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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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Depression on Bitchez.
Attention WalMart shoppers the race to the bottom ends here.
Obviously Mike Duke is the leader of American Al Caida. He hates us for our freedoms.
Walmart management under former U.S. CEO Eduardo Castro-Wright was a disaster which WM is still reeling from.
Proclaim throughout the land:
Let them eat iPads!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgRlYt5DjJY&feature=player_embedded#at=213
all 6 reactors at fukushima have gone into meltdown.
Sir, how dare you distract the public's attention from the Royal Wedding, and worshipping Snooki's smelly ass? ;)
You mean this?
http://www.y94.com/uploads/the-snooki_1.jpg
i asked the produce man at the store last night, where they get their organics from? he said california. yeh, that is what i thought. they have traces of this japanese catastrophe already showing up all over the place now. if they don't put a cork in that situation over there fast and i don't mean yesterday, we are going to have some serious problems here with food and water and milk etc.....and it may be too late already. i don't know about some of you, but i don't like my food to have delicious cesium in it or whatever. i am funny like that. old man ludlum from sweetwater, texas is going around telling everyone this is no big deal. i tell you what don, why not get your old happy ass over there and help clean that mess up, or better yet why not talk to the relatives of the soldiers that volunteered in nevada during the american nuclear testing about what happened to their fathers or talk to the relatives of movie stars that happened to star in movies that were filmed in the nevada dessert during the days of these atomic bomb test and tell me what you think numbnutts. no big deal my ass.....there is no fool like a old fool......
god, will you just shut the fuck UP already with this paranoid HAAAAARP shit?
paranoid haarp shit. this coming from the same pinhead that told us that fukushima was not a problem. maybe you should be the one to shut up........
I can hear it now. "Attention Walmart Shoppers, you are all fucked, please move to the chambers in the back of the store for you free samples".
Oddly enough, store traffic does decline, but profitability goes up due to big profits on quality meats that were oddly enough "donated to Walmart and have been being sold around the world".
Soylent green bitches.
Hell, people shuffle around Sam's all day to get free samples... $40/year for enough calories for at least 1 meal a day...
Now if they only had wine tasting...
And an indoor NASCAR track, yeah, no need to ever go home again! </sarcasm>
Ouch!
Even before 2008 I would see upper-middle class types, who PUBLICALLY sneered at Wal-Mart and grocery stores that sold out-of-date merchandise, shopping in those stores. Hypocrites all.
With unemployment as it is, thank heavens for H1-Bs, and all the rest of the alphabet visas, and LEGAL immigration, more to stand in front of the line with all the qualifications for Affirmative Action, and all the rest of the goodies.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nT1TkLgfinE
Testimony of Obama economic adviser Robert Reich, the evil dwarf of the Clinton era, before Representative Charles Rangel’s Ways and Means Committee on January 7th 2009
Costco is where the well off shop now.
Costco is killing it.
People have to eat.
The well off have moved from Costco to Walmart. Check the number of Lexi and Merceds in the Walmart lot.
The Walmart customers have turned to stealing from the Costco customers.
Reich hates white people...typical jew oligarch
Do you really think that trav? Do the jews own everything? Is the queen of England a jew trav?
does the bernankster own JP Morgan?
Or is it more likely that the "oligarchs" like to put jews in very visible financial positions so that when TSHTF shallow thinkers like you will say- look! its the jooos! look at how many jooos there are in finance that I've heard of! That can't be coincidence.
fool.
SHAAAAARP
Well, biatch, my wife is an immigrant. What are you going to do about it?
Dumb fucking racist fucks.
Oh, my wife works out of Canada, which means that there's a big net inflow of money into your massively in-debt country (which is based on militarism).
Look in the mirror.
Evidently my glass half full outlook was transitory as well.
Serves your right, next time (IF there is a next time), don't drink! Geez, having your glass and drinking it too, what do people expect! </sarcasm>
Shoppers are running out of junky Chinese made goods they can buy from walmart.
