Poor men.
Another study suggests that men without college degrees face the worst job prospects.
These men are the first to worry about their jobs: not the next job they wish they had, but the current one they have and would like to hold onto.
As their slog continues and their ceilings lower, working class men talk often about their jobs. Those conversations typically use impolite words that describe what affects their paychecks. It's not hard to interpret what they mean by the words they use.
In the meantime, establishment types get upset over the public use of modestly rough language that is widely used by working men in their private conversations from shop floors to where they drink coffee, which is likely at the same place you could quickly get a hamburger.
Jobs are important to men. So they laugh when they hear familiar words spoken in more proper settings.
But as they laugh they also know America is ignoring what men, especially working class men, need most.
Establishment types who act offended about the use of colorful language don't know the people who use that kind of language the most. 2016 is an important year.
Ding Dong! Happy New Year. PB
------
See the Wall Street Journal: Why Job Growth Could Get Even Worse for Men Without College Degrees
Link: http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2015/12/31/why-job-growth-could-get-even-worse-for-men-without-college-degrees/
Thursday, December 31, 2015
Tuesday, December 22, 2015
The New Stagflation: less jobs from less Startups, but more Government
Things ain't what they seem to be, or used to be.
New business formation has slowed in the last decade. At the same time, the size of government has exploded. Americans are poorly served by that combination.
New successful businesses create new jobs. Yet our economy suffers from stagnation of job growth. As Robert Samuelson, quoted below, writes: "there's a double whammy: fewer startups and slower growth at the survivors."
So, what do we have that might best describe this?
Let's use a word from the Nixon-Carter 1970s and apply it to the current George W. Obama decade and a half:
Stagflation. Today it means: stagnation of job growth; inflation of government growth.
Speaking of the 1970s, that's when Miller Lite beer was introduced through an advertising campaign: Tastes Great, Less Filling. Not so much anymore.
Today's Stagflation certainly doesn't taste great, but clearly it is less filling when it comes to creating jobs. PB
------
From economist Robert Samuelson writing at Investors.com:
There's more discouraging news about American business — specifically about entrepreneurship.
We confidently assume that we have the world's most entrepreneurial nation, and the proof seems overwhelming.
Google, Facebook and Twitter are but three (relatively) recent startups that have become corporate titans.
Before them, there were others: Microsoft, Intel and FedEx. We seem to excel at nurturing new firms.
Or do we?
Previous studies have shown that, despite the success of firms like Facebook, the number of startups has dropped sharply, from about 13% of all firms in the late 1980s to about 8% in 2011.
Now a new study from the National Bureau of Economic Research reports that the expansion of the remaining startups — which traditionally has been much faster than the growth of existing companies — has slowed considerably.
By some measures, it now barely exceeds the average of older companies.
So there's a double whammy: fewer startups and slower growth at the survivors.
This could be one reason the recovery from the Great Recession has been so sluggish, with the economy's growth averaging about 2% annually from 2010 to 2014, much slower than earlier post-World War II recoveries...
The upshot: "Startups and high-growth young firms (under five years) contributed less to U.S. job creation in the post-2000 period than in earlier periods," said the report.
The startup slump may also help explain the slowdown in productivity — a measure of efficiency that ultimately raises living standards.
From 2010 to 2014, productivity grew a meager 0.3% annually, also well below the post-World War II average of about 2%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics...
Just what has caused the startup slump isn't clear, the study admits...
What's clear is the startup slump is consistent with other business behavior, specifically weak investment spending on new plants and machinery.
Compared with the past, companies seem more reluctant to invest in the future.
"There is now robust evidence, from multiple data sources ... of a pervasive decline in U.S. business dynamism over the last several decades," says the study, which was released earlier this month.
------
http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials-perspective/121715-785867-robert-j-samuelson-says-us-in-a-serious-startup-slump.htm
New business formation has slowed in the last decade. At the same time, the size of government has exploded. Americans are poorly served by that combination.
New successful businesses create new jobs. Yet our economy suffers from stagnation of job growth. As Robert Samuelson, quoted below, writes: "there's a double whammy: fewer startups and slower growth at the survivors."
So, what do we have that might best describe this?
Let's use a word from the Nixon-Carter 1970s and apply it to the current George W. Obama decade and a half:
Stagflation. Today it means: stagnation of job growth; inflation of government growth.
Speaking of the 1970s, that's when Miller Lite beer was introduced through an advertising campaign: Tastes Great, Less Filling. Not so much anymore.
Today's Stagflation certainly doesn't taste great, but clearly it is less filling when it comes to creating jobs. PB
------
From economist Robert Samuelson writing at Investors.com:
There's more discouraging news about American business — specifically about entrepreneurship.
We confidently assume that we have the world's most entrepreneurial nation, and the proof seems overwhelming.
Google, Facebook and Twitter are but three (relatively) recent startups that have become corporate titans.
Before them, there were others: Microsoft, Intel and FedEx. We seem to excel at nurturing new firms.
Or do we?
Previous studies have shown that, despite the success of firms like Facebook, the number of startups has dropped sharply, from about 13% of all firms in the late 1980s to about 8% in 2011.
Now a new study from the National Bureau of Economic Research reports that the expansion of the remaining startups — which traditionally has been much faster than the growth of existing companies — has slowed considerably.
By some measures, it now barely exceeds the average of older companies.
So there's a double whammy: fewer startups and slower growth at the survivors.
This could be one reason the recovery from the Great Recession has been so sluggish, with the economy's growth averaging about 2% annually from 2010 to 2014, much slower than earlier post-World War II recoveries...
The upshot: "Startups and high-growth young firms (under five years) contributed less to U.S. job creation in the post-2000 period than in earlier periods," said the report.
The startup slump may also help explain the slowdown in productivity — a measure of efficiency that ultimately raises living standards.
From 2010 to 2014, productivity grew a meager 0.3% annually, also well below the post-World War II average of about 2%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics...
Just what has caused the startup slump isn't clear, the study admits...
What's clear is the startup slump is consistent with other business behavior, specifically weak investment spending on new plants and machinery.
Compared with the past, companies seem more reluctant to invest in the future.
"There is now robust evidence, from multiple data sources ... of a pervasive decline in U.S. business dynamism over the last several decades," says the study, which was released earlier this month.
------
http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials-perspective/121715-785867-robert-j-samuelson-says-us-in-a-serious-startup-slump.htm
Saturday, December 12, 2015
Junk Bonds Are Tanking -- Icahn Says Meltdown `Just Beginning'
From Bloomberg.com:
A day after a prominent Wall Street firm shocked investors by freezing withdrawals from a credit mutual fund, things only got nastier in the junk-bond market.
Prices on the high-risk securities sank to levels not seen in six years and, to add to the growing sense of alarm, billionaire investor Carl Icahn said the sell off is only starting.
“The meltdown in High Yield is just beginning," Icahn, who’s been betting against the high-yield market, wrote on his verified Twitter account Friday.
Icahn’s comments come as junk-bond investors, already stung by the worst losses since 2008, are the most nervous they’ve been in three years after Third Avenue Management took the rare step of freezing withdrawals from a $788 million credit mutual fund...
The move by Third Avenue, announced on Dec. 9, is the latest omen of stress in a market already beaten down by a prolonged slump in oil prices that has battered the energy sector.
The news came as appetite for risk globally is souring as the countdown to the Federal Reserve’s probable interest-rate increase sparked a sell off in equities and other risk assets...
The weakness in the market comes as credit quality in speculative-grade debt is falling.
For every junk-bond issuer that had its rating boosted this year, two have been downgraded, a ratio not seen since 2009, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
And companies are increasingly defaulting on their debt.
Swift Energy Co.’s failure to make an $8.9 million interest payment last week raised the global tally of defaults to 102 issuers, a figure last exceeded in 2009, according to Standard & Poor’s...
------
Link: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-12-11/junk-bond-fear-gauge-nears-3-year-high-after-third-avenue-freeze
A day after a prominent Wall Street firm shocked investors by freezing withdrawals from a credit mutual fund, things only got nastier in the junk-bond market.
Prices on the high-risk securities sank to levels not seen in six years and, to add to the growing sense of alarm, billionaire investor Carl Icahn said the sell off is only starting.
“The meltdown in High Yield is just beginning," Icahn, who’s been betting against the high-yield market, wrote on his verified Twitter account Friday.
Icahn’s comments come as junk-bond investors, already stung by the worst losses since 2008, are the most nervous they’ve been in three years after Third Avenue Management took the rare step of freezing withdrawals from a $788 million credit mutual fund...
The move by Third Avenue, announced on Dec. 9, is the latest omen of stress in a market already beaten down by a prolonged slump in oil prices that has battered the energy sector.
The news came as appetite for risk globally is souring as the countdown to the Federal Reserve’s probable interest-rate increase sparked a sell off in equities and other risk assets...
The weakness in the market comes as credit quality in speculative-grade debt is falling.
For every junk-bond issuer that had its rating boosted this year, two have been downgraded, a ratio not seen since 2009, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
And companies are increasingly defaulting on their debt.
Swift Energy Co.’s failure to make an $8.9 million interest payment last week raised the global tally of defaults to 102 issuers, a figure last exceeded in 2009, according to Standard & Poor’s...
------
Link: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-12-11/junk-bond-fear-gauge-nears-3-year-high-after-third-avenue-freeze
Thursday, December 3, 2015
Hillary: Al Gore in a Pantsuit
Uh oh. Does this mean what I think it means? PB
------
From TheHill.com:
HILLARY CLINTON'S LIKABILITY PROBLEM
Allies of Hillary Clinton ... are worried about one big thing: her likability problem in the general election...
Presidential elections are often decided on personality instead of specific policies.
Along those lines, people in Clinton’s orbit are worried she doesn’t pass the would-you-like-to-have-a-beer-with-her test.
It’s a test she failed against then-Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) in 2008...
Head-to-head 2016 matchups suggest vulnerabilities for Clinton, particularly against Sen. Marco Rubio, the Florida Republican who often talks about his love of professional football.
Team Clinton spent a good part of 2015 highlighting the former first lady’s personality, which they call warm and effusive.
Clinton aides, longtime confidants and friends have always maintained she is charming and funny, at least behind the scenes and out of the public spotlight...
------
STOP THE CLOCK! ROLL BACK THE CALENDAR!!
GO BACK 15 YEARS!!! YES, THAT MEANS AL GORE!!!!
AL GORE'S A LOSER IF IT'S LIKABILITY THAT VOTERS WANT
BY Cokie Roberts, Steven V., Roberts
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Wednesday, August 16, 2000
This election should be a slam dunk for Vice President Gore. National moods and markets are soaring. From Wal-Mart to Wall Street, the future looks healthy.
History says the incumbent party will sail to victory on this tide of optimism.
But that is not happening, and Democrats gathered here to nominate Gore are feeling frazzled and frustrated. One party baron pronounced the vice president's campaign "moribund," and President Clinton is grumbling to friends that his old running mate can't seem to get his act together.
Much of Gore's problem comes down to two words: leadership and likability.
In the latest Los Angeles Times survey, voters prefer Texas Gov. George W. Bush by wide margins on both questions - a major reason why the Republican nominee holds a 9-point lead overall.
This drives Democrats nuts...
------
Links:
http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/261741-hillary-clintons-likability-problem
http://www.nydailynews.com/archives/opinions/al-gore-loser-likability-voters-article-1.877229
------
From TheHill.com:
HILLARY CLINTON'S LIKABILITY PROBLEM
Allies of Hillary Clinton ... are worried about one big thing: her likability problem in the general election...
Presidential elections are often decided on personality instead of specific policies.
Along those lines, people in Clinton’s orbit are worried she doesn’t pass the would-you-like-to-have-a-beer-with-her test.
It’s a test she failed against then-Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) in 2008...
Head-to-head 2016 matchups suggest vulnerabilities for Clinton, particularly against Sen. Marco Rubio, the Florida Republican who often talks about his love of professional football.
Team Clinton spent a good part of 2015 highlighting the former first lady’s personality, which they call warm and effusive.
Clinton aides, longtime confidants and friends have always maintained she is charming and funny, at least behind the scenes and out of the public spotlight...
------
STOP THE CLOCK! ROLL BACK THE CALENDAR!!
GO BACK 15 YEARS!!! YES, THAT MEANS AL GORE!!!!
AL GORE'S A LOSER IF IT'S LIKABILITY THAT VOTERS WANT
BY Cokie Roberts, Steven V., Roberts
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Wednesday, August 16, 2000
This election should be a slam dunk for Vice President Gore. National moods and markets are soaring. From Wal-Mart to Wall Street, the future looks healthy.
History says the incumbent party will sail to victory on this tide of optimism.
But that is not happening, and Democrats gathered here to nominate Gore are feeling frazzled and frustrated. One party baron pronounced the vice president's campaign "moribund," and President Clinton is grumbling to friends that his old running mate can't seem to get his act together.
Much of Gore's problem comes down to two words: leadership and likability.
In the latest Los Angeles Times survey, voters prefer Texas Gov. George W. Bush by wide margins on both questions - a major reason why the Republican nominee holds a 9-point lead overall.
This drives Democrats nuts...
------
Links:
http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/261741-hillary-clintons-likability-problem
http://www.nydailynews.com/archives/opinions/al-gore-loser-likability-voters-article-1.877229
Monday, November 30, 2015
Amazon: Soon to Conquer Home Delivery? Or Become a Terrorist's BFF?
A drone delivers a package to your home.
Do you tip the drone?
Or will the drone trip you into unforeseen dangers?
Will terrorists learn how to exploit Amazon Prime to deliver explosives, nuclear waste, toxic poisons or baby parts to your backyard?
What kind of security will there be at the Amazon warehouses when bad guys take over and send Amazon Prime delivery drones to your home?
You might receive something you never ordered and would never want in a million years.
What if the Bad Guys work with Google and Facebook - using their deep data profiles that means you will never have privacy ever again - and start eliminating people?
Someone doesn't like Christians, or immigrants, or Republicans, or what?
You have no privacy anymore.
Now that drones can deliver packages to your home, there is little security and nowhere to hide, certainly no way to remain private.
There is no Jack Bauer coming to rescue you.
Let's imagine - this is not hard to do - that Seattle, Silicon Valley and Washington D.C. Power People decide to profile you, vilify you, and target you. Why not deliver a bit of nasty to your backyard or doorstep?
Right now, only Seattle Billionaires know for sure!
The Seattle Billionaire who owns Amazon also owns the Washington Post newspaper.
Google and Facebook can and do control the content and type of news that is delivered to your device.
What happens when bad things happen and the news never gets delivered?
George Orwell somewhere is whistling a tune you will start hearing very soon. PB
Do you tip the drone?
Or will the drone trip you into unforeseen dangers?
Will terrorists learn how to exploit Amazon Prime to deliver explosives, nuclear waste, toxic poisons or baby parts to your backyard?
What kind of security will there be at the Amazon warehouses when bad guys take over and send Amazon Prime delivery drones to your home?
You might receive something you never ordered and would never want in a million years.
What if the Bad Guys work with Google and Facebook - using their deep data profiles that means you will never have privacy ever again - and start eliminating people?
Someone doesn't like Christians, or immigrants, or Republicans, or what?
You have no privacy anymore.
Now that drones can deliver packages to your home, there is little security and nowhere to hide, certainly no way to remain private.
There is no Jack Bauer coming to rescue you.
Let's imagine - this is not hard to do - that Seattle, Silicon Valley and Washington D.C. Power People decide to profile you, vilify you, and target you. Why not deliver a bit of nasty to your backyard or doorstep?
Right now, only Seattle Billionaires know for sure!
The Seattle Billionaire who owns Amazon also owns the Washington Post newspaper.
Google and Facebook can and do control the content and type of news that is delivered to your device.
What happens when bad things happen and the news never gets delivered?
George Orwell somewhere is whistling a tune you will start hearing very soon. PB
Friday, November 20, 2015
Why Fewer Jobs? Fewer New Small Businesses
Fewer Jobs = Phew! We need more jobs!
A report highlights why the U.S. needs new small businesses, especially as the economy remains stagnant for tens of millions of Americans.
Too many people are underemployed, or stuck with part time work hoping for more hours, or simply stopped looking because they can't get hired.
Yet, those people are not counted and get ignored when selected official unemployment figures are widely reported by the media.
A report about small businesses emphasizes the direct impact new small businesses have on creating new jobs.
More new businesses = more new jobs. This should be common sense. But, we all know it is not common sense in Washington D.C., no matter what slogans get repeated. PB
------
From the Wall Street Journal online:
Newly formed businesses are adding jobs at a much slower pace than a decade ago, a factor that’s containing employment gains even six years into the expansion.
The number of jobs created by new businesses fell 7% in the first quarter from the fourth quarter of 2014...
From a decade ago, the figure is down 18%.
“Look at the rate of new-business formation, that’s fallen for a couple decades in a row,” Jason Furman, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, said Tuesday at The Wall Street Journal CEO Council annual meeting...
The latest data comes from Labor Department’s Business Employment Dynamics report.
That report showed private-sector employers added a fairly paltry 226,000 jobs in the first quarter [three months, not just one month], a starkly different picture than reported by the monthly jobs report...
------
http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2015/11/19/why-it-matters-that-new-businesses-are-creating-jobs-more-slowly-than-a-decade-ago/
Wednesday, November 18, 2015
What's killing department stores
When revenue moves from one large space to another, there are clear reasons.
Shoppers are smart. Shoppers are sharp.
Shoppers know what they want. PB
-------
From USA Today online:
Department stores are in a tough spot - which is exactly where they don't want to be right before the holidays.
The four department stores in the Standard & Poor's 1500, including J.C. Penney (JCP), Kohl's (KSS), Macy's (M) and Nordstrom (JWN), are expected to eke out just 1.2% average revenue growth in the critical calendar fourth quarter...
That pales next to the 10%, 3.8% and 2.3% average growth expected from discount stores, apparel retailers and computer and electronics retailers, respectively...
Get this: Amazon alone is expected to haul in $36 billion in revenue during the fourth quarter, far exceeding the roughly $24 billion all four department store chains are expected to generate in revenue as a group for that same period.
That's a massive lost opportunity for the department stores flowing online...
Macy's, perhaps more than any other, shows how the department store model is under serious pressure.
The most valuable department store by market value has posted lower revenue growth in every fiscal year since 2012, says S&P Capital IQ...
Nordstrom, which focused more on the high-end consumer, is holding it together better...
------
Link: http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/markets/2015/11/18/department-stores-fight-retail/75992622/
Shoppers are smart. Shoppers are sharp.
Shoppers know what they want. PB
-------
From USA Today online:
Department stores are in a tough spot - which is exactly where they don't want to be right before the holidays.
The four department stores in the Standard & Poor's 1500, including J.C. Penney (JCP), Kohl's (KSS), Macy's (M) and Nordstrom (JWN), are expected to eke out just 1.2% average revenue growth in the critical calendar fourth quarter...
That pales next to the 10%, 3.8% and 2.3% average growth expected from discount stores, apparel retailers and computer and electronics retailers, respectively...
Get this: Amazon alone is expected to haul in $36 billion in revenue during the fourth quarter, far exceeding the roughly $24 billion all four department store chains are expected to generate in revenue as a group for that same period.
That's a massive lost opportunity for the department stores flowing online...
Macy's, perhaps more than any other, shows how the department store model is under serious pressure.
The most valuable department store by market value has posted lower revenue growth in every fiscal year since 2012, says S&P Capital IQ...
Nordstrom, which focused more on the high-end consumer, is holding it together better...
------
Link: http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/markets/2015/11/18/department-stores-fight-retail/75992622/
Friday, November 13, 2015
Paris: Coordinated Massacres in "deadliest violence to strike France since World War II"
From France 24 online:
At least 120 people were killed in a wave of simultaneous attacks on Friday evening in Paris, in the deadliest violence to strike France since World War II.
Gunmen and bombers attacked busy restaurants, bars and a concert hall at six locations around Paris on Friday evening, killing scores of people in what a shaken President François Hollande described as an unprecedented terrorist attack...
------
Link: http://www.france24.com/en/20151114-paris-france-lockdown-after-deadly-terror-attacks
At least 120 people were killed in a wave of simultaneous attacks on Friday evening in Paris, in the deadliest violence to strike France since World War II.
Gunmen and bombers attacked busy restaurants, bars and a concert hall at six locations around Paris on Friday evening, killing scores of people in what a shaken President François Hollande described as an unprecedented terrorist attack...
------
Link: http://www.france24.com/en/20151114-paris-france-lockdown-after-deadly-terror-attacks
Al Gore's "24 Hours of Reality" in Paris Interrupted by "Reality" of Mass Murder of 135+ Innocents
From the Associated Press during night of Paris massacres:
A Paris webcast of an all-star marathon event about climate change was suspended after the deadly attacks in that city Friday night...
More than 135 people have been killed in a series of shootings and explosions across the city.
Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore was due to host the 24-hour live webcast from the foot of the Eiffel Tower to drum up attention for this month's international climate summit in Paris...
Gore's aim is to raise awareness about global warming a few weeks before world leaders gather for the COP 21 Paris climate summit opening Nov. 30.
French President Francois Hollande and former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan are among other officials scheduled to take part in the event.
------
Link: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_CLIMATE_COUNTDOWN_AL_GORE?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2015-11-13-20-04-04
A Paris webcast of an all-star marathon event about climate change was suspended after the deadly attacks in that city Friday night...
More than 135 people have been killed in a series of shootings and explosions across the city.
Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore was due to host the 24-hour live webcast from the foot of the Eiffel Tower to drum up attention for this month's international climate summit in Paris...
Gore's aim is to raise awareness about global warming a few weeks before world leaders gather for the COP 21 Paris climate summit opening Nov. 30.
French President Francois Hollande and former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan are among other officials scheduled to take part in the event.
------
Link: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_CLIMATE_COUNTDOWN_AL_GORE?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2015-11-13-20-04-04
Sunday, November 8, 2015
America Still Isn't Working: 6 years of weak, lame, herky-jerky jobs growth
------
From Investors.com:
A strong employment report for October hasn't solved a conundrum that has persisted for five years: As jobs are created and the jobless rate falls, the number of Americans in the labor force keeps dropping.
The Labor Department reported Friday that, including revisions from August and September, hiring was up a brisk 283,000 - about double the meager pace of recent months.
Gains were widespread in industries, including business services, health care, retail, food services and even construction, suggesting a housing bounce.
Average wages rose 0.35% to $25.20, indicating many workers got raises.
We'd love to see 12 months or more of this. Solid job gains accompanied by wage growth should be the norm in a recovery.
But for six years now, progress on the jobs front has been herky-jerky.
Every slice of good news seems to be followed by a slip back into the rut of slow growth and wage stagnation...
Labor-force participation, meanwhile, shows no improvement.
The number of those over the age of 18 who are working or looking for work remains at a 35-year low, and participation has fallen most for younger workers between 18 and 30.
How can it be that more jobs mean fewer Americans in the jobs market?
One answer is that employers are having a devil of a time finding workers with the useful skills that businesses need.
That's an indictment of our schools and colleges and the tens of billions of dollars we spend on myriad government-financed job-training programs.
America needs nurses, welders, truck drivers, electricians, mechanics, engineers, carpenters and accountants.
Where are they?
------
Link: http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials/110615-779635-october-jobs-report-americans-still-not-working.htm
From Investors.com:
A strong employment report for October hasn't solved a conundrum that has persisted for five years: As jobs are created and the jobless rate falls, the number of Americans in the labor force keeps dropping.
The Labor Department reported Friday that, including revisions from August and September, hiring was up a brisk 283,000 - about double the meager pace of recent months.
Gains were widespread in industries, including business services, health care, retail, food services and even construction, suggesting a housing bounce.
Average wages rose 0.35% to $25.20, indicating many workers got raises.
We'd love to see 12 months or more of this. Solid job gains accompanied by wage growth should be the norm in a recovery.
But for six years now, progress on the jobs front has been herky-jerky.
Every slice of good news seems to be followed by a slip back into the rut of slow growth and wage stagnation...
Labor-force participation, meanwhile, shows no improvement.
The number of those over the age of 18 who are working or looking for work remains at a 35-year low, and participation has fallen most for younger workers between 18 and 30.
How can it be that more jobs mean fewer Americans in the jobs market?
One answer is that employers are having a devil of a time finding workers with the useful skills that businesses need.
That's an indictment of our schools and colleges and the tens of billions of dollars we spend on myriad government-financed job-training programs.
America needs nurses, welders, truck drivers, electricians, mechanics, engineers, carpenters and accountants.
Where are they?
------
Link: http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials/110615-779635-october-jobs-report-americans-still-not-working.htm
Monday, November 2, 2015
Bill Gross at Janus: Loses $500 Million account
It looked like a great opportunity.
Bill Gross, the world's best bond manager for several decades, left the firm he built leaving hundreds of billions of managed assets behind.
He started fresh running a very small fund.
Smart guy + small money = great capacity to move swiftly among opportunities without having to create large positions to make outsized returns.
It didn't happen after one year. Is it like Michael Jordan retiring from the Bulls, but coming back to play with the Wizards?
Gross is still one of the smartest investment guys around.
His ongoing success is probably a matter of drive, focus and determination. He has a lawsuit against his old firm. That's the kind of distraction that can distort motivation. PB
------
From Pensions and Investments magazine online:
An unidentified institutional investor redeemed nearly $500 million from the unconstrained global bond strategy managed by Janus Capital Group Inc.'s William H. Gross during the quarter ended Sept. 30, slicing about 23% of assets from the strategy.
The withdrawal marks a setback for Mr. Gross, who joined Janus in late September 2014 after an abrupt exit from Newport Beach Calif.-based Pacific Investment Management Co., the firm he co-founded four decades ago.
Since taking the helm of Denver-based Janus' Global Unconstrained Bond Fund and associated portfolios, initial inflows have turned into recent net redemptions.
At the time of his departure from PIMCO, Mr. Gross was managing the world's largest bond fund, the Total Return Fund, which then had $201.5 billion in assets. He also headed the smaller $18.3 billion PIMCO Unconstrained Bond Fund.
Issues apparently remain unresolved regarding his departure from PIMCO; a month ago, Mr. Gross filed a lawsuit against PIMCO, claiming that he was forced out of the firm.
When Mr. Gross arrived at Janus, the unconstrained bond fund, launched in May 2014, held about $13 million in assets.
In November 2014, about a month after Mr. Gross' arrival, Janus announced that a private vehicle managed by Soros Fund Management LLC had invested $500 million in a separate account managed by Mr. Gross that would follow the global unconstrained bond fund strategy.
By April 2015, the fund reached a peak $1.514 billion in mutual fund assets, according to data from Chicago-based Morningstar.
But that amount also included about $700 million of Mr. Gross' own money. To be clear, that total does not include the $500 million from Mr. Soros' fund...
------
Link: http://www.pionline.com/article/20151102/PRINT/311029974/big-redemption-marks-end-of-gross-1st-year
Bill Gross, the world's best bond manager for several decades, left the firm he built leaving hundreds of billions of managed assets behind.
He started fresh running a very small fund.
Smart guy + small money = great capacity to move swiftly among opportunities without having to create large positions to make outsized returns.
It didn't happen after one year. Is it like Michael Jordan retiring from the Bulls, but coming back to play with the Wizards?
Gross is still one of the smartest investment guys around.
His ongoing success is probably a matter of drive, focus and determination. He has a lawsuit against his old firm. That's the kind of distraction that can distort motivation. PB
------
From Pensions and Investments magazine online:
An unidentified institutional investor redeemed nearly $500 million from the unconstrained global bond strategy managed by Janus Capital Group Inc.'s William H. Gross during the quarter ended Sept. 30, slicing about 23% of assets from the strategy.
The withdrawal marks a setback for Mr. Gross, who joined Janus in late September 2014 after an abrupt exit from Newport Beach Calif.-based Pacific Investment Management Co., the firm he co-founded four decades ago.
Since taking the helm of Denver-based Janus' Global Unconstrained Bond Fund and associated portfolios, initial inflows have turned into recent net redemptions.
At the time of his departure from PIMCO, Mr. Gross was managing the world's largest bond fund, the Total Return Fund, which then had $201.5 billion in assets. He also headed the smaller $18.3 billion PIMCO Unconstrained Bond Fund.
Issues apparently remain unresolved regarding his departure from PIMCO; a month ago, Mr. Gross filed a lawsuit against PIMCO, claiming that he was forced out of the firm.
When Mr. Gross arrived at Janus, the unconstrained bond fund, launched in May 2014, held about $13 million in assets.
In November 2014, about a month after Mr. Gross' arrival, Janus announced that a private vehicle managed by Soros Fund Management LLC had invested $500 million in a separate account managed by Mr. Gross that would follow the global unconstrained bond fund strategy.
By April 2015, the fund reached a peak $1.514 billion in mutual fund assets, according to data from Chicago-based Morningstar.
But that amount also included about $700 million of Mr. Gross' own money. To be clear, that total does not include the $500 million from Mr. Soros' fund...
------
Link: http://www.pionline.com/article/20151102/PRINT/311029974/big-redemption-marks-end-of-gross-1st-year
Sunday, November 1, 2015
Japan’s Buddhist temples are going out of business
From the Economist.com
------
...In 1950 the Temple of the Golden Pavilion in Kyoto was burned down by a schizophrenic monk who adored the place.
Today’s temples, by contrast, are fading away in a puff of indifference.
Japanese people are growing less religious, and less numerous, every year.
You might think that funerals would keep modern temples busy.
Nearly 1.3m people died last year in Japan (a post-war record); Buddhism has for centuries been the religion of choice at funerals and in spiritual care for the bereaved.
But with costs often in the region of ¥3m ($24,700), funerals in Japan are among the priciest in the world.
Cremation is followed by a ritual in which the bereaved use chopsticks to pluck the charred bones of their loved ones from a tray and place them in an urn.
A priest mumbles incantations and bestows a posthumous name. It’s all rather elaborate.
So cheaper alternatives are becoming increasingly popular...
Many families are opting to scatter ashes in forests or oceans, or even send them by post to collective graves.
The Koukokuji Buddhist Temple in Tokyo runs an automated indoor cemetery packed with over 2,000 small altars storing the ashes of the deceased.
That helps their families avoid the expense and inconvenience of a remote country plot. A website lists prices, options and walking distances to local train stations...
------
Link:http://www.economist.com/news/asia/21677261-japans-buddhist-temples-are-going-out-business-temples-doom
------
...In 1950 the Temple of the Golden Pavilion in Kyoto was burned down by a schizophrenic monk who adored the place.
Today’s temples, by contrast, are fading away in a puff of indifference.
Japanese people are growing less religious, and less numerous, every year.
You might think that funerals would keep modern temples busy.
