This page has been archived and commenting is disabled.
Forget 'Shrugged'; Atlas Just May Throw Up His Hands
Submitted by Mark St.Cyr,
Financial markets do the one thing better than nearly any other form of protest or lauding of government policies. When the financial markets are falling that’s a tell-tale sign something somewhere is wrong. Same for the lifting, where the rise lifts all giving policy makers as well as the general public at large explicit feedback of what is, as well as, what’s not working.
Yet, once those indicators become an adulterated vehicle with the ability to mask true economic information, the underpinnings of that very same economy at some point will inevitably give for it allows more, and more burdensome tax policies, regulatory initiatives, along with a host of other parasitic fee structures that have the ability to thrive as they in turn kill business.
Just how pungent does today’s economic corpse need to stink before everyone understands it hasn’t been resting, or recovering, but has been dead for who knows how long? With a print of nearly 3% negative GDP, sustaining, or plodding along, or any other descriptor stating “recovering” is ludicrous.
These are not just troubling issues rather, the implications contained going forward are far more frightening. Just take a look at the current economic landscape from the purview of someone trying to start, run, or sustain a business in today’s climate.
Where is a person to go that is both industrious as well as endowed with the self initiative to take on the world and go out and start their own business? At one time that question had a reflexive answer: anywhere in America. Today? Not so fast.
Look at the once shining city of New York as just one example. Remember when you would sing with reverence: “If you could make it there, you can make it anywhere?” Now, is it the first choice? Hardly.
Ever more growing regulations are being foisted upon business owners as well as other entrepreneurial minded individuals. The more you make – the more they’ll take seems to be the lyrics of today.
Want to hire or need to fire? Better check on that for you may be in violation via some code if you do either, regardless if it’s in your best interest or not. But don’t worry for that other mantra that recited at you is: “You’re rich! You can afford it! And you’re going to pay even more!” Makes you feel all warm inside for taking on all that risk doesn’t it? And besides, New York has been, and is continuing to experience an outflow of wealth and business. So don’t worry, if you’re feeling you can’t pay more, don’t worry, they believe you can. And you will.
Want to skip the harsh northern climate for a little fun in the sun? California is the place to go for a beautiful change in climate. But in regards to a business climate? As fast as they can proclaim the earth is getting warmer the business environment is chilling at an even faster pace.
With the announcement of large employers such as Toyota® moving their entire corporate headquarters out of the state entirely not to mention the outpouring of other small and medium-sized business, who’ll be left to pay all those great and wonderful benefits allowed the citizenry?
Ask most people and they’ll say: “The government.” As if they can print money from thin air. But wait, they can via the Fed. So as long as the wheels on the presses whirr – who needs business!
Then again why should anyone worry? You’ll be able to flip burgers at a “living wage.” However, if you own that burger joint, restaurant, or the other myriad of establishments that many have now been deemed “evil.” Your payroll is now going to possibly double. Regardless if you can afford it or not.
Have a few too many employees that makes your healthcare costs soar? You can possibly try as to downsize, but it has been expressed you might be in violation of some edict incorporated into the new laws where doing just that for the sole purpose as to reduce your costs (or the necessity as to be able to keep your doors open) you may find yourself being fined. Costing you even more!
Just look up the law for clarity on these matters you say? Sorry, they change at the whim of whoever is wielding a pen. You had just better get your own pen at the ready to sign that check payable to ___________(fill in the blank) Better check your ink supply. Just saying.
There isn’t enough space nor time to list all the other ancillary fines, regulations, and more being hurled at business at such an alarming rate. It’s becoming near impossible to keep up let alone know what the cost of doing business will be next month, let alone next year.
The exacerbating enabler to most of this problem and why no one can put 2+2 together and understand the impact is for the very reason I and others have expressed ad nausea. The intervention of the Federal Reserve and their monetary policies within the capital markets.
The Federal Reserve has absolutely adulterated and is nearly obliterating the one and only mechanism powerful enough to keep many of these business killing interventions in check. i.e., Market forces expressed via the capital markets.
Currently the only force being expressed is the “forcing” of Fed. provided liquidity to levitate stocks to heights never before seen in history as the GDP plummets to levels in a fashion reminiscent of a lead zeppelin.
How in the world can any so-called “business analyst” state publicly that stocks are “fairly valued” against such a back drop? It’s beyond moronic, and to me, it’s damn near criminal.
