This bankster trick is obvious and has been pulled elsewhere and here in recent times and the past. They burden the public govts. with debt or screw over individual citizens (e.g., GS cooking Greece's books, BOA screwing over individuals through robosigning, municipal bankruptcies that are now multiplying here, etc.). Then, public entities like those declaring bankruptcy in Europe or here in the US have no way of paying off debts. Same with people in foreclosure (and of course many are legitimately foreclosed on, but many aren't). So how, oh how, will those debts be paid off? No problem, the banksters go to their playbook. Well, banksters swoop in, buy real assets for pennies on the dollar through incredibly not "fair and open auctions" not conducted at arm's length. And then they turn around and sell real assets to foreigners or rich fellow banksters, real estate developers, casino owners, and other truly noble job creators at discounted, but still much higher prices from the original prices that bankrupted govt. and citizens.
Quite a rigged game that should make everyone with a soul sick. So what real IP and technology and assets foreigners cannot buy and steal overseas, the banksters will simply sell to them here. Who wants to buy a road? Ports? Schools? Prime real estate? Warehouses? Turnpikes and highways? Foreigners of course, and it's all "capitalism" in its newest, sickest form. Why not sell AF bases, the USMA, USNA, beaches, nuclear subs, nuclear reactors, and everything else. Hey, why not, let's go back to the Gilded Age and have the Chinese (instead of Carnegie and Rockefeller) buy up all the land around a farm or store or house and force the resident or store owner to trade with them or sell to them exclusively. Just like the robber barons of old. And in the new schools, Chinese will be taught, capitalism will be redefined, and those damn Founding Fathers will suddenly echo all that Murdoch, and the D & R, and our new masters in Beijing and New Delhi and Wall Street demand they say.
Teddy Roosevelt, paging Teddy Roosevelt, please come down and return to your Nation's capital ASAP.
People these days are so broke, they have no retirement, are not even making it paycheck to paycheck, wages are so low, if they have a job.
I might direct you to over existing home sales overview. Pretty much on every NAR statistical release I poke holes in what they claim, this month, not so much. Housing, residential real estate generally I find absolutely ridiculous with the lack of the obvious. People need good, full-time, stable jobs to buy a home and in the U.S., basically the middle class has disappeared.
Anyway, check out the foreign buyers of existing homes in that overview. Since they wiped out the U.S. middle class they are looking at residential real estate as something to "export/import", at least some are.
Of course they call the bottom + improvement, they've been doing that for the last few years again . . and again. At some point they might be right, but the end of the world might come before. NAR needs that hope/delusion, that's why they run those tired ads about homeowners building communities. Is there an ad about BOA destroying homeowners' lives or Detroit levelling entire neighborhoods and cutting off fire and police protection because of thousands of vacant homes or the massive shadow inventory banks are keeping off the market to raise prices artificially? No? Of course not. NAR needs that false hope so people will spend $ they don't have, like GE/CNBS/NBS and Microsoft/NBC optimism no matter what because reality doesn't sell ads or attract viewers turned off by dismal reality. When the $ men and ad men need consumers and home buyers, the message is clear - OPTIMISM CREATES SALES FOR THE CORPORATIONS, YOU WILL BE OPTIMISTIC DESPITE REALITY IN ALL STORIES AND ADS.
Today CNN blares "Hispanics suffer under racial profiling AZ. Law," while ignoring the mass destruction labor arbitrage is doing to the US daily because it suits their political agenda. Meanwhile, the fact remains that legal American citizens of ALL RACES are suffering tremendously under this labor arbitrage and are themselves blamed by fellow citizens that haven't suffered yet (it makes them think they will never suffer and only bad people are unemployed) and those who benefit from pitting people against each other (i.e., those in the power positions). So while blue collar and white collar jobs are systematically sent overseas, or given to foreigners who move here, or given to those here illegally, Americans with all sorts of tremendous experience are ignored and blamed.
Does it really take that much thought to understand why a 45-year old "overqualified" unemployed engineer might not be too gung-ho about a substitute teaching job that pays $10/hr. as his only source of income? Or a student with $120,000 in debt for multiple degrees might be a little pissed about being asked to intern for free and then being called "entitled" when he says "F*** You" for someone making the request? Or an attorney with 15 years of experience is a wee bit perturbed when he was fired so that a replacement approved by the ABA can now do his job in India because the ABA approved outsourcing and the 40 year old has a family to feed? But if he collects food stamps, he's a "loafer" and "lazy." Huh? How about a vet injured overseas who is now told, "Go to North Dakota. What are you, lazy, I hear North Dakota has jobs falling from the sky!" Yes, the injured vet, who thought he paid his dues and served his country, now must move to North Dakota for a possible job without a place to live or family because if he doesn't, he will be labelled lazy!
Rumor was back in the days, people could graduate high school and find a great job, retire after 30 years, raise 2-4 kids, pay for their college, and take vacations. Or go to college, get a BA or BS in any number of subjects (not just STEM - before outsourcing and visas), marry, have one spouse work, and enjoy life, switch careers, and advance in that new career too without a hitch.
