Wall Street’s “Recovery” Leaves Main Street Mugged in the Gutter
by ilene - November 17th, 2010 4:42 pm
Wall Street’s "Recovery" Leaves Main Street Mugged in the Gutter
Courtesy of Charles Hugh Smith, Of Two Minds
Rising costs and taxes and declining income have mugged Main Street while Wall Street revels in the Fed-engineered "recovery"--in the stock market.
The Fed would have us believe that the stock market is the leading indicator of the economy: if stocks are rising, then that is strong evidence the economy is improving.
This is the bogus "wealth effect" I have taken pains to discredit:
Why the Fed’s ‘Trickle-Down Economics’ Is Failing
Are the Fed’s Honchos Simpletons, Or Are They Just Taking Orders? (Nov. 1, 2010)
Fraud and Complicity Are Now the Lifeblood of the Status Quo (Nov. 12, 2010)
Fed’s QE2 Misadventure Costs U.S. Households $4.6 trillion (Nov. 10, 2010)
Main Street didn’t buy "the stock market is rising, so you must be richer" either, for the simple reason that Main Street’s wallet is now much thinner. Even as the S&P 500 has soared 80% from its March 2009 lows, 70% of Americans don’t believe the recession is over.
That must really hurt the apparatchiks in the Ministry of Propaganda and the Fed. Here they go to all this trouble to orchestrate a bogus stock market rally and Mainstream Media propaganda campaign hyping "the recovery," and Main Street America refused to buy it. How irksome.
It seems Main Street’s grasp on reality is firmer than that of either the Fed or its partner, Wall Street.
Let’s consider income.
The stock market rally off the March 2009 lows was by some measures the sharpest such advance in the past 100 years. Yet as stocks went on a tear,household income actually declined. According to the Census Bureau, the median household income fell 0.7% to $49,777 in 2009, down 4.2% since pre-recession 2007.
The Federal Reserve’s stated policy objective is to boost the stock market to trigger a "wealth effect" which will then lead consumers to open their wallets.
As noted here before, the Fed failed to notice that only the top 10% of households hold enough stocks to see much benefit from a rising market. Household income actually fell, despite the huge run-up in stocks.
In other words, a rising stock market did not increase household incomes. The Fed is gambling on an effect with no evidence to support it.
How about jobs?
While the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that…
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DiggCommercial Real Estate (CRE): The Slow-Mo Cliff-Dive Gathers Speed
by ilene - November 17th, 2010 4:02 pm
Commercial Real Estate (CRE): The Slow-Mo Cliff-Dive Gathers Speed
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Courtesy of Charles Hugh Smith, Of Two Minds
Commercial real estate is in a structural cliff-dive, currently in slow-motion but soon to gather momentum.
With all the hub-bub about the foreclosure crisis in residential real estate, commercial real estate (CRE) has fallen off the radar screen of crises. Don’t worry, it’s still careening off the cliff; the fall is just in slow motion.
No need for a fancy report to see the signs of decay in CRE. Signs of the ongoing CRE meltdown are everywhere--empty storefronts, mall shops and vacant office complexes abound.
The causes are all too familiar: lending standards went out the window, banks loaned too much, buyers paid too much, lousy deals were avidly securitized, cash flow projections entered Fantasyland and unhealthy speculation fed widespread fraud.
Since boom-and-bust cycles of overbuilding and retrenchment are endemic to commercial real estate, it’s tempting to view this as just another post-expansion trough. Since prices have already slipped a staggering 40% from the 2006 peak, those calling this the bottom of the current cycle have some history on their side.
But beneath what appears to be a standard-issue retrenchment--a glut of inventory to work through, lenders avoiding risk instead of embracing it, and so on--structural changes in the U.S. economy are changing the CRE landscape for good--and not in a positive direction.
A long-term structural decline in CRE is not just a real estate industry concern. With some $1.7 trillion in CRE loans needing to be refinanced in the next few years, a continuing decline in CRE values could push the still-fragile banking system into a new crisis and the economy back into recession as early as next year.
