Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: RetiredNow who wrote (1112408)	1/21/2019 4:13:38 PM
From: steve harris	1 Recommendation Recommended By TideGlider Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1573006

don't blow his mind and give him the facts smithsonianmag.com

To: RetiredNow who wrote (1112408)	1/21/2019 6:49:46 PM
From: sylvester80	1 Recommendation Recommended By ryanaka Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1573006

A 'Fundamentally Inhuman' Economy: 26 Billionaires Own as Much as World's 3.8 Billion Poorest People While the wealth of billionaires increased by $900 billion last year, or $2.5 billion a day, latest Oxfam report on inequality shows "this bonanza has not been felt by the poorest half of the world, which saw its wealth decline by 11 percent." by Jake Johnson, staff writer Published on Monday, January 21, 2019 commondreams.org 51 Comments "People generally are beginning to realize that they have been sold a bad bill of goods," said Paul O'Brien, vice president for policy and campaigns at Oxfam America. (Photo: Market Watch via Getty Images) With Wall Street titans, tech moguls, and other members of the global financial and political elite set to gather in Davos, Switzerland this week for the annual World Economic Forum, a report published late Sunday found that the planet's richest people saw their fortunes soar by $2.5 billion per day last year as the world's poorest lost wealth. "The economy we have today is fundamentally inhuman." —Paul O'Brien, Oxfam America Titled " Private Good or Public Wealth?" and conducted by Oxfam, the new analysis found that 26 billionaires now own as much wealth as the world's poorest 3.8 billion people combined. According to Oxfam, the number of billionaires has doubled since the global financial crisis of 2008, even as average families have struggled mightily to recover. In contrast to the soaring fortunes of the global financial elite, the wealth of the world's poorest fell by $500 million each day in 2018—an overall decline of 11 percent. "The economy we have today is fundamentally inhuman," Paul O'Brien, vice president for policy and campaigns at Oxfam America, said in an interview with the Huffington Post. Singling out U.S. President Donald Trump and the Republican Party's $1.5 trillion in tax cuts for the rich as the kind of upward redistribution that has worsened inequality at the expense of the world's poor and working class, O'Brien said that only transformative political and economic changes across the globe will be sufficient to close the gap between the rich and everyone else. "Inequality is not inevitable, it's a political choice." —Oxfam "The recent U.S. tax law is a master class on how to favor massive corporations and the richest citizens," O'Brien said in a statement. "The law rewards U.S. companies that have trillions stashed offshore, encourages U.S. companies to dodge foreign taxes on their foreign profits, and fuels a global race to the bottom that benefits big business and wealthy individuals." "The only winners in the race to the bottom on corporate tax are the wealthiest among us. Now is the time to work towards a new set of tax rules that work for the many, not the few," he continued, echoing the popular slogans of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and U.K. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. "We need economic, political, and tax reform to level the playing field if we want to restore prosperity and opportunity for all, including women, girls whose needs are so often overlooked." Citing United Nations figures, Oxfam points out that crucial public services throughout the world—including in wealthy nations like the U.S. and the U.K.—are suffering from crippling austerity as the global financial elite and massive corporations hoard economic gains, thanks in large part to regressive government policies that allow them to pay minimal taxes and enrich executives with massive pay packages. Meanwhile, workers are forced to scrape by on starvation wages. "People generally are beginning to realize that they have been sold a bad bill of goods," O'Brien said. "Today, 262 million kids are going to stay home because there is no funding for their education, 10,000 people today will die because they don’t have access to basic healthcare that could easily be funded through proper fiscal systems." Oxfam's analysis concludes that only a "human economy" that guarantees essential services like healthcare, education, and housing to all—funded by higher taxes on the ultra-rich—can begin to resolve the inequities that are producing mass suffering and threatening the existence of the planet. According to Oxfam, "if the richest one percent paid an additional 0.5 percent tax on their wealth, an estimated $418 billion would be raised a year. This alone would ensure an education for the 262 million children currently not in school and provide healthcare that could save the lives of more than three million people." "Inequality is not inevitable," Oxfam's report concludes, "it's a political choice."

To: RetiredNow who wrote (1112408)	1/21/2019 6:58:31 PM
From: sylvester80	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 1573006

OOPS! Corporate Debt Flashes Warning Signs Similar to the Sub-Prime Mortgage Crisis Monday, January 21, 2019 9:33 beforeitsnews.com In 2008, when the United States was flung into recession, the culprit was the sub-prime mortgages. People without the ability to repay the money, borrowed to buy houses only to lose it all once the bubble burst. Now, the corporate debt crisis is poised to cause a similar recession. Although student loans debt has skyrocketed to a disturbing $1.5 trillion, some economists are saying the $1.2 trillion corporate debt could be capable of producing a more disastrous scenario. The borrowers in this current credit bubble aren’t homeowners taking out mortgages. They’re hundreds of United States companies with weaker credit ratings (many of them well-known like Uber and Burger King) who are taking out so-called leveraged loans, according to a report by the Los Angeles Times. These loans are used to fund corporate deals and are of a big concern to financial experts. “Any fair-minded look at the leveraged loan market should cause significant alarm by anybody concerned about financial stability and the inevitable upcoming economic downturn,” said Dennis Kelleher, president of Better Markets, a group that advocates stricter financial regulation. “You put all these pieces together, it’s a witches brew.” Former Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen also went public this fall with her worries about what she called a “huge deterioration” in the standards for those loans, which make it easier for indebted companies to take on more debt. “If we have a downturn in the economy, there are a lot of firms that will go bankrupt, I think, because of this debt,” she told the Financial Times. “It would probably worsen a downturn.” But regulations and new laws won’t fix the fact that people and companies and the government itself (who writes and enforces the laws about loans and debt) will not quite borrowing money. The problem is the behavior and reliance on debt in the American culture, not the lack of laws. “Someone’s going to get hurt there,” Dimon said on a Tuesday earnings call, referring to leveraged loan losses if a recession hits. And some have already suffered because of their massive debts. Toys R Us loaded up on leveraged loan debt when it was purchased in a leveraged buyout in 2005 by private equity firms Bain Capital and KKR & Co. and real estate investment trust Vornado Realty Trust. The debt burden led the toy retailer to file for bankruptcy protection in 2017 after it was unable to refinance the debt. The debt crisis doesn’t stop at massive credit card debt or student loans. About two-thirds of U.S. companies have enough debt that independent credit raters have them categorized as a higher risk to repay than companies with so-called “investment-grade” ratings, which makes them off-limits to many institutional investors. There will be a point when this terrifying debt bubble (everything bubble) will burst. It could happen in 6 months or 6 years, but the best way to prepare is to ensure you aren’t a part of it. Pay off as much of your debts if you can to help turn what will be catastrophe into a mild inconvenience. Source: beforeitsnews.com