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What The Weak Employment Numbers Mean
From The Daily Capitalist
A disappointing July jobs report came out Friday showing weak employment gains, further evidence that the economy is stalling out. While the headline was that the 9.5% unemployment rate didn't change, private job create was anemic at only 71,000 new jobs. That was not sufficient to overcome the longer-term effects of joblessness as the broader rate of unemployment, the "U-6" rate, stood unchanged at 16.5%. Roughly 6.6 million (45%) workers have been unemployed for more than 27 weeks. About 14.6 million workers are unemployed or underemployed.
What was unsettling to the markets was the downward revision of June's numbers that increased unemployment by another 96,000 workers. An average of less than 100,000 new jobs per month is insufficient to offset job losses and show job growth. Many economists say we need at least 200,000 new jobs created every month to start chipping away at the unemployment level.
Slight gains were seen in the average workweek and average pay.
The big cuts were in government hiring as states and local government shed jobs and as Census workers jobs have come to an end. The 71,000 job increase in the private sector was seen as anemic and below economists' forecasts.
Some of the highlights from the BLS report today:
Within the private sector, employment gains continued in manufacturing, health care, and mining. Manufacturing employment rose by 36,000. Most of the gain occurred in motor vehicles and parts manufacturing (+21,000), as some plants deviated from their normal practice of shutting down in July for retooling. Motor vehicles had added 32,000 jobs during the first half of the year.
Employment in fabricated metals increased by 9,000 over the month. The manufacturing workweek rose by one-tenth of an hour in July, after falling by half an hour in June.
Health care employment grew by 27,000 over the month. Since the recession began in December 2007, health care has added 665,000 jobs. Employment in mining rose by 7,000 in July, largely in support activities.
Employment in temporary help services was nearly unchanged for the second month in a row. Job gains had averaged 45,000 per month from October 2009 through May.
Construction employment was little changed in July (-11,000). A strike in the industry reduced payrolls by 10,000.
Financial sector employment continued to trend down over the month (-17,000), though the pace of job loss has been slower this year. Thus far in 2010, monthly job declines have averaged 12,000, compared with 29,000 in 2009. Employment in most other private sector industries was little changed in July.
The consumer credit report also came out Friday showing a continued decline. It was a negative $1.3 billion in June, down 4.5% annually. It slowed its contraction due to a good auto sales market (i.e., nonrevolving credit which was down by only 1.4%). But revolving credit, basically credit card debt, was down $4.5 billion in June or down 10.5% annually.
Your political representatives continued to snipe. President Obama said words to the effect that it takes time to climb out of a big hole especially one that he didn't dig. Rahm Emmanuel, the President's Chief of Staff, said that that the business community just doesn't understand the Administration. The Democrats are trying to pass bills to aid small businesses and bailout state and local governments. “We need to do what’s right, not what’s political, and we need to do it right now,” the President said. Nancy Pelosi said that at least the Democrats were doing better than did George Bush. The Republicans claim that Obama's stimulus policies aren't working. McCain and others just released a report highlighting some wasteful spending from the Recovery Act. I am confident the Republicans have no idea what to do either. Yawn.
What to watch for: the Fed's Tuesday meeting. As I reported in my article, "Is A Shift In Fed Policy Coming?," they are facing increasing pressure to thwart what they see as deflation, and right now inflation would look good to them. We'll see if the anti-deflationists ( President Bullard) or the anti-inflationists (President Hoenig) have it out. My guess is that they will vote to continue existing policy but will "stay vigilant against future weakness," which will be a sign that they are worried, but don't yet know what to do. I believe the economic data will continue to weaken and when unemployment ticks up, they will start increasing Open Market Operations in an attempt to create inflation.
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Over 1.2m people have dropped out the work force over the last three months, which is the only reason why the unemployment rate has not vaulted back into double digits.
1.200.000 people, families, proud Americans who don't matter anymore.
SD,
The UE Rate is well over 9.5%..............it's well over 10%.
Try 22%..............
Real IR is Over 10%.............also.
Just depends on WHO gives you the numbers.
Shadow Stats, has the real scoop..............
I just bought 2dz eggs@ 27% over the price they were 2 weeks ago,(same place).
A Gallon of Milk, that went up 49%, over that same 2 weeks,(same place).
Where's the deflation?.
The QE Team is in Rectal Defilade.
Along with 300 million other Americans...........
