What’s behind today’s 220-point drop off the cliff for the Dow Jones index, and the nearly 2% collapse in the other big indices? Experts say it’s because the big institutional investors may finally be putting it together that a jobless “recovery” where wages are flat or shrinking for more than 80% of the population is probably unsustainable, especially considering housing is still in its death throes and we are once again saying farewell to the “era of cheap oil” and manufacturing is such a tiny part of our worthless “service economy” that even gains in that sector are ultimately unimportant.
Gah, even GOLD is falling, and we have been literally carrying a couple of gold doubloons in our pockets, this week, waiting for the spot price to climb enough to cash out and maybe pay our taxes or something. GLENN BECK PLEASE TELL US WHAT MOOSLIM TO BLAME FOR THE GOLD GOING DOWN TWENTY BUCKS AN OUNCE TODAY, ugh.
Here are some other random reasons for everything turning to poop again, from Marketwatch:
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — U.S. blue-chip stocks on Tuesday suffered their biggest intraday drop since October and dragged the Dow Jones Industrial Average below 12,000, as disappointing news about claims for unemployment benefits compounded Wall Street’s worries about trade in China and European sovereign debt.
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Well there goes the ol 401K again. That's OK though, I wasn't going to use it today.
Now I can buy stocks on sale next payday.
I keep trying to time my re-entry into the stock market, but that perky lil' Dow Jones always just jumps way back up before I can get off my butt and look up the passwords for my on-line brokerage accounts.
This time, for sure.
According to Mrs. Beck, gold prices and Glenn's ratings aren't the only things plummeting.
Time for another round of bonuses for the Wall Streeters. And cancel some more public-employee pensions, so we can afford another bailout.
Don't forget about tax cuts. Tax cuts for the top 1% solve all economic problems.
Along with wars; time to invade Iran! Er, uh Libya!
What, and leave Egypt just sitting there?
Oh, what the fuck, let's invade both of 'em! We don't have the troops or money to invade either or for that matter the other two we are already losing, so why the hell not?
Speaking of Libya and Egypt I was arguing with this wingnut the other day and without even taking time to breath he accused Obama of being a big government commonist and accused him of handing Egypt and Libya to muslins….they aren't even trying anymore, it's like they can't even hear their own voices.
A rising tide floats all boats.
The pension funds have already been used to pay Wall Street bonuses. There's nothing left in there but IOU's and used condoms.
Hey now, those bonuses were contracted out! It's not like the government can just go around voiding contracts willy nilly to suit it's own purposes…oh wait, nevermind. The difference between a human and a teabagger is a human wouldn't finish that thought because of the rush of cognitive dissonance while not only will a teabagger finish it, they'll praise Walker for going and willy nilly voiding the public union contracts. These people aren't exactly the soul of subtlety, sophistication or deep thinking.
This is a downfisting that makes sense to me.
Feels like a plan old fisting to me.
Guess I won't put that refrigerator box out for the trashman to pick up tomorrow after all.
You were stupid enough to buy something in this down economy? Jesus, you're not a very smart capitalist.
Nah. Since I'm not getting any raises for a coupla years, I've taken a second job as a truck hijacker. Free large appliances are one of the bennies.
Ah, a entrepreneur.
Where are the jerbs, Boehner?
That's okay. I guarantee those motherfuckers at exxon will have yet another quarter of record profits.
I don't have anything to say anymore.
But yet, the other day when President Obama suggested opening up the strategic oil reserve to put more oil in the system and drive down gas prices, the wingnuts lost their minds on that suggestion. They would rather see another economic collapse due to rising oil prices.
Meh. I'll watch the market when all of my social security is handed to those greedy fucks to gamble with.
I point that out to my Republiklan friends that complain that their 401K's are taking a hit. I figured that trying to privatize Social Security was a long term goal of enslaving the working class in this country.
Little did I know that the plan was to tank the economy within four years.
Wait until the GOOPers refuse to raise the debt ceiling. Welcome to 1934.
I'm putting all my money ($12.48) into vodka.
Cheap vodka at that
Popov, baby! Poopov! I mean Popov.
Save some for the pitchforks and torches, though.
Thanks, GOP, for eliminating jobs and economy-boosting public aid that would have helped the recovery to continue!
We can't have any of that shit… there's still people to fuck over (somewhere) and as always… an election coming
(Unless Newt is involved… it'll then be an erection cumming.)
Was anybody at the meeting where America decided that it wanted to be a nation of people who all work at Walmart selling each other Chinese crap?
Whose idea was this?
See: Years 2000-2008.
Ronald Reagan?
I was supposed to be there but I spilled some Mountain Dew Extreme on my Hoveround's controls and it stopped working. Finally 2 days later the UPS guy discovered me when he was delivering my QVC "Precious Angel" doll.
