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Global Business B.S.

Michael Victory's picture




 

 

The economist ran a piece yesterday called Global business barometer. I won't even bother with the fancy table because I reckon the data is rubbish. According to The Economist/FT, "business people around the world are bullish". 

The results of course come from a survey of over 1500 executives, and was conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit. If this sounds like an unbiased study, we are but sheep.

Supposedly overall confidence, which measures the balance of executives who think business will improve over those who expect it to worsen is at 19.3 percentage points. How quickly we forget (so many don't even know) insiders are dumping.

According to ZeroHedge, in the week that ended May 6, 2011 there was $1.2 million worth of purchases, accomplished by a total of 10 insider purchases. This was only offset by a meager 165 insider sales, totaling $650 million. This represents a selling-to-buying ratio of 565 to 1. This is completely normal right? According to the Economist, business people are bullish.  Somebody explain it to me because after all I’m just a high school teacher.

I heard Peter Schiff tell Robert Kiyosaki that if I (people who are teachers) was able to do something productive with my life then I would have. In so many words he went onto say, instead I am a teacher as a result of my limited productive capability. To think, I used to really like Schiffy. Schiff wouldn’t last a day where I work. He’d be curled up in a stairwell by 2nd period.

Those who claim it is perfectly normal for insiders to cash out promptly without regard for the message sent to other shareholders have been bought. Even Barrons' noticed the massive spike in selling in recent weeks, noting that any selling to buying ratio over 20 is bearish. 565:1.

The top ten list of sellers for the week that ended May 6, 2011:

 

Be careful what you believe because there is a good chance the info’s been sold down the river. Speaking of selling, silver is on sale, right? Now seems like a good time to let your local coin shop sell you a few rolls of 90%.

 

~MV

 

 

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Sat, 05/21/2011 - 22:42 | 1299445 strannick
strannick's picture

I heard Peter Schiff tell Robert Kiyosaki that if I (people who are teachers) was able to do something productive with my life then I would have. In so many words he went onto say, instead I am a teacher as a result of my limited productive capability. To think, I used to really like Schiffy. Schiff wouldn’t last a minute where I work. He’d be curled up in a stairwell by 2nd period.

I like teachers and innovators, but government employee unions and bankers are something different

Sat, 05/21/2011 - 09:36 | 1297981 Bloodgroove
Bloodgroove's picture

As one married to a long time teacher (26 years), let me assure that education is being starved - at least here in Florida.  The goal is to destroy public education and turn it over - like everything else - to corporations.  That day is coming sooner than many think.  Will they do a better job?  I doubt it, but maybe.  One thing is for sure - they will turn out much better corporate citizens. 

Sat, 05/21/2011 - 10:32 | 1298045 Matto
Matto's picture

Corporate schooling will be highly efficient at acheiving their goals.

Some things are more important than productive capability. 

Mon, 05/23/2011 - 10:46 | 1301838 Zero Govt
Zero Govt's picture

Big Corps are almost as crap as Big Govt ...in a free market (ie. unsubsidised, un-regulated) it would be small and medium enterprises that would dominate

instead what we have is Big Schools because whenever Big Govt does anything it has to do it BIG to go with its big dumb narcistic ego ...the key to a good market is small business, flexible and fast business, variety and choice, not one big club left foot of the dumbest institution in world history, the State

personally i plan to keep my kids with and around me as is the natural nurturing process (for 2 million years) until their teens, teach them what i know (should take all of a few weeks!) and hire in specific skill teachers or take them to tennis camps whatever they're interested in

i'm not sending them to big impersonal factory process with the ciriculum being a political football and having creepy retarded adults shove junk science about climate change etc down my kids throat

 

Mon, 05/23/2011 - 14:06 | 1302460 Matto
Matto's picture

I believe in small local businesses definately, and small local government as well. Unfortunately I can't honestly see how we cold get there from here, barring economic collapse.

