The victor gets to write history, and that is precisely what the LEFT did with FDR and the New Deal. You will never be an accurate analyst unless you accept that you are duty-bound to investigate the truth no matter where it may lead. The myth of the New Deal and its success in dragging the United States out of the Great Depression still prevails. This myth was the LEFT rewriting history, which truly became the propaganda that the Democrats had clung to right up to now, the Green New Deal.
This country had a massive Red Scare following World War I from 1918 to 1923. They were targeting Russians and assuming they were all just Communists when many fled here from Communism. The Department of Justice (DOJ) exploited it just as they did terrorists. When we were going to hold a conference at the Convention Center in Philadelphia owned by the government, they demanded that we purchase Terrorist Insurance covering the entire city and the state. They did not disclose that in advance and stole our deposit when I refused to comply – typical government. The DOJ gained more power, and we suddenly had to take off our shoes to board a plane – the only country to do such a thing.
The paranoia created was used to launch Congressional hearings, censorship, and new sedition legislation used today by the Biden administration against Trump and his supporters, all because of this manufactured Red Scare. They ignored the fact that the vast majority of people who were Russians had fled Communism. Even the story of Saint Petersburg, Florida, got its name on a coin toss, as legend would have it. In 1875 John Constantine Williams of Detroit, Michigan, moved to Tampa and bought 2,500 acres of warm waterfront land that would eventually become St. Petersburg. Many years later, Peter Demens, who was an exiled Russian aristocrat fleeing Communism, financed the Orange Belt Railroad to Williams’s settlement. Williams and Demens flipped a coin to see who would name the city. Demens won the coin toss and named it after Saint Petersburg, Russia. Williams named the city’s first hotel after his birthplace, Detroit.
Then as now, they turned against anyone who was Russian. This was whipped up by the press and the Department of Justice as they did to the Japanese during World War II. It just seemed that they had to target someone, and this time it appeared to be Trump supporters. The interesting fact is that the Red Scare was exposed as FAKE. By 1923, the Red Scare was exposed as being manufactured to generate business. They were also targeting unions. The first victim of the Red Scare was the union of mine workers.
Nevertheless, it was during the New Deal that the real communists infiltrated Roosevelt’s Administration. The New York Times celebrated Joesph Stalin and communism as the future and cure for the Great Depression. Their top journalist Walter Duranty (1884-1957) even convinced Roosevelt to recognize Russia. Duranty met with Roosevelt to convince him that Communism was working and to encourage his New Deal. The mainstream press in the 1930s was very much touting the Communists. They wanted to hear of Utopia and so reported only what they wanted to believe, as they are doing once again.
The New York Times (NYT) journalist Walter Duranty on March 31, 1933, denounced reports of famine to cover up the fact that Stalin stole all the food from Ukraine. The NYT was so pro-Communism that this was the natural infiltration of Reds, but nobody did anything about that. They wanted to hear of Utopia and so reported only what they wanted to believe, as they are doing once again. The New York Times even promoted Duranty to be awarded the Pulitzer Prize for that reporting fake news. When Gareth Jones (1905-1935) in March of 1933 said this was all a lie, the truth finally began to appear. It took the New York Times until 1990 to admit they engaged in fake news pushing communism, covering up the famine in Ukraine to suggest that Stalinism was the Utopia they wanted to impose in the United States. The NYT wrote that their reporting on the Russian Revolution constituted “some of the worst reporting to appear in this newspaper.” Duranty was doing this also to support Roosevelt’s New Deal. He helped install drastic progressiveness in taxation.
Roosevelt’s New Deal was based on Marxism. His first Brain Trust consisted of a group of Columbia Law School professor Adolf Berle, Jr. (1895-1971) and an economist Raymond Moley (1886-1975). In mid-1933, Moley began his break with Roosevelt when he saw that he was becoming increasingly Marxist. He abandoned Roosevelt entirely by 1936 when it became clear that the New Deal had failed. Roosevelt replaced Moley with a decisively leftist economist named Rexford Tugwell (12891-1979). Moley became highly critical of Roosevelt and Tugwell’s policies to such an extent he switched parties and became a Republican.
