There's far too little of
it around. TV talking heads shun it. All's well in the world, they say.
They don't dare report accurately. Their jobs depend on manipulative deception.
Financial truisms bear repeating. Money creation madness assures
trouble. Irrational exuberance follows. So do bubbles.
Imploding is just a matter of time. The bigger they are, the harder
they fall. It happened in 2000 and 2008. Perhaps this year or next is
3.0. The fullness of time will tell. Excess creates its own demise.
New era rhetoric doesn't wash. Market analyst Bob Farrell's Rule
Number Three says "There are no new eras - excesses are never permanent."
Reality has final say. It arrives in its own due course. Often it's
when least expected.
On February 22, market analyst Marc Faber said stock markets peaked.
At the same time, bonds may rebound. "I think we have made an intermediate
top, and it could be a longer-term" one, he believes.
Markets are "significant(ly) overextended." Bullish sentiment is
extreme. "Everybody says 'sell bonds, buy equities.' And when everybody
thinks alike, one has to be careful."
Recent Fed minutes gave readers pause. Divisive opinions were expressed.
Hawks want QE ended or at least substantially reduced.
Concerns were raised about "potential costs and risks arising from
further asset purchases." Complications may result.
Longterm policy accommodation risks inflation. "(F)urther asset
purchases could foster market behavior that could undermine financial
stability."
"(I)t could expose the Federal Reserve to significant capital losses
when these holdings (are) unwound."
"Several participants emphasized that the (Open Market) Committee
should be prepared to vary the pace of asset purchases, either in response
to changes in the economic outlook or as its evaluation of the efficacy
and costs of such purchases evolved."
"(A) number of participants stated that an ongoing evaluation of
the efficacy, costs, and risks of asset purchases might well lead the
Committee to taper or end its purchases before it judged that a substantial
improvement in the outlook for the labor market had occurred."
It's nowhere in sight. It'll deteriorate further before improving.
It may do so significantly. Protracted Main Street depression continues.
Bad policies produce bad results. Experimenting with near-zero interest
rates failed. Nothing ahead looks promising.
Global economic slowdown is real. Most areas show it. The entire
EU is troubled. Germany, France and Britain are mired in recession. Southern
euro countries face protracted depression.
The European Commission predicts back-to-back year declines for
the first time. The Financial Times called it a "grim economic picture."
At issue is rising unemployment, lower consumer spending, less business
spending and investment, and force-fed austerity.
Japan entered its third recession since 2008. Chinese, Indian, and
Brazilian growth rates fell by half. Fourth quarter 2012 US growth was
virtually zero.
Walmart may be the canary in the coal mine. It reported its worst
monthly sales start in seven years. Company vice president Jerry Murray
called them "a total disaster."
At issue are higher payroll taxes, rising energy and food prices,
less consumer credit, exhausted savings, punishing austerity, and much
more to come.
Perhaps a tipping point approaches. Currency wars loom. Waging them
assures trouble. Competitive devaluations reveal dire economic conditions.
During the Great Depression, devaluation by fiat deepened hard times.
It extended them. In 2010 and 2011, wage cuts tried to boost exports.
Fed, ECB, Bank of England, and Bank of Japan QE try doing so now.
It's a duplicitous money grab. It's robbing poor Peter to pay rich Paul.
It's official policy. It's got nothing to do with stimulating growth.
Monetary policy has limits. An ancient proverb perhaps explains.
"Those whom the gods wish to destroy they first make mad." Perhaps they
had central bankers in mind.
Money printing madness substitutes for stimulative growth policies.
Coordinated central bank intervention repeats what hasn't worked before.
Speculation follows. So do bubbles.
It bears repeating. They all burst. The bigger they are, the louder
the pop.
Economies bereft of stimulus stumble. Conditions are worse now than
earlier. Force-fed austerity assures decline. Living standard deteriorate.
Societies aren't fit to live in. Bankers, war profiteers, other corporate
favorites, and super-rich elites alone benefit.
The longer fiscal pain continues, the closer an ultimate day of
reckoning approaches. It'll arrive disruptively. People take only so much
before reacting.
Consumers can't make ends meet. Inflation-adjusted median household
income is declining. Extremes in income dispersion usually foreshadow
financial/economic/market trouble.
Global economies are weak. Deteriorating conditions are accelerating.
Trouble assures more of it.
Consumer spending is slowing. So is business inventory accumulation.
Small business confidence is falling. Operating revenue forecasts portend
major slowing.
Productivity is collapsing. Currency wars exacerbate conditions.
Lower government spending comes when more is needed. Higher taxes don't
help.
Polyannish forecasts abound. They've been wrong four straight years.
Talking head economists lie. They're well paid to do so.
EU leaders haven't accepted reality. Its two biggest pillars are
troubled. France suffers from lack of competitiveness. It's economy began
to implode. Wealthy business people are leaving. Investment's drying up
fast.
Germany's in protracted slowdown. Eurozone troubles impact it greatly.
Warning signs abound. Europe resembles a house of cards. Cronyism and
fraud replaced trust and transparency.
Reality is swept under the rug. No one gives a damn. Spain's Prime
Minister Mariano Rajoy just warned "There are no green shoots. There is
no spring."
Its entire banking system is troubled. So is its sovereign debt.
It managed 2012 by tapping 90% of its social security fund to buy it.
Over 200 billion euros in new debt must be financed. How remains to be
seen. Banks are net sellers. Investors are wary.
Default looks more likely. Doing so will be multiples greater than
Lehman's collapse. Things look likely to get ugly. When is anyone's guess.
Debt problems aren't solved by adding more of it.
Economist John Williams predicts a massive May dollar sell-off.
Other countries will dump them for safer currencies. Collapse he believes
may follow.
Washington has weeks to get its fiscal house in order. Williams
calculates FY 2012 deficit at $6.9 trillion. That much more was spent
than collected in taxes. America is bankrupt he says.
Real growth hasn't occurred for five years. Prior to 2008's financial
crisis, consumers compensated for declining incomes by taking on debt.
Banks now freeze credit. Housing values are stagnant. Most Americans
have no new revenues sources. Polls show they expect to spend less. It's
their only viable choice.
Nothing ahead looks positive. Global slowing exacerbates crisis
conditions. Force-fed austerity assures it. Money printing madness delayed
day of reckoning time.
Economies were wrecked in the process. So were millions of lives.
People haven't enough to live on. Policymakers plan making things worse.
Austerity represents bad economics and moral failure. Let-eat-cake economics
doesn't work. It sparks revolutions.
They don't turn out much better. Things often change but stay the
same. Europe is sinking. So is the American dream. For most it was largely
illusory. Now it's disappearing altogether. A nightmare replaced it.
Cutting back when stimulus is needed is madness. Doing so assures
decline. For most people, it's the worst of all possible worlds. Middle
class societies are destroyed. Neoserfdom replaces them. Public anger
follows.
Social inequality defines immorality. It's also bad economics. Stimulus
improves lives. Jobs are created. All boats are lifted. When people have
money they spend it. Hard times forces belt-tightening.
Obama embraces the worst of bad government. He's pro-corporate and
soulless. He's a moral coward. He's amoral, wicked, lawless and uncaring.
He's beholden to powerful monied interests. They own him. He assures
protracted hard times.
How much more ordinary people will take they'll have to explain.
Perhaps they'll become more assertive. It's high time they defended their
own interests. No one will do it for them.
Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.
His new book is titled "Banker Occupation: Waging Financial War
on Humanity."
http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanII.html
Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge
discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour
on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and
Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.
http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour
http://www.dailycensored.com/more-economic-straight-talk/
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