DREADFULLY PLEASANT WEATHER IN APRIL KEEPS CONSUMERS FROM SPENDING

I’m guessing you’ve heard a spokesmodel “journalist” or Wall Street Ivy League economist hack, on the corporate mainstream media, bloviate about the dreadful weather keeping consumers from spending over the last six months. They assured the technology sedated masses that they would resume their debt financed orgy of consumerism as soon as the warm winds of Spring arrived.

Well, Spring arrived right on time in April. Temperatures rose, the sun came out, and consumers spent even less. Oops!!!!

Frantic calls are being made to Madison Avenue public relations maggots for a new spin on data proving we are in recession. Maybe it was too sunny and warm in April. Consumers just wanted to sunbath in their backyards because 92 million of them aren’t in the labor force anymore.

It seems we just experienced the largest drop in consumer spending since September 2009, when all of the highly educated, highly paid, mouthpieces for the establishment insisted we would see a consumer spending revival as soon as the snow melted.

Propaganda, storylines, lies, misinformation and cheer leading constitute our entire society at this point in our long decline. We all know for a fact we are paying far more for energy, food, and Obamacare boosted insurance premiums. The collapse in Retailer sales and profits proves we have nothing left to spend on anything else. Weather has nothing to do with anything.

http://www.bea.gov/iTable/iTable.cfm?ReqID=9&step=1#reqid=9&step=3&isuri=1&903=76

Looking at the data on the BEA website reveals these tidbits:

  • The government actually wants you to believe that taking funds from your paycheck for social security, medicare, medicaid and obamacare and then handing them to other people constitutes INCOME. These government transfers went up by $129 billion in April versus last April.
  • Meanwhile, the 120 million or so Americans still working for companies only increased their income by $247 billion.
  • Government drones are now “earning” 16.4% of all the wages paid in this country. Despite a storyline of government austerity, wages of government drones continue to rise.
  • Turning off the spigot of extended unemployment is clearly seen in the data as unemployment payments have crashed by $31 billion over last April, a 55% reduction. It seems cutting off people from 2 years of unemployment and reducing their food stamps has put a little crimp in our fake economic recovery.
  • The most damning statistic in the data is Real Disposable Income Per Capita. This is how much you have left to spend after taxes, adjusted for inflation (using understated BLS number). This figure stands at $37,174 today. This figure was $37,584 in May 2008, just prior to the Federal Reserve created financial meltdown. So here we are six years later and the average person has 1% less real disposable income.

We have less real disposable income, fewer jobs, higher energy, food, and health insurance costs and the stock market continues to hit all-time highs as the oligarchs use their HFT supercomputers to fleece the muppets, rig the system and reap Federal Reserve created riches for themselves. The sheeple hate Congress and then vote 99% of incumbents back into office.

If you want to understand why we are in an inescapable downward financial spiral look no further than what percentage of personal income constitutes government entitlement transfers from the productive to the non-productive:

1988 – 11.3% of personal income was made up of government transfers

2000 – 12.0%

2008 – 14.2%

2014 – 17.0%

Does this trend seem to be sustainable, or have we crossed the point of no return?

And so it goes.

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25 Comments
bluestem
bluestem
May 30, 2014 10:07 am

The edge of the cliff keeps getting closer. John

Rise Up
Rise Up
May 30, 2014 10:18 am

Looks like collapse is rounding 2nd base and heading to 3rd.

AWD
AWD
May 30, 2014 10:32 am

USA to count congress prostitution and Wash Illegal Drugs sales to GDP:

and Lobbying aka rent-a-vote aka lease an “Honorable Senator-Crook Programs”.

Contribution to GDP. $ 100 Billion a year including lawyers, lobbyists, government workers, mailmen, hookers, prostitutes, staffers, fluffers, and ass lickers.