Today I also find more people who will proclaim they understand business better than most because they’re sporting a piece of parchment from some Ivy league school. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, many newly minted MBA’s know nothing more than “theory.” e.g. This economy will support jobs plentiful enough, at salaries robust enough, to pay off all that accrued student debt within their lifetime. Best of luck turning that theory into fact in today’s economic climate is all I’ll say.
What many just don’t seem to realize is what’s currently taking place is not capitalism via free market forces, rather, it’s crony capitalism leveraged and maintained by monetizing debt to allow winners and losers to be chosen by some elite body or bureau. This has never been so, at this level, ever in the history of our nation. Ever.
This form of capitalism is reducing, not expanding opportunities. Or said another way: This is a race to the bottom, not the top. But the stock market levels allow the main stream media to keep printing “everything is just dandy” more times, while at an even more furious pace, than the Federal Reserve can print or digitize the fuel that keeps the hot air in this balloon aloft.
And so in lies the dangerous mindset being propagated throughout the business landscape. However this mindset is not borne out of a vacuum. It’s being institutionalized in principle throughout the country. You get doe eyed responses when you try to explain without the Fed.’s facilitating, there is no market. But alas, it once again falls on deaf ears.
At some point reality is going to have to be faced. You can only adulterate the metrics so many times, change the calculations where bad equals good for only so long. Sooner or later far too many will no longer accept the burden of creating businesses, let alone expanding them. And Atlas won’t shrug – He’ll throw his hands up entirely.
And when that happens the turmoil that will result will explain quicker, and with more understanding to today’s “smart crowd” than any Ivy league lecture hall ever produced.
I penned this years ago and I feel it’s more true today than ever…
“Markets right themselves with pain… That’s Capitalism.
Backroom manipulation to avoid that pain only increases the severity to be felt down the road.”
There comes a time when the weight of business regulations and burdens make it far too heavy to continue, or even worth the effort to start. Rather than waiting to prove how much weight Atlas can bear we should be doing everything within our power to ensure he still wants to even try. And at a near -3% historic negative print in GDP. We had better hope he doesn’t drop the world and decide to fill his spare time with social media or gaming apps.
Just look at how productive they are for business.
»
- 14778 reads
- Printer-friendly version
- Send to friend
- advertisements -
When a market breaks it breaks all in one day. Don't forget that.
California is a great place if you do not have to run a business there. Or make too much money.
Or speak English as your first language.
Another short bitching up a storm
Where is Top Gear?
What if Atlas simply puked?
We are all trapped in the greatest fiction ever created.
Not something to be proud of.
when is the 3ed part coming out? gault speaks.
Funny.
LEGAL immigrants speak better English than the natives, especially the patronizing "English" majors and the blacks from Oakland speak much better Spanish than the Mexicans do. The white people speak Korean and make their own kim chi (in some circles).
The way you know someone doesn't speak English is that they are either Mexican with a Mexican first name or an Asian with an American first name.
We live in a fascinating world.
What a gorgeous mosaic ...
Woh are bussiness owners and top earners!
The US is heading towards a violent end. It is inevitable. The ignorant population has assured this. The only uncertainty is in the timing.
You are referring to the new iPhone release date, right?
Oh look, the Kardashians are on................
Doubt it. The Draft Dodging boomers want nothing to do with anything that requires real work or admitting that they're not thousandaires on their real estate property value and the younger generation is afraid for dear life of not being liked or wanted by their own peer group to do this.
About Obama. Someone told me that Obama had more death threats than any other presidents before him. BECAUSE HE'S BLACK.
Others said that Obama should've been taken out by now and keep their conformist noses in the air.
IF there was a plot against Obama, someone opted to get their hits of acid and Dave Matthews tickets instead- there was no chance of Obama getting assasinated. Which would have been a complete waste of a murder anyways. Nixon's death didn't get the USD back on the Gold Standard.
Look. It's not Obama.
The economically and fiscally illiterate goons on K&J Streets supported by these economically and mathematically illiterate "non-materialistic" draft dodging warmongering flowerchildren PARASITES and their Halliburton shares with medicare, social security, equity lines on their artificially inflated secondary properties. They're the culprit. And Big Pharma is not imposing natural selection fast or cost efficiently enough. This is going to be the painful part and a very long process I'm sorry to say- there's still 78 + some million of them.
The population is "ignorant" as you say. Foreign governments buy US Treasuries to finance this crap voted for by the now Social Security/Medicare welfare whores who are just too stupid to call Clinton out on taking the Social Security money out of it's account and sticking it in the US Treasury to "balance the budget". Among many MANY other things.
