Get Ready For An Economic Wake-Up Call This Holiday Season

Authored by Brandon Smith via Alt-Market.com,

If we are to measure the concept of “economic recovery” in real terms, then we would have to look at the fundamentals (not stock markets) and whether or not they’re improving. Unfortunately, not all economic data is presented to the public honestly. Very often it is mired and obscured in a fog of disinformation and false standards.

I would point out, though, that there is relatively accurate information out there in certain areas of the global economy, and it tells us our economic structure is destabilizing. Beyond that, even the rigged numbers are moving into negative territory. But what does all this mean for the holiday retail season, one of the mainstream’s favorite gauges of US financial health? And, if 2019’s holiday profits sink, what does this tell us is going to happen in 2020?

First, let’s start with what we know…

Since we live in a “globalized” economy where everything is supposedly “interdependent”, it helps to examine international export numbers. The US doesn’t manufacture and export much of anything anymore beyond agricultural products, but global markets do expect us to consume the goods of other nations. A decline in exports indicates a failing global economy, but in particular a failing US consumer economy.

The obvious example would be China, which has seen plunging export data at least the past three months, though many will argue that this is merely due to tariffs and the trade war. However, it’s not just China that is showing signs of collapse.

South Korea, another major manufacturing and export hub in Asia (5th largest in the world) has seen declining exports for 11 consecutive months. South Korean shipping is crumbling in November and the media is blaming the trade war, as some SK companies would be “hit indirectly” because they sell intermediate goods to China are are linked to US companies in China. But this makes little sense. Tariffs are highly targeted to specific companies and specific goods, and so far the US has not directed major tariff attention at South Korea beyond the auto market.  Also, the new KORUS deal between Trump and SK is different only cosmetically to original trade agreements, yet, South Korean exports continue to fall.

The same situation can be seen in Japan, with Japanese exports witnessing a 9.2% year-over-year drop in October, the largest decline in 3 years. Japan has seen three consecutive months of declines in exports.

And what about Europe? While Germany, the manufacturing powerhouse of the EU, finally saw a jump in exports to the US this past month, overall the European Union has seen consistently poor export performance for the past year, and Germany itself is hovering on the edge of recession with 0.1% official GDP growth. Many economist already consider Germany to be in recession, as official GDP numbers are constantly manipulated by governments to the upside.

But let’s not forget about the US. Remember how Trump promised that the trade war would result in a renaissance for US manufacturing and that millions of industrial jobs would be returning to our shores? Well, as I’ve warned consistently for the past couple years, there is NO WAY corporations will be bringing manufacturing jobs and factories back to the US without ample incentives. Trump already gave companies tax cuts without demanding anything in return, and the cost/benefit ratio of building new factories and paying American workers top dollar versus keeping existing factories in Asia and dealing with 10%-25% tariffs just doesn’t add up to a new US rust belt renaissance.

While manufacturing jobs have increased, US manufacturing activity has declined.  Meaning, there simply isn’t enough demand for the goods being produced.  US manufacturing ISM index just sank this month and has been sinking for the past four month into negative territory. While US PMI manufacturing data jumped this month, it is still well below the 10 year average and is also very low compared to past holiday seasons, which almost always see a spike in manufacturing.  US manufacturing remains at a historic low of 11% of US GDP and production output has decline steadily since January of this year.

The question is, will the vast decline in global manufacturing translate to a crash in consumer demand?  We know that US credit dependency has skyrocketed in the past few years, but will more debt result in more profits for retailers?  This is highly unlikely, as US retail sales growth, for example, has been in decline at the same time that consumer debt has been rising.  Why?  Credit delinquencies have been relatively stable (so far) this year, so my theory is that people in the US are paying off previous debts by taking on new debt. They are kicking the can on their insolvency.

We have seen this kind of destructive credit death cycle before – Right before the crash of 2008.

So what does all this mean? And why is the media portraying the trade war with China as the cause of the global export and shipping crisis when clearly most of the world is not directly or even indirectly tied to the tariffs?

As noted above, the narrative that is being pushed is that we live in an “interdependent” and globalized world, and that nations cannot function economically without cooperation. The trade war, I believe, is a smokescreen designed by the globalist establishment to do two things specifically:

1) It is being created to hide a crash in the greater economy. Notice that almost no one in the mainstream is talking about a collapse in global production and multiple fundamentals due to DEMAND; instead they constantly talk about the trade war and exports. The trade war is becoming the scapegoat for the implosion of the market bubble engineered by globalists and central banks through a decade of stimulus measures.

