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USA: Economic Thumbs-Down
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As Putin rejoices at his new-found wealth in Crimea after it was annexed (in a duff referendum where there was either ‘now’ or ‘later’ up for grabs to join the Russian Federation), the USA is wiping its tears with things that are closer to home and causing a great deal more grief than far off Ukraine. That was obviously shown with President Obama’s half-hearted ‘string’ of 11 Russian oligarchs that will have their accounts frozen in the USA. So what’s the USA getting upset about? Only the fact (as has been predicted for months and now years) that the USA is not on any road to recovery and never has been. Weak inflation, Housing data that’s falling and sluggish growth (if that can be called growth).
USA: Not Even Tepid
The US economy is neither hot nor cold. It’s just the US economy. It’s boringly tedious. It’s going nowhere. If at least it were crashing we would be able to say something. If it were at most booming or expanding, we might have cause for joy. But, no, it’s static, boringly static, staid and uneventful. Rather watch paint dry and sit and witness the economic roll of film getting stuck in the cog wheels and doing nothing.
• February saw an increase in the Consumer Price Index of just 0.1% and that’s the second month in a row.
• The only thing that increased immensely was food, going up by the largest amount in over two years.
• This was off-set by a reduction in gas prices.
• In February 2014 prices increased on the year-on-year figure by only 1.1%.
• January’s year-on-year figure stood at 1.6%.
• The Federal Reserve has been fixing an inflation rate of 2% in its sights.
• Housing starts also fell 0.2% in February (to 907, 000 units).
• House prices as well as lack of properties on the market have meant that buying activity has been held back.
• The largest segment of the housing market (single-family homes) saw groundbreaking increase by 0.3% in February.
• The multi-family segment fell by 1.8%.
Buffet Tax
President Obama announced the wonderful (so-called) Buffet tax that would stand at least 30% on the incomes generated by millionaires, treating capital gains as simple revenue and that would limit tax deductions to just 28% of income. Although, Wall Street didn’t bat an eyelid and certainly had nothing to worry about. President Obama announced the ‘newspeak’ tax for the pleasure of the 99%, the masses drudging to work. But, that very same evening he went to dinner for a fund-raising event at one of the richest private equity executives in New York, one of the 1%. Wall Street didn’t stop the champagne flowing that night, because it seemed all like simple talk for the crowds banking on the bank doors. Keep the masses quiet and you control them feeding them with little titbits of news that will make them interested, but that you don’t have to put into practice.
The Federal Reserve Policy Meeting has just started and the figures were released during that. That means that the benchmark overnight rates will be sticking at zero while inflation is muted. Will they continue with tapering? Hardly seems possible while the economy is still to all intents and purposes in dire straits. They are expected to taper again by $10 billion by the time it all ends on Wednesday (the meeting that is). We shall see if they go through with it.
Some economists have seen the US rise in the stock market linked to the fact that there was little change in the housing sector in February according to figures released by the Commerce Department. Some are saying that the housing sector is stabilizing after declining less than expected from January. The bad weather seems to be over and the construction workers will be heading back to the building sites. But, perhaps there should be no question of rejoicing on such little activity in the sector and it’s hardly because the snow has thawed that the US housing market is crawling out of its ‘hell that froze over’. Why shouldn’t they be optimistic? After all, the Federal Reserve will always be there to bail them all out.
Janet Yellen stated in February that the US economy was strong enough to be able to stand tapering. US equities have entered a bull market that has been on-going since March 9th 2009. Now we are rejoicing because things are not actually getting any better, but because they are stagnating. A 6 year high for equities and an S&P 500 that is up 177% from a 12-year low should be little excuse not to have revamped the economic situation.
What, honestly, is there to hang the bunting out for?
Originally posted: USA: Economic Thumbs-Down
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Because they control NOTHING you FOOL! They react to what the elite have shoved in their faces.. with positive incentives even the so-called scum welfare recipients work, learn +start businesses..
Buck up pivot! The people on farmers.com and you share a front row to the beginning of a new JUGLAR cycle
Why are the so-called 1%ers considered 'evil' when there are vast oceans of welfare scum out there sucking up a living off the rest of us, playing their days away, squirting out babies? Why aren't the welfare scum--a far greater threat--considered evil?
Both groups have predatory elements, and I personally object to mandatory income assistance (for both individuals and corporations). I do find your harm attribution wildly inaccurate. Consider, there are two ways you pay taxes.