Sat, 05/21/2011 - 09:20 | 1297963 blindman
blindman's picture


it was rightly said, imo, by mr. pjb,(verbewarp)
and many times. government is a recursive restrictive
function. period. that is what it can do and should
do. that is the meaning of the word "government" and
its natural and true function. and that is all.
if it cannot even be a proper restrictive element
then it is something else, it ceases to be government.
it becomes a monster or zombie of some kind, as appears
today in many instances. however, the terms proper
recursive restrictive leave room for some activities,
opens the barn door, for many activities that are not
solely restrictive.?
this is the beautiful idea of america. the people are
the government and have the power to decide what need
be restricted but even that power of the people / government
is restricted from trampling the liberty of dissent of
the living, the liberated and those seeking "happiness".
the country was not envisioned to be, by most, a playground
or breeding pen for corporate lamb farmers or shepherds.
not a giant pig farm and butcher shop or a slave plantation
where fiat debt makes every individual a pauper and every
large corporation an arm of the treasury in need of fiat
welfare and bailouts, every individual living at the whim
of the corporate welfare bosses. it just doesn't work
and these "leaders" know it but can't stop it. because...
it is just the natural evolution of the math of the money system,
the growth paradigm and man's relationship to it and himself.
.
where is the rapture? i didn't see a thing

Sat, 05/21/2011 - 08:54 | 1297929 Zero Govt
Zero Govt's picture

Michael Victory

Peter Schiff is not saying you are unproductive, he is saying Govt and the public sector is unproductive (it's nothing personal!)

Western State schooling was designed and built on the Prussian (authoritarian) model, to mass-produce compliant zombies for the State in mass production factories

most students produced by this mindless factory system know fuk all about the world when they graduate because the curiculum taught is academic garbage and already propagandised garbage (see climate 'science' cough splutter!). What they do know is entirely learnt from parents and friends

we complain about a dysfunctional society and families but isn't that precisely what State education does, split the family up 5 days a week instead of 2 million years of human history where kids were kept in and around the adults until they are adult enough and have learnt enough to go into the wider world?

Everything Govt touches turns to crap ....State education is another proving ground of that statement

Sat, 05/21/2011 - 09:22 | 1297961 Matto
Matto's picture

And lets not forget that everything the private sector touches has the blood wrung out of it. No easy anwers here, As a 'colonial' the state has been both good and bad to me in equal measure, many successful trips to free public hospitals and a decent education that I was myself responsible for sabotaging, regardless the opportunities were there. Personally if it came down to state sponsored education vs. private (mcdonalds) sponsored education, i'd prefer the former. The state can be seen as a form of private citizen self-organisation which has its uses. I still have more of a say in how my local government is run rather than how my local corporations are run although I am under no illusion as to who pulls the strings at the big end of town.

Sun, 05/22/2011 - 08:12 | 1299778 Zero Govt
Zero Govt's picture

Matto

can you imagine the food you eat every day being run equally well or better by the State? ...could the State provide the variety, low cost, high quality, wealth of choices the private sector does?

Take a look at the bankrupt rotting carnage of the US property market or healthcare market for your answer ...see what happened in the USSR, China and N.Korea with bread cues and shops empty of food to see the vandalism, poverty and commercial incompetence Govt brings to a nations food supply

Your entire exitence depends on the private sector, your entire standard of living, wealth, comfort and technological progress depends on private sector genius, commercial discipline, producitivity and efficiency from basics like food and clothes to cars, planes and tek

if you think the State is 'good' at anything you are a numbskull because everything Govt touches turns to crap. You need to check the real history books of how shit Govt is at everything it does and where real wealth and progress comes from (ie. how the world works), not the 'history' the Govt 'educated' you with

you are a perfect example of a State school educated zombie, you have nothing between your ears

Sat, 05/21/2011 - 08:56 | 1297944 IdioTsincracY
IdioTsincracY's picture

Let's not forget that all people on ZH are the product of that Zombie-making system.

