Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Posts Tagged ‘finance’

Their Views On Our Future Prospects

Posted in Thoughts of the Day, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on July 15, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Their Views On Our Future Prospects

It seems there is no longer any attempt to maintain anything. It’s all being allowed to fall apart. The thinking appears to be highly short-term. There used to be consideration for both the short and the long term. Instead, there is this sense that everyone is trying to butcher the cash cow and get their share of the meat before it’s gone. There is the sense that people are trying to wring all the blood out of the middle class. But wringing the middle class out of its discretionary income through inflation and higher interest rates has long-term repercussions and I doubt the rich and the economists are too stupid to realize this. For example, what will the banks be left with if people can no longer afford to maintain their homes? A surefire way to ruin a house is to allow the roof to deteriorate. What will happen when the middle class can no longer afford to buy the goods from small businesses — the major, still existing employer of American citizens? Can they really not realize the domino effect that will ensue if they rid us of all our money? Or, is it they believe we are transitioning away from the economic paradigm we had all grown up with, and it will soon be replaced by one with extreme wealth coupled with extreme poverty? Where the majority work for no more than room and board — if we’re fortunate enough to afford even that much?

Read Full Post »

It’s Booming! Part 4: Those Pesky Prices!

Posted in Thoughts of the Day, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on June 3, 2024| Leave a Comment »

It’s Booming! Part 4: Those Pesky Prices!

The article, “Inflation is slowing. Here’s why prices still aren’t going down” by Charlotte Morabito, is about inflation and seeks to answer why prices aren’t going down. The author makes the following points: “Historical data suggests a key factor in bringing down prices is a slowdown in consumer spending. Despite nearly half of Americans reporting they’re in a worse financial situation than five years ago, they’re still spending. Retail sales were up 2.1% year over year in the first quarter of 2024 and consumer spending jumped in February and March.” (Morabito, 2024)
The article explains the difference between disinflation and deflation. Disinflation is when the rate of inflation growth is slowing down. Deflation is when the prices go down. “There’s an important difference between inflation increasing more slowly — a phenomenon called disinflation — and inflation reversing itself, which would lead to prices coming down. Economists call the latter deflation, which is typically associated with a shrinking economy and potential recessions.” (Morabito, 2024) So, the prices going downward is actually a bad thing? Good to know.

Apparently, they have a new term for those who have a problem with the higher prices: “money illusion.” ‘“This cycle is a concept called money illusion,” said Sabrina Romanoff, a clinical psychologist. “People with money illusion … don’t take into account the level of inflation in an economy,” she said. “So they wrongly believe that a dollar today is worth the same amount that it was the year prior.” ’ (Morabito, 2024)

Yes, it seems those of us who actually expected an improvement in their personal circumstances are suffering from some sort of mental syndrome. It reminds me of the term money dysmorphia in the Dickler article, which describes how some people don’t see how great they have it since they are too busy comparing themselves to others.

Now we are mentally questionable because we expected the higher interest rates to drive prices down.

Also of note in the article is the following: “Wage-increase data may also seem inconsistent with consumer experience. Wages have been rising since January 2022, but the pace of the increase has been slowing down and, on average, it is just keeping up with rising prices. An analysis from Bankrate estimates the gap between inflation and wages won’t fully close until the fourth quarter of 2024.” Once again we’re supposed to believe that it’s the rate of increase that matters, not the cumulative inflation increase in comparison to the current wage.

The fact is the article reinforces the theory that domestic demand is responsible for the inflation. Both the article and the prevailing theory coming from the woke media seem to ignore global demand, such as from China, for our resources; cuts in supply for things like food, energy, and housing; as well as the printing of money coupled with excessive spending by the federal government. Unless these issues are addressed, how can the inflation be resolved? Instead, the article’s author is content blaming the consumer for continuing to spend. What are they supposed to do, not eat? Not pay their rent? 

Their utilities? Where does this attitude we’re buying luxury (unnecessary) items come from? And what are we supposed to do, hope that people tap out of their credit and can’t pay their bills, so they’ll stop spending money? The implication from the article seems to be that that’s the only way we’ll see a reduction in prices. And one might conclude it’s the only way they’ll lower the interest rates on credit cards as well.

(Dickler, 2024)

Dickler, J. (2024, March 13). “Nearly half of young adults have ‘money dysmorphia,’ survey finds. Here are the symptoms.” CNBC. https://www.cnbc.com/2024/03/13/nearly-half-of-young-adults-have-money-dysmorphia-survey-finds.html

(Morabito, 2024)

Morabito, C. (2024, May 12). “Inflation is slowing. Here’s why prices still aren’t going down.” CNBC. https://www.cnbc.com/2024/05/12/inflation-is-slowing-heres-why-prices-still-arent-going-down.html

Read Full Post »

Inflation Caused by Government Spending, Supply Cuts, and Importation of Labor

Posted in Thoughts of the Day, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on May 30, 2024| Leave a Comment »

In the past, the general understanding of inflation was that the demand for a good or service exceeded the supply. The implication was that any increase in the supply of money was in the hands of the consumer. In this case, the money is in the hands of the government and whatever special interests and agendas it decides to fund. There is no generalized proportional increase in wages for the workers, despite what the media says.

Instead, they are bringing in cheap foreign labor to undercut already proportionately low wages. This is to prevent a wage-price spiral — where the corporations would be forced to pay higher labor costs to compensate for the increased cost of living. They say preventing a wage-price spiral is good for everyone, but in reality it’s mostly good for the corporations. Bringing in foreign labor doesn’t just freeze wages, it can also reduce them. It also manages to drive up demand, putting pressure on price inflation. The corporations are also using taxpayer dollars to subsidize the foreign labor workforce — pay for their housing, food, healthcare, education. The taxpayer is paying the social costs of these workers while the corporations are just reaping the benefits of the cheap labor. This is a fascist system.

Meanwhile, in economics ideal price is determined by a bell curve. At the center of the curve is a price sweet spot. Free market systems are interested in that sweet spot since it allows companies to maximize profit. It shows the intersection where demand plus price can yield the maximum profit. Increasing the price has a tendency to decrease demand while decreasing the price has the tendency to increase demand in most things. Any price above or below that ideal price will decrease the profit. But in the fascist ideologically based system, supply is being artificially cut in areas such as housing, food, and energy, so that corporate profits can be somewhat maintained — though not at the level they were at under the free market system.

This keeps demand artificially high in comparison to the supply. That way they can keep prices and profit high while providing less. In other words, people can’t live without food, even if they can’t pay for it. And the few who can pay will pay whatever they have to in order to be able to eat. By targeting inelastic goods — essential items — for supply cuts they can force people to pay more for the item and thereby partially compensate for the reduction in quantity sold.

There is no intention to supply the world’s population with what they need to survive.

That way they can starve out the general population of necessary resources while still reaping some profit in the bargain — a compromise between greed and ideological fervor — and well in keeping with depopulation goals.

Read Full Post »

It’s Booming! Part 1

Posted in Thoughts of the Day, tagged , , , , , on April 10, 2024| Leave a Comment »

It’s Booming! Part 1

4/10/24

There’s so much propaganda out there that the economy is booming! Funny, one of the only things I see booming is inflation. So, I’ve decided to dissect some of the woke propaganda articles on this and other common themes such as climate change from time to time. After all, pretty much all of these articles conveniently lack a comments section. Therefore, they get to mount their podium and lecture at you as though you are a mere school child and they are your not to be questioned or challenged professor. In other words, you are deprived of the ability to mount a response. I find his frustrating.

The article, “The strong U.S. job market is in a ‘sweet spot,’ economists say.”, makes the following points. Facts: “The U.S. economy added 303,000 jobs in March, the largest gain in more than a year, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said in its monthly jobs report.” (Iacurci, 2024) “The unemployment rate also edged lower, to 3.8%.” (Iacurci, 2024) Spin: “It’s a bit harder for workers to find jobs relative to the “great resignation” era a few years ago.” (Iacurci, 2024) “But overall, the labor market looks healthy and sustainable and is giving inflation-adjusted raises to the average worker, economists said.” (Iacurci, 2024) The author spins that the economy is making progress without “overheating” as it did during the “great resignation” era. It’s adding jobs, but not too many. The spin is this is good for both the economy and workers. According to the author’s spin, “employers are adding ample jobs to their payrolls, unemployment hovers near historical lows, and worker buying power (so-called “real” wage growth) is steadily rising, economists said.”

Facts: “Employers added 303,000 jobs to payrolls in March, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday. That’s the largest monthly gain since January 2023. Job growth in the first three months of 2024 — 274,000, on average — beats the 2019 pre-pandemic average by more than 100,000.” (Iacurci, 2024) “The U.S. unemployment rate declined to 3.8% in March, from 3.9% in February. Unemployment has been below 4% — a historically low mark — for more than two years.” (Iacurci, 2024) The author cites Julia Pollak, chief economist at ZipRecruiter who spins, “Those conditions are pushing employers to make “very attractive” offers to new hires and proactively recruit prospective candidates.” (Iacurci, 2024) The author mentions that, “The layoff rate has also been near a historic low for more than two years, as employers hang on to their current workforce.” (Iacurci, 2024) He fails to mention that the tech industry is experiencing severe layoffs. The author then goes on to blame the so-called hot labor market of 2021-2022 for contributing to the high inflation rate. The author admits that, “Wage growth has declined, to an annual 4.1% pace in March from a pandemic-era peak of 5.9% in March 2022, on average. But inflation has fallen more than that, which translates to an increase in household buying power since May 2023.” (Iacurci, 2024)

