Any criminologist, corrections officer, detective, beat cop could cite endless examples of people without much legal or illegal $ that could give any CEO competition for lack of ethics. These studies on either side of the spectrum only cause problems because they are too easily dismissed.
It's like Forbes endless parade of crap/trash articles about how the unemployed are morons, or lazy, or uneducated and everyone with $ deserves/deserved it, worked harder, is smarter, and $ is the only thing that matters in life.
Really, a scientific study based on personality abnormalities (APA sociopathy, psychopathy, etc.), within a tiny population of people like CEOs should cause anyone with an interest in means, medians, general stats, and drawing conclusions about other humans real hesitation. Because the same thing could be said by visiting an unemployment office in one city or state and drawing conclusions about the entire unemployed population from that. It cuts both ways. And quite frankly I'm sick of people saying things like "anyone can get a job if they wanted one," etc. so I'm careful about flipping it to the top levels.
I wouldn't say that's true, while we hate Gaussian distributions and bell curves here, they are used way too often and especially with human beings, there is way more standard deviation than the formula allows...
That said, numerous studies have shown there are more sociopaths inside corporations and as one goes "up the hierarchy", the worse it gets. That's no surprise since the structure of corporations are authoritative, not collaborative. It fosters these types of people, narcissists, sociopaths and punishes the altruistic, the empathetic.
What is the phrase?
It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven
Tesla was truly screwed over, first by Edison. Took over 100 years for his real genius to be acknowledged, AC power, radio, x-rays, wireless communications....
Anyone that's been up and down knows there are truly great people ethically and morally in all strata. There are some CEOs that are great human beings, and the same with people that are lucky to find a spot in a shelter tonight. Same with people locked up and people at exclusive retreats this weekend. Some guys and girls with little $ to their name are trustworthy to the end even if it means they'll lose their jobs, and same with people that will lose a bonus or their jobs at the opposite end. And on the other end, well, visit the boardrooms and political retreats (e.g., the Hamptons this weekend) or prisons too. To say the rich are somehow worse or better morally or the homeless or inmates or struggling are worse is too weak. Even within homeless shelters and prisons and jails there are vast, vast differences. No real study with any reliability and scientific basis would go along with that. I don't like such broad generalizations.
But, what is truly ridiculous is the idea that $ or wealth in any form is the same as being brighter, more ethical, or a harder worker than someone that is poor. Google (or duckduckgo if you fear the NSA and other freedom crushers) the poor geniuses and great men and women that were screwed over by those with means, no ethics, a take everything at all costs attitude. So many people of genius, ethics, and freedom lovers were crushed by people without a brain in their heads, but with the willingness to crush their fellow humans in the name of power + $. Tesla vs. Edison, all the poor artists that rich people now collect but would spit on during their lifetimes, etc., etc. How rich was Gandhi? Jefferson? Tesla? Van Gogh? Da Vinci? Quite frankly, it doesn't matter, because no one cares about their lack of wealth - it just doesn't matter - they were great and still are. $ means nothing, other than a willingness to step on others and/or take credit for their work.
It is too broad to claim that if someone has money, therefore, they are a sociopath or unethical.
Life just isn't like that and it's too stereotypical. To say there is a higher percentage of narassists, unethical people, sociopaths in the upper economic class, ok, probably so.
The FED's pious bleats -- expressing their concern for "The Unemployed" -- are nothing more than a thin fig leaf for its actual mission of reflating banks mortgage-backed-assets and the rest of the debris from their most recent credit bubble.
See the FED's cummulative QE (blue line, left axis) and its sum-total effect on employment (red line, right axis) on http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/graph/?g=j0h
See that same QE effort -- and its effect on the S&P 500 (and other like financial assets) -- on http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/graph/?g=iQe
A perhaps more sobering look-see is in the net, after-tax profits of the financial industry (red line, right axis) as a fraction of all U.S. Corporate profits -- as compared with the blue line that shows the fraction of all remaining PAT going to all our non-financial industries on http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/graph/?g=iZU.
For reference, real (after inflation) interest rates are shown by the gray line (left axis).
More crony capitalism (from the Center from Public Integrity) Comerica has an exclusive contract to issue Direct Express cards, which Treasury uses to deliver Social Security and other State and Federal benefits to people [such as unemployment benefits and food stamps]. Comerica won the original deal in 2008 by offering to provide the cards at no cost to taxpayers. About two years later, Treasury quietly amended the contract to add tens of millions in new payments to Comerica. Treasury's special contracts with banks rarely are put out for competitive bidding.
