Non-Farm Friday – Is America Working?

I try my best to make people aware of the ridiculous BS that goes on behind the scenes in the halls of power.  I try to help people understand the way Big Business manipulates our Government, the same way the Banksters and Billionaires manipulate the markets. In short – we explore the dark side of Capitalism. Having a realistic outlook helps us make better trading decisions.  

But today, I give up!  Why?  Because the head of JP Morgan’s Commodity Division has been INVITED by CTFC Chairman Mark Wetjen to join the Global Markets Committee that sets the rules for Futures trading. This is not letting the fox guard the hen-house – this is simply serving the fox all the hen he can eat!  Didn’t we just fine JPM $17Bn for manipulating the markets and screwing over investors?  

Didn’t Jamie Dimon just get a 75% raise because he got the Government to settle for ONLY $17Bn?  Does anyone even remember these things? Thank God for Miss Lizzy:

Elizabeth Warren and Pope Francis are about the only people I have any faith in. Well, that and this High School Football team, God bless them!  Still, I feel like we’re fighting a real uphill battle on the place Jon Stewart calls Bulls#%t Mountain (whole, great clip here):

The Daily Show
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Yesterday, Senate Republicans blocked a 3-month extension of Unemployment Insurance, leaving what is now 1.7M people without benefits. Benefits we all paid the insurance for our whole working lives, don’t forget.  To be fair, 4 Republicans did vote with 55 Democrats to not force fellow citizens into poverty and starve their families but it was one righteous person shy of the 60 needed to end the Republican filibuster and the legislation died on the floor of the Senate.  

“We’ve given them everything they wanted. Paid for,” said Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader, flashing his irritation at Republicans who blocked the bill.  

Obama has repeatedly pressed Congress to extend the program, an emergency measure enacted during the recession to provide up to 47 weeks of supplemental payments to the long-term unemployed.

“We cannot allow one vote to stand in the way of supporting these Americans as they struggle to find work,” a White House statement said Thursday. “Both sides of the aisle have worked together to prevent this kind of hardship in the past, and neglecting to do so now is unacceptable — especially given the high long-term unemployment rate.”