Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Market Madness!

Greetings good citizen,

After falling below the, er, ‘strategically important’ 12,000 mark a few days ago it seems the stock market is a ‘bargain’ once again.

Naturally, only an idiot would put actual money in the market (which is to speculate how much ‘leverage’ is in play?)

But let’s flip that rock over and ask where would you ‘park’ money in an economy like this?

It’s a problem nobody should have…but there it is!

In fact, the entire crisis in a nutshell is the inability to service the interest on the mountain of debt the reckless few have piled up.

(To clarify, I refer to loans that never should have been made in the first place and advances on what has proven to be non-existent ‘equity’ as the acts of the reckless few as opposed to the woes of the hoodwinked many.)

In light of the facts, how ‘genuine’ do you think this morning’s market action is?

Hell, stocks sold off by nearly 500 points over the past six weeks, should be some serious bargains out there (by conventional market thinking.)

So, were the markets due for a bounce or is this just more ‘presto-chango’ in an options settlement week?

Stocks on Wall Street rose almost 1 percent at the opening on Tuesday after American and Chinese economic data drew investors into an equities market that has been through six weeks of sharp declines.

In the United States, retail sales declined less than forecast, giving a boost to stocks and some respite to investors overwhelmed by recent weak economic data.

Despite the jump, some investors were still focused on a retreat in the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index to its March low near the 1,250 level. The index closed at 1,271.83 on Monday.

“The consumer isn’t dead,” said Michael Farr, president of investment management firm Farr, Miller & Washington in Washington. “I question the sustainability, given the high levels of debt that consumers hold and the unemployment rate. But we don’t want to look a gift horse in the mouth. It’s good news for the day.”

Um, the consumer isn’t dead? It certainly isn’t from lack of trying!
I have in the past addressed the topic of ‘cracking one’s nut’ and how we are approaching a time when it won’t be worth your while to go to work because your paycheck won’t ‘crack your nut’ (cover your expenses.)

Well good citizen, if it weren’t for food stamps a goodly portion of the low end of the income distribution would be ‘unable’ to perform their jobs (and live indoors.)

That’s a trade off many part-time, minimum-wage workers make. Their paychecks cover the rent but without food assistance they’d have to live in the streets! (Because when the choice comes down to live indoors or eat semi-regularly, eating wins!)

Would I be a ‘commie’ for pointing out that their capitalist employers KNOW their employees can’t survive on what they pay them?

Yet we are expected to sympathize with the businessman (who ‘provides’ the job) and pays as little as he does to ‘protect’ his customers. (Which is bullshit, you know he scopes the market regularly and charges every cent he can get away with!

It’s a bad day for Mr. Employer if he discovers HE has the lowest prices around!

The only thing worse than finding out your price is too low is learning that you pay your people higher than the regional average!

Is it any wonder the average business owner is psychotic?

On that note we have this article it’s a visual, you have to follow the link to see it.

A little dementia goes a long way, doesn’t it?

This is another reason I am firmly in the ‘collapse’ camp, there is no ‘rational’ way out of the morass they have created…and it’s idiotic to think people will tolerate that level of painful privation for an extended period.

Yet the dimwits who ‘didn’t see it coming’ consistently predict this is precisely what will happen.

Whereas I come from the ‘actions have consequences’ camp.

If you can’t find grunts willing to do the heavy lifting, the supply chain will break down and then you’ll be totally fucked!

Worse, if you can't find customers who will make it ‘worth your while’ to do what you do, then you won’t do it and neither will anyone else!

Weirdly, this is all looped into the pay scale issue.

If you don’t pay your workers, they can’t pay anyone either!

This is the ‘fundamental flaw’ of capitalism. It consistently overvalues goods while undervaluing labor.

That and the incentives are all wrong, but that topic has already been the theme of many past essays.

Naturally, the above phenomenon forms the basis for my consistent charges of ‘mis-management’ by people who should know better…but apparently don’t.

The question we must answer is how long will our civilization survive with privatized profits and socialized losses?

You should know the answer because it is obvious…not very long.

Thanks for letting me inside your head,

Gegner

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