Wall Street Kicks Off 2016 with a Faceplant
Jan 7, 2016 7:30:59 GMT -6
Nugget, Mystic Wanderer, and 1 more like this
Post by Rickster on Jan 7, 2016 7:30:59 GMT -6
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Often times I wonder if our economy is tied into China with the idea we have somewhat control over it as well as they do over the US. Think of it for a second, we are their largest consumer of goods manufactured in their country. If our economy is engineered to slow to a crawl while they have geared up to build cities for manufacturing, with housing for employees to handle supply the US has created in our economy we could very well have the ability to punish their government for its military threats there are doing now. Strategic? Somehow I can't imagine we are (The United States) that smart, but if a simple guy living in VA thinks of it, you have to wonder.
So in other words keep the money flowing for the major players while the little guy is losing ground with rising cost. This is a sure fire way to crash a economy intentional or not. Nothing in a economy like this is being built, bought, or manufactured. A economy built on investing won't last when there isn't anything being manufactured long term. In the end the little guy isn't working, buying, and building a long term financial basis for growth. It makes me wonder if this is the year we have over stepped our geopolitical manipulation of financial systems worldwide as Russia and China look towards removing the US from the dollar being the worlds reserve currency, and building their own financial clearing systems.
A pretty quick read of financial information from Global Research with worthwhile information.
Speaking of rising cost I am curious how "Obama Care" has affected everyone else's medical cost. This week we review several plans for health insurance, our current plan is going up yet again and is roughly $1800.00 a month with respectable co-pays and marginal medicine cost. 8 years ago I paid $340.00 for myself, since Obama Care the sky appears to be the limit.
"2016 started with a thud on Monday when news from China sent global stocks into freefall. The Shanghai index plunged 242 points before a system-wide circuit breaker kicked in and trading was halted. All three major US indices followed Asia’s downward slide with the Dow Jones leading the pack with a triple-digit loss on the day. The news that Chinese manufacturing continued to contract after ten straight months of erosion put the kibosh on any New Years rally as jittery traders dumped stocks at a pace not seen since 2011. The combination of dreary economic data, shrinking profits, dwindling capital investment, sub-par growth, and higher interest rates has put Wall Street in a foul mood foreshadowing a volatile and bumpy year ahead with little cause for celebration."
"While the proximate cause of the current turbulence is China’s flagging manufacturing sector, the underlying reasons are even more important, like the dismal state of the US economy which continues to languish in a long-term coma. Here’s a brief recap from economist Jack Rasmus at CounterPunch:
The real U.S. economy since 2008 has grown at only roughly half to two-thirds its normal rate. Decent paying jobs in manufacturing and construction today are still a million short of 2007 levels. Median wages for non-managers are still below what they were in 2007, and households are piling on new debt again to pay for rising medical costs, rents, autos, and education. Retail sales are slowing. Construction activity is only two-thirds what it was and U.S. manufacturing is contracting again. The gas-oil fracking industrial boom of 2012-2014 – a major source of growth – has ended this past year and mass layoffs in the hundreds of thousands are now occurring in mining, manufacturing and transport. Reflecting the true weakness of the U.S. economy, prices are slowing and are now at a historic low of 1.3 percent and heading lower, as the United States – like Japan and Europe – is drifting toward deflation. (“Central Banks Out of Control“, Jack Rasmus, CounterPunch)
Rasmus sums it up perfectly. The Fed’s zero rate stimulus has been a bust for everyone except the investor class which has raked in trillions off monetary programs that were designed to inflate bubbles while the real economy remains stuck in neutral. It’s particularly interesting that he mentions the “gas-oil fracking industrial boom of 2012-2014”, since virtually all the so-called credit expansion took place in this capital-intensive industry that is presently in severe crisis due to tumbling oil prices and reemerging deflation. Take a look at this chart on Warren Mosler’s excellent website “The Center of the Universe” that follows credit growth since 2001:"
The real U.S. economy since 2008 has grown at only roughly half to two-thirds its normal rate. Decent paying jobs in manufacturing and construction today are still a million short of 2007 levels. Median wages for non-managers are still below what they were in 2007, and households are piling on new debt again to pay for rising medical costs, rents, autos, and education. Retail sales are slowing. Construction activity is only two-thirds what it was and U.S. manufacturing is contracting again. The gas-oil fracking industrial boom of 2012-2014 – a major source of growth – has ended this past year and mass layoffs in the hundreds of thousands are now occurring in mining, manufacturing and transport. Reflecting the true weakness of the U.S. economy, prices are slowing and are now at a historic low of 1.3 percent and heading lower, as the United States – like Japan and Europe – is drifting toward deflation. (“Central Banks Out of Control“, Jack Rasmus, CounterPunch)
Rasmus sums it up perfectly. The Fed’s zero rate stimulus has been a bust for everyone except the investor class which has raked in trillions off monetary programs that were designed to inflate bubbles while the real economy remains stuck in neutral. It’s particularly interesting that he mentions the “gas-oil fracking industrial boom of 2012-2014”, since virtually all the so-called credit expansion took place in this capital-intensive industry that is presently in severe crisis due to tumbling oil prices and reemerging deflation. Take a look at this chart on Warren Mosler’s excellent website “The Center of the Universe” that follows credit growth since 2001:"
A pretty quick read of financial information from Global Research with worthwhile information.
Speaking of rising cost I am curious how "Obama Care" has affected everyone else's medical cost. This week we review several plans for health insurance, our current plan is going up yet again and is roughly $1800.00 a month with respectable co-pays and marginal medicine cost. 8 years ago I paid $340.00 for myself, since Obama Care the sky appears to be the limit.