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The "Fiscal Cliff" Story You're Not Hearing from the Mainstream Press
TMO ^ | 11-26-2012 | Daily Wealth - Dan Ferris

Posted on 11/26/2012 1:13:04 PM PST by blam

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1 posted on 11/26/2012 1:13:13 PM PST by blam
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To: blam
The real "fiscal cliff" actually refers to the math regarding exponential growth functions as applied to entitlement policies of the last 40 years. It is NOT "so-called", it is real and inescapable.

Entitlements consume 56% of the total 2010 Federal Budget....

SS: 19%
Medicaid: 8%
Unemployment: 16%
Medicare: 12 %

Since they are increasing at slightly under 10%, this means a growth doubling every 7 years.

Questions for you non-math types.....

--What is 2 x 56%?
--Where in the 7-year doubling period are we, exactly?
--How do you fund all the rest of government, the departments, the agencies, and services, if entitlements consume 112% of your total budget, of which almost half is ALREADY on borrowed money?

Ahhh, the Real Cliff.

2 posted on 11/26/2012 1:21:12 PM PST by Scooter100 ("Now that the fog has lifted, I still can't find my pipe". --- S. Holmes)
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To: blam
"Don't believe it? Think of all the horrible things that happened in the 20th century: the Great Depression, two World Wars, and the end of gold-backed U.S. dollars."

Hey Dan Douchelord, you might want to study up on that sequence right there. Because your paper ain't gonna be worth jack if history repeats itself...

3 posted on 11/26/2012 1:21:26 PM PST by StAnDeliver (Own It.)
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To: blam

The jackals in the press as well as the government like to scare people so they’ll consume their product.


4 posted on 11/26/2012 1:23:01 PM PST by Moonman62 (The US has become a government with a country, rather than a country with a government.)
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To: Scooter100
"Business trumps politics."

Math trumps business and politics.

5 posted on 11/26/2012 1:24:06 PM PST by Scooter100 ("Now that the fog has lifted, I still can't find my pipe". --- S. Holmes)
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To: Scooter100

Reality trumps liberalism,
and that really p1$$3$ them off.


6 posted on 11/26/2012 1:25:46 PM PST by MrB (The difference between a Humanist and a Satanist - the latter admits whom he's working for)
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To: blam
Stocks bottomed out in early October 2011... And the market is now about 26% higher than it was then

A lot of that 26% was because people were investing on hopes that Obama would be a one-termer.

7 posted on 11/26/2012 1:29:12 PM PST by what's up
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To: Scooter100

What I find interesting about this entire discussion going on...is that it’s really about getting us through approximately twelve months, and then we repeat this entire episode again, and again, and again.

There will be four fiscal cliffs to run through over the next four years.

Meanwhile, entitlements will likely escalate each year in that four-year period. By the time that things get really messy...around 2016...it’s hard to envision how you crawl out of this pit. You’d have to downsize the Pentagon to half it’s size, or just gut Homeland Security completely...to make the government function after that point.

The real emphasis here...ought to be getting the national economy back onto a upswing and feeling like it’s 2003 or 2004. But we can’t even manage to do that.


8 posted on 11/26/2012 1:33:30 PM PST by pepsionice
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To: pepsionice
I agree, we're in big trouble.

But notice how the left/MSM has tried to commandeer the term "fiscal cliff" and apply it to some insignificant event on Jan 1. Typical diversionary tactic to avoid, downplay and obscure the truth about the real abyss lying in wait.

9 posted on 11/26/2012 1:40:03 PM PST by Scooter100 ("Now that the fog has lifted, I still can't find my pipe". --- S. Holmes)
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To: MrB

The Gods of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return!

http://www.kipling.org.uk/poems_copybook.htm


10 posted on 11/26/2012 1:41:15 PM PST by fireforeffect (A kind word and a 2x4, gets you more than just a kind word.)
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To: pepsionice

Agreed: the deeper truth can be found at http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/breakout/profit-growth-stalls-stocks-fall-kee-185859559.html

