[Jack Hydrazine]

Gregory Mannarino-Extreme Debt Will Cause a Global Meltdown and China’s Currency Devaluation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-eC7kFUrPc

China’s currency devaluation and recent problems are a huge flashing warning sign says financial writer and trader Gregory Mannarino. He contends, “China is in big trouble, and they are broadcasting to the world that they are in big trouble. They have taken over their stock market. They are not allowing certain trades to take place. They are not allowing shareholders to have more than a 5% stake in a company to sell it, and they are forcing brokerages to buy stock. That’s incredible. So, they are broadcasting that they are in a lot of trouble. This is a global problem, and it’s not just limited to Greece or Puerto Rico. This is a global problem and it is going to be a global meltdown, the likes of which people cannot even fathom.”

Read More: http://usawatchdog.com/debt-problem-will-swallow-the-earth-gregory-mannarino/

[fatnotlazy]

It's not just the economy. Malls have become unsafe. At least that's becoming the perception of potential customers. They hear of shootings, muggings and what not and they figure it's just safer to shop online.

[SunkenCiv]

While hunting through retail sector stocks, I found Big Lots looking better than most of the rest, which came as a surprise. Lately the big touting is for Amazon and how its first quarterly profit in years (or is it ever?) shows that its going to destroy Walmart. ;’)

[Vision Thing]

Nordstroms realeased great results for last quarter, but it’s looking like they are a rare exception.

[Lorianne]

I haven’t shopped in or bought anything in malls for years, except the occasional book but only because they moved the bookstores into malls. They have outside entrances so you don’t have to actually go into the mall to enter the bookstore, otherwise I would never go there. I have always found them creepy but they went far beyond that in recent years.

There is nothing there I really want or need and I’m not a ‘browser’ type shopper anyway.

[Truthsearcher]

This is more about retail collapsing in favor of online shopping. Retail is collapsing in most sectors and in many countries. Not just the US.

[Vaquero]

I’m a buyer, not a shopper. Never liked malls. Why should I pay for their exorbitant rent. I used to shop in stand alone stores and strip malls. Now I shop online....amazon, and specialty sites. Cheaper and way less aggravating. Even reloading components. When I do go to stores it’s clubs like Costco and home centers like Home Depot (I do frequent my local hardware store for small hardware etc and even some power tools as he takes care of me personally and fixes what he sells and I like to BS with the guys there)

[Mozilla]

They built too many between 1981 and 2000. Since 2000 several have closed. Some because the location got worse and others because there just wasn’t enough shoppers and some place else took away shoppers. Also a lot of stores in the malls either left or ended or were closed. So that hurt the concept. Malls got a bad wrap with the violence it brought as well.

[roadcat]

With real median household income at 1989 levels, real unemployment north of 15%, a massive level of under-employment, young people unable to buy a home – saddled with $1 trillion of student loan debt, middle aged parents struggling to take care of their aging parents and struggling children, and Boomers who never saved for their retirement, the mood of the country is decidedly dark and getting darker by the day.

Long sentence. I see a couple problems that I see as liberal symptoms.

young people unable to buy a home – saddled with $1 trillion of student loan debt

People who can't afford a student loan have only themselves to blame for being saddled with the debt. If you can't afford it, don't go to college. Stay out of debt.

Boomers who never saved for their retirement

Sadly, in most cases that is their own fault, not anyone else's fault. No one stays young forever, and the future will screw you if you don't prepare for getting old.

real unemployment north of 15%, a massive level of under-employment

In the old days people were happy to have any kind of work. That's just the way it was. Young people now lust for the fancy jobs that mostly didn't exist in old days. And a lot of them want to receive handouts and not have to work at just any job.

What remains of your sentence is:

With real median household income at 1989 levels, middle aged parents struggling to take care of their aging parents and struggling children, the mood of the country is decidedly dark and getting darker by the day.

Parents should take care of their aging seniors and help struggling children. Again, that's just the way it should be. However, it is a challenging financial burden that wasn't as severe in the past as it is now.

