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Wal Mart CEO: "Shoppers Are Running Out Of Money"; There Is "No Sign Of A Recovery"
When a month ago the CEO of Wal Mart Americas told the world to "prepare for serious inflation", the Chairman laughed in his face, saying it was nothing a 15 minutes Treasury Call sell order can't fix (granted net of a few billions in commissions for JPM). 4 weeks later the Chairman is no longer laughing, having been forced to hike up his inflation expectations while trimming (not for the last time) his economic outlook. "U.S. consumers face "serious" inflation in the months ahead for
clothing, food and other products, the head of Wal-Mart's U.S.
operations warned Wednesday talking to USA Today.
And if Wal-Mart which is at the very bottom of commoditized consumer
retail, and at the very peak of avoiding reexporting of US inflation by
way of China is concerned, it may be time to panic, or at least cancel
those plane tickets to Zimbabwe, which is soon coming to us." In light of that perhaps today's words of caution from Wal Mart CEO Mike Duke will be taken a tad more seriously (yes, even with the $50 billion in "squatters rent" that the deadbeats spend on iPads instead of paying their mortgage: that money is rapidly ending). Warning is as follows: "Wal-Mart's core shoppers are running out of money much faster than a
year ago due to rising gasoline prices, and the retail giant is worried. "We're seeing core consumers under a lot of pressure," Duke said at an event in New York. "There's no doubt that rising fuel prices are having an impact." Tell that to Printocchio please.
From Money:
Wal-Mart shoppers, many of whom live paycheck to paycheck, typically shop in bulk at the beginning of the month when their paychecks come in.
Lately, they're "running out of money" at a faster clip, he said.
"Purchases are really dropping off by the end of the month even more than last year," Duke said. "This end-of-month [purchases] cycle is growing to be a concern.
Also remember that long-running joke from the NBER short bus that the recession ended in late 2009? Turns out they were just kidding, as well as blatantly lying.
Wal-Mart which averages 140 million shoppers weekly to its stores in the United States, is considered a barometer of the health of the consumer and the economy.
To that end, Duke said he's not seeing signs of a recovery yet.
With food prices rising, Duke said Wal-Mart is charging customers more for some fresh groceries while reducing prices on other merchandise such as electronics.
Wal-Mart has struggled with seven straight quarters of sales declines in its stores.
Here's an idea: how about we let someone with actual business experience, who runs the one company employing more people than even the Federal Reserve, Mike Duke, control US monetary policy for a few months and see what happens? Surely it can't get worse than what that other insane sociopath is doing, as with each passing day we are now moving closer and closer to a hyperstaglfationary conclusion, and even the collective cheerleading crew of Cottonelle bearing monkeys, half of whom were reading "Monetary Policy for TV Reporters" (just two steps down below idiots), from yesterday's FOMC conference are finally starting to realize this.
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"With food prices rising, Duke said Wal-Mart is charging customers more for some fresh groceries while reducing prices on other merchandise such as electronics."
Hedonic regression bitchez. No inflation.
Mr Dudley! Mr. Dudley? Those iPads are getting even cheaper. Would you like yours plain, or perhaps smeared with a little mustard?
Wal Mart CEO Mike Duke knows more about the US economy and its trend than all government statisticians and academia professors combined together. Furthermore, he runs one of the most successful businesses in America.
Finally, Mike Duke does not take his marching orders from the Rothschild criminal family who runs the FED, the Obama administration, the Wall-Street, and the Congress. These people are ruining America.
It is the time for change regardless of lying and phony promises of our politicians. Changes will come, do not have any doubts in it. Politicians will not like it but, at some juncture, people do not give a shit about politicians any more.
How the fuck do you know who he takes his marching orders from?
Food price is high but you can eat iPad instead.
The Dukester lives in Arkansas, and there's too many swine in that state--I believe 3 times the human population--for any of the usual conspirators to step anywhere inside the boundaries.
lol
I BUY DOG FOOD AT WALMART, AND PRICES ARE UP 25% FROM LAST YEAR.
WHAT SHOULD I DO?
Not sure about the dog food, but I'd recommend that you locate your CAPS LOCK key ASAP.