The collapse of the economic bubble is being caused in part by massive debt and a lack of consumer demand due to lack of consumer savings and cash flow. The trade war has little to do with it, and I suspect we would be seeing sharp declines in the US economy in particular even without the trade war.

2) The trade war creates a false dichotomy in which many Americans will be lured into blaming China and other nations for their economic ills, and China and the rest of the world will be lured into blaming America. It also reasserts the globalist propaganda argument that when nations and economies “go rogue”, they hurt everyone; therefore, more global controls and centralization will have to be established in order to prevent nationalism from harming the rest of the world.

And what does this all have to do with the Christmas shopping season? Like the end of last year, I think we are in for another ugly holiday retail event – Perhaps far worse than before. All the manufacturing and export data indicates that this will be the case. If so, then the mainstream narrative of recovery, long perpetuated as fact by the media and the Federal Reserve for the past several years, will finally die.

The only thing that might elevate holiday numbers would be increased price inflation in goods, but I predict that even inflation misrepresented as “profits” will not save Christmas stats this year.  Some skeptics of the ongoing crash will argue that Black Friday numbers this year were the best since 2013, therefore the holiday season will be a good one.  These people don’t know their economic history.  In most cases, holiday seasons that start off with a high traffic Black Friday end with poor overall sales data, including 2013.  This is because consumers that are cash strapped are more likely to buy early during Black Friday sales and spend far less over the rest of the season.

In the mind of the average American consumer, holiday retail sales are a primary indicator of the health of the economy. A dramatic crash in Christmas retail will end the delusion of a stable US system and cause the public to start asking questions. Economics is 50% math and 50% psychology. The math in the US economy says we are in the middle of a crash. The psychological orientation of the public has been on the opposite end of spectrum, but is now slowly moving to meet with reality. When the psychological delusion ends, the game is over. And, for the globalists a new game begins.

Order out of chaos is their motto for a reason…

The global “reset” as they sometimes refer to it, has already been triggered. Going into 2020, the question is will the fantasy fall completely away to reveal the grotesque economic swamp our foundation has been built on top of? Or, will the delusion drag on for at least one more year? Given the current data, I suspect the party is over. But it is difficult to predict how the public will react to a financial crash. Sometimes people have no choice but to acknowledge the danger in front of them, but sometimes they simply bury their heads in the sand deeper and hope that by dragging out the inevitable the inevitable will become forgettable.

*  *  *

If you would like to support the work that Alt-Market does while also receiving content on advanced tactics for defeating the globalist agenda, subscribe to our exclusive newsletter The Wild Bunch Dispatch.  Learn more about it HERE.

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74 Comments
Ivan
Ivan
December 8, 2019 10:35 am

“increased price inflation in goods” What???

When backed by gold/silver cost of goods in money is fairly static.

“Price inflation in goods” is a construct designed to obscure the fractional reserve banking house of cards dollar creation out of thin air and steal the wealth of working stiffs. Certainly you must have written same on X date at X time Brandon.

The 2019 “retail holiday season” decline will be blamed on it being shortened from 4 or 5 weeks to 3.

ursel doran
ursel doran
December 8, 2019 11:59 am

Reality is here, MEGA Fear of a clear and present danger, Banksters looking over their shoulder at 08 times a Gazillion, world wide.

Trapped

Ingsoc
Ingsoc
December 8, 2019 12:34 pm

“Best economy ever”!
comment image

Martel's Hammer
Martel's Hammer
December 8, 2019 12:35 pm

Brandon is a B+ analyst…which is problematic when the consequences are life and death. All good points made by Brandon including the pre-emptive strike on the awesome Black Friday uber blow-out sales despite predictions of doom….and not sure when he wrote this but the gigantic employment numbers highlight the difference between a B+ and an A+……

That difference is the failure to think beyond conventional wisdom to seek a structural explanation instead of just the “trend” analysis he offers.

Complex systems such as the international economy are subject to changes that while profound over the longer term is very difficult to detect in the short term due to all the noise. Eg. it took a while (20 years+) from Nixon’s opening of China to China being admitted to the WTO to replacing Japan and millions of American manufacturing jobs (and factories) moving to China….but then “suddenly” we have the current state of play….

It should be obvious that a new paradigm is being built today but it will not be fully apparent for some time….Brandon fails (like usual) to evaluate the deeper currents that will be dominant in the medium term (a decade or so)…..

