So, the Maestro gives a pronouncement.
Good pep talk, buddy.
Nice way to rally the troops on their march to 2016!
Happy New Year! PB
----
From Bloomberg.com:
Just when you thought the U.S. economy was roaring back to health, Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan is here to tell you otherwise.
“The U.S. is doing better than anybody else, but we’re still not doing all that well,” Greenspan, 88, said today in an interview on Bloomberg Television’s “In the Loop” with Betty Liu.
“We still have a very sluggish economy.”
Greenspan said the economy won’t fully recover until American companies invest more in productive assets and the housing market bounces back.
“Almost all of the weakness in the last four, five, six years has been in long-lived investments” in capital goods and real estate, Greenspan said.
“Until these pick up, we’re not going to get the kind of vibrant growth that everyone is hoping for.”
----
Link: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-12-30/greenspan-throws-a-wet-blanket-on-hopes-for-u-s-growth-breakout.html
Wednesday, December 31, 2014
Tuesday, December 30, 2014
UPS, FedEx "dimensional prices" - small U.S. firms may pay more
Imagine all the big boxes packing small items. Try shipping them.
They don't weigh much - so that shouldn't cost too much. Right?
Wrong. Size that takes up extra space - in addition to weight - is going to be charged more.
FedEx and UPS has hinted at this in the past year or two.
Big box, small product: can no longer get away with paying less. PB
----
From Reuters via Yahoo.com:
United Parcel Service Inc and FedEx Corp are rolling out new pricing systems to curb online retailers' large package sizes, but industry experts warn many small firms are unprepared and could pay up to 50 percent more for shipping.
Starting Monday, UPS will no longer charge for U.S. ground packages under 3 cubic feet by weight but by their "dimensional weight."
Memphis-based FedEx will roll out the same change on Jan 5.
Instead of simply weighing a box, retailers must multiply its length by its height and width, and then divide that by 166 to reach its dimensional weight.
"We believe this (dimensional weight pricing) will encourage customers to reduce their package sizes," Bill Smith, UPS vice president of marketing, told Reuters.
UPS and FedEx announced the change in May and have worked to help customers adjust.
But some small firms lack the resources to change packaging and may switch to the U.S. Postal Service...
Under the new systems ... a woman's shoulder bag weighing 2 pounds – shipped in a box measuring 19 by 15 by 5 inches - will have a dimensional weight of 9 pounds and cost 45 percent more to ship.
Atlanta-based UPS says retailers are shipping lighter goods, but have not shrunk the size of their packaging materials...
----
Link:
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/small-u-firms-may-struggle-191349699.html
They don't weigh much - so that shouldn't cost too much. Right?
Wrong. Size that takes up extra space - in addition to weight - is going to be charged more.
FedEx and UPS has hinted at this in the past year or two.
Big box, small product: can no longer get away with paying less. PB
----
From Reuters via Yahoo.com:
United Parcel Service Inc and FedEx Corp are rolling out new pricing systems to curb online retailers' large package sizes, but industry experts warn many small firms are unprepared and could pay up to 50 percent more for shipping.
Starting Monday, UPS will no longer charge for U.S. ground packages under 3 cubic feet by weight but by their "dimensional weight."
Memphis-based FedEx will roll out the same change on Jan 5.
Instead of simply weighing a box, retailers must multiply its length by its height and width, and then divide that by 166 to reach its dimensional weight.
"We believe this (dimensional weight pricing) will encourage customers to reduce their package sizes," Bill Smith, UPS vice president of marketing, told Reuters.
UPS and FedEx announced the change in May and have worked to help customers adjust.
But some small firms lack the resources to change packaging and may switch to the U.S. Postal Service...
Under the new systems ... a woman's shoulder bag weighing 2 pounds – shipped in a box measuring 19 by 15 by 5 inches - will have a dimensional weight of 9 pounds and cost 45 percent more to ship.
Atlanta-based UPS says retailers are shipping lighter goods, but have not shrunk the size of their packaging materials...
----
Link:
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/small-u-firms-may-struggle-191349699.html
Sunday, December 28, 2014
WSJ: Oil Jobs Squeezed as Prices Plummet
Markets wax and wane; jobs inflate and go away.
2 Buck Chuck now works a second job at the corner gas station.
Oh, have you noticed that gas prices have plummeted?
The biggest reason for that is Saudi Arabia decided to open the spigots and flood oil into the world market.
Why did they do that? To punish bad Iran and bad boy Putin in Russia - and send a message everywhere else including the American heartland.
But, as oil prices plummet, so will the jobs in the oil industry.
As those jobs decline, will the media continue to celebrate this underachieving economy that punishes the middle class job seeker?
You decide! See the comment below: "People will quit making $150,000 a year for $25,000-a-year skills." PB
----
From the Wall Street Journal online:
U.S. oil and gas companies have been an engine of growth through much of an otherwise lackluster economic expansion, providing steady employment, solid wages and fierce competition for workers across wide swaths of the country.
Now, after a roughly 50% plunge in oil prices, exploration and production companies are cutting capital budgets, service companies are weighing layoffs and non-energy firms that popped up to support the industry are bracing for a protracted slowdown.
One company caught in the industry downturn is Hercules Offshore Inc.
The Houston-based firm is laying off 324 employees, roughly 15% of its workforce, because oil companies aren’t renewing contracts for its offshore drilling rigs in the Gulf of Mexico while crude prices are depressed.
“It’s been breathtaking,” said Jim Noe, executive vice president of Hercules, which was founded in 2004.
“We’ve never seen this glut of supply and dislocation in oil markets. So we’re not surprised to see a significant decline in demand for our services.”
...Some service companies are trying to find a silver lining in what could be a slowdown in activity and softening of the labor market.
Indeed, companies in the oil and gas industry for years have lamented the difficulty of finding skilled workers, rising wages and short tenure of many employees who are quick to hop between firms.
“In my opinion, in a way it’s good because it will get the companies more efficient,” said Tyler Goodman, president of Borsheim Crane Service, of Williston, N.D.
“Having to do everything yesterday costs a lot of money. People will quit making $150,000 a year for $25,000-a-year skills.”
----
Link: http://www.wsj.com/articles/job-engine-running-low-on-gas-as-energy-costs-tumble-1419619419
2 Buck Chuck now works a second job at the corner gas station.
Oh, have you noticed that gas prices have plummeted?
The biggest reason for that is Saudi Arabia decided to open the spigots and flood oil into the world market.
Why did they do that? To punish bad Iran and bad boy Putin in Russia - and send a message everywhere else including the American heartland.
But, as oil prices plummet, so will the jobs in the oil industry.
As those jobs decline, will the media continue to celebrate this underachieving economy that punishes the middle class job seeker?
You decide! See the comment below: "People will quit making $150,000 a year for $25,000-a-year skills." PB
----
From the Wall Street Journal online:
U.S. oil and gas companies have been an engine of growth through much of an otherwise lackluster economic expansion, providing steady employment, solid wages and fierce competition for workers across wide swaths of the country.
Now, after a roughly 50% plunge in oil prices, exploration and production companies are cutting capital budgets, service companies are weighing layoffs and non-energy firms that popped up to support the industry are bracing for a protracted slowdown.
One company caught in the industry downturn is Hercules Offshore Inc.
The Houston-based firm is laying off 324 employees, roughly 15% of its workforce, because oil companies aren’t renewing contracts for its offshore drilling rigs in the Gulf of Mexico while crude prices are depressed.
“It’s been breathtaking,” said Jim Noe, executive vice president of Hercules, which was founded in 2004.
“We’ve never seen this glut of supply and dislocation in oil markets. So we’re not surprised to see a significant decline in demand for our services.”
...Some service companies are trying to find a silver lining in what could be a slowdown in activity and softening of the labor market.
Indeed, companies in the oil and gas industry for years have lamented the difficulty of finding skilled workers, rising wages and short tenure of many employees who are quick to hop between firms.
“In my opinion, in a way it’s good because it will get the companies more efficient,” said Tyler Goodman, president of Borsheim Crane Service, of Williston, N.D.
“Having to do everything yesterday costs a lot of money. People will quit making $150,000 a year for $25,000-a-year skills.”
----
Link: http://www.wsj.com/articles/job-engine-running-low-on-gas-as-energy-costs-tumble-1419619419
Saturday, December 27, 2014
Party Of The Rich? Democrats!
From Investors.com:
For decades, the Democrats have been getting away with portraying Republicans as hateful men who do the bidding of the wealthy at the expense of the country's poor and middle class.
Yet as the Associated Press reported just before Christmas, "it's actually the liberal-minded who shelled out the most cash in the just completed midterm elections."
What's more, "the two biggest super PACs of 2014," the "Senate Majority PAC and House Majority PAC," were both backed by Democrats.
The AP, using data from the Center for Responsive Politics, continues:
• "Among the 183 groups that wrote checks of $100,000 or more to another group, Democrats had a 3-to-1 cash advantage."
• "Overall, for the campaign season that just ended, donors who gave more than $1 million sent roughly 60 cents of every dollar to liberal groups."
• "Among the 10 biggest donors, Democrats outspent Republicans by an almost 3-to-1 margin."
• "Among groups that funneled more than $100,000 to allies, the top of the list tilted overwhelmingly toward Democrats — a group favoring the GOP doesn't appear on the list until No. 14."
A little more than two years ago, the AP published a similar story, only this time it reported that "in Congress, the wealthiest among us are more likely to be represented by a Democrat than a Republican."
"Of the 10 richest House districts," said the AP, "only two have Republican congressmen. Democrats claim the top six."
We reported ourselves in April that "according to OpenSecrets.org, from 1989 to 2014 rich donors gave Democrats $1.15 billion — $416 million more than the $736 million given to the GOP."
We also noted that "among the top 10 donors to both parties, Democrat supporters outspent Republican supporters 2-to-1."
----
Link: http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials/122614-732240-party-of-the-rich-is-democrats-not-gop-republicans.htm
For decades, the Democrats have been getting away with portraying Republicans as hateful men who do the bidding of the wealthy at the expense of the country's poor and middle class.
Yet as the Associated Press reported just before Christmas, "it's actually the liberal-minded who shelled out the most cash in the just completed midterm elections."
What's more, "the two biggest super PACs of 2014," the "Senate Majority PAC and House Majority PAC," were both backed by Democrats.
The AP, using data from the Center for Responsive Politics, continues:
• "Among the 183 groups that wrote checks of $100,000 or more to another group, Democrats had a 3-to-1 cash advantage."
• "Overall, for the campaign season that just ended, donors who gave more than $1 million sent roughly 60 cents of every dollar to liberal groups."
• "Among the 10 biggest donors, Democrats outspent Republicans by an almost 3-to-1 margin."
• "Among groups that funneled more than $100,000 to allies, the top of the list tilted overwhelmingly toward Democrats — a group favoring the GOP doesn't appear on the list until No. 14."
A little more than two years ago, the AP published a similar story, only this time it reported that "in Congress, the wealthiest among us are more likely to be represented by a Democrat than a Republican."
"Of the 10 richest House districts," said the AP, "only two have Republican congressmen. Democrats claim the top six."
We reported ourselves in April that "according to OpenSecrets.org, from 1989 to 2014 rich donors gave Democrats $1.15 billion — $416 million more than the $736 million given to the GOP."
We also noted that "among the top 10 donors to both parties, Democrat supporters outspent Republican supporters 2-to-1."
----
Link: http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials/122614-732240-party-of-the-rich-is-democrats-not-gop-republicans.htm
Sunday, December 21, 2014
The Liberal Retreat
From Walter Russell Mead writing at the American Interest:
The Obama administration may represent “Peak Left” in American politics.
... as the United States staggers toward the seventh year of Barack Obama’s tenure in the White House, a growing disquiet permeates the ranks of the American left.
After six years of the most liberal President since Jimmy Carter, the nation doesn’t seem to be asking for a second helping.
Even though the multiyear roll-out of Obamacare was carefully crafted to put all the popular features up front, delaying less popular changes into the far future, the program remains unpopular.
Trust in the fairness and competence of government is pushing toward new lows in the polls, even though the government is now in the hands of forward-looking, progressive Democrats...
Here we are, six years into the Age of Obama, and the Tea Party is alive and Occupy is dead.
The Republicans swept the midterm elections both nationally and at the state level—and Hillary Clinton appears more interested in conciliating Wall Street than in fighting it, and more interested in building bridges to conservative foreign policy thinkers than in continuing the Obama foreign policy.
(And with even Jimmy Carter lambasting Obama’s Middle East policy as too weak, and the President committing to new troop deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan, it’s not clear that even President Obama wants to stay the course.)
The liberal rout at the level of state and local politics is even more alarming.
A wave of Republican Governors in blue Midwestern states (Walker in Wisconsin, Snyder in Michigan, plus the Dem-crushing Kasich in purple Ohio) and large GOP gains in state legislatures across the country point to a widespread reaction against liberal ideas, and lend credence to the idea that, even accounting for the GOP-skewed electorate in off-year elections, the country as a whole is drifting to the right...
But to blame Obama for the crisis of the liberal left is unpersuasive.
It was the liberal left who fell hardest for him, who praised him to the skies and who stuck with him longer than anybody else...
In that sense the Obama administration may represent “Peak Left” in American politics, and what we are getting from the left these days is a mix of bewilderment and anger as it realizes that this is as good as it gets.
America is unlikely to go farther to the left than it went in the wake of the Iraq War and the financial crash, and while that wasn’t anywhere near enough of a shift for left-leaning Democrats, the country has already moved on.
----
Link: http://www.the-american-interest.com/2014/12/19/next-up-in-america-the-liberal-retreat/
The Obama administration may represent “Peak Left” in American politics.
... as the United States staggers toward the seventh year of Barack Obama’s tenure in the White House, a growing disquiet permeates the ranks of the American left.
After six years of the most liberal President since Jimmy Carter, the nation doesn’t seem to be asking for a second helping.
Even though the multiyear roll-out of Obamacare was carefully crafted to put all the popular features up front, delaying less popular changes into the far future, the program remains unpopular.
Trust in the fairness and competence of government is pushing toward new lows in the polls, even though the government is now in the hands of forward-looking, progressive Democrats...
Here we are, six years into the Age of Obama, and the Tea Party is alive and Occupy is dead.
The Republicans swept the midterm elections both nationally and at the state level—and Hillary Clinton appears more interested in conciliating Wall Street than in fighting it, and more interested in building bridges to conservative foreign policy thinkers than in continuing the Obama foreign policy.
(And with even Jimmy Carter lambasting Obama’s Middle East policy as too weak, and the President committing to new troop deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan, it’s not clear that even President Obama wants to stay the course.)
The liberal rout at the level of state and local politics is even more alarming.
A wave of Republican Governors in blue Midwestern states (Walker in Wisconsin, Snyder in Michigan, plus the Dem-crushing Kasich in purple Ohio) and large GOP gains in state legislatures across the country point to a widespread reaction against liberal ideas, and lend credence to the idea that, even accounting for the GOP-skewed electorate in off-year elections, the country as a whole is drifting to the right...
But to blame Obama for the crisis of the liberal left is unpersuasive.
It was the liberal left who fell hardest for him, who praised him to the skies and who stuck with him longer than anybody else...
In that sense the Obama administration may represent “Peak Left” in American politics, and what we are getting from the left these days is a mix of bewilderment and anger as it realizes that this is as good as it gets.
America is unlikely to go farther to the left than it went in the wake of the Iraq War and the financial crash, and while that wasn’t anywhere near enough of a shift for left-leaning Democrats, the country has already moved on.
----
Link: http://www.the-american-interest.com/2014/12/19/next-up-in-america-the-liberal-retreat/
Saturday, December 20, 2014
Texas job growth outgains rest of U.S. combined
From George Strait:
"All my ex's live in Texas
and Texas is the place I'd dearly love to be..."
----
From the State of Texas (courtesy of the Washington Examiner:)
The economic miracle in Texas continues.
Since the recession began in December 2007, 1.2 million net jobs have been created in Texas.
Only 700,000 net jobs have been created in the other 49 states combined.
The remarkable employment growth in Texas looks even bigger considering its size relative to the rest of the U.S.
Total non-farm employment has grown by 11.5 percent in Texas since December 2007.
Employment in the rest of the United States has grown only 0.6 percent. Until September 2014, total employment growth in the rest of the United States since December 2007 was still negative.
Only North Dakota has outpaced Texas on percent job growth, thanks to jobs created by the fracking revolution.
California, Texas’ biggest economic rival, has created 985,600 fewer net jobs during the same period. California’s 1.5 percent job growth is ten percentage points lower than Texas’ percent job growth...
Why is Texas such a great state for job creation?
For starters, Texas does not collect an individual income tax or a corporate income tax. It does collect a gross receipts tax.
Still, the Tax Foundation’s 2015 State Business Tax Climate Index says Texas has the tenth best business tax climate in the U.S.
Texas has one of the highest sales taxes in the nation to make up for lost income tax revenue. The combined state and average local sales tax rate of 8.15 percent is 11th highest in the nation.