TROLL!
Texas Gunslinger-
Congratulations on your new Trolling Handle.
I am sooo sorry for your troubles as of late. I know it can be difficult when you stick to your top-calling pm bashing nonsense so fervently, and the market continually jams a silver strap-on up your culo. :-(
Unfortunately, the majority of the ZH community is pretty intelligent, ( as evidenced by the amount of PM bulls), and won't buy into your little games.
Please log back in under MathMan, RoboTroll, dangertime, and let us know how much ass your kicking with the SLV put options.
Sincerely,
Hugh
WHO ARE YOU?
WHY ARE YOU ATTACKING ME?
THIS CONVERSATION ISN'T EVEN ABOUT SILVER, AND I'VE NEVER PARTICIPATED IN A SILVER DISCUSSION. YOU ARE CONFUSING ME WITH SOMEONE ELSE! I JUST JOINED THIS SITE LAST NIGHT!
I OWN SILVER, AND THINK IT WILL GO MUCH HIGHER. AND I OPENLY ADMIT THAT I DON'T UNDERSTAND PUTS OR HOW TO TRADE THEM.
AGAIN, WHY ARE YOU ATTACKING ME?
Turn off your caps lock, please. Use all caps in short bursts for emphasis. When you type in all caps it reads as though you are yelling.
There have been a large number of trolls who have been beaten up by others as well as myself, and cowardly slink away and come back with a new username. Your name is very "theme-y", which has been a hallmark of these guys.
Take off the caps lock, and we can have a good discussion. If you turn out to be one of them, watch out, because you will be publicly humiliated on a massive scale.
You are being attacked because of your inability to properly use the caps-lock key
Ok. Sorry about the caps lock.
No you joined 5 days ago not last night. http://www.zerohedge.com/users/texas-gunslinger
This was your first post. http://www.zerohedge.com/article/how-comex-lost-20-its-registered-silver-one-week-or-where-theres-smoke-run-theres-probably-r#comment-1214953
by Texas Gunslinger
on Thu, 04/28/2011 - 02:34
#1214953
Hi ya'll.
This is my first post at Zero Hedge, and I just wanted to tip my hat and say hello.
I've been reading this website for the past few months (my coin dealer referred me here), and have really learned a lot about silver, gold and all the evil of the Federal Reserve. I've probably learned more here in the past two months, than I did during all my years of high school.
I decided to join, so I could ask questions and keep learning. You guys seem really smart (except the trolls!), so I hope I can learn from everyone. By the way, I hope I don't get attacked by trolls. I see the way they always try to harass everyone with opposite opinions, and it just sucks.
I'm just a simple man trying to learn what happened to my country, and what I can do to get her back to the days before Obummer and his socialist agenda. I'm mad. I'm armed, and ain't no one going to take my country, especially an African.
ok...so anyway, that's that.
God bless, and god bless the USA.
When you guys switch shifts on the VM do you not keep notes on how the personality acts? Oh well maybe the software isn't that great yet. You should think about upgrading or something.
That explains it all. An ignoramus somehow googled up ZH and got "enlightened" by a bunch of similarly deranged idiots. This must either be a pretty funny setup, which I admire and find hillarious, or a real "forever alone" reetard. What are you "armed" with? CAPS LOCK? ha ha ha ha
trackin a texan down. . .
ha!
A dog makes a fine meal.
Chihuahua's are mostly dark meat.
Mess with my dog and I wil erase your gene pool, with a smile.
For some reason that Mel Gibson quote was stuck in my head yesterday.
You may be able to find a slaughterhouse in your area (cattle-producing area) and buy scraps at deep discount. That is what people did before canned dog food came along.
WOW!
THAT IS A GREAT IDEA!
THERE IS A SLAUGHTERHOUSE 40 MILES AWAY, AND I NEVER THOUGHT OF THAT! I KNOW THE SON OF THE OWNER, SO I'M SURE I CAN GET SOME KICKIN' SCRAPS! MAYBE I CAN SELL SOME SCRAPS TO THE LOCAL WALMART TO HELP REDUCE COST-IMPUTS, OR WHATEVER.
