The Economic Populist
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Ignoring the Big Picture/Disturbing Trend in Graphs
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US oil supplies at a 36½ year low, SPR at a 39 year low; oil+products supplies at an 18½ year low
- 182900 reads
Trend in Temp Workers may not be Temporary
- 60563 reads
BREAKING: Wall Street Mega-Merger!!!
- 22480 reads
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Ignoring the Big Picture/Disturbing Trend in Graphs
- 29956 reads
US oil supplies at a 36½ year low, SPR at a 39 year low; oil+products supplies at an 18½ year low
- 182900 reads
Trend in Temp Workers may not be Temporary
- 60563 reads
BREAKING: Wall Street Mega-Merger!!!
- 22480 reads
The Golden Rule
- 1826115 reads
Will the NY Attorney General Bring Doomsday Charges Against Wall Street? If So, How Long Will He Survive?
- 1215983 reads
New York Post Claims Census Falsifies Unemployment Figures
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How Many Jobs Are Needed to Keep Up with Population Growth?
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VAT or Value Added Tax is Getting a Look in D.C.
- 345153 reads
U3 and U6 Unemployment during the Great Depression
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The war on the middle class
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House discusses 401k/IRA confiscation
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Tax Cuts for the Rich Do Not Generate Jobs
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Skills + expensive education + no chance to use either one = slight disenchantment. Robespierre, although we all disagree with his methods, was middle class. Seems Louis XVI didn't even have time for middle class Robespierre when he was a student prepared to greet him at a ceremony. Apparently Robes held a grudge. Oh well. Work hard + be honest + lifelong learning should = success or at least enough to provide for a family. Oops, did I just deprive a "non-profit" university of some cutting edge theory? Well, if I see this theory in some journal that no one reads by some professor, I'll demand my royalties. F it, "non-profit" my ass. Ask us for one more donation, please. Non-profit while administrators are making $500,000+ and 27 million Americans are unemployed, including millions of college and grad school alums?! Nonprofit, what a joke.
In a society where money is all that matters - people sell out. The choice is clear, join the robbers or adapt to poverty. Most will adapt, never considering stealing.
The whole things makes me sad enough to want to cry,for all of us.
I'm tired because these words reach the choir and I'm sick of preaching. But seriously, isn't this the Dutch East Indies/Indonesia under the Dutch East India Company or India under the British East India Company? I say these words because I know in 1, or 2, or 20 years, the same psychopaths killing us now will say, "No one told me I was destroying the USA. Gosh, if only someone told me (while jumping over 100 hurdles to reach them) I could've saved the USA". Didn't those corporate folks dictate policy? Except now, and I want to be very clear on this, our government at all levels and our press has been completely bought like paid whores. Yes, like paid whores. Ask Bill O'Reilly or Stossel or MSNBC to describe how different we are from those nations and times (if they could find those countries on a map without help or without a $20 million annual script they must follow).
Again, our Founding Fathers said nothing about profit over democracy, NOTHING, NOTHING. We are a nation of freedoms and ideas, not business and profit. If businesses make profits, great, but never at the expense of democracy or freedom. Were thinkers like Descartes and Voltaire and Rousseau or our folks like Franklin and Madison and Paine and Washington and Jefferson ever talking about profit? About banker bonuses? About derivatives? About corporations or banks? Oh, when they did, they weren't speaking very highly of them, that's for sure. I want my country back, not for me, because unlike corporate boards and politician whores, I'm not selfish and profits and corporate boards never dictate policies. I want it back for my friends, my neighbors, for my fellow Americans that I'll never meet but I care about, and for the rest of the world - the Bill of Rights isn't sponsored by JP Morgan or Goldman Sachs or anyone else you dumb corporate bastards. Freaking idiots make us repeat the obvious ad nauseum, and because they rape and steal they think they are better than us because we want to trust our fellow Americans for a second or two while we just want a chance to rest and look out for others. Rot in Hell idiots, rot.
We in the middle, we trying to get to the middle, we trying to stay in the middle - were never going to make it. Strive as you might, work as hard as you can, follow the rules - doesn't matter.
What we thought of as the middle really wasn't. An econommic and social structure based on lies.
