Just the facts… (Review, historical)

I assert that longstanding choices have contributed if not caused our current economic instability, civil unrest, and this insistent plod towards autocratic and kleptocratic governance.

My assertion draws on a combination of well-documented trends and widely discussed critiques in political science, economics, and contemporary journalism.

What follows is roughly 20-30 years of thinking pushed into a four decade+ timeline and the whole thing is rife with what has, is, and seemingly will continue to be a deliberate predatory aggressiveness toward the working class that reveals the United States to be no different whatever from any other feudal, dictatorial, despotic, and/or war-torn cultures and societies.

Nor am I ‘being a doomer’ to simply point out that we are well into an actual, active, and very likely absolute economic and national collapse. The only real question remaining is, “Into what?” because fascism and authoritarianism are no more permanent than our fleeting federated democracy, just ask Plato.

I am going to make an infographic of this timeline. Maybe. The country needs to realize it’s being played. Badly.

But first, here is the attribution analysis and framing assessment to get things started:

• Congress, Supreme Court, and Presidency Shaping Social/Economic Landscape: It’s well-established that legislation, judicial rulings, and presidential/executive action have profoundly shaped workplace rights, social safety nets, media regulation, minimum wage policy, corporate practices, and civil liberties since the 1970s.
• Rise of Disinformation: The consolidation of media ownership, relaxation of regulatory safeguards (such as the repeal of the Fairness Doctrine in 1987), and technological advancements have enabled both the prevalence and impact of disinformation—issues increasingly scrutinized since the 1970s.
• Minimum Wage Policy: The federal minimum wage has been stagnating at $7.25 since 2009, with limited raises relative to inflation and productivity growth, which is widely viewed as a deliberate policy choice in Congress in the face of intense lobbying by various business interests.
• Class War & Labor Captivity: There’s ample scholarly discussion around how policy choices (urban zoning, health insurance tied to employment, car-dependent infrastructure, attacks on labor unions, etc.) have created conditions described as “captive, coerced, and cheap” labor. This perspective, though debated, has grown more mainstream in economic sociology and progressive politics.
• Slide into Kleptocracy/Kakistocracy: The increasing influence of money in politics (post-Citizens United), erosion of checks and balances, and perceived corruption or incompetence in public and corporate leadership are core elements of these critiques.

This argument, when substantiated by details and examples, aligns with emerging critical narratives and is supported by a wide swath of academic and journalistic literature, though exact framing (such as “class war” or “kakistocracy”) does go beyond mainstream reporting into analytical or activist interpretation on my part (and certain implications may arise, resultant).

That said, I think when you review all the information, you’ll agree that this nation’s working class are being horribly, persistently, and systemically abused… so I’m going to use my talent and skills in tech to pull all the citations and lay out this case (and cause for action).

In the below, I’m walking through decades to show you cause and effect in a way that news reports and political theater rarely care to manage (because it is informative not instructive, but that’s another rant). I’ll try to keep it moving but I really want you to digest how clear this relationship becomes over time. I want you to read, look up, around, and understand how and I why I’m saying this is my generation (GenX) come around, all over again… also why I have always lived with concern for our future as a nation.

I took my thoughts and words to Perplexity’s ‘research engine’ to both locate and verify my sources. If you find this information helpful, share it!! Also, please consider flipping a few bucks my way or talking to someone you know about hiring me. Times are hard and any help is appreciated. Thanks!

Onward!

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This is a factual timeline (1960–present) highlighting pivotal choices by the branches of government and key appointees/elected officials that helped shape the outcomes we now experience.

Each decade’s listings incorporate major legislative acts, judicial decisions, executive policies, and structural changes that affected labor, media, wages, worker autonomy, and the rise of disinformation.

It is, I think, relatively simple to elaborate any cultural, economic, and/or societal issue of any decade, and I encourage those with access to humans who lived through them to talk with them about it.

I frame this as a ‘review’ with a purpose: To outline how, from 1960 to present, the interests of business, lobby, ‘the fed’, the politicians, and support members consistently and persistently choose the paths that leads to these outcomes.