What do America's underclass actually NEED from walmart anyway?
Food, drinks, clothing, tools, gardening supplies, guns, and pretty much everything else.
Food: you don't NEED pizza and ice cream. allow only vitamins and basic food groups.
Drinks: water is free. you don't NEED soda and alcohol.
Guns: allow only for hunting for food. recreation, collectibles, and "defense" is just NRA selling stuff you don't NEED.
Tools: to fix your house you can't afford? to fix your car you can't afford? Go to the library, it has all the tools to improve your human capital.
American government is going in debt to provide subsidies for WMT
I see, so you want a glorious store for proletariat that sells only what you and your Komrades think it should.
I've seen some dumb shit in my day. Sadly, this DOESN'T take the cake.
Brilliant spin going on out there these days: the attention has been steered by the media to gas prices, as their attempt to get the consumer to believe this is all due to big bad crude and those evil speculators comes to bear. The reason for this is simple; the machine wants the public to stop following the breadcrumbs any further back.
Set the board, display the domestic oil companies and speculators, have a bunch of chest-beating by politicians who either are culpable or unwilling to address the real issues at work here. A big hearing in congress. Some fossil bought out years ago looking down his spectacles as an oil executive once again explains the evil of turning a profit.
Wipe the pieces off the board as the economy nosedives again; oil drops, resetting the anger. Await the next spike and have a cigar with your constituents. Rinse, repeat.
True.....except this time the lows will be higher and the highs will be higher. Some day.......the folks in charge will have to admit to the true issue at the base of all the other problems: Increasing scarcity of finite resources.
Agreed - problem is, you and I both know human governments almost always wait until the alarm clock is ringing and falling off the nightstand before addressing anything.
"human governments almost always wait until the alarm clock is ringing and falling off the nightstand before addressing anything."
Huh? Shit is baked into the cake WAY before any of us has a clue. Just because we're not allowed at the Round Table doesn't mean that govt isn't "doing something" or is reacting late. Govt is there to serve business, serve economics: upper class is doing just fine- govt is working just like it was designed!
Posted elsewhere but fits here too: All those Walmart shoppers are probably buying silver instead of plastic junk. Also, I am happy that I bought 75% of my silver when it was in the $14-$22 range. I am really not worrying about a 10 or 20% correction. From all activity I have seen lately there is a large upside yet.
Yeah, the people of Wallmart website is full of folks holding bags of silver eagles.
ROFL. Glad I'm not the only one who noticed that.
"Shoppers are running out of money". Do you mean like our govt? Well, then, just raise their debt ceiling.
With all that inflation out there, why do bond yields continue to decline? Is it all that QE2/Fed purchasing pushing yields down? If so, why, up until recent weeks, did the same purchases fail to put downward pressure on the same yields?
Or, at a more novel level, maybe Bernanke is right and the inflation Duke is speaking to is in fact transitory and in the end, growth constraining, as today's 1Q11 GDP suggests. Might those same growth constraints halt the rise in inflation Duke speaks to?
And even more novel might be the idea that Bernanke actually understands the deleterious effects of his own policy and yet, given the complete lack of macro-economy knowledge in Congress, whereby nobody quite understands that a reduction in gov't spending right now will indeed precipitate GDv2.0, such as ZH would like to see, also understands he has no other option but to do the one thing rational thing he is mandated to do- that being easing policy to achieve higher employment and avoid deflation?
So is Bernanke really a sociopath or is he operating within the rational boundries of what his Congressionally supplied mandate states he must do?
Are bankers' bonuses up? Is the govt able to sell more Treasuries?
Bernanke is, to borrow a phrase from our last dictator-in-chief- "doing a hellova job!"
