Financial topics

[aedens]

I believe Greece is a canary, but not the canary. Our lives will become like the Greeks', given time. But the canary is Japan, and has been for 20 years, and it's likely that events in Japan, not Europe, will trigger a worldwide panic this Fall. Things may get worse before that point, but when things fall apart in Japan that should be the true catastrophe, and it's not on anybody's radar, and the media is covering it up.

Yes, I should of stated in a plural sense. Your are correct to point that out H. The subordinated debt rollover was never a question for Bank's to avert triggers. They will assure the Market people will borrow to build a market. Many astute minds have asserted even here we will be lucky to avert and survive the PC mindsets. You will pay more and earn less since the inflationary reality relentlessly claims more.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/how-us-ba ... ng-not-whi
The IMF has not yet stated what its contribution will be to Greece and will not, they tell us, until the middle of March so that we will not know until then the real size of the bailout. z/h

[Higgenbotham]

The only solution for the average person, the 99%, is get out of the system. Just get the hell out because if you don't, you are their host and they will continue to parasite you. Get out as far as you can, don't use their money, don't use their banks, don't use their grid, grow your own food, don't have an income, etc. I'd give the time frame as this Fall as being optimal for making that transition for most people.

[gerald]

This is an expected out come.

Generally people want more then they produce, they are inherently lazy and have to learn the value of being productive. Of course they have to retain the lion's share of their productivity other wise why be productive.
People prefer lies to the hard truth, and political leaders want to be liked, and want to stay in power.
Therefore they give lies and goodies to the people .To provide the goodies for the people, leaders do what is necessary, they obfuscate, shift blame, rob Peter to pay Paul, kick the can, etc. and line their pockets, And of course hang on to power they must hang on to power, some will do so at any cost to society.

Long term consequences? Ha- Let some else deal with that.

But consequences do come, the natural forces have a way of exerting them selves.

[aedens]

This is an expected out come.

Generally people want more then they produce, they are inherently lazy and have to learn the value of being productive. Of course they have to retain the lion's share of their productivity other wise why be productive.
People prefer lies to the hard truth, and political leaders want to be liked, and want to stay in power.
Therefore they give lies and goodies to the people. To provide the goodies for the people, leaders do what is necessary, they obfuscate, shift blame, rob Peter to pay Paul, kick the can, etc. and line their pockets, And of course hang on to power they must hang on to power, some will do so at any cost to society.

http://senatorfeldman.typepad.com/senat ... abyss.html
We have conveyed this election and maybe the next one will be the final turn. Debt cannot be solved with debt. America is turning into regional islands since they are easier to control in this manner. More than myself have noted one at a time people are moving away from the insanity's.

GDP has units of currency per time. Wealth has units of currency. GDP and wealth are not at all the same thing.
Observed over time the relationship between the current rate of energy consumption or power of civilization, and its total economic wealth, is a fixed constant of ~9.7 ± 0.3 milliwatts per inflation-adjusted 1990 dollar. In real terms it has been found to be ~1.82%yoy to maintain base standard.
What I can convey is out put costs are moving up. Your wealth is not as GPD measurements. Point is more are falling behind and the fallacy today is
wages will later catch up to GDP. It will not. I will derive todays value in cost to the consumer QoQ. You will pay more on debasement policy.

[Higgenbotham]

[Observed over time the relationship between the current rate of energy consumption or power of civilization, and its total economic wealth, is a fixed constant of ~9.7 ± 0.3 milliwatts per inflation-adjusted 1990 dollar. In real terms it has been found to be ~1.82% yoy to maintain base standard.

When gasoline usage has a steep fall like it did in January (to a multi year low) that's notable for the reason that energy is converted to wealth and GDP in our system at a correlation of at least 95%.

Can Apple create wealth with very little energy input? Is this wealth in our system? Or are the creation of Apple devices toys that erode wealth from the real economy?

