Wall Of Worry Wednesday: Time To Climb? [View article]
Germany does this very well, unlike the US, they concentrated on educating their workforce and now have many highly skilled laborers who make superior salaries and they run an efficient and robust economy. Also, unlike the US, they were happy to have people come to their country and do the less-skilled labor - those are not jobs they need to protect to make a good future.
If you have $15 to your name and no debt, you are in the top 20% of THIS country - you seem to get a lot of those Foxified statistics, I would suggest spending a little time reading from the left - even the NYTimes would do you some good.
Wall Of Worry Wednesday: Time To Climb? [View article]
That is just ridiculous. There are over 300M people in this country so, if you have a one in a Million shot of getting wealthy then someone will "succeed" every day.
A society needs to be concerned with the needs of the many and it's the ability of the greater middle class (20%-80%) to STEADILY improve their standard of living that defines a progressive society, not random examples of people who make money so you can pretend the system works.
It is very clear, in study after study, that the bottom 80% have had a steady decline in their standard of living since the early 80s while the top 20%, other than the very top 1%, have barely kept up with inflation.
The top 1% on the other hand, have very clearly taken every dime lost by the bottom 99% as the wealth gap in this country is greater now than it was right before the crash in the Great Depression because, funny thing, it does turn out the top 1% need the bottom 99% to remain solvent - but, like you, they are clearly in too much of a state of denial to do anything about it until after it affects their greedy asses as well.
Wall Of Worry Wednesday: Time To Climb? [View article]
The Senate is set to vote on a bill today that would define the whole of the United States as a “battlefield” and allow the U.S. Military to arrest American citizens in their own back yard without charge or trial.
Wall Of Worry Wednesday: Time To Climb? [View article]
This is a good discussion in general but let's be clear here - the problem with Conservatives (ie you Swing) is that you don't even understand what the statement "We don't think anyone should live like that" means.
There is only so much food in the world, there is only so much land, etc - even money.
To be simple about it, using land to substitute for all wealth, if there are 100,000,000 acres and 100,000,000 families - there is enough land for every single person in the country to have a comfortable one-acre home. The way the US is set up now is that 100 of those families have 7M acres - allowing each family 70,000 acres each to build a home on.
The rest of the top 1,000,000 families own 43M more acres (but it's a very stretched average), they get 43 acres each to build their dream homes.
The rest of the top 10,0000,000 families (9M, of course) own another 38M acres - still 3.8 acres each for those in the top 10% - what's the problem, they say?
The 10M families after them have 12M acres - 1.2 acres per family is not so bad, right?
The problem is that the other 80M people have to split the last 7M acres and that's less than one tenth of one acre per family. They can't build a dream home - they can't even dream and THAT is why no one should live like THAT!
Should everyone be forced to have one-acre no matter how much or how little they work? No, that is Communism. Should anyone be allowed to have 700,000 times more land than another family no matter how hard they work? No, that is simply a crime against humanity.
Not only does the greed and excess of the top 1% deprive the bottom 80% of vital resources but it also drives the cost of those resources up by creating a false demand for land, food, wood, oil, etc. When Donald Trump takes his private Jet to Florida, he's using as much fuel as 200 people flying Delta. You can argue that he can afford it so he deserves it but it increases the cost of fuel for those 200 people as well - his pleasure inflicts suffering in others.
The land is obvious - the rich take all the "good" land and leave the crap for the rest and they drive up the cost of all land by having much more than they can use. Money is the same way - if US corporations weren't sitting on $2Tn then that $2Tn would be in the economy and there would be less demand for money and money would be less expensive and small businesses could borrow it and hire people and build up to take market share from the big businesses.
That is why they are sitting on $2Tn and working to wreck the US workforce because a non-competitive US workforce means you won't be able to start a company full of bright hard-working people to challenge them so they cut the education budgets and ship all the jobs overseas leaving you - the small business owner - with a nation of retail clerks to work with - no threat at all to Big Business...
Wall Of Worry Wednesday: Time To Climb? [View article]
I'm sorry Dave, it's just there's always someone like you (but not you of course, you are totally different) who has 100 reasons why oil will go higher and why it's short etc. and I guess it's because I know my history and have heard the same song year after year, decade after decade that all the noise just sort of blends in together.
I'm sure 27M Saudis will shock the World with the amount of oil they consume and China will do their thing and India and maybe even Africa will start getting into Indy racing and chew through a lot of fuel and they will all have $100, $200 and $300 a barrel to pay for it because right now they're just blowing it on hookers and beer anyway so buying fuel and lighting it on fire makes so much more sense.
