Business

Expanded Version: The US Economy Has Not Recovered And Will Not Recover

Paul Craig Roberts

The US economy died when middle class jobs were offshored and when the financial system was deregulated.

Jobs offshoring benefitted Wall Street, corporate executives, and shareholders, because lower labor and compliance costs resulted in higher profits. These profits flowed through to shareholders in the form of capital gains and to executives in the form of “performance bonuses.” Wall Street benefitted from the bull market generated by higher profits.

Americans have been increasingly disgruntled with the economic outlook since March 2015 and today's Bloomberg confidence print at 42.5 sends hope back to near 2-year lows. The early year bounce in expectations has been erased as US equity rallies have done nothing to stymie the growing realization across the states that something dismal this way comes.

The Central Banks hate physical cash. So much so they there will likely try to ban it in the near future.

You see, almost all of the “wealth” in the financial system is digital in nature.

1)   The total currency (actual cash in the form of bills and coins) in the US financial system is a little over $1.36 trillion.

2)   When you include digital money sitting in short-term accounts and long-term accounts then you’re talking about roughly $10 trillion in “money” in the financial system.

Submitted by Nick Cunningham via OilPrice.com,

Demand for thermal coal is declining, a trend that appears to be “irreversible.”

That is the conclusion from Goldman Sachs, which published a new report on the global coal and gas trade on February 15, and reported on by SNL. For coal producers, this is the latest in a long line of grim warnings, all of which point to a future of shuttered power plants, mine closures, and bankruptcies.

The exuberance following last night's surprising inventory draw from API has been erased as DOE reports inventory builds across the entire energy complex - crude +2.15mm, distillates +1.4mm, gasoline +3.04mm, and Cushing +36k. WTI Crude has dropped back below $31, erasing API-driven overnight gains.

API reported:

• Crude down 3.3 million
• Gasoline up 750,000
• Distillate down 2 million
• Cushing: up 175,000

But DOE reports: