Memo to the D.C. Beltway/mainstream media apologists and propagandists: the 25 million Invisible Americans are no longer buying your shuck-and-jive con job.

For the bottom, 90% of American households, the “prosperity” of the “recovery” since 2009 is a bright shining lie. The phrase is from a history of the Vietnam War, A Bright Shining Lie: John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam.

Just as the Vietnam War was built on lies, propaganda, PR and rigged statistics(the infamous body counts–civilians killed as “collateral damage” counted as “enemy combatants”), so too is the “recovery” nothing but a pathetic tissue of PR, propaganda, and lies. I have demolished the bogus 5.3% “increase” in median household income, the equally bogus “official inflation” body counts, oops I mean statistics, and the bogus unemployment rate: A Bright Shining Lie: ... Sheehan, Neil Best Price: $0.75 Buy New $6.58 (as of 02:45 UTC - Details)

Fun with Fake Statistics: The 5% “Increase” in Median Household Income Is Pure Illusion (September 19, 2016)

What’s the Real Unemployment Rate? That’s the Wrong Question (September 14, 2016)

Could Inflation Break the Back of the Status Quo? (August 5, 2016)

Revealing the Real Rate of Inflation Would Crash the System (August 3, 2016)

Inflation Hidden in Plain Sight (August 2, 2016)

The Burrito Index: Consumer Prices Have Soared 160% Since 2001 (August 1, 2016)

I’m not the only one calling the “recovery” a lie: the chairman of Gallup, Jim Clifton, recently unloaded on the “recovery”:

The Invisible American.

Why are the most advertised Gold and Silver coins NOT the best way to invest?

“I’ve been reading a lot about a “recovering” economy. It was even trumpeted on Page 1 of The New York Times and Financial Times last week. I don’t think it’s true.

The percentage of Americans who say they are in the middle or upper-middle class has fallen 10 percentage points, from a 61% average between 2000 and 2008 to 51% today.”

Now that is a self-reported number. The reality is much worse: only 20% of American households possess the income and assets that characterize the middle class in financial terms. Granted, someone making $28,000 a year can self-identify as middle class, but if we look at basic metrics of financial security, they’re not even close.

I have analyzed this in depth for years:

The Three-and-a-Half Class Society (October 22, 2012)

What Does It Take To Be Middle Class? (December 5, 2013)

The Destabilizing Truth: Only the Wealthy Can Afford a Middle-Class Lifestyle (May 6, 2014)

America’s Nine Classes: The New Class Hierarchy (April 29, 2014)

Read the Whole Article

The Best of Charles Hugh Smith

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