 “Real hourly earnings — wages after accounting for inflation — grew by 1.1% in February 2024 versus a year earlier.” (Iacurci, 2024) “While workers have lost some leverage, it’s still “relatively easy” to find a job and workers are now getting those inflation-adjusted raises,” Nick Bunker, economic research director for North America at job site Indeed said. (Iacurci, 2024)

The most misleading part of this article is that it’s dealing with rates of increase in wages as compared to rates of increase in inflation over a short period of time. Inflation damage is unfortunately cumulative. In the long term, wage increases consistently outstripping the rate of increase in inflation might make a noticeable difference to consumers. As it stands now, even if the trend continued, they are still contending with prices way too high as compared to their wages. It’s disingenuous for the author and his commenters to ignore the fact that our real wage is still dreadfully inadequate compared to the current cost of living. At best they can say that there has been a sign of improvement they can cite. Instead, they imply that the consumer can go out to their local store and buy more than they could a short while ago. That is wrong. I also think it’s premature to act as though the inflation crisis is over.

(Iacurci, 2024)

Iacurci, G. (2024, April 5). “The strong U.S. job market is in a ‘sweet spot,’ economists say.” CNBC. https://www.cnbc.com/2024/04/05/the-strong-us-job-market-is-in-a-sweet-spot-economists-say.html

Read Full Post »

Whose Money Is It Again?

Posted in Thoughts of the Day, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on March 11, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Whose Money Is It Again?

It’s pretty clear to me that one of the major reasons people vote for big government spenders is that they are hoping to get a slice of the pie for themselves. It can be overwhelming when the propagandists get to talking about trillions of dollars. It feels as though there is a limitless supply of money to be had. But in actuality, there couldn’t possibly be.

I noticed that they sold out our industrial base in the 1990s. I figure that’s largely why Millennials and Gen Z have very few career opportunities that require a college degree now. Those jobs were given away before many of them were born. I realized that a college degree would have a limited payoff attached to it when the 2000s came upon us. But there were still some careers worth having then — that were still worth the college price tag — if you had the talent to separate yourself from the pack. But that’s not the case so much anymore. What we seem to have left are largely unskilled labor jobs. And they are currently flooding those mostly service jobs with labor from other countries. This, of course, will drive up prices for goods like food while suppressing wages. Meanwhile, the service industry is liable to take a hit with the inflation and interest rate hikes eroding the discretionary income of the lower and middle classes. Isn’t that likely to reduce even the unskilled service jobs? Also, the wages aren’t likely to increase if labor is being brought in to compete with domestic workers. This wouldn’t be so distressing if our cost of living weren’t so disproportionately out of sync with our income. And it seems clear that we US citizens aren’t welcome to just go to countries with better jobs or lower costs of living. American citizens are tied to the land. We are not allowed to follow the jobs to other countries. This apparently isn’t the case for citizens of other countries in regards to the United States.

And as an aside, what brought about the re-evaluation of house values that drastically increased the cost of houses not just in regional hot spots but all across the country? Since we middle/lower classes actually have to live in our houses then anything we gain by the price hike will likely be taken away at the other end.

Anyway, we are being told the inflation is due to an increase in domestic demand. But how can that be? If the prices were just a matter of domestic demand, then how can they exceed the amount people are able to pay? I’ve heard that some facets of the economy such as social media and tech companies had been paying quite a bit. But enough to inflate the entire economy? What did these people with substantial incomes do? Start eating copious amounts of food? I doubt that. It seems more likely to me that the inflation is a result of government overspending, competition with wealthier nations such as China, and supply restrictions.

And by the way, when the government overspends the money it isn’t being reinvested in the United States. They begrudge spending the money on us. East Palestine, Ohio and the fire in Maui demonstrated that.

No, we are supposed to fund our own disaster relief with our nonexistent discretionary incomes. We are supposed to pay for our own security now that they’ve defunded the police. When they mandate prohibitively expensive furnaces we have to buy those. (“Biden Announces Restrictions on Gas Furnaces,” 2023) These mandated furnaces are also not as highly rated as the former models. Meanwhile, they are too busy spending the collective funds of the United States, which had allowed the middle and lower classes to live an acceptable standard of living without having to be wealthy, on their own agendas (which also happens to be the agendas of the globalists) to bother with our welfare. If our society, infrastructure, and services deteriorate, we will just have to suck it up. Safety, what’s that? Hygiene? That’s not necessary — not for us anyway. Luxuries like those are only meant for the people who can afford them — so says the people who rule over us with their mansions and private jets.

Biden Announces Restrictions on Gas Furnaces. (2023, October 3). IER. https://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/regulation/biden-announces-restrictions-on-gas-furnaces/

Read Full Post »