~ * ~ All pics today taken by us at A&G yesterday...
The first topic is Fed tapering of that $85 billion/month...
You know it is amazing how people simply accept that figure so calm and peaceably. A person gets overcharged by 50 cents on a soda at an Olive Garden and he/she wants to scream at the server loud enough for all to hear..
'But $85 Billion.. Ehh.. What's $85 billion.. Now if you said $8 dollars, well that's something.. But $85 Billion.. Ehhh... I mean someone overcharges me $8 dollars and I'm going to fight and scream and kick something.. But $85 Billion.. Ehhhhh'
Sorry there.. channeling the comedian Gilbert Gotfried on that one
So that evil Federal Reserve is in a big ol' quandary, one that can be succinctly summed up in once sentence uttered by an executive at Deutsche Bank:
"The path of tapering is going to be tough because every time the market thinks they are going to taper, (interest) yields will likely rise and conditions will tighten."
And of course that precious G-D market will drop..
Now to understand the role of the Fed in the stock market, it can be explained in one sentence by a top executive with Solaris Asset Management:
"The Fed wants public expression of diversity of opinion (among Fed Board members) because they don't want the market to be surprised by anything. They want the financial markets to ease into change."
In other words, everything is to be choreographed.. diagrammed..
No surprises.. No risk of Investors losing a penny.. well the Professional ones anyways..
As we have repeated like parrots, in a perfect world, the market crashes, the Fed can't do anything and there is a natural bottom in asset values where true Adam Smith Capitalism is allowed to take hold; where buyers and sellers converge and real, sustainable recovery begins...
Think of it like this, prior to the Great Depression of the 1930s, historically this nation had economic panics or small-d depressions every 10-15 years on average that were devastating to investors and everyday folk.
Since the post Great Depression recovery due to WWII, we've had recessions and on occasion one-day market free falls, but not another true depression of any kind until the present...
Because the more dramatic and sustaining the free-fall, the longer the overall recovery due to mechanisms put into place to prevent the previous devastation from happening again.
And because no one in a position of power wishes to acknowledge we're in a depression much less even admit recession, no laws are passed to change regulations or how the market or the banking & mortgage industry operates..
No one of importance arrested and incarcerated.
Bernie Madoff? A small time nobody.. His big mistake was fucking over some affluent people who are connected to government and high society. If he rooked you and we of our live savings, he'd still be sipping Grasshoppers or Mai Tais
Now on to Topic #2..
As we mentioned a few days ago, its pretty certain Janet Yellen will be appointed and then confirmed as the next Fed Chair. And everyone either has or will make a big noise about being the first woman Chair...
As if women haven't accomplished great things and been in positions of power prior to this. As we said prior, the current President of Argentina and Chancellor of Germany are both women...
The head of the International Monetary Fund is a woman.. In the last three US Presidencies, a woman has served as Secretary of State. Two women serve currently in the Supreme Court.. And there are currently women who run top Fortune 500 companies..
So when does all that nonsense become offensive patronizing?
Meanwhile in the real world and the real economy, women are suffering badly...
It is true that unemployment among women (6.3%) is lower than among men (7.1%) but you have to go beyond generic numbers..
According to Bloomberg:
"The gains have been largely in lower-paying industries such as waitresses, in-home health care, food preparation and housekeeping.
About 60 percent of the increase in employment for women from 2009 to 2012 was in jobs that pay less than $10.10 an hour, compared with 20 percent for men..."
From AP:
"Single-mother families in poverty increased for the fourth straight year to 4.1 million"
Good thing there's food stamps.. Oh yes, the Republicans in Congress recently said they wanted to cut it back.. they call it 'entitlement'... dirty word..
Wonder if they still pretend to go by the moniker of 'Compassionate Conservatives'?
There's an old adage.. 'Feed someone a fish and you feed that person for a day; Teach someone to fish and you feed that person for a lifetime..'
Guess one could add, 'Prevent someone who doesn't normally vote your party from learning how to fish or having access to the fish and then go 'Ehhh'...'
But back to women...
Of the 125,000 jobs women gained in August, 54,000 were in retail, leisure and hospitality, and just 24,000 in professional and business services. Many of those are part-time, 34 hours or less a week.
In all, food services and drinking places have added 354,000 jobs this year alone.
This is the bullshit 'recovery' we're told non-stop about...
Females lost 444,000 public-sector jobs in the four years starting in June 2009, when the recession ended, compared with 290,000 for men. As a result, women have taken restaurant and retail jobs instead of teaching and other public-sector career positions which have disappeared.
Its always nice when a woman reaches a seat of power..
Be even nicer if collectively women could earn wages to pay their bills and partially (sometimes fully) raise their families
The entire economy is terrible.. for women.. men.. whites and blacks and Hispanics.. For the young and old and very old..
But how could it not be when nothing has been done to fix it.. and we mean Nothing short of the Fed pumping up the stock market.
In a biblical sense, its like its our Golden Calf and all of us must be sacrificed for it.
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