Tugwell, an academic economist, embraced the Utopian ideas of Stalinism. It was Stalin who Lenin warned should not follow him. Lenin wanted Communism, but each state retained its sovereignty, whereas Stalin was authoritarian and imposed central planning and carried out his Great Purge of 1937-1938, killing between 700,000 and 1.2 million, involving anyone he thought would oppose his central planning. Tugwell sought to impose Stalin’s central panning and crafted much of the legislation in those years that cartelized industry, controlled prices, and embarked on Soviet-style projects. Tugwell was a great admirer of Soviet “achievements” in agriculture and housing, believing the fake news published by the New York Times. Roosevelt even sought to stack the Supreme Court with Soviet admirers to overrule the U.S. Constitution to create this tremendous new Soviet Utopia in America.
All of these regulations did not save the United States – they actually made it far worse. LEFTIST historians have reached a consensus that regards the accomplishments of the New Deal as the major watershed event constituting a definitive dividing line in American social-economic history. These historians present the Roosevelt administration as marking the end of the passive state dominated by big business interests and the beginning of the interventionist state. This new interventionist state was designed to curb the concentrations of business power, claiming to be the protector of the rights and interests of the powerless and underprivileged. They have projected that they alone will secure the general welfare against the capitalists and their profit-seeking agenda. Against this revision of history, the opponents saw this New Deal as a conspiracy of leftist intellectuals with the help of labor union factions. Career politicians have always maintained the public image of Marxist Socialism while selling favors for money to lobbyists.
“Mrs. Clinton said she dreamed of “open trade and open borders” throughout the Western Hemisphere. Citing the back-room deal-making and arm-twisting used by Abraham Lincoln, she mused on the necessity of having “both a public and a private position” on politically contentious issues. Reflecting in 2014 on the rage against political and economic elites that swept the country after the 2008 financial crash, Mrs. Clinton acknowledged that her family’s rising wealth had made her “kind of far removed” from the struggles of the middle class.”
Consequently, the New Deal was the 20th-century evolution of the Marxist Interventionist State. Ironically, they would cut special favors for big business that allowed the Leftist Agenda to take hold. By introducing regulations to intervene in the economy, they corrupted the government by endorsing the rise of lobbyists. What actually took place was that where big businessmen had failed to achieve monopolies during the 19th century, they turned to the Federal Government for protections of various sorts. This even allowed companies by Pfizer to be protected from lawsuits for their failure to provide safe drugs.
The great achievement reached a climax with the passage of the NationiaI Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA) of June 1933. This was one of the measures by which Roosevelt sought to assist the nation’s economic recovery during the Great Depression. This was a unique experiment in economic history that sanctioned, supported, and also enforced an alliance of industries. The Sherman Antitrust laws were actually suspended. Roosevelt insisted that companies were required to write industry-wide “codes of fair competition” that effectively fixed prices and wages, created production quotas, and imposed restrictions on the entry of other companies into the alliances. This was seeking Soviet-style control over industry without seizing private ownership. Promises of self-regulation enticed companies and declared codes of fair competition. While it was marketed as protecting consumers, competitors, and employers, the country’s various industries were to write their own regulations. Employees were given the right to organize and bargain collectively in unions. They were not to be required to join or refrain from joining a labor organization as a condition of employment.
The National Recovery Administration (NRA) was created by the National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA) and was engaged chiefly in drawing up these industrial codes for all industries to adopt until March 1934. More than 500 codes of fair practice were adopted for various industries. Patriotic appeals were made to the public, and firms were asked to display the Blue Eagle, an emblem signifying NRA participation. However, in 1935, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously declared the NRA unconstitutional. They held that it infringed the separation of powers under the United States Constitution. The NRA stopped operations. However, Roosevelt was not deterred, and much of the labor provisions reappeared in the National Labor Relations Act, passed later the same year – 1935. This resulted in the one-sided LEFTIST power of unions, which were the core of the New Deal but led to serious corruption over the course of the next three decades.
