Global Economy Bursting?

[Randolph Kinney]

Europe receives FED QE cash from its banks operating in the U.S. The euro gains value over the dollar.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-02-02/how-feds-latest-qe-just-another-european-bailout-vehicle

 

[Randolph Kinney]

Japanese car makers drop battery electric-car development

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/02/04/us-autos-electric-hydrogen-idUSBRE91304Z20130204

Despite the promise of "green" transportation - and despite billions of dollars in investment, most recently by Nissan Motor Co - EVs continue to be plagued by many of the problems that eventually scuttled electrics in the 1910s and more recently in the 1990s. Those include high cost, short driving range and lack of charging stations.

The public's lack of appetite for battery-powered cars persuaded the Obama administration last week to back away from its aggressive goal to put 1 million electric cars on U.S. roads by 2015.

 

[Randolph Kinney]

Texas to California businesses: Move here!

http://money.cnn.com/2013/02/04/news/economy/texas-california-businesses/

Perry has launched a high-profile battle for California companies, running radio ads in California touting the Lone Star State's low taxes and favorable business climate. The ads will be heard in San Francisco, Sacramento, Los Angeles, San Diego and the Inland Empire area east of Los Angeles.

This is not the first time Texas has looked to raid California for businesses. The governor has made several scouting trips and has written letters to California companies in the past. And, according to the governor's office, nearly three dozen California companies have relocated or expanded in Texas during California Gov. Jerry Brown's term.

Texas isn't the only one knocking on California companies' doors. Several states have courted Golden State businesses in recent years, particularly during California's budget turmoil.

 

[Randolph Kinney]

Nearly Half of U.S. Families Teetering on Edge of Ruin

http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Artic...Families-Teetering-on-Edge-of-Ruin.aspx#page1

We're not just talking about people who living people the poverty line, either. Plenty of the middle class have joined the ranks of the "working poor," struggling right alongside families scraping by on food stamps and other forms of public assistance.

"The problem was fixed cost, the things that are difficult to 'cut back' on. Housing, health care, and education cost the average family 75 percent of their discretionary income in the 2000s. The comparable figure in 1973: 50 percent," Olen writes.

"And even as the cost of buying a house plunged in many areas of the country in the latter half of the 2000s (causing, needless to say, its own set of problems) the price of other necessary expenditures kept rising."

 

[Workbox]

Based on the many recent post from both this thread and general RE discussion. I am seeing a bubble again. I think we may have -/+2 years to go when the general public becomes hyper complaisant.

 

[Randolph Kinney]

Here is what you need to worry about; the government will buy nothing but U.S. Treasury paper, just like Social Security with your savings.

Retirement Savings Accounts Draw U.S. Consumer Bureau Attention

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-...ounts-draw-u-s-consumer-bureau-attention.html

The U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is weighing whether it should take on a role in helping Americans manage the $19.4 trillion they have put into retirement savings, a move that would be the agency’s first foray into consumer investments.

“That’s one of the things we’ve been exploring and are interested in in terms of whether and what authority we have,” bureau director Richard Cordray said in an interview. He didn’t provide additional details.

 

[EDWARD BERRY]

You Would Think That A Person, Having Lived In The Murder Capital Would Know This.

And He Has No Clue About The Rest Of The Nation.

 

[nm505]

Here is what you need to worry about; the government will buy nothing but U.S. Treasury paper, just like Social Security with your savings.

Retirement Savings Accounts Draw U.S. Consumer Bureau Attention

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-...ounts-draw-u-s-consumer-bureau-attention.html

The U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is weighing whether it should take on a role in helping Americans manage the $19.4 trillion they have put into retirement savings, a move that would be the agency’s first foray into consumer investments.

“That’s one of the things we’ve been exploring and are interested in in terms of whether and what authority we have,” bureau director Richard Cordray said in an interview. He didn’t provide additional details.

I hope they at least take a hard look at it. We have been pitched several "investment schemes" of late to "maximize our retirement yields" given interest rates are so low. The pitches came from local reputable banks. Most are overly complex. We rejected one and bit on another...may be a canard. While we are relatively sophisticated (having lost money in prior times and LEARNED something), it is still very difficult to sort out options. Guidelines or strong disclosure in plain English like they are attempting to do with mortgage docs would be very helpful.

 

[nm505]

Deficits will fall to less than $1 trillion in 2013, CBO reports

"For the first time in five years, the federal budget deficit will come in under $1 trillion in 2013, congressional budget analysts said Tuesday, with the gap between taxes and spending falling to $845 billion in the fiscal year that ends in September.

Attributed in large part to tax hikes adopted on Jan. 1 and deep automatic spending cuts set to hit next month, new projections from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office show the deficit continuing to plummet in 2014 and 2015, and falling to less than 3 percent of the overall economy for much of this decade."


http://www.washingtonpost.com/busin...964f76-6fbd-11e2-8b8d-e0b59a1b8e2a_story.html

 

[JSmith43]

CBO generally, maybe always, uses static analysis when considering revenue & spending. There are so many moving/unfolding parts in any model right now compared to other times because of the regulatory wild cards, which act as taxes, have been prolific. Also the Affordable Care Act to consider.

The most profitable, most job creating small businesses just got clobbered with a Sub S marginal tax hike. Numerically, it only falls on a few percent of small businesses, the few percent that happen to have been super stars of job creation, dwarfing the rest of the small business field. Let's see how their behavior changes, going forward. It's like mandating lead shoes to the best dancers, as a reward for their accomplishments to date