Markets around the world plunged Tuesday as evidence mounted that the global economic crisis is worsening.
Japan is suffering its worst downturn in 35 years. The British economy is facing its sharpest decline in almost 30 years. Germany is slumping at its worst pace in nearly two decades. Meanwhile, the job market in the United States, at the epicenter of the global downturn, is the worst since World War II. And emerging economies are contracting at a pace few had predicted just months ago. Even China, whose economy still is growing at a 6.8 percent annual pace, is grappling with vast numbers of the unemployed, raising fears of unrest.
Hmm, let’s examine why this is such a surprise.
1. American jobs sent offshore lowering buying power.
2, Usurious credit card companies gouging the public putting everyone in debt.
3. Bankruptcy laws changed so the credit card companies always get their money.
4. Endless nickel-and-dime fees with cascade fees implemented by banks.
5. Sub prime mortgages.
6. Legal loan sharking and no consumer protection.
7. Multi-billion dollar scams thanks to lax or incompetent regulation.
8. H1B Visas rampant when American workers available.
9. Illegal Mexicans working in US, paying no taxes, sending money out of country to Mexico
10. War in Iraq that was supposed to be over in a few weeks at a cost of “a few billion.”
11. More money spent rebuilding Iraq than USA
12. China OEM to the world ruining manufacturing base everywhere else
13. Sarbanes-Oxley hurting the bottom line and restricting public offerings while protecting nobody
Add some of your own!
I bet somebody is getting insanely rich out of all of this… or, will be soon…
You know, people still have to eat, sleep somewhere, edjucate their kids, live their lives.. and the population of the Earth is not getting any smaller is it?
So what is the problem? What has changed? You can’t re-fi your crappy house to shake out some xtra cash?
Also, where is the NEXT WAR going to be? Isn’t that how we really get out of these things?
John, I hope you never backed up the truck to buy stocks on last years fall low.
The markets will be putting in new lows this year.
As far as USA banks. Stay short, this pain is not over yet.
Go watch Fronline on PBS from last night.
IMHO, living beyond one’s means summarizes “Up to your neck in debt”.
This is the result of the Republican agenda/mind set that started with Reagan.
Reagan’s team came from the public relations industry (Haldemann, Erlichman, etc.). Not a conicidence!
They sold it – everyone bought it – and you still believe it (while you beg for government handouts to save your asses. (Not yet? – just wait!)
Everything else is beside the point, regardless of the little contributions of others. They were either brainwashed or profiting in some way (and damn the country).
The “people” saw the movie “Wall Street” (greed is good) and thought it was the new bible (screw unto others was now virtuous). That gave a green light to the ones who could profit from destruction.
Listen to any Republican long enough and you realize that, for them, America is only about money.
No one cares about the future of our country – it’s all about greed.
Mike D had it right.
“stimulus package” is just a polite way of saying “anal sex”. Bend over taxpayers!!
Economy as a scale is based upon deception. Economy is not the measure of money, it is the measure of the movement of money. For example, if we have 10 companies involved in transactions, the first one buying something for a dollar from the next one and so on and the last company buying from the first, rather then having the one dollar reported we have 10 companies each having a dollar.
The system is flawed. Money (resources) are finite. Eventually it all flows up (due to greed etc) until there is nothing left. AT this point a “correction” needs to take place returning the marbles back to starting position so we can begin again.
There had been talk back in the 80’s of moving the decimal of prices, wages and salaries one place to the left so an item costing $1.00 would then cost $.10 I am guessing it was some answer to a recession as to how to create more marbles in the flawed system.
Wow… maybe the sheeple are finally figuring it out.
I’ll give you a clue…
CAPITALISM IS NOTHING BUT A PONZI SCHEME DESIGNED TO REDISTRIBUTE WEALTH FROM THE LOWER TO UPPER CLASSES!
How’s it feel to be alive during the “end game” of this scheme?
Lets not forger high taxes and ever increasing government forms and bureaucracies
What an appeal
The thing that will accelerate business..
1. Cut Corp wages AT LEAST 1/4
2. Cut prices 20%+
3. PULL Stocks. Stocks should NOT be the Value of the CORP. the Corp should NOT depend on STOCKS for R&D/Development/Growth. Major corps should NOT be in the Stock exchange.