Nearly 1.3m people died last year in Japan (a post-war record); Buddhism has for centuries been the religion of choice at funerals and in spiritual care for the bereaved.
But with costs often in the region of ¥3m ($24,700), funerals in Japan are among the priciest in the world.
Cremation is followed by a ritual in which the bereaved use chopsticks to pluck the charred bones of their loved ones from a tray and place them in an urn.
A priest mumbles incantations and bestows a posthumous name. It’s all rather elaborate.
So cheaper alternatives are becoming increasingly popular...
Many families are opting to scatter ashes in forests or oceans, or even send them by post to collective graves.
The Koukokuji Buddhist Temple in Tokyo runs an automated indoor cemetery packed with over 2,000 small altars storing the ashes of the deceased.
That helps their families avoid the expense and inconvenience of a remote country plot. A website lists prices, options and walking distances to local train stations...
------
Link:http://www.economist.com/news/asia/21677261-japans-buddhist-temples-are-going-out-business-temples-doom
Saturday, October 31, 2015
Greece's Stupid Left-Wing Government aimed a New Tax at the Rich. It Hit the Poor Instead.
Does Bernie Sanders holiday in Greece? He should. He'd like it there. Residing in a special place for the Left Wing is always great where you can say one thing but live the other way. PB
------
From the Economist.com:
BEFORE Greece’s snap elections in September, the outgoing left-wing government laid out plans for a value-added tax of 23% on private education.
The measure, dreamed up by the governing Syriza party as an alternative to raising tax on beef, featured in their manifesto as a blow against plutocracy.
It looked like a double win that would simultaneously please creditors and demonstrate the government’s commitment to helping the underprivileged.
Unsurprisingly, it did neither.
Some of the country’s reasonably priced private schools were forced to close, leaving staff jobless. Elsewhere, fees rose.
Those affected were not just rich families.
Greece has more than 300 full-time private schools, attended by about 6% of school-age children, many of whom come from middle- and lower-income families.
With tuition fees as low as €2,500 ($2,750) a year, some operate in working-class areas and attract parents who are keen to give their children a leg up.
Those whose parents were unable to pay higher fees moved into the already overwhelmed state system.
At the beginning of term in September, Greek schools were short of some 12,000 teachers, according to the ministry of education.
Some predict the shortfall will soon exceed 20,000...
As in so many areas of Greek life, the dispute has highlighted a gap between theory and practice...
But a gap between ideology and real life is something with which many Greeks seem to live quite contentedly.
Take Mr. Tsipras [prime minister]: despite his professed admiration for state provision, he has enrolled his son in a well-known Athenian private school.
------
Link: http://www.economist.com/news/europe/21677382-left-wing-government-aimed-new-tax-rich-it-hit-poor-instead-greece-reconsiders
------
From the Economist.com:
BEFORE Greece’s snap elections in September, the outgoing left-wing government laid out plans for a value-added tax of 23% on private education.
The measure, dreamed up by the governing Syriza party as an alternative to raising tax on beef, featured in their manifesto as a blow against plutocracy.
It looked like a double win that would simultaneously please creditors and demonstrate the government’s commitment to helping the underprivileged.
Unsurprisingly, it did neither.
Some of the country’s reasonably priced private schools were forced to close, leaving staff jobless. Elsewhere, fees rose.
Those affected were not just rich families.
Greece has more than 300 full-time private schools, attended by about 6% of school-age children, many of whom come from middle- and lower-income families.
With tuition fees as low as €2,500 ($2,750) a year, some operate in working-class areas and attract parents who are keen to give their children a leg up.
Those whose parents were unable to pay higher fees moved into the already overwhelmed state system.
At the beginning of term in September, Greek schools were short of some 12,000 teachers, according to the ministry of education.
Some predict the shortfall will soon exceed 20,000...
As in so many areas of Greek life, the dispute has highlighted a gap between theory and practice...
But a gap between ideology and real life is something with which many Greeks seem to live quite contentedly.
Take Mr. Tsipras [prime minister]: despite his professed admiration for state provision, he has enrolled his son in a well-known Athenian private school.
------
Link: http://www.economist.com/news/europe/21677382-left-wing-government-aimed-new-tax-rich-it-hit-poor-instead-greece-reconsiders
Tuesday, October 27, 2015
Loss of Big Animal Poop Hurting the Planet
Finally, the Washington Post has highlighted a concern that mindful world citizens have had for years.
It's about time more media attention is given to the matter.
We've all felt the sudden urgency, haven't we?
It's time to do something. Shouldn't we turn to Al Gore, like, now? PB
------
From the Amazon Billionaire Owner's Washington Post online edition:
The world that was once home to mammoths and towering dinosaurs can now barely maintain stable populations of rhinos and whales.
But according to a new study, we've got more to mourn than just the animals themselves.
We've lost their feces, too — and that's a bigger problem than you might think.
Why should we miss steaming piles of dinosaur dung?
According to research published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, megafauna play a greater role in the spread of nutrients across the planet than scientists ever realized...
------
Link: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2015/10/26/as-large-animals-disappear-the-loss-of-their-poop-hurts-the-planet/
It's about time more media attention is given to the matter.
We've all felt the sudden urgency, haven't we?
It's time to do something. Shouldn't we turn to Al Gore, like, now? PB
------
From the Amazon Billionaire Owner's Washington Post online edition:
The world that was once home to mammoths and towering dinosaurs can now barely maintain stable populations of rhinos and whales.
But according to a new study, we've got more to mourn than just the animals themselves.
We've lost their feces, too — and that's a bigger problem than you might think.
Why should we miss steaming piles of dinosaur dung?
According to research published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, megafauna play a greater role in the spread of nutrients across the planet than scientists ever realized...
------
Link: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2015/10/26/as-large-animals-disappear-the-loss-of-their-poop-hurts-the-planet/
Sunday, October 25, 2015
Robots will work for $1.40 hour - how's that salary re-negotiation working out for you?
I, Robot.
Writer Isaac Asimov published the book in 1950.
Actor Will Smith played in the 2004 movie.
Soon enough, robot workers are coming to a neighborhood near you!
Today in Amazon warehouses, robots make human payrolls smaller.
And when payrolls shrink, what happens?
For Amazon, it worked so well that Amazon just flat out bought the company that made the robots - and then stopped making robots for other companies.
It's no surprise that other robot makers have started up.
An excerpt below is from a news story that concludes warehouse robots can be rented for as little as $1.40 an hour.
$1.40 per hour?
I was paid $1.60 an hour flipping steak burgers at Hardee's one summer in the 1970s. But at least back then I didn't have to work several hours to pay for a value meal.
When robots help make the payrolls shrink, what will today's 35 year old to 65 year old displaced man and woman do: take STEM classes from a unionized teacher? PB
------
From Bloomberg.com:
Fetch Robotics [is] one of a handful of startups working on warehouse robots aimed specifically at e-commerce companies.
With the holiday season approaching, the roboticists are pitching the machines as a way to speed up packing without having to hire extra workers.
As with most things in the world of online retail, Fetch exists because of something Amazon.com did.
In 2012, Amazon paid $775 million for warehouse robot maker Kiva Systems; shortly after, it stopped Kiva from selling its machines to anyone else.
“When Amazon drops nearly $1 billion on something just to keep it out of the hands of competitors, it sends a really strong message to the market,” says Bryce Roberts, managing director of seed investor O’Reilly AlphaTech Ventures, which has invested in Fetch. “It left a big hole that’s still wide open.”
In stepped companies such as year-old Fetch in San Jose and six-year-old Harvest Automation in Billerica, Mass.
Both say their robots can keep up with a briskly walking person for about eight hours on a fully charged battery. Fetch says its basic models can carry as much as 150 pounds; Harvest, 50.
Tim Barrett, the chief operating officer of shipping company Barrett Distribution Centers, says that with eight Harvest prototypes moving goods around its Massachusetts warehouse, the company didn’t need to install a pricey conveyor belt....
The bottom line: Robot makers are readying warehouse models that they say will rent for as little as $1.40 an hour.
------
Link: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-10-22/the-robots-chasing-amazon
Writer Isaac Asimov published the book in 1950.
Actor Will Smith played in the 2004 movie.
Soon enough, robot workers are coming to a neighborhood near you!
Today in Amazon warehouses, robots make human payrolls smaller.
And when payrolls shrink, what happens?
For Amazon, it worked so well that Amazon just flat out bought the company that made the robots - and then stopped making robots for other companies.
It's no surprise that other robot makers have started up.
An excerpt below is from a news story that concludes warehouse robots can be rented for as little as $1.40 an hour.
$1.40 per hour?
I was paid $1.60 an hour flipping steak burgers at Hardee's one summer in the 1970s. But at least back then I didn't have to work several hours to pay for a value meal.
When robots help make the payrolls shrink, what will today's 35 year old to 65 year old displaced man and woman do: take STEM classes from a unionized teacher? PB
------
From Bloomberg.com:
Fetch Robotics [is] one of a handful of startups working on warehouse robots aimed specifically at e-commerce companies.
With the holiday season approaching, the roboticists are pitching the machines as a way to speed up packing without having to hire extra workers.
As with most things in the world of online retail, Fetch exists because of something Amazon.com did.
In 2012, Amazon paid $775 million for warehouse robot maker Kiva Systems; shortly after, it stopped Kiva from selling its machines to anyone else.
“When Amazon drops nearly $1 billion on something just to keep it out of the hands of competitors, it sends a really strong message to the market,” says Bryce Roberts, managing director of seed investor O’Reilly AlphaTech Ventures, which has invested in Fetch. “It left a big hole that’s still wide open.”
In stepped companies such as year-old Fetch in San Jose and six-year-old Harvest Automation in Billerica, Mass.
Both say their robots can keep up with a briskly walking person for about eight hours on a fully charged battery. Fetch says its basic models can carry as much as 150 pounds; Harvest, 50.
Tim Barrett, the chief operating officer of shipping company Barrett Distribution Centers, says that with eight Harvest prototypes moving goods around its Massachusetts warehouse, the company didn’t need to install a pricey conveyor belt....
The bottom line: Robot makers are readying warehouse models that they say will rent for as little as $1.40 an hour.
------
Link: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-10-22/the-robots-chasing-amazon
Wednesday, October 21, 2015
Leaders Lead, Unite, and Inspire others to follow. Paul Ryan wants others to follow first. What?
Why does Washington D.C. attract so many earnest political players with high self regard, yet no inner strength of conviction?
Consider Congressman Paul Ryan who wants to be loved, admired, endorsed and obeyed before he would ascend to the throne of Speaker of the House.
That's not leadership. That's weakness.
Has Ryan been in Washington too long?
Ryan is a man who had a national platform in 2012 as Mitt Romney's running mate on the Republican ticket.
With that kind of background and exposure, Ryan should have already led, convinced and achieved full agreement among the Republican members.
He should have already won support for becoming Speaker through his convictions and skills of leadership.
Instead, Ryan is play acting as a leader. He is asking for assurances that occur in courtship. Something is wrong and what is wrong with Ryan is emblematic of our current crop of political leadership.
The varying robust claims about representing the people is a healthy exercise in Washington D.C. That is what Republicans are doing for their voters.
Paul Ryan is showing something other than leadership.
Yes, Ryan could be something more than the "Paul Putin from Janesville." Just like Vlad, we know Paul likes to show that he likes to stay physically fit.
And he likes to talk about making the federal budget get fiscally fit: mostly about bending the curve of government spending at some point in time years from now. (Yea! That's the winning message: let's reshape our curves.)
But Ryan belongs to a type that is flat and hollow, yet buzzes with a settled sense of self-importance that Washington D.C. imputes to people who want to belong to the elect crowd.
Fix that budget! Attend that conference! Explain that chart!
Ryan is a company man.
He is not an entrepreneur. He is not an independent achiever. He is not a leader. He may become the next Speaker of the House.
But what does that mean for you and me? It's not clear.
PB
Consider Congressman Paul Ryan who wants to be loved, admired, endorsed and obeyed before he would ascend to the throne of Speaker of the House.
That's not leadership. That's weakness.
Has Ryan been in Washington too long?
Ryan is a man who had a national platform in 2012 as Mitt Romney's running mate on the Republican ticket.
With that kind of background and exposure, Ryan should have already led, convinced and achieved full agreement among the Republican members.
He should have already won support for becoming Speaker through his convictions and skills of leadership.
Instead, Ryan is play acting as a leader. He is asking for assurances that occur in courtship. Something is wrong and what is wrong with Ryan is emblematic of our current crop of political leadership.
The varying robust claims about representing the people is a healthy exercise in Washington D.C. That is what Republicans are doing for their voters.
Paul Ryan is showing something other than leadership.
Yes, Ryan could be something more than the "Paul Putin from Janesville." Just like Vlad, we know Paul likes to show that he likes to stay physically fit.
And he likes to talk about making the federal budget get fiscally fit: mostly about bending the curve of government spending at some point in time years from now. (Yea! That's the winning message: let's reshape our curves.)
But Ryan belongs to a type that is flat and hollow, yet buzzes with a settled sense of self-importance that Washington D.C. imputes to people who want to belong to the elect crowd.
Fix that budget! Attend that conference! Explain that chart!
Ryan is a company man.
He is not an entrepreneur. He is not an independent achiever. He is not a leader. He may become the next Speaker of the House.
But what does that mean for you and me? It's not clear.
PB
Saturday, October 17, 2015
We Blame the Great Disconnect: McDonald's Franchisees say Brand is in a 'depression'
McDonald's has been confused, and confusing, for years.
The menu boards are as bloated as the 2nd page of a Prescription Drug advertisement.
Confusion kept new customers from coming back.
The company's Dollar Menu promotion stayed too long.
For many years a customer could buy à la carte and save the markup on the value meal bundle.
Snap Quiz for Ms. & Mr. green MBA: when the customer keeps the markup, guess who knows that sooner than corporate HQ?
Constant cheap pricing eventually damaged the equity of the brand by incentivizing loyal users to rethink price vs. value.
When "24/7 promotional" remains 24/7 at the register, it is no longer a promotion: it is the brand.
What will seal McDonald's ultimate doom and make the headline a reality is the ongoing Great Disconnect between the field and the corporate.
That is what the article excerpted below tells me. And ponder the meaning of it a bit longer than the next sip of your $1 small coffee with free refills and a couple of extra creams.
The worrisome Great Disconnect is everywhere: consider the leadership of our political parties, the politicization of our universities plus the Vatican and Big Protestant churches, and add to the list our union operated public schools.
Confused? Of course.
Hopeful? You choose, and act. PB
------
From www.businessinsider.com:
McDonald's franchisees believe the brand is in a "deep depression" and could be facing its "final days," according to a new survey.
"We are in the throes of a deep depression, and nothing is changing," one franchisee wrote in response to the survey by Nomura analyst Mark Kalinowski.
"Probably 30% of operators are insolvent."
Another wrote, "The CEO is sowing the seeds of our demise. We are a quick-serve fast-food restaurant, not a fast casual like Five Guys or Chipotle. The system may be facing its final days."
More than a dozen franchisees expressed frustration with McDonald's management, saying that CEO Steve Easterbrook's turnaround plan — which includes initiatives like all-day breakfast and a shift to digital ordering kiosks — is a distraction from the core issues of McDonald's, like food quality and customer service.
"The lack of consistent leadership from Oak Brook is frightening, we continue to jump from one failed initiative to another," one franchisee wrote.
A second wrote, "I have been in this business since the early 1970s but have not seen us this leaderless in all my time."
