Change is in the winds...can you feel it yet?

As more workers become aware, via Senators like Bernie Sanders & Elizabeth Warren, that they have the power to change income distribution in America..many companies like Walmart or the fast food chains, will be forced into substantially

raising worker wages. Initially the movement will come in the form of protests and demonstrations, however, eventually some politician with charisma will capture the pent up anger and profound disappointment in our economic society to become the FDR of this century. When new FDR takes the reins, history demonstrates GDP will nearly double. Trickle-down has failed...and this 30 year experiment in tax and regulatory policy shifting income gains to the very top...failed our society as a whole.

When Senator Sanders and Warren continue to speak with a national forum at their feet, as they now do...in a highly effective and easy to understand way, their message is that the middle class has been crushed for a series of now clearly identifiable reasons. Both Senators now have recent economic data that supports their policy premises and this support gives their policy real weight and power.

Every day I see this message spreading in a way that reaches the average worker/voter. Social media spreads their messages, charts, graphs and white papers at light speed. The drumbeat that was first heard in The Occupy Wall Street movement is much more focused and much louder than before. Unlike the OWS movement that had no real spokesperson, the message has been taken up and refocused by two very powerful voices...Sanders and Warren. Both have now appeared on Main Street media, entertainment shows like Late Night and Comedy Central...performing with grace and power.

Just like I can sense the change of seasons by the feel of the air and the smell of the leaves...there is a real change of seasons in the wind. We will see a New FDR sometime soon.

Do you understand what the reversal of Supply Side means to your company or country? Do you understand how quickly the wind can shift when an idea takes hold in the mind of the people?

Each month, I give day or two day lectures to at least four or five delegations from China on this issue of inequality and the impact this may have on their nation and business practices. Unlike politics in America, Chinese leaders make long term plans. Long term planning causes/forces leaders to develop long term strategies to match each potential global change in the wind. When the wind shifts or may shift, they determine the risk and reward factors applicable to each change. Many Chinese economist and policy makers are spending a great deal of time closely looking at the long term impact of our tax policies over the generations.

These lengthy periods of time following major shifts stand in stark contrast with one another as we look at these very specific periods of time... post-federal income tax, post-1929 Crash, post-FED reforms, post-WWII, Eisenhower to Reagan and post-Reagan (Supply Side etc.) Each of these periods can be clearly viewed as specific tax and regulatory policies directly impact long term economic health and welfare of the "bottom 90% of US workers" vs. income distribution and GDP growth rates. We have more than enough data to understand the true impact of tax policies and the growth or decline of the "middle class".

When we looked at societal and economic policies during the Reagan era, we decided to implement Supply-side theory with related policies that shifted income and wealth to the very top of our society from the middle class. We have continued these basic tax and economic policies since Reagan with very little change,except for a brief tax change during the Clinton era.

I doubt very seriously, if China will follow our supply-side lead as the look to build a massive and economically powerful consumer-based middle class. I have now lectured, consulted with and/or trained nearly 10,000 Chinese business, educational and political leaders in 375 delegations...but I could be wrong. But the winds of change at present clearly suggests that they blow at the back of the middle class.

At present, US GDP growth rates have slowed for a variety of reasons and the consumer class/middle class income/purchasing power is eroding as a long term trend. The concentration of income and wealth at the very tip top of our economy presents real challenges for any nation or multinational from a planning standpoint.

Will we rebalance our income and wealth by protests or legislation as the middle class finally wakes-up one day soon and realizes that they have the power to vote for changes that favor them vs trickle-down?

One leader plus two electoral cycles and our economic policies in the US will be remade for the next 30 years.

It is technically still summer here in the Northeast, but everyone can feel Fall in the air.