The Truth About the Wall Street Journal’s Descent into Absurdity
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The pathetic. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Street Journal. Yeah, it used to be the Wall Street Journal. Here’s a publication that I started reading 35 years ago when I was in college. And, you know, I’ve watched it slowly go downhill. And again, I. Great memories, the Wall Street Journal, Wall Street Journal used to be, you know, taking the bus.
the M35 on my way to work when I was first starting my career and reading it on the bus. know, anyway, now I knew this was going to happen. I don’t bow down to News Corp and Rupert Murdoch and this grand belief, this grand bastion of conservatism. I knew when they took over the Wall Street Journal that it was going to be a disaster and it has become a disaster. Hey, listen, I’m going to be honest.
There are some good parts. There’s some good columnists and there are some, some good writers, but much of it now has become patently absurd. Case in point next last week on the radio show, I did an entire bit on the Woe street journal. They have these anecdotal stories all the time where they find people. I don’t know how they find them and they use these people to fit whatever.
idea they come up with, whatever their narrative is at the time. Writer today, I saw it this morning, Rachel Wolf. Rachel Wolf, and I’ll get into her in a little bit. The American dream feels out of reach for most. A Wall Street Journal poll shows people want a home, a family, and a comfortable retirement, but says those goals are tough to achieve, even with hard work.
When has that not been the case? Just out of curiosity. Was there a point in time, was there a point in time in American history where people could get a home, a comfortable retirement, family, all of these things without working hard? I’m just curious.
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I’m just curious, because again, like I said, you know, I grew up in a household where people worked. My father busted his ass. My mother had her side businesses and home, they got, we had, worked.
Wasn’t easy. That bloody mantra. Are you want to call it our mission or whatever it may be week in week out on the show, everything in life that has meaning, value and worth involves work, time and effort.
Anyway, let’s get into this piece because it’s a that they said, a stark gap between people’s wishes and expectations. The trend was consistent across gender and party lines, but held more true for younger generations who have been priced out of home ownership and saddled with the highest, with high interest rates and student debt.
First and foremost, okay, this is to Rachel Wolf, the writer, interest rates are not high.
Interest rates are not high, Rachel. Okay. When I bought my first home, interest rates were much higher than they are right now. Home prices up. Sure. Without a doubt. Very, very expensive right now. No doubt about it at all. Okay. And guess what? It happens. It happens from time to time. End of the world? No.
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No, you can hold off. You can wait. Things will change. Markets change. And again, it also depends on where you’re looking. Student debt. Did anybody hold a gun to your head and tell you to go to the super expensive private school? Did anybody tell you to do that? I don’t think so.
Because I know for a fact that state schools in state fairly reasonable in most states. And in some states, mean, it’s borderline. I mean, I can’t believe how reasonable it is to go to a state school. Anyway, before I go on with this, listen, I don’t want to come across.
I’m going to get to my normal. probably, I always go to my coach mode. Let’s leave it at that. Like when I coach, there’s a point in time where, you know, suck it up.
Suck it up buttercup. It’s not that I’m not compassionate and I understand that things are tough for people, but I’m sorry. At some point in time, you gotta put your big boy pants on, your big girl skirt on and move on. But anyway, just wanna throw that out there, okay?
89 % responded said owning a home is either essential or important to their vision of the future. Only 10 % said home ownership is easy or somewhat easy to achieve.
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It’s not supposed to be.
You see, when it’s when anything comes easy, when it’s easy or when you try to make it easy, that’s when problems occur. That’s when that’s when you’re you’re coming up with all sorts of crazy mortgage deals out there to get people into homes that they shouldn’t afford or they shouldn’t have in the first place. Financial security and a comfortable retirement were similarly labeled as essential or important by 96 and 95 percent of people.
but rated as easy or somewhat easy to pull off by only nine and eight percent. 12 years ago, when researchers at the Public Religion Research Institute asked people if the dream still holds true, more than half said it did. Again, and again, this is problem. How was the question asked?
12 years ago, Public Religion Research Institute. This is not scientific, two different polls, different people, different questions. Yet, that’s okay. That’s okay. It fits their narrative. Fits their narrative. They’re gonna run with it at the Wall Street Journal. By many measures, economists say people are right to feel that their shot at success has diminished. And here is a quote from Emerson Sprick.
economist at the Washington DC think tank, the bipartisan policy center. What do they do with everything about that? Think tank. What do they freaking do all day long? Nothing. I answer journalists calls and give quotes probably. Hey, I guess it’s not a bad gig if you can get it. Here’s he had to say key aspects of the American dream.