The company's reaction to their frustration, one franchisee claimed, is for operators to "get out of the system" and quit the business...
------
Link: http://www.businessinsider.com/mcdonalds-franchisees-say-the-brand-is-in-a-deep-depression-2015-10
The menu boards are as bloated as the 2nd page of a Prescription Drug advertisement.
Confusion kept new customers from coming back.
The company's Dollar Menu promotion stayed too long.
For many years a customer could buy à la carte and save the markup on the value meal bundle.
Snap Quiz for Ms. & Mr. green MBA: when the customer keeps the markup, guess who knows that sooner than corporate HQ?
Constant cheap pricing eventually damaged the equity of the brand by incentivizing loyal users to rethink price vs. value.
When "24/7 promotional" remains 24/7 at the register, it is no longer a promotion: it is the brand.
What will seal McDonald's ultimate doom and make the headline a reality is the ongoing Great Disconnect between the field and the corporate.
That is what the article excerpted below tells me. And ponder the meaning of it a bit longer than the next sip of your $1 small coffee with free refills and a couple of extra creams.
The worrisome Great Disconnect is everywhere: consider the leadership of our political parties, the politicization of our universities plus the Vatican and Big Protestant churches, and add to the list our union operated public schools.
Confused? Of course.
Hopeful? You choose, and act. PB
------
From www.businessinsider.com:
McDonald's franchisees believe the brand is in a "deep depression" and could be facing its "final days," according to a new survey.
"We are in the throes of a deep depression, and nothing is changing," one franchisee wrote in response to the survey by Nomura analyst Mark Kalinowski.
"Probably 30% of operators are insolvent."
Another wrote, "The CEO is sowing the seeds of our demise. We are a quick-serve fast-food restaurant, not a fast casual like Five Guys or Chipotle. The system may be facing its final days."
More than a dozen franchisees expressed frustration with McDonald's management, saying that CEO Steve Easterbrook's turnaround plan — which includes initiatives like all-day breakfast and a shift to digital ordering kiosks — is a distraction from the core issues of McDonald's, like food quality and customer service.
"The lack of consistent leadership from Oak Brook is frightening, we continue to jump from one failed initiative to another," one franchisee wrote.
A second wrote, "I have been in this business since the early 1970s but have not seen us this leaderless in all my time."
The company's reaction to their frustration, one franchisee claimed, is for operators to "get out of the system" and quit the business...
------
Link: http://www.businessinsider.com/mcdonalds-franchisees-say-the-brand-is-in-a-deep-depression-2015-10
Friday, October 16, 2015
We Blame George W. Obama
------
Jay Cost writing for the Wall Street Journal online:
The Politics of Distrust
What explains the weird unpredictability of the 2016 presidential race?
An anemic economy that has Americans questioning incumbents, doubting experts and worrying about their own prospects
Since the birth of the modern two-party system in the 1830s, Americans have regularly voted their pocketbooks.
For roughly a half century after World War II, the U.S. economy was like Goldilocks.
Economic growth wasn’t as vigorous as it had been between the Civil War and the Great Depression, but it still averaged an impressive 3.6% a year...
But the picture has darkened since the start of the new millennium.
The recession of 2001 was mild, but the growth that followed it was lackluster.
The recovery from the Great Recession has been weaker still.
All told, the average annual growth rate over the last 14 years has been less than half of its previous postwar average—an anemic 1.7%.
Even the stagflation of the 1970s wasn’t nearly so bad, and it was bookended by strong growth in the 1960s and 1980s.
This difference between 3.7% and 1.7% may not sound like much, but it implies trillions of dollars in unrealized growth.
The middle class has felt its absence keenly.
Average real wages and salaries for private-sector workers have barely improved over the last decade.
And the Census Bureau recently noted that the median American male worker has seen no real wage growth in 40 years.
The slowdown has hit the working class especially hard.
The employment level for those without college degrees has fallen much faster than for those with colleges degrees, and job losses have been particularly acute in manufacturing and construction.
All this suggests an economic bifurcation reminiscent of “A Tale of Two Cities”: Those on the higher end of the socioeconomic scale are doing all right, but those on the lower end cannot get the sorts of jobs that let prior generations rise into the middle class...
------
Link: http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-politics-of-distrust-1445015969
Jay Cost writing for the Wall Street Journal online:
The Politics of Distrust
What explains the weird unpredictability of the 2016 presidential race?
An anemic economy that has Americans questioning incumbents, doubting experts and worrying about their own prospects
Since the birth of the modern two-party system in the 1830s, Americans have regularly voted their pocketbooks.
For roughly a half century after World War II, the U.S. economy was like Goldilocks.
Economic growth wasn’t as vigorous as it had been between the Civil War and the Great Depression, but it still averaged an impressive 3.6% a year...
But the picture has darkened since the start of the new millennium.
The recession of 2001 was mild, but the growth that followed it was lackluster.
The recovery from the Great Recession has been weaker still.
All told, the average annual growth rate over the last 14 years has been less than half of its previous postwar average—an anemic 1.7%.
Even the stagflation of the 1970s wasn’t nearly so bad, and it was bookended by strong growth in the 1960s and 1980s.
This difference between 3.7% and 1.7% may not sound like much, but it implies trillions of dollars in unrealized growth.
The middle class has felt its absence keenly.
Average real wages and salaries for private-sector workers have barely improved over the last decade.
And the Census Bureau recently noted that the median American male worker has seen no real wage growth in 40 years.
The slowdown has hit the working class especially hard.
The employment level for those without college degrees has fallen much faster than for those with colleges degrees, and job losses have been particularly acute in manufacturing and construction.
All this suggests an economic bifurcation reminiscent of “A Tale of Two Cities”: Those on the higher end of the socioeconomic scale are doing all right, but those on the lower end cannot get the sorts of jobs that let prior generations rise into the middle class...
------
Link: http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-politics-of-distrust-1445015969
Thursday, October 15, 2015
Obama’s Tragic Legacy for Black Americans
Jason L. Riley writing at the Wall Street Journal online:
At the urging of labor unions, President Obama has pushed for higher minimum wages that price a disproportionate percentage of blacks out of the labor force.
At the urging of teachers unions, he has fought voucher programs that give ghetto children access to better schools.
Both policies have a lengthy track record of keeping millions of blacks ill-educated and unemployed.
Since the 1970s, when the federal government began tracking the racial achievement gap, black test scores in math, reading and science have on average trailed far behind those of their white classmates.
And minimum-wage mandates have been so effective for so long at keeping blacks out of work that 1930, the last year in which there was no federal minimum-wage law, was also the last year that the black unemployment rate was lower than the white rate.
For the past half-century, black joblessness on average has been double that of whites...
------
Link: http://www.wsj.com/article_email/obamas-tragic-legacy-for-black-americans-1444776773-lMyQjAxMTE1MzExNDIxOTQ4Wj
At the urging of labor unions, President Obama has pushed for higher minimum wages that price a disproportionate percentage of blacks out of the labor force.
At the urging of teachers unions, he has fought voucher programs that give ghetto children access to better schools.
Both policies have a lengthy track record of keeping millions of blacks ill-educated and unemployed.
Since the 1970s, when the federal government began tracking the racial achievement gap, black test scores in math, reading and science have on average trailed far behind those of their white classmates.
And minimum-wage mandates have been so effective for so long at keeping blacks out of work that 1930, the last year in which there was no federal minimum-wage law, was also the last year that the black unemployment rate was lower than the white rate.
For the past half-century, black joblessness on average has been double that of whites...
------
Link: http://www.wsj.com/article_email/obamas-tragic-legacy-for-black-americans-1444776773-lMyQjAxMTE1MzExNDIxOTQ4Wj
Wednesday, October 7, 2015
Are they back already? Sheeesh!
First it was Reagan, then Bush, now Trump!
What's a sensitive liberal gonna do? Leave!
Those three devils - Reagan, Bush, Trump - made the poor and humble among us ask the eternally modern question, 'Should I Stay or Should I Go?'
In our memory, Reagan made them do it. Look at the Clash record sleeve. Sheeesh!
Then Bush made them do it. Look at Alec Baldwin and other humble Hollywood types. Sheeesh!
Now Trump has made them do it. Look at Barry Diller. (Who? A White Wealthy Liberal Corporate Very Big Man with Money Behind His Mouth.) Sheeesh!
Darlin' you got to let me know:
Should I stay:
or should I go?
But, we should not be alarmed because, in the end, all Americans know the truth like Geraldine Jones knows the truth.
------
Links: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geraldine_Jones_%28character%29
http://www.drudgereportarchives.com/data/2015/10/07/20151007_014947.htm
http://dailycaller.com/2014/02/24/alec-baldwin-is-done-with-you-america-again/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Should_I_Stay_or_Should_I_Go
http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=Geraldine Jones the devil made me do it
What's a sensitive liberal gonna do? Leave!
Those three devils - Reagan, Bush, Trump - made the poor and humble among us ask the eternally modern question, 'Should I Stay or Should I Go?'
In our memory, Reagan made them do it. Look at the Clash record sleeve. Sheeesh!
Then Bush made them do it. Look at Alec Baldwin and other humble Hollywood types. Sheeesh!
Now Trump has made them do it. Look at Barry Diller. (Who? A White Wealthy Liberal Corporate Very Big Man with Money Behind His Mouth.) Sheeesh!
Darlin' you got to let me know:
Should I stay:
or should I go?
But, we should not be alarmed because, in the end, all Americans know the truth like Geraldine Jones knows the truth.
------
Links: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geraldine_Jones_%28character%29
http://www.drudgereportarchives.com/data/2015/10/07/20151007_014947.htm
http://dailycaller.com/2014/02/24/alec-baldwin-is-done-with-you-america-again/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Should_I_Stay_or_Should_I_Go
http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=Geraldine Jones the devil made me do it
Friday, October 2, 2015
Why the jobs picture is even worse than you think
From CNBC.com:
Just glancing at the headlines made the September jobs report look bad.
Digging inside the details makes it look even worse.
Wall Street fretted over the usual culprits Friday — the collapsing labor force participation rate, the weak wage growth and just the overall softness in the headline nonfarm payrolls figures.
But there was even less than meets the eye here, suggesting that the jobs market may have found its own "new normal" — a prolonged, secular malaise that indicates American workers will be looking at the job recovery's glory days in the rearview mirror.
"It's going to get a lot worse," said Peter Schiff, head of Euro Pacific Capital, who has been predicting doom for the economy and the likelihood that conditions will keep the Federal Reserve handcuffed when it comes to raising rates.
"Right now we're talking about the economy creating fewer jobs than had been expected. There's a good chance that by next year, we're shedding jobs..."
------
http://www.cnbc.com/2015/10/02/why-the-jobs-picture-is-even-worse-than-you-think.html
Wednesday, September 30, 2015
We're Heading to a Cliff - 2007 déjà vu
Carl Icahn has been in the news and has made a fifteen minute video where he warns the markets, the economy and investors are heading to a cliff.
His message: "It's 2007 all over again."
Less than 15 minutes in length, pay close attention at the 11 minute mark.
Icahn describes how investors buy investments that pay "high yields" because they can't get income. High Yield Bonds used to be called Junk bonds.
But what Icahn describes about investors is highly accurate and the problems he predicts are very real.
Icahn takes swipes at Wall Street, politicians, the Fed, and specifically names Black Rock, the largest provider of Exchange Traded Funds.
The most serious claim that investors must consider is that the markets can turn into a disaster when everyone runs for the exits like a panic inside a movie theater.
You want to get out - but you can't. Chaos ensues and most people get stuck because they can't get out.
With investments the markets get locked and no one will buy what you want to sell. The best price you can find is next to nothing.
This is called loss of liquidity. Icahn says the money management guys act as if there is liquidity. At least that's what they convince you to believe.
But, again, what happens when everyone wants to sell at the same time?
The party bus goes over the cliff.
See www.carlicahn.com
Patrick Broderick
Saturday, September 26, 2015
WSJ: The Middle-Class Squeeze
Essay by British author Charles Moore writing in the Wall Street Journal online:
...in 1982, only seven U.K. financial executives were receiving six-figure salaries. Today, tens of thousands are (an enormous increase, even allowing for inflation).
The situation is very different for the middle-ranking civil servant, attorney, doctor, teacher or small-business owner.
Many middle-class families now depend absolutely on the income of both parents in a way that was unusual even as late as the 1980s.
In Britain and the U.S., we are learning all over again that it is not the natural condition of the human race for children to be better off than their parents.
Such a regression, in societies that assume constant progress, is striking.
Imagine the panic if the same thing happened to life expectancy.
When things go backward in nations accustomed to middle-class stability, people start to ask questions.
What is the use of capitalism if its rewards go to the few and its risks are dumped on the many?
The rights of property do not seem so enticing if the value of what you own collapses or if that property is trapped by debt.
What is so great about globalization if ...
...it means that the products and services you offer are undercut by foreign competition and that millions of new people can come to your country, take your jobs and enjoy your welfare benefits?
...Marx did have an insight about the disproportionate power of the ownership of capital.
The owner of capital decides where money goes, whereas the people who sell only their labor lack that power.
This makes it hard for society to be shaped in their interests.
In recent years, that disproportion has reached destructive levels, so if we don’t want to be a Marxist society, we need to put it right.
------
Link: http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-middle-class-squeeze-1443194736
If Western countries want to disprove the dire forecasts of Karl Marx, we must think creatively about how to make the middle class more prosperous and secure
...in 1982, only seven U.K. financial executives were receiving six-figure salaries. Today, tens of thousands are (an enormous increase, even allowing for inflation).
The situation is very different for the middle-ranking civil servant, attorney, doctor, teacher or small-business owner.
Many middle-class families now depend absolutely on the income of both parents in a way that was unusual even as late as the 1980s.
In Britain and the U.S., we are learning all over again that it is not the natural condition of the human race for children to be better off than their parents.
Such a regression, in societies that assume constant progress, is striking.
Imagine the panic if the same thing happened to life expectancy.
When things go backward in nations accustomed to middle-class stability, people start to ask questions.
What is the use of capitalism if its rewards go to the few and its risks are dumped on the many?
The rights of property do not seem so enticing if the value of what you own collapses or if that property is trapped by debt.
What is so great about globalization if ...
...it means that the products and services you offer are undercut by foreign competition and that millions of new people can come to your country, take your jobs and enjoy your welfare benefits?
...Marx did have an insight about the disproportionate power of the ownership of capital.
The owner of capital decides where money goes, whereas the people who sell only their labor lack that power.
This makes it hard for society to be shaped in their interests.
In recent years, that disproportion has reached destructive levels, so if we don’t want to be a Marxist society, we need to put it right.
------
Link: http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-middle-class-squeeze-1443194736
Saturday, September 19, 2015
Voters Fed Up with George W. Obama
Voters Are Rejecting the Last Seven Years
From Michael Barone at RealClearPolitics.com:
In this presidential cycle, voters in both parties, to the surprise of the punditocracy, are rejecting experienced political leaders.
They're willfully suspending disbelief in challengers who would have been considered laughable in earlier years.
Polls show more Republicans preferring three candidates who have never held elective office over 14 candidates who have served a combined total of 150 years as governors or in Congress.
Most Democrats are declining to favor a candidate who spent eight years in the White House and the Senate and four as secretary of state...
In polls, Democratic voters have stayed loyal to the president.
But to listen to their candidates (and maybe-candidate Joe Biden) you would think we are in our seventh year of oppression by a right-wing administration.
