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Bloomberg Poll Finds Americans No Longer Drinking Kool Aid, 71% See Economy "Mired In Recession"
According to the latest broad poll conducted by Bloomberg, Americans, except for those on Wall Street of course, have never been more pessimistic on the economy, despite the administration's efforts to push stocks to 36,000 by Halloween. In a nutshell, 63% of respondents confirmed things in the nation are headed in the wrong direction, 71% disbelieve Kool Aid pushers and say it still feels like the economy is in a recession, with 13% convinced a double dip is coming, and just 14% who see the economy as being on solid ground. And the result that should be very troubling to the Keynesian fanatics out there, while 70% say reducing the unemployment rate is a key priority, 28% say that reducing the budget deficit should be first and foremost for Washington.
Other findings from Bloomberg:
Four months ahead of the midterm congressional elections, the poll’s results show a challenging climate for Democrats. The public mood is bleak, with 63 percent saying they believe the country is on the wrong track, the most negative reading of Obama’s presidency. After a year of economic growth, 71 percent say the economy is still in recession; another 13 percent say the economy is faltering and will dip back into recession.
Only 1 in 6 say they believe they are personally better off than they were 18 months ago, when President Barack Obama took office. They are more apt to see the economy today as deteriorating than improving.
More than half say they are responding to the economic climate by hunkering down. Fewer than a quarter say they are getting back to normal and only 16 percent are seeing opportunity and taking risks. The public’s posture is more pessimistic than the view of global investors polled a month earlier. In a poll of Bloomberg customers conducted June 2-3, more than twice as many respondents -- 35 percent -- said they are seeing opportunities and taking risks.
The public gives the Obama administration little credit for its tax cuts, which according to the Washington-based Tax Policy Center lowered federal income taxes for 93 percent of filers. Asked to compare their federal income taxes to what they paid during George W. Bush’s presidency, only 7 percent say they are lower; 20 percent say their taxes are higher and 65 percent say they are about the same.
“The debt that our kids are accumulating is going to be beyond belief,” says Jim Tympanick, 55, of Foxborough, Massachusetts, an independent who works in technology support. “I don’t see how it can be rectified without an increase in taxes.”
The White House hasn’t made much progress in selling its $862 billion economic stimulus package. Asked how their opinion of the stimulus has changed in recent months, respondents were divided about evenly among those who say they had become more supportive, those who are less supportive and those who haven’t changed their opinion.
Other high-profile spending plans undertaken in the wake of the financial crisis have fared worse. The assistance package to automobile companies is becoming less popular: 48 percent say they had become less supportive in recent months versus 17 percent who say they have become more supportive.
By a two-to-one margin, the public classifies the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Plan that Congress passed in 2008 as the financial industry teetered as an “unneeded bailout” rather than “necessary.”
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Looks like the mood of the populace is hinged on the extension of EUC.
To paraphrase an old political expression, all politics and employment are local.
The average Joe is first and foremost a belly button gazer. Since we have been trained and conditioned to believe happiness is as close as an iPhone, why are we surprised when sentiment is based upon our ability to earn the money needed to purchase the iPhone or other sundry pacifiers.
As it should be. Why does my city, which is broke, send billions to DC who then sends that money to Iraq and others after consuming most of it itself. For most Americans, life begins and ends with their city/county. It is where we live, work, play, and die. The US needs radical decentralization.
Nice post. Frustrating, yet simply honest. I agree that we need radical decentralization. Seems that could happen sooner than we think.
Also, +1 to CD's language. "Sundry pacifiers" lol. Tis a shame that for the majority of Americans happiness truly is just an iPhone away.
Spoke with a local CEO about secession yesterday. Six months ago, it was fringe talk. Now it's mainstream. While I realize that my state (Texas) receives more than its fair share of government largesse, there is deep resentment here that our tax dollars are going to places like California and Illinois, where government appears to be on a suicide mission. California, in particular grates, since philosophically the state is so diametrically opposed to what Texans believe in. Not saying it's merited or unmerited. Just commenting on the social mood.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/434315b2-8ea6-11df-8a67-00144feab49a.html
False flag op. Let's start a pool to guess when where and how.
Who = angry white male. Associates with 1) Ron Paul groups 2) Tea Party 3) Truthers 4) Doesn't like blacks/Mexicans/women/gays/Muslims/Jews. Where? The elite won't touch their toys again, so NYC, DC, Mia, LA are out. How about Texas? Oh! Wyoming.
Arizona. It seems to be their favorite whipping state recently..
Right! An angry white male anti-immigrant racist bigot who likes Ron Paul and the Tea Party and is a Truther.
Profile quickly established!!! You should work for the FBI but I don't think they pay too well.......
You just described about...
0.002% of the population.