Some of us "ignorant" Americans who have been libeled several times over (when it solves no problem)... .keep bleating on sheep sock puppet master. Your real estate "investment" is still way overpriced.
"revolution!"
"people are ignorant"...You belong in a small cage with Obama's hyperobsessive campaign. Here's some advice, GET A HOBBY.
Pining for the fields?
It had to be done...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npjOSLCR2hE
Excellent metaphor for today's dead market.
BTW the bird is "pining for the fiords". It's a Norwegian Blue, after all.
The fuse was lit awhile back, blast to come soon.
Exactly, we are talking about 'meric, not the fucking E.Z.
just saying...
"pining for the fiords"
..fjords
Fyjords. (It's a Norwegian Blue after all)
Until our courts and institutions say otherwise... O.J. did not kill Nicole or Ron... Osama Bin Laden pulled off 9/11 with absolutely no help from Bandar or our NeoCons and there were NO explosions prior to any of the towers coming down... QE is designed to put the little guy back to wor...k and the miracle of Obama's Economic Recovery is going precisely according to plan.
I could go on but I think you already get the idea. Now shut up and be a good litle Parrot... er... Patriot...
fiord (fyôrd, fyrd)n.
Variant of fjord. fjord or fiord (fy?rd, fyo?rd, fi??rd, -?o?rd)
n.
1. a long narrow arm of the sea bordered by steep cliffs usu. formed by glacial erosion. 2. (in Scandinavia) a bay. [1670–80; < Norwegian; see firth] I am part of the "Old America". This country's direction was never on any map I was given in my youth.
Atlas is too busy buying stocks
If an Atlas is buying stocks, let them. Suggestions to any Atlas buying stocks...better have it on a piece of paper, as in the actually physical certificate of stock that notorized. Do not have it in computer and prepare to take a trade in haircut if anything is worth much after the fact. That's what happens every opportunity this has happened.
You can tell people until you are blue in the face it's a dumb idea, but eventually you have to go make your own arrangements with people smart enough to recognize the situation and let those fooling themselves to learn all by themselves. There's always a point in any round table when the discussion has to end and you get out of the way because everything in the way of past history, current metrics and your spider senses are all in agreement after seperating the motivation of each.
GLTA
There is basically only one form of real money, gold and silver; all others are pretenders. Stack 'em while you still can at these prices.
The monks of Lindisfarne found that steel and muscle is worth far more when applied liberally than silver and gold buried for safe keeping.
“Markets right themselves with pain… That’s Capitalism.
Hey asshat, there would have to be an actual "market" first.
Don't look for those guilty of all this theft to suddenly indict themselves. I expect many more rich paper-pushers to "worry about the distribution of wealth" but none of these fuckers will name names.
Same as it ever was...
Atlas IS the status quo the inside (and all talk on the outside).
I did not know that "IS" is the same as "is not". You might want to double check that.
Sorry, I don't read anything that recognizes Toyota's trademark claim.
You appear to be quite confused about the state of the world today.
The only problem with this line of thought is that who is this "Atlas" that you are referring to?
If it's the "job creators", billionaires and giant corporations that make up today's ruling elite and control the vast majority of the actual economy, none of them have uttered a peep of complaint about the FED. Oh, they might be just now starting to voice some concern about where we are right now, but have been completey silent and enjoying the fire hydrant of free money.
The only people complaining about the FED (and in this they are totally justified) are not in any way part of this "Atlas" group that Ayn Rand refers to.
I'm not in disagreement about the FED, I'm just saying that they have managed to completely coopt Ayn Rand's job creators. Your confused as to just how many are in on this charade.
The only ones complaining about this are us, the little people, not Atlas. He's in on the game.
In real life, plenty of those job creators were not billionaires or huge corporations "in on the game". They were sucessful small businesses that largely don't exist any more. Also, the "Atlas" group in Shrugged withdrew from doing business at all because of what the charade demanded of them. Atlas was self sufficient, not on the gov gravy train. Apples and oranges. In reality, Atlas has left the building and has a kick ass garden somewhere.
"In reality, Atlas has left the building and has a kick ass garden somewhere." - Yes, yes he does. He might just also have a kick-ass militia as self defense is an important part of "self-reliance".
If only they really would send an "army of accountants and bankers into battle..."
Have you actually read Atlas Shrugged? It appears that people on this site see what they want to see when referring to Ayan Rands vision.