You don't hear much about the virtues of Obamacare or the Iran deal -- or "choice."
Most Americans hoped the first black president would improve race relations.
Now most Americans believe they have gotten worse.
And so a president who came to office with relatively little experience has managed to tarnish experience, incumbency and institutions: a fundamental transformation indeed.
----
Link: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2015/09/15/voters_are_rejecting_the_last_seven_years_128091.html
------------
Voters Turn To Trump Because They Have No Confidence In Government
From the Federalist.com:
As we pick apart the candidates’ performances Wednesday night in the GOP primary debate, at least some Republicans must be wondering why, with so many experienced officeholders in the race, they cannot rid their party of Donald Trump.
The answer has less to do with Trump than with Americans’ trust in government, which has been on a half-century-long slide and has reached its nadir in the Obama administration.
Support for outsider GOP candidates like Trump or Ben Carson, who now polls in second place behind Trump, or the rise of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders among Democrats disillusioned with Hillary Clinton, is less of an endorsement of a particular candidate than a general rejection of—even rage against—the political establishment...
The end of the Bush era brought what many considered to be one major government failure after another—the subprime mortgage crisis, the financial crisis, the great recession.
The government’s failure to prevent these things, combined with responses that hampered a full economic recovery, damaged government credibility among Republicans and Democrats alike.
It’s one of the reasons Obama got elected.
But the failures, and the perception of dishonesty, continued under Obama.
In its efforts to sell the Affordable Care Act, the Obama White House made promises that simply weren’t true—if you like your plan you can keep it, families will save $2,500 a year on premiums, and so on.
Five years later, the healthcare law is still deeply unpopular with most Americans.
On foreign policy, Obama has prized a nuclear deal with Iran above all else, leaving his administration with no viable response to the Syrian civil war, ISIS, the disintegration of Iraq, and the refugee crisis now enveloping Europe.
The Iran deal, like Obamacare, is being rammed through Congress on strict party lines...
------
http://thefederalist.com/2015/09/18/voters-turn-to-trump-because-they-have-no-confidence-in-government/
Friday, September 18, 2015
Savers Fed Up with 0% interest
That's 'Fed Up' with both zero level interest rates and 'Fed Up' with the Fed - the Federal Reserve whose hands control the spigots of money flow. PB
------
From Money.CNN.com:
"When you have a bank account with $10,000 to $15,000 and it gets 0% interest, it rubs you the wrong way," says [Dennis] Johnson, who is an accountant living in the Miami-Ft. Lauderdale area.
America's central bank -- the Federal Reserve -- has basically kept rates at 0% since the depths of the financial crisis in 2008.
Hopes that the Fed would raise rates ever so slightly on Thursday were dashed again.
It really upsets savers like Ric Fiano of Savannah, Georgia.
"I look at these banks recording record profits -- billions every quarter -- and they are so miserly they can't even pay 0.5% on a high yield account," says Fiano, 61, who runs a psychology practice.
Fiano and Johnson think it's time the Fed raised interest rates so people who save can earn some money too.
The average return on a savings account in the United States is a mere 0.1%, according to Bankrate.com.
That's a big change from 2006 when savers could get up to a 5% return at the bank...
------
Link: http://money.cnn.com/2015/09/18/investing/savings-interest-rate-federal-reserve/index.html
------
From Money.CNN.com:
"When you have a bank account with $10,000 to $15,000 and it gets 0% interest, it rubs you the wrong way," says [Dennis] Johnson, who is an accountant living in the Miami-Ft. Lauderdale area.
America's central bank -- the Federal Reserve -- has basically kept rates at 0% since the depths of the financial crisis in 2008.
Hopes that the Fed would raise rates ever so slightly on Thursday were dashed again.
It really upsets savers like Ric Fiano of Savannah, Georgia.
"I look at these banks recording record profits -- billions every quarter -- and they are so miserly they can't even pay 0.5% on a high yield account," says Fiano, 61, who runs a psychology practice.
Fiano and Johnson think it's time the Fed raised interest rates so people who save can earn some money too.
The average return on a savings account in the United States is a mere 0.1%, according to Bankrate.com.
That's a big change from 2006 when savers could get up to a 5% return at the bank...
------
Link: http://money.cnn.com/2015/09/18/investing/savings-interest-rate-federal-reserve/index.html
Sunday, September 13, 2015
Gas Prices: 2 Buck Chuck level
Gas at the pump has broken $2 again. There is one station at $3.09 - all others reported on the website are under three dollars.
Here's a screen shot from a few moments ago:
Link: http://www.detroitgasprices.com/
Saturday, September 12, 2015
U.S. Catholic Church faces financial strain
How can this be?
All those smart Catholic social justice members with college degrees can certainly figure out how to solve financial problems for a 2,000 year old institution.
What's the problem?
They know how to get Democrats elected.
Even more, the church now has a Jesuit for a Pope.
So, with all these smart people in the pews and at the pulpits and on the throne, why isn't this fixed already? PB
----
From Reuters.com:
When Pope Francis makes his first visit to the United States this month he will face a national Catholic Church whose finances are staggering under a shrinking membership and huge payouts to sex-abuse victims, threatening to undermine its social influence.
With the Church still absorbing the roughly $3 billion cost of a clergy sex abuse scandal, another financial crisis is looming -- a potentially crippling shortfall in funding the pensions of its ageing priests.
A Reuters review of U.S. Catholic financial disclosures shows the pension funding shortfall in 2014 likely approached $2 billion, with much of that coming due in the next five years as thousands of priests retire...
The financial woes and the destabilizing effect they could have on the Church's social and educational work will be a constant backdrop to the pope's Sept 22-27 visit to Washington, New York and Philadelphia...
------
Link: http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/09/08/us-pope-usa-finances-insight-idUSKCN0R80B020150908
All those smart Catholic social justice members with college degrees can certainly figure out how to solve financial problems for a 2,000 year old institution.
What's the problem?
They know how to get Democrats elected.
Even more, the church now has a Jesuit for a Pope.
So, with all these smart people in the pews and at the pulpits and on the throne, why isn't this fixed already? PB
----
From Reuters.com:
When Pope Francis makes his first visit to the United States this month he will face a national Catholic Church whose finances are staggering under a shrinking membership and huge payouts to sex-abuse victims, threatening to undermine its social influence.
With the Church still absorbing the roughly $3 billion cost of a clergy sex abuse scandal, another financial crisis is looming -- a potentially crippling shortfall in funding the pensions of its ageing priests.
A Reuters review of U.S. Catholic financial disclosures shows the pension funding shortfall in 2014 likely approached $2 billion, with much of that coming due in the next five years as thousands of priests retire...
The financial woes and the destabilizing effect they could have on the Church's social and educational work will be a constant backdrop to the pope's Sept 22-27 visit to Washington, New York and Philadelphia...
------
Link: http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/09/08/us-pope-usa-finances-insight-idUSKCN0R80B020150908
Tuesday, September 8, 2015
PIMCO Bleeding Without Bill Gross
From Fox Business:
Officials at mutual fund giant Pacific Investment Management Co., are discussing layoffs amid a sharp decline in assets over the past year that followed the ouster of co-founder Bill Gross, the FOX Business Network has learned.
Pimco, based in Newport Beach CA., has lost nearly 25% of its total assets since March of 2014, and investor withdrawals continued following the September 2014 departure of Gross, who also ran the firm’s vaunted Total Return Fund (PTTRX)—known for its massive size and a history of outsized returns that abated during Gross’s last year at the firm...
...as of August 31, the total return fund reported assets under management of $98.1 billion—the first time the fund has fallen below $100 billion in assets since 2007.
Since Gross left the company, overall assets have fallen nearly 21% to $1.5 trillion...
-----
Link: http://www.foxbusiness.com/investing/2015/09/08/pimco-bleeding-without-bill-gross-layoffs-loom/
Officials at mutual fund giant Pacific Investment Management Co., are discussing layoffs amid a sharp decline in assets over the past year that followed the ouster of co-founder Bill Gross, the FOX Business Network has learned.
Pimco, based in Newport Beach CA., has lost nearly 25% of its total assets since March of 2014, and investor withdrawals continued following the September 2014 departure of Gross, who also ran the firm’s vaunted Total Return Fund (PTTRX)—known for its massive size and a history of outsized returns that abated during Gross’s last year at the firm...
...as of August 31, the total return fund reported assets under management of $98.1 billion—the first time the fund has fallen below $100 billion in assets since 2007.
Since Gross left the company, overall assets have fallen nearly 21% to $1.5 trillion...
-----
Link: http://www.foxbusiness.com/investing/2015/09/08/pimco-bleeding-without-bill-gross-layoffs-loom/
Saturday, August 29, 2015
EUROPE: Trump is the America they love to hate
Je suis Donald? Et tu, Europa? PB
------
From Politico.com:
Trump fits many perceived European stereotypes of America: excess, vulgarity, ignorance, superficiality, love of wealth, to name a few.
“Trump represents the America that we love to hate,” said Marie-Cécile Naves, a sociologist and author of “Le nouveau visage des droites américaines” (“The New Face of the American Right”).
“He is our negative mirror image, a man we see as brutal, who worships money and lacks culture — someone who lets us feel a bit superior about being European...”
In France, editorialist Alexandre Vatimbella called him a “provocative clown” whose brand of populism was dangerous for democracy, while Germany’s newspapers have reached a consensus around the label “Großmaul,” or loudmouth.
A YouGov poll this week showed that two-thirds of Germans had a negative view of him.
And the commentary written about Trump in Europe’s newspapers, from Paris to London to Berlin, is almost uniformly disparaging.
One source of irate fascination is Trump’s bombastic, frequently insulting verbal style.
While European politicians are not immune to controversial outbursts (Berlusconi once drew criticism for describing Barack Obama as “tanned”), few compare with the ad hominem vehemence of Trump, who called TV host Rosie O’Donnell a “fat pig” and said that a lot of Mexican immigrants were “rapists and criminals.”
If Trump had said such things in France, where free speech is constrained by laws of propriety, he could have faced prosecution for proffering public insults or inciting racial hatred. Which makes his outbursts, no matter how offensive, more newsworthy here.
At times Trump has deliberately sought attention in Europe, using his favorite tools: Twitter and provocation.
In January, after the Charlie Hebdo terrorist shootings in France that killed 12, Trump tweeted that the victims might have survived if only they had been carrying guns.
The comment triggered a volley of insulting replies on Twitter (“gros con!” — “moron”), but it also put Trump on the French media radar.
In Germany, where there is great suspicion for the very wealthy, much attention is paid to Trump’s money.
The left-leaning Tageszeitung newspaper described him as the “incarnation of the ugly American,” while the conservative Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung focused on Trump’s penchant for insult, comparing him in a profile last Sunday to Dieter Bohlen, a German singer who has been criticized for saying mean things about participants on a TV talent show (“You sing like a garden gnome on ecstasy,” etc.).
Most coverage of Trump in Europe deals with him as if he were an alien phenomenon from Planet America.
But as his poll numbers keep rising, Europeans have also started to think how Trump-ism applies in their countries, giving rise to an array of Trump-is-just-like-our-X comparisons...
------
Link: http://www.politico.com/story/2015/08/trump-europe-213141
------
From Politico.com:
Trump fits many perceived European stereotypes of America: excess, vulgarity, ignorance, superficiality, love of wealth, to name a few.
“Trump represents the America that we love to hate,” said Marie-Cécile Naves, a sociologist and author of “Le nouveau visage des droites américaines” (“The New Face of the American Right”).
“He is our negative mirror image, a man we see as brutal, who worships money and lacks culture — someone who lets us feel a bit superior about being European...”
In France, editorialist Alexandre Vatimbella called him a “provocative clown” whose brand of populism was dangerous for democracy, while Germany’s newspapers have reached a consensus around the label “Großmaul,” or loudmouth.
A YouGov poll this week showed that two-thirds of Germans had a negative view of him.
And the commentary written about Trump in Europe’s newspapers, from Paris to London to Berlin, is almost uniformly disparaging.
One source of irate fascination is Trump’s bombastic, frequently insulting verbal style.
While European politicians are not immune to controversial outbursts (Berlusconi once drew criticism for describing Barack Obama as “tanned”), few compare with the ad hominem vehemence of Trump, who called TV host Rosie O’Donnell a “fat pig” and said that a lot of Mexican immigrants were “rapists and criminals.”
If Trump had said such things in France, where free speech is constrained by laws of propriety, he could have faced prosecution for proffering public insults or inciting racial hatred. Which makes his outbursts, no matter how offensive, more newsworthy here.
At times Trump has deliberately sought attention in Europe, using his favorite tools: Twitter and provocation.
In January, after the Charlie Hebdo terrorist shootings in France that killed 12, Trump tweeted that the victims might have survived if only they had been carrying guns.
The comment triggered a volley of insulting replies on Twitter (“gros con!” — “moron”), but it also put Trump on the French media radar.
In Germany, where there is great suspicion for the very wealthy, much attention is paid to Trump’s money.
The left-leaning Tageszeitung newspaper described him as the “incarnation of the ugly American,” while the conservative Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung focused on Trump’s penchant for insult, comparing him in a profile last Sunday to Dieter Bohlen, a German singer who has been criticized for saying mean things about participants on a TV talent show (“You sing like a garden gnome on ecstasy,” etc.).
Most coverage of Trump in Europe deals with him as if he were an alien phenomenon from Planet America.
But as his poll numbers keep rising, Europeans have also started to think how Trump-ism applies in their countries, giving rise to an array of Trump-is-just-like-our-X comparisons...
------
Link: http://www.politico.com/story/2015/08/trump-europe-213141
Wednesday, August 26, 2015
Upsurge in Uncertain Work
From Robert Reich at the HuffingtonPost.com:
------
As Labor Day looms, more Americans than ever don't know how much they'll be earning next week or even tomorrow.
This varied group includes independent contractors, temporary workers, the self-employed, part-timers, freelancers, and free agents. Most file 1099s rather than W2s, for tax purposes.
On demand and on call -- in the "share" economy, the "gig" economy, or, more prosaically, the "irregular" economy -- the result is the same: no predictable earnings or hours.
It's the biggest change in the American workforce in over a century, and it's happening at lightening speed.
It's estimated that in five years over 40 percent of the American labor force will have uncertain work; in a decade, most of us.
Increasingly, businesses need only a relatively small pool of "talent" anchored in the enterprise -- innovators and strategists responsible for the firm's unique competitive strength.
Everyone else is becoming fungible [Definition: dictionary.com: being of such nature or kind as to be freely exchangeable or replaceable, in whole or in part, for another of like nature or kind.], sought only for their reliability and low cost.
Complex algorithms can now determine who's needed to do what and when, and then measure the quality of what's produced.
Reliability can be measured in experience ratings. Software can seamlessly handle all transactions -- contracts, billing, payments, taxes.
All this allows businesses to be highly nimble -- immediately responsive to changes in consumer preferences, overall demand, and technologies.
While shifting all the risks of such changes to workers...
Even giant corporations are devolving into spot-auction networks. Amazon's algorithms evaluate and pay workers for exactly what they contribute.
Apple directly employs fewer than 10 percent of the 1 million workers who design, make and sell iMacs and iPhones...
------
Link: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-reich/the-upsurge-in-uncertain-_b_8036690.html?
------
As Labor Day looms, more Americans than ever don't know how much they'll be earning next week or even tomorrow.
This varied group includes independent contractors, temporary workers, the self-employed, part-timers, freelancers, and free agents. Most file 1099s rather than W2s, for tax purposes.
