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Are You A Lebowski Achiever?
Submitted by Anthony Saunders via Confounded Interest blog,
The Failed Middle Class Housing Recovery In One Chart (Maybe A Few More)
True, house prices have been rising across the USA since the housing bubble burst. But the “recovery” has not been equal across income levels. The wealthiest Americans are doing quite well, but America’s middle class has not recovered.
Something happened in late 2008 that has skewed the recovery towards the wealthiest Americans. In part, it was the massive, monetary intervention policies of The Federal Reserve. In addition, there has been a philosophy in Washington DC of managing the economy through regulation and non-growth policies. For example. the Brookings Institute has a study documenting the decline in business start-ups.
The result of The Fed’s massive intervention in financial markets coupled with government policies favoring one group versus another (see George Stigler’s regulatory capture) has resulted in corporate profits after tax growing substantially since 2009 while wage growth is less than half of corporate profit growth.
As you can see in the above chart, hourly wage growth is less than half of what is was in 2007 while corporate profit growth is over twice that of hourly wage growth … and substantially higher than it was in 2007.
The result has been malaise in mortgage purchase applications.
While the housing market has improved in terms of price, it has been a slow recovery for the middle class.
But as a consolation prize, the middle class can be a “Lebowski Achiever.”
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Obama surely deserves a Lebowski Award to go with his Nobel:
ISIS Thanks Washington-------Gets 2,300 Humvees, 74,000 Machine Guns, 52 Howitzers, 40 Abrams Tanks
http://davidstockmanscontracorner.com/isis-thanks-washington-gets-2300-h...
You can't come in here, man. This is a private residence.
I'm no fan of government or their redistribution of wealth, but the main reason, and the one we should focus on for the widening wealth inequality is bidding up the assets of the rich through QE. To look at anything else, such as r>g or government intervention is to focus on the wrong thing. There are plenty off issues with govt intervention but for wealth inequality you must focus on the fed and other central banks and their QE and low interest rate policies.
The unwritten rules are controlling the written ones and money, in the final outcome, determines the market, at least for a little while. There is too much "free" cash floating around and the market gets bid up till the excess disappears, one way or another.....
Yeah, but think about how much MOAR WAR that's going to necessitate. Long Defense Contractors!
Don't forget the inflation and municipal bankruptcies!
We're really going for it in taking on the Taliban here!
And ISIS and All Qaeda and Putin and saving Haiti and Libya and Syria from total chaos...and standing up to the House of Saud while they annihilate Yemen...and of course when the folks come home from serving in this wondrous "war on Americans" they have so much to look forward to as all the flags are waving and the nation overflows with Patriotic ardor!
Now let's all go wilding with the Navy Seals in San Diego just to show what a good time this has all been!
Who-hoo!
+100
I just have to hope that the tide is turning, that people are starting to see the game...
Housing prices are a burocratic idiots index of "prosperity"
Hosuing requires jobs. Jobs requires small business.
Small business requires an absence on monopolies -starting with the MEgaReit outfits controlling all commercial real estate in the USA with their triple net nonsense.
Other monopoly inhibitions are business sector specific-but they are everywhere today.
Couple that with local, state and federal taxation and regulation, complex licensing and insurance requirments, and then a legal system ready to pounce as soon as the small business becomes "profitable" ="target-rich" for the local shyster class-and its really no wonder the USA is closed for business.
Basically means anybody buying US issued debt is gonna get hosed unless that problem gets corrected.
A bit off topic - but what kills me about this kind of bullshit (ISIS) is that all of this "stolen" weaponry could have been disabled in a matter of hours. Gonna lose those Humvees? Shoot a hole in the gas tank and toss a flare under it. Gonna lose those rockets/artillery shells? Snag those fuses and dump them in a hole in the desert. Bad guys gonna get those tanks? Pour sugar in the fuel tanks, and start 'em up. Gonna lose those machine guns? Pop 'em open and pull *any* critical part and chuck those parts into a river. That's basic scorched earth policy - yet seems beyond these "trained" militaries.
