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New data from the Labor Department showed this morning that the number of people continuing to claim jobless benefits rose to a new record high in early February. The Federal Reserve in the mean time, released projections of the economy growing in the long term, but in the short term, this year, predicted a dour outlook. The largest share of the US economy is based on consumer spending, and during a financial crisis of this magnitude, consumer spending continues to shrink as people lose jobs, which leads to companies tightening their belts and laying off even more workers. How did the US financial system become a largely consumer economy? It’s an interesting story that has its roots in the fallout from FDR’s New Deal and the rise of the Public Relations Industry. It’s a story about how American were manipulated to shop based on desire rather than need, a concept pioneered by a man most of us have never heard of: Edward Bernays, the father of the PR industry, and nephew of Sigmund Freud, the founder of the field of psychoanalysis. Today we’ll hear that story through BBC documentary film maker, Adam Curtis, whose 4 hour film, The Century of the Self, explores the growth of the mass-consumer society in the West. How was the all-consuming self created, by whom, and in whose interests?. According to Adam Curtis, “This series is about how those in power have used Freud’s theories to try and control the dangerous crowd in an age of mass democracy.”