Financial topics

[Trevor]

I suspect that the crash is starting. One reason to suspect it is the market is trading below the level it was trading at when China announced the rate cut, which set off an orgy of buying in the futures markets early this morning. When China released their poor PMI last week, the Central Bank immediately put out a bulletin saying more stimulus was forthcoming. That held the market up for a few hours before it dropped. I made a mental note of that and that trend is continuing.

China's fall is certainly beginning. At the very least, their economy is slowing down, meaning that hopes that they can hold the world economy together were overoptimistic. I don't think the world economy can take much more strain, especially since India is in a similar situation.

Our housing marker continues to plummet, but the stock market has not, at least not yet. Perhaps when it happens, it'll be over a very short period of time, like 3-6 months.

[Higgenbotham]

I've seen just what college is costing. At my local college, the tuition rates have doubled in just five years and that doesn't include the ten percent increase that occurred in 2012. I'd like to know just where all that money is being spent. It's certainly worth investigation at least, not that I see it happening in the near future. If I had to hazard a guess, I would say that most of it is going to hiring more and more administrators, not to mention all the fat pay raises that they're receiving. The president of this school gets paid 350,000 a year, not including all the benefits he receives, such as free housing. I heard somewhere (can't swear to this, but it wouldn't surprise me) that in the past 15 years, college teachers have only increased by 15 percent or so, while the number of administrators has more than tripled over the same time frame.

And after going 25,000 or more into debt, you may not even get a good job to pay off all of your student loans. Half of all graduates are unemployed or underemployed a year after graduation. It's getting to the point where many are just not bothering to go to college. If you want an example of waste, look at our colleges.

I think this is another way of saying that all the benefits of inflation and stimulus have been realized and now, on net, inflation and stimulus are making things worse. Not only are they making things financially worse, but your story and many others are indicative of moral decay which results from inflation and stimulus. The 7 Deadly Sins which would include greed and sloth are only made worse with an abundance of money for some.

[Trevor]

Older generations have stated "I never thought I'd see the day where our kids couldn't go to college." If you can't find a job and you can't go to school, what is there to do? Course, what really pisses me off is people saying that it's because of laziness, entitlement, etc.

What's interesting, though, is that in spite of all the economic problems they're facing, the crime rate is falling, much to the surprise of many analysts.

[Higgenbotham]

It would be in the self interest of the younger people to be "lazy". Certainly, the status quo has nothing to offer them. I think, today, calling somebody "lazy" is often code for "you don't want to play by the unfair rules we have set up which guarantee ALL the chips for us and NONE for you." Like being a student or a Wal-Mart employee or just about anything you can think of that a young person could do.

[Trevor]

I don't see much laziness. I've been looking for a job for over 9 months and haven't gotten so much as an interview. These are part-time, menial jobs that I'm applying for, but each one of them are receiving 100 applicants or more. There was a job at a gas station that was available, working 20 hours a week, and they got 200 applicants, taking them more than a month to just sift through them all.

I think it's more like a large amount of people fighting for the few crumbs available.

[aedens]

Trev I have a few in studies also at the University. Like the rest of this predicated cycle they want another few years and walk away
from this trillion dollar induced slave market.

[Trevor]

I've heard college described as a giant welfare system for administrators. I'd say that it's not far from the truth.

[aedens]

http://www.scribd.com/doc/95493792/The-End-Game

[Trevor]

At first, I thought that Portugal was going to be next, but with the latest news of Fitch downgrading Spain to BBB, they're going to be the ones. It'll be far harder to bail them out, however. I forget when Greece first reached junk status.

[Higgenbotham]

http://www.321gold.com/editorials/russe ... 53012.html