That's a bit of a stretch to equate militia-men with the people Ayn Rand referred to as the Atlas group and the infamous John Galt.
There's a big difference between "just leave me, my guns and ammo alone" and "leave me alone so that I can create and invent new technologies to better mankinds existance"....not really the same thing.
"There's a big difference between "just leave me, my guns and ammo alone" and "leave me alone so that I can create and invent new technologies to better mankinds existance"....not really the same thing."
Bullshit. You are not a very critical thinker are you? Let me offer this, my militia will be using nukes, lasers, and laser-guided ordinance, your will not.
Pull your head out of your ass, humanity is still very much a tribal thing. Some tribes are very much about innovation.
My point was that bankers and politicians and other paper-pushers in general will not fair so well.
Yes, it is apples and oranges, that's my whole point. In real life, Atlas's titans of industry never withdrew, they are fat and happy with QE along with everyone else.
I think you missed what I'm trying to point out, ie, the author of this article and many others like it on ZH these days are trying to view today's world through the lens of Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged and are deeply confused about the fact that it doesn't explain anything about today's predicament. The only titans they have to point to as an example are the insane Koch Brothers.
Interestingly, the closest thing we have to a "John Galt" today is probably Elon Musk, and he and Tesla are constantly ridiculed on this site by the same people who profess to be Randians or Libertarians.
Complete bullshit. many of us on this site have pointed out several innovative companies. It is an investment/finanacial site after all asshat.
Atlas is always watching , from the sidelines ... Regular new acc's on ZH. Regularly thrown off ZH for showing peeps the truth ....
Actually these small companies created jobs by GROWING.
The trouble with young adults today is that they do not remember the Reagan prosperity.
Also, there's this dream of owning your own business. There's nothing boomers want more than to hire 10 of each other as the only ones in the Senior Vice Presidents with one admin who doesn't have a bachelor's degree, but does the work for all of them for $12/hour. In EXPENSIVE California.
These workers were told that they don't need a degree to survive. This worker wasn't old enough to vote against Clinton's regressive/progressive/regressive corporate tax business, or ALL of the economy killing red tape set up by tech boomers to protect themselves from competition.
Back to GROWING a business. On top of Clinton's lovely corporate tax codes that only friends of Clitnon affirmative action can get past with wealthy investors programmed to send them to the top with the worst ideas (only to get sold out for an M&A that has a super high failure rate)---
starting a business in this recession is actually more risky than it has been during previous recessions. There is much red tape in the Venture arena and the banks have not been willing to lend.
If you were alive during the reagan Administration,- you'd see his greatest employment/population growth. WITH TAX CUTS (to encourage the wealthy to shore their money in the US and invest it in companies-WHEN GLASS STEGALL WAS STILL LAW).
Companies hire because of growt. Look at the companies that started during the Reagan administration. Amgen, Dell, Whole Foods, Compaq, etc. ...
Successful small business typically grow. Ask Amadeo Peter Giannini when he founded the Bank of Italy (which became the Bank of America).
The trouble with the business climate? As of now? From what I know- in California...mid sized companies were downsized because they didn't see the subprime collapse coming, didn't prepare (inventory is ILLIQUID) and lost their investors so much money that these small companies are stuck paying five figures EACH MONTH to lawyers for legal protection from their investors. Market behaviors changed drastically due to the severity of the subprime collapse.
And in California, people do not talk about how much money they DON'T have. They simply use their powers granted to them by the government to knife others, especially contractors and such to apologize for their lack of cash flow. I've seen this. There is NO way employment went up since the subprime collapse unless it was politically or legally related. The rest are temp jobs and temps don't like to send their employees into full time jobs (it's not their incentive motive).
On the bright side, BRIC and OPEC and especially ISRAEL and their border brothers are doing fabulous!
I think Atlas and Lady Liberty both want to chase the bankers around Capitol Hill with the politician's heads on pikes.
THAT'S FUCKIN' funny.
Reagan 'prosperity'!
You mean Greenspan PUMP. Reagan didn't do shite. The central bank dictates the economy to Uhmurrika.
Atlas is the creative and risk taking individual who starts with nothing and builds something. They exist within corporations and without. Atlas is human capital leveraged in mutually beneficial service to whomever is interested. Atlas does not jury rig the system to his own advantage. Those are the greedy and lazy among us, rather, above us.
