Middle class – Page 3 – The Burning Platform

IGNORE THE MEDIA BULLSH*T – RETAIL IMPLOSION PROVES WE ARE IN RECESSION

Here we go again. The dying legacy media will continue to support the status quo, who provide their dwindling advertising revenue, by papering over the truth with platitudes, lies, and misinformation. I have been detailing the long slow death of retail in America for the last few years. The data and facts are unequivocal. Therefore, the establishment and their media mouthpieces need to suppress the truth.

They spin every terrible report in the most positive way possible. They blame lousy retail results on the weather. They blame them on calendar effects. They blame them on gasoline sales plunging. That one is funny, because we heard for months that retail spending would surge because people had more money in their pockets from the huge decline in gasoline prices.

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September retail sales were grudgingly reported by the Census Bureau this morning and they were absolutely dreadful. This followed an atrocious August report. The MSM couldn’t blame it on snow, cold, flooding, drought, or even swarms of locusts. So they just buried the story in their small print headlines. The propaganda media machine had nothing. They continue to spew the drivel about a 5.1% unemployment rate as a reflection of a booming jobs market. If we really have a booming jobs market, we would have a booming retail sector. The stagnant retail market reveals the jobs data to be fraudulent. The 94 million people supposedly not in the job market can’t buy shit with their good looks.

Continue reading “IGNORE THE MEDIA BULLSH*T – RETAIL IMPLOSION PROVES WE ARE IN RECESSION”

TWO OUTS IN THE BOTTOM OF THE NINTH

The housing market peaked in 2005 and proceeded to crash over the next five years, with existing home sales falling 50%, new home sales falling 75%, and national home prices falling 30%. A funny thing happened after the peak. Wall Street banks accelerated the issuance of subprime mortgages to hyper-speed. The executives of these banks knew housing had peaked, but insatiable greed consumed them as they purposely doled out billions in no-doc liar loans as a necessary ingredient in their CDOs of mass destruction.

The millions in upfront fees, along with their lack of conscience in bribing Moody’s and S&P to get AAA ratings on toxic waste, while selling the derivatives to clients and shorting them at the same time, in order to enrich executives with multi-million dollar compensation packages, overrode any thoughts of risk management, consequences, or the impact on homeowners, investors, or taxpayers. The housing boom began as a natural reaction to the Federal Reserve suppressing interest rates to, at the time, ridiculously low levels from 2001 through 2004 (child’s play compared to the last six years).

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DEPARTMENT STORE RESULTS IMPLODING

The government issued their monthly retail sales this past week and four of the biggest department store chains in the country announced their quarterly results. The year over year retail sales increase of 2.4% is pitifully low in an economy that is supposedly in its sixth year of economic growth with a reported unemployment rate of only 5.3%. If all of these jobs have been created, why aren’t retail sales booming?

The year to date numbers are even worse than the year over year numbers. With consumer spending accounting for 70% of our GDP and real inflation running north of 5%, it’s pretty clear most Americans are experiencing a recession, despite the propaganda data circulated by the government and Fed. The only people not experiencing a recession are corporate executives enriching themselves through stock buybacks, Wall Street bankers using free Fed Bucks while rigging the the markets in their favor, politicians and government bureaucrats reaping their bribes from billionaire oligarchs, and the media toadies who dispense the Deep State approved propaganda to keep the ignorant masses dazed, confused, and endlessly distracted by Cecil the Lion, Bruce/Caitlyn Jenner, Ferguson, and blood coming out of whatever.

You won’t hear CNBC, Bloomberg, the Wall Street Journal or any corporate mainstream media outlet reference the fact retail sales growth is at the exact same levels as when recession hit in 2008 and 2001. Their job is to regurgitate the message of economic recovery and confidence in the future, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

Retail sales are actually far worse than the 2.4% reported number. Excluding the subprime debt fueled auto sales, retail sales only grew by 1.3% in the last year. The automakers are practically giving vehicles away as their lots are stuffed with inventory. The length of auto loans and the average amount of auto loans are now at all-time highs. The percentage of subprime auto loans is surging to record levels, as defaults begin to rise. The percentage of vehicles being leased is also at an all-time high. To call these “auto sales” strains credibility. These people are either perpetually renting their vehicles or just driving them until the repo man shows up.