However, sales taxes are more efficient than income taxes, since they don’t punish work...
----
Link: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/texas-job-growth-outpaces-rest-of-u.s.-combined/article/2557660
"All my ex's live in Texas
and Texas is the place I'd dearly love to be..."
----
From the State of Texas (courtesy of the Washington Examiner:)
The economic miracle in Texas continues.
Since the recession began in December 2007, 1.2 million net jobs have been created in Texas.
Only 700,000 net jobs have been created in the other 49 states combined.
The remarkable employment growth in Texas looks even bigger considering its size relative to the rest of the U.S.
Total non-farm employment has grown by 11.5 percent in Texas since December 2007.
Employment in the rest of the United States has grown only 0.6 percent. Until September 2014, total employment growth in the rest of the United States since December 2007 was still negative.
Only North Dakota has outpaced Texas on percent job growth, thanks to jobs created by the fracking revolution.
California, Texas’ biggest economic rival, has created 985,600 fewer net jobs during the same period. California’s 1.5 percent job growth is ten percentage points lower than Texas’ percent job growth...
Why is Texas such a great state for job creation?
For starters, Texas does not collect an individual income tax or a corporate income tax. It does collect a gross receipts tax.
Still, the Tax Foundation’s 2015 State Business Tax Climate Index says Texas has the tenth best business tax climate in the U.S.
Texas has one of the highest sales taxes in the nation to make up for lost income tax revenue. The combined state and average local sales tax rate of 8.15 percent is 11th highest in the nation.
However, sales taxes are more efficient than income taxes, since they don’t punish work...
----
Link: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/texas-job-growth-outpaces-rest-of-u.s.-combined/article/2557660
Tuesday, December 16, 2014
The devalued American worker
More on the difficulty for millions of Americans who want to stay in the middle class.
This story from the Washington Post focuses on a man named Ed Green.
Ed is worth knowing.
At the end of the excerpt is a link to read about Ed Green. PB
----
From the Washington Post online:
Today, a shrinking share of Americans are working middle-class jobs, and collectively, they earn less of the nation’s income than they used to...
For that, you can blame the past three recessions, which sparked a chain reaction of layoffs and lower pay.
Millions of American jobs disappeared during the 1990, 2001 and 2008 recessions.
That’s what happens in recessions.
But for decades after World War II, lost jobs came back when the economy picked up again. These times, they didn’t.
And it was a particular sort of job that disappeared permanently in those downturns:
Economists call those jobs “middle-skill” jobs.
They include a lot of factory work — the country is down about 5.5 million manufacturing jobs since 1990, according to the Labor Department — but also a lot of clerical and sales tasks that can be handled easily from a country where workers make a fraction of what they make here...
----
Link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/business/2014/12/14/the-devalued-american-worker/
This story from the Washington Post focuses on a man named Ed Green.
Ed is worth knowing.
At the end of the excerpt is a link to read about Ed Green. PB
----
From the Washington Post online:
Today, a shrinking share of Americans are working middle-class jobs, and collectively, they earn less of the nation’s income than they used to...
For that, you can blame the past three recessions, which sparked a chain reaction of layoffs and lower pay.
Millions of American jobs disappeared during the 1990, 2001 and 2008 recessions.
That’s what happens in recessions.
But for decades after World War II, lost jobs came back when the economy picked up again. These times, they didn’t.
And it was a particular sort of job that disappeared permanently in those downturns:
Economists call those jobs “middle-skill” jobs.
They include a lot of factory work — the country is down about 5.5 million manufacturing jobs since 1990, according to the Labor Department — but also a lot of clerical and sales tasks that can be handled easily from a country where workers make a fraction of what they make here...
----
Link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/business/2014/12/14/the-devalued-american-worker/
Coming to Pump Near You: $2 Gas
From Money.CNN.com:
After a weekend of price cutting at stations, gas for less than $2 can be found in 13 states across the country.
Two weeks ago there was only one gas station in the country selling gas that cheap...
Cheap gas is most frequently found at stations in Oklahoma, which was the first state to break the $2 a gallon mark on Dec. 3.
Another ten states -- Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, Indiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, Texas and Virginia -- also have gas for less than $2...
----
Link: http://money.cnn.com/2014/12/15/news/economy/2-dollar-gas/index
-------------------------------
http://www.gasbuddy.com/ www.DetroitGasPrices.com:
After a weekend of price cutting at stations, gas for less than $2 can be found in 13 states across the country.
Two weeks ago there was only one gas station in the country selling gas that cheap...
Cheap gas is most frequently found at stations in Oklahoma, which was the first state to break the $2 a gallon mark on Dec. 3.
Another ten states -- Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, Indiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, Texas and Virginia -- also have gas for less than $2...
----
Link: http://money.cnn.com/2014/12/15/news/economy/2-dollar-gas/index
-------------------------------
http://www.gasbuddy.com/ www.DetroitGasPrices.com:
Sunday, December 14, 2014
If ObamaCare is so good...
The 6 year liberal experiment is a failure.
The middle class is losing ground. Yet, government is growing bigger and bigger and taking up more and more space in our lives.
Here's a question: why don't liberals embrace and apply liberal solutions to their families and wallets?
Liberals: start enrolling in Obamacare.
Every government employee and union member: give up your Cadillac health plans and join Obamacare.
Why haven't you done so already? What are you: a bunch of bigots? PB
----
From the New York Post online:
Imagine how long ObamaCare would last if the folks who wrote and approved the law were forced to live by its rules.
Sen. David Vitter has been waging this crusade for more than a year now.
He wants to require the House and Senate and all their staff to buy their health insurance from the same government exchanges they have inflicted on millions of Americans.
For a long while, it seemed the Louisiana Republican was the only one on Capitol Hill who understood this simple notion:
If ObamaCare is so good, why don’t the people who wrote the law want it themselves?
This week Vitter’s lonely campaign finally saw some significant daylight: The Senate GOP conference passed his resolution. Now the conference is challenging the Democrats to do likewise.
Not surprisingly, Vitter’s push has never been popular on Capitol Hill, even in his own party.
Many Hill Republicans wonder why they should have to live under a law they fought against — and that could inflict significant hardship on some staff families.
Some fear mass resignations.
But Vitter’s answer is clear: “Washington should have to live under ObamaCare just like everybody else, until we repeal it.”
In short, Sen. Vitter and the Senate Republicans are putting pressure on Democrats to live by what they claim is a great deal for every other citizen.
At the same time, by this resolution they are saying to the citizens of this nation: “We’ll share your pain until we fix this thing.”
We can’t think of a better message to send — or a better example to set — as Republicans prepare to take control of both the House and Senate.
----
Link: http://nypost.com/2014/12/11/feeling-our-obamacare-pain/
The middle class is losing ground. Yet, government is growing bigger and bigger and taking up more and more space in our lives.
Here's a question: why don't liberals embrace and apply liberal solutions to their families and wallets?
Liberals: start enrolling in Obamacare.
Every government employee and union member: give up your Cadillac health plans and join Obamacare.
Why haven't you done so already? What are you: a bunch of bigots? PB
----
From the New York Post online:
Imagine how long ObamaCare would last if the folks who wrote and approved the law were forced to live by its rules.
Sen. David Vitter has been waging this crusade for more than a year now.
He wants to require the House and Senate and all their staff to buy their health insurance from the same government exchanges they have inflicted on millions of Americans.
For a long while, it seemed the Louisiana Republican was the only one on Capitol Hill who understood this simple notion:
If ObamaCare is so good, why don’t the people who wrote the law want it themselves?
This week Vitter’s lonely campaign finally saw some significant daylight: The Senate GOP conference passed his resolution. Now the conference is challenging the Democrats to do likewise.
Not surprisingly, Vitter’s push has never been popular on Capitol Hill, even in his own party.
Many Hill Republicans wonder why they should have to live under a law they fought against — and that could inflict significant hardship on some staff families.
Some fear mass resignations.
But Vitter’s answer is clear: “Washington should have to live under ObamaCare just like everybody else, until we repeal it.”
In short, Sen. Vitter and the Senate Republicans are putting pressure on Democrats to live by what they claim is a great deal for every other citizen.
At the same time, by this resolution they are saying to the citizens of this nation: “We’ll share your pain until we fix this thing.”
We can’t think of a better message to send — or a better example to set — as Republicans prepare to take control of both the House and Senate.
----
Link: http://nypost.com/2014/12/11/feeling-our-obamacare-pain/
The American middle class is in trouble
From the Washington Post online:
Make no mistake: The American middle class is in trouble.
That trouble started decades ago, well before the 2008 financial crisis, and it is rooted in shifts far more complicated than the simple tax-and-spend debates that dominate economic policy making in Washington.
It used to be that when the U.S. economy grew, workers up and down the economic ladder saw their incomes increase, too.
But over the past 25 years, the economy has grown 83 percent, after adjusting for inflation — and the typical family’s income hasn’t budged.
In that time, corporate profits doubled as a share of the economy.
Workers today produce nearly twice as many goods and services per hour on the job as they did in 1989, but as a group, they get less of the nation’s economic pie.
In 81 percent of America’s counties, the median income is lower today than it was 15 years ago.
In this new reality, a smaller share of Americans enjoy the fruits of an expanding economy.
This isn’t a fluke of the past few years — it’s woven into the very structure of the economy.
And even though Republicans and Democrats keep promising to help the middle class reclaim the prosperity it grew accustomed to after World War II, their prescriptions aren’t working...
----
Link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/business/2014/12/12/why-americas-middle-class-is-lost/
Make no mistake: The American middle class is in trouble.
That trouble started decades ago, well before the 2008 financial crisis, and it is rooted in shifts far more complicated than the simple tax-and-spend debates that dominate economic policy making in Washington.
It used to be that when the U.S. economy grew, workers up and down the economic ladder saw their incomes increase, too.
But over the past 25 years, the economy has grown 83 percent, after adjusting for inflation — and the typical family’s income hasn’t budged.
In that time, corporate profits doubled as a share of the economy.
Workers today produce nearly twice as many goods and services per hour on the job as they did in 1989, but as a group, they get less of the nation’s economic pie.
In 81 percent of America’s counties, the median income is lower today than it was 15 years ago.
In this new reality, a smaller share of Americans enjoy the fruits of an expanding economy.
This isn’t a fluke of the past few years — it’s woven into the very structure of the economy.
And even though Republicans and Democrats keep promising to help the middle class reclaim the prosperity it grew accustomed to after World War II, their prescriptions aren’t working...
----
Link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/business/2014/12/12/why-americas-middle-class-is-lost/
The Vanishing Male Worker
From the New York Times online:
Working, in America, is in decline.
The share of prime-age men — those 25 to 54 years old — who are not working has more than tripled since the late 1960s, to 16 percent.
More recently, since the turn of the century, the share of women without paying jobs has been rising, too.
The United States, which had one of the highest employment rates among developed nations as recently as 2000, has fallen toward the bottom of the list...
Many men, in particular, have decided that low-wage work will not improve their lives, in part because deep changes in American society have made it easier for them to live without working.
These changes include the availability of federal disability benefits; the decline of marriage, which means fewer men provide for children; and the rise of the Internet, which has reduced the isolation of unemployment.
At the same time, it has become harder for men to find higher-paying jobs...
The resulting absence of millions of potential workers has serious consequences not just for the men and their families but for the nation as a whole.
A smaller work force is likely to lead to a slower-growing economy, and will leave a smaller share of the population to cover the cost of government, even as a larger share seeks help...
----
Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/12/upshot/unemployment-the-vanishing-male-worker-how-america-fell-behind.html
Working, in America, is in decline.
The share of prime-age men — those 25 to 54 years old — who are not working has more than tripled since the late 1960s, to 16 percent.
More recently, since the turn of the century, the share of women without paying jobs has been rising, too.
The United States, which had one of the highest employment rates among developed nations as recently as 2000, has fallen toward the bottom of the list...
Many men, in particular, have decided that low-wage work will not improve their lives, in part because deep changes in American society have made it easier for them to live without working.
These changes include the availability of federal disability benefits; the decline of marriage, which means fewer men provide for children; and the rise of the Internet, which has reduced the isolation of unemployment.
At the same time, it has become harder for men to find higher-paying jobs...
The resulting absence of millions of potential workers has serious consequences not just for the men and their families but for the nation as a whole.
A smaller work force is likely to lead to a slower-growing economy, and will leave a smaller share of the population to cover the cost of government, even as a larger share seeks help...
----
Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/12/upshot/unemployment-the-vanishing-male-worker-how-america-fell-behind.html
Wednesday, December 10, 2014
With $2 Gas, the Toyota Prius Is for Drivers Who Stink at Math
An early Christmas gift of insight for the purposeful consumer who follows the Environmental Fashions...
----
From Businessweek.com:
All this is a major problem for anyone trying to sell hybrid and electric vehicles.
Electric engines and their massive batteries have never been cheap.
A big part of the sales equation—savings at the fuel pump—has virtually vanished...
It would take almost 30 years of fuel savings from the hybrid Prius to cover its price premium over the little Chevy Cruze, although that doesn't account for the Chevy buyer making savvy investments with her savings in the meantime.
It doesn't matter, since we will all be flying around in futuristic Teslas before the Prius pays off...
The Cruze gets a respectable 30 miles per gallon of combined highway and city driving, but its real strength is relative affordability.
Without a second engine and a massive battery, the average Cruze had a $21,322 sticker price last month, compared with almost $31,973 for a Prius and $32,933 for a Leaf.
Even after federal tax breaks, Cruze buyers start with an advantage of $8,151 over the Prius and $4,111 over the Leaf.
That’s a lot of gas money...
----
Link: http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-12-10/with-2-gas-the-toyota-prius-is-for-drivers-who-stink-at-math#r=rss
----
From Businessweek.com:
All this is a major problem for anyone trying to sell hybrid and electric vehicles.
Electric engines and their massive batteries have never been cheap.
A big part of the sales equation—savings at the fuel pump—has virtually vanished...
It would take almost 30 years of fuel savings from the hybrid Prius to cover its price premium over the little Chevy Cruze, although that doesn't account for the Chevy buyer making savvy investments with her savings in the meantime.
It doesn't matter, since we will all be flying around in futuristic Teslas before the Prius pays off...
The Cruze gets a respectable 30 miles per gallon of combined highway and city driving, but its real strength is relative affordability.
Without a second engine and a massive battery, the average Cruze had a $21,322 sticker price last month, compared with almost $31,973 for a Prius and $32,933 for a Leaf.
Even after federal tax breaks, Cruze buyers start with an advantage of $8,151 over the Prius and $4,111 over the Leaf.
That’s a lot of gas money...
----
Link: http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-12-10/with-2-gas-the-toyota-prius-is-for-drivers-who-stink-at-math#r=rss
Sunday, December 7, 2014
NBC: Jobs Report Wasn't So Great After All
When consuming economic news, it is important to look beneath the surface to see more fully what is happening.
Jobs growth at 321,000 new jobs! Really? What kind of jobs?
Skepticism is not cynicism. Consider who is saying what about jobs. See the line: "Analysts, though, mostly gushed at the report." PB
----
From CNBC.com:
Consider it a brutal lesson in government math.
Friday's turbocharged jobs headline came thanks to seasonal adjustments and other wizardry at the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which reported that U.S. job growth hit 321,000 even as the unemployment rate held steady at 5.8 percent.
Those numbers, courtesy of establishment survey estimates, sound nice on the surface...
However, the household survey, which is an actual head count, presents details that show there's still plenty of work to do.
A few figures to consider: That big headline number translated into just 4,000 more working Americans.
There were, at the same time, another 115,000 on the unemployment line...
The jobs that were created skewed heavily toward lower quality.
Full-time jobs declined by 150,000, while part-time positions increased by 77,000....
Analysts, though, mostly gushed over the report...
But there were several other points not to like in the report.
Families, for instance, also were under pressure:
There were 110,000 fewer married men at work, while married women saw their ranks shrink by 59,000...
Finally, there was a rather startling numerical coincidence: That same 321,000 figure was repeated later in the report—as the total number of bar and restaurant jobs created over the past 12 months.
----
Link: www.cnbc.com/id/102243878
Jobs growth at 321,000 new jobs! Really? What kind of jobs?
Skepticism is not cynicism. Consider who is saying what about jobs. See the line: "Analysts, though, mostly gushed at the report." PB
----
From CNBC.com:
Consider it a brutal lesson in government math.
Friday's turbocharged jobs headline came thanks to seasonal adjustments and other wizardry at the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which reported that U.S. job growth hit 321,000 even as the unemployment rate held steady at 5.8 percent.
Those numbers, courtesy of establishment survey estimates, sound nice on the surface...
However, the household survey, which is an actual head count, presents details that show there's still plenty of work to do.
A few figures to consider: That big headline number translated into just 4,000 more working Americans.
There were, at the same time, another 115,000 on the unemployment line...
The jobs that were created skewed heavily toward lower quality.
Full-time jobs declined by 150,000, while part-time positions increased by 77,000....
Analysts, though, mostly gushed over the report...
But there were several other points not to like in the report.
