"The tax code gives a permanent tax break to corporations if they invest their offshore profits in foreign countries. I kid you not. "
Seriously how corrupt is our congress? Who passed this kind of crap tax dodge? Why do they hate their own citizens. Gosh I hope their patents are protected in these wonderful countries loved by our corporations. So much for the enlightenment of our founding fathers. Entitlements my ass. We are entitled to nothing here. A job? No. Food? Sorry. Social Security? Ha, Ha stolen.
I remember a book "Snow Crash" when we all make the same as a pizza delivery boy in Pakistan this will end. I don't doubt tipping is a sin there too. We can burn movie theaters while we hang out in the streets.
It's the same old cast of characters hard at work, megalaw firms, the same old accounting firms, etc. Megacorps. hire the lobbying and law firms to write the laws, the laws get passed by the same politicians they just lobbied and provided with the laws they wrote, and then the politicians go straight to the law firms and lobbyists to help "interpret" the same laws they just passed because damn it, working for money and as a "public servant" is so leech-like, and real geniuses don't work for the public's money, they get their money for nothing. Same with the tax code, law firms and lobbyists help write the laws/insert the breaks and subsidies targeted to their specific clients, the firms help the politicians interpret the tax laws, and on and on it goes. This ain't capitalism and democracy, it's a system we're purposely left out of.
My neighbors and I just lobbied for our own tax code and tax abatements in our own state capital and DC that we got passed by the same politicians we got elected with Super PACs, and when the politicians can't figure out what they just passed and why there's a fiscal cliff when the middle class simply can't bleed anymore, my neighbors and I will step up and explain to the politicians in closed door meetings why the middle class needs to bleed, like a stone, because damn it, STONES WILL BLEED when oligarchs demand it. Just kidding, I'm not an oligarch, but I've seen them on TV when they come out of the shadows and kids will dress up like them next month.
Anyway, check out accounting firms and law firms and consulting and lobbying firms still loving that corruption and tax crap in 2012 like it was Enron back in the day using shell companies, nightmarish tax havens, and blacking out the State of California while energy traders were laughing about screwing over "grandma Millie": "Yeah, grandma Millie, man. But she's the one who couldn't figure out how to fuckin' vote on the butterfly ballot." Yuppers, we're all Grandma Millie now. And the money laundering, aiding terrorists and drug cartels, market manipulation, tax evasion, and full-blown destruction continues full speed ahead, democracy and America be damned.
On purpose, the corporate tax code is impossible to navigate, even overview without people getting confused and falling asleep. That's on purpose. Lobbyists hide the most egregious things with obscure semi-colons and opaque rules. I strongly recommend at least reading the exhibit linked above. They do a pretty good job in making the issue clear without over simplification.
I find it very interesting our favor "worker shortage" whiners are the ones who have really labor arbitraged the shit out of America. That's Cisco, Microsoft, HP, Oracle and they are some of the worst offenders here.
Real simple solution in a sane world (not the one where the corporate criminals get to write the laws because they own the lawmakers) - if you want to enjoy the benefits of being incorporated in the USA, then you must pay your fair share of taxes. This report obviously shows the average American is picking up the burden that corporations have shifted to us by crony capitalism, despite the endless ramblings by "news" shows telling us corporations are so overburdened with taxes and regulations (despite their records profits recently and the Forbes list showing the well-to-do are actually getting richer) they simply cannot cope. We get the greater tax burden, the middle class is disappearing as a result of greater taxes and fewer opportunities to pay those taxes also because of corporate actions and laws (e.g., outsourcing and visas), but corporations with no taxes, greater subsidies, are prospering?
Pretty obvious we're being screwed left and right.
If corporations continue to refuse to bear their fair share in the US where they enjoy our federal, state, and local governments' protection and lobbying for them here and abroad, by all means, incorporate where the majority of operations take place, whether that is in Communist Corporate China, or the Philippines, or Bangladesh, or somewhere else. You want to take advantage of our Commerce Dept. flying out with you to lobby for megacontracts with other nations (e.g., Boeing fighting for contracts over Airbus with US Govt. assistance vs. EU), or take advantage of our FBI pursuing IP theft cases in US courts, or the State Dept. lobbying for you in the WTO with our Trade Rep., or oil companies relying on our State Dept. and DOD to protect them in places like the Middle East and Nigeria when things go bad, then you owe the tax burden of that government assistance. Same as a barely surviving family has to pay property taxes for schools and police and fire, and payroll taxes (which this article shows we are paying more than our fair share of), etc., then the big boys and girls that own our government can pay their fair share for those services even fellow Americans don't get (no average citizen has the access or power to even communicate with our federal govt. on a regular basis, let alone get our govt. to represent us in international bodies, build roads for us, give us tax abatements solely for us, or anything else megacorporations get).
If these companies simply refuse to pay for the services they receive at our expense, then they really need to incorporate overseas and see how well do without our govt. backing them up. Let's see how the courts treat them in Beijing or Algiers or Lagos or Islamabad when a crowd of workers demand justice and the local courts demand the CEO appear in court - imagine Bill Gates (back when he was CEO) or Jamie Dimon or an oil exec pissing their pants because that's what would happen. Those places are no joke when things go wrong or the local government wants to send a message, and when folks like that step out to see what the real world is like, boy will they be in for a shock when the US Govt. isn't there to protect them.