If Bernank were a sociopath TPTB wouldn't allow him to operate: really, TPTB want TOTAL stability and control, no way do they not want predictability, something that isn't exactly a hallmark of a sociopath.
we are running out of money... like omg print more
And just like that Duke was crossed off the list of people the Fed contacts in an effort to gauge the "real economy". No offense sir but your ear to the ground vantage point runs contrary to the line on the chart in the ivory towers.
Mike Duke and Walmart are starting to see how the American dog they created can turn and bite them. Walmart is one of the top contributers to the demise of America. They single handly killed Main St. and started the big FASCIST take over of the little man. Now they have sucked the little man dry, shut down their businesses and forced them out of their homes and into the streets only to see them at 12:00 pm on the first of every month to take their snap money. Remember when the little man accounted for over 85% of employment in America? Those days are gone and now the stores are empty,except for an old Coke sign dated 1950. They are boarded up like they never existed, or renovated and called historic districts....there goes the little man. When the real collapse happens and the multi trillion dollar bailout bubble pops, I hope Mike Duke takes a hard look in the mirror and blames himself for the destruction he and his greedy Corporation caused to America...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBh-m1yTZS0
So... mom and pop shops wouldn't be experiencing margin compression at the moment and going out of business because they couldn't pass on the cost increases? Presuming walmart did not kill mom and pop shops, how would they fare in the day and age of the internet and e-tailing? Seems to me there would only be a very limited range of products to sell locally, at best... (generally speaking, those things which are too expensive to ship alone). There is a reason 95%+ of businesses fail within the first 3 years...
mom & pops couldn't sell at wmt's prices.
WMT cankicked the reality of inflation for a long time by arbing chinese slaves.
Yup, that and fuel costs. The model was always doomed: but then again the entire world is operating on one big failing Ponzi...
I have lived in several of the towns where almost all small shop owners were put out of business. They would argue that is it really a benefit to the community when one can buy things 5-10% cheaper at Walmart when people lose their businesses. Is profit the only thing that matters? Look up the list of the top 20 richest Americans and you will see 5 Walmart owners (Walton family) worth $20 billion each!
Devil's advocate/reverse logic: would LOSS be preferred?
"Profit," though silly when the real world is viewed in the macro/geologic time scale, is meant (by use virtual thinkers) to mean efficiency. The IDEA of efficiency is fine, it's the efficiency of externalizing that's become problematic.
As I say, this is all the natural progression of capitalism. Everything runs its course, eventually exhausting itself. No longer can we squeeze enough "profit" out of the finite planet, and rather than view our predicament as such, we turn on each other and blame all kinds of things that are just symptoms of this root cause.
With central planning, the people in kiev starve while moscow is full of potatoes... it isn't a problem with our economic models... it's a problem with human ingenuity... we haven't developed a stable system yet...
...or cheat...which is the new recommended action to take in the face of assaults from all fronts.
Kramer will say this is actually a sign the economic recovery is well underway as people are shopping in more upscale places than Walmart... not sure if it ever occurred to him people might be running out of money.
WalMart, crap from China, purchased by stupid Americans. $1.00 spent at WM, you loose $1.20 in wages.
Even with a cold, and feeling like hell, "Printocchio" made me laugh out loud. Classic.
BFD...WMT shoppers are hurting.
This was what I predicted. Someone has to suffer and it is the lower class and the former middle class, who is downwardly mobile now. They necessarily have less money to spend.
The gov't and TPTB cannot afford to lose the upper middle and lower upper classes, the engineers, doctors, lawyers, etc. The bankster oligarchs are atop this pyramid, the filthy rich. But beneath them are people who shop at TIF and WFMI, not WMT. These are the people who can wrest political power, the nouvea riche or bourgeoisie, the trade classes. They will be kept fed by the stock market as they are the main owners of 401ks as opposed to real production. They are in essence junior partners to the real owners of production in that they agglomerate themselves into mutual funds and other vehicles to partner with the true elite rich.
The middle class and lower classes can essentially get fucked; everyone cannot be saved.
Makes me think of... Marx.
