The fundamental blow to the ownership society, however, was the collapse of the bubble economy. Individual savings accounts, of the kind ownership society advocated, were devastated by the crash...
...Yet the story that President Bill Clinton and British prime minister Tony Blair told of college-educated individuals thriving in global labour markets was wrong. To begin with, America’s professionals owe their relative affluence largely to their protection from offshoring or competition with immigrants.

Economic performance, 20 years later.

The US rebellion against British rule was motivated, at least in part, by the colonists’ concern about the possibility that the “central” (ie, British) government might obstruct their dispossession of the native population and their practice of slavery.

While income and lifestyle are all relative, an after-tax income between $6.6k and $8.3k per month today will hardly buy the fantasy lifestyles that Americans see on TV and would consider “rich”. In many areas in California or the East Coast, this positions one squarely in the hard working upper-middle class, and strict budgeting will be essential. An income of $190k post tax or $15.8k per month will certainly buy a nice lifestyle but is far from rich.

Facebook - the CIA conspiracy ... Facebook has 20 million users worldwide, is worth billions of dollars and, if internet sources are to be believed, was started by the CIA. The social networking phenomenon started as a way of American college students to keep in touch. It is rapidly catching up with MySpace, and has left others like Bebo in its wake. But there is a dark side to the success story that's been spreading across the blogosphere. A complex but riveting Big Brother-type conspiracy theory, which links Facebook to the CIA and the US Department of Defence. The CIA is, though, using a Facebook group to recruit staff for its very sexy sounding National Clandestine Service.

There is nothing left of the American character. Only a people who have lost their soul could tolerate the evil that emanates from Washington.

Former CBO director David Stockman and panel taks about the Federals Reservs acknowledgement of dissapointing growth, higher inflation and a weakening labor market.

The only way the left-wing’s myth about law being the servant of the rich can be saved is by seeing the case as a set-up of DSK by someone who is richer and more powerful than he is. This someone could be the current president of France and the financial and political forces behind him, which includes the US government for which Sarkozy has been a reliable puppet.

When Kagan penned his 1997 piece, America still held the prospect of “tying down China” with Southeast Asia. Today that prospect has largely slipped through their fingers. With globalist-stooge Thaksin Shinawatra’s ouster from Thailand in 2006, and multiple failed color revolutions in both Myanmar and Thailand since then, America has suffered a noticeable deterioration regarding its influence throughout the region. It seems the best hope the West’s corporatocracy holds is to create a sufficient amount of chaos throughout the region and around the world to disrupt China’s economic growth, while attempting to destabilize Beijing itself through foreign-funded sedition. China has now openly accused the West of fomenting unrest both abroad and within its own borders signifying that enticement and containment have now shifted over to a confrontation of proxies.

The fact that Zardari and Karzai are attending a conference on terrorism hosted by Iran at this point in time is by itself a significant indicator of the way winds are blowing currently in regional politics. The Saudi Arabian government reportedly made a diplomatic demarche with Pakistan, suggesting it should ignore the Tehran conference and instead attend a similar conclave on terrorism that it proposes to convene shortly in Riyadh.