Americans Agree: There Is No Recovery

From the latest Washington Post-ABC News poll [red highlighting mine]:

No matter how you break it down -- whether by party/ideology, household income, age, or any other category -- the majority of Americans agree on one thing: there is no recovery.

Needless to say, those feelings are also shared by a segment of the economy that just happens to provide jobs for over half of the nation's private workforce.

"Dunkelberg Says Small Business Economy in Recession (Audio)" (Bloomberg)

William Dunkelberg, chief economist at the National Federation of Independent Business, says small businesses in the U.S. are "not doing well at all." Dunkelberg talks with Bloomberg's Ken Prewitt and Tom Keene on Bloomberg Radio's "Bloomberg Surveillance."

To listen to the audio download, click here.

Comments

[Americans need to change this...]

“Casino Jack” Abramoff breaks down how Government is Sold to the Highest Bidder

US president Barack Obama makes the case in Florida for the Buffett
rule — a minimum tax rate for millionaires. Then, he reportedly heads
to a 15,000 dollar a head campaign fundraiser. So how does that work
exactly? The presumably wealthy people paying 15 thousand dollars for
dinner with Obama are giving him money so that he can raise their
taxes? What exactly is in it for them?

http://sgtreport.com/2012/04/casino-jack-abramoff-breaks-down-how-government-is-sold-to-the-highest-bidder/

[Tom]

Ah, see - when you have the wherewithall to spend that kind of cash on a Presidential fundraiser you get ACCESS, which the "riffraff" don't get. Who's going to bat for the common schlub? Exactly, no one. Even "our" representatives are bought via backing campaigns for re-election.

Meanwhile, back here in the land of NO recovery, i'm also noticing that routine maintenance is being delayed (hole in the roof? put a bucket under it or a tarp over it; sink faucet leaks? oh well) on homes, cars - even doctor appointments when it isn't life-threatening.

Our quality of life is tanking with the economy, you just won't hear this on Fox or any of the lamestream media.

From my own perspective, adjunct college professors are being let go or they continue to receive the same pay as 10 years ago, but now gas is $4 a gallon (and rising) while food is increasing in price also.

[claim back ppi]

ple give me replay, The presumably wealthy people paying 15 thousand dollars for
dinner with Obama are giving him money so that he can raise their
taxes?What exactly is in it for them?
___________
lisa

[HarryWanger]

You'd never it know it by the Consumer Sentiment and Confidence levels that are still soaring.
Must be a completely different sample set.

[Americans need to change this...]

Yeah Harry just like there's two set of laws...one for the bought and paid for set and the rest of us....

Precious Metals Déjà Vu For Morgan Stanley?

The answer is simple. Morgan Stanley is based in The Land of Fraud (aka the United States of America). In The Land of Fraud swindling people (whether total strangers or long-term clients) is a way of life – just ask a former Goldman Sachs employee. Thus the Wall Street banksters can commit fraud without ever having to admit fraud.

Indeed, Bloomberg explicitly confirmed that the SEC’s commit-but-never-admit policy has been standard practice for more than four decades, with such settlements then rubber-stamped by the U.S. judiciary. Bloomberg noted this institutionalized corruption when it criticized a (lone) U.S. judge who has had the temerity to challenge the commit-but-never-admit doctrine:

…As part of the agreement, New York-based Citigroup neither admitted nor denied the allegations, a clause which has been standard in such settlements for at least four decades.

But it gets better for the Wall Street fraud factories. Not only can they commit acts of fraud with impunity while never having to admit to them, but the “fine” they receive after being caught in the act is rarely more than 10% of their proceeds of crime – and often much, much less.

A classic example was the travesty of American Justice when Wachovia Bank was caught laundering nearly $400 billion dollars of drug cartel profits. It paid less than $200 million in fines and penalties. This was less than 2% of the bank’s 2009 profits, and less than 0.05% of the drug-money it laundered.

http://etfdailynews.com/2012/04/10/precious-metals-deja-vu-for-morgan-stanley/

[Mike]

In Ann Arbor Michigan the city is literally bleeding to death. Small businesses are vanishing at an ACCELERATING rate. Crime is surging (home invasions, people being literally clubbed in the streets or chased through parks for money). The University of Michigan is no longer able to find jobs for many of its graduates (once unheard of). I've talked to a few kids in their early twenties who've been working in retail for the last 2-5 years. Their lives are hopeless, they've lost all vision for the future. They can't save money, and everyplace else is more expensive.

