Let the spin begin. The country has clearly entered recession, but the government bureaucrats, corrupt politicians, criminal Wall Street bankers, and their corporate media mouthpieces refuse to acknowledge the truth. They have too much wealth at stake to report the facts. They need to exit the markets before the muppets.
Consumer spending in December collapsed at the greatest rate in five years. Remember 2009? It wasn’t a great year for the economy.
That always happens when the economy is growing at 4%. Right? That always happens when the unemployment rate has plunged to 5.6%. Right? That always happens when the weather was downright balmy compared to the Polar Vortex December last year. Right? That always happens when consumer confidence is supposedly at 7 year highs. Right?
I thought the massive savings from the collapse in gasoline prices was supposed to translate into huge spending gains and boost the economy to new heights. That was the MSM storyline, and they are sticking to it.
Despite the absolutely dreadful data, the spin started immediately. They grasped onto the 0.3% increase in personal income as a straw of positivity. One problem. The increase wasn’t driven by people with jobs getting higher wages. And the increase was actually only 0.28%. The press release reveals the truth you won’t get from CNBC or any of the other corporate shill networks.
http://www.bea.gov/newsreleases/national/pi/2015/pdf/pi1214.pdf
Here are my observations, which you won’t hear elsewhere:
- Personal income rose by $41 billion in December. Sounds impressive. I guess all those jobs are finally generating wages for the masses. Not quite. Wages only went up $7 billion. They increased by a staggering .09%. Goods-producing wages actually declined by 0.2% in December, driven by a drop in Manufacturing sector wages. Thank you strong dollar.
- So if personal income grew so strongly, but wages were in the toilet, where did all the growth come from? You guessed it. The government doled out $13 billion of your taxes to the 102 million non-working Americans and called it personal income. Isn’t that precious. They got almost double what working stiffs got in December. Time to go on the dole.
- Another $13 billion was generated by something called Proprietors’ income with inventory valuation and capital consumption adjustments. WTF that means is anyone’s guess. It jumps around wildly from month to month and smells like another government model created figure used to mislead the sheep.
- Senior citizens around the country will be thrilled to know they earned $3 billion less in interest income than last month, with the amount hitting a new post 2008 low. Kibble and Bits never tasted so good. At least the titans of Wall Street got an extra $4 billion of dividends. I’m sure they are sleeping well at night.
- Not all spending collapsed in December. It seems spending on services rocketed up by $11 billion in one month. Obamacare is the gift that keeps on giving. I’m sure the $7 billion increase in wages that was used to pay for Obamacare premiums and copays are doing wonders for the economy.
- The $50 billion collapse in spending on goods, led by autos, surely doesn’t portend recession. It surely doesn’t mean the debt fueled fake recovery is falling apart as the Federal Reserve QE heroine injections have been withdrawn.
Obama said the shadow of crisis had passed. He’s always truthful and accurate in his assessment. Right?
Shit is hitting the fan all over the world. I hope you are ready to withstand the shitstorm of the century.
The answer is to raise taxes, apparently. Sure, why not, lets get this shit over with.
We should just do as Nancy Pelosi once suggested. All of our income goes straight to the Government and then the Government will give us what the Government deems necessary. What a Brilliant Idea!!
Obama wants to simplify the tax code.
1. How much did you make last year__________________
2. How much did it cost you to live____________________
Send in the difference between 1 and 2.
2015-02-02 08:23 by Karl Denninger
But The Holiday Season Was Good!
Nice lie, jackasses.
Personal income increased $41.3 billion, or 0.3 percent, and disposable personal income (DPI) increased $35.8 billion, or 0.3 percent, in December, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Personal consumption expenditures (PCE) decreased $40.0 billion, or 0.3 percent.
So spending went down.
Oh, and the increase in private wages was down by close to 90% over the previous month too. This was also reflected in payroll tax deductions, so that number looks real — not an anomaly of statistics.
This smells like debt service pressure to me, and if it is….. hoh hoh hoh…..
Thanks admin. You know every time I see that shitstormabrewin pegleg dude, I chuckle to myself. I get a real kick out of it for some reason.
Every time i read about a possible recession. WTF ?,we have been in a recession for years.
Debt and printing is what is keeping things going. I once read that we have actually been in a depression,but gimmicks have just softened the effects. Maybe i read that here.
Life is getting harder for most,When people cant afford a place to live,and food and utility’s.
Its a death by a thousand cuts right now.
The corporate MSM faux journalist shill was instructed by his corporate bosses to write an article that the collapse in consumer spending is no big deal.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/dont-freak-out-about-a-drop-in-consumer-spending-yet-2015-02-02?link=MW_home_latest_news
Lies and massaged statistics from the PTB and their robo-journalists in the MSM won’t matter one little bit when the sheep are hit square in the face by the economy hitting the skids at the local and individual level. But that is what it will take to make them look up from their designer pens and, hopefully, ask for answers. It’s doubtful this will happen, but one can dream, right?
