Submitted by Gary Kaltbaum via GaryKaltbaum.com,
While my President was out this week patting himself on the back and taking victory laps over the "supposed" 4.9% unemployment rate, he forgot to mention a few important tidbits about what is really going on. We used to call them termites...the termites that were eating away at the economy because of foolish monetary policy by assinine central banks and even worse policy emanating out of this administration...but they are no longer just termites. The eating away of the economy has given rise to serious problems already front and center as well as the problems to come. But there was no mention of these FACTS by my President! It is simple! You cannot "easy money" your way to longer-term economic Shangri-la. You cannot tax and spend your way into a longer-term strong economy. You cannot create massive amounts of mandates, regulations, fees, fines and all that crap and turn it into longer-term strength that will feed on itself. My President forgot to mention:
- The labor participation rate has conveniently continued to crash since the administration took over enabling the unemployment rate to be lower than reality!
- This administration and the economy has been the recipient of 0% rates since becoming President...the recipient of $4 trillion-plus of printed money here and depending on the abacus you are using, $15-20 trillion of printed money around the globe...leading to a responding market to all the printed money creating a faux wealth effect that now goes into reverse. Very simply, the easiest monetary policy in the history of time!
- Deflation almost everywhere except for your healthcare premiums and deductibles.
- GDP under 1%.
- The Baltic Dry Index hitting another new all-time record low.
- U.S. factory orders that have now dropped for 14 months in a row.
- Orders for class 8 trucks (the big ones) declining a measly 48 percent from a year ago.
- Junk bonds continuing to crash!.
- The Restaurant Performance Index falling to the lowest level since 2008.
- A major slowdown in rail traffic!
- Corporate profit margins peaking during the third quarter of 2014 and heading lower since.
- Food stamp beneficiaries...at or near all-time highs.
- Homelessness...not good!.
- Welfare spending...a measly $1 trillion/year through over 80 different federal programs.
Retail crashing:
- Wal-Mart is closing 269 stores, including 154 inside the United States.
- KMart is closing dozens of stores.
- JC Penney shutting down almost 100 stores.
- Macys shutting 36 stores.
- The Gap closing 175 stores.
- Aeropostale clsoing 84 stores.
- Finish Line closing 150 stores.
- Sears shutting 100s of stores.
- Massive sales and earnings misses by Kohls, Bed Bath and Beyond, Best Buy, Ralph Lauren and many others. All this while oil prices have crashed.
And of course:
Creation of $8.4 trillion of new debt under your watch! That's over and above the already assinine amounts of taxpayer dollars you receive. That's after you saying you would go line by line through the budget to root out all the waste and stating you would cut deficits in half.
Despite you saying you lowered the deficit by 50%, you forget to mention it was you who inflated the deficit in the first place.
The CBO now says deficits are going to double to back over $1 trillion/year very soon...and total debt will head into the high $20s (trillion)!
Lastly...the markets. The markets, being a great forecaster of the future...well, let's hope this time the markets are wrong!
Mr. President, we wish we could say you are leaving us with a rotting economy... but we are worried we are past the point of rotting as you leave this country much more in debt than when you came in. Anyone can become rich by getting an infinite amount of credit cards and maxing each one out before receiving the next one. It just never ends well. Someone always pays in the end!
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Still buying the "hope"? Still think the skeptical naysaying non-patriots are "peddling fiction"? Well 9 charts paint a thousand words...