Post war

Looking back over the post war years in the US, which is something I can do, one outstanding economic policy emerges. It started with manufacturing and ended up in finance. During the great industrial boom of the 50's and 60's the CEO had a 5 year plan, a 10 year plan and even a 20 year plan. They were willing to spend current profits on R&D in the hopes of increased profits in the future. They wanted their employees to stay with them as the company grew, the womb to the tomb concept. This led to long term productivity increases which led to higher wages. Since growth was slow and steady inflation remained under control. Come the 1970's and the business philosophy began to change and CEO's were under pressure to cut cost and this led to moving production overseas where lower wages and fewer regulation offered rewards. The CEO's began to shorten their horizons and the next quarterly stock value became more important than long term growth. Companies could see the stock price more dependent on financial matters than on manufacturing which led to a new corporate department called mergers and acquisitions which led to a new breed of investors called venture capitalist. At this point Wall Street jumped on the band wagon and everything was about the stock price. Things like stock buy backs replace more efficient manufacturing facilities since production could just be sent overseas. The overall result was the transfer of wealth from a large middle class to a small elite at the top. In the last 50 years the top one percent of Americans have taken $50 trillion dollars from the bottom 90%. Starting with the mortgage crisis in 2008 and accelerating with the 2016 election of Trump things began to change and the change is continuing today and will do so over the next 20 years while globalization comes to and end and massive reshoring results in a doubling of the industrial base. The tough times for the working people have come to a end and the good times are starting.