The extremes reached in the boom were certainly epic: investors paid $800,000 per resort hotel room and over $500 per square foot for Class A office space, numbers which no terrestrial cash flow could possibly justify. Retail centers sprouted alongside every new exurb subdivision.
By this logic, an unprecedented boom requires an equally unprecedented bust to work through the excesses in price, debt and risk. So far so good, but there is an anecdotal body of evidence which suggests that profound systemic changes are taking place in the U.S. economy which will structurally reduce the demand for commercial real estate--not for a few years, but permanently.
1. A significant portion of CRE…
Mr. Obama’s Most Recent “2%” Sellout is his Worst Yet
by ilene - November 15th, 2010 5:14 pm
Mr. Obama’s Most Recent “2%” Sellout is his Worst Yet
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Courtesy of Michael Hudson
Now that President Obama is almost celebrating his willingness to renew the tax cuts enacted under George Bush for the super-rich ten years ago, it is time for Democrats to ask themselves how strongly they are willing to oppose an administration that looks increasingly like Bush-Cheney III. Is this what they expected by his promise of an end to partisan politics?
It is a reflection of how one-sided today’s class war has become that Warren Buffet has quipped that “his” side is winning without a real fight being waged. No gauntlet has been thrown down over the trial balloon that the president and his advisor David Axelrod have sent up over the past two weeks to extend the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest 2% for “just” two more years. For all practical purposes the euphemism “two years” means forever – at least, long enough to let the super-rich siphon off enough more money to bankroll enough more Republicans to be elected to make the tax cuts permanent.
Mr. Obama seems to be campaigning for his own defeat! Thanks largely to the $13 trillion Wall Street bailout – while keeping the debt overhead in place for America’s “bottom 98%” – this happy 2% of the population now receives an estimated three quarters (~75%) of the returns to wealth (interest, dividends, rent and capital gains). this is nearly double what it received a generation ago – while the rest of the population has been squeezed, and foreclosure time has now arrived.
One would not realize that the financial End Time is here from today’s non-confrontational White House happy-talk. Charles Baudelaire quipped that the devil wins at the point where he manages convince the world that he doesn’t exist. We might paraphrase this today by saying that the financial elites win the class war at the point where voters believe it doesn’t exist – and believe that Mr. Obama is trying to help the middle class, not reduce it to debt peonage and a generation of victimhood as the economy settles into debt deflation.
The first pretense is that “two years” will get us through the current debt-induced depression. The Republican plan is to make more Congressional and Senate gains in 2012 as Mr. Obama’s former supporters “vote with their backsides” and…
WHALEN: HOW TO PREPARE FOR THE NEXT BANKING CRISIS
by ilene - November 13th, 2010 10:43 pm
WHALEN: HOW TO PREPARE FOR THE NEXT BANKING CRISIS
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Courtesy of The Pragmatic Capitalist
- Many on Wall Street believe that net interest margin or NIM among U.S. banks is at record levels. They are right, but not in the way that many investors and analysts expect.
- Unfortunately, measured in dollars, gross interest revenue of the banking industry has been cut by a third over the past three years due to the Fed’s zero interest rate policy. Banks, savers are literally dying from lack of yield on assets due to QE/ZIRP.
- In the post WWII period, Fed interest rate cuts resulted in significant reduction in average mortgage borrowing costs for households — until 2008, when mortgage rates implied by the bond market fell significantly but households were not able to refinance.
- Fees charged by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and a mortgage origination cartel led by the big four
banks (BAC, WFC, JPM, C), are now 4-5 points on new origination loans vs less than 1 point during housing boom. Huge subsidy for largest zombie banks effectively blocks refinancing by millions of households.- These fees, which can add up to 7 to 10% of the face value of the loan, raise mortgage rates to borrowers by hundreds of basis points. Banks and the housing GSEs, however, saw significant benefits in declines in funding costs thanks to low fed funds rates.
