Signs That The Global Economic Turmoil Is Just Beginning
Posted by freedomforall 8 years, 9 months ago to Business
From the article:
1. The number of job cuts in the United States skyrocketed 218 percent during the month of January according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas.
2. The Baltic Dry Index just hit yet another brand new all-time record low. As I write this article, it is sitting at 303.
3. U.S. factory orders have now dropped for 14 months in a row.
4. In the U.S., the Restaurant Performance Index just fell to the lowest level that we have seen since 2008.
5. In January, orders for class 8 trucks (the big trucks that you see shipping stuff around the country on our highways) declined a whopping 48 percent from a year ago.
6. Rail traffic is also slowing down substantially. In Colorado, there are hundreds of train engines that are just sitting on the tracks with nothing to do.
7. Corporate profit margins peaked during the third quarter of 2014 and have been declining steadily since then. This usually happens when we are heading into a recession.
1. The number of job cuts in the United States skyrocketed 218 percent during the month of January according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas.
2. The Baltic Dry Index just hit yet another brand new all-time record low. As I write this article, it is sitting at 303.
3. U.S. factory orders have now dropped for 14 months in a row.
4. In the U.S., the Restaurant Performance Index just fell to the lowest level that we have seen since 2008.
5. In January, orders for class 8 trucks (the big trucks that you see shipping stuff around the country on our highways) declined a whopping 48 percent from a year ago.
6. Rail traffic is also slowing down substantially. In Colorado, there are hundreds of train engines that are just sitting on the tracks with nothing to do.
7. Corporate profit margins peaked during the third quarter of 2014 and have been declining steadily since then. This usually happens when we are heading into a recession.
The bills for Part I are coming due
The President hasn't a clue
But sees the chance to raises taxes a few
Notches up and help him lose
Those Legacy Losing gone to hell blues
It's all about him and to hell with us
Let's kick him out send him home on a bus
With a one way ticket we don't need the fuss
And bother from a loser nor hear the wuss
Sing another verse from the useless cuss
Of the Legacy losing gone to hell in a hand basket Great Recession...... Oh bah mah blues.
Dylan does it better.....
Aaaauuugh !!!
I don't think that's a sure thing but it's scary.
About a month earlier I read an article that opined that the king wants to move up to an emperor by being the chairman for the United Nations.
Which makes his actions much too excessive,
When he goes, I hope it's for good,
Perhaps stuck deeply into the 'hood.
But that's not where he will be treated,
Instead on many a board he'll be seated.
Michael, we've gotta save this stuff and publish a book. Poems of the Antichrist?
Rather re-read Atlas Shrugged, Unintended Consequences, or Pendulum of Justice.
Short term price swings that are not the result of new technologies may be bad for the economy, but not truly important in the long term in technologically dynamic economy.
But what a fool believes he sees
No wise man has the power to reason away
What seems to be
Is always better than nothing
There's nothing at all
But what a fool believes he sees.
(Even better when I can remember the lyrics when pertinent;^)
"Roadside bombers and tsunamis
Oh god How I miss those Commies
No one really plays fair anymore"
;)
(My retired Marine hubby has a tiny anti-establishment streak.)
You are 100% correct. But not only are the economic signs frightening, predicting as they do a total burst (there isn't any bubble left) but culturally, the future looks bleak. For example: "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies?" Holy moly, gimme a break! The Florida Symphony giving a series of concerts based on movie themes, Beatles tunes, etc. Whatever happened to Peter and the Wolf? Then, there's Netflix. I started watching a series about a woman with super powers. I thought, at last a woman superhero. Turns out she's a boozing, slutty, confused person with only one major virtue, which is she refrains from killing people. Whoopie.
SO...The country is heading for economic and cultural dissolution. Will we survive? Will we want to survive? I hope so, because I've got grandkids, and a great grandkid. I want them to carry on with the Herbie genes. Maybe they'll be the ones to turn things around.
That was only because of her father and her brother and her uncle and her boyfriends. Evil white men who ignored her emotional needs, choosing to make money to pay for her gourmet meals, McMansion, designer clothing, Harvard tuition, and Porsche speedster.
Tv writing has been sexist since before sexist was a word. Got to keep the viewers hate and fear levels high to distract them from the real dangers.
The ethical "heros" that tv does give us all seem to work for the NYPD or the FBI, notably Henry Morgan of the cancelled Forever, and Rick Castle of Castle. Only wish the FBI was run by one of those characters.
I totally agree with you, Herb, about the writhing, beat-up, dark, 'heros', notably Daredevil and Jessica Jones. This feels similar to SF in the 1970's, when Analog published story after depressing story about bad people doing sad things. I will stick with Captain America, thank you (and Thor is just not hard to look at...mmm). There was a telling scene in Ultron when Hawkeye's wife tells him that the team needs him (in spite of the fact that he is an archer trying to keep up with demi-gods) because he is the only grown-up on the team. We are idolizing people whose lives are falling apart in spite of the tremendous assets they have - and this is a bad symptom.
Jan
As to classical music, you and I are in agreement that some of the best is being written for movies. Composers of today seem to have forgotten that the whole idea of music is that it is a form of entertainment, not a test that one goes to in order to figure out what the hell is going on. John Williams is a favorite in the kind of music of Berlioz, Elmer Bernstein's music for westerns and of course Marlboro cigarettes.
Jan
The other touchstone I have found will be no surprise to you: Competence Porn. I am totally in love with Competence Porn. My heroes can go through dark times, but when I can see them extricating themselves from whatever besets them by sheer ability...well, that is what I really like. (The Martian was an excellent example of this. Atlas Shrugged was an odd inversion of this - heroes extricating themselves from a situation by refusing to use their competence for society.)
Jan
HipHip -HURRAH!