You're on! Obama will have himself assasinated, as the only hope he now has of
A) Being remembered fondly
B) Having any of his policies carried on (I can hear the sobbing speeches on the floor of our legislatures calling for this or that stupid tyrannical measure to be pushed through in his memory, a la Ted, Hiccup, Kennedy.)
I contend that the so called "crash" in Sept-Nov of 2008 was a false flag operation. And that the next one will be delivered courtesy of the HFT computers. I have no doubt the NSA/CIA are behind some of these companies. Not a doubt in the world.
Do a little research into some of the companies that were "victims" of Madoff.
I have to agree. For months I keep thinking "this is the day, it will happen today".
I keep watching. November will come quickly.
Have you noticed how many Clentonistas are throwing Bam Bam under the bus. In a helpful, supportive way of course.
You can think of them as Clintonistas. You can also think of them as Zionists.
Those Californians are moving to your state in record numbers right now. I think I read that Texas' deficit is $12 billion right now. Better start charging an "entrance fee"
That might tip us toward secession right there.
I'll move to TX if the state secedes.
CA is a great place to live but the politicians are nutso.
I will move to TX if it leaves the union. I'll fucking force out a Texan accent and wear a lone star cowboy shirt every day.
We don't say YeeHaw anymore, and generally the cowboy get up is a dead give away that you don't have any cattle, or if you do you're overcompensating for the lossiness of the operation, or you're dabbling in the kicker bar scene.
I'll do it anyway.
Careful, they'll change your state to their socialist tree hugging utopia, as they did/tried here in AZ.
Those Californians are moving to your state in record numbers right now.
Oakies in reverse?
"those Californians" have been cashing in their over-valued housing, and "up buying" in cheaper markets for years now. . . Arizona, Oregon, Washington, even Vancouver BC, have all had to deal with the influx of Cali's moving in, buying up the real estate, sometimes for their 20-something special kidlets to landlord the rooms out for paying back the mortgage - inflating the markets, making even house sharing and room-renting unaffordable relative to local wages. . .
much like folk talk of cashing out and moving to "third world" locales to continue to live "above" the locals, don't ya know. . . it's the amrkn way.
I think there will be a lot more fracturing of the social compact as we move forward through this economic downturn. When I visit 'progressive' websites - they blame the rich and look for massive wealth re-distribution. The conservative sites blame the welfare state and look for less government intervention. Everyone hates the banksters.
And there's definitely more shoes to drop - especially with the municipalities and their budgets.
There's no consensus on what's actually wrong, much less how to fix it...
"Everyone hates the banksters."
Everyone except congress and our market regulators, both of whom work for the banksters.
Nah, they hate the banksters, too.
Who doesn't hate their boss?
Especially when their boss is an a$$hole?
I think if the rubes perceive the elections as non-fraudulent, then, depending on the outcome, people will still be extremely pissed, but not psycho.
What I fear is that if there is a show of election fraud on a grand scale using those electronic voting machines, software engineering and tampered death certificates, I'm willing to bet the good Scots-Irish citizens (known to be some of the best fighting forces in the world) of the Gulf of Mexico, et al. will become mighty uncooperative.
I'm sure dead people are already registering to vote in Chicago as we speak.
The joke is on Texas (and the other few states fiscally prudent and exercise self control).
Expect this trend to skyrocket until central banks are drug through the streets.
OK, LA, AR Go with us (Texas), they share our sentiments.
CD, been writing for The Onion lately?
http://www.theonion.com/articles/us-economy-grinds-to-halt-as-nation-realizes-money,2912/
LOL
Someone else on ZH asked me the same question regarding this very same article a few months ago. To which I responded that I wish I was that creative.
I am working on a fictional novel about the Flash Crash.
Why make it fictitious ? simply say 'This is a story, 100% correlated with real life. All events happen in real time'
LOL, this one looks like it came right out of Idiocracy...
http://www.theonion.com/articles/nation-demands-tax-dollars-only-be-wasted-on-stuff,17704/
I'll admit, I would bitch less about taxes if I could shoot a big fucking laser cannon every now and then...
That wasn't the only poll to come out today.
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20010461-503544.html
3 out of 4 Americans say the recession will last 2 years or more.
71% call the job market "bad".
All the more reason to jack the shit out of the market to rid the masses of those 'truthy' thoughts. Seriously, I bet they step on the gas even harder.
Public opinion is usually contrarian...so we should go long?
So what, the 71% are part of the 90% which owns 1% of the nations wealth. We have no say in anything when the 10% of the elite class is well represented in Congress, Wall Street and the Media. That may change if the 71% collectively go into their garage and pick out a nice pitchfork and heavy duty shovel and organize something.