Families, for instance, also were under pressure:
There were 110,000 fewer married men at work, while married women saw their ranks shrink by 59,000...
Finally, there was a rather startling numerical coincidence: That same 321,000 figure was repeated later in the report—as the total number of bar and restaurant jobs created over the past 12 months.
----
Link: www.cnbc.com/id/102243878
Friday, December 5, 2014
Bill Gross: take some chips off the table
Bill Gross, now at Janus funds, writes an investment outlook.
To your left, in the Links column, find Bill Gross' commentary. The link title is from his days at PIMCO. PB
----
From the Monthly Investment Outlook from Bill Gross:
....Markets are reaching the point of low return and diminishing liquidity.
Investors may want to begin to take some chips off the table: raise asset quality, reduce duration, and prepare for at least a halt of asset appreciation engineered upon a false central bank premise of artificial yields, QE and the trickling down of faux wealth to the working class.
If the nursery rhyme theme is apropos to the future, as well as the past, investors should remember that while “Jack and Jill went up the hill,” that “Jack fell down, broke his crown, and Jill came tumbling after.”
Someday soon, perhaps.
-William H. Gross
----
Link: https://www.janus.com/bill-gross-investment-outlook
To your left, in the Links column, find Bill Gross' commentary. The link title is from his days at PIMCO. PB
----
From the Monthly Investment Outlook from Bill Gross:
....Markets are reaching the point of low return and diminishing liquidity.
Investors may want to begin to take some chips off the table: raise asset quality, reduce duration, and prepare for at least a halt of asset appreciation engineered upon a false central bank premise of artificial yields, QE and the trickling down of faux wealth to the working class.
If the nursery rhyme theme is apropos to the future, as well as the past, investors should remember that while “Jack and Jill went up the hill,” that “Jack fell down, broke his crown, and Jill came tumbling after.”
Someday soon, perhaps.
-William H. Gross
----
Link: https://www.janus.com/bill-gross-investment-outlook
It’s official: America is now No. 2
Slipping and sliding.
Go Team Go!
We're Number 2! PB
----
From MarketWatch.com:
The International Monetary Fund recently released the latest numbers for the world economy.
And when you measure national economic output in “real” terms of goods and services, China will this year produce $17.6 trillion — compared with $17.4 trillion for the U.S.A.
As recently as 2000, we produced nearly three times as much as the Chinese.
To put the numbers slightly differently, China now accounts for 16.5% of the global economy when measured in real purchasing-power terms, compared with 16.3% for the U.S...
----
Link: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/its-official-america-is-now-no-2-2014-12-04?
Go Team Go!
We're Number 2! PB
----
From MarketWatch.com:
The International Monetary Fund recently released the latest numbers for the world economy.
And when you measure national economic output in “real” terms of goods and services, China will this year produce $17.6 trillion — compared with $17.4 trillion for the U.S.A.
As recently as 2000, we produced nearly three times as much as the Chinese.
To put the numbers slightly differently, China now accounts for 16.5% of the global economy when measured in real purchasing-power terms, compared with 16.3% for the U.S...
----
Link: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/its-official-america-is-now-no-2-2014-12-04?
Tuesday, December 2, 2014
WSJ: Basic Costs Squeeze Families
From the Wall Street Journal online:
The American middle class has absorbed a steep increase in the cost of health care and other necessities as incomes have stagnated over the past half decade, a squeeze that has forced families to cut back spending on everything from clothing to restaurants.
Health-care spending by middle-income Americans rose 24% between 2007 and 2013, driven by an even larger rise in the cost of buying health insurance, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of detailed consumer-spending data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
That hit has been accompanied by increases in spending on other necessities, including food eaten at home, rent and education, as well as the soaring cost of staying connected digitally via cellphones and home Internet service...
(T)he Journal analyzed Labor Department data on 2013 out-of-pocket spending for the middle 60% of the population by income—households earning between about $18,000 and $95,000 a year, before taxes.
The data show they are losing ground.
Overall spending for the group rose by about 2.3% over the six-year period from 2007, even as inflation totaled about 12%. At the same time, income for the group stagnated, rising less than half a percent...
“Part of the story is that your income growth is slowing,” said Steven Fazzari, an economist and chairman of the sociology department at Washington University in St. Louis.
“They’re spending more on necessities, cutting back on other types.”
----
Link: http://online.wsj.com/articles/americans-reallocate-their-dollars-1417476499
The American middle class has absorbed a steep increase in the cost of health care and other necessities as incomes have stagnated over the past half decade, a squeeze that has forced families to cut back spending on everything from clothing to restaurants.
Health-care spending by middle-income Americans rose 24% between 2007 and 2013, driven by an even larger rise in the cost of buying health insurance, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of detailed consumer-spending data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
That hit has been accompanied by increases in spending on other necessities, including food eaten at home, rent and education, as well as the soaring cost of staying connected digitally via cellphones and home Internet service...
(T)he Journal analyzed Labor Department data on 2013 out-of-pocket spending for the middle 60% of the population by income—households earning between about $18,000 and $95,000 a year, before taxes.
The data show they are losing ground.
Overall spending for the group rose by about 2.3% over the six-year period from 2007, even as inflation totaled about 12%. At the same time, income for the group stagnated, rising less than half a percent...
“Part of the story is that your income growth is slowing,” said Steven Fazzari, an economist and chairman of the sociology department at Washington University in St. Louis.
“They’re spending more on necessities, cutting back on other types.”
----
Link: http://online.wsj.com/articles/americans-reallocate-their-dollars-1417476499
Saturday, November 29, 2014
1/3 of Americans Put Off Medical Care. Why? Because it just costs Too Much
Inequality?
One out of three Americans avoids getting medical treatment because of cost.
The great fix that was Obamacare is an illusion that simply adds to the problems of health care affordability.
In the meantime, where is the compassionate, self choosing embrace of redistribution among the base of Obama voters: union members and government workers?
It is time to see the vast majority of privileged union members and government employees give up their Cadillac health plans and do something they demand of government: redistribute privilege to the less fortunate.
In this case, the unfair and unjust privilege is access to those Cadillac benefits that the less fortunate can't get.
Where are these liberals when it comes to sharing their privilege with the poor? PB
----
From Gallup.com:
One in three Americans say they have put off getting medical treatment that they or their family members need because of cost.
Although this percentage is in line with the roughly 30% figures seen in recent years, it is among the highest readings in the 14-year history of Gallup asking the question...
Last year, many hoped that the opening of the government healthcare exchanges and the resulting increase in the number of Americans with health insurance would enable more people to seek medical treatment.
But, despite a drop in the uninsured rate, a slightly higher percentage of Americans than in previous years report having put off medical treatment, suggesting that the Affordable Care Act has not immediately affected this measure.
Among Americans with varying types of medical coverage (including no coverage), uninsured Americans are still the most likely to report having put off medical treatment because of cost.
More than half of the uninsured (57%) have put off treatment, compared with 34% with private insurance and 22% with Medicare or Medicaid.
However, the percentage of Americans with private health insurance who report putting off medical treatment because of cost has increased from 25% in 2013 to 34% in 2014...
----
Link: http://www.gallup.com/poll/179774/cost-barrier-americans-medical-care.aspx
One out of three Americans avoids getting medical treatment because of cost.
The great fix that was Obamacare is an illusion that simply adds to the problems of health care affordability.
In the meantime, where is the compassionate, self choosing embrace of redistribution among the base of Obama voters: union members and government workers?
It is time to see the vast majority of privileged union members and government employees give up their Cadillac health plans and do something they demand of government: redistribute privilege to the less fortunate.
In this case, the unfair and unjust privilege is access to those Cadillac benefits that the less fortunate can't get.
Where are these liberals when it comes to sharing their privilege with the poor? PB
----
From Gallup.com:
One in three Americans say they have put off getting medical treatment that they or their family members need because of cost.
Although this percentage is in line with the roughly 30% figures seen in recent years, it is among the highest readings in the 14-year history of Gallup asking the question...
Last year, many hoped that the opening of the government healthcare exchanges and the resulting increase in the number of Americans with health insurance would enable more people to seek medical treatment.
But, despite a drop in the uninsured rate, a slightly higher percentage of Americans than in previous years report having put off medical treatment, suggesting that the Affordable Care Act has not immediately affected this measure.
Among Americans with varying types of medical coverage (including no coverage), uninsured Americans are still the most likely to report having put off medical treatment because of cost.
More than half of the uninsured (57%) have put off treatment, compared with 34% with private insurance and 22% with Medicare or Medicaid.
However, the percentage of Americans with private health insurance who report putting off medical treatment because of cost has increased from 25% in 2013 to 34% in 2014...
----
Link: http://www.gallup.com/poll/179774/cost-barrier-americans-medical-care.aspx
Friday, November 28, 2014
Billions of Dollars Lost in Oil Companies' Worth
From Reuters.com:
A fresh slide in the price of crude wiped tens of billions of dollars off oil companies' market value on Friday and signaled an end to the sector's safe-haven status, as fears mounted over future profits and dividend payouts...
Overall, the sell-off since Thursday amounts to around $67 billion in lost market value, Reuters estimates.
That compares with a total dividend payout from the sector of $41.6 billion in the second quarter of 2014, according to data from Henderson Global Investors.
"Many investors in the oil-and-gas exploration industry were there for the promise of dividends," said Yannick Naud, portfolio manager at Sturgeon Capital.
"Today, with the oil price so low, many oil companies will have difficulty protecting their dividends..."
Others warned they had been fooled before by false dawns and this time the pessimism would take longer to end.
"The whole sector ... could be at risk of having to make a choice between keeping a high dividend payout ratio or (spending on) investing," said Antoine Porcheret, a derivatives strategist at BNP Paribas.
"These stocks can go lower."
----
Link: http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/11/28/us-energy-oil-stocks-idUSKCN0JC1DI20141128
A fresh slide in the price of crude wiped tens of billions of dollars off oil companies' market value on Friday and signaled an end to the sector's safe-haven status, as fears mounted over future profits and dividend payouts...
Overall, the sell-off since Thursday amounts to around $67 billion in lost market value, Reuters estimates.
That compares with a total dividend payout from the sector of $41.6 billion in the second quarter of 2014, according to data from Henderson Global Investors.
"Many investors in the oil-and-gas exploration industry were there for the promise of dividends," said Yannick Naud, portfolio manager at Sturgeon Capital.
"Today, with the oil price so low, many oil companies will have difficulty protecting their dividends..."
Others warned they had been fooled before by false dawns and this time the pessimism would take longer to end.
"The whole sector ... could be at risk of having to make a choice between keeping a high dividend payout ratio or (spending on) investing," said Antoine Porcheret, a derivatives strategist at BNP Paribas.
"These stocks can go lower."
----
Link: http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/11/28/us-energy-oil-stocks-idUSKCN0JC1DI20141128
Sunday, November 23, 2014
Joel Kotkin: Legal, but Still Poor - The Economic Consequences for the Amnesty Immigrants
Joel Kotkin, executive editor of NewGeography.com, writes with great clarity.
If you read through Kotkin's full piece at New Geography, it is easy to see how cynical and disastrous for the U.S. are the policies and politics of the Democrat Left, especially in the coastal Blue States where lemming liberals congregate.
What is the true motivation of these liberals, especially the one in the White House? Dooming millions of amnesty immigrants to government dependency status, which is right where liberals want them.
Whenever you hear liberals and Democrats say 'safety' nets, interpret that to mean not nets, but fences and ceilings.
There are no economic escalators for amnesty immigrants to ride into the life style of the Wealthy Blue Cities.
Instead, amnesty immigrants get a path to vote Democrat, and get blue bus fare to work in blue kitchens, gardens and nursing homes to supplement government stipends.
WWLHM: Wealthy White Liberal Hierarchy Maintenance. PB
----
From Joel Kotkin:
Expanding amnesty to undocumented immigrants without creating new jobs is a recipe for keeping new Americans poor and dependent on social services.
With his questionably Constitutional move to protect America’s vast undocumented population, President Obama has provided at least five million immigrants, and likely many more, with new hope for the future.
But at the same time, his economic policies, and those of the progressive wing of the Democratic Party, may guarantee that many of these newly legalized Americans will face huge obstacles trying to move up in a society creating too few opportunities already for its own citizens, much less millions of the largely ill-educated and unskilled newcomers...
This workforce is being legalized at a time of unusual economic distress for the working class.
Well into the post-2008 recovery, the country suffers from rates of labor participation at a 36 year low.
Many jobs that were once full-time are, in part due to the Affordable Care Act, now part-time, and thus unable to support families.
Finally there are increasingly few well-paying positions—including in industry—that don’t require some sort of post-college accreditation.
Sadly, the legalization of millions of new immigrants could make all these problems worse, particularly for Latinos already here and millions of African-Americans.
African-American unemployment is now twice that of whites.
The black middle class, understandably proud of Obama’s elevation, has been losing the economic gains made over the past thirty years.
Latino-Americans have made huge strides in previous decades, but now are also falling behind, with a gradual loss of income relative to whites.
Poverty among Latino children in America has risen from 27.5 percent in 2007 to 33.7 percent in 2012, an increase of 1.7 million minors...
Ironically, the places where the cry for amnesty has been the loudest—New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Chicago—also tend to be those places that have created the least opportunity for the urban poor.
This is in part due to the fact that these areas have tended to de-industrialize the most rapidly, discourage fledgling grassroots businesses through high taxes, environmental and housing, regulations...
----
Link: http://www.newgeography.com/content/004780-legal-still-poor-the-economic-consequences-amnesty
If you read through Kotkin's full piece at New Geography, it is easy to see how cynical and disastrous for the U.S. are the policies and politics of the Democrat Left, especially in the coastal Blue States where lemming liberals congregate.
What is the true motivation of these liberals, especially the one in the White House? Dooming millions of amnesty immigrants to government dependency status, which is right where liberals want them.
Whenever you hear liberals and Democrats say 'safety' nets, interpret that to mean not nets, but fences and ceilings.
There are no economic escalators for amnesty immigrants to ride into the life style of the Wealthy Blue Cities.
Instead, amnesty immigrants get a path to vote Democrat, and get blue bus fare to work in blue kitchens, gardens and nursing homes to supplement government stipends.
WWLHM: Wealthy White Liberal Hierarchy Maintenance. PB
----
From Joel Kotkin:
Expanding amnesty to undocumented immigrants without creating new jobs is a recipe for keeping new Americans poor and dependent on social services.
With his questionably Constitutional move to protect America’s vast undocumented population, President Obama has provided at least five million immigrants, and likely many more, with new hope for the future.
But at the same time, his economic policies, and those of the progressive wing of the Democratic Party, may guarantee that many of these newly legalized Americans will face huge obstacles trying to move up in a society creating too few opportunities already for its own citizens, much less millions of the largely ill-educated and unskilled newcomers...
This workforce is being legalized at a time of unusual economic distress for the working class.
Well into the post-2008 recovery, the country suffers from rates of labor participation at a 36 year low.
Many jobs that were once full-time are, in part due to the Affordable Care Act, now part-time, and thus unable to support families.
Finally there are increasingly few well-paying positions—including in industry—that don’t require some sort of post-college accreditation.
Sadly, the legalization of millions of new immigrants could make all these problems worse, particularly for Latinos already here and millions of African-Americans.
African-American unemployment is now twice that of whites.
The black middle class, understandably proud of Obama’s elevation, has been losing the economic gains made over the past thirty years.
Latino-Americans have made huge strides in previous decades, but now are also falling behind, with a gradual loss of income relative to whites.
Poverty among Latino children in America has risen from 27.5 percent in 2007 to 33.7 percent in 2012, an increase of 1.7 million minors...
Ironically, the places where the cry for amnesty has been the loudest—New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Chicago—also tend to be those places that have created the least opportunity for the urban poor.
This is in part due to the fact that these areas have tended to de-industrialize the most rapidly, discourage fledgling grassroots businesses through high taxes, environmental and housing, regulations...
----
Link: http://www.newgeography.com/content/004780-legal-still-poor-the-economic-consequences-amnesty
Friday, November 21, 2014
Look who likes Bill Gross: George Soros - to the tune of $500 Million
Well, now. $500 Million to Bill Gross who moved from PIMCO to Janus.
Smart, big money follows a genius.
Here is what we wrote November 3rd on this blog:
"Bill Gross: best opportunity of the decade"
Bill Gross, the best bond manager in the world for over four decades, left PIMCO and joined Janus.
The simple story is this: a bond investing genius is starting over. For you, it's time to buy his new fund.
This investing genius left a job, at the firm he founded, managing hundreds of billions of assets. He is now managing merely tens of millions of dollars.
An opportunity like this is rare because such genius almost never starts over with a small amount of money.
Buy the talent of Bill Gross by purchasing the new mutual fund he now manages at Janus. He's younger than Warren Buffett by about 15 years.
Go long Gross. Put your money in his hands. No one can argue convincingly against that decision. PB
----
From CNBC.com:
Recently departed Pimco boss Bill Gross just got a vote of confidence from one of the most successful investors of all time.
