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Strategas On Why Our Entitlement Society Guarantees Much Higher Gold Prices
Courtesy of FMX Connect
GOLD: STILL A RODNEY DANGERFIELD ASSET
by Jason DeSena Trennert
“It just can’t be right,” said the 30-something hedge fund manager through a towel after a grueling 45 minutes on the squash courts of the New York Athletic Club.
“I mean, G. Gordon Liddy is trying to selling it to me on Fox News. My orthodontist owns gold -- he wears gold, for crying out loud. It just can’t be right,” he said, shaking his head, his voice trailing.
The case against gold is well-known and, until relatively recently, time-tested. The yellow metal is never ever really consumed, provides no yield, and carries with it storage costs. The polemic surrounding gold, like the inflation vs. deflation debate, is enough to result in bar fights in some sections of this grand city and it’s hard to find too many investors who are agnostic about it. You either see it as the barbarous relic of the retail crowd or a necessary hedge against the cupidity of politicians the world over. Despite the recent run-up in gold, it is, by our lights, too early to fade. There are now, unquestionably, elements of froth in the market that should give investors pause. But if there is one fact that is missed among investment sophisticates, it’s that investing in gold is still considered a hopeless backwater at most large mutual fund companies in this country. It is for this reason, that we believe that it is not yet over-owned.
I find a certain irony in the fact that I have two friends in the investment business who, after enjoying great success and fortune managing other peoples’ money in the 1980s and 1990s, have been, in their retirement, buying physical gold. They are unknown to each other and are different in many ways save for the fact that they were born in foreign lands – one in Armenia, the other in Cuba. They live in America, not by tradition or family ties, but by choice. Despite the fact that they so obviously believe in the great promise of this country, they have both come to the conclusion that they should hedge their hard-earned fortunes with hard assets. For them, their decision to own gold isn’t the result of some ethereal academic exercise, it is based on life experiences most people born in America couldn’t possibly understand.
While the hard asset story may seem tired and old to some in the investment business, it is just starting to capture the consciousness of many professional and retail investors alike who thought it was overly alarmist to believe the political class might seek to devalue its way out its own profligacy. This isn’t to say that we believe the Fed is intentionally trying to cheapen the dollar. We take the Chairman at his word that he is simply trying to decrease the tail risks associated with deflation. But intentional or not, the net result of further monetary accommodation is the same – weaker purchasing power of the greenback. Ultimately, we believe the crux of the case for gold is that it’s hard to quadruple the size of the Fed’s balance sheet and run budget deficits of nearly 10% of GDP and also stick the landing on inflation. However you might handicap the prospects of either a Reinhart-Rogoff style deflation or efforts to reflate that work too well, gold remains one of the best hedges against the volatility of inflation. In the past century, the asset “worked” in two distinct periods – the deflation of the 1930s and the inflation of the 1970s. Given the uncertainty of global monetary and fiscal policies today, there is probably still room for it to garner the respect it deserves.
THE SELF ESTEEM SOCIETY
Availing myself of the pleasures of commercial airline travel each week and frequently subjected to the sullen ennui of the cashiers at Duane Reade here in Manhattan, I had thought that I was well past the point at which the nerve endings of my dignity could register the slightest offense. That was until we decided to place postings for a variety of entry-level jobs in recent months and we started to receive cover letters from recent college graduates that would have made Donald Trump blush in their pomposity. “The question isn’t whether you should hire me,” started one, “it’s whether I’m going to want to work for you.” Another candidate made it clear that he was “a caged tiger waiting to enter the arena of the world of finance.” Subsequent interviews with candidates whose cover letters were the least obnoxious often didn’t go much better – and regardless of how little ego you may think you have, it’s hard to maintain your composure when a 22-year old kid expresses disgust at the fact that your company doesn’t possess green initiatives greater than recycling.