To set the stage, it’s crucial to understand how the decade from 1960 to 1970 fostered (and began to institutionalize) the interests of business, the Federal Reserve, politicians, and their “supporting actors”. These choices established patterns and incentives that shaped subsequent economic, political, and labor outcomes:

• At the outset of the 1960s, the U.S. enjoyed extraordinary prosperity, which enabled bold policy ambitions like Kennedy’s New Frontier and Johnson’s Great Society programs. These included major legislation in civil rights, food security, health care, and education—largely progressive, social-minded reforms meant to elevate the mass standard of living.
• These programs, particularly under Johnson, led to substantial government spending. This dovetailed with heavy fiscal outlays on the Vietnam War, straining the federal budget and complicating the management of inflation.
• The Federal Reserve in this era prioritized price stability and independence from direct political control, especially under Chairman William McChesney Martin. This created tension with presidents who favored stimulus for growth or employment, notably Lyndon Johnson. Policy moves such as Operation Twist were devised to manage both domestic interest rates and global currency pressures, indicating how the Fed’s choices became intertwined with broader economic priorities—sometimes at odds with congressional or executive interests.
• By the mid-1960s, the Fed’s attempts to balance growth and inflation became more politically contested. As inflation crept up, labor costs rose, and credit became overextended, the Fed’s independence was gradually eroded by fiscal and political demands, laying the groundwork for future monetary policy battles.
• Throughout the 1960s, corporate lobbying was neither sophisticated nor deeply entrenched; businesses mainly acted through trade associations and lacked direct influence in Washington.
• However, as Congress passed waves of social and regulatory legislation—environmental laws, safety standards, civil rights—many companies felt threatened by rising regulatory costs and shifting public opinion, especially in the second half of the decade.
• This climate prompted individual businesses to begin investing in political engagement, setting the stage for a dramatic shift in lobbying activity and influence in the 1970s.
• The political landscape of the 1960s was marked by volatility, infighting, and the rapid evolution of parties and coalitions. Kennedy and Johnson’s administrations drove historic change but faced fierce resistance over civil rights and Vietnam, dividing parties and energizing various interest groups.
• Parties began drifting from discipline toward competing special interest group alignment. Lobbies grew stronger, especially as business perceived new existential threats after a decade of aggressive regulation.
• Institutional choices of the 1960s built the foundations for the persistent privileging of business, finance, and lobby interests. This period saw the beginning of political and economic realignments—driven by government expansion, eventual backlash, and strategic re-calibration by interests—that would soon consolidate power and influence to shape the coming decades.
• The Fed’s evolving role and changing independence illustrate the increasing complexity and politicization of economic management, especially as fiscal and monetary priorities collided.
• Business began its shift from reactive regulation-fighting to proactive, organized lobbying, a movement fueled by perceived regulatory threats and economic stagnation, that would later dominate national policy and labor realities.
• Political divisions and institutional stress created fertile ground for new strategies of influence, paving the way for the intensified class, economic, and media battles of the decades to come.

This is a map. These actors, through adaptive and persistent choices, moved toward outcomes that have harmed our nation and ourselves as citizens within it; we face economic instability, labor captivity, and the rise of disinformation, class war, and oligarchic entrenchment. They, however, prosper. You will note this is the only trend that seemingly remains healthy throughout… tellingly.

The decade of the 1970s marked a turning point in U.S. governance and economic management, setting many of the conditions we live with today as ‘normal’: increased prioritization of business interests, confused monetary stewardship, and significant regulatory choices with long-lasting social impacts:

