The New Gilded Age

The Gilded Age occurred in the 1880s.  After the Civil War, the United States has a business/economic boom, which fueled our growth and began the shift from Europe to America as the source of wealth.  It was a time when JP Morgan could gather the bankers to his office to avert an economic panic.  It was a time of the creation of companies like Standard Oil, steel companies, AT&T and the railroads.  Unfortunately not all of this wealth was created by new ideas and streamlining of business but the manipulation of stock on Wall Street, mostly by watering down stocks.  The negative side of this growth was the wide divergence in wealth between the working class and the captains of industry.  The ostentatious displays of wealth were show in the vast mansions and summer homes plus the rapacious buying of antiquities.  The captains of industry purchased politicians and the political bosses ran the government.


We are currently in a new Gilded Age with a vast disparity of income between the middle class and the wealthy.  The profits on Wall Street have come from manipulations of securities that provide no value to the economy other than to enrich the investment banks.  The investment banks funnel huge sums of money to the political campaigns of both parties.  Their lobbyist make the laws of the nation.  They ostentatiously display their wealth as the robber barons of old.

How are we to get ourselves out of this mess?  While Occupy Wall Street is helping to shine light on the problem, they have yet to offer any solutions.  The Gilded Age ended with an accident of history, the arrival of Theodore Roosevelt.  Will Obama be the new Gilded Age's T.R.  Unfortunately, I do not have the answers.

How the Tea Party Got It Wrong

Who are the members of the Tea Party?  They are predominately white, middle class men who are concerned with the economic problems facing America.  They claim that they are concerned about the size of the government and government deficits.  Surprisingly they support the Republicans or perhaps were co-opted by the Dick Armey and the Koch brothers, who took the United States from a surplus to the largest deficits.  Republicans have supported large deficits since Regan.  The Republicans refuse to raise taxes to cut the deficit, not even on the wealthiest one percent and believe in cutting middle class programs, such as Social Security, which would hurt the majority of Tea Party members.  Logically it does not make sense to support a party that is in the pocket of the wealthy.

Why was it acceptable for GW Bush to increase the size of government with unfunded programs such as prescription medicare and No Child Left Behind.  The Tea Party has no problem spending billions of dollars on wars but not on Americans.  It makes me wonder is their problem is that there is a black man in the Oval Office that they want to remove.