So we have stock markets reaching new all-time highs on a daily basis. We also know, based on all historically accurate valuation methods, stocks are overvalued by 70% to 120%. We also know the highly manipulated GDP is lingering somewhere between 0% and 2%. We also know that real wage growth for the average American is a big fat zilch. We also know that healthcare costs, due to the Obamacare clusterfuck, are soaring at double digits for American families. We also know that rents and home prices are at record highs due to the Federal Reserve policies to prop up their Wall Street owners. We also know the Fed will raise short term rates today by another minuscule .25%.
The MSM and Trump narrative is that the economy is doing great because unemployment is only 4.3%. When the working age population totals 255 million and only 132 million are employed full-time and 21 million part-time, the 4.3% false narrative disintegrates. When 102 million Americans are not working, you’ve got a big problem, and propaganda spewed by the corporate media won’t fix it.
Anyone with half a brain knows this faux economic recovery has been nothing but a debt financed mirage created by the Fed, the Treasury Dept and Wall Street to continue their looting and pillaging rape of the American people. The debts are going bad, as they always do when you lend vast amounts of money to people incapable of paying the debt back. Hundreds of billions in student loan debt are bad. Now the debt implosion is hitting the auto industry. The issuance of debt has slowed dramatically and is going to contract soon.
Our economy is dependent upon consumers spending money they don’t have for shit they don’t need. Consumer spending accounts for 68% of GDP. Lenders are being forced to tighten lending standards as bad debt skyrockets to 2009 levels. What happens when lending slows down, retail sales fall, just like they did in May. Auto sales are falling. The only category showing any growth is the Amazon led internet sales. Gasoline sales plunged, but the average price was only down 2 cents from the prior month, so volume is the driving factor.
Restaurant sales and department store sales continue to plunge. Count on more bankruptcy announcements, more closings, and more space available signs in your local ghost mall. The 10 Year Treasury began the year at 2.45%, rose to 2.63% in mid March and now stands at 2.11%. Does the 10 Year Treasury fall 50 basis points when the economy is getting stronger?
The economy is either in recession or on the verge of recession. Facts are facts and no amount of bullshit spewed by the media, corrupt politicians, or boot licking central banker academics will change the facts. How long can the powers that be keep the stock market bubble inflated? I don’t know, but I wouldn’t go near the market with my money.
Continue reading “Retail Sales Tumble Most Since January 2016 As Gasoline, Electronics Sales Slump”
Ramiro Valdes and Fidel Castro