Trump has launched a complete restructuring of both the US economy and the international trade system…..He is disintermediating China with bilateral trade deals to rehome the supply chain and even now that is starting to impact China to the benefit of Malaysia, Philipines, Japan, Vietnam and yes the South Koreans as well as the US itself. USMCA if implemented (and after a 2020 landslide it will be) will accelerate this process significantly. He completely missed this stated strategy of the Trump admin…..and China with the muslim concentration camps, continued IP theft and dropping of the panda mask for the Dragon has sealed its fate……oops.

Domestically the middle class is starting slowly to regain some ground against the elites and the financialization process that has made labor less valuable….wages were up 3.3% yoy in the most recent employment data and at 3.5% unemployment that trend will accelerate….

Of course, there is noise and some fudging in the government data….I like ShadowStats for a reality check….but just look at the trend, quite positive.

Trump is doing some great things with limited success and the question for me is whether he is been able to launch a process that will actually become a new and better paradigm for the US…still too early to tell…the Deep State/Banksters are going all out to stop him but to simply ignore this deeper structural change is disappointing.

Donkey
Donkey
  Martel's Hammer
December 8, 2019 1:30 pm

Martel,

Is that a cut&paste? If not, why haven’t you written some articles? Could you please explain in greater detail, your comment please? I am interested and I think many more would be as well.

Ivan
Ivan
  Donkey
December 8, 2019 3:44 pm

It’s self explanatory, and we’ll written. Except the unemployment rate is around 20%.

'Reality' Doug
'Reality' Doug
  Ivan
December 8, 2019 3:52 pm

It’s superficial but emotionally satisfying. Donkey wants to resolve the discrepancy with facts. You added one, and it’s damning.

Donkey
Donkey
  Ivan
December 8, 2019 3:57 pm

Ivan, my comment was not meant to demean Martel. He has shown much intelligence on TBP. I am interested in him expanding his thoughts on his comment. I have interest in his thinking and how he got there.

Ivan
Ivan
  Donkey
December 9, 2019 2:08 am

Didn’t think it was demeaning, just that Hammer ‘s points were well taken. I don’t always see eye t o eye with his writing but did in this case, and agree, interested in his thinking.

WestcoastDeplorable
WestcoastDeplorable
  Ivan
December 8, 2019 10:29 pm

See John Williams on Usawatchdog.com He says inflation is between 9-10%. And you’re right about unemployment. Both figures based on how we USED to calculate each before they started boldfaced lying.

Anonymous
Anonymous
  WestcoastDeplorable
December 9, 2019 7:38 am

The new math methodology is 2+2=5.

Martel's Hammer
Martel's Hammer
  Donkey
December 8, 2019 4:16 pm

I am more of a counter puncher…responding to an article is my preference but I should offer some original material since I shoot my mouth off on a regular basis. Brandon is making his best assessment, always easier to be a critic.

The key point I am making is that we should not fall into the trap of being linear thinkers….assuming the current trend/model will continue within a set of boundaries of outcomes. That approach is useful most of the time but will always miss the big moves, the paradigm shifts.

By nature, I am interested in the long tail outcomes, specifically what will change the current status quo and become the new standard model. This is why I am intrigued by the 4th Turning concept because it provides a logical explanation for the seemingly sudden changes in culture and the governing social contract, when in fact the seeds of those changes were there if only one would look.

So the NWO/Globalists/Elites whatever term you like, in order to introduce a worldwide controlling government entity needed to disintermediate the USA….how better to do that than to ship the entire production capacity (literally box the factories up and ship them) to China…where the low-cost labor would provide cheap trinkets, keep China on board with the Globalism project and all the other bad things we talk about everyday. So far so good….so Brandon and the vast majority of analysts just then extend the trend line, season it with a bit of violence and/or Jew-hatred, Freemasonry etc…and conclude we are fucked.

Thus I always rail on those who offer nothing but doom without a scintilla of proposed response…not super helpful.

Instead, think a bit broader and much like Captain Kirk in the Kobayashi Maru test….where Kirk realized the only way to win was to not play by the existing rules or paradigm.

Now to Trump….he is a classic Grey Champion from Strauss and Howe with the age/orientation, certainly strong-willed and he engenders significant controversy….he is providing moral clarity. Some will not like it and some can’t look past the pomposity and persona to see what he is actually attempting to do:

Trump is attempting to thwart the Globalist project by keeping America strong by rejecting the financialization economy in favor of the Mainstreet economy.

