Despite record money printing, the jobs market still hasn't "turned the corner". No kidding. As long as today's policy-making morons think that money printing is the secret to effortless wealth then multinationals and frat boys will have free rein to continue their asset/industry/jobs liquidation.
Where are the jobs? It's a Fucking Mystery !
The other good news besides new McJobs in China is that the U.S. unemployment rate fell to 6.7% from 7% because fully 347,000 people gave up looking for work in December. You can't make this shit up. The politically manipulated Bureau of Labor Statistics in its infinite wisdom decided (years ago) to calculate the jobless rate solely based upon active job seekers. At this rate, we will be heading to zero % unemployment in no time. In the meantime, Obama and the other thought dealers of today will continue to declare "Mission Accomplished" on their totally bogus economic (non) recovery.
The Rise and Fall of Great Powers Redux
Not by mere coincidence, we just got news today that China has now surpassed the U.S. as the world's largest trading nation. It turns out that their policy of export mercantilism has worked out extremely well for them. Granted, it has turned a large portion of their country into indentured factory slaves, however, from the elitist standpoint, not withstanding wholly unlivable cities due to smog and pollution, the "program" has been a smashing success. This entire sequence of events could be taken verbatim from any decent history book. U.S. policy-makers have blundered their way straight into repeating the exact same hubristic mistakes that every former great power has made since the beginning of time.
A Total Void of Leadership
The root cause of all of this of course is this society's widely accepted veneration of greed - an overriding preoccupation with mass consumption - and of course an abject failure of leadership. Given that Congressional approval ratings now stand at 12%, can we really expect any different? Would the Founding Father's believe that any system could function properly with that much distrust in its leaders? I highly doubt it. This article posted yesterday shows the ever-growing discontent with the current political order and the self serving two-party duopoly. Voters identifying themselves as Independent now outnumber party-affiliated voters by an historically massive margin. It's all part of the burgeoning realization that politics is not the solution, it's the problem. Currently, economic Plan "A" consists of doing exactly what was done leading up to 2008 and Lehman, however with ten times more leverage in every direction - fiscal, monetary, industrial. Plan "B" of course, is that there is no Plan "B".
Today's Best and Brightest Are Neither
Digging even deeper, we come to realize that the educational system is failing society by achieving the exact opposite outcome for which it was intended i.e. bankrupting more people than it's enriching. Yesterday, we were reminded that the ROI for a college education for most young people graduating in this era will likely be deeply if not catastrophically negative given that student loans can't be discharged in bankruptcy. Garbage covenant-lite bonds issued by speculative companies can be discharged, but not student loans. Worse yet, as the article states, today's graduates with bachelor's degrees are no smarter than people without degrees. You don't say. We are graduating charismatic frat boys and rote test takers, all of whom have been brainwashed in academic alchemy having zero relevance to the real world. University education was never about giving people relevant skills, it was always about creating a hierarchical social order. Outside of medicine and engineering most college degrees are totally theoretical, having little or no relevance to the real world. Higher education today is just an extremely deluded form of mental masturbation. Anyone with a finance degree has to ditch at least half of what they learned just to be effective in a real job. Anyone who actually believes the theory, will inevitably blow something up - exactly what the Nobel-Prize winning academics at Long Term Capital Management (LTCM) did in 1998 when they almost took down the world financial system. Sounds familiar, since we've only been subjected to about four rounds of Wall Street's academic-inspired chicanery just in the past fifteen years. How many fucking times do we have to see this movie before the stewed masses finally remember how it ALWAYS turns out?
Ivory Tower Book Smart Morons
These dangerously specious theories emanating from the highest echelons of academia are what gives today's thought dealers the thin veneer of respectability that they need to pursue all forms of delusional madness. Any idea or person who emanates from Harvard must not be questioned no matter how fucking stupid they are. In the fullness of time, there can be no doubt that the self-esteemed Ivy League will be fully discredited for their ivory tower academic alchemy. In the meantime, their various academic theories which sanction this fiasco will lead us straight into the abyss.
Today's Best and Brightest Are Neither
Digging even deeper, we come to realize that the educational system is failing society by achieving the exact opposite outcome for which it was intended i.e. bankrupting more people than it's enriching. Yesterday, we were reminded that the ROI for a college education for most young people graduating in this era will likely be deeply if not catastrophically negative given that student loans can't be discharged in bankruptcy. Garbage covenant-lite bonds issued by speculative companies can be discharged, but not student loans. Worse yet, as the article states, today's graduates with bachelor's degrees are no smarter than people without degrees. You don't say. We are graduating charismatic frat boys and rote test takers, all of whom have been brainwashed in academic alchemy having zero relevance to the real world. University education was never about giving people relevant skills, it was always about creating a hierarchical social order. Outside of medicine and engineering most college degrees are totally theoretical, having little or no relevance to the real world. Higher education today is just an extremely deluded form of mental masturbation. Anyone with a finance degree has to ditch at least half of what they learned just to be effective in a real job. Anyone who actually believes the theory, will inevitably blow something up - exactly what the Nobel-Prize winning academics at Long Term Capital Management (LTCM) did in 1998 when they almost took down the world financial system. Sounds familiar, since we've only been subjected to about four rounds of Wall Street's academic-inspired chicanery just in the past fifteen years. How many fucking times do we have to see this movie before the stewed masses finally remember how it ALWAYS turns out?
Ivory Tower Book Smart Morons
These dangerously specious theories emanating from the highest echelons of academia are what gives today's thought dealers the thin veneer of respectability that they need to pursue all forms of delusional madness. Any idea or person who emanates from Harvard must not be questioned no matter how fucking stupid they are. In the fullness of time, there can be no doubt that the self-esteemed Ivy League will be fully discredited for their ivory tower academic alchemy. In the meantime, their various academic theories which sanction this fiasco will lead us straight into the abyss.
Speaking of the Abyss...
The Labor Participation Rate Isn't Falling. It's Collapsing.
Now at 62.8%, 1978 levels. Of course, there are a lot more women working today and supporting households, so this does not imply a return to "Father Knows Best".
Mass Complacency
As long as Dow Casino keeps rising, the Idiocracy will continue to stew in their own juices and ignore the economy that is being shipped out the back door. Their only concern will be who won the game last night and at what time is the next episode of Kardashians.
DowCasino (w/Fed Balance Sheet)
Stare deeply and ignore that man (now woman) behind the curtain