Yes, I know, we’ll never get rid of the Myth that the New Deal saved us, but the reality is that the Great Depression lasted longer than it would have otherwise taken due to the FDR intervention. We can see that unemployment was still greater than 10% even in 1937 despite the rally in the stock market between 1932 into 1937. It was 1938 when Roosevelt passed the Fair Labor Standards Act establishing a minimum wage. It was also when Hitler marched into Austria, establishing a geographical union of Germany and Austria. Then there was the Munich Pact, where Britain, France, and Italy agreed to let Germany partition Czechoslovakia.
As we can see, the worst unemployment actually took place in 1936, some four years after FDR was elected. So much for his policies reversing the Great Depression. The real event was war, which is why FDR allowed Pearl Harbor to occur. The scandal was that we had broken the Japanese CODE, so the question was, why did we allow Pearl Harbor to take place? They concluded that there was no direct evidence that FDR knew.
Chapter 11 bankruptcies in the US rose by 68% during the first six months of 2023, according to Equip Bankruptcy. You may have survived the pandemic, but surviving Bidenomics is proving too much for many businesses. There were 1,766 filings during the first six months of 2022, compared to the 2,973 businesses that went under this year. Chapter 13 personal bankruptcy also rose by 23% during this period.
Around 12,107 commercial filings were recorded during the first half of this year, marking an 18% increase year-on-year. Small businesses experienced a 55% increase in Chapter 11 filings during the same time period. Commercial bankruptcies increased 12% year-on-year in June alone, and small businesses saw a 111% spike. “The growth in filings is reflective of more families and businesses facing surging debt loads due to rising interest rates, inflation, and increased borrowing costs,” said ABI Executive Director Amy Quackenboss.
Everyone is in trouble here. This is becoming a trend as inflation is here to stay. Credit card debt has reached historical highs as people struggle to pay the basics. Businesses were already decimated by COVID policies, and some never regained the momentum. People have lost all confidence in the future and are less likely to spend. Many businesses attempted to recover from lockdowns and the supply chain disaster, but the increased regulations make it difficult for many to profit. It will only become more expensive to borrow money as Powell all but guaranteed additional hikes this year, and now many have no other option than to liquidate it all.
Earlier GM cut 5,000 salaried workers and several hundred hourly jobs. Ford previously announced it would cut a total of 3,000 salaried and contract jobs, mostly in North America and India. Now, today, Chrysler parent company Stellantis announces 3,500 auto sector job cuts.
Stellantis owns the Jeep, Ram, Chrysler, Dodge and Fiat brands. Apparently, there is something in the U.S. economy that’s happening despite the great pretending….
Biden in Michigan, speaking to auto-workers, 2020
WASHINGTON, April 25 (Reuters) – Chrysler-parent Stellantis NV (STLAM.MI) wants to cut approximately 3,500 hourly U.S. jobs and is offering voluntary exit packages, according to a United Auto Workers union letter made public Tuesday.
The automaker is looking to reduce its hourly workforce offering incentive packages that include $50,000 payments for workers hired before 2007, UAW Local 1264 said in a letter dated Monday posted on its Facebook page.
Stellantis spokeswoman Jodi Tinson declined to comment. A person briefed on the matter said the figure might be lower than the figure cited in the UAW letter.
In late February, Stellantis indefinitely halted operations at an assembly plant in Illinois, citing rising costs of electric vehicle production.
The action impacted about 1,350 workers at the Belvidere, Illinois, plant that built the Jeep Cherokee SUV and resulted in indefinite layoffs. The automaker has warned it may not resume operations as it considers other options. (read more)
The Investment Recovery Act (IRA), aka “the green new deal” multitrillion spending bill, was supposed to enhance autoworkers. Funny how the exact opposite happens.
Incentive Package for Retirement: $50,000 for seniority members hired prior to the 2007 agreement.
Voluntary Termination of Employment Program: guaranteed lumpsum benefit payment and is applicable to employees with at least 1 year seniority.
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Overall govt spending and regulatory controls drove inflation for these past two years. The ‘demand side’ was blamed, despite the lack of demand. I will be proven right when history is concluded with this. Interest rates were raised by central banks in an effort to support the policies that are driving ‘supply side’ inflation, not demand side.