If a robot or computer can do the job, someone in the boardroom and HR will see that it does. If a child can do it for food only overseas, the same thing (think soccer ball and shoes). Or, if the job can save money by being left unfilled and just shifting work to someone else or letting the job go undone and/or sacrificing service + quality, it will happen. Now, replacing the guys making $10 million + stock options or people making these hiring/firing decisions that can't spell or actually understand the 5,000 requirements they post for entry-level jobs, that's simply not allowed. It takes rare, unique individuals to launder money for cartels, set up sweatshops overseas, or gamble trillions on derivatives, lose trillions, and then get bailed out by taxpayers to do it again while claiming the betting losers are special. That talent is like a rare gem, simply irreplaceable.
So glad you covered this. I usually run a consumer spending calculation in the third monthly quarter but just eyeballing it, it looks weak, which implies yet another quarter of stagnant economic growth as well.
Right now we are being innodated with lies about S.744 the immigration bill which is actually going to introduce 30 million workers in a labor market that's not creating enough jobs for the workers already here.
That, and on some witch hunt for some celebrity chef for saying the N word.
I'm so disgusted I've had a hard time writing up an analysis of what was passed. It's basically the same, we just have some token amendments which won't do jack really to make sure U.S. workers get the jobs.
These are all real valued, so it's not prices. I think the drought wiped out farmers so badly, we have a natural build up, although I don't specialize in AG so that's a guess.
The weather this year, I don't know if another drought is expected but already areas of the country are so hot, it's deadly.
Exhausted from another week in this place, and the corruption would blow my stack, so I avoid MSM at all costs and watch movies and have a libation or two before Bloomdouche or some other hypocrite bans any fun. But damn, shouldn't Corzine be fetching weights in Leavenworth or something? Shouldn't the guy who received the wired funds from Corzine also be fetching items in Leavenworth or Atlanta or Florence, CO.? Dimon, come on now, receiving funds from Corzine? Sounds like fraud, theft, money laundering, wire fraud, etc., etc. Any "uncompensated Special AUSA" (http://www.justice.gov/careers/legal/attvacancies.html) working for free while Holder lines up a $10 million payday should be able to prosecute these cases in his/her sleep while watching those law school loans explode. But hey, it's USA 2013, and it's all lies and corruption and idiocracy 24/7. More Sir, I want more!!!!
i still wonder how much of that farm inventory increase is ephemeral, or just a price change...the drought certainly reduced summer & fall physical inventories, and any seasonal adjustment would be rebounding from that low base...
& without farm inventories, Q1 GDP growth rate is less than 1.0%
Both parties love to grant more foreign guest workers per corporate demands, so the only hope here is the "pathway to citizenship" part, which many GOP won't vote for. But they would vote and pass in a heart beat more labor supply, displacing U.S. workers so labor has not a friend in site in Congress these days.
As July 4th approaches and labor arbitrage laws just passed, no question where American citizens need to look to see who's to blame for our current plight. From boardrooms to the halls of power in state capitals, national capitals, and transnational capitals (e.g., Brussels and Frankfurt), pretty damn obvious the clowns in charge want to destroy us for a few pennies more in their bank accounts that are immune from money laundering investigations or seizures (they aren't us, after all). If someone's lucky enough to land a job and risk their necks for dropping wages, no doubt someone pulling in seven or eight figures that will never break a sweat in their lives helped ensure the person risking his neck will only struggle ever-harder with every passing year just to survive. Let's not even get into thriving as a human being, a family member, a member of society, etc.
So here we are in 2013, lower wages, decreasing real labor participation rates, criminals in politics and big business getting bailed out or never facing arrest ever for their crimes, and more labor supply being rammed down. And as American citizens we can have the honor of our own government spying on us and criminals in Congress and elsewhere saying it's fine by them. Apparently they are not only completely corrupt, but honestly couldn't care less about the Constitution, state Constitutions, or anything else this country stands for. Of course I'm assuming they understand how to read and write and take oaths, but that might be too big an assumption at this stage of the game.
I'm always curious how Clinton, Bush, Obama, Congress jokers/whores never get confronted with the basic facts - Americans are much, much worse off as far as income and wealth ever since the NAFTA, Glass-Steagall repeal, etc. was forced down our throats. Now I know Bill O'Reilly and David "I hate real journalists that cover NSA spying and criticize my corporate paymasters" Gregory won't confront any politicians about these simple facts, but it's painful. Sure, Bill O' can claim we're all kickin' ass because most of us have homes and AC and a phone and microwave, and Gregory can claim we're awesome because we can afford phones and emails the NSA can hack and intercept, but still, median incomes and net worth have been dropping and dropping with no relief in sight.
