John Booke

The State of the Consumer

Recently medical care has gained dramatically as a percentage of spending from disposable income. Serveral reasons: 1)Medicare/Medicaid payments to physicians have increased this year and since private insurers follow Medicare payment codes and fees overall medical insurance premiums are up across the board. 2) Relatively speaking spending on consumer "goods" has decreased allowing spending on "services" to gain a greater share of disposable income. 3) Demographically we're showing our older age by making more visits to the doctors.

The Real Crisis: Collapsing Capital Accumulation Process

"Within the context of consumer demand." Global "consumer demand" is all about American shoppers. A world economic recovery is possible only if US consumers are drawn back into the malls. Forget helping the banks or offering tax breaks to the wealthy. Instead cut checks directly to American families every three months until GDP hit 3% or higher for a sustained period of time.

Depression, PMI and China

What about China's retail sales numbers over the past several years? They are hitting 20% m/m growth month after month - now about $140 billion a month. Are these numbers believable figures and are the calculated like we calculate them in the US? Would you expect these numbers to show a collapse in the near future?

Not All Financial Innovation Was Created Alike

The the "beginning" of our problem was "deregulation" of too many markets.

It is Time to Go Long the Dollar?

"Decoupling" from the US is a myth. The dollar will rise when other developed economies can't sell more stuff to US consumers. That's happening now.