People forget globalization, and it was rightly characterized by wage repression. By offshore outsourcing jobs and bringing in foreign guest workers it wage represses the U.S.
Trickle upon economics does not increase job growth, at least any statistical correlation I've seen, so that's the problem, labor is an after thought these days. Maybe even call it after birth the way politicians and some economists look at labor. Something to "reduce the costs of".
Scary, and truly depressing (at least for non-rulers). In true banana republic form, I'd love to see an analysis on some site that detailed political contributions vs. criminal prosecutions. In all banana republics, money and corruption trump the rule of law - laws apply to the little people only. Remember Helmsley said that regarding taxes in the 1980s and was mocked universally for it? Nowadays, it's okay and par for the course. Now she'd be seen as a job creator and we can all wipe her ass or die according to other job destroyers, media, and politicians. Sad.
Such a prosecution (or complete lack thereof) vs. donations analysis would involve too much work because like all other truths in 2012 US of Oligarchs, it would be ignored because it doesn't sell anything and might wake more people who still have jobs from their slumber. Phone hacking prosecutions, RICO prosecutions, FCPA prosecutions, money laundering prosecutions, conspiracy prosecutions, bribery prosecutions, etc. Easy enough to start at the DOJ/US Attorneys' levels - perhaps the DOJ would be so kind as to get one of their SES workers or GS-15s or Public Information Offices working on such a study. We all know they aren't prosecuting bankers or Murdoch for phone hacking + bribery, so they've got the time (and they also have hundreds of analysts who should be working on such studies too for our taxmoney).
Honestly, this and other studies should scare the living sh*t out of any living, breathing American. We are honestly moving full-speed ahead BACKWARDS! Things are supposed to get easier as years pass, not harder. But we see things are getting easier for those in power and harder for the rest of us. The American Dream is dead. And it's not even living better than our parents that's a goal. It's now being able to survive, to afford medical care so we can live into our 40s or 50s! Diagnosed with cancer? If you don't have a good job, then you're literally going to die. Even routine physicals, vision, and dental examinations are cost-prohibitive. Home ownership. Dead. Stable job. Dead. Caring about school because it pays off. Bullsh*t, you are a debt slave and unemployed. Some woman is forced into homelessness and raped or murdered because some plutocrat simply had to make $20 million more and fired her and 5,000 other people and other people refused to hire her because she was unemployed or overqualified? How's that for a Norman Rockwell painting? Should we take one more day of that? I know the greedy piggies at the top don't care about her or tens of millions of other Americans, but we do, and we want real accountability and real change now.
OUTRAGE, it's what's for dinner!
The numbers in your post say a lot. It makes the argument for trickle down economics seem somewhat self defeating because consumer spending is so vital to job growth. If businesses don't want to trickle, then how does increasing income disparity increase job growth?
The people behind the scenes may or may not believe this position or that position, but all they need are people to act on their behalf with whatever reasoning they provide. I may or may not believe "Position 1," but if I can convince 500-500,000 people in this foreign city, or country, or whatever locale that "Position 1" is a matter of life-or-death or absolute honor vs. disgrace, then I have true power. Now, if I can then control the people or unleash the people rallying around "Position 1" and it serves my purpose that has nothing to do with "Position 1," all the better. I have helped control the people, so another power owes me, or if I don't control the people to another power's liking, then changes will be forced.
But then again, I'm not a big Wall Street bankster, or someone at policy making levels of anything, or chiming in on some TV somewhere, so what do I know.
Although people committing murder, against a diplomat no less, over a youtube, a cartoon are bat shit crazy in my view and what can one do. Same as those bat shit crazies in the United States who go stalk funerals with their "god hates homos" signs and such. Fortunately in the U.S. those crazies have no power and we have laws to nail 'em when they step over the legal line.
But I mean seriously, there have to be 1 million "unboxing" videos on youtube, this is when someone removes a product from it's packaging. Are you shitting me? There is so much psycho ramble bullshit out there and that's what happens when technologies enables anyone to make a video, one will get a lot of waste of digital bits.
Called freedom of speech and it seems other nations cannot stand freedom of speech and my attitude towards these people is the same as my attitude towards the crazies of this country. That's the scary thing, what is the mentality when one can whip a crowd to be murderous thugs over a crappy psycho youtube? there are millions of crappy, crazy rambling youtubes, along with 10 million youtubes of cats.
