Wealth On A Plane

A pet project of mine is measuring income and wealth distribution. This video shows how the 400 richest people in America (the 0.01%) have accumulated more wealth than the bottom 60% of the population. The disparity is an embarrassment.

Hat-tip to Barry Ritholtz.

Economic Reports for Friday 5/24/2013

Click on the image for Briefing's updates.

Late Night with The Walter Blanding Quartet

Bernanke's Message to Congress: Austerity Sucks

From the Huffington Post:

"The loss of output and earnings associated with high unemployment ... reduces government revenues and increases spending on income-support programs, thereby leading to larger budget deficits and higher levels of public debt than would otherwise occur."

Translation: Austerity causes Unemployment. Unemployment causes deficits to grow.

There is nothing more The Fed can do with monetary policy mechanisms. Bernanke, to his credit, implies that Congress needs to start acting like adults and jettison austerity as a wholly discredited and damaging idea.

Economic Reports for Thursday 5/23/2013

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Late Night with Astor Piazzolla

The Suckers Handbook

The "Golden Pitchbook" has been leaked. To call it "crude" is somehow too polite.

Via Salon:

The pitches range from the overtly sexist to the plainly misleading, but each relies on bizarre mind games and high school-style bullying to “close” with a client. Basically, it confirms everything everyone already thought about Wall Street guys being misogynists and compulsive liars.

Another technique involves misleading a prospective client about made-up acquisitions that will boost the stock in question’s value:

“More importantly, when I have timed it with a near term event I have made a tremendous amount of money the event here is a possible takeover. We are not buying this stock for earnings; we are buying it for a takeover, which I feel is eminent.”

Sexism and outrageous lies are written into the script. And yet, somehow, people look to the stock market for its wisdom.