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'Too Big to Fail' Is Killing the Middle Class, Celente Says

Posted Aug 20, 2010 12:53pm EDT by Peter Gorenstein in Investing, Newsmakers, Recession

August has been a hot bed of merger & acquisition activity, including:

  • — Intel to buy McAfee for $7.7 billion
  • — Mining giant BHP Billiton wants to takeover agricultural goliath Potash for $40 billion.
  • — Dell to buy 3PAR for about $1.2 billion in cash
  • — First Niagara Financial Group agreed to buy Connecticut’s NewAlliance Bancshares Inc. for about $1.5 billion in cash and stock.

M&A activity is generally viewed as a good sign for the market and economy.

To the contrary, says Gerald Celente, director of the Trends Research Institute. “This country went from a nation of Main Street, mom and pop businesses to Wall Street and 'too big to fails',” he tells Tech Ticker in this clip. ("Not only were they 'too big to fail,' they were 'too big to jail'," he says of Wall Street execs.)

Deregulation and bailouts favor the country’s largest corporations, at the expense of small business, Celente believes. “They’re squeezing out everybody else." Policies like these have created the widest wealth gap in the industrialized world, he says; “10% of the nation controls 93% of the assets."

Former IMF Chief economist Simon Johnson makes a similar point in his book, 13 Bankers. In it, Johnson claims, six banks (Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo) control 60% of America’s gross national product.

The only way to turn the tide, says Celente, is to “put back what was in place that worked,” like the Glass-Steagall Act and the Sherman Antitrust Act, which exists in name only. “That’s what stopped the robber barons from raping the country.”

Celente is confident more regulation on the largest companies will help entrepreneurs, which in turn strengthening a fading middle class – the backbone of our society. “America becomes strong again when the middle builds big again,” he says.

Unfortunately, Celente sees the trend going in the opposite direction. “The merger of state and corporate powers, let’s calls a spade a spade. It’s fascism.”

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272 comments

  • 1 users liked this comment Please sign in to rate this comment up. Please sign in to rate this comment down. 0 users disliked this comment
    Bruce Mon Sep 20, 2010 10:45 am EDT Report Abuse
    We need a national discussion as to what are priorities are to be as a country and a society. I'll leave it to the reader who understands this to fill in the detail, and to the reader who doesn't- well he or she never will.
    It's time to take control back from the 'invisible hand of God"- now the multilateral corporation, and put in back in the the hands of the educated elite, who can understand and plan for a better future. No, not in the hands of the corporate elite, nor in the hands of Tea Party, read the dumb party. Yes, we all can have a say in this, let's just not glorify the uneducated beer and cigarette crowd as having the wisdom to plan for a better future on their own.
    The idea that if their is no plan, God will step in and handle it it all, is just an excuse for the oligarchy to continue to garner resources for themselves. A country which starves its public schools like we do, cannot achieve democracy. If we were an educated country, we might look at where we could replace the republic with a democracy. I know, a scary idea!
    What are the top 10 priorities for our country and how can we achieve them. If we don't ask the question we'll just continue on the road to............. well, you get the picture or you don't
  • 1 users liked this comment Please sign in to rate this comment up. Please sign in to rate this comment down. 0 users disliked this comment
    R U mad! Wed Aug 25, 2010 09:46 pm EDT Report Abuse
    Quite right, we're screwed! God bless (unregulated) capitalism and unchecked greed!?
    Not gonna work. Sorry. We're competing against other multinational companies from all over the world that would eat us alive if we reversed the status quo as he's suggesting.
    And that's why 'the little guy' from Mexico whose farm cant compete against Walmart for example is among us. Makes sense to me. Everyone's screwed all over the world..... Except the 10%
    And how to put money back in the pockets of 'main street'
    Yanks are going to have to make do with less. And workers in China and India are going to be whipped into working 15 hour days. It all sucks, but get used to it.
  • 0 users liked this comment Please sign in to rate this comment up. Please sign in to rate this comment down. 0 users disliked this comment
    Seriously Wed Aug 25, 2010 06:03 pm EDT Report Abuse
    I agree. Nothing was done to save the mid-size and small business which couldn't make their payrolls, but they decide the throw gazillions at corporations so they could pay out more bonuses. Great idea, not.
  • 3 users liked this comment Please sign in to rate this comment up. Please sign in to rate this comment down. 2 users disliked this comment
    Al Wed Aug 25, 2010 01:36 pm EDT Report Abuse
    Obamanomics 101: Trickle Up Poverty
  • 1 users liked this comment Please sign in to rate this comment up. Please sign in to rate this comment down. 5 users disliked this comment
    ToMathew Wed Aug 25, 2010 12:35 pm EDT Report Abuse
    Please do not believe the hype. The recession ended March of 2009. Our nation is in recovery. Where were these guys in 2005, 2006, and 2007. I was laughed at when I said things had to change.