Are we literally going to have a "youtube war", are you KIDDING me? Good freaking God, what's next, attacks because someone thinks the iphone design is spreading a socialist message? I mean just bat shit crazy people out there.
If you read the overview, every month we mention the margin of error, for CES is 100,000 for CPS it's 400,000. Most months the jobs reported gained are within or around the margin of error and it's better to look at the 6 month gains, which have revisions.
We do the monthly because people want more accuracy and up to date statistics, and this is where we have said complain to Congress to fund more to the BLS and enable better, more complete surveys via the Census as well as the BLS.
Our crazy Congress instead is trying to silence the BLS and the Census, even LESS statistics when we need way more.
In the graphs we show trends and differences between the two and point out they never match but the slope, overall is similar. I think you're missing the other articles on the site. Here is the ADP employment report overview, complete with BLS comparison charts.
There are plenty of excuses every day for violence if certain groups in different parts of the world want to lash out. An attack of this magnitude in neighboring countries doesn't just happen and not over some video. Especially attacking a US Embassy or Consulate or key staff with RPGs? Something like that isn't just thought of at the last second by folks walking around with RPGs. Organization had to occur, arming the groups, attacking at a specified time. We'll find out more, but Middle East not looking more stable at this point and that always has ramifications. Toss in Syria (250,000 refugees left Syria already and civil war continues with car bombings, heavy fighting in Aleppo) and effects on neighboring countries as well as US/NATO, Russia, Iran; Iran nuclear situation and US election; and it will get uglier.
Conclusion: the labor force is so large (about 110,000,000) that a change of a few hundred thousand is lost, and cannot be accurately estimated. If so, monthly changes are meaningless.
So which (BLS or ADP) should we rely on, if either one? Aside from the disparity in size (96000 vs 201000), the trend is in the opposite direction.
For August, BLS shows a downtrend from prior months, while ADP shows an uptrend.
The pessimists vs. the optimists--pick your politics.
Very good point with this event. On a side note, killing a U.S. Ambassador over a youtube, are you KIDDING ME????? This is such an outrage and on 9/11 no less.
Just blow diplomatic law and promise right out the window, is just a tad bit serious.
The BLS August 2012 report shows 96000 jobs gained, but the ADP report shows 201000. Most of the time, the BLS total is somewhat higher (includes government workers) when the trend is up (lower when the trend is down). But in August, the difference was so large, and the trend from prior months was in the opposite direction. Can we rely on either of these reports?
For August, BLS is pessimistic. ADP is optimistic.
Any response?
If the Fed lets the greedy banksters have more free cash, watch oil prices explode. Not only because QE only helps banksters put more money into commodities and other bets with free cash, but because the situation in Egypt and Libya is going to get much worse. You can't have Ambassadors getting killed, Libya apparently unable to prevent violence with international ramifications (US/NATO helps rebels, rebels seize power, but if identity of attackers is true, Qadaffi's former loyalists still able to cause incidents with massive international ramifications) and Egypt too. Who was behind the actions in Libya and Egypt? Couldn't just be random that those two nations next to each other exploded on same day over one video on Youtube.
Add to that the fact that the German court just approved ECB BS bond scheme, and you have massive infusions of money from the ECB/Euro/ponzi that the ECB will apparently just print up, Fed free money printing for banksters, and supply restriction. Heaps and heaps of money chasing less and less oil and prepare for the nightmare.
Watching MSM, one would think the Germans and other populations love the Euro and inflation. They actually say the Germans love the Euro and other people love it. But then when a curious mind disbelieves the MSM and actually researches/knows the general populations' views, it's pretty clear the MSM is serving the Fed and other central banksters/Goldman alum/banksters. They only seem to look at Merkel, or Bernanke, or what Dimon or Blankfein or Draghi want and say. They avoid talking to the general populations at all - so much for the press and democracy. They never really discuss why Greeks and other Europeans are killing themselves, graduating college only to be unemployed and homeless, mass riots against central banks and their politicians, etc., etc. The MSM plays it like these are just disgruntled folks who want it easy and should just go along with the bankster program so banksters can get rich (ignoring the fact that all of these actions are crushing entire nations, sending food and fuel prices skyrocketing globally, and will possibly lead to global wars). But hey, I'm sure the corporate media knows what's going on, they seem to be incredibly bright and free thinkers.
