Record stock prices yet record low Obama approval ratings. Not to mention, plunging consumer confidence, which today reported to have fallen to a seven-month low. Record-high “remodeling spending,” but plummeting home sales, rocketing home equity loan delinquencies, and the abandonment of the residential home market by “vulture” investors. Meanwhile, the “unemployment rate” is falling, but Labor Participation is at record lows. Worse yet, the largest new job category are waiters and bartenders, half of which require government entitlements to survive.
On Wall Street, equity valuations are approaching 2008’s nosebleed levels; whilst hedge fund leverage and margin debt are at record highs, with promises by Bernanke and Yellen of indefinite QE. Third quarter earnings growth was flat, and negative excluding fraudulent, non-cash bank earnings – with negative fourth quarter pre-announcements at their highest level ever. Meanwhile, the upcoming holiday spending season – “Black Thanksgiving” and all – is expected to be the worst since the 2009 crisis lows. But don’t worry; Chris Christie is allowing internet gaming in New Jersey – which can’t possibly have a downside. And oh yeah, while the government claims inflation is “1% and falling”; U.S. retail beef prices hit a record high last month, followed by retail chicken prices this month.
In international environs, it turns out China has been printing money far more prodigiously than even the Fed; whilst the ECB hints at negative rates and the Bank of Japan, NGDP targeting. Meanwhile, desperate Greek citizens are injecting themselves with HIV to qualify for disability benefits – as cumulatively, the PIIGS draw closer to EU secession and/or expulsion. Elsewhere, the Baltic Dry Index is down 30% this month alone; yet because stock markets are propped higher by misguided governments, “recovery” propaganda is disseminated driven. Global debt is surging, currency wars expanding, while the U.S. is on the verge of a second government shutdown in three months. However, the Fed and PPT work their magic on a daily basis – resorting to historic, mega-liquidity injections to “save” the world. After all, rising stocks must portend good things – just as in 1929, 1987, and 2008? And while paper gold and silver prices continue to be maniacally suppressed, physical demand will hit a new record high; particularly in China, where last year’s all-time high imports will double in 2013. Gee, I wonder how much they’ll buy in 2014, now that they intend to stop acquiring currency reserves. To wit, China’s largest jewelry company just reported a 49% year-over-year sales increase – amidst a 25% decline in gold’s “price.”
Like Atlas Shrugged or 1984, All’s not well in fraudulent world reported by TPTB. Fortunately, the means to PROTECT yourself still exists; and thus, I suggest you use it before it’s too late.
“However, the Fed and PPT work their magic on a daily basis – resorting to historic, mega-liquidity injections to “save” the world. After all, rising stocks must portend good things – just as in 1929, 1987, and 2008?”
If I am not mistaken, the Zimbabwe stock market was also at all time high record highs before its complete collapse in 2008. Isn’t it odd that so many people who are supposedly well educated have virtually no acquaintance with history? Whether these examples are ancient Rome, the USSR, Zimbabwe, or Weimar Germany, all of the mistakes that they made are being reproduced right before our very eyes as if these situations had never happened before. But they HAVE! These are not historical footnotes hidden deep within the dusty bowels of long-forgotten ancient libraries but are instead commonly known events.
In spite of this, here we go with “debauching” our currency as fast as we can, somehow believing that “this time it’s different (when it rarely is) and that fiat currency is somehow wealth, when it is not. It’s just the little score cards that we use to see how we’re doing financially.
I submit that ANY capitalist endeavor that requires routine injections of “liquidity” is merely another failed experiment in bungled economics. REAL businesses create wealth. They are efficient engines of production. They are operated in such a way that income exceeds outgo on a routine basis. Anything that does not should be not only allowed to go bankrupt but should be encouraged to do so. Merely because some companies are in business does not mean that their managements are up to the task at hand. They are dead wood on what should be a very productive fruit tree… and they MUST be pruned, else the tree will cease producing and might even die. “Saving” them is no kindness. It merely prolongs the agony of their employees, customers, shareholders, and suppliers.
In summation, stupid can’t and should not be “saved”. A nation that tries this will soon end up with all of the stupidly run businesses while the competent ones will have left for places that actually value intelligence and productivity and the freedom to use them as they best see fit.