    Now everyone talks as if we live in El Salvador. Brazil is better off than us? You have to be kidding. Our government has been in charge for a long time. I would suggest anyone who puts too much credence into Celente read the US Constitution. The document is still the law of the land.

    Our economy is in recovery. The darkness has ended.
  • 1 users liked this comment Please sign in to rate this comment up. Please sign in to rate this comment down. 1 users disliked this comment
    mike Wed Aug 25, 2010 03:39 am EDT Report Abuse
    Maybe its time to burn the whole place down and start over. This affiction among the American people is like a cancer and I tell ya, the only way to cure is going to be rough.
  • 0 users liked this comment Please sign in to rate this comment up. Please sign in to rate this comment down. 1 users disliked this comment
    r Tue Aug 24, 2010 10:18 pm EDT Report Abuse
    They were too big to fail and we were too small to be conveninently ignored. Lost my all life time savings.
  • 4 users liked this comment Please sign in to rate this comment up. Please sign in to rate this comment down. 1 users disliked this comment
    captncourageous98 Tue Aug 24, 2010 01:12 am EDT Report Abuse
    We are setting at the cusp of the Greatest Depression in history! Picketing and marching will do nothing. Stop shopping at Wal-Mart and support the small guy again! My father was a small businessman and I remember well, how great our country was in the 70's and 80's. Support the local farmers markets and eat healthier. Bigger doesn't mean better, another plate of salmonella for me please! Longer school years for our children and make them wear uniforms. This will teach productivity and set aside individuality, it works for the military. Stop the dumbing down of America! Indian call center employee's are taught not to get mad while talking to American's on the phone about there tech support problems. Instead realize that they are about three years behind us in math, etc... so realize you are talking to a child.... How does that make you feel America. We've grown fat and lazy and it's time to take back our country by tightening our belts and finding our pride! We use to make stuff you know but no one wants to work for low wages.... $8 per hour may sound good when the infrastructure fails and we hit a great depression. Can't you see America is being hacked into pieces and sold to the highest bidders. Wake up and put down your remote America! We are the greatest generation because we will take it back!
  • 0 users liked this comment Please sign in to rate this comment up. Please sign in to rate this comment down. 1 users disliked this comment
    Back_Off Mon Aug 23, 2010 08:42 pm EDT Report Abuse
    All you smart asses, not so smart if you don't do anything about it. Let's stop talking and protest these senseless bull-crap! We don't have many good examples now adays. We need to set a good example for our kids' futures. When our children feels the pinch, and question us why the "People" didn't do anything?

    I have read many smart posts, we have good people, wacky people, engeneers, teachers, scientists...

    You know what, my understanding is we have one voice, Stop Spending our's and our Children't money senselessly; you are not helping.

    We all need to do our part to gear our Country into the right directions. Tired of reading how smart these posts are; I have been reading them since last year. I want my kids to know that I have done something for our country.

    Speak Out, America! September 11, Protests in All Major Cities. We are the People...
  • 0 users liked this comment Please sign in to rate this comment up. Please sign in to rate this comment down. 1 users disliked this comment
    Back_Off Mon Aug 23, 2010 08:42 pm EDT Report Abuse
    All you smart asses, not so smart if you don't do anything about it. Let's stop talking and protest these senseless bull-crap! We don't have many good examples now adays. We need to set a good example for our kids' futures. When our children feels the pinch, and question us why the "People" didn't do anything?

    I have read many smart posts, we have good people, wacky people, engeneers, teachers, scientists...

    You know what, my understanding is we have one voice, Stop Spending our's and our Children't money senselessly; you are not helping.

    We all need to do our part to gear our Country into the right directions. Tired of reading how smart these posts are; I have been reading them since last year. I want my kids to know that I have done something for our country.

    Speak Out, America! September 11, Protests in All Major Cities. We are the People...

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