Long live the depression! We feel that this sort of rally cry is similar to the The King is Dead, Long live the King!
While we certainly don’t give the most trusted financial advice, certainly we don’t see sunshine while wearing a blindfold. The recession is over? Tell that to most of Europe with unemployment hovering near the 20% mark. Or to Ohio and Michigan and California where unemployment continues to rise. Tell it to the people who are driving on unsafe bridges because money that should have been spent on infrastructure was instead spent on an economic stimulus.
Yes, many cars sold in the last quarter. Mainly because of stimulus money used to create a ‘cash for clunkers’ program that encouraged people to sell their gas guzzlers for more than they were worth and buy new cars without very much increased fuel efficiency. We can tell you one thing for sure, it wasn’t poor families trading in welfare wagons for new Prius’. No it was the same rich investment bankers and real estate tycoons playing the same game.
Use the economic woes of the lower classes to suck up more of the wealth through government spending. The stock market is up, but the average Joe in the U.S. is still out of work, still worried about losing their house, and still f-u-c-k-e-d.
The stimulus checks came in June. The cash for clunkers program went through it’s cash in record time. Banks are loaning again, but only to those who don’t really need loans. Inflation is coming in the winter. Not to mention the looming threat of Swine Flu that sits ready to emerge in the fall. The CDC said yesterday they are not prepared.
Consumption data show continued shock for consumers, and first-quarter estimates of the economy were revised downward. The economy shrank by a 6.4 percent annualized rate in the first three months of this year, not the 5.5 percent that initially was estimated, the Commerce Department said.
Oh, yeah, they forgot to tell us things were actually worse than they said until they are telling us that things are better than they really are. Coincidence? I think not.
Put your head in the sand and give us more of your money. It’s all smoke and mirrors and there isn’t anything anyone can do about it anyway. But watch as Chevron, Goldman Sachs, and the rest of the big companies continue to suck the lifeblood from the U.S. and the World economy and then head to the next prosperous looking place.
