Bits Bucket for January 31, 2016
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The Housing Bubble
Examining the home price boom and its effect on owners, lenders, regulators, realtors and the economy as a whole.
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Name:Ben Jones
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Now that the January effect is over, is it safe again to buy stocks?
Business
Fri Jan 1, 2016 | 7:12 AM EST
Investors look to January effect at start of 2016
The Wall Street sign is seen outside the New York Stock Exchange, March 26, 2009.
Reuters/Chip East
By Chuck Mikolajczak
NEW YORK (Reuters) - As Wall Street wraps up its flattest year since 2011, investors will have to deal with many of the same issues next year as they attempt to gauge market direction.
While many market participants have a host of worries heading into 2016 that could hurt stocks and keep volatility high, they remain optimistic for gains in 2016 and a strong start to the year could boost that case.
According to the Stock Trader’s Almanac, the direction of January’s trading predicts the course for the year 75 percent of the time.
…
Has there ever been a period in history where central banks have been so active in managing stock prices?
A lot of this history about the markets is hard to rely on.
Be a fool, and BTFD!
Personal Finance
3 reasons you shouldn’t worry about the stock market in 2016
Matthew Frankel, The Motley Fool
1 day ago
Getty Images/iStockphoto
While a market correction or crash may seem like a terrible thing as you watch your portfolio’s value drop, the reality is quite the opposite.
Where will the Dow Jones Industrial Average be at the end of 2016? Will the recent correction continue to drive the index down to, say, 14,000, or will there be a bullish reversal that causes the index to skyrocket to the 18,000s, or even higher? Either scenario is certainly possible, as are thousands of other possible results in between. However, the secret the best long-term investors know is that it doesn’t really matter.
Either way, you’ll be a winner
From a long-term perspective, I really don’t care what the market does, and neither should you. I say this because no matter what happens, you’ll be a winner. Obviously, if your stocks shoot up by 25% this year, you’ll be happy because your investments will be significantly more valuable, and you’ll end the year closer to your ultimate investing goals.
On the other hand, while a market correction or crash may seem like a terrible thing as you watch your portfolio’s value drop, the reality is quite the opposite.
The behavior of my Foolish colleagues can tell you everything you need to know about handling a market correction. If you look around Fool.com, you won’t see any articles with messages to the effect of “stocks are down 10%, time to panic.” Rather, you’ll find that many of our writers are searching for the best bargains so our readers can buy shares cheaply.
…
So, I pay $100 for a stock, then watch it drop to $50.
Because the stock at 50 is a “buy opportunity”.
Maybe. Assuming the stock ever approaches $100/share again. That might take years, if ever.
Sold the stock of my former employer in June 2007 at $56. Went up to about $63 in September 2007. Collapsed to $9 in early 2009, since then has hit a high of $45, currently around $34.
Any way you do the math, that is a loss you will NEVER recover. Maybe I can make it up on volume……….
Stock brokers/Investment bankers don’t always lie. Only when their lips are moving.
Stop worrying and BTFD!!!
“Sold the stock of my former employer in June 2007 at $56. Went up to about $63 in September 2007. Collapsed to $9 in early 2009, since then has hit a high of $45, currently around $34.”
Wow… about $63 in September 2007 then collapsed to $9 in early 2009? Sounds like RiteAid when it discovered they had two sets of books.
We need to increase stock prices more so people can consume more imports from countries that buy treasuries. Its a big loop.
Stocks like amazon and facebook seem real cheap here.
How many time do u want to get kicked in the nuts by yellen, trying to short the market?
Have u ever seen pizza port brewery? I saw their beer on the shelves recently and read an article about them being from carlsbad.
Alpine brewery is putting out some great beer. Tried hoppy birthday last night and it was a home run!
“Have u ever seen pizza port brewery?”
We had a memorable HBB gathering at Carlsbad Pizza Port before the global financial collapse of 2007-08 with Ben Jones and many of the long-time regulars who post here.
It was great to meet everybody. I remember there was this really grumpy girl there, I forget her name and it wasn’t me! Oh we had a Pasadena one too, met combo et al!
“combo”
Please publicize the next such gathering. Maybe we could ride up together?
We had a gathering in Torrance in 2006 I think. I was there at Starbucks. Combo was there, I think SCDave might have been or a San Diego Dave. Not sure if “Get Stucco” was there. I think there were five of us.
“Get Stucco” must have been stuck at home in San Diego…
“…really grumpy girl..”
BigV?
We could have a a meetup with a little one hour tour of Irvine, followed by lunch at the Irvine Spectrum, average house price in the $900s. HOA to the nth degree. The number one place that Chinese buy. Bedroom community for the Chinese but the businesses employ mostly caucasians - all sorts of engineering companies in Irvine.
The white people live south of Irvine: Aliso Viejo, Laguna Hills, Laguna Niguel, Lake Forest, Mission Viejo, Rancho Santa Margarita, Ladera Ranch…
Ill take the tour! I was so into HBB, never really commented except to,complain about my landlord, but I read the blog all day. Ben came to Carlsbad and a pub in Pasadena, met Aline too! How much are OC rentals since 2007? Big V, big grump!
I’ll show up, too. Be fun to see my old stomping grounds and beat myself up for selling them.
Anybody remember in 1995 how Sam Adams was to go public and that signaled the beginning of the specialty beer phenom we have? Twenty years of beer appreciation. Oh, and coffee took off too. It was always a 7-11 for me for coffee of a Wawa or Quick Chek. Now we have the choices of Starbucks and a ton of privately owned yuppie-like coffee shops.
It seems like sam adams kind of got left behind in this craft beer movement.
I was in sams club yesterday and some gal was pimping coors lite at a booth.
What big chain is gonna glamorize the hot dog?
It’s “frankfurter” dammit. On artisan buns. With Grey Poupon, and free-range relish.
Gives them that exotic, euro vibe.
Coffee is a sign of sophistication among the ego-challenged.
Wine and beer often fulfill the same need.
Grey Poupon
Make that house-made hand-ground mustard. Local beef hot dog.
There is also old fashioned coffee chic, such as Folgers from a can. I know a young person who likes that stuff. It is inexpensive and you still get the health benefits of coffee.
But nothing beats free Keurig at work. We drink it all day.
‘We drink it all day.’
I had to cut off my coffee drinking these past years. Wreaks too much havoc on my stomach. My teeth are whiter though. When camping, I’ll do cocoa with some instant coffee added, plus chai tea. But here in town, it is almond milk, carrot juice + aloe vera juice, water and maybe seltzer every now and then. Bland beverages. I miss the caffeine jolts.
There was also at least one northern Calif. HBB dinner/drinks gathering back in the day, Redwood City IIRC, tried to make it but got stuck in horrendous traffic enroute and ended up visiting friends in S.F. instead….
Keurig K Cups - That heated plastic cup is a hormone disruptor. No thanks. I love my boobs. I’ll pass on the Keurig trend. And btw, BPA Free has proven in labs to have estrogenic effects as well.
Pretentious marketing sells people on stupid. Very few products measure up.
Kenny G was one of the early investors in Starbucks. Anything that guy touches turns to gold. Even his golf game.
Anatole Kaletsky
JAN 29, 2016
The Three Fears Sinking Global Markets
LONDON – January is usually expected to be a good month for stock markets, with new money gushing into investment funds, while tax-related selling abates at the end of the year. Although the data on investment returns in the United States actually show that January profits have historically been on only slightly better than the monthly norm, the widespread belief in a bullish “January effect” has made the weakness of stock markets around the world this year all the more shocking.
But the pessimists have a point, even if they sometimes overstate the January magic. According to statisticians at Reuters, this year started with Wall Street’s biggest first-week fall in over a century, and the 8% monthly decline in the MSCI world index made January’s performance worse than 96% of the months on record. So, just how worried about the world economy should we be?
Three fears now seem to be influencing market psychology: China, oil and the fear of a US or global recession.
…
Its time to play central banker roulette!
