Posted on 09/07/2014 12:50:08 PM PDT by expat_panama
Posted today and explains the Fed Reserves POV, well makes an excuse. It is a very interesting post. The Fed Reserve comes out with a report every three years and guess what they found out?
The median value of financial assets for families has fallen sharply since the turn of the century.
LOL, I was thinking 1900 not 2000. That first dip is the dot.com bust. I have friends who lost 95% of their wealth. They had to go back to work!!! Then 9/11 came, then 9/2008 and finally 11/2008. You have to admit the US is doing OK considering all the hits we took.
The “rich” get richer but they are the ones who invest. And the ones who don’t, don’t participate...
All of this is exacerbated by a federal government that is doing its best to choke off all avenues of growth.
IMHO the economy is as “good” as it is (~2%) thanks to: accomodative Fed policy, the shale revolution, and productivity due to right sizing post Lehman.
Everyone says that and as far as I can tell the main reference source cited is that well, everyone says that! OK, so real incomes are up on average by $737 annually, but real average American net worth is down $4,441 each. Those total average numbers are clear and based on areas of study (bank audits, GDP, etc.) that the working-for-a-living crowd has been able to work with for decades.
A problem I got w/ this income-inequality line is that very few of the advocates have hard numbers that 'splain what they mean--and what little they do got are from census.gov where not only is the methodology specious but the results are so twisted/perverted that they don't even agree w/ the Fed, the BLS, or the BEA.
It is still “forecasting.”
Back when I toiled for wages, one of my duties besides selling was to estimate costs for the machinery fabrication we produced. We were in our Monday Morning Meeting (MMM) when one of the bosses blurted out. “Cut the bullshit Abbott!! Exactly how much will it cost us to build it?”
My reply: “I don’t know. If I KNEW, it would be called “knowing” instead of “estimating. And if I knew, I would be working for myself and getting rich.”
LOL! My first CEO told me, “the one thing I know is that your forecast is wrong. Every forecast is wrong. Let’s just work to minimize the error.” 20 years later I still live by that. Best advice I have ever gotten on forecasting/planning.
For decades the census.gov has worked with income distribution and their results supported the same old leftwing rich>richer+poor>poorer line --but the results were based on data that contradicted themselves as well as those of other agencies. In the mean time all I can say is it's just like global warming; the burden of proof is on the advocate and so far he's failed to present a credible case.
Happy Friday everyone! Stock indexes have been up in mixed volume another day and futures see more mixed trade. Metals continue yesterdays slump into this morning. Big Friday document dump--
Retail Sales
Retail Sales ex-auto
Export Prices ex-ag.
Import Prices ex-oil
Mich Sentiment
Business Inventories
-- elsewhere...
Sometimes it's like the used car salesman's "it's in great condition considering the shape it's in".--but I know what you mean and you're absolutely right. Doesn't pay to underestimate America's power, those that have came to regret it.
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