Alternative Visions - Jobs, Budgets and Bernanke’s Bank - 01/15/14

Dr. Jack Rasmus discusses in detail last Friday’s employment report by the government, this week’s agreement by Congress on a budget until October 2014, and the performance of Bernanke’s Federal Reserve as he retires on January 31.  Jack describes the December jobs report as a disaster, not just in terms of a dramatic drop in job creation but in the even greater exodus of workers from the labor force.  Jack refers to his prediction of last November that December jobs creation would falter (see his ‘False Positives’ blog articles). Congress’s just approved passage of another $1.1 trillion budget bill is then analyzed. The show concludes with a brief assessment of the performance of Bernanke as Federal Reserve chair the past 7 years, showing how ‘shadow banks’ and ‘very high net worth’ investors have been the major beneficiaries, with financial asset increases in excess of ten trillion dollars since the financial crash.