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seem out of reach in a way that they were not in past generations. He said, yeah, it’s a continued decline of private sector pensions leading to their near disappearance. For the most part, they’ve been gone for a very long time there, Emerson. And the reality of the situation is they had to go away.
They had to go away because how they were structured. People were living too long. The numbers didn’t add up. You get it? It was a Ponzi scheme, whether you want to believe it or not. Anyway, I mean, you take a look at public pensions right now and how underfunded they are throughout the country. Anyway, Markel Washington.
Here’s their first their first anecdote. Remembers that his elementary school teachers again, you got to bring that up, instilled in him that high grades and a college degree would be his ticket out of the Chicago neighborhood where he grew up hearing gunshots every day. The promise the now 22 year old says was that you’d get a good job and enjoy the rest of your life in a house with a front gate.
That was the promise, huh? He was the first person in his family to go to college, but dropped out during his junior year after three of his close friends were killed within months of one another.
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Where did he go to school? I don’t know. I don’t know. She doesn’t say. Doesn’t say how his grades are, where she went to school. Why has he not gone back to school? I don’t know. She didn’t ask.
She didn’t ask, but to quote the old National Enquirer commercial, remember that? Inquiring minds want to know. Excuse me, we don’t have a nation of inquiring minds. I wish we had more people with inquiring minds and not ones that want to read the National Enquirer, but actually dig a little bit deeper here. There’s more to this story. But no, no, no, no, it doesn’t fit. It doesn’t fit Rachel Wolfe at the Woe Street Journal.
It doesn’t fit her narrative doesn’t fit what she’s going right now. She’s got to cut that out. Can’t dig that deep. Markel Washington makes around $30 ,000 a year working part time for youth development nonprofit. My block, my hood, my city says he can’t afford to move out of his mother’s section eight apartment where he grew up, let alone to resolve the
$10 ,000 debt he needs to transfer his transcripts to a school closer to home. Okay, Markel, here is the watchdog on Wall Street can of suck it up for you. That’s all well and good. You want to work for a nonprofit, you might like your job, but it only pays $30 ,000 a year.
So you’re gonna have to work nights, you’re gonna have to work weekends to get ahead.
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That is the real if you want to continue to stay at your $30 ,000 your non -profit, which is fine. Just fine
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You’re gonna have to work a little harder.
You have to work a little harder. Markel.
Been there, done that.
Okay. Been there, done that. Okay. Second job, third job. Do, if you’re interested, do what it needs to take. But the problem here is that people, don’t want to work for it. They don’t want to work for it. It’s supposed to be easy. You dropped out of college, man. That’s great. You’re working on a problem. You’re living in subsidized
government housing paid for by your fellow taxpayers. You’re basically not even paying to live.
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Says he hasn’t given up on his American dream, he says, but he’s finding it much less straightforward than he thought. No, no, Markelle, it’s pretty fricking straightforward, man. You’re not working hard enough.
Markel says, they don’t tell you how hard it is to obtain the American dream. You have to learn that on your own. Who the flippity flap flop flip said it was easy.
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Here we go on. Economic mobility has declined in recent decades on the whole, economists say. While around 90 % of children, and again, this is fascinating to me too that again, this journalist couldn’t think this one through. While our 90 % of children born in 1940 were ultimately better off than their parents, this according to MIT economics professor Nathaniel Hendren.
And Hollywood economist Raj Chetty, only around half of those born in the 1980s were able to say the same. Maybe, maybe because your baseline is a hell of a lot freaking different. Just saying.
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This popped in my mind, but my my grandfather’s my grandfather’s house I might I can’t I get this mental picture of my grandfather’s garage In in Port Richey, Florida It was almost like it was kind it was like an organized. He was like an organized hoarder for crying out loud and he didn’t waste anything. These are people that
People, kids born in 1940s had parents that came over from all over the world. had massive immigration into this country. More American men died in the Civil War than all of our other wars combined. had a mass influx of people. People were getting started and they were working their way up. Of course,
you know, you know, they’re doing everything to provide for their kids, kids go off to college, better life. Okay, you’re starting from here. And now you’re here. And now you’re growing up in a family that’s here. You’re being born into it. Okay. Should you do that? Yeah, but maybe maybe not. depends on how hard your work depends on how spoiled you are.
Most kids, they just, they don’t get it. They don’t understand what it takes. And I’ll even throw this in. I’ll even throw this in regards to my job and what I do for our clients. And the fact that conversations that we have to have with them, people that have started their own family business. You can’t just hand stuff off to your kids. You might want to.