Opportunities:
- For banks and investors, one of the biggest opportunities for gain is to invest in the stronger regional banks that are acquiring troubled or failed institutions. Resolution results in losses, but also creates value for investors andsociety.
- Acquiring failed banks from
…
CORPORATE AMERICA REMAINS STRONG
by ilene - November 11th, 2010 8:50 pm
CORPORATE AMERICA REMAINS STRONG
Courtesy of The Pragmatic Capitalist
If there has been one undeniably bullish trend in the last 18 months it has been the strong
- 72% of companies have topped EPS estimates.
- 60% have topped revenue estimates
- Just 19% missed EPS estimates.
- Sales are up 9.8% year over year.
- EPS growth is 32% year over yar
Of course, the cost cuts have come at a cost as millions of Americans remain out of work. Thus far domestic revenues have not sustained a level that has resulted in a substantial pick-up in hiring. But corporations have made up for the less than stellar top line growth by boosting margins. Margins are currently approaching their 2007 peaks, but likely have some room for expansion. It will be interesting to see how QE2 and the impact of rising input costs influences this picture. At first blush, the impact does not appear to be widespread, however, we’ll have a better understanding of the Q4 earnings picture in the coming months when pre-announcements begin. For now, the margin story is intact. At risk, of course, is the labor force in the case that margins begin to turn. For now it looks like the combination of strong international sales and weak domestic sales will be enough to help labor markets slowly continue to heal. In a fluid and low visibility environment, however, this could change given the numerous exogenous risks.
(Figure 1)
The revenue story has been better than expected, however, is far from v-shaped. Revenues per share remain well off their all-time highs despite a strong rebound in bottom line growth. Quarter over quarter revenues per…
Alan Greenspan: The Banks Robbed You
by ilene - November 9th, 2010 8:07 pm
Alan Greenspan: The Banks Robbed You
Credit: Dan Lacey, Painter of Pancakes, via Jr. Deputy AccountantCourtesy of Karl Denninger at The Market Ticker
In a rather-stunning admission on Jekyll Island last weekend, Alan Greenspan "outed" what really happened.
What I’ve been talking about now for more than three and a half years.
And what many people have said was "an over-reaction" or "a distortion."
The claim has been repeatedly made that people made "mistakes" in our regulatory agencies, and that banks made "mistakes" making loans, packaging up securities and selling them to investors.
I have continually asserted that they were not mistakes.
They were scams and frauds.
This has been an unpopular viewpoint, with only a few – like Bill Black – agreeing with me.
Not any more…..
Is it time yet for America to force these banks into receivership?
To force prosecution for these frauds….. these crimes?
And to hold accountable the regulators…. including The Fed….. who intentionally ignored these frauds and crimes?
How many Americans have to lose their homes?
How many jobs have to go to China?
How much devaluation of our currency – undertaken to prop up these scams – will you tolerate?
How much higher does gasoline and food have to go in price, while your wages remain stagnant or you lose your job – and you’re evicted from your house - before you demand it stop and the scammers go to prison?
America’s Two Economies, and Why One is Recovering and the Other Isn’t.
by ilene - November 9th, 2010 5:02 pm
America’s Two Economies, and Why One is Recovering and the Other Isn’t.
Courtesy of Robert Reich
Next time you hear an economist or denizen of Wall Street talk about how the “American economy” is doing these days, watch your wallet.
There are two American economies. One is on the mend. The other is still coming apart.
The one that’s mending is America’s Big Money economy. It’s comprised of Wall Street traders, big investors, and top professionals and corporate executives.
The Big Money economy is doing well these days. That’s partly thanks to Ben Bernanke, whose Fed is keeping interest rates near zero by printing money as fast as it dare. It’s essentially free money to America’s Big Money economy.
Free money can almost always be put to uses that create more of it. Big corporations are buying back their shares of stock, thereby boosting corporate earnings. They’re merging and acquiring other companies.