"Mountain Dew Extreme"? Is that a thing?
I can't imagine it's not.
You would be horrorstruck to see the new "variants" of Dew coming out: Flavors, colors and sweetening agents not remotely heard of in nature. I always thought Futurama was joking about Slurm. Someone in the marketing business ran with that ball.
Ayn Rand's.
Is there a Walmart in Galt's Gulch?
Yes, but it has no staff, because none of the superior overlords who are now starving to death will stoop to such low-level work.
Really, if my choice were between starving to death and working at Wal-Mart, I'd have to stop and think it over.
Metro and Carre Four, too.
They thought they'd all be selling each other stocks and bonds.
Actually, an Akron, Ohio, Walmart greeter idly floated the idea with a few colleagues back in 2003 while on cigarette break, and the whole thing just took off from there. In retrospect, he says he was only kidding, but the whole thing had already taken off.
Boehner's getting a boner on this news.
"GLENN BECK PLEASE TELL US WHAT MOOSLIM TO BLAME FOR THE GOLD GOING DOWN TWENTY BUCKS AN OUNCE TODAY."
Allah is not amused with Peter King either.
Business news from Ken Layne.
Hey, it's o.k. people! I made some money on CAT puts.
So I can afford hobo beans for a few more months.
~
The Chinese will need them to move the rubble when Bachmann's U.S. America® implodes.
The MSM media remains perplexed why an economy built on rich people and family dollar/dollar general clerks is not taking off.
That's because the MSM is full to tools like David Broder…and he's dead.
It's how the typical 3rd world country runs. It has been obvious for decades now that both parties are mis-managing the country in the typical 3rd world oligarchy style. The results are pretty predictable! Look at the Manila slums to see your future!
Worked just fine for Russia, France, etc.
I am never going to be able to retire.
Get ready for the twenty-somethings to hate you even more than they already do.
And I really thought I had outgrown Mom's garage. Mom? Get that Grand Marquis out of there!!!!
Basically modern retirement will consist of living on your "life savings" for a couple months and then firing a pistol round in your noggin. At least it will be brief. Velkommen auf Amerika 2011 kids!
I might, but I have to find a job first.
Me neither…but I understand death is restful.
Along with Pabst, Spam and generic store brands.
And off brand Mac N Cheese. None of that expensive Kaft stuff for me!
I do really think we should stick to the canned good. They will last in the bomb shelter and if one happens to spoil, well, you can make money on the side injecto-calming the faces of wealthy junior leaguers.
And you all laughed at my portfolio of Shot Gun Shells and Canned Beans.
I'm in Baja Arizona so I changed it to Automatic Weapon Ammo and Dried Chorizo. But thanks for the tip.
Check out Dimitri Orlov's essays on the collapse of the Soviet Union. He recommends laying is stocks of things everyone needs to buy but which are not bulky. Like booze, pot, nails, screws, flashlight batteries, condoms…. Also, make friends with your neighbors. That's always better than an arsenal.
"GLENN BECK PLEASE TELL US WHAT MOOSLIM TO BLAME FOR THE GOLD GOING DOWN TWENTY BUCKS AN OUNCE TODAY."
He's trying to choose between Barack, Michelle, Sasha and Malia. He'll get back to us with a detailed chart later tonight.
On his "black" board.
first they ignore you
then they ridicule you
then they fight you <———- YOU ARE HERE
then you win
Hey maybe this will prompt the Republicans to look 30 years of supply-side economics in the face and realize it's complete shit, just like Dubya's dad said in 1979 when he called Reagan's tax cut plans "voodoo economics." Or maybe we'll all just get a lecture from Joel Osteen about how we need to love The LORD more if we really want to get rich.
The Rep(tiles) will blame the usual scapegoats and perhaps turn to killing them (at home, not abroad).
Thanks Ken for delivering the goods. I hadn't reached my quota of pain yet. It was important, as just this morning over the speakers, Magnetic Fields were telling me "I need a new hu-uuuuuuuuu-ur–ur-urrrrrt" ♫
I'm off work for a long weekend in about an hour, got to make the most of what's left in raise-less, pension-less, perk-less desk labor: staycation days that roll over the longer I'm too broke to spend nuthin' on traveling anywheres.
SELL!!!1!! No, wait–BUY!!!1!
This is why I failed as a hedge fund manager, isn't it?
That's OK – you get a bonus anyway.
Well, that, and your habit of throwing staplers at your supervisors.
I don't blame Charlie Sheen for going on a fuck-all bender. What else is there to do?
That bastard's looking like a genius now!
Well yeah, I reckon he is, but I can't even afford a suitcase-full of baking powder, much less the good stuff.
He may go broke, but at least he can look back on those halycon days of hookers and coke.
