Wall Street Has Recovered - But Main Street Has Not

The charts above (from Mother Jones) paints a pretty good picture of what has happened, both in the United States and in some other developed economies. The recession that hit at the end of 2007 and all of 2008 hurt everyone from Wall Street to Main Street (and in other developed nations). But in 2009, the economy began to recover, both in the U.S. and abroad -- and Wall Street and the giant corporations recovered all of their losses, and once again began to post record-breaking profits.

And in most developed nations employment also began to recover -- in all but the United States. In the U.S., millions remain unemployed and corporate America (in spite of their record profits) still refused to hire many new workers -- but instead used the high unemployment to hurt unions, keep the median (and minimum) wages low, and shrink the middle class. And they continued another vicious trend, started in the Bush administration with tax breaks that rewarded the exporting of American jobs. They continued to send American jobs to other countries (where they could abuse workers with impunity).

Most Americans don't need these charts to tell them that though, because they are still feeling the effects of the Bush recession (even if Wall Street and the corporations are not). They can see the huge unemployment that remains, and they can feel the falling wages and rising inflation. And they can see Wall Street and the corporations getting richer each day (while sharing none of the rising productivity with their loyal workers).

That's why I wasn't surprised at this newly released Gallup Poll (taken between April 30th and May 1st of 1,005 nationwide adults). The poll (see chart below) shows that while two-thirds of Americans think the corporations are very good at creating jobs in foreign countries, they are not so good at doing the same in this country. A clear majority (54%) say the big U.S. corporations do a very poor job of balancing the interests of citizens with corporate interests, do not help grow the U.S. economy, and are also doing very poorly at creating jobs in this country.

Much of this is because the congressional GOP has blocked any attempt to remove tax breaks for exporting jobs or forced those corporations to pay their share in taxes (or for many, any taxes at all). They have also blocked all attempts at job creation or a raising of wages (especially the minimum wage). And there is no reason to believe the Republicans will allow a more fair and sane economic policy to be instituted (because they are getting too much Wall Street and corporate money to allow that).

This is one more example of how the policies of the Republican Party are out-of-step with the desires of the American people. They have opted to represent the rich instead of ordinary Americans -- and they need to pay for that in November.