Thread: The strongest economy in the world

Originally Posted by larvidchr

Tax funded equal high quality education should be a human right everywhere, quality education is like location for property dealers, the mantra should be education education education, not just book skills but also broad social skills and knowledge about the world we live in, in every Country where the education system is broken, low quality or just for the select few you invariably have huge social problems and high crime. The importance of good teachers and schools can not be stressed enough it is simply alfa and omega for creating a good Democratic modern well functioning society with mostly happy and content citizens.

And that's a fact

555555555 Sure, tax-funded EVERYTHING. BS, IMHO, Larv. That leads to crony capitalism,union fixing, fake funding and quotas -- you know, kids with no brains get places at unis just cause they're ethnic. Pfft, same as govt positions where "stupid" ethnic folks get jobs just cause the govt has to fill the ethnic quota.
Unions run public schools and they decide curricula, methods, etc. Turn out libbie kids who figure welfare is better than a job. Nothing is a right unless you work for it. The world needs a war to set things right. I reckon the next will be religious-based:and guess what, the muslims won't take prisoners. They will torture worse than the Japanese and Germans ever did.

^ Excellent view which I fully endorse.

only 80K jobs added last month.

but here's romney talking about turning around an economy:

Interesting, that while this nfp was disappointing, in moments, and during following hour, eurusd still fell like a stone (=euro lost value against US dollar) - US dollar is still much better option for investors than euro.

Now just before this weekend euro fell to lowest in some 23 or 24 years against AUS (could check that on terminal but too tired) (euro back that time was math DM). Now many board members were not even born then! 4 year low to GBP. Can you smell the wind of change.

^ That's good! Should be an Obama ad.

Although this spoof is of a US "benefits" programme the EU has similar "benefits" schemes.

!

The $1 Trillion in total debt and the high per capita debt of million of recent graduates with BA/BS and Master's programs is having a ripple effect on the US economy. Master's degree and living at home with your parents at the age of 38. And deferring the loans for three years. These loans cannot be discharged in any way (e.g. bankruptcy) (I'm not saying they should be). But millions are up the creek without a paddle.

Update here:

Indentured Students Rise As Loans Corrode College Ticket
By Janet Lorin - Jul 9, 2012


Geraldine Damiani Brezler took out a $5,000 student loan in the late 1960s to study at the State University of New York. She became a nurse, got married, bought a house and repaid the debt in less than three years.

Today, her son, David, 38, owes about $85,000 in loans for a master’s degree in education at New York University. He can’t find full-time work, lives with his parents in White Plains, New York, and has deferred paying his debt for three years.

Student-loan programs established by Congress to help students access higher education have swelled to $1 trillion in debt, according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Bloomberg's Janet Lorin reports. (Source: Bloomberg)

Geraldine Damiani Brezler took out a $5,000 student loan in the late 1960s and paid it off in three years. Her 38-year-old son David has had a very different experience paying back his student loans.

And then there is the omnipresent Head in the sand syndrome.

Don't deal with these big problems. Put a temporary band-aid on them.

Republicans and Democrats alike postponed a reckoning. They encouraged borrowing and ignored surging tuition, leaving loans to balloon to the size of mortgages, shocking even the system’s own architects.

Link: the same as above.

This is worthy of posting. Applicable to the US but also Europe and the rest of the world.

Analysis: From a credit swamp, recovery horizons lengthenBy Mike Dolan | Reuters
…
LONDON (Reuters) - If it feels as though efforts to revive the world economy are continually running into the mire, that's partly because policymakers are still trying to map the extent of the credit swamp.

Five years to the month since the credit bubble popped, one of the striking aspects of the recurrent gloom invading households, businesses and investors is how the horizon for sustainable recovery is being pushed years into the distance.

Bank of England governor Mervyn King, who last month said the world was barely half way through this crisis, now speaks with almost biblical foreboding of the big "black cloud" of uncertainty hanging over the world.

Entire: http://news.yahoo.com/analysis-credi...6--sector.html

there are many euro "whales" about see ICB for starters

Listened to an interview with Jeff Faux on the Diane Rehm Show. Pretty much nails it:
Jeff Faux: "The Servant Economy" | The Diane Rehm Show from WAMU and NPR
Jeff Faux of the Economic Policy Institute argues Americans are in denial. Everyone knows, he says, but no one faces up to the fact that the United States can no longer afford to have subsidized unregulated markets, be the world’s global power and provide a steadily rising standard of living. One of these is possible, maybe two, but not all three, according to Faux. No group -- and certainly no politician of either party -- is addressing this new reality, he contends. Despite public posturing to the contrary, it’s America's middle class that will be sacrificed on this current path. Please join us for a conversation with Jeff Faux on why he believes we’re moving from a service to a servant economy.
---

Does this look like the Strongest Economy in the world? How about Mediocre? No, not even mediocre. Just plain bad.

