Seems like there is a river of money flowing and headed for the falls. Hundreds of billions for corporate welfare. Short term interest rates at record lows. Mortgage rates are still better than any time over the past 30 years.
But foreclosures keep rising and folks just keep going broke. Why should this be happening? Is it not true that cash is being pumped into the economy?
Billions of dollars - borrowed and printed - have been injected then bottled up behind a dam that is weakening and ready to burst. The people in charge do not seem able to figure out how to regulate the flow as in a proper dam. The obligation for future generations is astonishing. Dams cannot hold higher levels that their design though. When the hole finally breaks through the result is - inflation that rivals 3rd world countries.
Though some money is starting to trickle out it still seems to dry up before it gets to producers, workers, and spenders. So capitalism as we like it is just plain anemic. Underemployed folks, like Tom Persinger who now makes 24k/yr as a nurses aid, have have pulled significant power from the economy. He used to make 60k/yr for GM before they got bailed out. He is relatively lucky though. Just under one out of ten Americans have no job at all so they cannot contribute earnings so that others have jobs. But the government is also manipulating statistics. Prior to the Clinton administration that 10% would have been closer to 21% unemployment which certainly echoes the Great Depression.
Even governments are squeezed. California is issuing IOUs and other states are shutting down for longer and longer periods to ease the pressure. Being a government employee just does not provide the security it once did.
The stock market has been head faking for quite a while. Just when you think a short rally foretells a recovery it dumps gains back to reality. Every other week you hear reports of the housing market leveling and coming back soon. To tell the truth, at scattered local levels that might be the case but overall the signs still are not solid.
Interestingly, some major European countries are beginning to recover more quickly than the USA. Though many reasons can be cited a salient point is that they did not jump as deeply into the stimulus pool. The irony is astonishing when you consider that most of them are, for now at least, a few darker shades of socialist than America. Bond professionals are saying that the cranked up money printing presses are being used to keep interest rates low which. Low rates, overabundance of money that is not accessible is guananteed to keep the economy underperforming.
So what do the bankers do? Well, it seems they have decided to keep the tax dollars given to crank up the economy and instead use them to buy other banks. Opportunity like that just does not come along very often for sure and when people don't have jobs and assets are depreciating why not?
The tragic consequence of all of this gross mismanagement is what third world countries usually experience - very, very high inflation. The government has borrowed to oblivion and the money is being printed with abandon. The banks must eventually let that money go. When is does we will be paying dearly.
But foreclosures keep rising and folks just keep going broke. Why should this be happening? Is it not true that cash is being pumped into the economy?
Billions of dollars - borrowed and printed - have been injected then bottled up behind a dam that is weakening and ready to burst. The people in charge do not seem able to figure out how to regulate the flow as in a proper dam. The obligation for future generations is astonishing. Dams cannot hold higher levels that their design though. When the hole finally breaks through the result is - inflation that rivals 3rd world countries.
Though some money is starting to trickle out it still seems to dry up before it gets to producers, workers, and spenders. So capitalism as we like it is just plain anemic. Underemployed folks, like Tom Persinger who now makes 24k/yr as a nurses aid, have have pulled significant power from the economy. He used to make 60k/yr for GM before they got bailed out. He is relatively lucky though. Just under one out of ten Americans have no job at all so they cannot contribute earnings so that others have jobs. But the government is also manipulating statistics. Prior to the Clinton administration that 10% would have been closer to 21% unemployment which certainly echoes the Great Depression.
Even governments are squeezed. California is issuing IOUs and other states are shutting down for longer and longer periods to ease the pressure. Being a government employee just does not provide the security it once did.
The stock market has been head faking for quite a while. Just when you think a short rally foretells a recovery it dumps gains back to reality. Every other week you hear reports of the housing market leveling and coming back soon. To tell the truth, at scattered local levels that might be the case but overall the signs still are not solid.
Interestingly, some major European countries are beginning to recover more quickly than the USA. Though many reasons can be cited a salient point is that they did not jump as deeply into the stimulus pool. The irony is astonishing when you consider that most of them are, for now at least, a few darker shades of socialist than America. Bond professionals are saying that the cranked up money printing presses are being used to keep interest rates low which. Low rates, overabundance of money that is not accessible is guananteed to keep the economy underperforming.
So what do the bankers do? Well, it seems they have decided to keep the tax dollars given to crank up the economy and instead use them to buy other banks. Opportunity like that just does not come along very often for sure and when people don't have jobs and assets are depreciating why not?
The tragic consequence of all of this gross mismanagement is what third world countries usually experience - very, very high inflation. The government has borrowed to oblivion and the money is being printed with abandon. The banks must eventually let that money go. When is does we will be paying dearly.
About the Author:
My Market Friend is Paul Kluskowskis's blog. It is chock-a-block with current financial, economic, and market news. He is a financial manager at T/R Financial Management Group. He has been in the business for over 10 years and writes extensively with numerous articles and three ebooks to his credit. Paul also manages the PINGP Work Control Center Mgr at Xcel Energy. You can gethis financial servicesand information at My Market Friend
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