Now, with more education, more debt, more suffering, the people in the position least to be blamed are the first ones to be looked down on despite doing everything right. Isn't this what breeds revolution? A well-educated middle class that has no chance not even for advancement, but even for survival?
Folks, look, we may have hit a bottom, although I'm not so sure on home prices, but in terms of sales, rolling around there, but over 1 month, just 1 month of data we have some claiming everything is rosy, home prices will rise 10%, sales will increase, construction jobs are coming back and the economy is "on the mend".
This is ridiculous! The NAR especially claims this and has been doing so, no matter what the data says and they are all about realtors, so do not believe their hype.
One month of data does not a trend make at all, not by a long shot. Just unreal how various press and pundits jump on one month's of data and make declarations. You cannot do that, even with a quarter's worth of data. 6 months, ok, you can say something.
Ah yes, the old "We're a Nation of immigrants" line. Classic misdirection by fools and political traitors for other fools. Guess what? We were a Nation of LEGAL IMMIGRANTS AND LAWS - not illegal aliens, H-1B scammers and the companies that buy more and more H-1Bs and other visas (other websites deal with Infosys, HP, Microsoft and the scams solely), and massive floods of ILLEGAL ALIENS. Illegal alien is not the same as someone going through Ellis Island or other legal process. You know why? Because the USG set immigration policy, enforced it, and returned many, many immigrants for lack of skills, communicable diseased, and many other reasons. There was a law and there was enforcement - THUS, RULE OF LAW! Americans were working in droves, the economy was booming, and there was no H-1B crap. And when there was a panic or recession or depression, the govt. responded to the American citizens, not its paymasters in New Delhi, Beijing, or some traitors in a corporate boardroom for more and cheaper labor (the more non-American, the better). These liars and corrupt traitors will never compare Red China's immigration policies or Indian's immigration policies or Sinapore's or Mexico's policies to ours. They will never talk about the tariffs these countries impose on imported goods. Ever try to work in Japan or Indonesia or Singapore or India as an undocumented foreign worker in IT or low-paging jobs? Ever try to cross the border illegally into Russia or the PRC or Vietnam? You know what the repercussions are for breaking those country's law are? Do you think these countries are as beholden to corporate traitors and others that don't care about their own citizens? These comparisons aren't made and made daily by the MSM and corporate boardrooms, their puppets, and those select other leaders (e.g., some unions) because they know they lose the rule of law argument. They want power and $ at the expense of their won citizens.
WE ARE AWARE, WE KNOW, AND WE ARE SMARTER than the traitors. But being honest, hardworking Americans that had no desire to screw over fellow citizens, we had no desire to go into politics, unfortunately, the people that only care about $ and power step on others on their way to the halls of "power" and boardrooms and HR suites. These people are, in most circumstances, no smarter or harder working than the average American, they just care less about others, "their" (only in the sense of a piggybank) country's future, and more about enriching themselves at the expense of others. Models? In no sense of the word. The rule of law should be the model, but that is no longer the case because the branches of govt. have been rented, if not outright bought.
The North American working class is the victim of a shift in the global balance of power and a shift in interests. Our elites figured out that they no longer need us to produce stuff, because it can be done cheaper, elsewhere. Now they also figured out that they no longer need to invest in domestic human capital, because they can just import from Asia, same as we do with our underwear. So, we are being discarded like dirty, old underwear.
http://zoltansustainableecon.blogspot.com/2012/06/human-capital.html
Damn, who would have thought, crack addicted gamblers that own the pit bosses and casino management and law enforcement won't give up crack or gambling? Especially when people who don't use crack or gamble have to finance the gamblers when they lose and don't get to share in any of their winnings? Who thinks the gamblers will ever give up their actions . . . EVER? Why would they, no repercussions, no rebukes, no prison, and the casino and enforcers are completely owned by crackheads while those who never stepped foot in a casino ever are forced to fund their drugs, gambling, and whores against their will. And to top it off - the upstanding non-gamblers are called lazy idiots and unemployed scum by the crackhead gamblers and casino management (actually, casino management does criticize the American public on MSM and praise the crackhead banksters). It's good to be a crack-addicted moron gambler - "best and brightest" - oh absolutely, "best and brightest."
The comparison to the mob is not apt, they wouldn't tolerate degenerate gamblers when they couldn't payoff their own bills, there never was public backing and the enforcers kept these mutts in check. Now, there is no check on these idiots, they own DC and NYC and everywhere else while the citizens that respected the rules deal with the repercussions against their will.
-KURTZ
This goes right along with Moody's downgrades for the same reasons and Moody's mentions "government support" in their ratings rationale.
The BIS has released a report stating banks are doing the same risky, derivatives types of trades that caused the financial crisis and fully expect taxpayers to bail them out if things go bad.
BOA robosigns foreclosures leading to personal tragedies, suicides, homelessness, well screw them, pull your funds and go to your local credit union. Who would have the balls to enter into a 30 year mortgage (assuming one could find a job in 2012) with a known criminal organization like BOA or Wells Fargo or Chase or someone else? Who could ever trust them?
Same with Well Fargo killing thousands of jobs and moving them to Bangalore (or New Delhi) and Manila, fraudulent foreclosures, etc. Same with Chase that had massive security breaches because they don't care about customers' information, but only care about raping them financially. What, outsourcing data has implications to customers' security? Shocking!
