MSM – Page 3 – The Burning Platform

HARD TIMES & FALSE NARRATIVES

The mainstream media mouthpieces for the establishment peddle false narratives, disingenuous storylines, and outright propaganda to keep the ignorant masses confused, oblivious to reality, misinformed, and passively submissive to the opinions of highly paid “experts” and captured fiscal authorities. The existing social order likes things just as they are.

They reap ill-gotten riches, wield unchecked power, and control the minds of the masses. They are the invisible government consciously manipulating the minds, habits and opinions of the multitudes in order to dominate society, control the levers of government, and accumulate obscene levels of wealth through manipulation of the currency and domination of the banking and corporate interests.

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One of the false narratives being flogged by the establishment propaganda peddlers is the mass retirement of Baby Boomers causing the plunge in the employment to population rate from 64.4% in 2000 to 59.7% today. They need to peddle this drivel, because the difference between these two rates amounts to 12 million missing jobs. The employment to population ratio is currently at 1984 levels. Any critical thinking person with basic math skills realizes the government reported unemployment rate of 5% is an Orwellian farce.

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ABOUT THOSE “STRONG” RETAIL SALES

I get tired discrediting the MSM narrative of economic recovery, but I feel it’s my duty to set people straight. There were blaring headlines about the much better than expected retail sales in April. I find it humorous watching the government report this drivel and the MSM unquestioningly regurgitating it to the ignorant masses as retailer after retailer reports absolutely atrocious results.

Let’s dissect the bullshit report from the Census Bureau. They said retail sales went up 1.3% in April over March. Unless you delve into the actual report, you don’t know this is a seasonally adjusted number. On an unadjusted basis retail sales fell by 2%. But, for the sake of consistency I’ll use their adjusted numbers.

Total retail sales rose from $447.8 billion in March to $453.4 billion in April, an increase of $5.6 billion. That’s a 1.26% increase. Let’s breakdown our increase.

It seems $2.9 billion of that increase came from auto “sales”. That’s 52% of the total retail sales increase. So, desperate auto manufacturers with inventory piling sky high on their lots are doling out more subprime 7 year loans, 0% down leases, and offering massive rebate incentives to rid themselves of inventory. This is supposed to be some sort of positive development proving the consumer is back?

Remember those low gas prices? It seems the 30% increase in prices has boosted retail spending at gas stations by $700 million in one month and $1.7 billion over the last two months. Gas station sales increases account for another 13% of the monthly increase. So, 65% of the jump in retail sales is accounted for.

Another $550 million was produced at grocery stores, as food prices have jumped 20% since the beginning of the year. Paying more for less food is surely a sign of economic progress. Food is another 10% of the increase.

Lastly, the death of bricks and mortar retailers is further confirmed by the $900 million increase in on-line sales, as department store sales fell again.

In conclusion, the “awesome” increase in retail sales was essentially due to inflation in energy and food, with debt financed “renting” out of overpriced vehicles as the kicker. Sales at discretionary retailers like restaurants, sporting goods, electronics, and furniture stores were either flat or down. The MSM bullshit is a lie.

Initial Jobless Claims Soar Most In 11 Years To 15-Month Highs

The last nail in the MSM narrative of economic recovery. Jobs are always a lagging indicator. The retailer results this week have been disastrous. Kohl’s and Macy’s shit the bed. Consumers aren’t spending money they don’t have anymore. All those Obama jobs barely pay the bills. Obamacare is bankrupting small businesses and using all those gas savings windfalls. Now companies are handing out pink slips at a rapid pace, while gas prices have surged by 30% in the last three months. Best time to buy stocks. Right?

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 05/12/2016 08:36 -0400

The last great hope indicator of the bullish narrative appears to have broken as today’s initial jobless claims soars 20k to 294k – the highest since Feb 2015. Seemingly confirming the dismal payroll print, one can only wonder how long before this catches ‘down’ to the weakness in PMI/ISM survey employment data and the hard macro data. The last 3 weeks have seen initial claims soar by the most since 2005…

This is the first time claims have risen YoY since Nov 2012…

Catch ‘up’ time…

It begins!

Asset Performance for the First Four Months of 2016 – Hi Ho Silver

Guest Post by Jesse

“Day by day the money-masters of America become more aware of their danger, they draw together, they grow more class-conscious, more aggressive. The [first world] war has taught them the possibilities of propaganda ; it has accustomed them to the idea of enormous campaigns which sway the minds of millions and make them pliable to any purpose.

