Link: USSR Collapse vs. USA Collapse
Phantasmix November 16th, 2008
Energy Bulletin: Closing the “Collapse Gap”: the USSR was better prepared for collapse than the US
Archive for the '• Economy' Category
Got Spam?
Phantasmix November 14th, 2008
Hormel Foods struggling to keep up with SPAM demand
Pay attention to the expiration dates (on everything). We noticed a lot of stuff is close to or even past expiration date in the stores, even in the ones that pride themselves on being “fresh obsessed”.
Some weekend fear-mongering for your pleasure.
Inflation in Zimbabwe
Phantasmix November 14th, 2008
Inflation levels in Zimbabwe are running at 13.2 billion per cent a month and could reach an all-time world record within weeks.
The latest figures put the country’s annual rate at 516 quintillion per cent – 516 followed by 18 zeros – overtaking Yugoslavia in 1994 and putting it behind only Hungary in 1946.Zimbabwean prices are currently doubling every 1.3 days.
Scary stuff.
Credit Cards
Phantasmix November 14th, 2008
I noticed in the past couple of years that whenever one of our credit cards is renewed, the term is 2 or 3 years. It used to be 5 minimum! Nothing to do with our credit score, it’s perfect (not sure it’s an honor, maybe just a sign of stupidity for not taking advantage of the free money).
I just checked and there’s not a single card with expiration beyond 2011 in my wallet. Freaky… They’re not planning on sticking around to 2012.
What’s in your wallet? Check your expiration dates and let me know.
Only in America…
Phantasmix November 10th, 2008
You dummies are gonna pay my mortgage for me!
Pony up, you skinflints. I took $200K out of my house equity and pissed it away on a big honkin’ Hummer and 3 TV’s so big you gotta sit across the street to watch ‘em, and a big Goddamn gold watch and a speedboat and a whole buncha primo dope.Now I’m underwater and the value of the house is goin’ down faster than a cheap whore, and the government’s gonna cut the $200K I pissed away off the balance, and give me a new FHA guaranteed loan at better interest rates than any of you get on your mortgages, and your taxes are gonna pay for it all. What a great country! It’s morning in America!
Job Cuts
Phantasmix November 9th, 2008
All of this was not factored into last week’s unemployment numbers:
- DHL to cut 13,000 jobs
- American Express to cut 7,000 jobs and Bank of America to cut 7,500 Jobs
- GM and Ford 5,600 jobs cut
- Whirlpool to cut another 3,000 jobs
- Yahoo to cut 1,000 Jobs
- Hewlett Packard Announces 24,000 Job Cuts
- UBS to cut 9,000 Jobs
- Fidelity to cut nearly 1,300 jobs this month
- Dana to cut 2,000 jobs and close plants
- Dollar Thrifty Automotive to cut 400 jobs
- AMD slashes 500 more jobs
- Airline Aer Lingus to cut 1,500 jobs, workers to strike
- Chrysler to cut 4,300 Jobs
- Circuit City to cut 6,800 jobs and close stores
- Xerox to cut 3,000 Jobs
- Atlantic City’s Borgata lays off 400 workers
- Motorola to cut 3,000 jobs
- Nortel to cut 3,000 jobs
- EA Games to cut 6% or 600 jobs
- Sun Microsystems to cut jobs (unknown number)
the list goes on and on…..
ADP Report Indicates Large Drop in Private Sector Jobs
Phantasmix November 5th, 2008
Source: Wall Street Journal
Private sector jobs fell 157,000 in the U.S. last month, according to the ADP national employment report, released Wednesday by payroll giant Automatic Data Processing and consultancy Macroeconomic Advisers.
That’s more than the expected 100,000 loss seen in a Dow Jones Newswires survey. September’s report was revised to a loss of 26,000 from a modest 8,000 decline.
“October’s ADP National Employment Report offers evidence of a labor market that continues to weaken,” said Joel Prakken, chairman of Macroeconomic Advisers. “This month’s employment loss was driven by the goods-producing sector which declined 126,000 during October, its twenty-third consecutive monthly decline.”
He added that October’s overall decline does not reflect the strike of some 27,000 machinists in the aerospace industry during September and October.
Prakken said of the October data that “you’d have to go back to 2002 to see (ADP) job losses like this.. and remember, in 2002 we were emerging from a recession.”
The ADP official said it’s “entirely likely,” that it won’t be long before monthly job losses of 200,000 or more are seen.
An eventual turnaround may not happen until the second half of next year, Prakken added.
Stock Market and Economy Article
Phantasmix October 22nd, 2008
Worth a read: Carlyle Dunbar, The Globe and Mail
Excerpt:
I recall a 1974 New Yorker cartoon caption saying, “What do you suppose happens when the stock market goes down to zero?” Humour so typically expresses a truth, and in 1974 investors did start to believe the world was coming to an end and the market was headed for zero. We haven’t reached that point. There are still too many people out there who believe we’ve hit bottom.
When the bear market does end, most people won’t believe it. That is a clear memory from early 1975, when the market rallied tremendously. I wrote an article — based mainly on the opinion of U.S. market analyst Richard Russell — reporting a bull market had started in the United States and Canada. It invoked no reaction from readers that I can recall, and nervousness from editors.
Investors didn’t believe in the bull market for years to come, because they had been so badly burned in the long collapse of the 1960s bull market. Though investors like to believe themselves rational, they ultimately act based on emotion.
In 1973-74, there was Watergate, soaring energy prices, auto sales down by one third or more, and the biggest bank collapse in U.S. history (the scam artist responsible had first practised his trade in Canada). Mutual fund redemptions were so severe the Canadian mutual fund organization stopped publishing the data, on the theory that if investors closed their eyes, the bad news would all go away.
Buy Stocks
Phantasmix October 22nd, 2008
While profiting this month quite nicely on the short side, I’m getting tired and very scared by stock market situation. (Not to mention, the upside on the short side is limited).
People, buy stocks and save the world.
Stop calling for the end of the world and “system flush”!!! Or you just may get what you wish for. You will NOT enjoy it.
Let’s make a deal: I’ll buy stocks if you buy, too.
Sincerely scared,
Phantasmix
More From the Great Depression, Parallels
Phantasmix October 19th, 2008
All of these sound very familiar…
Great Depression Controversies and Facts
- “Each crash was followed by a sharp partial recovery as shorts covered and new “bargain hunters” were lured in.”
- “The rediscount rate was lowered to 2 1/2% - the lowest level in history - recognizing an already existing fact as there was little demand for Federal Reserve funds.”
- “Reassuring statements came regularly from Washington and were just as regularly ignored.”
- “Commodity prices had collapsed.”
- “However, there was a worldwide adverse shift in the credit markets that more than overcame the beneficial impacts of sharply lower interest rates.”
- “The financial breakdown accelerated. Two more big board firms failed. With each breakdown, stocks and commodities in which the insolvent houses specialized were driven sharply lower as assets were liquidated to pay claims.”
- “Bank closings became a regular news item.”
- “Wall Street gave absolutely no credence any more to confident statements by economists, bankers, industrialists and government leaders.”
Source: FutureCasts
Posts