Of course, we are a small company and only four years old and our offices have a certain Eastern European DMV-vibe. There is no fish tank, no tragically beautiful receptionist. We know we’re not Goldman Sachs but we are, after all, offering these candidates the prospect of gainful employment and a paycheck which, one would presume, might engender some humility among the unemployed. Of course, most of us are idiots when we first leave college, often not nicked-up enough by the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune to understand how hard life is and how little to which others actually think we’re entitled. This all started to make sense to me upon reading a small squib in the paper about how American kids, when compared to their contemporaries in 29 other developed countries, ranked 25th in math, 21st in science, while ranking # 1 in only one category -- confidence. I started to think about my late father, as I often do in the quiet of long transcontinental flights. At his core, he was a sweet man with the heart and soul of a poet. But he was a man of different era in which there were no participation trophies. His code was based on the belief that self esteem had to be earned and he had zero tolerance for phonies or pretense of any kind. When confronted with those who had no appreciation for the great opportunities this country afforded, he could make The Great Santini look like Deepak Chopra. The transformation of a society in which prior generations prized an equality of opportunity to one that insists on an equality of outcome seems so much more important now, when the country is again faced with the need to make sacrifices to ensure its long-term fiscal viability and to compete with increasingly aggressive economic rivals. It is in this context that we should all be somewhat saddened by the reaction of those on both the right and the left to the recommendations of the President’s Commission on Fiscal Responsibility. Everyone recognizes that, despite our status as a reserve currency, the U.S. cannot sustainably spend far in excess of its means. But when it seems as if we all want the other guy to make the necessary sacrifices we reveal, in the process, our own, although more mature, sense of entitlement. This is, of course, not a uniquely American problem. One doesn’t know whether to laugh or cry at the spectacle of 17-year old French students protesting the fact that their retirement age needs to be extended from 60 to 62 in a country in which the average life expectancy is nearly 81 years old. But without political leadership designed to do the right thing regardless of the electoral consequences, it’s hard not to feel that the correlation between the West’s sense of entitlement and the price of gold will only grow.
By: Jason DeSena Trennert
Strategas Research Partners LLC
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The 'entitlement society' I'm most concerned with right now is JPM; how can you have an article on PMs without discussing the manipulation of their paper market?
Right on. It's the Wall Street entitlements over the last 3 years that's killed the economy. They've out entitlement-ed the poverty class. But the funemployment middle class has done OK.
When there is no one left actually working in the Atlas Schrugged world, I guess that's when things really get nasty.
JPM has been hammering silver longs like me recently. But according to the inventory report compiled by Harvey Organ, physical silver market seems extremely tight at the moment. Guess we will see huge upward movement in the coming weeks.
The problem JPM is having now is the monthly dollar cost averaging longs are doing into physical silver. If they lower the price, that much more silver comes out of the market.
i actually think entitlement is good. americans expect very little from their government and thats also what they get.
Actually we get a whole lot from our government but it's all bad. Funny though people still try to come here for opportunity thinking they can work hard and actually get what they earn. There is a whole class of folks that actually want to work hard and succeed or fail based on their own merits. There are still a noble few that feels better when they earn what they get instead of just relying on handouts. Not many left but still some.
Unfortunately, these people continually vote for kleptocratic assholes who use these noble intentions against them at every turn.
I question the accuracy of this statement. Maybe this minority is so small that the politicians they try to support get little or no showing in the polls? The last two elections Ron Paul has been pegged as lunatic. When you are faced with dwindling choices, everyone then has to resort to trying to pick from two evils, or not vote? Not voting, as a show of no confidence never has the desired effect in this country.
Candidates hope that a large portion of the population will not vote so they can count on their political base to catapult them to a win. I have seen many accusations that Americans "just don't care" or are to "lazy" or "unintelligent" to pick a competent candidate, but when a minority is faced with little options, other than out right revolt, the last resort is to vote based on your moral and ethical compass. When all the pigs are eating from the same trough your only hope is to pick the pig who isn't getting enough to eat. Maybe he will be more open to getting his food from another source?
I don't know about other but I spent a great deal of time writing my Congressman during the whole debate about health care. In all my 22 letters sent, I received 22 appeasement letters basically saying the same thing. Your ideas are under consideration. Bull crap!
It used to be when a majority of Americans we mad enough and sent a strong message to the government changes were made. Mostly in rhetoric, but it was at least an acknowledgement that the government got the message. Today politicians are so arrogant, even when a message is sent they find a way to spin it to their advantage.
What then are we to do? Wait till the world blows up and start over seems the only logical choice anymore. And that is just crazy!
Crazy but necessary. Changes aren't made until there is NO alternative. The last letter I wrote to a Congressman was back in the 1970s when I lived in California. There was a bill to "open up" the Muir Forest to shit like motorcycles, campers, and such. It was for the enjoyment of the people you understand. I got a 7 page form letter back essentially demonstrating why MY opinion was wrong. I wasn't writing him to ask his opinion. I was against the bill -- period. The last public hearing I went to was for the licensing of heating/air-conditioning contractors in my state. It quickly became apparent that the hearing was a formality, the bill's ink was already dry. The "hearing" was a statutory event required by the law. Our input was not to needed to integrate hundreds of man-years of experience. Our presence was merely to explain to us how it would impact our business. Fuck 'em -- all of 'em.
Did you do any time in Germany? Wideband and Satalite Communications here, Keesler AB 1990
I viewed your post below. Didn't want to get into that conversation.