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TRUTH – THE CURE FOR COGNITIVE DISSONANCE

“In a time of deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act.” ― George Orwell

Every time the BLS puts out their monthly propaganda report on the wonderful state of the U.S. jobs market and states with a straight face the unemployment rate is a measly 5.5%, their corporate mouthpieces in the mainstream cheerleader media regurgitate the fake numbers and urge you to buy stocks. The millionaire talking heads on CNBC and the corrupt bought off politicians in D.C. make broad sweeping declarations about economic recovery, strong job growth, GDP advancement, record highs in the stock market, and soaring consumer confidence.

The people living in the real world know otherwise, but they want to believe the “experts” and “leaders”. This dichotomy between reality and what they are being told is causing a tremendous amount of mental stress. This cognitive dissonance of attempting to reconcile what they are experiencing in their every day existence and the propaganda being peddled at them on a daily basis from big media, big bankers, corporate titans, and captured politicians pulling the strings and running the show, is causing psychological discomfort. Most people want their lives to get better, so to reduce their cognitive dissonance they choose to believe the government and media reports about economic improvement.

It is only a small minority who want to know the unvarnished truth. They are drawn to alternative media websites, which the the captured corporate media refers to as doom sites. These critical thinking individuals understand the facts. The Deep State propaganda has no impact on these people because they have no cognitive dissonance. They know things are far worse than what is reported by the government and their media whores. Knowing the truth and seeing how the majority remain willfully ignorant results in rising anger among truth seekers. Huxley was right.

“You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you mad.” ― Aldous Huxley

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RENTERS R US

About that housing recovery. The U.S. population has grown by 8% since 2005, while the number of households has grown by 5%. In addition to the weak overall household growth, due to stagnant wages, massive student loan debt, and only Obama shit service jobs, there have been no new owner occupied households. The number of owner occupied households is down 1%, while the number of rental households has soared by 16%.

The home ownership rate is now at a two decade low and sits at the same level it did in 1970, before Nixon closed the gold window and unleashed a debt and inflation tsunami upon our nation. The Federal Reserve solution to every bubble they create is to print enough to create another bubble. They have expanded their balance sheet by almost 600% since 2008, and have succeeded in crushing the middle class, senior citizens, and young people who should be buying their first homes.

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Woman Showcased by Obama in SOTU is a Former Democratic Campaign Staffer

Hat tip Thinker

Are Obama’s minions so lazy they just get a recycled Democrat prop they’ve used before as their example of middle class America?

Via American Free Beacon

Woman apparently the only economic success story in Obama’s America

First lady Michelle Obama with State of the Union guest Rebekah Erler / AP

BY: Brent Scher
January 21, 2015 12:07 pm

The woman whose story of economic recovery was showcased by President Barack Obama in his State of the Union address is a former Democratic campaign staffer and has been used by Obama for political events in the past.

Rebekah Erler has been presented by the White House as a woman who was discovered by the president after she wrote to him last March about her economic hardships. She was showcased in the speech as proof that middle class Americans are coming forward to say that Obama’s policies are working.

Unmentioned in the White House bio of Erler is that she is a former Democratic campaign operative, working as a field organizer for Sen. Patty Murray (D., Wash.).

This also wasn’t the first time the White House used the former Democratic campaign staffer as a political prop. Obama spent a “day in the life” of Erler in June so that he could have “an opportunity to communicate directly with the people he’s working for every day.”

Reuters revealed Erler’s Democratic affiliations following that June event, and the Minnesota Republican Party attacked Obama for being “so out of touch with reality that he thinks a former Democrat campaign staffer speaks for every Minnesotan.”

