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If Everything Is So Good, Why Am I Feeling So Bad?
From The Daily Capitalist
The markets behave as if everything is just fine. This week the S&P 500 was up 7.3% for the month (from 1027 to 1102), corporate earnings have been looking good, retail sales inched up last week, the CPI is low, interest rates are low, Dr. Bernanke is ready to pump money into the economy if things go awry, most European banks passed their stress test, and we've got a new financial markets regulation bill which will save us from economic collapse.
Yet most folks don't believe things are getting any better. What's wrong?
Here's some data I gathered for the week of economic reports that might shed some light on the topic:
The U of Michigan's consumer sentiment index crashed: it dropped from the June high of 76 to a mid-July reading of 66.5. About 10 points. This could mean that consumers are pulling back, according to the data.
The latest Conference Board's Index of Leading Indicators turned negative, down 0.2% in June. In May it was up 0.6%. According to my report, if you take the interest rate spread out of their index, it would have fallen 0.6%. (See Leading Indicators Have Turned South.)
New jobless claims for the week of July 17 jumped 37,000 to 464,000 from 427,000 in the prior week. The four week moving average also declined by11,750 to 455,250, the lowest level since mid May.
Corporate earnings have been good; so far three-quarters of companies have beat estimates. For example Ford reported a 13% gain in earnings for Q2. Up-selling and cost cutting seemed to do the trick. Which lies at the heart of the problem: revenues tend to be tame and gains are coming from efficiencies. It's a mixed bag, so it's difficult to generalize here. Oil, autos, technology, and exporters did well. The key to any sustained recovery will be consumer spending.
Which gets me to payrolls. The state-by-state report from the Labor Department showed that payrolls decreased in 27 states, including the biggest, California and New York. Some 16 states had unemployment in excess of 10%. We'll have to wait for the next unemployment reports to sort this out, but it seems that we aren't adding net jobs.
What consumers are doing is paying down debt. According to an American Banker report, a "handful" of mid-size banks (KeyCorp, Huntington Bancshares Inc. and M&T Bank Corp.) are experiencing a surge in loan paydowns without experiencing an increase in lending. While this improves credit quality it doesn't help their longer-term loan book. I see this as a good thing, part of a necessary deleveraging process, it shows us where consumers are putting their money. It's the biggest raise they can give themselves: with negligible earnings on money market accounts, a debt paydown on a 6% loan is a positive for them.
The housing market is still bad. While prices have been going up (0.5% per Federal Housing Financing Agency--FHFA), sales of existing home sales are down 5.1% in June.
Newly signed contracts plunged by 30% in May from the previous month, when the tax credit expired.
"Given that, you are going to see a huge drop in closed sales in July, and it's going to continue at a minimum until August," said Thomas Lawler, an independent housing economist in Leesburg, Va.
Home inventory which had been declining as the result of the housing tax credit went up in June by 2.5%. The supply vs. sales index went from 8.3 months to sell a home to 8.9 months.
My last point is the Baltic Dry Index. I follow this report on shipping traffic around the world as an indicator of worldwide economic health. If China is not importing a lot of raw materials, which it isn't, this leading indicator is a negative. In the past two months it has dropped almost 60%:
P.S. Coming soon: a major article analyzing the financial markets overhaul bill.
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I for one am buying here. I remember TD had one post a couple of days ago saying there was a net out flow for the week/month and the market went up. That tells me the average joe's are nerous and getting out even more. But there are buyers otherwise the market wouldn't be up. May be the PPT. May be the Chinese. Either way it's a sign for the market to go up.
Corporations are cannibalizing themselves to pay dividends. They call it efficiency, but revenues are down while profits are up? How long do you think that can go on? This has been going on for the last two decades under the name of mergers and acquisitions. Corporations make money only by buying other companies and stripping them. Eventually you reach the point where there is nothing left to strip. We are fast approaching that point.
We are rapidly becoming a nation of non productive people, who produce nothing but are parasites on the backs of the few remaining producers who ultimately either give up or are driven out. The root of all weath is the production of goods. Without goods there is nothing to speculate about. You want to see what a financial and service economy without production of goods looks like? Try Somalia, Yemen, etc. Look at all the empires that have collapsed, they all did so because they ceased producing anything and tried living off the labors of others. This is not Marxism, people, it is capitalism, and it is rapidly dying in the US, replaced by a corporate and social welface state.