Unfortunately, 80% of that 71% sold their pitchforks and shovels so they could eat at Applebees. 90% of the 20% who kept theirs are more likely to opt for their semi-automatic weapons, should the need arise.
I am 50% sure I disagree with the 33 1/3 % of what I understood of all that, with a confidence factor of +/- 5%.
I'm always amazed to read statistics showing the average American eats out "x" number of times each week, where "x" is usually 6 or 7.
Even more amazing is the casual sit down dinning statistics, meaning the Applebee's/Olive Garden type of places. That number if I remember correctly was 2.3, meaning 2.3 out of each 7 days people are eating at a non-fast-food sit down restaurant. Where is this money coming from?
When I interview my clients, I always ask about their entertainment expenses. I've been in the personal financial planning business for over 25 years and one thing I've noticed is that over the past 10 years, more and more people consider the money spent at restaurants as part of their "food" bill and not "entertainment".
When I was growing up, going out to eat was a big deal. My closest (spatially, not kinship) neighbor takes the family of four out EVERY DAY Monday through Friday. This isn't just snoopy, observational guesswork on my part, I asked him about it. He replied that since his wife was stuck home with kids all day, it was sort of her chance to get out, and get away from the kitchen.
I'm fully aware that I'm an unromantic, dried up tight wad, but "Holy Shit, Batman!!!" With the exception of when we are out of town, you can count the number of times our family goes out to eat in a year, on one hand.
Sadly, it seems that nearly every day either my wife or I mention to each other, "One more reason this piece of shit needs to come tumbling down." Today's will be, "Lazy no-cookin' MotherEffers."
When I was a teenager going to McDonald's was a real treat because a) the food was good, and b) it was a 50 mile round trip to get there.
When I was a kid we went out to dinner once a week, at a local family place, not fancy at all.
Mind boggling. But true
It's actually a problem with today's women. No shit, they don't think they even have the responsibility to run the households anymore. Ironing - send it out. Cooking - eat out. Nails - go to the parlor. Hair - drop a C-note a the salon. Cleaning - weekly house call from service.
Honestly, I don't even know what the fuck they do anymore...except fuck and sometimes not even that.
Somewhere, somehow, and someway, women have mixed their quest for 'equality' with men and their absolute desire to do absolutely nothing except shop and go to Starbux.
It isn't a "woman thing". It's a "society thing". When our kids were little, my wife stayed home with them, until they were both in school. During that time, the house was clean, the laundry was done, and supper was made. Now, she works full time. Sometimes the house is a pit. It is both our responsibilities to fix it; ie.. direct the children to do it. :)
I work in construction, and often have stretches of time off in the winter. When I'm not working, I cook, clean, shop, and wash clothes.
I agree with the premise of your post (Americans are fucking lazy), but not in your singling out gender.
I didn't say it was 'your woman', I was speaking collectively. I don't agree that Americans are lazy relative to their European / Western counterparts. I work with Europeans everyday and they are as lazy (that's not a badge of honor for Americans).
My point of the sexism was relative to your premise that traditional housework (cooking in this case) is no longer considered normal and / or manadory barring special occassions. That is traditionally a woman's role in a family. But, in general, yes, I think women have radically changed over the last 2 generations.
Crikey, that's just "normal" women! You should see the one's that live in New York City!!
Bitter?
"today's women" . . . lmao!
so, Boilermaker, your woman won't iron any more? she won't cook for you? or clean up after you? and she wants to spend money getting her hair and nails done??!
WTF dude!! if she's not working out, fire her! you went through the apps, selected her, hired her - either your job description wasn't clear - "includes maid service, yard service and boss servicing" - or she's a slacker - fire her and get another slave!!
it's not like you're in a relationship with her, you know, where you care about each other, or work on things together, or have goals, amirite? you want to be "taken care of" and it's obvious you're not getting what you want - up to you to fix your problem!
(hint to guys: if you want an arm ornament, those tend to be spendy & need monies for upkeep, just like all the other accoutrements designed to impress - there will need to be body & hair stylists, special foods, and lots of accessories, and upgrades over time - those silicon titties, "brazilians," and hair streaks that you love don't come cheap! just sayin')
Most women work to put food on the table, pay the mortgage and save $$$ so the kids can go on to college. It's a bizarre belief that a fully employed female is also solely responsible for running the household. And the man is responsible for what? He puts his 40 hours in and then he's done because what...his penis is now too tired from thinking all day to let the remainder of his body do anything else?
I believe ColonelCooper is correct here. In today's society both partners do what they can, when they can. Perhaps young people don't cook because mom was working to pay the bills instead of being camped out over the stove, and they see that as the priority. The younger generation I know are well educated and will accomplish much more with their lives than my housefrau mother and aunts ever managed. In their mindset spotless floors and home cooking equals good parenting. I think we must teach the young how to survive and succeed in the world they actually have if you want them to thank you later.