MY DOGS WILL GO CRAZY!!!!
THANK YOU!
Don't Trolls usually scavenge for shit mushrooms?
We know damn well your dogs subsist on liver flavored peanut butter, licked from the hanging wizard sleeve asshole of yours.
Jeezum crow, take it easy man, you could take him at his word. Have you taken acid?
never taken acid. Have you read all his posts since he first started yesterday? Funny how several trolls vanish as SLV jumps $2-$3, everyone gets phantom junked, and then this clown appears.
That would be the 2nd coincidence yesterday. The first being Ma0bama coming out with his sham longform photoshopped BC right before Bernanke has the first ever FED press conference. Or like how $2.3T vanished from the pentagon the day before Sept. 11.
"When in doubt there is no doubt" Ronin
Listen, man, this guy may/may not be blowing smoke on the PM front, but here, he's just a dude from Texas trying to feed his dogs in a crappy, inflationary economy. I'd like to think that this place is about survival strategies, no?? Instead of hyper-hyper aggro trading nonsense? The pigfuckers are in Lower Manhattan and N.W. D.C., not on this forum.
I felt the same way about a dancer at Stars... I was SURE she liked me. Turned out she was just a hooker.
You were right, the guy's a doof, but at least his dogs don't have to suffer for it.
Well, just keep the scraps for your own use, since Wal-Mart doesn't make the dog food itself. You could put them into big plastic paint pails with lids, pop 'em in a deep freezer, and thaw at the beginning of the week for Fido. Liver, hearts, sweetbreads (pancreas), various other bits are really good for dogs. You could also mix the meat, after cutting, with cooked cornmeal.
Make friends with an equine undertaker.
sell the dog
curried with rice is my advice.
Eat cat food?
Nice.
Ol'Roy!
Get a smaller dog.
Does not take marching orders from the criminal Rothschilds? Very dangerous -he may be dead soon. You're right -these groups are ruining america.
The groups running America are so secret you have no idea who they really are. You want my guess? Shao Lin Priests. Why them? Because they seem so unlikely.
Oh please... Spare me.
Wal-Mart is a mega-giant monolith monopoly trading firm that is no different than the old E. India Trading Company... It delivers between 30%-50% of the entire U.S. consumption of products (trinkets, doodads, and worthless ephemera really) -- 98% of which is either manufactured overseas or produced by other global monopolies.
It, along with the "Rotschild criminal bankers" have singlehandedly destroyed small businesses and it's just as responsible for the ever-increasing sprawl of our suburban wastelands. It governs an entire global production system focused on (over) consumption of resources and with a byproduct of incredible waste. Remember Black Friday and the videos of the morbidly obese FrankenFood Wal Mart shoppers virtually murdering one another to get their hands on the "deals"? What a fucking disgrace that was... And our corporate-owned media treats it all as entertainment. Hah-hah... Look at these crazy, poor sons of bitches going ape shit for their HDTV's and Skeechers.
It has redefined monopoly from a horizontal competitive plane (Wal-Mart vs. Target for instance) to a vertical competitive plane -- Wal Mart competes with all the folks under its power (workers, suppliers and customers).
It gives consumers the illusion of "choice", yet its gazillions of products are themselves manufactured and owned by a small handful of global monopolistic suppliers. Want to buy some toothpaste at Wal-Mart? 80 percent of that market is controlled by Procter & Gamble (including seemingly independent "health" brands like Tom's of Maine.)
Pick up a six pack of beer? Tsingtao, Corona, Beck's, "independent" microbrews like Redhook? All owned by Anheuser Busch, MillerCoors, or InBev.
The same is true for Campbell's, Frito Lay, etc. Consumers think that these big box monstrosities offer them "choices". What they are getting are simply different flavors of Soylent Green manufactured and marketed by similar global monopolies.
The production of virtually every product we buy today has been concentrated into the hands of global monopolies. Then it's sold to us in fucktastically enormous warehouses by other global monopolies.
And... It most certainly IS in concert with the Rotschild criminal family. What do you think the "ever lower prices" is all about. It's about squeezing producers and manufacturers margins to the breaking point to satisfy Wal-Mart's Wall Street financiers. It's about creating mega-monopolies on a global scale to benefit shit piles like Blankfein, et. al.