American political corruption was the buying up of legislatures and assemblies to keep them from doing the people’s will and protecting the people’s interests; it was the exploiter entrenching himself in power, it was financial autocracy undermining and destroying political democracy. By the blindness and greed of ruling classes the people have been plunged into infinite misery.”

Upton Sinclair, The Brass Check

“It’s not just political spin, however, that explains the rose-colored coverage [in the media]. Another explanation is that the media is plain stupid — quick to accept guidance from economists on Wall Street, for example, who have a vested interest in making everything wonderful.”

John Crudele, Americans Have Not Gotten a Raise In 16 Years

“It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.”

Upton Sinclair, I, Candidate for Governor: And How I Got Licked

Just a fine time we’re having in the great divide of wealth and power, masked and sustained by the lack of real reform and the credibility trap.

Speaking of ‘stupid media’ blithely passing along the spin from the Wall Street paper pushers, what assets outperformed stocks in the first four months of 2016?

Survey says: pet rocks.

WHY IS THE MSM COVERING UP RECESSIONARY DATA?

The Census Bureau put out their monthly retail sales report this morning. During good times, the MSM would be hailing the tremendous increases as proof the consumer was flush with cash and all was well with the economy. Considering 70% of our GDP is dependent upon consumer spending, you would think this data point would be pretty important in judging how well Americans are really doing.

It’s not perfect, because the issuance of debt to consumers to purchase autos, furniture, appliances and electronics can juice the retail sales numbers and create the false impression of strength. That’s what has been going on with auto sales for the last two years.

The retail sales figures have been propped up by the issuance of subprime auto loans to deadbeats, 7 year 0% interest loans to good credit customers, and an all-time high in leases (aka 3 year rentals). Despite this Fed induced auto loan scheme, retail sales have still been pitiful, as the average American has been left with stagnant wages, 0% interest on their minuscule savings, surging rent and home prices, and drastic increases in their healthcare costs due to Obamacare.

The retail sales for March, reported this morning, were disastrous and further confirmed a myriad of other economic indicators that the country is in recession. GDP for the first quarter will be negative. And this time they can’t blame it on snow in the winter. They have already doubly seasonally adjusted the figures, and they will still be negative. Retail sales in the first quarter were atrocious. It might make a critical thinking person question the establishment storyline of solid job growth being peddled by politicians and their MSM mouthpieces. If people had good paying jobs, they would be spending money.

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Hillary Clinton’s ‘insurmountable’ lead is fuzzy math

Guest Post by Darrell Delamaide

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — The mainstream media is misleading the public by adopting a “fuzzy math” in treating the delegate counts for the Democratic nominating convention as carved in stone.

Given its bias against Donald Trump, the media are happy to parrot the Republican establishment’s prediction that their convention in Cleveland will be an “open convention” — that is, open to manipulation by the apparatchiks and the rules they set.

By the same token, given its pronounced bias in favor of Hillary Clinton, the media gladly repeat the spin of the Clinton campaign and the Democratic establishment by portraying that party’s contest as essentially over.

Not only compromised television anchors like MSNBC’s Chris Matthews, whose wife is drawing support from various Clintonites in her bid for a congressional seat in Maryland, are implying that the Democratic frontrunner’s lead in delegates is insurmountable. As a rule, pundits and even print reporters glibly adopt the inevitability spin.

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THE BOOMER RETIREMENT MEME IS A BIG LIE

As the labor participation rate and employment to population ratio linger near three decade lows, the mouthpieces for the establishment continue to perpetuate the Big Lie this is solely due to the retirement of Boomers. It’s their storyline and they’ll stick to it, no matter what the facts show to be the truth. Even CNBC lackeys, government apparatchiks, and Ivy League educated Keynesian economists should be able to admit that people between the ages of 25 and 54 should be working, unless they are home raising children.

In the year 2000, at the height of the first Federal Reserve induced bubble, there were 120 million Americans between the ages of 25 and 54, with 78 million of them employed full-time. That equated to a 65% full-time employment rate. By the height of the second Federal Reserve induced bubble, there were 80 million full-time employed 25 to 54 year olds out of 126 million, a 63.5% employment rate. The full-time employment rate bottomed at 57% in 2010, and still lingers below 62% as we are at the height of a third Federal Reserve induced bubble.