Your indictment of the current system is correct - it is criminal, hurtful, even hateful. What you need to come to grips with is that this system is only getting worse the more it becomes like whatever ~ism you would prescribe as a cure. Those ~isms are the poison in the well of human prosperity.
Look at it from an peak oil stand point. If we sign over control of all enery consumption to one body, government or otherwise, it is highly likely they will misallocate our energy resources, waste them, and leave us far worse off than we were at the beginning. The only salvation is an open and free market - capitalism. The market will decide by price what outlets are most valuable for energy resources. Only capitalism provides the freedom for individual imagination and creativity to come up with better ways of doing thing and possibly some new energy source not yet even envisioned. Many of these Atlases would fail but some fill certainly find new or improved ideas.
Think of a game of darts. Say you need to score three bullseyes to win. Do you throw three darts (capitalism) or hand them over to a stranger who will throw two and keep one, maybe even two, or all three if it suits him (all the other ~isms)? Your only chance is capitalism. All the other ~isms will cost you more and you will lose anyway.
These onerous regulations only matter if you don't have enough money for lawyers (if you have enough of them, you'll beat employee lawsuits) or accountants (if you have enough of them, you'll pay little in taxes).
Nah. They deploy the lawyers before the regulations. They lobby for regulations that will impact their competition but spare themselves as much as possible. Just ask Monsanto, GE, or any fortune list corporation.
Using lawyers after the fact should be encouraged - in order to roll back government regulations. The problem is how laws and regulations are created.
Comparing the American Dream with the American reality is a lot like comparing Atlas Shrugged with Ayn Rand's real life. She was known as Alisa Zinov'yevna Rosenbaum before she did her makeover.
People get it or they don't.
Alan (Bubbles) Greenspan hung out with her. Yes, the same Greenspan who promoted the gold standard just 5 years before it was ended. Yes, the same Greenspan who blew the biggest credit bubble in the history of man. The fix has been in for decades. Back to work debt slaves, nothing to see here!
I don't get it.
Like many immigrants she changed her name when she moved to the US. What exactly is your point?
Come on, spell it out; let's see your true colours.
For an Athiest Ayn Rand sure was prophetic
Athiests are not alone. Some of us are "A"-political. Meaning we don't believe in the religion of politics.
Atlas isn't complaining, he's done very well from QE.
Atlas thinks QE is bullshit. But at the same time unavoidable. How else to keep a Ponzi scheme in operation , if Private banks cannot expand the money supply through new lending then the only option is Central Bank monetary expansion. You guys don't seem to realise that it is not the Fed or BoE , ECB that has control. Expansion of our money supply rests with individual private and High Street banks expanding our money supply through new loans and new credit. When this slows or stops (due to finite planetary resources and energy costs) the Central Bank is forced to intervene , due to Compounding Interest , and Central Banks then gets the blame for trying to solve the problem.
This current Fiat system is a Old World monetary system and is certainly doomed to failure.
You guys will have to work together into a New World monetary system. What do you think it will be ?
Lead, brass, copper, and steel. Possibly uranium, plutonium, and whatever cocktail you can mix up and throw at the other guy. Look at the middle east. ISIS is virtually no different than modern day Vikings in the sand. If we do indeed return to 700 AD it will be ugly considering what we have for swords and spears today.
Author, if you are going to let the Communists control the language (and the money) we use, you may as well throw your hands up!
You write:
What many just don’t seem to realize is what’s currently taking place is not capitalism via free market forces, rather, it’s crony capitalism leveraged and maintained by monetizing debt to allow winners and losers to be chosen by some elite body or bureau. This has never been so, at this level, ever in the history of our nation. Ever.
There is no "Crony Capitalism!!! There is only "Crony Communism". This, you call a form of "Capitalism"? "Crony Capitalism" is a term created by Communists to make capitalism sound like an awful economic system.
EVERYBODY must examine the language they use and be personally responsible for it!
"Crony Capitalism" is "Communism"
"Undocumented" = "Illegal"
Watch your words!
I like the over arching "fascist oligarchy" to express what I see as the system in power.
A "fascist oligarchy" is built on extreme Nationalism. It is hard for me to come to your conclusion when we have outsourced nearly 100% of our manufacturing base, our borders are pourus and we send billions of borrowed dollars over seas each year. In fact, I would conclude that we are at the antithesis of fascism.
Ever heard the term, "Globalism". Another word for "Communism". Communism is an international collective movement. No, the US was not part of the Soviet Union, but we have our own relationships including the WTO and our associations with other Communist countries including all of Europe and Japan.