I was at Keesler in 1969. Stationed at Shaw AFB, SC, 363rd Tactical Recon (training on EB-66) and then to Takhli AB, Thailand, 355th Tactical Fighter Wing (F-105, F-4), then to Castle AFB, CA, 93rd Bomb Wing (KC-135, B-52). I was in Thailand while we were "not bombing Cambodia". I learned my lesson about the veracity of government while there.
Well stated!
i will never understand, why would any student ever protest retirement age , when they are the biggest losers in the ponzi scam
Exactly. Their position presupposes that the same system will be in place when they retire... it will not. Hopefully this realization sinks in sooner rather than later.
Because the austerity imposed upon seniors go hand in hand with cuts to their own entitlements. The powers that be are very aware of your attitude and more than capable of dividing and conquering based on a lack of solidarity.
Ironic that we so easily lambast the Ponzi schemes of government, while overlooking their obvious analogs in the private sector (consider the current market as a South Sea bubble).
This ride has only just begun.
Who is more entitled than the TBTF's??
Wow! Have college indoctrinees come to this? Certainly they don't send such letters to GS or others do they? What can a 22 year old non military veteran offer? Book learnin ain't much use without experience; beyond that of kegsters and dope. Gold is good for hedging against disaster. As an investment it is a constant in/out/in situation. Honest stocks and bond are much better. Where are they?
I wouldn't anyone or even speak to them on the basis you have put forth. I'm sure you're father had the right idea.
You make it sound as if being a 22 year old military veteran has something more to offer. I don't think killing people is a marketable skill in a developed country.... yet.
Right, but for some reason, military vets are given priority for scarce jobs... I guess the presumption is they've already been broken so they'll capitulate to authority easier? Or that they cannot have gotten through the military without being able to carry a substantial workload? Both bases seem fairly... presumptuous.
Other than the patriotic angle, and the practical angle (disciplined)...
Gee, why on Earth would we want to keep a 22 year old who's proficent in killing occupied?
Oh, I get it. We train people to instinctively kill, which cannot possibly be overcome through any degree of discretion...
So I am supposed to be blackmailed now by this 22 year old to take more taxes out of my paycheck?
Your argument applies to all persons... since all people are capable of killing and/or harming others. I see no reason why a military man's idle hands should be any more dangerous than a modern day moonshine runner in the ozarks or a mexican gang member in arizona. Is he going to be calling in airstrikes now? Have the logistical support of food and water? Be able to be briefed on intelligence? Dangerous people lurk everywhere... and the days of the samurai are dead.
As a leader of those young kids joining the military, I very much disagree with you. You see the military isn't for everyone, the military gets to pick the top 50%, then mold the young troops. You have to succede in the real world with real consequences. Your failure you own.
Trusting a 19 year old with a 3K pair of NVGs, Top Secret information or a 40M airplane is a lot different than showing up for class.
There is no entitlement in the military. You either earn it, or you don't get it.
Yeah, not all Veterans are worth more, but the experience, track record? I would take a DD214 and Evaulations over a college degree.
That's just me though. Airborne!!
Ooohrah!
Mr. Zoogle, you have never been in the military or you'd know that all of them aren't assigned to kill people. I wasn't. My specialty was aircraft electronics, communications and counter-measures. The interesting part of that is that the whole experience of discipline and team training was the same for everyone up to the time that we disbursed to our respective technical schools. My tech school was a full year at Keesler AB. The education was intense and I promise that nobody fell asleep in class.
So Cramer bullish on gold is right?
File under Chicken, Blind.
I hate to sound like the old man Dana Carvey made famous saying "Back in my day we (fill in the blank) and we liked it". But it couldn't be more true. My own children have no idea what hungry really mean. They break or lose a toy, oh well we'll just by another one. My 9 year old complains that he's one of the only one's in class without a cell phone. I ask him who he needs to call? He doesn't have a clue but that doesn't stop him from continue to try to where us down. Of course this is the era where you can't discipline your child, you negotiate with them. Treat them as if they have equal voices as children. This progressive attitude is killing society. They play soccer and you don't keep score so no one loses or wins and everyone plays and everyone gets a trophy. So no one has to work harder to earn playing time. I could go on but I feel bad for my kids based on the society they will have to live in.
Interesting thanks. Its hard to build childrens characters, when you are going against all their academically trained educational nincompoops.
Your comments are spot on (sadly), and I agree with everything you are saying. However, I think this is all wonderful. I look at it this way: these are people that I (and my kids, eventually) don't have to compete with.
You don't want to keep score? Fine, I will, and I'm winning.