Chart via econimica

Over the last 16 years the percentage of 25 to 54 full-time employed Americans has fallen from 65% to 62%. I guess people are retiring much younger, if you believe the MSM storyline. Over this same time period the total full-time employment to population ratio has fallen from 53% to 48.8%. The overall labor participation rate peaked in 2000 at 67.1% and stayed steady between 66% and 67% for the next eight years. But this disguised the ongoing decline in the participation rate of men.

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WHAT ARE THESE PEOPLE DOING?

The two charts below may explain why, despite the propaganda about low unemployment, tremendous job growth and the retirement of Boomers explaining the lower participation rate, the economy is in recession, the middle class is pissed off, and the smell of revolution is in the air. When one in four Americans in the prime working years of 25 to 54 are not working, you’ve got a problem. What are 28.9 million people in the prime of their lives doing, if they are not working for a living. Sure some women are staying home to raise their kids, but how many two parent families can afford to get by on one income these days?

Just based on the historical record of employment to population ratios, the country is short by 3 million to 5 million jobs in this key demographic category. This has nothing to do with Boomers or retirement. Any man between the ages of 25 and 54 years old who is not truly disabled should be working. If they are not, they are either a good for nothing lazy free shitter, or the complete destruction of our blue collar industries by politicians, bankers, and corporate CEOs has left men with no remaining options.

In 1970, 96% of males between the ages of 25 and 54 were participating in the workforce and 93% were employed. Today, only 88% of males between the ages of 25 and 54 are participating in the workforce and only 83% are employed. What are the 12% of males in their prime working years doing, if they’re not working? Even the female participation rate for 25 to 54 year olds is the lowest in almost a quarter century.

I believe this data is at the gist of Trump’s growing popularity. You have a portion of the 25 to 54 population not working because they choose to not work. They are essentially members of the free shit army and expect the producers to pay their way. They will vote Clinton or Sanders. Then there are middle class 25 to 54 year olds who have been laid off because their companies shipped the jobs overseas or the overwhelming tax and regulatory burdens imposed by Obama and his minions have put companies out of business resulting in more layoffs.

Men and women in the prime of their life not working get very angry and frustrated. That anger is bubbling over and the MSM and establishment politicians are shocked because their luxurious secluded lives are unaffected. They will be flabbergasted when Trump wins the presidency on this wave of anger and frustration.

Press & Politicians Are The Problem

Guest Post by Martin Armstrong

The elitist press are starting to realize that they are the problem. “Trump voters are a coalition of the dispossessed. They have suffered lost jobs, lost wages, lost dreams. The American system is not working for them, so naturally they are looking for something else. Moreover, many in the media, especially me, did not understand how they would express their alienation. We expected Trump to fizzle because we were not socially intermingled with his supporters and did not listen carefully enough. For me, it’s a lesson that I have to change the way I do my job if I’m going to report accurately on this country,” wrote David Brooks of the New York Times who had endorsed Obama.

This is why I call the people the “great unwashed” because politicians and journalists are disconnected from reality, and combined, they will absolutely bring about the collapse of the United States. We will, no doubt, see the USA ultimately split into at least four separate nations that are divided but still “united” as states. It has been set in motion by this elitist, socialistic bullshit, and the people are stupid enough to listen to whatever they preach as they line their pockets. I am not writing about this from afar. I have even attended the White House Correspondence Dinner where the president came and delivered a speech. So I have been inside, but I am also on the outside for I read the tea leaves of the economy; not what Harvard professors teach.

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A Long, Hot Summer is Coming

Guest Post by Eric Peters

Whatever happens, it’s going to get ugly.

If Trump is nominated, there will be riots – the Perpetually (and professionally) Aggrieved will take to the streets.

If Trump is denied the nomination, there will be riots – as the people come face to face with the true nature of the system they were taught to respect since childhood.

Not since 1861 has America been so clearly divided. These divisions transcend mere political differences of opinion over this or that policy. There is a fundamental schism. Irreconcilable differences. The two sides detest each other, have almost nothing in common. And so can no longer live together.

Trump has been likened to Hitler – which is unfair. He is no Hitler. He is a crony capitalist and some other things, too. Mussolini, maybe.

But he isn’t Hitler.

However, he is riding a wave – make that a tsunami – similar to the one that led to the chancellorship of the German Reich (as it was styled in those days) falling into the hands of the former gefreiter. The people of Germany had been driven to a state of desperation and frenzy by decades of economic evisceration of their country and thus, of themselves. Their country had been ruled over by a revolving, insular cabal of greedheads and frauds, some nothing more than puppets of financial interests, who milked the cow for their and their masters’ benefit.