• Stagflation: The U.S. grappled with stagflation—a rare combination of high inflation and slow or negative economic growth. Traditional Keynesian policies, guided by the Phillips Curve, failed to resolve simultaneous joblessness and surging prices. Policy responses became erratic or “stop-and-go,” pivoting repeatedly between combating unemployment and controlling inflation.
• The Fed’s Credibility Crisis: Under Chairs Arthur Burns and later Paul Volcker, the Federal Reserve’s efforts to fight inflation often collided with political pressures to maintain employment. The result was public distrust and policy disarray, with the Fed prioritizing employment over price stability until the very end of the decade. This led to chronic inflation expectations, reduced business investment, and sluggish productivity.
• Divergent Priorities: Throughout the period, fiscal spending remained high, partly due to lingering Vietnam War expenditures and expansive social programs from the previous decade. Budget deficits became entrenched, limiting options for counter-cyclical economic policies.
• Labor and Employment: Congress enacted extended benefits for unemployment insurance (1970), created the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to oversee workplace safety (1970), and passed sweeping reforms such as the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA, 1974) regulating employer pensions.
• Workforce Programs: In response to recession and unemployment, Nixon (1971) and subsequent Congresses expanded federally funded public employment programs. These measures were billed as anti-poverty and pro-worker, but were marred by fraud, nepotism, and administrative waste, with many jobs failing to reach the “hard-core” unemployed.
• Minimum Wage: Despite inflation eroding workers’ buying power, Congressional action repeatedly delayed or limited increases to the minimum wage, sustaining downward pressure on labor standards.
• Media Ownership Rules: The FCC, with bipartisan Congressional backing, proposed (1970) and adopted (1975) strict cross-ownership rules barring newspapers from owning TV or radio stations in the same market. While intended to protect diversity of viewpoints and hinder media monopolies, these rules reflected growing anxiety about concentrated media influence, ironically foreshadowing the later rise of controlled narratives and partisan disinformation.
• Broadcast Limits: The FCC also reduced the maximum number of broadcast outlets that any company could own in one market, reinforcing local media fragmentation but arguably weakening media organizations as new corporate interests entered the space.
• Go-Stop Policy Dysfunction: The failure to choose a clear, coherent priority—either price stability or full employment—set the stage for decades of volatility. Political and economic systems repeatedly favored short-term business and political interests rather than structural solutions, leaving workers and consumers vulnerable.
• Labor: Captive and Coerced: Expanded government job programs and workplace regulations coexisted with wage stagnation, increasing the precarity of labor. Policies appeared generous but created dependency without addressing underlying power imbalances between capital and labor.
• Disinformation and Media Control: Tighter ownership rules had mixed effects, at times preventing media consolidation but also fragmenting news sources and eventually enabling niche, partisan outlets, both conditions that contributed to the later explosion of disinformation.

From 1970 to 1980, the U.S. government, business coalitions, monetary authorities, and regulatory agencies consistently chose paths that privileged established interests, temporarily addressed public anxieties, and set up long-term vulnerabilities. These choices laid new ground for labor precarity, confused monetary governance, and a fragmented media environment—core dimensions of the instability, unrest, and “captive, coerced, cheap” labor now becoming commonplace.

But it was the period from 1980 to 1990 that saw the most dramatic transformation in the priorities of U.S. political, monetary, and economic institutions. This decade entrenched many of the patterns; favoring business interests, reshaping labor markets, and restructuring regulatory and media landscapes… all of which underpin my core argument about America’s current challenges:

• Volcker Shock & Double-Dip Recessions: The early 1980s began with aggressive monetary tightening under Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker. Faced with runaway inflation nearing 14%, the Fed hiked interest rates, causing the federal funds rate to approach 20%. Though this induced two severe recessions (1980 and 1981–82), with unemployment peaking near 11%, it ultimately succeeded in reducing inflation to around 5% by 1982. This established the Fed’s commitment to price stability over employment, a profound shift in economic doctrine.
• Depository Institutions Deregulation (1980): Legislation broadened Fed control over deposit institutions and removed caps on savings interest rates. This encouraged saving but also set up conditions for later financial instability and market concentration.
• Supply-Side Economics (“Reaganomics”): Ronald Reagan’s presidency marked a deliberate pivot: tax cuts, reduced government spending (outside defense), privatization, and broad deregulation. These choices were justified as incentives for growth and innovation, but also resulted in rising deficits and entrenched inequality.
• Union Decline: Reagan’s administration famously broke the air traffic controllers’ strike (PATCO, 1981), setting a precedent that weakened unions and signaled government alignment with business over labor.
• Job Restructuring: While the decade as a whole saw eventual jobs growth, the early recessions eliminated “marginal” jobs and shut down many plants, accelerating de-industrialization and increasing precarity for working-class Americans.
• Minimum Wage Stagnation: Despite mounting inflation through the decade, minimum wage adjustments lagged, further eroding real worker purchasing power—reinforcing the pattern of “captive, coerced, and cheap” labor.
• Rise of Benefits-Based Dependency: Health care and retirement security became tied ever more closely to employment status, amplifying worker dependence on major employers.
• Deregulation: Key industries—banking, airlines, telecommunications, and eventually media—were deregulated, drastically boosting corporate power and market consolidation. Business lobbying intensified, shifting legislative and regulatory priorities toward pro-market, anti-union, and anti-welfare policies.
• Finance Ascendant: The 1980s set the stage for financialization as Wall Street’s influence grew, mergers and acquisitions became common, and speculative investment increased.
• Media Consolidation: The FCC began easing cross-ownership and market-entry restrictions, laying groundwork for future media conglomerates and declining diversity of viewpoints.
• Culture of Individualism: Political rhetoric and media highlighted personal responsibility and market discipline, crowding out collective labor or public welfare narratives.