By the way, did you know that Soarbuzz forecasts China's consumption of SOLAR PANELS will be up 130% this year? Their fuel consumption, oddly enough, is flat to last year. Hopefully the Saudis don't get any crazy ideas about solar, that will make it hard for them to hit their consumption goals...
Wall Of Worry Wednesday: Time To Climb? [View article]
Fortunately, the US will not have to consume a disproportionate amount of the World's supply. Aside from dropping another 4.5% this year, we will be raising our fuel standards over the next decade so we consume 50% less gas or the entrie consumption of China and India combined.
In addition to the US cutting back, if Europe cuts back and China and India (and now, I guess, Saudi Arabia) don't grow at the massive rates that you are projecting - World oil consumption has likely already peaked.
And, of course, there are dozens of alternate feuls on the horizon so we're really about one breakthrough plus a decade away from putting our peak oil worries on a shelf along with the peak coal worries of the past and the peak whale oil worries before them and, before that, peak wood!
Yep, there's always someone who likes to run around and tell people the sky is falling and sometimes there is hail but, generally, it stays up there...
Wall Of Worry Wednesday: Time To Climb? [View article]
I didn't say we are not doomed if the Dems win, just that we are certainly and immediately doomed if the Reps do. So, on the whole, I'd rather take my chances with the Dems.
As Barry Ritholtz said: "I am not a Democrat, because I have no idea what their economic policies are; And I am not a Republican, because I know PRECISELY what their economic policies are."
Wall Of Worry Wednesday: Time To Climb? [View article]
ROFL! Talk about extrapolation: "at present rates of internally increasing consumption Saudi will be exporting nothing at all, in 2028" So you want readers here to belive, that the 27M people in Saudi Arabia will consume all 11M barrels a day the nation produces? WOW, those are some Hummer-driving MoFo people!
Congratulations, by the way on your tremendous body of work commenting on why oil should be more expensive - is it just a hobby or some driving passion that you have?
November Market Analysis - What a Month! [View article]
Try googling "the cramer effect," there's a lot written on it and a few weeks ago I actually found a college statistics paper studying his effect on stocks (not favorable, it backed up my trap premise).
Whether he does it on purpose or if he is just irresponsible, clearly his guiding sheep to the slaughter on momentum stocks that are 2/3 or more up a cycle is very damaging to the casual investor following his picks. When I do a show, I have already decided that I will call bottoms on stocks (like SBUX, WM and CC recently) and tell people how to pick them up as good long-term investments.
I don't need to post spectacular gains on a TV show as the investing style is inappropriate for 90% of the audience, I'd rather have a show where, a year later, the picks average 18% and you didn't have to be a timing genius to get in on the trade.
Even on my member site we have long and short-term portfolios as not everyone wants to be a gunslinger and getting reasonable returns from fairly safe plays is very appealing to the majority.
Hardly, just pointing out that a pullback in crude will drag the markets down for a while too since the sector is so significant. That happened today with the energy patch trading down and GM became the straw that broke the camel's (or certainly the Dow's) back.
Wall Of Worry Wednesday: Time To Climb? [View article]
If you have $15 to your name and no debt, you are in the top 20% of THIS country - you seem to get a lot of those Foxified statistics, I would suggest spending a little time reading from the left - even the NYTimes would do you some good.
Wall Of Worry Wednesday: Time To Climb? [View article]
A society needs to be concerned with the needs of the many and it's the ability of the greater middle class (20%-80%) to STEADILY improve their standard of living that defines a progressive society, not random examples of people who make money so you can pretend the system works.
It is very clear, in study after study, that the bottom 80% have had a steady decline in their standard of living since the early 80s while the top 20%, other than the very top 1%, have barely kept up with inflation.
The top 1% on the other hand, have very clearly taken every dime lost by the bottom 99% as the wealth gap in this country is greater now than it was right before the crash in the Great Depression because, funny thing, it does turn out the top 1% need the bottom 99% to remain solvent - but, like you, they are clearly in too much of a state of denial to do anything about it until after it affects their greedy asses as well.
Wall Of Worry Wednesday: Time To Climb? [View article]
http://bit.ly/rN1iIV
Need I say more?
Wall Of Worry Wednesday: Time To Climb? [View article]
Wall Of Worry Wednesday: Time To Climb? [View article]
There is only so much food in the world, there is only so much land, etc - even money.
