Thread: ECONOMY IN A DEATH SPIRAL #2

The jobless rate rose, however, to 8.3 percent from 8.2 percent in June. Romney jumped on the report, calling the figures a "hammer blow" to middle-class families.

"We've now gone 42 consecutive months with the unemployment rate above 8 percent," Romney said in a statement. "Middle-class Americans deserve better, and I believe America can do better."

No U.S. president since World War II has been re-elected with unemployment over 8 percent. Jobs report presents mixed blessing for Obama - Yahoo! Finance

Global stocks have been rallying in recent weeks, climbing a "wall of worry" and confounding the bears, leading a number of strategists to warn the rally is unlikely to last and investors should remain cautious.

"I think we're in choppy waters and that continues. You've got to remember to sell if you own the stock market now," Charlie Morris, Head of Absolute Return at HSBC Global Asset Management told CNBC Europe's "Squawk Box" on Wednesday.

Morris says with bad news on the global economy over the past year, the market had "tried to collapse", but with so many people short stocks, the conditions hadn't been ripe. That, he says, could change after the current rally ends.

[B]"You need to trip the market to have a proper collapse. So you almost need to set it up with a rally, get everyone excited and then it can fall," [/B]Morris said. "If there are risks, the risks to a very negative market come after this rally fades."

Market Rally Just a Set-Up for a Bigger 'Collapse'? - Yahoo! Finance

A fine collection of crooks, and,no doubt just the tip of the iceberg..Peregrine filed for bankruptcy protection on July 10, one day after Wasendorf Sr attempted suicide and left a note describing how he had stolen from customers for nearly 20 years.

The collapse of what was once a mid-sized futures brokerage has dealt a blow to confidence in the futures industry, coming less than a year after MF Global Holdings Ltd's bankruptcy, which left customers with a $1.6 billion shortfall and is still being investigated.

The CFTC has said Wasendorf Sr misappropriated more than $200 million in customer funds.

His former customers are baying for blood.

"He should rot in a prison cell, like Bernie Madoff," said Ronald Riehm, a coin dealer from Johnston, Iowa, who has $51,000 tied up at the firm. "He lived for 18 and a half years a life of luxury on stolen money. I have no sympathy for him whatsoever."

Ponzi schemer Bernard Madoff, 74, pleaded guilty in March 2009 and is serving a 150-year sentence in a North Carolina federal prison. Peregrine CEO indicted for lying to regulators - Yahoo! Finance

"It just seems as though the people that own these firms feel that they're playing with monopoly money," said James Cordier, principal and founder of Liberty Trading Group, noting that MF Global CEO Jon Corzine has not been charged with any wrongdoing...Well, why not? Big shot jew Corzine, former U.S. senator, former Governor TOO BIG a fish to fail, too big to reel in.

Weasels guarding the chicken coop!When JPMorgan Chase needed to hire a lawyer in May of this year to advise the bank on how to respond to regulatory probes into its multi-billion-dollar "London Whale" loss, it turned to William McLucas.

The general counsel of JPMorgan Chase (JPM) - then and now-is Stephen Cutler. Both men worked together at the law firm Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr before Cutler left for the bank in 2007.

But it was another connection that raised some eyebrows: both McLucas and Cutler are former heads of the enforcement division of the Securities and Exchange Commission. (See: What the SEC Is and Does)

For as long as any one can remember, there has been a lot of concern among self-styled "watchdogs" about the movement of officials between the SEC and the businesses it regulates or the law firms that represent those businesses.
The Truth About the SEC and Wall Street - Yahoo! Finance

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway ended its five-year bullish bet on the municipal bond market, disclosing in a recent quarterly filing that the Ohama, Neb., company canceled $8.25 billion worth of credit-default swaps that insured its muni-bond market wager, The Wall Street Journal reports. The Journal said it was unclear whether Buffett's decision resulted in a profit or a loss and the 81-year-old Buffett declined to comment about the early termination of the contracts.

Does Warren Buffett's exit from the municipal bond market portend more financial hardships for struggling U.S. states and cities?Buffett's move may very well signal his fear that more cash-strapped cities, states and municipalities will default on their debt, as The Daily Ticker's Aaron Task and Henry Blodget discuss in the accompanying video. Local authorities have been making severe budget cuts (affecting both personnel and services) over the past two years to stave off bankruptcy but many are still short on funds.