A 30yr-old hedge-fund manager with an orthodontist?
I think this was a thinly veiled reference to a masseuse with a grill.
Huggie Bear prides himself on assuaging the privacy concerns of his clientele.
Higher gold and silver prices? Gold and silver were pummelled down fiercely in the past week. I have no idea when $1500 for gold and $35 for silver will be seen. :(
If you are wavering, I would be happy to take your gold and silver off your hands.
I was just thinking this morning how lovely it would be to get back down to $20 in silver (or even lower!) so I could have another year to accumulate at low low prices. I doubt if I am going to get that opportunity. This is just another one of those higher lows we've been seeing. Just low enough to keep the "parabolic" talk at bay.
December is coming. Guess we'll see huge demand for physical silver. No idea whether JPM will be able to deliver enough silver since the market is said to be tight.
JPM will probably deliver fiat, not silver.
From Harvey Organ on the COMEX action Friday:
"Here is the scary stuff: the volume on the comex today estimated by the comex folk is 345,624 with an estimated 300,428 contracts traded in the front December month. For comparison on Thursday, the confirmed volume was also high at 207,199 with 178,483 in the front month. The estimated volume was 171,000 contracts so they revised it up by 21%
You can bet the farm that when the final numbers get published on Monday, the banking cartel threw in over 400,000 contracts. To give you an idea of how many gold ounces that represents you must multiply each contract by 100 oz. Thus the estimated volume of 345,624 represents 34,562,400 oz. If the real volume turns out to be 400,000 contracts that represents 40 million oz of gold. The world produces around 73 million oz so the estimated volume represents
47% of world annual production; If the real volume is 40 million then it represents 54% of world annual production. Our regulators seem content in letting these banks play (short) with unbacked gold and silver paper."
http://harveyorgan.blogspot.com/
In a Comex 'Exchange For Physical' settlement, the contract requirements can also be met with SLV shares. So JPM delivers SLV shares, they cant be redeemed in silver, so no bother to JPM.
"SLV shares"...Just what I want, more paper.
Like going to Safeway to buy a can of coffee and instead coming away with a piece of paper that says 'can of coffee' on it...see, the 'can of coffee' piece of paper works fine...till one trys to make real coffee of a morning.
No it can't.
Think about what your saying. "pummeled fiercely in the past week" yet gold is over 1350. That in and of itself is telling.
true PMs have been pummelled all the way up...
like a boiling kettle...
You must be new to the PM biz.
Such price swings that we saw in gold last week is nothing new. It has been that way for the past 10 years or more. It has been very predictable that gold gets pummelled shortly before options expiry. Gold tends to climb up steady and drops like an elevator. Experienced PM investors are quite conditioned to it.
Options expiry? Could you please recommend a site where I can learn more about buying PMs on options expiry. I'm a relative rookie to PMs. Thanks.
"I have no idea when $1500 for gold and $35 for silver will be seen. :("
I have an idea.
Though we are inside of a month and last week was disappointing, I'm sticking with $1500 by 12/10/10. $35 silver may take until Q1 2011, though.
Posts like the above always amaze me. The PMs are the only markets in the world where, anytime there's a 2-3% correction, the sky begins to fall. Stock indices and individual issues move in percentages all the time, yet no one seems to bother.
My WAG was $1,500 gold by 1-1-11. I like your call better...Merry Christmas!
We only need a 9-10% move from here to get to $1500 (my call since LAST Dec). Hardly outrageous considering these POMO numbers. I was roundly criticized over at Mish's board for suggesting such a thing at the end of last year with gold breaching $1200 at the time.
What's pissing me off is all the Dealers are now starting to JACK UP the premiums,when the demand is not there on Gold.Slvr I can see, easy call.When you go from $30.00, to a $80.00, over night, and no NEWS to back the moves,it sucks.Hate being gouged.
I have not heard of any shortages on Gold in the USA this year, except by the U S Mint.
Which is usually BS.
Anyone know creditable sources for physical at $40-50 range??
But if you listen to, and read the MSM propaganda, it is only the Progressives who have all the answers in their mantras of wealth redistribution, social justice. But what happens when the ratio of productive to non-productive citizens (now approx. 1:1) becomes even more skewed to the non-productive side?
When it becomes 2:l against the productive, it will be time for guns and ammo to go along with PMs.
U dont have to wait for a ration of 2 to 1, 1 to 1(plus a few) should be enough to spark a revoltion of the Real working class
I could have sworn it was already way over 2:1, when you factor in regulatory compliance and other "private" jobs created by the government.
I believe you should have been buying lead and throw systems before silver and gold...
