Submitted by Charles Hugh-Smith via OfTwoMinds blog,
Profits are faltering for structural reasons that are not easily resolved..
The bedrock assumption of the Bull market is that corporate profits will keep rising indefinitely. Hiccups are allowed, but current stock market valuations are implicitly based on profits expanding.
According to a lawsuit filed in L.A. Superior Court by former employee Anthony Pompliano, Snapchat has been faking its growth numbers in order to boost its value in an upcoming IPO. Pompliano, Snapchat's "growth lead", says he was hired away from his position at Facebook to provide confidential and proprietary information about Facebook's systems and was subsequently fired, after only three weeks on the job, for blowing the whistle on the company’s growth misrepresentations with several higher-ups. Per Variety:
Back in September, we noted that, in a surprisingly logical decision particularly for a state like California which is typically devoid of all reason, a court upheld the rights of Marin County (and it's taxpayers) to reduce final year salary levels utilized to calculate pension payments. The ruling was meant to protect taxpayers against "salary spiking," a practice whereby union employees artificially drive up their final year salary, by taking cash vacation payouts or 1x bonus payments for example, in an effort to game the annual pension payment they'll then receive in perpetuity.
Submitted by Ryan McMaken via The Mises Institute,
Colorado was among the four states where voters approved a minimum wage hike in November. Among the specific provisions for the new wage hike was the stipulation that tipped workers — such as waiters who receive tips and are paid below the standard minimum wage — will receive a mandated wage hike of 99 cents.
Naturally, this will lead to an increase in costs for restaurant owners who will then seek to raise prices and/or reduce costs. KDVR in Denver reports:
In January 2009, just three days after his inauguration, an arrogant President Obama, a "community organizer" and one-term senator from Illinois, proclaimed to then Republican Whip Eric Cantor that "elections have consequences, and at the end of the day, I won." Unfortunately, he was absolutely right and the consequences of Obama's election, having already crushed the coal industry, are about to bring the restaurant industry crashing down as well.