Ruby Tuesday – The Burning Platform

HEROES & WHORES

With the new Netflix documentary about the Madoff fraud out, I thought reposting my take on the Wall Street scumbags who perpetuated this fraud and the corrupt losers at the SEC who turned a blind eye, would be worthwhile. Written 5 years ago.

“Certainly one of the most important things I learned is that numbers can be deceiving. There is a logic to mathematics, but there is also the underlying human element that must be considered. Numbers can’t lie, but the people who create those numbers can and do. As so many people have learned, forgetting to include human nature in an equation can be devastating.” ― Harry Markopolos, No One Would Listen

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The quote I used from Harry Markopolos’ No One Would Listen book about the Bernie Madoff ponzi scheme in my last article triggered a bittersweet recollection. For me, the experience captured the true nature of our warped financial markets, a culture glorifying wealthy arrogant criminal assholes, while ignoring or ridiculing honest, hard working, highly intelligent truth tellers.

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WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?

“The older I grow, the more I distrust the familiar doctrine that age brings wisdom.” – H.L. Mencken

“The older I get the less I listen to what people say and the more I look at what they do.”– Andrew Carnegie

I’m 53 years old. The older I get the less sure I am about things I was sure about when I was 25 years old. I believed stocks for the long run was an unquestioned truth. I believed our economy was based on free market capitalism. I believed stock prices were based upon profits and cash flows. I believed a home was a place to live – not an investment. I believed the Catholic Church was run by good men doing good things. I believed journalists and the media were watchdogs working on behalf of the public. I believed our military was protecting our interests. I believed politicians legislated on behalf of the people. I believed the main purpose of bankers was to loan money to businesses and consumers in order to support economic growth. Boy, was I dumbass.

My skeptical nature, reliance on data I’ve personally vetted, and judging our leaders based on what they have done versus what they say, has allowed me to escape the Matrix. I wasn’t truly awakened until I watched Bush, Cheney, Powell, the rest of the neo-con prevaricators and fake news mainstream media utilize propaganda to railroad Americans into a $6 trillion unnecessary war, resulting in 36,000 American casualties, the destruction of a country and the creation of thousands of new Muslim terrorists.

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THE GREAT RETAIL RECOVERY

Retailers and restaurants always close stores by the thousands when the economy is growing, unemployment is plunging, and incomes are rising. Right?

Use your brains people. Stop believing the storylines. Open your eyes and see what is happening. Count the number of Space Available signs on your next road trip through suburban hell.

Does the story peddled by the government and legacy media match the reality you see with your own eyes?

This list of store closings is just the tip of the iceberg. There are tens of thousands to go over the next five years.

Guest Post by Tony Sanders

Jobs Recovery? 17 Retailers Shutting Down Stores (And Not All From Internet Competition)

This is the worst employment recovery in American history from a credit bubble. And the news just keeps getting worse and worse, particularly for service workers at retail shops. You can’t blame Amazon.com for stealing sales from Red Lobster, Ruby Tuesday’s, Sbarro’s or Quizno’s, however.

Here are 17 companies that have closed stores or will close stores soon:

* Office supply company Staples has announced plans to close 225 stores by 2015, which is about 15 percent of its chain. Staples already closed 40 stores last year.

* Office Depot, Staples’ main competitor, which bought OfficeMax last year, is expected to announce its own round of store closings soon.

* Radio Shack has announced plans to close 20 percent of its stores this year, which is as many as 1,100 stores. The company, which operates around 4,000 stores, reported that its sales fell by 19 percent last year.

* Albertsons closed 26 stores in January and February according to Supermarket News. Analysts expect many more Albertsons could soon be shuttered because Albertsons owner hedge fund Cerberus Capital Management just bought Safeway Inc. Some Safeway stores could soon shut down as well.

* Abercrombie & Fitch, the clothing retailer, is planning to close 220 stores by the end of 2015. The company is also planning to shut down an entire chain it owns, Gilly Hicks, which has 20 stores, 24/7 Wall Street reported.

* Barnes & Nobles is planning to shut down one third of its stores in the next year: about 218 stores. The chain has already closed its iconic flagship store in New York City.

* J.C. Penney is closing about 33 stores and laying off about 2,000 employees.

* Toys R Us has plans to close 100 stores according to The Record newspaper in New Jersey.

* The Sweetbay Supermarket chain will close all 17 of the stores it operates in the Tampa Bay area, The Herald Tribune newspaper reported. Many of the stores might open as Winn-Dixie Stores. Sweetbay closed 33 stores in Florida last year.

* Loehmann’s chain of discount clothing stores in the New York City area has entirely shut down. Loehmann’s once operated 39 stores, The New York Times reported, and was considered an institution by generations of New Yorkers.

* Sears Holdings, which owns both Sears and Kmart, to close another 500 stores this year, according to industry analyst John Kernan to CNN. Sears has already shut down its flagship store in Chicago.

* Quiznos has filed for bankruptcy, USA Today reported, and could close many of its 2,100 stores.

* Sbarro which operates pizza and Italian restaurants in malls, is planning to close 155 locations in the United States and Canada. That means nearly 20 percent of Sbarro’s will close. The chain operates around 800 outlets.

* Ruby Tuesday announced plans to close 30 restaurants in January after its sales fell by 7.8 percent. The chain currently operates around 775 steakhouses across the US.

* Red Lobster will sell an unknown number of stores. The chain is in such bad shape that the parent company, Darden Restaurants Inc., had to issue a press release stating that the chain would not close. Instead Darden is planning to spin Red Lobster off into another company and sell some of its stores.

* Ralph’s, a subsidiary of Kroger, has announced plans to close 15 supermarkets in Southern California within 60 days.

* Safeway closed 72 Dominick’s grocery stores in the Chicago area last year.

The culprit? Among other factors, personal consumption growth YoY has declined from 9.04% in March 2000 to 3.45% in January 2014. And real median household income has plunged as well.

And if I want fresh half-and-half for my White Russians (aka, Caucasians), I go to my neighborhood Ralph’s like Jeffrey Lebowski (not Amazon.com). I hope they didn’t close Lebowski’s neighborhood Ralph’s!!