Simple question a real journalist would ask a politician and CEO every day of every year - if all this immigration, outsourcing, and free trade is so damn good, why do American citizens keep seeing their median incomes drop, their median net worth drop, and real unemployment stagnate or increase along with shock-and-awe levels of low labor participation rates?
Now I'm no politician, and I'm sure as Hell no journo that eats caviar and frolics with the same politicians and businesspeople I'm supposed to cover/investigate, but damn, even us rubes can pose a question once in a while in a "democracy" or "republic," right? Or is that going to get me in trouble with NBC/GE, JPMorgan, Fox/Murdoch phone hacking Inc., the NSA, etc.?
Case-Shiller is calling "healthy" residential real estate what we call a return to the bubble.
They want a return to the bubble and are setting up all sorts of conditions to make that happen.
The fact people cannot afford even a $200,000 mortgage, never mind $300,000 banks and those vested in making money off of real estate could care less.
I think prices are going to continue to rise, with a potential pop since wages are projected to fall further and the ongoing employment crisis is being swept under the rug as the labor participation rates go to record lows.
In 2001 I was downsized from an aircraft manufacturer...I returned in 2005. Or so I thought. I accepted the job offer when I was living out of state. I moved back to my former location the week Hurricane Frances hit our area. My job offer was rescinded without notice. I re-applied and was offered a different position at a lower rate of pay. When asked about the status of my previous job offer, HR stated that "they had no record of that offer."
The staff and supervisor in my shop refused to train the majority of the new people. He would also do his best to call people out for no apparent reason if a job was not done properly...without any training of course. I was the only person that would not tolerate the abuse. As a result, myself and all of the people that were hired at the same time were downsized 4 years later.
To survive in that workplace, and I am sure others, you have to be a real a** crawler.
Any criminologist, corrections officer, detective, beat cop could cite endless examples of people without much legal or illegal $ that could give any CEO competition for lack of ethics. These studies on either side of the spectrum only cause problems because they are too easily dismissed.
It's like Forbes endless parade of crap/trash articles about how the unemployed are morons, or lazy, or uneducated and everyone with $ deserves/deserved it, worked harder, is smarter, and $ is the only thing that matters in life.
Really, a scientific study based on personality abnormalities (APA sociopathy, psychopathy, etc.), within a tiny population of people like CEOs should cause anyone with an interest in means, medians, general stats, and drawing conclusions about other humans real hesitation. Because the same thing could be said by visiting an unemployment office in one city or state and drawing conclusions about the entire unemployed population from that. It cuts both ways. And quite frankly I'm sick of people saying things like "anyone can get a job if they wanted one," etc. so I'm careful about flipping it to the top levels.
I wouldn't say that's true, while we hate Gaussian distributions and bell curves here, they are used way too often and especially with human beings, there is way more standard deviation than the formula allows...
That said, numerous studies have shown there are more sociopaths inside corporations and as one goes "up the hierarchy", the worse it gets. That's no surprise since the structure of corporations are authoritative, not collaborative. It fosters these types of people, narcissists, sociopaths and punishes the altruistic, the empathetic.
What is the phrase?
Tesla was truly screwed over, first by Edison. Took over 100 years for his real genius to be acknowledged, AC power, radio, x-rays, wireless communications....
Anyone that's been up and down knows there are truly great people ethically and morally in all strata. There are some CEOs that are great human beings, and the same with people that are lucky to find a spot in a shelter tonight. Same with people locked up and people at exclusive retreats this weekend. Some guys and girls with little $ to their name are trustworthy to the end even if it means they'll lose their jobs, and same with people that will lose a bonus or their jobs at the opposite end. And on the other end, well, visit the boardrooms and political retreats (e.g., the Hamptons this weekend) or prisons too. To say the rich are somehow worse or better morally or the homeless or inmates or struggling are worse is too weak. Even within homeless shelters and prisons and jails there are vast, vast differences. No real study with any reliability and scientific basis would go along with that. I don't like such broad generalizations.