I also wouldn't pin this on modern women, but we as a society are stuck with the notion that we can pursue a lifestyle that we can't afford. I mow my own lawn, clean my own house, and I'm considered either a dinosaur, a tightwad, or a loon. We are completely un-self-sufficient. I have a sister-inlaw with three kids. She doesn't work. She has a nanny, a housekeeper, and a gardener. I'm stuck with the notion that it's completely ridiculous for middle-class people to have servants.
As shocking as the numbers are, it all comes back to what people, who are at their base animals, are trained to believe.
Today's 30-somethings with 2 kids have grown up in a world where they were trained to believe that "you deserve it." You deserve the vacation, the dinners, the clothes.
They accept the lie because they have a biological presumption to do so and because they don't have the proper experience to see the lie for what it is . . .
You end up working 80+ hours a week as a couple, dumping your kids into daycare where they develop ADD and horrible social issues, wed them to technology when they're not in the idiot pits, thereby causing them to become even more disconnected from you . . .
and for what?
To go to that shithole known as Disney World every year?
To eat shit food produced by Megacorp at outback twice a week?
To drive a 30,000 van that has built in DVDs to ensure no family interaction?
It is going to be a miserable experience waking up.
+1
Dang it why am I drawn to replying to your comments Frank?! I think it's your V-like icon.
Beso de muerte - in another thread you called me an idiot. You're so capricious. Of course, you are a kiss of death, so caprice is your wont.
Regarding V, I had the Icon a few years before V came out. Imagine my shock when I saw it in the movie. Really creeped me out.
Yup! Like a dog chasing its tail.
Welcome to our collective psychosis.
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/welcome-insane-asylum-%E2%80%93-our-collective-psychosis-chapter-one
http://www.scribd.com/doc/33507389/Welcome-to-the-Insane-Asylum-Our-Collective-Psychosis
Well said.
Various studies have been done on the economics of two-income households. The short version is, the tax man wins, and the service industry wins, and big business wins (lower labor rates due to the availablity of more wage slaves) and you lose.
http://www.stretcher.com/stories/10/10apr19c.cfm
I understand the frustrations of men and women both who are in two-income households. When you have small children it is frankly a miserable way to live, and I wouldn't do it again. There isn't enough time to do what really needs to be done, namely raise the children. Something's got to give, and something usually does.
I avoid driving at rush hour (I am self-employed now) but on the rare occasion I am on the road for evening rush hour I am instantly reminded of the frustrations; I see nothing but anger on the faces of all the drivers around me. People are racing home to fix dinner and do parental homework, or are racing to day care to pick up the kid(s) only then to race to the grocery store to pick up some prepared dinner or something quick to fix and eat, because there's homework and laundry to do and mail to be answered and house cleaning and and and....and no time to live. No time to live. I fucking hated it.
People chase "fulfillment" at work, which is the greatest joke of all time, ever. For moms and dads both, your fulfillment is sitting in front of your TV playing violent video games, wishing it had more parental contact.
+1,000,000
Being from the South I have enjoyed the traditions that we cook on the weekends then eat throught the week. I would never consider myself poor for eating leftovers or sandwiches at lunch all week. If anything I am continually let down either by the food quality or the service at restaurants especially the major chains. So many labor saving devices and people leave their kitchens to sit in cheesy restaurants.
Everyone seems to have bought in to the immediate gratification glorified by our society. The food and service is a lie- there is nothing special there. Enjoy a drink and cooking with your wife when you get home; that is is as much to enjoy as the meal.
+++
you sir, set the standard. + 100 maturity points.
if you're going to be in a relationship, be in it, savour it!
kudos to you, both.
If anything I am continually let down either by the food quality or the service at restaurants especially the major chains.
+1
My wife and I know of a few diamonds in the rough, but after a few times of saying, "this is so much better when you make it," we've stopped wasting our money going out. Our money is too rare to spend it unless we're receiving something of value in return.
I have a difficult time believing the 6-7 times a week bit. Even after Mom and Dad got out of their rough period in the late 1990s, the family still only ate out about one a week tops. Even then, it wasn't Applebees or other restaurants, but Burger King or Pizza Hut.
As I experienced a bit more of those budget-conscious days than either of my brothers, I never really got used to going to places anywhere with a $10+ lunch menu. People are always recommending these upscale (to me, at least) places and it's nuts what some people do with their money.
Awhile back, I had a friend who was getting married and the best man reserved a table at some Brazillian steakhouse in the city. Don't get me wrong, it was good, but not 7-8 times better than a local steakhouse (ie Hoss's).
