Mad Hedge Fund Trader

Q3 GDP: Obviously Fictional

ngs Ouch! Another 190,000 jobs went down the crapper in October, taking unemployment rate to a new 27 year high of 10.2%. Add in discouraged job seekers, and that puts the jobless rate at gut churning 17.5%, and over 20% in California. Along with yesterday’s stunning, gob smacking 9.5% increase in Q3 productivity, the figures point a giant arc spotlight on what is really happening in the economy. Companies are still firing workers en mass to boost profits. After getting blood from a stone, they are returning to the same rock for one more drop. I guess if I fire myself, the profitability of my business would go through the roof too, and maybe even my stock would rise. At least then, I would be rid of my oldest, most expensive, but least productive employee, who is the most difficult to get along with, maxes out his sick and vacation days, and wears the same clothes to work every day, even when there lipstick on the collar. But then who would write this daily letter? Maybe Cecelia, my cleaning lady would do it. She’s cheap. You don’t mind getting this letter in Spanish, do you? ¡Andale! This explains why when you go into Office Depot these days, there is only one minimum waged employee standing at the cash register, the hours on the phone I have to wait to get technical support from Dell, and the endless unmovable lines at Citibank. America’s service economy has become all about denying service to customers. The scary thing is, with companies firing their way to prosperity, what happens when we get another dip? My theory is that the US has entered an era of chronically high unemployment that is never going away, no matter what the government does. Goodbye USA, hello Germany!