By John Seiler

The evidence keeps rushing in that the U.S. and California economies have stagnated for about 15 years. Obviusly, there are bright spots, such Apple, Google and the other Silicon Valley nerd factories.

But for anyone with IQ < 180, there has been no “growth,” only fake booms and real busts. Some numbers appear to be up, such as the stock market or housing prices; but those numbers don’t take into account inflation.

The following chart does factor inflation. It shows that the Dow Jones Industrial Average is in the same position it was in the late 1990s. That is, there’s been no improvement. Total stagnation.

No wonder middle-class families feel squeezed. They have been squeezed. They work hard and save, but interest rates are near zero. They work harder, and their “incomes” rise, but so do taxes. If they run small businesses, federal, state and local regulations keep getting tougher and more costly. The Federal Reserve Board keeps debasing the currency through the inflation called QE3.

The middle class are rats on a treadmill.

Both parties are to blame. Republicans and Democrats pretty much have split power in Congress and the White House the past 15 years. Third party alternatives are kept out of power by a system rigged by the two major parties.

In Thursday’s VP “debate,” here were the “solutions” of the two candidates:

Democrat Joe Biden: Increase taxes and spending even more.

Republican Paul Ryan: Cut spending by increasing defense spending to defend West Germany from the Soviet Union, both of which countries don’t exist any more.

It doesn’t add up and it hasn’t added up for 15 years.

In California, things are even worse because our state suffers intensified chapters of the major parties: Democrats who hanker to be Kim Jong Un and feckless Republicans just wanting to cash in, while blabbing small-government rhetoric to fool the Tea Party.