Reuters and others are saying the Spanish need for a bailout is good for the Euro and that's why the Euro is gaining. Yes, because the need for such a massive country to need Euros to be printed out of thin air to keep the Ponzi going for just a little more time is somehow good for a currency's value? WTF? I really wish we had access to this free money that was printed by central banks - it always seems to end right at the top when it's handed out to banking authorities from other Goldman Sachs alum. Funny how devaluing a currency by printing it up by central banks is legal and "good," but printing up currency by regular citizens is strictly forbidden. They seem to be as valuable as each other, might as well break out the Monopoly cash at this point.
Spain is looking to freeze pensions and increase the retirement age to 67. Look for pensions to be raided by Goldman Sachs banksters in a quest for Spain to meet the bailout requirements imposed on it by the banksters. And as far as raising the retirement age, as in every other country that has destroyed jobs or sent jobs overseas (e.g., the USA), how exactly does one work longer when one is currently unemployed and there are no jobs to be had? I know questions like that may make politicians here and abroad uncomfortable because they might have to think for more than 2 seconds, but seriously, when banksters are forcing austerity on 99% of the population so that Ponzi currencies and financial regimes can keep making them richer at the expense of the populace, questions like that should be posed by at least one person that's not beholden to these money men. Or maybe 50,000 unemployed Spaniards could ask the politicians and banksters when they aren't surrounded by 500 security men that hate the little people.
About.com has hundreds and hundreds of stories. Just type in "unemployment" and words like "suicide"; "outsourcing"; "overqualified"; "homeless"; "long-term"; or "age discrimination" and incredibly sad stories come up. Those stories are obviously meant for that site and were submitted for that site (so I wouldn't link to them because not sure if the people would want other sites linking to it, but they are there to be read), but reading the stories there is pretty tragic. Unemployed-friends2 was also another site, and there are other places too that people share. Plus nowadays news articles that blame the unemployed and tell them to just fix their resume or be more positive I find are followed by people telling the author to basically stop spewing Candyland crap. The thing is people in really bad spots will lose their homes and won't really care to go to the library to sign on the Internet and share their stories when they no longer have any hope, there are only so many times you can tell your tale and receive complete silence before people figure no one really gives a sh*t, or at least the people who could do anything don't. Plus the shame of being seen in public, or around people they might recognize, after they've lost everything after 3, 4, or 5 years of nothing stops them from going out anywhere (e.g., a library).
Even if the bastards in power that could do anything won't because they really don't care and it would take a few dollars from their pockets, at least other people in the same spot would at least know they aren't alone. I think that's a really important part of it, because now with people in suburbs or rural areas and no soup lines or gathering spots for the long-term unemployed with the Internet and SNAP cards and other modern tools changing things from the Great Depression I, people out there feel they are somehow to blame if they aren't getting one interview after 20-30 years of work, 2000 applications, this degree or that, etc. At least the stories bring some comfort to them, and when we have complete scum blaming the unemployed for their own problems instead of those making and enforcing policies, at least the stories and the numbers can bring some measure of comfort to those suffering, even if it won't change the minds of script readers in corporate TV studios.
How about I put together some of the statistics and stories I can round up. It's true, this is literally killing people.
Also, yes, there are a host of layoffs and a lot of jobs...going to China. Yuppers!
I should also point out, these graphs are not true correlation, which I should probably run and put up a graph of. There is a little mathematical metric called cross correlation and covariance, which is the "official" way to show correlation. That said, one can see the matching patterns when I put up the "two lines". (for the math nerds out there).
If you have statistics, personal stories on how this economy and policies are literally killing people, just email me. I happen to know of a woman who committed suicide after being denied a tech job in favor of H-1B workers and she's not the only one.
Scary thing is that's a number that keeps on getting added to the previously unemployed. I don't even know where there are so many jobs existing these days for 350,00 + to be fired per week.
Meanwhile, Bank of America aka Unindicted Bankster Coconspirator aka TBTF/Too Idiotic To Succeed without Taxpayers' $ aka Robosigner/Fraudclosure Mill is laying off 16,000 by the end of the year. Call me cynical, but are 16,000 new positions going to suddenly open up in India or the Philippines? Try as it might, BOA just couldn't find Americans worthy of keeping their jobs, but people overseas with fewer skills and education will certainly be hired right away, no questions asked. Hmmm, Bank of America, another "job creator." Yup, I love that phrase, makes me sick everytime I hear it or write it. Oh well, at least the corporate board and officers are safe - and that's all that really counts in this Banana Republic of Corruption in 2012, isn't it?
I wonder, why doesn't the MSM ever cover the people dying as a result of long-term unemployment (and I'm not talking about people who still have homes or have semi-decent health on "60 Minutes"), but people who died from lack of medical care, suicides, killed after becoming homeless after losing their jobs, broke the law to survive or just to find a home in jail or prison vs. homelessness? Do those millions of very real but unhappy stories not sell i-crap or the newest Audi (probably being built in China now or soon) or some other unncecessary item most people no longer want or can afford? Oh well, back to Bravo TV's "Top Chef" where I can watch people dressed nicely moan about a foam dish not being up to their standards for plates based on a large part of air and then Fox and MSNBC. I'm a leech and I know it because I can't afford to donate $50,000 to either candidate, I wish I could emulate my betters in politics and boardrooms, you know, the ones killing our country every single day, they're all so very smart, patriotic with their nice flag lapel pins, ethical, intelligent, and hardworking. It's us out here in the rest of America that deserve to suffer I guess.
