Are you better off this Thanksgiving than you were last Thanksgiving?

By Michael Snyder | Economic Collapse Blog

(Photo Credit: Pink Sherbet Photography/Flickr)

Are you in better shape financially than you were last Thanksgiving?  If so, you should consider yourself to be very fortunate because most Americans are not.  As you chow down on turkey, stuffing and cranberry sauce this Thursday, please remember that there are millions of Americans that simply cannot afford to eat such a meal.  According to a shocking new report that was just released by the National Center on Family Homelessness, the number of homeless children in the U.S. has reached a new all-time high of 2.5 million.  And right now one out of every seven Americans rely on food banks to put food on the table.  Yes, life is very good at the moment for Americans at the top end of the income spectrum.  The stock market has been soaring and sales of homes worth at last a million dollars are up 16 percent so far this year.  But most Americans live in a very different world.  The percentage of Americans that are employed is about the same as it was during the depths of the last recession, the quality of our jobs continues to go down, the rate of homeownership in America has fallen for seven years in a row, and the cost of living is rising much faster than paychecks are.  As a result, the middle class is smaller this Thanksgiving than it was last Thanksgiving, and most Americans have seen their standards of living go down over the past year.
In 2014, there are tens of millions of Americans that are anonymously leading lives of quiet desperation.  They are desperately trying to hold on even though things just keep getting worse.  For example, just consider the plight of 49-year-old Darrell Eberhardt.  Once upon a time, his job in a Chevy factory paid him $18.50 an hour, but now he only makes $10.50 an hour and he knows that he probably would not be able to make as much in a new job if he decided to leave…

For nearly 20 years, Darrell Eberhardt worked in an Ohio factory putting together wheelchairs, earning $18.50 an hour, enough to gain a toehold in the middle class and feel respected at work.
He is still working with his hands, assembling seats for Chevrolet Cruze cars at the Camaco auto parts factory in Lorain, Ohio, but now he makes $10.50 an hour and is barely hanging on. “I’d like to earn more,” said Mr. Eberhardt, who is 49 and went back to school a few years ago to earn an associate’s degree. “But the chances of finding something like I used to have are slim to none.”

Of course you can’t support a family on $10.50 an hour.
You can barely support one person on $10.50 an hour.
But there are many men out there that would absolutely love to switch positions with Darrell Eberhardt.  At this point, one out of every six men in their prime working years (25 to 54) does not have a job.  That is an absolutely crazy number.
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To understand Goldman’s ticket to monopoly, the key is the Fed’s chain of command.