During 1980–1990, the major branches of government, the Federal Reserve, and emergent corporate lobbies consistently chose policies and strategies that privileged business, reduced labor’s negotiating power, and reoriented the economic system toward market discipline and deregulation. These choices intensified urban precarity, market dependence, and class stratification—a trajectory that, in retrospect, set the conditions for America’s present-day instability, disinformation, and labor captivity.

1990 to 2000 was defined by a shift toward fiscal discipline, inflation control, and intensifying market-friendly reforms. The period is crucial for understanding how the interplay of government, business, lobbying, and monetary policy reinforced trends toward labor precarity, wealth polarization, and the groundwork for 21st-century instability.

• Deficit Reduction & Surplus: The 1990 budget agreement under President George H.W. Bush introduced marginal tax rate increases and set a course toward deficit reduction. The Clinton Administration doubled down in 1993, raising taxes on high-income earners and cutting spending, which led to a rare era of federal budget surpluses by the end of the decade. These surpluses were largely preserved rather than spent, reinforcing fiscal restraint.
• Government Shrinkage: The consistent prioritization of deficit reduction over new social programs or expanded welfare left the social safety net relatively stagnant, even as economic growth accelerated.
• Private Sector Investment Boom: Enhanced national saving and lower interest rates—direct results of government fiscal discipline—promoted a surge in private investment, fueling technological innovation (especially in information technology) and contributing to a historic stock market boom.
• Stable Inflation, Low Unemployment: Alan Greenspan’s Federal Reserve oversaw a remarkable period of low, steady inflation and falling unemployment. The central bank’s credibility, established through tough anti-inflation measures early in his term, allowed it to maintain moderate policies despite rapid growth—a gamble that contributed to expansion longevity.
• Monetary Rules: The 1990s saw renewed interest in systematic monetary policy frameworks, such as the Taylor rule, emphasizing market discipline and limiting discretionary interventions by the Fed.
• Reduced Political Interference: The Clinton administration notably refrained from pressuring the Fed, letting monetary policy operate independently and reinforcing the central bank’s role as an inflation watchdog.
• Minimum Wage Stagnation: Real minimum wages remained stubbornly low relative to productivity and cost-of-living increases, reinforcing existing patterns of “captive, coerced, and cheap” labor.
• Benefit-Linked Job Security: Employer-based healthcare and retirement security persisted, perpetuating workers’ dependence on corporate-determined employment structures.
• Lobbying Intensifies: While regulation of financial markets and some industries eased, lobbying activity increased, with business interests pushing for further deregulation and market access.
• Market Expansion and Consolidation: The tech and media sectors saw explosive growth, corporate mergers flourished, and regulatory authorities often embraced market-friendly approaches—sometimes at the expense of anti-monopoly and pro-labor protections.
• Media Landscape Transformations: The explosion of cable, telecom deregulation, and early internet growth set the stage for future shifts in media ownership, influence, and fragmentation; the seeds of partisan echo chambers and disinformation networks were sown.

Through the 1990s, institutional choices aligned even more closely with business interests, prioritizing fiscal discipline and monetary stability over direct worker support or redistribution. The era achieved economic stability, but its policies further entrenched labor dependence, class stratification, and the information power of large market actors. Lobby and business priorities—reinforced by both government restraint and regulatory shifts—created enduring vulnerabilities that shaped America’s trajectory into the new century.

