Americans' Lousy #Jobs Grow - NO Raises?

Lousy Jobs Grow -So What? 

Even with strong jobs growth, wages slipped in February. After a 12-cent gain in February, average hourly earnings declined by 3 cents, and they’ve grown by just 2.2 percent over the last year.

In all, figures can be misleading and fail to tell  the real story leading to the decline o f the middle class

Blockbuster Job Growth Still Isn’t Turning Into Big Raises For American Workers

The economy added 242,000 jobs in January while the unemployment rate stayed unchanged at 4.9 percent, according to the latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Analysts had expected 190,000 jobs to be added.

That maintains the lowest unemployment rate in 2008. The number of jobs added in December of last year was revised up by 9,000, while January was revised up by 21,000. With revisions included, the economy has been adding jobs at a 228,000 average monthly pace, matching the pace of growth in 2015. The labor force participation rate and employment-population ratio both edged up in February, signs that more people are joining the labor force and seeking jobs.

Job gains were concentrated in health care and social assistance (57,000), retail (55,000), food service and drinking places (40,000), private education services (28,000), and construction (19,000). Retail has added 339,000 jobs over the last year, while food and drinking places have added 359,000.

Even with strong jobs growth, wages slipped in February. After a 12-cent gain in February, average hourly earnings declined by 3 cents, and they’ve grown by just 2.2 percent over the last year.

http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2016/03/04/3756584/jobs-february-2016/

The Revolt Begins: German Banking Association Tells Members To Start Hoarding Bills  

Cheap money encourages risky behavior. It gives banks an incentive to give ‘no money down’ loans to homeless people with no employment history.

It creates bubbles (like the housing bubble from 10 years ago), and ultimately, financial panics (like the banking crisis from 8 years ago). Banks are supposed to be conservative, responsible managers of other people’s money.

Here Come The SDR Bonds  

This one statement provides the largest validation yet for POM readers that we are in fact on the correct course with this thesis. What isn’t clear in the statement is whether July is the deadline for the report to be presented, or when the broader use of the SDR should begin. Considering the time it takes to decide on changes and implement them, it would be my interpretation that it is only the report which is meant to be completed by July.

"Democracy Ends In Turkey": Prominent Anti-Erdogan Newspaper Seized In Midnight Raid  

The details: shortly before midnight, a team of police arrived with two Turkish-made TOMA water cannon trucks. They advanced military style towards the waiting supporters, firing the freezing water directly at them. Using bolt-cutters to unlock the iron gate in front of the building, dozens of police then marched into the premises to seize the headquarters and formally place it under administration, pushing aside anyone who stood in their way, Cihan images showed.

Debtor  Days Are  Over as BIS  Calls  Time on World  Credit  Binge 

T

he world’s credit boom is beginning to show dangerous signs of unraveling, ushering in a period of fresh turmoil for the over-indebted global economy, the Bank of International Settlements has warned. 

The globe’s top financial watchdog called time on the world’s debt binge, noting that debt issuance and cross border flows in emerging economies slowed for the first time since the aftermath of the global credit crunch at the end of last year.

• Debts, defaults and devaluation - why this market crash could be like nothing we've seen

With financial markets thrown into fresh paroxysms in 2016, oscillating between extremes of “hope and fear”, the over-leveraged world was finally approaching a day of reckoning, said Claudio Borio, the bank's chief economist.

•  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2016/03/04/debtor-days-are-over-as-bis-calls-time-on-world-credit-binge/

www.firstfinancialinsights.blogspot.com

No Doubt FED Is Manipulating Inflation Numbers, & More #News

Platinum Wealth Partners' Insights

Any serious investor who believes that the CPI numbers (etc.) created by governments everywhere are real and accurate is the sort of bigger fool everyone is looking for - to support  many ventures. Now, sooner or later, the markets are going to wake up to  this reality,inclusive of  China, to Greece to Brazil and  the USA, plus many more - and then watch the proverbial "you-know-what ' hit the fan.

In turn, the spin doctors and other Pinocchios will be fully employed in very secure long-term activities as they seek to baffle the feeble-minded towards ratification and consumption. So yes, Eric Sprott is right.- so Is Noam Chomsky; so was John Steinbeck..

Never forget Arthur Anderson, Enron , China the Fed. and all the rest. For as always, remember this utter wisdom -  figures lie, only because liars figure. 

Beware, and good luck!

August 31, 2015

Eric Sprott Was Right, Inflation Is Rising

Eric showed the above table in his presentation. It shows that the true level of inflation, a persistent increase in prices, has been sitting around 10% since 2011. Indeed, a far worse picture than what the US Federal Reserve paints. The Fed argues that prices have been rising below 2% for the past four years. That said, the Fed doesn’t include food, petrol and taxes in its inflation index. This is similar to the Reserve Bank of Australia’s inflation calculation.

But then who needs petrol and food, right?

So it’s not surprising that Jim Rickard’s, over at Strategic Intelligence, argues that there’s no worse forecaster in the world than the US Fed.

You may have noticed each year that Australian healthcare companies raise their premiums by roughly 6%. Well, costs are also rising over in the US.

I’ve been speaking to many US citizens up here at the conference. The word on the street is that Obamacare is one of the worst policies of all time. It’s legally forced those who can’t afford health care to buy; at the same time, hiking insurance premiums for those who require modest healthcare.