It also stuns me that nobody asks "Who is teaching these "goat herders" to run this state-of-the-art equipment?" American troops spend weeks/months learning this stuff. How many goat herders know how to enter, start, drive, fire, reload, refuel and maintain an M1Abrams? Espeically when all the docs and indicators/labels are in English? Who is moving their fuel? Who is maintaining these state-of-the-art tanks and supplying them with things like air filters which clog up *very* quickly in desert conditions? It's pretty obvious that they're being directly supplied and trained, yet none of the "pundits" seem to be asking these kinds of questions and still cling to the stupidity that says it's just dumb luck. Sheesh.
You win this thread.
Who is moving their fuel?
Allahburton, the ISIS version of Haliburton.
The Dude abides!
95% of Americans are already Little Lebowskis. Isn't "Lebowski Achiever" an ironic oxymoron?
Let me explain something to you. Um, I am not "Mr. Lebowski". You're Mr. Lebowski. I'm the Dude. So that's what you call me. You know, that or, uh, His Dudeness, or uh, Duder, or El Duderino if you're not into the whole brevity thing.
Dude.
I know what they mean but how did Jeff Bridges become a Lebowski Achiever.
Donny, stfu!
I think it might have been watching his dad get hopelessly lost in the California kelp beds. Just relax, Dad an let yourself float. Problem solved!
You're out of your league q99x2
The middle class just wants its rug back.
It really tied the room together.
...and the Creedence
Leads, yeah, sure. I'll just check with the boys down at the crime lab, they've got four more detectives working on the case. They got us working in shifts!
i still jerk off manually
Sorry, but they were swept under it.
the chinaman peed on the rug, this aggression will not stand
it really tied the booom together
Are company profits up or down?
Yes.
Achievement is in the eye of the beholder.
QE is a wealth transfer mechanism, nothing else.
Mystery solved.
The stingy sheeple are to blame for the economic doldrums.
Mortgage Bankers Association Strategically Defaults On Headquarters, Admonishes Homeowners For Doing Same.
http://thedailyshow.cc.com/videos/qatlaz/mortgage-bankers-association-st...
The Big Lebowski was all foreshadowing for when the Chinamen bankers and the European Nihilist bankers come looking for the money the US owes them. They will come looking to the US taxpayer, but the US taxpayer will direct them to the Federal Reserve and the US government. But in the movie, the whole kidnapping plot was a fake, so maybe who knows...maybe the Fed and the US government are going to set up some kind of fake kidnapping of a city to get or keep their own money (back)! Ach it's getting confusing.
Yeah, well, you know, that’s just, like, your opinion, man.
Home sell update:
Was supposed to close last Wednesday, the dumb ass buyer is using Chase as his lender and for some reason they are having a hard time hitting the print button. Had to sign an addendum Thursday night to close today(was actually out of contract for about 24 hours because the buyer agent was stalling). Have emails out to my agent and the Tittle Officer to see if we got loan docs on Friday, so far crickets.
WTFC?
I hate the fuckin' Eagles, man.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJAjOlp4Tas
CAREFUL MAN, THERES A BEVERAGE INVOLVED HERE
Looks like a guy i shared a cell with.
Should have learned the only way to rob a bank properly is from the inside.
May 6, 2015:
“I would highlight that equity market valuations at this point generally are quite high,” Yellen said
Well article points to policy, but I have to go back and read it again to try to find specifics.
We spend Billions in Federal Dollars to advocate award of contracts to small businesses and in part keep award of contracts competitive. But I don't see this happening. The Main Defense Contractors for instance share their technical data on 1/3 of their repair parts to small businesses. But this doesn't seem to amount to strong bidding or strong support from small businesses in all cases or many cases.
Anyway Lloyd Chapman (watchdog.org) is a Small Business Watchdog that has documents his findings for like 15 years or something.
http://watchdog.org/194019/federal-contracts-pentagon/ ( American Small Business League)
2014 - Total--Small Business Administration Outlays = $1.35 Billion
2014 - Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation Gross Outlays = $6 Billion(Pensions need support and funding)
Billionaire Cartier Owner Sees Wealth Gap Fueling Social Unrest
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-06-08/billionaire-cartier-ow...
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-09-30/more-lies-watchdog-finds-govern...
http://watchdog.org/131235/minimum-wage-seattle-2/
http://money.cnn.com/2011/03/01/news/economy/gao_report_government_dupli...