Spin the wheel to find out who’s turn it is to jawbone about more stimulus! LMFAO
The Wall Street Journal
Markets
It’s 2 p.m., Time for Chinese Stocks to Fall
Shares have been making sharp moves in final hour of trading, as they did last summer, but this time the direction is usually down; where’s the ‘national team’?
By Shen Hong in Shanghai and Chao Deng in Hong Kong
Updated Jan. 28, 2016 4:56 p.m. ET
In Chinese markets, the “2 o’clock phenomenon” is back—with a twist.
On eight of the 14 trading days since Jan. 11, the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index has moved more than 1% in the last hour
…
Top News
Fri Jan 29, 2016 | 5:29 AM EST
China shares rally, but biggest monthly drop in seven years
Jumpy investors send China shares spiralling
By Samuel Shen and Pete Sweeney
SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Chinese shares closed sharply higher on Friday, recovering some of the week’s losses, but still recorded their biggest monthly fall in about seven years, which has knocked 12 trillion yuan ($1.8 trillion) off the value of its benchmark indexes.
The Shanghai Composite Index closed up 3.1 percent, but it lost twice that over the week and 22.6 percent since the beginning of January, its worst month since October 2008, when global financial markets were sent into a tailspin after the collapse of Lehman Brothers bank.
The CSI300 index of the largest listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen ended up 3.2 percent for the day, but lost 21 percent for the month, its biggest decline since August 2009.
Trading was light throughout the month, as many investors are giving the market a wide berth, burnt not just by January’s slump, which has taken indexes back to 2014 levels, but also last summer’s 40 percent crash.
Beijing orchestrated a “National Team” response to the previous crash, taking regulatory action to arrest the selling and urging state-linked buyers to support the market, but there has been little sign of that in January.
“Market bulls have failed to organize meaningful resistance, the ‘National Team’ didn’t inspire investors, while speculators chose to stand on the sidelines,” said Zhang Mingyu, chairman of hedge fund house Shanghai YJ Investment Management Co.
“The market has been overwhelmed by gloom and looks like a bottomless pit,” he added.
…
“If I don’t issue more loans, then my salary isn’t enough to repay the mortgage, and car loan. It’s not difficult to issue more loans, but lets say in a years time when the loan is due, if the borrower defaults, then I wont just see a pay cut, I’ll be fired, and still be responsible for loan recovery.”
And that, in under 60 words, explains why China finds itself in a no way out situation, and why despite all its recurring posturing, all its promises for reform, all its bluster for deleveraging, China’s ruling elite will never be able to achieve an internal devaluation, and why despite its recurring threats to crush, gut and destroy all the evil Yuan shorts, ultimately it will have no choice but to pursue an external devaluation of its economy by way of devaluing its currency presumably some time before its foreign reserves run out (which at a $185 billion a month burn rate may not last for even one year).
However, before it does, it will make sure that it also crushes every Yuan short, doing precisely what the Fed has done with equity shorts in the US over the past 7 years.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-01-30/chinese-banker-explains-why-there-no-way-out
what a big @ss ponzi that stock market is. Seems they have gone the way of japan already.
The PBOC is just cranking out yuan to keep the house of cards together.
Seems like every country is trying to get rich quick by inflating asset prices and skipping work.
The Keynesian lunatics are hurtling us down the road to Weimar 2.0. They might be enriching their .1% cohorts beyond their wildest dreams, but they’re systematically destroying the foundations of the productive economy - especially the public trust in the system.
The Keynesian lunatics are hurtling us down the road to Weimar 2.0.
Was Weimar 1.0 deflationary?
Chinese are really superstitious about numbers… 2 probably has some significance related to money.
“is it safe again to buy stocks?”
I thought you wanted to buy a house.
Once housing prices follow the recent path of commodities prices and dry bulk shipping charter rates, and everyone I know tells me that I would be crazy to buy a house, I might start to think about encouraging my kids to start looking into buying places to live in. I doubt I will ever buy.
KEEP THROWING MONEY IN A RAT HOLE.
I was checking the same area in augustine, Florida yesterday and found numerous foreclosures that were not there in December!
“and found numerous foreclosures that were not there in December!”
In my part of Region IV they did a masterful job of drizzling out the foreclosures over a period of years.
They kept the inventory low and put a floor under the falling prices by allowing the Beats to live rent free and then slowly but systematically de- Beated the houses and sold them.
Granted some of the foreclosures sat empty and off the market (like the one I bought) for a couple of years or more, but if you called the bank listed they would tell you the foreclosed owner was still the owner.
Looking back (since 2009) whatever bankers came up with that strategy were truly smart mofos.
That’s exactly what happened in my area. I know people who lived mortgage-free for a couple of years - they only had to pay the utilities - the bank kept their property taxes current.
I doubt I will ever buy.
Don’t you have that sweet California state employee’s professor’s pension coming at some point? 😀
No need to invest for retirement with tha.
I would buy in my nabe if the average price falls by at least 40%.
Same here. Why not lock in low rents forever when the opportunity presents itself?
Why bother with stocks? Give me a C note and I’ll give you 4 20s in return, and there’s no commission!
Have today’s activist central bankers permanently undermined the world economy’s ability to right itself?
World ‘crazy’ to give central bankers power: Faber
Holly Ellyatt
Fri, 29 Jan ‘16 | 3:23 AM ET
CNBC.com
Low rates are negative for Japan: Faber
The world must be “crazy” to give so much power to central bankers, famed bear Marc Faber told CNBC Friday, calling them “a bunch of professors” whose monetary policy programs have been a “complete failure.”
Marc Faber, the editor and publisher of the Gloom, Doom & Boom Report (earning him the moniker “Dr. Doom”), added that he questioned central bank policymakers and the quantitative easing (QE) programs they launched in the U.S., euro zone, U.K. and Japan.
“We all agree on one thing, that the market economy functions best because the opposite is socialism, communism and central planning, which has been a complete failure, but now democracies have implemented a system that is basically run by a bunch of professors and they target inflation, they target exchange rates, they target the quantity of money, I mean, is the world crazy to give them so much power?,” he told CNBC Europe’s “Squawk Box.”
…
Economics
Investors love cheap money – and hate optimistic central bankers
Stock markets rally thanks to Bank of Japan interest rate cut but the signs are the global economy is still feeling fragile
Stock market traders on Wall Street
The Dow Jones Industrial average rose approximately 140 points upon opening.
Photograph: Andrew Burton/Getty Images
Phillip Inman Economics correspondent
Friday 29 January 2016 14.42 EST
Last modified on Friday 29 January 2016 18.15 EST
It would be easy to think that the worst is over, at least for the time being. Watching world stock markets rally after the Bank of Japan cut interest rates gave a sense of relief to many in the financial community. Oil prices, which slumped to just $27 (£19) a barrel a fortnight ago, stood at $34, up 40 cents on the day.
Yet the reverse is true. If anything, investors are worried that governments and central banks have failed to realise how weak the global economy still is, seven years after the crash. Dangerous levels of private debt in China, bad debts lurking in Europe’s banking system, nervous consumers everywhere: it’s a nuclear device that needs careful handling.
When a central bank shows that it understands cheap money – in the form of lower interest rates – is a necessary underpinning for investment and growth, investors cheer. When central bankers talk about a world that is healing and should be ready for higher debt costs, they panic.
And no wonder, when the smallest possible rise in interest rates by the US Federal Reserve last month – from 0.25% to 0.5% – appeared to send American consumers running home to stash their savings in a piggy bank. New car sales were down in December and consumer sentiment dipped in January after a weak last quarter when, according to the Fed, a rate rise would be largely ignored by a US consumer as resilient as Arnold Schwarzenegger’s terminator.
…
“Deep State: Inside Washington’s Shadowy Power Elite”
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-01-30/deep-state-inside-washingtons-shadowy-power-elite
Yeh, read that this morning. Somebody needs to put rat poison down that dark sewer.
Good description of how Washington acts, though. “The Cool Kids”.
How did you like the swift kick in the sack by kuroda friday?