The world and truth are very strange. My guess is the answer to the first question is "not yet" and the answer to the second question is "no" for now and the answer to the third question is "yes" for now; that some years or decades into the future the overall effect of these devices will be positive, but it is now net negative.

[OLD1953]

Fitch just kicked Greece's credit rating down to essentially worthless. Moreover:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/steveschaef ... s-default/

Fitch regards the imposition of retrospective [collective action clauses] as a material adverse change in the terms and conditions of GGBs in the context of an imminent debt exchange and confirms its assessment that the exchange will be distressed and de facto coercive on private holders of Greek bonds. Nonetheless, the primary credit event is the exchange itself and Fitch will rate Greece and its securities accordingly.
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Aedens, to find Apples energy use reflected in overall country ratings, you'd have to check China, not the US. Apple doesn't make anything in the US.

Home prices just hit the lowest point in ten years.

http://money.cnn.com/2012/02/22/real_estate/home_sales/

The National Association of Realtors reported that the median home price in January fell 2% from December to $154,700. That's the lowest price reading since November of 2001, before the run-up in home prices that became known as the housing bubble.
*****************

This lifted sales, but I'd expect more drops as the free pass on crooked mortgages comes into play. (You want the really NASTY remarks on that business, go look at what Yves Smith has to say about it.)

[aedens]

Apple creates net dollars. They pay about 6 percent for wages. Last time I checked they are paid a quarter per hour at Foxconn.
I remember 10 cents. Data is fragile, production is a fixed cost analysis, productivity is the ability for two oportunity's. The constant does not change other than the electrical efficiency output. The EU calculations are fixed for carbon tax distributions(bankrupt). The planet is trying to omit there calculation in Sectors. http://www.voanews.com/english/news/asi ... 41898.html
http://www.spiegel.de/international/bus ... 51,00.html

red/blue pill here
US social housing (bankrupt) Welfare (bankrupt) Healthcare (bankrupt) Banking (the FDIC is totally broke) Pensions (bankrupt) Detroit (bankrupt) California (bankrupt) Chicago (bankrupt) New York (bankrupt) State subsidised trains and buses (bankrupt) John Corzines New Jersey economic regeneration (bankrupt)
America : another endless socialist disaster (just ask Europeans)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common-pool_resource

[Higgenbotham]

Apple creates net dollars. They pay about 6 percent for wages. Last time I checked they are paid a quarter per hour at Foxconn.

Apple is net profitable without subsidies, I am sure of that.

Profit to a particular company may not be wealth to an economy. One example I heard. People have their little Apple device (not to pick on Apple) and they are in a small business bricks and mortar retailer looking at an item, then use an app to compare prices and order the same item at the cheapest price on the Internet while standing in the retailer's space. Retailer goes out of business (from what I hear from the horse's mouth this is happening). Too much of that activity too fast and the wealth in the economy disappears faster than it can be created. Then there's the post office. And Border's Books. And vehicle miles traveled with all auto related sales being in decline. Also I would add that once the consumer can no longer go out to that small retailer because the small retailer is out of business, retail sales will go down because they will not in all cases risk buying sight unseen. And they will no longer be driving to the retailer to look, further depressing the auto sector.

[aedens]

I am not picking on Apple either. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common-pool_resource
resource management is just social disconnects. We have all read the papers on GGS
imbalances. The sharp end of the stick is stewardship. Put another way for those
who want to be left alone, resource wars. I would rather have twenty right size
business units than one idiot devasting and backed up by gun powder idiots.
We live in a finite world run by infinite idiots.

[Higgenbotham]

Some understand the dilemma and purchase accordingly but in a world of shrinking real per capita income thanks to Ben Bernanke, who is skimming income from the citizens to the banks via ZIRP and inflation targets, and others, there are fewer who can or will. The effect of supporting insolvent banks can be small retailers going out of business. I talked to a strip mall owner with vacancy who understands this connection.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_dilemma