I'm as hard core capitalist as anyone... Folks, this isn't capitalism. This is giant corporations and their bankster overlords working in conjunction with the government to destroy competition by tilting the scale in ways large and small to roll up their competitors, destroy small business, make us all hopeless low-wage serfs, and create a dependent consumer culture who will buy all of this crap on credit.
Walmart is quite different from the E. India Trading Company. You might note that Walmart has neither an army, nor a navy, and has never participated in a war.
Just being big doesn't mean you are evil. They have done a very good job of driving down prices, and have thus allowed the people in the United States to live a comfortable life for much longer than would have been possible without them. Some might say that is bad, but, for one, am thankful for the extra time I have to accumulate silver thanks to them. They have done a few nasty things, like endorsing new regulations on industry, but for the most part, they have been a free market paragon in a sea of fascism.
You are mistaken if you think Wal Mart got as big as they are due to "best practices" or any such thing. Frankly, it's just not possible. They stand as the single biggest threat to small business that has ever existed. Like someone else said, they are about equal with the Fed when it comes to integrity.
they have been a free market paragon in a sea of fascism.
bwahahaha
+1
+1, stated far better then I could
by nedwardkellyon Thu, 04/28/2011 - 14:45
#1217087
+1
I guess you never heard of market consolidation and economies of scale.
What ever happened to the Itty Bitty Machine Company? Destroyed by the big boys. Who were in turn destroyed by the bigger boys.
Wal-Mart's competitive advantages are (1) its efficient centralized distribution system & (2) its ability to whore vendors heavily subsidized by the US government.
every tax is regressive. the inflation tax is eating away at its customer's disposable incomes, especially since a good portion of these folks depend on a very static $3 trillion in transfers from government. the effect on oil is destroying their #1 competitive advantage & putting price pressure on their vendors who, even in agriculture, rely on oil.
i wouldn't cry a single tear for Wal-Mart. i don't believe they are villans, but i don't appreciate nor respect petro-chemical based & dependent food. this is not the evolution of a free society. it's the de-evolution of a controlled economy.
This is an extremely fair criticism.
We use far too much iron. It is unnatural.
....and, you forgot to mention the fact that they are trying mightily to get into the banking business here in the good old USA, like they already have in Mexico and a few other 3rd world countries.
For years, I have been saying that "bigness" is killing America, and in many parts of the country, we are just about dead. Big retail, big banks, big government....all know only one thing -- get bigger. Growth for growth's sake & choke the life out of anything in the way. It feeds on itself, and is eventually too big to control.
I have been watching Wa-Mart for over 30 years as it radiated out of Bentonville. It is a highly predatory animal; an extremely efficient killer of local businesses and usurper of the tax base.
The People of Walmart - Hot Girls 2010
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSieRJY7Dsg&feature=related
Completely agree. Unchecked M&A game becomes a liability to society at large, when it gets to a certain critical level. But how do you combat "big monopoly"? We used to break up monopolies like AT&T. Nowadays, monstrosities like ATT buy Comcast AND T-mobile, controlling horizontals and verticals. Somehow the big government approach seems to be failing, as monopolist financed lobbyists effectively control legislation, and thus themselves become controllers of the big government. The capital had taken over the democracy, injected its greed into the political machinery, where it never belonged.
You think someone like Duke will suddenly be able to 'fix' things? Walmart is just as bad as the banks, the politicians etc.
Why? Minimum wage at walmart (or anywhere that pays minimum wage) is not a liveable wage, the difference between what it costs to live and what walmart pays is a cost that is borne by somebody. Who do you think that is?
You can qualify for food stamps, and other welfare on minimum wage. Another way to look at it is that taxpayers subsidize walmarts employment costs.
What is the point of a minimum wage if it's not liveable? Take away the welfare net and watch how many people would be willing to work at walmart for minimum wage. You'd end up with riots. Maybe change.
Walmart lobbies pretty hard for the maintenance of the system.
Agreed. The people championing Walmart here for their great business sense can fuck right on off.
indeed, Walmart is embedded in "the system," hand in glove.