We have the kind of government the Founding Fathers warned us to be ever-vigilant against, controlled by the “monied interests” Jefferson in particular identified as the most dangerous threat to the Republic. Could they have seen our national devolution into IDIOCRACY? The thinking 5% will not be enough to offset the sheer mass of zombies the citizenry have become.
You keep saying such things, but what is your point?
Thomas Jordan might make an appearance soon. They own a sh@tload of stock.
Can’t fix it. Might as well exploit the 95%. Complaining gets us nowhere.
“I also include the Department of the Treasury because of its jurisdiction over financial flows, its enforcement of international sanctions and its organic symbiosis with Wall Street.”
Henry Morgenthau, Jr. was the Secretary of the Treasury during the administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt, and he personally controlled the U.S. Military’s Generals in post WWII Europe. Search: “The Morgenthau Plan.”
They’re pushing on a string like it’s 1933.
“The beatings will continue until the economy improves.”
“Have today’s activist central bankers permanently undermined the world economy’s ability to right itself?”
It’s not permanent. Global war always fixes these problems.
People with mortgages can’t ski this, because they’re already dead:
http://i.imgur.com/Q2GbFKv.jpg
Region VIII
What do you expect to happen to folks who took the death pledge?
A lifetime of incalculable losses, it is the only outcome.
Soon to be followed by an eternity spent six feet underground in a crater of their own making…
because they’re already dead ??
LOL….I was athletic but still a novice skier at the time…I decided to go down KT-22 at Squaw Valley…More balls than brains….What a stupid mistake that was…After crashing numerous times in the first couple of hundred yards I actually took my skis off and walked down….
Impotent Rage: The Liberal Superhero
I saw this last night since I’m in a hotel with TeeVee, Chelsea looked happy to be there, like she didn’t care about money:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/with-all-three-clintons-in-iowa-a-glimpse-at-the-fire-that-has-eluded-hillary-clintons-campaign/2016/01/31/d3123c92-b8ca-4eb0-b065-58e7df9e9366_story.html
“like she didn’t care about money:”
It is well documented that Chelsea has tried to care about money but just couldn’t.
Well, if I ran a well-funded foundation like she does that you can tap at will, I wouldn’t care about money either.
Liberal rage can’t hold a candle to angry old white male conservative rage.
And CraterRage trumps them all.
Bethesda, MD Housing Prices Crater 9% YoY
http://www.zillow.com/north-bethesda-md/home-values/
Lol, you said “Trump”!
No, you did. But nice try…
DEBT= MONEY
Shouldn’t folks who took the death pledge rationally expect to soon find themselves six feet deep in a crater of their own design?
There should be a liberal rage. You should be on the street demanding end to money printing, end to wars and foreign meddling, obama for war crimes, hillary in prison for just being hillary, opposing DNC’s rigging of primary, so on and on.
Oh I get it, your rage will show up for a few stupid things a bombastic fool says.
“Liberal rage can’t hold a candle to angry old white male conservative rage.”
Is this Oddbear or MightyBear?
Anyway, whenever I hear this tired old talking point I think of the face on that lady “professor” at Missouri calling for “muscle” and then I laugh and laugh.
ProHillary Bear. Yeah, yeah, I know black and white thinking blah blah blah. But where are the anti Hillary posts? Or anti Barney?
University of Missouri Professor Calls For ‘Muscle … - YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kVGtqp7usw - 366k -
She’s white, old and angry. Must be a Trumpette.
The angry old white male conservative rage on the HBB is on the brink of exploding. The ad hominem attacks are a dead giveaway.
It’s a natural consequence of a repressed homosexual desire to suck The Donald’s toes.
“…anti Hillary posts?”
As soon as Hillary’s propaganda brigade mounts a similar lovefest on the HBB to the one that Trump’s paid prostitutes have going, I promise to counter with some factual posts.
Can we get some muscle over here?
Trump tells crowd to “get him [the protester] the hell out of here, throw him out, get him out!”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4–cG8h52Ps
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-01-31/trump-pulls-away-pack-iowa-countdown-begins-hillary-tied-bernie
http://www.richmond.com/news/virginia/government-politics/article_307d511f-fd2c-5485-a208-80ef11f0a867.html
Go, Donald!
angry old white male conservative rage on the HBB is on the brink of exploding. The ad hominem attacks are a dead giveaway.
It’s a natural consequence of a repressed homosexual desire to suck The Donald’s toes.
I notice you’ve changed your set of adjectives by adding “conservative”. That’s pretty weak sauce. Par for the course.
I also notice how on one hand, you mention ad hominem attacks and on the other, you use one. A sure sign you have the affliction. If you could take the plank out of your eye, you would be able to see a lot more clearly. Think about, you poor, angry old white man.
“That’s pretty weak sauce.”
Weakly written.
“Par for the course.”
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
“I also notice how on one hand, you mention ad hominem attacks and on the other, you use one.”
I’ve noticed how some posters are perpetually confused.
Go, Donald ???
Go to hell Donald….You silver spooned Hypocrite….Your just as big a philanderer and adulterer as Bill probably worse….
“She’s got one of the great women abusers of all time sitting in her house, waiting for her to come home for dinner,” is how Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump describes it.”
Donald Trump. An esteemed statesman with a squad of sexy strumpets.
“adulterer”
Wow Dave, I haven’t been following the news. So is this true, or something you just made up?
So is this true, or something you just made up ??
I leave it to others here to “make things up”…
Trump was married at the time he was boneing Marla Maples…
His first marriage disintegrated thanks in large part to his relationship with Marla Maples, his soon to be second wife. Maples recounted her life in the tabloids in a great New York Magazine piece. When news of the Trump/Ivana split hit the papers, Maples fled to Guatemala for a month to get away from reporters. She came back and they married, but it didn’t last.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/james-j-sexton-/dumping-trump-a-crash-course_b_7933290.html
How long ago did we have President carrying on an affair with someones 18 year old daughter in the WhiteHouse Oval Office?
Yep. He’s a fine fine character he is. A fine character.
President carrying on an affair with someones 18 year old daughter in the WhiteHouse Oval Office?
He had a squad of sexy strumpets.
He molested an 18 year old intern Lola.
Ooh! I smell me some selective outrage!
18 is legal in every state. How old was Donald’s youngest strumpet?
I bet we’ll find out…
Lola, Mr. Trump isn’t President…… yet.
Try again.
It’s only molestation if he’s pres?
Try again.
He’s not President…. yet.
Nice try Lola.
She was at least 21.
He molested.
Liberal rage only surfaces when liberal politicians run into some obstacle to forcibly transfering wealth from the productive to the parasites, or the dwindling base of the productive does not produce enough expropriated wealth to properly fund and expand all of their entitlement programs and patronage schemes.
That woman is clearly a liberal nutcase.
She has been watching too many “Godfather” reruns.
Besides, when she turned around to look to see who was backing her up, all she saw was a bunch of minority/wymin/transgender/no gender-studies majors. Not a drop of testosterone in the bunch.
Maybe she was counting on having them beat on people with their fanny-packs/man purses.
Most of those “wymin” looked pretty high-testosterone to me. Maybe it was the high-and-tight buzz cuts.
beat on people with their fanny-packs/man purses.
lol. Or pelt them with bottles of spring water and locally grown fruits and veggies.
“…pretty high-testosterone to me.”
Reminds me of the situation in California, where girls who ‘feel like’ they really are boys trapped in a girl’s body can legally force their schools to let them dress in the boy’s locker room.
My adolescent sons are more than a little freaked out over the prospect!
Things were a lot less shitty around here for a couple days. People were actually disagreeing an a civil manner.
Now the poop is flying again.
What happened?
The return of the Trumplings…
All the flavors of rage seem to increase with age. My guess is it’s driven by a growing understanding of one’s irrelevance and inability to have any impact on the world. This would explain the angry muzzies and shotgun christians too.
Also explains home-grown Christian believin’ Planned Parenthood terrorists…
Wow, you’re full of the talking points today, aren’t you?
That was merely an observation, not a talking point.
