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Thanks for the Invitation Mr Geithner, But You Forgot to Mention Which Planet You’re On
Tim Geithner recently wrote an Op-Ed piece in the New York Times titled, "Welcome to the Recovery."
The title sort of says it all, but
just by skimming over it my immediate conclusion is that Mr. Geithner is
either outright insane or a total liar. Neither of those are welcome
realizations, though I doubt they are news to anyone with a working
brain. However, for the sake of manners, I'll simply assume Mr Geithner
is outright insane, in which case I am indeed, quite honored to be
invited to his recovery... I only wish he'd mentioned the planet where
it was taking place.
Let’s have a look at some data points on Earth, courtesy of the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
|
|
June 2009 |
June 2010 |
Change |
|
Civilian Labor Force |
154. 7 million |
153.7 million |
-1 million |
|
People Employed |
140 million |
139.1 million |
-900,000 |
|
People Unemployed |
14.7 million |
14.6 million |
-100,000 |
|
People Out of the Workforce |
80.8 million |
83.9 million |
+3.1 million |
|
People working part-time for economic reasons |
8.9 million |
8.6 million |
-300,000 |
|
Discouraged Workers |
793,000 |
1.2 million |
+407,000 |
|
People unemployed 27 weeks of greater |
4.4 million |
6.7 million |
2.3 million |
Ok, you could possibly see something
along the lines of improvement if you focused solely on the number of
unemployed people, which has dropped 100,000 in the last year. Moreover,
the number of people working part-time for economic reasons has dropped
by 300,000. That’s not bad… so we must be in a recovery right?
WRONG.
These are the only data points that
show any improvement. To get the word “recovery” out of this, means
ignoring a whole slew of data that is downright ugly including:
- The 900,000 who stopped being employed in the last year
- The 3.1 million people who somehow mysteriously vanished from the workforce but are not unemployed (?!?!)
- The 2.3 million MORE people who have been unemployed for more than 27 weeks
- The 407,000 more people who have simply given up even looking for a job because they don’t think they could find one.
Hard to find the word “recovery” from
that mess. “Disaster” or “soon to be disaster when the unemployment
benefits run out” seem more fitting descriptions. But then again, I am
suffering the handicap of being on earth. Perhaps things are better on
Mars?
It’s not as though the rest of the economic data looks much better. The following data points range from “not as bad but still bad” on the positive side to “absolutely horrendous” on the negative side.
|
Data Point |
2009 |
2010 |
Change |
|
Food Stamp Usage |
June 2009: 34.4 million |
June 2010: 40.8 million |
+6.4 million |
|
Mortgages underwater |
1Q09 15.20 million |
1Q10 14.75 million |
-450,000 |
|
Personal bankruptcies |
YTD ’09: 802,000 |
YTD ’10: 908,000 |
+106,000 |
|
Mass Layoffs (layoffs of 50 or more people at a time) |
2,519 |
1,861 |
-658 |
|
Foreclosure filings |
1.75 million 1H09 |
1H10: 1.9 million |
+150,000 |
Well, the number of mortgages
underwater has dropped off. That’s largely due to the fact home prices
bounced a bit year over year courtesy of the tax credits. But the jump
in foreclosure filings, and personal bankruptcies shows doesn’t exactly
spell economic strength. As for food stamp usage… no comment needed.
I don’t know about you, but I fully
intend to take Mr Geithner up on his welcome invitation to the recovery.
I only wish he’d tell me what planet it’s taking place on so I can move
there, cause it sure ain’t earth.
Graham Summers
Ps. To join me for more FREE market analysis and research, including several FREE special reports explaining the upcoming crisis in stocks... go to www.gainspainscapital.com
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Ned, he already has a job working for Fraud Street.
Yeah, but he has a "deferred comp" plan that needs to kick in sooner or later - as soon as he crosses back over to his true employer's pay.
Planet? Hell it's obvious he's in a different solar system. I suspect Vogsphere.