So what this comes down to, is that household income is shrinking relative to costs. This is the sole issue that is angering the public against a government that makes a bad situation worse in each additional year. Rebellion is justified.

[NonValueAdded]

Meanwhile Goodwill is building and opening stores like crazy. Hard to compete with a COGS near zero.

[GeronL]

Malls were going out of favor no matter how the economy was going.

[hosepipe]

The Economic Recovery Is Complete & Utter Fraud

---

Well DUH...

[Enlightened1]

July department store sales were the lowest in the history of the data series. Sales of $13.8 billion were 22% below the July 2007 level of $17.6 billion. They were 28% below the peak level of $19.2 billion in 1999. Real department store sales are 36.5% BELOW where they were in 2007, (and Wall Street shysters have had buy ratings on these stocks the whole way down.)

Macy’s:
--- Overall sales fell 2.6%, while comparable store sales fell by 2.1%, as Macy’s continues to close under-performing stores. News flash: there are many more stores to close.
--- Profits crashed by 25.7% as gross margins declined and expenses rose.
---- Cash flow from operations has declined by a staggering 46% in the first six months of this year.


Kohl’s
--- Overall sales were up a pathetic 0.6% after last year’s 2nd quarter sales were lower than 2013. Comp store sales were up only 0.1% after being down 1.3% the previous year.
---- Profits fell precipitously by a mere 44% versus the prior year, down by $102 million. Margins fell while expenses rose.
---- Cash from operations has crashed by 52% in the first six months.


Sears
--- They have generated a Negative cash flow from operations of $1.4 billion in the last twelve months. They have burned through $556 million of cash. They have $8.4 billion of long-term debt and other liabilities, with equity of NEGATIVE $1.2 billion.


J.C. Penney
--- They lost another $138 million and have racked up $305 million of losses so far this year.
---- They have lost money for 13 consecutive quarters. That is no easy feat.
---- They have managed to lose $3.6 billion in the last four and a half years, while driving their annual sales from $18 billion DOWN to $12 billion.

[Rapscallion]

Zero Hedge is correct. America is being lied to by the entire government. Time for a change.

[Alberta's Child]

This article raises a lot of good points, but the statistics cited here are highly misleading.

For one thing, there's no question that online retailing has poached a huge portion of the market share from these traditional retailers. And secondly, anyone involved in commercial real estate will tell you that there has been excess retail capacity in the U.S. for decades. If you measure the ratio of retail floor space in the U.S. to the U.S. population over time, you'll find that the number grew fairly steadily from the 1940s to the 1980s, then went through the roof in the 1980s and 1990s.

America simply doesn't need all the retailers -- and all the shopping malls -- we have right now.

[SamAdams76]

Just last night, I ordered the following things on Amazon.com:

Replacement blade for my lawn mower
Parts for my grill
Replacement tweezers for my Swiss Army Knife Cassette to MP3 converter
Book to read on my Kindle (instantly delivered)

Most of this stuff will be at my door on Tuesday.

In the past, I would go to Sears, Barnes & Noble and an electronics store for these things. I probably would have bought an entire new Swiss Army Knife rather than search around for replacement tweezers in stores.

I still see that the parking lots around malls look crowded but I hardly go into them anymore. Maybe I'll go to the Apple Store or the food court but that's about it. I have no idea how all those clothing stores stay in business. I would never buy clothes at a mall.

Almost everything can be bought on Amazon.com. When I placed my order last night, I tried to imagine the people at the warehouses scrambling to fill my order. I hear they run those guys pretty ragged. All those items are probably already packed and ready to ship this morning.

[Caipirabob]

Obama "economic recovery" BUMP!

[Resolute Conservative]

I have not been to a mall since the 80’s.

[Jim Noble]

We need nation composed of citizens, not one composed of “consumers”.

[Jim Noble]

We have failing malls in New Hampshire, and it’s clear that they are failing because of youths.

The funny thing is, most of the youths must be from other states, since the youth population in NH is tiny.