[Change...as in the smell of a used baby diaper]

Growth of Income Inequality Is Worse Under Obama than Bush

Yup, under Bush, the 1% captured a disproportionate share of the income gains from the Bush boom of 2002-2007. They got 65 cents of every dollar created in that boom, up 20 cents from when Clinton was President. Under Obama, the 1% got 93 cents of every dollar created in that boom. That’s not only more than under Bush, up 28 cents. In the transition from Bush to Obama, inequality got worse, faster, than under the transition from Clinton to Bush. Obama accelerated the growth of inequality.

The data set is excellent, it’s from the IRS and it’s extremely detailed. This yawing gap of inequality isn’t an accident, and it’s not just because of Republicans. It’s a set of policy choices, as Saez makes clear in his paper.

Looking further ahead, based on the US historical record, falls in income concentration due to economic downturns are temporary unless drastic regulation and tax policy changes are implemented and prevent income concentration from bouncing back. Such policy changes took place after the Great Depression during the New Deal and permanently reduced income concentration until the 1970s.

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2012/04/growth-of-income-inequality-is-worse-under-obama-than-bush.html

[D]

yes,

all my obama friends keep saying how great he has done with the mess GW gave him, and GW did give him a mess; but he has done nothing to remedy things and just made it worse in most cases.

i think theyre all figuring its a cakewalk for obama because they only hear the good news.

i think the people in this poll reflect real america and on election day, there's going to be a lot of poll results that will be no where near the polls as one by one, people say they cant chance 4 more years like the last 4.

[Whyawannaknow]

Quote:
there's going to be a lot of poll results that will be no where near the polls as one by one, people say they cant chance 4 more years like the last 4.
(end quote)

The election results will be exactly what they need to be, just like the last several elections. That's what those proprietary code voting machines are for.

[sharonsj]

Welcome to the U.S.A. of Greece. In case you missed it, Greece is going up in flames, people are abandoning their kids or committing suicide. That is the result of "saving" the banks and instituting severe budget-cutting to make up for the debt.

We haven't gone up in flames yet, but if the Repubs take control, they will fire teachers, police and firefighters while giving more tax breaks to the rich. And when the formerly middle class applies for food stamps, unemployment benefits, welfare, medicaid, etc., they'll be told they're lazy and need to get a job. Too bad there aren't any jobs unless we go to China to get one.

[marty]

"William Dunkelberg, chief economist at the National Federation of Independent Business, says small businesses in the U.S. are "not doing well at all."

Of course they're not! -
How long do Republicans have to make the point? Their taxes are too high and regulations are stifling them!
They want to create jobs...they really do! If only the heavy hand of government would let up! (End of Republican fantasy)

[Individuals need their own license to print money]

Securitization – the Undead heart of the Shadow banking machine
By Liar's Lexicon

At the centre of all debates about the Banking crisis, the shadow Banking system and the bank bail-outs is Debt. For a long time I have been arguing that what this debt is, is in fact a new, bank created, bank issued and ultimately bank debased debt-backed currency. And the collapse in value of this unregulated currency IS the crisis. Its cause and its logic.

In order to explain why I think this and why I do not think ‘fixing’ the banking system back to any semblance of how it was, just prior to the crash, will be anything other than a disaster, I have to explain how debt is turned into money. And how, clever as this process is, it also contains within it the seeds of its own undoing.

To do so I have to take you into the undead heart of the machine – securitization. Securitization is what animates the global financial and shadow banking system in whose shadow we now live. It is how modern finance turns debt into money. It is the impious alchemical dream of turning lead to gold, water into wine.

When Securitization was invented it soon wrested control of the money supply away from nations and gave it to the banks. Nations still printed and controlled their currency. But securitization gave banks the ability to print their own currency. And this new securitized currency, based on debt, was theirs to print, control, spend, and ultimately to debase. In short, it gave banks a power to rival nations. It is worth, therefore, understanding its outlines at least.

It really is a license to print money.

http://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com/2012/04/securitization-undead-heart-of-shadow.html

[Dennis The Menace]

Its a fuuny thing we live in an age when everything possible though technology seems possible' but when you take a look around everything else seems to be falling apart amazing.