The decade from 2000 to 2010 was a turbulent period characterized by economic shocks, significant policy shifts, and institutional responses that further entrenched imbalances in the U.S. economy and governance. Key themes include the Bush-era tax cuts, the housing bubble and bust, the initiation of costly wars, and the onset of the Great Recession.

• Bush Tax Cuts: The administration of President George W. Bush enacted major income tax cuts in 2001 and 2003 (Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001 and Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003), reducing income tax rates, capital gains taxes, and increasing child tax credits. These tax cuts were justified as economic stimulus after the 2001 recession and were projected to increase federal deficits by about 1.5% to 2% of GDP annually. The promised revenue growth from these cuts did not fully materialize, contributing to increased federal deficits during the decade.
• Federal Budget Deficits: Despite economic growth early in the decade, deficits remained large partly due to tax cuts, increased military spending, and new entitlement expansions like Medicare Part D in 2003. Military expenditures roughly doubled, driven by the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq post-9/11.
• Economic Growth: Real GDP grew at an average annual rate of 2.5% early in the decade but slowed during the latter half as the housing bubble burst and the financial crisis unfolded. Consumer spending during the housing bubble was heavily financed by home equity extraction, which peaked around 2005.
• The Fed, under Alan Greenspan and later Ben Bernanke, maintained relatively low interest rates in the early 2000s. This accommodating monetary policy contributed to the housing boom but also to rising inflationary pressures and risk-taking in financial markets.
• The Fed’s response to economic fluctuations reflected some reversion to the earlier “stop-go” style of policy, with rates held below traditional rule-based recommendations, contributing to asset bubbles.
• Real wages for many workers stagnated or fell behind productivity growth. The minimum wage remained at historically low real levels, sustaining the pattern of constrained worker earnings relative to living costs.
• Employment-linked health insurance and retirement benefits continued to tie workers to employers, reinforcing labor “captivity.”
• The two recessions of the decade (post-dot-com and Great Recession) caused large job losses, particularly hitting lower-wage and less secure workers hardest.
• Deregulation continued in many sectors, but the decade also saw the passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (2002) aimed at corporate governance reforms following major scandals.
• Lobbying by business interests intensified to shape regulatory frameworks and bailout policies amid the financial crisis.
• Financial market expansion and complexity grew, contributing to systemic risks that culminated in the 2007–2009 financial meltdown.
• The decade’s economic shocks exacerbated mistrust in institutions, with disinformation and partisan media outlets gaining traction amid growing political polarization.
• Fragmentation of news media continued, facilitating the rise of echo chambers and the erosion of shared factual ground.

From 2000 to 2010, government, Federal Reserve, business, and lobbying actors repeatedly chose policies that favored stimulating short-term growth and protecting financial interests, often at the expense of addressing structural inequalities or labor security. The decade’s economic turbulence, marked by tax cuts that increased deficits, costly military engagements, and the housing-financial crisis, entrenched patterns of labor precarity, regulatory capture, and a fragmented, polarized public sphere. These developments set critical groundwork for the economic instability, civil unrest, and class dynamics that characterize the following decades.

The decade from 2010 to 2020 was marked by an extended, though uneven, economic recovery following the Great Recession, ongoing institutional choices favoring business interests, and continued pressures on labor and the social contract. These factors further entrenched many of the systemic challenges, leading (if not being a causative element of) economic instability, labor precarity, and the broader sociopolitical depressive environment.

