Drowning in the Money River

The comments above & below is an edited and abridged synopsis of an article by Adam Taggart

Our economy is gamed to enrich those who run it, at the expense of everybody else.

The ‘money river’ is the investment capital sloshing around the globe, birthed by the unprecedented money printing conducted by the world’s central banks over the past decade. Since 2008, they’ve more than tripled their collective balance sheet.

The $13+ trillion in new thin-air money has to go somewhere. And it first goes to those with closest access to it. The 99% can’t get past the velvet rope to access the money river. But our futures are being determined—or undermined—by it.

All that liquidity being provided by central banks needs to be cheap to those who want to borrow it, so the banks have driven interest rates down to the lowest levels in history. Some extra-aggressive central banks have even pursued negative interest rates, leading to a tremendous transfer of wealth to the already-rich at the expense of everybody else.

Those with the means and access to borrow have been able to get essentially free money to do so, while savers and those dependent on fixed income have been starved of any yield whatsoever.

The wave of global stimulus plus the low cost of borrowing have driven capital into nearly every asset market, sending prices higher. So those who have held those assets have become substantially richer, while those who have not have been priced out.

Along with asset prices, prices of nearly everything else have risen, dramatically increasing the cost of living. Wages, however, have not risen (they’re 7% lower than in 1973). What can the 99% do about it?

There’s a clear set of strategies for keeping yourself afloat while the system continues to pursue these pernicious and deeply unfair policies. They take focus, effort and discipline, but anyone implementing them will have a good chance of staying ahead of the rising cost curve, and have a real shot at financial prosperity.