This little propaganda press release from the government/mainstream media mouthpieces is a beauty. Based on the headline, the mindless masses see that consumers are spending at a healthy pace. All must be well. The first sentence declares this was the highest rate of spending since November. Of course that is unequivocally false, since last month the propaganda peddlers reported a 0.4% increase in spending. But wait, they only over-reported last month’s increase by 100%. Their bad. The increase was really only a pitiful 0.2%, and not a strong 0.4%. Guess what will happen next month? The 0.3% reported increase will be adjusted back to 0.1% and the media will report the strongest growth since November again. Do you get it?
Did you notice why consumer spending surged in January? Your heating bill and health insurance premiums surged. Yes. Paying more due to Obamacare and the record cold caused by global warming is considered a positive economic development by your government keepers. We also know for a fact that real wages are stagnant or declining, so any increase in spending is happening using debt. That is wonderful for the debt peddlers on Wall Street and in the government (student loans, Ally Financial), but not so good for the average person.
The last couple sentences of this fabulous economic release is that inflation has only grown by 0.9% in the last year. That’s precious. Have your expenses only grown by 0.9% in the last year? I didn’t think so. Hurry up and turn on CNBC to watch Liesman and Cramer be exhilarated by this fabulous consumer data.
Consumer spending rises 0.3% in February
When I go to the charts and peruse the data, I find these interesting factoids:
- Real disposable personal income per person in the U.S. is currently $37,010. That is using the bastardized under-reported inflation figures from the BLS. Even using that joke of an adjustment, real disposable personal income per person is 1.5% below what it was in May of 2008.
- Bernanke’s ZIRP is the gift that keeps giving to senior citizens as interest income is $158 BILLION lower now than it was in May 2007. All the grandmas out there eating cat food know who to thank.
- When the crisis hit in 2008/2009 people began to come to their senses and the savings rate spiked to 6% – 8%. Now the masses are either broke or delusional, as the savings rate is near record lows at 4.3%.
- Personal income has risen by $430 billion in the last year and $85 billion (20% of total) of that is government transfers (SS, Medicare, SNAP, Vet benefits, Medicaid, unemployment). Only in Orwellian America is the redistribution from producers to non-producers considered income.
- Less than 50% of the increase ($211 billion) is from private industry wages. Who needs jobs when the government is distributing the cash?
- Laughably, the government drones say that you spent less on gasoline, natural gas and electricity this February versus last February. Anyone who gets a heating bill every month knows that is not true.
It gets tiring poking holes in the propaganda spewed at us every day, but I’ll keep trying.
Thanks for debunking more lies. Does anybody believe anything the government reports? CNBC is the paid mouthpiece of the establishment, and their ratings are at all time lows. Turns out, people don’t like being lied to. The government has no credibility, in any area anymore. The analysis and presentation of facts means nothing. The stock market is a joke, there’s no rhyme or reason anymore, just carry trade and HFT manipulation. The criminal in chief is a POS mulatto amoral bald-faced pathological liar, as are the criminals in Congress. The attorney general is an amoral lying sack of monkey shit. Almost every state government are corrupt, lying socialist thieves stealing from it’s citizens. And local governments are the worst of all, as they own your property and can take it away if you don’t pay your property taxes at gunpoint. This country is finished, when there are more parasites than producers, the organism dies. We’re a banana republic, bankrupt, with $58 trillion in public/private debt, and $200 trillion in unfunded promises. A collapse is about as sure a thing as there is these days.
“It gets tiring poking holes in the propaganda spewed at us every day, but I’ll keep trying.”
—— Admin
I’m sure it does. But, these smack-downs are HUGELY enjoyable … amongst my favorite reads.
Jimbo, you are America’s Bullshit Detector!!!!
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When the collapse finally happens then you can have your revenge AWD.That old degenerate from long ago said….When killing monsters be careful you don’t become one yourself….or something to that effect .Be careful AWD.
Walmart Just Revealed How Poor U.S. Shoppers Are
http://www.forbes.com/sites/lauraheller/2014/03/28/walmart-just-revealed-how-poor-u-s-shoppers-are/
Walmart is no stranger to sensational headlines, but there’s at least one story this week that is just begging to be taken apart. Anyone who thinks “Walmart Just Revealed How Poor Its Customers Are” is an accurate reflection of the facts needs to keep reading.
