This page has been archived and commenting is disabled.
Charting The Legacy Of The Baby Boomers
While it is difficult to properly attribute blame for the collapse of the US economy, which commenced in the early 1980s, on either the Fed's policy of easy money starting with Alan Greenspan (and terminating with today's statement by Goldman that merely a suggestion of "not easing" may be equivalent to "tightening" - a symptom of a terminal junkie), or the resultant self-indulgent lifestyle of the maturing baby boomers, one thing is certain: the paradigm downturn of the United States began in the early 1980s. And here we are willing to break the cardinal rule of statistics and assume that correlation does imply causation. Because the 4 simple charts below don't lie: the US economy, as represented by its Balance of Payments, the profligacy of the US consumer, the massive expansion of consumer leverage, and the collapse in US manufacturing jobs, and specifically its current near-terminal state, is as much as legacy of the baby boom generation's actions (and lack thereof), as of everything else that has already been mulled over and scapegoated an infinite number of times in both the mainstream and fringe media.
Charts courtesy of John Lohman
- 32617 reads
- Printer-friendly version
- Send to friend
- advertisements -



espirt: Great job! Inspiring to say the least. I feel it, I know it was a hard thing for me to drive junk cars and find myself wearing the same dress shirt I wore in a family picture 10 years previous, things are not that tight now, but they would have been if we didn't cut to the bone. Spread your story, let the younger ones know, maybe they will think. He lowest paid prole at my work has the latest smartphone, while his kid gets nothing. I got a old school razr pay as you go.
Anyway, you are doing the right thing, hat tip to you sir.
Yup, the Greatest Generation. Those that brought you the constitutional endrun of the Gold Standard, The Red Scare, Three wars in 20 years and the wholesale military buildup of the world, the seeds of middle east unrest, the over turning of the constitution and an alphabet soup of government agencies, the beginning of social security , farm welfare, etc
But gee whiz, other than that, they were great and had their heads screwed on tight
Come on! You cannot blame/revere a generation anymore than you can a class of people, a religion, an occupation, etc.
Nomination for Greatest War: Vietnam
Yes, and your generation did sooo much better.... you amplified most of these problems instead of doing something to really change them. Far out man.
Uhmm, the point was it is stupid to make accusations or generalization about any class of people
Go back to sleep dude
3 things those fucking scumbag boomers will be known for:
Drugs
divorce
disco
Thanks Boomers....now continue to gorge yourselves, you selfish fucking pricks.
Genius, sheer genius! I was so lucky to be logged on when these words tripped of your fingers....
Thank you, thank you
the name seems to fit.
Agree with all, but the middle east line. It was always fucked up.
From the "Greatest Generation" to the "Grifter Generation" in one easy economic theory.
a chart that proves that things started to go to shit prior to the baby boomers being old enough to occupy positions of power is presented as proof that baby boomers are responsible for things going to shit? i don't recall a lot of 29 year old senators, supreme court justices and ceo's at the time, do you?
I think that mother fucker biden was. Didn't that cocksucker get elected before he was old enough, but reported for duty just after he reached the age limit. Make that idiot the token boomer who did it.
Take a guess who the Boomer's parents were.
ZH repeatedly rags on the Boomers and misses the game. The beneficiaries of the big swing were the so-called Greatest Generation and, less noticed and more hideous, the Silent Generation. The Boomers were a problem, too many kids for two few colleges and jobs. The tension was diffused by the Silent Generation as they produced and directed the pop music boom, the press indulgence of everythinng 'youthful.' The GG bumped their benefits up dramatically and the Silent Generation were the peddlers and encouragers of every false god they could sell. If you look into it, you'll that most of the Boomers will be screwed by the Soc Sec formula changes. My Silent Gen step-father, 84, has been getting max benefits for two decades: He only made real money for 10 years. Try that now and you'll get almost no SS check. Look at Congress back in 1975-95 and you'll see all those Silent Generation faces staring out at you.
It seems you cut out a little short.
The Silent gen started a lot of shit, and the boomers pushed it to excess.
Long before this current crisis I assumed the boomers would trash the markets by pulling money out. This is going back to the dot com days with Nasdaq 10,000 coming by 2010.
Who would have thought we'd have a whole banking system and government based on fraud?
Since the boomers legacy will be one of total suck-ass, the balance of karma should be in favor of at least a couple mildly responsible and rational generations to follow.
Show us any historical record where a subsequent generation was better than the previous generation.
(Hint: You won't find any.)
redpill
Thanks guys! From the Greatest Generation to this?
Comment
I'll probably get slammed for this and a lot of negatives but I'll say it anyway. I have always felt that TGG (The Greatest Generation) did a major disservice after their major accomplishment of WWII. The kids they had, were spoiled and didn't learn from the Great Depression. It seems to me that the offspring going through the baby boomers have been proponents of big government and government can solve most problems when in fact government often makes things worse. The offspring of TGG are the modern originators of "the me generation". Until the last decade and the increasing ideological and fundamental divide politically, things like massive debt and the problems of fiat currency were not really an issue.
So while I can agree that those that lived during the great depression and fought WWII are the greatest generation, I question what should really be meant by "the greatest generation". Greatest in a good way, or quite possibly greatest in a bad way.
Good comments redpill - +1.
The boomers Love preching accountability, They are the worst Gen for being accountable or even holding thy'er Govement accountable for its action. Ok you dint have the internet..
This 30sonthing group and under has no excuses .. Dr Paul has taken that away and the internet is still free and open. 30 somthing and under Its on you if you dont get yours
my roomate's mom makes $83/hr on the computer. She has been fired from work for 9 months but last month her pay check was $18339 just working on the computer for a few hours. Read more on this web site ..... http://bit.ly/FPPP3j
th..th..there's something in the plastic that makes me want to BUY MOOOOOOOOOOOOOORE
"Buying more" is the only purpose to life that the TV Drones have ever heard of. Or seen.
"Man, I see in Fight Club the strongest and smartest men who've ever lived. I see all this potential, and I see it squandered. God damn it, an entire generation pumping gas, waiting tables – slaves with white collars. Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don't need. We're the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our great war is a spiritual war. Our great depression is our lives. We've all been raised on television to believe that one day we'd all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars, but we won't. We're slowly learning that fact. And we're very, very pissed off."
- Tyler Durden
I want to believe that post-Boomer generations see things this way... but it appears that it was just a movie script.
"they" write the scripts.They give good quotes but we waste time watching and not doing. I sometimes think we really need to get back to the book, the moving picture has not made the story better. Even the rebel movies are really tools to flouridate your brain. Fuck look who was in it, that tool Brad Pit.
Thanks mom!
Of course you realize the only way out of this is a debt jubilee and to start over. The 1% won't like it, but fuck 'em!
Look on the bright side, we still have time to liquify the boomers and feed them intravenously to the young.
i'll get the milker
No, I disagree; the boomers should be placed in a gigantic bio-electrical harness field a la the Matrix.
That will reduce our dependence on foreign oil.
What the fuck did we boomers do? Its not like we all wanted to do this, its just that the bastards can't keep their hands to themselves. They reach in my pocket and I reach in yours, the endless circle of (debt) life...
current average age of wall street investment bankster is 27
boomers now marks to algo generation cons
no US innocents over 12
we're fucked
justly so
Somehow within the matrix, you associated politicians who predominately had the biggest paychecks with being the smartest and brightest candidates for the overall population.
Listen Genius, if the Banks go under, it'll affect much more than just the 1%. And as people won't still want stuff after a "debt jubilee". Except.... who in their right mind is gonna lend $$ after that?
Lol really? On this site you make that point?
Well, on the bright side, you sound like a guy with a lot to lose. Thats got to be nice.
And if one day you dont, I guarantee the sun keeps rising for a long time after that.
He has it all leveraged to the max, when the music stops he won't have a seat and will be holding the bag. Too sad, too bad.
Yi bin here a whole 23 weeks and yi still ain't learn nuffin'.
I take it, that means, you're not ready... WELL...
I've got good news and bad news for you. The good news, the Mayans were wrong about December 21st being the apocalypse and all life on earth ending. The bad news, the Mayans were wrong about December 21st being the apocalypse and all life on earth ending.
Got it?
Correction, after a jubilee, who will borrow money?
;-P
who'll lend?
None of my business.
I think the debtors would wake up and not worry about how many paychecks they have until the rent is due for the first time in forever and be greatly relieved. Which would have to feely really good.
> Except.... who in their right mind is gonna lend $$ after that?
I junked ya for thinking that lending - usury - wasn't the problem in the first place.
I'd like to junk ya again for thinking that debt digits created out of nothing have some sort of intrisinc value.
The mind fucked want to remain that way. You are rocking the boat making them think.
Jubilee can work.
Imagine an environment where interest rates are not manipulated i.e., interest rate are a genuine pricing mechanism. Announce a jubilee twenty years hence and watch the market work!
Interest rates will rise during the last few years in the cycle and then fall again immediately after the year of jubilee.
Let Your Life Be a Friction to Stop the Machine
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2Xh5eN2fXY&feature=youtube_gdata_player
Nice NWO propaganda piece!
Perpetuates the myth of 9-11 ... perpetuates the myth that "capitalism" is the cause of the welfare state, restrictive trade practices and crony fascism.
