Happy New Year from the Economic Populist!  Let's hope 2014 is better economically for most of us as 2013 was another real dog for most of America.  Wall Street was on fire and the investor class made out like bandits while real robust job growth still has not materialized.  2013 is the year the middle class was completely ignored.  Still broke, still jobless or working with low wages and eroding worker's rights, America's middle class was pummeled yet again.  As Wall Street makes billions from record stock prices, America's middle class is swept under the rug.  More and more, most of America's real economic conditions are not even being recognized.

The television show of 2013 was Breaking Bad.  Breaking Bad was a metaphor for American society today and when one sees the way to win the game is to become a heartless, manipulative, power hungry sociopath, it is no wonder few show fans condemned Walter White's murderous path of lies and blood lust.  Just like Breaking Bad Walter White, America's workforce learns regular people are trounced while unbridled abuse of power is rewarded.  Walter White's transformation is America's middle class.  Doing everything by the rules and having a moral center results in working two jobs and getting a terminal disease that will bankrupt the family in medical bills.  Walter White starts his rise to drug lord to pay for medical bills.  In the end he sells his soul for a power high and rush for that is how the game is played.  The new American culture is to win at all costs and how one plays the game no longer seems to matter.  When Wall Street runs amok and those with amoral compasses run the globe is is no surprise the value system long held dear becomes corrupted.

American culture is littered with contests and reality shows, as if there can only be one winner and with an all encompassing mentality to do whatever it takes to become that winner.  One's neighbor, one's brother no longer matter, to win one must step over the bodies of the brethren.  The majority are not just ignored, they are belittled, dismissed and derided as a population in misery due to their own shortcomings.  There must be something wrong with them, they didn't win.  This is America's new transformation.

Most Read Articles of 2013

We can see what people responded to by ranking our articles by the most read, listed below for 2013.  Over and over again, regular folk are not interested in Wall Street's rigged stock market gains or the daily speculation of quantitative easing.  They are most strongly interested in jobs, any small glimmer of hope politicians might be doing something to stop the middle class slaughter, the lack of justice on financial crime and the millions of Americans who now struggle just to survive.

1. Holder Claims He Can't Prosecute the the Banks Because It Would Negatively Impact the Global Economy
2. New York Post Claims Census Falsifies Unemployment Figures
3. Foreclosure Settlement Shows 4.2 Million Borrowers Shafted in 2009-2010
4. Financial Market Outlook for 2013
5. Nearly 40% of the Top Paid CEOs Bombed at Their Jobs
6. La-La Libor Lawsuit Land
7. Employee Abuse Runs Rampant In America
8. New Study: The Wealthy are more Unethical
9. Congressional Scrooges Deny Unemployment Benefit Extension
10. Maps of Economic Disaster
11. Real Care, Obamacare or No Care
12. Long-Term Unemployed Baby Boomers in 2013
13. America's Outsourcers to be Reclassified as Manufacturers
14. The Great U.S. Worker Sell Out Through Comprehensive Immigration Reform
15. America's Growing Income Inequality Problem
16. The Last Word on Social Security Disability
17. What's Wrong with this Economic Picture?
18. What Is It About the Hungry and Poor House Republicans Just Can't Stand?
19. Cyprus Savers Get Robbed By Eurozone Bail Out
20. CNBC Strikes Out with Elizabeth Warren

We can hope 2014 finally brings jobs and increased wages, although to date there isn't any indication of a jobs boom.  We expect more of the same, a growing income divide and most barely scrapping by.  We fear disappointment in Obama is so great, Americans will vote for the other party, guaranteeing social safety net destruction.  We also believe 2014 will start to see the first inklings of the oncoming retirement crisis.  Many people have had their pensions raided, lost jobs so many times at this point there isn't a dime saved for old age.  Unfortunately these same people are hitting the age where their retirement coffers run dry reality will start rearing it's ugly head.

We also hope more people speak out more and continue the fight for America's middle class and the U.S. worker.  Let's pray 2014 brings more strength to those who need it most, the beleaguered American worker.