• Great Recession Recovery: The decade began with the U.S. economy still recovering from the 2007–2009 Great Recession, which triggered deep job losses and widespread financial hardship. Recovery was slow and cautious, with real GDP growth averaging about 3.0% per year. Consumer behavior shifted toward debt reduction and restrained spending rather than robust consumption, reflecting underlying economic uncertainty.
• Fiscal Stimulus and Deficit Management: Early in the decade, significant fiscal stimulus measures like the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) helped stabilize the economy. However, this was followed by political gridlock leading to fiscal austerity measures, including spending cuts mandated by the 2011 Budget Control Act. Federal deficits remained high, with national debt rising sharply—from about 60% of GDP in 2010 to much higher levels by the decade’s end—though interest rates stayed low due to sustained accommodating monetary policy.
• Tax Policy: The decade retained many Bush-era tax cuts, especially for higher earners, consolidating a tax policy environment favorable to wealthier individuals and corporations. The top marginal tax rates remained lower than in previous decades, contributing to widening income and wealth inequality.
• Prolonged Low Interest Rates: The Federal Reserve maintained near-zero federal funds rates for much of the decade to support recovery, reflecting the challenge of a persistently low natural rate of interest. This low-rate environment fueled asset price inflation in stocks and real estate, benefiting wealth holders disproportionately and contributing to wealth inequality.
• Quantitative Easing: The Fed implemented multiple rounds of quantitative easing (asset purchases) to stimulate liquidity and economic activity, which helped stabilize financial markets but also raised concerns about long-term distortions and financial risk-taking.
• Interest Rate Normalization Attempts: Toward the latter part of the decade, the Fed gradually raised rates, but the ceiling remained historically low compared to pre-2008 levels, limiting policy space for future recessions.
• Employment Gains with Stagnant Wages: While unemployment steadily declined, wage growth for many workers remained sluggish, and minimum wage levels continued to lag behind inflation and productivity gains. This sustained the dynamic of workers being economically constrained despite fuller employment.
• Employment-Linked Benefits Persist: Health insurance and retirement benefits remained largely tied to employer provision, which continued to undermine worker bargaining power and reinforce dependency on jobs for essential services.
• Gig Economy and Precariat Growth: The emergence and expansion of gig and contract work increased labor market precarity, often with little access to traditional employment protections or benefits.
• Corporate Influence and Deregulation: Business lobbying remained intense, influencing legislation and regulatory policy to favor corporate interests. Deregulatory trends persisted in finance, environmental policy, and labor protections, often at the expense of public and worker protections.
• Market Concentration: Corporate mergers and acquisitions accelerated, particularly in tech, healthcare, and media sectors, reinforcing oligopolistic market structures.
• Information Fragmentation: The rise of social media and online platforms radically changed the media landscape, shifting control away from traditional outlets but also enabling partisan echo chambers and misinformation to flourish.
• Disinformation and Political Polarization: The decade saw a significant growth in politically motivated disinformation campaigns that undermined trust in institutions, amplified social divisions, and played a key role in civil unrest and polarization.
• Election Influence and Money in Politics: Post-Citizens United, political financing continued to be dominated by wealthy individuals and corporate PACs, deepening concerns about oligarchic influence over democracy.

From 2010 to 2020, choices by the federal government, Federal Reserve, corporate interests, and regulatory bodies consistently supported policies favoring business power, fiscal austerity, and monetary accommodation, while doing comparatively little to structurally improve worker wages, labor protections, or economic resilience. The decade’s trajectory solidified inequalities of income, wealth, and political influence, while the evolving media and information environment set the stage for rising disinformation and social unrest as a direct result of labor captivity, class conflict, and ongoing, worsening institutional dysfunction.

From 2020 through the present? U.S. economic and policy choices have continued to reflect—and in some ways intensify the complex interplay of government actors, business interests, monetary authorities, and lobbying influences that underpin sustained economic instability, labor precarity, and the political dimensions of disinformation and class conflict.

