New Fed Data: Economy Drowning In Federal Debt [View article]
Very telling chart of the large, unprecedented US nonfinancial business surplus since 2008 which being hoarded rather than reinvested as in every other era since the 1930's.
There can be little doubt that the composition of this chart tips massively towards multinational corporations as well as businesses who profit directly from government and indirectly via government mandates. The multinationals are the ones who receive the benefits of the ability to finance at ZIRP rates and who aren't tied down to stricken American Main Street. And there is no shortage of government edicts, contracts and mandates that can profit a segment of businesses.
No particular effort has been extended to relieve private enterprises on Main Street who must wade through the ever-increasing idiotic costs and mandates handed from on high thanks to bailouts that prioiritize the maintenance of government and it's Wall Street favorites and who receive the effects of ZIRP only via miniscule returns on savings. All the while looking forward to even higher taxes, regulations, continuing Main Street insolvency and now, Obamacare.
No, it's a threatening business climate for private enterprise outside of the government's circle of friends where the career revolving door makes life after Washington lush as paradise for enterprising (most) politicians. The direction has been pointing only one way for years now: RIP privately employed Main Street USA.
The Debt Paradox That Everyone Should Be Aware Of [View article]
Since you bring it up, USG has given any other "authority" quite a competitive run in numbers incarcerated, and has exceeded most. Now they are adding the freedom to label anyone a terrorist and to use torture. They are going everyone else one better with the use of drones.
It is entirely logical for the privileged to augment their illegitimate power when they have amassed their wealth and status by stealing because their cozy arrangements fail to produce prosperity outside of their narrowing circle and the restive masses increasingly need to be put down. The leaders of the good 'ol USA are proving to be no exception.
The Debt Paradox That Everyone Should Be Aware Of [View article]
"There is nothing arbitrary about an educated guess or trial and error. The guesses are not written in stone, and the stakes for getting them wrong are not that high. Humans with expertise and fallibility make the guesses, and the system provides feedback."
Au contraire, when some "authority" sets the rules, the stakes are very high for those caught under their jackboots and the feedback falls upon the subjects long before the authorities suffer any pain.
And who designates the "experts" when the system with inadequate feedback incentivizes, say, phony inflation and GDP statistics while touting jobs data that somehow "forgets" about millions who were formerly employed? Why, it's the authorities who gain from the tribal arrangements that finds them on top regardless the travails they spread; some feedback!
I'll choose jhooper's clear conception of the true ultimate authority and our need to strive for arrangements that elevate production over stealing: Property rights and personal responsibility.
Annals Of Quantitative Overconfidence, Boeing Edition [View article]
Excellent summation of the hubris that has surrounded Boeing's 787 project including the unprecedented levels of outsourcing especially in view of the cutting edge complexity of the project.
Unfortunately, the engineer who should have been picked to run Boeing a number of years back was passed over, so Alan Mullally went on to head Ford with notable results.
Hubris at the top is only enhanced by the endless increases in compensation there in the US regardless of the results. These are the same types of fools who are filling their pockets so lavishly while running the US into the ground.
The Coming Crash In The Bond Market [View article]
Brucejfem - What must the Fed do to cause $trillions of excess reserves to remain on their TBTF bank partners' balance sheets when interest rates rise? Those interest rates that the Federal Reserve pays these banks must rise competitively for these $trillions to remain parked, as Bernanke recently stated or they will flood into the economy with major inflationary consequences.
That alone would seem likely to shred any semblance of solvency on the part of the Federal Reserve and it's whole fiat system as it's money printing would rise astronomically to keep up with rates even as Washington's interest payments alone rise into the $trillion ballpark.
I'm not as confident as you that The Bernank has any better grip on this far more lethal bubble he has created than he did with his last one that ended in the 2008 crash.
The Stagnation Behind The Excellent Jobs Report [View article]
GreenRiver - No, the rise in older people working at Walmart and McDonalds are mostly of underemployed refugees who once held real middle class jobs until the long-festering Washington-centric regime of ever-rising rules and costs met the work-product of their partners Wall Street and the Magic Money Machine that could facilitate a pretense that the US could compete anyway, imploded.