Companies like American Express, GE, Boeing, Gulfstream in GA., FTI Consulting, state and federal govt. post fake jobs, f' them, post the information so the 30 million Americans unemployed in 2012 can pull this "GOING GALT" crap on them - payback. Bloomberg hired his sister for a city job and has his daughter working for him, but nepotism is bad, so my elementary school teacher told me.
USA Jobs posts fake ads to be filled by some dolt, well write to every single HR person involved and your US Senator and Rep. and bug them until they have no choice but to listen.
These scoundrels are blaming fellow Americans for massive unemployment, they are calling them lazy, uneducated, drug addicted losers who don't deserve to live the American dream while these criminals pull a "capital strike" while most certainly continuing to collect $20 million paydays (just look at JC Penney's recent failure of a CEO - scorch and burn management).
Your pension invests in hedge funds that pay the managers 2% of all assets under management in addition to 20% of all profits?! Guess what? That's a losing proposition that merely robs the public servants who have no choice. Write to your AG and Governor and pension administrator and demand to know who decided to invest in hedge funds, how the decision was made, and why the Hell 2% + 20% is a fair deal to public servants who are being fired left and right. FOIA, it's there for a reason.
Capital strike? Yeah, Ayn Rand, there's a role model for morons. Same as Gingrich is a model for being loyal and a man of the people or Obama is someone who knows life as a factory worker or Romney knows how to pull himself by his bootstraps (if your father was a Governor). D & R, equally useless, equally corrupt, equally beholden to the 1%.
These are all clowns so let's treat them as such. Payback, Bozo, payback.
Right, you get these stock hype "articles" daily with no basis in data reality. "Market rises on oil supply concerns, market falls on Buffet comments"...they are issued every 15 minutes and to me it's some serious trader noise. If investors really base trades on those headlines, to me, they are out of their mind.
That said, supposedly one of the reasons stocks are up is because Morgan Stanley should be been the maximum downgrade, 3 notches and instead was only 2. In other words, due to the February warnings, the market had it "priced in" than the downgrades would be much worse.
That said, these downgrades to me are really telling. Moody's is telling us the Banks are at it again, nothing has changed. In spite of a global economic collapse, meltdown, they are still making massive risky derivatives bets, which have contagion written throughout.
It's unbelievable the larger economics awareness people didn't go really reading Moody's comments. This time, I think a credit ratings agency is doing something right, yes a rarity, but that's a serious warning to me.
Given this news, should't we be at DEFCON 2 or 1 like 2007 already? I mean Dick Bove, master bankster shill on CNBS and Bloomberg, was busy saying Moody's was bad for doing this and banks were still awesome (just like he's been saying since 2007, same with Kudlow, etc.). Bloomberg etc. were shrieking last night. But bank stocks went UP today?! Really? It's like when Bloomberg runs headlines at the bottom saying "China's economy slowing down," but then says "China's economy picking up," or "gold seen falling on imminent deflation" and then the next "gold seen rising on imminent inflation." Complete joke, even the media doesn't know how to play these blatant manipulations. Sure, banks have no $, will be crushed by trillions in derivatives - why not shoot up 50000%. Well, when things are good, thing are good for banksters and CEOs, and when things are really, really, really bad, it's also good because the Feds and Eurocrats have to goose the markets up. Heads they win, tails they win, we lose every time.
International company based out of USA advertised position, requires many years of experience, advanced degree, signing off on pretty important things (so you're on the hook if things go wrong), setting up corp. programs, etc. Pretty standard work for a qualified full-time worker with degrees and experience in the field. Nowhere does ad say part-time, in fact, clearly a full-time job with full-time duties. Well, lo and behold, bait-and-switch, HR during screening phone call reveals it's PART-TIME in first 10 seconds and says lots of words in ad, so candidates miss it (lie, ad never says that and candidates know how to read and apply to jobs)?! This job is not in a city of 1,000,000 so no way people are moving down there for part-time work. So what's the game? Probably fishing for resumes, pressuring current workers to work harder or someone in local area/friend preselected for gig. But HR can say they solicited and received 1000 resumes from national candidates, stiff competition. No written record of switch, welcome to the USA of lies and bait-and-switch. Wonder why people hate HR and companies? There shouldn't be any doubt. Build up your hopes so you can join a crew that has no problems being deceitful. Would you trust these people with your medical benefits or paycheck? Would you want to ever apply there again or buy anything from them ever? In some ways I'm glad Indians and Chinese overseas can deal with this crap - have at it.
Mega evil and I saw that announcement. We have various labor arbitrage events going on, such as Obama expanding the U.S. college educated displacement program, OPT, abuse of L-1s and so on, so I will try to do a round up of statistics on all of these things and write them up.
The fly by as press releases, 10,000 here, 500 here, 20k over there. They add up at a time we can least afford to lose even more jobs.