• COVID-19 Pandemic Response: The onset of the COVID-19 crisis in early 2020 triggered unprecedented fiscal and monetary interventions. Massive government spending packages—such as the CARES Act and subsequent relief bills—provided emergency support to businesses, workers, and health systems. While this stimulus averted deeper economic collapse, it also contributed to a rapid expansion in federal deficits and national debt.
• Inflation and Supply Chain Disruptions: Post-pandemic recovery phases witnessed significant inflationary pressures, driven by supply chain bottlenecks, energy price shocks exacerbated by geopolitical tensions, and robust consumer demand buoyed by stimulus payments and accommodating policies.
• Fiscal Policy Shifts: The Biden Administration, through 2021-2024, combined stimulus spending with efforts to pass infrastructure investment packages and expanded social programs, while attempting to promote tax reforms targeting higher income earners. However, political polarization limited scope for expansive redistribution policies.
• Federal Budget and Deficits: Deficits remain elevated but have moderated somewhat from peak pandemic years, with caution exercised on large-scale federal spending due to concerns about inflation and bond market reactions.
• Aggressive Tightening for Inflation Control: Following inflation spikes in 2021 and 2022, the Federal Reserve enacted rapid and significant interest rate increases through 2023 into 2024, tightening monetary conditions to sticky inflation. This marked a stark shift from the decade-long low-rate environment pre-pandemic.
• Labor Market and Monetary Trade-offs: The Fed’s balancing act between inflation control and employment preservation has continued amid tight labor markets and wage pressures, with fears of recession rising as rate hikes slowed growth and elevated unemployment risks.
• Persistently High Long-Term Interest Rates: Treasury yields have risen, reflecting inflation expectations and government debt concerns, contributing to higher borrowing costs for businesses and consumers.
• Wage Pressures and Labor Dynamics: Despite tight labor markets, wage gains have been uneven, with lower-income workers facing continued stagnation or insufficient increases relative to inflation and cost of living. The “captive, coerced, and cheap” labor dynamic persists, compounded by healthcare and housing affordability challenges.
• Workforce Shifts: The gig economy and contract work remain significant, while labor union actions and strikes in several sectors signaled ongoing conflicts over wages, worker rights, and job security.
• Healthcare and Worker Dependence: Employer-based health insurance and benefit structures remain economic constraints, retaining significant leverage over worker choices and mobility.
• Corporate Influence and Deregulation: Corporate lobbying continues strongly to shape tax, trade, and regulatory policies. The anticipated de-regulatory drive under the Republican-controlled Congress and Trump administration from 2025 aims to emphasize tax cuts, tariff adjustments, and de-regulatory measures.
• Trade Policies and Tariffs: Tariff increases on imports (notably from China, Mexico, and Canada) are expected to raise consumer costs and fuel modest inflation, with mixed effects on economic growth and corporate earnings.
• Market Concentration: Mergers and acquisitions remain prevalent, particularly in technology and healthcare, reinforcing oligopolistic market conditions.
• Information Environment: Social media and digital platforms remain dominant news sources, continuing to enable echo chambers and the widespread dissemination of disinformation, contributing to political and social polarization.
• Political Financing and Influence: Large-scale political donations and corporate PACs persist as powerful forces shaping policy-making, with ongoing concerns over the out-sized influence of wealthy individuals and business interests in electoral and legislative processes.

From 2020 to the present, institutional choices by the federal government, Federal Reserve, business, and lobbying actors have largely prioritized short-term economic stabilization, corporate interests, and fiscal caution amid a politically polarized environment (that they created!!).

These choices have perpetuated labor market precarity, wage stagnation, and systemic inequalities while creating inflationary pressures and an unstable policy landscape. The evolving media and political environment has compounded social divisions and disinformation, further contributing to a national depression of labor.

Here we are, (for me, it’s 16 pages) and I have now to tell you that was just the factual map. Below is “The Article” as it stands, citations at end. I find I wish more people would be curious about the holistic and cumulative view of history… the patterns are so much more obvious (making solutions far easier to design, were there humans about capable of enacting them.)

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WIP – Untitled

by Yeshes.Online, August 13, 2025, 01:18 P.M., EST, Greater Georgia, USA

From the 1960s to the present, U.S. economic, political, and regulatory institutions have made a sequence of interconnected choices—often privileging business interests, deregulation, and short-term growth—that have cumulatively reshaped the labor market, concentrated wealth and media power, and created fertile ground for political polarization and disinformation. This review traces those institutional decisions decade-by-decade, showing how they fostered persistent economic instability, “captive, coerced, and cheap” labor conditions, and a drift toward oligarchic influence in governance.

The 1960s began with strong postwar prosperity and progressive reforms, including the New Frontier and Great Society programs, which expanded civil rights, healthcare, and poverty alleviation (Wheelock, 2020). These programs, combined with Vietnam War expenditures, intensified fiscal pressure and inflation debates (Congressional Research Service [CRS], 2020).

The Federal Reserve under William McChesney Martin sought to maintain price stability while accommodating political demands for growth, initiating operations like “Operation Twist” to manage interest rates (Board of Governors, n.d.). Businesses, facing rising regulatory costs from environmental, safety, and civil rights laws, began shifting from reactive to proactive lobbying strategies (Vogel, 1989).

