Recovery is Loss
Tim Geithner believes that “the economy is better by any measure” since Obama took Office.
Here’s how this works – you may be out of work, struggling to pay your bills and feed your family but as long as “Big Brother” tells us how lucky we are and what the “truth” is, we should all rejoice. Repeat often: The economy is recovering, The economy is recovering.”
Geithner’s assurance not withstanding, his optimism is not reflected by these headlines of the past few weeks at the BBC .
The “RECOVERY IS LOSS “new speak” of this administration
U.S. confidence is up, but not so much: US consumer confidence edges up but remains subdued
The economy failed to meet expected growth between April and September: US economic growth revised down
In September, the trade gap widened: US trade gap widens unexpectedly
In October, housing construction fell: Surprise fall in US home building
In November, home sales were up, but only because the government was giving tax credits to first-time, thereby increasing government debt: US home sales boosted by tax credits
I feel so much better now that I see how well we are doing; don’t you.
Thanks, Tim.
catsden.wordpress.com 
What has been baffling the H*LL out of me:
How is the DOW rising and rising, while we have
so much economic downturn——something really
really stinks—–and we’re missing it somewhere.
With the institution of Capitalism in any country, the Heads begin separating from the Hands and, the longer its institution and the more it becomes so-called laissez faire, the greater the separation. It reaches the point where the Hands are nothing more than dispensible objects…As exemplified thusly:
“As experts debate the potential speed of the US recovery, one figure looms large but is often overlooked: nearly 1 in 5 Americans is either out of work or under-employed. According to the government’s broadest measure of unemployment, some 17.5 percent are either without a job entirely or underemployed. The so-called U-6 number is at the highest rate since becoming an official labor statistic in 1994. The number dwarfs the statistic most people pay attention to—the U-3 rate—which most recently showed unemployment at 10.2 percent for October, the highest it has been since June 1983. The difference is that what is traditionally referred to as the “unemployment rate” only measures those out of work who are still looking for jobs. Discouraged workers who have quit trying to find a job, as well as those working part-time but looking for full-time work or who are otherwise underemployed, count in the U-6 rate.”(i)
While JP Morgan has this to say in its recently released investment strategy outlook:
“The strategy outlook at JP Morgan is little changed over the last week despite some sobering news out of the labor department last Friday. The bad news on jobs is no longer a surprise to investors and history has shown that past jobless recoveries were dealt with fine by most major asset classes. Although the jobless recovery creates some greater headwinds than most recoveries it is not an immediate headwind as JP Morgan analysts continue to see a flight into equities as portfolio managers chase performance in to year-end.”(ii)
In other words, JP Morgan is seeing this liquidity induced “recovery” as a normalization of the allocation of capital in the markets; labor is still nothing more than an extraneous cost
(i) http://www.cnbc.com/id/34040009?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=Heritage%2BHotsheet
(ii) http://pragcap.com/jp-morgan-the-jobless-recovery-wont-be-so-bad
Labor has always been an extraneous cost; the railroads weren’t built by the R.R. magnates, the plantations weren’t worked by the plantation owners, and the factories weren’t for the benefit of the working class. In each generation there was new competition for jobs as immigrants from all over the world came here. It’s just that those who survived were able to go where there was land and they could labor for themselves.
Now we are crowded and there are few wide-open spaces for the “common” folk, the companies go elsewhere for labor, and the magnates are in charge of the government.
Where do we go from here?
Exactly; the only reason why the so-called Capitalism that the US has increasingly been following over the course of its history has only been successful for as long as it has is because the land itself was unique in its abundances as well as size. But now, with our increasing adherence to GDP, which is predicate strictly upon consumption, as we all know the land’s capacity has been whittled to tragic proportions. Simon Kuznet himself said that “the welfare of a nation can scarcely be inferred from a measure of national income.”
And, alas, I have no idea where we go from here. (Please let me preface the following by mentioning that I in no way like any type of -ism.) The way I look at it, Adam Smith wrote half a thesis, as we know on Capital, and interspersed throughout are questions that he asks regarding Labor, which are the questions Marx answered in his half thesis. Put the two together and one has a whole thesis. The real funny thing is that all those knucklehead free-marketeers contradict a lot of what their so-called laissez faire Poo-bah himself asserted, my favorite points in fact being:
“The masters, being fewer in number, can combine much more easily; and the law, besides, authorizes, or at least does not prohibit their combinations, while it prohibits those of the workmen. We have no acts of parliament against combining to lower the price of work; but many against combining to raise it [. . .] Masters are always and everywhere in a sort of tacit, but constant and uniform combination, not to raise the wages of labour above their actual rate.”
“The proposal of any new law or regulation of commerce which comes from this order [the capitalist class], ought always to be listened to with great precaution, and ought never to be adopted till after having been long and carefully examined, not only with the most scrupulous, but with the most suspicious attention. It comes from an order of men, whose interest is never exactly the same with that of the public, who have generally an interest to deceive and even to oppress the public, and who accordingly have, upon many occasions, both deceived and oppressed it.”
Your last paragraph is rich in irony; our “masters” don’t even take the time to read a bill through once, although they will add pork amendments in their own favor. No careful examination by our non-reps. I worry now most about those “who have generally an interest to deceive and even to oppress the public, and who accordingly have, upon many occasions, both deceived and oppressed it.”
Our citizens finally begin to recognize that they have been “deceived and oppressed” by both sides of the political spectrum but see no way clear to “revolt” against their oppressors as their ancestors did.
Yes.
The “masters”, who supersede any political labels, and their propaganda machine, which ironically enough derives from that of the Nazis, has sure done one great big number on the critical thinking capabilities of the people, as evidenced by the former 2% holding more wealth than the remaining 98% combined. Historically the only thing that has generated any long-lasting change is some cultural cataclycism (Marx: “You cannot make an omelet without breaking an egg”) that has been manifested and outright expedited by the avaricious pecuniary greed of the powers that be, who in this country willfully violate Thomas Jefferson’s mandate that the choices of one generation should not adversely affect subsequent generations. What do I see occurring in the not so distant future? Our society’s abused energy resources peaking then dwindling, which is going to give folks no choice but to revolt because their whole way of life will be turned topsy-turvy…Actually, I just made a comment somewhat along these self-same lines a couplathree hours ago: