The US Consumer Is Drowning His Sorrows At The Bar
Submitted by Jim Quinn via The Burning Platform blog,
Month after month I watch as the MSM mouthpieces try to spin declining consumer spending in a positive light. They are practically out of excuses. They are befuddled, because month after month they report “awesome” job gains and can’t understand why all these gainfully employed Americans aren’t buying shit they don’t need like they used to. These faux journalists, spouting propaganda for their ruling class bosses, are willfully ignorant of the fact the job gains are in low paying part-time jobs and the fact that Obamacare and record high rents are sapping any discretionary income households would use to buy stuff.
Despite the propaganda from the media and happy talk from the Liar-in-Chief, the country is currently in a recession and the Fed has no ammo to fake another recovery. We are going down and going down hard. When 70% of your economy is based on Americans buying shit they don’t need from China on credit cards, a dramatic slowdown in consumer spending equals recession. When sales actually fall from November to December during the holiday season, you are in recession. We’ve arrived.
The December report was a disaster and portends horrible retailer results coming down the road. More ghost malls coming to your neighborhood. The annual results were pitiful, with the more recent months even more dreadful. So after adding 10 million jobs, according to Obama, spending declines? They must be great jobs.
I think the results are even worse than portrayed in the results presented by the Census Bureau. Retail sales grew by only 2.2% in 2015 versus 2014. That is significantly less than the real inflation being experienced by real people, so on an inflation adjusted basis they fell. Even the 2.2% increase is artificially pumped up by the Fed induced auto debt fueled boom in car sales (or long-term rentals in reality). The 7 year 0% auto loans, subprime auto loans to deadbeats, and record levels of auto leases have created fake demand that will end in tears when the defaults skyrocket. If you remove these fake sales, then total retail sales are up a pitiful 0.9% over 2014.
When you realize that two of the few strong sales categories were autos (7.5%) and furniture stores (5.8%), you can put your thinking cap on and realize the 7 year 0% financing scam is solely responsible for these sales. Reducing credit score criteria and extending loan terms always works. Right? The other relatively strong area was internet sales (6.3%). Amazon and the rest of the on-line retail segment continues to destroy the bricks and mortar retailers, but even these sales are slowing. They were up a weak 0.3% from November. Before the states started taxing internet sales and it was still a newer concept, the annual growth rates were 15% to 20%, so the 6.3% growth rate is rather unimpressive.
And this leads me to the strongest spending segment – restaurants/bars. Sales were up 8.1% over 2014 and continued strong in December. I know this is true firsthand as my wife is a waitress at a restaurant/sports bar and business was booming in December and continues to be good in January. My thesis for this strong spending is that people are so miserable about the economy in general and the direction of the country (reflected in Trump’s support), they have decided to drink and eat, for tomorrow we die. Dining out or getting loaded at a bar takes your mind off your troubles for a few hours. It’s not a huge expenditure and you just put it on your credit card and worry about it later.
When the mass layoffs start hitting in 2016, even this category of spending will contract. If you think the 2015 consumer spending numbers were atrocious, you haven’t seen anything yet.
(26 votes)
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Marley smoked a strain referred to as Lambs Breath and you gotta go to Jamaca, or maybe Miami, to find it. My friend had a producer friend named Shorty in Miami, back in the 1980s, and we smoked some. It tasted like ditch weed but, that stuff blew us away. Couldn't take another hit after the first! Wish I could clone that stuff!
Mi smoke dat stink weed...in 84 at Nine Mile....wid some Rastas and we be fallin out de place....
sssssssshit.....
Mi so horny/hungry/thristy directly afta....