All in all, a very emotive piece that bypasses the NWO-bankster takeover and blames it all on "Wall Street" (ie. the evil speculators) and "Corporations" in general (without even touching on the subject of multinationals hiding profits outside US jurisdiction in the NWO's global playground).
In summary: the usual NWO-Marxist drivel.
... and so is Tyler's attempt to blame the baby boomers! Divide and Rule. Shame on you, TD!
Clinton, Bush and Obomber have been the only boomer administrations (ie. ruling class puppets) ... and even they were/are still controlled by pre-boomers from the "GI Generation" and "Silent Generation" (how appropriate ... Kissinger, Brzezinski, Haig, Perle, Kristol, and other unelected manipulators behind the scenes in the halls of power, are never mentioned in these "blame" pieces).
But, in fact, the opening moves that led to the inevitable current "endgame" go back even further.
Too much truth, i-dog, they cannot grasp it. Kissenger was spouting off the other day, just go to war, assume the Persians have nukes.
Not enough blood on his hands yet, needs a bit more before he goes to meet his master, Lucifer.
Watching the video, and the top rated comment
Pretty much would have fixed the whole video.
NEW YORK - USA - In a remarkable admission by former Nixon era Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, reveals what is happening at the moment in the world and particularly the Middle East.
Speaking from his luxurious Manhattan apartment, the elder statesman, who will be 89 in May, is all too forward with his analysis of the current situation in the world forum of Geo-politics and economics.
"The United States is baiting China and Russia, and the final nail in the coffin will be Iran, which is, of course, the main target of Israel. We have allowed China to increase their military strength and Russia to recover from Sovietization, to give them a false sense of bravado, this will create an all together faster demise for them. We're like the sharp shooter daring the noob to pick up the gun, and when they try, it's bang bang. The coming war will will be so severe that only one superpower can win, and that's us folks. This is why the EU is in such a hurry to form a complete superstate because they know what is coming, and to survive, Europe will have to be one whole cohesive state. Their urgency tells me that they know full well that the big showdown is upon us. O how I have dreamed of this delightful moment."
"Control oil and you control nations; control food and you control the people."
Mr Kissinger then added: "If you are an ordinary person, then you can prepare yourself for war by moving to the countryside and building a farm, but you must take guns with you, as the hordes of starving will be roaming. Also, even though the elite will have their safe havens and specialist shelters, they must be just as careful during the war as the ordinary civilians, because their shelters can still be compromised
http://www.dailysquib.co.uk/world/3089-henry-kissinger-if-you-can-t-hear-the-drums-of-war-you-must-be-deaf.html
Is that paper the UK version of The Onion? No way that Kissinger used the word "noob."
Haha. The Squib is a satire website. Kissinger said none of that. It was all made up. None of it is true. But it is funny.
The video is wrong on too many points to detail here.
Fuck me, at least 4 neo-cons at large.
World War III - The First Private War in History
Those who won all battles shall lose the war.
Bilderberg Group and the crimes against humanity.
http://eamb-ydrohoos.blogspot.com/2012/02/world-war-iii.html
---------------
The terror in the Greenspan’s eyes, while he was explaining to the American officers the causes of the financial fall is particularly revealing. Experienced “Keitel” knows that this will not be his last apology. He knows that the worst is yet to come. It is a sure thing that the worst are following. It is a matter of time to seek the private “conquerors” of the Planet and to put them on trial for crimes against humanity. It is also a sure thing that even the “mucho” Kissinger should be in panic and stuck in one of his luxury “holes”, as we write this text. Either way, he cannot move outside USA for some years now without being threatened with arrest.
Authored by PANAGIOTIS TRAIANOU
Thank you very much for your post and link...a great read!
you can only make so many wrong moves before it catches up to you, the US from inception has made many wrong moves, and is finally catching up
How many more till we catch-up to Europe?
WilliamBanzai may have the answer
catch up to china?
Man, you are talking my book now per the Baby Boom generation. Indeed, the true rot began with that generation. Never prior had there been an American generation so dead set on its perpeutal self-fulfillment regardless of the legacy left to trailing generations. Whether we are talking about mindless consumption, moral ambiguity, entitlement, F'd up priorities [ie family], or Godlessness, there has never been a more destructive generation in American history.
a boomer close to me once said "man, has my generation raped the earth like no one else. to the point it may never make it back."
it's been a few generations of gluttony from the US and UK more than anything else, the ALL YOU CAN EAT SEAFOOD BUFFETS, plastic shit etc.. The post baby boom US generation is just sad/mad they cannot gourge themselves like their predessors, tattoo generation is just as selfish as the baby boomers.