These two partners in crime continue to fool the gullible, but don't mistake their economic distortions, vast overhead of costs and now mega-debt forever as a viable vehicle for job creation.
And no, just because every bolt is not hand-tightened in modern manufacturing does not mean there are isn't plenty of work to be done in this or in any other time had not the US strayed so far from viable market economics. Economics is the study of the use of limited means to satisfy unlimited wants that are the human condition.
States aren't waiting around for new federal gun legislation as they take matters into their own hands. The latest: A new South Dakota law will allow teachers to carry guns in schools and Georgia approved a measure which will remove a ban on firearms in college classrooms and churches. About 25 other states have similar bills pending. Meanwhile, gun sellers Sturm Ruger (RGR -1.2%) and Smith & Wesson (SWHC -1.2%) continue to try to keep with robust demand. [View news story]
What a relief to see that so much of the US retains some common sense regarding the right to bear arms. As cities such as Detroit, and states, who are unable to print their own sovereign scrip allow parts of their jurisdictions to fall into abandonment and demolition due to their economic travails, shrinking police forces will respond more slowly or not at all to emergencies in such areas.
But all public places need responsible citizens carrying concealed weapons to thwart mass killings which will be less likely to occur in the first place if the perpetrator knows he may face armed civilians capable of limiting his carnage.
The Stagnation Behind The Excellent Jobs Report [View article]
bbro - In a free enterprise-driven market economy no one knows what jobs and opportunities will be available next. Which is precisely the problem with the present US economy which is hemorrhaging red ink massively to produce the numbers you find so consoling apparently.
This wretched performance is in no small part due to the power now wielded by government apparatchicks who have control over so many more economic decisions than at any time in the US past outside of wartime. Friends of Ben, Barrack and Lloyd are the natural beneficiaries while the losers include the private producers and entrepreneurs who aren't hanging around the likes of Solyndra and don't receive ZIRP interest rates except for on their savings.
5-year plans and top-down micromanagement are the specialties of the government and it's "private" contractors. Stagnation is the inevitable result of any such state-centric system that lavishes rewards increasingly to connected parasites.
"....tell us the jobs that should be created right now..." is a question more appropriate to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union than to the real jobs creators in the private sector who actually create economically sustainable jobs without bankrupting the nation.
Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News [View article]
Bob 123 - I am aware of technological progress and the glaring need for greater efficiency if billions of people around the globe are to raise living standards.
Still, burying entrepreneurs in mounds of ever-expanding government requirements and costs is not a recipe for success for any economy.
How about you government enthusiasts advocate saner, more sensible government that prioritizes and funds projects and programs that are actually needed from the vast array of unneeded and ridiculous waste, fraud and abuse in the government rather than sticking it to private producers of goods and services people actually want?
Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News [View article]
Yes, Bob 123, new refineries become will become unnecessary if socialist rule consolidates under present US management.
A continuation of US decline managed by enthusiastic collectivists such as Obama and unopposed by phony allegedly conservative Republicrats while preserving privilege at the top will indeed make infrastructure for an expanded economy unaffordable and unnecessary.
Microsoft Seems On The Verge Of Something Ugly [View article]
After decades of suffering from buggy, virus-laden Windows products, the retail customer has been more than happy to find viable alternatives while Microsoft dozed.
While large corporate and government IT departments have a vested interest in maintaining their cash cow of Microsoft equipment, the rest of the IT marketplace has shifted so far towards credible and superior alternatives that new offerings, which cannot convincingly supplant ancient Windows XT in Microsoft's core user base, find tepid acceptance at best.
As Microsoft products have long been primarily regarded as a necessary evil, it's demonstrated lack of acumen even with it's Windows rehashes along with negative consumer experiences and perceptions make this company far more likely to experience decline as a value trap than as a growth or even as a dependable value proposition going forward.
Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News [View article]
"GM also intends to cut the average weight of its vehicles 15% and average fuel consumption 10% by 2017."