There is some interesting details on HFT from the hearing testimony. You might read it at the above link to the hearing.
I'm doing a quick scan and so far, not a word on good old fashioned terrible, negligent software design. Amazing, they are building these systems on technology, yet technologists are not present to inform them some of the events were caused by negligent R&D, forget dark pools and nanosecond algos.
Dream on Pollyanna. The predators don't think we are weak. They are barely aware of our existence. Look at any tea bag party and behold the spectacle of elderly dependents on Social Security ranting about Big Gov'ment, lamenting the good old days when we were free, and imagining that we are the wealthiest, most secure people the world has ever known. Let's have another shot of tax relief for the rich, and everything will be as near perfect as possible; jobs will just start dropping like ripe figs.
Not the trade deficit, it's the current account deficit as percentage of GDP. Sorry, the FRED system doesn't let me change graph titling and FRED is so much faster to create graphs with. Just a FYI, probably what you meant.
So the equation at the top of the FRED graph is:
Current account = BOPBCA
Then, I am annualizing the current account deficit (per quarter, so times 4) and then I am inverting the value so we have positive percentages. Nominal GDP in the BEA tables and in FRED is presented annualized on the quarterly, so to match, that's de formula, in case anybody else is reading along at home.
Yeah, for simple calculations nothing better than the FRED system, well, nothing better than the FRED system period, except for the missing data series. The FRED system, one cannot change the graph titling, so I drew out the mathematics a tad but I guess I didn't explain the symbol for current account deficit.
I see you commenting here and we invite other authors, cross posts, as well as requests. I think I've mentioned sectoral balance during some sort of delving into multipliers back during the infamous Moody's multiplier sheet for "Stimulus", but haven't touched the topic at all. On this site, I try, although I'm not so sure how successful, to make equations and theory understandable by those who never touched the cover of an economics textbook, so people who know how to explain, I'd love to find more folks to author.
There is usually some horror show to write about too, every day another outrage du jour, often built on lobbyist white papers lies and fictional stats., but that said, this site even has LaTex available.
I'd love to find others willing to write up easy to understand tutorials for those with basic math, to show, in layman's terms, what each variable means but don't skimp on the equations either.
I think the best defense against lobbyist snow and statistical spin is knowledge and if this stuff is explained well enough, with enough color, in plain English, just skip the entire Academia lingo and language, more people will see they are in a lobbyist minefield of bullshit when it comes to the economy and what should really happen, by policy.
Let use know. You might format your links, just a suggestion. I'm strongly suspecting use of H-1B in this, but I'm looking for more S&T details. Fat finger, try clueless wonder.
Here's more evidence the markets are completely broken - multiple oil stocks jumped 3-9% minutes before the exchange closed and then reversed gains. Still blaming the "fat finger" BS.
Funny, I thought that excuse was tried and failed a couple of years ago. Seems these excuses keep getting tried to explain away the complete manipulation and lack of credibility/oversight/honesty in today's financial markets. Oh well, if you were a small investor that bought at the top of the 9% jump, I have no doubt your trade will stand. If you are TBTF or have some other pull with the exchange, your purchases no doubt won't have to stand. Step on up, step on up, many carnival games for those willing to part with their cash.
By the way, there's an "anchor" on a certain business channel that himself had an issue with the SEC:
So, there are people like that collecting big paychecks despite the fact that they were called out by regulatory authorities. Who wants to trust the media or anyone when this is going on in front of us daily with no shame? And yet those people have very good paying jobs while they criticize Americans that simply won't get hired no matter how honest they are (or is it because they are honest they won't get hired - more and more that seems to be the case).
Nice of the govt. to jump on the bandwagon years after the dangers have been known and caused repeated damage. The exchanges are now just jokes that people with inside information, access, or HFT use to their own advantage.
National governments have started looking into banning HFT because it's so dangerous to market integrity - without integrity and open, honest information, most sane rational people will avoid markets at all costs.
It's obvious the markets and banksters don't want open, fair markets. Remember the whole reasoning behind the Securities Act of 1933 and Exchange Act of 1934, protect the public through full disclosure, no lies, manipulation, or hidden BS. Again, post Great Crash close to 80 years ago, and now look how far we've gone again solely because of corruption, lobbying, and regulatory capture by the banksters/financial industry.
The NYSE, NASDAQ, FINRA, SEC, CFTC all go along with the insider game. NYSE was fined $5 million only (compare that to the money it made) for giving inside information to certain companies. That's the NYSE! Come on, when the exchange itself is breaking laws and rules, why should anyone trust some algo.?
The whole concept of running a machine that beats others in exchanges and then can crash entire stocks, commodities, or markets based on being physically closer to the exchange or some market-destroying bid and offer repeated without any intention of being executed for any normal period of time is so obviously wrong. That's about $ and access. If you can get prime real estate to exchange servers, then you "win" and beat average investors using brokers' servers? That's so wrong on so many levels. And during the "60 Minutes" show that dealt with this, the exchange acted like this was fine and the people that could get closer to their machines deserved to get their trade. How's that for fair markets?