WallyWorld hires minimum wage "crew members" that must agree to accept any hours within the 2 week pay period - at 24hour SuperStores that might vary between day shifts & night shifts, and the hours awarded can vary between 10hours weekly to 24hours, with zero guarantee of enough hours to "plan" the weekly budget on - always carefully allocating just under the amount of hours where they have to pay mandatory state "benefits" (which vary from state to state) like offering health insurance, paid time off, etc. - in fact, WalMart used to have handouts with their new employee paperwork that advised how to apply for FOOD STAMPS, gov't. health care, etc. - because their "business model" included gov't "subsidy". . . there are plenty of eye opening documentaries & websites that tell the truths about this corporation, and they're not pretty. . .
I remember a few years back there were 4 or 5 members of the Walton family in the Forbes top ten billionare list. . . guess that's the point, hmmm. . .
LOL Smear it with some cake frosting and put on it, "Courtesy of Chairman Bernanke."
Running out of money is generally not considered inflationary.
Ah, but inflation refers to the over all money supply, not any one individual's.
Besides, you run out of money sooner due to inflation, as your dollars have to compete with all of the new ones for the same amount of goods and services (as do the manufacturers, which causes their input costs to rise).
"you run out of money sooner due to inflation,"
...and aint that a bitch?
Max Payne, meet Charmin Bernank
Stagflation bitchez!
Ditto.
YUP!
Amen
Sustained inflation requires that individuals have money. Overall money supply in the form of bank reserves is sky high, but unless they start handing out dollar bills to people, all the Fed is doing is bringing on deflation quicker and more painfully. Margins get more and more squeezed as companies have to pay more and more and sell for less because all of us are broke.
Sustained inflation requires that individuals have money.
true
America is being stripped of its savings
yes, what little there was.
OT -
Does this mean AIG will be suing Goldman & JP Morgan?
04-28 12:35: AIG (AIG) sues money managers for fraud, may target larger firmsAre you a crack baby?
This is a sideshow for the next round of record bonuses.
"All your money are belong to us." -- Fag Street Stealers
Not necessarily. Your are discounting Currency devaluation. Currently we are in a state of stagflation where prices for non-discretionary are rising, while wages are stagnate. Low income people will be priced out of the market and will need to downsize and off set there income with petty theft to make ends meet.
There is a significant probability that China will start dumping its US currency reserves and stockpile resources (metals, Lumber, agraculture), and energy to convert paper dollars into tangable assets. The dollar will slowly loose its reserve currency status as countries begin to settle trades in other currencies. Lost of the dollar's value will be felt abroad causing further turmoil (not just in the Middle east and Africa) but will spread to Europe, Asia, and South America, since virtually all major trade happens with dollars, and many countries depend on exports to the US.
As the dollar collapses, US states will start issuing there own currencies or start utilizing foreign currencies in order to buy and sell goods. The US will devolve into the Divided states of America.
The Dollar is the only true power the federal gov't has. If dollars cease to hold value, the federal gov't can't pay its bills, thus forcing the federal gov't to dissolve. Since States already have there own gov'ts far easier for the states to take over. Some states will leave the union, Texas, Vermont, and Wyoming are the leading candiates. Once one state leaves other will follow quickly, much as a herd follows across the river, once one of the herd crosses over.
"Sustained inflation requires that individuals have money. "
Depends on who the individuals are you speak of. In Weimar germany is was the French that were getting all the money and making life miserable for germans.
Our war reparations to the Chinese are about to begin.
Our war reparations to the Chinese are about to begin.
no, they are about to end, beginning with tariffs on aluminum construction products set today
we've already paid them in full by building their economy with our manufacturing base and occupying 2 countries in the middle east so they could obtain the oil and mineral contracts
This is true only to the point where sovereign's borrow and spend on your behalf (SNAP, for instance). Also, I don't expect much of anything in this dysfunctional world to remain sustainable for too much longer. The dollar will die, and the deflation you see looming, will be measured in gold, or some other currency that nobody will have much of.
