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The Real Unemployment Scandal?
Discussing the latest US jobs report, Greg Ip of The Economist comments on jobless agonistes:
Hopes
had risen in the past week that America’s economic soft patch was
ending. They have just been doused with a bucket of cold water. The job
market showed further deterioration
in June from May, the government reported today. The number of
non-farm jobs rose a meager 18,000, lower even than May’s 25,000 number
(itself revised down from the original estimate). The two months
together mark a dramatic deceleration from the previous three when
payroll growth averaged 215,000 per month.
The unemployment rate,
meanwhile, rose for the fourth consecutive month to 9.2%, from 9.1% in
May. It was 8.8% in March. The economic recovery celebrated (if you
could call it that) its second anniversary on July 1st, and in that
time the unemployment rate has moved a lot while ending up almost
exactly where it began. America has made almost no progress closing the
output gap opened up by the recession. The
U-6 unemployment rate, which includes people who have given up looking
for jobs and part timers who want full time work, shot up to 16.2%
from 15.8% and the average duration of unemployment hit a new high of
39.9 weeks. More women than men lost jobs. Indeed, since the recovery began, women have fared worse than men, a reversal of the pattern during the recession, as a new Pew study documents. Still, the male unemployment rate rose more last month than the female rate.
Digging
deeper, the details grow worse. Hourly wages failed to rise and the
average work week shrank slightly—bad news for income and thus
purchasing power. The survey of households, from which the unemployment
rate is drawn, shows a much bigger plunge in employment, at 445,000,
than the payroll survey. The household survey is less reliable but is
still a useful check. It tells us the payroll report is not understating
the strength of the job market.
There is no good news in this
report; in the category of "could have been worse," private sector job
growth was better than the overall total, at 57,000 last month. Public
employment fell, for the eighth consecutive month, led by more layoffs
by state and local governments.
The best explanation for the sharp
slowdown in the jobs market is the confluence of bad luck that hit the
economy this spring: a sharp increase in petrol prices, a series of
natural disasters, and the Japanese tsunami and earthquake that
interrupted supply chains in electronics, automobiles and other
industries. Most of these temporary restraints have begun to lift. The
weather is back to normal, petrol prices are down 10% (nearly 40 cents
per gallon) from their peak, and Japan’s disruptions are ending.
Automobile production schedules are ramping up and the Institute of
Supply Management found that factory activity improved from May to June.
Manufacturing employment rose last month, albeit by only 6,000. Even
Greece seems, yet again, to have muddled through its latest confidence
crisis (but keep your eyes on much bigger Italy).
In all
likelihood, the employment data will improve in coming months as
consumer purchasing power and business spirits recover from the fuel
price surge. Yet as we argue in an article
in this week’s issue of The Economist, there is more to the
disappointing trajectory of the recovery than these temporary
restraints. America has only just begun
to deleverage and a McKinsey study has found that comparable episodes
in history have been accompanied by anemic growth and often a return to
recession. While America probably won’t fall back into
recession absent some new shock, its workers should get used to
stop-start growth punctuated with disappointments and soft patches.
Americans are not alone in this; Britain has experienced similar
disappointments and Spain’s outlook is even more anemic. Both share
America’s pre-existing condition of vastly overstretched household
balance sheets and the opportunistic infection of exploding government
debt.
While most of Europe is ahead of America in implementing
plans to arrest the rise in government debt as a share of GDP, America
is just beginning. In Washington, the mood surrounding negotiations
over an increase in the statutory debt limit took a turn for the better
this week as Republicans signaled flexibility on taxes and the
Democrats did likewise on entitlements. This may be good news
politically but it is ambiguous, and possibly bad, economically, if the
final deal front-loads, rather than back-loads, the pain. The steady
bleed of public sector jobs shows state and local government austerity
is already weighing heavily. Federal fiscal policy is scheduled to
tighten in January when a temporary investment tax credit and payroll
tax cut expire. Layering on more austerity would pummel an economy
still struggling to achieve a virtuous circle of jobs, income and
spending. Mr Obama is reportedly pushing to extend the payroll tax cut
for another year. That would be good, but that would not represent new
stimulus, merely a softening of the fiscal restraint already in train.
