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Well, it’s not so much a “jobless recovery” as it is a “Less Jobs” recovery. IBM’s income jumped 18% with shrinking sales, but the earnings spike was due to the fact that they fired so many people.
I’ll be needing a nickle for every time people use the “Less Jobs Recovery” phrase. Thank you very much.
4uk4ata Buy low, sell high. I believe that is how tha market works. When it was bottom low, It was kinda obvious to buy buy. And that is how a market stabilizes itself, to an extent.
In earlier decades government overspending was distributed across the economy, resulting in general price inflation. If you are old enough to keep saying things like “I remember when X cost only Y”, then you know what I’m talking about.
But in recent decades the Fed’s attempts at more subtle manipulations of the economy have resulted in bubbles in specific areas of investment.
For example, the money pumped in to try to shore up the Japanese helped create the Internet bubble, and the attempt to recover from the collapse of the S&L’s (along with many other goverment housing policies) created the housing bubble.
When the housing bubble collapsed, it cast doubt on the entire investment industry, causing the domino-cascade of economic uncertainties which have slowed or even reversed growth worldwide. (We still have the world’s most important economy, as proved by the damage to the world economy our mistakes can cause.)
The Bush/Obama solution to super-spend will make things worse, but nobody can predict the time scale. When will the huge amount of new money finally overtake the evaporation of huge amounts of mis-investment, replacing deflation with inflation? We’ll know when it hits us in the face. (Prediction: the return of attempts to stop producing pennies and one-dollar bills.)
The attempt to “stimulate” and thus supposedly re-assure the economy just increases the uncertainty. Expect things to get worse before they get better (probably not while you-know-who is president).
Ahem. I’ve done well, I had savings to invest (lose?) and since savings interest were low, I “gambled” (it’s a casino, not a “market”). And my pensions funds have almost totally recovered to their position in 2007. However, I think I may have come out a little better in nominal terms than before but in real terms, I’m not so sure.
PSCHEARER: I think you’re close, but no cigar, especially in your description of the causes of the bubbles.
The way I see it, the Fed printed a boatload of new money, and gave it to the banks in TARP, to free up the lending that they dried up. Unfortunately (or possibly fortunately) they held on to it instead of circulating it into the system.
If the money was circulated into the economy like it was supposed to, we would have had mass inflation. The fed, trying to reign that in, would have raised interest rates, in an attempt to halt all this new money from going into the economy. So we would have had high inflation and high interest rates like we did during the Carter years.
Businesses (and banks) know how this works, that’s why they are sitting on the sidelines waiting to see how this all plays out before they invest in anything. Which they can’t do, because the banks still aren’t lending the money. Which is keeping inflation down, and keeping interests rates near zero. See?
The problem is, if we have a mild recovery, which we will eventually either because of the stimulus or in spite of it, the banks will put the money into the economy by lending it, and set the ball rolling for the high inflation and interest rates.
And, yes, I hate the Fed and wish it were abolished.
Sooky Rottweiler adds his two cents to last panel;
“Boneless wings” (from a dog’s pov).
Any kind of “Boneless meat” (still from a dog’s pov)
“Hairless cat”
“Debarked dog”.
John Sherffius by John Sherffius
Scott Stantis by Scott Stantis
Comments (11) Jump to Comments Form
scottfreitas
said,
26 days ago
Talk about “Newspeak”, torn straight from Orwell’s “1984”…
4uk4ata said, 26 days ago
Meh, good for those who have invested in the stock market.
kensurg
said,
26 days ago
or we’re from the government and we’re here to help.
Briscoe
said,
26 days ago
@scottfreitas - Double Plus Good! Though I do say “newspeak” is well used by all sides of most issues these days.
ReasonsVentriloquist said, 26 days ago
Well, it’s not so much a “jobless recovery” as it is a “Less Jobs” recovery. IBM’s income jumped 18% with shrinking sales, but the earnings spike was due to the fact that they fired so many people.
I’ll be needing a nickle for every time people use the “Less Jobs Recovery” phrase. Thank you very much.
comYics said, 25 days ago
4uk4ata Buy low, sell high. I believe that is how tha market works. When it was bottom low, It was kinda obvious to buy buy. And that is how a market stabilizes itself, to an extent.
Too bad I didnt have enough to invest.
pschearer
said,
25 days ago
In earlier decades government overspending was distributed across the economy, resulting in general price inflation. If you are old enough to keep saying things like “I remember when X cost only Y”, then you know what I’m talking about.
But in recent decades the Fed’s attempts at more subtle manipulations of the economy have resulted in bubbles in specific areas of investment.
For example, the money pumped in to try to shore up the Japanese helped create the Internet bubble, and the attempt to recover from the collapse of the S&L’s (along with many other goverment housing policies) created the housing bubble.
When the housing bubble collapsed, it cast doubt on the entire investment industry, causing the domino-cascade of economic uncertainties which have slowed or even reversed growth worldwide. (We still have the world’s most important economy, as proved by the damage to the world economy our mistakes can cause.)
The Bush/Obama solution to super-spend will make things worse, but nobody can predict the time scale. When will the huge amount of new money finally overtake the evaporation of huge amounts of mis-investment, replacing deflation with inflation? We’ll know when it hits us in the face. (Prediction: the return of attempts to stop producing pennies and one-dollar bills.)
The attempt to “stimulate” and thus supposedly re-assure the economy just increases the uncertainty. Expect things to get worse before they get better (probably not while you-know-who is president).
omQ R
said,
23 days ago
Ahem. I’ve done well, I had savings to invest (lose?) and since savings interest were low, I “gambled” (it’s a casino, not a “market”). And my pensions funds have almost totally recovered to their position in 2007. However, I think I may have come out a little better in nominal terms than before but in real terms, I’m not so sure.
churchillwasright said, 23 days ago
PSCHEARER: I think you’re close, but no cigar, especially in your description of the causes of the bubbles.
The way I see it, the Fed printed a boatload of new money, and gave it to the banks in TARP, to free up the lending that they dried up. Unfortunately (or possibly fortunately) they held on to it instead of circulating it into the system.
If the money was circulated into the economy like it was supposed to, we would have had mass inflation. The fed, trying to reign that in, would have raised interest rates, in an attempt to halt all this new money from going into the economy. So we would have had high inflation and high interest rates like we did during the Carter years.
Businesses (and banks) know how this works, that’s why they are sitting on the sidelines waiting to see how this all plays out before they invest in anything. Which they can’t do, because the banks still aren’t lending the money. Which is keeping inflation down, and keeping interests rates near zero. See?
The problem is, if we have a mild recovery, which we will eventually either because of the stimulus or in spite of it, the banks will put the money into the economy by lending it, and set the ball rolling for the high inflation and interest rates.
And, yes, I hate the Fed and wish it were abolished.
illostr8 said, 21 days ago
the feds are demons soulless individualists1!
Corosive Frog said, 21 days ago
Sooky Rottweiler adds his two cents to last panel;
“Boneless wings” (from a dog’s pov).
Any kind of “Boneless meat” (still from a dog’s pov)
“Hairless cat”
“Debarked dog”.