The misconception is that people are lead to believe "Communism" is a government to protect working people, "Fascism" is for greedy business people. I got news for you, both are used to enrich power hungry politicians and their cronies, period.
Nice to see +1.
Jewish peeps are good at prophesying. They're the chosen ones after all to be exalted over you and yours.
Can I ask a question as a new guy? Well lost plenty of money over the years but I'm completely green when it comes to understanding the level of manipulation and insider trading and deal making that goes on before my trades ever get done.
What specifically is keeping the S&P up everyday? Is it some sort of fund manager for dark pools or these HFT programs sponsored by large firms (or dark pools) or others that they see a dip and prop it back up? I'm trying to visualize why the floor hasn't dropped out already.
Could politics also be involved? Keep the market up to make the administration look good? I know that is a bit of a reach but I'm just throwing it out there.
Anyways thanks for your time with my questions.
"Cluster Of Central Banks" Have Secretly Invested $29 Trillion In The Market
That outta bout do it.
Very nice answer / link.
Best advice (sincerely) is to read a couple of ZH articles every day for a month...and then see if you need to ask. I suspect you won't. Your question is one of the central topics of this site.
Thank you. yes, I've been reading here for a while. There are some folks here with some amazing inside insights. And then the S&P goes sideways or keeps levititating slowly higher and they are as flummoxed as I.
I am so eager for the correction. It's making me almost ill.
Patience, Grasshopper!
ZH is a wonderful mix of black secrets and blacker fictions, and it takes some getting used to. And it doesn't hurt to have some "conventional" understanding of markets too.
We have all been waiting "for the correction" for about five years now, but the market has been levitated by *trillions* of dollars of fed printing and more *trillions* of dollars of treasury borrowing. The details are obscure, but that's the basic picture. If and when that "corrects", nobody knows what the correction will look like. Could be - anything. Could be a huge spike in inflation that lifts the equity markets to ludicrous speed highs.
Welcome to the battle, but keep your head down for a bit longer.
It was, subconsciously I think, to gain a conventional understanding of markets that I came back after my first time here. This has helped me come to grips with just how far off the reservation we have strayed and how far we may fall. This site is depressing as heck on a daily basis and it seems at least weekly there is a new angle on the perfidity and arrogance of TPTB.
This place has changed a lot and quickly lately. Hardly anyone mentions "TPTB" anymore. There seem to be a ton of recently active accounts talking gibberish with complete misinformation. I think this is the digital equivalent of TPTB sending in the drones. They are noisy, have no conscience, and will maim/kill anyone in their way.
Almost ill?
WHY? How could it matter so much? Are you intending to enter a trade or stuck in a trade where you lose money while the S&P or DOW keep rising?
There are several factors involved. One is the artificially low interest rates. By suppressing interest rates, it becomes impossible for big investors like banks, insurance companies and pension funds to meet their obligations by investing in bonds. Therefore, they are forced to buy stocks. This flood of money had driven the price of stocks up steadily and of course, the higher the stock market goes the more desirable stocks look.
Then there is "quantitative easing" a program by which the Federal Reserve bought $85 billion dollars worth of bonds in the open market every month. The banks that sold the bonds to the Fed, invested the money in the stock market.
Low interest rates encourage big companies to borrow money to buy back their own stock, since interest is cheaper than paying dividends.
Going back 5 years to the start of the rise, there was the Plunge Protection Team, a government group dedicated to preventing the market from falling by buying large amounts of futures options when the market was closed, which forced the option sellers to buy large amounts of stock to copper their bets. This flood of stock buying when the markets were at their thinnest, gave prices quite a shot in the arm.
You can also watch the main stream media cheerleaders to see how they push stocks, and gloss over the down side.
Those are just a few of their tricks.Keep reading this site for a while and you will find out about others.
You said, "copper their bets." What do you think this is, China?
The mere fact that you believe the floor is going to drop out suggests a bias that means you shouldn't be involved in the market.
A true investor is unbiased, unlike the dipshits that populate this site. And it doesnt matter why it hasn't, it just matters that it hasn't, and doesn't look like it's imminent. Now, I could be wrong, and I freely admit it. Maybe the bottom drops out tomorrow, but it doesn't seem like it to me, or if you admit it, to yourself either. So, you should be long, but because of your preconceptions, either political, economic, or just because you're ignorant, you can't conceive of buying stocks here.
the invisible hand of babaloo has spoken.
why is the great and wondrous babalo concerned with dipshits that populate this site?
maybe babaloo should go home and post on yahoo finance.
do you get off, little man, insulting those whom think differently than you or yahoo finance?