I guess if you count lunch at a food court as eating out, you could say I eat out 4-5 times a week sometimes. That's just laziness, though, and not much more expensive than if I'd brought lunch with me. Sometimes it's a little embarassing working in a professional field and getting funny looks over it though...
Have some fun with it instead. Nothing shows disdain for the status quo quite like eating canned game meat out of a pint mason jar.
1 percent owns 90 percent of the nation's wealth.
And there is the crux of the problem because those fuckers don't spend it just horde it. Make them pay a proportional tax to the net worth value because mine seems to be disproportionate to what I'm worth.
All taxation is theft. I know. I get mugged on a regular basis. This month's bludgeon: school taxes.
But I'd rather complain about those who do the mugging and not those who somehow manage to get mugged less often than I do.
Nothing wrong with "hoarding" either. In a healthy system savings are used for investments which fuel growth. In the 19th century, "the miracle of compound interest" turned the savings of rich and poor alike into a safety net for the savers and a source of capital for the development of a prosperous nation.
No shit, huh?
Why do breeders get tax breaks (when studies show that there is a correlation between age of breeding and lack of intelligence... the lower the age people have kids, the lower the IQ. It's proven) and people that don't breed and don't use the system have to pay for their kids?
right...I hope you are really intelligent then JB.
Absolutely agree. All parasites must be immediately removed from the system. Begin by dismissing school taxes for anyone without children currently attending a local school. Follow it up by ending Social Security and Medicare distributions the very moment the receiver's original contribution level is surmounted. Finally, permit all non-school tax paying citizens the privilege of distributing their personal household goods via "smash and grab" to the local neighborhood mob of sub-educated young people they've willfully created.
Ho, ho, ho!
First of all, if you think public schools produce great minds, then you're as dumb as a brick.
If people can borrow money for houses and cars and vacations and big screen TVs and video games and ipods and cellphones then they sure as hell can borrow money for their kid's education.
If you really wanna be a commie, let's try this. I'll spend all my money on fun stuff and then YOU can buy my food, clothing and shelter. If you don't, I'll die! Don't wanna pay my way, comrade? What are you some kind of tea bagging Republican?
Temporarily. With apologies to Fukuyama, history is not over.
I think it's actually higher than 90%, seriously.
This is true for even the top 20%. I work for a privately held company which has been family owned for about 80 years. Great company, still has a nice pension, ect. But I can tell you the executives don't pay for their cars, food, all the way down to stamps...if I had no lunch or car budget, I would be sitting pretty on my salary.
Oh well, I guess their sperm just worked harder.
The collapse of our economy will be the "crisis" of the yuppie generation. The nature of life is cyclical (good times/bad times) and our pennance is coming due. We've really lived in 3-4 decades of little conflict/challenges. And, as we're finally figuring out, an unsustainable economic model.
I think we're in a Depression, but I take exception to this statement:
Cold War/Mutually assured destruction
Vietnam
Oil Embargo / 70's energy shock
Iranian Hostage situation/overthrow of Shah
Loss of nuclear family/more kids without 2 parent household
Rise of working mothers and lowered standards of living
Iran/Contra
Iraq/Gulf War
Somalia debacle
Bosnian War/Global Cop Peacekeeping
Rise of China superstate and sale of supercomputer and missle technology to ChiComms
Rapid social change via unimpeded Mexican immigration
Rise in gang activity and drug running
Accumulation of unfunded accrued liabilities of public (e.g. Social Security) and private pensions
Y2K Bubble
9/11
Iraq (again)
Afganistan
Housing Bubble
....I'm sure I've left some out....
+1
The poster you quoted should've just kept it at an unsustainable economic model, and extended his timeline back a few decades.
Perhaps he means something more along the lines of Civil War.
Perhaps he means something more along the lines of Civil War.
Well, considering a generation is around 20 years or so I'd go ahead and guess that each generation doesn't have to endure their own civil war. Without being a stickler, let's say every two generations, still not happening.
Enough of me dwelling on this. Bottom line I agree that this mess will have to be confronted soon within this decade, and it possibly will be stamped on our foreheads as the most recognizable moment in our lives. I fear if we can come out the better after this, or if it's just another action of the Architect resetting the Matrix for the ump-teenth time. We weren't the first society, and we won't be the last.
a generation is around 20 years or so
A generation is around for about 80 years -- the natural lifespan of a human being. Individual generations such as the Lost Generation, The Silent Generation and the Baby Boomers are comprised of persons born during roughly 20 year periods.
True true, I don't know what I was thinking.
Although for me, I was a late generation X/early generation Y fellow...this crisis will bear it's brunt across many generations of people. So if the original poster meant to emcompass multiple generations in his classification of us yuppies, then he's correct.
I'm on the cusp of BB and GX. While I was being baptized, Ruby shot Oswald.