But, you know, listen, they’re not you. And unless they have that type of drive, that type of work, you know, oftentimes you see family businesses fail once it gets handed down to the next generation. More often than not, that’s just reality.
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Anyway, younger cohorts appear to be in a similar position based on medium income growth, but likely experienced a slight post COVID boost as wages for lower income Americans have outpaced other earners. It’s still a coin flip whether or not you’ll earn more than your parents. But mobility probably hit a record low in the early 2020s. Again, you think I am going looking, I’ve got three kids.
I got three kids and they are in no pressure whatsoever. Whatsoever to join my firm. To work with us here. I’ve been blessed, I work with my brothers, I also, my nephew’s working with us now, we’ve got offices. You know, I’m not putting that type of pressure on them, nor am I saying, hey, you know what? In order to be a success, you need to be making as much as dad did.
No, no, no, no, I want them to go out. I want them to be great people, be great human being, whatever they may want to do.
Whatever they want to do, it’s not a judgment based upon, you’re gonna judge society. you did better off than your parents. Maybe you don’t wanna do what your parents wanna do. Maybe one of my kids wants to be, I don’t know, I’ll throw up. Maybe they wanna be a school teacher like my father was. There’s nothing wrong with that. But again, they need to understand, okay, you’re gonna do that and you’re used to it or custom certain things in life, you gotta start a second business. You gotta do other things.
There’s nothing wrong with that.
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Anyway, again, Harvard guy, Chetty, looks at the American dream through the lens of how difficult it is for someone starting in a poor family to reach the middle class. For white Americans in particular, that goal has become significantly more challenging over the past 15 years. Bullshit. Sorry, but that’s complete and utter BS. Okay.
Okay, again, you want to do well in this country? It’s pretty much say, yeah, you know, grow up in a two parent household. Okay. You don’t have that. Okay. Graduate from high school, show up to work on time, whatever it may be. I don’t care if you start out washing dishes like Louie Anderson and coming to America. Okay. Now I’m on lettuce. Next year I make assistant manager. That’s when the big bucks start rolling in. It kind of works that way.
It does.
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He goes on, people are right to feel that the American dream has become harder to achieve both in terms of their chances of doing better and their parents and the chances of rising out of poverty.
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baloney baloney I’m not buying it then I see this story next anecdote next anecdote Richard Thomas and Cherish Siletti they were sure they pulled off their version of the American dream when they bought a five -bedroom split level in Mount Vernon New York again 612 ,000 2017 Mount Vernon is in West Chester County outside of New York
was like everything was going in the right direction, says Saledi, a 42 year old lawyer who grew up poor among nine siblings. Buying her first house not only meant the couple’s children, again, five bedroom house, now eight and 11 could have their own bedrooms, a luxury both Thomas and Saledi used to pine for, but also that they had space to take in Saledi’s mom and his 20 year old sister.
The couple’s $5 ,400 mortgage. Again, this is 2017. Okay, $5 ,400. I’m looking at the house. How much was the house again there? 612 ,000. I’m doing the math right now. They didn’t put much money down. Okay. They did not put much money down on this house. And also they have to pay PMI.
$700 in PMI insurance. was tight but doable between Soletti’s salary and her husband, who happened to be the mayor of Mount Vernon at the time. We’ll get into that in a bit. But seemingly overnight in their energy costs had doubled to more than $2 ,000 a month. Grocery prices, insurance, and other bills for the family of now seven surged.
surge. Now again, you got to pay very close attention. Now her husband was mayor at the time. Again, I start to this. geez, mayor. I wonder what party he was. I’ll get into that a bit. Now, Thomas and Sletty lowered their retirement contributions to near zero. They scrapped plans for vacations and started setting this thermostat above 80 degrees in the summer.
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and below 65 in the winter. They know selling the house, which has more than doubled in value, would be their best bet, but they don’t know where they would go if they left. We want to stay in our community. We want to raise our kids here, but the dream of being able to do that really escapes us, says Thomas. this is the mayor. This is the Democrat mayor. We had the American dream.
Now it’s the American nightmare because it feels like the country made us a promise and then took it away. Spoken like a true lib, spoken like a true Democrat. No, it’s not our fault, America’s fault. America’s fault. You’re upset that your energy prices are up.
Gee, I wonder why you bought your house and, geez, Donald Trump was president at the time and your energy prices were a lot lower. You think you might want to put two and two together?