With or without the 2 chunks of pork(ish) fat?
Cuz you can burn them there for heat.
Here's the reality kids…the big boys profit took the shit out of the market today (after setting up short sells) so they made money both coming and going….now we are headed for the wonderful double dip brought about by high gas prices and lost public sector jobs that the GOP can't wait to get rid of…what I can't understand is why we are following the same path that Roosevelt did in the 30s….doesn't anybody even think about looking at a fucking history book anymore?
They were all burned in Texas.
They're too busy rewriting them to read them anymore.
Of course not. How many can read? Let alone something that requires stopping and thinking now and then?
I heard BBC interview Eric Hobsbawm (famous Marxist historian, age 91) at the beginning of the crisis. They asked if he felt like gloating at being proven right. He said, No. But when he'd heard political and business types say the business cycle had been abolished, he'd been confident that they were wrong.
"doesn't anybody even think about looking at a fucking history book anymore?"
Not the people in charge of making economic policy.
Now that Americans can no longer afford to buy the Chinese slave-made trinkets and gadgets, and the Chinese are too smart/poor to buy the stuff themselves, Wall Street finally puts two-and-two together.
Oh, Wall Street put it together, all right.
Most Chinese people still know how to raise their own food. Hence the urban gardens everywhere I look.
Seems like a great time put one's trust in a randomly selected snowbilly grifter.
G-d talks to her every time she gets a wild hair up her wazoo!
That's sorta like saying when you have the stomach flu is a great time to slam your hand in a car door.
Buckle up, its going to be a bumpy ride.
They'll just say it's another "adjustment" as they put their hands in their pockets…
in our pockets…
Fixed that for ya.
My official Republican Talking Points™ flowchart says I'm supposed to blame Obama for this.
Is that the flowchart that looks like the Wasilla Hockey Team playbook that ends in Bristol?
I believe that's the official High School Dropout Sluts [tm] flowchart.
When the assholes who mainpulate the market feel they've cleaned out enough suckers, the stock market will rise again.
Don't assume they are smarter than the rest of us. Otherwise, they'd make sure everyone had enough money to buy crap.
Marketwatch editors are such masters of understatement: Wall Street’s worries about trade in China and European sovereign debt:
Europe: Greek debt got downgraded yesterday; Spanish debt got whacked today. If this continues it will lead to riots in the streets, cities in flames, blood running in the gutters, all out civil war throughout Europe.
China: reported a net trade deficit for February, the first one in six years. Nothing to worry about here other than the end of the fucking world.
Good times coming.
China's deficit is to Japan, to buy efficient factory machines. Most Chinese factory owners would prefer to buy US made machines. (You can't imagine how hated the Japs are.) But the US has won't sell anything that might have some military application. So "You want to buy our lead pencils? NO! The PLA might use them!" Seriously: I once helped a guy write a visa application so he could buy new paper-making machines for his paper mill. We could sell a lot of things to China, but we refuse. Even their soybeans come from Brazil!
Listen, I don't know what any of this means. But it can't be good.
Most of us have been taking it in the ass for several years now, so who fucking cares if the market crashes. With any luck some of these assholes will swan dive out of their office windows and lighten the mood.
JUMP!! JUMP!!! JUMP!!!!
I like your avatar picture thingy…now if we can just add "unemployed and spat on" to douche we'll have self regulated the market of a major league asshole. Speaking of major league assholes…a great irony just occured to me regarding Rick Scott in Florida. So, old people, retirees on medicare were mobilized into the teabagger partly because of the GOP's deceptive claim about cuts to medicare (deceptive because the "cuts" were just ending the medicare advantage privatization scheme, the advantage meaning of course advantage-insurace companies) and Rick Scott was somehow rehabilitated by the teabagger party (the gall on this asshole is immense, his entire reason for being in the teabagger party was because of HCR, even though he's exhibit A for why we should have socialized medicine and not just HCR). The old people, afeared for them ther medicare went and elected the biggest fraud against medicare in history; historians will need years to figure out how THAT happened. Metaphorically it's like the spider talking the fly into its web and getting the fly to bring along friends with it; fucking morons.
HAHAHA I don't have any stocks. Even if I did, I don't have anywhere in my cardboard box house to put 'em. HAHAHA Fuck you bankers-take that market collapse right up your ass HAHAHA
*goes back to quietly sobbing*
*kicks Ken in the ankle under the table*
Shadduuuuuppp!!
Ix-nay on the ock-market-stay!
Do you want to start a recession?
Years ago, there was a joke to the effect that there's no more crime in New York City, because everything has already been stolen. Maybe now that nobody in the bottom 99% has any more money left, we'll have to go after the only folks that have any money left, the top 1%.
Hello?
Anyone?
Is this thing on?
There will be blood on the streets of New Haven.
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