And
what about the Federal Reserve? Its second round of quantitative
easing (QE) was completed at the end of June. The consensus is that it
would have to see deflation looming to implement more. I think the bar
is lower than that. Ben Bernanke, the
Fed chairman, has always worried that rising unemployment could spark a
pernicious cycle of declining confidence and spending. If its recent
rise continues into the third quarter, expect to see Wall Street raise
the odds on QE3. It’s too soon to write the recovery off, but not too soon for contingency planning.
I'd
say the odds of another QE3 were slim prior to the latest jobs report
and they now stand at 50-50. If employment growth doesn't pick up
significantly over the next few months, QE3 is a done deal, and Wall
Street will celebrate by bidding up risk assets.
The real
structural problem in the US labor market is that there are really two
economies since the early 80s: the financial economy made up of bankers,
traders and money managers on Wall Street and the real economy made of
manufacturers but mostly of small businesses. The latter are struggling
while the former keep enjoying record bonuses. Nothing is trickling
down, and even if it is, it's so minute that it doesn't make a
difference. Even cash rich corporations are in no hurry to hire because
they're producing more with less and they've got no confidence that this
is a sustainable recovery.
And as TomDispatch associate editor Andy Kroll
points out, for all the verbiage about jobs that will be coming your
way, there’s one part of the American jobs crisis deserving screaming
headlines that the politicians won’t be talking about, the 60-year unemployment scandal:
Live in Washington long enough and you'll hear someone mention "east of the river." That's
D.C.'s version of "the other side of the tracks," the place friends
warn against visiting late at night or on your own. It's home to
District Wards 7 and 8, neighborhoods with a long, rich history. Once
known as Uniontown, Anacostia was one of the District's first suburbs;
Frederick Douglass, nicknamed the "Sage of Anacostia," once lived there, as did the poet Ezra Pound and singer Marvin Gaye. Today the area's unemployment rate is officially nearly 20%. District-wide, it’s 9.8%, a figure that drops as low as 3.6% in the whiter, more affluent northwestern suburbs.
D.C.'s divide is America's writ large. Nationwide, the unemployment rate for black workers at 16.2% is almost double the 9.1% rate for the rest of the population. And it's twice the 8% white jobless rate.
The
size of those numbers can, in part, be chalked up to the current jobs
crisis in which black workers are being decimated. According to Duke
University public policy expert William Darity, that means blacks are
"the last to be hired in a good economy, and when there's a downturn,
they're the first to be released."
That may account for the
soaring numbers of unemployed African Americans, but not the yawning
chasm between the black and white employment rates, which is no
artifact of the present moment. It's a problem that spans generations,
goes remarkably unnoticed, and condemns millions of black Americans to a
life of scraping by. That unerring, unchanging gap between white and
black employment figures goes back at least 60 years. It should be a
scandal, but whether on Capitol Hill or in the media it gets remarkably
little attention. Ever.
Indeed, nobody wants
to talk about the shockingly high unemployment rate among black
Americans because they've been largely written off. I'll tell you about
another scandal that nobody talks about, the unemployment rate of
disabled persons which is closer to 85%, and that's being generous.
I
take the rights of disabled people very seriously partly because I have
MS and it makes me extremely angry at how prejudiced employers are
towards disabled persons. One trader recently sent me an email telling
me the following:
no
offense, but that MS will likely be the preventing factor to your
being hired (large orgs fear large disability expense, small orgs can
ill afford any absence) - I know two guys with health issues (a guy who
is a cancer survivor with diabetes, another had a liver transplant)
and group benefits/life-insurance are a factor in them staying in
sub-optimal jobs....plus they save/invest like fiends since they are
parents with abbreviated life/mortality expectations
I wasn't offended at all and told him he's right, most organizations --
private corporations, federally chartered banks and even government Crown
corporations and government departments -- will treat people with a
serious preexisting condition as a liability (one day, I will expose
these organizations and their discriminatory practices). This is why I
decided to teach myself to be completely self-sufficient, focusing on
trading stocks, consulting and business ventures where I control my own destiny. No more sucking up to
anyone for a job! If you don't want to hire me because I have MS, that's your problem and I don't want to work for you!