I'm thinking of swapping by .270 winchester for a .22 long and .300 winchester as those are available in bulk.
Ammo guys: What are you using/storing/buying?
I would say pick them up in addition to, not as an either/or. Im guessing you are talking about a .300 WinMag, which is an excellent rifle but a brute to shoot. Great ballistics but a long day of practice is not alot of fun and can induce a wince which wills crew up your accuracy. Or did you mean .308?
Personally, Im doing 22 LR, .223, 7.62X39, and 9mm for stockpiling Im also going to be making up a bit of .30-06 soon just because I like it
.
"17-year old French students protesting the fact that their retirement age needs to be extended from 60 to 62" - Let them eat cake (fuking commies), seriously let them save up for their own retirement(give up a public pension, no social security taxes) and let them decide for them selves when they feel like retirering
Azannoth,
OT, Where in Germany are you located? I lived in the Mainz-Wiesbaden area for 84-91. My daughter was born there. What a lovely country!
I can tell you this, the roots of Mr. Tennert's disdain are obvious in my (overwhelmingly disappointing) MBA curriculum. We've spent more time apologizing for success than we have studying tried and true methods for success. Slow, steady, a little conservative? Nope. We gotta find the next green McGadget.
Education is wasted on the young, as are so many things. Make the buggers sweat and earn the finer things in life, such as retirement at an early age. As for les Francais, the govt has failed to incentivise them properly. Promise them a tax break for serial mistresses, and they'll work until they drop.
i'll work for free for one month . if i produce and get along put me on the payroll.
After the impending hyperiflation, you'll get that chance
When the unearned swagger finally goes away, then maybe the US can get back to the business of making things people need, rather than making things that cause need.
I often curse my lack of self confidence, but it is that same lack that causes me to wake up every day and work like I have never worked before.
Since buying gold at $600 and silver sub $10 ,ive heard "its in a bubble". Translation, my USD is
quickly becoming toilet paper, but I will feel better if I put down gold/silver.
Self Esteem Society indeed.
Great article.
I profoundly disagree
with the statement, "While the hard asset story may seem tired and old to some in the investment business." I manage high net-worth money and started telling the hard asset story in late 2008 and nearly two years later I remain one of the few advisors allocating "significant" allocations to hard assets. I find that most advisors are recommending immaterial allocations to hard assets. IMHO 10% allocations are hardly more than noise. Insitutional money is trapped in playing the relative performance game and by the time they are allowed to manage money for real returns, it may be too late.
I see a lot of money piling into farm land locally... people are flocking here and paying the highest prices ever paid by an additional 20%+ markup. The smart money is converting their money from the ether to real assets... even if they're nonproductive, they're still better and carry more potential than a FRN... some of them may convert well enough to have substantial fiefdoms... already starting to see the consolidation. (and if it's obvious enough for me to see, then it's been going on for a while and is already well progressed).
Hope you arent recommending GLD
For all my adult life, a recomended min for a portfolio was min 5%, 10% more desirable.
Now, the Gold dogs, are saying max 33%.Big jump huh.
Funny this article came out today, this weekend I was at a party, and got to speak to a friend that I had not had a chance to speak to in over a year.
We got into the issue of the election, and money.
He & his wife,just became American citizens less than 5yrs ago.They were born and raised in Brasil.
Having lived,being raised there, and not coming here until adults, their attitudes and opinions were almost 100% the same as mine as to where , and what was happening, and why.
They have lived it before,they SEE the life they fled,and the same systems coming.
Fiscal & political.Corruption run amok.
Regarding extending the French retirement age from 60 to 62 - this is one of the lies the media has been feeding. In fact, in France, from what I've read elsewhere, the normal retirement age is 65 andthe extenstion would be to 67 (as they are talking about doing here in the UK). A person in France can only retire at 60 if they have been FULLY employed for their working careers, so it doesn't by any means apply to everybody.
This is NOT to negate the fact that as we live longer, we ARE going to have to work longer - for me, I won't be able to afford to retire at 65!
DavidC
My guess is that this will not fix the problem because the expansion in the longevity of our lives is a direct result of the run-up in credit. As credit contracts, so too will our healthcare and ability to purchase healthier foods and, as a result, our lifespans will decrease... increasing the retirement age in an environment of decreasing lifespan is simply punitive and not any legitimate solution.
I'm not really sure why it's so hard for people to call it a fraud from the beginning, naive optimism at best, and that the system is bankrupt? That the nonproductive and the thieves will eventually ride the coattails of the productive into exhaustion.
Well their still snooty...
I tink the focus needs to be on the Gvt employees systems.
20yrs, full retirement and bennies, out.