But, what is truly ridiculous is the idea that $ or wealth in any form is the same as being brighter, more ethical, or a harder worker than someone that is poor. Google (or duckduckgo if you fear the NSA and other freedom crushers) the poor geniuses and great men and women that were screwed over by those with means, no ethics, a take everything at all costs attitude. So many people of genius, ethics, and freedom lovers were crushed by people without a brain in their heads, but with the willingness to crush their fellow humans in the name of power + $. Tesla vs. Edison, all the poor artists that rich people now collect but would spit on during their lifetimes, etc., etc. How rich was Gandhi? Jefferson? Tesla? Van Gogh? Da Vinci? Quite frankly, it doesn't matter, because no one cares about their lack of wealth - it just doesn't matter - they were great and still are. $ means nothing, other than a willingness to step on others and/or take credit for their work.
"Behind every great fortune there is a crime" - Voltaire
It is too broad to claim that if someone has money, therefore, they are a sociopath or unethical.
Life just isn't like that and it's too stereotypical. To say there is a higher percentage of narassists, unethical people, sociopaths in the upper economic class, ok, probably so.
The FED's pious bleats -- expressing their concern for "The Unemployed" -- are nothing more than a thin fig leaf for its actual mission of reflating banks mortgage-backed-assets and the rest of the debris from their most recent credit bubble.
See the FED's cummulative QE (blue line, left axis) and its sum-total effect on employment (red line, right axis) on http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/graph/?g=j0h
See that same QE effort -- and its effect on the S&P 500 (and other like financial assets) -- on http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/graph/?g=iQe
A perhaps more sobering look-see is in the net, after-tax profits of the financial industry (red line, right axis) as a fraction of all U.S. Corporate profits -- as compared with the blue line that shows the fraction of all remaining PAT going to all our non-financial industries on http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/graph/?g=iZU.
For reference, real (after inflation) interest rates are shown by the gray line (left axis).
More crony capitalism (from the Center from Public Integrity) Comerica has an exclusive contract to issue Direct Express cards, which Treasury uses to deliver Social Security and other State and Federal benefits to people [such as unemployment benefits and food stamps]. Comerica won the original deal in 2008 by offering to provide the cards at no cost to taxpayers. About two years later, Treasury quietly amended the contract to add tens of millions in new payments to Comerica. Treasury's special contracts with banks rarely are put out for competitive bidding.
http://www.publicintegrity.org/2013/06/28/12903/impact-treasury-open-com...
We do a detailed analysis of JOLTS, here.
Openings these days are often phony, with corporations refusing to hire more than qualified people due to age discrimination and other reasons.
It is the hiring that matters and basically employers these days just refuse to hire.
Nice rant, blaming meager benefits for the unemployment rate is stunning, nothing of the kind.
Yes, even Federal Reserve researchers show the jobs crisis has nothing to do with skills mismatch.
Your last sentence in this article says it all - an indication of what is really lacking in all of this.
If a robot or computer can do the job, someone in the boardroom and HR will see that it does. If a child can do it for food only overseas, the same thing (think soccer ball and shoes). Or, if the job can save money by being left unfilled and just shifting work to someone else or letting the job go undone and/or sacrificing service + quality, it will happen. Now, replacing the guys making $10 million + stock options or people making these hiring/firing decisions that can't spell or actually understand the 5,000 requirements they post for entry-level jobs, that's simply not allowed. It takes rare, unique individuals to launder money for cartels, set up sweatshops overseas, or gamble trillions on derivatives, lose trillions, and then get bailed out by taxpayers to do it again while claiming the betting losers are special. That talent is like a rare gem, simply irreplaceable.
So glad you covered this. I usually run a consumer spending calculation in the third monthly quarter but just eyeballing it, it looks weak, which implies yet another quarter of stagnant economic growth as well.
Right now we are being innodated with lies about S.744 the immigration bill which is actually going to introduce 30 million workers in a labor market that's not creating enough jobs for the workers already here.
That, and on some witch hunt for some celebrity chef for saying the N word.
I'm so disgusted I've had a hard time writing up an analysis of what was passed. It's basically the same, we just have some token amendments which won't do jack really to make sure U.S. workers get the jobs.
These are all real valued, so it's not prices. I think the drought wiped out farmers so badly, we have a natural build up, although I don't specialize in AG so that's a guess.
The weather this year, I don't know if another drought is expected but already areas of the country are so hot, it's deadly.
