Talking Pictures

If pictures speak louder than words, what do these four images tell you?

Daily Mail: Half of the U.S. population is worried they won't be able to buy the holiday presents on their list because of their financial situation:

Tim Duy's Fed Watch: History suggests the U.S. economy will be unable to resist the pull of a European downturn (contrary to what Wall Street might say):

Hussman Funds' Weekly Market Comment: The debt burden of U.S. corporations is near all time highs, having retreated only modestly since 2009.

Think B.I.G.: Based on home price data through September, only two of the twenty cities tracked by Case Shiller showed year-over-year gains -- Detroit and Washington DC.

If you said economic horror story, you  got it in one!

Comments

[roger]

It's not just the climate that we screwed up,
consumer behavior has been seriously altered
and not for the better. Competition between
big box retailers has resulted in price wars,
the impoverished customers are perpetually on
on the prowl for bargains, me thinks that big
retail boxes have locked themselves in a dark
corner,they have created a negative force they
no longer control. Packing the stores with great
numbers does not automatically increase profits,
matter of fact, profit wise, it could be a disaster .

[Tom]

You think this is bad - wait til next year when the banks collapse and chaos reigns! i expect the shit to completely hit the fan around January of 2012.
i really hope i'm wrong and that everything turns out fine (fat chance).

[There are haves and have nots...like a caste system]

Former Philadelphia Schools Chief Arlene Ackerman Files Unemployment Claim
HAVES:
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – Former Philadelphia schools superintendent Arlene Ackerman, who was given a nearly $1-million buyout earlier this year, has applied for unemployment.

School District spokesman Fernando Gallard today confirmed that Ackerman wants to collect state unemployment benefits.

HAVE NOTS:
The news isn’t going over well with Michael Lodise, the head of the school police officers’ union who fought for several months to get unemployment compensation – and eventually succeeded – for 120 school police officers laid off in June.

“These people were really hurting, really needed it,” Lodise recalls. “And here’s a woman with almost a million dollars, and she wants unemployment besides. I just don’t understand it.”

http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2011/11/29/former-philadelphia-schools-chief-arlene-ackerman-files-unemployment-claim/

[1*1*1]

Don't worry the fed will help...the 1%!!!!

Currency Wars: Fed Acts To "Increase the Availability of Dollars Outside the United States"

Although the Fed will say that there is no potential loss in this to US taxpayers, in fact there is ALWAYS a loss to be realized at some point in the deliberate mispricing of risk. The loss will be taken by all holders of US dollars.

This is not QE3 and does little to help the US economy per se. This is just a big serving of a quick energy drink to ease the short term liquidity problem in Eurodollars, and timed to dull the news impact of the bank downgrades.

When the rush wears off, and it will because this is does little to help the average person in the real economy, we will see how the markets react to the ever growing piles of paper dollars covering the landscape of a mismanaged and ruined economy.

But it was extraordinarily kind of the Fed to announce this just in time for the banks and the hedge funds to repair some of the damage from the stock market decline before they close their trading books on November.

This is government of the one percent, by the one percent, and for the one percent.
http://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com/2011/11/fed-enlarges-conduits-to-increase.html

[Lets forget about tomorrow]

Shop till your pensions drop?

AA retirees face sharp benefit cuts: PBGC

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- Retirees of American Airlines parent AMR Corp. AMR +49.89% could lose $1 billion in benefits if the bankrupt carrier decides to end its four pension plans, according to a Tuesday statement from the U.S. agency responsible for protecting pension benefits. AMR's pension plans cover almost 130,000 participants, but collectively had just $8.3 billion in assets to cover about $18.5 billion in benefits, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. said. Congress limited the size of pensions the PBGC can pay for, so AMR retirees should expect their pensions to be dramatically cut, the agency said.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/aa-retirees-face-sharp-benefit-cuts-pbgc-2011-11-29?link=MW_home_latest_news

[What indicator reveals this trend?]

If they're going to give out free $ money to the Europeans, people mightas well grab a free breakfast!

Steal This Continental Breakfast: The Urban Forager's Guide, Vol. 1

Times are tough, so many people search for hotels with free continental breakfasts.

Problem is, some of the people eating aren't guests, says Hampton Inn front desk clerk Alfonso Tobenas. That's right. Folks walk into tourist hotels and pose as guests to gain access to morning chow. Who would do such a wacky thing? Lots of people it turns out.

"It is what it is bro, times are tough and they're hungry," says Tobenas.

http://blogs.miaminewtimes.com/shortorder/2011/11/steal_this_continental_breakfa_1.php?

[Who did Hank Paulson have lunch with?]

Line Grows Long for Free Meals at U.S. Schools

The number of students receiving subsidized lunches rose to 21 million last school year from 18 million in 2006-7, a 17 percent increase, according to an analysis by The New York Times of data from the Department of Agriculture, which administers the meals program. Eleven states, including Florida, Nevada, New Jersey and Tennessee, had four-year increases of 25 percent or more, huge shifts in a vast program long characterized by incremental growth.

The Agriculture Department has not yet released data for September and October.

“These are very large increases and a direct reflection of the hardships American families are facing,” said Benjamin Senauer, a University of Minnesota economist who studies the meals program, adding that the surge had happened so quickly “that people like myself who do research are struggling to keep up with it.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/30/education/surge-in-free-school-lunches-reflects-economic-crisis.html

[roger]

The Western World Is 'Finished Financially': CIO CNBC