Energy policy was/is crushing the consumer by driving up the cost of all goods and services. To support the overall goal of changing global energy resource and development (a false and controlled global operation), central banks raised interest rates. Various western economies, including our own, have been pushed deeper into a state of contraction by central banks crushing consumer demand, and eliminating investment via increased borrowing costs.
In short, the goal was/is to lower energy consumption by shrinking the economic activity. This, according to the BBB plan, was needed at the same time as energy development was reduced.
These economic outcomes are not organic, they are all being controlled by collective western government agreement.
All we hear is the same claims that the dollar is dead and it will be totally worthless any day now. Over the last few weeks, all we hear from the majority now is that the dollar is finished. Virtually every page you turn or site you visit claims the death of the dollar. They are calling this the de-dollarization of the world economy and that the future of the US dollar as well as the American empire itself is now collapsing. The general claim is that the group of economically-aligned nations known collectively as BRICS is a major threat to the greenback. That was the same story we heard about the Euro back in 1997.
As their scenario goes, the BRICS [Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa] have moved to form an anti-dollar colation and Saudi Arabia is considering jumping on board. They insist that once that happens, the “petrodollar” will die and cease to be a reserve currency.
This is then followed by the forecast that the economy will suffer and that any bounce in exports will be short-lived simply because the dollar will be dead for the long term. Of course, this has been the favorite forecast that they keep putting out since Bretton Woods collapsed. They were wrong back then for the dollar rose between 1972 and 1976 against the British pound, with the collapse of Bretton Woods. To try to explain why the dollar did not collapse, that is when they claimed that the dollar was backed now by oil rather than gold. That was just an excuse as always to cover up their wrong forecast.
They sold that story to Newsweek and now the dollar rally was because of oil which replace gold. Suddenly the dollar became de facto backed by oil. They needed an explanation to explain why all the old theories were wrong. They sold this theory and it made the front cover of Newsweek. Everyone said YES! That must be the reason. OPEC priced oil in dollars! Naturally, everything was priced in dollars because, under the fixed exchange rate of Bretton Woods, everything from wheat and corn to copper and gold was all priced in dollars.
Now they are saying the American empire is threatened by the potential commercial real estate collapse and the BRICS anti-dollar venture. So they are forecasting a great depression-style crash is possible in the not-too-distant future. They spin this to forecast the end of the America Empire. The London FT, always anti-American/Pro WEF, reports that the dollar as a reserve currency has declined from 73% in 2001 to around 55% by 2021. Yet the FT did state an obvious fact:
“But if you are a reserve-rich central bank elsewhere that isn’t going to be a lot of comfort. Moreover, would you really feel more comfortable in, say, the renminbi? Even if it was fully convertible and liquid, would you honestly feel more sure that Beijing will behave lawfully than DC? The dollar still looks like the proverbial least dirty shirt in the closet.”
COVID actually has played a major role in shifting the world economy. In 2020, the US economy was 24.75% of the world’s GDP. By the start of 2022, it had fallen marginally to 24.15%. What these dollar-forecasting jockeys do not understand, is that if they were correct and the dollar collapsed, then the very BRICS would collapse even further. Economically speaking, when the United States gets a head cold, the rest of the world catches ammonia. You can’t have it both ways. The strength of the dollar is not gold or oil, it is the American consumer.
The risk to the entire world is runaway inflation thanks to Biden pouring untold amounts of money into the black hole known as Ukraine. The Neocons, who control Biden, are planning to launch a war against Russia and China before 2024. This will only continue to accelerate inflation. That reduces the spending power of the American consumer and in the process, the US economic growth declines in real terms and with it, the rest of the world plunges into recession.
While Macron has figured it out that the Neocons are in charge of US foreign policy and he is telling Europe to stop being the puppet of the USA, that all sounds nice but Europe is marching into war with Russia. NATO is firmly in control of the American Neocons and they need war or face losing power. With Trump in the lead, they must stop him at all costs for he is anti-war, would haul the Neocons out by the necks, and defund NATO, as well as stop the climate change agenda.
The US dollar in the global economy has been supported by the size and strength of the US consumer-based economy. Its stability and openness to trade and capital flows without restrictions and it has never been canceled, are the major foundation of the dollar in addition to strong property rights and the rule of law. That is why Russians and Chinese buy US property for they are secure in their ownership of US property which cannot always be guaranteed outside the US.