And they’re going abroad in search of customers.
Thanks to fast-growing China, India, and Brazil, giant American corporations are racking up sales. They’re selling Asian and Latin American consumers everything from cars and cell phones to fancy Internet software and iPads. Forty percent of the S&P 500 biggest corporations are now doing more than 60 percent of their business abroad. And America’s biggest investors are also going abroad to get a nice return on their money.
So don’t worry about America’s Big Money economy. According to a Wall Street Journal survey released Thursday, overall compensation in financial services will rise 5 percent this year, and employees in some businesses like asset management will get increases of 15 percent.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average is back to where it was before the Lehman bankruptcy filing triggered the financial collapse. And profits at America’s largest corporations are heading upward.
But there’s another American economy, and it’s not on the mend. Call it the Average Worker economy.
Last Friday’s jobs report showed 159,000 new private-sector jobs in October. That’s better than previous months. But 125,000 net new jobs are needed just to keep up with the growth of the American labor force. So another way of expressing what happened to jobs in October is to say 24,000 were added over what we need just to stay even.
Yet the American economy has lost 15 million jobs since the start of the Great Recession. And if you add in the growth of…
How Ben Bernanke Sentenced The Poorest 20% Of The Population To A Cold, Hungry Winter
by ilene - November 7th, 2010 1:09 pm
How Ben Bernanke Sentenced The Poorest 20% Of The Population To A Cold, Hungry Winter
Courtesy of Tyler Durden
The following chart prepared recently by JPMorgan demonstrates something rather scary, and makes it all too clear how the Chairman’s plan to "assist" the US population via some imaginary "wealth effect" due to QE2, is about to backfire. As is now becoming all too clear, the prices of energy and food products are about to surge, and in many cases have already done so, but courtesy of some clever gimmicks (Wal Mart selling what was formerly 39 oz of coffee as a 33.9 oz product for example) the end consumers haven’t quite felt it yet. They will soon.
There is a limit to how much every commodity can open limit up before it appears on the SKU price at one’s local grocer. And while a marginally declining "core CPI" is irrelevant for this exercise as it measures only items that are completely outside of the scope of everyday life, what will be far more important to end consumers will be the push higher in food and energy costs. The problem, however, is that for the lowest 20% of Americans, as per the BLS, food and energy purchases represent over 50% of their after-tax income (a number which drops to 10% for the wealthiest twenty percentile). In other words should rampant liquidity end up pushing food and energy prices to double (something that is a distinct possibility currently), Ben Bernanke may have very well sentenced about 60 million Americans to a hungry and very cold winter, let alone having any resources to buy trinkets with the imaginary wealth effect which for over 80% of the US population will never come.
Here is how JPM explains the phenomenon:
When the Fed considers the possible consequences of a falling dollar resulting from QE2, it should perhaps focus on food and energy prices as much as on traditionally computed core inflation. First, the food/energy exposures of the lower 2 income quintiles are quite high (see chart). Second, the core CPI has a massive weight to “owner’s equivalent rent”, which suggests that the imputed cost of home occupancy has gone down. Unfortunately, this is not true for families living in homes that are underwater, and cannot move to take advantage of it (unless they choose to default and bear the consequences
…
ELECTION RESULTS: BIG WIN FOR THE GOP, POTENTIAL BIG LOSS FOR THE ECONOMY
by ilene - November 3rd, 2010 4:31 pm
ELECTION RESULTS: BIG WIN FOR THE GOP, POTENTIAL BIG LOSS FOR THE ECONOMY
Courtesy of The Pragmatic Capitalist
The country has spoken and they are not happy with the Obama economy. And rightfully so. It has been a remarkable disappointment thus far. President Obama’s biggest mistakes were often highlighted by me in real time:
- He should have chosen to bailout Main Street over Wall Street.
- He never should have appointed Geithner or Summers. They were merely attempts to rehash the Clinton economic team and unfortunately, due to his ignorance of the economic environment, President Obama had no idea that these men played a significant role in causing the crisis.