But Warren Buffett's Wells Fargo, the same Wells Fargo that laundered money for drug cartels, the same Warren Buffett that pretends to care for the little guy while having meetings with the Feds at top levels, while cutting great deals with other banksters at Goldman Sucks, is creating jobs per its announcement . . . IN INDIA AND THE PHILIPPINES! But surely these jobs will be created in addition to those in the USA, right? Silly American worker and students, you are expendable and those jobs are going overseas to cut costs while Americans will be canned! How's that for "job creators"! And this goes on and on and on. Oracle's Ellison buying 98% of a Hawaiian island? Sure, why not?!
Can the average American find a job to pay off a student loan and pay rent and maybe retire from a job (if he's lucky to find one that will hire him) at the age of 80 if there's actually a company that wants someone beyond 40? No, he's overqualified for a $10/hr. job and will likely be homeless. But hey, f' the average American. As long as Buffett and Dimon and Blankfein and the other banksters and CEOs control both parties, the average American amounts to JACK. These people literally will not change until they fear change because when the US economy can still find 400,000 people to lay off in 2012, things aren't getting better. When a 1%er cares so little about what will happen in 2012 that he can buy an entire island, and Wells Fargo, a $ laundering bank that caused an American's suicide last month over fraudulent foreclosure, can kill thousands more jobs, they don't have any fear. NOTHING WILL CHANGE UNTIL REAL ACTION IS FORCED ON THEM. June 2012 and these companies are still laying off people? I'm shocked anyone actually has jobs to be fired from at this point outside HR departments, corporate boardrooms, and government offices in DC and state capitals. 390,000 + people per week being laid off still?! Simply beyond belief.
Despite my own bearish disposition I can say with some certainty that home sales in the mid-west and east coast are 'peppy' (As in homes are actually being sold). 30 year mortgages below 4% are the likely culprit. The lower rates go, the more people are qualified to hold the loans. I talked with someone who managed a rental property and he was losing several long time renters to recent home purchases.
So on the surface (and it's been a long time coming), twist has worked to at least temporarily stabilize housing. Still a person without a job cannot afford any housing.
Folks, this could be due, in part to the bizarre hot winter weather, hiring happened earlier. That said, the jobs market has ALWAYS been crappy, none of this should be so shocking and the numbers to really compare against are 2007 and then 2000, the last year the job market was good. People will say oh, it's just because March was so good. Well, check out our link to March's overview and bottom line, March still sucked for job openings. Seriously, we must compare to 2007 and 2000 and why that Beveridge curve the BLS provides is included in our overviews.
I just read some other reports where people believe somehow this is news. Well, yes, there was a dramatic decline in job openings, but the change, really just indicates more labor malaise that has been going on for way too long now, not some dramatic change from the crappy status quo.
When I overview a statistical release, I try to just stick to the numbers but do try to make them "speak for themselves". That said, I saw the openings rate for "professional" positions being 4.2% and that includes STEM where we know there are many, many fake job ads.
Anyone who bothered to investigate knows this, or anyone in STEM knows this, but I'm fairly certain the JOLTS survey just takes businesses reported job openings at their word. i.e. they are not adjusting for employers claiming their are job openings when they are not hiring de facto or pushing tons of fake ads to bring over more foreign guest workers.
Many, many corporations (and the USG) post job ads repeatedly for positions that will never be filled. The USG is notorious for posting fake ads on USAJobs to show that they are hiring, when in fact they will close positions within 24 hours or run the same ad repeatedly, close it, open it, close it, etc. because the preselected fool simply cannot get his way to the top of the candidate list so his friend can hire him. They will keep the hiring process going (or not) for literally 24+ months while applicants never hear word one while trying to secure a job and money to feed their families. Eventually, they might hear they didn't get it through an email. This goes on all the time. But people outside the specific office and USG think it's an actual opening they can fill - it's not. But hey, MSM runs stories "USGovt. hiring 100,000!" - complete lie.
Private sector - AMEX, as an example, is notorious for repeatedly running the same job ads over and over again. They will put candidates through 2-4 levels of interviews, testing, say they won't fill the position after all that, and then a few months later, it's open again and people that don't know better apply. Glassdoor.com and many other sites have the tales of woe.
The majority of companies do the same thing, and with 22+% real unemployment, the scammers and LIARS that post fake ads I'm sure are legion (not to mention the agencies that bait-and-switch, collect endless resumes, say they have a job and then reject an applicant within MINUTES), as tens of millions of Americans can attest.
This is part of the ploy and a necessary step to secure H-1B visas when "no qualified Americans could be found," maintain positive press in the MSM and to scare competitors, maintain budgets, and to keep HR busy pretending to do something instead of getting axed themselves. The charade also shows "competition" when everyone knows some idiot nephew or office sweetheart is being prepped for the job if only they could stop drooling on themselves long enough to secure it.
Hiring practices in the USA are a symptom of what's so wrong in this place and why the USG and corporations are not leaders or models in any sense of the words. If this country is going to change, the common man and woman that's been screwed over will have to take this beast by the throat.
Good article. I see nothing stopping China's ascent, except possibly their inability to re balance their economy. America is being purposefully gutted from within. In twenty years we'll be back to a purely agro-mining-raw materials based economy.
Michael Pettis over at China Financial Markets discusses a possible China implosion due to lack of internal demand.