Replace all occurrences of Geithner with Obama for an accurate read of WH propoganda. Geithner is the Executive Branch parrot.
Launching the "Summer Recovery Tour" ? Timmay
should stay in the bus.
Same BS crossing the pond: Trichet yesterday, recovery stengthening
'outlook uncertain', (EU 1Q: +0,2, Unemplyment stable as
the Euro statisticians put it )
Planet Jackson Hole !
Awesome post!
I heard the original title of Timmay's piece was, "Welcome to my Nightmare."
...Or maybe Turbo's trying to show us that he can do sarcasm too.
I don't think Pinnochio (Timmy) needs Xanax. For him and his cronies, the status of their personal net worths are sure to be recovering quite nicely.
Didju all hear the latest about Timmah's job's been lined up for when he graduates from Treasury?
NYSE has offered him the head tour guide and bell ring boy position. Lucky fuck.
Geithner resides on planet Skittles'n'PinkUnicorns. These people are either abandoning the Thugocracy or munching Xanax by the fistful at this point.
People can talk about rosy Q/E to infinity all they like, its all folding in on itself big time.
The recovery begins at ten to six at Bishops gate (don't be late) on the big rock candy mountain in the land of Honah Lee. You need a yellow submarine to get there though.
prescription medications paid for by the taxpayer should be a matter of public record, don't ya think?
They are doing everything they can to try and sell this recovery for one very important reason. The natives are becoming more and more restless, their guns are loaded, and they are getting to the point where they have nothing to lose. This regimes main concern, and don't kid yourself, is CIVIL UNREST.
Right you are Boomer. And good ole Uncle Sam has a plan in place to squelch the unruly natives. It's called Operation Garden Plot, put into existence during the 60's civil unrests and is a clean, cold sequence of steps our government will take to quiet the masses. Begins in a gentle fashion and progresses to a shoot and kill the bastards mentality. google it. Then go practice your snipe skills at 100 yards.
Yes.
And the mantra is...
One Banker, One Lamppost.
One Politician, One Lamppost.
Probably sooner than they think.
Boomer thats right, they know its a powderkeg, the people are pissed off as hell and all it will take is a bit of a spark to set it off. Theyre very worried and know behind this wall of BS from the lapdog media is BIG trouble brewing.
Pissed off Americans (and world citizens) should consider joining us in line at the ATMs on Thursday August 12 to pull out $500 (or your local currency).
This will send a signal that a vanguard is rapidly forming that can ACT.
Let's DO this. It will not bring any banks down or anything, but "they" will get the message.
I absolutely love this idea.. I am in. Call it the paper wave.
Can you loan me about $475 bucks so i'll have enough to draw out the $500? :)
+1 'cept I need $495.
Actually, I would not be the Least bit surprised if that brought some banks down.
Sadly, it would be smaller banks, in communities with a higher percentage of aware residents. Those banks' assets would then be handed off by FDIC to larger banks, with less net commitment to those communities. Thus punishing entirely the wrong demographic.
Irony rules the universe.
Look, can someone please just list the 6 or 8 major banks that benefitted from the bailouts. That way these would obviously be the banks upon which to act. Of course this would NOT be targeted at the local and small independent banks..... that would be counterproductive as you have pointed out so astutely.
It seems irrational that somebody would maintain an account in one of the TBTF banks who benefitted from the bailouts and try to bring that bank down by drawing some cash from that same account.
If someone is really pissed off at the TBTF banks(as most of us rightfully are), why would he keep his savings deposited in one of their accounts?
Doesn't make any sense.
Couldn't agree more. There is some real psychopathology there, that's for sure.
Criminals like tim are often both insane AND dishnest
tisk, tisk, tisk. How could you be soooo racist and dare, I say dare, refute the one's economy?
Wow.
Well I'm glad things are so much better in New York. I guess nothing else matters and no one else reads their shitty newspaper of lies.
The sick truth is that things are much better for everyone but citizens, small business, medium business and those not on gov't subsidies.
I love it when magicians talk up their their own tricks.
Wake me when the magic is over and the parasitic leech state known as New York is done sucking the giant mammary gland the rest of us taxpayers are trying to hold up (California and Illinois excluded).
Incidently, I wonder what happened to that "Mission Accomplished" banner that W-Fu**face used to buffalo the masses... that and a flight suit usually instills leagues of confidence. Maybe a big check, and publishers clearinghouse showing up at Lloyd Buttfuck's door would make the same point...
That Mission Accomplished was directed towards the crew(s) of the carrier battle group as they returned from a deployment, their mission accomplished. The nutjob media turned it into something else entirely, whereas a mission strictly refers to a limited task within a much larger undertaking. Bush was very clear the overall effort in these parts of the world would amount to a "long war". Note that we are still engaged in it, and far from done. Note that the British spent around 200 years in India transforming that part of the world. They skipped that effort in the middle east, which is easy to see on the ground over there. Monstrous backwardness from end to end.
Damn media, yeah, it's always the media's fault.
Of course Bush and his advisers didn't think for a second that standing on a US Vessel in front of a "mission accomplished" banner with the worldwide media ready to retransmit that picture could possibly "send the wrong message".
Oh and I love your rationalization of the Iraqi invasion and the comparison with British imperialism in India. At least with people like you it's pretty clear American imperialism has still a long way to go...
I suppose you still have difficulties understanding the difference between "National Defense" and "Imperialism" and you probably claim to be an ardent defender of the constitution...
NY Post from 8/4:
"You can't walk down the street these days without tripping over a millionaire
The Big Apple -- call it the Golden Apple -- and its suburbs are home to 667,200 millionaires, more than any region in the country.
That's 18.7 percent more than two years ago..."
That's why I left two years ago...
Excuse me then for living in a NY suburb, marrying a college graduate, staying married, working for 27 years, saving the max in my 401K all along, and becoming a (just) millionaire. I am glad you left so that you won't trip over me.
You know, everyone in NY is not an overpaid bankster.... this class warfare stuff is crap.
Not quite bullshit. I am a graduate of Columbia '89, MA from Fordham as well. I count among my former peers many "titans of commerce." I could have chosen the path of my peers but did not. The point being that in NYC of my youth (70's and 80's) one could "honorably opt out" and follow a path not driven by winner take all financial dictates. When I left my 225 square foot East Village studio was over $1,000/month. Try to do that working in a book store, for a non-profit or record store. Even selling wine retail which is a lot of what I did. The radical skewing of rents to the high end is what drives people out. In the past there were "lines drawn." The rich ignored us and lived in their UES enclaves, etc. Those who wanted to do something beyond maximize earnings lived in Chelsea (a total pit), SoHo (a total pit) or Washington Heights, what have you. Now it's a dingy in the middle of the East River or join the zero sum game or bust. Think of it as an "ecosystem," you want to sell NYC as a hub of creativity and imaginative funkiness you can't price those people out. Nor laud an Olive Garden in Times Square. You can't have it both ways, keep NYC "unique" and sell out its uniqueness to feed the profit machine. Class warfare is crap. Well, until it is not. I am born and raised Manhattanite. I've seen it all over the years. When the system implodes I will be first in line to return to my birth home. I don't mind bums pissing in the vestibule and erratic garbage pickup. Or waiting 30 minutes for the damn F train. If it allows my "class" of people to return and thrive. 'Nuff said.
"citizens"?!?!?
We're now known as "consumers", we stopped being "citizens" loooong time ago.
Consumers is the new word for subjects.
Correction, honorable sir, that's Zombie ConsumerTard.
Yay! Neo-liberalism triumphs! Actually, was never meant to triumph for all just for the bankster/CIA/FED crew. Research it before you junk, dumbos!!