Hedonism Hubris Halitosis
correct is multi-generational but this generation in particular hit the trifecta. don't own a tattoo, after seeing a tradtional polynesian tatoo done well all others seem to suck, hard.
Hamartia
For the most part you are right. But, I am mad that the boomer generation expects my generation to payback this lump of debt + their retirement. I've know for years that buffets, trinkets and material things make you a slave, fat and susceptible to medical bills. I prefer not to be led to slaughter. The new age sheep are branded, I have no tatoos!
you are one of the few who are awake, I do feel sorry for the 20 somethings who are hard working, good character, I always ask them how hard things are getting a decent and indecent job. Seems if you are responsible, punctual, respectful of others and yourself, you are indispensible to employers, they give you more hours and promotions since efficiency is most important.
Problem is the easy jobs (Post office especially and other government jobs) are all taken by the baby boomers, there is no glut of opportunities for post high school jobs.
It's obvious the system collapsed years ago, just coasting now until the pull the new currency, fema camp, 401k seizure, NDAA, bank closing at a time of the 0.1% choosing. I don't think you will have to worry about paying off the baby boomers bills, the 0.1% will not have much use for them in 10 years.
2 things destroyed the world's resources, overpopulation in 3rd world and US over comsumption, seems these are being addressed now by the 0.1%'ers.
You've already lost the bet if you think you're responsible for any debt incurred, other than personally accrued.
Spend 40 or 50 years working hard for a living with little expectation of entitlement when you retire then you'll know where I'm coming from.
Lights begin to come on when realization of the "American Dream" and "Brass Ring" are an illusion to keep you in the hamster wheel, that is unless you are part of the con.
Welcome to the Matrix.
When the godly spout racist sexist filth, who cares about godliness? Don't forget that half the stuff you complain about was set up by the "greatest generation" ie unemployment, welfare, foodstamps etc. Of course I'm entitled (to SS and Medicare), I paid into it for 45 years! You, meaning YOU, are unwise to write off the entitlements YOU are paying for.
Donsluck, those programs were established when there was still a moral compass to follow, with ethics, character, and integrity. Thats what the golden/greatest generation followed. The boomers buried it long ago and replaced it with moral hazard. On every level the boomers failed the country. Industry/Economy = fail. Outsourced manufacturing to China and India. Allowed made in China Wal-Mart crap to force main street business out. 600 billion trade gap. Energy = fail. Carter tried but big oil stepped in. No energy plan for decades. Debt = Fail. Fiscal disaster. Entitlements/Social Security/Healthcare = fail. Since the 90's I heard about fixing SS, and now 20 years later nothing has been done except pay the retiring boomers more $$. Banking = Fail. The TBTF are now 4x's bigger than in 2008. on and on and on......
"A moral compass to follow." You mean social engineering?
The boomers buried nothing. They are stuck just like everyone else by astoundingly bad legislation passed before they could even vote that sold us down the river and began to turn us into a mindless socialist state.
But no matter. The better question now is how to fix the problem, which is also in large measure one of perception. Most people actually think it's working, save for leftists who are convinced that the evil 1% just aren't paying their fair share, and that everything can be cured by more government enaction of social policies.
As I always tell my son, things work until they don't.
Cdad, you're on target. This group has, and will continue to drive this country into ruin for another decade. At least they usually take their pensions and entitlements and recirculate the proceeds back into the economy. The debt they are leaving will be up to your generation (and mine) to deal with, one way or another. Many somewhat conservative people are really frowning upon these 55 year old lifer retirees collecting 90% pay for life, as we lay off teachers and cut servies and raise taxes to pay for their never ending benefits.
They could have done good on losing the godlessness. Unfortunately they stopped worshiping at the doorstep of one corrupt group (the collective of organized Christian religions), to worship at the other ( easy money and mindless entertainment)
1860
Ironically, it was Regan who first turned the US into a debtor nation - not a Boomer.
"'Cause in the mind of Ronald Reagan
Wheels they turn and gears they grind
Buildings collapse in slow motion
And trains collide, everything is fine
Everything is fine
Everything is fine"
- Sweethearts, Camper Van Beethoven
Ann? Ann Coulter is that you? Why is your adams apple so big?
Karl Roves dick got stuck in there.
I always knew that guy was gay.
Every thing you ever wanted to know about the Reagan Revolution and its continuation by every Administration both Democrat and Republican since in one easy graphic.
Brilliant. The Charts of American Collapse
Oh well... it's all Reagan's fault! That explains everything!
Get over it.