- He absolutely never should have reappointed Ben Bernanke. Mr. Bernanke has rehashed all of Alan Greenspan’s “flawed” policies and has chosen to focus on the banking sector at every twist and turn of this crisis.
- He should have saved his health care plan for term two and focused on helping Americans get the jobs they so badly needed.
- He should have dropped the hammer on Wall Street with harsh regulation. We have become a nation by the banks and for the banks and the de-regulation of the 90′s is largely to blame. We need to end the financialization of this country and get back to 3-6-3 banking as opposed to relying on our bankers to generate economic growth while also mis-allocating resources.
- He has had every opportunity to become the champion of Main Street. Instead, he appears no different than his many predecessors who have been slaves to bank lobbyists.
This election is largely a referendum on the Obama economy. Unfortunately, I am concerned that the change is not necessarily any better. Specifically, I am most concerned about a return to the ways that got us into this mess in the first place:
- I am concerned that we are moving back towards a belief that business is efficient and rational and therefore does not need to be regulated.
- I am concerned that gridlock will lead to severe budget constraints. Like it or not, we are in a balance sheet recession. And when you’re in a balance sheet recession someone must run a surplus or economic growth will decline. That is simply an accounting identity. With the private sector paying down
…
Paul Farrell On The One Thing Buffett, Gross, Grantham, Faber, And Stiglitz All Agree On: “Bernanke Plan A Disaster”
by ilene - November 2nd, 2010 2:50 pm
Paul Farrell On The One Thing Buffett, Gross, Grantham, Faber, And Stiglitz All Agree On: "Bernanke Plan A Disaster"
Courtesy of Zero Hedge
By now it is more than obvious except to a few economists (yes, we realize this is a NC-17 term) that QE2 will be an absolute and unmitigated disaster, which will likely kill the dollar, send risk assets vertical (at least as a knee jerk reaction), and result in a surge in inflation even as deflation on leveraged purchases continues to ravage Bernanke’s feudal fiefdom. So all the rational, and very much powerless, observers can do is sit back and be amused as the kleptogarchy with each passing day brings this country to final economic and social ruin. Oddly enough, as Paul Farrell highlights, the list of objectors has grown from just fringe blogs (which have been on Bernanke’s case for almost two years), to such names as Buffett, Gross, Grantham, Faber and Stiglitz. And that the opinion of all these respected (for the most part) investors is broadly ignored demonstrates just how unwavering is the iron grip on America’s by its economist overlords. Which brings us back to the amusement part. Here are Farrell’s always witty views on the object which very soon 99% of American society will demand be put into exile: the genocidal Ph.D. holders of the Marriner Eccles building.
From Paul Farrell’s latest: Sell bonds now, Fed’s QE2 is doomed to fail.
Warning, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke’s foolish gamble to stimulate the economy will backfire, triggering a new double-dip recession. Bernanke is “medding” too much in the economy, say Marc Faber, Bill Gross, Jeremy Grantham, Joseph Stiglitz and others.
The Fed is making the same kind of mistakes Japan made that resulted in its 20-year recession. The Washington Post says Larry Mayer, a former Fed governor, estimates that to work it would take QE2 bond purchases of “more than $5 trillion …10 times what analysts are expecting.”
Bernanke’s plan is designed to fail. And, unfortunately, that will make life far more dangerous for American investors, consumers, taxpayers and voters.
“I’m ultrabearish on everything, but I believe you’ll be better off owning shares than government bonds,” said Hong Kong economist Marc Faber at a recent forum in Seoul. He sees a repeat of dot-com-bubble insanity today. Faber publishes the Gloom, Boom & Doom Report.
And Warren Buffett agrees,
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Philip R. Davis is a founder Phil's Stock World, a stock and options trading site that teaches the art of options trading to newcomers and devises advanced strategies for expert traders...
Ilene is editor and affiliate program
coordinator for PSW. She manages the Favorites backup site
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