Hey! What's that smell?
The mere fact that you feel the market will rise suggests a bias that means you shouldn't be involved in the market.
A true investor is unbiased... yada yada, so on and so forth, sincerely, blah.
Do you see what I did there? No really, do you get it?
You are a corporate exec. You get paid bonuses according to your company's stock performance. You can roll over your corporate debt at far lower rates these days, and use that debt to repurchase company stock. By reducing the number of outstanding shares, you increase the profit per share, even if your profits do not increase YOY. Thus your stock price goes up (you are the one driving up the price) and you get a bigger bonus.
Ain't life great for the 'job creators'?
Easy. Step 1. Cook the books. Fraud all the way.
Step 2. Get printed free money from the Federal Reserve.
Step 3. Refuse to report GAAP metrics (which are not so hot) without reporting non-GAAP (which is nonsense).
Step 4. Use credit-rating agencies to bribe them into giving AAA credit ratings while simultaneously require retirement/pension funds to ONLY PURCHASE that which is AAA (which lines up with their annual mandate they MUST PURCHASE something or they have no work to do, nothing to manage).
Ta-dah!
Instant stock meltup.
BONUS step: offer lots of margin to short various stocks then SLAM the price up enough to cause a margin call. This causes panic-buying to cover the short positions.
Dear Mark St.Cyr - you might want to take a look at a lovely little book called "Eats, shoots & leaves" by Lynne Truss. Some great punctuation tips in there and, as a bonus, it's amusing.
Yes, he's a terrible writer.
it's like the trip-hop rap crap absence of style wii all been da missn.
Yes, I stll say "eat the rich". Why? Well, just to be sure. They are fat and don't run well.
Every time I hear a really rich person complain, I want to piss on their shoes.
Rule #1: Cardio.
Atlas got 'Mugged' by financialization and is in intensive care
with little hope of recovery given his bloodborne pathogens/cancer
that has manifested since 2008. Capitalistic 'cells; have metastasized and normal cell replication is not occuring as
one would assume it would if one was dealing with a healthy
patient. Atlas is one very sick dude, folks.
Atlas is fine, if constrained. The natural forces of the market will reassert gravity eventually and the ship will eventually right itself, assuming we don't kill ourselves off first. The only guarantee in life is that you will die. There's nothing saying the whole world won't die with you.
In happier news...
"There comes a time when the weight of business regulations and burdens make it far too heavy to continue, or even worth the effort to start. Rather than waiting to prove how much weight Atlas can bear we should be doing everything within our power to ensure he still wants to even try."
They aren't going to listen until you, en masse, make them sit up and notice.
Toyota left. That is just one large company, not a mass exodus of large corporations.
The Los Angeles business tax is hurting job growth, yet Mayor Garcetti, while acknowleging that fact, did not reduce it. The mayor knows there is not going to be a mass exodus or shutting down of L.A. businesses. So it is business tax as usual.
BTFZA
Buy the f'ing zombie apocalypse.
//
Throws up his hands and says "Fuck Off!"
We may soon be forced to face our economic Armageddon. The forces that have driven stock markets ever-higher and upward may be beginning to wane. Many markets became distorted years ago when QE and super low interest rates hit the economy in an effort to lessen many of the missteps of recent years.
This has been more helpful in holding up the underlying value of assets and derivatives it now appears than helping to repair a wounded economy. QE has up to now stopped an implosion of derivatives including the resulting contagion and shock that would have spread throughout the financial system. Unfortunately the economy has not fared as well as these asset prices and in many ways these policies have harmed Main Street. More on this subject in the article below.
http://brucewilds.blogspot.com/2014/05/facing-our-economic-armageddon.ht...
Rather than waiting to prove how much weight Atlas can bear we should be doing everything within our power to ensure he still wants to even try.
That is Ayn Rand's primary thesis. Her position is that the ungrateful guests are beyond redemption, and to allow them to persist their systemic frauds and self delusion is not a virtue. It is perilous to the hosts, and the hosts are not the 1%. This is best illustrated in the present situation by the open predation on yutes demonstrating the capacity to innovate new opportunities for wealth creation/capture, yutes who are too naive to recognize that their contribution to TPTB will only disenfranchise them more.