Consequently, the depth and liquidity of US financial markets remain unmatched. For institutions parking billions, the United States represents a large supply of extremely safe dollar-denominated assets. Are they really going to switch to China or buy debt from Brazil? Not a single institutional client will take that bait.
China has been divesting of dollar reserves because it KNOWS that the American Neocons want war. You do not fund your adversary who intends to wage war against you. China cannot shift reserve assets to Europe or Japan. They have been buying gold because it is geopolitically neutral territory. They are NOT buying gold as an investor thinking it will rally. That is irrelevant. If gold drops 25%, that does not translate into them becoming a seller.
The dollar in international reserves stood at 60+% at the start of 2022 against the US share of GDP at 24.25%. This comparison belittles the argument that the dollar is finished. Eventually, the US will lose the wars it is starting and the dollar will be replaced perhaps as soon as 2028. The IMF is already licking its lips and rubbing its hands together eager to get control of the reserve currency. But they too will collapse. We have a Directional Change next year and a Panic Cycle in 2025. So buckle up.!
Remember one thing, even with the debasement and collapse of the Roman Denarius between 260AD and 268AD, it still took 224 years for Rome to completely collapse. When war breaks out, capital flight will still be to the dollar. It will not be to public assets, but private. The United States is still supporting the entire world economy. The BRICS need the US consumer to keep their economies functioning. All this talk of the dollar being finished is really nonsense. That day will come, but when the US consumer no longer buys.
Remember 1997? The Euro was going to dethrone the dollar. They claimed the new EU will be a bigger economy than the US. The problem was, they lacked a consumer economy, and low taxes, and they routinely canceled their currency to force people to pay taxes. It is always the same story over and over again.
Posted originally on the CTH on April 14, 2023 | Sundance
Always keep in mind that retails sales from the Dept of Commerce [DATA HERE pdf] are always calculated in dollars. Inflation can artificially skewer retail sales if prices increase, and yet consumer purchases decline at a rate lower than the increase in price. Fewer units sold at higher prices can give the false impression of increased sales.
During an inflationary environment, when prices increase yet retail sales drop, there are substantially fewer units being purchased. Overall purchases at stores, restaurants and online declined a seasonally adjusted 1% in March from the prior month.
During the time measured gasoline was less expensive, so that led the drop in fuel sales; however, drops in dept stores (-2.5%), General Merchandise (-3.0%), electronics (-2.1%), and building supplies (-2.1%), shows another broad-based pullback of Main Street consumer spending. (pdf here)
These outcomes are in general alignment with what many people have shared via regional ground reports. Grocery store sales are flat despite major increases in grocery store prices (+10 to +20%). People are buying fewer grocery store units and making their food budget stretch as far as possible.
Durable goods are not considered essential, and sales of cars, electronics and department store products are much lower.
I am actually a little (pleasantly) surprised to see restaurant sales holding (+0.1%), despite the massive increase in fresh food costs. I thought people would eat out less, but the total decline in restaurant foot traffic seems to be in the single digits. I guess people can afford it more than I anticipated.
(Via Wall Street Journal) – […] The retail-sales report mainly captures spending on goods rather than most services such as travel, rent and utilities, offering only a partial picture of spending. The Commerce Department will release more complete figures later this month.
Spending on air travel was robust in March but outlays on other services like hotels declined, transaction data from Bank of America credit and debit cards showed. And the cost of shelter has increased faster than the overall rate of inflation, federal data show.
Some Americans have had to make adjustments to allow them to keep spending.
Recent data suggest many consumers are more cautious about purchases of goods they often have to borrow money to buy. In March, spending declined in big-ticket categories including vehicle sales, electronics, furniture, and at home-improvement and department stores.