Sun, 05/22/2011 - 07:54 | 1299791 Zero Govt
Zero Govt's picture

what the people of ZH have between their ears was not taught by the State, it was learnt from parents, friends and in the private sector

Sat, 05/21/2011 - 08:22 | 1297917 Ag1761
Ag1761's picture

Morning all, it's the 21st May and I'm still here and looks like some ZH

guys from over the pond have survived the end of days. I did crack open one of my

best Malts last night, just in case it was my last night, but hey

plenty more where that came from.

I've been a metallurgist for 25 years and have had the pleasure of working in the

steel industry, oil and gas sector and more recently specialist service

company, sector will remain anon. So far my pension has been screwed

by each employer, final salary schemes closed and ever increasing contribution required.

I have friends in Government employ, same moans and groans about pensions and the rest of it.

I tell them they are all fucking sheep and to keep preparing for the worst and not to rely on government to bail you out, but they think I am excentric in my views, especially

my little coin collection. (If only they knew!)

It's a war out there on all fronts, we are only here for a short time, so make the most and fight your own battles.

Keep on stackin

Sat, 05/21/2011 - 08:01 | 1297905 Global Hunter
Global Hunter's picture

Schiff makes his living by talking so what's his problem, what is he producing?

While I am ideologically opposed to the unionized teaching lobby I have empathy for the writer.  We are all in this together and we're all getting shafted whether you're expecting state benefits or not.

 

Sat, 05/21/2011 - 08:20 | 1297916 Matto
Matto's picture

Agree. I made the point above that I have a very intelligent and capable teacher friend who gets greater satisfaction from teaching them being 'economically productive' even though he has successfully held many private jobs throughout school and studies.

 

The notion that we must be 'slaves to our economy' is redundant once you realise that the economy is mostly a charade.

Sat, 05/21/2011 - 07:35 | 1297889 DavidC
DavidC's picture

Have to say, I'm disappointed in Schiff - he's normally spot on with his points of view.

DavidC

Sat, 05/21/2011 - 05:18 | 1297837 Bob from accounting
Bob from accounting's picture

Are you mad at Peter because he just tore into the NIA about their pump and dump activity?

 

Sat, 05/21/2011 - 08:19 | 1297821 Reptil
Reptil's picture

edited

Sat, 05/21/2011 - 02:30 | 1297748 Urban Redneck
Urban Redneck's picture

The economist piece was crap, but only because there is way to dig into the survey data.  It only provides net sentiment by either geography or sector.   

Ignoring the key distinction between domicile of a company or CEO, and its target customers, North America and Western Europe seem more bullish than might be prudent, but South America, Asia, and Africa face different challenges unless their target customer base is in North America or Western Europe.  The sector breakdown also makes sense, bankers will remain bullish as long governments are willing to bail them out and let them keep their license to pillage.  Transport and Tourism (a barometer of discretionary/luxury spending) is in the tank.  Farmers, Miners & Oilmen continue to see demand (and at least nominal profit inflation).

But without some basic cross tabs or other method to pick apart the data it is incomplete and utterly meaningless. 

Sat, 05/21/2011 - 02:25 | 1297745 Raymond Reason
Raymond Reason's picture

Its not only the teachers who are not doing their jobs, it's our entire culture of disrespect, arrogance, and lack of self-discipline.  Asian and Eastern European children have the support of their cultures and a disciplined home life.  American culture during childhood emphasizes sports as a means to socail elitism.   My kids tell me the exchange students at their high schools are miles above their American counterparts as far as the tree R's.  But our kids have a much higher developed social exclusion skills, bully skills, higher slang vocabulary and advanced dress ettiquette and hairstyles.  The foreign kids are rather lame at being cool, it seems. 

Sat, 05/21/2011 - 07:28 | 1297885 ibjamming
ibjamming's picture

We're "becoming black"...God knows why!!!  They're trash...yet our deluded young want to emulate them...