Importantly,
my MS doesn't control me; I am feeling better than ever and will beat
this bloody disease because I'm the toughest SOB you'll ever meet. MS or no MS, I'll take on the world!
But that's not the case for many who are much worse off than I am and
can't fend for themselves. Many disabled are stuck collecting disability
insurance, living in poverty, all because they are ostracized
from a shallow society who only sees them as a liability. That's the
real unemployment scandal and anyone who thinks otherwise is an utter
fool who's never walked in their shoes and felt the stinging pain of
blatant discrimination.
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It's best to remove one self from the city now.
I too have seen the Indian Reservation and the Mexican Lands. The spirit of the people carry on and makes me ashamed of the riches we have at home and all for what? Wasted as one spins the lily in the spring time instead of plowing for the winter grain we will need.
More and more I have watched and learned from the Amish, who to this day have certainly resisted the technology and the changes among the "English" We have much to learn. And one day, we will need to use those new found skills to build a new nation among the ashes and charred remains of the old.
I was struck with how downbeat your article is today considering your previous articles... I truly send my best wishes to you and your family...
As for your medical issues... We all suffer from something Leo, some faster than others. I prefer to keep my personal health issues a very private matter (even from my own family), but I understand why some, including yourself, feel otherwise. I genuinely smiled when I read your "I'll beat this" comment as in the early days I thought similarly. Deep down, though, I have always have known I can never "beat" anything, but do my best to push the window out long enough to see the ones I love grow up and help them get where they need to be. If I can at least achieve this goal, I will definitely smile on my last day.
In life, I make the best decisions I can with the current medical science can deliver. For me, though, I feel lucky in that I have a better idea than most when I will be done. I know it sounds odd to most, but for that I truly feel blessed...
There are days it must rain. Even I have medical issues. I have alluded to them otherwise in prior posts over the last year or so.
Since I have awakened, I know that my own life matters little if I don't lead and set an example of how well one can live with such enduring of limitations, cancer and other medical/finaincial issues that surely must break those who are made of weaker consitution. (Not the Consistution, the own self structure of mind, body and outlook on life.)
The very best we have to offer is to smile and grasp the hand of the person who is falling and help him or her carry on for a mile or so while the rain pours. Thus we all will succeed. Otherwise we must fail.
I make every effort to accomodate those who are not doing well and are even awed by those who must truly be bedridden, but somehow by sheer grit, gumption and stubborness stay out and do what they want when they want the way they want to.
Freedom must be so sweet when one is free. Regardless of whatever chains we allow to rest upon our shoulders.
It is an amazing state of national affairs. As a developed nation
- we are the most obese.
- have one of the worst pre college education systems
- have the most children being born into poverty
- have the greatest separation of wealth.
- have one of the highest levels of (public+private) debt as a percent of GDP.
- etc.
I'm now of the opinion that the sooner we start rebuilding something better the sooner the next generation will be spared more pain.
Constitutional convention anyone? Time to "refresh the tree of liberty"?
- we are the most obese.
We have allowed this to happen. No Gym in school and no activies outside playing.
- have one of the worst pre college education systems
The no child left behind act ties money to the schools test results, therefore the students are trained on the test prior to taking it. And we allowed it to happen.
- have the most children being born into poverty
Not the most, they simply drive themselves into further proverty because of cell phones, credit cards, student loans etc. Choking off thier own future free from debt before getting out of college, if at all. We allowed colleges to build bigger buildings and add stuff and so on.
- have the greatest separation of wealth.
Wealth is not just money. Wealth is also the skills and abilities plus desire to work. We have simply coddled a new generation into expecting a college diploma and a life of ease never lifting a finger in the labor. We have allowed that to happen.
- have one of the highest levels of (public+private) debt as a percent of GDP.
It is our own fault for taking on this debt. Our Government has failed to act since the Carter Administration. Therefore since we are the government, we too have failed. It is easier for a third world uneducated person to live in the dirt making chicken for dinner (Which requires killing, butchering, plucking etc) than it is for any American to buy a box, nuke it and eat it. Because we dont allow ourselves the luxury of time or freedom to do such a normal thing without choking food down quickly because of work etc.