Me, I'm an economic agnostic. But all these secular religions (economic models) are fascinating from an academic standpoint.
why, because I used the term bourgeoisie??
I wasn't trying to be a dick. It's just the class stuff -- which I don't even really disagree with -- stuck out. Seems like it's the Americain way to operate as though class doesn't exist. I think it's ALL about class. I just don't even think I know what the classes are anymore.
You think those classes 401ks will be saved ? Interesting concept. Not what i think has any logic to it but im all ears.
Around my neck of the woods, the poor spend about 40% of their disposable income on lottery tickets and cigs. As bad as it is now, it's going to get much worse.
Just try to take the lottery tax away from the poor folk - they'd actually go down to the state capital and protest! Don't take my tax away!! (That is one mofo of a regressive tax!)
It would be un-American to not sell hope
Excellent analysis, Flakmeister.
Best evidence so far that US economy and mainstreet is in recession or depression while Wall St continues its ponzi scheme ways
Looks like we'll have a new use for the term "google": it will describe our rate of inflation in percent!
I've been wallpapering my living room with greenbacks lately.
New food stamps arrive in days - just suck on your iPad and tell yourself its transitory. And buy some Netflix to hedge against inflation. Wealth effect baby...
As aside, the WSJ reported today that WM is reintroducing guns and ammo into most stores. Forward looking?
Huge 10-year trading range. When it breaks out, it's going to be a doozy....
Would you please post another chart? Thanks.
More evidence you're a hired hand!
A 10-year trading range...is that the best you can do?
'Ten year trading range' man this guy Robo is a comedy bot, thats all.
yesterday, you said all assets are rising together. why then is gold up ten years in a row while wmt has gone nowhere? guess you believed all assets moved together before you didn't. but then again given your flat lined widows and orphans portfolio you certainly know a thing or two about stocks that move in a $1 range.
Great charts! Now compare WMT to supermarket chains such as KR, SVU, SWY.
they sometimes call that churn, sideways action with increasing volume, not good if you get my drift
Try using a logarithmic chart sometime , you may end up making some money. Tool.
Good piece here on the accelerating demise:
http://news.goldseek.com/GoldenJackass/1303946553.php
Strictly anecdotally, the water cooler conversations are indicating to me that the masses are seeing more than just gas prices going haywire. The rot is starting to smell...
Wally World a good place to buy lead. I used to go there in the morning before they put limits on ammo purchases and buy 9mm in bulk and sell it on Gunbroker for 3x what I paid. That was right after Obama got elected.
Anyone see Kdenningers newest video on Obamas Birth certificate? He is claiming its a fraud. Decide for yourself.
http://youtu.be/2eOfYwYyS_c
this was back in '97, but on an errand run at lunch one day I got boxes of 5 Brennake Rottweil 12 gauge slugs for a buck a box, during a spring seasonal shelf change out. I walked out with 50 of them, my dad and I are still using them during deer season.
Ahhh, good old days.
Yeah, that's a sustainable model for future generations!
The biggest problem with the walmart bulk packs is questionable casing/dirty ammo... if you're looking for something to go plinking with, then it's dandy! If you're looking for an emergency or SHTF ammo, I'd steer clear.
WM sells crap ammo for the most part. Winchester, in particular, is a separate brand (made in Korea usually) just for Wally World--it's junk and it shows.
The fact that they are reintroducting guns and ammo just shows you the whores that they really are in my opinion. They have always sold junk and they will always sold junk.
Come to think of it, they actually do represent most of America today: Junk.
delete
We have money !
Government Cash Handouts Now Top Tax Revenues
http://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/2011/04/20/government-cash-handouts-e...
I tend to stay away from the MSM (esp FAUX News)- does it mention the trillions given to the banksters and the militarists?
“Core inflation” and all its companion names are invented to use as a special tax on Americans in the Fed’s role to eliminate competition for the monopolists and to enrich the financial power elite.