Sat, 05/21/2011 - 01:42 | 1297708 gwar5
gwar5's picture

Yep, massive insider selling across all sectors is a big tell. It's hard to hide a stampede. With a panic like that it only pays to ask what they're running from if you can catch up to them first.

We like teachers. In fact, I often still fondly remember Mrs. Brown, from eighth grade science. Her tight red  sweater on cold Monday mornings made us all positively yearn for the rest of the weeks education....

I think Schiff was just casting cynical aspersions on the teacher union member stereotype that America came to know from the Wisconsin fracas.

Mrs. Brown, Bitchezzz!

Sat, 05/21/2011 - 01:35 | 1297699 williambanzai7
williambanzai7's picture

Those "global business executives" would be foolish to answer the survey any other way. Ever meet a successful businessman who projects pessimism?

As for insider sales, I am no longer certain what those indicate since the pricing of stocks now has more to do with Bernanke's Bleeding POMOroids than with old fashioned fundamentals. ;-)

 

Sat, 05/21/2011 - 02:15 | 1297739 gwar5
gwar5's picture

Good time for them to sell.

I figure they know POMO is fake and their companies aren't worth the pumped up prices so they need to get out and into other assets before QE 2 end is priced in and stocks crash. 

After QE 3 begins, it will be the dollar that crashes and stocks will only appear to move up, but only in nominal terms.

Sat, 05/21/2011 - 00:25 | 1297577 P Kennedy
P Kennedy's picture

Hey MV...did you ever think you'd be glad to get back to your classroom after to listening to the shallow/tangental crap on this site?

Yes, hold cash until after QE2

Best

 

Sat, 05/21/2011 - 00:40 | 1297605 sun tzu
sun tzu's picture

Did you ever think you should remove your head from your ass?

 

Best

Sat, 05/21/2011 - 00:18 | 1297569 Elmer Fudd
Elmer Fudd's picture

I got a real simple idea: if you get a paycheck from the govt, you dont get to vote.

Sat, 05/21/2011 - 08:45 | 1297937 ibjamming
ibjamming's picture

ANY cash payment...  But particularly welfare and unemployment.  Oops...won't fly...there will be too many minorities and it'll look racist.

 

I'm all for the original...only men of property...get to vote.

Sat, 05/21/2011 - 00:11 | 1297555 Errol
Errol's picture

gosseyn, you wrote

"Shiff would undoubtedly dominate your "students" intellecutally [sic] and, therefore, control the classroom environment. "

You clearly have not worked in an urban classroom; otherwise you would not write such unsophisticated nonsense.  I see students in urban schools as a more-or-less invisible staffer, and can assure you that they have little to no respect for intellectual prowess.  They would probe Shiff for any weakness until his face betrays him, and then emotionally eat him alive.  Odds are he does not have daily experience with bare-knuckles derision.

Further, I have seen first-hand the difficulty in teaching children who have been raised by television, and therefore have the attention span of a housecat and expect to be entertained (with sophisticated production values!) at all times.

 

Sat, 05/21/2011 - 07:27 | 1297882 ibjamming
ibjamming's picture

You're talking about black/brown kids.  So what do we do with them?  Have them all take a "shower"?  It would work for me.  We've got all these people who are just dragging us down...WTF do we do with them?

Sat, 05/21/2011 - 08:08 | 1297910 Matto
Matto's picture

Sorry but the west doesn't get to import slaves and then complain they should leave because they are holding everyone back.

Sat, 05/21/2011 - 08:40 | 1297928 ibjamming
ibjamming's picture

Why not?  Sending the slaves back to Africa missed passing by ONE vote back in Lincoln's day.  I bet it WOULD pass now.  Clear out the illegals at the same time...  I'm in... 

This country has gone to shit since the civil rights movement.  Admit it.  We've LOST almost everything in some foolish obsession to give inferior people "equality".  Standards are at their lowest EVER.  And so are accomplishments.  Because "equality", QUOTA's, for women and coloreds, lowers everything to the lowest common denominator.