Couldn't disagree with your post more. Everything on your list is minor compared with what previous generations have had to endure. Most of it is simply theatre and besides, you missed the biggest most significant change of the last 30 years which without a doubt was the breakup of the USSR and German reunification. Perhaps all generations have a tendency to overemphasize that which they are most familiar with, but there's nothing on your list that compares to WWI and II, the Industrial Revolution, Etc.
It's all relative. I'm sure a family destroyed from any of what he listed would argue the same.
Anyway, who cares? Can I get a refill of my Kool-Aid please?
I think your post illustrates the one you reply to. Through all of those events you listed the imaginary debt-fueled prosperity of Americans grew and grew, where if it correlated at all to reality it would have at best been a rollercoaster and at worst been a straight plunge after '71.
Ok, 71% see the light, yet the top 1% holds around 80% of the stock market. So the lower 99% means very little other than 'dumb money' to be stolen as to enrich the HFT computers via their algo program. The trick is to get the top 1% to jump ship, but that would mean even lower volume and less dumb money GS/JPM/etc to steal.
71% see the light? WTF! Those 71% thought it was more important for the central governement to "do something" about unemployment. This is a staggering proof of basic economic illiteracy. The 28% who are worried about the deficit are closer to the money, as the deficit is correlated to the actual problem of runaway central government spending. Pace les Keynesians, central government spending has a very poor multiplier, particularly of late.
It's ridiculous that yesterday's rally was based on "great earnings" by AA and CSX and yet both are trading below where they did prior to the reports. I struggle with the logic behind that.
That's because the market trades on technicals alone. News is an excuse, not a reason.
You have just irreparably ruined your credibility with those statements.
14% see the economy on "solid ground".
Not too surprising: just about the exact percentage of the workforce that is employed by the fucking govt...
About 40% of all jobs in the US today are govt jobs. We really produce nothing but bullshit financial jobs at this point which is why they are so scared of its collapse, its al we have left. I have to laugh every time I hear them talking about reducing the trade deficit. With what?You can thank Clinton and Nafta for that. Its just like Ross Perot warned about Nafta. He said if its made law "there will be a giant sucking sound of all the jobs heading to Mexico" He was partly wrong as corporations found an even cheaper labor source than Mexico in China. But the mainstream media blackballed him. This was before everyone figured out that mainstream media was a tool as Al Gore had only recently invented the internet. Dems and Repubs were not about to let an independent party get in. So they labeled him as a kook. All He was trying to say was keep jobs here, Balance the fucking budget and reduce Porkbarrel spending. Then we have Bush steal an election with his brother in FLA. and here we are waiting for the most junior senator to learn fast enough to change things with Ex Goldman Squids for advisors . We are in trouble. And mark my words they are going to start censoring the internet. They already are collecting information on forum posts.(yes you are leaving a forensic trail so be careful with the pitchfork posts) I just read were Uncle sugar wants everyone to have a logon name. Not hard to figure out where this is headed. Can't have the unwashed having access to free information we have no control over now can we.
Exackery! That is what Justice-to-be "Porky" Kagan is all about....1st and 2nd Amendments under constant attack! Coming soon to a SCOTUS decision near YOU!
40% government jobs (this includes contractors and military complex, right?) and 40% low wage service sector jobs. We are not a wealthy and successful people.
That said, Perot gave us Clinton, who gave us aggressive enforcement of the CRA with help from ACORN lawyers like a certain young Barack Obama, which later got enhanced by Fannie-Freddie's Congressionally mandated hoovering up of the shitty loans the bankers knew full well they shouldn't, but had to, make. But yes, point well taken. Our central government, with the help of unions, ecologists, and believers in the post industrial economy, and/or "free" trade, have drained the incentives for making things onshore. "We" are hounding our manufacturing, resources, and engineering activities offshore. Current account deficits pile up lots of bad imbalances over time, and they are about to fricking blow up, having gone too far. The ugly will be extra ugly, with export oriented economies collapsing down from the mother of all bubbles as credit and consumer spending dry up in the import dependent economies like Europe and the U.S. I'm guessing a lot of pissed hoi polloi will go in for the kind of scapegoating nationalistic/racist/fascist politics that got us lebensraum and japanese imperialism back when. War, what is it good for? Harnessing massive popular anger thanks to built up financial and economic/demographic stresses releasing the Big One.
The NSA has a python script that just junked your post!
+ 1000000000000000... or national debt, whichever comes first..
nah...we need stronger kool aid..
or more fluorine or chemtrails..or...
http://www.daytondailynews.com/opinion/columnists/ross-douthat-americas-...
Meanwhile, Barry will be in Ohio today to try to spin the laughable tale that the Spendulus "saved or created" - wait for it - 3.6 MILLION JOBS.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_white_house_stimulus
There's shameless, then there's Lord Barry, The Won.