“Christian believin’ Planned Parenthood terrorists”
That’s a war in which we don’t hear of many battles in recent years. I remember when Planned Parenthood’s death toll passed 10 million. That is a lot of killing and that was a long time ago.
The creature of the establishment calls the violent protester against atrocity a terrorist, and the well organized machine of death virtuous. I suppose it is always so.
All the flavors of rage seem to increase with age
I think people either get mellower or meaner with age. Generally mellow people get mellower and meaner people get meaner, but sometimes they switch over.
Your engagement with enragement caused your derangement.
Real journalists endorse Hillary:
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/01/31/opinion/sunday/hillary-clinton-endorsement.html
FWIW: Here’s a chart showing what’s been going on with the prices of junk bonds since 2008:
http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=JNK+Interactive
more debt and increasing asset prices is not a long term solution to fixing an economic malaise.
When it all falls apart the debt is written off, asset prices collapse and they we start all over again.
Here’s some fun charts I happened to run across …
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-09-16/obamas-recovery-just-9-charts
Good find. Those charts tell quite a story.
1, 2, 3…….Bush’s fault?
Why do you keep blaming everything on Bush II?
The workers’ share of the economy has been falling (though not monotonically) since 1961. So that can’t be blamed on Bush.
Also, once again, that labor force participation statistic probably doesn’t mean what you think it means. It includes everyone with a job as well as people who claim that they’re looking for work. It also includes senior citizens. It’s a favorite of Mr. Durden because he thinks that it helps with his doom and gloom narrative.
because seniors are “of working age”.
It’s everyone over 16, isn’t it?
Yes, it is. So if a person who is 65 stop working, that decreases the participation rate. If a person who is 35 loses his job but claims that he is looking for another job, that has no effect on the rate.
False.
“The country’s labor force participation rate – which measures the share of Americans at least 16 years old who are either employed or actively looking for work – dipped last month to a 38-year low.
And if a lot more teenagers go to college, that will decrease it too.
Apparently the decline is mostly due to women’s participation rate slowly lowering, after rising dramatically for years, which helped offset the fact that the male labor participation rate has been declining since the 50s.
No, Mr. Mafia, that definition is exactly what I described - everyone over 16 either employed or looking for a job.
Incorrect.
BLS definition- “The country’s labor force participation rate – which measures the share of Americans at least 16 years old who are either employed or actively looking for work – dipped last month to a 38-year low.”
lol! Where is the unemployment chart? Corp profits chart ? GDP?
Sounds like you want more gov if you want to stop people from borrowing.
Different gov… one that doesn’t stuff the banks full of funny money to lend out.
vote for Bernie then!
BailoutBarney is pro-debt slavery.
Bernie’s starting to look like the best option. I hope he gets a chance.
the best option
Socialism is a failure. Everywhere. Every time.
Define ‘failure’ please.
Go look up the definition.
Not a good place to start a new recession from.
It’s pretty interesting how so many of the trends that Tyler Durden uses to describe “Obama’s Recovery” actually start before Obama was in office. I guess causality in the Zero Hedge universe can run backwards in time?
It was the Fear of Obama, rippling through the space time continuum. The effect was first felt in 1785, when a farmer went out to plow and found barn door unlatched and his horses in the pasture. This is when the words “Thanks Obama!” were first spoken.
The Ruskies seem to prefer our Republicans.
They know what they like and like what they know.
how much are RE taxes going up in your hood?
renters will get hit too
I figure a %5 hike in taxes chops 1 % off equity
9% chops off 2%
thoughts?
Landlord expenses are never an automatic passthrough cost to the end user.
Just heard on tee vee: Last year’s low gasoline prices saved American drivers $115 billion
Got stimulus?
how much did obamacare cost them? zero sum game boss?
Have u had to replace the batteries in your prius yet?
Also mentioned about the current situation:
- 1.5 million excess barrels in production per day
- 100 million barrels are floating at sea
That’s why this renter gets to ski on Grand Mesa this weekend.
People with mortgages can’t afford to, even with $1.50 gas.
Region VIII
Not to mention the savings on airlifting the dogs.
They spent that money paying obamacare taxes?
No, we got no stimulus.
Just heard on tee vee: Last year’s low gasoline prices saved American drivers $115 billion
Think maybe there’s a cause-effect relationship between 94.5 million ‘Muricans “not in the work force” (but not unemployed, oh Heavens no!) in our Obama-Fed-Goldman Sachs jobless “recovery,” and the low demand for fuel since unemployed people don’t do much driving and can barely afford to heat their houses?
I heard some people on BBC radio yesterday saying that it’s a supply phenomenon. American fracking played a role. The Saudis also have decided not to cut production to increase price as they’ve don in the past. Soon their should be more Iranian product coming on to the market.
Which is all very positive news.
It was the Albuquerque Dan phenomenon, the belief that Chinese consumption would double every few years to infinity.
Is the 2016 stock market a slippery slope into penury?
Bad January a bad omen for stocks in 2016?
Gail Marks Jarvis
Reporter On Money
January 31, 2016
New York Stock Exchange
January was one of the worst in the stock market’s recent history, with a decline more than 6 percent for the Dow Jones industrial average and almost 9 percent in the Nasdaq, the index filled with technology and biotechnology stocks.
(Justine Lane / EPA)
Good riddance to January — the month that wiped out a chunk of money you’ve been building up in your 401(k) and other accounts.
Just how bad was it? Very bad for an opening to the year. January typically is a time of optimism. But not this year.
January was one of the worst in recent history, with a decline of about 5.5 percent for the Dow Jones industrial average and almost 8 percent in the Nasdaq, the index filled with technology and biotechnology stocks.
A rally during the last couple of days helped relieve losses. Still, a common Wall Street adage has to be unsettling: “As goes January, so goes the year.”
…
4 ways to lose all your money in the stock market
Matthew Frankel, The Motley Fool 12:56 p.m. EST January 29, 2016
Stocks are by far the best class of assets to own if you hope to build wealth over a long period of time. And, there is no magic formula to success — simply buy a diverse mix of high-quality companies and leave them alone. However, there are several mistakes new investors (as well as some with experience) make that can be devastating to your wallet.
…
most of the companies will be bankrupt by the time u reach retirement.
you are better off investing in your own business.
I don’t buy individual company stocks.
The China growth mantra seems to never grow old!
The Fiscal Times
How Political Insiders Are Trashing China’s Stock Market
By James Saft, Reuters
January 29, 2016
The huge and puzzling gap between China’s great long-term economic growth and the terrible performance of its stock market is significantly explained by politics.
A new study finds a strong link between political connections and initial public offerings in China, one which is doing the average investor no favors.
Hong Zhou and Guoping Li of Beijing’s Central University of Finance and Economics find in a paper that 74 percent of private firms which get to list under Chinese IPO rules are politically connected. What’s more, those politically connected firms are also more likely to report “significant deterioration” in financial performance after listing.
“The widespread existence and ubiquitous importance of political connections in China’s stock markets suggests that to some degree, China’s stock markets have been regulated on a political connections-based regime, which may explain the poor performance of China’s stock markets,” the authors write in a paper published last week.
While China has come in for much press on its heavy-handed approach to going after those it deems responsible for last year’s stock market slump, the truth is that China has been disappointing equity investors for decades.
The numbers are especially striking when compared to the great growth in China’s economy.
…
Impotent Rage: The Liberal Superhero - YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcXoEd8IF0g - 172k -
At the hangar at o-dark thirty, airplane departed at 0800. Time for breakfast and a nap…….
Mom got a contract on her condo yesterday. On the market off and on for 2 1/2 years. Sold for 30-35% less than initial asking.
Called a couple of days ago, and said she was asking “X”, but the buyer offered “X” minus $2000. What should she do, she asks?????
This is the kind of thing I have to deal with…………
Where is this condo?
Topeka, Kansas. Sam Brownback lives about a mile and a half down the road.
