America

The US Economy Has Not Recovered And Will Not Recover

Paul Craig Roberts

The US economy died when middle class jobs were offshored and when the financial system was deregulated.

Jobs offshoring benefitted corporate executives and shareholders, because lower labor and compliance costs resulted in higher profits. These profits flowed through to shareholders in the form of capital gains and to executives in the form of “performance bonuses.” Wall Street benefitted from the bull market generated by higher profits.

Jeb Bush made a campaign stop on Tuesday at a gun manufacturer in Columbia, Ohio. The Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush tweeted a picture of his handgun manufactured by a company which has a history linked to arming the Nazis during World War two, and is currently a leading supplier to the U.S. military. The gun represents “America”, according to Bush, both the manufacturer and the country. The Washington Post reports: The short tweet includes only the word “America.” (with a period for emphasis) and a picture of a .45-caliber handgun engraved with his name: “Gov.

Submitted by Raul Ilargi Meijer via The Automatic Earth blog,

A week after the New Hampshire Presidential Primaries, what lessons, if any, can we take from the dramatic victories of two outsider candidates? Former New Hampshire resident and occasional Automatic Earth contributor Nelson Lebo weighs in.

• Futures rise as oil gains hold steady (Reuters)
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• China Ramps Up Rhetoric, Plans New Steps to Juice Up Economy (BBG)
• China Loses Control of the Economic Story Line (WSJ)
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