Guest Post by Kerrigan
In today’s online version of the paper, WSJ writer Jon Hilsenrath blames you for the poor “recovery.” Here’s a brief excerpt of the story headlined “A Letter to Stingy American Consumers,” edited only for brevity:
Dear American Consumer,
This is The Wall Street Journal. We’re writing to ask if something is bothering you. The sun shined in April and you didn’t spend much money… You have been saving more too. You socked away 5.6% of your income in April after taxes, even more than in March. This saving is not like you. What’s up?
We know you experienced a terrible shock when Lehman Brothers collapsed in 2008 and your employer responded by firing you. We know stock prices collapsed and that was shocking too. We also know you shouldn’t have taken out that large second mortgage during the housing boom to fix up your kitchen with granite countertops. You’ve been working very hard to pay off this debt and we admire your fortitude. But these shocks seem like a long time ago to us in a newsroom. Is that still what’s holding you back?
Do you know the American economy is counting on you? We can’t count on the rest of the world to spend money on our stuff. The rest of the world is in an even worse mood than you are. You should feel lucky you’re not a Greek consumer.
The Federal Reserve is counting on you too. Fed officials want to start raising the cost of your borrowing because they worry they’ve been giving you a free ride for too long with zero interest rates. We listen to Fed officials all of the time here at The Wall Street Journal, and they just can’t figure you out.
Damn. That is some heavy handed moralizing bullshit, no? This is amusing on a number of levels.
First, Jon Hilsenrath is the Federal Reserve’s mouthpiece at the WSJ. They feed him information to telegraph to the market in advance of an official announcement. They call this journalism in the 21st century. So unofficially, what he says is a reflection of establishment opinion. And guess what? They have utter contempt for you. The headline (probably chosen by editors) literally calls you ‘stingy.’ The savings rate of 5.6 percent is substantially lower than it was in the 1970s, when saving peaked at nearly 12 percent.
They even have the cojones to say the Federal Reserve has given you free ride up until now by letting you go unto debt without interest. Their view is you should be spending money, even if you don’t have it, because they know how well you’re doing better than you. This arrogance is really what government control of the economy has always been about, but rarely is it laid so bare.
Second, there is an unstated presumption that economic growth is the only way to fill that empty space in their heads roughly shaped like a soul. They can imagine nothing beyond endless harvesting of the natural world. All wealth, without exception, comes from this process. Therefore, the belief in growth as the only means to validation is really an ideology of mass destruction, on par with any sci-fi villain you can imagine.
The comments section is a must read. Though there are a few idiots who talk up the Obama administration’s healthcare reform and other moronic statements, most people seem to see this for what it is: the Fed sees itself as our owners and is basically yelling “bad dog” at us. Here’s a few of our favorites:
The prospect of public executions was a common theme. From PissedOffAmerican:
Greetings, Clueless Wall Street Apparatchik.
Apologies for not spending more. Truly, I am very sorry that I didn’t start this project earlier.
I am currently saving to buy some lumber for a scaffold, then will need to spend some more $$ for a steelworker to fabricate the blade. Once my resulting Guillotine is functional, I will be sure to bring it to Wall Street for some testing.
Care to volunteer?
Guy wrote:
I have lost faith in the system The crooks were reward with trillions in print money for breaking the financial system. The people responsible for justice were rewarded with 8 figure jobs from the crooks running the banks. The same crooks are still running the same crooked mega banks. I didn’t receive a dime from the printed trillions! Savers have been STOLEN from for 7 years. I don’t happen to be a IPO ZERO revenue company sitting on a billion in stock. PEOPLE KNOW THE FED HAS BEEN BOUGHT! Please explain the punishment meted to those that broke the financial system! We have a CRONY ECONOMY… People know it is another BUBBLE.
But none put it more succinctly than Charles:
Dear John EFF OFF AND DIE
Yet more Keynesian/Samuelsonian “velocity of money” bullshit from the quacks and charlatans occupying the academy in political economics the way Bo Biden’s brain cancer occupied his skull.
I didn’t buy this line of plain friggin’ insanity when I encountered it as an undergraduate, and now – half a century (and more than half a decade’s worth of Weimar Republic-style “quantitative easing”) later – it’s even more obviously a metastatically malignant fraud.
