"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way—in short, the period was so far like the present period"
It's a testament to the attention deficit of this gambling addicted society that they conflate manipulated stock market prices with the underlying economy. For the past 13 years since the 2008 bailout, stocks have rallied at every sign of a weakening economy, because it meant more central bank socialism for the rich. Which also explains from an archaeological standpoint why a global pandemic at the end of the longest cycle in U.S. history was viewed as a reason to go ALL IN.
No surprise, Biden's economic plans have been roundly derided by the right as socialism for the middle class. Zerohedge and their patented inflation hysteria have been at the forefront of this disinformation campaign regarding the economy. When they run short of their own in-house fiction they quote Wall Street's liars to bolster their credibility. Now, at this most parlous juncture they are declaring victory for the GOP states that ended the Federal pandemic unemployment benefits early. They cite a sharp dropoff in unemployment claims as proof that cutting people off from unemployment programs worked. I suggest that declining unemployment claims are a direct result of the programs ending, not proof that the GOP economy is "fixed".
The long-term problem with the U.S. economy derives not from emergency unemployment programs, but instead from the habitual mass layoffs that have attended every downturn of the past several decades. Each time mass layoffs occur, there is far less labor participation in the economy, as people retire early or are forced to take part time jobs. Good jobs are traded for junk jobs. This fact is captured in the Job Quality Index which has been falling for 30 years straight.
Another way of looking at the problem is via the long term unemployment ratio below:
The % of unemployed over 27 weeks has sky-rocketed back to global financial crisis levels. Which is an indicator of how many people are on the verge of "retiring" early. When they "retire" they will be conveniently removed from the official unemployment rate. Problem solved.
As we see above, what happened during the pandemic is that once again U.S. companies panicked and laid off large swaths of their workforce. Arguably, the ranks of low wage unskilled workers are the easy problem to "fix" as Zerohedge gleefully points out. But, the harder problem to fix will be in the highly paid skilled workforce which is now facing an acute labor shortage that unfortunately won't be fixed by McDonald's help wanted signs.
What do Boeing and GE have in common? Weak balance sheets due to massive stock buybacks. So what did they do in the pandemic? They laid off tens of thousands of workers.
"Aerospace companies relied heavily on layoffs to cut costs and save cash. U.S. aerospace and defense companies have announced more than 115,000 job cuts since the World Health Organization declared the Covid-19 outbreak a pandemic last March"
it’s hard to imagine that many skilled workers would give preference to the aerospace manufacturers that laid them off when the going got tough"
Indeed. Loyalty cuts both ways.
Today's inflation pundits are praying for stagflation, both to prove Biden wrong AND to keep a bid under their collapsing reflation trades. In today's terms they are "right" only in their proven ability to attract legions of useful idiots.
A skill I have yet to obtain.
Sadly, all of this delusion is running on glue fumes. Which means that the REAL test for this skydive into economic pavement is pending global margin call.
At that time I predict a sea change in attitude towards bailing out the rich is on tap. Today's amnesiacs must be reminded of the fact that 13 years of monetary socialism for the rich has only "saved" capitalism by making the divergence between wealthy and poor far greater in the meantime.
I believe that such an unforeseen event will be sufficiently cataclysmic to ensure that apologists for epic greed and criminality are silenced.
For good.