Janus Capital Management announced Thursday that Quantum Partners, a private investment vehicle managed by Soros Fund Management, has invested $500 million in a separate account managed by Gross.
The account will pursue a similar strategy to the publicly accessible Janus Global Unconstrained Bond Fund, which managed just $442.8 million as of Oct. 31, according to Janus.
Pimco managed $1.87 trillion firmwide as of Sept. 30...
Soros Fund Management is the private investment vehicle for George Soros, a so-called family office. The billionaire investor had run a hedge fund firm by the same name. Soros is worth an estimated $24 billion, according to Forbes...
----
Link: http://www.cnbc.com/id/102205145
Smart, big money follows a genius.
Here is what we wrote November 3rd on this blog:
"Bill Gross: best opportunity of the decade"
Bill Gross, the best bond manager in the world for over four decades, left PIMCO and joined Janus.
The simple story is this: a bond investing genius is starting over. For you, it's time to buy his new fund.
This investing genius left a job, at the firm he founded, managing hundreds of billions of assets. He is now managing merely tens of millions of dollars.
An opportunity like this is rare because such genius almost never starts over with a small amount of money.
Buy the talent of Bill Gross by purchasing the new mutual fund he now manages at Janus. He's younger than Warren Buffett by about 15 years.
Go long Gross. Put your money in his hands. No one can argue convincingly against that decision. PB
----
From CNBC.com:
Recently departed Pimco boss Bill Gross just got a vote of confidence from one of the most successful investors of all time.
Janus Capital Management announced Thursday that Quantum Partners, a private investment vehicle managed by Soros Fund Management, has invested $500 million in a separate account managed by Gross.
The account will pursue a similar strategy to the publicly accessible Janus Global Unconstrained Bond Fund, which managed just $442.8 million as of Oct. 31, according to Janus.
Pimco managed $1.87 trillion firmwide as of Sept. 30...
Soros Fund Management is the private investment vehicle for George Soros, a so-called family office. The billionaire investor had run a hedge fund firm by the same name. Soros is worth an estimated $24 billion, according to Forbes...
----
Link: http://www.cnbc.com/id/102205145
Whoa! Getting fat is doing what?
From McKinsey & Company online:
Obesity is a critical global issue that requires a comprehensive, international intervention strategy.
More than 2.1 billion people—nearly 30 percent of the global population—are overweight or obese.
That’s almost two and a half times the number of adults and children who are undernourished.
Obesity is responsible for about 5 percent of all deaths a year worldwide, and its global economic impact amounts to roughly $2 trillion annually, or 2.8 percent of global GDP—nearly equivalent to the global impact of smoking or of armed violence, war, and terrorism.
And the problem—which is preventable—is rapidly getting worse.
If the prevalence of obesity continues on its current trajectory, almost half of the world’s adult population will be overweight or obese by 2030...
----
Link: http://www.mckinsey.com/Insights/Economic_Studies/How_the_world_could_better_fight_obesity
Obesity is a critical global issue that requires a comprehensive, international intervention strategy.
More than 2.1 billion people—nearly 30 percent of the global population—are overweight or obese.
That’s almost two and a half times the number of adults and children who are undernourished.
Obesity is responsible for about 5 percent of all deaths a year worldwide, and its global economic impact amounts to roughly $2 trillion annually, or 2.8 percent of global GDP—nearly equivalent to the global impact of smoking or of armed violence, war, and terrorism.
And the problem—which is preventable—is rapidly getting worse.
If the prevalence of obesity continues on its current trajectory, almost half of the world’s adult population will be overweight or obese by 2030...
----
Link: http://www.mckinsey.com/Insights/Economic_Studies/How_the_world_could_better_fight_obesity
$1 million-plus home sales up 16%
Wow! The economy is doing great...isn't it?
Million Dollar homes - sales are up.
Homes under $100,000 - sales are down. PB
----
From CNBC.com:
As the U.S. stock market rises, so do sales of million-dollar homes.
That correlation is not lost on the nation's Realtors.
"There is little volatility in the stock market. It is whoppingly higher, so people in the top 10 percent of wealth are really feeling confident now," said Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors.
Sales of existing homes priced above $1 million jumped over 16 percent in October from a year ago, according to a Realtors report released Thursday, outshining every other price segment.
The next strongest was the $750,000-$1 million range, up over 12 percent.
Sales of homes priced under $100,000 fell 6 percent...
----
Link: http://www.cnbc.com/id/102204065
Million Dollar homes - sales are up.
Homes under $100,000 - sales are down. PB
----
From CNBC.com:
As the U.S. stock market rises, so do sales of million-dollar homes.
That correlation is not lost on the nation's Realtors.
"There is little volatility in the stock market. It is whoppingly higher, so people in the top 10 percent of wealth are really feeling confident now," said Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors.
Sales of existing homes priced above $1 million jumped over 16 percent in October from a year ago, according to a Realtors report released Thursday, outshining every other price segment.
The next strongest was the $750,000-$1 million range, up over 12 percent.
Sales of homes priced under $100,000 fell 6 percent...
----
Link: http://www.cnbc.com/id/102204065
Sunday, November 16, 2014
Majority of Americans make less than $20 an hour
We're 5 years into an "economic recovery." Recovery for whom?
The 'burger flipper paradise' of Liberal regulation and influence hopefully comes to an end for American workers.
Oh, Liberals might disagree with that characterization?
Well, this economic recovery delivers more job growth for sandwich makers and bartenders than mere burger flippers.
That's a winning '16 slogan: Libs Love Sandwich Makers!
Or, better yet, to borrow from Jimmy John's:
Freaky Fast Job Growth - for the under $20 an hour worker! PB
----
From MarketWatch.com:
Most American workers earn below $20 per hour.
Goldman Sachs economists David Mericle and Chris Mischaikow crunched Labor Department data that is used to generate the monthly jobs report that the market closely watches, in particular from the survey of employers...
(It’s important to note that this includes all workers covered by the establishment survey, not just hourly workers; to convert annual pay to hourly pay, divide by 2080, for a standard 40-hour week.)
----
Link:http://www.marketwatch.com/story/a-majority-of-americans-make-less-than-20-per-hour-2014-11-14
The 'burger flipper paradise' of Liberal regulation and influence hopefully comes to an end for American workers.
Oh, Liberals might disagree with that characterization?
Well, this economic recovery delivers more job growth for sandwich makers and bartenders than mere burger flippers.
That's a winning '16 slogan: Libs Love Sandwich Makers!
Or, better yet, to borrow from Jimmy John's:
Freaky Fast Job Growth - for the under $20 an hour worker! PB
----
From MarketWatch.com:
Most American workers earn below $20 per hour.
Goldman Sachs economists David Mericle and Chris Mischaikow crunched Labor Department data that is used to generate the monthly jobs report that the market closely watches, in particular from the survey of employers...
- 19% of workers make less than $12.50 per hour,
- 32% of workers make between $12.50 and $20 per hour,
- 30% make between $20 and $30 an hour,
- 14% make between $30 and $45 per hour,
- and 5% make over $45 an hour.
(It’s important to note that this includes all workers covered by the establishment survey, not just hourly workers; to convert annual pay to hourly pay, divide by 2080, for a standard 40-hour week.)
----
Link:http://www.marketwatch.com/story/a-majority-of-americans-make-less-than-20-per-hour-2014-11-14
Thursday, November 13, 2014
Millennials have a tough time making ends meet
What is this economy teaching young adults under 35?
This is not a depression, but it is stagnation. Wage growth is weak.
What does one do while waiting for things to improve? Save or spend? PB
----
From Money.CNN.com:
Millennials aren't saving a dime
People younger than 35 are not saving money, according to a study by Moody's Analytics. In fact, their savings rate has dipped to negative 2%, meaning that they're spending more than they have.
They're the only age group that has a negative savings rate.
In contrast, workers between the ages of 35 and 44 have a positive savings rate of about 3%.
Millennials are struggling in spite of an improving job market...
But wages have remained stagnant, barely budging since the 1990s.
So even with a low unemployment rate, millennials are having a tough time making ends meet.
Many have taken on hefty student debt to attain the skills they need to be competitive in the work force.
Millennials had a negative savings rate from 2004 to 2009, bottoming out in 2007 with a deficit of about 15%, according to Moody's.
They recovered in 2009 and managed to stay above water until 2012, when they slipped back into the red...
----
Link: http://money.cnn.com/2014/11/10/pf/millennials-negative-savings/index.html
This is not a depression, but it is stagnation. Wage growth is weak.
What does one do while waiting for things to improve? Save or spend? PB
----
From Money.CNN.com:
Millennials aren't saving a dime
People younger than 35 are not saving money, according to a study by Moody's Analytics. In fact, their savings rate has dipped to negative 2%, meaning that they're spending more than they have.
They're the only age group that has a negative savings rate.
In contrast, workers between the ages of 35 and 44 have a positive savings rate of about 3%.
Millennials are struggling in spite of an improving job market...
But wages have remained stagnant, barely budging since the 1990s.
So even with a low unemployment rate, millennials are having a tough time making ends meet.
Many have taken on hefty student debt to attain the skills they need to be competitive in the work force.
Millennials had a negative savings rate from 2004 to 2009, bottoming out in 2007 with a deficit of about 15%, according to Moody's.
They recovered in 2009 and managed to stay above water until 2012, when they slipped back into the red...
----
Link: http://money.cnn.com/2014/11/10/pf/millennials-negative-savings/index.html
Tuesday, November 11, 2014
64% of Women Pessimistic about U.S. Job Market
From a Gallup Poll reported at TheHill.com:
The gender gap in labor market outlook last year was wider in North America than any other region, says a poll released by Gallup Monday.
Sixty-two percent of women in North America in 2013 said it was a bad time to find a job while 56 percent of men said the same.
Gallup found the gender gap in the United States was one of the largest with 56 percent of men and 64 percent of women reporting 2013 was a bad time to find a job.
The gap could be connected to the pattern of women receiving lower incomes than men, Gallup explained...
----
Link: http://thehill.com/policy/finance/223513-poll-gender-gap-on-jobs-outlook-largest-in-north-america
The gender gap in labor market outlook last year was wider in North America than any other region, says a poll released by Gallup Monday.
Sixty-two percent of women in North America in 2013 said it was a bad time to find a job while 56 percent of men said the same.
Gallup found the gender gap in the United States was one of the largest with 56 percent of men and 64 percent of women reporting 2013 was a bad time to find a job.
The gap could be connected to the pattern of women receiving lower incomes than men, Gallup explained...
----
Link: http://thehill.com/policy/finance/223513-poll-gender-gap-on-jobs-outlook-largest-in-north-america
Saturday, November 8, 2014
What really went wrong for Democrats
Did it take a shellacking at the polls for Democrats to figure out what went wrong? In 1992 they said, "It's the economy, stupid."
Do they understand what is still wrong? PB
----
From the WashingtonPost.com:
“We have a problem,” Democratic pollster Mark Mellman, who polled on the Kentucky Senate race, told me.
“If we’re really going to expand our chances in the Senate and House, we have to appeal to a wider group than we are now...”
At the root of these concerns, Mellman says, are stagnating wages and the failure of the recovery’s gains to achieve wider, more equitable distribution.
Democrats campaigned on a range of economic issues — the minimum wage, pay equity, student loan affordability, expanded pre-kindergarten education — but these didn’t cut through people’s economic anxieties, because they didn’t believe government can successfully address them.
“People are deeply suspicious that government can deliver on these problems,” Mellman says, in a reference to the voter groups that continue to elude Democrats.
“And they are not wrong. We’ve been promising that government can be a tool to improve people’s economic situation for decades, and by and large, it hasn’t happened.”
----
Link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2014/11/05/what-really-went-wrong-for-democrats/
Do they understand what is still wrong? PB
----
From the WashingtonPost.com:
“We have a problem,” Democratic pollster Mark Mellman, who polled on the Kentucky Senate race, told me.
“If we’re really going to expand our chances in the Senate and House, we have to appeal to a wider group than we are now...”
At the root of these concerns, Mellman says, are stagnating wages and the failure of the recovery’s gains to achieve wider, more equitable distribution.
Democrats campaigned on a range of economic issues — the minimum wage, pay equity, student loan affordability, expanded pre-kindergarten education — but these didn’t cut through people’s economic anxieties, because they didn’t believe government can successfully address them.
“People are deeply suspicious that government can deliver on these problems,” Mellman says, in a reference to the voter groups that continue to elude Democrats.
“And they are not wrong. We’ve been promising that government can be a tool to improve people’s economic situation for decades, and by and large, it hasn’t happened.”
----
Link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2014/11/05/what-really-went-wrong-for-democrats/
Thursday, November 6, 2014
Results Are In: Yale Beats Harvard, Wins the Conference (regarding Investment Returns)
Big News after the election from the Wall Street Journal online:
The annual investment showdown between America’s two wealthiest universities is becoming one-sided.
In the fiscal year that ended June 30, Yale University earned a return of 20.2% on its endowment, easily topping the 15.4% gain reported by Harvard University.
Yale’s performance was the best among the eight Ivy League schools, while Harvard’s was the worst.
The rout was the fourth victory in a row over Harvard for David Swensen, who manages Yale’s $23.9 billion endowment, and his eighth in the past decade...
Yale now has nearly twice the number of investment wins over the past three decades as its Massachusetts rival, though Harvard’s endowment remains the largest among U.S. universities, at $36.4 billion...
----
Link: http://online.wsj.com/articles/yales-endowment-tops-harvards-again-in-battle-of-investment-returns-1415048450
The annual investment showdown between America’s two wealthiest universities is becoming one-sided.
In the fiscal year that ended June 30, Yale University earned a return of 20.2% on its endowment, easily topping the 15.4% gain reported by Harvard University.
Yale’s performance was the best among the eight Ivy League schools, while Harvard’s was the worst.
The rout was the fourth victory in a row over Harvard for David Swensen, who manages Yale’s $23.9 billion endowment, and his eighth in the past decade...
Yale now has nearly twice the number of investment wins over the past three decades as its Massachusetts rival, though Harvard’s endowment remains the largest among U.S. universities, at $36.4 billion...
----
Link: http://online.wsj.com/articles/yales-endowment-tops-harvards-again-in-battle-of-investment-returns-1415048450
Wednesday, November 5, 2014
Bill Gross leaves PIMCO; $$Billions leave, too
From Bloomberg.com:
Pacific Investment Management Co. (PIMCO) had record redemptions from its biggest mutual fund in the first full month after the surprise departure of former manager Bill Gross, with clients pulling $27.5 billion in October...
The redemptions followed $23.5 billion in withdrawals from the world’s biggest fund in September and brought assets to $170.9 billion, down 42 percent from a peak in April 2013...
----
Link: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-11-04/pimco-total-return-lost-27-5-billion-after-gross-s-exit.html
Pacific Investment Management Co. (PIMCO) had record redemptions from its biggest mutual fund in the first full month after the surprise departure of former manager Bill Gross, with clients pulling $27.5 billion in October...
The redemptions followed $23.5 billion in withdrawals from the world’s biggest fund in September and brought assets to $170.9 billion, down 42 percent from a peak in April 2013...
----
Link: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-11-04/pimco-total-return-lost-27-5-billion-after-gross-s-exit.html
Tuesday, November 4, 2014
Bill Gross? David Stockman says Bill Gross should stick to Shuffleboard
This is wonderful. A wee bit of a mud fight.
As a producer for an ABC radio station in Detroit 30 years ago, I produced a handful of live interviews with David Stockman, a Congressman who became head of the Office of Management and Budget in the Reagan Administration.
Always intelligent, Stockman later became wealthy working on Wall Street and running companies. He writes for his blog. PB
----
Bill Gross Should Stick To Shuffleboard—–His Case For Bigger Deficits Is Ludicrous
by David Stockman • November 4, 2014
The once and former bond king has lost it.
After a long lament about deflation and the failure of massive money printing to ignite growth, jobs and incomes in the real economy, his most recent missive comes up with a better idea.
Bigger public deficits!
The real economy needs money printing, yes, but money spending more so, and that must come from the fiscal side — from the dreaded government side — where deficits are anathema and balanced budgets are increasingly in vogue,” he writes.
Let’s see. In the case of the US, real economic growth has been faltering since the year 2000.
During the last 14 years real GDP growth has averaged 1.8% per annum—-the lowest rate of growth for an equivalent period in modern times.
In fact, it is barely half the average growth rate during the second half of the 20th century.
Not only is there no correlation between fiscal deficits and economic growth over those 50 years, but the real evidence is more nearly the opposite.
During the the golden era of sound money and fiscal rectitude between 1953 and 1963, for example, real economic growth averaged 4.0% per annum.
And that was achieved during a period in which the budget deficit averaged only 1% of GDP—with Washington actually recording surpluses during much of the Eisenhower presidency....
----
Link: http://davidstockmanscontracorner.com/memo-to-bill-gross-shut-up-and-stick-to-your-shuffleboard/
As a producer for an ABC radio station in Detroit 30 years ago, I produced a handful of live interviews with David Stockman, a Congressman who became head of the Office of Management and Budget in the Reagan Administration.