Not entirely, but I remember the debate about 'trickle-down' economics and where we could go from there. I also remember the hostile takeovers of equity rich establishments--the raiders would buy them up and leverage the hell out of them buying up related industries (the last to almost go bankrupt was the 'winner'.) They also gutted the S&Ls and raided most of the private sector pensions, dumping the empty shells on the Feds...
We grew in the 80s by raiding all the piggy banks and handing out credit cards. It sucked.
Well then, you go ahead and frame your existence in politics. I've opted out.
Who is this "we" you speak of? Shit was so bad back then I left this country on foot, El Paso, Tx to points south, illegal alien gringo in a strange land. I couldn't come back until Ragun had made the world save for Democracy.
Don't get me wrong here--I mentioned trickle down not to lay all of this on Reagan; only to note that there was heated debate at the time. To me it was more of a symptom of the mindset already in play: saving money was out, only fools supported taxation, credit was in, and we could borrow our way to prosperity both in the private sector and in gov't. All of which contradicted everything I'd been taught.
It was a debate like we have today - all show. They meet up in the bar afterwards and have a whiskey, laugh at you and me still arguing about left right while they just put on the show the real owners wanted us to see. We never had a choice nor any real influence. That part I can grasp.
I don't put too much stock in political explanations or alliances. It was pure greed that squandered all the equity that had been built up since the 1930s.
It doesn't matter what make of car the gangsters were driving. Same thing today.
Fucking brilliant.
Yes, spot on. That last line we can agree on. And it covers them all from Stalin to Mao to roosovelt and whatshisname.
Exactly.
Simplist thinking. Scapgoating.
He was a tool, he might have changed something, but they took a potshot at him and he got the message.
When I hear this trickle down bullshit caused everything, I think that person was not alive for the time before Reagan when they blew the wad in Indochina and left the cupboard bare. Anything after that couldn't be real - guns and butter maybe, guns, butter, welfare state and affimative action plus no industry = fail.
It was just a matter of time, on purpose or not, and it did not matter if Reagan was president or not, it would all be more or less the same now, except the airport in dc would have some other name.
Weeeelllll, but....the Presidents before Reagan did seem to care a bit about deficit spending.
Nothing is all one person's fault, of course--I suspect Reagan was just a good-looking figurehead for most of his Presidency--but his administration really DID kick off the "cut taxes and triple spending" policy which was pretty much standard practice after him.
Funny... I thought Congress did the spending.
You mean Obama's *not* to blame for the current deficit? Hah.
Of course you're right, Congress does do the spending, but the President presents budget proposals, and if Congress approves of them, he does exert a great deal of influence on what actually happens.
You remember the Reagan days? He proposed massive tax cuts and major increases in defense spending. He got both. That's where the ballooning Federal deficit really got started.
Most folks of a certain age can't communicate rationally about Reagan, or evaluate his legacy. If you were one of the folks who was fortunate enough to become a whole lot richer during his administration, it's easy to understand the emotion.
Emotion has nothing to do with what happened, though.
The country was bankrupt the day they signed the War on Poverty Bull Shit. It was just when the ponzi would end, not if. Nothing else since could change the fini, only extend or pretend out a little bit more.
Well, at least back then there was a budget to actually evaluate & sign or veto. Now it's just print uncontrollably and pander.
Yes, this will work much better...lol.
I remember the Reagan days...I also remember Tip O'Neil.
fiction then, now
Dude, this shit goes back to before Ike.
I agree Social Security was a lousy design, but there have been periods during which our government policies underwent rapid and significant change. The Reagan administration was such a period. (Personally, I say Medicare is going to be the thing that brings down the empire, not SocSec.)
Medicare was post-Ike.
If your understanding of all this stuff is so superior to mine, let's hear it.
What broke everything?
Make him work it on his own. Ask him who controlled congress, how could he sign bills that were not passed? Same BS as Obama and Bonnjour today. All show no go.
Who controlled Congress when Medicare-D passed?
You talk a non-partisan talk, but you don't walk the walk. You have a pathological need to blame the Democrats.
I understand your perspective, but you are mistaken.
Who reaped the profits from that convoluted bill? Big pharma. 3K plans to choose from. Get real.
You don't know, do ya?
You raise a fascinating point, though--color me impressed. There's nothing Democrat or Republican about this shit.
You are not reading me right, or I am not writing it so you can comprehend.
I do not isolate the Dems, I wish that others do not isolate the Reps.
I fully understand that there is but one party, the Statist Party. These are but minor differences between insiders. Like the Soviets after Lenin during Stalin. Faces would get airbrushed out later because they wanted to forget them, they become non-historical. I wanted only to correct the record, if not reagun, but four more carter, the result would have been much the same. The difference is style, not substance, execution, not result. Is that clearer? I feel misunderstood, and I don't want it to be that way. Example, I agree more than you can know about the medicare-d, it proves the point. It's one party.
I always thought we had three equal branches of government.
I liked that idea...it get's away from the whole Dear Leader picture over the fireplace kinda thingy many other places in the world have to live with.
Siiigh...
The notion that the federal government would somehow police and limit itself through its own internal "checks and balances" has always been idiotic. Just another farce.
FUcking idiot. I did not say it was Reagan's fault. It WAS and IS a verifiable FACT that starting with the Reagan Administration with the help of the Democratrically controlled Congress and a WILLING Federal Reserve the credit and debt floodgates were open.
If you fucktards and the people who junked me had really read the post you would have seen that I blamed EVERY administration since Reagan for continuing our RUINOUS ADDICTION TO DEBT.
Fuck you all. Learn to read and YOU get over your worship of Reagan. Men such as Reagan do not make for very good sacred cows.
Ronnie RayGun was an actor. How much did Star Wars cost? Thatcher ruined the UK the same way.
I was responding to that dumb ass mouth breather CH 1.
Here's what he said....
Oh well... it's all Reagan's fault! That explains everything!
Get over it.
That's a Reagan Worshiper. That's their standard retort to anything negative about that administration. I should know...I used to be a Reagan worhsiper.
I forget sometimes the way Zerohedge allocates and places replies to people. You may first to reply but then after a while you get place way down below and your post looks out of context.
Just like how my reply to you is ABOVE you as if I wrote before your post. Tighten up Zerohedge.
Jumbotron, I looked back at every post between your first post and this one, and not one person worshiped Reagan nor acted like he was a sacred cow. Go back and read for yourself. I think if you had put in your first post some of the things you said in this post, you might have got a different reaction, IMHO.
I club baby <strike>seals</strike> boomers
Tough crowd tonight, lots of junks! lol
Why don't we bring gold down by raising rates to 20%?
OT: Any of you know who Damon Vickers is? As a Zero Hedge chart was shown on the Beck show tonight and was being explained by 3 different men, one was Vickers that was spewing the mainstream nonsense. The other 2 were on target.
Sounds like a rela fucking gem...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damon_Vickers
Baby Boomers just got the raw deal from hell. Huge spec trades for their depreciating cash assets. Marketwatch should be ashamed of themselves. "This rally has legs" bullsh*t. It's a bubble set up by the Fed, ran with by JPM and now about to sold by Goldman.
I feel sorry for the human race.
Baby Boomers should have followed their own fucking advice:
DON'T TRUST ANYONE OVER 30.
Why?! BECAUSE, WITH RARE EXCEPTION, PAST A CERTAIN AGE MOST PEOPLE ***NO LONGER ACT FROM PRINCIPLE***.
They knew better than any generation before them. Now it's left up to the rest of us to sort the shitstorm out.
Fuck 'em.
Everything you ever wanted to know about how not to live you can learn from a baby boomer. Did they make out like bandits? Hell ya they did. The rest of us not only have to smell their shit, we have to try and clean it up. While most of the grey haired spoiled brats are sipping champagne and complaining they don't make enough.
I'm over 30 and you can trust me. I still act on principle...trust me.
Ron Paul posts here!?! Fuckin' Ay!
27 = average ws bankster
Whoa chill down. I'm an X'er, born 1970s. F*ck yeah we and Y'ers will sort the sh*t out. But the boomers and and any body else does NOT deserve to be fleeced by a maniacal central bank and Wall Street. The smart old school traders that I follow, old open out cry guys, they knew the score. That the goverments will try and steal from you. The Fed just helped with the zero interest rate. So you trade, bet in the markets. Now we are ALL forced to gamble. That's the game. But you should not be forced. But Obama/Fed wants everyone to except the conjob. I actually have a ton of respect for the OWS crew. A good start. But anyway rats always desert a sinking ship . I am locking in two things, war very soon with Iran and Wall street imploding. A lot chaos to follow.
My dad is 1920's old school. I love hearing stories about the depression and how the goverment is a pile of sh*t. Never changes.
We haven't seen nothing yet in 2012. This Dow 20000 f*cking rubbish. As soon as Israel drops the bomb on Iran, the HFTs will sell this into oblivion. They (machines) haven't seen a war yet. Bring up your charts from the last gulf wars. Sharp sell then buy. This time we deal with a country that isn't a bunch of guys running around in robes and sandles. Stand up fight. Lock in cyber war too. Meaning? Mass panic.
As a boomer who worked hard all my life, always saved more than I made which for many years was not much and who has been responsible financially I take offense at being lumped into a group that supposedly fucked the younger people.