- etc.
Thanks for sharing Leo, my hat is off to you.
Somehow I feel that we enslave those on welfare to a life on welfare by continually extending benefits.
There needs to be a way of pushing/forcing those who can be employed, albiet possibly/probably in another field, to expand their search. Hunger (I have been there) is a great motivator--not the best, but good. We could start by limiting food stamps to only vegetables, meat and dairy/soy (i.e., no soft drinks, chips, smokes or candy).
I get so furious seeing interviews of people on welfare and government assisted living with a plasma TV in the background complaining about how they wouldn't go back to work because they wouldn't be as well off (paying all those nasty taxes and deductions and losing the food stamps and rent assistance).
Don't get me wrong, there are real hardship cases and temporary dislocation cases that we should always support. But the welfare leaches need to be cut off or all true welfare is at risk.
The left pushed too far this time, real change is coming, and it is always unpleasant.
@clagr: "Don't get me wrong, there are real hardship cases and temporary dislocation cases that we should always support. But the welfare leaches need to be cut off or all true welfare is at risk."
Agreed, cut the welfare leaches off and make sure these programs support those that need it the most.
I hope you also get furious at seeing Jamie Dimond and hundreds of other bankers living in mansions funded directly by taxpayer bailouts and direct money injections from the Fed. The idea that a few welfare queens watching big screen TVs is the root problem in this country is laughable. The vast majority of social benefits go to old people who would literally die if they did not receive the benefits back from the programs they paid into their whole lives (SS, Medicare). Far more money flies directly out of our Treasury to the banks. I'm all in favor of cutting off the Welfare Queens, just so long as we're properly defining that class to include most of Wall Street.
Also, I agree with your comments on all of the other welfare groups.
"The vast majority of social benefits go to old people who would literally die if they did not receive the benefits back from the programs they paid into their whole lives (SS, Medicare)."
Seniors are the wealthiest age group of any. SS and Medicare are Ponzi schemes. The average medicare recipient gets three times what they paid in. The argument that its their money would work better if they didn't demand getting three times what they paid in. The federal government is not contractually obligated to pay out anything in either one of these programs, even if there was anything left in the funds (there is not, its all been spent). Thats what you get for trusting the government for retirement. Seniors can cry me a river. They had their entire lives to learn about the program they were betting on for easy living in retirement. It is sad most seniors dont even realize its a ponzi, most probably don't even know what that word means. Never trust the promises from your government. Ignorance is bliss until it hits you up side the head with a 2x4 made of mathematical truths. However, I do hope that when medicare falls apart we as free non coerced men and women can step in and help the seniors who have not financially planned for the inevitable.
P.S. And the Military Industrial Complex too. Biggest welfare queen next to Goldman Sachs and Citi. Cut 'em all off from the taxpayer teat and watch your taxes get cut in half while our economy flourishes.
I am junking you for your reference to the Military/Industrial complex.
It is the one thing that has carried America from the days of Powder and Ball near Philadelpha in the Colonial times to through World War two as the Arsenal of Democracy, without which the free world must surely perish.
And yes the complex accomodated the Blind to make parachutes (Sense of touch), the deaf in the foundary and factory areas with LOUD machines and the sick to jobs that are absolutely necessary but rather dangerous so that the Able bodied can be sent to war.
I look upon this Nation today, we are supposidely at war. Yet I see nothing of the sort. The stories of ABC Ration cards, the crushing restrictions on Civilians so that the Military and Industry will keep moving as well as other considerations to retain our strength as a Nation.
We have seems to lost thats.
However, Anyone who still goes into a Recruit Office or down to Marine Boot Camp and willingly volunteer to shed the crap that they have encrusted on them and become some of our best and brighest makes a tear to my eye even today.
As long we have that, America must surely somehow get through this too.
Some people simply take great, huge pleasure in killing living things, even their fellow human beings. Tommy Franks admits such in bio. Read it and see.