Always intelligent, Stockman later became wealthy working on Wall Street and running companies. He writes for his blog. PB
----
Bill Gross Should Stick To Shuffleboard—–His Case For Bigger Deficits Is Ludicrous
by David Stockman • November 4, 2014
The once and former bond king has lost it.
After a long lament about deflation and the failure of massive money printing to ignite growth, jobs and incomes in the real economy, his most recent missive comes up with a better idea.
Bigger public deficits!
The real economy needs money printing, yes, but money spending more so, and that must come from the fiscal side — from the dreaded government side — where deficits are anathema and balanced budgets are increasingly in vogue,” he writes.
Let’s see. In the case of the US, real economic growth has been faltering since the year 2000.
During the last 14 years real GDP growth has averaged 1.8% per annum—-the lowest rate of growth for an equivalent period in modern times.
In fact, it is barely half the average growth rate during the second half of the 20th century.
Not only is there no correlation between fiscal deficits and economic growth over those 50 years, but the real evidence is more nearly the opposite.
During the the golden era of sound money and fiscal rectitude between 1953 and 1963, for example, real economic growth averaged 4.0% per annum.
And that was achieved during a period in which the budget deficit averaged only 1% of GDP—with Washington actually recording surpluses during much of the Eisenhower presidency....
----
Link: http://davidstockmanscontracorner.com/memo-to-bill-gross-shut-up-and-stick-to-your-shuffleboard/
Monday, November 3, 2014
Bill Gross: best opportunity of the decade
Bill Gross, the best bond manager in the world for over four decades, left PIMCO and joined Janus.
The simple story is this: a bond investing genius is starting over. For you, it's time to buy his new fund.
This investing genius left a job, at the firm he founded, managing hundreds of billions of assets. He is now managing merely tens of millions of dollars.
An opportunity like this is rare because such genius almost never starts over with a small amount of money.
Buy the talent of Bill Gross by purchasing the new mutual fund he now manages at Janus. He's younger than Warren Buffett by about 15 years.
Go long Gross. Put your money in his hands. No one can argue convincingly against that decision. PB
----
Excerpt from the Investment Outlook of Bill Gross at Janus.com:
...Deflation is no longer acceptable.
Such is the dilemma facing central bankers (and supposedly fiscal authorities) in 2014 and beyond: How to create inflation.
They’ve made a damn fine attempt at it – have they not?
Four trillion dollars in the U.S., two trillion U.S. dollar equivalents in Japan, and a trillion U.S. dollars coming from the ECB’s Draghi in the eurozone.
Not working like it used to, the trillions seem to seep through the sandy loam of investment and innovation straight into the cement mixer of the marketplace.
Prices go up, but not the right prices.
Alibaba’s stock goes from $68 on opening day to $92 in the first minute, but wages simply sit there for years on end.
One economy (the financial one) thrives while the other economy (the real one) withers...
----
Link: https://www.janus.com/bill-gross-investment-outlook
The simple story is this: a bond investing genius is starting over. For you, it's time to buy his new fund.
This investing genius left a job, at the firm he founded, managing hundreds of billions of assets. He is now managing merely tens of millions of dollars.
An opportunity like this is rare because such genius almost never starts over with a small amount of money.
Buy the talent of Bill Gross by purchasing the new mutual fund he now manages at Janus. He's younger than Warren Buffett by about 15 years.
Go long Gross. Put your money in his hands. No one can argue convincingly against that decision. PB
----
Excerpt from the Investment Outlook of Bill Gross at Janus.com:
...Deflation is no longer acceptable.
Such is the dilemma facing central bankers (and supposedly fiscal authorities) in 2014 and beyond: How to create inflation.
They’ve made a damn fine attempt at it – have they not?
Four trillion dollars in the U.S., two trillion U.S. dollar equivalents in Japan, and a trillion U.S. dollars coming from the ECB’s Draghi in the eurozone.
Not working like it used to, the trillions seem to seep through the sandy loam of investment and innovation straight into the cement mixer of the marketplace.
Prices go up, but not the right prices.
Alibaba’s stock goes from $68 on opening day to $92 in the first minute, but wages simply sit there for years on end.
One economy (the financial one) thrives while the other economy (the real one) withers...
----
Link: https://www.janus.com/bill-gross-investment-outlook
Sunday, November 2, 2014
Unemployment Rates - Whites, Blacks, Teens, and Part Timers
It's important, especially before an election, to look at how this economy has affected our citizens. From the latest survey, we've highlighted Whites and Blacks, and included Teens for each group.
We also think it's important to look at the U-6 rate, which includes everyone out of work who is looking PLUS those who want full time jobs, but can only get part time work.
The U-6 number is 11.8%.
That U-6 rate is an ugly, shameful number 5 years into a 'recovery,' as are the numbers for Blacks and both Teen groups. PB
----
From the Bureau of Labor Statistics most recent official numbers:
Unemployment Rate - September 2014
Whites 16 - 19 years old
5.1% 18.7%
Blacks 16 - 19 years old
11% 30.5%
U-6 Unemployment Rate
(U-6 Total unemployed, plus all persons marginally attached to the labor force, plus total employed part time for economic reasons, as a percent of the civilian labor force plus all persons marginally attached to the labor force)
11.8%
----
Link: http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.toc.htm (see Tables A-2 and A-15)
We also think it's important to look at the U-6 rate, which includes everyone out of work who is looking PLUS those who want full time jobs, but can only get part time work.
The U-6 number is 11.8%.
That U-6 rate is an ugly, shameful number 5 years into a 'recovery,' as are the numbers for Blacks and both Teen groups. PB
----
From the Bureau of Labor Statistics most recent official numbers:
Unemployment Rate - September 2014
Whites 16 - 19 years old
5.1% 18.7%
Blacks 16 - 19 years old
11% 30.5%
U-6 Unemployment Rate
(U-6 Total unemployed, plus all persons marginally attached to the labor force, plus total employed part time for economic reasons, as a percent of the civilian labor force plus all persons marginally attached to the labor force)
11.8%
----
Link: http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.toc.htm (see Tables A-2 and A-15)
More Damage from Liberals: Middle-Class Americans Can't Afford to Live in Liberal Cities
From TheAtlantic.com:
Even after adjusting for income, left-leaning metros tend to have worse income inequality and less affordable housing.
On April 2, 2014, a protester in Oakland, California, mounted a Yahoo bus, climbed to the front of the roof, and vomited onto the top of the windshield.
If not the year's most persuasive act of dissent, it was certainly one of the most memorable demonstrations in the Bay Area, where residents have marched, blockaded, and retched in protest of San Francisco's economic inequality and unaffordable housing...
But San Francisco's problem is bigger than San Francisco.
Across the country, rich, dense cities are struggling with affordable housing, to the considerable anguish of their middle class families...
..the relationship is clear: In general, richer cities have less affordable housing.
But there's a second reason why San Francisco's problem is emblematic of a national story.
Liberal cities seem to have the worst affordability crises, according to Trulia chief economist Jed Kolko.
In a recent article, Kolko divided the largest cities into 32 “red" metros where Romney got more votes than Obama in 2012 (e.g. Houston), 40 “light-blue” markets where Obama won by fewer than 20 points (e.g. Austin), and 28 “dark-blue” metros where Obama won by more than 20 points (e.g. L.A., SF, NYC).
Although all three housing groups faced similar declines in the recession and similar bounce-backs in the recovery, affordability remains a bigger problem in the bluest cities.
"Even after adjusting for differences of income, liberal markets tend to have higher income inequality and worse affordability,” Kolko said.
Kolko's theory isn't an outlier.
There is a deep literature tying liberal residents to illiberal housing policies that create affordability crunches for the middle class...
----
Link: http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/10/why-are-liberal-cities-so-unaffordable/382045/
Even after adjusting for income, left-leaning metros tend to have worse income inequality and less affordable housing.
On April 2, 2014, a protester in Oakland, California, mounted a Yahoo bus, climbed to the front of the roof, and vomited onto the top of the windshield.
If not the year's most persuasive act of dissent, it was certainly one of the most memorable demonstrations in the Bay Area, where residents have marched, blockaded, and retched in protest of San Francisco's economic inequality and unaffordable housing...
But San Francisco's problem is bigger than San Francisco.
Across the country, rich, dense cities are struggling with affordable housing, to the considerable anguish of their middle class families...
..the relationship is clear: In general, richer cities have less affordable housing.
But there's a second reason why San Francisco's problem is emblematic of a national story.
Liberal cities seem to have the worst affordability crises, according to Trulia chief economist Jed Kolko.
In a recent article, Kolko divided the largest cities into 32 “red" metros where Romney got more votes than Obama in 2012 (e.g. Houston), 40 “light-blue” markets where Obama won by fewer than 20 points (e.g. Austin), and 28 “dark-blue” metros where Obama won by more than 20 points (e.g. L.A., SF, NYC).
Although all three housing groups faced similar declines in the recession and similar bounce-backs in the recovery, affordability remains a bigger problem in the bluest cities.
"Even after adjusting for differences of income, liberal markets tend to have higher income inequality and worse affordability,” Kolko said.
Kolko's theory isn't an outlier.
There is a deep literature tying liberal residents to illiberal housing policies that create affordability crunches for the middle class...
----
Link: http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/10/why-are-liberal-cities-so-unaffordable/382045/
Washington’s wealth and waste
From the American Enterprise Institute's AEI.org:
Grand new federal buildings, generous public employee salaries, and a growing lobbying industry are among the signs of Washington’s increasing wealth and power.
After decades of decline, the nation’s capital today is wealthy and growing.
Metro Washington now has six of the nation’s ten wealthiest counties.
In 2012, Falls Church became the nation’s richest city, a far cry from when it was a 1970s refuge for Vietnamese immigrants fleeing Saigon.
The region’s median household income is $88,233, second in the nation behind California’s San Jose–Sunnyvale–Santa Clara metro area, which is part of Silicon Valley and has a median household income of $90,737.
But while in other cities this might be a success story, in Washington it comes with a catch.
Rather than resulting from private industry, it merely underlies the growth of the city’s leading employer, the federal government. The city’s flourishing has seemed especially perverse in recent years, as the rest of America has lagged economically.
Every tax dollar spent represents less money in the private sector to create jobs...
----
http://www.aei.org/publication/gross-national-profit-washingtons-wealth-waste/
Grand new federal buildings, generous public employee salaries, and a growing lobbying industry are among the signs of Washington’s increasing wealth and power.
After decades of decline, the nation’s capital today is wealthy and growing.
Metro Washington now has six of the nation’s ten wealthiest counties.
In 2012, Falls Church became the nation’s richest city, a far cry from when it was a 1970s refuge for Vietnamese immigrants fleeing Saigon.
The region’s median household income is $88,233, second in the nation behind California’s San Jose–Sunnyvale–Santa Clara metro area, which is part of Silicon Valley and has a median household income of $90,737.
But while in other cities this might be a success story, in Washington it comes with a catch.
Rather than resulting from private industry, it merely underlies the growth of the city’s leading employer, the federal government. The city’s flourishing has seemed especially perverse in recent years, as the rest of America has lagged economically.
Every tax dollar spent represents less money in the private sector to create jobs...
----
http://www.aei.org/publication/gross-national-profit-washingtons-wealth-waste/
Obama's Incompetence is Reason for Poor Recovery
From Investors.com:
...a new study finds "little support for the conventional wisdom that the output declines following financial crises are uniformly large and long-lasting." In fact, the declines are "on average only moderate."
So much for the "financial crisis ate my recovery" lie.
Bad policy, not the financial crisis, is why we've had such pathetic economic performance for five years.
Even more interesting is who authored the study: Christina Romer and David Romer. If that first name sounds familiar, it should.
She was Obama's chief economic adviser for the first two years of his presidency.
Nor are she and her husband, both well-regarded liberal-leaning economists at the University of California, Berkeley, alone in their conclusions.
An earlier, extensive study of U.S. recessions by Michael Bordo of Rutgers and Joseph Haubrich of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland found that, on average, recessions that happen due to financial crises tend to have faster recoveries — not slower ones.
In short, treat comments from left-wing politicians about the slow expansion with extreme skepticism.
As new data suggest, Obama's incompetence, not the financial meltdown, is why the recovery was such a disaster.
----
http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials/103114-724513-white-house-narrative-of-blaming-financial-crisis-for-poor-recovery-shown-to-be-false.htm
...a new study finds "little support for the conventional wisdom that the output declines following financial crises are uniformly large and long-lasting." In fact, the declines are "on average only moderate."
So much for the "financial crisis ate my recovery" lie.
Bad policy, not the financial crisis, is why we've had such pathetic economic performance for five years.
Even more interesting is who authored the study: Christina Romer and David Romer. If that first name sounds familiar, it should.
She was Obama's chief economic adviser for the first two years of his presidency.
Nor are she and her husband, both well-regarded liberal-leaning economists at the University of California, Berkeley, alone in their conclusions.
An earlier, extensive study of U.S. recessions by Michael Bordo of Rutgers and Joseph Haubrich of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland found that, on average, recessions that happen due to financial crises tend to have faster recoveries — not slower ones.
In short, treat comments from left-wing politicians about the slow expansion with extreme skepticism.
As new data suggest, Obama's incompetence, not the financial meltdown, is why the recovery was such a disaster.
----
http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials/103114-724513-white-house-narrative-of-blaming-financial-crisis-for-poor-recovery-shown-to-be-false.htm
Saturday, November 1, 2014
The New Grand Bargain: Buy ancient artifacts - support terrorists
From Reuters.com comes a story about illicit trade in ancient art and artifacts. Stolen treasure plundered by terrorists makes its way to rich people - who certainly love a bargain!
Some folks say these "conflict bargains" support and fund terrorists like ISIS - those beheaders, killers, and sex traffickers of women, boys and girls.
But, when such rare value is available at deep discounts, it's just business, right?
And if you get caught making a bargain? Well, there's got to be a reliable apologist for hire somewhere who explains the nuances of greater good. Say it's kind of Keynesian.
Or, just blame it on Bush, or Israel. That seems to work well for 'smart' folks with diplomas as well as rich folks. Or, if you feel kind of funny having to blame someone else, call it portfolio diversification. PB
----
“Many antique collectors unwillingly support terrorists like Islamic State, ” Michel van Rijn, one of the most successful smugglers of antique artifacts in the past century, told German broadcaster Das Erste this month.
And smuggling is booming in Iraq and Syria right now.
In Iraq, 4,500 archaeological sites, some of them UNESCO World Heritage sites, are reportedly controlled by Islamic State and are exposed to looting.
Iraqi intelligence claim that Islamic State alone has collected as much as $36 million from the sales of artifacts, some of them thousands of years old.
The accounts data have not been released for verification but, whatever the exact number is, the sale of conflict antiquities to fund military and paramilitary activity is real and systematic...
----
Link: http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2014/10/27/how-the-west-buys-conflict-antiquities-from-iraq-and-syria-and-funds-terror/
Some folks say these "conflict bargains" support and fund terrorists like ISIS - those beheaders, killers, and sex traffickers of women, boys and girls.
But, when such rare value is available at deep discounts, it's just business, right?
And if you get caught making a bargain? Well, there's got to be a reliable apologist for hire somewhere who explains the nuances of greater good. Say it's kind of Keynesian.
Or, just blame it on Bush, or Israel. That seems to work well for 'smart' folks with diplomas as well as rich folks. Or, if you feel kind of funny having to blame someone else, call it portfolio diversification. PB
----
“Many antique collectors unwillingly support terrorists like Islamic State, ” Michel van Rijn, one of the most successful smugglers of antique artifacts in the past century, told German broadcaster Das Erste this month.
And smuggling is booming in Iraq and Syria right now.
In Iraq, 4,500 archaeological sites, some of them UNESCO World Heritage sites, are reportedly controlled by Islamic State and are exposed to looting.
Iraqi intelligence claim that Islamic State alone has collected as much as $36 million from the sales of artifacts, some of them thousands of years old.
The accounts data have not been released for verification but, whatever the exact number is, the sale of conflict antiquities to fund military and paramilitary activity is real and systematic...
----
Link: http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2014/10/27/how-the-west-buys-conflict-antiquities-from-iraq-and-syria-and-funds-terror/
Wednesday, October 29, 2014
Ebola doctor ‘lied’ - should we be shocked?
Credentials equal character?
Of course not: credentials have almost nothing to do with character in this contemporary world.
A doctor lies about his health? Let's no longer be surprised. PB
----
From the New York Post:
Ebola doctor ‘lied’ about NYC travels
The city’s first Ebola patient initially lied to authorities about his travels around the city following his return from treating disease victims in Africa, law-enforcement sources said.
Dr. Craig Spencer at first told officials that he isolated himself in his Harlem apartment — and didn’t admit he rode the subways, dined out and went bowling until cops looked at his MetroCard the sources said.
“He told the authorities that he self-quarantined. Detectives then reviewed his credit-card statement and MetroCard and found that he went over here, over there, up and down and all around,” a source said.