This country is fucked, and we did it to ourselves. 

Sat, 05/21/2011 - 10:30 | 1298060 Matto
Matto's picture

Because it was a decision the west made to go get them and bring them over, can't complain about it now. Well you can, but no one will listen because the wests put itself in that position.

 

Personally, I think the real problem in society is the proliferation of a money-debt system and the power groups that use the political process as a tool to their own ends. And these things are not caused by ethnic immigrants. 

 

I am beginning to wonder if china may actually end up assisting the third world more than the west ever has, just by doing reasonable business with them, the world bank nd the IMF certainly have struggled to lift anyone out of impoverishment.

Sat, 05/21/2011 - 00:54 | 1297641 OldTrooper
OldTrooper's picture

They would probe Shiff for any weakness until his face betrays him, and then emotionally eat him alive.  Odds are he does not have daily experience with bare-knuckles derision.

Sounds like running for the Senate...

Sat, 05/21/2011 - 00:41 | 1297603 sun tzu
sun tzu's picture

Those are the students who are a lost cause and would be expelled so that others can learn. 

Sun, 05/22/2011 - 23:39 | 1301084 Fish Gone Bad
Fish Gone Bad's picture

The front needs soldiers.

Sat, 05/21/2011 - 04:35 | 1297817 agent default
agent default's picture

+1000

Sat, 05/21/2011 - 00:03 | 1297536 Smedley Noshbone
Smedley Noshbone's picture

Hmmmm, Peter Schiff posts a video on youtube today slamming the NIA, Jonathan Lebed, and pump and dump scammers, some of the comments made a Zerohedge connection, now I see an article on ZH slamming Schiff?!?!  makes me wonder if there IS a connection with ZH.

article was written by "Michael Victory", funny one of NIA's biggest proponents is a channel on youtube called "Vision Victory"...I smell a Rat!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8M7Q9T4NfI

Sat, 05/21/2011 - 07:26 | 1297875 Michael Victory
Michael Victory's picture

I had to get off of the NIA mailing list awhile back because of all the absolute shite they put in my inbox. As for Vision Vic, no relation.

 

Sat, 05/21/2011 - 00:20 | 1297564 dogbreath
dogbreath's picture

I suggest everyone do their own homework on Mega Precious Metals.  They are a competant junior explorer with solid management.  They are drilling very deep hole in Red lake and there hasn't been any news or results.  The target is the extension of Gold Corps ultra rich mine.   I am not a stock trader but know enough to say this story is a bit of a hit job. 

http://www.megapmi.com/headway_gallery

Are you a shareholder Nosh.  I'm  not.

Fri, 05/20/2011 - 23:11 | 1297432 Manthong
Manthong's picture

Junk can be nice except when it comes in the form of cheap, baseless shots.

Fri, 05/20/2011 - 22:51 | 1297403 the grateful un...
the grateful unemployed's picture

that teachers are being punished for an educational system which no longer works seems unfair (see factory workers being punished for a system which no longer works the way H Ford thought it would) there is really no point in understanding why the media must report false optimism on these things. really there is nothing to be gained by fooling ourselves that things are better than they are. 

the definition of bullish is how much profit can we make off the Feds ZIRP policy. while those who rely on real economic demand are going broke

Sat, 05/21/2011 - 00:38 | 1297602 OldTrooper
OldTrooper's picture

Unfortuantely for teachers, parents expect their children to actually be able to read, write and do arithmetic.  If teachers are being punished, it's for failing to deliver the product expected, not because the system is failing.

Sat, 05/21/2011 - 04:43 | 1297825 StychoKiller
StychoKiller's picture

The purpose of a system is what it does...Check out: "Some Lessons from the Underground History of American Education" by John Taylor Gatto, found in "Everything You Know is Wrong", ISBN 978-1-56731-637-7, pgs 274-287

You're "assuming" that the Educational system exists to actually educate the children (it's more geared towards socializing the children into good little worker bees for the corporations!)