Anyway, you know, I’ll get into slowly further because again, I get curious when I read stories like this, like Mayor of Mount Vernon. And I can’t I’m trying to jog my memory. There’s this thing called Google. Yes, they have the Internet on computers now. OK. And this is I’m saying this to Rachel Wolf, the the the writer of this article that that Richard Thomas, former
Mayor, former mayor, she didn’t really even say that in the article. Former mayor of Mount Vernon, he was convicted on charges he stole campaign funds. yeah, it’s a whole big, yeah, it’s, again, it’s New York and New York has all of these Hamlets in areas where it’s basically a Democrat machine. Westchester County being one, I grew up in one.
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in Albany and now he was trying to get back on the ballot there and bickering among the donkeys. But yes, yeah, he got in trouble. had the charges lowered to a misdemeanor. Does it say? I mean, hey, Rachel, what is he doing now? Does he have a job? Or is he living the dream of being a big time politician? I mean, he’s got the right, you know, the right language here. It’s American nightmare.
It’s a promise was made to us. It was taken away. Who made that fricking promise? Huh? What promise? I don’t remember being promised a damn thing. I don’t remember being told I was gonna get anything. Okay? I was told that I could go work for it.
I almost picked up the phone and called the Wall Street Journal. Say, aren’t you embarrassed? Aren’t you embarrassed? You feature a guy in an article on the front page. You don’t even do any homework into this guy. Anyway, many are struggling to achieve their goals of home ownership at all. Owning a home was a record 47 % more expensive than renting for the 12 months ending in June.
-huh. We know this. We know it’s, it’s, it’s, it’s an issue right now, right? It’s an issue. And guess what? if you get out of the way, the market will solve the problem. Anyway, here we go. We got next story here. Next anecdote. Lily Rourke, Lily Rourke’s father bought the eight bedroom New Orleans fixer upper she grew up in for $160 ,000 in the early two
thousands. Wow, big house, eight bedroom fixer upper. Doesn’t say though, it was a fixer upper. Doesn’t say how much money, doesn’t say how much money he put in to that fixer upper. But when she went to look for houses in Louisville, Kentucky with her partner this past spring, she was sure, sure that $250 ,000 would be big enough budget for a starter with one or two bedrooms.
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Instead, we’re looking at houses that had no walls and no floors, says Holland, a 28 year old, she’s 28 years old, second grade teacher. Okay. Since since Rourke and Hollins do want to give priority same for house, the couple feels as though they can’t move forward with any of their other life goals. Getting engaged, having a wedding.
and planning for children. I didn’t realize getting engaged was a big expense.
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Why you got you have to go out. mean, I don’t don’t understand how I mean, I don’t understand how the lesbian thing works. I really don’t. Being honest, I’m not trying to be, you know, not to make fun here. mean, I bring what do you do? It’s a question you want. You want to get get engaged. Having a wedding, I mean, do you have to have a wedding that you can’t afford? I mean, is that really necessary?
Planning for children, yes, children, yes, without a doubt. They are expensive. Again, I don’t know where you could adopt. I don’t know how expensive it is with the whole, and I could even go there. I don’t even feel like touching it right now. They are both frustrated that home ownership and family formation seems so much more attainable for their parents who made less than their combined.
income of around $100 ,000 at their ages. $100 ,000. had the both of them together make around $100 ,000. Again.
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Go make more money. You don’t have kids. Okay, here’s a suggestion. Rather than going to Starbucks and buying a Starbucks coffee for five, six bucks, I don’t know, why don’t you ask for an application and maybe work there at nights and on the weekends. I mean, you’re a freaking second grade teacher, okay? All due respect for crying out loud.
How much homework are you actually grading at night? You can’t find the time. Okay? You can’t find the fricking time. I mean, honestly people, this is where I, again, I’m trying my best. Trying my best. God help me to be as compassionate as I possibly can, because I’m trying. But this type of stuff makes me angry. Okay? It does.
I don’t, I am not some sort of superhero genius IQ out of control, okay? I just work hard. It’s really that simple. I just bust my butt. And I managed to attend all my kids’ games. I managed to coach their teams. I managed to run a big business.
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I use my time wisely. I’m not sitting in front of the freaking TV watching Netflix for hours on end every single night. I get my ass out of bed three thirty four o ‘clock in the morning every day and I’ve been doing it for years. What? You can’t do that. No, you choose not to do that. You choose not to. So, yeah, then you get all this is Wall Street Journal. Well, it was me, the Wall Street Journal. We got to talk about this.