Fuck you, Hilsenrath. And the horse you rode in on.
I did my part – withdrew sufficient funds from the bank and buried it. Also, I pay mostly in cash. I’m here to help, Joel.
When the rapist calls the victim a whore, watch out – they ain’t afraid of anyone and hate everyone.
I kept looking for the onion symbol at the end. I was actually a bit surprised to find that the link at the end actually went to the wsj. The fact that he is blaming us shows that he is either a clueless moron or he thinks we are.
What a fucking moron.
We’ve ‘hit the wall’. Not many want to buy cheap shit from China. Most of us were directly / indirectly ass raped by the housing bubble. The government printed $7 trillion and gave it to companies like Solera. Then we have to endure invasions by Spics, Somalis, Karen’s, and we’re supposed to support these people. While health insurance rates climb 8% or more every year.
What an asshole!
TJF: “The fact that he is blaming us shows that he is either a clueless moron or he thinks we are.”
Enter “Jonathan Gruber” in a search engine sometime, whydon’tcha?
Summary of dicksucking faggotfulk Jon Hilsenrath’s letter: — “PLEASE SPEND!!! PLEASE HELP THE POOR BILLIONAIRES!!”
Fuck you, you homo cocksucker!! If people spent like ME …. the shit would have already hit the fan, and whale-shit dick-suckers like you would be nothing but rotting corpses swinging from a lamppost.
He’s as out of touch with Main St. as the rest of Wall St. Sometimes I think there are two Americas, One where taxpayer money flows freely and the other where it doesn’t. Big difference these days.
Saved 5.6 % of the two grand I made take home in april. Hmmm. Just over a hundred bucks. What in fuck am I gonna buy thats going to save the fucking economy for a hundred bucks? This asshole spends more than that on lunch. Makes me wanna punch him in the dick after I kik him down the stairs.
I say bring back the guillotine
set one up on K Street in D.C
and the other on Wall Street
run ’em 24/7 till the job is done
From the ZH article:
….and please write to Hilsenrath and let him know what the problem is at [email protected]
Best email I wrote all day!
Savings are the engine of economic growth.
Their heads are so far up their ass that the are ass backwards.
the answer , now more than ever.
I love to shop, but even my love of shopping has waned with the overwhelming sense of doom out there on so many fronts — I feel like we all need to hunker down — and I’m pretty much a shopping hobbyist and I can’t motivate myself to go to the mall it’s just so bleak if you aren’t comatose
I got a hoot out of this WSJ piece when I saw it this morning, and at first thought the author was being sarcastic. But then I began to sense that he was serious, and, either way, he perfectly captured the mindset of our owners.
One post on this blog, a few weeks back, asked how the rich could steal from the poor when the “rich” already own 80% of all wealth. Very simple: make our population captive to major industries- health care, education, agribiz, and finance, that are government-protected skimming operation that take their “skim” from every transaction and give little to nothing in return. You cannot live the simplest life or conduct the basic functions of life without being robbed by extra charges or fees.
I wish I could get in on that game- if I could skim just one dime a year from each of the 310 million men, women, and children in this country, how rich would I be? But these psychopaths aren’t happy with a dime. They want everything you have.
And that’s what many people do not understand about our psychopath oligarch owners. Most simply do not understand how depraved and psychopathic and burning with hatred these people are. They are not offended merely by the fact that you have the temerity to want to build your own wealth- to get your money’s worth for what you buy, and be paid for your efforts in keeping with what you produce for them. They are offended by the fact that you still have a decent roof over your head and access to potable water and have a bite of food to spare. They want every last dime you have. It does not matter how many $100M houses and $290M yachts and $150,000 Hermes handbags they have already or how many islands they own or how many people they have bowing to them… they want more. They never get enough.
And WE have empowered them by playing their game, by pretending that 2+2 can be made to equal whatever you please just by signing your name on a loan doc or floating another bond issue.
Chicago – you are correct. Enron was a good example: the 3 top exec’s had millions, but they sold their employees down the river – they knew the tower was collapsing, but they told their peons all was great and buy more stock; this gave the Honchos time to sell while their peons bought more and didn’t sell. Their dumb employees had all their pension fund in Enron stock. Most took a huge beating when the stock collapsed.
