"Bernanke told a G20 meeting of finance ministers and central bankers earlier that while unemployment rates remain high in the U.S., the economy is improving and will help bring the global economy up with it."

Ben, have you read WFC email?

It has started.

This video (last X I'll post it, promise!!) was inspired, in part, by Karl. Thanks Karl for all your hard work bringing us your important perspectives on the economy, markets, et al.

"World of Debt": A comedic look (music video) that reflects on the world debt situation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrHiYxDb....

Some of Walmart's problems may stem from the anti-gun stance their took on re-ordering ammo.

bv

Did you see Whole Foods yesterday? They also came in soft.......

Fletchjr LOL!

Surprised they aren't blaming the blizzard....

The question is, will it fall apart before they take our guns away from us?

Whatever your Hail Mary play is Karl that may give us long term hope, It had better be played VERY soon or we are completely ****ed. and there will not be a damn thing we can do about except move to Texas.

Quote:

The question is, will it fall apart before they take our guns away from us?

Who is going to take 300+ million guns away?

NO ONE! The idea is preposterous and such a thing is not remotely capable of happening without a massive civil war breaking out.

I will tell you what is going on. People have already spent their tax returns and are using them to pay back payday loans or pay their rent.

The fillup was $77 today. A few weeks ago, it was in the mid $60's.

Just wait until Obamacare takes even more, lots more in lots of cases, disposible cash from people's pockets.

You ain't seen nothing yet!

Sean

So, what is the sudden difference? Somethings come to mind.

The 2% payroll tax increase. For this to do it by itself consumer spending would have had to have been balanced on the sharpest knife-edge ever.

Obamacare and preemptive layoffs. Hmm, got to wait and see some more data on this one. I don't believe that number so far have reflected large layoffs.

People falling off of EUC and getting less with food stamps? This has been working its way along a few months now, is probably part of the problem.

Many people have slowly been drained over the last 5 years and it just continues to show.

The past holiday season was the last hoorah for many families, they held on as long as they could but are now falling by the wayside.

My money is on: all of the above. An economy killed by 1,000 cuts thanks to a government totally bought and controlled by the monied interest. We should have taken the medicine 5 years ago and paid out 2 years worth of EUC/Food Stamps as a way of keeping people sheltered and fed while things sorted themselves out. Instead we just wasted money and time.

Flap

In a normal market/economy I would expect comments like that to be the start of a correction - especially with how strong stocks have been since Nov. There are lots of names up 20-30% with almost no correction.

However - I would not be surprised for another full rescue of the market.

We have been up 5 weeks in a row, why not 6. Anytime the market is down more than 5 points on ES they have done a full rescue. Only 1 time in the last 2 weeks did they not rescue it and even then they undid that the next day.

It makes no sense but this is the game they have been playing. It works until it falls apart violently.

Quote:

NO ONE! The idea is preposterous and such a thing is not remotely capable of happening without a massive civil war breaking out.

Yeah, and maybe they want a civil war to cover up the economic collapse? "Its all the fault of those bitter clinger gun owners! We need martial law!"

Also, we have MO, MN, and WA now joining NY and CA on strict bans on guns/mags. WA wants to make people register assault weapons (anything with a mag over 10 rounds) and let cops in once a year to inspect that its stored safely.

There is pushback here in Oregon, a bill was introduced to void all federal gun laws, past and future but it will likely go no where as Dems control the legislature. Opponents are already making snarky comments about the bill violating the 2nd ammendment itself (no it reafirms it). I expect at least a "high capacity" mag ban proposal soon.

Quote:

Whole Foods yesterday? They also came in soft.

Whole paychecks. buy 2 bunches of organic onions at Wal-Mart for $1.25.

At Whole Paycheck it's $3.65 for non-organic.

Wow, but I am not surprised at their results. People just don't understand what even $100 a month does to MILLIONS of American's budgets. If the current workforce is around $150,000,00 and half of them are strained (probably a hell of a lot more) $100 x say $75,000,00 and all the sudden 7.5 BILLON goes POOF every month! (and giving it to the government in the form of taxes certainly qualifies as POOF)

Excellent point Mann.

Sean

In what passes for a mind in your friendly Congressman, consumer spending is a natural force like the tide or the certainty of the sun rising in the morning divorced from any reality of employment or most importantly - unconnected to what he and his associates do in Congress.
No matter what they spend or what they demand from him, the consumer will buy more next year than last year. It is a law of nature that will save the politician and the nation from his own folly.

If ever a bell was rung at the top this is it.

Anyone else run into the new Walmart policy of only giving keys to the ammo cabinet to managers? The first time I had to wait ~10 minutes for a surly manager to let me have my allotted 3 boxes was the last.

To force more income and spending Obama wants to lift wages. It's the missing piece in their plan.

Since naturally wages are declining the central planners want to force inflation.

"NO ONE! The idea is preposterous and such a thing is not remotely capable of happening without a massive civil war breaking out."

O YEAH BABY LOOK AT THAT LOVELY CIVIL WAR IN NY!!!!
incase you couldnt tell /sarc

It might be their clientele.

I avoid shopping at Wal-Mart as much as possible due to the other people in my community who shop there. Most of them are low-income, low-education, welfare types, hicks, punks, thugs, etc. Quite frankly I don't enjoy the overall shopping experience. My wife and I are commuters and our current housing location was mutually agreeable to both our drives (we drive in opposite directions). We're in a rural area, so none of the above is surprising.

They are usually hugely overweight and walk (or ride) side-by-side, and frequently block entire aisles. They waddle slowly when they aren't blocking aisles. They don't pay attention to other people around them. They don't know how to use the self-checkout machines. Their kids are crazy and running all over the place.

As to the stores themselves, they have 25 checkout lanes and 2 are open, maybe 3 at the most. Frustrates the hell out of me when I need to buy 3 items and my only options are two checkout lanes with people who have overflowing carts, or the self-checkouts that are also backed up.


I'll gladly grocery shop elsewhere and not have to put up with that BS, and usually (but not always) get higher quality food. Admittedly, and surprisingly enough, sometimes Wal-Mart does have high-quality produce, fruits, and veggies. They frequently have lower prices on canned foods than other grocery stores.

But what is all that worth if I have to wait 10-15 minutes in a checkout line, or I'm ready to strangle people because they're acting like *******s?

On the other hand, if you're willing to go to the store at odd times, you can practically have the place to yourself and it isn't such an annoying experience. 9PM on a Tuesday night and the place is empty.

Quote:

Whole paychecks. buy 2 bunches of organic onions at Wal-Mart for $1.25.

At Whole Paycheck it's $3.65 for non-organic.

Sometimes this is true and sometimes it isn't. Whole Foods is frequently competitive on fresh produce. Maybe not with Wal-Mart, but usually with other grocery stores in the immediate area. Meats and seafood, especially the local grass-fed organic stuff or wild-caught fish...that's another matter. :)

Quote:

Quite frankly I don't enjoy the overall shopping experience.

If we go to Walmart we go at around 6:00am on Saturday morning...very few people in the whole store. Yeah, I know, who wants to get up that early on the weekend. WE DO! You can sleep when you're dead.