Posted on 05/12/2010 10:15:19 AM PDT by Zeddicus
First, just in case you were wondering, today's melt up episode #xyz is being orchestrated by the HFTs on no volume as per the norm. There is no volume period. The volume only appears when the Dow is down 1000 points. At that point everyone tries to front run everyone else as we saw last Thursday. It happened then, it will happen again. In the meantime nothing will change, except the launching station for the 30% drop straight down will be marginally higher (one would hope).
And as for the fundamentals justifying the market going right back up to 2010 highs: here you go - "Agriculture Department said 39.68 million people, or 1 in 8 Americans, were enrolled for food stamps during February, an increase of 260,000 from January. USDA updated its figures on Wednesday."
From Reuters:
Nearly 40 million Americans received food stamps -- the latest in an ever-higher string of record enrollment that dates from December 2008 and the U.S. recession, according to a government update.
(Excerpt) Read more at zerohedge.com ...
Yup, espcially when they are given cards that resemble Debit/credit cards to avoid “stigma.”
Bread and Circuses! OK, we have the bread...where are the coliseums?
Well...I’m not sure they ADVERTISED food stamps as much during the DEPRESSION.
You can get UFC on cable.
Sitting right in everyone's living room.
indeed.
Go work for your damn food stamps!!
On to something there. Ramp up soup lines and eliminate food stamps, and only the truly needy will show up.
1 in 8? That’s 12.5%.
9.9% Unemployment? Yeah right!
Food stamps are today’s modern equivalent of the soup kitchen lines of the Great Depression. It’s just easier to hide the economic reality when people are lined up in Walmart or the grocery store, instead of out on the street in a soup line.
Ditto. Sadly this is all on borrowed money versus charitable giving during the past. This is all going to end badly.
I have been posing this question, “Where are the soup lines?”
Just had my, “Well DUH moment”
“where are the coliseums?”
“Sitting right in everyone’s living room.”
Second Well DUH moment for me! (See post 12)
No volume-
so who is buying what and driving the DOW numbers back up?
There isn’t even any good news that I can see ....
you should see the cars these people with food stamps get into when leaving wal mart... getting paid under the table must be nice.
UFC Pay-Per-View maybe ?
It really slaps you in the face, doesn’t it?
Excatly. There are far more safety nets today. That is why I stongly disagree that a modern Depression will come with a Mad Max style societal break down. Those who say that rightly point out that we are not as self-suffiecient today.
But the reason a depression will not have a societal breakdown, is those who still are working will simply foot more and more of the assistance for those who are not. The workers will be a bit worse off than they were during the Great Depression, while the long term unemployed will be much better off. They will have continual assistance all through. No longer will unemployed people wander the streets asking “hey buddy, can you spare a dime” or freezing to death on park bencnes. Modern society/socialism won’t allow it.
Remember, unemployment was 25% in the great depression, so that leaves 3 in 4 workers still worked through the duration. As such, things like food stamps, rental vouchers, gas assistance whathaveyou, will still be provided to the long-term unemployed from the taxes of those stil fortunate enough to be working.
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