IMHO the recession started in 4th Q 2007 and became a depression in 3rd Q 2008. It deepened even further in 4th Q 2014.
The solution is obviously giving massively more free money to the banks.
You put a sh*thead Marxist in a proper capitalist country and this is what usually happens.
@Nelly, you including Bushie in that?
HE signed Nafta, which with Canada is AWESOME, but with Mexico has cost us thousands of jobs and the scent of chocolate over Hershey, PA.
He also signed treaties to swap soldiers if the Pres needs ‘murkins killed in mass. The Federales from Mexico won’t have any qualms about that everywhere except the border towns.
He also signed the 2005 Bankruptcy Reform Act, that doomed us serfs into paying forever for our mistakes, while gifting the banks the ability to start the crash that tried to take us out.
If I sat and did 20 minutes of research, I could come up with many more instances that the bastard behaved in the EXACT same way our present Emperor does.
We’ve had commies in office for decades. Started long, long, before Obama, he is just the most blatant about it.
What kind of free country destroys a citizen’s life before they reach the age of majority while turning a less than $50 “crime” – or business deal – between two citizens into a $40,000 jail visit with another $100k or more thrown in for the judges, probation officers and bailiffs, not to mention Staples, IBM and Starbucks?
You don’t think taking my $10,000 car, or cash, because I have $2 worth of pot is communistic? I sure as hell do.
And it wasn’t Obama, nor a Democrat president (but CONgress was, how quickly we forget), that did that.
Same damn coin, flavors barely different, yet more than 70% of us will chose sides and yell the other side down.
We lost our Republic long, long, ago. Long before Mr. O was even a speck in his Kenyan, Muslim, daddy’s eye.
Stay focused, it is “Us” vs “Them,” but the “Us” ain’t just the Repukes and the “Them” IS the entire corrupted, putrid, government. From my local city hall all the way to DC. Both sides have destroyed us, give credit where credit is due.
Peace to you.
TE,
I gave you a thumbs up, but you must go all the way… all the way back not just to the beginning of The Republic. The Republic, is only a symptom of; The Problem.
Our Founders understood that power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely, but, our modern corollary should be seen in the light of over 5000 years of history. Centralized power corrupts whole nations.
When we put down the Articles of Confederation, we bowed down to the international bankers. Who tried from the very beginning to get the Bank of England’s hooks into us. This is no different from Babylon, Rome, name your centralized poison, they are all Three Part Twilight zones. First Money, then Government that supports the money with Laws and Guns, then religions who’s priests and preachers admonish the people to ‘submit to Godly authority’. This was the invention of Babylon. The fixed contract of debt, destroys all things in its path. It is the Phoenix that rises from its own ashes…
How do we fix it? The statue of Nebuchadnezzar was a perfect analogy of all the empires of the world, including, the US of A. It can be stated simply as The Rule of Gold; He who has the gold, makes the rules. This is the power of ‘ownership’. The Head of Gold, the arms of the true believers, the legs of ideologies, left and right, standing on the toes of the Lost Ten Tribes of Israel, the Caucasian race. We are the ones who run the Earth… in direct fulfillment of prophecy.
How do we fix it? First, recognize that capitalism and communism are both ideologies of the rich, and both end up the same; a few guys owning everything and pronouncing themselves BOSS.
To fix it, we must do away with the concept of Kings, Governments, rich men, and ownership of land. Like the indians, we readopt the Articles of Confederation. Money becomes a thing of the mind, instead of the thing of the hand. It is the only way we will come to a place of pounding our swords into plowshares and not learn war, anymore. This is known as; The Constitution of the Confederation of the Kingdom of God. A castle doctrine of stewards, guilds, apprentices, councils of elders in hierarchical levels of private law, not bureaucracies. You, are your government, your bank, your ‘temple’.
It will happen, just, not anytime real soon.(Won’t be a lot of people left to argue.)
Things have never been so good for politicians and bankers and the judges are doing well with all them houses getting reprosessed plus the police are getting more overtime due to shoplifting of basic food items.
Come on people things have never been so good 🙂
Government, bankers and MSM have a solution to ALL problems: Lie!
Red meat for the Administrator.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/nyse-to-delist-radioshack-shares/
Already abandoned by customers, ailing RadioShack (RSH) is now losing a place for investors to buy its battered stock.
The New York Stock Exchange told CBS News on Monday that it has suspended trading in the electronics retailer’s common shares and started proceedings to delist the company, which has more than 4,000 stores across the U.S.