The only talk of finance reform coming from anyone anymore is about the "unfair lending practices of mortgage brokers, payday lenders, debt collectors, and other financial institutions." --All non banks. What about the banks that caused this colossal economic failure we're still stuck with? No mention of them. If you think picking on payday lenders is finance reform, you are a sucker of the highest order.
Many of the jobs are now, and have been for several years, lower wage jobs. Job listings in my area show wages 20% or more lower than what the same job paid pre-crash.
And people are happy to have the low wage jobs vs no job at all.
In addition many retail jobs are very part time. This means no benefits.
So we have more unemployed, fewer jobs with benefits and low wages for existing jobs. Not a good future.
Take the money out of politics, take it out now. Until then, all these politicians will serve the money that pulls the strings, which is why we always see the corporations hedging their bets and contributing to as many people as possible.
If corporations (private and public) seek profit at all costs, then surely profits trump democratic rule and principles according to the corporations' own rules of operation, correct? Yes, even simpletons in politics and business and corporate-owned TV studios understand that logic. So democracy has been subverted to the whims of corporate boardrooms. I didn't say shareholders purposely because the CEOs and boards don't serve pensions and mutual funds and other shareholders, they serve the tiny elite in boardrooms, no one else. No one in their right mind would reward a CEO that cripples a company with a massive bonus or $20 million payday for violating criminal laws, but we see it all the time in 2012.
By the way, watching people like Mike Bloomberg and Putin and Bloomberg's attacks against Occupy and Putin's attacks against Pussy Riot, how different are the politicians truly? Do these people serve their constituents (in name only) or the small unelected elite? Both changed election laws to maintain power because apparently in New York City and Russia there was no one else available that was as special as they are - NO ONE (shocking, as I'm sure most New Yorkers and Russians would disagree with the low opinion Bloomberg and Putin held of them while also wanting their votes).
Watch the endless attacks against this enemy or that, and if new enemies need to be created, so be it. Bloomberg will attack out-of-state gun dealers (Mikey, you are a public servant in NYC, stop worrying about everywhere but NYC by sending police out-of-state (jurisdiction sounds nice - remember it)), soda "cartels" (pathetic), fast food, etc. while purposely avoiding bankers. Does Bloomberg ever mention how bankers have repeatedly laundered money for terrorists and drug cartels still, post 2001, some of these TBTF banks still help our enemies arm? And there's no dispute about it because these banks admit it and no one ever serves jail time or forfeits money for AIDING AND ABETTING TERRORISTS? And drug cartels? I thought the police would be up in arms about banks helping terrorists and drug cartels, you know, while enforcing laws? But utter silence? Really? Profiting from aiding our enemies and our politicians readily accept donations from those banks without even criticizing them? Hmmmm. Mikey, look up Wells Fargo, HSBC, Bank of America, Standard Chartered and the other TBTF and send the NYPD down there. They have been found to help drug cartels and terrorists. Google it. Leave the armed guards behind, mingle with the people (they aren't scary, and you did kind of promise to represent them) and go hold a press conference outside attacking banksters for helping terrorists and cartels while returning any money you ever received from them - ever. It is much easier than sending the NYPD out of NYC to videotape gun shows or McDonald's customers or Coke drinkers.
And Putin will never criticize fellow oligarchs that all prosper from corruption unless they break from his control. Never. But he will blame Georgians, or Ukrainians, or a band composed of only three women as if it threatens Russia's very existence? Sending three women to prison for two years for expressing disgust? In 2012? Really? Seems to me to be some insecurity and perpetual ready-made enemies when the true groups and corruption destroying the people are never to be identified by the governments in charge because they are one-in-the-same. Macing fellow citizens in the face is all good if they dare speak out against corruption or try to exercise their First Amendment rights? In 2012? Really?
Does DHS really want people to "see something, say something" when TBTF banks are aiding our enemies? Or are we supposed to turn a blind eye to that and remain mute and instead inform on our neighbors for nothing merely because the criminals are incorporated and donate to politicians? Who wins in 2012? Democracy loses, that's for sure.
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