"I have a gift Harry."
"70% say reducing the unemployment rate is a key priority,"
Don't worry, Obama will find another priority. healthcare, financial reform, etc. Up next? Immigration reform? Cap and trade?
Anything but creating jobs.
"70% say reducing the unemployment rate is a key priority,"
I'm not a PhD from a respected institution, but my math shows the unemployment rate has one from 10% to 9.5%.
People should be careful what they wish for. Reducing UE doesn't mean adding jobs. Forcing more people out of the labor market at a faster pace than actual job losses will also reduce that UE rate.
Try not to be a smart ass about it. Mind you the people they polled probably aren't interested in the various levels and classifications of unemployment.
People understand that we've lost a shitload of jobs, and a shitload of people are out of work. Turn that ship around and we'll probably be a bit better off.
Yet, if these 71% are like my relatives and friends, they thought nothing of buying cheap china shit for the last decade. Thought it was great. 99% of the 71% are dumb asses. They see no correlation between losing their job and their stupid appetite for cheap chineese shit.
I for one have no sympathy for the vast multitudes of unemployed.
Most were happy to milk the system for as long as possible while doing as little work as possible. Hacking off at work and doing as little as possible while still getting paid are American values now.
We need some belt tightening around here. But first let's let a bit of hunger set in, to properly set the stage for the belt tightening.
Americans are soft. Like a fat, white, puffy little hand that has been masturbating and eating Doritos for too long.
Here's a shovel. It's going to hurt like hell for a few weeks, but, eventually, your hand will recover and you'll have nice, thick callouses - like our Creator intended you to have.
You're right, because all of the unemployed are just lazy blokes looking for handouts. None of them were systemically cut out of the economy due to failed economic policies and/or business strategies from those above them making 10-50x their salary for actually doing even less work (is that measure even possible?) than they were. They're all fat that need to be cut from our society anyway right? Fuck 'em right?
Seriously though, you're an idiot.
Or employed because they made career and education decisions based on bubble economics and the associated skewed prices?
So I take it you were not a web developer in 2000 or a RE agent in 2005. Lets home that you aren't a money manger or other paper pusher in 2012.
It isn't the cheap chinese shit, or not entirely, that you should be mad about. The 99% of 71% have also been buying domestically made products from union shops. Unions drive manufacturing offshore and leach domestic businesses to death, with their ridiculous volumes of rules and impossible demands for pensions, easy work, early retirements, cadillac no deductible health plans, job protections, and all the rest of it.
I'm thinking of the government/union owned and controlled abomination called General Motors, which no one should be buying anything from, but nevertheless are.
Yeah, it's all unions fault!
"Yeah, it's all unions fault!"
Damn right, according to Shedlock:
Stuck in Mid-Summer Construction Traffic? Here's Who to Blame
Mish: "If you are in Chicago, stuck in construction-zone traffic, looking for where to place the blame, please blame the unions."
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2010/07/stuck-in-mid-summer-costruction-traffic.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+MishsGlobalEconomicTrendAnalysis+%28Mish%27s+Global+Economic+Trend+Analysis%29
on a long enough time-line, everyone will be unemployed with their benefits having run out and then UE will be 0.0%. /heavy sarcasm.
+1 - Change you can believe in...
Most of my friends and family are SHORT on the prospects for the US to EVER recover. The debt levels, public union strangulation, taxation moving higher, offshoring,lack of innovation and lack of manufacturing.The country is also ungovernable in it's 2 party kleptocracy system with politician greed and ineptitude at an all time high. I'm no republican, but when Nancy Pelosi is leading Congress you know you don't have a chance. The country is over. It's a wrap
Not necessarily. This is a two part determination. One is that our country is fucked (which is... a certainty). The other is whether another country can step in our shoes (which I think is a much longer shot). In a world of decentralization of power, we all have a shot (albeit some more than others)... in a world with another sole super power, we might find a boothell on our throats or imbalances that cannot be remedied.
Further, I'm not even sure that a takedown of the entire global system will not ultimately benefit us... too many variables. Maybe something like, we lost the battle of trade, but won the war/caused a stalemate with reserve currency/military hegemony... but we have to hit the reset button before our trade/economic imbalances prohibit our ability to utilize it. In other words, we're trading a surefire loser for the possibility of success... the puppet masters take their cut and we start again.
SHORT on the prospects for the US to EVER recover.
Very possible, but never sell America short.
What is amazing to me, regardless of your political leanings, that during one of the most challenging times America has faced we can have such incompetent leadership. By the fall 2008 Bush had checked out, we now have Obama, Turbo Tax Tim, Bernanke, Pelosi, Harry Reed, Joe Biden, Summers, Bawney Frank, Dodd etal running the show.