They never have enuf.
I’ve taken his advice and I’m spending hundreds a month…..on guns,ammo,PM’s and other supplies. To every person who called him a vulgar name…..I gave you a thumbs up.
At least the wall street elite are spending their “hard earned” money.
https://youtu.be/rRjI_zCijyw
Bob.
I’ve simply withdrawn my savings from their depraved system and by-passed their “3% per transaction” fees by spending cash with as many main street (as opposed to Wall Street) businesses as possible. even then I’m only buying what I need as needed.
Fuck ’em! I hope I live long enough to see guillotines and piano wire deployed and used liberally.
Why don’t the people declare our owners and so-called leaders to be terrorists? Seems to me that turn about is fair play.
Indentured….unfortunately, I agree. Since they obliterated Glass-Steagall in 1999 (Rep’s and Dem’s and Clinton all in on it, our country has been fucked. Then with the ‘Great Recession’ (caused by the Bankster), they rewarded the crooks.
On top of that, for the last 20 years, our Gov’t has conspired with the International Corp’s to offshore jobs (so the Corp’s could increase profits).
The newer generation is completely fucked for a future. And, the future generation is completely fucked with Common Core (Crap) which dumbs down science math, and history, and includes propaganda to foster compliant and obedient serfs.
A Member Of The Middle Class Responds To Jon Hilsenrath
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 06/03/2015 16:27 -0400
Reader Joe responds to Jon Hilsenrath’s “ironic and tongue in cheek” letter:
Dear Mr Hilsenrath and your Central Bank Team,
This is Joe from the disappearing Middle Class in America. You asked me the other day to drop you a note if I felt that something was wrong. What I’m having trouble with is “why” you’re asking me if anything is wrong! ?
So let me explain.
Regarding the weather, as you stated, the sun shined in April. It was also overcast some days some places, rained a few spots here and there, was nice quite a few days and even got dark on time, most evenings. And the Commerce Department is spot on that my spending didn’t increase any adjusted for the inflation that you all keep telling me isn’t there. Have you tried to buy some hamburger recently or do you just eat out on a corporate credit card? The price of a pack of spaghetti has doubled over the past 3 years. Me and Mrs. J along with the kids kinda like spaghetti now and then and the Mrs. even made a great Bolognese sauce, but the hamburger got too expensive as has the spaghetti, so we had to cut back. So you’re right, we did sit at home and watch Dancing with the Stars a lot. It’s what we can afford. So, I really don’t get what you guys mean by those “winter doldrums” because things have gotten worse independent of the weather. The weather’s had nothing at all to do with it.
And talking about worse, you’re right. I did get fired in late 2008 from a high paying salaried job with benefits when the economy dumped due to the Lehman Brothers shock. Since then I’ve been holding down a part time greeters job at Home Depot with no benefits. I even took on a second part time job with no benefits at another place because I was getting bored watching television all day. Plus, we could use the extra money as our savings has been depleted. And we’re very worried about our health and the cost of healthcare is skyrocketing. But I guess you probably have a health care plan paid for by the Wall Street Journal. Why, feeling particularly liberated, Mrs. Joe’s even picked up a couple of part time jobs, as well. “Arbeit macht frei” seems to have taken on a whole new meaning these days for whole bunch of us out here.
And then when the stock market collapsed, our 401(k)s got wiped out as we’d been buying all the great stuff that the professionals on CNBC and and our broker had told us were “bullet proof”. See, I had to rely on somebody, because I’m not a professional investment manager and really don’t have a lot of financial savvy. I was just doing what my government suggested, that I was liberated by doing my own investing in my own 410(k). I guess not. And yes, when I got scared to death, right at the bottom of the market, I sold all the stuff and wound up with next to nothing for retirement. And since we don’t have full time jobs with any benefits, it’s kind of a moot point that my market timing was bad, isn’t it? So when you think of all the wealth being gleaned by people invested in stocks, none of us few guys left in Middle America have any stocks, period.