Yeah, go ahead and squeeze a few more bucks out of the markets, but don't expect to do so for much longer, for there is little left to squeeze. China and OPEC have ceased funding out consumerism, there is nowhere left to turn for credit card living.
We are rapidly becoming a nation of non productive people
I agree, but... much has to do with the fact that we've been lead down this path, and I think it's been intentional. Imagine having a bunch of "productive" people and nothing for them to do? I mean, now people are already accustomed to doing nothing, in which case when the signal to really-do-nothing pops up (unemployment) people are quite conditioned!
OK, I say this slightly with tongue-in-cheek, but there IS some truth to this. And that's that there really isn't the resources available to feed the manufacturing/production machine anymore. That's why the markets are all fucked up, they don't have anywhere to go, there's no "next" when there isn't the resources with which to do with. All too often I hear the refrain that we need to let business unleash "technology," that "technology will solve [this or that]," when technology is no more than a set of instructions, instructions that are worthless without the actual physical inputs. FAIL! Cliff still dead ahead...
This is exactly my sentiment. While I aspired to operate my own business coming out of college, I realized how much BS it really entailed and chose to pass. I could, I simply chose not to.
I am a computer geek. I write software. I have worked in a lot of industries (everyone needs geeks!) including semi conductor, telecom, insurance (health and auto), travel, etc. I am currently looking to get into either energy or agriculture. I put my transition on a 1 to 2 year time line given current events.
Archie is spot on.
I have struggled with a self value proposition for some year now; am I a wealth producer? I recently decided it was ultimatley a function of the industry to which I contributed my skills.
+1 sir.
Cooter
I dont understand your argument. I would agree that business is deteriorating tremendously over the last decade, but this only brings opportunities . In fact, as a business technology owner, I have never seen the ground so fertile for new business ideas. I is almost like all of the competent people have retired. If I were you, I would reconsider starting your own business, look at some of those very bad businesses, and build better products than they can. Turn lemons into lemonade as they say...
"I would agree that business is deteriorating tremendously over the last decade, but this only brings opportunities "
True. My brother works in "Asset Repatriation" (repo man, cars/light trucks/farm machinery). He has been staying very busy as of late. I am not sure that I would like his job. As dangerous as it is working around superheated steam, I think I'll keep making power for y'all.
"All these "bad" things are already priced in." : how do you know this?
"There is growth and they are in asia and latin america." : how do you know this?
" All the sellers already sold and are afraid to get back in." : if all the sellers already sold, there'd be nothing to buy.
"It looks like the stock market is going to go up from here." : where do you look, in a crystal ball?
Bravo! You summed him up so well! Funny, he pops his ugly head up after a few hundred points up and then runs after a few hundred down ha! I myself could care less which way the markets break. I play either side for the short runs, since calls have been priced in for over a year while some puts still have room for profit even after large breaks.
Everywhere I look, people are screaming the end of the world. That tells me that there are too much pessimism. I look at the big companies' reports (MCD,KO). They all make more money in asia and latin America. If things are really so bad, then why is oil at $79? I look at the charts and it is forming a base here short term. When I listen to the chatters and short the market, I lost money.
The market is telling me it wants to go up from here. That’s all I am say. May be I am reading it wrong but I am making money so far this year. If something else comes up, then turn and short the market. You just have to get the direction right.
Everywhere I look, people are screaming the end of the world. That tells me that there are too much pessimism.
You are standing in the middle of the road. A truck is coming up from behind you at high speed. All of the spectators are telling you to move out of its path. Are they wrong because they are pessimistic?
You guys are all too gloom & doom. I will write something up this weekend to restore some balance here.
"I will write something up this weekend to restore some balance here."
Please do. I do not discount view from permabulls or permabears. There is some good news out there, but we have to look at it with an objective eye. I know that many of the banks are reporting better than expected profits, but many of them are doing so by lowering their reserves against their portfolios. Is this justified due to improved metrics, or one more chance to juice the stock prices heading into a dismal thrid quarter? I don't know - but I will be glad to read everything from both sides.
I sense a general malaise around everyone I run into. I do not move in the circles where bounces in the S&P500 or DOW cause giddyness and excitement. I am stuck in the circle where you stand in line to pay for your groceries at the local HEB and see a young woman with kids trying one credit card after another to pay for the basket load of goods. I have to listen to others gripe about the cost of gas while fueling up my truck at the local Valero station. I could use some good news for a change. Leo, tell us what it's like in the crowds you run with - it's not so happy down here on Main Street.