The decade was defined by stagflation—simultaneous high inflation and unemployment (CRS, 2020). The Fed’s “stop-go” monetary approach under Arthur Burns and later Paul Volcker eroded public trust (FRED, n.d.). Congress enacted OSHA (1970) and ERISA (1974) to protect workers (Bureau of Labor Statistics [BLS], n.d.), but inflation eroded wage gains.

Media cross-ownership rules (1975) intended to preserve viewpoint diversity unintentionally fragmented markets and weakened major news organizations, planting seeds for future disinformation vulnerabilities (Federal Communications Commission [FCC], n.d.).

Paul Volcker’s Fed prioritized inflation control over employment, raising interest rates above 19%, triggering two recessions but ending high inflation (FRED, n.d.). The Reagan administration embraced supply-side economics, implementing sweeping tax cuts, deregulation, and an anti-union stance—epitomized by the 1981 PATCO strike bust (Rosenfeld, 2014).

Deregulation of banking, telecommunications, and airlines accelerated corporate consolidation (Drutman, 2015) while minimum wage stagnation deepened real-income erosion for low-wage workers (Economic Policy Institute [EPI], 2023).

Under Presidents Bush and Clinton, deficit reduction became a priority, culminating in budget surpluses by the decade’s end (Congressional Budget Office [CBO], 2023). Alan Greenspan’s Fed maintained low inflation while tolerating low unemployment through credibility gained in prior decades (Board of Governors, 2023).

Financial and telecommunications deregulation expanded corporate market power (Drutman, 2015). The early internet age sowed the groundwork for fragmented information ecosystems and partisan media silos (Napoli, 2019).

The Bush-era tax cuts (2001, 2003) lowered income and capital gains taxes, swelling deficits (Gale & Samwick, 2014). Low interest rates, lax regulation, and financial innovation fueled the housing bubble, whose collapse triggered the Great Recession (Reinhart & Rogoff, 2009). Unemployment spiked; real wages stagnated (BLS, n.d.).

Government bailouts under TARP prioritized financial stability over direct labor protections (Bernanke, 2015). Partisan media and online misinformation intensified political polarization (Benkler et al., 2018).

The post-recession recovery, aided by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, gave way to austerity under the 2011 Budget Control Act, constraining public investment (CRS, 2021). Bush-era tax cuts largely persisted, contributing to widening inequality (EPI, 2023).

The Fed’s near-zero interest rates and quantitative easing boosted asset prices, benefiting wealth holders disproportionately (Board of Governors, 2023). The gig economy expanded labor precarity (Rosenfeld, 2014). Post-Citizens United, corporate political spending surged, reinforcing oligarchic dynamics (OpenSecrets, 2023).

COVID-19 relief measures pumped trillions into the economy, averting collapse but spurring inflation (U.S. Department of the Treasury, 2023). The Fed reversed course sharply in 2022–2024, hiking interest rates to control prices, risking heightened unemployment (Board of Governors, 2025).

Labor actions signaled pushback against decades of wage stagnation, but employer-linked healthcare and housing costs continued to bind workers to jobs (BLS, n.d.). Political polarization and social media disinformation remained potent forces in shaping public opinion (Napoli, 2019; Benkler et al., 2018).

From the postwar boom to the present, persistent institutional choices—rooted in pro-business bias, fiscal restraint over redistribution, and deregulation—have shaped a labor market defined by dependency and diminishing bargaining power. Simultaneously, political finance and media evolution concentrated influence among wealthy elites and fragmented the public sphere, deepening the structural challenges of democracy and economic equity.

Men are rarely corrupted by necessity, but often destroyed by the luxury of being admired. This country, so long spoiled by the luxury of being admired, is about to find out what life looks like when the admiration is ash and acrimony is the noun de jour.

References:

Benkler, Y., Faris, R., & Roberts, H. (2018). Network propaganda: Manipulation, disinformation, and radicalization in American politics. Oxford University Press.

Bernanke, B. S. (2015). The courage to act: A memoir of a crisis and its aftermath. W. W. Norton & Company.

Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. (n.d.). Monetary policy. https://www.federalreserve.gov/monetarypolicy.htm

Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. (2023, July). Monetary policy report. https://www.federalreserve.gov/monetarypolicy/mpr_default.htm

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