The military is one of the favorite playgrounds for such people. I absolutely hate that people desire to join the military. I want it abolished. This nation will likely end like they all do, and we won't soon have any need to argue about this. The love of killing is one of the things speeding us to our end.
Glorifying members of the military is one of the worst practices of Americans. War and killing is one of our highest sacraments.
+ 10
Re: I am junking you for your reference to the Military/Industrial complex.
Funny how a centrally controlled monopoly like Big-MIC is worshiped, but other forms of socialism are derided as "weakening the moral fiber of the recipients". Big-Mic is nothing but more corporate welfare. No different than Big-Ag (agra-biz), Big-Road (Developers), Big-Water (more developers), Big-Airport, Big-Ed, Big-AntiDrug, Big-FIRE, Big-PoliceState.
The US lost the 2nd world war when Big-MIC was allowed to become the first perpetually funded socialist scam in the US. Ironic that Big-Mic turned us into the USSR.
Socialism is socialism, even if makes cool exploding toys. Socialism is nothing more the politicians allocating capital to their buddies. Big-MIC is the cancer that killed Representative Government in the US.
And ironically, most of the leaders of Big-MIC and the others proclaim themselves to be free market capitalists who decry redistribution of wealth. Dick Cheney comes to mind.
Re: And ironically, most of the leaders of Big-MIC and the others proclaim themselves to be free market capitalists who decry redistribution of wealth. Dick Cheney comes to mind.
Everybody loves the socialism that made them richer or more powerful. (It's for our children's future!).
Big-MIC was one of the first ones. The US became the "richest" country on the planet because of ever increasing debt supplied to the likes of Big-MIC. Socialism works great until everybody wants in on the scams or the debt runs dry. Too bad it had to happen in my life-time.
I understand and agree with your sentiment, but only part way. Most of what the military does today is simply maintain our bloated empire and open up new drilling opportunities for major oil companies (e.g., Iraq, where the majors were all locked out before we took out Saddam). The complex exists to fund itself, and has long ago passed beyond what is necessary to protect our borders. We could spend probably 1/10th as much and be perfectly safe. Of course the corporate propanda machine tells us daily that we need to spend more than every nation on earth combined to be safe, but of course they say that. They make their money building weapons or supporting those who do.
Ok, I will meet you halfway. I don't claim that the Factory down the road in Arkansas building MLRS Artillery systems is any purer than the volunteer who joined.
I will say I agree with you regarding Iraq. All I saw was the daily no fly activity while the US Government had access to everything else out of Public view. That must be my fault to allow such a thing.
A Nation in the millions is much harder to control than a few Patriots who are awake and need action.
All the whining about this group not getting hired---the black, the infirm, the homosensuals, the men in an all woman company, the women in an all male company, or dept., and on and on and on, are ridiculous.
The fact of the matter---the real problem, sine qua non of the issue, the crux, the central overriding theme to all those complaints mask the Real problem:
There isn't enough work to do for all the people in the world, the countries, the states, the cities and towns.
But for the push across the frontiers in the early years of the founding of this mishmash, this potpouri, this ever-growing pastiche called America, the availability of jobs, careers, and meaningful well-compensated work has always been anemic.
Now it is accelerating as the technocrats have succeeded in first outsourcing and downsizing their human work forces and now IBM has robots in the wings awaiting another reduction of hundreds of millions more jobs.
The only difference between an unemployed You, and the unemployed-to-come is timing and---in your case and other further unfortunate others damned with a perceived dysfunctional health issue---is their current good health.
The "WHAT DO WE DO WITH ALL THESE HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS
OF HEALTHY AND UNHEALTHY PEOPLE???"
Malthus wasn't all that far off. His only mistake was not so much the food shortage as what to do with billions of people with nothing to do all day.
And that's where we are now. And it will only continue to get worse until entire industries are created on a wholesale basis to sop up the burgeoning people problems.
Any economist who has seen a growth in employment anytime in the last 10 years and forecasts a reduction in the ranks of the unemployed (instead of the reverse-a sustained increase) in the future isn't worth a sou.
The egyptians built pyramids.
I agree. This is true nature of "animal spirits", act II is when those out of work rebel. This does not go quietly into the night.