But the real core factor that counts is the one given to us by CEO Mike and that real factor is “core shoppers.”
Thank goodness for one man who serves his constituents by telling the truth, unlike the one who pretends campaign speeches are a substitute for presidential leadership and the other man whose Fed policies steal from one group of Americans to reward his international friends while he masquerades as a public servant.
Everything is pretty much okay, says the Obama and Bernanke puppet duo, when it’s not. And from CEO Mike, the truth: “There is no sign of a recovery.”
$4 gas = less mobility = less freedom = easier to herd.
Being addicted to anything in limited (renewable) supply is freedom?
Face it, you're are not producing enough to warrant having more energy.
Walmart is funny ... bitching about $40 of discretionary income goes to gas instead of his cheap chinese junk.
Wahhhh!
.
Baby_BLYTHE: Please come back – you can’t throw out Dana Milbank’s poison regarding Glenn Beck’s demise on Fox and not provide an opportunity for answer. (Milbank has been using The Washington Post to target Beck for months, and now gloats in “Why Glenn Beck Lost It” April 10 in a continuing effort to sell copies of his anti-Beck book.)
No one, not even Milbank, should be allowed to make these charges without a response being allowed:
In regards to the poisoners, not only do they smash your career if you touch them (like Helen Thomas), but they get the tribe’s scribes (like Dana Milbank) to gloat…with their superior intelligence…on how they did it.
Intelligence? I guess Milbank answered his own question when he was wondering in a recent column: “Whether Jews should brag about their big brains, even if studies show them to have high intelligence.”
If it is true that Fox cancelled Beck’s show because of revelations about the Federal Reserve and the founding of it by agents of the Rothschilds and by an appearance of Fed chronicler G. Edward Griffin, if it is true then one must add this event to the gathering proof of Griffin’s incredible insight into America’s captivity by the now obvious cabal of financial conspirators organized to capture her economic system.
Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News has played an important part in supporting this financial power elite to confuse the voice of conservatism while the oligarchs helped him smash competitive media outlets all around the world. Murdoch founded The Weekly Standard a few days after the 1994 Republican congressional sweep. The Standard was and is a Jewish operated neoconservative voice intended to serve as a block to true conservatism in the media arena. Like Fox, these Jewish neoconservatives are Likud war mongers and consistent supporters of the state of Israel.
It’s only fitting that a columnist the likes of Milbank, whose strident antics have had him kicked off platforms, should be allowed to write such columns under the masthead of the second most important Jewish daily voice in America, established under the tutelage of Katharine Graham. Graham's father, Eugene Meyer, bought The Washington Post in 1933 at a bankruptcy auction after serving as chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. The international banking house of Eugene Meyer (Lazard Freres) was among the original bank shareholders in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York—which controlled and controls the entire system.
I am not a Beck follower, and I have been disappointed in some of the stands Helen Thomas has taken, but I am interested in saving our country from the clutches of a very real conspiracy and I would credit the bravery of the two of them for raising the issue.
How the fuck can anyone spend so much time on such soap opera shit? I mean, walk away from the shit and make the world how you think it should be... All these fucks deserve ZERO energy given to them.
They already know this. We already know the script. Hell is paved with good intentions. So many more will suffer words will not suffice. You better indeed ask your creator for a good harvest this year. No they will will not see the sign's. They have already been sealed. Indeed I marvel at the avarice.
Yeah, the cake was already baked. Infinite growth on a finite planet would never work, regardless of whether there's some omnipotent being overseeing things or not. Focus on the fundamentals: Food, Shelter and Water.
Its game over. The S+P stopped being about investing in growth years ago. Its just a proxy for maintaining purchasing power pari pasu with dollar declines. At some point that paradigm shifts and everyones a loser. Deep joy.
Investing in growth is good? Care to take a guess where that would lead?
It's all a very simple and logical outcome of believing that we can have infinite growth on a finite planet: at some point growth WOULD stop; looks like that time is now.
