Let it suffice to say that the destruction of our civilization proceeds ‘on schedule’. When this process will be completed depends on what degree of dysfunction you use to measure the destruction with.
The ‘political’ destruction of our civilization was completed decades ago, the financial destruction is almost complete (although the destruction of our economy is almost a decade behind us…if not for the financial sector the whole place would be nothing more than a smoking crater.)
Thus do we have to deal with stupid headlines like this!
Wall Street Ahead on Manufacturing Sectors
Figures released Wednesday showed that China's manufacturing sector was growing steadily and Europe's was performing better than forecast. That gave investors hope that American manufacturing figures later in the day would show the world's largest economy continued its recovery. [Recovery? What recovery?]
Investors were expected to also focus on the monthly hiring figures from the private payrolls agency ADP that showed a gain of 170,000 jobs. [Every month this figure is all over the map AND they only use it when it's favorable, in case you hadn’t noticed…]
A focus on the United States economy would prove a welcome diversion for some traders from developments in Europe's debt crisis.
And perhaps more disturbing is the ‘persistent disconnect’ that remains embedded in investor’s minds that a collapse of the Euro-Zone will ‘miraculously’ not suck the rest of the world under with it.
Face it good citizen, this is an exercise in ‘Let’s pretend’ writ large (if not HUGE!)
Understand that this morning’s markets opened ‘up’ quite a bit on the above (‘decidedly hopeful’), er, forecast.
You’d think the markets would be considerably ‘less robust’ if they took an honest look at how badly mis-managed the private sector is
Have a gander at this fiasco:
The federal government signaled Tuesday that it was ready to fight to prevent American Airlines from using bankruptcy to shed its pension plans.
While American has not said it intends to force the government to take over its pension plans, Joshua Gotbaum, director of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, said he was hoping to get out in front of any such move by the airline. The agency is already operating with a $23 billion deficit and has said it would bear an additional $9 billion loss if American terminated all four of its employees’ plans, which cover 130,000 people.
Last month, American’s parent company, AMR Corporation, said that it was contributing just $6.5 million to the pension plans, far short of the $97 million contribution that it would need to make if it were outside bankruptcy.
The most frightening aspect of this story is that American Airlines is NOT ‘an exception’! Every major multi-national CORPORATION is following the same ‘game plan’ that allows them to divest themselves from any and all obligations to their employees.
AND THE FUCKS USE ‘THE SAVINGS’ TO PAY THEMSELVES BONUSES WITH!
WTF!
Now the public (most of whom will never see a nickel of private pension money) will be stuck holding this odious bag of corporate neglect!
No irony should be lost on how quickly after Nixon opened the doors of trade with (then communist) China that this, er, ‘repository’ for, er, ‘neglected’ corporate obligations was established…
Which serves as a pretty good yardstick when we measure how long corruption has been the rule rather than the exception in Washington DC.
If we ‘rewind’ back to the beginning of the practice of ‘licensing’ business endeavors we’d find that the original purpose of requiring registration was to protect BOTH the public AND the EMPLOYEES from the, um, ‘less than honest’ entrepreneur.
What’s truly bizarre is how things like paid holidays, vacations and healthcare benefits were all, er, ‘extracted’ from employers AFTER the personal income tax rate was raised to 90%.
(Ironically, the logic WAS it’s better to give it to the employees than to hand it over to the government! But now that 'obstacle' has been removed…and we’re (society) right back to where we were before it was put in place!)
No irony should be lost on the fact that since ‘rolling back’ taxes on the wastrels at the top of our society , workers have suffered an endless stream of ‘grab-backs’. Most holidays are now unpaid and vacations are almost ‘extinct’, just as sick time and healthcare benefits have also disappeared!
Not that the ‘job creators’ have denied themselves ‘the good life’.
In fact, a huge part of our economic malaise is due directly to the wealthy being unable to spend it as fast as they, er,
Needless to say, if you shrink the economy down to where it only supports the mythical ‘one percent’ (it’s actually considerably less than that!) you’re in for some serious, er, ‘civil unrest’.
How can the stock markets (in the US) be hovering in the 12,700 range in light of how badly mis-managed US corporations are?
Incompetent and over-paid is NOT a recipe for a healthy society…
But (like most everything else) that’s not Their problem, it’s YOURS!
Thanks for letting me inside your head,
Gegner
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