Buffett

Everyday brings a new scandal,everyday,the sun goes down witout any crooks being punished with jail time. Disgusting state of affairs. We need change but, the GOP has shut Ron Paul out,and the Obama regime & MSM are a pack of fools. .................................................. .................................................L ured in by the promise of free lunches, big-cash prizes and high-yield investments, seniors are losing big money to bogus financial schemes and bad advice.


On average, seniors who become victims of financial abuse lose an estimated $140,500, according to a survey of 2,649 financial planners conducted by the nonprofit organization Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards.
More than half of the financial planners surveyed said they have worked with a senior -- or multiple seniors -- who has been a victim of "unfair, deceptive or abusive practices," such as misleading marketing schemes and other scams that end up draining their bank account.


No such thing as a free lunch: One of the most common scams targeting seniors are "free lunch" seminars. Typically marketed as educational presentations, these seminars entice older attendees with the promise of a free meal.

Senior victims lose average of $104,500 to financial abuse - Yahoo! Finance

The middle class is BROKE! Glad they just figured that out how is that jobless recovery working out for you america? Consumer based economy? With what money? Where is all the loot coming from to drive wallstreet? The little trolls dance around their stack of gold, while women and children live in vans or, worse. The trolls have no soul..jmho. ...................................... One of the most important stories in the U.S. economy these days is the rise of extreme inequality.

Over the past 30 years, a larger and larger portion of America's income growth has gone to those in the top 10% of incomes, and especially those in the top 1%. This is a major change from the prior 60 years, in which the top 10% and the bottom 90% shared in the income gains.

A stark and startling example of this trend is the fact that, adjusted for inflation, "average hourly earnings" in this country have not increased in 50 years.

[Related: The 'American Dream' Is a Myth: Joseph Stiglitz on 'The Price of Inequality']

A recent Pew study confirms that America's middle class has recently experienced a "lost decade."

Since 2000, the Pew says, "the middle class has shrunk in size, fallen backward in income and wealth, and shed some—but by no means all—of its characteristic faith in the future." Pew cites statistics showing that middle class earnings and net worth have plummeted since the mid-2000s and that about 85% of the middle class say it is harder to maintain their standard of living than it was 10 years ago.

The reason the decline of the middle class is important is not just about fairness. It's about the health of the economy as a whole.

The Middle Class Is Broke: Pew Study Reveals Real Problem With Economy | Daily Ticker - Yahoo! Finance

A return to the gold standard? That would mean a finite supply of dollars and an end to the monopoly money. The wallstreet trolls, would be shut down,and, you can bet they are already seeking ways to stop this idea...Is gold money? Some Republicans think it should be.


The Republican Party is considering setting up a commission to examine the pros and cons of going back to the gold standard, according to draft documents of the party platform.


The official party platform won't be decided until Monday, but a Republican National Committee spokeswoman confirmed the draft language to CNNMoney.


The commission harkens back to the early 1980s, when President Ronald Reagan set up a Gold Commission with the same intention. Only two members of the 17-member commission endorsed a return to the gold standard. One of them was Rep. Ron Paul, who remains an avid gold supporter.


"Now, three decades later, as we face the task of cleaning up the wreckage of the current Administration's policies, we propose a similar commission to investigate possible ways to set a fixed value for the dollar," the new proposal says.
It's highly unlikely the United States would actually return to the gold standard. The country first moved away from the gold standard in 1933, and dropped it altogether in 1971. Despite support for its return by some on the political right, few mainstream economists support its reinstatement.

Republicans eye a return to gold standard - Yahoo! Finance

Luis A. Aguilar, one of five members of the Securities and Exchange Commission, is generally known as one of its strongest advocates for tougher oversight of the securities industry. In public statements this year, he has pushed his S.E.C. colleagues to be more aggressive, contending that the commission was not protecting investors assiduously enough.A Regulator

But last week, Mr. Aguilar derailed one of the most significant current efforts to tighten regulations on the financial industry. His opposition to a proposal put forward by the S.E.C. chairwoman, Mary L. Schapiro, which was intended to improve the safety and soundness of a popular investment, money market mutual funds, put Mr. Aguilar in lock step with the powerful and aggressive mutual fund industry in which he worked as a lawyer from 1994 to 2002. Mr. Aguilar’s decision to oppose Ms. Schapiro’s plan last week became the third and deciding S.E.C. vote against the proposal... You see America, they have lackey's everywhere to protect the ponzi scheme known as wallstreet. I have often wondered if the money mkt.
funds were being used to play the casino and, if that is the case,it is like playing with fire,highly illegal as well since, MM funds are supposed to be safe havens.

