After several consecutive months of job gains near or above 200,000, the streak came to an abrupt halt with the December jobs report – reminding everyone how fragile our economy still is.
Today I’m going to show you three charts Obama hoped you’d never see.
Brace yourself.
You’re about to get a very different view of the “recovery” picture that the administration keeps painting for us.
This one, for starters, is accurate.
It also explains why incoming Fed Chair Janet Yellen can’t cut stimulus, which is one of the reasons you have an opportunity to make some money here… especially if you follow my “mid-December plan.” More on that in a minute.
Let’s start with the charts…
Since the mid-1990s, China and a host of other foreign governments have quietly acquired one-third of all United States public debt. Foreign holders of United States debt held more than $5.6 trillion in Treasury securities as of August 2013.
But continued debt-ceiling drama in the United States is starting to change that.
Senate leaders finally hammered out a debt ceiling deal today (Wednesday) that avoided a looming potential debt default. It also reopened the government that has been shut down for more than two weeks.
Yesterday (Monday), Money Morning Chief Investment Strategist Keith Fitz-Gerald appeared on FOX Business’ “Varney & Co.”to make projections about what a stalemate on the debt ceiling will do to the market.
The biggest, and most ignored, trend in the U.S. economy is the ongoing divide between the wealthiest members of society and the average American worker.
Real wages are falling, while unemployment is stagnant. Politicians blame greed, but that’s because class warfare is a valuable tool to gain power.
I argue instead that disruptive technologies have accelerated this divide.
You won’thear any talk about a Recession 2013 from the president, or from whoever happens to be the next Fed Head, or from anyone of either party in Congress. You won’t hear about it on the news, either.
Listen to them and you’ll hear that the economy’s turning a corner. “Growth has returned… unemployment is falling… the markets are at all-time highs… things are looking up all over.”
What a relief, right?
The Fed’s QE (quantitative easing) program has created multiple trillions of dollars since it first started in 2008.
But now there are signs the QE policy will finally come to a close.
This is a syndicated repost published with the permission of Money Morning. To view original, click here. Opinions herein are not those of the Wall Street…
A good doctor will not simply make a diagnosis based on measurements. The symptoms and complaints expressed by the patient are at least as important in making a determination as the data provided by diagnostic tools.
When the data says one thing and the symptoms continuously say another, it makes sense to question the reliability of the instruments.
This would be particularly true if the instruments are furnished by a party with a stake in a favorable diagnosis, say an insurance company on the hook for treatment costs.