And it’s only going to get worse…

Optimistic About Inflation, Stanley 

Fischer Suggests

 That Fed Will Stick to Plan on Rates

The Fed’s preferred measure of inflation shows that prices rose 0.3 percent during the 12 months ending in July, well below the 2 percent annual pace the Fed considers healthy. A narrower measure excluding food and oil prices, which the Fed regards as more predictive, increased 1.2 percent over that same period.

Printing Money Goes Haywire in Venezuela 

Venezuela seems to be hovering on the edge of tipping into hyperinflation. Or perhaps it has already fallen into the abyss. Given the paucity of official data -- the none-too-believable official figures were last published in February -- it's a little hard to tell.

China Construction Bank Posts Zero Profit Growth on Weak Economy 

Industrial overcapacity, a build-up of corporate debt and a $5 trillion stock-market slump are making it harder for Premier Li Keqiang to prevent a deeper economic slowdown. The combined earnings of China’s five biggest banks are projected to rise 2 percent this year, the least since at least 2004, according to analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

The Coddling of the American Mind 

There’s a saying common in education circles: Don’t teach students what to think; teach them how to think. The idea goes back at least as far as Socrates. Today, what we call the Socratic method is a way of teaching that fosters critical thinking, in part by encouraging students to question their own unexamined beliefs, as well as the received wisdom of those around them. Such questioning sometimes leads to discomfort, and even to anger, on the way to understanding.

Bond Market Explosion Not Stoppable: Craig Hemke 

What I really worry about is that transition from one financial scheme to the next is never done peacefully. The hegemon that has the printing press, that has the reserve currency, they don’t just sit back and say we’ve had our time in the sun. Now it’s your turn. No, they fight as hard as they can to protect and defend that. That’s my biggest concern.

Lies You Will Hear As The

 Economic Collapse 

Progresses

It is undeniable; the final collapse triggers are upon us, triggers alternative economists have been warning about since the initial implosion of 2008. In the years since the derivatives disaster, there has been no end to the absurd and ludicrous propaganda coming out of mainstream financial outlets and as the situation in markets becomes worse, the propaganda will only increase. This might seem counter-intuitive to many. You would think that the more obvious the economic collapse becomes, the more alternative analysts will be vindicated and the more awake and aware the average person will be. Not necessarily...

 

In fact, the mainstream spin machine is going into high speed the more negative data is exposed and absorbed into the markets. If you know your history, then you know that this is a common tactic by the establishment elite to string the public along with false hopes so that they do not prepare or take alternative measures while the system crumbles around their ears. At the onset of the Great Depression the same strategies were used. Consider if you've heard similar quotes to these in the mainstream news over the past couple months:

A Passing Thought...

Financial Advice Fails - As Everybody Becomes Poorer, & More #News

Real Household Net Worth:

 Look Out Below?

In my last post I pointed out that over the last half century, every time the year-over-year change in Real Household Net Worth went negative (real household wealth decreased), a recession had either started, or was about to.  (One bare exception: a tiny decline in Q4 2011, which looks rather like turbulence following The Big Whatever.) Throughout, click for source. - 

The problem: we don’t see this quarterly number until three+ months after the end of a quarter, when the Fed releases its Z.1 report for the the preceding quarter. The Q2 2015 report is due September 18.

But right now we might be able to roughly predict what we’re going to see four+ months from now, in the report on our current quarter, Q3, which ends September 30. We’re a bit over a month from the end the quarter, and we have some numbers to hand.

The U.S. equity markets are down roughly 7% year-over-year

South Africa's economy contracts, risk of recession grows

PRETORIA (Reuters) - South Africa's economy shrank for the first time in more than a year during the second quarter of 2015, raising the risk that labour disputes and slowing Chinese demand for commodities could push it towards recession.

The economic strain will inhibit the central bank from raising rates further to protect a weak currency and target inflation, while also torpedoing government efforts to keep deficits in check and protect its credit ratings.

EU’s Migrant Crisis

A record 107,500 migrants crossed the EU borders last month to outstrip the previous monthly record in June of 70,000. During the first seven months there were nearly 340,000 migrants, up from 123,500 last year,

Warring Migrant Tribes, Grenade Attacks…What Is Going On In Sweden?

if you bring intolerant people into your country this is what can happen

Immigrants in Germany swell to record high 11 

million

 Information and Communication Technologies is radically changing the world

Not only how we deal with the world and make sense of it, or interact with each other, but also how we look at ourselves and understand our own nature, existence, and responsibilities. 

This is the IT version of my book The Great Field (available in Kindle books).

$2.1 Trillion Erased From U.S.Stocks In Six Days

The enormous losses reflect the deep fears gripping markets about how the world economy will fare amid a deepening economic slowdown in China.

The Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq have all tumbled into correction territory, their first such 10% decline from a recent high since 2011.

The S&P 500 -- the best barometer for the biggest U.S. companies -- has lost trillions of market value in the six-day selloff through Tuesday, according to S&P Dow Jones Indices.

To put those losses into perspective, that's roughly equal to the combined market value of these corporate titans put together:

 Apple (AAPL, Tech30), Google(GOOGL, Tech30), Berkshire Hathaway (BRKA), ExxonMobil (XOM), Facebook (FB, Tech30), Walmart(WMT) and 21st Century Fox (FOXA).

Learning Success: 

APPLY Tips From The Best

Sir Richard Branson, Virgin Group – Anyone who owns more than 400 companies and is worth billions of dollars is clearly doing many things right. I admire Richard Branson’s tenacity, and I admire his personal brand