No, zerohedge and others have been detailing this for far too long and the exchanges, regulators, law enforcement, and financial industry were screwing up markets and doing real damage to retail investors and the integrity of markets for years without any repercussions to them. Once again, certain sectors of the public are fully awake and aware and know damn well the govt., regulators, and law enforcement are late to the game and won't do anything to punish the wrongdoers or really prevent more of the same because the people that break the rules and exploit their ownership of the govt. and regulators will not tolerate any reforms.
I'm still waiting for hedge funds to be banned from handling pensions. There's no way public servants should be forced to invest in those scams. As individuals, the public servants would never be allowed to invest in hedge funds because they aren't "sophisticated" enough and don't meet the capital requirements (quite frankly, anyone who does invest in a hedge fund is a sucker). However, once they pool all of them together, then public servants can now be forced to pay out (they have no choice in who their pension fund invests with) 2 and 20 to hedge fund managers and make them instant billionaires for sitting in front of computers, following the herd of other hedge fund managers, and actually LOSING to the market indexes, even without taking into account their outrageous fees! So how's that for fairness and market integrity? In a few years when pensions go bust of course someone will shock of shocks, discover that hedge funds were probably picked because of relationships and not any real returns to the public servants. And then some politician running for office will pretend that he wants to protect the public servants and demand "real reform" in the hedge fund industry and the media will kiss his ass and call him a great reformer while he accepts $ from other banksters. Of course now those very same hedge fund managers donate to politicians that then have the audacity to berate those public servants, call them lazy, and demand they make more sacrifices while continuing to make billions for literally taking their money and losing to the indexes! USA 2012 - it's twisted.
We haven't covered this economic release until now. We hope to look at finance and capital flowing around the globe in more detail, starting with this overview.
Worse and worser. You can bet both parties, leadership will not enact policies which enable people to obtain employment, careers, quality of life, middle class to get off of dependencies and it's pretty damn bad when government officials believe Americans are fat, lazy and stupid. Truth is the Democrats should be labeled GOP and we need a new party, the people's party, to really get policy and legislation in the national interest.
I mean the rhetoric coming out of the GOP is so often bat shit crazy and not in statistical reality, the few things they point out which are true get buried in their muck.
That said, Democrats are busy trying to enact corporate lobbyist demands for more foreign workers, as we type. Think about that. We clearly have a jobs crisis, the economy is stalling and the only action we get is to more sure more foreigners are enabled to displace U.S. workers. This is really happening and shows also Democrats are buying into the idea Americans are fat, lazy and stupid. We have millions of advanced degree Americans who need a job right now and even more with advanced degrees who cannot get a job in their chosen field. It's positively obscene.
See any legislator pushing for a direct jobs program, even tax credits tied to hiring U.S. citizens and retaining the employees businesses already have? Nope. Goes to show what both parties really think of the American people and beyond throwing a token bone to sway an election, I sincerely doubt the U.S. citizen worker enters their corporate lobbyist donor and constituency brain.
It's a nice soundclip for someone at Fox News to yell out over anyone who might have actual facts and expertise before they drown him out and cut to commercial, but it's such crap. Without dealing with all the tax breaks and special capital gains issues those who have massive stock portfolios, manage hedge funds, etc. get, just look at the people in the lower brackets. Fine, so people are so poor in 2012 that they don't pay federal income taxes. What does that even prove? Lack of logic. Yeah, well, so Howard Hughes doesn't pay any federal income taxes in 2012 either along with many people born over 100 years ago. That's how stupid the argument is. Can I assume Howard Hughes is a lazy leech based on that fact along with all people born 100+ years ago? Or does his being dead having something to do with it too? Drawing idiotic causal relationships from stats apparently not an issue for braindead politicians and CEOs.
And many of those people are working poor or disabled or elderly that have no kids, or one kid, or two, and still don't earn enough to pay federal income taxes - so that makes them lazy or rather doomed by things outside their control? That's a social, political, and economic issue, not a "lazy" issue. People pay plenty of fees and taxes every single day, to think otherwise is a complete fabrication. Taxes on food and fuel, plenty of those. Someone making minimum wage pays for his insurance on his car, all sorts of taxes on fuel, tolls on roads and bridges and tunnels (and those private equity firms and Ayn Rand lovers do love privatizing every govt.-developed item so they can further rape workers with more tolls and fees), fees and taxes on phones and utilities, public transportation, property taxes on their houses, fees on apartments or condos, exorbitant fees on credit cards that always seem to have strange billing cycles, taxes that fund Social Security and Medicare, outrageous fees on bank accounts and heavy fees if someone uses alternative banking methods, and on and on. It's regressive and Romney, as someone that pretends to have some business and political sense, knows it. But like I said, it's a nice lie to yell at someone that protests the destruction of our society and middle class so the robber barons can run us over like roaches in their Rolls as they head to another closed-door meeting to plot our demise.
Boy, only the Republicans could make Obama look good. The DOJ has been DOA on prosecutions and the GOP is busy only on free guns to drug cartels, courtesy of the USA.
Here's a classic that should interest EP readers. Market Watch went and charted the claims Romney just made in his Macaca moment.
Their graphs are here. If only the major financial press would graph up the claims made by politicians when actually fast tracking legislation written by lobbyists, although we do our best it would be nice if they joined in.