To be simple about it, using land to substitute for all wealth, if there are 100,000,000 acres and 100,000,000 families - there is enough land for every single person in the country to have a comfortable one-acre home. The way the US is set up now is that 100 of those families have 7M acres - allowing each family 70,000 acres each to build a home on.
The rest of the top 1,000,000 families own 43M more acres (but it's a very stretched average), they get 43 acres each to build their dream homes.
The rest of the top 10,0000,000 families (9M, of course) own another 38M acres - still 3.8 acres each for those in the top 10% - what's the problem, they say?
The 10M families after them have 12M acres - 1.2 acres per family is not so bad, right?
The problem is that the other 80M people have to split the last 7M acres and that's less than one tenth of one acre per family. They can't build a dream home - they can't even dream and THAT is why no one should live like THAT!
Should everyone be forced to have one-acre no matter how much or how little they work? No, that is Communism. Should anyone be allowed to have 700,000 times more land than another family no matter how hard they work? No, that is simply a crime against humanity.
Not only does the greed and excess of the top 1% deprive the bottom 80% of vital resources but it also drives the cost of those resources up by creating a false demand for land, food, wood, oil, etc. When Donald Trump takes his private Jet to Florida, he's using as much fuel as 200 people flying Delta. You can argue that he can afford it so he deserves it but it increases the cost of fuel for those 200 people as well - his pleasure inflicts suffering in others.
The land is obvious - the rich take all the "good" land and leave the crap for the rest and they drive up the cost of all land by having much more than they can use. Money is the same way - if US corporations weren't sitting on $2Tn then that $2Tn would be in the economy and there would be less demand for money and money would be less expensive and small businesses could borrow it and hire people and build up to take market share from the big businesses.
That is why they are sitting on $2Tn and working to wreck the US workforce because a non-competitive US workforce means you won't be able to start a company full of bright hard-working people to challenge them so they cut the education budgets and ship all the jobs overseas leaving you - the small business owner - with a nation of retail clerks to work with - no threat at all to Big Business...
Wall Of Worry Wednesday: Time To Climb? [View article]
I'm sure 27M Saudis will shock the World with the amount of oil they consume and China will do their thing and India and maybe even Africa will start getting into Indy racing and chew through a lot of fuel and they will all have $100, $200 and $300 a barrel to pay for it because right now they're just blowing it on hookers and beer anyway so buying fuel and lighting it on fire makes so much more sense.
By the way, did you know that Soarbuzz forecasts China's consumption of SOLAR PANELS will be up 130% this year? Their fuel consumption, oddly enough, is flat to last year. Hopefully the Saudis don't get any crazy ideas about solar, that will make it hard for them to hit their consumption goals...
http://bit.ly/tSZH2W
Wall Of Worry Wednesday: Time To Climb? [View article]
In addition to the US cutting back, if Europe cuts back and China and India (and now, I guess, Saudi Arabia) don't grow at the massive rates that you are projecting - World oil consumption has likely already peaked.
And, of course, there are dozens of alternate feuls on the horizon so we're really about one breakthrough plus a decade away from putting our peak oil worries on a shelf along with the peak coal worries of the past and the peak whale oil worries before them and, before that, peak wood!
Yep, there's always someone who likes to run around and tell people the sky is falling and sometimes there is hail but, generally, it stays up there...
Wall Of Worry Wednesday: Time To Climb? [View article]
As Barry Ritholtz said: "I am not a Democrat, because I have no idea what their economic policies are; And I am not a Republican, because I know PRECISELY what their economic policies are."
Wall Of Worry Wednesday: Time To Climb? [View article]
Congratulations, by the way on your tremendous body of work commenting on why oil should be more expensive - is it just a hobby or some driving passion that you have?
November Market Analysis - What a Month! [View article]
Whether he does it on purpose or if he is just irresponsible, clearly his guiding sheep to the slaughter on momentum stocks that are 2/3 or more up a cycle is very damaging to the casual investor following his picks. When I do a show, I have already decided that I will call bottoms on stocks (like SBUX, WM and CC recently) and tell people how to pick them up as good long-term investments.
I don't need to post spectacular gains on a TV show as the investing style is inappropriate for 90% of the audience, I'd rather have a show where, a year later, the picks average 18% and you didn't have to be a timing genius to get in on the trade.
Even on my member site we have long and short-term portfolios as not everyone wants to be a gunslinger and getting reasonable returns from fairly safe plays is very appealing to the majority.
Options Trader: Monday Outlook [View article]