It's the economy, stupid.

[bannination]

Oh man, too bad we don't have ThisisGene here to witness this.

[neoplacebo]

Oh man, too bad we don't have ThisisGene here to witness this.

That's weird; the main owner of the company I work for is named Gene; I've not had a pay raise in six or seven years. Maybe I should have been a detective.

[neoplacebo]

Different one. Our BRN ThisisGene is a Social Studies teacher in the Gaston County schools, and his real name isn't Gene.

Well, that's a relief; Social Studies? hilarious.

[O Really]

Different one. Our BRN ThisisGene is a Social Studies teacher in the Gaston County schools, and his real name isn't Gene.

Well, that's a relief; Social Studies? hilarious.

Well, hilarious if it's not your kid in his class. The guy was a real loon.

[neoplacebo]

Different one. Our BRN ThisisGene is a Social Studies teacher in the Gaston County schools, and his real name isn't Gene.

Well, that's a relief; Social Studies? hilarious.

Well, hilarious if it's not your kid in his class. The guy was a real loon.

Gee, my condolences....it's shocking to know that someone here has personal experience with such an educational oxymoron. It's like having Thom Tillis for a neighbor I guess; maybe worse.

[O Really]

[
Gee, my condolences....it's shocking to know that someone here has personal experience with such an educational oxymoron. It's like having Thom Tillis for a neighbor I guess; maybe worse.

You may have read more into my post than I intended. It wasn't my kid. If it had been, I'd have moved her somewhere else, no matter the cost or inconvenience.

[indago]

Kevin Short wrote for HuffPo 15 October 2014:
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Sixty-eight percent of the top 100 retail companies in the U.S. — a group that includes, Walmart, Apple, McDonald's and J.C. Penney — say the country's stagnant wages pose a major threat to their bottom lines, according to a new report by the Center For American Progress, a left-leaning think tank. Researchers analyzed the most recent SEC 10-K filings of the largest 100 retailers in the country and found that more than two-thirds of these corporations issued warnings to investors that profits could be hampered by flat wages, high unemployment and low consumer spending. The trend is hammering companies that target high-income customers, like Whole Foods and Dillard's, and those that market to low-income shoppers, like Dollar General and T.J. Maxx, according to the report.

...DineEquity, which owns Applebee's and IHOP, identified falling wages as a key risk to its restaurants in its 2013 10-K filing.

“If our customers’ disposable income available for discretionary spending is reduced … our business could experience lower sales and customer traffic as potential customers choose lower-cost alternatives," the company wrote.

Even chains like Burger King acknowledge their sales are dampened by low wages.
---------------------------------------------------------------------

article

[bannination]

Kevin Short wrote for HuffPo 15 October 2014:
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Sixty-eight percent of the top 100 retail companies in the U.S. — a group that includes, Walmart, Apple, McDonald's and J.C. Penney — say the country's stagnant wages pose a major threat to their bottom lines, according to a new report by the Center For American Progress, a left-leaning think tank. Researchers analyzed the most recent SEC 10-K filings of the largest 100 retailers in the country and found that more than two-thirds of these corporations issued warnings to investors that profits could be hampered by flat wages, high unemployment and low consumer spending. The trend is hammering companies that target high-income customers, like Whole Foods and Dillard's, and those that market to low-income shoppers, like Dollar General and T.J. Maxx, according to the report.

...DineEquity, which owns Applebee's and IHOP, identified falling wages as a key risk to its restaurants in its 2013 10-K filing.

“If our customers’ disposable income available for discretionary spending is reduced … our business could experience lower sales and customer traffic as potential customers choose lower-cost alternatives," the company wrote.

Even chains like Burger King acknowledge their sales are dampened by low wages.
---------------------------------------------------------------------

article

That's what I call irony.

[rstrong]

What a different 15 years makes.

[Vrede too]

Interesting:

Worst recovery in postwar era largely explained by cuts in government spending

[Seth Milner]

Confusing thread. :-0?> Where's the initial post that led to the posting of this thread?

[Vrede too]

I probably started it as the now deleted "Vrede", but it could have been another poster that was stalked in real life who got her/his account deleted.

[Seth Milner]

Thanks.