Who gives a rats ass if banks are making money.
Banks making money means the economy is being sucked dry by leeches.
"Who gives a rats ass if banks are making money"
Uhmm, the people who hold bank stocks? The tellers and loan officers who work in the banks? The DOW and S&P indexes (indices)? I do not hold any stocks right now. I am all in bonds (stable value plan for 401K).
"Banks making money means the economy is being sucked dry by leeches."
Agreed, but if you have to invest in the market, wouldn't it be wise to follow the money? If money is flowing from the transportation or utility indexes to the banking stocks - follow the money.
Look, I am not a bear or a bull. I just was trying to stimulate discussion from both sides of the trading pit.
I'm just trying to be a realist, Leo. But I'd like to see what your take is.
Leo, I don't want balance, I just want the truth.That's it, and that is all. Just the freakin truth. If I want the rah rah crap of mainstream propaganda, then I would watch MSNBC or CNBC for a good laugh. What a joke. You do not need to provide what you think is 'balance' on this site.
Thanks, dr. Bernanke. Unemployment back to 5% next year, GDP growth 10% challenging China's growth, European debt problems gone. Make us happy!
Sounds good. I think I'll go out and buy some GM stock.
Yeah, but stay away from GM bonds-the the last bondholders didn't do so well.
Me too! And a box of Skittles!
Thanks, dr. Bernanke. Unemployment back to 5% next year, GDP growth 10% challenging China's growth, European debt problems gone. Make us happy!
Econophile just reported data. Nice to see that you correctly interpreted this data as doom and gloom.
Gloom and doom would be to present eroneous data, which would give us no ability to acutally correct anything :-(
But... it's data, no more, no less. It is what it is. We can take it how we like. I love reality, facts (because the opposite isn't viable in the physical world).
Spot on.
Leo, are you a member of the plunge protection team ???
Right, Leo, life gos on even when you're barefoot. Just don't forget, just because you are making money doesn't mean everyone else is. Anyone who happens to be one of the 19% unemployed does not see things your way. Can you assure us we will return to 5% unempl anytime soon? Like within the next ten years?
Government at all levels is absolutely crushing small business with taxes and regulation, the citizen too. We can go on endlessly about what is wrong, but all government is doing is making things worse. So yeah, you parasites can squeeze some more bucks out of stocks for a little while longer, but the day of nothing left to squeeze draws nigh. THEN let's hear what you have to say about "balance."
My business is down 70% and right now a government job as a filing clerk looks real good to me.
Government at all levels is absolutely crushing small business with taxes and regulation
If you don't mind me asking, what taxes and regulations are you referring to? Is there something specific that has contributed to your 70% decline, or are you generalizing about government?
What's more, the constant threat of massive changes in regulation is seriously hurting business.
Even dumb rules can be adjusted to, hell knows there are plenty of them on the books already. But we've had 20 months (going back to the election in 2008) of threats of complete changes to the rules of the game.
Only an administration that has 1 single guy at a cabinet level who's ever worked in the real world as anything but a lawyer would fail to realize that this constant uncertainty on huge issues (what will your taxes be, will regulation discourage your business or encourage it, how will health care be handled, what will be the rules of the banking industry) negatively affects businesses.
Perhaps if a few members of the pretentious cipher's regime had ever worked in the real world they might have an inkling how this sort of uncertainty kills hiring and kills investment.
More stupid party shit!
Your growth agent is D E A D! Your entire system is dying, don't you fucking get it?
Go ahead, "unleash" everything business and see just how much faster that'll make us get to the edge of the cliff! But, it won't speed up because, contrary to the smarmy political morons, we're running out of actual, you know, PHYSICAL resources!
All these high-power politicians are in there to serve their masters. I believe that the masters are in fact masters, that they know best what they are doing, problem is that their game can only end in disaster- I doesn't fucking matter who APPEARS to be in charge, it's the same game, the same system!
Apparently our opinionated Mr. RNR has no response.....
Probably because he's dumbfounded (like the other Obamacrats) about the fact businesses do have to pay taxes on their income. Speechless, no doubt.
Here's a guy that's got it all figgered out, well, except the confiscation part;
“This is a rich country. We have plenty of money, and if you don’t believe me, ask Haliburton,” Jones told a group of progressive bloggers and activists at the Netroots Nation convention Friday. “There’s plenty of money out there; don’t fall into the trap of this whole deficit argument.”