Sound familiar?

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Here Is The Math: Trump “Almost Certain” To Win Republican Nomination Before Convention

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 03/18/2016 08:26 -0400

First it was all a joke. A media sideshow. A publicity stunt that no one really understood the purpose of.

Donald Trump was actually going to run for President. His campaign slogan: “Make America Great Again.” It was laughable.

Soon after the billionaire announced his candidacy, his nascent bid for the White House took on a more serious tone, but not because anyone was taking him more seriously. Rather, because his comments about Mexican immigrants were so inflammatory that it was difficult to dismiss them with derisive humor.

From that point on, it was all downhill for the GOP establishment. Trump racked up popular support, defying every law of conventional politics along the way.

Each and every time analysts and pundits doubted him, he prevailed and that unlikely momentum carried right over into the caucuses and primaries and now, after Super Tuesday 3, Trump has effectively knocked out every Republican challenger except Ted Cruz (let’s face it, Kasich isn’t going to get the nod).

Still, all commentators and political “experts” want to talk about is a contested Republican convention in Cleveland. While that’s certainly an interesting outcome to consider as it forces us to look back at political history to understand the precedent and what that precedent might mean come July, it’s as if no one has learned anything from the past nine months.

That is, the assumption should probably be that Trump is going to lock up the nomination before the convention, not that they’ll be some kind of historic bid to rob him in four months. The media – both liberal and conservative – act as though it’s virtually impossible for him to make it to 1,237 delegates. We’re talking about a guy here who no one thought would even register in terms of poll numbers and now he’s the overwhelming favorite.

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ESTABLISHMENT GREEN LIGHTS ASSASSINATION OF TRUMP

Guest Post by Ol’ Remus

Obama said, during a 2008 Philadelphia fund raiser, “If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun.” There was no gasp in disbelief, everyone knew it was a real threat backed by the Big Red Machine and their news-fixing journos. Later he added, “I want you to talk to them whether they are independent or whether they are Republican. I want you to argue with them and get in their face!”

He could safely assume the Republican leadership were mewling wusses, when not outright accomplices, and at the first hint of Bolshevik terror they’d grovel and back peddle and apologize, then go on hostile talk shows to get kicked around as an act of public contrition. They seem to like it.

By way of evidence, here are quotes from some Republican party leaders in outright support of the flash-mobs deployed to shut down Donald Trump’s appearance in Chicago. Via the Daily Mail :

Ted Cruz: “When the candidate urges supporters to engage in physical violence, to punch people in the face, the predictable consequence of that is that is escalates. Today is unlikely to be the last such incidence.”

Marco Rubio: Trump is not entirely to blame for tonight’s events but the Republican front-runner “does bear responsibility for other things that have happened at his events”

John Kasich: “Tonight the seeds of division that Donald Trump has been sowing this whole campaign finally bore fruit, and it was ugly.”

Compare these with Hillary Clinton’s statement , “The ugly, divisive rhetoric we are hearing from Donald Trump and the encouragement of violence and aggression is wrong, and it’s dangerous.” Same words. Same people. Same as always.

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VOTING TO DESTROY THE ESTABLISHMENT

“The inability to predict outliers implies the inability to predict the course of history”
― Nassim Nicholas Taleb, The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable

“I know that history is going to be dominated by an improbable event, I just don’t know what that event will be.” ― Nassim Nicholas Taleb, The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable

Nassim Taleb is a prickly arrogant SOB who doesn’t give a crap what intellectuals, academics, and other establishment elitists think about him. He has an Ivy league MBA, but despises everything about the curriculum of Ivy League MBA programs. He has a PhD, but scorns academics and their worship of theories and models. He enjoys poking holes in the storylines of the propaganda spewing corporate media. He glories in ridiculing the predictions of captured “experts” mouthing the talking points of whichever corporate interest is paying them blood money.

I read his brilliant Black Swan book back in 2008. It was a difficult read, but there were so many gems of wisdom throughout the book, it was a powerful tome predicting the financial collapse in real time. He wrote it in 2006. He understands the world doesn’t operate the way Ivy League models say it is supposed to operate. The world is propelled by black swans, not a normal distribution of the world. He was right in 2006 and he’s right now. The paragraph below has been making the rounds in the alternate media this past week. The establishment media would never publicize it, as their job is to protect the crumbling social order.