It's The Economy, Stupid!

Everyone has heard that phrase. It rose to prominence in Bill Clinton's first campaign for the presidency, and it's being tossed around again this year.

But, what exactly does "The Economy" mean? And who is this "Stupid" character?

I'll explain in three steps and even include a bonus picture for those who are visual learners.

1. The Economy:

The best way to understand the U.S. economy is by looking at Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which is the statistic used to measure the economy. In other words, the U.S. economy, as measured by GDP, is everything produced by all the people and all the companies in the U.S. In the first quarter 2010, it was $14.6 trillion. <http://useconomy.about.com/od/grossdomesticproduct/p/GDP.htm>

Looked at from a slightly different perspective, "The Economy" is simply a measurement of how much money is moving from one bank account to another as a result of all the business dealings in the country. The more money moving, the better "The Economy."

Where the money is moving is not taken into account in this measurement, nor is any consideration given as to whether the flow is helping or hurting the average citizen.

2. Stupid:

Most Americans fit that description. They've been brainwashed to believe the "free market" myth and therefore don't realize that the stock market is a rigged game. They think they're players because they have funds invested in the market.

As in Las Vegas, however, "the house" (in this case, the top 5% of all investors) always wins because it takes its cut off the top as vigorish. Those who make up the other 95% risk their savings to help "the house" make money.

Thus, in 2010 the super-rich are becoming even super-richer while the rest of us are losing our homes, our jobs, and our retirement savings.

In short, we're losing our assets.

3. How it works:

You lose your house, because you lost your job, because "the house" outsourced it to enhance its bottom line or because it sold your mortgage in a derivatives bundle that was essentially worthless. "The house" uses its reserves to buy your house at below market value. It has plenty of money in reserve to ride out the economic disaster it caused. It even gets you to subsidize its chicanery by convincing Congress that it's too big to fail. When things settle down, "the house" will sell your house to someone else at a profit.

In "The Economy," all the wealth created by those who do actual work is constantly being redistributed upward to "the house," which has to do nothing more strenuous than to pick up a pen and write checks to a few members of Congress to keep the money flowing upward. Meanwhile a host of stooges preach the gospel of trickle down economics to "Stupid."

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Now for that cartoon I promised. I like to call it, "Here they let you smoke; there you get smoked."

Link to source: http://www.gocomics.com/wizardofid/2010/09/07/