Friday, April 29, 2011

Listen to the bullshit fly!

Greetings good citizen,

While it might be said that every day here is an exercise in ‘debunking’ the flood of psychobabble dispensed by the corporate owned media, every once in a while it becomes the specific ‘theme’ of the piece at hand.

We begin with the headlines…while this was not today’s lead story, it made the top three which is close enough for our purposes.

[Caution: put on your ‘waders’ before reading any further as it gets pretty deep!]

When the year began, economists expected a more robust growth rate of about 4 percent, only to be barraged by bad report after bad report. Turmoil in the Middle East led to higher oil prices, which had already been climbing because of increased demand in emerging markets like China. Housing sales dropped sharply. Winter blizzards closed businesses and delayed construction, causing investments in nonresidential structures like office buildings to fall 21.7 percent from the previous quarter. Imports, which are subtracted from gross domestic product, surged. Military spending sank.

Economists say many of these problems will fade later in the year and economic growth will hasten through the spring. Last quarter’s dismal news was, fingers crossed, “a pause, not a trend,” said Kathy Bostjancic, director for macroeconomic analysis at the Conference Board.

The American public seems less certain.

Can we get a rousing ‘Ya Think?’ to that last observation?

Unemployment is back on the upswing but I don’t think Wall Street cares anymore as their boy ‘Barry’ has as much a chance of being re-elected as these bankers do of escaping with their lives.

Ain’t gonna happen.

Given the blogosphere has ‘torpedoed’ the GOP’s best hope (Ron Paul) this morning Wall Street must be confident that no matter who ‘wins’ election, nothing will change.

Switching back to the article good citizen we see that ‘real world’ does make its presence felt from time to time on that alien planet we call Washington.

What amazes me is the Dow’s steady rise despite what might charitably be called ‘anemic’ GDP growth.

Remind me, WHY is the Dow at 12, 500 again?

Could this be what basically amounts to ‘currency manipulation’?

I don’t know about you but it’s all looking mighty funny to me…

The next article is a real knee-slapper. After eating our lunch for THE PAST THIRTY YEARS, ‘suddenly’ China’s fleet of ‘independent’ truckers have become a ‘bottleneck’ in an otherwise perfect ‘model of efficiency’…

SHANGHAI — For years, China’s export juggernaut has been fed by highly efficient factories, low-cost labor and a fleet of container ships capable of transporting huge volumes of toys, textiles, electronics and other goods to every corner of the world.

But there is a surprisingly weak link in the Made in China chain. [Gasp!]

Moving those goods from the factory floor to one of China’s enormous seaports — often a drive of less than two hours — typically means relying on an independent trucking company. And as vital as trucking is to China’s mighty export machine, the government seems to be ignoring the drawbacks of what analysts say is an increasingly disorganized, inefficient and even costly way to transport factory goods to seaports.

Wait a minute Slim! Haven’t we seen this same song and dance routine before? If it looks familiar it is because the last time the ‘villians’ were our own truckers!

Putting two and two together with today’s ‘theme’ and we arrive at what might be best described as the obvious outcome of the global race to the bottom.

They’ve cut all there is and there ain’t no more to cut!

Naturally, inflation is ‘non-existent’ (according to the government) and the economy is doing ‘fine’ (depending on where you sit in the income distribution.)

Understand, we will be told as we always are, that increased ‘consumer spending’ is a surefire sign that the economy is headed in the ‘right direction’…

How unfortunate is it for the rest of us that our current direction lies parallel with the Poor Farm?

Traders took in another round of earnings on a day when the government reported that consumers spent more on gasoline and food in March:



Higher Food and Gas Prices Lift Consumer Spending in U.S.

Yes good citizen, expect the stock markets to rise ANOTHER hundred points on that ‘marvelous’ news.

Our civilization is being broken up the greedy bankers and nobody is doing anything about it.

Oh joy!

Finally we have this story, which is definitely not what it appears to be (and certainly not ‘as advertised’…)

The dollar fell below 6.50 renminbi to about 6.491. That marks a 5 percent gain for the renminbi since last June, when it traded around 6.827.

Are we REALLY seeing a ‘rising Yuan’ or is this evidence of a ‘falling dollar’?

If you haven’t been paying attention, the dollar is falling like a rock…and Wall Street doesn’t care…and neither does the Fed for that matter.

If you’re ‘mystified by my ‘oh joy’ comment above I’ll explain further.

After this coming debacle is over ‘banking’ as it has been sold to the rest of us will cease to exist.

Oh joy is in ‘anticipation’ of that (potentially) liberating event.

It depends on what banking is replaced with…

You know what I always say, stupid is as stupid does…

Thanks for letting me inside your head,

Gegner

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