Right before we reach that point, there will be a scramble to unload dollars for anything tangible. That will be the crack-up-boom part where the dollar officially rolls over.
a minsky moment...
idoubtit
Inflation starts, then people demand higher wages. Some are able to obtain them, others starve. Inflation happens before wages increase, not the other way around.
The further you are from the money creation in a crack-up-boom, there more the time lag will kill you. Hence, those on the inside can play this angle too. And the rest of us will get run over... being forced to choose between eating or paying the mortgage, etc. - similar feeling on the ground as a deflation in some ways.
the sheeple are going to DEMAND something?? what union left will save them...
the Union Of Concerned Bureaucrats.....let the transfer payments commence!
Yup! You've got it!
Just like I keep telling people, its not that the (real) cost of things is going up, its that your currency is losing value (purchasing power).
And, it's not really about the currency losing value as much as it's about plain old "affordability." It's all relative, whether you have a lot of something worthless or you don't have enough of what is worth something.
If it isn't now clear to folks then it never will: Food, Shelter and Water. Our addiction to electronicrack is coming to a close: yeah, some folks will still be able to continue their addiction, but on the whole it'll just become more and more expensive/less affordable as economies of scale start running in reverse.
Our addiction to electronicrack is coming to a close
Are you posting by mail again?
I had a friend of mine (regrettably unschooled in economics) say "inflation is going to make people poorer, so that's the natural backstop - once the money's gone inflation stops." Seriously.
I reminded him of the many hyperinflationary periods of the past, pointing out lack of money never ended any inflation, only strict control of the money supply, and massive pain.
Right Popo, finding that things are too highly priced and you dont have enough money to buy them is not considered inflationary, or something.
That is okay; right behind Walmart there is Sewermart where you can get not so fresh groceries just a little cheaper than Walmart.
Anyway who wants food when there is an app for that?
Behind the SewerMart, there is a DumpsterMart, for really every day low prices.
Well there is always Poopmart. And you don't have to go anywhere to shop there.
Walmart now delivers. You won't get jacked coming out of the store, for just a few fiats more.
New jingle.
How can you go to "Poop-Mart", when inflation has taken the means with which to supply it?
It cant get much lower when even that "factor" cant be fed.
Crude to be sure, but sickeningly true all the same.
" "Shoppers Are Running Out Of Money" "
Ah yeah, that is why they are shopping at walmart to begin with.
Should be "shoppers are running out of YOUR money" based on your bias.
What the hell is a shopper anyway?
Savers are dead, consumers are dead and all that remains is Wal-shoppers?
Walmart is the last stand...if their biggest shopper, the SNAP card consumer is running out of money...holy crap!
I've just seen Simon Black shopping at Wal-Mart... the end is near
It all depends on our customer base. No problems at Bloomingdale's. Macy's, Nordstrom, Crate & Barrel, Williams-Sonoma....doin' just fine, than you very much.
Just cater to the upper 10% and forget about the rest, because that's where ALL the discretionary $'s are. Oterwise, U R F**'d.
have any of you been to Walmart at midnight when the Independence cards get their monthly replenishment?
When the first of those cards get denied on NSF, there WILL be riots.
No problem there.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Nug5FZgxuk
I would like to congratulate the "Tyler Durden" responsible for this angry sentence on his/her style. You are one of my favorite prose writers in financial reporting. Again, thank you:
"Surely it can't get worse than what that other insane sociopath is doing, as with each passing day we are now moving closer and closer to a hyperstaglfationary conclusion, and even the collective cheerleading crew of Cottonelle bearing monkeys, half of whom were reading "Monetary Policy for TV Reporters" (just two steps down below idiots), from yesterday's FOMC conference are finally starting to realize this."
more persuasive anger is necessary. this is the best place to get it.
Agreed. That is freakin' funny. LOL
Modern prose.
in danger of becoming caught in a recursive loop
prosac
Wal Mart is moving heavily to grab the grocery market. People have to eat to survive. Once they're inside a Wal Mart they'll be enticed to make non-grocery purchases. It's the Wal Trap or Mall Wart.
Here in New England, Wal-Mart marks all food items up, because they take Puerto Rican Credit Cards aka SNAP/WIC/EBT, while their true low-cost competitor doesn't.