Let the Republican senators, who have always voted no to extended unemployment benefits, go incognito to the smallest towns in their state, and apply for jobs there. For Mitch McConnell, I suggest small Kentucky towns like Williamsburg, London, and Keavy, Kentucky. Same for Boehner and the rest. They could apply for both law position and other positions. Then let them gather in the Capitol rotunda in front of microphones and tell the nation what jobs they found, what they applied for, and what offers they received.
For the ones that are running for a state-level office (and show a similar contempt for the unemployed), I'm writing off their state until they're gone, apologize, or account for their errant ways. I'm not going to forget that when I have $1000-3000/yr on the table and someone thought at some time to flip the bird at me (and people like me) when I was without work. That isn't much cash to some, but I have no problem taking a vacation where there is less contempt for the unemployed.
Hahahaha, holy shit...okay, not that I'm a fan of bailouts or anything, but there's a bit of contemporary historical irony invovled in all of this. Follow the bouncing ball...the taxpayers bail out the financials to the nominal tune of $787 billion, and receive only tighter credit, more banking fees, free ass-rape with every new account, etc. The auto industry bailout amounts to possibly $100 billion, if not less, and what do we see, in spite of the enormous backlash?
"Most of the gain occurred in motor vehicles and parts manufacturing (+21,000), as some plants deviated from their normal practice of shutting down in July for retooling. Motor vehicles had added 32,000 jobs during the first half of the year."
On the fucking financial industry?
"Financial sector employment continued to trend down over the month (-17,000), though the pace of job loss has been slower this year. Thus far in 2010, monthly job declines have averaged 12,000, compared with 29,000 in 2009."
Now, do some math and tell me where the money was most well-spent, despite the fact that neither Chrysler nor GM have made a decent vehicle at all in twenty-plus years. After that, should you be so inclined, please explain to me how that entire miserable shit-show played out the way that it did in such a way that we shouldn't be randomly setting fire to the corporate headquarters of every major banking institution in this godforsaken country.
Regrettably, you are correct, sir.
Is it me or is even the U6 "estimate" suspect? I mean, where is the allowance for all the millions of self-employed who being "self"-employed never get counted by the BLS? I'm talking millions of people in construction, marketing, real estate (the list is endless). Any I wrong? If not, isn't unemployment "really" about 30% and isn't that worse than the "Great Depression"? Comments appreciated.
As one of the self-employed who is surrounded by self-employed friends and acquaintences, the answer to your question is yes. The U-6 estimate is low. As in very low. Friends and I cuss and discuss the real under-employment figure but consensus places it in the 25-30% bracket. I'm likely also a statisitic as in one of the many who used to trade the market for the hell of it in my spare time and now rely on these trades to help pay the bills. Hah. Try having to rely on THIS PMS market to pay bills.
*INFLATION CAN'T HAPPEN WITH WAGES BEING LOW*
Wrong.this is true only in a closed economy where everything is a zero sum game
Inflation can certainly happen in things that have supply constraint with stable demand -like food energy and essential consumer discretionary
With 90% organized retail sector, falling margins is the first sign of trouble and will surely be transferred to consumers once they can't sustain them
US is an 'Economic-asterisk' in every sense as normal rules almost never apply on the down side.US has near control[monopoly] over global money supply and global commodity prices are priced in USD
Bias will be favour of US until breakdown- More like 'all or none' in effect
We the unwilling, led by the unknowing, are going nowhere fast...
Rahm and Barry get perilously close to toxic verbal prevarication here. I mean, my god. The business community is anxious for state governments to be bailed out? Really?
Every shop keeper is on pins and needles wondering if every state senator's sister in law's brother will get to keep the undeserved, gold plated pension the state can't possibly pay that he's supposed to get from his no show job? If they or the rest of the ex journo-list team believes that for a second then they desperately need to leave the echo chamber.
Fred Hayek
http://pajamasmedia.com/instapundit/104186/
August 7, 2010ROGER SIMON: Michelle’s “Excellent Adventure”: Another sign Obama doesn’t really want to be President.
It does play oddly. As the political handlers say, the optics are bad:
http://pajamasmedia.com/instapundit/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/MichelleA...
UPDATE: John Hinderaker: “I think the Obamas’ tone-deafness, which was on exhibit long before Michelle’s Spanish vacation, more likely results from their inexperience and the fact that if you are a factor in Democratic Party politics, you spend a great deal of time with rich people. That can skew one’s perspective.”
