Debt based delusion: Fed spending far outstripping revenues, balance of trade, and business inventories decline.
One clear symbol of our new Gilded Age is that of the peaking DOW while food stamp usage is at a peak as well. Even though the DOW is only a reflection of a handful of companies, the media focuses on this as if it were a barometer of the real economy. It isn’t. Household [...]
Economic duplicity with low wage capitalism – Nearly half of those that lost their job between 2009 and 2011 are working in a lower wage position. The hard financial reset button.
All jobs are not created equal. It is unfortunate that last month the drop in the unemployment rate was largely driven by hundreds of thousands of Americans simply dropping out of the labor force. Not exactly a way to build the middle class but to many it gives the false impression that things are getting [...]
China enters unfamiliar economic territory with rising inventory – Contraction in China’s manufacturing sector now inching closer to one year. What does this say about the global recovery?
China is feeling the deep impact of the global slowdown. The country has seen unprecedented growth for the last few decades and is now entering into a very unfamiliar territory. Slowing demand. Data is reflecting that the slowdown on exports from places like the US and especially Europe is having an impact in their very [...]
The end game of global leveraged debt – double-digit percentage point market declines in Europe and Japan and the danger of refinancing debt with longer term debt.
There is a painful realization that shifting debt around like a game of musical chairs has little merit unless real production is achieved as an end result. May was a disappointing month for markets in general. While the S&P 500 certainly fell, markets in Japan and Europe took double-digit declines. The massive amount of leverage [...]
Welcome to the new model of retirement. No retirement. In 1983 over 60 percent of American workers had some kind of defined-benefit plan. Today less than 20 percent have access to a plan and the majority of retired Americans largely rely on Social Security as their de facto retirement plan.
As many Americans enter into retirement they are realizing one unfortunate thing. The new retirement plan is no retirement at all. Over the last few decades Americans were promised the idea of a comfortable retirement yet none of this has materialized because of financial swindling and a real estate bubble that will go down in [...]
The rise of the new gilded age – Massive market volatility is a dramatic sign of an unhealthy economy – 14 of the 28 biggest percent declines since 1950 in the S&P 500 have come after 2008. Two of those volatile days have occurred in August of 2011.
Massive stock market volatility is not a good sign for the economy and like an EKG is telling us something is troubling the heart of the nation. The most tumultuous times in the stock market have occurred during times of great economic uncertainty. August of 2011 has quickly brought back the troubling memories of 2008 [...]
Who’s afraid of the middle class? As housing values reach new lows the stock market is up 100 percent from the 2009 trough. Too bad over 30 percent of Americans have $0 in savings.
The methodical shrinking of the American middle class is difficult to witness. What is even more troubling is this outcome was set in motion over a decade ago and little attention has been shed on what used to be a cornerstone of America’s success. Systematic robbery is now part of the financial fabric of our [...]
The destruction of the middle class will not be televised – 56 percent of American workers have less than $25,000 saved. Even worse 60 percent of retirees have less than $50,000 saved. 45 million on food stamps and the consequences of peak debt.
The disappearance of the middle class will not be televised. Don’t expect your favorite talking head to relay this information to you. At the core of our economy we have become a consumption nation. This necessarily isn’t negative if we were to balance out the opposite side of the equation with adequate savings. It would [...]
The brittle financial American middle class – 50 percent of Americans would be in financial trouble if $2,000 of expenses came up in 30 days. By 2020 the world’s richest households will control $202 trillion in wealth, 4 times current global GDP.
This economic recovery has excluded working and middle class Americans which begs the question, what really defines a financial recovery? In past and distant recoveries the economic gains were widely distributed amongst all Americans. Most realize that income gains will never be equal simply because in a market based economy those with certain desirable skills [...]
The financial bubble that is still popping – Home prices enter a deep double dip because household incomes are still in a rut. Housing bubbles in Los Angeles and San Francisco persist while Miami and Phoenix metro areas face double digit annual price declines.
Some people are stunned that home prices continue to sink as if a lead weight was placed on the value of housing. The mainstream press never sliced and diced the minor jump in prices we had last year because much of the increase occurred around tax credit gimmicks and the Federal Reserve using artificially low [...]