Federal reserve fear hostile actionIncreasing political encroachment on the Federal Reserve, particularly from the Republican Party, could threaten the central bank's hard-won independence and undermine confidence in the nearly 100-year old institution.

That was the pervasive sentiment among economists gathered at the Fed's annual monetary policy symposium in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Against the dramatic backdrop of the Grand Teton mountain, many said a closely-contested presidential race has turned the monetary authority into a political football.

"I do fear for it a bit if the election comes out that way, especially if some of the more radical voices, that happen to be Republican voices nowadays, get reelected," said Alan Blinder, Princeton economics professor and a former Fed vice chairman, adding that historically opposition to the U.S. central bank had come predominately from the left.

"There's a lot of hostility," said Blinder, who was appointed to the Fed by former president Bill Clinton. At Jackson Hole, a growing fear for Fed independence - Yahoo! Finance

Getting worse by the minute. Jobless recovery? What the hell is that? Pure bovine manure. Service based economy? what the hell is that?..garbage in/ garbage out! The number of Americans on food stamps hit a record high in June, and economists don't expect much improvement as long as unemployment remains high.

Those receiving benefits through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program numbered 46.37 million, the government said in a report that hit just days ahead of the monthly nonfarm payrolls report, which the Labor Department releases Friday.

The two numbers are inextricably linked as the economy battles its way back from the crippling recession that the National Bureau of Economic Research says ended in 2009.

"The unemployment data is not really telling us the true story of how many people are underemployed," says Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Rockwell Global Capital in New York. Food stamps are "a good indication of how the income of the workforce has stagnated and more and more people are applying for food stamps."Record 46 Million Americans on Food Stamps - Yahoo! Finance

Coterie of international banksters, causing mental illness,depression and suicide amongst the masses..Europe is approaching a crisis as the region's debt crisis and austerity measures increase the rates of depression, suicide and psychological problems - just as governments cut healthcare spending by up to 50 percent, according to campaigners, policy makers and health organizations.

A growing number of global and European health bodies are warning that the introduction and intensification of austerity measures has led to a sharp rise in mental health problems with suicide rates, alcohol abuse and requests for anti-depressants increasing as people struggle with the psychological cost of living through a European-wide recession.

"No one should be surprised that factors such as unemployment, debt and relationship breakdowns can cause bouts of mental illness and may push people who are already vulnerable to take their own lives," Richard Colwill, of the British mental health charity Sane, told CNBC. "There does appear to be a connection between unemployment rates and suicide for example," he said, referring to a recent study in the British Medical Journal that stated that more than 1,000 people in the U.K. may have killed themselves because of the impacts of the recession. "This research reflects other work showing similar rises in suicides across Europe."

Mental Illness Rises as Euro Debt Crisis Intensifies - Yahoo! Finance

I agree that things on the economic front are not well, and in fact, much worse than our government and the media would have us know.

I think no matter who gets into the White House, they won't be able to sacrifice their sacred cows in order to get this nations fiscal mess back in order.

We know that the U.S. has got to get out of these wars that are costing us dearly. Where's all the cheap oil that we were supposed to get out of Iraq, and that was supposed to be used to pay for the war? Just look at the hundreds of millions of dollars being spend by the Department of Veterans Affairs as a result of these wars!

But the GOP won't cut Defense, or any number of Departments like Education and HUD that true Conservatives should despise, no more than the Liberals will cut welfare and such things as 'Diversity' programs, just to name a few items that could be slashed to the bone, if not eliminated entirely.

Our nation is in a steep decline, this is for sure, and the powers that be can only BS the people just so long before they start getting restless and start going into a panic mode such as we've seen in Greece. Except in the United States, it would probably be even worse because of the large heathen population we have.

Places like Zimbabwe (Formerly Rhodesia), South Africa, Greece, Spain and the EU overall are weather vanes that show our social, political, and economic future.

