Consumers Loosen Up

Something huge just happened in the economy:  Consumers started to get “off their wallets” and they are ready to start spending again, in a huge way.  That is the gist of the Consumer Debt report released yesterday by the Federal Reserve.

 

We can’t drill down deeply enough into the report to wonder where the 11.2% annualized rate of increase in revolving debt (like credit cards) was coming from, but loosening of consumer spending is a sure-fire reason for the market to rally big time.

 

May not come today, but big consumer spending bumps like the one just reported by the Fed could fuel a massive rally…and I may try playing it, but there are still lots of issues like Spanish bankster bailouts and Syria warring in the way.

 

Mr. Obvious and Runners Up

Vlad Putin says the West is in decline.  Let me see:  US has more debt than GDP…which we’ve talked about before, but I wonder what his tip-off was?

 

The Putster is also being critical of Western missile/bomb democracy while mouthing continued support for Syria. 

 

Apparently, he missed the column where I apologized in advance for US intransigence in the region, but pointed out we need wars to keep the economy together until we can get enough immigration ramped up to rekindle the economy.  More on that problem this weekend in Peoplenomics as I’ve been modeling numbers and can now demonstrate how that works.  And, since everything is a business model….

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The new president of France has come to much the same conclusion about his country’s balance sheet, too.  No growth.

 

War Watching

In Peoplenomics a couple of weeks back I proposed a framework for viewing the actions of the PTB and that came to the conclusion that one of the outcomes the PTB have been working on is a “radical Islam forward” strategy.

 

I appreciate that it may have seemed a bit “out there” at the time, but here you go:  And article in the NY Times (so it must be true, eh?) noting that “As Islamists gain influence, Washington reassesses who its friends are.“

 

Is there something in the water back there than makes ‘em slow?

 

High Cost of Lawyering

A county down in Alabama which is bankrupt is asking the courts to take a look at lawyer fees. If the county had a way out of bankruptcy before, the lawyering bills seem to assure it.

 

Flies to what?

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Scranton, PA is so much out of money that all city workers have been cut to minimum wage.  But the city workers are going to court (yep, more lawyering bills) saying he can’t do that.

 

No On Healthcare

Texas has joined other (nominally republican) states in rejecting key provisions of the Obamacare plan.  I’m still wondering how it is that a republicorp appointed justice didn’t go the other way on the decision.  A notable quirk in the fabric of space-time, near as I can tell.

 

GoogleRev?

One has to ponder whether Eric Schmidt of Google is serious, or not, when he claims that the Great (fire) Wall of China will fail.  I’m willing to make him a $2 bet that governments will get more Draconian worldwide and will not go peacefully into compliance with what a simple majority of people want.

 

I would offer, as instructive, that with virtually unlimited internet blather we in the US were not able to derail too big to fail agitprop, nor were we able to stop any number of other “bad laws” (think Patriot Acts and other rights abridging laws) so I think while it might make good copy, there’s something else going on that he doesn’t give sufficient weight:

 

Political expediency and the thirst for power & control. The rap might sound good, but come on, look at the record on government responsiveness where there is a wide open net!

 

Windy Thinking

The mayor of Chicago, Rahm Emanuel, is asking gangsters keep their disputes away from innocents.  I have about zero faith that jawboning street thugs will pay off, but you get what you vote for.  Apparently hizzoner doesn’t grok that seeing violence is precisely how new blood is recruited…

 

Workers Paradise – Not!

Cholera outbreak in Cuba.  Gosh, just when I was going to fire up the G4 and pop down to Habana for the weekend, too.  Oh, well, fish & chips in Seattle Thursday, then.

 

Take a Hike

If you sit almost all the time, it may lessen your lifespan by as much as two years says a new report summarized here. 

 

Hmmm…by my calculations, I must have died in about 2004….

 

 

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