"Every shop keeper is on pins and needles wondering if every state senator's sister in law's brother will get to keep the undeserved, gold plated pension the state can't possibly pay that he's supposed to get from his no show job?"
Excellent observation.
Been sayin it for years...CLAWBACK!
inflation can't occur with wages stagnant to declining (for those actually working) and debt deflation far outstripping the pumping presses. simple concept really i'm not sure what planet the Fed lives on.
Biflation - inflation and deflation occurring simultaneously in different sectors of the economy.
Absolutely . . . wheat doubling in price? Tensions in middle east giving us another spike up in oil? Both or either of these things trickle up to impact the prices of everything you have to have to live (food, transportation, heating, etc). So cost of necessities could go very high, while at the same time, you might not be able to give away a jet ski or custom bike. Some bizarre combination of deflation with not being able to afford to live.
Props to Mr. Dawg: "Inflation in the things you need; deflation in the things you have."
It might be deflation in total, but is there a map of the US showing which states have deflation and which have inflation?
In Europe most have inflation and there you can check each country seperate.
Do the magic Tyler, I know you can ;)
We have the worst of both worlds - wage deflation and price inflation (when you consider food and energy in the equation). Ouch! The future looks grim indeed.
Sorry for the long post but another excellent column from Doug Noland at www.prudentbear.com:
2010 Vs. 2007:
Greek and periphery European debt markets have stabilized. The euro is above 133, having now recovered back to April levels. Global risk markets have rallied, and commodities markets are again heading north. Throughout the markets, risk premiums have contracted meaningfully. Debt issuance at home and abroad has rebounded. I have posited that the Greek debt crisis provided another critical juncture for global markets. Others contend that Greece is a small country with limited global impact. Moreover, possible effects from Greek problems have diminished as the crisis has subsided. I’m unswayed.
The current environment increasingly reminds me of the long, scorching summer of 2007. The subprime crisis turned serious in early June. And not to pick on Ben Stein, but this week I went back and reread his August 12, 2007 New York Times article, “Chicken Little’s Brethren, on the Trading Floor.” Mr. Stein’s perspective at the time was in tune with the majority of analysts and pundits: subprime was just not that big of a deal; markets had way overreacted.
From his article: “The total mortgage market in the United States is roughly $10.4 trillion. Of that, a little over 13%, or about $1.35 trillion, is subprime… Of this, nearly 14% is delinquent… Of this amount, about 5% is actually in foreclosure… Of this amount… at least about half will be recovered in foreclosure. So now we are down to losses of about $33 billion to $34 billion… But by the metrics of a large economy, it is nothing. The total wealth of the United States is about $70 trillion. The value of the stocks listed in the United States is very roughly $15 trillion to $20 trillion. The bond market is even larger.”
Efforts to quantify potential damage from subprime or, more recently, Greece completely miss a fundamental facet of analyzing Bubble Dynamics: both were examples of the marginal borrower abruptly being denied access to liquidity/Credit in a highly speculative, hence susceptible, (“Ponzi Finance”) financial environment - thus marking critical junctures for their respective Bubbles. The Mortgage/Wall Street Finance Bubble, in the case of subprime, and the Global Government Finance Bubble, with respect to Greece, marked critical inflection points for both market perceptions and stability.
Amid this past month’s global market rally, perceptions have shifted to the view that the European debt crisis is behind us. Recalling the summer of ’07, the subprime crisis “officially” erupted in early June with the halting of redemptions by two structured mortgage product mutual funds managed by Bear Stearns (these funds collapsed later in the month). From a July high of 1,555, subprime worries hit the S&P500 for about 10%, with the market trading below 1,400 intraday on August 16th. Living up to market expectations, the Fed was quick to the rescue.
In an atypical inter-meeting move, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) cut the discount rate 50 bps on August 17th, 2007. With an escalating subprime crisis, speculative markets moved confidently in anticipation of another aggressive round of monetary easing. The S&P500 rallied over 12% in less than two months. After having traded at almost 5.30% in mid-June, 10-year Treasury yields sank below 4.33% by early-September. Despite escalating mortgage tumult, (“safe haven”) benchmark Fannie MBS yields fell from 6.40% in June to 5.40% by late-November. The drop in market yields incited a rush to refi mortgages in late-2007 and into 2008. Dynamics that would culminate in a historic Credit market seizure and liquidity crisis were being masked by melt-up/dislocation in the Treasury and agency markets.