“The current challenges in the used auto industry are well documented,” CarMax Inc. Chief Executive Bill Nash said on a call with analysts this week, “with affordability pressured by broad inflation, climbing interest rates, tightening lending standards and prolonged low consumer confidence.” (more)
QUESTION #1: Dear Martin Armstrong, Thank you for your unwavering support of humanity and truth. The question I have is about the growing number of countries seeking to divorce themselves from the USD in favor of the alternate BRICS system. Yet when I try to make sense of the current Secured Dollar Funding Complex involving Cash Lenders, Fixed Income and Repo Clearing Banks, Commercial Paper, CD’s, Syndicated and Interbank Loans, Wholesale, Retail and Corporate Deposits, Corporate & Sovereign Bonds, etc. How likely is the world to cleanly disconnect from this entangled web and over what anticipated time frame, rapidly or a long drawn out affair? Sincerely,
Roy
QUESTION #2: Marty, is all this sudden talk about dethroning the US dollar coming just when April was a major target for the Euro bounce?
HJ
COMMENT #3: You have always said when China starts selling dollars, it is time for war. It looks like they are right on schedule.
Pete
ANSWER: All of this talk of dethroning the dollar is right on time. Yes, April was the target and we should be very careful here for this April/May period is critical on a global basis. As for the BRICS displacing the dollar in the trade as so many are saying, this only PROVES they are just putting out biased claims being anti-dollar with pure sophistry. This reveals that they do not understand anything about the economy, trade, or international finance.
Yes, the Euro elected a Monthly Bullish Reversal (Buy Signal). However, it MUST exceed 11100 on a monthly closing basis to suggest the euro can advance further on a sustained basis. If the Euro exceeds intraday the February high, then a monthly closing below 108 would warn we may be looking at the war and the flight to the dollar would unfold. I would expect that capital controls would be introduced by the end of the year.
First of all, the very reason they created the Euro was to end FX risk and to create a single market. If the BRICS create a competitive currency, then they are introducing FX Risk and that will REDUCE trade with the United States. If the dollar declines, then they will suffer a loss of trade. What makes the US dollar the reserve currency is the fact that the US is the largest consumer-based economy that everyone wants to sell to. I find it laughable how these people pretend to understand finance but are ignorant in reality offering nothing but sophistry.
They can create whatever currency they desire, but they cannot force the FX risk on their buyers. I helped to reorganize the Japanese auto industry where they priced their cars in dollars to the States and took back the FX Risk to be managed. They beat the Germans who were pricing their cars in DMarks during the 70s and soon their sales were declining to the Japanese. I was then later called in by German companies to teach them about FX Risk. and market share. Creating some new reserve currency is pointless if they put the FX risk on their customers.
As far as China, I cannot believe how the bias has skewed the analysis. People are actually saying they are selling dollars because the dollar will be dethroned. China has been dependent on the US economy to make money. They would NEVER sell dollars to simply dethrone the reserve status of the dollar. They are selling dollars because YOU DO NOT FUND your enemy. We are headed into war. They know that. This is all geopolitical and those who just hate the dollar are going to get sucker punched because they are missing what is really going on here.
They have been buying gold NOT because they are bullish – but because they must sell US bonds for in times of war the US will just default on all bonds held by China. I think it is time to get your head out of the sand and open your eyes. This is not about dollars and gold. This is about preparing for World War III.
Posted originally on the CTH on April 11, 2023 | Sundance
A few days after the terror attack of 9-11-01, someone in media asked George W. Bush what Americans can do to help. Dubya’s response drew instant criticism, because he asked people to go shopping… but in the big picture, President Bush knew what could happen if the economic freeze continued.
When it comes to politics and economic outlooks, trust your instincts. The economics of the ‘thing’ is always the reason the ‘thing’ exists or does not exist.
When you are looking at economic news, always remind yourself… the people producing the news have a vested interest in maintaining a very specific outlook. The motive behind what Dubya said in September of 2001, pertains every bit as much today. Economic outcomes can topple entire governments.
Remember, this current ‘supply-side energy policy driven inflation‘, a purposeful effort to shrink the economy and yet tenuously maintain control, has never happened before. The people behind the Build Back Better agenda are, in reality, experimenting with a theory. DATA…
(ISM) – The Institute for Supply Management’s PMI contracted for the fifth straight month in March registering 46.3, the lowest level since May 2020. Any reading below 50.0 indicates contraction. The employment index declined by 2.2 percent to a level of 46.9.
