The New Gilded Age

**maxx** · February-14-10, 10:16 AM

We are living in the new gilded age according to Jim Kramer who is quoted in Barry Lynn's new book "Cornered". Whirlpool controls 75% of all appliances sold in the U.S., Walmart - 30% of all food, the Dairy Farmers Assc. - 50% of all milk, the Chinese -100% of all ascorbic acid sold in the U.S..
RIght now is the greatest concentration of power in U.S.history and it all began with Reagan.
http://www.amazon.com/Cornered-Monop...6159012&sr=1-1

Read the product description.

**Jimaz** · February-14-10, 10:59 PM

Barry C Lynn Talks About CORNERED

There are many consumers who will avoid discretionary purchases when they're deprived of their own choice. That exacerbates recession but is it the fault of that consumer or the fault of those who deprive them of their choice? When the profit motive drives corporations to deprive consumers of their own choice, is this not what drives us deeper into economic depression?

**Mikeg** · February-14-10, 11:57 PM

.....and the Federal Government controls the companies that produce 30% of the cars and trucks sold in the USA - and it all began with Obama.

**ejames01** · February-15-10, 09:53 AM

The auto bailouts began with GWB. And who owns the Federal Government?

Originally Posted by Mikeg

.....and the Federal Government controls the companies that produce 30% of the cars and trucks sold in the USA - and it all began with Obama.

**Hermod** · February-15-10, 10:19 AM

Originally Posted by maxx

RIght now is the greatest concentration of power in U.S.history and it all began with Reagan.

At the time, Reagan came into office, the stock market [[Dow Jones) was 75% of what it was in 1966. The country was in a terrible situation with inflation. The stock market had not kept up with inflation. It was cheaper to buy a going company than it was to expand your own company by building factories.

Was the government lax on allowing mergers that gave companies too large a market share? Probably, and it went from Reagan's time through today.

Some examples:

Chrysler buying Kaiser-Jeep
Whirlpool buying a bunch of appliance manufacturers.
Comcast scooping up too many cable systems [[though they rarely competed).
Massive railroad mergers of parallel routes.

**Mikeg** · February-15-10, 11:14 AM

The auto bailouts began with GWB.

Those initial bailouts have nothing to do with the terms of the GM and Chrysler bankruptcy settlements that were dictated by Obama and his auto task force, which resulted in the Federal Government taking an ownership position in both of the restructured companies.

**ejames01** · February-15-10, 01:25 PM

No one else was going to invest in them. Time will tell whether it would have been better to liquidate their assets.

Originally Posted by Mikeg

Those initial bailouts have nothing to do with the terms of the GM and Chrysler bankruptcy settlements that were dictated by Obama and his auto task force, which resulted in the Federal Government taking an ownership position in both of the restructured companies.

**MCP-001** · February-15-10, 03:32 PM

Originally Posted by ejames01

No one else was going to invest in them. Time will tell whether it would have been better to liquidate their assets.

Delta and United Air Lines went into bankruptcy.

They both emerged and are still operating.

Chrysler & GM should've been made to do the same.

**rb336** · February-15-10, 04:01 PM

Originally Posted by ejames01

No one else was going to invest in them. Time will tell whether it would have been better to liquidate their assets.

time has already told

and MCP, there is a HUGE difference between a company whose product is used once [[ok, twice for round-trip) and for which you may pay a couple grand [[if you head to New Zeeland) and a company whose products last a decade and you depend on every day of your life. yours is a horrible analogy that the right has thrown out there and had beaten down numerous times

**maxx** · February-16-10, 08:30 AM

From"Cornered" on Google books:

...American financiers had erected a particular form of socialism that enabled them to dump all the risk in the industrial system and banking systems they control onto us even as they jetted away with all the profit...Then suddenly there was conservative columnist George Will writing that socialism in America is "already here.' Moreover, Will made clear that he was fretting not about penny ante redistribution from the rich to the poor but about the" surreptitious socialism of the strong."