Realtors not included, put as worthless fluffer class and on extended Disability SS.

overthecliff
overthecliff
May 30, 2014 10:34 am

Admin, reference your last sentence. It is not sustainable and we have passed the point of no return. FSA outnumbers productive people and it is the votes that count. Just a matter of time until SHTF.

Above all else be armed. If you are involved in a phony trial, remember JURY NULLIFICATION.

AWD
AWD
May 30, 2014 10:38 am

UMich Confidence Misses; Current Conditions Lowest In 6 Months

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 05/30/2014 – 10:01

May’s preliminary UMich confidence print of 81.8 was the biggest miss to expectations in 8 years. In the two weeks since then, the ‘economists’ have ratcheted back their exuberance to an expectation of 82.5… and still it missed at 81.9. So two weeks of exuberant equity markets have done nothing to soothe the consumer. The Current conditions sub-index tumbled to its lowest since Nov 2013 (and the outlook dropped also). Stock pushers are going to need higher highs if the dream of multiple expansion is to live on….So just as reminder, against the initial expectations, May’s consumer confidence missed by the most in 8 years.

Thinker
Thinker
May 30, 2014 11:21 am

It doesn’t bode well for any of the developed countries:

(PJ – softball alert!)

GALLUP – Families Struggling to Afford Food in OECD Countries
More than one in five individuals with children had trouble in 2013
http://www.gallup.com/poll/170795/families-struggling-afford-food-oecd-countries.aspx

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Bostonbob
Bostonbob
May 30, 2014 11:32 am

I did my contribution, I bought a new toilet seat.
Bob.

AWD
AWD
May 30, 2014 11:38 am

Indebted with student loans, an entire generation is out of the game. Household formation is lowest it’s been in since the 80’s. Say goodbye to buying homes, consuming, starting a family. They’ll be lucky to make their student loan payments.

[imgcomment image[/img]

AWD
AWD
May 30, 2014 11:39 am

If the government would only legalize prostitution, and add it to GDP, I’d do more to support the economy. But they won’t (yet), so I won’t.

AWD
AWD
May 30, 2014 11:44 am

Forget white privledge, ObamaNomics has wiped out white males….

[imgcomment image[/img]

1 in 6 American Men Between Ages 25-54 Are Not Working

“There are currently 61.1 million American men in their prime working years, age 25–54. A staggering 1 in 8 such men are not in the labor force at all, meaning they are neither working nor looking for work. This is an all-time high dating back to when records were first kept in 1955. An additional 2.9 million men are in the labor force but not employed (i.e., they would work if they could find a job). A total of 10.2 million individuals in this cohort, therefore, are not holding jobs in the U.S. economy today. There are also nearly 3 million more men in this age group not working today than there were before the recession began,” the Republicans on the Senate Budget Committee claim.

[imgcomment image[/img]

Thinker
Thinker
May 30, 2014 11:48 am

AWD, to add to your post above, Millennials are not only not buying homes and cars, they’re pretty much not interested in buying “stuff” at all:

http://www.brookings.edu/research/papers/2014/05/millenials-upend-wall-street-corporate-america-winograd-hais

They have little interest in making money because they have no need to spend it.

AWD
AWD
May 30, 2014 11:52 am

“Don’t have kids!!!!”

It should be: “Can’t have kids”

Of course millennials are going to say they aren’t interested in buying crap, because they can’t buy crap. It’s hard to be interested in buying a home, or anything else, when you can’t buy a home, or anything else.

AWD
AWD
May 30, 2014 11:57 am

Welfare is the solution to all our problems.

It wipes out unemployment, since they don’t have to work.
It wipes out housing problems, since they get free housing
It wipes out healthcare problems, since they get free healthcare
It wipes out consumption problems, since they get free cash to spend as they please
It wipes out “household formation” problems, they get more money the more kids they have
It pays more than 90% of jobs for college graduate, and so solves the student loan problem
It’s pure stimulus, supporting and expanding our economy, Keynesian utopia

No wonder welfare is the choice of 100 million people!