On demand and on call -- in the "share" economy, the "gig" economy, or, more prosaically, the "irregular" economy -- the result is the same: no predictable earnings or hours.
It's the biggest change in the American workforce in over a century, and it's happening at lightening speed.
It's estimated that in five years over 40 percent of the American labor force will have uncertain work; in a decade, most of us.
Increasingly, businesses need only a relatively small pool of "talent" anchored in the enterprise -- innovators and strategists responsible for the firm's unique competitive strength.
Everyone else is becoming fungible [Definition: dictionary.com: being of such nature or kind as to be freely exchangeable or replaceable, in whole or in part, for another of like nature or kind.], sought only for their reliability and low cost.
Complex algorithms can now determine who's needed to do what and when, and then measure the quality of what's produced.
Reliability can be measured in experience ratings. Software can seamlessly handle all transactions -- contracts, billing, payments, taxes.
All this allows businesses to be highly nimble -- immediately responsive to changes in consumer preferences, overall demand, and technologies.
While shifting all the risks of such changes to workers...
Even giant corporations are devolving into spot-auction networks. Amazon's algorithms evaluate and pay workers for exactly what they contribute.
Apple directly employs fewer than 10 percent of the 1 million workers who design, make and sell iMacs and iPhones...
------
Link: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-reich/the-upsurge-in-uncertain-_b_8036690.html?
Walmart Suffers Shrinkage
Shrinkage? That's a problem, but there are more basic problems at Walmart.
Any casual shopper of Walmart, who pays any kind of attention, understands that the stores are poorly run.
Go through a Walmart store and play a game of Where's the Manager? Good luck scoring points.
There is a low level of customer service in Walmart stores. I shop there.
The other week I began to ask a Walmart employee where an item was in the store and she answered, with pride, she is on her break right now.
I couldn't tell she was on break. Think about that. The first part of good training is that your breaks never begin when customers are in your presence.
Walmart has many good workers. But support for the good workers is complicated because managers are few and not readily available. Plus, bad workers crowd out the effect of good workers.
Why did Walmart raise the minimum wage? Instead, they could have raised the wages of the better, longer term employees.
Reward virtuous behavior and point out to the newer employees that the path to higher wages is improved performance on the job.
Why did Walmart follow the advice of progressive, liberal Democrat complainers?
Walmart should listen to their customers and improve the basic shopping experience.
Study what Kroger is doing.
Their management led, customer focused change has been apparent for quite a while. I experience an improvement in customer service from Kroger employees. Not all. But it has been obvious. PB
------
From Bloomberg.com:
Walmart has a shrinkage problem, and it's not the Seinfeld variety.
It's the kind that, in retail industry jargon, refers to stealing and losing stock to damage or poor inventory management.
In explaining a fairly dismal quarterly result on Tuesday morning, the massive retailer called out shrinkage again and again.
In the press release, it was mentioned three times. In the conference call, it came up 13 times.
That's a lot of shrinkage.
Walmart sales, in fact, were pretty decent, but expenses weighed on the company’s profit.
Part of those expenses entailed writedowns for inventory that just disappeared.
Store employees say they have seen everything from customers stealing meat in their pants to thieves bursting out a back door with a shopping cart full of electronics to be loaded into a waiting car.
What’s more, Walmart's chief financial officer, Charles Holley, said he expects the problem to persist.
Walmart is restarting a program to teach employees how to spot thieves, be they coworkers or would-be consumers.
Meanwhile, it is auditing its entire supply chain to "close gaps" while it adds staff to parts of stores in which items tend to vanish.
Many stores now station an employee at the exit to check customers' receipts...
How big of a problem is shrinkage?
For the typical vendor, it amounts to about 1.4 percent of sales, according to a 2014 survey by the National Retail Federation.
About 38 percent of that is caused by shoplifting, an additional 35 percent via theft by employees, and the rest reflects damaged goods, cashier errors, and other administrative slip-ups.
Walmart hasn’t said how much stuff is being nicked, but at that rate, it would be losing roughly $7 billion a year to thieves. In short, the return on any kind of shrinkage-prevention program is probably pretty good...
------
Link: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-08-18/wal-mart-is-getting-hit-hard-by-thieves
Any casual shopper of Walmart, who pays any kind of attention, understands that the stores are poorly run.
Go through a Walmart store and play a game of Where's the Manager? Good luck scoring points.
There is a low level of customer service in Walmart stores. I shop there.
The other week I began to ask a Walmart employee where an item was in the store and she answered, with pride, she is on her break right now.
I couldn't tell she was on break. Think about that. The first part of good training is that your breaks never begin when customers are in your presence.
Walmart has many good workers. But support for the good workers is complicated because managers are few and not readily available. Plus, bad workers crowd out the effect of good workers.
Why did Walmart raise the minimum wage? Instead, they could have raised the wages of the better, longer term employees.
Reward virtuous behavior and point out to the newer employees that the path to higher wages is improved performance on the job.
Why did Walmart follow the advice of progressive, liberal Democrat complainers?
Walmart should listen to their customers and improve the basic shopping experience.
Study what Kroger is doing.
Their management led, customer focused change has been apparent for quite a while. I experience an improvement in customer service from Kroger employees. Not all. But it has been obvious. PB
------
From Bloomberg.com:
Walmart has a shrinkage problem, and it's not the Seinfeld variety.
It's the kind that, in retail industry jargon, refers to stealing and losing stock to damage or poor inventory management.
In explaining a fairly dismal quarterly result on Tuesday morning, the massive retailer called out shrinkage again and again.
In the press release, it was mentioned three times. In the conference call, it came up 13 times.
That's a lot of shrinkage.
Walmart sales, in fact, were pretty decent, but expenses weighed on the company’s profit.
Part of those expenses entailed writedowns for inventory that just disappeared.
Store employees say they have seen everything from customers stealing meat in their pants to thieves bursting out a back door with a shopping cart full of electronics to be loaded into a waiting car.
What’s more, Walmart's chief financial officer, Charles Holley, said he expects the problem to persist.
Walmart is restarting a program to teach employees how to spot thieves, be they coworkers or would-be consumers.
Meanwhile, it is auditing its entire supply chain to "close gaps" while it adds staff to parts of stores in which items tend to vanish.
Many stores now station an employee at the exit to check customers' receipts...
How big of a problem is shrinkage?
For the typical vendor, it amounts to about 1.4 percent of sales, according to a 2014 survey by the National Retail Federation.
About 38 percent of that is caused by shoplifting, an additional 35 percent via theft by employees, and the rest reflects damaged goods, cashier errors, and other administrative slip-ups.
Walmart hasn’t said how much stuff is being nicked, but at that rate, it would be losing roughly $7 billion a year to thieves. In short, the return on any kind of shrinkage-prevention program is probably pretty good...
------
Link: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-08-18/wal-mart-is-getting-hit-hard-by-thieves
Monday, August 24, 2015
Stocks Smashed When Morning Comeback Flops
From Investors.com:
Stocks were smashed again Monday after a morning comeback attempt lost steam and the Dow Jones industrial average was 588 points lower when the dust cleared.
Volume was substantially higher on the NYSE exchanges, according to preliminary data in the stock market today.
If the numbers hold up, it will be the fourth straight day of rising downside volume.
The S&P 500 ended down 3.9% and the Nasdaq lost 3.8%.
The Dow fell 3.6%. At their lowest levels of the day, the Dow was off 6.6%, the S&P 500 5.4% and the Nasdaq 8.8%.
The sell-off followed the Shanghai composite, which dropped 8.5% overnight and sent global markets reeling.
Oil settled down 5.5% at $38.24 a barrel.
The dollar was weaker. The euro was stronger.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell below 2% during the day.
Fed funds futures rose, signaling a growing perception that the Federal Reserve will not raise interest rates in September...
------
Link: http://news.investors.com/investing-stock-market-today/082415-767902-stock-market-today-smashed-dow-down.htm?ref=HPMStory
Stocks were smashed again Monday after a morning comeback attempt lost steam and the Dow Jones industrial average was 588 points lower when the dust cleared.
Volume was substantially higher on the NYSE exchanges, according to preliminary data in the stock market today.
If the numbers hold up, it will be the fourth straight day of rising downside volume.
The S&P 500 ended down 3.9% and the Nasdaq lost 3.8%.
The Dow fell 3.6%. At their lowest levels of the day, the Dow was off 6.6%, the S&P 500 5.4% and the Nasdaq 8.8%.
The sell-off followed the Shanghai composite, which dropped 8.5% overnight and sent global markets reeling.
Oil settled down 5.5% at $38.24 a barrel.
The dollar was weaker. The euro was stronger.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell below 2% during the day.
Fed funds futures rose, signaling a growing perception that the Federal Reserve will not raise interest rates in September...
------
Link: http://news.investors.com/investing-stock-market-today/082415-767902-stock-market-today-smashed-dow-down.htm?ref=HPMStory
Global Stocks Fall Further
From the New York Times online:
Global stocks on Monday picked up where they left off last week, with markets falling sharply in Europe and Asia, led by another big sell-off in China.
Investors’ concerns over China’s economic slowdown and a souring view of emerging economies have rattled financial markets around the world in recent days, and showed no signs of letting up.
In China, the benchmark Shanghai composite index closed 8.5 percent lower, erasing all of the gains it had made in an extraordinary run-up this year.
And in Europe, stocks fell sharply, with the main indexes down by 4 percent or more in the early afternoon...
------
From the Wall Street Journal online:
The rout in financial markets intensified Monday, as global stocks and commodities extended last week’s steep declines.
European stocks and U.S. stock futures dived after a sharp sell off in Chinese shares accelerated, wiping out gains for the year.
Oil prices continued to drop, while Treasuries gained as investors sought the relative safety of government bonds...
------
Links:
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/25/business/dealbook/stocks-in-asia-fall-as-china-and-emerging-economies-lose-favor.html
http://www.wsj.com/articles/global-stocks-set-for-heavy-losses-1440399044
Global stocks on Monday picked up where they left off last week, with markets falling sharply in Europe and Asia, led by another big sell-off in China.
Investors’ concerns over China’s economic slowdown and a souring view of emerging economies have rattled financial markets around the world in recent days, and showed no signs of letting up.
In China, the benchmark Shanghai composite index closed 8.5 percent lower, erasing all of the gains it had made in an extraordinary run-up this year.
And in Europe, stocks fell sharply, with the main indexes down by 4 percent or more in the early afternoon...
------
From the Wall Street Journal online:
The rout in financial markets intensified Monday, as global stocks and commodities extended last week’s steep declines.
European stocks and U.S. stock futures dived after a sharp sell off in Chinese shares accelerated, wiping out gains for the year.
Oil prices continued to drop, while Treasuries gained as investors sought the relative safety of government bonds...
------
Links:
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/25/business/dealbook/stocks-in-asia-fall-as-china-and-emerging-economies-lose-favor.html
http://www.wsj.com/articles/global-stocks-set-for-heavy-losses-1440399044
Saturday, August 22, 2015
Immigration Chaos at the Borders - in Europe
A look at the chaos happening with immigrants at national borders - human misery shows up far, far away from the United States. PB
------
From Reuters.com:
Thousands of rain-soaked migrants stormed across Macedonia’s border on Saturday as police lobbed stun grenades and beat them with batons, struggling to enforce a decree to stem their flow through the Balkans to western Europe.
Security forces managed to contain hundreds in no-man’s land. But several thousand others – many of them Syrian refugees - tore through muddy fields to Macedonian territory after days spent in the open without access to shelter, food or water.
"In this Europe, animals are sleeping in beds and we sleep in the rain," said 23-year-old Syrian woman Fatima Hamido after running across the border.
"I was freezing for four days in the rain, with nothing to eat."
Macedonia on Thursday declared a state of emergency and ordered its borders sealed to migrants, many of them refugees from war who have been entering from Greece at a rate of 2,000 per day en route to Hungary and Europe’s borderless Schengen zone.
On Friday, riot police fired tear gas and stun grenades to drive back angry crowds, in the latest flare-up in a migration crisis that has brought ripples from the conflicts of the Middle East to Europe’s shores.
Calling out the army, Macedonia said it would ration access, and allowed some 600 through overnight; they squeezed onto a dawn train north to the Serbian border.
But far more have since arrived on the Greek side, converging on a filthy, chaotic strip of frontier with little sign of an organized aid effort.
Some industrious Greeks sold sandwiches and drinks to those prepared to pay.
A man with a generator charged 1.5 euros to charge mobile phones...
------
Link: http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/08/22/us-europe-migrants-macedonia-idUSKCN0QR06320150822
------
From euobservor.com:
The number of detections in 2015 (January-July) now totals nearly 340,000, compared to 123,500 recorded in the same period of last year.
At least 2,300 people have also died this year while trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea to reach Europe, research by The International Organisation for Migration says.
The surge has created huge pressure on border control authorities...
Mediterranean Sea shores are the entry point to Europe for most migrants, but not the end destination.
Germany is to raise its forecast for the number of asylum seekers expected this year from a previous 450,000 to at least 650 000, German daily Handelsblatt reported on Tuesday.
Interior minister Thomas de Maiziere, who is scheduled to present a new prognosis by the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees on Wednesday, will say that the number of asylum seekers coming to Germany in 2015 could go as high as 750,000...
------
Link: https://euobserver.com/social/129918
------
From Reuters.com:
Chaos at Macedonia border as refugees tear through police lines
Thousands of rain-soaked migrants stormed across Macedonia’s border on Saturday as police lobbed stun grenades and beat them with batons, struggling to enforce a decree to stem their flow through the Balkans to western Europe.
Security forces managed to contain hundreds in no-man’s land. But several thousand others – many of them Syrian refugees - tore through muddy fields to Macedonian territory after days spent in the open without access to shelter, food or water.
"In this Europe, animals are sleeping in beds and we sleep in the rain," said 23-year-old Syrian woman Fatima Hamido after running across the border.
"I was freezing for four days in the rain, with nothing to eat."
Macedonia on Thursday declared a state of emergency and ordered its borders sealed to migrants, many of them refugees from war who have been entering from Greece at a rate of 2,000 per day en route to Hungary and Europe’s borderless Schengen zone.
On Friday, riot police fired tear gas and stun grenades to drive back angry crowds, in the latest flare-up in a migration crisis that has brought ripples from the conflicts of the Middle East to Europe’s shores.
Calling out the army, Macedonia said it would ration access, and allowed some 600 through overnight; they squeezed onto a dawn train north to the Serbian border.
But far more have since arrived on the Greek side, converging on a filthy, chaotic strip of frontier with little sign of an organized aid effort.
Some industrious Greeks sold sandwiches and drinks to those prepared to pay.
A man with a generator charged 1.5 euros to charge mobile phones...
------
Link: http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/08/22/us-europe-migrants-macedonia-idUSKCN0QR06320150822
------
From euobservor.com:
Record 107,500 migrants arrived in EU in July
The number of detections in 2015 (January-July) now totals nearly 340,000, compared to 123,500 recorded in the same period of last year.
At least 2,300 people have also died this year while trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea to reach Europe, research by The International Organisation for Migration says.
The surge has created huge pressure on border control authorities...
Mediterranean Sea shores are the entry point to Europe for most migrants, but not the end destination.
Germany is to raise its forecast for the number of asylum seekers expected this year from a previous 450,000 to at least 650 000, German daily Handelsblatt reported on Tuesday.