Start another job,at around 40,another 20-25, maybe bennies, and damned sure a double dip.
Ok, they worked,but so have all the rest of Americans that work and retire at 62.5./65.
Yet, the SS folks get hammered,smell like shit to me.
Look at the USPS,until rather recently, the bennies and pay was great.Like the Union folks.They increase the costs of postage every year, and still manage to lose 2-8 billion a year.
Why hasn't this dinosaur been privatized?,say 60-180 billion in losses back?.
No Fed agencies ever die.........they are like parasites,and Obama is adding more and more every day. Where's the OUTRAGE?.
Unfortunately, the USPS is one of the few Govt services MANDATED by the Constitution (at least for 1st class letters) -- good luck privatizing it. Of course, the Supreme Court has been able to torture logic into justifying Medicare, so go figure.
I know a guy who retired from the Navy, went to work for the USPS and retired, went to work for the City and retired. He's getting 3 pensions + social security, medicare, etc.
He takes regular trips to Mexico for a few months each year, piddles with old cars in his garage, and chases women at the age of 75. He's been doing this for the last 12 years. Worked for me as a carpenter; what he did with the checks was his business but I filed the 1099s.
What a life!
I tink the focus needs to be on the Gvt employees systems.
20yrs, full retirement and bennies, out.
Start another job,at around 40,another 20-25, maybe bennies, and damned sure a double dip.
Ok, they worked,but so have all the rest of Americans that work and retire at 62.5./65.
Yet, the SS folks get hammered,smell like shit to me.
Look at the USPS,until rather recently, the bennies and pay was great.Like the Union folks.They increase the costs of postage every year, and still manage to lose 2-8 billion a year.
Why hasn't this dinosaur been privatized?,say 60-180 billion in losses back?.
No Fed agencies ever die.........they are like parasites,and Obama is adding more and more every day. Where's the OUTRAGE?.
My Wharton buddies are all Keynesian.
btw, which Dangerfield movie?:
"Wanna go out tonight?"
I've got class
"How about tomorrow night?"
I've got class
"Call me when you ain't got no class!"
My Self Esteem is measures in Gold and Silver I hold :)
again, "it's an interest rate story" not that it isn't a gold story either. relatively speaking thought they're missing the 800 lb gorilla. now how can anything i say be true or right if i think the greenback will do anything other than collapse? been chewing over that one this morning....
This article was a little light on gold analysis, but touches on bigger problems specifically, the downward spiral a fundamentally flawed education system creates. I don't blame the kids for those obnoxious remarks, I blame their teachers. While the author found those comments offensive, many HR managers wouldn't. Why? Because they think they understand what kind of personalities build successful companies. And again, it's what they were taught.
Instead of diligence, competance, humility and a spirit of cooperation, they're looking for alpha-dogs, and their theories are every bit as misguided as those of Jeremy Spiegel and Roger Ibbotson. So the secret to being thought of as one of our "best and brightest" is not understanding that in actuality you are just another charity case (General Electric seems to have perfected this reality disconnect).
So the hiring process becomes psychological profiling based on data which suggests that sociopaths build successful companies and as long as figuring out new and better ways to victimize others (instead of building better mouse traps) is the American way, we may as well condition our kids to be megalomaniacs.
I'm having my son put, "Hire me or I'm gonna bitch slap you!" at the top of his resume. He's applying at Goldman.
His best friend got hired on last year. His resume said, "Hire me and I'll be signing YOUR check by the end of the year!"
They don't call it the golden years for nothing. Get some.
Strategas,
If you are trying to hire, post a notice with three or four of the engineering or math departments of the major state universities in the midwest.
Interview a few people there and note how they approach the interview. They may know nothing about economics but they will be equipped and eager to learn.
To paraphrase a fictional American character who has become very popular:
Useful is as useful does.
+3 or 4. Engineering and math students who consider jobs in finance, etc., often encounter the same attitude that Strategas laments: "Given your lack of financial education, how could we possibly be expected to put up with you? You'll have to suck our asses now, devote every waking moment to us later, and hope you never piss off someone with superior intelligence, as evidenced by their good sense to get a degree we value, such as an MBA or Econ PhD"
Your receptionist may not be tragically beautiful, but your prose is!
Indeed. On the basis of the Hamlet suicide soliloquy plagiarism in the phrase "outrageous fortune." But, even after re-reading, I still do not see what self-esteem has to do with the bull market in PMs. The people I know accumulating gold and silver do not suffer from a self-entitlement problem. Maybe a pessimistic "doomsday" problem, but not a self-aggrandizement complex: unless we equate Mad Max with the ultimate in self-entitlement.