Where did i say investing in growth was good? Where did i say we can infinite growth on a finite planet?
"Attention Walmart Shoppers. Todays Blue Light Special is a hot dog with 2 seasoned vegetables, only $49.95."
Oh wait, that was K Mart.
Walmart has mastered the art of exploitation of labor thru out the world. Paying a person .03 cent for manufacturing a t-shirt, and that person making .75 cents a day working +12 hrs isn't right. I didn't even mention the children working in these factories. But there not your children and they have means to take care of themselves via the T-shirt MFG.
I scream you scream. We all scream for ice cream.
Double dip please.
http://www.engadget.com/2011/04/28/panasonic-to-layoff-40-000-workers/
Aren't things 10000x worse, currently, than they were at this time in 2008?
Everyone agrees the Bernank's policies have been a failure.
They will take the American people down for another harvest before hyper-inflation the currency.
We are going into a Depression!
40% U-6 here we come!
Considering the flood of food stamp revenue they are guarenteed each and every month this means what exactly?
the middle class left that does pay taxes and does not require and or recieve assistance is totally screwed.
When do the unimployment junkies start to run dry? I am thinking the black swan is here and it will be the complete destruction of the lower and middle class discretionary spending pool.
what happens when everyone runs out of free money and it leaves only the super frugal, certainly no money is left after gas, lodging, and food.
Basically the Walmart CEO is just giving excuses to explain Walmart's poor results. But mostly these poor results were caused by management incompetence (a couple of the things it did were to switch to a high-low pricing strategy instead of Walmart's traditional everyday low price strategy; another was to remove many thousands of SKUs (severely damaging Walmart's one-stop shopping appeal).
How dare he say things like this. Sam and company is directly responsible for eliminating mom and pap store system in this country.
What does the CEO of Walmart know?!?! Bernutty's little gnomes put out a mathematicallistical proof that rising oil prices in a zero bound range improve the ebubblemy. Surely these PHuck'Ds know a little bit more about how economies work than mere merchants.
And the merchants of the world shall weep
Comrades, compare and contrast the collapse of the USSR with the collapse of the USSA today ...
"The collapse of the Soviet Union at the end of the 1980's was a great blow to the hopes of revolutionaries. Why did it collapse? The primary causes were political and economic and they were the result of the culture of war. The immediate cause of the Soviet collapse was economic, as the Soviet Union lost the arms race and international competition with the West. The United States was able to profit from its imperialist exploitation of other countries, while socialism could only lose economically in that competition. By the end, the ruble collapsed as Soviet consumers turned to imports to satisfy their needs. They could not buy a good pair of leather boots or a good television set or a computer made in the Soviet Union, because all the boots and the electronics were swallowed up by military procurement. And, needless to say, there were no quality goods to export in order to balance imports. Economic factors were linked to political and psychological factors.
As the Soviet economist Latsis said at the time, "the gloomy background of the worsening market situation ... has a depressing effect on people." Their gloom deepened as a result of policy failures such as the explosion of the Chernobyl atomic power plant and the war in Afghanistan (see US military analysis of Afghan war). Another factor was the lack of honest information, the secrecy and propaganda that is central to the culture of war. As contradictions mounted the Soviet people became more and more cynical about the propaganda of government-controlled media. It was common to hear the Russian people say that you could find truth anywhere except in Pravda and the news anywhere except in Izvestia. This was exacerbated by the propaganda warfare carried out by the West in Radio Free Europe and by dissidents in self-published Samizdat.
Secrecy and distortion of information have disastrous economic as well as political effects. As explained in a 1991 article "Secrecy and restricted movement, the hallmarks of militarism and bureaucracy, pervaded Soviet society when I was working there. They hampered the work of the scientific institutes where I was located, even though they were not doing military research. As a result, I found that all levels of the system, from institutes to ministries, were isolated from each other, both by barriers to communication and by an attitude that one should mind one's own business." The command-administrative model of war-communism hobbled economic development. As the article by Latsis put it, "The glitter of [the war-time economic] miracle blinded us for decades, and the command-administrative methods of the extensively developing economy took firm root in the country."