Interior minister Thomas de Maiziere, who is scheduled to present a new prognosis by the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees on Wednesday, will say that the number of asylum seekers coming to Germany in 2015 could go as high as 750,000...
------
Link: https://euobserver.com/social/129918
Friday, August 21, 2015
Liberals and their "Anchor Emails"
Maybe we should call this: "Birth of the Anchor Email."
It seems that indignation on the political campaign is infused with the old adage that you when you point one finger out, three fingers point back.
A particular candidate, who has been acting like a typical lying liberal, dissembles about her Liberal White Email Privilege while casting blame and shame on The Other about the phrase, 'Anchor Baby.'
Well....it seems there are such things as Anchor Emails.
How will blame and shame be tossed about now?
By the way, does "Anchor Baby"sound like a title to a soul song about sailors? Or maybe a psalm about being protected in safe harbors?
Finally, after reading the last paragraph below, does "Life of an Email" being at get-go?
What would Francis the Pope say? There is a Star to guide us! PB
------
From Reuters.com:
For months, the U.S. State Department has stood behind its former boss Hillary Clinton as she has repeatedly said she did not send or receive classified information on her unsecured, private email account, a practice the government forbids.
While the department is now stamping a few dozen of the publicly released emails as "Classified," it stresses this is not evidence of rule-breaking.
Those stamps are new, it says, and do not mean the information was classified when Clinton, the Democratic frontrunner in the 2016 presidential election, first sent or received it.
But the details included in those "Classified" stamps — which include a string of dates, letters and numbers describing the nature of the classification — appear to undermine this account, a Reuters examination of the emails and the relevant regulations has found.
The new stamps indicate that some of Clinton's emails from her time as the nation's most senior diplomat are filled with a type of information the U.S. government and the department's own regulations automatically deems classified from the get-go — regardless of whether it is already marked that way or not...
------
Link: http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/08/21/us-usa-election-clinton-emails-idUSKCN0QQ0BW20150821
It seems that indignation on the political campaign is infused with the old adage that you when you point one finger out, three fingers point back.
A particular candidate, who has been acting like a typical lying liberal, dissembles about her Liberal White Email Privilege while casting blame and shame on The Other about the phrase, 'Anchor Baby.'
Well....it seems there are such things as Anchor Emails.
How will blame and shame be tossed about now?
By the way, does "Anchor Baby"sound like a title to a soul song about sailors? Or maybe a psalm about being protected in safe harbors?
Finally, after reading the last paragraph below, does "Life of an Email" being at get-go?
What would Francis the Pope say? There is a Star to guide us! PB
------
From Reuters.com:
For months, the U.S. State Department has stood behind its former boss Hillary Clinton as she has repeatedly said she did not send or receive classified information on her unsecured, private email account, a practice the government forbids.
While the department is now stamping a few dozen of the publicly released emails as "Classified," it stresses this is not evidence of rule-breaking.
Those stamps are new, it says, and do not mean the information was classified when Clinton, the Democratic frontrunner in the 2016 presidential election, first sent or received it.
But the details included in those "Classified" stamps — which include a string of dates, letters and numbers describing the nature of the classification — appear to undermine this account, a Reuters examination of the emails and the relevant regulations has found.
The new stamps indicate that some of Clinton's emails from her time as the nation's most senior diplomat are filled with a type of information the U.S. government and the department's own regulations automatically deems classified from the get-go — regardless of whether it is already marked that way or not...
------
Link: http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/08/21/us-usa-election-clinton-emails-idUSKCN0QQ0BW20150821
Sunday, August 16, 2015
These are the Good Old Days
From economist Mark J. Perry at AEI.org:
The significant reduction in the cost of purchasing and operating common household appliances like room air conditioners help us understand that the “good old days” are now!
And it’s not just air conditioners that have gotten cheaper over time.
The chart below shows that household spending on “life’s basics” – food, clothing and shelter – has steadily declined over time as a share of after-tax personal income, from more than 50% in the 1930s and 1940s, to more than 40% for most of the 1970s when it took more than a week of work to buy the air conditioner featured above, to only about 32% in recent years.
The gradual increase in our standard of living thanks to the falling prices (measured in both inflation-adjusted dollars and in the “time cost”) of appliances, food, clothing, cars and household appliances is an under-appreciated and under-reported benefit of the “miracle and magic of the marketplace.”
And it’s not just air conditioners that have gotten cheaper over time.
The chart below shows that household spending on “life’s basics” – food, clothing and shelter – has steadily declined over time as a share of after-tax personal income, from more than 50% in the 1930s and 1940s, to more than 40% for most of the 1970s when it took more than a week of work to buy the air conditioner featured above, to only about 32% in recent years.
The gradual increase in our standard of living thanks to the falling prices (measured in both inflation-adjusted dollars and in the “time cost”) of appliances, food, clothing, cars and household appliances is an under-appreciated and under-reported benefit of the “miracle and magic of the marketplace.”
------
Link: http://www.aei.org/publication/the-good-old-days-are-now-home-appliances-today-are-cheaper-and-more-energy-efficient-than-ever-before/
Friday, August 14, 2015
The 10% Treasury Matures Tomorrow
When yields were double digits - 10% and above - savers thought they were investors. That perception and understanding was commonly held back in the 1980's.
10% on a U.S. Treasury bond was a terrific return that savers confidently received without the fear of risk assumed if stocks were purchased instead.
Today is different. 30 year treasury bonds yield about 3%. Wow! Where did that 7% additional return go? Ask our government 'leaders' and those nice people at the Federal Reserve: what have you done for me lately?
Our economy and our markets have punished both savers and income investors. The educated guess is that at some point interest rates will move up.
If so, if rates move noticeably up, how far up will long rates move? And if so, how quickly?
Will we ever see 10% again?
What is important to remember is that 30 years ago, investors did not trust long bonds at 9% or 10% because they could get similar rates at shorter maturities.
That was the most important lesson I ever learned in the industry. PB
------
From Bloomberg.com:
The last Treasury bond with a coupon above 10 percent is older than some government-debt traders.
It turns 30 tomorrow.
The bond was issued on Aug. 15, 1985, and is one of just five Treasury bonds left with coupons of 9 percent or higher.
All of them mature in the next three years.
And as the ranks of high-coupon government bonds have gotten smaller, so has the number of traders and analysts who were on Wall Street desks when high yields and worries about rising prices were the norm.
“Talking to people who have been in the market for 20 or 30 years is interesting, because they did see double-digit inflation,” says Edward Acton, a U.S. government-bond strategist at RBS Securities, who turned 23 two months ago.
“It seems almost alien...”
The newest 30-year Treasury note sold by the U.S. government has a coupon of 2.875 percent. Those ultra-low yields and regulatory pressure have crimped profitability for large global banks.
And that has pushed banks toward hiring the younger cadre of bond traders, a trend that consulting-firm Greenwich Associates calls “juniorization.”
“You’ve got a whole bunch of people who weren’t even alive in ’85 and haven’t known anything but yields going down,” says Neil Bouhan, an interest-rate strategist with BMO Capital Markets in Chicago.
Bouhan was 5 years old when the bond was issued.
------
Link: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-08-14/the-10-treasury-that-s-older-than-a-lot-of-traders-matures-tomorrow
10% on a U.S. Treasury bond was a terrific return that savers confidently received without the fear of risk assumed if stocks were purchased instead.
Today is different. 30 year treasury bonds yield about 3%. Wow! Where did that 7% additional return go? Ask our government 'leaders' and those nice people at the Federal Reserve: what have you done for me lately?
Our economy and our markets have punished both savers and income investors. The educated guess is that at some point interest rates will move up.
If so, if rates move noticeably up, how far up will long rates move? And if so, how quickly?
Will we ever see 10% again?
What is important to remember is that 30 years ago, investors did not trust long bonds at 9% or 10% because they could get similar rates at shorter maturities.
That was the most important lesson I ever learned in the industry. PB
------
From Bloomberg.com:
The last Treasury bond with a coupon above 10 percent is older than some government-debt traders.
It turns 30 tomorrow.
The bond was issued on Aug. 15, 1985, and is one of just five Treasury bonds left with coupons of 9 percent or higher.
All of them mature in the next three years.
And as the ranks of high-coupon government bonds have gotten smaller, so has the number of traders and analysts who were on Wall Street desks when high yields and worries about rising prices were the norm.
“Talking to people who have been in the market for 20 or 30 years is interesting, because they did see double-digit inflation,” says Edward Acton, a U.S. government-bond strategist at RBS Securities, who turned 23 two months ago.
“It seems almost alien...”
The newest 30-year Treasury note sold by the U.S. government has a coupon of 2.875 percent. Those ultra-low yields and regulatory pressure have crimped profitability for large global banks.
And that has pushed banks toward hiring the younger cadre of bond traders, a trend that consulting-firm Greenwich Associates calls “juniorization.”
“You’ve got a whole bunch of people who weren’t even alive in ’85 and haven’t known anything but yields going down,” says Neil Bouhan, an interest-rate strategist with BMO Capital Markets in Chicago.
Bouhan was 5 years old when the bond was issued.
------
Link: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-08-14/the-10-treasury-that-s-older-than-a-lot-of-traders-matures-tomorrow
Wednesday, August 12, 2015
Why all the news on the Black Bill C.? But not the same amount of news on the White Bill C.?
From Yahoo News a few hours ago:
3 New Bill Cosby Accusers Reveal Explicit Details of Alleged Assaults
----
Link: https://www.yahoo.com/tv/s/3-bill-cosby-accusers-reveal-explicit-details-alleged-212354191.html
From the NY Post six months ago:
Just a few weeks ago, reports broke that Bill Clinton had flown at least 11 times on “The Lolita Express” — a private plane owned by the mysterious financier and convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
According to Virginia Roberts, who claims to have been one of Epstein’s many teenage sex slaves, Clinton also visited Epstein’s private Caribbean retreat, known as “Orgy Island...”
----
Link: http://nypost.com/2015/02/14/bill-clintons-libido-threatens-to-derail-hillary-again/
Monday, August 10, 2015
Carly Fiorina: Income Inequality Is Worse Under Progressive Policies
From Fox News via Real Clear Politics:
CHRIS WALLACE: So when Hillary Clinton says, "Yeah, and the rich are going to make out like bandits."
CARLY FIORINA: What I would point out to Hillary Clinton is that every single one of the policies that she is currently pursuing makes income inequality worse.
Exhibit A: income inequality under the Obama administration.
Exhibit B: every liberal state in this nation. I spent twelve years in the state of California, a state that's been ruled by liberals for a long time.
And guess what you have: about a hundred and thirty billionaires--good for them--the highest poverty rates in the nation, the exodus of the middle class, the destruction of industry after industry after industry.
Income inequality is worse under progressive policies, because progressive policies favor the wealthy, the well-connected, and the powerful...
------
Link: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2015/08/09/caly_fiorina_income_inequality_i_worse_under_progressive_policies.html
CHRIS WALLACE: So when Hillary Clinton says, "Yeah, and the rich are going to make out like bandits."
CARLY FIORINA: What I would point out to Hillary Clinton is that every single one of the policies that she is currently pursuing makes income inequality worse.
Exhibit A: income inequality under the Obama administration.
Exhibit B: every liberal state in this nation. I spent twelve years in the state of California, a state that's been ruled by liberals for a long time.
And guess what you have: about a hundred and thirty billionaires--good for them--the highest poverty rates in the nation, the exodus of the middle class, the destruction of industry after industry after industry.
Income inequality is worse under progressive policies, because progressive policies favor the wealthy, the well-connected, and the powerful...
------
Link: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2015/08/09/caly_fiorina_income_inequality_i_worse_under_progressive_policies.html
Saturday, August 8, 2015
Jobs: Hole in the Middle
The New York Times notices what millions of Americans have known for years and years.
The liberal-progressive Obama economy is hostile to the Middle Class.
Just consider this: why have Billionaires flourished in the Obama economy?
And why should millions of average Americans, clinging to honorable middle class hopes and dreams, continue to pay the price?
Shame on the progressive frauds. It is phony progressive policies that attack the middle class.
The most difficult truth to accept is that progressive politics is the poison that afflicts middle class Americans. PB
------
From the New York Times online:
The economy created 215,000 jobs, in line with average job creation so far this year.
The growth in July was centered in retail, restaurants and other low-paying service jobs, though there was also encouraging growth in higher-paying fields, including construction and finance.
What was lacking — in July, as in every other month in the past several years — was any appreciable growth in wages.
Average hourly earnings for all private-sector employees rose by 0.5 cents, to $24.99.
Take away the minority of employees who are bosses, and the increase was just 0.3 cents, to $21.01 an hour, or $42,000 a year for a full-time job.
Over all, the average annualized growth rate for wages over the past three months comes to 1.9 percent, barely outpacing inflation.
Job growth without pay raises is a discouraging sign of slack in the job market.
For example, the share of the population age 25 to 54 that is working is stuck at recession-era levels and, worse, has stopped improving in the past five months.
That suggests a dearth of job opportunities for a pool of potential workers that is larger than indicated by the relatively low unemployment rate of 5.3 percent...
------
Link: http://takingnote.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/08/07/the-hole-in-the-middle-of-the-jobs-report/
The liberal-progressive Obama economy is hostile to the Middle Class.
Just consider this: why have Billionaires flourished in the Obama economy?
And why should millions of average Americans, clinging to honorable middle class hopes and dreams, continue to pay the price?
Shame on the progressive frauds. It is phony progressive policies that attack the middle class.
The most difficult truth to accept is that progressive politics is the poison that afflicts middle class Americans. PB
------
From the New York Times online:
The economy created 215,000 jobs, in line with average job creation so far this year.
The growth in July was centered in retail, restaurants and other low-paying service jobs, though there was also encouraging growth in higher-paying fields, including construction and finance.
What was lacking — in July, as in every other month in the past several years — was any appreciable growth in wages.
Average hourly earnings for all private-sector employees rose by 0.5 cents, to $24.99.
Take away the minority of employees who are bosses, and the increase was just 0.3 cents, to $21.01 an hour, or $42,000 a year for a full-time job.
Over all, the average annualized growth rate for wages over the past three months comes to 1.9 percent, barely outpacing inflation.
Job growth without pay raises is a discouraging sign of slack in the job market.
For example, the share of the population age 25 to 54 that is working is stuck at recession-era levels and, worse, has stopped improving in the past five months.
That suggests a dearth of job opportunities for a pool of potential workers that is larger than indicated by the relatively low unemployment rate of 5.3 percent...
------
Link: http://takingnote.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/08/07/the-hole-in-the-middle-of-the-jobs-report/
Wednesday, August 5, 2015
Inequality: Bill and Hillary Clintons' Speaking Fees Dwarf Average Worker Pay
Ahh, the champions of the middle class: the Clintons.
I feel sorry for them. After all, last year Hillary Clinton said, "We came out of the White House not only dead broke, but in debt."
Dead broke.
The travails of being public servants can sometimes just wear you down. Even when you're the former First Family of the United States.
Indeed, especially when the First Family also had been Co-Chief Executives of the United States, as in Bill's claim that America was getting "two for the price of one" when he and Hillary were elected as a team of equals.
Millions of average Americans who cling to the hope of maintaining their middle class position, but suffer from continued economic uncertainty, might be sympathetic to Hillary's claim.
We find out, however, that inequality of income afflicts people in different ways. In the case of the Clintons, inequality has a different dimension than what most Americans understand. PB
------
From Investors.com:
The AFL-CIO publishes an annual report called Executive PayWatch.