Too bad each GM vehicle carries the weight of UAW baggage and taxpayer subsidies. Management bloat has also been maintained along with many who would have been terminated in a restructuring had the rule of law been maintained in a bankruptcy proceeding.
Maintaining the personnel, procedures and costs that brought about insolvency is not the path to recovery, in business or in government.
J.C. Penney Store Leaders Give Positive Feedback On Q4 Sales [View article]
"What Penney's needs now is capital and time."
Or divine intervention, especially if CEO Johnson isn't removed forthwith.
Capital and time in the amounts now needed after Johnson's errant epic splurge are almost certainly not available. And the customers have left the building.
retailgirl - Blame the customers? I've read that before by JCP apologists. No excuse for Johnson alienating JCP's existing base while failing to attract much of anyone else. That is no business plan.
Besides the shame of running JCP into the ground from his ivory tower, are we going to have to witness Johnson raping the company with a mind-boggling golden parachute upon his departure?
Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News [View article]
Occam's_Razor - Yes, the problem begins with the parents, millions of whom are paid a large bonus in their government checks for having a child with an officially certified problem.
But there is no excuse for the mess of bureaucrats and sycophant teachers who tirelessly and brainlessly add to the politically-correct tyranny that increasingly drowns out reality in discourse, and freedom which are the main virtues that can still save this nation.
New Fed Data: Economy Drowning In Federal Debt [View article]
There can be little doubt that the composition of this chart tips massively towards multinational corporations as well as businesses who profit directly from government and indirectly via government mandates. The multinationals are the ones who receive the benefits of the ability to finance at ZIRP rates and who aren't tied down to stricken American Main Street. And there is no shortage of government edicts, contracts and mandates that can profit a segment of businesses.
No particular effort has been extended to relieve private enterprises on Main Street who must wade through the ever-increasing idiotic costs and mandates handed from on high thanks to bailouts that prioiritize the maintenance of government and it's Wall Street favorites and who receive the effects of ZIRP only via miniscule returns on savings. All the while looking forward to even higher taxes, regulations, continuing Main Street insolvency and now, Obamacare.
No, it's a threatening business climate for private enterprise outside of the government's circle of friends where the career revolving door makes life after Washington lush as paradise for enterprising (most) politicians. The direction has been pointing only one way for years now: RIP privately employed Main Street USA.
The Debt Paradox That Everyone Should Be Aware Of [View article]
It is entirely logical for the privileged to augment their illegitimate power when they have amassed their wealth and status by stealing because their cozy arrangements fail to produce prosperity outside of their narrowing circle and the restive masses increasingly need to be put down. The leaders of the good 'ol USA are proving to be no exception.
Interesting comparison, thanks!
The Debt Paradox That Everyone Should Be Aware Of [View article]
Au contraire, when some "authority" sets the rules, the stakes are very high for those caught under their jackboots and the feedback falls upon the subjects long before the authorities suffer any pain.
And who designates the "experts" when the system with inadequate feedback incentivizes, say, phony inflation and GDP statistics while touting jobs data that somehow "forgets" about millions who were formerly employed? Why, it's the authorities who gain from the tribal arrangements that finds them on top regardless the travails they spread; some feedback!
I'll choose jhooper's clear conception of the true ultimate authority and our need to strive for arrangements that elevate production over stealing: Property rights and personal responsibility.
Annals Of Quantitative Overconfidence, Boeing Edition [View article]
Unfortunately, the engineer who should have been picked to run Boeing a number of years back was passed over, so Alan Mullally went on to head Ford with notable results.
Hubris at the top is only enhanced by the endless increases in compensation there in the US regardless of the results. These are the same types of fools who are filling their pockets so lavishly while running the US into the ground.
The Coming Crash In The Bond Market [View article]
That alone would seem likely to shred any semblance of solvency on the part of the Federal Reserve and it's whole fiat system as it's money printing would rise astronomically to keep up with rates even as Washington's interest payments alone rise into the $trillion ballpark.
I'm not as confident as you that The Bernank has any better grip on this far more lethal bubble he has created than he did with his last one that ended in the 2008 crash.