"The tax code gives a permanent tax break to corporations if they invest their offshore profits in foreign countries. I kid you not. "
Seriously how corrupt is our congress? Who passed this kind of crap tax dodge? Why do they hate their own citizens. Gosh I hope their patents are protected in these wonderful countries loved by our corporations. So much for the enlightenment of our founding fathers. Entitlements my ass. We are entitled to nothing here. A job? No. Food? Sorry. Social Security? Ha, Ha stolen.
I remember a book "Snow Crash" when we all make the same as a pizza delivery boy in Pakistan this will end. I don't doubt tipping is a sin there too. We can burn movie theaters while we hang out in the streets.
It's the same old cast of characters hard at work, megalaw firms, the same old accounting firms, etc. Megacorps. hire the lobbying and law firms to write the laws, the laws get passed by the same politicians they just lobbied and provided with the laws they wrote, and then the politicians go straight to the law firms and lobbyists to help "interpret" the same laws they just passed because damn it, working for money and as a "public servant" is so leech-like, and real geniuses don't work for the public's money, they get their money for nothing. Same with the tax code, law firms and lobbyists help write the laws/insert the breaks and subsidies targeted to their specific clients, the firms help the politicians interpret the tax laws, and on and on it goes. This ain't capitalism and democracy, it's a system we're purposely left out of.
My neighbors and I just lobbied for our own tax code and tax abatements in our own state capital and DC that we got passed by the same politicians we got elected with Super PACs, and when the politicians can't figure out what they just passed and why there's a fiscal cliff when the middle class simply can't bleed anymore, my neighbors and I will step up and explain to the politicians in closed door meetings why the middle class needs to bleed, like a stone, because damn it, STONES WILL BLEED when oligarchs demand it. Just kidding, I'm not an oligarch, but I've seen them on TV when they come out of the shadows and kids will dress up like them next month.
Anyway, check out accounting firms and law firms and consulting and lobbying firms still loving that corruption and tax crap in 2012 like it was Enron back in the day using shell companies, nightmarish tax havens, and blacking out the State of California while energy traders were laughing about screwing over "grandma Millie": "Yeah, grandma Millie, man. But she's the one who couldn't figure out how to fuckin' vote on the butterfly ballot." Yuppers, we're all Grandma Millie now. And the money laundering, aiding terrorists and drug cartels, market manipulation, tax evasion, and full-blown destruction continues full speed ahead, democracy and America be damned.
On purpose, the corporate tax code is impossible to navigate, even overview without people getting confused and falling asleep. That's on purpose. Lobbyists hide the most egregious things with obscure semi-colons and opaque rules. I strongly recommend at least reading the exhibit linked above. They do a pretty good job in making the issue clear without over simplification.
I find it very interesting our favor "worker shortage" whiners are the ones who have really labor arbitraged the shit out of America. That's Cisco, Microsoft, HP, Oracle and they are some of the worst offenders here.
Real simple solution in a sane world (not the one where the corporate criminals get to write the laws because they own the lawmakers) - if you want to enjoy the benefits of being incorporated in the USA, then you must pay your fair share of taxes. This report obviously shows the average American is picking up the burden that corporations have shifted to us by crony capitalism, despite the endless ramblings by "news" shows telling us corporations are so overburdened with taxes and regulations (despite their records profits recently and the Forbes list showing the well-to-do are actually getting richer) they simply cannot cope. We get the greater tax burden, the middle class is disappearing as a result of greater taxes and fewer opportunities to pay those taxes also because of corporate actions and laws (e.g., outsourcing and visas), but corporations with no taxes, greater subsidies, are prospering?
Pretty obvious we're being screwed left and right.
If corporations continue to refuse to bear their fair share in the US where they enjoy our federal, state, and local governments' protection and lobbying for them here and abroad, by all means, incorporate where the majority of operations take place, whether that is in Communist Corporate China, or the Philippines, or Bangladesh, or somewhere else. You want to take advantage of our Commerce Dept. flying out with you to lobby for megacontracts with other nations (e.g., Boeing fighting for contracts over Airbus with US Govt. assistance vs. EU), or take advantage of our FBI pursuing IP theft cases in US courts, or the State Dept. lobbying for you in the WTO with our Trade Rep., or oil companies relying on our State Dept. and DOD to protect them in places like the Middle East and Nigeria when things go bad, then you owe the tax burden of that government assistance. Same as a barely surviving family has to pay property taxes for schools and police and fire, and payroll taxes (which this article shows we are paying more than our fair share of), etc., then the big boys and girls that own our government can pay their fair share for those services even fellow Americans don't get (no average citizen has the access or power to even communicate with our federal govt. on a regular basis, let alone get our govt. to represent us in international bodies, build roads for us, give us tax abatements solely for us, or anything else megacorporations get).
If these companies simply refuse to pay for the services they receive at our expense, then they really need to incorporate overseas and see how well do without our govt. backing them up. Let's see how the courts treat them in Beijing or Algiers or Lagos or Islamabad when a crowd of workers demand justice and the local courts demand the CEO appear in court - imagine Bill Gates (back when he was CEO) or Jamie Dimon or an oil exec pissing their pants because that's what would happen. Those places are no joke when things go wrong or the local government wants to send a message, and when folks like that step out to see what the real world is like, boy will they be in for a shock when the US Govt. isn't there to protect them.
