It should obviously be the other way around.

The U.S. has 4 tiers.

The really wealthy ($100 million and up)

The wealthy ($10 million – $100 million)

The upper-middle class ($1 million – $10 million)

Everyone else (93% of the population).

FYI, the upper middle class are being deliberately hammered by Bush policy; they now often pay the highest tax rates, higher than the upper two tiers pay. (And most of us know it.) Health insurance is available but absurdly expensive for this range. Bush is trying to destroy them as well as everyone else.

They’re almost all of the remaining 7% of the population. Bushco is running things for the benefit of the top 1/3 of 1%. This is unsustainable, and also dangerous to the personal safety of the rich. Some of the ultra-wealthy recognize this: Soros, Buffett.

Phoenix Woman @ 62

Hello, everyone!

People don’t understand just how far ahead of us the rich have pulled in the last few years, even while most of us tread water at best.

Isn’t the disparity at the same level as it was in the Roaring Twenties? Me thinkst we have a Depression ahead, not a Recession, we all the same dire consequences…

I’ve argued for some time that it’s less likely or that it will take a greater stress to make our house of cards collapse. But, reading a day or two ago I saw a post stating that something like 80-110% of all the world’s credit is taken by America. Notice it doesn’t say 80-100, it says 80-110 percent. I don’t know how it gets above 100, but the very fact that America alone can take 80% of the world’s investment dollars means the rest of the world is just idling until it can get more cash flow. What happens if America crashes and that credit relationship to the rest of the world yanks on those economies? Everybody crashes because it is a world economy when we’re tied together that way.

Sure, there are better controls to prevent crashes, but if the right problem hits hard, as the current housing mortgage crisis might, then what’s to stop the tight inter-relationship of insurance, mortgage companies, banks and national banks/reserves to all go down together?

It’s worrisome, to say the least.

Do Republicans and the Rich care? Sure, but they’re not going to do anything proactive to keep it all going. They just look out for number ONE because they were always taught to do that by dear ol’ dad, just like Dubya was.

Sadly, we have a whole generation of self-centered, arrogant pricks who run the world.

Betcha those hedge fund managers at BearSterns, where the funds went empty on subprime loans, get paid just fine this year. No matter what kind of downstream pain is caused, the people who make the rules always make out fine.

That’s one of the very best indicators that we have a terribly unbalanced system. There is financial power and the poor. There is the corporate politicians and everybody else. There are people who pay less than their secretaries and there is the secretary. The imbalance is killing us and nobody really knows how to shift back toward balance by convincing the more powerful among us that it’s not only desirable, but absolutely to THEIR self-interest.

Jonathan @ 65

But, PW, the rich have pulled ahead not because of the tax law. But because of far more powerful economic forces.

You’re kidding, right? Taxes were just one part, sure (top marginal tax rates were over 90% under Eisenhower, BTW), but Fed interest rates now work only to the benefit of the rich. They can borrow at (close to) Fed rates. Middle class pays at least 5 points more (assuming excellent credit, and they read the fine print).

The economic forces at work here are that Reagan bet that the only chance for the big bucks to stay in this country (after he finished eviscerating manufacturing) was to give the finance business in this country every conceivable advantage. Fallout from that? An S&L crisis. Quickly bailed out. Clinton did a bit better – he juiced hi-tech (to the point that it became a bubble, but at least it was something new). But all Bush has done is Reagan economics on steroids.

These economic forces are absolutely 100% politically created.

Yeah, nobody wants to ‘earn it the old-fashioned way’. Nowadays they’re looking for the gimmick, the trick, the marketing niche, the monopoly or the political investment. If the system was better, then they would have to stick to actually producing something a customer would pay for.

That’s not to say things aren’t produced in this economy. They are. It’s just that there’s too much trickery as described above.

How do we get back to a sound economy which works well enough to avoid collapse? Nobody really knows for certain — and that scares the H*ll out of everybody.

Cliff Varnell @ 68

mui @ 53(i.e., because those are conspiracy theorists-types)

You rang?

Dana Milbank, Skull & Bones (’90).

I once went to a skull and bones party. My friend told me there would be good liquor and p*t.

I heard that Ann Coulter was the mascot of the skin and bones society.

My wife and I are having trouble making ends meet for the first time since we’ve been married. Groceries are ridiculous, gas, electric, you name it and I’d bet it’s increased 15-20%. Have some major home improvement that’s been put on hold so that we can get caught up. I know I’m not alone by any stretch, but WTF? The greedy creeps in the 2nd percentile possess how much of the wealth? It’s just wrong.

They don’t see it that way at all. They see the economy working for them and they’re simply rakin’ in the dough and it’s nothing personal towards you, it’s just bidness.

What’s it to them if they make more money because oil is more expensive and you can’t take advantage of it?

Remember too, most people don’t really look very far beyond their own business interests and newspaper headlines. If those guys are making more money they probably just think it’s due to their good works and/or because God wants them to be rich (as John D. Rockefeller thought). Why should they feel guilty or think they’re doing something wrong or immoral?

You’ve got to have better arguments if you want to change the world. Just saying “it’s not right” ain’t gonna get it.

OTOH, if the markets crash and the dollar becomes toilet paper, then THAT would get their attention. But, even then, they wouldn’t think it was because they had done anything wrong. They’d just blame it on politicians or some market anomaly.

When you’re ‘winning’ it takes a lot to change your mind to prove to you that you’re not really winning, that you are in fact destroying civilization.

Compensation for a zillionaire hedge fund paperpusher? That’s not.

Don’t we just bail them and their banking buddies out while they all rob us anyway? Like last Fridays news dump.

Fed bends rules to help two big banks
If the Federal Reserve is waiving a fundamental principle in banking regulation, the credit crunch must still be sapping the strength of America’s biggest banks. Fortune’s Peter Eavis documents an unusual Fed move.

Historically, this kind of rule bending doesn’t actually solve a problem and will usually rebound badly.