Posted on 08/26/2015 7:37:34 AM PDT by blam
Bob Bryan
August 26, 2015
The stock market has been on a wild ride the past few days, but if you look beyond that, the US economy is doing just fine.
There are numerous explanations for the sell-off in the markets, but none of them are because of the American economy.
Unemployment is still down around its pre-recession levels, the housing market is still improving with more being built and increasing values, consumer confidence is very healthy, and gross domestic product is still growing.
None of that has changed.
In trying to explain the chaos, most analysts have noted that, for the most part, the economy is healthy.
"There are no signs of any major downturn in the US economy," Paul Ashworth at Capital Economics said in a note to clients on Monday. He said the volatility didn't "reflect any genuine economic slump."
(snip)
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
US economy is doing well? Pardon me while I throw a monkey wrench into the machinery of your essay:
- Unemployed/underemployed reported as roughly 95 million. The unemployment rate is kept artificially low by taking people OFF the list once they’re past the 99 months of unemployment benefits OR they’re making enough money by working one or several part time jobs they no longer qualify. We are told US unemployment is around 6% when in reality it’s closer to 30% on average (over 50% in many urban areas).
- Weekly jobs added well under 200,000
- US citizens on food stamps: almost 50 million.
- Stock market at record highs? Sure, and the FED (Federal Reserve Bank) has been PUMPING upwards of a billion dollars a MONTH into the economy (adding FIAT currency produced out of thin air - with nothing to back it - a trick China’s central bank has just learned with predictable results).
- Gasoline prices are low? Yes, but not because of supply but LOW demand. Gasoline OUTPUT has remained constant. NO new refineries have been built in the past 8 (15?) years. Refineries are running at capacity. There isn’t a glut of OIL, there is a lack of demand for finished product.
- You might want to rethink this idea of how well our economy is doing. SOME areas are doing better than others, like the ten wealthiest counties in the nation are clustered around Washington DC. Washington taxes everyone, and plays favorites by distributing their tax dollars to cronies in and around the nation’s capitol and select areas of the country to maintain the ILLUSION of growth. Look into the idea of “Potemkin villages” sometime.
Don’t forget we also have peace in our time! Thank you JOKErry! Print some more monopoly money Hussein, yer gonna need it for green fees in Indonesia.
> The US economy certainly is kicking a lot of people in the butt.
I think it sanded mine completely off. I’m just lucky I can even have electricity so I can post this right now...
If the economy is doing so well...
Why are almost 50 million Americans receiving SNAP (foodstamps)?
Why are 93 million Americans not in the workforce?
Why does the Federal Reserve need to keep interest rates at almost zero for years?
Hmmmmmmmmm?
2.0% GDP growth (and that’s before it is adjusted)? That must be some skinny butt.
The employment RATE as a percentage of working age population is at a level of the 1970s, back when many women were stay at home mothers.
The unemployment rate is only low because so many dropped out of the unemployed category by having been out of work so long or shifting to disability after two years of unemployment benefits ran out.
Do they do drug tests at BI (whatever that is)?
Exactly. Yesterday and today on my commute I heard the experts telling everyone not to panic. It was comical. And here we go again.
The author must be an Obama voter.
Business Insider is probably in my top 10 sites to visit.
They try to be balanced. The number of articles that make a candidate look good, vs. bad are roughly the same whether it’s Hillary or Trump.
They have some good economic articles, great graphic presentations, an occasional sports article.
It is constantly refreshed, even on weekends.
Bad news is that it is a resource hog. BI won’t work well on a Starbucks WI-FI for example. You need a fat bit pipe to access.
The advantage to FR, besides the much needed political slant, is that it can be used with any level of connection. It’s mainly text, no ads.
Yes, I’m a monthly subscriber to FR.
I find BI to be leftist in focus and like IBD instead.
The latest batch of US economic indicators certainly looks upbeat. The Consumer Confidence Index (CCI) rose sharply during August, led by its present situation component to the highest reading since November 2007.
Most impressive is that the percentage of respondents to the CCI survey who agreed that jobs are hard to get plunged from 27.4% during July to 21.9% this month, the lowest percentage since January 2008. This series is highly correlated with the unemployment rate, which was 5.3% during July. The CCI series suggests that the jobless rate could soon fall below 5%.
I was just checking the Yahoo chart. It’s actually on a sharper downward projectary than yesterday. Apparently they can manipulate after hours but reality slaps them down in the daylight.
Even Trump has recently said that official unemployment rates are a lie and it is really over 40%.
He would be the only one with the guts to say this.
Looks like they alled the ppt.
Cog in the global wheel. Run by apparatchiks for the chi-commisars who run the slave factories, for companies that Golden Slacks says— are “booming”.
The investment class brought us here. And it is NOT anti-patriotic to be trying to take them down. Because, those same “investment” people supported entire country’s being brought down by socialist- marxist revolt, and by killing them with debt, inflation and devaluation.
About which see— the bolsheviks (who were NOT in the majority but manipulated their way to power at the end of a gun— the purest form of socialism). Fascinating and educational.
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