“The only question is how to spend it,” he added.
http://dailycaller.com/2010/07/24/van-jones-stop-worrying-about-the-defi...
You want a list? Its a long one. Income tax, capital gains tax, state taxes (inventory and assets), social security tax, unemployment tax, utilities taxes, excise taxes, numerous specific taxes levied by local authorities, polution taxes, innumerable fees and permits, application fees, termination fees and on and on. The typical small business spends four weeks per year colllecting taxes and doing government paper work, that is an 8% tax right there. Then there are the hidden taxes, the cost of complance, the increased cost of doing business due to regulations, fines and penalties for not reading and understanding wharehouses full of regulations, and especiallly legal enstranglement that forces business to constantly live in fear of lawsuits.
The US now ranks among the highest cost places to do business and businesses which can are leaving in large numbers. The writing is on the wall folks, the US is no longer a business friendly nation. Foreign investment is shrinking rapidly and heading for more friendly locales.
If you and your peers did the right thing in the first place, most of those regulations would not exist. Blame them, not government for the regulation. How about cooperating with the government instead of just shaking them down for once?
I'd think it would be time to figure out how to close the exits and get you to cooperate. You want the perfect political conditions, while expecting "screw you, I've got mine!" for the other side of the table. You're just unhappy that you can't shake down the government for more goodies. That, and make it harder for you to not directly hire, so that risk and reward do not diverge(by virtue of more disposable employment types).
The proverbial other side of the table kindly asks that you do not attempt to become $DEITY, for that position is already taken, despite the attempts to act like one. Stop playing the "small business" card, it's not going to work as an excuse.
""small business" card"
Just out of curiosity - are you a small business owner?
As the spouse to a sole-proprietary business owner (rancher), I can attest that the newest requirements for the IRS 1099M reporting will be a true pain in the butt. I have to issue a 1099 to Tractor Supply Co, our local feed store, the Kubota or AGCO dealer and all of these other major corporations if I do more than $600 (accrued) business with them in a year. Our taxes for the ranch will be greater than that - do I submit one to Bosque County Texas? It has gotten out of control. We do not try to hide any income from the IRS - why would I make up an expenditure? That would be too easy to deny -> no receipt, no deduction!
I cannot say that I have been in the role of direct ownership. My most direct experience is with working with one that was strictly cash-only and was quite small as it was(4-5 people total, doing contracted computer repair). Any other experience is through knowing a neighbor that ran / closed up one due to actual business conditions, and family that works at one that is run extra-lean. If you want to pillory me on this point, fine, but I am quite tired of the use of it as a political weapon.
I see it from the perspective that there are more than a few who see it as a way to shake down government for specific & favorable treatment versus the plenty that really hate having to fill form after form and wonder if they will be audited. When you are around plenty that are simply seeking political favor, it gets quite tiring to be a witness to that and be told that I have not suffered enough by some of those same people.
My beef isn't with the people that are not using it as a political weapon. That said, there are plenty of people that are, and use it as political cover even if the form-filling/compliance is not too much for them. The latter of the two groups is what I mean by the "small business card". Invariably, there are people that fit in between and outside of these two groups, but those are two types that exist.
What is a bit worrying is that it is getting quite hard to tell who is really just tired of the bureaucracy, and who is just waiting out for rent-seeking opportunity.
You make an excellent point. It's the small businesses that are being crushed by the large ones, the ones that hire all the lobbyists to crowd out competition (usually through some facade as "consumer protection").
That stated, we can run around blaming each other until we're blue in the face and we'll NEVER see the elephant in the living room! Growth is dead, D E A D! The system is contracting, nothing that business can do, nothing that govt can do. We've been stuck in a paradigm that's been racing to the cliff's edge- it's not who is driving that's the issue, it's where we're headed, and that path was charted/destined because we believed that growth could continue forever!
Those running around blaming some camp are usually doing so only in order to gain an advantage; that's fundamentally how things work- deception (nature loves deception, we pretend that we don't employ it!). So, we continue along and will soon find out what lies over the cliff's edge...
If folks really wanted a place to start we'd ask that ALL subsidies be killed. That and take away personhood from corporations.
"You make an excellent point. It's the small businesses that are being crushed by the large ones, the ones that hire all the lobbyists to crowd out competition (usually through some facade as "consumer protection")."
Your thinking is incorrect Seer. This is exactly what the government wants you to believe.