Reuters and others are saying the Spanish need for a bailout is good for the Euro and that's why the Euro is gaining. Yes, because the need for such a massive country to need Euros to be printed out of thin air to keep the Ponzi going for just a little more time is somehow good for a currency's value? WTF? I really wish we had access to this free money that was printed by central banks - it always seems to end right at the top when it's handed out to banking authorities from other Goldman Sachs alum. Funny how devaluing a currency by printing it up by central banks is legal and "good," but printing up currency by regular citizens is strictly forbidden. They seem to be as valuable as each other, might as well break out the Monopoly cash at this point.
Spain is looking to freeze pensions and increase the retirement age to 67. Look for pensions to be raided by Goldman Sachs banksters in a quest for Spain to meet the bailout requirements imposed on it by the banksters. And as far as raising the retirement age, as in every other country that has destroyed jobs or sent jobs overseas (e.g., the USA), how exactly does one work longer when one is currently unemployed and there are no jobs to be had? I know questions like that may make politicians here and abroad uncomfortable because they might have to think for more than 2 seconds, but seriously, when banksters are forcing austerity on 99% of the population so that Ponzi currencies and financial regimes can keep making them richer at the expense of the populace, questions like that should be posed by at least one person that's not beholden to these money men. Or maybe 50,000 unemployed Spaniards could ask the politicians and banksters when they aren't surrounded by 500 security men that hate the little people.
About.com has hundreds and hundreds of stories. Just type in "unemployment" and words like "suicide"; "outsourcing"; "overqualified"; "homeless"; "long-term"; or "age discrimination" and incredibly sad stories come up. Those stories are obviously meant for that site and were submitted for that site (so I wouldn't link to them because not sure if the people would want other sites linking to it, but they are there to be read), but reading the stories there is pretty tragic. Unemployed-friends2 was also another site, and there are other places too that people share. Plus nowadays news articles that blame the unemployed and tell them to just fix their resume or be more positive I find are followed by people telling the author to basically stop spewing Candyland crap. The thing is people in really bad spots will lose their homes and won't really care to go to the library to sign on the Internet and share their stories when they no longer have any hope, there are only so many times you can tell your tale and receive complete silence before people figure no one really gives a sh*t, or at least the people who could do anything don't. Plus the shame of being seen in public, or around people they might recognize, after they've lost everything after 3, 4, or 5 years of nothing stops them from going out anywhere (e.g., a library).
Even if the bastards in power that could do anything won't because they really don't care and it would take a few dollars from their pockets, at least other people in the same spot would at least know they aren't alone. I think that's a really important part of it, because now with people in suburbs or rural areas and no soup lines or gathering spots for the long-term unemployed with the Internet and SNAP cards and other modern tools changing things from the Great Depression I, people out there feel they are somehow to blame if they aren't getting one interview after 20-30 years of work, 2000 applications, this degree or that, etc. At least the stories bring some comfort to them, and when we have complete scum blaming the unemployed for their own problems instead of those making and enforcing policies, at least the stories and the numbers can bring some measure of comfort to those suffering, even if it won't change the minds of script readers in corporate TV studios.
How about I put together some of the statistics and stories I can round up. It's true, this is literally killing people.
Also, yes, there are a host of layoffs and a lot of jobs...going to China. Yuppers!
I should also point out, these graphs are not true correlation, which I should probably run and put up a graph of. There is a little mathematical metric called cross correlation and covariance, which is the "official" way to show correlation. That said, one can see the matching patterns when I put up the "two lines". (for the math nerds out there).
If you have statistics, personal stories on how this economy and policies are literally killing people, just email me. I happen to know of a woman who committed suicide after being denied a tech job in favor of H-1B workers and she's not the only one.
Scary thing is that's a number that keeps on getting added to the previously unemployed. I don't even know where there are so many jobs existing these days for 350,00 + to be fired per week.
Meanwhile, Bank of America aka Unindicted Bankster Coconspirator aka TBTF/Too Idiotic To Succeed without Taxpayers' $ aka Robosigner/Fraudclosure Mill is laying off 16,000 by the end of the year. Call me cynical, but are 16,000 new positions going to suddenly open up in India or the Philippines? Try as it might, BOA just couldn't find Americans worthy of keeping their jobs, but people overseas with fewer skills and education will certainly be hired right away, no questions asked. Hmmm, Bank of America, another "job creator." Yup, I love that phrase, makes me sick everytime I hear it or write it. Oh well, at least the corporate board and officers are safe - and that's all that really counts in this Banana Republic of Corruption in 2012, isn't it?
I wonder, why doesn't the MSM ever cover the people dying as a result of long-term unemployment (and I'm not talking about people who still have homes or have semi-decent health on "60 Minutes"), but people who died from lack of medical care, suicides, killed after becoming homeless after losing their jobs, broke the law to survive or just to find a home in jail or prison vs. homelessness? Do those millions of very real but unhappy stories not sell i-crap or the newest Audi (probably being built in China now or soon) or some other unncecessary item most people no longer want or can afford? Oh well, back to Bravo TV's "Top Chef" where I can watch people dressed nicely moan about a foam dish not being up to their standards for plates based on a large part of air and then Fox and MSNBC. I'm a leech and I know it because I can't afford to donate $50,000 to either candidate, I wish I could emulate my betters in politics and boardrooms, you know, the ones killing our country every single day, they're all so very smart, patriotic with their nice flag lapel pins, ethical, intelligent, and hardworking. It's us out here in the rest of America that deserve to suffer I guess.