With fed funds at near zero, the FOMC has had little room to cut rates in response to the Greek/European debt crisis and a faltering U.S. recovery. The markets, however, clamored and the Fed delivered assurances that additional quantitative ease would be forthcoming as necessary. Akin to the summer of 2007, markets have rallied in anticipation of a further loosening of monetary conditions. Ten-year Treasury yields closed today at 2.82%, down 113 basis points from the early-April (pre-Greece) high. Benchmark MBS yields are down 111 bps to 3.56%.
The 2007 subprime eruption and the Fed’s response had a profound impact on perceptions throughout various markets. The dollar index – which had traded above 82 on August 16th 2007 – was down to 75 by late-November. The prospect for additional dollar devaluation gave further impetus to buoyant commodities markets. The Goldman Sachs Commodities Index jumped from 485 in August to end 2007 above 600 - on its way to almost 900 by mid-2008. Crude prices almost doubled in 10 months. Many of the “emerging” markets ran to frothy new highs – right before the big fall.
The implosion of the Mortgage/Wall Street Finance Bubble unfolded over about 18 months. There were powerful countervailing forces. On the one hand, a marked change in market perceptions was leading to a reduction in the availability of mortgage Credit. As new buyers/speculators lost their ability to obtain mortgages, it quickly became apparent that many key housing market Bubbles would soon burst. The U.S. housing mania and economic boom were doomed. This led to a broadening panic out of private-label MBS and a liquidity crisis for the overheated ABS/CDO marketplace. The dominoes had started to tumble.
Meanwhile, the behemoth Treasury, Agency and GSE MBS markets (with GSE securities enjoying a combination of explicit and implicit government guarantees) enjoyed big rallies. Liquidity problems in subprime-related sectors were for awhile more than offset by liquidity overabundance in the more dominant fixed-income markets. Ironically, the initial bursting of the mortgage finance Bubble – with all eyes fixated on the Bernanke Fed – fostered destabilizing liquidity excess. The declining dollar; leveraged “dollar carry trades;” an unwind of bearish bond positions and interest-rate hedges; a mortgage refi boom and resulting hedging against MBS pre-payment risk; Fed-induced speculation on lower market yields; a bout of safe-haven buying; and large foreign central bank Treasury purchases all combined to create an over-liquefied and highly-speculative market backdrop. The resulting liquidity-induced rally throughout global risk and commodities markets only exacerbated systemic vulnerabilities to the unfolding Credit and economic crises.
I highlight the 2007/08 experience as a reminder of how bursting Bubbles and financial crises can (tend to) evolve over many months – with surprising ebbs and flows and occasional confounding twists and turns. I don’t see anything in the current backdrop that tempts me to back away from my view that the Greek crisis marked a critical change in market perceptions. Those that dismissed how the subprime eruption had fundamentally altered the financial landscape would later regret their complacency.
Today, I believe global faith in government policymaking has been badly shaken. There is now an appreciation that policymakers are running out of options. Confidence that fiscal and monetary stimulus ensures a sustainable global recovery has waned. There is recognition that massive stimulus can’t assure market stability; in fact, profligate fiscal and monetary measures will likely prove destabilizing. There is appreciation that global central bankers can’t guarantee normally-functioning markets. There is, these days, no denying that structural debt issues will be a serious ongoing problem. And, importantly, the world is increasingly keen to the severity of U.S. financial and economic problems. Indeed, the post-Greece backdrop beckons for reduced risk and less leverage. Yet the markets can – at least for a period of time – luxuriate in destabilizing policymaking-induced liquidity excess and dysfunctional markets.
The dollar is in trouble. Our currency has now dropped for nine straight weeks, sinking to a near 15-year low against the yen. Crude oil traded above $82 this week. Wheat prices are up about 50% over the past month. The last thing our struggling economy needs right now (in common with 2007/08) is surging energy and food prices.
And there is clearly interplay at work between tumult in the currencies and dislocation in our fixed income markets. Fed talk of QE2; rumors of the Administration forcing Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac to refinance and/or reduce principal on troubled mortgages; the potential for a wave of mortgage refinancings; and the likelihood that many have been caught on the wrong side of a major move in market yields have Treasury, agency and MBS yields in near freefall.