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F#@KFLATION

Every day you hear the boobs on CNBC and the rest of the mindless mainstream media regurgitating the Federal Reserve concerns about deflation, as if lower prices somehow hurt the lives of Americans. Who doesn’t like lower prices? Are people really pissed off that gasoline has dropped from $3.60 a gallon to $3.00 in the last four months? The BLS manipulated, massaged, and adjusted bullshit CPI number says there is virtually no inflation. It is heavily weighted towards a made up housing calculation and would only show an increase if people actually got wage increases. The lack of wage inflation, combined with high inflation for food, utilities, rent, tuition, and healthcare has created a new flation – FUCKFLATION. The middle class gets fucked, while the bankers and oligarchs drink champagne, eat caviar, and conduct interviews with CNBC about their fears of deflation.

Guest Post by Anthony Sanders

Inflation? House Prices, Beef, Big Macs And Wages (Beef UP 74% Since 2009, Wage Growth DOWN 45%)

If we look at the YoY growth in the Consumer Price Index (CPI), the “inflation” rate in the US is 1.7%.

Since December 2008, beef prices have risen 74%. House prices have risen “only” 17%, chicken has risen 18.5%. Meanwhile, real median household income has fallen 4.6% and average wage growth has fallen 45%.

Of course, house prices have really skyrocketed since 2012 (UP 30% since end of Q4 2011) even though wage growth remains stagnant (at little more than the stated inflation rate).

Then we have McDonald’s Big Mac! Since President Obama took office, Big Mac prices have risen 34.5% (while real median household income has declined 4.6%).

Here is a chart of currency adjusted Big Mac prices.

For those of you that have never eaten at McDonald’s or had a Big Mac, here is the image of a Big Mac … and the reality.

At least “Le Big Mac” holds it form better than Burger King’s “Whopper.”

So, there you have it. The US allegedly has virtually no inflation, yet house, beef, chicken and Big Mac prices keeps shooting up through the roof.

But then again, so has college tuition and medical costs, ALL with falling/stagnant wage income.

IT’S GOOD TO BE RICH

After reviewing the following charts I’ve concluded it is better to be rich than poor. There is no question the gap between the richest and poorest is widening. The facts show the rich getting richer, the poor staying poor, and the middle class becoming poorer. You’ll be happy to know pleasure aircraft was the fastest-growing category of all consumer spending in 2013. I guess those food stamp users are living it up.

The facts don’t lie. The lies happen when you ask people why.

Why is this happening?

Destruction of America’s Middle Class

Guest Post by Anthony Sanders

America’s middle class is having a difficult time. They are not sharing equally in the Fed-induced stock market surge and real median household income is the lowest since 1995.

Rising home prices (albeit slowing), stagnant wage growth and rising mortgage rates are leading to a decline in home affordability.

Take the National Association of Realtors Homebuyer Affordability Index. You can see that UNaffordability peaked in 2006 when home prices peaked and real median household income was recovering from the 2001 recession.

You can also see that AFFORDABILITY peaked in 2012 after home price declined and mortgage rates hit a low since 2000. Unfortunately, real median household income had also fallen preventing a true housing recovery.

Mortgage purchase applications remain at a 14 year low (like real median household income, mortgage purchase applications are back to 1995 levels). This results in an affordability gap due to rising home prices, rising mortgage rates and declining/stagnant income.

Unless members of the American Middle Class over substantial holdings of the S&P 500 and/or Commercial Real Estate, there massive Federal Reserve asset purchases and interest rate repression scheme has NOT helped the Middle Class.

Is loosening credit standards the answer? Do you think Federal housing policy should heap MORE debt on households that are already suffering from the aftermath of a housing/credit bubble that burst? I would say no.

The solution is not more debt, it is adopting policies that allow that economy and wages to grow. Not stifle recovery.

So, like in the movie “The Incredible Burt Wonderstone,” we have succeeded in making the Middle Class disappear!