Sunday, October 23, 2011 – 02:15 p.m.
Hooray! We’re all saved.
The economy is recovering, unemployment is is improving and the Dow is going to hit 15,000 by Christmas.
What the hell.
It looks like the government and Wall Street is out serving up the Kool Aid once again. Just as anti-Wall Street protests continue to spread across the country.
However this time all the cheer-leading is making many people nauseous.
Unemployment
While some would like everyone to believe this indicator is better. It’s really not.
First time claims remain above 400,000 per week and last months jobless rate remained unchanged only because the Labor Department found a couple hundred thousand more employed workers in their back pocket. Employed workers they say were unaccounted for in July and August’s numbers.
State jobless numbers are improving merely because most claimants have exhausted their 99 weeks of benefits and now fall into the underemployment statistic.
The Markets
Lower lows and lower highs.
Not a good sign for equity markets.
The goal here is to keep this balloon inflated as much as possible. After all, if the market really tanks as it should, the situation will become problematic for any near-term improvement.
Analysts continue to revise down their estimates of corporate profits as the year-over-year comparisons don’t look as rosy.
The markets have basically been treading water now for some time.
Government Spending
The pull back in federal government spending will have a trickle down effect on state and local government.
As the money printing press slows down it will have a major impact on the overall economy.
The mere fact that the U.S. federal Reserve is purchasing a large percentage of U.S. Treasury securities at auction should have everyone concerned.
Global Debt Crisis
Sovereign and personal debt loads makes the big picture very troubling.
Marginally healthy European Union countries are out issuing debt in order to loan the money to other members, like for example Greece, in an effort to temporarily prop them up.
A zero sum game that will not work.
Real Estate
A segment with continued deterioration. Local government finances will stay under pressure as property value continued to slide powered by a steady stream of foreclosures.
There is going to be much more pain to come. Particularly with the solvency of the banking system.
Playing that same old song isn’t working………
The large international corporations are doing very well marketing in the emerging markets. Any dip in sales here or in the Europe is having little effect to the top/bottom line growth. These companys have tons of cash too. The financials are supported by Ben. The 90% public continue to suffer in a death spiral of ever decreasing money supply.
Trickle up worked well. Will the 90% work for a few dollars a day like their counter parts in the 3rd world? No, so we might as well tax the rich and force Corp. America to bring back the jobs and that money they hide overseas in one big penalty. Or we just throw them all out of dodge and call a mulligan.
The economy isn’t going to improve until Obama & Co. are gone and their socialist policies are nothing more than a bad memory. You can’t blame businesses for not hiring people when they can’t be sure just how much it will cost to keep that person employed thanks to Obamacare™ and the out of control government spending that will likely result in higher taxes for everyone at some point.
Raylan your wealth is showing. The 90% could care less if you create another fast food minimum wage job or not. We have kinda had it up to here with you. Safety nets are fine, the real question burning in the 90% minds is were do you have the picasso and gold bars stashed?
The sad thing is Raylan Givens probably isn’t wealthy at all. He has simply bought into the simplistic talking points of the far right. When you ask individuals like him where they were and why didn’t they speak out under 12 years of Republican Congressional majorities and 8 overlapping years of a Republican presidency, when they literally bankrupted the country with unpaid for wars, medical drug plans, and tax breaks for the wealthy, their only answer is they didn’t thing Bush practiced Republican principles.
They foolishly claim Obama is a socialist even though the fincial institutions have become even wealthier under his term. Where were they when out of control government spending and deficits were the order of the day even under their “god” Ronald Regan?
The problem is not one of democratic vs. republican ideology or the felt need to choose sides. It’s simply a matter of common sense, something both sides are apparently lacking. The fact is one can’t spend more than one has and expect future generations to pay for one’s excesses. One can’t want social programs without raising revenues to pay for them.
One can’t refuse to raise taxes whether on the wealthy or not and then claim the deficit is out of control
In a civilized society that make unsubstantiated claims of greatness, one can’t refuse or fail to take care of the less privileged among us and then claim it’s their fault for being poor. One can’t wage unprovoked and perpetual wars without paying for them, not to mention the immoral nature of such actions. We shouldn’t allow American corporations to fail to pay their share of taxes through creative accounting or hide their money overseas while benefiting from calling themselves multinational. We shouldn’t allow the criminal behavior (not just immoral) on Wall Street to continue to go unpunished, just like the Bush administration war crimes of the past decade, because Obama wants to look forward not back. This is not a liberal vs. conservative problem and as long as we continue to define it in those terms we will continue to suffer the fate of a foolish nation.
I could go on and on about this, but unfortunately many of us are too inclined to practice Einstein’s definition of insanity.
Anon.4……BINGO!
I didn’t realize that there were so many holier than thou liberals in the Inland Empire now. It’s the “agree with me or you’re an idiot or simply haven’t been taught the right way yet” mentality that is so prevalent in left wingers that gives you away. I guess that’s becoming the norm here in good old California… the socialist utopia of America.
Heaven forbid someone like “Raylan Givens” holds a differing opinion than yours. I know, I know… he must be a moron who can’t think for himself and only listens to right wing talk radio to be so misguided right?
And another thing… Rayaln Givens is absolutely correct. Why would anyone in their right mind hire someone right now not knowing what the future holds? The reckless spending of the current administration does pretty much guarantee that businesses will see a tax increase at some point and when combined with Obamcare, businesses will see the cost to employ someone skyrocket. Why is that concept so difficult to understand?
Doc get in touch with reality here. You create a job at $8 an hour that no one can survive on, who really cares?
The majority of the population is going to now exploit the system to crush it. Your plane ticket awaits. We don’t need your handouts, we need you gone.
$15 Trillion and counting… No turning back !
Next Doc and Raylan will explain how the dollar devalued over the last 60 yrs. based on Democratic Presidents… I voted for McCain fool.
No… you get real. Not every job is created with the intention of taking care of a family or even oneself. Some are merely stepping stones to bigger and better things. At one time people understood that concept but now everyone being born and bred with the entitlement mentality, people seem so think the world owes them something and that every job out there deserves a large paycheck with full benefits.
What does voting for McCain have to do with anything (he’s a progressive and not a conservative) and why is it that you liberal types insist on name calling?