This bankster trick is obvious and has been pulled elsewhere and here in recent times and the past. They burden the public govts. with debt or screw over individual citizens (e.g., GS cooking Greece's books, BOA screwing over individuals through robosigning, municipal bankruptcies that are now multiplying here, etc.). Then, public entities like those declaring bankruptcy in Europe or here in the US have no way of paying off debts. Same with people in foreclosure (and of course many are legitimately foreclosed on, but many aren't). So how, oh how, will those debts be paid off? No problem, the banksters go to their playbook. Well, banksters swoop in, buy real assets for pennies on the dollar through incredibly not "fair and open auctions" not conducted at arm's length. And then they turn around and sell real assets to foreigners or rich fellow banksters, real estate developers, casino owners, and other truly noble job creators at discounted, but still much higher prices from the original prices that bankrupted govt. and citizens.
Quite a rigged game that should make everyone with a soul sick. So what real IP and technology and assets foreigners cannot buy and steal overseas, the banksters will simply sell to them here. Who wants to buy a road? Ports? Schools? Prime real estate? Warehouses? Turnpikes and highways? Foreigners of course, and it's all "capitalism" in its newest, sickest form. Why not sell AF bases, the USMA, USNA, beaches, nuclear subs, nuclear reactors, and everything else. Hey, why not, let's go back to the Gilded Age and have the Chinese (instead of Carnegie and Rockefeller) buy up all the land around a farm or store or house and force the resident or store owner to trade with them or sell to them exclusively. Just like the robber barons of old. And in the new schools, Chinese will be taught, capitalism will be redefined, and those damn Founding Fathers will suddenly echo all that Murdoch, and the D & R, and our new masters in Beijing and New Delhi and Wall Street demand they say.
Teddy Roosevelt, paging Teddy Roosevelt, please come down and return to your Nation's capital ASAP.
People these days are so broke, they have no retirement, are not even making it paycheck to paycheck, wages are so low, if they have a job.
I might direct you to over existing home sales overview. Pretty much on every NAR statistical release I poke holes in what they claim, this month, not so much. Housing, residential real estate generally I find absolutely ridiculous with the lack of the obvious. People need good, full-time, stable jobs to buy a home and in the U.S., basically the middle class has disappeared.
Anyway, check out the foreign buyers of existing homes in that overview. Since they wiped out the U.S. middle class they are looking at residential real estate as something to "export/import", at least some are.
Of course they call the bottom + improvement, they've been doing that for the last few years again . . and again. At some point they might be right, but the end of the world might come before. NAR needs that hope/delusion, that's why they run those tired ads about homeowners building communities. Is there an ad about BOA destroying homeowners' lives or Detroit levelling entire neighborhoods and cutting off fire and police protection because of thousands of vacant homes or the massive shadow inventory banks are keeping off the market to raise prices artificially? No? Of course not. NAR needs that false hope so people will spend $ they don't have, like GE/CNBS/NBS and Microsoft/NBC optimism no matter what because reality doesn't sell ads or attract viewers turned off by dismal reality. When the $ men and ad men need consumers and home buyers, the message is clear - OPTIMISM CREATES SALES FOR THE CORPORATIONS, YOU WILL BE OPTIMISTIC DESPITE REALITY IN ALL STORIES AND ADS.
Today CNN blares "Hispanics suffer under racial profiling AZ. Law," while ignoring the mass destruction labor arbitrage is doing to the US daily because it suits their political agenda. Meanwhile, the fact remains that legal American citizens of ALL RACES are suffering tremendously under this labor arbitrage and are themselves blamed by fellow citizens that haven't suffered yet (it makes them think they will never suffer and only bad people are unemployed) and those who benefit from pitting people against each other (i.e., those in the power positions). So while blue collar and white collar jobs are systematically sent overseas, or given to foreigners who move here, or given to those here illegally, Americans with all sorts of tremendous experience are ignored and blamed.
Does it really take that much thought to understand why a 45-year old "overqualified" unemployed engineer might not be too gung-ho about a substitute teaching job that pays $10/hr. as his only source of income? Or a student with $120,000 in debt for multiple degrees might be a little pissed about being asked to intern for free and then being called "entitled" when he says "F*** You" for someone making the request? Or an attorney with 15 years of experience is a wee bit perturbed when he was fired so that a replacement approved by the ABA can now do his job in India because the ABA approved outsourcing and the 40 year old has a family to feed? But if he collects food stamps, he's a "loafer" and "lazy." Huh? How about a vet injured overseas who is now told, "Go to North Dakota. What are you, lazy, I hear North Dakota has jobs falling from the sky!" Yes, the injured vet, who thought he paid his dues and served his country, now must move to North Dakota for a possible job without a place to live or family because if he doesn't, he will be labelled lazy!
Rumor was back in the days, people could graduate high school and find a great job, retire after 30 years, raise 2-4 kids, pay for their college, and take vacations. Or go to college, get a BA or BS in any number of subjects (not just STEM - before outsourcing and visas), marry, have one spouse work, and enjoy life, switch careers, and advance in that new career too without a hitch.
Now, with more education, more debt, more suffering, the people in the position least to be blamed are the first ones to be looked down on despite doing everything right. Isn't this what breeds revolution? A well-educated middle class that has no chance not even for advancement, but even for survival?