2br/2bath condo, kitchen remodeled about 10 years ago, approx 1000-1100sf
To illustrate the attitudes of the cheapskate old people in Kansas, her condo fees were illustrative. She was paying $240/month for the association fee, and constantly bitching about it.
For $240, she got:
- Basic Cable
- Water/Sewer/trash pickup at curb
- Landscaping and Snow removal (efficiently done, I might add)
- Clubhouse/pool
- Exterior maintenance reserve
- Professional management company handling the property (there’s another story behind that, but I digress……..)
She’s moving to DFW. I think she is planning on renting a house (with my brother and his male friend). Wait until she starts having to scratch out checks for all of this stuff down there.
Although a HOA was at the top of my list of things I did not want when looking for a home, those fees seem reasonable.
As far as the place being on the market on and off for 2 1/2 years and selling for 30-35% less than initial asking I am assuming your Mom listened to a Realtor who told her what to list it at and you took the brunt of it not selling for 2 1/2 years.
Actually, the realtors (both of them she listed with) were trying to bring her thinking in align with reality.
Her problem was “I’ve put $8K in remodeling the kitchen…..I’m not going to give the place away…..”
Which shows you how bad Kansas is effed up right now. Move this condo to the KC metro, and it would sell for double.
She sold it for what you would pay for a half ton, 4×4, club cab pickup truck.
I’d have bought it, except for the 70+ mile each way commute. Of course, she would have expected me to pay her initial asking price.
“I’d have bought it, except for the 70+ mile each way commute.”
I think it’s best to stay away from business deals with family, sounds like it’s good for everybody that condo is in the rear-view.
She’ll be after you about that 2000 bucks for the rest of her life, too…
Road to get off Hillary without a charge has been paved.
Retired general, ex-CIA chief David Petraeus to receive no further punishment
He paid a fine equivilant to a fraction of the $2 million a year salary he gets for being a door-knocker for some shady “risk management” outfit. The Oligopoly is very generous when it comes to rewarding its own for services rendered.
Is a Trump - Clinton showdown inevitable.?
Feel the Bern! No Clinton! No Fascists!
I suspect Kuroda’s (fresh from Davos) current yen fixation is more out of fear that a strengthening Japanese currency risks spurring unwinds of myriad variations of yen “carry trades” (short/borrowing in yen to finance higher-yielding securities globally) – de-leveraging that is in the process of wreaking havoc on global securities markets.
Draghi and Kuroda retain the power to incite short squeezes and the reversal of risk hedges. And central bankers can prod short-term traders to cover shorts and return to the long side. Yet the key issue is whether global central banks can propel another rally such as the 12% multi-week gains experienced off of August lows. Can policy measures resuscitate bull market psychology and reestablish the global Credit boom?
“Risk on” ensures the perception of liquidity abundance, along with faith in the power of central banks and their monetary tools. In a world where liquidity is flowing, Credit is expanding and markets are bubbling, European securities markets provide attractive targets. And booming markets feed the perception that Europe’s economic recovery is sound and sustainable. It all became powerfully self-reinforcing.
But it was the last (policy-induced) gasp of speculative excess, a “blow off” top that enticed more “money” into “developed world” stocks and corporate Credit. Meanwhile, finance was fleeing commodities, high-yield, China and EM even more aggressively. In reality, the Credit Cycle had turned – QE, negative rates, China “national team,” “whatever it takes” Draghi and a dovish Fed notwithstanding.
I have been programmed over the years to take every short squeeze seriously. They often take on a life of their own. But back to the pressing issue: Can policy measures resuscitate bull market psychology and reestablish the global Credit boom? I do not expect either a resurgent bull market or a reemerging Credit boom. In truth, negative rates are a feeble tool in the face of global de-risking/de-leveraging dynamics. They are not confidence inspiring.
Dovish policy surprises do still afford a capable weapon to clobber those positioning for “risk off,” in the process somewhat restraining the forces of market dislocation. However, inciting squeezes and administering market punishment are not conducive to market stability or confidence. ”
http://davidstockmanscontracorner.com/bubble-finance-update-mind-the-short-squeezes-but-its-risk-off-from-here/
It seems like central bankers risk destroying their own credibility by pouring electronic printing press money into the maw of an epic implosion. Am I the only one who sees the potential here of creating the financial market equivalent of a black hole?
Will someone please explain why Democrats think Hillary Clinton is qualified to be a dog catcher, much less President?
This hypnotic fascination Democrats have to the Clintons are as mice to cobras.
Ignoring the argument over whether she sent classified e-mails or not, the whole episode is typical of the Clintons. Doing whatever the hell they want to do (because rules are for little people), then going into this “Aw shucks, I didn’t mean nothin’…..” act when they are finally called to account.
Nobody will ever be able to convince me that the “private server” wasn’t a ploy to make it harder for someone to supoena her e-mails.
As far as “experience”? Let me summarize:
-Wife of BS artist Southern Governor, who sold the typical J6P down the river with NAFTA and deregulating the banksters. Looked the other way as he repeatedly did to the female hired help what he was figuratively doing to the regular working stiffs.
-Bubba starts a foundation to launder money to support her political ambitions. Both start doing “speaking appearances” for big bucks, writing books (that nobody read) for huge advances.
-Elected Senator (Democrat-Goldman Sachs and Citibank)
- Nominated to run State Department. (Probably because Obama knew that she would pull something shady sooner rather than later, and was hoping she would get nailed for it. Or would soon find herself involved in some kind of self created Charlie-Foxtrot/fiasco).
E-mails/Libya/Syria = Mission Accomplished
Sleazy messes seem to follow the Clintons wherever they go. I don’t know why anyone thinks this will change if she is elected President.
She’s in blue team that’s all I need to know.
Liberals are about 10 years behind conservatives on working to throw out their own trash. They’ve just now reached the point - in 2016 - of showing some dismay in their own political leaders.
Throwing out the trash will take time.
One day, morals and ethics will once again be rewarded. Both will take their fitful and informative place, above the law.
Just not in our time.
Just not in our time.
Good. Sounds like a return to the witch trials and scarlet letters.
Hillary supporters are to the person as amoral and feckless as Hillary herself. You cannot knowingly and wittingly cast votes for such an evil, corrupt crony capitalist sucubus without yourself being not just morally compromised, but morally bankrupt.
You’ve touched on a subject that really pizzes me off……..
This attitude of “You would be just as big a sleazeball, if you were given the opportunity”.
Sorry, I’m throwing the BS flag. Not buying it. Over the past 40 years, I’ve managed to avoid any business or marital sleaziness, and do just about everything on the up-and-up. So have 90% of the guys I know.
Do you have an actual point? People who vote for corruption are enabling corruption; therefore they’re amoral pieces of sh*t. End of story.
If you vote for it, it means you support it.
Couldn’t be simpler than that.
You quite obviously have no future in politics.
Sleazy messes seem to follow the Clintons wherever they go. I don’t know why anyone thinks this will change if she is elected President.
It all comes back to the fact that 95% of the electorate are stupid and amoral. We are getting the government we deserve. ‘Murica has become a garden for the vegetables and a plantation for the Oligopoly.
You post this constantly and I reiterate what a poster above commented; what is your point, conclusion, or practical (as in-it has a remote possibility of happening or changing anything) solution?
Raise your hand if you support CLinton over Sanders? I dont
Clinton over Trump is another can. Tough choice, who is the lesser of the evils?
My wife would vote for Hillary over Trump.
More importantly, just last night I had dinner with a veteran of Hitler’s army and WWII POW who lives in a senior community with my parents. He said he would rather vote for Hillary than Trump, based on the opinion that a female president is less likely to be a war monger.
I was interested to hear whether Trump reminded him of Hitler, but he is pushing ninety years old and is too politically tuned out to have an opinion on that.
I believe it comes down to electability. Trump and Clinton represent their respective parties’ best current prospects for winning.
When you think about it, you will recognize this as a variant of a Keynesian beauty contest.
So we’ve got Trump, who’s an expert in bankruptcy and self-promotion, and we’ve got Hillary, who’s an expert at getting out of sleazy messes. They’ve both made fortunes with their expertise.