Small town grocery stores survive ONLY because of EBT/WIC.
Not the entity selling quasi-spoiled groceries sent in from all around metro Boston, sold at discount. Mmm, green meat.
perfect place to distribute to the masses isn't it? Easy to guard concrete block walls. One strange thing about food at walmart, they don't offer large sizes you can get at other stores. They have prepped the sheep for rationing and ever smaller sizes.
While we're quoting the article. I think it boils down to these two lines which I'd bold thus:
Wal-Mart...is considered a barometer of the health of the consumer and the economy.
Wal-Mart has struggled with seven straight quarters of sales declines in its stores.
Hey! Don't forget!
It's all good! Because ...wait for it...."It is only transitory"
"Wal-Mart has struggled with seven straight quarters of sales declines in its stores."
What makes it even more dramatic is that this is in a period of drastically rising prices.
"One thing's for sure. We're all gonna be a lot thinner!"
- Han Solo
Well its time to officially "pull the trigger" on making some household changes (not killing bankers in cold blood).
The extra VOIP phones lines. Gone. Unused gym membership. Bye Bye. Internet fax services at $19.95/mo last used in 2008. Adios. Netflix for $7 bucks/mo is history. I am even going to stop paying the monthly housing association fees in protest to their high cost to value. Cell phone plan is going to get chopped. Eating out is going to a luxury again - except for the 6:30 lines at the Dollar (2 Dollar) Menu. All in I am cutting over 20% of discretionary monthly spending. And I am still surrounded by luxury. Sorry, but I just can no longer personally afford 'the recovery.'
Like the scene in Star Wars after Luke, Han and Chewbacca rescue Princess Leia and wind up in the garbage compactor. After the walls start closing in, Han says; "One thing's for sure. We're all gonna be a lot thinner!"
Like the wealth in your 401k, the equity in the house, the cash in you emergency fund, Amerikan's wealth is being sucked up and out of the country like vacuumed nickels hidden under the cushions of your sofa. (Nickles that you need to take to Coinstar to pay your electric bill. - Which last Sunday had a line at the local supermarket.) And this is 3 years?! after the start of the "crisis".
Its going to be a crazy Summer. The debt crisis will 'worsen', QE2 will 'end', more Amerikan will suffer for the needless and thoughtless greed imagined by bankers and perfected crooked political servants. All under the ignorant eye of Mr 'Hope and Change'.
You are living at Fort Apache.
You have been cut off.
Nobody is coming to help you.
That is because R2D2 and C-3PO have left us to become liquidity providers. Fucking robots.
I think the more appropriate movie analogy is Ben Hur. paraphrase
Roman ship captain to slaves chained to oars:
You live to serve Rome. You serve Rome by rowing this ship. If this ship losses in battle, you will die chained to your oars. So row well, and live.
The enemy is not outside of the walls. They are the ones on top guarding them.
One of my favorite jokes:
Oarsmen Overseer: "Men, I've got good news and bad news; first, the good news: You get tomorrow off -- next the bad news: The captain wants to go waterskiing today!"
My friend said the other day the electric company sent out a guy (in a huge Ford F500 or some shit) to put pink notices on peoples houses in the neighborhood. He went to look at one to see what it was and they were cut-off notices. He said it seemed like more houses were getting them than not. Soon electricity will be a luxury item.
"stop paying the monthly housing association fees"
If you are really serious about saving money move out of your high-priced housing (with which all housing associations are a part of).
Wal-Mart shoppers never had any money. They had a little bullshit fiat CURRENCY. It's just in the process of returning to its intrinsic value.
Fuck you very much FED!
America is running out of money too. Debt ceiling broken today.
Not running out of money, running out of buying power.
I love this little book on fiat in post-revolutionary France, history does indeed repeat itself:
http://mises.org/books/inflationinfrance.pdf
It would be a great mistake to suppose that the statesmen
of France, or the French people, were ignorant of the
dangers in issuing irredeemable paper money; No matter
how skillfully the bright side of such a currency was exhibited,
all thoughtful men in France remembered its dark
side. They knew too well, from that ruinous experience,
seventy years before, in John Law's time, the difficulties
and dangers of a currency not well based and controlled.