Bostonbob
Bostonbob
May 30, 2014 12:11 pm

Admin,
Youngest is graduating high school this Sunday. Kind of sad to see it end, I don’t know if it is because there is 4 years of college to pay for, or if means that I am now officially an old fart. Kids are starting families much later now, it will be interesting to see how this changes the generational dynamic.My dad had four kids before I had one. Now a nearly a generation later young adults are having kids later than any time previously recorded. The only good thing is teen birthrate has dropped dramatically. Ironically Medicaid covers nearly half the costs of all hospital stays for newborns, so we know who is having a disproportionate amount of the children, creating a generational/racial/ethnic seismic shift.
Bob.

Don Levit
Don Levit
May 30, 2014 12:18 pm

What you call welfare sounds like MMT
Just print money and distribute
The moral hazard of devaluation cannot coexist with a country that
Prints it’s currency and is used as currency worldwide
Don Levit

Kill Bill
Kill Bill
May 30, 2014 12:28 pm

If the government would only legalize prostitution,… -AWD

But they have – all you have to do is get elected to congress.

Kill Bill
Kill Bill
May 30, 2014 12:43 pm

Dont have kids!! -admin

Because they will grow up to be a iphone Zombeh!

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Kill Bill
Kill Bill
May 30, 2014 12:51 pm

Talked with my seester oder day, she knew this couple that moved from New York to Dallas [lot of that happening lately [and Californicate]] said rent for a two bedroom apt was like 2500 a month. Said they couldnt afford to raise have a child.

Please, stay where you are if you’re considering moving to Texas!!
~~~
Also, the local Tom Thumb shelves, and refig units, were not very stocked, lots of sales on stuff like frozen pizza [yuk] 2 for 5 and such, seemed like they were trying to clear out old/over stocked stuff. The Sweet and Low sweetner I bought, the stuff was all stuck together in the little pink packs [gotta return that]

Kill Bill
Kill Bill
May 30, 2014 12:56 pm

I have a feeling the producers tell the bobble-haidz that they cant say recession until they see three consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth…of course their attention span is about 30 days.

bb
bb
May 30, 2014 1:45 pm

Wonder how things would be if the 55+million babies that have been murder were here .A whole generation wiped out .Would we still be in this economic mess ?Would it be better or worse ?55 million is planned parenthoods number.

Rise Up
Rise Up
May 30, 2014 3:04 pm

Meanwhile, your government wants more intrusive data on YOU! This is fucked up and retarded beyond belief. Or is this normal now? “1984” indeed…

New federal database will track Americans’ credit ratings, other financial information

“As many as 227 million Americans may be compelled to disclose intimate details of their families and financial lives — including their Social Security numbers — in a new national database being assembled by two federal agencies.

“The Federal Housing Finance Agency and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau posted an April 16 Federal Register notice of an expansion of their joint National Mortgage Database Program to include personally identifiable information that reveals actual users, a reversal of previously stated policy.

“The database will also encompass a mortgage holder’s entire credit history, including delinquent payments, late payments, minimum payments, high account balances and credit scores, according to the notice.

“The two agencies will also assemble “household demographic data,” including racial and ethnic data, gender, marital status, religion, education, employment history, military status, household composition, the number of wage earners and a family’s total wealth and assets.

“Only 12 public comments were submitted during the 30-day comment period following the notice’s April 16 publication.”

http://washingtonexaminer.com/new-federal-database-will-track-americans-credit-ratings-other-financial-information/article/2549064

This is fucked up and retarded beyond belief.

Llpoh
Llpoh
May 30, 2014 10:25 pm

AWD – 61 million working age men, ten million not working. Of the 61 million, around 8 million are black. Thus, of the ten million not working, around 6 million would be black (a lot of them in jail, of course, so that makes it hard to hold a job). So, when you look at it like that, things are not so bad for everyone else!

Always glad to crunch the numbers for you.