Which skills will be more useful in a president?
Both skill sets could come in handy over the next eight years!
an expert in bankruptcy
Having never gone BK, Trump has no hesitation to close down losing businesses. There are a lot of losing enterprises sucking wastefully on the government teat here and It would be wonderful to have the place swept out.
The lies fly thick around here these days.
Aug 18, 2015 @ 12:44 PM 100,851 views
A Trip Down Donald Trump’s Bankruptcy Memory Lane
Debtwire
Contributor
By Jon Berke
Not a moment goes by in the current political news cycle that doesn’t include a headline or punchline about presidential hopeful Donald Trump. For the sake of historical accuracy, a recent look through the Debtwire news archives should help clarify some common misconceptions about the real estate mogul’s history in bankruptcy court.
Trump was grilled on August 6 at the first GOP presidential debate for the 2016 season about the most recent Chapter 11 filing of a corporation sporting the Trump moniker. Fox News anchor Chris Wallace alleged Trump has “cost hundreds of jobs and deprived lenders of a $1 billion.”
In true Trump fashion, the tycoon threw out zingers like “lenders were killers,” Wallace was “living in a dream world,” and pointed out that he never declared personal bankruptcy.
The truth of the matter can be found somewhere in the middle. Long before Trump was known as a reality television star or a wannabe politician, his name was most recognizable as the larger-than-life owner of a casino-hotel empire. Trouble set in decades ago as each of the Atlantic City-based entities under Trump’s umbrella went through separate bankruptcies– the Trump Taj Mahal in 1991 and the Trump Plaza in 1992 –before reorganizing into Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts in 1995.
Trump Hotel & Casino Resorts kept the debt of its three New Jersey properties (including the Trump Marina, now known as the Golden Nugget) in separate silos and was eventually forced to use multiple private placements to refinance $1.9 billion in total debt. That burden led to another bankruptcy in 2004– the first as a collective company –and another renaming, to Trump Entertainment.
Fast-forward to 2009 when the global recession triggered Trump’s fourth trip through Chapter 11. This time the process resulted in Trump himself stepping away from the properties as his lenders, led by Carl Icahn, took over. Even the billionaire activist investor couldn’t save the ship, however, and Trump Entertainment filed for bankruptcy again last year. This time The Donald was only a belligerent bystander.
…
I’m sorry, man. I really am.
Learning that you cannot trust those whom you placed confidence in really sucks.
Find your comfort in your neighbors and neighborhood. That’s what truly matters. Go local.
Also, always remember the extent to which everyday people help others in time of tragedy. You live in Kansas. I suggest you hop on Youtube and watch the National Geographic espisode on the Joplin tornado. What happened there - and that strangers from 500-1,000 miles away drove there to help - is incredible.
Bernie is getting record setting donations! We want someone who is for main st, not Wall St.
The central banks’ financial crack is losing its potentcy from overuse.
http://wolfstreet.com/2016/01/31/end-of-qqe-in-japan-daiwa-capital-markets/
This is why I believe they run the risk of creating a black hole.
P.S. The Japanese finance ministers are experts in this area. Witness their “success” over the 1990-2015 period, for a great example…
To be replicated by our lunatic Keynesian central planners.
“It gets even more interesting, in terms of head fakes. Daiwa points out that “the pressure will remain on the BoJ to ease more.” That’s a pressure on all central banks. More free money, more asset price inflation, that’s what everyone clamors for. And that won’t go away. Central banks opened that can of worms years ago.”
I have to assume we will get some carry through monday.
Its gets hard to time central bank headliners but it happens a lot more when the market goes down. They like fridays.
What kind of low IQs would send their hard-earned money to a PAC run by Sarah Palin, the so-called “Tea Party darling” who was all in on John McCain’s support for the 2008 Wall Street bailout? It is a testament to the stupidity of the ‘Murican populace that this dimwit charlatan and her hell-spawn haven’t sunk into well-deserved oblivion.
http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2016/1/29/palins-pac-burns-through-cash-to-sustain-itself.html
What kind of machinations will the Oligopoly resort to in order to move Goldman Sachs plant Ted Cruz ahead of The Donald to become the Establishment GOP Trojan Horse in the race?
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-01-31/trump-pulls-away-pack-iowa-countdown-begins-hillary-tied-bernie
I’m having an increasingly difficult time envisioning anyone except Trump winning the Republican nomination. Doesn’t the GOP risk losing the election due to an independent Trump candidacy in case they don’t give him the nod?
If it takes a billionaire to make a run at being president, how many self funded people are actually eligible?
The true significance of Trump is that he represents an insurgency among the Republican rank-and-file. While Democrats have embraced the corrupt, crony-capitalist status quo with their support for Hillary, the GOP rank and file have soundly repudiated same with their overwhelming rejection of Jeb Bush and his clone Marco Rubio, both pushed harded and funded lavishly by the Oligopoly. Most Republicans care less about “winning the election” than giving the finger to a corrupt, entrenched political class that has long since thrown them under the bus. Let Hillary win - she’ll be at the helm of the Titanic when it all goes down.
The Titanic apparently can leak water for an awfully long time before she finally sinks!
I’m telling everyone “Vote for the Eisenhower-like commie”
He can’t POSSIBLY screw up things as bad as ANY of these other losers will.
Germany’s faux “conservatives” - in reality globalist stooges just like our Establishment GOP - are trying to assuage rising public angst over the implementation of the “fundamental transformation” demanded by Merkel’s oligarch puppetmasters. Coming soon to a “fundamentally transformed” country near you.
http://news.yahoo.com/german-conservatives-address-concerns-migrants-support-wanes-142928787.html
Turkey is a NATO member. If they embark on some ill-considered adventurism, does that mean all 16 NATO members (including the US) get dragged in as well? The neocons must be rapturous at the thought of a major regional conflict that could escalate into WWIII.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/syrian-civil-war-could-turkey-be-gambling-on-an-invasion-a6844171.html
The US was a NATO member when we embarked on multiple “ill considered adventures”, starting with Vietnam.
To turn on the wayback machine for everyone, one of the reasons the US didn’t mine Haiphong harbor was because our Euro “friends” didn’t want to have their ships sunk delivering stuff to the commies.
Is Donald trump the only candidate that will address the real economic problems instead of trying to paper over the problems?
People just want to work. That is getting hard as hell to do.
Not hard to find work around here. As long as you are willing to work for minimum wage.
That’s everywhere. I’m talking about real jobs that you can make a living off of and get ahead. A lot of people are not programmed to work for other people either. They want opportunity to make something happen.
supply and demand. if people will work for $10 an hr why should we stop them?
“Is Donald trump the only candidate that will address the real economic problems instead of trying to paper over the problems?”
What brought on this political fantasy?
How about Trump elected POTUS and he re-appoints Hillary as Secretary of State. She can get her personal servers back up and running then.
I was thinking a Clinton-Trump partnership could be the dream team ticket. Not sure how well VP Don and First Man Bill would get along, though…
Did you ever use Outlook? It dumps your email on your pc, no cloud.
We all did this before gmail. Rumsfeld and the black general too!
gov does not create jobs!!! Apple has $86 billion in cash, the gov cant force them to hire you! we want gov to stop the fraud and cheating.
The Opinion Pages | Editorial
The Myth of Job Creation
OCT. 21, 2012
The headlines from the last presidential debate focused on President Obama challenging Mitt Romney on issue after issue. There was a less noticed, but no less remarkable, moment when Mr. Obama agreed with Mr. Romney on something — and both were entirely wrong.
The exchange began with a question about the offshoring of American jobs. Part of Mr. Obama’s answer was that federal investments in education, science and research would help to ensure that companies invest and hire in the United States. Mr. Romney interrupted. “Government does not create jobs,” he said. “Government does not create jobs.”
It was a decidedly crabbed response to a seemingly uncontroversial observation, and yet Mr. Obama took the bait. He said his political opponents had long harped on “this notion that I think government creates jobs, that that somehow is the answer. That’s not what I believe.” He went on to praise free enterprise and to say that government’s role is to create the conditions for everyone to have a fair shot at success.