Folks, look, we may have hit a bottom, although I'm not so sure on home prices, but in terms of sales, rolling around there, but over 1 month, just 1 month of data we have some claiming everything is rosy, home prices will rise 10%, sales will increase, construction jobs are coming back and the economy is "on the mend".
This is ridiculous! The NAR especially claims this and has been doing so, no matter what the data says and they are all about realtors, so do not believe their hype.
One month of data does not a trend make at all, not by a long shot. Just unreal how various press and pundits jump on one month's of data and make declarations. You cannot do that, even with a quarter's worth of data. 6 months, ok, you can say something.
Ah yes, the old "We're a Nation of immigrants" line. Classic misdirection by fools and political traitors for other fools. Guess what? We were a Nation of LEGAL IMMIGRANTS AND LAWS - not illegal aliens, H-1B scammers and the companies that buy more and more H-1Bs and other visas (other websites deal with Infosys, HP, Microsoft and the scams solely), and massive floods of ILLEGAL ALIENS. Illegal alien is not the same as someone going through Ellis Island or other legal process. You know why? Because the USG set immigration policy, enforced it, and returned many, many immigrants for lack of skills, communicable diseased, and many other reasons. There was a law and there was enforcement - THUS, RULE OF LAW! Americans were working in droves, the economy was booming, and there was no H-1B crap. And when there was a panic or recession or depression, the govt. responded to the American citizens, not its paymasters in New Delhi, Beijing, or some traitors in a corporate boardroom for more and cheaper labor (the more non-American, the better). These liars and corrupt traitors will never compare Red China's immigration policies or Indian's immigration policies or Sinapore's or Mexico's policies to ours. They will never talk about the tariffs these countries impose on imported goods. Ever try to work in Japan or Indonesia or Singapore or India as an undocumented foreign worker in IT or low-paging jobs? Ever try to cross the border illegally into Russia or the PRC or Vietnam? You know what the repercussions are for breaking those country's law are? Do you think these countries are as beholden to corporate traitors and others that don't care about their own citizens? These comparisons aren't made and made daily by the MSM and corporate boardrooms, their puppets, and those select other leaders (e.g., some unions) because they know they lose the rule of law argument. They want power and $ at the expense of their won citizens.
WE ARE AWARE, WE KNOW, AND WE ARE SMARTER than the traitors. But being honest, hardworking Americans that had no desire to screw over fellow citizens, we had no desire to go into politics, unfortunately, the people that only care about $ and power step on others on their way to the halls of "power" and boardrooms and HR suites. These people are, in most circumstances, no smarter or harder working than the average American, they just care less about others, "their" (only in the sense of a piggybank) country's future, and more about enriching themselves at the expense of others. Models? In no sense of the word. The rule of law should be the model, but that is no longer the case because the branches of govt. have been rented, if not outright bought.
-KURTZ
The North American working class is the victim of a shift in the global balance of power and a shift in interests. Our elites figured out that they no longer need us to produce stuff, because it can be done cheaper, elsewhere. Now they also figured out that they no longer need to invest in domestic human capital, because they can just import from Asia, same as we do with our underwear. So, we are being discarded like dirty, old underwear.
http://zoltansustainableecon.blogspot.com/2012/06/human-capital.html
Damn, who would have thought, crack addicted gamblers that own the pit bosses and casino management and law enforcement won't give up crack or gambling? Especially when people who don't use crack or gamble have to finance the gamblers when they lose and don't get to share in any of their winnings? Who thinks the gamblers will ever give up their actions . . . EVER? Why would they, no repercussions, no rebukes, no prison, and the casino and enforcers are completely owned by crackheads while those who never stepped foot in a casino ever are forced to fund their drugs, gambling, and whores against their will. And to top it off - the upstanding non-gamblers are called lazy idiots and unemployed scum by the crackhead gamblers and casino management (actually, casino management does criticize the American public on MSM and praise the crackhead banksters). It's good to be a crack-addicted moron gambler - "best and brightest" - oh absolutely, "best and brightest."
The comparison to the mob is not apt, they wouldn't tolerate degenerate gamblers when they couldn't payoff their own bills, there never was public backing and the enforcers kept these mutts in check. Now, there is no check on these idiots, they own DC and NYC and everywhere else while the citizens that respected the rules deal with the repercussions against their will.
-KURTZ
This goes right along with Moody's downgrades for the same reasons and Moody's mentions "government support" in their ratings rationale.
The BIS has released a report stating banks are doing the same risky, derivatives types of trades that caused the financial crisis and fully expect taxpayers to bail them out if things go bad.
Article overviewing the report.
BOA robosigns foreclosures leading to personal tragedies, suicides, homelessness, well screw them, pull your funds and go to your local credit union. Who would have the balls to enter into a 30 year mortgage (assuming one could find a job in 2012) with a known criminal organization like BOA or Wells Fargo or Chase or someone else? Who could ever trust them?
Same with Well Fargo killing thousands of jobs and moving them to Bangalore (or New Delhi) and Manila, fraudulent foreclosures, etc. Same with Chase that had massive security breaches because they don't care about customers' information, but only care about raping them financially. What, outsourcing data has implications to customers' security? Shocking!
