Has Atlas Shrugged?

Has Atlas Shrugged? (via http://www.thebrennerbrief.com)

Last month, another 130,000 Americans dropped out of the labor force, The labor participation rate is 63.9 percent, which is roughly the same rate as the 1970s. Unemployment dipped to 7.7 percent as a result of the participation rate, but remains chronically high. Companies such as JC Penney, Google, and Wal-Wart, have all announced future layoffs. Jerry Murray, Wal-Mart’s VP of finance and logistics, made news after his leaked emails referred to the company’s monthly sales figures as a “total disaster.” In March, consumer confidence fell to the lowest level we have seen since December 2011. As the market corrects from the record highs last week, the American small business is still feeling the pain and wondering: Has Atlas Shrugged?

Is the Dollar Dying? Why US Currency Is in Danger

The U.S dollar is shrinking as a percentage of the world’s currency supply, raising concerns that the greenback is about to see its long run as the world’s premier denomination come to an end.

When compared to its peers, the dollar has drifted to a 15-year low, according to the International Monetary Fund, indicating that more countries are willing to use other currencies to do business.

While the American currency still reigns supreme — it constitutes $3.72 trillion, or 62 percent, of the $6 trillion in allocated foreign exchange holdings by the world’s central banks — the Japanese yen, Swiss franc and what the IMF classifies as “other currencies” such as the Chinese yuan are gaining.

(Read More: Hedge Funds Reap Billions on Yen Bets)

“Generally speaking, it is not believed by the vast majority that the American dollar will be overthrown,” Dick Bove, vice president of equity research at Rafferty Capital Markets, said in a note. “But it will be, and this defrocking may occur in as short a period as five to 10 years.”

Bove uses several metrics to make his point, focusing on the dollar as a percentage of total world money supply.That total has plunged from nearly 90 percent in 1952 to closer to 15 percent now. He also notes that the Chinese yuan, the yen and the euro each have a greater share of that total.

via Is the Dollar Dying? Why US Currency Is in Danger.

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Do Wall Street Insiders Expect Something Really BIG To Happen Very Soon?

Why are corporate insiders dumping huge numbers of shares in their own companies right now? Why are some very large investors suddenly making gigantic bets that the stock market will crash at some point in the next 60 days? Do Wall Street insiders expect something really BIG to happen very soon? Do they know something that we do not know? What you are about to read below is startling. Every time that the market has fallen in recent years, insiders have been able to get out ahead of time. David Coleman of the Vickers Weekly Insider report recently noted that Wall Street insiders have shown “a remarkable ability of late to identify both market peaks and troughs”. That is why it is so alarming that corporate insiders are selling nine times as many shares as they are buying right now. In addition, some extraordinarily large bets have just been made that will only pay off if the financial markets in the U.S. crash by the end of April. So what does all of this mean? Well, it could mean absolutely nothing or it could mean that there are people out there that actually have insider knowledge that a market crash is coming. Evaluate the evidence below and decide for yourself…For some reason, corporate insiders have chosen this moment to unload huge amounts of stock. According to a CNN article, corporate insiders are now selling nine times more of their own shares than they are buying…

via Do Wall Street Insiders Expect Something Really BIG To Happen Very Soon?.

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charles hugh smith-Why Employment Is Dead in the Water

The only way to understand why employment is dead in the water is to stand in the shoes of a potential employer or entrepreneur. Remarkably, this perspective is unknown to economists and progressive politicians because they have never been an employer (and no, hiring a grad student to grade papers or an illegal nanny to watch your kids does not make you an employer.)

I have described this vast divide between small business employers, entrepreneurs and the self-employed and those working in government or Corporate America as one of the least explored social/economic divisions in the nation.

Those who have spent their careers in government or academia have little idea what it takes to hire more people. Number one is a business with strong demand for one’s products or services. In a developed world with too much of everything except energy, that is no small challenge: the world is awash in over-capacity in every field except niche industries such as deepwater oil rigs.

Second, you need a process that generates so much value (specifically surplus value) that you will generate immediate profits by hiring more people.

via charles hugh smith-Why Employment Is Dead in the Water.

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Debt Ceiling Disaster Ahead

 

It is almost impossible to believe, but the hysteria surrounding the so-called “fiscal cliff” is being overshadowed by an even more pressing problem. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has alerted Congress that the nation will once again hit the debt ceiling on Monday, but that his department can take “extraordinary measures” to keep paying the bills for another few months. For those keeping track, the debt ceiling was raised from $14.294 trillion in August 2011, to its current level of $16.394 trillion. Thus in the span of only sixteen months, an utterly irresponsible Obama administration has added a whopping $2.1 trillion to the national debt.

 

via Debt Ceiling Disaster Ahead.

 

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