There is some interesting details on HFT from the hearing testimony. You might read it at the above link to the hearing.
I'm doing a quick scan and so far, not a word on good old fashioned terrible, negligent software design. Amazing, they are building these systems on technology, yet technologists are not present to inform them some of the events were caused by negligent R&D, forget dark pools and nanosecond algos.
Dream on Pollyanna. The predators don't think we are weak. They are barely aware of our existence. Look at any tea bag party and behold the spectacle of elderly dependents on Social Security ranting about Big Gov'ment, lamenting the good old days when we were free, and imagining that we are the wealthiest, most secure people the world has ever known. Let's have another shot of tax relief for the rich, and everything will be as near perfect as possible; jobs will just start dropping like ripe figs.
Not the trade deficit, it's the current account deficit as percentage of GDP. Sorry, the FRED system doesn't let me change graph titling and FRED is so much faster to create graphs with. Just a FYI, probably what you meant.
So the equation at the top of the FRED graph is:
Current account = BOPBCA
Then, I am annualizing the current account deficit (per quarter, so times 4) and then I am inverting the value so we have positive percentages. Nominal GDP in the BEA tables and in FRED is presented annualized on the quarterly, so to match, that's de formula, in case anybody else is reading along at home.
Yeah, for simple calculations nothing better than the FRED system, well, nothing better than the FRED system period, except for the missing data series. The FRED system, one cannot change the graph titling, so I drew out the mathematics a tad but I guess I didn't explain the symbol for current account deficit.
I see you commenting here and we invite other authors, cross posts, as well as requests. I think I've mentioned sectoral balance during some sort of delving into multipliers back during the infamous Moody's multiplier sheet for "Stimulus", but haven't touched the topic at all. On this site, I try, although I'm not so sure how successful, to make equations and theory understandable by those who never touched the cover of an economics textbook, so people who know how to explain, I'd love to find more folks to author.
There is usually some horror show to write about too, every day another outrage du jour, often built on lobbyist white papers lies and fictional stats., but that said, this site even has LaTex available.
I'd love to find others willing to write up easy to understand tutorials for those with basic math, to show, in layman's terms, what each variable means but don't skimp on the equations either.
I think the best defense against lobbyist snow and statistical spin is knowledge and if this stuff is explained well enough, with enough color, in plain English, just skip the entire Academia lingo and language, more people will see they are in a lobbyist minefield of bullshit when it comes to the economy and what should really happen, by policy.
Great data and charts as usual.
I especially like the last chart showing the trade deficit as % of GDP. That comes in handing for the sectoral balances equation:
Federal Deficit = Net Private Savings + Trade Deficit
Let use know. You might format your links, just a suggestion. I'm strongly suspecting use of H-1B in this, but I'm looking for more S&T details. Fat finger, try clueless wonder.
Here's more evidence the markets are completely broken - multiple oil stocks jumped 3-9% minutes before the exchange closed and then reversed gains. Still blaming the "fat finger" BS.
http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20120919-710923.html
Funny, I thought that excuse was tried and failed a couple of years ago. Seems these excuses keep getting tried to explain away the complete manipulation and lack of credibility/oversight/honesty in today's financial markets. Oh well, if you were a small investor that bought at the top of the 9% jump, I have no doubt your trade will stand. If you are TBTF or have some other pull with the exchange, your purchases no doubt won't have to stand. Step on up, step on up, many carnival games for those willing to part with their cash.
By the way, there's an "anchor" on a certain business channel that himself had an issue with the SEC:
http://www.sec.gov/litigation/litreleases/lr16248.htm
So, there are people like that collecting big paychecks despite the fact that they were called out by regulatory authorities. Who wants to trust the media or anyone when this is going on in front of us daily with no shame? And yet those people have very good paying jobs while they criticize Americans that simply won't get hired no matter how honest they are (or is it because they are honest they won't get hired - more and more that seems to be the case).
Nice of the govt. to jump on the bandwagon years after the dangers have been known and caused repeated damage. The exchanges are now just jokes that people with inside information, access, or HFT use to their own advantage.
National governments have started looking into banning HFT because it's so dangerous to market integrity - without integrity and open, honest information, most sane rational people will avoid markets at all costs.
It's obvious the markets and banksters don't want open, fair markets. Remember the whole reasoning behind the Securities Act of 1933 and Exchange Act of 1934, protect the public through full disclosure, no lies, manipulation, or hidden BS. Again, post Great Crash close to 80 years ago, and now look how far we've gone again solely because of corruption, lobbying, and regulatory capture by the banksters/financial industry.
The NYSE, NASDAQ, FINRA, SEC, CFTC all go along with the insider game. NYSE was fined $5 million only (compare that to the money it made) for giving inside information to certain companies. That's the NYSE! Come on, when the exchange itself is breaking laws and rules, why should anyone trust some algo.?
The whole concept of running a machine that beats others in exchanges and then can crash entire stocks, commodities, or markets based on being physically closer to the exchange or some market-destroying bid and offer repeated without any intention of being executed for any normal period of time is so obviously wrong. That's about $ and access. If you can get prime real estate to exchange servers, then you "win" and beat average investors using brokers' servers? That's so wrong on so many levels. And during the "60 Minutes" show that dealt with this, the exchange acted like this was fine and the people that could get closer to their machines deserved to get their trade. How's that for fair markets?