So, they agree. Government does not create jobs.
Except that it does, millions of them — including teachers, police officers, firefighters, soldiers, sailors, astronauts, epidemiologists, antiterrorism agents, park rangers, diplomats, governors (Mr. Romney’s old job) and congressmen (like Paul Ryan).
…
It is just the GOP line, I use when people want Obama to save them from themselves.
$86 billion in borrowed cash isn’t saying much Lola.
$86 billion in borrowed cash isn’t saying much, Lola.
What does that mean?
What does that mean?
Apple has turned itself into a huge debt donkey. Steve Jobs was never stupid enough to do this.
War on the police continues…
Ferguson residents weigh cost of reform
Ferguson residents to weigh-in on proposed DOJ settlement
2 hours ago • By Stephen Deere
The proposed agreement between the U.S. Justice Department and Ferguson has been noted for its scope and specificity, but for all its detail, it does not answer two critical questions:
How much will reforms to the city’s police department and municipal court cost?
And how will Ferguson, already burdened by multimillion-dollar deficits, pay for them?
On Wednesday, the City Council released the agreement to the public, saying it wanted to hear from residents.
A council vote on the proposal is set for Feb. 9. The outcome appears far from certain and may depend on the resolution to a dispute over who should fill a vacant council seat.
Some residents, even those who believe the police and court are rife with abuse, believe the agreement leaves their city with no good options, only dilemmas.
“Because Ferguson misused their police department, this consent decree places a crushing burden on them in an effort to ensure that they are absolutely perfect in the future,” said resident Nick Kasoff. “It strikes me that the price is to make it impossible to do the job of a police department.”
Negotiations between Ferguson and the Justice Department began months ago, shortly after the department denounced Ferguson’s police and court for constitutional violations and predatory policing.
Presented with extensive reforms, the city faces a seemingly simple choice, but each alternative carries the possibility of financial ruin.
…
Is the DOJ trying to turn Ferguson into the next Detroit or East Saint Louis?
East STL police, fire departments facing layoffs
Proposed layoffs of firefighters and police officers in East St. Louis have led to a rare Sunday press conference in the mayor’s office.
Jason Aubry, KSDK 1:15 a.m. CDT September 7, 2015
EAST ST. LOUIS - Layoffs of police and fire personnel in East St. Louis are adding fuel to the fire of controversy as Mayor Emeka Jackson-Hicks claims no knowledge it was happening.
“I was completely unaware that Mr. Parks would announce layoffs of 17 firefighters, and 8 police officers,” Jackson-Hicks said. “Right now, I’m not sure what the plan is; and this is one of the issues.”
…
Corrupt Democrat run urban dystopias becoming more Third World by the day, now that they’ve destroyed their tax base by running off the productive and honest segment of the population.
From what I saw of St. Louis, it needs to burn.
East St. Louis burned long ago. Think Detroit, only smaller.
Sunday funnies.
http://www.theburningplatform.com/2016/01/31/sunday-funnies-98/
Minimum Rage
When will Yellen the Felon escalate the Fed’s War on Savers by announcing NIRP?
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-01-31/citi-why-negative-rates-are-potato-chips-no-one-can-have-just-one
We already have a NIRP.
But do we have NIRP NIMBYS?
If not, we should. It’s fun to say.
Those savers need to invest in stocks and homes. Facebook could have funded your retirement.
Savers r stuck at walmart and the dollar stores. Alpo is on sale! yes!
I am sure everyone have see, “The BIg Short” by now. Great film!
How can people vote for Bush-like or Paulson-like Republicans after get an education on what happened?
People won’t go see it. The theater I was in was 1/3 full, and I could tell by the comments people were making that most of them already understood all this stuff. Was really fun watching it all laid out and dramatized though.
Joe Sixpack is gonna go see movies with big titties and big explosions. They should have had Michael Bay direct if they wanted that audience.
Maybe Netflix will offer it, educate the masses. Everyone should see it.
The masses don’t want to be educated. There’s a reason 95% of them are stupid: thinking or taking up their responsibilities as citizens of the Republic requires too much sacrifice and effort.
I found the F-bombs at the point in the movie when the investors were discovering all the behind-the-scenes fraud used to prop up asset prices particularly apropos.
Joe Sixpack is gonna go see movies with big titties and big explosions.
Hey, what’s wrong with big titties and explosions?
Speaking of SHORTS - are you short China?
http://www.cnbc.com/2016/01/26/chinese-bank-outlook-in-2016.html
Not one thing wrong with titties and explosions… But a man needs to think a little sometimes.
“The Big Short”
On my list of RedBox rentals.
Looking forward to it.
Meet your new President. Mr. Donald Trump.
“Trump Pulls Away From Pack As Iowa Countdown Begins; Hillary Tied With Bernie”
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-01-31/trump-pulls-away-pack-iowa-countdown-begins-hillary-tied-bernie
Free Cankles! Free Corzine!
Oh, wait….
Retail “investors” are being set up for another big fleecing by the Wall Street-Federal Reserve pump & dump racket.
http://usawatchdog.com/investors-heading-for-slaughter-one-more-time-david-stockman/
When are Jeb’s oligarch backers going to pull the plug?
http://www.startribune.com/the-decline-of-jeb-bush/367139901/
What happens to state who rely on nat gas and oil for the general fund? TX? ND? NM? OK? AK?
In January 2014, the New Mexico Tax Research Institute released a study entitled, Fiscal Impacts of Oil and Natural Gas Production in New Mexico . According the study, 31.5% of New Mexico’s General Fund Revenues were attributed to the oil and natural gas industry for fiscal year 2013. As shown below, that’s over $1.7 billion in General Fund revenues that are attributed to oil and natural gas of the nearly $5.6 billion in total General Fund revenues received in fiscal Year 2013.
Forecast: Texas to see a $4.1 billion drop in oil and gas tax revenue
Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2015
By Andy East - American-Statesman Staff
State tax revenue over the next two years will fall short of expectations by $2.6 billion, largely because of sluggish oil prices, Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar said Tuesday.
Tax revenue is expected to total $110.4 billion — still more than the spending called for by the Legislature, which was capped at $106.2 billion. The revised estimate released Tuesday forecasts a $4.1 billion drop in tax revenue from oil and natural gas production and regulation over the next two fiscal years, compared with the two years that ended in August. But revenue from other sectors of the Texas economy will temper the downturn in oil prices, Hegar said.
The projection is based on an estimated per-barrel oil price of $49.48 during this fiscal year, which began Sept. 1. Hegar projects the price per barrel to increase to $56.52in 2017. Crude oil is now trading at $46.58.
Clueless govt getting their paws on less cash is a good thing.
sure if you dont use: schools, roads, airports, parks…..
Govt doesn’t need grossly inflated prices to rob everyone blind my friend.
Falling prices benefit everyone.
crater
Jan 31, 2016 @ 12:18 PM
How Low Can China’s Stock Market Go?
Jesse Colombo
Contributor
I’m an economic analyst who is warning of dangerous post-2009 bubbles
China’s irrational stock market exuberance of 2015 continues to unwind with disastrous consequences for the global financial markets. As I’ve explained back in July, bubbles of the magnitude of China’s stock market do not unfold in a straight path down, but experience numerous false rallies that ultimately lead to new lows. I’ve also been warning for years that China’s debt and asset bubble-driven economy will cause serious harm to the global economy when it inevitably pops, which it is in the relatively early stages of doing. In this piece, I will perform a technical analysis of China’s key stock market indices and ETFs.
China’s benchmark Shanghai Composite index recently sliced under both its uptrend line and 3,000 level, making both those levels important resistances to watch. A convincing break above these levels is necessary to negate the recent breakdown, while a strong close under the 2,500 support would give another bearish confirmation signal. If the latter scenario occurs, the next price target and support level to watch is 2,000, which marked the lows from 2012 to 2014.
