K Street Dominates DC - So a K-Shaped Economy Dominates the US
I have made a decades-long point of pointing out the US economy long ago stopped being capitalist in nature.
And is instead long been a creeping form of Diet Fascism. The ever-increasing harmonic convergence of Big Government and Big Business to maximize their respective interests - at the expense of all the rest of US.
Big Biz’s conduit to Big Gov is, of course, DC’s monstrous lobbying industry. The main metaphor (metonym) that part of the Deep State acquired - is K Street. The DC avenue notorious for the many, many lobbyists and other DC influencers who have for decades taken up residence thereon.
Of course, DC influencers exist throughout DC. And in nearby parts of Maryland and Northern Virginia. In 2019, nine of the country’s twenty wealthiest counties - were DC suburbs.
I can’t find a more recent assessment. My guess? Everyone in DC is too embarrassed to conduct the reassessment. Because it’s almost certainly gotten even worse.
It’s the DC Shuffle. Big Biz dumps billions per annum into K Street. K Street works its magic. And Big Gov extrudes trillions per annum in Big Biz-favoring policy.
As but one nauseating example? Big Tech is currently spending $226,000 PER DAY lobbying Big Gov.
Gee…I wonder why Big Gov is moving Heaven and Earth to as rapidly as possible jam Artificial Intelligence (AI) down our throats.
But three decades of Internet later? Big Gov still hasn’t passed a digital privacy law - limiting even a little Big Tech’s multi-trillion-dollar-per-annum data harvesting business model.
It’s all such a mystery.
When Big Biz and Big Gov harmonize? Big Gov gets bigger. Big Biz gets richer. And the rest of US slide into poverty-ravaged oblivion.
Behold: The K-Shaped Economy:
“Here’s a picture of two economies.
“In the first, consumer sentiment sinks to record lows as staple goods grow increasingly unaffordable; even ‘cheap’ items like fast food start feeling like luxury buys for many households.
“In the second, high-ticket discretionary goods are flying off the shelves as asset-based wealth - stock markets, real estate, even art and collectibles - surges to record highs.
“These two economies are like night and day. Yet sometimes they’re happening at the same time, in the same place - rewarding a few while placing strain on the majority. Economists have a term for this condition: a K-shaped economy.”
Why…all of that sounds awfully familiar, does it not?
This is why President Donald Trump is incessantly touting the stock market. Whilst ignoring the ever-more-disastrous disaster area that is the vast majority of the economy.
Those who own stocks? Are definitely on the upward arm of the K.
The nation’s richest 1% - own 50% of all stocks and mutual funds. The richest 10% - own 87%. The poorest half of the country - owns less than 1%.
Oh: And Wall Street gets better - when Main Street gets worse.
To wit: When Big Biz uses AI to fire 100+ million of US in the next decade?
It’ll be great for Wall Street. Those Big Biz stocks will SOAR.
But it’ll be awful for Main Street. Which will be flooded with 100+ million additional people looking for work - in a country that no longer hires anyone.
So you’ll excuse the average American when he or she isn’t doing cartwheels about the stock market’s ongoing high altitude.
The vast majority Americans - are on the wrong arm of the K.
Americans’ total household debt reached $18.8 trillion in Q4 2025 - the highest level ever recorded.
Included therein: US credit card debt reached a record $1.33 trillion in 2025. Average credit card interest rate? 25.23%.
And US consumers are carrying an additional $20.83 trillion in mortgage debt. With an average 6.37% interest rate on a 30-year note (the most common of mortgages).
Here are the monies We the Screwed are paying per annum - just in interest on loans:
Homes: $1.33 trillion
Credit cars: $270 billion
Cars: $152 billion
Student loans: $118.2 billion
70+% of Americans are living paycheck-to-paycheck. And 100+ million of them - will soon lose their paychecks.
The downward arm of the K-shaped economy - is downward for a whole lot of reasons.
But at the head of that putrid waterway? Is K Street and DC.
Where Big Gov gives K-shaped-economy-upper-arm Big Biz all the good policy.
And dumps all the awful policy into the waterway.
To flow downstream - and further pollute the economy for all the rest of US.