Sunday, May 26, 2013

Does Anyone, Tell It, Like It Is?...L&C

Does anyone know the 1965 song, Tell It Like It Is, sung in the lamenting R&Bs style by Aaron Neville? It should come back in play because today, everyone practices first their escape from the truth with publicist, think tanks, private questionnaires, et al. There is only sound bytes and spins of the truth. The best society can hope for is a 60 Minutes revelation sometime in the future or some insights by blogs like mine.
Lois Lerner
gets a bold type here, but is it because she was the whistle-blower which started the IRS scandal into tax exempt status as the head of that arm within the agency or because once she started it, she refused to answer questions about it, claiming her fifth amendment rights? Going further, is it because she is on extended paid leave of absence at the taxpayers expense? We get headlines, but no truth or substance.
Anthony Weiner...Cruz vs. McCain?
all attention getting names, but for what? Weiner wants to be mayor of New York and Cruz is fighting his fellow republican over a budget deal because he doesn't want a debt ceiling amount included. Yeah, really important stuff. Did the media ever get deeper into the bridge collapse in the state of Washington? Of course, not! According to the Society of Civil Engineers, the US needs $3.6tillion for infrastructure. It gets worse. Of the 607,380 bridges in the US, one in nine is structurally deficient and the average age is 42 years, but then, we need money for drones, ships, any military escapade imaginable. Do you know what this means? Taxes. Since the Republicans oppose taxes, there will be some type of deal, probably gas taxes which the federal government has not raised since 1993. Both parties will spin with the shale bonanza resulting in lower gasoline costs which by the way are actually two cents higher than this time last Memorial Day, but who knows or remembers that? I do.
Housing
sales rose along with prices, but Dr.Copper is telling a different diagnosis. In fact Goldman Sachs is getting out of their long-term contracts in the commodity due to new Chinese rules against financing changes addressing it as an asset and this should cause a surplus. Now, they see lower prices. Don't forget I told you about mandatory PMI on all mortgages if the buyer does not have 20% down payment.
Business Spending
is down 21% according to a Bloomberg report. This adds one more lie to the rising stock market which keeps rising according to the media because of higher earnings. Is it higher real earnings or Pro-Forma gimmick? Is it because the company bought back its stock to hide the fact that earnings are lower? Did you notice how many companies claimed higher earnings, but with lower revenues? Too many to list here, but S&P 500 projected earnings growth is only 1.6% according to a Mutual Bond find. Did you know that company insiders sold $350million just last month? Why? If prices are going higher, why, I ask again?
Default
If I asked you to name the country with the highest possibility to default, who would you name? Greece? No, but a good guess. Argentina has a 84% risk. In fact they are serial defaulters with the most recent being in 1989, 2001 and again in 2005. This time it is over previous bonds that they defaulted upon and people want their money. The judge hearing the case said, "Argentina is contumacious." I looked it up. It means obstinate to authority. Not good, however the ramifications do not end in that court room. In Europe many financially troubled nations are looking at this case and thinking, maybe we should default too? Not good.
Banking
and the lending of money is at a 60 year low. This is M2 money and it is just sitting in banks. There is no velocity of money and this is not good.
Outsourcing
continues under President Obama even though he campaigned against this loss of jobs in the economy. According to labor advocate, Robert E. Scott the US lost 400,000 jobs just to China from 2008 to 2010. In fact the US only added .1% of new jobs in exports while China has added 1.5% during the same period due to exports. The Obama administration continually seeks to rewrite the rules to allow US corporations to avoid paying taxes on income generated overseas and this too, he campaigned against. Not good.
Finally
Did I hear someone say, Yea!? Wiseguy
60% of all the stimulus money put into alternative energy forms helps foreign companies. That's right! Many of the most expensive and important components are made elsewhere like wind turbines, and this is from a study by the Department of Energy.
Liars and Crooks:with the terrible news of the killing tornadoes in Oklahoma, we must look into how terrible our insurance companies deal with their customers. I know people who suffered from Hurricane Sandy and for example, they receive only partial refunds for total losses. A new heater/ boiler cost over $8K and these crooks only write checks for $3750. Get out of town!