Surviving Capitalism (Not) : Federal Reserve Rains Money On Corporate America -- But Main Street Left High And Dry

We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Friday, November 5, 2010

Federal Reserve Rains Money On Corporate America -- But Main Street Left High And Dry

by Shahien Nasiripour from Huffington Post.

The author provides a lot of details on the current and recent operations of the Fed, and how it benefits its own class of people and the corporate engines that drive US capitalism.

Sitting atop a record $1.8 trillion in cash and other liquid assets, non-financial U.S. firms are awash in wealth, Fed data show. Relative to their short-term liabilities, U.S. corporations haven't been this flush since 1956. By that same measure, their balance sheets are twice as strong as they were just 15 years ago.