Unemployment in the U.S. is currently at its lowest rate in six years, which would ordinarily be an indicator of economic improvement. That’s not how Charles Payne of the Fox Business Network takes it, though, Media Matters recently reported. According to Payne, this recent job growth could be bad because, he said, it’s putting the stock market at risk.
See Payne’s Twitter message from July 3:
Unemployment in the U.S. slipped to 6.1 percent in June 2014 ? the lowest since Sept. 2008. In a July 3 news release, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported ?Job gains were widespread, led by employment growth in professional and business services, retail trade, food services and drinking places, and health care.?
But Charles Payne, who’s ?Making Money? show appears weeknights on the Fox Business Network, told his 25,600 Twitter followers that this growth in middle-income jobs might negatively affect the few and wealthy who control Wall Street. And damn you, Middle Class America ? that just ain?t fair.
According to analysis published by UC Santa Cruz, over 80 percent of all stocks and mutual funds are owned by only 10 percent of the American population. That same wealthiest 10 percent of the country owns over 90 percent of all business equity, and holds 95 percent of all financial securities in the U.S. The percentage of Americans who own stocks and bonds has steadily declined since 2007, as well, according to Gallup, and is at its lowest point since the surveyor first conducted polls on this topic in 1999. As a result, today more and more stocks and bonds are in the fists of a smaller controlling group.
Payne’s show has aired on the Fox Business Network since Oct. 2007, and he also appears as a guest and commentator on Fox News. CEO of the stock market research firm Wall Street Strategies, in 1999 Payne had to settle out of court with the Stock Exchange Commission on eight charges. Specifically, SEC said, Payne accepted payments for his firm to promote specific stocks, a violation of the Securities Act. His company was fined $10,000; Payne personally was fined $25,000.
Payne continues this same practice today, but bypassing SEC oversight by doing so on his television show. Media Matters reported in 2013 that Payne accepted payments from three companies, then made predictions on his ?Making Money? show of dramatic gains from those companies? stocks. The stocks of all three (Brainy Brands, NXT, and Generex) plunged?in dollar value shortly after Payne’s public pitch; in fact, two fell below one cent per share.
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