Sat, 05/21/2011 - 09:10 | 1297951 Madcow
Madcow's picture

doesn't the author state that the US public school system is modeled after German WWI era military training?  Teach them just enough to follow orders but not enough to question them - ?

Fri, 05/20/2011 - 22:54 | 1297397 gosseyn
gosseyn's picture

What absolute and utter BS, "Schiff wouldn’t last a minute where I work. He’d be curled up in a stairwell by 2nd period."

Don't you just wish?  Shiff would undoubtedly dominate your "students" intellecutally and, therefore, control the classroom environment. 

Michael Victory, eh?  How about considering G.B. Shaw's line from Man and Superman: Those who can do; those who can't, teach".  Have you ever broadened your horizons from some piss-ant teachers college and actually read an intellectual giant such as Shaw so that you might be able to deal with the "real" reality?  I doubt it.

Suggest you step outside of your protected little academic world and try to survive in the harsh world that Peter Schiff, and those of us who make our living by our wits, lives in every moment of his life.

 

Tyler Durden:  how about keeping insubstantial subjective dreck like Victory's little "essay" off the pages of ZH? Thank you.

Sat, 05/21/2011 - 08:14 | 1297912 Matto
Matto's picture

Undoubtedly Schiff wouldn't find teaching, with little to know training, too much of a stretch but that is not to say that he's point re productivity is correct.

 

I have several friends who teach because it satisfies a deeper purpose for them rather than chasing corporate bucks. One of them in particular is highly capable and intelligent yet prefers to spend his time doing something more meaningful than being economically productive.

Sat, 05/21/2011 - 01:02 | 1297650 RockyRacoon
RockyRacoon's picture

Oooh.   The ZH police has arrived.   Benevolent dictator, of course.

Sat, 05/21/2011 - 02:31 | 1297749 terryfuckwit
terryfuckwit's picture

Zero hedge has some amazing commentary and

articles really worth reading.. The previous diatribes 

against a teacher and his worries  are a disgrace. 

I suppose daily saturation in this sewer of fraudulent behaviour

has made some people become the same as their kidnappers.

The whole thread is denigrated by this .. show some dignity and respect..

 

 

Sat, 05/21/2011 - 09:04 | 1297946 steve from virginia
steve from virginia's picture

Like a hole in the butt, everyone has an opinion.

Take them or leave them.

Nobody is going to publish on ZH unless somewhere in the article is pimping for silver/gold.

ZH has become a PM shill site ... fine, no harm done, right?

As for the POINT of the article: business 'sentiment' as expressed by '1500 business executives worldwide' being bullish while same executives are selling their stock ...

This dynamic is not exactly bullish for stocks or silver (or real estate or bonds, etc.), for that matter. They sell their stock for ... what, exactly? Um, currency.

Some of these dudes do indeed buy PMs. Others buy farms, some just watch TV.

If I had money the last place I would 'invest' (gamble) in is 'global business' or executives, or in stocks of any company. Too many 'flash crashes' among much other ass-hattery.

'Position alert': I do 'hold' gold/silver. Please don't hold this against me!

What I am waiting for is a long article about Ben Bernanke's paunch. This paunch does not get enough attention. Maybe someone can get a photo of Ben holding up his shirt. That would certainly do wonders for international business confidence!

Seeing as how today is the end of the world, I shouldn't have to wait too long - 'until the end of the world' - for such an article.

They ('They') can even add a soothing paragraph about silver.

Fri, 05/20/2011 - 22:55 | 1297418 pton09
pton09's picture

I couldn't agree more, michaelvictory wants to make himself feel better because he is a "public servant".

Bullshit, he is more than likely an absolutely worthless leech who uses his gov job to extort benefits from productive people like schiff and then is bitter enough to write halfass articles on it

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