When, at the end, the Gorbachev administration realized that they would have to convert military industry to civilian production, they could not even get the Defense Ministry to give them an accurate list of defense industries (See Agaev remarks to the United Nations). In other words, the Soviet Union had developed its own military-industrial complex. Economic indicators were routinely suppressed or falsified to the point that when the final economic collapse was imminent there were no published figures to indicate the points of weakness. For example, as Latsis remarks, the government did not even admit until 1988 that it was running a budget deficit. As a result the government had no way to take remedial action. All of these factors accumulated on top of a profound alienation of the Soviet people that had grown up over the years as the country remained in the grips of the culture of war. In the Stalin years, not only was the economy devoted to the arms race, but information was controlled in the form of propaganda and dissidents were sent to labor camps. People did not feel free to discuss this, and most people did not participate in governance. Although women were more equal in the work force than in the West, at the top the Communist Party was all men. Photos of the ruling Politburo showed old men covered with war medals like so many old military generals. Labor camps were largely disbanded by the time of the Brezhnev years, but the alienation remained. And by the time of Gorbachev, it was too late. The economic collapse and the loss of the war in Afghanistan came on top of generations of alienation. " Author Unknown
"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?"
We would go 98% of the way to putting a halt to inflation if we would stop creating new money.
This should not surprise anyone. All one has to do is a little research, like looking up income distribution. There is a reason why 50% of Americans don't pay taxes---they make squat. If one cares to take a look at latest tax information available from 2008, the average household AG income of 50% of Americans was $15,300. Now you have add back personal and Itemized Deduction allowance to AGI, but that is still just in the $20k range.
Forget the America that you see on TV or in your secluded and gated community, it's part of trickle down reality for the last 30 years.
There is a penalty to pay for letting 10% steal 90% of wealth. Jim Quinn is right in one aspect, but it's not the boomers fault: it's fault of greedy WHITE America running the county as if it was a South African plantation.
That's right, greedy crakas keepin the man dowwwnnnNNN! Foot on their necks, all the while they subsidize the dwelling, power consumption and food of an entire class of oxygen wasters. And let's not forget the nits... why, there are school lunch programs and school supply drives. And don't forget angel tree, so the psuedo philanthropists can feel good about the largess they're allowed to keep.
Yeah I've been busy, running the country like South Africa. Which interestingly, went directly to shit and kept heading as soon as the managment changed, didn't it?
Shit like this tripe is why I can't wait for The Great Leveling. Feel the building tension, smell the ozone? It means soon the long insulted and abused Wrath Capacitor at last gets to discharge. Euphoric, just thinking about it, the great White Riot.
the question I always had, what the fck is attracting loonatics to financial forums?
So tell us, what attracts you to financial forums?
I am not the one posting walls of retarded text here...
They just lost 1 million customers who had their benefits run out. It's a scary time in America when you can't afford a loaf of bread and a jar of peanut butter from Wal-Mart.
OT: Sounds like a threat to me. Would be nice to hear China's response...
04-28 14:32: Senator Schumer says "more convinced than ever" legislation needed to force China to raise value of CNY"Shoppers Are Running Out Of Money"...The great irony to this statement by the Wal-Mart CEO is his failure or unwillingness to realize that his employees ARE his customers. If you don't want them to run out of money...PAY THEM BETTER.
Benefit from "Cash4Clunkers"
Got rid of a bunch of Obama bumper stickers.
Grow up you stupid-assed party troll. This ain't about politics, this is about fucking POWER and the fight for the last of the resources. But, go ahead, continue with your childish soap opera-like waggings, for they allow me to operate while you stupidly think that you have some grasp of realit.