Originally Posted by Black Jack Pershing

Places like Zimbabwe (Formerly Rhodesia), South Africa, Greece, Spain and the EU overall are weather vanes that show our social, political, and economic future.

Right on target Black Jack...The fiscal cliff looms large and, you can bet if Obama gets back in and the GOP controls the house and, or the senate, you will see hatred and gridlock like never before. Ergo, the fiscal cliff will not be fixed and, the nation will crash over the edge in January 2013...Here is a cheerful piece of news(just kidding)...According to this morning's report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate for August fell to 8.1% compared to 8.3% in July. If you like your news positive and grossly oversimplified stop reading now; the details on the report are hideous.

Consider:

•Nonfarm Payroll Employment rose by 96k compared to estimates of 125k - 130k and a far cry from the average growth of 139k in 2012. Last year the average monthly gain was 153k.
•July's NFP number was revised lower from 163k to 141k.
•The greatest gains came from the food services and drinking sector. In other words, from waiting tables or bartending. These are some of the most brutal, lowest paying jobs extant.
•The labor force participation rate fell to 63.5%, the lowest read in over 30 years. When this number goes down so does the stated unemployment rate. To get to 8.1% unemployment, 368,000 Americans had to drop out of the labor force.
No matter what you hear or read elsewhere, America's job picture is getting worse. Much, much worse. My Breakout co-host Matt Nesto and I discuss the report in the attached clip.

Starting with the participation rate, Nesto notes that "almost 400,000 people dropped out, just gave up" looking for work in August. For each one-tenth of one percent improvement in the unemployment rate, 184,000 Americans had to become quitters. Why a Drop in the Unemployment Rate Is Tragic | Breakout - Yahoo! Finance

According to Gallup over the last week Americans love the job Obama is doing. On August 30th Obama was at 43% approve/48% dissaprove. Today he is at 52% approve/ 43% disapprove. A 14% favorablity swing in 7 days.

Amazing what a federal lawsuit can do for one's favorablity ratings. DOJ sues Gallup polling firm - August 22, 2012

This is easily the most corrupt administration in history. Using the DOJ as a weapon, to ensure nothing bad is said about this fraud in the W.H. ...Jim Rogers says there will be a heavy price to pay for all this fraud on the economic front:A "terrible price" will be paid for the euro zone crisis eventually, whether the European Central Bank (ECB) embarks on mass bond purchases or not, Jim Rogers, investor and co-founder of the Quantum Fund with George Soros, told CNBC Monday.

Rogers said: "These guys have been saying the same old garbage for a long time. It's not a game-changer - it's good for the market for maybe a month. The debt keeps going higher and higher and eventually we'll all going to pay a terrible price." He warned that the market rally, which many have seen as an opportunity to get back into riskier assets, would only be a short-term rebound. (Read More: ECB Setting Markets Up for Let-Down)

"It's not an opportunity to make money for me. This is not good for the market and it's not going to last. Every three or four months they (euro (EUR) zone politicians) have a summit and they say: Ok guys, everything is ok now. The market goes up. But we're getting a little tired of this and the market is getting a little tired of this," Rogers argued. (Read More: ECB Plan Comes Too Late)


There should be some opportunity to make money in the short term, Peter Toogood, director of investment, Old Broad Street Research, said.

"There is a little window for risk trade - not a sustainable one, but there's some stability to the short-term outlook," he argued. He pointed out that ECB President Mario Draghi "has already been expanding the balance sheet through disguises."

Euro Zone Will Pay 'Terrible Price': Jim Rogers - Yahoo! Finance

The Federal Reserve is talking about “unlimited QE,” or money printing, to boost employment. Economist John Williams says, “That’s absolutely nonsense. The Fed is just propping up the banks.” Williams says, “You’re likely going to see a dollar sell-off . . . That should evolve into hyperinflation.” Williams, “Doesn’t see the current system holding together without hyperinflation beyond 2014.” He contends the real annual deficit is “$5 trillion per year” and says, “That’s beyond containment.”
Williams predicts, “Hyperinflation is virtually assured because the Fed doesn’t have any options left.” Williams says people should get prepared because we are facing a “man-made disaster.” Join Greg Hunter as he goes One-on-One with John Williams of Shadowstats.com.