ADP Report: Some (Still) Not Doing Their Part

Although economists cheered today’s “better- than-expected” ADP National Employment Report—don’t they always?—continued flat-line job growth in large companies and goods-producing industries continues to call into question the notion that the U.S. economy is building a foundation for future recovery.

In fact, it also raises the issue of whether the looming “fiscal cliff” won’t have an even more dramatic impact on the U.S. economy than some have been predicting. While the rich will have to cough up more in absolute terms than those at the lower end of the economic ladder, the relative hit to discretionary income will probably hurt small businesses and low-paid service industry employees the most.

Comments

[Tom]

Yeah, meanwhile the real story is in what the wages are in each of these tiers.
Stagnant, low, and awful. How can anyone build a "growth" economy when 98% of the people can't afford to EAT, let alone spend money on all the bullshit we used to spend it on? i'm surprised Disney World is still in existence.

As the rot (unemployment) continues to spread through the next president's term, it's only going to get worse no matter which clown you vote for (in fact, even if you don't vote). If the financial crisis doesn't cause the collapse of civilization, i'm sure that the environmental degradation and change in our global climate will (and putting them together with some added "black swans" should make it absolutely certain to happen in short order). It's not gonna be fun for the next bunch of years.

[Faux economy, real sufferring]

Faux 2012 Debates in a Very Real World

NOT ONE REAL ISSUE, NOT ONE TRUTH, was covered by either corporate-candidate in the first faux-2012-presidential debate.

http://youtu.be/8aoX8hI7g2s

[roger]

The packaging is more important than the content, Madison ave. has well trained the average citizen. Absolutely nothing of substance came out of last night "debate"except
maybe some hot putrefied air. The next Pinocchio president will be paralyzed by events, events on all front will deteriorate, political,economic,ecology,geopolitical, you name it, you've got it, by 2016 we will be ready to embrace with open harms the Savior,the strong man on the white horse.

[a few jobs here and there won't stop this disaster]

Financial Fukushima: US Big Bank Derivative Bets Double in Six Years To $236 Trillion

Big Bank Derivative Bets Nearly Double In Six Years
By Peter G. Miller
October 4th, 2012

America’s major banks now hold derivatives with a notational worth of $225 trillion – about a third of the world total. No kidding. Trillion.

And that’s up from a mere $120 trillion six years ago. Rather than being weened off derivatives, America’s big banks are more deeply entrenched then ever.

Hopefully Wall Street has it figured out just right and there won’t be any major losses, say a few billion here or there. After all, when has Wall Street ever been wrong about financial instruments?

“Derivatives are dangerous,” says Warren Buffett. “They have dramatically increased the leverage and risks in our financial system. They have made it almost impossible for investors to understand and analyze our largest commercial banks and investment banks.”

While many in Washington would like to limit derivatives trading, make such trades open to public scrutiny or both, Wall Street is vehemently against regulation.

In fact, there’s a simple way to resolve derivative worries. Allow unlimited derivatives trading — but only by individuals and partnerships willing to personally take the risk of profits and losses...

According to the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), the notational value of derivatives at the end of 2011 was $648 trillion.

The gross credit exposure from these securities was believed to be $3.912 trillion according to the BIS — that’s up from $3.5 trillion at the end of 2009.

But what if the estimates are wrong?

http://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com/2012/10/financial-fukushima-us-big-bank.html

[One flew over Attica Correctional Facility]

Cadavers Collateralized Debt
In the second half of the show, Max Keiser talks to Dr. Michael Hudson, author of The Bubble and Beyond: Fictitious Capital, Debt Deflation and Global Crisis, about Timothy Geithner's role in facilitating the takeover of the banking system by the Wall Street mafia and about the oligarchic counter revolution against democracy in Europe.
http://youtu.be/OqN5GGYXNF0

watch it

[little guy]

Alan Simpson: “I get so damn sick and tired of listening to the little guy”

Alan Simpson is upset that somebody besides those with the accumulated wealth of a Pete Peterson gets a voice in our democracy:

SIMPSON: I get so damn sick and tired of listening to the little guy, the vulnerable, the veteran — I am a veteran, and the seniors and this and this and this and the meanwhile this country is headed for second-class status while everybody just babbles into the vapor.

Where is the evidence that Alan Simpson has ever in his life listened to “the little guy?” He’s really sick and tired of the PUBLIC listening to those pleas – in other word, he doesn’t like the public thinking for themselves, with appeals from those who look and talk and think like them. He’d much rather the rest of the country worked the way it works in Washington, where the little guy remains silent while the blob of corporate lobbyists and consultants and associated grifters dominate the conversation. The vulnerable never penetrate the minds of the political class, save for maybe two or three weeks around election season. The rest of the time, they’re just 300 million moochers sucking at the public teat.

http://news.firedoglake.com/2012/10/05/alan-simpson-i-get-so-damn-sick-and-tired-of-listening-to-the-little-guy/

[Marion Shaw]

The posts on this blog
on this topic give me a
renewed hope that patriotic
America is not going down
without a h..of a fight.
I would like to live to see
the creators of the Iraq
War(second one) and subse-
quent nightmare in the Middle East tried
for war crimes and I would
like to see the cabal of
bankers,gov't offcials,etc
who have robbed this country blind go in for
long jail terms; preferably
into the private ones
where they can make .23
cents an hour and pay .75
cents a package for ramon
noodles for sale in the
prison and jail canteens.
The world did not try to
get to America for nothin'.

[rhon]

'Tired of listening...' I'm tired of tv's repetitive roaring reports of figures soaring upwards of 'millions, billions, trillions.' Yeah, that's rich. It is unreal.

[sharonsj]

Two reasons why businesses are not hiring:

1. Uncertainty over two opposite parties (Dems and Repubs) who cannot compromise for the good of the country and the Tea Party recalcitrants who are willing to push us over the fiscal cliff.

2. Most people are broke or close to it, so there isn't much discretionary spending. Retail is dying.

No financial website can explain how QE Infinity is going to create jobs--most say it won't. So if the Fed is spending billions more on worthless bonds, it means the banks are still stealing and still gambling and are probably still insolvent. The free money is going right into the pockets of the higher ups and Main Street won't see anything.

Meanwhile as I predicted, Europe is going up in flames. I wonder how much longer it will take the U.S. to turn into a Greece?