[Vrede too]

4 things that were supposed to happen by 2017 because Obama was reelected

1. Gas was supposed to cost $6.60 (or more) per gallon. - Senator Mike Lee (R-UT), Newt Gingrich.

2. Unemployment was supposed to be stuck at over 8% - Mitt Romney.

3. The stock market was supposed to crash - Charles Bilderman, Donald Trump, Marc Faber, many others.

4. The entire U.S. economy was supposed to collapse - Rush Limbaugh.

[JTA]

I graduated college right when the recession hit. Was broke as shit, had zero assets, and had a small chunk of debt. During Obama's presidency my financial well being has improved dramatically.

Thanks Obama!

[billy.pilgrim]

Oh man, too bad we don't have ThisisGene here to witness this.

he was truly a dancing machine



https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=ge ... ORM=VRDGAR

[JTA]

Oh man, too bad we don't have ThisisGene here to witness this.

he was truly a dancing machine

My favorite part of this election is the uncovering of people's blatant hypocrisy and moral ambiguity when it comes to supporting their political team over their opponent's.

[Vrede too]

... We do know what did happen with the law and pols we had and a lot of it has been awful. Both have served corporate interests over human ones, which is the point of "free trade" as we know it.

President Trump’s alternative facts have foreigners and bureaucrats, not the top 1 percent, reaping the gains from economic growth

... This speech is clarifying in that he identifies foreigners and “a small group in our nation’s Capital [sic]” as the big winners. Totally absent from his speech is the “small group” that has actually done very well and whose gains genuinely crowded-out potential growth for the vast majority of American households: the top 1 percent.

It’s unclear what evidence Trump could be referring to when decrying that “small group in our nation’s Capital” as the winners in recent decades. Since the recovery from the Great Recession began, for example, federal spending has grown more slowly than in nearly every other post-war recovery.

There is similarly thin evidence that the losses of American low and middle-wage workers have been gains for workers abroad. Trump is not alone in this strange belief that increases in living standards and wages in developing countries around the world were only possible because American wages near-stagnated for typical workers in recent decades, but he is wrong nonetheless.

To be fair, a corrupt political system and globalization are some ingredients of a pretty good analysis of recent decades. But what’s missing—and this is key—is that these have been damaging because they have been used as tools by capital-owners and corporate managers to shift bargaining power and economic leverage away from typical American workers....

Crucially, in regard to trade, agreements like the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) did not make either politicians in DC or workers in Mexico and Canada rich. Instead, it made American, Mexican, and Canadian capital-owners and managers richer by strengthening their hand in bargaining with workers....

Telling a convincing story of the decline of American working and middle-classes without mentioning the astronomical growth of the top 1 percent is awfully hard. And substituting in vague foreigners and politicians for the top 1 percent as the beneficiaries of recent decades is definitely not convincing. But one gets the sense that Trump is not really trying to be convincing, instead he’s actively trying to hide the ball by channeling anger toward scapegoats and away from the real root of America’s economic woes.

[Vrede too]

'That doesn't just happen!': Trump continues to boast about the stock market

Dow Jones Industrial Average 1/20/16: 15,767.
Dow Jones Industrial Average 1/20/17: 19,827, a 26% increase in Obama’s last year.
Dow Jones Industrial Average today: 22,021, an 11% increase in Dolt .45’s first 6 months. Obama’s gains were better.
Plus, Dolt .45 hasn’t yet signed anything that affects the economy. Once he does, it will take 6 months to a year to have an affect.
In other words, THANKS OBAMA!

[Vrede too]

... between the Russia scandal, the collapse of DonTcare and Dolt .45's increasingly erratic behavior, I think the markets will get nervous and the Trump Crash may be coming soon. So, I've now reallocated away from stocks and into safer securities. Hopefully, there won't be some drastic change on Monday before my changes go through. I did not go all the way, though. We'll see if I'm too optimistic or pessimistic. Today's DJA is 21,830 and the Nasdaq is 6,375.

Too soon to make any judgements, but I wanted to add the S&P 500 INDEX to the monitoring. On July 29 it was at 2,472. I don't know which if any of these my 403B is more closely tied to.

Aug. 9:
DJA - 22,085
Nasdaq - 6,370
S&P 500 - 2,475

Trump and his GOP allies could roil markets this fall

Since July 29, 2017:

DJA - 21,830 > 21,833
Nasdaq - 6,375 > 6,270
S&P 500 - 2,472 > 2,444

http://money.cnn.com/data/markets/