Thread: The strongest economy in the world

^ Good find, Oh Oh.

This is another example of cutting and trimming - when corporate profits are actually not only up but continuing to rise.

Many other examples, also. Caterpiller and many other companies.

It is of course not just the US which has these problems.



Living standards down over 13pc since start of recession - Telegraph

"National incomes fell by more than 13pc this year compared to the start of the recession four years ago, data in the report showed.

National and household incomes have fallen due to mix of worst economic downturn since the Second World War and high levels of inflation.

Data in the report showed that net national income per head (NNI) – considered a good quide to real living standards – held up in the early stages of the recession but has continued to drop as a result of the squeeze on family budgets from rising prices.

The ONS said that NNI per head fell by 13.2pc between the first three months of 2008 – when the economy peaked – and the second quarter of 2012. This was nearly double the fall in national output over the same period, with GDP per head dropping by 7pc.

NNI dropped by around 6pc in the slump that began at the end of 1979 and ran into the early 1980s but was back to its pre-recession peak within three years. In the early 1990s, the fall was 4pc and it took two-and-a-half years to recoup the losses."


Continues....

Originally Posted by barbaro

QE3 may be increased to $100 billion per month.

That = $1.2 Trillion per year.

It comes straight out of the pocket of anyone who holds dollar bills/bonds.

How are those green energy companies working out? Yannow, the companies that were gonna create between 2.5 and 5 million (depending on which Obumbler speech in which he touted green energy jobs) high paying green energy jobs.



Let's give him 4 more years and mebbe he can get it right?

Obama Fail

here is one guy who has made a fortune from the "green" agenda. Aided and abetted by his contacts no doubt.



Former vice president Al Gore speaks at the World Business Forum in New York in 2010.

Al Gore has thrived as green-tech investor - The Washington Post

"
Just before leaving public office in 2001, Gore reported assets of less than $2 million; today, his wealth is estimated at $100 million.

Gore charted this path by returning to his longtime passion — clean energy. He benefited from a powerful resume and a constellation of friends in the investment world and in Washington. And four years ago, his portfolio aligned smoothly with the agenda of an incoming administration and its plan to spend billions in stimulus funds on alternative energy.

Fourteen green-tech firms in which Gore invested received or directly benefited from more than $2.5 billion in loans, grants and tax breaks, part of President Obama’s historic push to seed a U.S. renewable-energy industry with public money."

On a day of supposed celebrations, the financial markets cratering but there are a couple of companies still growing.

I felt this is worthy of a snippet. Please read/browse it. The latest bubble is the bond bubble.

Will there be consequences?

Fed creating 'mother of all bond bubbles'

November 17, 2012



Two leading US economists have expressed deep pessimism that politicians in Washington will be able to strike a deal to rein in America's soaring national debt.

Sheila Bair, the former chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and Stephen Roach, a veteran economist at Yale University's School of Management, also said the Federal Reserve was creating another catastrophic financial bubble with attempts to stimulate the economy through its policy known as quantitative easing.

The two were speaking at a conference on global risks sponsored by the Rand Corporation and Thomson Reuters, at Rand headquarters in Santa Monica, California.

Bair, who stepped down as head of the FDIC in July 2011, said the Federal Reserve's policy of pumping money into the economy, combined with an unprecedented period of historically low interest rates, was creating "the mother of all bond bubbles."

Bair said she believed the United States was heading for a financial crash on the scale seen when the housing market collapsed six years ago, but this time because of investors who were looking for higher and riskier returns in other asset classes.

Roach called the Federal Reserve policy of low interest rates and quantitative easing a "ticking time bomb that keeps on ticking."

The two spoke as congressional leaders i

Read more: Fed creating 'mother of all bond bubbles'

Two points for anyone who has cash deposited in US banks.

1. The FDIC gaurantee will expire in January
2. The housing crisis is over, allegedely.

What to do with your cash liberated from the banks greedy grasp, buy another plywood dream.

^ FDIC expires for bank accounts over $250,000.

You scared me. I had to look it up!

^Sorry, I assumed most people had more than that.

No worries I am sure the FDIC will still payout when the levee breaks.

Originally Posted by misskit

^ FDIC expires for bank accounts over $250,000.

Correct me if I'm wrong.

It used to be FDIC insurance up to $100,000.

It (now) or was $250,000

If the $250,000 will expire, what is the NEW limit of FDIC insurance?


Thanks.