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Asia-Pacific Markets
Asia trades mixed after data shows January fall in China factory activity
Saheli Roy Choudhury
1 Hour Ago
CNBC.com
Asia markets traded mixed mid-morning, with major indexes in Australia, Japan and South Korea extending gains after the Bank of Japan’s (BOJ) surprise move into negative interest rates on Friday sent stocks higher from Tokyo to New York.
In Japan on Monday the Nikkei 225 was up 1.62 percent while the Topix gained 1.81 percent in morning trade. Across the Korean Strait, the Kospi was up 0.13 percent.
Down Under, the ASX 200 retraced some gains to trade up 0.59 percent; earlier, t he index was up as much as 1.17 percent. The energy sector, which rose as much as 2 percent, pared gains to trade up 0.19 percent, while the financials sector was up 0.58 percent.
Evan Lucas, market strategist at spreadbetter IG, wrote in a morning note that the BOJ’s move was “a net positive for risk, net positive for international trade and increases in fund flows in Asia. All are seen as a macro positive.”
Markets in the Greater China fell into negative territory by mid-morning. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index traded 0.89 percent down, while the mainland Shanghai composite and Shenzhen composite indexes were down 1.78 percent and 0.98 respectively. The biggest losers on the Shanghai index were China Shipbuilding, down 5.17 percent, Baotou Steel, down 5.07 percent, and Huatai Securities, down 4.05 percent.
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Reuters
Sun Jan 31, 2016 11:22pm EST
China, Hong Kong stocks down after weak factory activity survey
SHANGHAI
A Chinese national flag flies at the headquarters of the People’s Bank of China, the country’s central bank, in Beijing, China, January 19, 2016.
REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon
China and Hong Kong stocks indexes fell on Monday after the release of worse-than-expected China factory activity survey.
China’s blue-chip CSI300 index was down 1.5 percent, at 2,901.37 points, by the lunch break, while the Shanghai Composite Index lost 1.8 percent, to 2,688.87 points.
In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index dropped 0.9 percent, to 19,511.59 points, while the Hong Kong China Enterprises Index lost 1.5 percent, to 8,120.48.
China’s official Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) contracted at its fastest pace in almost three-and-a-half years in January, missing market expectations, and marking the sixth consecutive month of factory activity contraction.
“Economic weakness has always been a major concern for stock investors, so today’s PMI data is not unexpected,” said Zhou Lin, analyst at Huatai Securities.
“The market has not yet found its bottom as the investor mood remains very gloomy.”
A further slide in stocks threatens to trigger an increasing number of margin calls, while an expected regulatory tightening in the bill market also worries investors.
Stocks fell across the board in China, while in Hong Kong, most sectors fell, with the energy shares among the biggest decliners.
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BloombergBusiness
China’s Stocks Extend Worst Monthly Rout Since 2008 on PMI Data
Kyoungwha Kim
January 31, 2016 — 7:43 PM CST
Updated on January 31, 2016 — 11:11 PM CST
Chinese stocks fell, extending the steepest monthly selloff since the global financial crisis, after an official manufacturing gauge missed estimates and PetroChina Co. reported plunging profits.
The Shanghai Composite Index slid 1.9 percent to 2,685.99 at 1:02 p.m., led by energy and financial companies. PetroChina, the biggest stock, slumped 3 percent after the oil producer said annual net income may have fallen as much as 70 percent. China Life Insurance Co. declined to a 14-month low after reporting earnings that trailed forecasts. The purchasing managers’ index dropped to a three-year low of 49.4 in January, compared with the median estimate of 49.6. Benchmark money-market rates jumped the most since June before markets are shut for a week-long Chinese holiday from Feb. 8.
“The headline number is a disappointment to the market as output and new orders show no signs of a rebound,” said William Wong, head of sales trading at Shenwan Hongyuan Group Co. in Hong Kong. “Trading this week will remain shallow ahead of the Chinese lunar new year holiday.”
The Shanghai Composite capped its worst month since October 2008 in January amid concern slowing growth and yuan volatility will spur capital outflows. Manufacturing faces even more challenges this year as the government plans to reduce excess industrial capacity, while the Chinese currency traded in Hong Kong weakened as state media warned speculators not to short-sell the yuan.
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I have nothing to hide.
We’ll see.
From your empty skull to the White House, Donald Trump lives, rent-freee.
july 2015 - Gross Production Tax is levied on the production of oil and gas in Oklahoma. According to OMES, collections of those taxes were $213.4 million, 34.1 percent below the official estimate. Fiscal year 2015 figures were $119.9 million below the previous fiscal year’s figures. Collections due to natural gas production were $80.8 million, 54 percent below the estimate. Oil Gross Production Tax collections totaled $132.5 million or 10.3 percent short of the estimate.
Trump vs Sanders will send a big ef u to Wall St and the puppets in DC.
Looking very likely.
Are the sheeple finally waking up? Is my assumption of once stupid, always stupid, about to be tested? Is it possible that zombies can regain their humanity? Are the Obama Zombies, McCain Mutants, and Romney Retards registering brain-wave activity after being brain dead for all these years?
Stay tuned….
Remember…. Nothing cures poverty and accelerates the economy like falling prices to dramatically lower and more affordable levels. Nothing.
when janet yellen announces QE4 there will be 1000 pt rally in the DOW and the shorts will be hosed again.
I’m not so sure, Azdude. We’re overdue for a major, perhaps massive correction. Yellen announcing NIRP will be seen for what it is: an act of desperation. The smart money is already streaming into safe havens, and while the algos might produce a short-lived spike, even the dullest of the sheeple is waking up to the fact that these rigged and manipulated “markets” are not a smart place to leave your money.
lots and lots of stocks have already dropped 20-30% off their highs.
They have a lot further to go. Since 2008 the Fed has created and leviated these Ponzi markets with QE and ZIRP, soon to be NIRP, while the underlying economy deteriorated further. Now the real economy, notwithstanding our faked Soviet-style official statistics, has flatlined. Even the dolts who voted for Obama, McCain, and Romney are sensing something in the basic order of things is seriously awry. The Titanic has sailed into the iceberg field, and there aren’t nearly enough lifeboats to go around.
so you think yellen just sits back and watches trillions in wealth be wiped out?
That is the million dollar question right now isnt it?
At some point the fraud and fictitious valuations that have built up in the system are going to implode. The only thing Yellen the Felon can do is print more trillions in fiat currency backed by absolutely nothing. Even the dullest of the sheeple are going to start realizing our financial system has foundations of sand. The crash is going to be epic, and Yellen can’t do a damned thing about it, when the financial reckoning day comes around at last.
I’m watching gold as a barometer for when the sheeple start realizing the jig is up and the Fed loses control of its Ponzi markets and asset bubbles. When we start seeing sharp daily moves higher, in spite of the suppression by the bullion banks, it means the Ponzi markets have entered their terminal phase.
http://www.kitco.com/market/
The next phase is liquidation and physical asset prices will collapse. Be patient.
Japan “shocked” the markets with NIRP, and already the results are fading. Our Keynesian central planners have blown their wad, and now market forces are finally starting to impose themselves.
http://www.bloomberg.com/markets/stocks/futures
Don’t fight the FED! They teach that in econ 101.
This is getting real interesting that’s for sure.I’m not sure we have seen anything like this is history. Got popcorn?
Make sure you have more than popcorn.
http://survivalcache.com/37-things-you-should-stock-but-probably-arent/
Will ‘Muricans finally wake up to the fraud being perpetrated on them by the Fed?
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-01-31/fed-suspended-laws-market-order-save-it-what-happens-next
The oligopoly is steadily (and stealthily) ramping up its war on cash. Will the sheeple go along as always?
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-01-31/bloomberg-op-ed-calls-end-cash
“Nations are not ruined by one act of violence, but gradually and in an almost imperceptible manner by the depreciation of their circulating currency, through excessive quantity.”
–Nicholas Copernicus 1525
Recap of the feisty Hillary Clinton-Bernie Sanders debate over Wall …
blogs.marketwatch.com/…/
phony scandals