No, zerohedge and others have been detailing this for far too long and the exchanges, regulators, law enforcement, and financial industry were screwing up markets and doing real damage to retail investors and the integrity of markets for years without any repercussions to them. Once again, certain sectors of the public are fully awake and aware and know damn well the govt., regulators, and law enforcement are late to the game and won't do anything to punish the wrongdoers or really prevent more of the same because the people that break the rules and exploit their ownership of the govt. and regulators will not tolerate any reforms.
I'm still waiting for hedge funds to be banned from handling pensions. There's no way public servants should be forced to invest in those scams. As individuals, the public servants would never be allowed to invest in hedge funds because they aren't "sophisticated" enough and don't meet the capital requirements (quite frankly, anyone who does invest in a hedge fund is a sucker). However, once they pool all of them together, then public servants can now be forced to pay out (they have no choice in who their pension fund invests with) 2 and 20 to hedge fund managers and make them instant billionaires for sitting in front of computers, following the herd of other hedge fund managers, and actually LOSING to the market indexes, even without taking into account their outrageous fees! So how's that for fairness and market integrity? In a few years when pensions go bust of course someone will shock of shocks, discover that hedge funds were probably picked because of relationships and not any real returns to the public servants. And then some politician running for office will pretend that he wants to protect the public servants and demand "real reform" in the hedge fund industry and the media will kiss his ass and call him a great reformer while he accepts $ from other banksters. Of course now those very same hedge fund managers donate to politicians that then have the audacity to berate those public servants, call them lazy, and demand they make more sacrifices while continuing to make billions for literally taking their money and losing to the indexes! USA 2012 - it's twisted.
We haven't covered this economic release until now. We hope to look at finance and capital flowing around the globe in more detail, starting with this overview.
Worse and worser. You can bet both parties, leadership will not enact policies which enable people to obtain employment, careers, quality of life, middle class to get off of dependencies and it's pretty damn bad when government officials believe Americans are fat, lazy and stupid. Truth is the Democrats should be labeled GOP and we need a new party, the people's party, to really get policy and legislation in the national interest.
I mean the rhetoric coming out of the GOP is so often bat shit crazy and not in statistical reality, the few things they point out which are true get buried in their muck.
That said, Democrats are busy trying to enact corporate lobbyist demands for more foreign workers, as we type. Think about that. We clearly have a jobs crisis, the economy is stalling and the only action we get is to more sure more foreigners are enabled to displace U.S. workers. This is really happening and shows also Democrats are buying into the idea Americans are fat, lazy and stupid. We have millions of advanced degree Americans who need a job right now and even more with advanced degrees who cannot get a job in their chosen field. It's positively obscene.
See any legislator pushing for a direct jobs program, even tax credits tied to hiring U.S. citizens and retaining the employees businesses already have? Nope. Goes to show what both parties really think of the American people and beyond throwing a token bone to sway an election, I sincerely doubt the U.S. citizen worker enters their corporate lobbyist donor and constituency brain.
It's a nice soundclip for someone at Fox News to yell out over anyone who might have actual facts and expertise before they drown him out and cut to commercial, but it's such crap. Without dealing with all the tax breaks and special capital gains issues those who have massive stock portfolios, manage hedge funds, etc. get, just look at the people in the lower brackets. Fine, so people are so poor in 2012 that they don't pay federal income taxes. What does that even prove? Lack of logic. Yeah, well, so Howard Hughes doesn't pay any federal income taxes in 2012 either along with many people born over 100 years ago. That's how stupid the argument is. Can I assume Howard Hughes is a lazy leech based on that fact along with all people born 100+ years ago? Or does his being dead having something to do with it too? Drawing idiotic causal relationships from stats apparently not an issue for braindead politicians and CEOs.
And many of those people are working poor or disabled or elderly that have no kids, or one kid, or two, and still don't earn enough to pay federal income taxes - so that makes them lazy or rather doomed by things outside their control? That's a social, political, and economic issue, not a "lazy" issue. People pay plenty of fees and taxes every single day, to think otherwise is a complete fabrication. Taxes on food and fuel, plenty of those. Someone making minimum wage pays for his insurance on his car, all sorts of taxes on fuel, tolls on roads and bridges and tunnels (and those private equity firms and Ayn Rand lovers do love privatizing every govt.-developed item so they can further rape workers with more tolls and fees), fees and taxes on phones and utilities, public transportation, property taxes on their houses, fees on apartments or condos, exorbitant fees on credit cards that always seem to have strange billing cycles, taxes that fund Social Security and Medicare, outrageous fees on bank accounts and heavy fees if someone uses alternative banking methods, and on and on. It's regressive and Romney, as someone that pretends to have some business and political sense, knows it. But like I said, it's a nice lie to yell at someone that protests the destruction of our society and middle class so the robber barons can run us over like roaches in their Rolls as they head to another closed-door meeting to plot our demise.
Boy, only the Republicans could make Obama look good. The DOJ has been DOA on prosecutions and the GOP is busy only on free guns to drug cartels, courtesy of the USA.
Here's a classic that should interest EP readers. Market Watch went and charted the claims Romney just made in his Macaca moment.
Their graphs are here. If only the major financial press would graph up the claims made by politicians when actually fast tracking legislation written by lobbyists, although we do our best it would be nice if they joined in.
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