Let's time travel back 25 years to when the Idiocracy was still in its infancy. In 1986, the year I graduated from High School, who would have predicted:
1) The U.S. deficit would reach over 10% of the U.S. economy WHILE the economy was deemed to be in "expansion"
Meanwhile, who would think we could find so many moron economists having the audacity to attest to an "expanding" economy while the U.S. was still borrowing 10% of said economy to maintain such illusion?
i.e. With a 2% growth rate, an honest man would have to say we are in an 8% recession saved only by the fact of massive Federal borrowing.
2) Who would predict Corporate profits would be at record highs, yet unemployment would be above 9% "officially" and much higher in reality?
In other words, all that money the Federal Government is borrowing is falling straight to the Corporate bottom line, bypassing the real economy and Middle Class entirely.
Yet, who gets stuck with the fucking tab for all that debt? The Middle Class.
3) Who would predict the U.S. would be monetizing 2/3 of its unprecedented deficit and yet interest rates on 10 year Treasury bond would still be at only 3.5% and core inflation would be quiescent.
A decent car still costs about $15-$20k. Prices of tv sets have collapsed. Housing prices are in renewed decline.
I bought a brand new Honda CRX in 1988 and paid $13k (on the road). I can go out right now and buy a new Honda Coupe starting at $15.5k!!! Not exactly what I would call heavy duty inflation, thanks to 23 years of relentless outsourcing.
i.e. the burgeoning signs of deflation are all around us, but silver/gold speculators are so blinded by greed that all we hear about is inflation. Who doesn't think this precious metals bubble isn't going to end badly, like the last dozen bubbles? i.e. when everyone finally figures out Ben Bernanke is just the fucking Wizard of Oz.
4) Who would predict the U.S. would be monetizing deficits, gold would be at an all time high, half the Middle East would be in revolutionary turmoil, the U.S. would STILL be fighting two multi-year wars in the region and yet oil while breaching $100, would be lower than it was 3 years earlier !!!
i.e. more nascent deflation. When oil rises, it's not inflationary, it's deflationary, because it sucks money out of the U.S. economy. The price of oil goes up, the price of everything else goes down.
5) Who would predict that despite all of the above, the stock market would be within a few % of a multi-year high and the "risk trade" would be on in full force?
- Well, given Wall Street's short-term oriented obsession with greed and Bernanke's QE2 feed bag still dangling in front of them, I guess we could have put even money on that one.
Half of Europe is teetering on imminent sovereign default. All it would take is for one failed debt auction to trigger investor panic and default. One default will fell the rest like dominoes: Portugal->Spain->Greece->Ireland->Italy->Hungary...etc. Wall Street is oblivious.
Speaking of stock market lunacy, Dick Arms (creator of the Arms Index/Trin) put out a great report this week at TheStreet.com discussing how the current stock market conditions are very similar to those attending the Crash of 1987 and this past April's "Flash Crash"...except that current conditions are even more precarious...
The financial panic of 2008 was a trivial event compared to what is about to come. That crisis should have been a wake up call to our dithering policy makers. And yet, in the meantime not one policy of substance has been changed. To the contrary, risks have only been amplified substantially, and shifted from the financial sector to the sovereign national level, putting the entire global economic system at risk.
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In line with my time tripping theme, I was downloading some new iTunes music last night and came across this forgotten gem from my grad year that is most appropriate at this juncture.
This is dedicated to the late Ayn Rand and all of her godless, greed worshipping Neo Con acolytes. History will not be kind, nor will the gathering mob...
SHIP OF FOOLS [World Party]
We're setting sail
To the place on the map from which no one has ever returned
Torn by the promise of the joker and the fool
By the light of the crosses that burn
Torn by the promise of the women and the lace
And the gold and the cotton and pearls
It's the place where they keep all the darkness you meet
You sail away from the light of the world on this trip
You will pay tomorrow
You're gonna pay tomorrow
You will pay tomorrow
Save me, save me from tomorrow
I don't want to sail with this ship of fools, no no
Oh, save me, save me from tomorrow
I don't want to sail with this ship of fools, no no
I want to run and hide
Right now
Avarice and greed are gonna drive you over the endless sea
They will leave you drifting in the shallows
Drowning in the oceans of history
Travellin' the world, you're in search of no good
But I'm sure you'll build your Sodom like I knew you would
Using all the good people for your galley slaves
As your little boat struggles through the warning waves
But you will pay, you will pay tomorrow
You're gonna pay tomorrow
You're gonna pay tomorrow
Save me, save me from tomorrow
I don't want to sail with this ship of fools, no
Oh, save me, save me from tomorrow
I don't want to sail with this ship of fools, no
Where's it comin' from or where's it goin' to?
It's just a - it's just a ship of fools
All Aboard now
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World Party: Wallinger, Karl
