After I left school when younger, I was trying to get a job during the recession in Nixon's second term. Watergate hadn't become a big deal yet. It took me well over a year to get a job, because no one wanted to hire a long-haired musician.

Even though I've been employed steadily since then, I would watch and read the business news. Gradually, over the years, I noticed a pattern emerge. As the people became employed in large enough numbers that the starting wages rose, within six months you could expect a manufactured recession to erupt.

It was always the investors deciding they couldn't make enough profit if they had to pay such "outrageous" wages. They would pull their money out of the markets, seeking "safe havens" where they would continue to accrue "value" as their enemy -We the People- were laid off, and reminded with "temporary" poverty that our place was to be kept when the investors deigned to return.

It's on again.

For whatever reasons, Obama is given credit for "saving" the economy. But for whom did he save it? He's done nothing to enhance the ability of workers to earn better wages. His highly-vaunted personal healthcare-for-all plans are falling apart.

And let's not even get into how Obama let Wall Street mortgage criminals completely off the hook.

Stung by rising minimum-wages in various states, Walmart announced the elimination of 7000 accounting and invoicing jobs, jobs which pay more (even at Walmart) than the typical "associate" is paid.

Fewer people with jobs means fewer people driving. Gas doesn't sell, storage inventories rise, and drilling isn't needed as much. Drillers don't keep staff when orders slow, and expansion projects stop:

Enbridge Inc. said it has withdrawn a regulatory application for its $2 billion Sandpiper pipeline amid a slump in production in the Bakken. New pipeline capacity won’t be needed for another five years in North Dakota...

Now you know how long the insiders expect this downturn to last. I can't discount that this is a deliberate attempt to weaken Hillary should she win.

But if drillers stop drilling, their suppliers aren't selling them drilling equipment. Look at the crocodile tears labor force abuser Caterpillar (one of the worst globally) cries over the cutbacks in business leading to 2000 Belgian worker layoffs -and as many as 20 plant closings globally- , then look at their reasons for leaving Belgium:

In July, Caterpillar said that global uncertainty, the vote in Britain to leave the European Union and the attempted coup in Turkey had heightened risks, especially in Europe.

Will Caterpillar now run run back to the US to hide under Uncle Scam's skirts for protection? You have to even think about asking?

Brexit's aftershocks have yet to cease. The Scottish Independence Movement sees an opportunity to resume the battle to separate from the UK (oil is a huge incentive for Scotland to do so). This is only the beginning.

Meanwhile, the US continues to poor good money after bad in pursuing the neocon wet dream of conquering the world and forcing submission to the US corporate will. So far, as of this posting date, $3 trillion and 7000 American lives were expended fomenting the reaction to PNAC's "New Pearl Harbor" Initiative.

What could a President Sanders have done with $3 trillion for infrastructure projects? How much in taxes would 7000 well-paid workers have put into the system? How much better off -and safer- would the world be?

We'll have plenty of time to ponder the answers to those questions once we're done scavenging the dumpsters in our area for sustenance. It will take our minds off our growling stomachs.