(08-23-2024, 11:33 AM)KTemplar Wrote: I am really afraid for our country. People need to vote in every election, starting with their towns/state.
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I worked with a younger guy who I had great respect for. He wanted to major in psychology, but due to the cost went for a trade in plumbing. He’s smart, kind and highly intelligent and would have made a great therapist. I don’t doubt he will be successful in whatever he does, but we are losing good talent. Even he told me he plans on moving to another country someday as he doesn’t feel it’s possible to progress here anymore.
This is the first election cycle since I have been old enough to vote that I do not plan on voting. The elections have been rigged since 2000. I've continued voting since then but after the shit-show last time, why even bother? Its totally obvious at this point that its all staged, the citizenry has no real voice, and will do whatever the world overlords have in store for us.
Local voting doesn't matter anymore either, IMHO. I've just watched the local races here and the politics and grandstanding seem to have trickled all the way down to the local level. We even had a Sheriff who demanded a $79M budget increase citing personnel shortages. Our local Council immediately questioned his request and when pressed for answers, he said it was representative of the future employment needs over the next 20 years as based on population projections, that he wasn't sure he would get the money later, so he wants it all now so he can get more Deputies on board. Of course, our City Council balked at this request, at which point the Sheriff went to the local paper and had them print a piece and statement from him saying we were trying to "defund the police." This notion is completely ridiculous. Our county is very well covered and very low crime, and is given increases by the Council yearly as needed. The Council voted against his request, but did grant him a pretty much standard budget increase for the coming year. He lost the election.
This just goes to show you, though, that this type of alarmist politics and lack of care for the actual needs of those being represented has now filtered all the way down to the local level. We've been having major problems with county run sewers and storm water runoff pretty much county-wide (have been neglected for decades) and not a single candidate at any level has offered any solutions to the problems. Its gotten so bad that in certain developments, those who have the means have been moving out and basically abandoning their houses. There is a class-action in the works right now where a several hundred residents are getting ready to sue the county. We're having some problems even where I am, but they are not as severe as what I have seen in some other parts of the county where it would appear that proper drainage systems were simply never installed. We have them here but they definitely lack maintenance. I've been eyeballing a few storm drains up the street that I may just go clear out with a shovel myself.
I'm on board with your friend who was talking about moving overseas. I've made a few trips overseas in the last year, and unlike all the Hollyweirdos who always claim to be bailing out if so-and-so is elected, I've actually been looking at properties to purchase. I've previously owned 2 businesses, last of which went under due to Covid shutdowns. I have been essentially unemployed since. It seems pointless to start another business here now as virtually every industry has one locked out by corporate monopolies, and if you can find something worthwhile to do, nobody actually has the money to buy or get anything done. And don't even get me started on the licensing and regulations and reporting and blah blah blah that you practically need a CPA to handle these days.
Over about the last 3 months I've been keeping an eye on a string of small businesses here that have failed. 5 or 6 of them and one of them in business for 35 years! Its getting bad because even the big-box home improvement retailers have been saying that they can't find installers anywhere. I'm also noticing the same pattern like before the '08 pop where construction has slowed or halted. There were plans here for Aldi to build a new grocery store that seem to have evaporated. There was a highway expansion going on that now seems to be halted and no, its not finished. Chik-fil-a was in the final stages of approval with the county to build a new site and that just came to a halt a week ago. Point being, if these megacorps aren't making money and have stopped investing then how they hell do they expect the little guy to innovate and make it in this economic climate?
(08-23-2024, 04:20 PM)Lynyrd Skynyrd Wrote: One interesting part of this story is that there was NO negative market reaction to the news that job numbers have been exaggerated for years. The opposite happened, stocks rose, supposedly at the prospect of a rate cut.
I wonder if the traders knew all along that the BLS was giving them "extra-good" job reports that would rally the market?
This really isn't all that unusual. I had a level-II console and used to day trade. The stock goes up because, and antithetical as it may seem, less hires means less payroll and tax costs and therefore more profits. There are several companies that exploit this pattern. One company that comes to mind is Cisco, who basically holds at least 1 big layoff a year, usually around the time the IRS tax year resets, and if that's not enough of a bump they'll do another one in December. The pattern is not unique. Take a look at some historical charts for other companies that have announced layoffs during an earnings call and they nearly always go up. Its all about the earnings per share. If the layoffs mean earnings per share go up above projections then investors will rally.