Jan
I had thought that Mark was wearing glasses during those last scenes because of the number of times he had breathed pure oxygen in the course of his Martian excursions, but I did a bit more research and it was probably due to the acceleration of the hot-roded MAV. This sort of attention to detail makes my little techie heart go pity-pat.
Jan
Jan
twndlngs meaning twinning.
(Surprised you didn't "groan" about my punishing comment, too.)
I recently began reading a fantasy novel that had such a poor understanding of economics, trade, and technology that I could not finish it, in spite of the fact that the author spun a good story. For example: an entirely insular medieval subsistence country where the country is unaware (because it does not engage in trade) that its neighboring countries are being attacked and taken over by an invading army but the nobles of said subsistence country have estate homes filled with velvets and silks and china. When the book got to the 'crudely welded gun' (the invaders had) I could not maintain my 'suspension of disbelief'.
What authors need to realize is that it matters if your world 'hangs together' well and that flagrant inaccuracies (The Black Hole: asteroid crushes space station without any explosive decompression) lead to loss of belief. The Science is in science fiction for a reason, but accuracy also applies to historical and other forms of fiction.
Jan
http://www.spaceanswers.com/space-exp...
you guys just don't get it. I go to the movies to be entertained. If I were to use the criteria you espouse I would never enjoy half the flicks I see. I could name at least a dozen movies, not all of them scifi that make little sense scientifically that are entertaining, or amusing, or yes, edifying. The science part is not, I repeat Not what the movie is about. It is about a resourceful person not giving up in the face of continuing adversity. The movie, The Martian may be more scientifically correct, but it's not about the science, but about a guy who is tenacious and will not allow himself to be defeated by his circumstances.
Oh I get it, but its more than that, Herb. Its a guy who does things after a rational reasoning process to choose his actions that result in survival., he is not a cute politically correct character that would have died several times following the poorly reasoned script. People are getting trained to accept rubbish, and they are the people who will vote Hillary into office and destroy our way of life. If a movie is just fluff entertainment, that's fine, but when its supposed to be based in science, and it gets it wrong, I object.
Jan
This is also why one comic book hero (who could beat all the depressed demi-gods) in particular is mostly ignored: Superman is just too good. Can't have a main character who "never lies."
One of the main problems that I see in our social uber consciousness over the past several decades, FFA, is that we have managed to make 'good' genuinely unattractive. I like the tendency in the comic book movies to make 'good' a positive thing again (but then along comes JJ and Daredevil...sigh).
Jan, art leads: but where it is going I'm not sure I want to travel...
Were I to try to create a Superman show, I would diminish his powers. He did not originally have heat vision, for example, and his 'flying' was more extended jumping (like the Hulk). I think that I would probably keep the flying (because, good scenes), do away with the heat vision and then make his xray vision 'the ability to see further into the IR spectrum' - so, like a heat scope. Hmmm...invulnerability...maybe morph it into 'really tough' plus 'regeneration'.
Cutting down the powers would give one room for more Super-person plots where there was real risk and vulnerability. (You cannot have heroes without the weight of possible cost to oneself.)
Yeah, I get your point about Supergirl-is-OK because she is a just girl and therefor cannot possibly be so powerful that she will be boring. But I remember when Mrs Peel was criticized because she was 'unfeminine' because she actually physically fought opponents. That was followed by several decades of women who did not fight - or who did an incredibly bad job of doing so (ie on Original Star Trek). Finally, B5 had some scenes where women kicked butt...over 30 years later. So, while I would rather gaze at Superman than Supergirl, I react with a "Yay Team!" to that aspect of modern culture.
Jan
For some reason writers believe the heroes can be so fantastic physically but must be complete basket cases emotionally and intellectual Neanderthals. That's not what heroes are; that's a propaganda caricature.
Cap is not a good example, so he must go.
JJ, wretch! Barely made it through one episode.
Canadian tv's Murdoch Mysteries has some admirable characters (and some pc history lessons.) William Shatner was a guest star in a recent episode as Mark Twain.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/william-s...
"Nikola Tesla, Thomas Edison, Harry Houdini, Winston Churchill and Bat Masterson have all appeared on the show."
There is, of course, a beleagered inventor-capitalist with a recurring role. He succeeds against adversity (and against the meddling of Murdoch and the constabulary) albeit with modest rewards at best.
you must live near grand junction because I have been looking at for over a year now at least one mile or more of engines. I commented about this a while ago.
The recession started during the bush administration and the new no nothing that moved into the white house has done his best very successfully I might add to the further the decline in the economy. success comes with a price. people write to me all the time enquiring when my sale will end, I tell them when the economy gets better, and they breathe and sigh of relief. do you think they understand that the situation is not good for them if all products are being sold a reductions, no!
Ayn Rand was an optimist when she ended AS on a positive note. The reality is we will continue to deteriorate for the next 10 to 20 years and more and more industry will come to a halt. This down turn is affecting the whole world and we will ultimately be the last to fall. the primitive cultures will not be affected because they have nothing like we have, but the advanced cultures who have a higher economic life style will. The first to decline are the oil producing countries of the middle east. the warring going on there now is just the beginning, but from there it will spread globally. as g. bush said "welcome to the new world order".
welfare state is floundering. -- j
.
I know one of those - still blaming Bush. This weekend I showed her a video of Syrian refugees assaulting Europeans. Her response, "Oh, that's all staged by the Republicans."
What a strange psychosis...
.
http://www.marinetraffic.com/
The "Live Map" lets you filter down to only the cargo vessels and tankers, and only the ones "anchored/moored".
Get a more pro-free market President elected and much can be reversed.
Don't confuse relative differences with principles. Free marketers always vote for the candidate who is least statist for a reason - regardless of the fact that all of them might be mixed.