Companies like American Express, GE, Boeing, Gulfstream in GA., FTI Consulting, state and federal govt. post fake jobs, f' them, post the information so the 30 million Americans unemployed in 2012 can pull this "GOING GALT" crap on them - payback. Bloomberg hired his sister for a city job and has his daughter working for him, but nepotism is bad, so my elementary school teacher told me.
USA Jobs posts fake ads to be filled by some dolt, well write to every single HR person involved and your US Senator and Rep. and bug them until they have no choice but to listen.
These scoundrels are blaming fellow Americans for massive unemployment, they are calling them lazy, uneducated, drug addicted losers who don't deserve to live the American dream while these criminals pull a "capital strike" while most certainly continuing to collect $20 million paydays (just look at JC Penney's recent failure of a CEO - scorch and burn management).
Your pension invests in hedge funds that pay the managers 2% of all assets under management in addition to 20% of all profits?! Guess what? That's a losing proposition that merely robs the public servants who have no choice. Write to your AG and Governor and pension administrator and demand to know who decided to invest in hedge funds, how the decision was made, and why the Hell 2% + 20% is a fair deal to public servants who are being fired left and right. FOIA, it's there for a reason.
Capital strike? Yeah, Ayn Rand, there's a role model for morons. Same as Gingrich is a model for being loyal and a man of the people or Obama is someone who knows life as a factory worker or Romney knows how to pull himself by his bootstraps (if your father was a Governor). D & R, equally useless, equally corrupt, equally beholden to the 1%.
These are all clowns so let's treat them as such. Payback, Bozo, payback.
Right, you get these stock hype "articles" daily with no basis in data reality. "Market rises on oil supply concerns, market falls on Buffet comments"...they are issued every 15 minutes and to me it's some serious trader noise. If investors really base trades on those headlines, to me, they are out of their mind.
That said, supposedly one of the reasons stocks are up is because Morgan Stanley should be been the maximum downgrade, 3 notches and instead was only 2. In other words, due to the February warnings, the market had it "priced in" than the downgrades would be much worse.
That said, these downgrades to me are really telling. Moody's is telling us the Banks are at it again, nothing has changed. In spite of a global economic collapse, meltdown, they are still making massive risky derivatives bets, which have contagion written throughout.
It's unbelievable the larger economics awareness people didn't go really reading Moody's comments. This time, I think a credit ratings agency is doing something right, yes a rarity, but that's a serious warning to me.
Given this news, should't we be at DEFCON 2 or 1 like 2007 already? I mean Dick Bove, master bankster shill on CNBS and Bloomberg, was busy saying Moody's was bad for doing this and banks were still awesome (just like he's been saying since 2007, same with Kudlow, etc.). Bloomberg etc. were shrieking last night. But bank stocks went UP today?! Really? It's like when Bloomberg runs headlines at the bottom saying "China's economy slowing down," but then says "China's economy picking up," or "gold seen falling on imminent deflation" and then the next "gold seen rising on imminent inflation." Complete joke, even the media doesn't know how to play these blatant manipulations. Sure, banks have no $, will be crushed by trillions in derivatives - why not shoot up 50000%. Well, when things are good, thing are good for banksters and CEOs, and when things are really, really, really bad, it's also good because the Feds and Eurocrats have to goose the markets up. Heads they win, tails they win, we lose every time.
International company based out of USA advertised position, requires many years of experience, advanced degree, signing off on pretty important things (so you're on the hook if things go wrong), setting up corp. programs, etc. Pretty standard work for a qualified full-time worker with degrees and experience in the field. Nowhere does ad say part-time, in fact, clearly a full-time job with full-time duties. Well, lo and behold, bait-and-switch, HR during screening phone call reveals it's PART-TIME in first 10 seconds and says lots of words in ad, so candidates miss it (lie, ad never says that and candidates know how to read and apply to jobs)?! This job is not in a city of 1,000,000 so no way people are moving down there for part-time work. So what's the game? Probably fishing for resumes, pressuring current workers to work harder or someone in local area/friend preselected for gig. But HR can say they solicited and received 1000 resumes from national candidates, stiff competition. No written record of switch, welcome to the USA of lies and bait-and-switch. Wonder why people hate HR and companies? There shouldn't be any doubt. Build up your hopes so you can join a crew that has no problems being deceitful. Would you trust these people with your medical benefits or paycheck? Would you want to ever apply there again or buy anything from them ever? In some ways I'm glad Indians and Chinese overseas can deal with this crap - have at it.
Mega evil and I saw that announcement. We have various labor arbitrage events going on, such as Obama expanding the U.S. college educated displacement program, OPT, abuse of L-1s and so on, so I will try to do a round up of statistics on all of these things and write them up.
The fly by as press releases, 10,000 here, 500 here, 20k over there. They add up at a time we can least afford to lose even more jobs.
