^{This is an update of a summary and economic prediction I originally published July 20, 2009}
During the Great Depression, following the stock market crash of 1929, the American public sought a scapegoat for their economic plight. Some held President Hoover responsible, others targeted the three B's -- brokers, bankers, and businessmen. In reality, it could not be attributed to one individual or even a group of people. The roots of the Great Depression were in the very structure of the American economy itself.

America's Economic Flaw: Unless the US economy expands and inflates no less than three percent per year on average, it will enter a "gravity well" that is very difficult to reverse. Factors like debt obligations and asset displacement or depletion (think real estate) intensify the risk. It's built into our brand of Capitalism.

The Wealth Gap: Unlike the Economic Flaw, which is built in to foundation of our economy, the Wealth Gap is determined by the political ideology of the Right or the Left, when it gains the power to enact economic laws. The Wealth Gap is a reliable predictor of massive economic cycles that trigger collapse.

Let's see how this works:

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(Cross-posted from The Paragraph.) In 1936 & ’37, workers sat down in Chevrolet plants in Flint, Michigan, and fought to stay there for 44 days, until they won the right to have their union bargain for them.⁶⁰ Soon after that union victory, a wave of sit-downs swept the country and union rolls swelled. The next year, Congress set the standard of a 40-hour work week with time-and-a-half for overtime. By 1947, one-third of U.S. workers belonged to a union, and a strong middle class was rising.⁶¹ That trend went on till the early 1970’s, when both union membership and wages began to fall.⁶²⁶³

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