Spencer finally ’fessed up when a cop “got on the phone and had to relay questions to him through the Health Department,” a source said.
Officials then retraced Spencer’s steps, which included dining at The Meatball Shop in Greenwich Village and bowling at The Gutter in Brooklyn...
----
Link: http://nypost.com/2014/10/29/ebola-doctor-lied-about-his-nyc-travels-police/?
Of course not: credentials have almost nothing to do with character in this contemporary world.
A doctor lies about his health? Let's no longer be surprised. PB
----
From the New York Post:
Ebola doctor ‘lied’ about NYC travels
The city’s first Ebola patient initially lied to authorities about his travels around the city following his return from treating disease victims in Africa, law-enforcement sources said.
Dr. Craig Spencer at first told officials that he isolated himself in his Harlem apartment — and didn’t admit he rode the subways, dined out and went bowling until cops looked at his MetroCard the sources said.
“He told the authorities that he self-quarantined. Detectives then reviewed his credit-card statement and MetroCard and found that he went over here, over there, up and down and all around,” a source said.
Spencer finally ’fessed up when a cop “got on the phone and had to relay questions to him through the Health Department,” a source said.
Officials then retraced Spencer’s steps, which included dining at The Meatball Shop in Greenwich Village and bowling at The Gutter in Brooklyn...
----
Link: http://nypost.com/2014/10/29/ebola-doctor-lied-about-his-nyc-travels-police/?
Sunday, October 19, 2014
The Protocols of the Elders of Liberalism
William Kristol writing in The Weekly Standard:
"Protocols.” You can’t turn on your TV without hearing about them.
The last time the word featured so prominently in American public discourse was when Henry Ford took it upon himself to pay for and distribute half a million copies of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion almost a century ago. History, of course, isn’t repeating itself.
The publication of those Protocols was designed to foster fear and loathing of Jews.
The invocation of these “protocols” by Obama administration officials as they bungle the Ebola crisis is designed to shield themselves from justified fear and loathing on the part of the citizenry.
The bungling is a result of a toxic confluence of two major strains of contemporary liberalism—the bureaucratic ineptness of big government and the political correctness of the nanny state. Characteristically, the strains seek to conceal themselves.
Bureaucratic ineptness hides behind the “protocols” that Tom Frieden of the Centers for Disease Control and his colleagues endlessly cite.
Political correctness hides behind edifying exhortations like that of White House press secretary Josh Earnest that “we live in a global world.”
But the protocols and the exhortations have been mugged by reality.
It turns out protocols can’t substitute for sound policy and real leadership. It turns out the global world can’t substitute for the nation-state.
Government officials like Frieden and Earnest swear an oath to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic” and to “well and faithfully discharge the duties” of their offices.
They owe allegiance to the nation more than to the world, and they owe the nation their judgment more than their protocols.
They are not faithfully discharging their duties of office when they make their priority protecting bureaucracies and enforcing orthodoxies....
----
Link: http://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/protocols-elders-liberalism_816389.html
"Protocols.” You can’t turn on your TV without hearing about them.
The last time the word featured so prominently in American public discourse was when Henry Ford took it upon himself to pay for and distribute half a million copies of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion almost a century ago. History, of course, isn’t repeating itself.
The publication of those Protocols was designed to foster fear and loathing of Jews.
The invocation of these “protocols” by Obama administration officials as they bungle the Ebola crisis is designed to shield themselves from justified fear and loathing on the part of the citizenry.
The bungling is a result of a toxic confluence of two major strains of contemporary liberalism—the bureaucratic ineptness of big government and the political correctness of the nanny state. Characteristically, the strains seek to conceal themselves.
Bureaucratic ineptness hides behind the “protocols” that Tom Frieden of the Centers for Disease Control and his colleagues endlessly cite.
Political correctness hides behind edifying exhortations like that of White House press secretary Josh Earnest that “we live in a global world.”
But the protocols and the exhortations have been mugged by reality.
It turns out protocols can’t substitute for sound policy and real leadership. It turns out the global world can’t substitute for the nation-state.
Government officials like Frieden and Earnest swear an oath to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic” and to “well and faithfully discharge the duties” of their offices.
They owe allegiance to the nation more than to the world, and they owe the nation their judgment more than their protocols.
They are not faithfully discharging their duties of office when they make their priority protecting bureaucracies and enforcing orthodoxies....
----
Link: http://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/protocols-elders-liberalism_816389.html
George W. Obama and his Hurricane Ebola
What? What is this reporting from the New York Times?
Incompetence in Big Government hurting people's lives?
What? Really? Is there a small note of despise? PB
----
From the New York Times online:
For years, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been the most trusted agency in the federal government...
And then came Ebola.
The Ebola outbreak is not exactly enhancing the C.D.C.'s reputation for competence.
At first, the agency reassured the public that American hospitals were ready to handle any Ebola cases that came their way.
That has turned out not to be the case.
When Thomas Eric Duncan was diagnosed with Ebola in Dallas, the C.D.C. did not immediately fly in an expert team — something that the C.D.C. director, Tom Frieden, now says it should have done.
Most recently, the C.D.C. appears to have allowed one of the Dallas nurses who helped Duncan to take a flight from Ohio to Texas even though she had a slightly raised temperature.
When it became clear that she had contracted the virus — the second nurse to do so — Frieden was forced to admit that letting her on the plane was a mistake...
And now comes the C.D.C. — the most trusted agency in government — thrust in a role for which it was designed: advising us and protecting us from a potential contagion.
With every new mistake, it becomes, in the public eye, just another federal agency that can’t get it right.
----
Link:http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/18/opinion/joe-nocera-failures-of-competence.html
Incompetence in Big Government hurting people's lives?
What? Really? Is there a small note of despise? PB
----
From the New York Times online:
Failures of Competence
Et tu, C.D.C.?For years, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been the most trusted agency in the federal government...
And then came Ebola.
The Ebola outbreak is not exactly enhancing the C.D.C.'s reputation for competence.
At first, the agency reassured the public that American hospitals were ready to handle any Ebola cases that came their way.
That has turned out not to be the case.
When Thomas Eric Duncan was diagnosed with Ebola in Dallas, the C.D.C. did not immediately fly in an expert team — something that the C.D.C. director, Tom Frieden, now says it should have done.
Most recently, the C.D.C. appears to have allowed one of the Dallas nurses who helped Duncan to take a flight from Ohio to Texas even though she had a slightly raised temperature.
When it became clear that she had contracted the virus — the second nurse to do so — Frieden was forced to admit that letting her on the plane was a mistake...
And now comes the C.D.C. — the most trusted agency in government — thrust in a role for which it was designed: advising us and protecting us from a potential contagion.
With every new mistake, it becomes, in the public eye, just another federal agency that can’t get it right.
----
Link:http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/18/opinion/joe-nocera-failures-of-competence.html
Saturday, October 18, 2014
Obamacare: source of the New War on Women
From the New York Times comes a story....
Wait! Breaking news from a few years ago!
"If you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan...."
Is that true? If you liked your plan, you can keep your plan?
Think about Patricia Wanderlich, and others who purchased Obamacare, mentioned in a New York Times article. She can't afford health care under Obamacare.
My God, what has Obamacare done to women?
Obamacare is just another intrusive Big Government Waste Machine that restricts people's choices. It is self-congratulatory while hurting real people.
What this tells us is that the biggest fraud in our current American life comes from self described 'reality based' progressives and liberals.
Reality based? These are the true bigots of our times.
Liberal, progressive bigots: we need a cure. Fast! PB
----
NYT: Unable to Meet the Deductible or the Doctor
Patricia Wanderlich got insurance through the Affordable Care Act this year, and with good reason:
She suffered a brain hemorrhage in 2011, spending weeks in a hospital intensive care unit, and has a second, smaller aneurysm that needs monitoring.
But her new plan has a $6,000 annual deductible, meaning that Ms. Wanderlich, who works part time at a landscaping company outside Chicago, has to pay for most of her medical services up to that amount.
She is skipping this year’s brain scan and hoping for the best.
“To spend thousands of dollars just making sure it hasn’t grown?” said Ms. Wanderlich, 61.
“I don’t have that money...”
A survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that the average deductible for individual coverage in employer-sponsored plans was $1,217 this year.
In comparison, the average deductible for a bronze plan on the exchange — the least expensive coverage — was $5,081 for an individual and $10,386 for a family...
----
Link: www.nytimes.com/2014/10/18/us/unable-to-meet-the-deductible-or-the-doctor.html
Wait! Breaking news from a few years ago!
"If you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan...."
Is that true? If you liked your plan, you can keep your plan?
Think about Patricia Wanderlich, and others who purchased Obamacare, mentioned in a New York Times article. She can't afford health care under Obamacare.
My God, what has Obamacare done to women?
Obamacare is just another intrusive Big Government Waste Machine that restricts people's choices. It is self-congratulatory while hurting real people.
What this tells us is that the biggest fraud in our current American life comes from self described 'reality based' progressives and liberals.
Reality based? These are the true bigots of our times.
Liberal, progressive bigots: we need a cure. Fast! PB
----
NYT: Unable to Meet the Deductible or the Doctor
Patricia Wanderlich got insurance through the Affordable Care Act this year, and with good reason:
She suffered a brain hemorrhage in 2011, spending weeks in a hospital intensive care unit, and has a second, smaller aneurysm that needs monitoring.
But her new plan has a $6,000 annual deductible, meaning that Ms. Wanderlich, who works part time at a landscaping company outside Chicago, has to pay for most of her medical services up to that amount.
She is skipping this year’s brain scan and hoping for the best.
“To spend thousands of dollars just making sure it hasn’t grown?” said Ms. Wanderlich, 61.
“I don’t have that money...”
A survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that the average deductible for individual coverage in employer-sponsored plans was $1,217 this year.
In comparison, the average deductible for a bronze plan on the exchange — the least expensive coverage — was $5,081 for an individual and $10,386 for a family...
----
Link: www.nytimes.com/2014/10/18/us/unable-to-meet-the-deductible-or-the-doctor.html
Monday, October 13, 2014
Everyday Low (Banking) Prices
Why hate Walmart?
Walmart is a good friend to the poor. Low prices. Wide selection. In metro Detroit's inner ring of suburbs you will find Walmart frequented by Blacks, immigrants, the working poor and other smart shoppers.
I like shopping with them.
The liberal bigots of America despise Walmart. Why? Their illusions are not served by Walmart's truly helpful low costs.
Now a real boon to the poor is being introduced with inexpensive banking products.
Liberal bigots like to point to diversity brochures.
With much greater meaning, Walmart serves our country's living, breathing, shopping diversity of real people who have a real need for cost saving in their real lives.
The real world that shops at Walmart is well served by Walmart. It's time to start loving that store. PB
----
From NYmag.com:
It is expensive to be poor...
Have a healthy paycheck and a cash buffer built up? It costs you close to nothing to maintain your checking and savings accounts.
Live hand-to-mouth, cashing your checks and taking out payday loans? You get hit with fee after fee as well as three-digit interest rates.
Enter wallet-friendly retail giant Walmart.
This month, the big-box store is unrolling a low-fee checking account across the country.
The response on the left, at least, has tended to be skeptical: a “new scheme to prey on America’s poor,” an “awful idea,” and so on.
But the big-box retailer — and the competition it might pose to banks and other financial institutions — might help make banking accessible to millions of currently ill-served low-income families...
Walmart and Green Dot have made their fees low and simple. They have targeted the low-income families that banks so often eschew and the unbanked families that banks generally ignore.
Already, Walmart has become an important financial-services center for those families, with its dirt-cheap fees for things like check cashing.
It is also not hard to see how over time they might begin to chip away at banks’ broader customer base or force banks to lower fees and compete a little harder to keep their customers.
----
Link: http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/10/everyday-low-banking-prices.html
Walmart is a good friend to the poor. Low prices. Wide selection. In metro Detroit's inner ring of suburbs you will find Walmart frequented by Blacks, immigrants, the working poor and other smart shoppers.
I like shopping with them.
The liberal bigots of America despise Walmart. Why? Their illusions are not served by Walmart's truly helpful low costs.
Now a real boon to the poor is being introduced with inexpensive banking products.
Liberal bigots like to point to diversity brochures.
With much greater meaning, Walmart serves our country's living, breathing, shopping diversity of real people who have a real need for cost saving in their real lives.
The real world that shops at Walmart is well served by Walmart. It's time to start loving that store. PB
----
From NYmag.com:
It is expensive to be poor...
Have a healthy paycheck and a cash buffer built up? It costs you close to nothing to maintain your checking and savings accounts.
Live hand-to-mouth, cashing your checks and taking out payday loans? You get hit with fee after fee as well as three-digit interest rates.
Enter wallet-friendly retail giant Walmart.
This month, the big-box store is unrolling a low-fee checking account across the country.
The response on the left, at least, has tended to be skeptical: a “new scheme to prey on America’s poor,” an “awful idea,” and so on.
But the big-box retailer — and the competition it might pose to banks and other financial institutions — might help make banking accessible to millions of currently ill-served low-income families...
Walmart and Green Dot have made their fees low and simple. They have targeted the low-income families that banks so often eschew and the unbanked families that banks generally ignore.
Already, Walmart has become an important financial-services center for those families, with its dirt-cheap fees for things like check cashing.
It is also not hard to see how over time they might begin to chip away at banks’ broader customer base or force banks to lower fees and compete a little harder to keep their customers.
----
Link: http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/10/everyday-low-banking-prices.html
Saturday, October 11, 2014
PIMCO's assets drop 5%
More fallout from the resignation of Bill Gross. PB
----
From Reuters.com:
Pacific Investment Management Co., whose co-founder Bill Gross stunningly departed on Sept. 26, said late Friday that the Newport Beach, Calif.-firm had assets under management of $1.876 trillion as of Sept. 30, a 5 percent drop in the third quarter.
Gross, one of the bond market's most renowned investors and the former manager of the flagship Pimco Total Return Fund, quit PIMCO for distant rival Janus Capital Group Inc.
Since Gross's departure, PIMCO has seen heavy outflows, with $23.5 billion leaving the Pimco Total Return Fund in September alone.
----
Link: http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/10/10/us-pimco-allianz-totalassets-id
----
From Reuters.com:
Pacific Investment Management Co., whose co-founder Bill Gross stunningly departed on Sept. 26, said late Friday that the Newport Beach, Calif.-firm had assets under management of $1.876 trillion as of Sept. 30, a 5 percent drop in the third quarter.
Gross, one of the bond market's most renowned investors and the former manager of the flagship Pimco Total Return Fund, quit PIMCO for distant rival Janus Capital Group Inc.
Since Gross's departure, PIMCO has seen heavy outflows, with $23.5 billion leaving the Pimco Total Return Fund in September alone.
----
Link: http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/10/10/us-pimco-allianz-totalassets-id
Sunday, October 5, 2014
Wages stagnate; Unemployment Rate below 6%
From the Wall Street Journal online:
The nation’s unemployment rate slipped below 6% for the first time since the recession...
The upbeat report was tempered by weak earnings growth and continued high underemployment, reflecting workers stuck in part-time jobs...
Indeed, Friday’s report highlighted underlying ills that threaten the economy’s long-term potential to grow and lift Americans’ living standards.
The labor-force participation rate—reflecting the share of working-age Americans who have a job or are looking for one—fell last month to a three-decade low of 62.7%. Before the recession it stood at 66%.
Only part of the decline is due to aging baby boomers; even among Americans in the prime working ages of 25 to 54, participation is historically low...
And workers’ wages still have yet to climb significantly.
Among private-sector workers, average hourly earnings actually fell a penny last month, to $24.53. They have risen 2% over the past year.
This is the second expansion in a row including the recovery after the 2001 recession, where economic growth hasn’t translated into rising incomes for most Americans.
While the economy is in the middle of a pickup, weak productivity growth and the downsized labor force point to limited gains in overall growth in the long term, said Morgan Stanley economist Ted Wieseman. “It’s just a dismal picture,” he said...
----
Link: http://online.wsj.com/articles/u-s-job-growth-rebounds-in-september-1412339557
The nation’s unemployment rate slipped below 6% for the first time since the recession...
The upbeat report was tempered by weak earnings growth and continued high underemployment, reflecting workers stuck in part-time jobs...
Indeed, Friday’s report highlighted underlying ills that threaten the economy’s long-term potential to grow and lift Americans’ living standards.
The labor-force participation rate—reflecting the share of working-age Americans who have a job or are looking for one—fell last month to a three-decade low of 62.7%. Before the recession it stood at 66%.
Only part of the decline is due to aging baby boomers; even among Americans in the prime working ages of 25 to 54, participation is historically low...
And workers’ wages still have yet to climb significantly.
Among private-sector workers, average hourly earnings actually fell a penny last month, to $24.53. They have risen 2% over the past year.
This is the second expansion in a row including the recovery after the 2001 recession, where economic growth hasn’t translated into rising incomes for most Americans.