(Reuters) - The worst U.S. housing crisis since the Great Depression has been declared over. But is it?
July 18, 2012

What some of Wall Street's forecasts for a recovery may be underestimating are tectonic shifts in the U.S. economy that make the housing market a different place from a decade ago.

Record levels of student debt, 15 years of flat incomes and the fact that nearly half of homeowners are effectively stranded in their houses look likely to weigh on prices into the indefinite future.

Several housing experts have said the market is in danger of drifting for years. In a bleaker scenario, the fragile U.S. economic recovery could slip back into recession if Europe's crisis deepens or the political impasse in Washington triggers a new budget crisis, putting the housing market at risk again.

"We've gone through half of a lost decade since the crisis started in 2007," said Robert Shiller, co-founder of the Case-Shiller U.S. housing price index and an economics professor at Yale University.

The so-called Lost Decade in Japan occurred after the speculative bubble in the 1980s, when abnormally low interest rates fueled soaring property values. The ensuing crash has continued to afflict the Japanese economy ever since.

Analysis: In the U.S. housing market, recovery or Lost Decade? | Reuters

^It's far from over. Who do they think they are fooling? And until it is over, and the construction jobs come back and people can foolishly borrow against illusory home values, the economy won't rebound high enough to crash again. It's all we have left, this smoke-and-mirrors economy. Feeding off of the corpse of the once great nation. Big finance thinks it's at the apex, but actually it's a bottom-feeder. Lots of big fish down there at the bottom.

Originally Posted by robuzo

^It's far from over. Who do they think they are fooling? And until it is over, and the construction jobs come back and people can foolishly borrow against illusory home values, the economy won't rebound high enough to crash again. It's all we have left, this smoke-and-mirrors economy. Feeding off of the corpse of the once great nation. Big finance thinks it's at the apex, but actually it's a bottom-feeder. Lots of big fish down there at the bottom.

The part in bold will not happen again, IMO. At least not for some decades.

There has been recent talk of tightening of credit not only in the US but worldwide.

Confidence is very important and people do not have it. The term I use is "unease." People are uneasy.

As stated, incomes are flat. Americans on average are now making the same incomes as in 1997.

As for housing - for generation, X, Y, and the Millennials, we/they are paying for a place to live when you take out a 30-year mortgage loan.

Yup. Sounds like the strongest economy in the world. I know some people who've done this. First, you go into cash savings. Then, the 401K. Finally, you start selling stuff.

Retirement savings raided by 35% of laid-off workers
By Christine Dugas, USA TODAY
July 19, 2012

The number of displaced workers has risen dramatically since the start of the Great Recession, and this year a third of them had to raid retirement savings to make ends meet.

Making matters worse, many who have lost their jobs have defaulted on 401(k) loans, causing taxes and penalties to further deplete their retirement savings.
"Of greatest concern are those who are in their 40s and 50s," says Catherine Collinson, president of Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies, which released a study today on the retirement outlook of the unemployed and underemployed.

Entire: Retirement savings raided by 35% of laid-off workers

But we don't want no big gummint:
WAPO Runs Another Piece About Defense Contractors Unhappy About Being Thrown Off Welfare | Beat the Press
Apparently military contractors hold an especially warm place in the hearts of the Washington Post editors. How else can one explain another story devoted to the fact that they will lose money and reduce employment if the military cuts slated to go into effect in January actually occur.

Some folks may recall a major news article the paper ran last month that was devoted to a study commissioned by military contractors that hyped the job loss that would result from these cuts. Of course in a downturn like the present one, any cuts in government spending will cost jobs.

The logic is fairly simple, the government spending is hiring people, both directly and indirectly. It hires people directly because workers are being paid to teach, build roads, or build bombers. It hires people indirectly because these workers will then spend most of their pay at grocery stores, restaurants and other places where their spending will help to employ people.

If the economy were close to full employment then government spending could be seen as crowding out private spending, primarily by raising interest rate. However, we are not close to full employment, so cuts in government spending will cost jobs. It is that simple.