Hear, hear. It won't be too long before the machines handle the circle jerk charade that is the capital markets pretty much on their own. A lot of self-righteous "investors" are gonna be shit outta luck. What they're bitching like banshees about today--their disadvantaged/disabled position vis a vis TPTB--is just the beginning.
Sucking up to TPTB by shitting on your "lessers" may keep you going for a while, but the ending is already written--and we ain't in it.
Anony, It is the Frontier which furthers the freedoms.
If memory serves, I think it was down in the Tennessee/Carolina Frontiers on the hollows and mountain sides where the Colonial Government did not have control. There was commerce and trade in large quanitiy untaxed and unfettered by over excessive government control.
I like to consider the Internet, a sort of today's Frontier.
Hey Leo you were predicting a boom?
I said markets will continue to grind higher and I maintain that opinion. I don't see the end of the world in 2012, far from it, it will be much better than 2011.
You think it will be better based upon?
A hope. The thing with feathers.
It is an election year. The voter is once again, like Charlie Brown, persuaded that the football will not be taken away by Lucy at the last second.
Leo, I am sorry if you suffer from MS. The reality is what ADA and affirmative action have done with disabled workers. They come to work demanding this and demanding that like little children. Often in the past, they got their way. Now employers are not forced to hire them, so they do not. If you want improvements in areas like this, straighten the laws to be fair.
I tell you this. There are employers who will find ways to avoid hiring a ADA, court or not.
The Government is the only employer I know of who will bend over backwards to accomodate a ADA worker. Otherwise, break the chains of your disabilities and move forwards.
I have had my hearing questioned many times while trucking. I essentially told these people to fuck off and let me drive that load where it needs to go. I did have one manager stand up to me and explain the previous deaf driver and what happened. I told him to his face and eyes that person does not adequate represent the handicaps of a person who wishes to be free and work as a equal with others unnoticed in the convoy.
We both learned something from each other that day. I moved on to be one of his top drivers in the fleet. As far as I know, I have retained that status even when the company was finally closed down due to age and retirement.
Hot damn I did good, ADA not needed.
But boy, it's a damn sight long time between the limitations of the 60's with deaf mutes not driving at all to one leading a convoy with vital national defense material on board recently.
Back to young people. It's a strong youth with a clear eye that is needed behind the wheel. After a certain age and amount of wear tear and other injuries accumulated, you need to step out from behind the wheel and start managing a fleet.
@HungrySeagull, Your story resonated with me in two different ways, thus my response: I had a relative in the trucking business; self-employed as many are. Rules/regulations became too burdensome and he eventually shut it down...he died early at age 39 with thyroid cancer. He used to say trucking was for the young and agile (I guess he was an "old" soul early on).
Very close friend of my family was a gunner in WWII; totally deaf in both ears and has been since he was 40...he's now 92 and sharp as a tact; every few weeks or so he has to "mail" his hearing aids to the VA for repair or batteries or something. He never complains about anything, and if I hadn't seen the hearing devices in both of his ears, I wouldn't have known to speak louder and clearer upon meeting him.
Good luck to you!
I have a uncle who hauled in the Red Ball for Patton. Gasoline was his specialty in jerry cans. 300 on a duece designed for 150. He made it through the war well enough. Despite every effort by the Boche to eliminate him with extreme predijuice.
His family line traces all the way to Colonial Times. Some of the stories still remain in memory but not so much anymore.
I knew my time to stop was coming when I brought a convoy out of the Cabbage in Oregon. It took us about 9 hours in the accumulating snows and ice barefoot (No chain, no time...) As far as I know no one got hurt and I handed it off to number two when we hit the high flats.
So solly Leo. Those jobs for the disabled and blacks were sent to China by the financiers.
indeed SoZ and the manufacturing engines of America are being compromised to the point that Leo is making.....The impoverishment of western society, and liberal policy makes sure blacks and the disabled get hit first.
Thank God conservative Randers are there to help the blacks and disabled and protect them from liberals. It is also truly sad that the "manufacturing engines of America" left due to liberals. And here I thought that a bunch of very greedy CEO's figured out that they could increase profit margin by hiring slave labor in China. Thank you for showing me the light with your well considered and logically compelling post.