The Stagnation Behind The Excellent Jobs Report [View article]
These two partners in crime continue to fool the gullible, but don't mistake their economic distortions, vast overhead of costs and now mega-debt forever as a viable vehicle for job creation.
And no, just because every bolt is not hand-tightened in modern manufacturing does not mean there are isn't plenty of work to be done in this or in any other time had not the US strayed so far from viable market economics. Economics is the study of the use of limited means to satisfy unlimited wants that are the human condition.
States aren't waiting around for new federal gun legislation as they take matters into their own hands. The latest: A new South Dakota law will allow teachers to carry guns in schools and Georgia approved a measure which will remove a ban on firearms in college classrooms and churches. About 25 other states have similar bills pending. Meanwhile, gun sellers Sturm Ruger (RGR -1.2%) and Smith & Wesson (SWHC -1.2%) continue to try to keep with robust demand. [View news story]
But all public places need responsible citizens carrying concealed weapons to thwart mass killings which will be less likely to occur in the first place if the perpetrator knows he may face armed civilians capable of limiting his carnage.
The Stagnation Behind The Excellent Jobs Report [View article]
This wretched performance is in no small part due to the power now wielded by government apparatchicks who have control over so many more economic decisions than at any time in the US past outside of wartime. Friends of Ben, Barrack and Lloyd are the natural beneficiaries while the losers include the private producers and entrepreneurs who aren't hanging around the likes of Solyndra and don't receive ZIRP interest rates except for on their savings.
5-year plans and top-down micromanagement are the specialties of the government and it's "private" contractors. Stagnation is the inevitable result of any such state-centric system that lavishes rewards increasingly to connected parasites.
"....tell us the jobs that should be created right now..." is a question more appropriate to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union than to the real jobs creators in the private sector who actually create economically sustainable jobs without bankrupting the nation.
Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News [View article]
Still, burying entrepreneurs in mounds of ever-expanding government requirements and costs is not a recipe for success for any economy.
How about you government enthusiasts advocate saner, more sensible government that prioritizes and funds projects and programs that are actually needed from the vast array of unneeded and ridiculous waste, fraud and abuse in the government rather than sticking it to private producers of goods and services people actually want?
Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News [View article]
A continuation of US decline managed by enthusiastic collectivists such as Obama and unopposed by phony allegedly conservative Republicrats while preserving privilege at the top will indeed make infrastructure for an expanded economy unaffordable and unnecessary.
Microsoft Seems On The Verge Of Something Ugly [View article]
While large corporate and government IT departments have a vested interest in maintaining their cash cow of Microsoft equipment, the rest of the IT marketplace has shifted so far towards credible and superior alternatives that new offerings, which cannot convincingly supplant ancient Windows XT in Microsoft's core user base, find tepid acceptance at best.
As Microsoft products have long been primarily regarded as a necessary evil, it's demonstrated lack of acumen even with it's Windows rehashes along with negative consumer experiences and perceptions make this company far more likely to experience decline as a value trap than as a growth or even as a dependable value proposition going forward.
Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News [View article]
Too bad each GM vehicle carries the weight of UAW baggage and taxpayer subsidies. Management bloat has also been maintained along with many who would have been terminated in a restructuring had the rule of law been maintained in a bankruptcy proceeding.
Maintaining the personnel, procedures and costs that brought about insolvency is not the path to recovery, in business or in government.
J.C. Penney Store Leaders Give Positive Feedback On Q4 Sales [View article]
Or divine intervention, especially if CEO Johnson isn't removed forthwith.
Capital and time in the amounts now needed after Johnson's errant epic splurge are almost certainly not available. And the customers have left the building.
How Low Can J.C. Penney Go? [View article]
Besides the shame of running JCP into the ground from his ivory tower, are we going to have to witness Johnson raping the company with a mind-boggling golden parachute upon his departure?
Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News [View article]
But there is no excuse for the mess of bureaucrats and sycophant teachers who tirelessly and brainlessly add to the politically-correct tyranny that increasingly drowns out reality in discourse, and freedom which are the main virtues that can still save this nation.