we might call a meme. In this case, the much-viewed news aggregator is making the point that the Western world is still on the way down
Are you surprised, dear reader? We are not. We have regularly warned that a tiny power elite intends to homogenize the world's economies, apparently in order to implement global governance – and is reducing Western prosperity while raising up the wealth of the BRICs to do so.
Obviously, this idea of "directed history" is not for everyone, yet such maneuvering is easily generated via central bank debasement strategies combined with fiscal manipulations and increased regulatory burdens.
President Barack Obama has been especially supportive of this process, whether on purpose or not. Under his watch taxes have been raised, the dollar debased, government health care expanded and employment dimished.
Europe is no better off. Having tried austerity, Euroleaders are now contemplating the same kind of currency debasement that has already been implemented by the Federal Reserve. The Bank of England has adopted the same policies.
People are so brainwashed by Keynesianism that they rarely step back and look at the big picture. But take a look. The world's three most powerful central banks are printing great gouts of money that shall inevitably reduce the savings of their citizens.
This deliberate policy of debasement is harmonized via deliberate strategies and rationalized as economic aid. But it is not. Additionally, interest rates are nearly non-existent. Savers are being punished. Their funds are being depleted by price inflation and many of their investments are being savaged by interest rate reductions.
None of these measures are doing much to help employment because the same people in charge of currency debasement are refusing to let their own financial facilities go bust. The result is the larger Western economy remains frozen at low ebb while people's funds continually lose value. One can't even work two jobs if there are no extra jobs to be found.
Of course, we are to believe that all that has occurred recently is simply bad luck, that cycles turn and eventually better times will evolve. We're not so sure. Every possible step, it seems to us, that can be taken to attack Western economies is being taken.
We prefer to look at the evidence not the rhetoric. When you watch what "they" do rather than what they say, certain trends seems to become obvious. Drudge reaches millions of viewers every day – an animated and activist crowd. Many of them will see the headlines he is presenting and some will no doubt realize and even accept the connections we have presented above. The question then becomes what do you do about it?