Whether he will be successful or even doing all of the correct things to advance that strategy are different issues. I am giving him a B, mostly because he seems too willing to avoid the decisive battle. E.g. nobody arrested, classified documents on Russiagate not released etc…

As to Mainstreet vs. Wall street…Trump is attempting to make production more attractive here in America, actively opposing China and doing a great job of setting up alternative supply chains. He has massively reduced regulation which lowers costs and makes wage increases and job additions more likely…..which is indeed working.

I will keep digging on the numbers to see if they show Trump is making more progress than he is currently being given credit for…..but I think he must be doing something right given the extreme response from the swamp….

Donkey
Donkey
  Martel's Hammer
December 8, 2019 4:20 pm

Martel,

I hope you saw my comment below. I only meant I like your thought processes and just wanted a bit more. 🙂

gman
gman
  Martel's Hammer
December 8, 2019 4:51 pm

“I am interested in the long tail outcomes”

(shrug) in the u.s. the average age of white taxpaying citizens is 60. for 4th generation welfare-dependent blacks it’s age 23. for welfare invading mexicans it’s age 9. yes, 9, 9 years old, average age 9 – and 30 million of ’em.

there’s your long tail.

llpoh
llpoh
  gman
December 8, 2019 6:07 pm

gman – I am calling bullshit on those figures, before looking them up. Now I will go look them up.

OK, I was right. Here it is. All from Pew research.
“Whites had a median age of 44”
“The median age of black Americans was 34”
“U.S. Hispanics were also a notably youthful group, with a median age of 30”

From migrationpolicy, it says 80% of illegal immigrants are age 25 and above. But somehow you figure that will average out to 9. Man that is some kid of all time stupid right there. Where do yo get this stuff, from the local MoronsRUs website?

Seriously, what the fuck is wrong with you that you would post such complete and utter fucking bullshit. Are you too stupid to even think about what you post? Take that shit and shove it up your ass.

AC
AC
  llpoh
December 8, 2019 6:34 pm

He did specify ‘welfare recipients’ for the blacks and Mexicans.

You would need to find some data on those sub-populations to see if the numbers are OK or not.

Martel's Hammer
Martel's Hammer
  AC
December 8, 2019 6:47 pm

Gman should provide the backup for his claims, he might be right but I am skeptical.

llpoh
llpoh
  Martel's Hammer
December 8, 2019 7:07 pm

There is no backup. I have posted the facts. It takes a good minute of research to toss that crap out.

llpoh
llpoh
  AC
December 8, 2019 6:50 pm

AC – I do not give a shit what the fuck you say – he did not say welfare recipients. Do not be a fuckwit.

Average white paying taxpayer average age 60? Bullshit.
He did not say welfare recipients, he said 4th generation welfare dependent blacks, which is an all-inclusive statement re blacks, and that is bullshit number too.
And he said welfare invading Mexicans, which is also an all inclusive statement, and it is total fucking bullshit.

What the fuck is wrong with you that you would in any way support such moronic statements as those. There is no way to parse that shit as other than outright damn lies.

AC
AC
  llpoh
December 8, 2019 6:55 pm

“he did not say welfare recipients.”

Right.

“4th generation welfare-dependent blacks it’s age 23. for welfare invading mexicans it’s age 9. yes, 9″

Looks like your reading comprehension is failing.

Might be senility setting in.

llpoh
llpoh
  AC
December 8, 2019 7:06 pm

So, you too are a fucking moron. He clearly was making a general statement. Not a specific statement. And even if it was specific, it was still fucking wrong and total bullshit. Senile my ass. I have watched you lying your ass off regularly, and are doing so now. You too have a brain the size of a damn pea.

Anonymous
Anonymous
  llpoh
December 8, 2019 9:16 pm

Of the two of us, you are the only that lies his ass off. Constantly.

Clearly dementia is setting in. Might want to lay in a supply of drool cups while you are still semi-lucid.

llpoh
llpoh
  Anonymous
December 8, 2019 10:32 pm

Who dat?

Anonymous
Anonymous
  llpoh
December 9, 2019 7:48 am

Is your wife the mullato? Butthurt much?

gman
gman
  llpoh
December 8, 2019 7:41 pm

https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/07/30/most-common-age-among-us-racial-ethnic-groups/

this doesn’t say exactly that, but it’s close enough. cant find what I originally read 10, 5, and 2 years ago, but all of it tracked with the years so I just absorbed it and moved on, not thinking anyone couldn’t also see it for themselves on the street.

anyway, there’s your long tail

llpoh
llpoh
  gman
December 8, 2019 8:06 pm

Gman – ok, so what you have posted is a graph showing “most common age”. That in no way means average age. But I appreciate the clarification.