First corp to do these, will get a RUN on their stores.
the First corp to do a WALMART V.2 WINS..
Ok, let’s keep it real.
Who’s fault is this? YOURS.
First, take don’t take it personally. Democracy is a trial and error deal.
The grade came in, you all got an F. The politicians got an F. Bush got an F. And if you have a long memory, Clinton got an F. Maybe even part of Reagan’s ideology of deregulation.
But this is part where everyone tries to figure out where the “F” everything went wrong.
For banks, it started in 1994 with bank deregulation and interstate banking. Oddly enough, that was a Democratic congress with a Democratic president.
Now Bush made it worse. A lot worse. He took “free market” to an extreme and corporations exist to make money with an emphasis on the NOW as far as CEOs are concerned.
Shitty loans? “Hey, the loan origination fee hit the books now!” … says the CEO. His paycheck depends on THIS year’s profit. Not NEXT year. Not 3 years from now.
The point is, corporations can’t be trusted. They must be regulated. The government must do this regulation. Voters must demand it.
The blame is bipartisan. Mostly.
This is a chance for Obama and the Democrats to prove they are different and worthy of the public trust.
We will get to read in the history whether or not this is fulfilled. You can’t make that judgment today.
BTW … being a downer on Obama is GAY. The man has been in office 3 weeks! Sheesh.
15: Money supply not controlled by the Gov’t and not based on GDP.
16: FED supplying the fiat currency to the private banking system that was the enabler for the real estate bubble & massive derivatives Ponzi scheme.
17: Real bank capital requirements are 25:1 or much higher. Replace with requirements no higher that 12:1 and get rid of the bogus accounting.
Add some of your own!
OK. Here are a few. I’m sure there are more.
* 28 years of deregulation allowing corporations to do whatever they want.
* 28 years of lowering taxes on the wealthy.
* 28 years of lowering taxes on corporations.
* 28 years without an energy policy.
* Short-sighted corporate executives seeking only their next bonuses.
* Shorter sighted politicians seeking only to get reelected.
* Lobbying. Lobbying. Lobbying.
* Ronald Reagan and every administration that came after him and followed his voodoo gush up economic plan.
* Environmental catastrophes ignored and ongoing that will cost more than all of the problems of the banking and auto industries.
* Externalization of expenses.
* Government of the corporation by the corporation and for the corporation.
* Inalienable rights granted to corporations that are mere tools of humans, not life forms in and of themselves.
* Corporations of the 1950s or so that were so stupid and short-sighted that they didn’t lobby for nationalized health care and now cannot compete in a global economy because they still have to pay for bad health care for their workers.
* Overpopulation.
* Greed.
* Consumerism.
* Consuming renewable resources at a far faster rate than they can replenish.
#23
Can’t really say for cars, but the computer industry is a constant-improvement model, where (especially for Intel – 6 months between lines now) on a regular basis they are releasing new chips, and as volume ramps up, costs drop. At the same time, they discount the older chips to move them faster and make shelf space (warehouse space, et cetera) for the newest, fastest chips that WILL be bought because they’re faster.
#39:
“CAPITALISM IS NOTHING BUT A PONZI SCHEME DESIGNED TO REDISTRIBUTE WEALTH FROM THE LOWER TO UPPER CLASSES!”
Under the current model, yes. Under the Henry Ford model, no.
If we were still operating under his principles, executives wouldn’t be robbing their companies blind, Americans would be making their fair share of the profit, and you wouldn’t have the massive top-bottom pay disparity we have today.
@MS
“Short-sighted corporate executives seeking only their next bonuses.”
Not their fault. They obey the scorecard used to award their pay. Blame the people who design their compensation scheme.
“28 years of lowering taxes on corporations.”
Let’s keep this real. If you have “free trade”, our corporate tax structure has to compete with foreign tax structures.
If you follow your line of thinking to the ultimate end, you should be against unlimited free trade … which I believe you are … but understand you have expressed yourself poorly by failing to note the significant role.
“Corporations of the 1950s or so that were so stupid and short-sighted that they didn’t lobby for nationalized health care and now cannot compete in a global economy”
From what I understand, although this is certainly a small part of the equation, it is the pie in the sky retirement DreamWorks ™ that is really killing those companies.
“Overpopulation.”
Citizens of the United States have had a birth rate of under 2.0 for — I’m thinking — nearly 3 decades.
