11/24/09 London, England – Claptrap! Nonsense! Balderdash!
Everywhere we look, someone is saying something ridiculous.
Which is good news to us. This Daily Reckoning was getting to be serious work…what with the world facing a total financial meltdown and all.
So, we’re pleased to be able to lighten up by, once again, telling you what an idiot Tom Friedman is. You already knew that? Well, it doesn’t hurt to repeat it…
We hadn’t seen much of the old Tom recently. His recent editorials in The New York Times were no smarter than before, but a bit subdued…as if some chemical trace of good sense had slipped into his system, perhaps from a paper cut. But now, he’s back, big as life and twice as stupid.
We’ll come back to Tom in a moment, but since this is a financial service, we should probably begin with the financial news.
The Financial Times is looking over its shoulder. The recession is over, it says; time to take stock of the damage.
“Beyond the Crisis… With most of the world’s economies officially out of recession, the FT launches a series examining the legacy of worst global economic crisis since the 1930s,” says the FT. But according to the figures below the headline, the crisis wasn’t so bad. The US economy walked backward only 3.5%. Now, it’s making progress again.
The FT editors should keep their eyes on the road. The ‘recession’ did more damage than they think. And it isn’t over… There’s more trouble ahead.
The ‘recession’ in the US has wiped out…
…ten years of stock market progress. Actually, stock prices are no higher than they were in 1998…
…ten years of employment progress. You have to go back to the ’90s to find a time when so few people were working in America…
…ten years of income gains. The typical household had less real, disposable income than it had 10 years ago.
In other words, a whole decade has been lost. Baby boomers are now ten years older, and less prepared for retirement than any previous generation in US history.
In Florida, joblessness has reached 11.2% – officially. Unofficially, nearly one out of 10 people is either unemployed, or underemployed. The jobless picture gets even grimmer when you consider the effect of long-term unemployment on the unemployed.
“It’s a killer disease,” says Thomas Cottle of Boston University. “People are going to be damaged and may not recover in their lifetimes.”
The FT elaborates: “The longer people are out of work the more their skills decline and the less appealing they become to employers.”
That puts the boomers in a bad spot. If they lose their jobs now they may never work again. Which means, they will face retirement with very little money…and a keen interest in making sure the feds keep the money flowing their way. They may not recover in their lifetimes…
Housing starts are at a 10-month low. Mortgage applications are at a 12-year low. As far as we can tell, both housing and employment figures are getting worse.
In short, the ‘recession’ is far from over, even if the feds are able to jive up the GDP figures from time to time.
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What happened to Tom Friedman?
My name is xyzthree, and I am a Bill Bonner Essay addict. I don’t kow why except that his essays are so entertaining. Half the time I don’t even agree with everything he says.
I first became aware of this affliction when I checked the Daily Reckoning and saw that there was no Bonner Essay that day. I caught myself wandering aimlessly around the house, occasionally breaking out in a light sweat, scolding myself for my lack of self discipline and moral weakness. Gradually it became worse as I started saving old essays and going over them whenever the urge became too great. When I started hiding them around the house in places where my wife and kids couldn’t find them and discover my utter degradation, I knew I had to seek professional help. Thank goodness I found a wonderful psychiatrist who understood what I was going through. He recommended me to a fantastic support group called Essay Addicts Annonamous and today life is once again worth living. I can even read essays from time to time and hardly even think about them. Still, one can never actually say he is really curred. It is just one day at a time, but still I find myself stronger every day and life is once again hopeful and bright. There is only one thing I can say to Mr. Bonner. I completely forgive you for being such an interesting writer, but please, stop trying to sound like Ayn Rand. I just can’t stand it!
Bonner really has it in for Tom Friedman, as he is a “world improver”…read Empire of Debt…
I think I need that counselling Fred was talking about…I miss Mogambo’s essays a lot…I have to part company with you on the A. Rand thing, as I think she was one smart cookie and this crisis is unfolding like the last 100 pages of Atlas Shrugged
I agree and disagree with Bill Bonner. He is right about the Boomer generation falling behind. But it started 30 years ago not 10. I agree that government can’t manage the economy back to recovery. But I disagree that unfetter capitialism is the solution.
In the end, I think Thomas Maltus theories on poverty and decline of living conditons due to over-population and ecological degradation will prove correct. We are on the back nine, the dawn of the great unravelling. Fasten your seatbelts folks, we are for a bumpy ride.
you people I swear
Tommy Friedman has feelings.