3 posts tagged “recession”

I'm no Jibber-Jabberer (Treasurer Secretary-like), nor am I a student of finance. But I know what I see on the street and I know what I read. It was amazing to me that CNBC some weeks back, announced on their news segment that we were 1/5th of a somethin above somethin (can't remember the exact words anymore), therefore we are not in a recession..yeah!!!!!

Now that is what I mean about cheer-leading in the media. Warren Buffett said long ago now this year that based upon what was going on with consumers that we were in a recession. That was enough for me I tell ya! One of the most respected investors in the world today telling us that from what he sees, yeppers! its a recession. But then you get the dictionarians who yell out.."We would have to have two quarters of non GDP growth in order to be in a recession stupid!"

But by now, anyone who's anyone knows that the U.S. government creates its own fictional news stories on a daily basis. Not unlike some other countries governments during war-time. Oh yes..the U.S. says it is at war with terrorism. I guess that means that we will be hearing lots of fake news for many many many years to come. Many because it seems terrorism may never be extinguished in our or our children's lifetime. Why? Because the most powerful military nation in the world (albeit self proclaimed) is in at least two countries it claims support terrorism. Because now several years gone by, it can not find one of its top leaders nor can it quell insurgence (born out of despairation for the U.S. not allowing them to have an income aka: starvation) without vaporizing an entire country and her innocent families. It seems the later might be preferred by those same innocents rather than watching your loved ones become sick, diseased, and suffer horribly until death.

Uh-Oh! My critics are gonna have a field day with my bluntness and lack of fun, colorful, and happy writing.

The U.S. government is claiming because they managed to gin up 0.15% growth per month this spring and summer that we are not in a recession and therefore we are much healthier than we might otherwise be. Huh????

Now I remember hearing something about a financial crisis (banks and the federal reserve criminally put people in jeapardy and now they are loosing their homes and their dignity). Then there was something about banks failing and the U.S. taxpayer sponsored bailouts. Then week after week I see and hear about billions of $$dollars written off the books of the financial institutions that put us and the families of its customers in this crisis. And along with that, I watch totally dumb-founded as the stock of many of these same institutions rise in value. Its so unreal. Like watching the events of a day-dream unfolding.

I'm no student of finance but after weeks and weeks of this, no one in government or the media which it has some controls is able to explain this occurrence with any data-backed precision. It can't even create fictional data and explain it. 

It seems to me that this bill H.R. 3221 The Foreclosure Prevention Act needs something added:
(AKA: bank foreclosures prevention act, NOT mortgage holder foreclosure prevention act).  So one has to ponder about the ability for financial institutions to take advantage of people looking for the 'American Dream', who put them into financial jeapardy, who are not put out of business and sent to jail for their mis-deeds, are instead bailed out with tax-payer money given by the government who prints more and more paper, who create yet more opportunities to do the very near same things and to do it to some of the very same people yet again, and still their stock value increases?

It is one of those realities it seems...a situation of who you know, being part of the boys club, supported by an authority who spins stories, but leaves the victims, and all taxpayers on the hook for everything.

Yet what they don't tell you that if you are a stock holder of Fannie May and Freddie Mac your rights have been stripped. Who is free? Who has rights? Who is supported? Certainly not the American taxpayers, not the stock holders, hmmm? Can someone please take these rose-colored glasses off me...my hands are tied behind my back and I can't take them off by myself. And at the very end of the video above, the man says that they have to be "safe from their losses and have to have enough money to continue lending; because if they can't continue lending at the rate that they are, its going to take a longer time before we (the banks) come out of the current declines that we are in." I say: What about me? What about my decline, my fellow families decline and my communty's decline? What about our situation?

I no longer think of our nation of citizens as sheep blindly following. I think of each of us like meat hanging from a hook in a locker. Powerless to move off this hook, salted down and ready to be enjoyed as a snack or a meal whenever this group gets hungry again.

This post won't go any deeper than that because I am trying to keep it light-hearted!

Hey! We are not in a recession at least, errrh well, that is what the U.S. government tells us right?

Who do I believe? People like you that have to live with the consequences that the government allows to happen to this nation of consumers of which it created?

Or do I listen to the government that tells its people very innocent sounding and astoundingly, that ethanol is good for this economy despite rising food costs? That they've not heard that we could see $4 a gallon gasoline? That there is no moral hazard to what the financial sector has done to hundreds of thousands of families?

Is this a recession or not?

Why can't the government print me some legal money and forgive my debts like that of the banks? Why can't it give me a raise and bonus money? Why can't it allow me to come to the brink of failure and then bail me out with other people's money?

Is this a recession?
Is this a crime of continental proportion?
Is this really for real? Life stories being written with a fictional pen?
Whats the real answer?

Bad Weather Ahead

Then early this year, I remember talking to my group that I named The Cincinnati Pork Belly Traders for the lack of something better. While I could call our group Future1investors as a twist off of my email and online name, that might be too vain. But I do like that nevertheless. Anyhow, we talked earlier this year about how nothing made any sense in the market. When something should have been going down, it went up. When something should have been going up, it went down. One thing became clear. This was no longer the stock market many have grown up with. It is now a market of the people which is influenced by a select group of folks that we put way too much belief into for their supposed wisdom and guidance. Some of these people have been strategically placed within the media as either fixtures or as often guest appearances.
 
I am going to toot my horn for just a second before continuing here to say a few things.

1. I look for the truth, the real truth in all people. In their words, and in their actions. In their hearts. I soak it in and I make internal judgments to decide how and if I will react and interact to those people in my future.
   
2. I am a rather good though not great researcher. I can find relevant and solid information when needed for the purpose of further educating myself or for making a point or for proving something to the other sheep.
3. I've said over two years ago, that we were headed towards a recession. This did not come from my own knowledge but rather from the knowledge of others that I, not the other sheep, found to be reliable sources of information, experience and truthfulness.

The market does not make sense because of these people. We are by and large just sheep that are guided by the sheep-herders of the world. We believe most of everything we are told through the media these days. The media is the

BullsEye

The truth is, we are headed for an economic slow-down. A recession. History proves that we can not keep forging ahead. Just like stock sectors see necessary corrections, we too will see a major correction before we can resume again on the great road paved in gold.
 
Now everything we see in the media pretty much tells us to our face that a recession has yet to hit us, or that we are in a recession but it will be minor. We are also told that the bottoms have hit our feet and we shall fall no further. Everyone who isn't a proclaimed god, uses some references to substantiate their thoughts and actions. A while back, I went to an investor club meeting and we reviewed the book by John Mauldin. So powerful is this book that it changed the future outlook for many at this investor club meeting.