Under Obama, Wall Street Soars While Main Street Hurts

Despite his best efforts, the president who vowed to conquer Wall Street and revive opportunity for everyday Americans on Main Street has this to show for his first five years in office: U.S. stock markets are in record territory, posting 30 percent gains just last year, and Wall Street is home once again to the biggest concentration of billionaires on earth, while wages for the middle class have barely kept up with inflation.

As President Obama prepares to lay out an economic agenda to address this disappointing state of affairs in his State of the Union address this month, his inability to stem long-term trends toward inequality are giving congressional Republicans little incentive to work with him as they push their recently developed agenda against poverty.

Mr. Obama has acknowledged that the record gap between the rich and everyone else has only grown on his watch, and has vowed to devote his final three years in office to trying to rectify the situation.
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