Disclaimer: I don't vote, so don't blame me. Further, I did not "participate" in this or any other stupid "program."
Walmart shoppers are running outta money cause they are using FRN to buy PM... and not cheetossss...
And you're able to produce some sort of real data to back up this (asinine) statement?
"$50 billion in "squatters rent" that the deadbeats spend on iPads instead of paying their mortgage..."
Seriously? Hyperbole much?
Silver Scrappers of The World Unite!
It's real fun buying junk sterling silverware at the local antique store.
OK, then, get out of here and get "shopping."
http://www.readtheticker.com/Pages/Blog1.aspx?65tf=190_this-sp500-chart-is-not-pretty-2011-04
Cycles are forecasting a ROLL OVER between now and August
http://www.readtheticker.com/Pages/Blog1.aspx?65tf=180_cycle-review-dont-tell-the-retail-investor-but-2011-04
'NBER short bus' - Quote of the Day
The imbalances are growing more and more and fortunately it will lead to the end of this centrally planned elitard control.
I wonder if we will soon be able to find bicycle cabs like they have in all those far off third world lands.
Kill two birds with one stone: Save money on dog food and your next grocery bill by eating the dog...
Sorry, my dog is part of my security apparatus. In my case, eating one's dog will only provide for limited meals; with the multitude of potential intruders my dog will be able to eat for free.
Simple....
Eat the dog, then when you run out of dog meat, take care of the intruders yourself.
Eat intruders.
Just got back from Wal-Mart and the place was empty. Only six registers open, two of them 10 items or less, no lines. I was out in a flash with $12 sneakers, $7 for 10 pairs of socks and $1 for a large bunch of grapes (forgot they are probably from Cali, may not eat them, fuku-radiated).
Still, the article makes a point. Shop at the end of the month and there will probably be bargains galore.
The irony: As millions of Americans lose weight, Moochelle Obama will take credit and say her anti-obesity campaign has been a success.
"Just Say No" worked great too.
And I think you mean as Americans lose weight *due to poverty and starvation*.
Yes Temporalist, that's what I meant ;)
"It is a hard matter, my fellow citizens, to argue with the belly, since it has no ears." -Plutarch
This how we can profit from this news...
http://www.readtheticker.com/Pages/Blog1.aspx?65tf=194_walmart-ceo-no-signs-of-a-recovery-how-can-we--profit-2011-04
One of the many markers along the way...
Thanks for this one!!
Well if you own "real" money (and you all know what I am talking about) then deflation is alive and well but if you own the Fed's paper and cotton "notes of crap" or the Canadian Loonie I might add, then you are seriously hurting right now. Walmart and stores like it are a very good indicator how well the consumer is doing. However one note need be added which is that Walmart helped in its own way to create this pay check to pay check environment. Low prices don't always mean a vibrant economy and by shopping here the money left the country or ended up in the Walton Family's coffers. Nice trade off, "wonder how the US consumer feels about it right now?" Was it worth it to your standard of living? Hmmmmm....worth reflecting on isn't it.
Hyperstagflation, here we come.
"Shoppers are running out of money." Last time he was talking about people milling around his stores waiting for thier food stamp cards being refilled the first of the month.
Betcha a silver dollar he's lobbying for higher food stamp payouts so his sales will increase. And some of you thought this was an ethical capitalist company, lol...
$6 a gallon gas can't get here fast enough...Muahahahahah! clear open highways for me to drive on and stop people from spending money on JUNK they don't need (like ipads, quoted in article).
Since around 70 pct of U.S. economic growth is based on consumer spending, then it won't matter if someone with business experience is asked to take care of monetary policy, as the only way out for the U.S. is to keep borrowing and spending.
If GM, the airline industry, hyperleveraged financial institutions, et al are all worthy of being bailed out, then what the hell are they going to do when walmart shuts its doors from margin compression? Is the government going to take over the logistical role of providing food to tens of millions of americans? Good luck with that shit...