What Will Replace the Piggy Bank After the Stimulus Is Gone?

Pessimism in the market is on the rise and the S&P is now down four days in a row. Not too shocking if you keep up with things. I am only shocked on how long it took the investment community to catch up to the reality of the situation. Yet given the years and years our bubbles have lasted in the past, I should not be surprised that people remain optimistic much longer than they should.

Unemployment, Is it good or bad?

According to this linked post at Naked Capitalism, unemployment is much worse than the government would have you believe.

This is common fodder among those that follow the issue. Frankly, my favorite site when it comes to exposing the fallacy in unemployment numbers is Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis. When the unemployment numbers come out each month this site gives you the truth on what they mean. I am not saying I agree with all the anti-government discussion on this site, but on unemployment stats it is the place to visit.

And while I am talking about good blog spots to visit, if you are interested in residential or commercial real estate, no one provides the quality of information you will find at Calculated Risk. I highly recommend it.

As Calculated Risk explains, Wilbur Ross now expects 500 bank failures. Go figure.

At the end of the day, I must beg you to read good blogs, educate yourself, understand the basics, the reality, and act accordingly. I try to pass on reality here, but I do not have the street cred that will lead to most to believe me. Don't believe me. Test what I say or pass on and see whether, in time, it proves correct. That is how I test those I follow. That and common sense. A lot of this is what I call 2-plus-2. For example, the U.S. still being swallowed in debt is a fact that many seem to be ignoring. After stimulus is over, how can we resume our spending ways when our Home piggy bank is still gone? If you have an answer, I am all ears. And that is just one of my 2-plus-2 questions that you must confront before I believe we have turned the corner - though I admit it is one of the best questions to be answered.

Disclosures: None.

Comments

[Roger Knights:]

Speaking of piggy banks, here's an idea for toy or pottery manufacturers--a replacement coin bank modeled after a zombie.

Sep 03 02:51 AM

[User 353732:]

The stimulus had and has a negative multiplier. A piggy bank has a zero multilpier. To call the stimulus a piggy bank is to mislead and mischaracterize.
A piggy bank represents a fallow asset that, if needed, can support debt or itself be turned into investments with a positive multiplier. The Stimulus is organized misallocation and misappropraition of resources and results in more debt with no asset to support it.
A piggy bank is dormant wealth. The stimulus is the destruction of wealth creating capacity.A piggy bank embodies prudence, work and savings.The Stimulus embodies negligence, unearned consumption and debt.
The Stimulus is not a piggy bank:it is a criminal assult on the piggy banks of the productive.
It is only when the Stimulus is dead that a piggy bank can live.
A piggy bank is better than nothing. Nothing is better than the Stimulus.

Sep 03 07:03 AM

[growser7:]

User 353732---perfectly said

Sep 03 09:02 PM