I understood what you were trying to do, and it is actually a damn good point. You stuffed up the maffs, tho.

I really was just trying to stir up some shit, on this post and on another, as it is a slow day.

But here is the deal, much as the graphs you are posting, which I have said may times:

The demographics are a done deal. The whites are going to be a minority, and you can track it to almost the minute as to when it will happen. The whites are aging, and are not reproducing. Blacks, amazingly, are not reproducing as fast as one might imagine, but boy howdy are the Hispanics breeding like rabbits.

The US is going to be heavily dominated by Hispanics in the next twenty years.

And as you say, in a round about way, they and the blacks as a group are heavy users of welfare. Those ageing whites, also, are gonna suck up huge amounts of welfare, make no mistake.

So, there is an ageing white population, who are the heavy producers, who will transition to getting welfare, we have a heavily increasing brown population, that i heavily reliant on welfare and who by and large do not value skills and education, and we have a steady state black population that is overall very destructive and consumes vast resources though creates little, and we have falling education standards that overall is leaving the country in the dust of china, Korea, etc.

What could possibly go wrong?

Thanks for being a good sport.

TampaRed
TampaRed
  llpoh
December 8, 2019 11:19 pm

sears is having a going out of biz sale & has pre made nooses–

Articles of Confederation
Articles of Confederation
  llpoh
December 9, 2019 10:35 am

Llpoh,

It’s the mode (most common age) versus the median or mean (average). Who gives a rip what the mode is, outside of statisticians? It is subtle propaganda in and of itself. Your nose CORRECTLY smelled poop, IMHO.

gman
gman
  Articles of Confederation
December 9, 2019 11:35 am

“It’s the mode (most common age) versus the median or mean (average).”

given the nature of demographic statistics the mean and mode should closely correspond – one would not expect to see a mode of 58 and a mean of 40.

Articles of Confederation
Articles of Confederation
  gman
December 9, 2019 12:18 pm

Completely dependent upon the data set, as is every statistical survey. However, given the fact they chose the mode, I’d immediately call into question their methodology and ask to see the raw data for myself to plug into Excel. I don’t trust statisticians and I am capable of extrapolating what I need to extrapolate without their help.

In this case, I would have defaulted to using the median.

Articles of Confederation
Articles of Confederation
  llpoh
December 8, 2019 11:11 pm

Llpoh,

And these were the types of posts that kept me going during the dark times. Really. It was always a mix of learning and brutal berating. Maybe because those types of conversations make you THINK.

I remembered the very first time you called me a fuckwit and the complexity of emotions that came with it…only to realize at the end of the day that you were right, and it just made me laugh every time I thought about it.

llpoh
llpoh
  Articles of Confederation
December 8, 2019 11:42 pm

AoC – that is how things go. I understood, really, what the gman was getting at. But he garbled the figures so severely he became a perfect target on a slow day (sorry gman, but ya gotta be careful around these parts!). I also wanted to make sure he was not trying to build some kind of false narrative. He was a very good sport, and posted some info that I had already seen and suspected was what he was using. He was not trying to fake data, and the position he was actually taking can be quite easily defended with real data, which I talked about later.

AC, on the other hand, had zero idea what the issue was, and doubled down on what was clearly wrong data. Shame shame.

It is educational, so long as folks want to learn something. There is a lot of meat in this stuff – what are the current demographics, what are the trends, what are the timelines, what will this do to the entire culture of the US. Gman is right to be concerned.

One point this leads to, at least leads me to, is that it is Asians that are the best immigrants – they are smart, hard-working, value education and family. Would the US be better with more of them, or more uneducated, fairly low-IQ folks from south of the border? Would the US be well served to change its immigration structure to allow more of those types in, and fewer of the others? What is to be done re the black culture, which is stagnant, crime-riddled, without family structure, and poorly educated, etc.? (My answer – starve the beast.)

A good fight is good for the place, and gman did not double down on the error, but rather clarified it enough so we all could see where he was coming from exactly.

AoC – you are a valuable contributor around here. Good to see that. (Aside – I hope SAO gets with the program).

Anonymous
Anonymous
  llpoh
December 9, 2019 7:52 am

The draw and benefit of TBP is in the comment section. Not the articles!

MG
MG
  Anonymous
December 9, 2019 8:18 am

But, articles are the catalyst. Without them, it is just monkey chatter.