What State legislators should do is allow every company which makes or sells any kind of alcohol to also make and sell any kind of cannabis. That will provide enough of a free market to enable good stuff. If States wise up and start doing this, I am going to invest in some alcohol companies. And some pizza companies. :-)
I've said it before, and I'll say it again. Here is how the totalitarians will keep people under control, increasing their control over many in the process. The masses have been set up to fail. The masses are now drowning their sorrows with booze and/or drugs. They will turn to their vices more as things deteriorate. Then they'll get themselves in trouble and find their way to a mental health treatment place. They might be coerced as is the case with many drunk driving convictions. This wouldn't worry most, "oh I'm just going for an assessment so I don't have to do a few days in jail." But the mental health and addiction fields have merged into the behavioral health umbrella term. Really that an industry with a name that suggests its entire purpose is to manipulate your behavior, that is funded by the government, that is designed to appear as a resource for people in need, even exists should concern all American citizens. So what we have happening now is, people go in and initially they're receiving treatment for their so called alcoholism, and then once the "therapist" builds enough of a rapport with the "client", the therapist will convince the client that he or she also has mental illness. They tell the clients it's alright, it's all the rage to have a mental disorder now, plus you're not alone, alcoholism and/or mental illness frequently coincide. Then they start talking about all the entitlements one can receive if they play along. To someone seriously impoverished this will seem to them like "they done mades it!" They will become fully dependent on such handouts and will have effectively been made a pawn or zombie of the social workers, therapists, and ultimately, the government, which is footing the bill for all this wasteful nonsense. The libertarian leaning conservatives will support increased control over those receiving benefits because they are lazy freeloaders who should get a job. The democrats will rally their political pawns who have been stupefied by their pharmaceuticals and dependence on handouts to balance this.political theater will be maintained. In the background, the economy along with living standards, will continue to deteriorate. This will only feed into the vicious cycle outlined above. Government snooping technology will only continue to advance, if one can be labeled a terrorist for online commentary today, one will likely be able to be "diagnosed" as mentally ill for the same offense in the future. Think of how easy it is to justify taking rights from those labeled mentally ill, or addicts, even today. It's also quite socially and politically acceptable. Expect this to increase, and for the number of those losing their rights to increase. Many will be easily convinced that they're better off not having the rights they lost, that they don't deserve rights because they can't be trusted with liberty, after all, they're mentally ill, their brains are addled by antipsychotics too. That is how the sheep will be herded. You don't have to wait long to see this in action, it's dystopia now.
THAT´S CRAZY! We´re gonna need some I.D.......
spot on Danimal - another fruit of the insane drug laws. Also having the Docs become snitches too, looking for "anti-gooberment" attitudes ...
BTW, Forbes ran a PRO LSD piece the other day -
I've recommended it before - The book "Orange Sunshine : Brotherhood of Eternal Love and it's Quest to Spread Peace, Love and Acid to the World" is in print again after a very limited run back - go online and order a copy, that and Leary's FLASHBACKS too.
p.s. - Remember the AA founder developed the 12 steps after his LSD journey allowed him to see what was going on and how to stop his alcoholism.
time to place the DEA on receivership, like ASAP.
I want to try acid so bad, you never know if you might be getting "research chemicals" from China anymore though.I've found I'm really not an alcoholic though, I'm a pothead, lol.
Dude....very well said....
However...
USE SOME FUCKING PARAGRAPHS....FOR THE LOVE OF EVERYTHING HOLY....
GOOD GOD MAN...MY PRESCRIPTIONS STEAMED UP TRYING TO READ THAT JAM/TEXT....
FUCK!
I wish I could easily. I swiped that out on a shit android phone at the library because I'm homeless right now.
If you get a mental health label, you will lose your rights to bear arms. They are doing this with any veteran who is assigned PTSD. Pretty soon it will be applied to anyone deemed "oppositional."
Continuity of Government: It's for the children.
The "sin" industry is very recession proof.
How many emaciated bums do you see smoking cigarettes? Or homeless people drinking tall boys?
Unless there's total economic collapse people will continue to purchase their vices.
Although the price of hookers has apparently crashed in some places.
Get hammered while you can still afford booze!
America drinks & goes home...
Booze for barter.
Just don't climb the wrist-thick Kudzu vines under the influence.
I wonder if you can mash kudzu?
The local pub used to be a mileau for discussion. Too bad those days are long gone. However, we have a new "local pub" online. I urge people here to drink responsibly: avoid cheap beer and liquor. Bottle fermented ale is good for you. It's got food value. The yeast has good B vitamins that your brain will need. Lots of hoppy alpha acids are great for you.