So you must be referring to immigration as the birth rate among citizens has been sharply declining since the 1950’s.
“Consumerism.”
Consumer is gross. Especially the borrow and spend foreign made electronics purchase.
“Greed”
Actually, greed is not bad. Greed is the opposite of lazy. Greedy people will generally do anything for a dollar, lazy people won’t do anything for a dollar.
“Consuming renewable resources at a far faster rate than they can replenish.”
Stupid congress exempting trucks to allow the auto makers to meet regulations … but I digress ..
Let’s not foreget the reason jobs went oversea’s. American’s had a need for toys and they could buy more for less by making somewhere else that paid penny’s on the dollar for wages. We did this to ourselves!!!
#17 noname said “It’s ironic unwitting people are so demanding about having computers in the classroom so as to have a world class education. What a bunch of bunk!!!!!!!!!”
So true, and the kids just sit there and vandalize the machines because they’re bored.
49,
COOL..
LETS do it…
and ONLY ALLOW the top end, BEST product..
I DIDNT say the most expensive.
THEn lets add QUALITY, insted of purposeful OBSOLESCENCE.
The statement “worst job market since WW2” is a bit misleading; unemployment during the war was around 1%, and hasn’t been that low since.
On a side note, when I read the article I see that paragraph says “worst in decades”. I wonder if WaPo did some fact checking and cleanup after you pulled the quote.
Wow, I am amazed that John had the balls to speak out against the H1B visa program. Thanks for the (belated) support. Why not speak out against it when the rest of us saw the ship heading for the iceberg?
America’s best minds in finance use their knowledge to fuck Americans.
Case in point: Andrew Kahr. Ph.D. Mathematics.
Used his knowledge to come up with these great ideas to enslave consumers and make millions for the credit card banks:
1. The 2% minimum fee (he calculated that at this rate the consumer would never pay off his principle in his lifetime while keeping him as as slaves to the bank)
2. 0% introductory credit card rate. Lure the suckers in and WHAM! you got them 6 months later.
#11 Lou
Actually you have the numbers wrong on Canada. Calgary is worst hit with a 11.5% drop from one year ago. Vancouver 9% and Toronto 8%.
Your thoughts on our banks and mortgages is strange and I didn’t see anything in your blog on the subject. Hmm.
Journalists haven’t told it like it is.
The entertainment industry is very bad. There’s bad music, bad movies and bad TV. The cable companies wouldn’t be pulling money out of people’s pockets if there were good free programs. If local radio still existed there would be a chance for folks to hear a wider variety of songs.
Gambling takes away people’s money. People in the U.S. spend more on gambling than all other forms of entertainment combined.
John Dvorak listed a lot of smoke screen items.
The real underlying problem started with Jimmy Carter’s infamous Community Redevelopment Act, and then followed by Bill Clinton (D) putting the Community Redevelopment Act on steroids.
The democrats forced banks to stop making financial decisions on the credit worthiness of the mortgage applicants.
Current culprits:
Representative Barney Frank (D)
Senator Chris Dodd (D)
Senator Charles Schumer (D)
#54 if you had actually been following my work you’d know that I was on this 10 friggin’ years ago when I was doing Silicon Spin and constantly referring to the work of Norman Matloff and his data. This was followed up by numerous columns and commentary. Nobody gave a shit. So why do I get blamed!?!?
I also promoted The Job Destruction Newsletter which is focused on H1B. Numerous stories about the problem are on the blog..like this one: http://snurl.com/c4f9x
Meanwhile what have you been doing?
Three trillion dollars, all financed with debt, thrown down a rathole in Iraq. That’s FANTASTIC!
But help the America workers? THAT’S AN OUTRAGE!
Republicans acting as self serving obstructionist to any attempt to fix the problems they created.
#13 #35
http://www.trending123.com/patterns/double_bottom.html
let’s hope this is what we are seeing
It’s a freakn’n cluster. The economic rubble left behind by the eight year Bush regime shows massive incompetence by the stewards we elected into that executive office.
It’s astonishing the current levels of support or levels of denial by Bush supporters. I suppose it’s a Freudian thing to reject any notion that you may have elected a moron – TWICE!
In my opinion, it all started with NAFTA
#64 Naw, it started with the WTO in ’96.