Articles of Confederation
Articles of Confederation
  llpoh
December 9, 2019 10:37 am

It IS a false narrative. It’s the arithmetic mode he’s reporting, which I flush every day down the commode.

Like you intimated, the immigration issue is bad enough as it is without leading people down a worthless statistical path. Whites are dying off, 1G immigrants are breeding like Fibonacci rabbits.

And thank you for the kind words, sir. I’m not sure I’m a “good” contributor per se; I just enjoy the give and take.

Honk if you love Trump (EC)
Honk if you love Trump (EC)
  Articles of Confederation
December 9, 2019 2:23 am

I warned you about messing with LLPOH or T4C. Noobs only come back willing to learn after they get their dick caught in the door jamb.

Llpoh
Llpoh
  Honk if you love Trump (EC)
December 9, 2019 3:16 am

EC – My buddy SAO has been much quieter last few days. I think he has been putting iodine on his little friend. I hope he hangs tough, but it pays to listen a bit more and signify a bit less. You keep telling them, but sometimes they have to pick the cat up by the tail to understand why you advise them against it.

John Galt
John Galt
  Articles of Confederation
December 9, 2019 7:51 am

The use of calling people a fuckwit here tends to keep out the soyboys. So i must condone the continued use of it in all circumstances.

Articles of Confederation
Articles of Confederation
  John Galt
December 9, 2019 12:22 pm

Agree. Ironically, it’s why Llpoh is my favorite poster, hands down.

Honk if you love LLPOH
Honk if you love LLPOH
  Articles of Confederation
December 9, 2019 7:12 pm
My girl
My girl
  Honk if you love LLPOH
December 9, 2019 7:38 pm

Honk honk!!

Honk if you love LLPOH (EC)
Honk if you love LLPOH (EC)
  My girl
December 9, 2019 7:43 pm

When your mad at Big Red and you have to fight popping a boner when you think of her.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPQ7om598OM

TampaRed
TampaRed
  llpoh
December 8, 2019 11:16 pm

does the 25 age of illegals count minors?
if 80% of illegals are 25 & up but they bring kids w/them what is the average?
i have a family that just came across a few months ago of mom/dad,both under 35,probably closer to about 32,a 14 & a 2 yo–

llpoh
llpoh
  TampaRed
December 8, 2019 11:27 pm

Tampa – it included minors. So 20% of illegals in the country are under 25. I would have to go look it up again, so do not hold me to it, but I believe the median was in the 40s.

Anonymous
Anonymous
  llpoh
December 9, 2019 7:47 am

Llpoh, stupid is as stupid does when you trust govt numbers. Your govt has a clear agenda and it is against you. Sheep

Anonymous
Anonymous
  gman
December 9, 2019 7:45 am

Now you see where this country is heading.

Prof. Madelbrot
Prof. Madelbrot
  Martel's Hammer
December 9, 2019 7:43 am

What Martel is describing is “sequence of returns” when calculating investment performance. The same is true if you stop linear thinking.

100k invested
Year one -50%
Year two +100%
100-50=50/2=25% return. This is how your stock broker tells you that you are doing great. Your “average return” has been 25%.

Reality is
100k -50%= $50k
$50k x 100%= $100k

“Annualized return” is 0%. Add fees and other commissions and costs and your annualized is negative. But the avg person will believe they are getting an average 25% return (linear thinking)

Now you know why the mutual fund and index fund industry uses average return and not annualized return performance disclosures.

'Reality' Doug
'Reality' Doug
  Martel's Hammer
December 8, 2019 1:43 pm

tldr: THERE MUST BE A SAVIOR!

I think the OP analysis is spot on. The interest rate inversion does not lie. Trump has not changed the culture, which will require physical means. He gets an A+ on the economy within the system, but the key phrase is WITHIN THE SYSTEM. His country is Israel not the US. Frog. Water. Pot. Stove. I wish Hillary would have won.

If you don’t wish that, it means you have enough status quo to want the status quo. I want a flesh and blood reset. A prosperous economy is a civilized people without shit admixture. All Trump’s functionaries are either in the cross-hairs of the state retaliation machine or are the state retaliation machine. But daiyz gotz ta bee a savz your. Comz savz meh.

'Reality' Doug
'Reality' Doug
  Martel's Hammer
December 8, 2019 1:49 pm

“Domestically the middle class is starting slowly to regain some ground against the elites and the financialization process that has made labor less valuable….wages were up 3.3% yoy in the most recent employment data and at 3.5% unemployment that trend will accelerate….”

Just one question. How white men doing?