Here’s your last statement We’re doing everything right We’re saving We went to good schools Who gives a shit where you went to school? Okay, I Have a master’s degree and it’s still so hard. You’re a second grade teacher. You got a master’s degree Congratulations
Now there’s anything wrong with being a second grade teacher, but give me a break. What the hell do you think that you’re entitled to? What’d you get your master’s degree in? Education? Great. It’s a requirement. You got into education, okay? If you got into education thinking you were gonna get rich, you’re an idiot.
Okay? You wanted to do it because you have a passion for it, fine. But understand that, okay, this is how much money I’m gonna make. This is where I’m gonna top out and say, hey, you know what? I may have to start a second business. I may have to get a second job. May have to do something else.
And, you know, I’m trying people, I really am. Like I said, I’m trying to be as compassionate as I can. But I’m sorry, you young people out there need a good, swift kick in the ass.
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Another one!
to Plains, Illinois, 31 year old Kevin Murphy, come on down, believes that even finding a partner is more difficult than it used to be because of how expensive dating has become.
He can’t always afford to pick up the check and worries that he is less desirable than someone who makes more than his $95 ,000 yearly income or owns a home.
He’s 31 years old. Okay, you live in Plains, Illinois. You’re, you’re single, you make $95 ,000 a year. again, you can’t afford to pick up the check when you go out to eat. Who are you looking for in the dating pool where it’s based upon, you know, how big your bank account is? I don’t know what you’re thinking there. And when they
Again, I’m trying to get my arms around this stuff. In the poll, 62 % of people said marriage was either essential or important to their vision of the American dream, but only 47 % of the people think that that it’s easily attainable.
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understand what that means. Somebody tell you marriage was easy too? For me, the American dream feels like it’s further away than it’s ever been, says Murphy, who works in government affairs for an energy company. I worry about when I’m 50 or 60, and if nothing changes, I’m going to be totally screwed.
Why are you gonna be screwed? Again, you’re 31 years old, you’re making $95 ,000, you got one job, I mean, you got plenty of time on your hands, you could probably pick up another job, what, you can’t put any money away? He says he interacts with older Americans. He’s got a, does a side thing at a Jet City Coalition nonprofit, which provides free home maintenance to people in need. I take care of these people who trade insulin for groceries.
choosing which essentials to go without. He says a growing sense of hopelessness is tied not only to high prices, but also to a seemingly more permanent state where the math doesn’t make sense. Now this is again, noble helping out. That’s fine. That’s great. But here we go. Here we go. We got to go into the super liberal Wall Street Journal aspect again. He’s worried about wealth inequality, which has increased over time. huh.
In 1989, the typical net worth of the wealthiest 10 % of households was just under 15 times the overall median net worth for all Americans compared with almost 20 times that number in 2022. You know why? You want to deal with this, this, okay, this wealth inequality? I got an idea. Go make more money.
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Go, just work harder, make more. Make more, because this wealthiest 10 % of households there that you’re talking about, they’re not taking it from you. Okay? They’re not taking it from you. You’re just not going out and working hard enough. I mean, it’s based upon the choices that you’re making. It’s crazy to me.
the economy is working well for some people, including investors and many who bought homes when interest rates were low, creating a divide between higher income Americans and most everybody else. Yes, my clients, my clients are doing much better than most out there because you know, we dollar cost average and we buy stocks when they’re low. Should they be condemned? Should we be condemned for working hard and being smart? I’m just throwing that out there. Is that, know, should we, or should we have
Should we have people take it away? Here’s what this guy ends up with. This is Kevin Murphy here. It feels like my parents’ generation has ruined it for us. It’s such a stark case of the haves and have nots. Again, Kevin, that is a loser mentality, my friend. And again, I’m trying to be as nice as I can. Rachel Wolf will put this column.
together. This is, this is like reminiscent, I’ll throw this out here in case you haven’t seen the sub reference was a great film that was done. It was actually 1990s. This took place. It was a big scandal at the big liberal publication, The New Republic. And Stephen Glass, Stephen Glass was a writer for The New Republic. And he just made stories up.
He just made stories up. Nobody really fact -checked them. Nobody actually looked into his sources. No one actually did any background on the people that he was talking to. It was a big scandal. It was actually a fantastic film. The name of the film was called Shattered Glass. Highly recommend it. This is the same type of a thing that Rachel Wolfe was putting out there. Same type of crap that’s being put out on a regular basis by these so -called bastions.
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of journalism. So pathetic Woe Street Journal, quite frankly, should be embarrassed with themselves. And quite frankly, you kids out there, you kids out there, the woe is me, the bitchin’ and the complainin’, again, again, I’m gonna start selling them on my website. Watchdog on Wall Street, Chris Markowski can of suck it up! Watchdog on wallstreet .com.