According to the most recent report, in 2014 the average pay for a CEO at a Standard & Poor's 500 company was $13.5 million.
At the same time, average take-home pay of nonsupervisory workers was $36,134.
So on average, per the AFL-CIO, CEO earnings were 373 times greater than worker income.
Anyone can email companies and the Securities and Exchange Commission through the AFL-CIO website to express their outrage at this presumed unfairness.
Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton's newly released tax returns show that she and Bill earned $139.1 million between 2007 and 2014, an average of $17.4 million per year.
In 2014, the power couple earned $20 million in speaker fees — 553 times that aforementioned average worker salary, 50% greater than the CEO ratio...
------
Link: http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials-on-the-right/080415-765021-big-pay-gap-between-clintons-speaking-fees-and-average-worker-income.htm?
I feel sorry for them. After all, last year Hillary Clinton said, "We came out of the White House not only dead broke, but in debt."
Dead broke.
The travails of being public servants can sometimes just wear you down. Even when you're the former First Family of the United States.
Indeed, especially when the First Family also had been Co-Chief Executives of the United States, as in Bill's claim that America was getting "two for the price of one" when he and Hillary were elected as a team of equals.
Millions of average Americans who cling to the hope of maintaining their middle class position, but suffer from continued economic uncertainty, might be sympathetic to Hillary's claim.
We find out, however, that inequality of income afflicts people in different ways. In the case of the Clintons, inequality has a different dimension than what most Americans understand. PB
------
From Investors.com:
The AFL-CIO publishes an annual report called Executive PayWatch.
According to the most recent report, in 2014 the average pay for a CEO at a Standard & Poor's 500 company was $13.5 million.
At the same time, average take-home pay of nonsupervisory workers was $36,134.
So on average, per the AFL-CIO, CEO earnings were 373 times greater than worker income.
Anyone can email companies and the Securities and Exchange Commission through the AFL-CIO website to express their outrage at this presumed unfairness.
Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton's newly released tax returns show that she and Bill earned $139.1 million between 2007 and 2014, an average of $17.4 million per year.
In 2014, the power couple earned $20 million in speaker fees — 553 times that aforementioned average worker salary, 50% greater than the CEO ratio...
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Link: http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials-on-the-right/080415-765021-big-pay-gap-between-clintons-speaking-fees-and-average-worker-income.htm?
Tuesday, August 4, 2015
WSJ: Oil Companies’ Spending Cuts - Will Cuts Be Enough?
Low oil prices are having a big effect on the major players. How much pain will there be if companies consolidate? And will gas prices drop to $2 or below? PB
------
From the Wall Street Journal online:
The world’s biggest oil companies have vowed to bring down the costs of big projects in the face of slumping oil prices, but the unrelenting price weakness—with crude below $50 a barrel—suggests they could have to dig deeper still...
Focusing on lower-cost projects with higher returns will help to some extent, but companies are also relying on cost deflation for everything from drill rigs to pipelines, improved efficiency and increased standardization to help manage the lower price environment.
“They are bringing down their costs both operationally and also in terms of capex, but it’s probably not going to be enough,” said Roberto Cominotto, investment manager at Swiss investor GAM, highlighting the need for a structural shift in the way big oil companies operate after years of diminishing returns as production costs crept higher...
...the current weak prices illustrates the risk that the market could remain under pressure for longer than anticipated, driving prolonged pain and the need for more stringent action among Shell and BP in Europe and American giants such as Chevron and Exxon Mobil Corp.
Their focus remains on driving down capital expenditure and continuing to reduce costs, the benefits of which oil companies say could begin to show through by the end of this year.
In the U.S., energy producers have proven more resilient than expected, finding ways to lower drilling costs even as they have reworked hedge programs and issued equity to bolster their balance sheets.
But pressure is mounting...
What the industry really needs is a shakeout, said David Tameron, an analyst at Wells Fargo Securities. Too many energy companies, particularly in the bottom tier, have been able to hang on through the downturn with the help of financial backers.
“You need that wash out,” Mr. Tameron said. “You need some producers to go away.”
The prospect of tougher cuts down the line is a sign that the severity of the situation is dawning on the industry...
“Although they’re still not willing to abandon their rosy forecasts, at least they are addressing the near term situation that we have to do something now and not wait for oil prices to recover,” Oppenheimer & Co. analyst Fadel Gheit said of the major oil companies.
He said it won’t be easy.
“It’s a monumental challenge to offset the impact of a 50% drop in oil price,” said Mr. Gheit.
“The priorities have shifted completely. The priority now is to discontinue budget spending. The priority is to live within your means. Forget about growth. They are now in survival mode.”
------
Link: http://www.wsj.com/articles/oil-companies-spending-cuts-unlikely-to-be-enough-1438720142
------
From the Wall Street Journal online:
The world’s biggest oil companies have vowed to bring down the costs of big projects in the face of slumping oil prices, but the unrelenting price weakness—with crude below $50 a barrel—suggests they could have to dig deeper still...
Focusing on lower-cost projects with higher returns will help to some extent, but companies are also relying on cost deflation for everything from drill rigs to pipelines, improved efficiency and increased standardization to help manage the lower price environment.
“They are bringing down their costs both operationally and also in terms of capex, but it’s probably not going to be enough,” said Roberto Cominotto, investment manager at Swiss investor GAM, highlighting the need for a structural shift in the way big oil companies operate after years of diminishing returns as production costs crept higher...
...the current weak prices illustrates the risk that the market could remain under pressure for longer than anticipated, driving prolonged pain and the need for more stringent action among Shell and BP in Europe and American giants such as Chevron and Exxon Mobil Corp.
Their focus remains on driving down capital expenditure and continuing to reduce costs, the benefits of which oil companies say could begin to show through by the end of this year.
In the U.S., energy producers have proven more resilient than expected, finding ways to lower drilling costs even as they have reworked hedge programs and issued equity to bolster their balance sheets.
But pressure is mounting...
What the industry really needs is a shakeout, said David Tameron, an analyst at Wells Fargo Securities. Too many energy companies, particularly in the bottom tier, have been able to hang on through the downturn with the help of financial backers.
“You need that wash out,” Mr. Tameron said. “You need some producers to go away.”
The prospect of tougher cuts down the line is a sign that the severity of the situation is dawning on the industry...
“Although they’re still not willing to abandon their rosy forecasts, at least they are addressing the near term situation that we have to do something now and not wait for oil prices to recover,” Oppenheimer & Co. analyst Fadel Gheit said of the major oil companies.
He said it won’t be easy.
“It’s a monumental challenge to offset the impact of a 50% drop in oil price,” said Mr. Gheit.
“The priorities have shifted completely. The priority now is to discontinue budget spending. The priority is to live within your means. Forget about growth. They are now in survival mode.”
------
Link: http://www.wsj.com/articles/oil-companies-spending-cuts-unlikely-to-be-enough-1438720142
Monday, August 3, 2015
Go, Cars. Go!
Go, Cars. Go! PB
----From Forbes online:
GM, Fiat Chrysler, Ford: July Sales Up
U.S auto sales blew past expectations in July, the nation’s automakers said on Monday, helped by continued demand for trucks and SUVs.
The big three — Fiat Chrysler, Ford and General Motors — all reported sales figures that trounced analyst expectations and marked their best July since before the recession.
Automakers are currently benefiting from the winning combination of an improving economy, lower gas prices and easy credit.
They’ve also been running deals to draw buyers onto the car lot and have seen increasing demand for trucks and SUVs, which have a higher margin...
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Link:http://www.forbes.com/sites/laurengensler/2015/08/03/u-s-auto-sales-july/
Friday, July 31, 2015
Low Interest Rates Could Harm Us
Bill Gross speaking on Fox Business:
Bond king Bill Gross warns that low interest rates could have a negative impact on the U.S. economy.
“There is potential harm to a capitalistic economy because when interest rates are that low, it introduces distortions into financial markets,” Gross said.
“It elevates stock prices, it elevates bond prices and lowers interest rates.”
Gross told FOX Business Network’s Trish Regan that the Fed needs to act soon on rates.
“Capitalism depends on investment,” he said.
“Productivity depends upon that investment in the extent that markets are distorted, then the investment in the real economy, which is the most important and critical factor, becomes distorted and at risk. Ultimately, I think the Fed gradually has to raise interest rates to give, if only, savers a break.”
He added, “I think [the Fed] is still stuck in the old method that suggests that the lower the interest rate the better. When Bernanke went through one percent or through two percent down to the zero level and introduced QE that the distortions began.”
“Ultimately, I think the Fed does have to try to normalize interest rates and bring them back to pre-Lehman types of levels… probably lower, but certainly not zero percent.”
------
Link: http://video.foxbusiness.com/v/4387501065001/bill-gross-there-may-be-bubbles-around-us-dollar-/?intcmp=related#sp=show-clips
Bond king Bill Gross warns that low interest rates could have a negative impact on the U.S. economy.
“There is potential harm to a capitalistic economy because when interest rates are that low, it introduces distortions into financial markets,” Gross said.
“It elevates stock prices, it elevates bond prices and lowers interest rates.”
Gross told FOX Business Network’s Trish Regan that the Fed needs to act soon on rates.
“Capitalism depends on investment,” he said.
“Productivity depends upon that investment in the extent that markets are distorted, then the investment in the real economy, which is the most important and critical factor, becomes distorted and at risk. Ultimately, I think the Fed gradually has to raise interest rates to give, if only, savers a break.”
He added, “I think [the Fed] is still stuck in the old method that suggests that the lower the interest rate the better. When Bernanke went through one percent or through two percent down to the zero level and introduced QE that the distortions began.”
“Ultimately, I think the Fed does have to try to normalize interest rates and bring them back to pre-Lehman types of levels… probably lower, but certainly not zero percent.”
------
Link: http://video.foxbusiness.com/v/4387501065001/bill-gross-there-may-be-bubbles-around-us-dollar-/?intcmp=related#sp=show-clips
Thursday, July 30, 2015
Obama Economy Worst Expansion Since WWII - even Weaker than George W. Bush Presidency
From the Wall Street Journal online:
The economic expansion—already the worst on record since World War II—is weaker than previously thought, according to newly revised data.
From 2012 through 2014, the economy grew at an all-too-familiar rate of 2% annually, according to three years of revised figures the Commerce Department released Thursday. That’s a 0.3 percentage point downgrade from prior estimates.
The revisions were released concurrently with the government’s first estimate of second-quarter output.
Since the recession ended in June 2009, the economy has advanced at a 2.2% annual pace through the end of last year.
That’s more than a half-percentage point worse than the next-weakest expansion of the past 70 years, the one from 2001 through 2007.
While there have been highs and lows in individual quarters, overall the economy has failed to break out of its roughly 2% pattern for six years...
------
Link: http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2015/07/30/the-worst-expansion-since-world-war-ii-was-even-weaker/?
The economic expansion—already the worst on record since World War II—is weaker than previously thought, according to newly revised data.
From 2012 through 2014, the economy grew at an all-too-familiar rate of 2% annually, according to three years of revised figures the Commerce Department released Thursday. That’s a 0.3 percentage point downgrade from prior estimates.
The revisions were released concurrently with the government’s first estimate of second-quarter output.
Since the recession ended in June 2009, the economy has advanced at a 2.2% annual pace through the end of last year.
That’s more than a half-percentage point worse than the next-weakest expansion of the past 70 years, the one from 2001 through 2007.
While there have been highs and lows in individual quarters, overall the economy has failed to break out of its roughly 2% pattern for six years...
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Link: http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2015/07/30/the-worst-expansion-since-world-war-ii-was-even-weaker/?
Wednesday, July 29, 2015
Pending Sales of U.S. Existing Homes Unexpectedly Declines; Housing Still Constructive!
From Bloomberg online:
Fewer Americans signed contracts in June to buy previously owned homes, representing a pause in the housing market’s momentum.
The index of pending home sales unexpectedly fell 1.8 percent, the first drop this year, after a revised 0.6 percent increase in May that was smaller than initially reported, figures from the National Association of Realtors showed Wednesday in Washington. The median forecast of 37 economists surveyed by Bloomberg called for a 0.9 percent gain.
The data are consistent with the slow improvement in housing, restrained by still-tight lending standards and a limited selection of available properties.
An easing of those conditions, along with an acceleration in wage growth, would allow more Americans to take advantage of cheap borrowing costs and provide more of a tailwind for real estate.
“There’s still ongoing demand for housing,” said Ryan Wang, an economist at HSBC Securities USA Inc. in New York, who projected a drop in contract signings. The report “just tells us that sales have been roughly unchanged for the last couple of months, but the trend is still broadly positive...”
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Link: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-07-29/pending-sales-of-u-s-existing-homes-unexpectedly-fell-in-june
Fewer Americans signed contracts in June to buy previously owned homes, representing a pause in the housing market’s momentum.
The index of pending home sales unexpectedly fell 1.8 percent, the first drop this year, after a revised 0.6 percent increase in May that was smaller than initially reported, figures from the National Association of Realtors showed Wednesday in Washington. The median forecast of 37 economists surveyed by Bloomberg called for a 0.9 percent gain.
The data are consistent with the slow improvement in housing, restrained by still-tight lending standards and a limited selection of available properties.
An easing of those conditions, along with an acceleration in wage growth, would allow more Americans to take advantage of cheap borrowing costs and provide more of a tailwind for real estate.
“There’s still ongoing demand for housing,” said Ryan Wang, an economist at HSBC Securities USA Inc. in New York, who projected a drop in contract signings. The report “just tells us that sales have been roughly unchanged for the last couple of months, but the trend is still broadly positive...”
------
Link: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-07-29/pending-sales-of-u-s-existing-homes-unexpectedly-fell-in-june
Tuesday, July 28, 2015
Americans start to feel price hikes
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From the Associated Press online:
Apartment rents are up. So are prices for restaurant meals, haircuts, gym memberships and a cup of coffee.
For American consumers who have become used to flat or even falling prices for several years, an unfamiliar sight has emerged in many corners of the economy: Inflation is ticking up.
The price increases remain modest. And in many cases, they're canceled out by price declines for other items that are keeping overall inflation historically low.
Yet the stepped-up price tags for a range of consumer items are the largest since the Great Recession ended six years ago.
They actually reflect a healthier economy: Many businesses have finally grown confident enough to pass their own higher costs on to consumers without fear of losing customers.
Link: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_CONSUMER_PRICES_TICK_UP?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2015-07-28-20-07-23
From the Associated Press online:
Apartment rents are up. So are prices for restaurant meals, haircuts, gym memberships and a cup of coffee.
For American consumers who have become used to flat or even falling prices for several years, an unfamiliar sight has emerged in many corners of the economy: Inflation is ticking up.
The price increases remain modest. And in many cases, they're canceled out by price declines for other items that are keeping overall inflation historically low.
Yet the stepped-up price tags for a range of consumer items are the largest since the Great Recession ended six years ago.
They actually reflect a healthier economy: Many businesses have finally grown confident enough to pass their own higher costs on to consumers without fear of losing customers.
- In June, the price of haircuts jumped 1.6 percent, the biggest monthly jump in the 62 years that the government has tracked the data...
- Coffee prices jumped 6.1 percent in January from 12 months earlier, the most in nearly three years...
- And beef prices have soared nearly 11 percent in the past year...
- The biggest driver of inflation this year has been residential rents. They climbed 3.5 percent in June from a year earlier, the fifth straight month with an annual gain of that size...
Link: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_CONSUMER_PRICES_TICK_UP?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2015-07-28-20-07-23
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