TN Patriot
TN Patriot
  Martel's Hammer
December 8, 2019 3:44 pm

Martel – I usually judge the strength of the economy by the jobs market (not the numbers the government estimates) and what I see and hear from friends and relatives. Businesses are having a hard time filling slots and the higher the skill set, the harder it is to fill the position.

Boomers are retiring at a rapid rate and creating some really good job openings, however our education system has been in high gear to send every child to college for the past 20 – 30 years and what we need today are skilled employees. Over the past 5 years, there has been a swing back to technical training, but it should have started 10 – 15 years ago to have the workforce that is needed today.

The economy will be throttled back for a few years waiting on these employees to be trained and to get the experience required to fill the open slots.

'Reality' Doug
'Reality' Doug
  TN Patriot
December 8, 2019 3:49 pm

Yes, some central authority should train us to have the skills we need. Forget supply and demand. Employers might have to look for and retain talent by sharing. That could work if the gravy train ever dies.

TN Patriot
TN Patriot
  'Reality' Doug
December 8, 2019 3:59 pm

A nearby local high school included a vo-tech wing in their newly constructed school. Last May, they graduated their first class with 60 kids having certified welding certificates and nearly the same number of CNA’s. These kids got their diploma and started their new careers making pretty good money for an 18 y-o.
I know an employer who started a “grow your own” technician training program, hiring some kids with mechanical ability and letting them shadow a mentor technician. It is early in the program, but looks like it could produce some good techs. Not sure what the washout rate will be, but IMHO it will be north of 60%. It is a costly program, but not as costly as losing customers over not being able to service what you sell.

'Reality' Doug
'Reality' Doug
  TN Patriot
December 8, 2019 7:22 pm

That’s how it should be.

Martel's Hammer
Martel's Hammer
  TN Patriot
December 8, 2019 4:26 pm

Great points! I would rather work on solving that issue with actual Americans because it is solvable, than H1B visas…..because we have learned that there is no magical American soil that can take millions of third world shitholers (even the smart ones) and turn them into functional Americans. IQ is necessary but not sufficient, cultural fascism now!

llpoh
llpoh
  Martel's Hammer
December 8, 2019 6:20 pm

Martel – where does the average dumber than a bag of pig shit US student fit into this? US, and Oz, students are now four years behind China at age 15, and they will never overcome that deficit. That means the US is some kind of permanently screwed going forward. Thank Christ for the Asian Americans, and the Jews, or the figures would be far, far worse.

The US is entirely fucked. A whole generation of morons has been cycled through the education system. Something like only 30 years ago the US was world leader. Now it is the class dunce. And stupid is as stupid does.

Martel's Hammer
Martel's Hammer
  llpoh
December 8, 2019 6:54 pm

There is a difference between educational attainment and intelligence….Our kids while not quite as smart as the northern Asians really suffer from shitty schools. There is a measurement problem with most of these studies….take the best and brightest in China (the rest don’t go to school or are not included in the study) and sure it looks a little wonky. But rote memorization and regurgitation on a test while an indicator certainly are not the final answer on creativity, problem-solving and societal “success”….eg. China has 1B+ population but can’t invent the cool shit that we do on a routine basis…. it is not all about IQ ….

If we work on getting the unions and political correctness out of education the raw talent is there….I strongly support the Mike Rowe approach….way too many kids in college and most should be in a technical or trade school.

Llpoh
Llpoh
  Martel's Hammer
December 8, 2019 9:17 pm

Glad you are optimistic, but there is little if any difference in reality between stupid and ignorant in the real world, especially a tech world. And vast numbers of students are ignorant. And in a modern tech world, that bodes poorly. In the old days, people supplemented lack of education with high real world skills, and common sense. I do not see that in abundance in the young coming through. Just do a search on teenagers trying to use a manual can opener for example.

China may be fudging their stats – same goes with the US. China graduates more engineers each year than the US has in total. That will be a problem for the US in the near future.

Articles of Confederation
Articles of Confederation
  Martel's Hammer
December 9, 2019 12:32 pm

Totally agree WRT Mike Rowe commentary. We need apprencticeship and blue collar folks, badly. Yet another result of an overly financialized economy.

Anonymous
Anonymous
  llpoh
December 9, 2019 7:56 am

The new grading of the ACT allows kids to retake numerous times and rather than averaging all the scores or the top two it takes the highest per category and combines them. This allows the dumb ones to get tutoring on those poor sections to raise their ACT scores.