For them, their decision to own gold isn’t the result of some ethereal academic exercise, it is based on life experiences most people born in America couldn’t possibly understand.
We've been living in a 30+ year credit bubble, courtesy of the Fed. Working adults who grew up in the U.S. are still in the thrall of the "Don't Bet Against The Fed" paradigm. The paradigm is difficult to break. The process takes years. Those of us who broke out decades ago are amazed at those who are still believers in the Fed, fiat money, etc etc.
This is what happens when your friendly, local central bank limits gold ownership, and why the US Fed uses bullion bank shorting to supress prices, instead of banning PMs:
"
Vietnam central bank okays gold imports without limitIt seems to me that the real entitlements are tollbooth concessions on common property and de facto grants of monopolies. A bankster with two Rolls Royces is a hell of a lot more of a drain on society than a welfare mother with two Cadillacs.
Unearned wealth (read Credit), gives the bearer a disproportionate sense of entitlement.
It's happening everywhere.
Credit+Advertising = Entitlement Society
On a side note, notice the phrase "Credit Card".
In truth, it is a Debt Card. Shouldn't it be called that?
I think if more people saw that piece of plastic for what it is, a DEBT CARD, it might change something. Spending habits.
"Will that be cash or debt?".....
Someone with reach run the campaign? Re-languaging for change.
How many debt cards do you have?
ORI
http://aadivaahan.wordpress.com
Making "direct debit" cards something for the less-entitled.
Entitle me this, Batman ...
"The salaries of executives at private colleges reflect supply and demand. Institutions must offer competitive compensation packages to attract qualified leaders."
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704327704575614421154053434.html?mod=WSJ_article_MoreIn_Management
Utter rubbish. So those Colleges can turn out more kids who can barely use a photcopier ...
The buffoon doesn't know his ass from his elbow.
Entitlements aren't the problem. If you think so, you're a bigger fucking idiot than Bernanke. Guaran-fucking-teed you 'tard.
It's the MONETARY system. It's our floting rate monteary system. This is a crisis of the system. It's been breaking everything else IN THE SYSTEM, since the DAY it STARTED.
What's causing entitlements to 'appear unsustainable via monetary account ledgers'? The MONETARY system. (and how it's run....bailouts, derivatives, etc)
We're trying to balance monetary accounts while the fed is hyperinflating. Nothing done on the real gov't budget MATTERS. Let's cut the gov't to 0 spending whatsoever on the general welfare of this nation, and guess what, the system will suck all that up and still cry insovency.
Cancel the bailouts, cancel the derivatives, end the fed, switch to fixed exchange rates, and suddenly even the insolvent 'entitlements' will be anything but insolvent. Especially when you consider that they are in a dreadful state after all this time because of the moneatry system. Yet they are still solvent after the switchover and can be strenghtened to not appear as big warning flags.
People are fucking idiots.
A true american gov't NEVER needs to borrow for domestic purchases. Funny all the type of purchases needed for NAWAPA, Space program, Nuclear/Fusion programs, education. You didn't know that? Why of course, tis your monetary system brainwashing talking. (how about foreign purchases? HIGH PRICED LAND SALES)
Glass/Steagall
NAWAPA
Nuclear/Fusion
That's how you right the ship, and set the course.
Last I checked, starving, homelessness, healthcare, dignity, jobs are anything but 'self esteem' sophistry.
The reason you get dumbass cover letters is because our education system (not funded obviously) and these children propogandized all their lives into being what you wanted them to be, monetarists. Monetarists spout bs. They rely on sophistry and rigged games. Thus what you're getting are students that reflect WHAT YOU WANT. Don't like the mirror much I guess.
So this dumbass thinks that it's the entitlement society that made them think selfish and retarded? I thought Greed was good? (not really, but I'm trying to point the finger here)
Wasn't it also our 'we can't spend' on education. We have to focus on bs tests. We have to teach our children monetarism, and cronyism, not actual skills.
So guess what dumbass. Now after a few generations, they're reaping what they sowed, and blaming entitlements for it. Are you fucking serious?
But his generation forgot one thing, monetarism is not opportunity. Perhaps they shouldn't have spent their entire career pushing for the things that directly caused their problems. Now all the jobs are gone. The ladders up to the top burned from there. No way up now. Monetarism strikes again.
But...But...But...it's the entitlements. Yeah and Cowboys suck because Romo isn't in. Obama is a good president, it's just the people aren't serious. It's we didn't throw good money after bad, we just didn't throw enough of it.
The Catfood commission, is nothing but FASCISM. Let's pay for the bailouts, but not for the people.
