and the plug gets pulled again....
Apr. 25th, 2018 03:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
drhoovesSo quickly the market went up, and so quickly it comes back down. The S&P 500, after peaking last week near 2719, reversed and fell quickly down to the 200 day moving average 2612 yesterday and this morning, before storming back to closed near 2640. Oh boy. If the 200 DMA doesn't hold, the long-term trend of up, starting back in 2009, may well be over. Some analysts are trying to support the idea that climbing interests rates are finally starting to have an effect, and the beating the FANGs have taken over the past few weeks is not propping up the markets any longer. Personally, since the market numbers represent the unprecedented printing of fiat via "quantitative easing", we're in no position to predict what comes next. Bad debt surrounds us, making the deflation story likely, but as long as The Fed's print button is still on their keyboard, who knows where it goes next?
In other economic news this past week, something like 14 states are reporting record low unemployment, but since those numbers don't actually represent "quality jobs" or the long-term unemployed, they are hardly an indication of economic health. Good health, anyway. I've also been listening to an older podcast on the catastrophe of the student loan "industry" from Jim Kunstler, and it's a shining example of racketeering at both private and public levels. More bad debt, transformed into a weak revenue stream that's essentially 21st Century share cropping, from which there is no escape. Look for the higher education "model" to incur heavy losses and contraction, as more people, especially the younger crowd, sees the risk/reward ratio in a negative light.
In other news, the flow is pretty light and irrelevant. More theater concerning the Iran nuclear agreement, and for some reason the EU seems to show an interest in making sure the agreement remains intact, which probably means it's a bad deal for the U.S. I've seen a couple of other stories related to the decline of the American Empire, so the word is getting out - slowly, surely, and with consequences that will still surprise many Americans. Meanwhile, stories of mass shootings, cop shootings, voodoo, the NFL and kneeling protests, and other trivia at the level of keeping ignorant about the Kardashians are all indicators that cognitive dissonance remains high, and the future is not to be discussed.
One story talks about the "latest" on climate change, and how the effects may be 30 to 45 percent less bad than previously forecast. As calming as that little outlook may be, I don't see how energy requirements and economic models based on infinite growth is going to have any lessening effect on the real problem with fossil fuels - pollution. Just because the ocean may not be flooding my beachfront yard until 2175 now doesn't mean the fishing is getting better.
In other economic news this past week, something like 14 states are reporting record low unemployment, but since those numbers don't actually represent "quality jobs" or the long-term unemployed, they are hardly an indication of economic health. Good health, anyway. I've also been listening to an older podcast on the catastrophe of the student loan "industry" from Jim Kunstler, and it's a shining example of racketeering at both private and public levels. More bad debt, transformed into a weak revenue stream that's essentially 21st Century share cropping, from which there is no escape. Look for the higher education "model" to incur heavy losses and contraction, as more people, especially the younger crowd, sees the risk/reward ratio in a negative light.
In other news, the flow is pretty light and irrelevant. More theater concerning the Iran nuclear agreement, and for some reason the EU seems to show an interest in making sure the agreement remains intact, which probably means it's a bad deal for the U.S. I've seen a couple of other stories related to the decline of the American Empire, so the word is getting out - slowly, surely, and with consequences that will still surprise many Americans. Meanwhile, stories of mass shootings, cop shootings, voodoo, the NFL and kneeling protests, and other trivia at the level of keeping ignorant about the Kardashians are all indicators that cognitive dissonance remains high, and the future is not to be discussed.
One story talks about the "latest" on climate change, and how the effects may be 30 to 45 percent less bad than previously forecast. As calming as that little outlook may be, I don't see how energy requirements and economic models based on infinite growth is going to have any lessening effect on the real problem with fossil fuels - pollution. Just because the ocean may not be flooding my beachfront yard until 2175 now doesn't mean the fishing is getting better.