August 2 – Bloomberg (Caroline Salas and Jody Shenn): “For all the good the Federal Reserve’s $1.25 trillion of mortgage-bond purchases have done, they’ve also left part of the market broken. By acquiring about a quarter of home-loan bonds with government-backed guarantees to bolster housing prices and the U.S. economy, the Fed helped make some securities so hard to find that Wall Street has been unable to complete an unprecedented amount of trades. Failures to deliver or receive mortgage debt totaled $1.34 trillion in the week ended July 21, compared with a weekly average of $150 billion in the five years through 2009… The difficulty of executing transactions may eventually drive investors away from the $5.2 trillion mortgage-bond market, which has historically been the most liquid behind U.S. Treasuries, potentially causing yields to rise, according to Thomas Wipf… The unsettled trades also stand to exacerbate the damage caused by the collapse of a bank or fund. ‘You’re adding systemic risk into the market,’ said Wipf, chairman of the Treasury Market Practices Group and the… head of institutional-securities group financing at Morgan Stanley. ‘Investors are taking on counterparty risk in trades they didn’t intend to take on.’ An incomplete agreement can lead to a ‘daisy chain’ of unsettled trades because a broker-dealer acting as a buyer in one transaction may fail to deliver those bonds as a seller in another, according to Alexander Yavorsky, a senior analyst at Moody’s… Investment banks are required to hold capital against both sides of the trades, which also makes the agency mortgage-backed market less attractive to make markets in…”
It is worth noting that Treasurys held in reserve by foreign central banks at the New York Federal Reserve Bank have surged $74bn in just seven weeks. Dollar weakness appears, once again, to be forcing foreign central banks back into the role as “backstop bid” for the dollar in global currency markets. These dollar balances are then “recycled” back into our Treasury market, a dynamic that does not go unrecognized by the speculator community. This presses market yields only lower, increasing the risk of prepayment on mortgage securities and forcing additional interest rate hedging (further exacerbating the decline in market yields). And once a market dislocates, many will pile on in search of easy speculative profits.
With Treasury, Agency and MBS prices melting up (yields in melt down), key markets enjoy extraordinary, albeit destabilizing, liquidity abundance. Understandably, market participants dismiss talk of U.S. structural debt issues. Many will justify the move on fundamental grounds – “It’s deflation, stupid!” Ironically, collapsing yields, the sinking dollar, surging commodities, recovering global risk markets and the onslaught of global liquidity create a backdrop conducive to future inflation surprises.
Reminiscent of 2007/08, the initial crisis phase has unleashed wild volatility and instability throughout various markets. Some can see that the glass is less than half empty, while attentive central bankers and sinking yields have most viewing things as positively full. The havoc and misperceptions create an increasingly dysfunctional market landscape. Over time, the volatility, uncertainty and escalating market stress will prove a subprime-like wrecking ball on confidence. I need to go back and count the number of trading sessions in 2008 between seemingly over-liquefied markets and Credit market seizure.
My expectation remains that markets, having disciplined Athens and initiated austerity in the euro-zone, will inevitably set its sights on Washington profligacy. Too reminiscent of the Mortgage/Wall Street Finance Bubble, the markets seem determined to ensure that this disciplining process is methodically delayed until the very maximum levels of Credit excess, speculative froth, market distortion, and systemic vulnerability have been achieved.
A few points:
The effects of monetary inflation historically lag in effect.
The MBS purchase was to move bad debt off of the BHC books. Its FED goal was to manipulate price, also to aid the banks. The problem is the market then becomes innefficient, which usually means a further reduction in base asset class price. Further price pressure.
Mark Beck
What it actually means is that the US of A has reached critical mass for jobs offshoring as of July 1999.
With the dismantling of the American economy over the past 35 years, of which that jobs offshoring was part and parcel of, there is no driver for employment anymore.
Period.
Fantasy finance and war spending simply don't employ enough people. Time to storm the barricades, me thinks.....
sgt,
What they HOPED to stop(War),by Globalization, has in fact bit them and us in the ass.
What they hoped would stop the Nationalistic tendencies, and create dependency on each other, has in fact set the fuse for the very thing they hoped to stop.
IF we had a sane Gv't(one w/out an agenda), we could put up trade barrriers, and tariffs thru the ass, restart the BUY American machine, and rebuild our Mfg base.....without which we do not exist.
