Click to enlarge.
This truly is a typical post-recession recovery! Note the lack of anything significant happening to the upside again.
I probably should have put quote marks around the word recovery to imply sarcasm.
If the overall downward trend in this chart is a good thing, then we clearly need more recessions. That's pretty much when the perma-drop (a drop with no recovery) happens.
More spending! Less pay! Long-term! Food-stamp utopia!
December 18, 2013
Most Americans Want Tougher Food-Stamp Requirements
National Journal poll finds two in three people think the biggest problems with the program are waste, fraud, and abuse.
Those are certainly the "biggest" problems with the food-stamp program, right behind rising income inequality, bubble growth, and the Lesser Depression of course. That said, one in seven people may strongly disagree with two in three people. Hard to say!
Whew! Got those sarcastic quote marks around the word that time! Yes!
Source Data:
St. Louis Fed: Custom Chart
Geez, I guess when PCE no longer requires wages we'll have reached someone's idea of nirvana.
ReplyDeleteObama is going to pay...
So why is this happening? Transfer payments? Increasing numbers of retirees, disabled, unemployed, I guess. I'm guessing this can't go on forever, but it does seem like a straight line fall-off since about 1970.
ReplyDeleteFred
TJandTheBear,
ReplyDeleteWon't have to worry about putting gas in her car or paying her mortgage? Priceless!
Fred,
ReplyDeleteSo why is this happening?
...it does seem like a straight line fall-off since about 1970.
The “Dollar” Crisis, and Us
Particularly after 1973, the U.S. succeeded in placing the rest of the world on a fiat dollar standard based on nothing but the financial credibility of the U.S. government. At the same time, the U.S. was dramatically de-industrializing, while pundits of the status quo hailed the proliferation of the “FIRE” (finance, insurance, real estate) economy as the coming of a new “service” “post-industrial” economy that would replace the old “smokestack” economy and the jobs lost through plant closings, restructuring, and down-sizing. (They did not then foresee the out-sourcing of such service jobs to such places as China and India.) Because the domestic U.S. economy depends less on international trade than that of most other major capitalist countries, scant attention was paid, outside the same marginal coterie of specialists, to the fact that already by the 1960’s the U.S. was dependent on the largesse of foreigners willing to recycle American balance-of-payment deficits back into U.S. government paper (e.g. Treasury bills) and capital markets (stocks, bonds) to permit this “service” economy to function. Foreign governments and private capitalists had to tolerate this situation because the alternative—the collapse of the huge American market for their exports—would have pulled them into the abyss as well.
We worked hard to put a man on the moon in 1969. Perhaps we're about done working hard!
There's still plenty of opportunity for the right rovers though.
December 17, 2013
When is my personal drone landing?
But I would think that within 10 to 15 years, we will see robust, multipurpose robots in the hands of consumers.
Robots will someday design robots that robots can build. These robots will then be delivered to your door by other robots.
Just think of the job creation! There's never been a better time to be a robot!
Gallows sarcasm.
Fred,
ReplyDeleteYes, transfer payments and leveraged credit is way up.
Mark, care to invert this and plot the other two?
SCHAFT
ReplyDeleteTJandTheBear,
ReplyDeleteMark, care to invert this and plot the other two?
By Your Command
And for those who want me to stick to a 1970s robot theme:
By Your Command (Alternate)
I just released some pent-up pun demand. Ah. Felt good. :)
I didn't follow the command all that well. Should have added leveraged credit too to be in full compliance. I think it's good enough for government work though, lol. ;)
ReplyDeleteCan we spell "correlation"?
ReplyDeleteTJandTheBear,
ReplyDeleteCan we spell "correlation"?
I'll go with the literal meaning instead of the rhetorical. So, in answer to your question:
Yes, but barely. Fortunately, I've typed correlation enough times on this blog that it is starting to really sink into my spelling vocabulary.
Two R's! One L!
Two R's! One L!
Two R's! One L!
Hopefully that helps sink it in even further, lol. :)