My sophomore got a 29 cold unrehearsed and not tutored. No practice tests. She scored perfect on 2/5 parts and her lowest was math at 26. She will get tutoring and end up at 33 or 34. Surely she will not be noticed nor get a scholarship because her name indicated her color. Not the right color for proper diversity. I must plan on paying for her college out of pocket. Vet school. Ain’t affirmative Action great. Yes she is home schooled…..says enough

llpoh
llpoh
  TN Patriot
December 8, 2019 6:15 pm

“the higher the skill set, the harder it is to fill the position”

Couldn’t have anything to do with the fact that the US school system is putting out grads that are dumber than a bag of hammers? By age 15, US students are a full 4 years behind China in math.

The US has as its main economic competitor a nation 4 times its population, and that population is 4 years of math in front of the US population going forward.

Bow howdy is the US some kind of special fucked (OZ too for that matter). There will be o recovery from that bullshit. The ship has sailed.

Articles of Confederation
Articles of Confederation
  llpoh
December 9, 2019 12:34 pm

Agree, there’s no way to recovery without a massive culling of the herd. There WERE benefits to wars in the old days and kings knew that, in terms of r/K selection theory, the r’s needed to be weeded out.

Donkey
Donkey
  Martel's Hammer
December 8, 2019 3:59 pm

Martel,

I apologize if my previous comment sounded accusatory and/or demeaning. It wasn’t meant that way but I can see how it could be taken that way. I would love to read an article of your above thoughts, expanded.

Martel's Hammer
Martel's Hammer
  Donkey
December 8, 2019 4:27 pm

Not at all, I found it encouraging!

Now look what you made me do-Blaine
Now look what you made me do-Blaine
  Martel's Hammer
December 8, 2019 8:16 pm

You cocksuckers should get a fucking room, during breaks from blowing each other and sniffing glue you can discuss how
TRUMP IS THE DEEP STATE

Martel's Hammer
Martel's Hammer
  Now look what you made me do-Blaine
December 8, 2019 8:40 pm

which of course explains the apoplectic hatred of Trump….beacuse of course he is a masochist and loves the abuse despite being a billionaire….

Blaine
Blaine
  Martel's Hammer
December 9, 2019 5:00 am

Upvoted MH,
Childish insults are juvenile and cuss words nothing more than a sign of poor vocabulary and low IQ.
I hate Trump because he is a barking carnival two faced conman , the worst is that he briefly had me fooled.
He vetoed the unanimous bipartisan “stop support for the Yemeni war bill”
“Take the guns first”-Trump
Snowden/Assange-not pardoned
Illegal occupation and bombing of Syria
There is a lot more but you get the idea.

Llpoh
Llpoh
  Blaine
December 9, 2019 5:09 am

Nyah nyah nyah. Childish insults can be fun, and some of the smartest folks I have ever known cuss like sailors. It is a common misdirection put forward by folks that don’t like cussing. Who are oft dumb as earthworms.

Plus, studies have shown that people that cuss are actually smarter.

https://www.sciencealert.com/people-who-swearing-cursing-rude-words-better-vocabulary-science

https://www.sciencealert.com/swearing-is-a-sign-of-more-intelligence-not-less-say-scientists

https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/swearing-study-intelligent-intelligence-university-of-rochester-a7916516.html

So blow me, asshole.

Anonymous
Anonymous
  Blaine
December 9, 2019 8:03 am

Cursing has been found a trait of highly fucking intelligence. Fyi

TampaRed
TampaRed
  Now look what you made me do-Blaine
December 8, 2019 11:25 pm

chill, winnie,chill–

Blaine
Blaine
  TampaRed
December 9, 2019 5:01 am

Thanks for the compliment /s

Honk if you love Trump (EC)
Honk if you love Trump (EC)
  Now look what you made me do-Blaine
December 9, 2019 1:43 am

It was inevitable, let’s not be cock-blocking.

Anonymous
Anonymous
December 9, 2019 7:33 am

When black Friday and cyber Monday sales are high it shows weakness in economies not strength. Why? Because that means people are stressed for better deals and saving money. Go back and historically you will find doom and gloom forecasted when sales were down only to be revised massively upward in January and the reverse when they were high.

MG
MG
  Anonymous
December 9, 2019 8:17 am

It is all just a big numbers game.

Corporal Kielbasa
Corporal Kielbasa
  Anonymous
December 9, 2019 7:06 pm

It’s true, high Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales eerily forecast the crash and great depression that followed 1929. The same thing happened in 1987, that’s why they changed Black Monday to Cyber Monday.