"In all likelihood, the employment data will improve in coming months as consumer purchasing power and business spirits recover from the fuel price surge. "
What planet is this author from? Last summer gas was $2.50 a gallon here, now it's $3.60 and rising. How can purchasing power be "recovering" from that? Idjit.
As for QE3, why not? QE1 , 2 and Lite did nothing for the economy but raise prices and debase the dollar, a little bit more should do wonders as well.
*Snorts Purchasing power my ass.
Silver (For me) and Gold (For the fortunate few) will be the purchasing power preservation.
I see this "logic" every day, things are still bad so what we did to recover did no good.
The truth is, it is very difficult to offset 700 TRILLION in derivatives. That fact is we, so far, have avoided a meltdown of historic proportions. We can still see the volcano, we can still see the advancing meltdown. Everyone is trying to get a ride out of town. Some hope the barriers will slow the lava down enough to cool. The mansions on the hill think they are safe.
Old,
This $700T number, as reported by BIS is the gross amount, not net. You need to take about 2% of this number to arrive at real net exposure. Still - 2% of $700T is $14T, a number equal to our GDP.
Therefore, when SHTF, we have $14T at risk, and I cannot imagine any of the players surviving it. The Wall Street will be nuked, or we bail these suckers again, and the dollar goes to zero.
Actually, old geez, they used the QE monies to MOVE the mansions up onto the hillside, hoping that would save them. It won't.
The illuminated mansions will serve to better guide the hordes on the day of trouble. I am certain that they have thought very little of that.
I think a Mayor somewhere recently struggled to erect a man high wall around his corner home, was it in LA or what?
LA Mayor, Villagairosa (sp).
he runs his sprinklers all night, every night, during alternate day water rationing,
so he needs the protection from the DWP.
I hope to be several states away at least. It's not the thunder and flows, it's the ash that will fall for weeks I fear.
What is really sad is that the MSM has all but convinced the masses that our economic woes are the result of too much "socialism," as opposed to the crony capitalism and decimation of the middle class which is the real culprit. It has become fashionable to advocate for the outright elimination of every social safety net in the name of "personal responsibility," code for "screw 'em all if they are weaker than me. What's mine is mine and what's yours is mine."
What is really sad is that the MSM has all but convinced the masses that our economic woes are the result of too much "socialism," as opposed to the crony capitalism and decimation of the middle class which is the real culprit.
The two go hand in hand to affect the latter. It's the crony capitalists at the top and the bottom 50% (who pay no Federal taxes, by they way) that have decimated the middle classes.
The ultimate shit sandwich, with the bread being sandwiched between two slices of shit.
+5
"The real structural problem in the US labor market is that there are really two economies since the early 80s: the financial economy made up of bankers, traders and money managers on Wall Street and the real economy made of manufacturers but mostly of small businesses."
Yep the disparity of these two economies is exactly right! What's tragic is the later are the engines that run America and the so called sophisticated elite liberal financiers have put sugar in the gas tanks.
No our troubles are the result of folks like you who have absolutely no fucking clue what the fuck they are talking about...
Our problems are the DIRECT FUCKING RESULT of taking too much money from Peter to pay Paul while Frank the bitch bureaucrat takes his cut from the top. The social safety net is a fucking MORAL hazard...we have created a bunch of asshole bitches who run around begging for the latest hand out that came from the involuntary theft of resources from those of us who DON'T sit around on our asses singing woe is me. You saw the result of this in New Orleans when the "social safety net" broke and those corrupted inviduals had no fucking clue how to take care of themselves...except to steal as much as possible as quickly as possible.
All you "social safety net" pricks are assholes who love taking my money at the point of a gun being held by Frank The Bitch Bureaucrat.
I think Pierre should look in the mirror, "absolutely no ==== clue".
For 25 years an excess fee was charged on all individual work, SS contributions, trillions were stolen. Now the contributors are maligned. Like blaming a soldier for trying to take a machine nest getting blood on the General as he gave up his life.
Freud summed it up. The anal retentive have mental problems.