Better still is to get Kombucha and let it sit out of the fridge a few days to ferment. But that's really expensive. Best to have one in the morning. Your tummy flora is really important. This is why real ale is good. I enjoy mine at room temp.
Some say that fermented drinks kept the pyramid building slaves on task through completion. So, Cheers! I LOVE you guys!
I'm not sure I want beverage recommendations from someone named "Golden Showers".
Jim Quinn is one of those tools who wants you to believe that Building#7 fell down all by itself, neatly, into it's own footprint, with all the gold somehow vaporized.
"The fate of nearly $1 billion worth of gold, silver and other precious metals stored beneath the WTC before 9-11 continues to baffle many." WTC 9-11 Biggest Gold Heist In History
Jim Quinn is just another flavor of MSM mind poison. Best avoided at all cost.
Hope springs eternal - I'm looking forward to the 'off the grid' cabin and brewing beer for sustanence !
Do you ever get totally smashed and go outside for a piss - look up at the stars and say - "We are SO Fucked" ???? I do !
That's how you get wet pant legs.
and now Obama is favoring Cuban Communist liquor brands over US brands by allowing the Cubans Trademark protection and screwing Bacardi but Cuba does not have to agree to protect our products from brand fraud......
http://www.wsj.com/articles/cuban-government-granted-a-u-s-trademark-for...
i drink at home: it's way cheaper and much safer.
the worst that can happen is my wife getting pissed off, which is better than getting a DUI.
Same as me, a safe environment is better.
The US consumer is drowning their sorrows in a bar? No, no, that's rich folk. The average US consumer can't afford to go to a bar and is drowning his sorrows at home with the highest alcohol content per dollar liquid he can find. He realizes he could just grow weed for free and smoke that but then remembers in most states the Feds still send in SWAT teams to make holes in people who do that. So he sighs and drinks some more.
I think you're not taking into account the HUGE segment of the population that has basically forsaken the concept of personal responsibility.
They are up to their eyeballs in student loan debt, credit card debt, and car payments... while working a shitty job for $25k that they could never have imagined being stuck at with their poli-sci / feminist studies major.
Well, here they are. Drowning in debt. So why not just spend like there's no tomorrow while the credit spigot is still flowing. Who fucking cares. They're just going to default on it all one day anyway.
Personally, I believe this is a very bad omen for lenders of every stripe and color. The default wave is on the horizon....
Tick tock, tick tock.
Of course if we had a free market in the student loan space as opposed to a facist tyranny funding it, those students would never get the funds to get their Ph.D. In feminazism. So we should put the blame on those evil tyrants behind all of this.
My parents employ a local couple (it's a town of 5000) to do some of the house/yard stuff they can't do since they're old (my brother is evil and I'm 3000 miles away, so I visit them for medical stuff instead). The guy and his wife are in their late 50s; they used to have decent jobs, but now longer; now they do yard work and cleaning. My parents do pay well; they are locals themselves.
Anyway, before you feel sorry for this couple - ALL they do is eat out. They make some money, they eat out on it. As many nights a week as they can. They have been to every restaurant in the area countless times (except the truly costly ones); they eat out far more than my parents do. They are trying to sell their modest house to buy a smaller one, but the guy feels that at the end of the week if he has some money in his pocket and he wants a new toy (e.g. a camera) he deserves it (the wife has given up on arguing about it). It is like they are addicted to eating out. Well, I guess they enjoy it, but it seems an imprudent choice.
Does not sound like a good situation, I hope it sorts itself out soon. This couple sound like the ones they are breeding nowadays. Eating out is over rated, and for retards. I learnt to cook from a young age, my mother said that she at least wants us to know how to feed ourselves. Since then I have learnt everything, I make fancy French, italian and whatever the hell else I feel like. I have worked for restaurants during hard times to get buy, but the minute I am back on my feet, I shun those mother fuckers. It's all fako bullsheite.
Anyway, best I carry on finishing off my website.