It has nothing to do with small business being crushed by big business. It's the government's interference of free trade that is the perpetrator. Please read my comment above to Red Neck Repugnicant.
We certainly have a bunch of taxes/fees that are annoying, but the taxes/fees that you mention have been around forever, and other countries have their own versions of the same. Plus, many of the taxes that you mentioned (pollution tax, for example) don't apply to many businesses or individuals, and other taxes such as utility taxes are nominal. I could probably come up with an equally long list of tax breaks/writeoffs.
Income tax is the largest penalty, and the US ranks in line or better than most countries around the world - many people don't recognize that.
http://www.taxrates.cc/
http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/taxes/p148855.asp
I thought you were connecting the dots between your business being down 70% and excessive taxes and regulations.
When you say that the US is no longer a business friendly nation, when do you think that transformation happened?
-10
1.) Just because other countries have taxes, doesn't mean we need to feel obligated to "catch up." The argument of relative level of taxation is moronic.
2.) Every tax affects individuals. Over the long run the tax burden is shifted to the individual / consumer. Without exception. To say that most taxes don't apply to individuals or businesses is, well, ignorant.
3.) Utility taxes are not nominal. They are intrusive and they distort market demand.
4.) Pollution taxes apply to nearly everybody. This is why you can't dump oil in your backyard, and why your business recycles its fluorescent lamps (if you pay your utility taxes).
5.) The U.S. is a business friendly nation - as long as your business contributes to the winning political campaign.
@plinko
-11
No one is suggesting that the US needs to catch up to the tax rates of other countries. You're debating a point that no one made, which makes you look foolish.
The reason I posted the tax rates of other countries was because Noah specifically mentioned that, with regard to taxes, the US now ranks among the highest cost places to do business [his words]. From the numbers that I can find, this simply isn't true.
A utility tax is absolutely nominal. 3% of a $30 water bill is nominal. 3% of a $200 electric bill is nominal, as well. This tax has absolutely no impact on a business or an individual. If you actually want to gripe about a few bucks, then you've got larger problems than me.
Pollution taxes apply to nearly everybody. This is why you can't dump oil in your backyard. When was the last time you wanted to dump a vat of oil in your backyard, but didn't because you were afraid of the subsequent taxes? That's just stupid.
To be honest, the points you made are quite ridiculous.
Taxes and fees aren't the problem. The real prob is poor governance, crooks in high places, corruption and the government competing with its own citizens.
Poor governance means no energy policy, dated economic policy and lack of accountability. No energy policy makes anything other than energy waste unprofitable while diminishing energy flows make energy waste unprofitable! Outdated neo- classical 'equilibrium' concepts don't work and reward corporate hoarding. Funds disappear at the top of the economic food chain creating an adversarial business environment of tycoons vs. the citizens. Nobody is held accountable for anything except economic bloggers!
Crooks in high places is self- explanatory. How did Goldman/Dittibank/Summers/Geithner/Bernanke become 'untouchables'? Crony connections and unquestioned revolving door conflicts of interest.
These and corruption allows two or more sets of rules (and books) which favors insiders over everyone else. Where have all the bailouts/stimulus gone? the answer is obviously 'Friends' of the government.
Subsidies - for industrial agriculture, highway construction, defense industries, housing, college education, medical care, transportation, etc. - drive individuals and businesses to ruin by an 'affordability' process that is intended to support them. The usual barriers to entry to small businesses are location and improvement- and capital costs. What keeps these high? The still- undeflated real estate bubble supported by the Treasury and Fed along with the zombie banks unwilling/unable to provide capital.
Add an anti- labor establishment that outlaws paying customers.
Offshoring and unbridled immigration have cost 20 million high- wage US jobs over the past 10 - 15 years: that is, 20 million customers willing to buy goods and services. No wonder businesses are failing! The hardest thing to find for any business is a paying customer.
Great post as always, Steve in Virginia! +i^(2n), n = 2, 3, 4, ...
Other than a walloping downturn in the economy, the biggest threat to the success of a small business is competition from large corporate chains with multi-billion dollar balance sheets. If you're in retail, how do you compete against WalMart or BestBuy? If you own a restaurant, how do you compete against the 10,000 other restaurants nearby? If you work at a local credit union, how do you beat a 2.9% x 72 month rate on an auto loan at BofA? If you own a bookstore, how do you compete against a Barnes and Noble? Coffee shop? - Starbucks will eat you for breakfast, and surround your store with four of theirs.