Most of the impediments to manufacturing growth — such as shortages and lockdowns — have subsided, said Tim Fiore, chair of the ISM’s manufacturing survey committee, with the exception of pricing. ISM’s pricing index fell below 50 in March but at 49.2 remains higher than pre-pandemic levels.
“The beginning of the second half may not be the beginning of a recovery,” said Fiore. “Manufactures reduced headcounts because of uncertainty of demand and over-ordering has burned off. Demand isn’t coming back quickly enough to support current headcounts.”
All these trends were prevalent in March, he added, although the PMI has only lost 3 to 4 points since October 2022.
Back in December, ISM panelists anticipated an uptick in demand by the beginning of Q2. “We thought this recovery would be lumpy, but I think this indicates the recovery has been delayed,” Fiore said. “I think we are talking about expansion toward the end of Q3—it’s unlikely we’ll see a lot of activity in the summer.” (read more)
It’s not a recovery now, it will not be a recovery this year.
On a per unit basis, we have been in an economic contraction cycle since mid 2021. However, because economic outcomes are measured in dollars, the shrinking unit output, and the fewer units being sold at wholesale and retail level, is being hidden.
Inflation has hidden serious drops in unit purchases…. and fewer unit purchases mean lowered production output…. and lowered production output means less production is needed.
(CNBC SURVEY) – Inflation, economic instability and a lack of savings have an increasing number of Americans feeling financially stressed.
Some 70% of Americans admit to being stressed about their personal finances these days and a majority — 52% — of U.S. adults said their financial stress has increased since before the Covid-19 pandemic began in March 2020, according to a new CNBC Your Money Financial Confidence Survey conducted in partnership with Momentive.
Anxious and uncertain about whether they can get a better handle on their money, some may be intimidated by the prospect of creating a budget or unsure of where to stash their cash to get the highest returns. Others may be wondering how to begin saving for retirement when they’ve gotten off to a late start.
“People are worried that the money they’ve saved won’t last and are worried they’re going to have to lean more on their credit cards and other sources of debt just to get by,” said Bruce McClary, a senior vice president at the National Foundation for Credit Counseling. (read more)
If you want to know what’s going on in the larger U.S. economy, just look around you.
Don’t turn on the television and read the newspaper to see what is happening in the U.S. economy for your purchasing or life planning. Just look around you.
Look at restaurants and bars. Do you see continued high-volume business or not.
Look at the grocery stores. Do you see continued optimism, or not.
Look at the malls and shopping centers. Do you see foot traffic, or not.
Look at the real estate in your neighborhood – your local view. Do you see prices going up or going down.
That’s the reality of the economy as it impacts you….. and critically, that’s the reality of the economy nationwide.
When it comes to data and economics, do not let the media created ‘illusion of the thing‘ cloud your ability to see the reality of the thing.
Posted originally on the CTH on April 11, 2023 | Sundance
French President Emmanuel Macron was in the Netherlands today speaking to an audience in the Hague about his vision for the future of Europe. A remarkably disassociated speech was the outcome.
Speaking of the importance of innovation to maintain economic competitiveness, on his right-hand Macron cheers for capitalism as an outcome of competition from the only venue it exists, the nation state. Yet on his left hand, Macron proclaims the importance of ‘globalism’ and economic socialism, which is the anthesis of creating innovation.
Economic nationalism is the only way competition between nation states succeeds. Innovation is born from competition, and without the nation state there is no baseline to maintain capitalism. Globalism creates socialism, equity as the baseline for distribution of innovative outcomes. Capitalism and socialism cannot coexist if innovation and competition is the goal. The pillars which form the baseline for Macron’s view of a new Europe, collapse in his contradictory worldview. Prompted to 10:55, WATCH:
Macron’s solution to the problem of innovation lacking in ‘globalist‘ economic models, is to force citizens to produce and innovate. This is what he means by “reforms” in the competitive agenda. Forced innovation, is the worldview of totalitarians. Capitalism relies on freedom, not coercion.
I have created this site to help people have fun in the kitchen. I write about enjoying life both in and out of my kitchen. Life is short! Make the most of it and enjoy!
This is a library of News Events not reported by the Main Stream Media documenting & connecting the dots on How the Obama Marxist Liberal agenda is destroying America