The supressed history of the United States most worth studying includes every spy ring discovered operating anywhere, and the infiltrations of the USA at the turn of the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries. Our enemies have studied. If you don't understand their tactics you can't have a valid opinion. Much has been done to denegrate the United States and its principles, in order to alienate our allies and potential allies. The oligarchs doing this are slipping this noose on the necks of every person who would defy them, first through deception encouraging their enthusiastic support, who would otherwise defy TPTB if they thought there was a chance of success - if they knew about others like themselves.
The 1% worldwide are united against Atlas. The wildcard is and always will be innovation, who discovers IP gold and who gets it first. Its unpredictable, just like every variation of genetic mutation that we observe being tried out, patiently, by the life force aka God.
Don't move til you see it.
I like what you say and how you say it but disagree on 1%. I think those actively involved are the .01%. They have about .5% backing them up - military, law enforcement, the bureaus and agencies, and networks of activitists. The overall number is less than 1% and most of them are not part of THE 1%. It might be easier to use the good old TPTB which can encompass everyone that is knowingly part of the machine.
You've never watched a child die on orders. Or a clueless 14 year old girl raped to death by the political enemies of America, in America, because she was white and there were no men to stop it. You think politeness has weight like a magnet. I think you're already dead.
Wake up.
E.G. Rush Limbaugh "I hope he fails". Well 6.5 years later its to FUCKING LATE . Aint no stopping this shitball now. This will be Lincoln on steroids. Sucks
Oh, it's so unfair that capitalism rewards capital more than labor! But an economy that doesn't reward capital soon has neither capital nor labor. Starting a business takes a lot of capital, e.g. $1.5 million just to open a KFC. If you can afford to do this, you can afford not to. Just buy a cozy little cabin on a remote lake and retire.
I'm starting to wonder if all this worrying about "Armageddon" is just like the fear you always feel at the unknown.
What if the collapse of our current economic system wasn't the end of all we know, but the final push we needed to get out of the corner we are stuck in, spinning our wheels? I really can't see normal trade doing much more than adjusting to current conditions. It always has. It WOULD destroy a hell of a lot of paper wealth, but it was all fake anyway, so? No civilization has ever quietly starved waiting for cargo ships to arrive, or for financial transactions to clear.
But at the end of the day, people's homes and land and cars and communications would still be here. People would still report to work, and get paid (somehow). People would still need to eat, and others would sell food to them. People would still marry, and have children, and live life. So what exactly would be lost by sweeping the whole rotten mess out the front door and starting over?
Let it burn.
Barry wanted to get re-elected to finish his trainwreck socialism plan. So the Fed-heads he appointed were done so on the condition that the markets stay up.
Dow Weekly - it's a joke - just a straight line up
http://bullandbearmash.com/chart/jones-weekly-closes-flat-q2-gdp-adjuste...
So many things are failing in the global economy, but the markets are up - keeps social mood in check and history shows that incumbents stay in office, including Barry.
What socialism?
The people now collectively own the means of production? That's socialism.
The CORPORATIONS now rule government? Yes, that's happened. That's anti-socialism. That's FASCISM.
What is Fascism - John T Flynn - Von Mises - youtube
http://youtu.be/4Ml7-aDXrgQ
The author of the article talks like all this is a big mistake by idiots, but that's completely false. What's happening is exactly what is planned, which is to destroy the currency and economy of the U.S.
These one-world-govt scumbags know that in order for them to succeed they must kill America. Once that is accomplished there is very little left to stop them. Then we will all see why the feds have created DHS and why they purchased billions upon billions of rounds.
Make no mistake, this isn't an economics issue, it's all political, and they've won.
"That's why I'm ____ than you are!"
A) "a bigger bastard"
B) "richer"
C) "heading to the guillotine sooner"
The market's not dead, it's just having a long-weekend ... at Bernie's!
When I realized my math I tried to publish it. What came back was hellfire. Instead of my work being welcomed to advance the human position, spies descended on me.
So I advise you, memorize key shit. Don't put it on any media.
I met Holder. I was on Cheney's desk. He thought he was going to eat me.
I live. Its a battle of wits.
The CIA is not interested in owning you, they are interested in controlling you. This means they try to economically supress or steer competing technology. Every technology is competing technology; they are a church.
I am ATLAS. I have solved energy. I can change the world in ways you cannot imagine. Because of this Dick Cheney stopped my work. You will all die, because he preserved the status quo against me.
I AM THE BEST