As weak as the markets have been for the past two months, Wall Street’s bullish bias is fully intact, as traders, strategists and money managers still overwhelmingly maintain an optimistic long-term outlook for the stock market. And rightly so, given that Mr. Market has proven the bulls right again and again for more than 100 years. In fact, as I write, the average analyst is expecting a 10% gain for the S&P 500 next year, even though earnings aren’t expected to grow half as much.
The difference, or extra return, can only come from one place, P/E expansion, or a higher price-to-earnings ratio, which is simply Wall Street’s way of saying investors will be willing to pay more for a dollar’s worth of earnings next year than they are today. It’s also why strategists continually argue that stocks are cheap, especially when they sell off.
But what if stocks actually aren’t cheap and the notion of P/E expansion doesn’t pan out? That’s the case Tom Kee, CEO and editor of Stock Traders Daily, makes in the attached video.
“People are talking about the multiple on the market and saying it’s low compared to historic numbers,” Kee says, adding that his research shows current earnings growth is tracking at 2.8%, which is less than half the pace of the historic long-term average of 7.1%. “So my question to everyone is: Does the multiple of the market need to fall to reflect slower earnings growth? I think the answer to that is yes.”
If he’s right, then next year’s price targets would be in serious jeopardy.
“The true picture is that the Dow Jones Industrial Average — on both an earnings and revenue basis — is contracting, and no one seems to recognize that except for the big players in this market,” Kee says, predicting that we are in for slower growth and lower markets. “What I’m looking for is continued deterioration in earnings growth, and that brings those multiples into question and, ultimately, risk appetite into question.”
And so it’s only fitting that a guy who sees ‘’meager’’ earnings growth at best next year is on watch for multiple contractions, which is simply Wall Street’s way of saying investors will be willing to pay less for a dollar’s worth of earnings next year than they are today.


11 posted on 11/26/2012 1:44:09 PM PST by Rich21IE
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To: pepsionice
By the time that things get really messy...around 2016...it’s hard to envision how you crawl out of this pit. You’d have to downsize the Pentagon to half it’s size, or just gut Homeland Security completely...to make the government function after that point.

Relax, I'm sure Obama has a plan to sell our remaining carriers and support fleet to China. That'll help somewhat. /sarc

12 posted on 11/26/2012 1:46:27 PM PST by roadcat
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To: blam

The author fails to acknowledge the printing press of dollars from the Fed. The printing press has an unlimited yield. No investment strategy can out earn fraud.


13 posted on 11/26/2012 1:49:24 PM PST by VRWC For Truth (Roberts has perverted the Constitution)
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To: Scooter100
FABER: 44 Charts That Show Why The World Is Doomed
14 posted on 11/26/2012 1:49:49 PM PST by blam
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To: blam

15 posted on 11/26/2012 1:50:00 PM PST by Old Sarge (We are officially over the precipice, we just havent struck the ground yet...)
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To: blam

I think we will follow a similar but not exact model of the soviet union. It went broke and NOBODY wanted to put it back together again. No one will want to put the USA together again, so the states will become the the major govt just like the countries in USSR.

If true, the state we live in will be a consideration in how well we do.


16 posted on 11/26/2012 1:54:19 PM PST by PeterPrinciple ( (Lord, save me from some conservatives, they don't understand history any better than liberals.))
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To: roadcat
" Relax, I'm sure Obama has a plan to sell our remaining carriers and support fleet to China.

They have their own now:

Chinese Engineer Died Of A Heart Attack While Watching First Aircraft Carrier Landing


17 posted on 11/26/2012 1:59:47 PM PST by blam
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To: blam

This is a stupid, stupid article. Economies are not good or bad, strong or weak according to how many people are buying Big Macs. Politics absolutely can matter more than your daily experience.

That being said, he’s right, the “fiscal cliff” is a red herring. How much you wanna bet Washington will be frightened into raising taxes and not drastically cutting spending—and therefore effectively staying the same—from now until the end of the republic?


18 posted on 11/26/2012 2:00:51 PM PST by Tublecane
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To: Scooter100

“Business trumps politics”

This is true in the sense that there will always be a black market. You could buy cassette tapes and blue jeans in the Soviet Union and whiskey during Prohibition. But that’s not what thus article is about. We’re talking about the economy as a whole moving up or down a few arbitrarily assigned percentage points. That absolutely could happen as a result of the so-called cliff. So the article is wrong.


19 posted on 11/26/2012 2:06:50 PM PST by Tublecane
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To: VRWC For Truth

It has an indefinite yield, not unlimited. No one knows its exact limit, but there is one.


20 posted on 11/26/2012 2:09:14 PM PST by Tublecane
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