No wonder tough, smart guys like Goldman take us all to the cleaners.
sschu
Such armchair anger by the populus.
The should be much more grateful. After all the Obama administration has saved or created between 3-3.5m jobs. One might think that without that $700B package unemployment might have hit 10%.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE66D1DX20100714
Actually, I thought the claim was that if we didn't get the Spendulus money that day we might see unemployment get all the way up to (cue ominous music) eight-point-five percent.
When I see "Spendulus" I think of Obama actually being a robot and of "Spendulus" being this robot's name
There once was a robot named Spendulus,
Whose testicles hung low and pendulous.
He bent over the nation,
And began a gyration,
I wonder just what he intends for us?
nice one
A good teabagging?
A good teabagging?
Nice.
Funny, my eyes went right to the -3.5m jobs.
Okay, this is pure horseshit, but I'll play along. "3.5 million jobs for $865 billion dollars? What a bargain! That’s only $246,285 per job. I have an idea. How about the administration say “we have saved every job in America that still exists”."
this site really needs an an applause flag
Yeah!! Come on ZH, we'd like to show the love for some posts, not just the hate.
So you're proud of the fact Heir Savior pissed away about 250k per job that he supposedly saved or created?
THE OBAMA WAS BETTER OFF GIVING OUT 5 FIGURE HANDOUTS TO EACH UNEMPLOYED PERSON. That is justified armchair anger.
He didn't save a damn thing. He just spent more money and these jobs he supposedly saved/created will be gone by next year.
Must have been me - I though lizzy was being sarcastic.
I'm no apologist for the current administration, to be sure. But if it's stimulus you want, it's stimulus you'll get by "creating or saving" those jobs. There are collateral elements of a new job that have to be taken into account which include the spending of that salary. It's just too simple to say that some jerk get a quarter-mill job out of the deal. It's just clarity and realism that I'm seeking here. Reducing the military budget is another canard: Fewer bullets is not the sole result of killing military hardware projects. I'm just sayin'...
Has anybody been watching TV lately? It's way over the top with trying to pretend everything is ok. I think it's unsettling people. All this crap about BP, corexit, goldman sachs coming out and NOTHING is done.
Perhaps it's just me with some tin foil on my head, and reading bearish stuff on here, but it seems so OBVIOUS how bad things truly are - and yet the MSM seems to really have stepped up in the last couple of weeks ignoring all of the negative possibilities.
um, they don't call it the "idiot box" fer nuthin'?
it's job is sedation, when you get into that desired hypnotic state, then you become open to suggestion, and all kinds of "thoughts" can/will be implanted. . .
remember back when amrkn's were called "citizens"? and then they became "consumers"?
all by design.
That's because you don't get to hear from those media folks who are now out of a job! When they get canned their microphone is taken away. There ya go.
14 months in a row of U-3 unemployment above 9% can explain that...
The "old normal" was U-3 unemployment below 7%, remember that time? I think 70% of americans remember, as the poll shows.
There is nothing to worry about - just a couple of minor adjustments required -
1.) If you are a small business in the US --> convert business to Hedge Fund in order to obtain access to capital -
2.) If you do not have a small business create one - may I recommend a Hedge Fund
2.) Ensure you 'invest' in your favorite Democratic/Republican encumbent -
3.) Repeat as needed
The Fed's new quarterly lending survey has been releases & clearly shows hedge funds have unemcumbered access to credit - .
http://www.federalreserve.gov/econresdata/files/SCOOS_survey_results.pdf
We're gonna change the 71% one Brooks Brothers tie at a time...
I think a better strategy is to convert your small business to cash, and then covert your cash to gold, and then buy a used car from some 90 year old woman in Bismark or Billings, leave her plates on it, load it up with gold and drive to Edmonton. Once there, take out a safe deposit box at the Bank of Montreal. Then buy a bus ticket to Calgary, fly to Vancouver, hitchhike into the states and fly home from Seattle, all the while pretending you were working in the garden.
+100 Brilliant! Now THAT is a PLAN - Elegant in its simplicity & effectiveness! Thank you! (Will start as soon as I stop laughing- ROFL - Did you ever consider writing a screenplay - Solid Advice & it would make a great sequel to the Hangover?! - "Saving the Family Business!")
That's the stupidest advice I've heard all year. Keep the gold yourself. Buy a shovel. Sharpen it to a razor's edge and if someone comes to take your gold. Knock em down and start shoveling.
Great post - While I am in Bismarck I will see if the 90 year old woman has a Bobcat as well - I was told I should never handle sharp implements as I have a tendency to break into sprints with all sharp objects -
Put your cash on a Visa card you can get at any bank. Convert your cash to gold in Edmonton. Safer that way.
Outstanding! The refinement of a great idea - Genius -