Unless you have a totally unique product, the American small business owner is swimming in a cruel shark tank. And if the economy takes a turn for the worse, the large corporate chains eat the small businesses like fish food.
Sure, taxes are a problem and everyone hates them, but the true enemy of small business is the shark tank in which you are forced to swim. Blaming government regulations or taxes has become a bit of an overplayed cliche; government is always an easy target if you're looking to deflect blame.
RNR...
If you live in California then you are completely detached from reality.
Not sharks, but political piranhas who's collective nibbling force is eating away at the ability/opportunity of a man to make a living. They do it gradual like with policies that create fee's, taxes, senseless regulations, and burdensome fine's in every shape and form on those of us whose revenue they depend on. The irony is they will cause their own self destruction.
Small and large business are leaving this once great state in droves because of rudderless, incompetent, self absorbed political parasitic leadership. Unintelligent political ideologues educated in Kantian philosophy who's practice is to make people believe they have to suffer in this reality while living for a fantasy in another imaginative reality.
Government is the problem, and has always been a problem when it comes to pure capitalism, which, sadly enough is not our current system.
I agree that California is as fucked up as a bad case of polio.
But your post speaks more toward the larger issues that confront California, like the cost of living, crumbling infrastructure, the horrible public education system, their deficit, bankrupt municipalities, imploding pensions and retired firefighters/police officers that make $120,000/year.
If someone wants to start a small business, whether it's some sort of retail shop, nail saloon, restaurant or surfing supplies, I still maintain the biggest threat is an overly saturated, competitive environment - not the government. Bringing this back to the original debate, one's biggest threat is not the pollution tax, the utility tax, business permits or the excise tax, it's the five WalMarts within 10 miles, and a Starbucks and Yoshi's Nail Saloon on every street corner.
Excuse me RNR....Government is the primary interference in the competitveness business environment, because "The failure to differentiate between political and economic power allowed men to suppose that both were activities of the same order which could serve as a "check" on each other, that the "authority" of a businessman and the "authority" of a bureaucrat were interchangeable rivals for the same social function. Seeking "a government of laws, and not of men," the economy into the power of as arbitrary a government of men as any ditatorship could hope to establish." Ayn Rand "Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal pp 52
We are destroying our freedom in the name of protecting our freedom. Rand explains it perfectly, and she is absolutely right. This has been going on for decades.
She goes on...
"In the absence of any rational criteria of judgement, people attemted to judge the immensely complex issues of a free market by so superficial a standard as "big business." You hear it to this day: "big business,"big government", or "big labor" are denounced as threats to society, with no concern for the nature, source, or function of the "bigness," as if size as such were evil. This type of reasoning would mean that a "big" genius, like Edison, and a "big" gangster, like Stalin, were equal malefactors" one flooded the world with immeasurable values and the other with incalculable slaughter, but both did it on a very big scale. I doubt wheather anyone would care to equate these two-yet this is the precise difference between big business and big government. The sole means by which a government can grow big is physical force; the sole means by which a business can grow big, in a free economy, is productive achievement.....But the antitruest laws established exactly opposite conditions-and achieved the exact opposite of the results they had been intended to achieve."
Ayn Rand, indeed has it right...
"The concept of free competition enforced by law is a grotesque contradiction in terms. It means: forcing people to be free at the point of a gun. It means: protecting people’s freedom by the arbitrary rule of unanswerable bureaucratic edicts."
American freedom (Declaration of Independence/Constitution) has never been so threatened from the inside as it is today.
I found clarity on the reality of what's going on to date in reading her book. If you haven't read it perhaps it might help to understand a different perspective.
Forgot to add...Declaration of Independence/Constitution/Small/Large Business
There is a crowding out effect when the Government becomes the defacto lender to corporate America. Only people or businesses that don't really need a loan can get one. That whacks small businesses on the financing and demand side.
Now the crazy bastard in the Oval office has increased health care costs and is chomping at the bit to raise taxes, in FIVE months.
ALL this has happened very recently. Read more...
You feel so bad because you're just not with the program, man. Drink the Kool Aid, rest easy, listen to the MSM instead of all these whack jobs in the internet. Life is always depressing living on the fringe. LOL.
You are correct, Colonel, thanks for pointing that out. Dry bulk and containers tell two different stories, one is a leading indicator and the other a follower.