Exhausted from another week in this place, and the corruption would blow my stack, so I avoid MSM at all costs and watch movies and have a libation or two before Bloomdouche or some other hypocrite bans any fun. But damn, shouldn't Corzine be fetching weights in Leavenworth or something? Shouldn't the guy who received the wired funds from Corzine also be fetching items in Leavenworth or Atlanta or Florence, CO.? Dimon, come on now, receiving funds from Corzine? Sounds like fraud, theft, money laundering, wire fraud, etc., etc. Any "uncompensated Special AUSA" (http://www.justice.gov/careers/legal/attvacancies.html) working for free while Holder lines up a $10 million payday should be able to prosecute these cases in his/her sleep while watching those law school loans explode. But hey, it's USA 2013, and it's all lies and corruption and idiocracy 24/7. More Sir, I want more!!!!
i still wonder how much of that farm inventory increase is ephemeral, or just a price change...the drought certainly reduced summer & fall physical inventories, and any seasonal adjustment would be rebounding from that low base...
& without farm inventories, Q1 GDP growth rate is less than 1.0%
Both parties love to grant more foreign guest workers per corporate demands, so the only hope here is the "pathway to citizenship" part, which many GOP won't vote for. But they would vote and pass in a heart beat more labor supply, displacing U.S. workers so labor has not a friend in site in Congress these days.
As July 4th approaches and labor arbitrage laws just passed, no question where American citizens need to look to see who's to blame for our current plight. From boardrooms to the halls of power in state capitals, national capitals, and transnational capitals (e.g., Brussels and Frankfurt), pretty damn obvious the clowns in charge want to destroy us for a few pennies more in their bank accounts that are immune from money laundering investigations or seizures (they aren't us, after all). If someone's lucky enough to land a job and risk their necks for dropping wages, no doubt someone pulling in seven or eight figures that will never break a sweat in their lives helped ensure the person risking his neck will only struggle ever-harder with every passing year just to survive. Let's not even get into thriving as a human being, a family member, a member of society, etc.
So here we are in 2013, lower wages, decreasing real labor participation rates, criminals in politics and big business getting bailed out or never facing arrest ever for their crimes, and more labor supply being rammed down. And as American citizens we can have the honor of our own government spying on us and criminals in Congress and elsewhere saying it's fine by them. Apparently they are not only completely corrupt, but honestly couldn't care less about the Constitution, state Constitutions, or anything else this country stands for. Of course I'm assuming they understand how to read and write and take oaths, but that might be too big an assumption at this stage of the game.
I'm always curious how Clinton, Bush, Obama, Congress jokers/whores never get confronted with the basic facts - Americans are much, much worse off as far as income and wealth ever since the NAFTA, Glass-Steagall repeal, etc. was forced down our throats. Now I know Bill O'Reilly and David "I hate real journalists that cover NSA spying and criticize my corporate paymasters" Gregory won't confront any politicians about these simple facts, but it's painful. Sure, Bill O' can claim we're all kickin' ass because most of us have homes and AC and a phone and microwave, and Gregory can claim we're awesome because we can afford phones and emails the NSA can hack and intercept, but still, median incomes and net worth have been dropping and dropping with no relief in sight.
Simple question a real journalist would ask a politician and CEO every day of every year - if all this immigration, outsourcing, and free trade is so damn good, why do American citizens keep seeing their median incomes drop, their median net worth drop, and real unemployment stagnate or increase along with shock-and-awe levels of low labor participation rates?
Now I'm no politician, and I'm sure as Hell no journo that eats caviar and frolics with the same politicians and businesspeople I'm supposed to cover/investigate, but damn, even us rubes can pose a question once in a while in a "democracy" or "republic," right? Or is that going to get me in trouble with NBC/GE, JPMorgan, Fox/Murdoch phone hacking Inc., the NSA, etc.?
Case-Shiller is calling "healthy" residential real estate what we call a return to the bubble.
They want a return to the bubble and are setting up all sorts of conditions to make that happen.
The fact people cannot afford even a $200,000 mortgage, never mind $300,000 banks and those vested in making money off of real estate could care less.
I think prices are going to continue to rise, with a potential pop since wages are projected to fall further and the ongoing employment crisis is being swept under the rug as the labor participation rates go to record lows.
In 2001 I was downsized from an aircraft manufacturer...I returned in 2005. Or so I thought. I accepted the job offer when I was living out of state. I moved back to my former location the week Hurricane Frances hit our area. My job offer was rescinded without notice. I re-applied and was offered a different position at a lower rate of pay. When asked about the status of my previous job offer, HR stated that "they had no record of that offer."
The staff and supervisor in my shop refused to train the majority of the new people. He would also do his best to call people out for no apparent reason if a job was not done properly...without any training of course. I was the only person that would not tolerate the abuse. As a result, myself and all of the people that were hired at the same time were downsized 4 years later.
To survive in that workplace, and I am sure others, you have to be a real a** crawler.
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