I finally left the mess and have a paid off property which generates a small income and drive a 20 year old small pickup truck. Even though I could pay cash for a new Beemer manana.
As you can see I left the train wreck a few years and pay my own health insurance with world class doctors and hospitals to care for me and while hope to collect small SS will never suck off Medicare.
While sure I agree many boomers fucked up and will continue to do so, the what goes around comes around mantra will work and punish those to an extent that did not live responsibly.
Meanwhile youngsters, realize many of your group (most all not here on ZH) are doing the same fucking, I pad, pod and phone type shit that many of the boomers did. Now you want to whine that things are tough.
Well pull your selves up by your bootstraps and get the fuck out and work and live below your means and be responsible. Live by example.
There is still plenty of opportunity for you especially if you broaden your horizons and split the country.
And also mutherfucker youngsters get the fuck out and participate in elections and support Ron Paul. All this talk about the youth support for RP and you lazy keg party fucks (hey I was one too) don't want to do the one thing that can help change the mess. Sleep in late and don´t vote or caucus. I closely watch voting in all the primaries with vote percentages in counties with major university populations and you know what, the youth aren't voting in any numbers.
So look in the mirror before you lump everyone into the same basket.
Check mate Bitchezzz.Christamas gonna be very very crappy for coming years. Forget about the fucking Nike shoes and crap.
What you're describing isn't really the boomer, it's The Yuppie.
Yuppies were a trans-generational and multinational phenomenon that started in the early 1980s under slogans like "shop till you drop" and "yes, you can have it all".
It was all a clever marketing ploy because for every genuine Yuppie there were 500 wannabees. And that's the group that needed the credit bubble to reach for their 'aspirational goals". And they needed to be overindulgent obedient consumerists to keep up with the Joneses.
The iconic 1980s TV sitcom Family Ties tells the story well: the boomer parents are frugal liberals. The spend-thrift, young Republican son, Alex Keaton (Michael J Fox) is the emblematic yuppie. And that would make him a GenXer. Not a boomer. The comedy is in the culture clash between boomers and Xers ie ex-hippies vs Yuppies
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family_Ties
Caviar, usually I like your comments and I see what you're getting at, but calling the parents "frugal liberals" was waaaay too rich for my blood. Thought I'd explain my down arrow since I don't usually "dock" ya.
I remember Family Ties, and the parents were typical wasteful, Conscience-Kissing libs, supporting every government nanny "consciousness-raising" program there was. Alex and Mallory were just the logical outcome of the parents' shallow hypocrisy, the REAL fruit of their upbringing. Alex was openly greedly while his parents pretended not to be. Mallory was openly shallow and materialistic.
I agree that Gens X and Y are no better than the Boomers were, but Greatest Generation at least left a good (if mixed) legacy behind them.
Not sure I agree it's all the Boomers' fault, though. In some ways they were the first generation of chumps. (The first generation of at least three.) They have been scammed out of their retirements, and all their productivity wasted, to feed fat parasites like Dimon, Blankfein, and Geithner. All their productivity is being leached from them by a criminal government.
Maybe the Boomers were just unfortunate enough to have been retiring right at the time the currency collapses, in just the exact same way every fiat currency does.
They aren't the only generation dumb enough to believe its own press...
Not sure I agree it's all the Boomers' fault, though. In some ways they were the first generation of chumps. (The first generation of at least three.
@ Renfield: Thanx for the feedback, I admire that. And your points are totally on point. I agree that in Family Ties the parents embraced wasteful social spending. True. But the show did try to point out a generation gap where their son was totally materialistic whereas they were social conscious.
And I agree boomers (and X and Y) were chumps.
After Vietnam the Federal gov was broke and deficits mushroomed along with inflation. Nixon started the trend of trying to sweep it all under the carpet by slamming shut the gold window to make way for unfettered money printing. And then he tried (and failed) to compensate with wage and price controls. It came to a head again after the 1973 energy crisis and the ensuing wave of factory shut downs which became the Rust Belt. And after that it became very clear in everyone's gut that the best days were gone. Reagan benefitted from a short term glut of oil ( the trans-Alaska pipeline came on line then, and btw it's now in steep decline) and an unrivaled ramp up in Federal spending. No magic there. And no permanent solution. Just a set up for the fall.
True that. The majority of Boomers have been screwed blue and tatooed just like everyone else subject to The Big Con. The ripoff started during Reagan's tenure and has been steamrollering ever since. They've called it "Free Enterprise", "Globalization" and "Deregulated Markets" when they shoved the lie off on us all. Old or young, the majority of us are fucked, not just one generation or another. Why? Because this is all a communal gathering we call "Society" and when the decisions are all made to benefit only a few, all the rest of us suffer.