Because the problem isn’t that Walmart revealed how poor its customers really are, it’s that Walmart revealed how poor U.S. shoppers really are.
The hook here, the news peg, is that Walmart released its annual report and in it, there’s a paragraph that states:
“Our business operations are subject to numerous risks, factors and uncertainties, domestically and internationally, which are outside our control … These factors include … changes in the amount of payments made under the Supplement[al] Nutrition Assistance Plan and other public assistance plans, changes in the eligibility requirements of public assistance plans, …
The implication is that Walmart preys on the poor, that the retailer has somehow created poor people by paying low wages. That it relies on government assistance in a way that goes beyond accepting payment from shoppers via government programs. According to Business Insider:
“Walmart, for the first time in its annual reports, acknowledges that taxpayer-funded social assistance programs are a significant factor in its revenue and profits. This makes sense, considering that Walmart caters to low-income consumers. But what’s news here is that the company now considers the level of social entitlements given to low-income working and unemployed Americans important enough to underscore it in its cautionary statement.
Not quite.
It’s not the first time Walmart noted that a reduction in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) would hurt business. It may have been the first time that was mentioned in an annual report, but that’s because the reduction took effect during the fiscal year in question.
In November, benefits for a family of four were reduced by $36 a month. Benefits had been increased as part of the Recovery Act in 2009, but Congress allowed the increase to expire on Nov. 1.
An estimated 48 million Americans benefit from SNAP while roughly 80% of U.S. consumers shop at Walmart at some point during the year.
Not all of them use SNAP, but the majority have some kind of budgetary constraint and it’s a number that keeps growing. Ten years ago, roughly 50% of Walmart shoppers cited low prices as the most important reason to shop at Walmart; today that number is 75%, said Andy Murray, Walmart senior vice president, creative, speaking at the Shopper Marketing Summit this week.
Walmart shoppers are particularly sensitive to fluctuations in the price of gas, to small tax increases or to anything that adds another $20 burden to a household in any given week. Budgets are tight and getting tighter all the time, in spite of a slowly recovering economy.
Walmart is hardly the only retailer to be affected by a reduction in SNAP benefits, or to say so in financial documents. The dollar store segment is also vulnerable. Roughly $4 billion in SNAP benefits were vaporized, money that was once spent at U.S. stores, not just at Walmart. This was bad news for shoppers and retailers, across multiple channels.
As one grocery executive said in an online retail forum regarding the issue, “This cut hurts all of our sales, not just Walmart, let me make that clear. The struggle is universal for retailers, and sales are down around 8-10% since the first of the year.”
I’m not a fan of criticizing other reporters or publications, but these headlines are designed to get clicks, to be shared, to fan the flames of outrage. In this case, it’s a false and very misplaced outrage.
Walmart didn’t just reveal how poor its customers really are, it revealed just how poor so many U.S. shoppers are.
See – no inflation.
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I haven’t heard the MSM parrots mouthing off on this topic:
We’re in a private debt crisis that could lead to the next economic collapse: Richard Vague
The U.S. is in the midst of a private debt crisis.
As of March 2014, American consumers owe $11.52 trillion in debt, an increase of 1.6% from last year. The average household owes $7,115 on their credit cards and the average indebted household owes $15,252. Americans owe $8.05 trillion in mortgages (the average mortgage debt being $152,209) and $1.08 trillion in student loan debt. When combined with corporate debts the U.S. collectively owes about $28 trillion in private debt.
“Every major crisis of our lifetime has been caused by a rapid increase of our private debt,” says Richard Vague, chair of the Governor’s Woods Foundation. “They all were a function of runaway private lending.”
People focus too much on government debt, argues Vague, when they should be attempting to quell private debt.
“There’s reputed to be 10 million mortgages that are still underwater,” he says. “There’s perhaps a half or ¾ of a trillion in second-lean loans that are still a problem and haven’t been dealt with. Those to us are logical candidates for restructuring programs.”
Never believe the govt, even when it’s telling the truth.