While the economy is in the middle of a pickup, weak productivity growth and the downsized labor force point to limited gains in overall growth in the long term, said Morgan Stanley economist Ted Wieseman. “It’s just a dismal picture,” he said...
----
Link: http://online.wsj.com/articles/u-s-job-growth-rebounds-in-september-1412339557
Wednesday, October 1, 2014
Just In Time! $617 Billion Japanese Fat Finger Trades Stopped at Last Minute
From Bloomberg.com:
Japan’s over-the-counter market was bombarded with $617 billion of erroneous stock orders in dozens of Asia’s biggest corporations. They were canceled before they could be executed.
More than 40 requests to transact shares totaling 67.78 trillion yen ($617 billion) -- greater than the size of Sweden’s economy -- were voided at 9:25 a.m. in Tokyo before they could be matched, according to data compiled by Bloomberg...
The biggest order was for 1.96 billion shares of Toyota Motor Corp., or 57 percent of outstanding shares in the world’s biggest car maker, for 12.68 trillion yen through an off-exchange transaction...
One of the biggest American market makers, Knight Capital Group Inc., was pushed to the brink of bankruptcy in August 2012 when its computers spewed mistaken orders on to U.S. markets.
In that case, the orders found buyers and resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars in losses to the Jersey City, New Jersey-based firm. The company was later bailed out and sold.
While no such losses were recorded today because the orders weren’t filled, there should be an explanation to alleviate concerns [a market strategist said]...
----
Link: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-10-01/oops-possible-617-billion-trading-error-in-japan.html
Japan’s over-the-counter market was bombarded with $617 billion of erroneous stock orders in dozens of Asia’s biggest corporations. They were canceled before they could be executed.
More than 40 requests to transact shares totaling 67.78 trillion yen ($617 billion) -- greater than the size of Sweden’s economy -- were voided at 9:25 a.m. in Tokyo before they could be matched, according to data compiled by Bloomberg...
The biggest order was for 1.96 billion shares of Toyota Motor Corp., or 57 percent of outstanding shares in the world’s biggest car maker, for 12.68 trillion yen through an off-exchange transaction...
One of the biggest American market makers, Knight Capital Group Inc., was pushed to the brink of bankruptcy in August 2012 when its computers spewed mistaken orders on to U.S. markets.
In that case, the orders found buyers and resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars in losses to the Jersey City, New Jersey-based firm. The company was later bailed out and sold.
While no such losses were recorded today because the orders weren’t filled, there should be an explanation to alleviate concerns [a market strategist said]...
----
Link: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-10-01/oops-possible-617-billion-trading-error-in-japan.html
Monday, September 29, 2014
Bill Gross leaves - money follows
About Bill Gross leaving PIMCO: money is following. From the Wall Street Journal and CNN:
Billions Fly Out the Door at Pimco
About $10 Billion Is Withdrawn After Departure of Gross
Pacific Investment Management Co. suffered roughly $10 billion of withdrawals following the Friday departure of co-founder Bill Gross, a person familiar with the matter said, a sign of how quickly Mr. Gross's surprise move is reshaping the bond-investing landscape.
Pimco is bracing for more outflows on the heels of the veteran investor's departure after months of internal strife over his leadership...
----
Link: http://online.wsj.com/articles/billions-fly-out-the-door-at-pimco-1411948188
Bill Gross exit could cost Pimco $400 billion
According to Morgan Stanley (MS), investors could yank a whopping $400 billion of assets from Pimco following the surprise exit of Gross on Friday.
Morgan Stanley based that huge figure on the 6% drop in the share price of Pimco parent Allianz (ALIZF). The investment bank said in a report Monday that implies a loss of around 20% of the Pimco's total assets.
Pimco and Allianz executives scrambled over the weekend and on Monday to soothe nervous clients and analysts after Gross shocked the financial world by leaving the firm he founded in 1971 for Janus Capital (JNS).
Gross directly managed about $300 billion of assets, although Morgan Stanley estimates he had "influence" over around $500 billion...
----
Link: http://money.cnn.com/2014/09/29/investing/pimco-bill-gross-outflows-janus/index.html?
Billions Fly Out the Door at Pimco
About $10 Billion Is Withdrawn After Departure of Gross
Pacific Investment Management Co. suffered roughly $10 billion of withdrawals following the Friday departure of co-founder Bill Gross, a person familiar with the matter said, a sign of how quickly Mr. Gross's surprise move is reshaping the bond-investing landscape.
Pimco is bracing for more outflows on the heels of the veteran investor's departure after months of internal strife over his leadership...
----
Link: http://online.wsj.com/articles/billions-fly-out-the-door-at-pimco-1411948188
Bill Gross exit could cost Pimco $400 billion
According to Morgan Stanley (MS), investors could yank a whopping $400 billion of assets from Pimco following the surprise exit of Gross on Friday.
Morgan Stanley based that huge figure on the 6% drop in the share price of Pimco parent Allianz (ALIZF). The investment bank said in a report Monday that implies a loss of around 20% of the Pimco's total assets.
Pimco and Allianz executives scrambled over the weekend and on Monday to soothe nervous clients and analysts after Gross shocked the financial world by leaving the firm he founded in 1971 for Janus Capital (JNS).
Gross directly managed about $300 billion of assets, although Morgan Stanley estimates he had "influence" over around $500 billion...
----
Link: http://money.cnn.com/2014/09/29/investing/pimco-bill-gross-outflows-janus/index.html?
Sunday, September 28, 2014
ESPN - NFL - Conflicts of Interest
Hypocrisy and serious conflicts of interest bind ESPN and the NFL. The story below examines the corporate motivations of ESPN when it 'covers' issues like wife beating, concussions, big money, etc.
In the same light, consider the influence of corporate motivations when you ask this about your investments: what and where are the conflicts of interests?
Hidden fees? Compromised referrals? Crony networks of advisers scratching each other's back at your expense? What about the selection of investment choices that are offered to you?
What is clear to us is that almost all investors have no clue how much of their money is lost to costs.
When we show investors the actual cash they pay in fees today, and how much that builds over time, every single person is stunned at the large amounts of money that are lost to costs.
There is a better way to protect your investments from conflicts of interest and save more of your money from being lost to costs: own the lowest cost, most reliable index ETFs. Then keep them for life. PB
----
From The Motley Fool online:
The engine that makes ESPN go
Every once in a while, the media's dirty little secret gets paraded about for all to see.
The latest example is ESPN's three-week suspension of Bill Simmons after the popular columnist accused NFL commissioner Roger Goodell of lying about being previously unaware of a video showing former-Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice knocking out Rice's now-wife in a hotel elevator...
So, here's the issue: Did ESPN suspend Simmons because of his obscenities-laced comments, or did the sports network do so because Simmons attacked the head of ESPN's most important business partner, the NFL?
Allegations concerning a conflict of interest between ESPN and the NFL are nothing new. In 2012, the network teamed up with PBS's Frontline to produce an investigative piece about the league's handling of head injuries.
The tenor of the resulting two-part documentary, League of Denial, was that the NFL knew more about the permanent damage done to its players' brains than it had publicly acknowledged.
Somewhere along the way, however, ESPN withdrew its support from the project, explaining that it ended the partnership because of a misunderstanding over editorial control...
Taking all of this into consideration, there is little question that ESPN at least appears to have a conflict of interest between its relationship with the NFL...
Underlying it is a $15.2 billion deal giving ESPN the right to broadcast Monday Night Football games through the 2021 season.
...if ESPN were a stand-alone business, it would have a higher market capitalization than 408 of the components on the S&P 500, handily outpacing the likes of Fedex, Delta Air Lines, and Target.
And it's worth roughly twice that of CBS Corporation, which owns dozens of cable networks and local television and radio stations throughout the nation's largest media markets...
----
Link: http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2014/09/26/espn-the-nfl-and-conflicts-of-interest.aspx
In the same light, consider the influence of corporate motivations when you ask this about your investments: what and where are the conflicts of interests?
Hidden fees? Compromised referrals? Crony networks of advisers scratching each other's back at your expense? What about the selection of investment choices that are offered to you?
What is clear to us is that almost all investors have no clue how much of their money is lost to costs.
When we show investors the actual cash they pay in fees today, and how much that builds over time, every single person is stunned at the large amounts of money that are lost to costs.
There is a better way to protect your investments from conflicts of interest and save more of your money from being lost to costs: own the lowest cost, most reliable index ETFs. Then keep them for life. PB
----
From The Motley Fool online:
The engine that makes ESPN go
Every once in a while, the media's dirty little secret gets paraded about for all to see.
The latest example is ESPN's three-week suspension of Bill Simmons after the popular columnist accused NFL commissioner Roger Goodell of lying about being previously unaware of a video showing former-Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice knocking out Rice's now-wife in a hotel elevator...
So, here's the issue: Did ESPN suspend Simmons because of his obscenities-laced comments, or did the sports network do so because Simmons attacked the head of ESPN's most important business partner, the NFL?
Allegations concerning a conflict of interest between ESPN and the NFL are nothing new. In 2012, the network teamed up with PBS's Frontline to produce an investigative piece about the league's handling of head injuries.
The tenor of the resulting two-part documentary, League of Denial, was that the NFL knew more about the permanent damage done to its players' brains than it had publicly acknowledged.
Somewhere along the way, however, ESPN withdrew its support from the project, explaining that it ended the partnership because of a misunderstanding over editorial control...
Taking all of this into consideration, there is little question that ESPN at least appears to have a conflict of interest between its relationship with the NFL...
Underlying it is a $15.2 billion deal giving ESPN the right to broadcast Monday Night Football games through the 2021 season.
...if ESPN were a stand-alone business, it would have a higher market capitalization than 408 of the components on the S&P 500, handily outpacing the likes of Fedex, Delta Air Lines, and Target.
And it's worth roughly twice that of CBS Corporation, which owns dozens of cable networks and local television and radio stations throughout the nation's largest media markets...
----
Link: http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2014/09/26/espn-the-nfl-and-conflicts-of-interest.aspx
Friday, September 26, 2014
PIMCO CIO William H. Gross to leave the firm
From PIMCO.com:
September 26, 2014, (Newport Beach, CA): PIMCO, a leading global investment management firm, announced that Co-founder and Chief Investment Officer (“CIO”) William H. Gross, has resigned and will leave the firm, effective immediately.
The firm has a succession plan in place and its Management Board, comprised of its Managing Directors, will confirm shortly the election of a new Chief Investment Officer. Relevant portfolio management assignments will also be announced at that time.
Said Mr. Hodge: “While we are grateful for everything Bill contributed to building our firm and delivering value to PIMCO’s clients, over the course of this year it became increasingly clear that the firm’s leadership and Bill have fundamental differences about how to take PIMCO forward...”
----
Link: http://www.pimco.com/EN/PressReleases/Pages/PIMCO-CIO-William-H-Gross-to-leave-the-firm.aspx
September 26, 2014, (Newport Beach, CA): PIMCO, a leading global investment management firm, announced that Co-founder and Chief Investment Officer (“CIO”) William H. Gross, has resigned and will leave the firm, effective immediately.
The firm has a succession plan in place and its Management Board, comprised of its Managing Directors, will confirm shortly the election of a new Chief Investment Officer. Relevant portfolio management assignments will also be announced at that time.
Said Mr. Hodge: “While we are grateful for everything Bill contributed to building our firm and delivering value to PIMCO’s clients, over the course of this year it became increasingly clear that the firm’s leadership and Bill have fundamental differences about how to take PIMCO forward...”
----
Link: http://www.pimco.com/EN/PressReleases/Pages/PIMCO-CIO-William-H-Gross-to-leave-the-firm.aspx
Thursday, September 25, 2014
Bond Traders just Fffffffade Away...
Not just looking for a job - looking for a new career. PB
----
From Businessweek.com:
In the 1980s bonds were the center of action on Wall Street, and traders—like the fictional Sherman McCoy in The Bonfire of the Vanities—were “masters of the universe.”
Those days are gone...
The size of the bond market in the U.S. ballooned to $37.8 trillion at the end of 2013, up $5.1 trillion since 2008 ... even so, trading in dollar-denominated bonds declined 22 percent...
As profits fell, so did pay. Total compensation at the biggest banks has fallen as much as 50 percent for high-yield and investment-grade traders and up to 25 percent for distressed-debt traders since 2010...
While veterans shuffle from job to job, some younger traders have gotten out and moved into industries ranging from real estate to public relations to information technology.
The ones who remain face long odds, says Michael Maloney, president of his own fixed-income recruiting firm. “For every 10 of them, there’s going to be three or four left,” he says.
“What’s the time frame? Well, everybody I know is looking for a job—not looking for a job, looking for a career.”
----
Link: http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-09-25/bond-traders-fade-away-as-industry-shrinks
----
From Businessweek.com:
In the 1980s bonds were the center of action on Wall Street, and traders—like the fictional Sherman McCoy in The Bonfire of the Vanities—were “masters of the universe.”
Those days are gone...
The size of the bond market in the U.S. ballooned to $37.8 trillion at the end of 2013, up $5.1 trillion since 2008 ... even so, trading in dollar-denominated bonds declined 22 percent...
As profits fell, so did pay. Total compensation at the biggest banks has fallen as much as 50 percent for high-yield and investment-grade traders and up to 25 percent for distressed-debt traders since 2010...
While veterans shuffle from job to job, some younger traders have gotten out and moved into industries ranging from real estate to public relations to information technology.
The ones who remain face long odds, says Michael Maloney, president of his own fixed-income recruiting firm. “For every 10 of them, there’s going to be three or four left,” he says.
“What’s the time frame? Well, everybody I know is looking for a job—not looking for a job, looking for a career.”
----
Link: http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-09-25/bond-traders-fade-away-as-industry-shrinks
Sunday, September 21, 2014
Nobel winner: Active management is 'never' good
Another reminder why we say it's best to cut your investment costs for the rest of your investing life.
Nobel Prize winner Eugene Fama clearly says do not try to 'time' or outguess the market; and, don't use active managers.
We know that using active managers means giving away your money - unnecessarily - through higher fees.
Bottom line: paying higher fees means that the retirement nest egg of someone else becomes larger at the expense of your nest egg.
Is this simply how business is done, or is this the way Wall Street socializes your retirement savings? We say there is a better and simpler way to invest. PB
----
From CNBC.com:
Eugene Fama, the University of Chicago investing researcher who won the Nobel Prize in economics last year, once again warned investors against the lure of active management.
"The question is when is active management good? The answer is never," Fama said to laughs Thursday at the Morningstar ETF Conference in Chicago.
"If active managers win, it has to be at the expense of other active managers. And when you add them all up, the returns of active managers have to be literally zero, before costs. Then after costs, it's a big negative sign," Fama added...
Fama dismissed the idea that it was possible to pick the best managers.
"The good ones might be good or they might be lucky. The bad ones might be bad or they might be unlucky.
"We can't really tell the difference," he said.
"I don't know if it would ever make sense, even if the fees were zero, I don't think you'd be better off because you'd be investing in an undiversified way."
Asked about Warren Buffett's long-term record of picking good companies, Fama said the Berkshire Hathaway chief actually agreed with his index-based thesis.
Buffett said recently he actually has directed much of his fortune to be placed in passive index funds after he dies.
"He's, like, my hero," Fama said. "What he says is, 'I can pick a company every couple years, but if you have to form a portfolio, you're better off going passive.'"
"All the behavioral people say the same thing," Fama added. "In the end, they realize that the game of doing something active is fraught with problems."
Fama was also asked about hedging against big crashes, like what happened to the markets in 2008.
Attempting to protect against them, he said, was the unwinnable game of market-timing.
"If you sold when the market crashed, you made a big mistake, and if you saw it coming you're a genius," Fama said.
----
Link: http://www.cnbc.com/id/102014057
Nobel Prize winner Eugene Fama clearly says do not try to 'time' or outguess the market; and, don't use active managers.
We know that using active managers means giving away your money - unnecessarily - through higher fees.
Bottom line: paying higher fees means that the retirement nest egg of someone else becomes larger at the expense of your nest egg.
Is this simply how business is done, or is this the way Wall Street socializes your retirement savings? We say there is a better and simpler way to invest. PB
----
From CNBC.com:
Eugene Fama, the University of Chicago investing researcher who won the Nobel Prize in economics last year, once again warned investors against the lure of active management.
"The question is when is active management good? The answer is never," Fama said to laughs Thursday at the Morningstar ETF Conference in Chicago.
"If active managers win, it has to be at the expense of other active managers. And when you add them all up, the returns of active managers have to be literally zero, before costs. Then after costs, it's a big negative sign," Fama added...
Fama dismissed the idea that it was possible to pick the best managers.
"The good ones might be good or they might be lucky. The bad ones might be bad or they might be unlucky.
"We can't really tell the difference," he said.
"I don't know if it would ever make sense, even if the fees were zero, I don't think you'd be better off because you'd be investing in an undiversified way."
Asked about Warren Buffett's long-term record of picking good companies, Fama said the Berkshire Hathaway chief actually agreed with his index-based thesis.