According to this note from Goldmansachs. There in no indication that the FDIC will be extended for another year, i.e. post Dec. 2012.

If that is the case the amount "insured" will be US$0.

http://www.goldmansachs.com/gsam/pdf...guarantees.pdf

It may of course be extended along with other measures to be decided in the next month by those that make these decisions. I don't know if individual US banks offer their own "insurance".

^ The way I read that note, it says the FDIC TAG program is set to expire. TAG was set up in 2008 to cover transaction accounts up to $250,000. It has been extended three times since.

TAG will expire, not the FDIC deposit insurance program.

A noninterest-bearing transaction account is a deposit account where:

interest is neither accrued nor paid;

depositors are permitted to make an unlimited number of transfers and withdrawals; and

the bank does not reserve the right to require advance notice of an intended withdrawal.

https://www.fdic.gov/edie/fdic_info.html


Actually, it doesn't say anything about lowering the amount insured on any other kind of account. I assume one would be insured to $250,000 as long as it isn't in a noninterest-bearing transaction account.

If my savings accounts were not insured, I would take the money out and bury it.

Adios America...

#3 According to one calculation, the number of Americans on food stamps now exceeds the combined populations of “Alaska, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Utah, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wyoming.”

75 Economic Numbers From 2012 That Are Almost Too Crazy To Believe | ZeroHedge

By the time Obama is done with wrecking the rest of the economy, these days will seem like the good old days, eh?

It’s an Obama World… 712,000 Americans Fell Into Poverty Last Year

The liberal media forgot to tell you just how bad things are under Barack Obama.
712,000 Americans fell into poverty in 2011, thanks to Barack Obama and Democrats.
And, thanks to the media, you didn’t hear about it until now.

Investor’s Business Daily reported:

Economy: “The economy’s getting stronger … confidence is growing.” The media and Obama repeated these like a mantra. But as IBD reported earlier, real weekly earnings for American workers have fallen 3.5% since Obama took over, a declining trend that has continued post-election.

Any buyer's remorse out there?

A clue as to why middle class wages have fallen adding more people to the food stamp rolls.


Corporate profits hit record as wages get squeezed

Just four years after the worst shock to the economy since the Great Depression, U.S. corporate profits are stronger than ever.

In the third quarter, corporate earnings were $1.75 trillion, up 18.6% from a year ago, according to last week'si gross domestic product report. That took after-tax profits to their greatest percentage of GDP in history.

But the record profits come at the same time that workers' wages have fallen to their lowest-ever share of GDP.

Corporate profits hit record as wages get squeezed - Dec. 3, 2012



Unless this problem is addressed and businesses pay their employees a decent wage instead of being concerned with their stockholders and executives, the number of formerly middle class citizens on government benefits will continue increasing.

I wonder how many of the food stamp users are retired, people getting out of the military, or new Americans or illegals if that's possible. Just seems like lots of people are retiring and they didn't plan for the future or never really made much in their working lives plus many got screwed in the collapse under Bush. With the wars winding down many soldiers have left or are leaving. Usually military personnel get paid crap and basically get free food a lot of the time anyways while in the military. Plus are they still hiring as many for the services? Finally, I would think that many who have come to the US in recent times with hopes have found they are the last on the list to get that job offer. This could be people who are legal or illegal. Just ideas. Not sure what the truth is. I know that certainly this is the worst time for food stamps and government support but in those numbers there are other factors at play, too.

^ Illegal immigrants don't quality for food stamps. The children of illegals could qualify if they were born in America and therefore citizens. New immigrants are discouraged from getting SNAP. Whether it is true or not, they are told it will interfere with their green card approval and citizenship quest.

Retired people should be getting at least social security income. There is a minimum payment that, I would think, is too high to quality for SNAP. Maybe someone else knows.

As far as returning military, I don't know if they qualify or not.

Thanks for your ideas on this. Still think there is a lot that we don't realize about food stamps. I wonder how much this subsidizing affects prices.



I found another interesting piece about Madoff's views on the financial industry. All I hear out there just tells me that something is going to change in the US soon. It could come from the government or the people but the financial industry needs more regulation in order to survive its own doings and the eventual wrath of the American people. I was going to post this in world news but it would just get lost there. Since this is about economics and people interested in it are here, I'll just post a link and whoever is interested will check it out. There really should be a section on this site for world financial news. In the news section, the business news is listed as for Thailand.

Bernie Madoff's Christmas Eve Letter - Business Insider




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