They had then learned how easy it is to issue it; how difficult
it is to check its overissue; how seductively it leads to
the absorption of the means of the workingmen and men of
small fortunes; how heavily it falls on all those living on
fixed incomes, salaries or wages; how securely it creates
on the ruins of the prosperity of all men of meagre means
a class of debauched speculators, the most injurious class
that a nation can harbor...
TPOG
History repeats itself because people are too stupid and lazy to put the lessons of the past into practice today. Let them eat transitory cake Bitchez.
Fiat game... meet the digital age and globalization. This going to be one nasty cake.
But the frosting looks good.
mmmm.... chocalate.
Wait! Thats not chocolate! Oh s**t.
+1
Very little history is taught in public school anymore, so people are vastly ignorant of the lessons of history. Many people may indeed be stupid and lazy, and of course there is no cure for stupid, but ignorance is treatable.
I find more wisdom among the high-school educated blue collar men/women in general than among "elite" college graduates on matters of money and politics. There is no example of social conditioning quite like an alumnus of Williams or Amherst.
Princeton, turning out ethically challenged, barely literate, terminal jockeys for the New World Order since ...? 1980?
Touche, though the Princeton guys I've encountered are hard-core cynics, not quite as much Stockholm Syndrome involved there.
So true! I've known carpenters who can quote Shakespeare while working in a 20-inch crawlspace. I have talked to machinists who could work miracles with a lathe, drill press, and a block of aluminum. I have worked with guys that have dirt under their fingernails and permanently-stained hands who can discuss world events and finance with plenty of insight and wisdom.
I would trust my life to a working man any day of the week, because they understand the real world. The suits and educated morons coming out of most Ivy schools don't know a hammer from a ham sandwich, and I have no respect for them, especially if they are legacy graduates, flying on daddy's coat-tails. When this whole thing goes down, those of us who can build and cook and farm and dig and hunt and create will survive and prosper. And we will OWN the educated morons, most of whom have no real-world skills.
get back to work or clock out, if I have to tell you again I'm writing you up.
And we will OWN the educated morons, most of whom have no real-world skills.
great story from the great depression-
wall street pukes weeding tobacco fields while the farmer took his ease on the porch in the shade
true or false, great story
I used to teach high school US History. My students were all familiar with the difference between a Federal Reserve Note and real money. They also understood the danger of exponential math. But, of course, I taught in a private school.
the Exponential Function:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RyseLQVpJEI&feature=autoplay&list=SP6A1FD147A45EF50D&index=7&playnext=4by a real professor who knows his subject and is easy to understand.
The surface of a planet is NOT a viable place for an expanding technological civilization.
A few years ago, a young woman of my acquaintance was planning to rent the movie, "Marie Antoinette." I told her I knew how that ended. She said, "Well, don't tell me and spoil it."
I'm just glad that someone more deranged than myself finally broke into my house and put a gun to my head, forcing me to read ZH and other critically informative sites so I don't have to remain an ignorant zombie sloth who feels entitled to a good standard of living just for being an American.
>sarc<
a good tactic to put it in writing that you were forced to read ZH.
It won't help you one bit when they start rounding up the "lists"
but its worth a try.
"Let them eat transitory cake..."
LMAO
Let me finish that for you: ...the laws of physics don't change, and those include human behaviour. Repeating what may be construed as "mistakes" is not part of the equation. Besides, it's always different this time. That concept, too, is a physics constant.
..................because we're special.
I for one and sick to death of all these peak money conspiracy theories.
Rubbish!
Think more all the lines of "Peak Capital"....
Peak population.
Only a few more bips before peak stupidity.
I'll throw in peak honesty.
That's really good, actually.
US total capital probably peaked back between 1970 and 1980.
Much appreciated...
We have replaced nominal capital growth with leverage on a declining capital base to give the illusion of growth...
Look at http://mazamascience.com/OilExport/
Select the United States.... you can get an idea of what happened to the capital...
peak illusion-of-growth
Rubbish?
Are you selling, buying, or stealing?
I hoped it was peak bullshit.
Wish in one hand and shit in the other.
+1
Nice quote.