Buffett said recently he actually has directed much of his fortune to be placed in passive index funds after he dies.
"He's, like, my hero," Fama said. "What he says is, 'I can pick a company every couple years, but if you have to form a portfolio, you're better off going passive.'"
"All the behavioral people say the same thing," Fama added. "In the end, they realize that the game of doing something active is fraught with problems."
Fama was also asked about hedging against big crashes, like what happened to the markets in 2008.
Attempting to protect against them, he said, was the unwinnable game of market-timing.
"If you sold when the market crashed, you made a big mistake, and if you saw it coming you're a genius," Fama said.
----
Link: http://www.cnbc.com/id/102014057
Tuesday, September 16, 2014
Roughed up in the George W. Obama Economy
If you're doing good, you're doing good. But most people are going sideways. 2 out of 5 doing good to great. 3 out of 5 sideways to down.
George W. Obama's economy has separated the middle class.
Soon, in a few years, the squeeze will move up and only 1 out of 5 will do good to great. 4 out of 5 will realize something's deeply wrong. PB
----
More from Robert Samuelson in The Washington Post online:
The second table shows these groups’ net worth...
The story is the same. Until 2007, net worth rose gradually. Then it crashed and fell to late 1980s or 1990s levels. Lower housing prices especially hurt.
This is the true middle-class squeeze:
People’s expectations about their living standards were set in the early 2000s, while their incomes and assets are stuck at levels 15 to 20 years earlier.
The huge gap isn’t rapidly erased, even by a revived economy. Of course, there are large variations among families.
The upper middle class and rich fared much better. In 2013, the median income of the richest 10 percent was $229,600, says the SCF.
Although that was 1 percent below its 2007 peak, it was 22 percent above its 1989 level.
----
Link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/robert-samuelson-the-roughed-up-american/2014/09/14/
George W. Obama's economy has separated the middle class.
Soon, in a few years, the squeeze will move up and only 1 out of 5 will do good to great. 4 out of 5 will realize something's deeply wrong. PB
----
More from Robert Samuelson in The Washington Post online:
The second table shows these groups’ net worth...
The story is the same. Until 2007, net worth rose gradually. Then it crashed and fell to late 1980s or 1990s levels. Lower housing prices especially hurt.
| Net Worth | ||
| Median Family | Solid Middle Class | |
| 1989 | $84,800 | $120,200 |
| 2007 | $135,400 | $231,100 |
| 2013 | $81,200 | $159,200 |
This is the true middle-class squeeze:
People’s expectations about their living standards were set in the early 2000s, while their incomes and assets are stuck at levels 15 to 20 years earlier.
The huge gap isn’t rapidly erased, even by a revived economy. Of course, there are large variations among families.
The upper middle class and rich fared much better. In 2013, the median income of the richest 10 percent was $229,600, says the SCF.
Although that was 1 percent below its 2007 peak, it was 22 percent above its 1989 level.
----
Link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/robert-samuelson-the-roughed-up-american/2014/09/14/
Monday, September 15, 2014
Americans roughed up by the economy - Income falling back to the 1980s and early 1990s
Robert Samuelson in the Washington Post online:
We have a peculiar prosperity. The economy is escaping the confines of the Great Recession; auto sales now exceed 16 million annually, the highest since 2006.
But people don’t feel reassured. They’ve lost confidence in the future.
Americans feel roughed up by the economy, and their fears aren’t fading quickly...
They’re still suffering the aftershocks in lower incomes and wealth, as the tables below show.
The first table provides annual pretax income from wages, interest and the like. The middle column shows the income of the median family, the one exactly in the middle of all families.
The column on the right shows the income of...“the solid middle class.”
If the population is divided into fifths, they’re the second fifth from the top: poorer than the richest 20 percent of Americans but richer than the other 60 percent.
Though comfortable, they’re not awash in money.
From 1989 to 2007, income rose 14 percent for the median family and 15 percent for the solid middle family.
But the numbers’ second message is devastating: The Great Recession hurled incomes all the way back to the late 1980s and early 1990s...
----
Link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/robert-samuelson-the-roughed-up-american/2014/09/14/
We have a peculiar prosperity. The economy is escaping the confines of the Great Recession; auto sales now exceed 16 million annually, the highest since 2006.
But people don’t feel reassured. They’ve lost confidence in the future.
Americans feel roughed up by the economy, and their fears aren’t fading quickly...
They’re still suffering the aftershocks in lower incomes and wealth, as the tables below show.
The first table provides annual pretax income from wages, interest and the like. The middle column shows the income of the median family, the one exactly in the middle of all families.
The column on the right shows the income of...“the solid middle class.”
If the population is divided into fifths, they’re the second fifth from the top: poorer than the richest 20 percent of Americans but richer than the other 60 percent.
Though comfortable, they’re not awash in money.
| Family Income | ||
| Median Family | Solid Middle Class | |
| 1989 | $46,500 | $73,500 |
| 2007 | $53,100 | $84,300 |
| 2013 | $46,700 | $76,400 |
From 1989 to 2007, income rose 14 percent for the median family and 15 percent for the solid middle family.
But the numbers’ second message is devastating: The Great Recession hurled incomes all the way back to the late 1980s and early 1990s...
----
Link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/robert-samuelson-the-roughed-up-american/2014/09/14/
Sunday, September 14, 2014
ISIS: $3 million/day from Oil smuggling, Extortion, Theft, Human trafficking - when's the HBO series?
Entrepreneurial, ain't they?
Human trafficking - isn't that slavery?
Where, where, anywhere in the world, are there protests in the streets? PB
----
From CNBC.com:
Islamic State militants, who once relied on wealthy Persian Gulf donors for money, have become a self-sustaining financial juggernaut, earning more than $3 million a day from oil smuggling, human trafficking, theft and extortion, according to U.S. intelligence officials and private experts.
The extremist group's resources exceed that "of any other terrorist group in history," said a U.S. intelligence official...
The Islamic State group has taken over large sections of Syria and Iraq, and controls as many as 11 oil fields in both countries, analysts say.
It is selling oil and other goods through generations-old smuggling networks under the noses of some of the same governments it is fighting: Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq, Turkey and Jordan...
The group also has earned hundreds of millions of dollars from smuggling antiquities out of Iraq to be sold in Turkey, al-Khatteeb said, and millions more from human trafficking by selling women and children as sex slaves...
----
Link:http://www.cnbc.com/id/101998730?
Human trafficking - isn't that slavery?
Where, where, anywhere in the world, are there protests in the streets? PB
----
From CNBC.com:
Islamic State militants, who once relied on wealthy Persian Gulf donors for money, have become a self-sustaining financial juggernaut, earning more than $3 million a day from oil smuggling, human trafficking, theft and extortion, according to U.S. intelligence officials and private experts.
The extremist group's resources exceed that "of any other terrorist group in history," said a U.S. intelligence official...
The Islamic State group has taken over large sections of Syria and Iraq, and controls as many as 11 oil fields in both countries, analysts say.
It is selling oil and other goods through generations-old smuggling networks under the noses of some of the same governments it is fighting: Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq, Turkey and Jordan...
The group also has earned hundreds of millions of dollars from smuggling antiquities out of Iraq to be sold in Turkey, al-Khatteeb said, and millions more from human trafficking by selling women and children as sex slaves...
----
Link:http://www.cnbc.com/id/101998730?
Volunteering is Big Business - who knew?
What is the value of your time?
When you get paid for the work you do, what you earn can be measured.
But what is the worth of what you do when you don't get paid with money?
You can ask a mom, a dad, or a volunteer to tell you the worth of what they do. Beyond saying 'priceless' or 'not enough,' each one likely doesn't have an economic number to give you.
Also, if a whole bunch of people volunteer to do the same thing, what is that worth? It seems we know this already, but all that time is worth a lot. PB
----
From the Wall Street Journal online:
Volunteering—unpaid, non-compulsory work —is big business.
Andrew Haldane, the Bank of England’s chief economist, has taken a stab at estimating just how big and his conclusions are striking.
Mr. Haldane helped found an outfit in the U.K. called Pro Bono Economics that matches community-minded economists with charities seeking to measure the impact of their actions...
Total up the global economy’s army of volunteers and the workforce of “Volunteerland” is about 971 million people, second only to China’s 1 billion workers.
So how much is such activity worth to an economy?
Since it is hard to measure what volunteers produce, Mr. Haldane estimates their contribution by working out the value of how much they put in—their labor.
Volunteers’ contribution to the U.K. economy could be anywhere up to £50 billion ($81 billion), he says, the equivalent of the annual output of Britain’s energy sector.
Volunteering has other economic benefits, Mr. Haldane argues. Workers who volunteer in their spare time tend to be happier and more productive. Volunteering may also enhance employees’ skills and boost their attractiveness to potential employers.
Some types of volunteering aid the economy by preventing harm: one Pro Bono Economics study found that a charity that helped young homeless people find work and in some cases get off drugs generated a return to society of £2.40 for every £1 invested.
Volunteering is “a well-hidden jewel” in the global economy, Mr. Haldane says...
----
Link: http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2014/09/12/volunteerland-is-bigger-than-china-says-boes-haldane/?
When you get paid for the work you do, what you earn can be measured.
But what is the worth of what you do when you don't get paid with money?
You can ask a mom, a dad, or a volunteer to tell you the worth of what they do. Beyond saying 'priceless' or 'not enough,' each one likely doesn't have an economic number to give you.
Also, if a whole bunch of people volunteer to do the same thing, what is that worth? It seems we know this already, but all that time is worth a lot. PB
----
From the Wall Street Journal online:
Volunteering—unpaid, non-compulsory work —is big business.
Andrew Haldane, the Bank of England’s chief economist, has taken a stab at estimating just how big and his conclusions are striking.
Mr. Haldane helped found an outfit in the U.K. called Pro Bono Economics that matches community-minded economists with charities seeking to measure the impact of their actions...
Total up the global economy’s army of volunteers and the workforce of “Volunteerland” is about 971 million people, second only to China’s 1 billion workers.
So how much is such activity worth to an economy?
Since it is hard to measure what volunteers produce, Mr. Haldane estimates their contribution by working out the value of how much they put in—their labor.
Volunteers’ contribution to the U.K. economy could be anywhere up to £50 billion ($81 billion), he says, the equivalent of the annual output of Britain’s energy sector.
Volunteering has other economic benefits, Mr. Haldane argues. Workers who volunteer in their spare time tend to be happier and more productive. Volunteering may also enhance employees’ skills and boost their attractiveness to potential employers.
Some types of volunteering aid the economy by preventing harm: one Pro Bono Economics study found that a charity that helped young homeless people find work and in some cases get off drugs generated a return to society of £2.40 for every £1 invested.
Volunteering is “a well-hidden jewel” in the global economy, Mr. Haldane says...
----
Link: http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2014/09/12/volunteerland-is-bigger-than-china-says-boes-haldane/?
Thursday, September 11, 2014
Life Keepers™ - another example how our approach works best for investors
This writer wrote a book 10 years ago, but couldn't find a publisher to publish it. So he took his message to individual investors one at a time.
The book was titled Life Keepers™ and it basically explained how to buy the highest quality at the lowest costs - and simply keep those kind of investments for life.
Keep it for life - that's the reason for the name "Life Keepers™."
So here's a recent story that explains why Life Keepers™ is the smart, reliable, and easiest approach you can use as an investor. PB
----
From BusinessInsider.com:
On this week's Masters in Business program on Bloomberg Radio, Barry Ritholtz talks with James O'Shaughnessy of O'Shaughnessy Asset Management.
Ritholtz and O'Shaughnessy spend much of their discussion talking about the ways people screw themselves when investing, because nothing gets in the way of returns quite like someone who thinks they have a great idea.
O'Shaughnessy discusses a number of interesting analyses he has done with regard to the length of holding periods (spoiler: the shorter you hold a stock, the more likely you are to lose money) among other things.
But O'Shaughnessy relays one anecdote from an employee who recently joined his firm that really makes one's head spin.
O'Shaughnessy: "Fidelity had done a study as to which accounts had done the best at Fidelity. And what they found was..."
Ritholtz: "They were dead."
O'Shaughnessy: "...No, that's close though! They were the accounts of people who forgot they had an account at Fidelity."
There are numerous studies that explain why this happens. And they almost always come down to the fact that our minds work against us.
Because of our behavioral biases, we often find ourselves buying high and selling low.
Ritholtz also follows with some of his experiences in estate planning, where a family fighting over some inherited assets might not touch them for say 10 or 20 years while they work out the problem, and later find that those 10 or 20 years are the best period of performance....
----
http://www.businessinsider.com/forgetful-investors-performed-best-2014-9
The book was titled Life Keepers™ and it basically explained how to buy the highest quality at the lowest costs - and simply keep those kind of investments for life.
Keep it for life - that's the reason for the name "Life Keepers™."
So here's a recent story that explains why Life Keepers™ is the smart, reliable, and easiest approach you can use as an investor. PB
----
From BusinessInsider.com:
On this week's Masters in Business program on Bloomberg Radio, Barry Ritholtz talks with James O'Shaughnessy of O'Shaughnessy Asset Management.
Ritholtz and O'Shaughnessy spend much of their discussion talking about the ways people screw themselves when investing, because nothing gets in the way of returns quite like someone who thinks they have a great idea.
O'Shaughnessy discusses a number of interesting analyses he has done with regard to the length of holding periods (spoiler: the shorter you hold a stock, the more likely you are to lose money) among other things.
But O'Shaughnessy relays one anecdote from an employee who recently joined his firm that really makes one's head spin.
O'Shaughnessy: "Fidelity had done a study as to which accounts had done the best at Fidelity. And what they found was..."
Ritholtz: "They were dead."
O'Shaughnessy: "...No, that's close though! They were the accounts of people who forgot they had an account at Fidelity."
There are numerous studies that explain why this happens. And they almost always come down to the fact that our minds work against us.
Because of our behavioral biases, we often find ourselves buying high and selling low.
Ritholtz also follows with some of his experiences in estate planning, where a family fighting over some inherited assets might not touch them for say 10 or 20 years while they work out the problem, and later find that those 10 or 20 years are the best period of performance....
----
http://www.businessinsider.com/forgetful-investors-performed-best-2014-9
Wednesday, September 10, 2014
Adult Diapers UP - Baby Diapers DOWN
Oh, to age gracefully...and knowing you're not alone. PB
----
From the Wall Street Journal online:
Procter & Gamble Co. is getting back into a business it exited more than a decade ago—making products for adults suffering from incontinence—as it takes aim at the growing ranks of aging Americans.
----
Link: http://blogs.wsj.com/corporate-intelligence/2014/07/17/this-is-what-an-aging-population-looks-like/
----
From the Wall Street Journal online:
Procter & Gamble Co. is getting back into a business it exited more than a decade ago—making products for adults suffering from incontinence—as it takes aim at the growing ranks of aging Americans.
Link: http://blogs.wsj.com/corporate-intelligence/2014/07/17/this-is-what-an-aging-population-looks-like/
Sunday, September 7, 2014
Where are the jobs? Where is the wage growth?
Those are the correct questions to ask. PB
----
From James Pethokoukis at AEI-ideas.org:
This was not a good jobs report. Certainly not one that suggests a shift into a higher growth gear.
The Two Percent-ish economy crawls on. The US economy added 142,000 jobs in August — much less than 225,000 expected — as the unemployment rate ticked down to 6.1%.
But the jobless rate fell only because the labor force shrank by 64,000, notes economist Paul Ashworth of Capital Economics.
The alternative household survey found employment increased by only 16,000 last month.
... And consider: There are just 1.2 million more private jobs today than January 2008 despite 15.6 million more non-jailed, non-military adults...
The anemic economy is generating jobs at the top and bottom, not so much in the middle. “Average is over” as economist Tyler Cowen has put it
And data yesterday from the Federal Reserve show that while income rose by 10% for the most affluent 10% of American families in 2010 through 2013, incomes were flat or falling for everybody else.
----
Link: http://www.aei-ideas.org/2014/09/the-august-jobs-report-where-are-the-jobs-where-is-the-wage-growth/
----
From James Pethokoukis at AEI-ideas.org:
This was not a good jobs report. Certainly not one that suggests a shift into a higher growth gear.
The Two Percent-ish economy crawls on. The US economy added 142,000 jobs in August — much less than 225,000 expected — as the unemployment rate ticked down to 6.1%.
But the jobless rate fell only because the labor force shrank by 64,000, notes economist Paul Ashworth of Capital Economics.
The alternative household survey found employment increased by only 16,000 last month.
... And consider: There are just 1.2 million more private jobs today than January 2008 despite 15.6 million more non-jailed, non-military adults...
The anemic economy is generating jobs at the top and bottom, not so much in the middle. “Average is over” as economist Tyler Cowen has put it
And data yesterday from the Federal Reserve show that while income rose by 10% for the most affluent 10% of American families in 2010 through 2013, incomes were flat or falling for everybody else.
----
Link: http://www.aei-ideas.org/2014/09/the-august-jobs-report-where-are-the-jobs-where-is-the-wage-growth/
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