BlackRock President Rob Kapito told oil and gas executives on Tuesday that “entitled” Americans are about to deal with shortages of food and other goods, and should prepare accordingly. BlackRock, which manages $10 trillion in assets, has been accused of making home ownership unaffordable for millions of citizens.
“For the first time, this generation is going to go into a store and not be able to get what they want,” Kapito told a meeting of the Texas Independent Producers and Royalty Owners Association. “And we have a very entitled generation that has never had to sacrifice.”
“I would put on your seat belts because this is something that we haven’t seen,” Kapito added, warning that Americans will soon face “scarcity inflation” – or rising prices compounded by shortages of everything from food and consumer goods to oil and gas.
The Biden administration has blamed spiraling inflation on Russia’s military offensive in Ukraine, with White House Communications Director Kate Bedingfield referring on Tuesday to “Putin’s price hike,” and Biden himself said earlier this month that “there will be costs at home as we impose crippling sanctions” on Russia.
However, inflation in the US had hit a 40-year high weeks before hostilities erupted in Ukraine, and Biden’s opponents have warned since last year that his policies – which involved spending more in his first eight months than former President Donald Trump did in 2018 and 2019 combined, and throttling domestic energy production – would trigger price spikes for ordinary Americans.
BlackRock, however, has added trillions of dollars to its portfolio in recent years. The firm managed around $1.3 trillion in assets at the time of the last financial crisis, which soared to $8.68 trillion in January 2021, and passed the $10 trillion mark this January.
Read More : ‘Entitled’ generation warned of food shortages
Predatory private equity firms buying up neighborhoods only to rent homes at a premium hints at the real meaning of the World Economic Forum’s “sharing economy.” Americans never voted for this, but their leaders are loving it.
Owning a home is no longer feasible for Americans coming of age in the 21st century, according to Bloomberg columnist Karl Smith, who smugly suggested in an op-ed that they stop worrying about whether they can afford a house, ignore the asset-stripping investment vultures, and just embrace the depressing reality of lifelong debt peonage under the rule of those same private equity giants.
Lest there be any misunderstanding, the feudalist character of this glorious new “sharing economy” is reflected in one increasingly popular “solution” for the generation currently facing the steep uphill climb to pay off their student loans. Under this scheme, known as Student Loan Asset Backed Securities (SLABs), students are invited to essentially indenture themselves to some corporation, paying off their debts by selling off a percentage of every paycheck they subsequently receive until the balance is zero. Any questions?
Feudalism for thee, but not for me
With multi-trillion-dollar asset managers such as BlackRock, Blackstone Group, State Street, and Vanguard flaunting their bottomless pockets, ordinary mom-and-pop landlords looking to buy an extra property or two to open up a guaranteed income stream don’t have a chance in such a rigged market – and neither do their tenants.
Read More :US investment giants buying homes