Since the days of Alexander Hamilton the investment banks have made their home and impact in the Empire State.  There, the concentration of big banks has made the NY Federal Reserve Bank powerful enough to outmaneuver, outvote and override all other regional interests. Its Fed ownership position, extensive size, holdings, insiders operating in the Fed and its New York contacts guarantees Goldman Sachs the leverage when needed to direct the Federal Reserve System.
It boils down to this: when you have the kind of leverage Goldman and the TBTFs have, this Wall Street money trust can make the critical decisions.  One consortium, Goldman Sachs, tells the NY Fed what to do; it tells the FOMC and it relays its decision to Janet Yellen, representing 90 percent of the banking power. It means the government of the United States is under the direction of the Wall Street money trust.
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York is the feature of how centralized, incestuous and tyrannical America’s financial system has become. It is the New York Fed that literally gives the first and last word on who gets what and when in financial America. In other words, when the money trust picks its winners and losers, it’s here’s where the decisions are made….
Because of the extensive holdings and connections of New York based investment banks, what influence could a St. Louis or Dallas banker possible make on Fed policy? And since the domination of the Fed by Ben Strong of J.P. Morgan Trust and Governor of the New York Fed from 1914 until his death in 1928, no Fed decision is made without the New York stamp.
The president of the New York Fed is a permanent voting member of the FOMC and traditionally is selected as its vice chairman. The other presidents serve one-year terms on a rotating basis. All of the presidents participate in FOMC discussions, but only the five who are members of the Committee vote on policy decisions.
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York has several unique responsibilities associated with its presence in the financial capital of the United States.
At the direction of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), the Federal Reserve’s top monetary policy-making group, the New York Fed executes domestic open market operations on behalf of the System.
Open market operations—the buying and selling of U.S. government securities in the secondary market—are the principal means through which the System implements monetary policy. Although the FOMC decides what policy to follow, the System’s portfolio is directed, on a daily basis, by the Manager of the System Open Market Account at the New York Fed. The Manager, along with the rest of the Open Market Department, constantly monitors bank reserves and acts to ensure that the FOMC’s directive is being fulfilled.
In addition to its domestic trading desk responsibilities, the New York Fed, at the direction of the FOMC and U.S. Treasury, conducts all foreign exchange trading for the Treasury and the Federal Reserve System. In this role, the New York Fed intervenes in foreign exchange markets to achieve dollar exchange rate policy objectives and to counter disorderly conditions in foreign exchange markets.
The New York Fed also is responsible for maintaining relations with, and providing financial services for, foreign central banks and international organizations. One of these services is the New York Reserve Bank’s unique custodial responsibility for the gold reserves of about five dozens countries, central banks, and international organizations. The New York Fed’s gold vault stores approximately one-quarter of the world’s official gold supply—the largest concentration of monetary gold in the world.
Foreign official gold reserves have been held at the New York Fed since 1924 for numerous reasons, including the stability of the U.S. political system, the concentration of international trade and finance in New York City, and the convenience of centralizing gold holdings in a place where international payments can be made quickly.
The truth is, Goldman Sachs is one of the Fed owners, but it is so big, it is pushing everybody else around, at the moment.
The most recent information from observers says that just eight families, four of which reside in the US, own 80 percent of the NY Federal Reserve Bank. They are, according Dean Henderson of Global Research in 2011, Goldman Sachs, Rockefellers, Lehmans and Kuhn Loebs of New York; the Rothschilds of Paris and London; the Warburgs of Hamburg; the Lazards of Paris; and the Israel Moses Seifs of Rome.This ownership information was provided by J.W. McCallister, an oil industry insider with House of Saud connections, writing in “The Grime Reaper,” information he acquired from Saudi bankers.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-federal-reserve-cartel-the-eight-families/25080
JR

The Astonishing Rise of Central Bank Fear: Anyone Who Looks At Central Bankers Speak Can Sense The Fear Behind Their Absurd Bravado, And The Dishonesty Of Their Public Confidence.

by Charles Hugh-Smith
Anyone who looks at central bankers speak can sense the fear behind their absurd bravado, and the dishonesty of their public confidence.
The extraordinary disconnect between soaring stock markets and stagnating real economies has been gleefully embraced by all who benefit from the disconnect:
The financial media, brokerages, investment banks, politicos who have made stocks the barometer of “prosperity” and of course the top 5% who own roughly 3/4 of the financial assets of the nation.
Even more extraordinary is the rise in central bank fear that has unleashed extremes of monetary policy. If the real economy is as great as advertised, then why are central banks dropping monetary neutron bombs on a nearly weekly basis?
What are they so afraid of? And if they’re not afraid of something, then why are they constantly hyping their threadbare commitment to “do whatever it takes,” pushing real interest rates into negative territory and buying stocks and bonds hand over fist?
I’ve prepared a chart depicting central bank fear, the stock market and the real economy. As central bank fear/panic pushes higher, the banks have unleashed a torrent of PR and monetary programs that have dragged stocks higher with every phony pronouncement and every new free money for financierschumming of the stock market.
No wonder the feeding frenzy never stops–the central banks are clearly terrified of what will happen should they stop dumping monetary chum in the waters.

What is equally extraordinary is the abject failure of all the central banks’ free money for financiers to move the needle of the real economy. Virtually every bright spot in the economy results not from organic growth but from the expansion of a new credit bubble: for example, subprime auto loans.
After tens of trillions of dollars in stimulus and trillions squandered on asset purchases to suppress interest rates and prop up the stock market, the real economies are drifting into recession or stagnation.
The central bank response to this abject failure? More free money for financiers.
Anyone who looks at central bankers speak can sense the fear behind their absurd bravado, and the dishonesty of their public confidence. They’re not just afraid–they’re in a panic. Every press conference and every announcement is supposed to express confidence, but what they really express is terror: terror that doing more of what failed spectacularly will not just stop working–it will trigger the collapse of the entire rotten, corrupt system of central banks and free money for financiers.

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