And alot of these decisions were made by fuckers older than the Boomers. Check the history, then figure out how you'll contribute to a solution instead of being a wimpy crybaby and remaining whipsawed by events.
Sincerely, Dad.
WRONG. The Boomers came after after WW1, the Depression and WW2. They were given EVERYTHING. And what did those fuck-stains do??? Let me ask some questions: was divorce and destruction of the family common before boomers? How about blended families and step this and that? Whoring?? How about drug use?? Cocaine and pot and herion en mass?? Disco? When did this shit start? Those fuckers interpreted opulence and opportunity for a license to debauch themselves and the entire country. Succeeeding generations have had to clean up the heaping piles of SHIT that they have left strewn behind their fat fucking asses. FUCK THE BOOMERS. The sooner they die off, the faster our nation can recover. Although the damage they did may be permanent.
everything, including nam, default
..and Jeff Beck
Yep, you're a dingleberry alright.
Happy to loan you my shovel anytime, comrade!
And they plan on starting another war before they're done...
...you mean x-er obomba
The "great sucking sound" in four easy charts, even a senile Boomer can understand.
FU pal. The so-called "Greatest Generation" invented socialist security and the New Deal, and changed all our textbooks to make us think it worked.
Ask Gerber, Schwinn, Atari, Nike, Gap, any record company, stockbroker, insurance company, casket makers what import your comment brings.
You're welcome
Tin Roof Rusted
Shhhhh. Don't break the illusion that the $250K degree in BullShit was not true. When most people purchase a lemon, they are not prone to admitting it in public.
Socialism always fails. It's our turn.
Too bad we'll never see anything like socialism. We're stuck with a crony capitalistic nightmare endorsed by both parties.
The three major pre-war socialisms:
New Deal Socialism, National Socialism, and Soviet Communism.
People want to blame the Boomers for something that was set in motion 30 years before they were born? Or do they merely forget, or are they simply ignorant, of the system that was designed in the years surrounding WWI, whose consequences have been responsible for everything that has happened in the ensuing decades?
We didn't get here because Boomers suddenly shoved this country off the Straight and Narrow Path in (circa) 1983. George Orwell (and Aldous Huxley) knew more than your high school English teacher led you to believe and could ever imagine.
Exactly. If we want a serious birth date for this particular ponzi, american style, it was 1913, close to Christmas I think, not a "Holyday" for the small group who produced this Omen like birth in our Congress.
Excellent.
instant classic.
Would you mind if I used this at some point? with proper attribution and a link of course. It's pretty appropriate thanks man!
Cheers!
Curtis
todays index chart updates and commentary
Be my guest
All Q and no work!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TP3x-VdOb44
God Damnit Banzai...you're a sick, evil genius. Please, never change.
The Greatest Generation indulged their Boomer children. The Greatest Generation were the start of the poison as a reaction to the greatest victory in the history of the world. The Greatest Generation blew it. They threw away the spoils of war by spoiling their children. And with each successive generation the rot has gotten worse. Just as good money drives out bad, indiscipline and immorality define deviancy down. So here we are, a nation of deviants, presiding over a pile of shit without pot to piss in.
Cheers! Memento Mori.
Ike warned everyone: http://www.globalspeculations.com/2012/02/the-night-of-january-17th/
They didn't listen.
Ike knew, because he played an active and knowing part in it ... including setting up the Vietnam war, installing controllers to manage Kennedy, and even preparing Kennedy's "Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country" inauguration speech.
Ike was just attempting to clean his filthy slate while he still had the public's ear (not that they heard ... or understood). The current phase of the endgame, including the "fall" of the Soviet Union, was planned in 1956-1958 in the think tanks and management committees of the Luciferians.
Exactly. He was one of the head puppets, but, all of a sudden, just before retiring from the stage, he discovers that industry and govenment [the military are just the hit men for the mob, aka govenment] are in bed together and it might not be a good thing.
Sorry, I am not buying that used car. I think the real masters have a code where they have to telegraph their moves to the public, even though the public may be blind, deaf and mute. They do cryptic things like Ike did, it throws the people a curve who are listening. Sometimes it is misdirection, like this joo Greg Smith, bronze medal winner from the Israeli Olimpics in Ping Pong, yeah, he saw no evil at the Vampire Squid, then, all of a sudden, he saw some shit and retired, burning the bridge behind him. And the elite's newspaper, well, they publish it like they are exposing their owners. Again, another used car I am not buying.
I suspect there is a war going on that we are only seeing the tip of the iceberg on. Some so-called ex-squid guy fucking over paypal took a header into a train. I suspect things are going to get real ugly, like with the biologists a few years ago. They were dropping like flies.