How about....Pay for people, not bailouts.
Jason DeSena Trennert is a fucking fascist, and sadly he's too stupid to understand why.
The whole commission is a joke. It's been planned for years. To get THIS sort of budget cutting (which won't do shit except for needlessly kill tons of people), and their retarded joke of an economy will still never benefit them again, because it will all still collapse.
Where's your hitler mustache?
"Everybody recognizes that"
Let me fix that for you -dumbass
"Everbody's brainwashed into recognizing that"
(also remember here is the time where your mother said, if everybody thought jumping off a cliff was fun....)
THere you go fucking fascist pig.
Oh wait, your dumbass hasn't seen what Fascist Arnie did to cauliflower, and each time, making 'difficult' decisions, his state (because of the cuts) just got worse. He's made huge cuts every year, and did you see what happened again this year? The biggest deficit of them ALL. AFTER doing what this guy says 'everybody knows'. No, you're a fucking dumbass turd, who deserves to work for minimum wage the rest of your life.
That and we realize you don't know shit. Why? Because cut all entitlements to 0, and your fucking fasicst hitler plan, STILL WON'T WORK....and you can see that from decades away.
Unless your a dumbass, monetarist, fascist, whore. WHich you are. Everbody recognizes THAT.
This guy is a fucking fool, and if you agree with him, you are too. THOSE ARE THE FACTS, and they ARE IRREFUTABLE.
Just like Rand Paul and Barack Obama are two peas in this same pod with you. Fascist whores.
Could be you got no junks because nobody read your comment.
If they had any balls they'd get a credit card and use that leverage to start their own hedgefund!
The Author states: "One doesn’t know whether to laugh or cry at the spectacle of 17-year old French students protesting the fact that their retirement age needs to be extended from 60 to 62 ..."
This is the American mass media view of the situation. Greedy people.
In France the real fight is over corruption in government. Sarkozy is the least liked leader ever and is implicated in many pay-off schemes with L'Oreal etc. (http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/embarrassment-for-sarkozy...). Billionaires in Europe are getting richer and the middle class is getting shafted.
Sounds like the United States!
For those in Hong Kong, Tom Holland at SCMP recently demonstrated his complete lack of understanding about the purpose of a gold standard:
"Deep deflation the downside of gold standard's discipline"
(Tom Holland, Nov 15 2010, SCMP)
So what he is basically telling the SCMP readers is that unless you can increase the monely supply by say...an unspecified larger amount...maybe at least 3-5 percent per year there will be "severe limits" to economic growth. Instead of asking ourselves why the benefits of growth should go to those who are indebted rather than those who save, he is saying that rising prices equals growth - while most ordinary people (correctly) believe that when things (commodities, etc) are cheap, there is greater societal wealth. Further he demonstrates that he has no concept whatsoever of the efficiency frontier and the inherent tradeoff that must be made between consuming and investing, or the sustainability and composition of the growth, and whether it is credit-driven or not.
To "demonstrate" that gold does not promote price stability, he goes on to denominate the wheat price in gold over the past four years. (Talk about cherry picking) and concludes that, since the USD price of wheat was more stable than the gold-measured price, gold sucks as a price stability anchor.
Anyone that prices X in Y and then measures the volatility of this ratio (X/Y) to assert that Y cannot be used to price X should get a mental health check. An equally ridiculous statement would be "the price of beaver measured in sea shells is more volatile than the price of beaver, so sea shells suck as a price anchor". This assumes that the price of beaver itself was measured in a stable unit to begin with and that there were no other factor affecting the beaver price (such as export restrictions, population growth).
Following this lapse readers then get the deflation horror argument served:
I just cannot see how the average person could defer their purchases of food for their own consumption if prices were falling. After all, food demand cannot be postponed and the item is perishable. In particular, why should it be more difficult to sell wheat when the price is low. Also, no mentioning that it strictly doesn't matter if those same business lower nominal wages if nominal prices fall more, as this also improves purchasing power. It also seems that savers and general currency holders should not have any say, rather, the debt burden must be reduced, whoever holds it and no matter why it came into existence.
Please do note, this is not a minor publication but the largest English news paper in Hong Kong and has high credibility in the Hong Kong and greater China business community.
I tested your thesis this afternoon at the post office. Asked the lady in front of me how much her beaver was. It's gonna take a while for this eye to regain its color.
I'm sorry to read that, I should have clarified that the example was referring to the rodent variety.
You could however try to test the hypothesis indirectly by asking a sea shell collector how many shells they would sacrifice for various goods and services.
LOL, "tragically beautiful receptionist!"
+10
But also for the rest of the article I couldn't agree more.