But it is what it is, isn’t it? Maybe you should understand that as well: we’ve not benefited from any largess bestowed upon the “system”, zero interest rates since nobody loans me money at zero %, or rising stock prices. Lemme know if you can tell me where to issue 100 year zero coupon bonds like them Brazilians, OK? (Even I get that! Great math, because I’m not gonna make it for 100 years, am I?)
I know that you said that you guys in the newsroom think that these shocks were a long time ago, and they were, indeed. But you see, I’ve had a bad experience since 2008 and the only thing happened is that it’s gotten worse, since. Guess you never took the hit, did you? Maybe that’s why you’ve no empathy with my situation. Nope, no empathy whatsoever, all you guys in good jobs talking with one another and the Wall Street tycoons and gainfully employed high income earners.
And I’ll bet that your kids who just graduated college, both of ‘em in the last 4 years, didn’t have trouble getting decent jobs, did they? Well, both of ours didn’t get any job straight out of school, looked for over a year and now have part time, no benefits jobs, just like mom and dad. And they both graduated from great schools with real employable skills. Little Joe has a degree in Marketing and Little Mrs. J in Journalism. Would you be looking for anybody at the Journal? I didn’t think so. What about those people who all work for the government making all sorts of rubbish up out of thin air and calling it news? I don’t know any, either. By the way, the kids live at home because neither can afford anything on their own.
So, you and the American economy might just not want to hold your collective breaths waiting for any of us to spend money on anything, because we can’t afford it. Do you understand now? And talking about phones, do you know where can I get an ObiePhone, because I can’t afford all the monthly bills for the four of us, anymore. Let me know. And buy the way, I fully understand that the Greeks and Chinese are not as well off as we. In fact we know that there are kids starving in Africa. So, do something about it, you’re the people with all the influence! And what’s any of that straw-man rubbish about Greeks and Chinese got to do with the four of us having a tough go of it? And no, we haven’t been able to pay down any of our debt as we don’t have the disposable income. In fact, if we had a windfall maybe we’d use it to to pay off the second mortgage that everybody told us to get because home prices were going to go up forever (just ask the CNBC folks again) and nobody asked us anything about our assets or incomes. They called us NINJA’s and that we were smart and brave. Lot of good that did, no?
So John, here’s the real scoop. We ain’t got the resources to spend anymore on anything except what is absolutely necessary. Oh, you ask, who then are the folks crowding the cruise ships and tattoo parlors? We’d guess they’re the people on government assistance that we’re supporting on de minimis hourly wages and no benefits that the government showers with our tax money in order to buy their votes. Didn’t think I knew that, did you? Well, we all do. And no, we’re not racist, radical or anything of the ilk for disliking it.
So, hope you get my take on all this. And if you’re left wondering, maybe read it a couple more times because the truth of the matter is right there. And please remember us during the next big holiday, when the Joe family will most likely be lucky to be splurging, stretching it, with a plate of spaghetti Bolognese.
Joe
I stopped spending as much when they devalued my purchasing power thru qe3 to infinity .
I only buy what I have to now and save my excess in items that cant be devalued too much .it was very telling to me when yellen said the dollar was not a good store of value. since they print it up out of thin air . I tell all my people at work to buy gold silver and maybe one day they will pay attention
Just came across this article and had to say your an asshole Joel and dont know shit apparently about what has happen to the other side of the street.. Those that didnt loose money in investments but just lost money period. My husbands income has dropped 50% in the last 5 years and our taxes seem to be higher or at the least we are paying way to much to taxes there is no tax breaks for those teetering on the edge of falling out of middle class which is just shrinking everyday. The government is not taxes the rich but the poor. Prices on everything is gone way up from gas to groceries but not pay. The only thing I might agree on it is American peoples fault. We do nothing, we sit and do nothing no protest no revolution no nothing. We are to busy consuming this and that or thinking a new president will save us well he wont no matter who wins they are working for the same people the 1% democrats republican its all the same now. Its just an illusion to make us think we have some control in our government leaders, we dont. Wake up American your grandparents and there parents had it much better before lobbyist and corporation got there hands in the cookie jar.
see my comment from 1 year ago……………
I believe you are in error. The Hilsenrath at the WSJ is Jon Hilsenrath.
While I have a BA in Economics, I am not a journalist.