1. The federal/state/county/city taxing authorities.
2. The increase in USD supply.
Now consider the increase in USD supply per annum since the start of 2009, vs. the total welfare expenditure, and tell me what is the greater threat to the value of your productive labor. Also, consider what you mean by "welfare". Are you purely attributing this concept to individuals, or are you also including corporations? Both are "unduly coercive" to an individual with a true understanding of our Constitution, but you appear to have the blinders on for one side of the equation.
Not that I am for anybody living off of the government- but your question can be answered relatively simply. One class of people (the educated 1% er's) are PROACTIVELY rigging the system and SUPPORTING cronyism/statism/corporatism. This is a detrement to liberty-minded people just looking for a fair shot where the rules of the game don't tilt one way.
Conversely, the uneducated who are rewarded for frivolous and counterproductive behavior do so REACTIVELY. They lack the critical thinking and have limited rational thought to discern the true nature of their actions. In fact, much of the laws and regulations that continue to support such behavior are driven largely by the elite who then complete the full cycle by feeding the rigged system THEY THEMSELVES HAVE STAGED.
That, in my opinion is why they are considered "evil". Because they knowingly support something they know is wrong that directly benefits themselves.
Because they control NOTHING you FOOL! They react to what the elite have shoved in their faces.. with positive incentives even the so-called scum welfare recipients work, learn +start businesses..
Would the most common transaction at a box retailer being credit private and public awaken the animal spirits a tad? When you have a small crowd of people around you in the near future remember this. They will be asking how to survive not how much cabbage you made this LAST X
Your national income is leveraged ten times to control the planet and still you desire
The Crimea today Alaska and Hawaii tomorrow I OWE I OWE
I've been worried for years that we Alaskans would be fighting (and losing) with Spetznaz in the bush.
Maybe it's time to GTFO of Alaska....
Send us a batch of those firm-bodies blonde Ukrainian women [plus a dozen Russian midgets for the SEC] and Barry will call it even.
Snowden even steven
The fed is stuck in a corner and the paint is dry?
Yellen at the FED :
Strummin' my pain with her fingers
Singing my life with her words
Killing me softly with her QE song
Killing me softly with her QE song
Telling my whole life, with her words
Killing me softly, with her song
I heard she sang a good song
I heard she had a style
And so I came to see her
And listen for a while
And there she was this young old bag
Stranger to my eyes
Strummin' my pain with her fingers
Singing my life with her words
Killing me softly with this QE song
Killing me softly with this QE song
Tellin' my whole life with her words
Killing me softly with her QE song
the treasuries 100 billion dollar man
Interest rates will rise before taper is removed because taper is now what short rates were used for in the past? Rates will already be rising when taper comes off for several reasons 1. More cash in system due to less capture effect from QE and the banks would have been off loading credit and higher rates will discount paper for the buyer and smooth rough patches in transactions? The Fed cant be expected to stop using its finest tool in the toolkit just because pensioners are facing problem living off everyone!
Janet has to continue the taper or the US dollar will get severly bruised. Geo political events will just add fuel to the fire. Damned if you do and damned if you don't.
Please show your work?
100 years of sheep sucking on own wool expecting different outcome? This is how its suppose to be when the cashflow is forever being spent before its made? It was different this time nine years ago now its the same EVERYONE IS A PERSON EXCEPT FOR THE PEOPLE who are cogs in the nameplate. For you to have more I will have to take first from your parents and then from you WHAT A WONDERFUL WORLD
Wars and revolutions in Ukraine, Thailand, Venezula, Turkey; the pot is merrily popping away in Iraq, Egypt, Libya, Brazil, most of Europe under 30; the world's growth engine (China) is about to undergo the mother-of-all-debt unwinds, and the US is in the process of blowing up its health care system.
But its all placid over there at Lake Panem.
"Buffet Tax"
those rich guys are always clogging up the parking lot at the local Ponderosa.
C'mon Janet, pull the plug, I dare you.
Zero QE and put the long rates at 6%; pay me something to save.
She's no Volcker.
DavidC
A 2% inflation dooms the working class to poverty considering the compounding effect of this "interest', er I mean inflation. The 2% is the skim the banksters live on between cullings...
Middle class is a control fantasy?
I don't recall mentioning a "middle" class. Read more carefully and with less bias.
Why-oh-why do the Tylers submit us to the incoherent ramblings of PivotFarm????
and while we're at it, what meaning is implied by "duff" referendum? the fat ugly dumpling with the two hotties at the bar? partially decayed organic matter on a forest floor? a pudding? fine coal? rump, buttocks?
One fueled by Duff Beer.
A "duff" referendum is a referendum where there was no voter fraud.