Slinging Burgers for Mickey D's, and Wendy's, is not how to rebuild an economy.
Nor is it allowing Corporatioons to relocate the Tech sector jobs to used to be 3rd world shitholes.
Talk about biting off the hand that fed you......Bstd's killed the Goose that laid the Golden Eggs.............
I tend to think of CEOs offshoring as traders making a value add arbitrage play. The cost to convert sand, metal and petroleum into consumer electronics is less than the value it it would create in America if done here.
The CEOs thinking they are geniuses the pocket the vast majority of the gains. Their workers are tossed out in the cold with the government having to pick up their tab and the Chinese get a relative pittance.
They are almost as bad as parasitic Wall Street bankers and traders.8
Yeah the Chinese slave worker gets a pittance, but the Chicoms get free (or stolen) technology.
when you have the federal government favoring -demanding the off shoring of jobs..what can a businessman do??
you missed the CFR brain washed pols as the major mover here..
Well, at least credit card debt is falling. That's a very good thing.
The rest is pretty ugly though.
"Well, at least credit card debt is falling. That's a very good thing."
Unless of course you're one of those retail store owners barely scraping by. Deflationary trends are cruel teachers.
I think what is happening is that people are paying for that incremental item with hard cash or not buying that incremental item at all. It is unfortunate for the retailer that you mention, but it is part of the deleveraging process that needs to take place. I know I am doing it and am living happily without an iPad.
The whole TARP thing pretty much slapped me across the face for my wake up (at least financially). Since that passed it has become a more and more fearful financial environment. Deleveraging is the way to go. No one in the middle class or lower class is safe.
This post is bias towards more "doing something" as if it's a given. That's crappy journalism, or blogging at it's worst.
<they will start increasing Open Market Operations in an attempt to create inflation.>
This perpetuates only RUMOR, DC is off my blog list for good.
The second bubble is being blown as we speak.
Reflation of equities on low volume, corporate earnings up on reducing career employees and inventories along with creative accounting.
A resurgent European crisis as they, like us, have done nothing to stop the debt, the socialized losses for the sake of privatized gains.
The attempt to create profits with increased debt and credit led to the housing crisis. Zero rates of return for individuals who have been burned already does not mean they jump back into equities; though the Wall Street/Washington cabal has been trying to force it through anemic savings/CD rates while giving banks 0.025% money at the back door to lend out at 5%-29%.
More unemployment, lower tax revenues, increased taxes in the mistaken belief that it will somewhow raise revenues, increased taxes on capital gains and estates along with property and other regional taxes. Result? Avoidance of taxes, disincentives to invest or hire, lower revenues, higher deficits, higher unemployment, more "stimulus".
Credit card debt for those who can lower it is lower. I'd be willing to bet my tax "refund" that those who can't afford the credit card debt are the very ones who are carrying it or increasing it.
The FED will increase QE and buying of mortgages and mortgage backed securities, FHA and Fannie/Freddie will be handing out money to prop up housing market, but it is an economic cul-de-sac.
Imagine if they had actually let firms go bankrupt and not supported socialized losses for the sake of privatized bank/bank holding company and corporate gains?
We might have sanity, but as it stands now we rush headlong toward a dead end of punitive taxation, national debt, and the bleeding of the middle class for short term profit and political gains.
Thank goodness we went with Dem Stimulus Plan.
See what would have happened if we had not?
http://michaelscomments.wordpress.com/2010/07/02/june-2010-unemployment-...
What ever happened to that "Recovery Summer!"that they sent Joe Biden out to talk about?
What the fuck happened to Joe Biden?
market up to 11K on Monday!!!
weak unemployment numbers ? BP oil skimmers laid off ?
Oil crisis a non-event?
It goes to 11 now?
"Well, it's one louder, isn't it? It's not ten. You see, most blokes, you know, will be playing at ten. You're on ten here, all the way up, all the way up, all the way up, you're on ten on your guitar. Where can you go from there? Where?"
I actually wonder now if I'm crazy. I can't believe that the world is so fucking weird. Shit is going sideways. I keep playing normal only because I'm afraid that if I don't, my loved ones will freak out and lose it.
Somebody has to keep trying.
Right?
when all about you loose their heads you stand firm..it's what being a grown up used to be about..I will try to do my part..but the mass of
the public in USA still will not or can not understand that gov has become the enemy.