But Warren Buffett's Wells Fargo, the same Wells Fargo that laundered money for drug cartels, the same Warren Buffett that pretends to care for the little guy while having meetings with the Feds at top levels, while cutting great deals with other banksters at Goldman Sucks, is creating jobs per its announcement . . . IN INDIA AND THE PHILIPPINES! But surely these jobs will be created in addition to those in the USA, right? Silly American worker and students, you are expendable and those jobs are going overseas to cut costs while Americans will be canned! How's that for "job creators"! And this goes on and on and on. Oracle's Ellison buying 98% of a Hawaiian island? Sure, why not?!
Can the average American find a job to pay off a student loan and pay rent and maybe retire from a job (if he's lucky to find one that will hire him) at the age of 80 if there's actually a company that wants someone beyond 40? No, he's overqualified for a $10/hr. job and will likely be homeless. But hey, f' the average American. As long as Buffett and Dimon and Blankfein and the other banksters and CEOs control both parties, the average American amounts to JACK. These people literally will not change until they fear change because when the US economy can still find 400,000 people to lay off in 2012, things aren't getting better. When a 1%er cares so little about what will happen in 2012 that he can buy an entire island, and Wells Fargo, a $ laundering bank that caused an American's suicide last month over fraudulent foreclosure, can kill thousands more jobs, they don't have any fear. NOTHING WILL CHANGE UNTIL REAL ACTION IS FORCED ON THEM. June 2012 and these companies are still laying off people? I'm shocked anyone actually has jobs to be fired from at this point outside HR departments, corporate boardrooms, and government offices in DC and state capitals. 390,000 + people per week being laid off still?! Simply beyond belief.
Despite my own bearish disposition I can say with some certainty that home sales in the mid-west and east coast are 'peppy' (As in homes are actually being sold). 30 year mortgages below 4% are the likely culprit. The lower rates go, the more people are qualified to hold the loans. I talked with someone who managed a rental property and he was losing several long time renters to recent home purchases.
So on the surface (and it's been a long time coming), twist has worked to at least temporarily stabilize housing. Still a person without a job cannot afford any housing.
Folks, this could be due, in part to the bizarre hot winter weather, hiring happened earlier. That said, the jobs market has ALWAYS been crappy, none of this should be so shocking and the numbers to really compare against are 2007 and then 2000, the last year the job market was good. People will say oh, it's just because March was so good. Well, check out our link to March's overview and bottom line, March still sucked for job openings. Seriously, we must compare to 2007 and 2000 and why that Beveridge curve the BLS provides is included in our overviews.
I just read some other reports where people believe somehow this is news. Well, yes, there was a dramatic decline in job openings, but the change, really just indicates more labor malaise that has been going on for way too long now, not some dramatic change from the crappy status quo.
When I overview a statistical release, I try to just stick to the numbers but do try to make them "speak for themselves". That said, I saw the openings rate for "professional" positions being 4.2% and that includes STEM where we know there are many, many fake job ads.
Anyone who bothered to investigate knows this, or anyone in STEM knows this, but I'm fairly certain the JOLTS survey just takes businesses reported job openings at their word. i.e. they are not adjusting for employers claiming their are job openings when they are not hiring de facto or pushing tons of fake ads to bring over more foreign guest workers.
Why I mentioned it. i.e. you are right.
Many, many corporations (and the USG) post job ads repeatedly for positions that will never be filled. The USG is notorious for posting fake ads on USAJobs to show that they are hiring, when in fact they will close positions within 24 hours or run the same ad repeatedly, close it, open it, close it, etc. because the preselected fool simply cannot get his way to the top of the candidate list so his friend can hire him. They will keep the hiring process going (or not) for literally 24+ months while applicants never hear word one while trying to secure a job and money to feed their families. Eventually, they might hear they didn't get it through an email. This goes on all the time. But people outside the specific office and USG think it's an actual opening they can fill - it's not. But hey, MSM runs stories "USGovt. hiring 100,000!" - complete lie.
Private sector - AMEX, as an example, is notorious for repeatedly running the same job ads over and over again. They will put candidates through 2-4 levels of interviews, testing, say they won't fill the position after all that, and then a few months later, it's open again and people that don't know better apply. Glassdoor.com and many other sites have the tales of woe.
The majority of companies do the same thing, and with 22+% real unemployment, the scammers and LIARS that post fake ads I'm sure are legion (not to mention the agencies that bait-and-switch, collect endless resumes, say they have a job and then reject an applicant within MINUTES), as tens of millions of Americans can attest.
This is part of the ploy and a necessary step to secure H-1B visas when "no qualified Americans could be found," maintain positive press in the MSM and to scare competitors, maintain budgets, and to keep HR busy pretending to do something instead of getting axed themselves. The charade also shows "competition" when everyone knows some idiot nephew or office sweetheart is being prepped for the job if only they could stop drooling on themselves long enough to secure it.
Hiring practices in the USA are a symptom of what's so wrong in this place and why the USG and corporations are not leaders or models in any sense of the words. If this country is going to change, the common man and woman that's been screwed over will have to take this beast by the throat.
Good article. I see nothing stopping China's ascent, except possibly their inability to re balance their economy. America is being purposefully gutted from within. In twenty years we'll be back to a purely agro-mining-raw materials based economy.
Michael Pettis over at China Financial Markets discusses a possible China implosion due to lack of internal demand.
You may have missed the below link.
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/crux/2012/06/13/no-america-does-not-ne...
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