So just keep saying that until its clear: cuts in government spending (military or otherwise) cost jobs. Don't waste anyone's time talking about the budget and the economy until you understand this point. And when you do, please tell the WAPO to stop highlighting the whining of military contractors who seem to think the government owes them contracts.

Give 'em enough rope. . .since our politicians are in the banksters' pockets, the only hope we have is that they will destroy themselves. Nobody cares that financial services industry has been ripping off and destroying the lives of the people it "serves," but now it seems they have been stealing from each (big surprise that). Maybe LIBOR will spark some truly creative destruction: Feeding Frenzy Seen If Wall Street Sues Itself Over Libor - Bloomberg

Originally Posted by robuzo

Give 'em enough rope. . .since our politicians are in the banksters' pockets, the only hope we have is that they will destroy themselves. Nobody cares that financial services industry has been ripping off and destroying the lives of the people it "serves," but now it seems they have been stealing from each (big surprise that). Maybe LIBOR will spark some truly creative destruction: Feeding Frenzy Seen If Wall Street Sues Itself Over Libor - Bloomberg

Very doubtful. You have a very entrenched elite that control the regulators, and a complacent, uneducated population. It's actually a pretty stable setup.

Originally Posted by robuzo

Give 'em enough rope. . .since our politicians are in the banksters' pockets, the only hope we have is that they will destroy themselves. Nobody cares that financial services industry has been ripping off and destroying the lives of the people it "serves," but now it seems they have been stealing from each (big surprise that). Maybe LIBOR will spark some truly creative destruction: Feeding Frenzy Seen If Wall Street Sues Itself Over Libor - Bloomberg

I do not think you do know a thing abour LIBOR besides you saw on headlines. You failed to answer to me on JPYUSD and seems you are just a script kiddie. Long on euro fcr?

As of yesterday (Friday) EURUSD hit the lowest in 2 years to USD, Bernanke all heard, no QE = US dollar is strong. Fok europe

UK: EURGBP, UK high 4 years. Fok europe

Australia: EURAUS, Australian is highest forev with eur. Fok europe

New Zealand: EURNZD: NZ is in much better shape than EU. Same same: Fok europe

Canada, strong country, by now you know the drill: Fok europe

Europe: Eurozone, only 2 countries left that are sound and reliable - you must actually pay to to give your money to them, to be safe your money does not disappear, Germany and Finland. Next reliable countries are UK and US. Probably you saw the chart all over Bloomberg in the last days.
Spanish bailout. Italy bailout.
France says they do not require control of their country and requires others do the same. Solidarity. Securing bailout for France when the time comes.
Socialists ruling France, increasing taxes, intimidating businesses, lowering retirement age - for non educated people only sorry.

Day after
Much wanted French bailout and Belgium bailout and others bailout, and - final solution - and agreement on permanent payouts to south europe, transfer union - failed. Germany and Finland and The Netherlands with Elvis left the building quite a long time ago. Europe is in the 3rd world. End of Euro Socialist Europe and 5-year plans of European Commission and Commissars.

US and UK and Aus and NZ, Canada and others, and northern Europe live on and prosper.

Has anyone an idea of the cost of this "drip pan".



Steel, aluminium or plastic. The main criteria is that it is leak proof. The installation is beneath a helicopter engine/gearbox so aerospec materials etc.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/19/us...mark.html?_r=1

"WASHINGTON — In the 1980s, the military had its infamous $800 toilet seat. Today, it has a $17,000 drip pan.

Thanks to a powerful Kentucky congressman who has steered tens of millions of federal dollars to his district, the Army has bought about $6.5 million worth of the “leakproof” drip pans in the last three years to catch transmission fluid on Black Hawk helicopters. And it might want more from the Kentucky company that makes the pans, even though a similar pan from another company costs a small fraction of the price: about $2,500.

The purchase shows the enduring power of earmarks, even though several scandals have prompted efforts in Congress to rein them in. And at a time when the Pentagon is facing billions of dollars in cutbacks — which include shrinking the Army, trimming back purchases of fighter jets and retiring warships — the eye-catching price tag for a small part has provoked sharp criticism.

The Kentucky company, Phoenix Products, got the job to produce the pans after Representative Harold Rogers, a Republican who is now the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, added an earmark to a 2009 spending bill. While the earmark came before restrictions were placed on such provisions for for-profit companies, its outlays have continued for the last three years.

The company’s owners are political contributors to the congressman, who has been called the “Prince of Pork” by The Lexington Herald-Leader for his history of delivering federal contracts to donors and others back home.

Military officials have said the pans work well, and Mr. Rogers defended them."

Continues........