Top headline on today’s NY Times is how the, er, ‘inflated’ holiday hiring augers a reawakening for the US economy.
Ironically, this is all being attributed to an up tick in ‘online sales’ which is pretty much completely driven by Credit Cards
There currently is no data available regarding how much of online business was conducted with credit/debit cards and how much was purchased with gift cards…
As I pointed out previously…and as has been hinted at by several financial sites, a large part of the, er, ‘collapse’ of the financial sector (not that you’d ever know it with them showering themselves with billions of dollars worth of ‘bonuses’) is defaults on both credit card debt as well as heloc’s/2nd mortgages.
So what is behind this latest ‘surge’ in online sales that has driven a spike in hiring by America’s major delivery services?
While you ponder that, peruse this:
As shoppers felt more confident about their finances and shopped more online, credit card usage rose after three years of major cutbacks in credit card use, a study by the America's Research Group showed.
"January post-holiday sales are expected to plunge to some of the lowest levels in years, thanks to a surge in credit card spending over the Christmas season," said America's Research Group Chairman Britt Beemer.
Beemer said credit card usage this year was up around 25 percent over last year.
"Now that those credit card bills are hitting mailboxes," shoppers will cut back in a very significant way relative to January and February of the last few years," Beemer said.
That said, the retailing sector was higher today, so I guess the "smart money" knows something we don't.
Or do they?
So, no pay increases in the past DECADE…leading to ‘tame’ inflation (at least according to the manipulators of official statistics more commonly known as lies.)
Why the fuck anyone would believe that the US consumer is ‘back’?
Sometime you have to wonder just how far this belief in the fantastic extends.
The next thing you know they’ll be telling us that all of this is THE WILL of some omnipotent being!
Oh…wait a minute…
I guess if you swallow one lie, what’s one more…and then another.
Apparently there’s no need to stop as long as you’re willing to eat shit indefinitely…and the assumption is you will rather than repudiate your guaranteed spot in the glorious ever-after!
(Even more bizarre than this is how many of you simply refuse to, er, ‘decide’. You won’t accept the bullshit BUT the jury is still out as far as ‘spirit in the sky’ is concerned. You’d hate to pass up that deluxe bachelor pad/condo just steps from the beach/lake/river/unicorn ranch/etc.)
But I digress…
Which is to say I think I’ve made my point about the, er, ‘unreliability’ of people with, er, ‘faulty belief systems’.
Er, not for nothing, the, er, ‘fantastic nature’ of some of our images connected with the ‘afterlife’ speaks volumes about our general dissatisfaction with our current plane of existence…
How ironic is it that it is up to us to make this life better.
The good news right now is mixed with the bad news…SOME of us succeed in finding heaven on earth.
The bad news part is these assholes turn your existence into hell on earth so they can have all of theirs and yours too!
Which is to point out that heaven on earth isn’t achievable on a practical level BUT it doesn’t have to suck out loud either!
We could all have it ‘pretty damn good’ if we just learned to be content with ‘our fair share’.
Why don’t we have it ‘pretty darn good' right here and now?
Mismanagement.
The ‘system’ isn’t designed to provide a uniform level of comfort for all participants. It is designed to reward those who grab whatever isn’t nailed down for themselves.
And like our ‘fantasy afterlife’, the greedy have no conception of how much is ‘enough’.
Odd how we start off examining the deceptive advertising of the self-interested and we end up parsing how blind greed affects overall prosperity!
How incredible is it that the top ten percent constitutes 80 percent of what passes for our entire economy, good citizen?
How did we end up in this warped and twisted place, all the while being assured by those who were supposed to protect us that all was well?
There’s stupid and there’s treason. How sad is it that stupid can’t see the treason?
Thanks for letting me inside your head,
Gegner
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