There is no incentive for U.S. companies to make "real stuff", making no-real stuff is much more profitable. One example is that profit in financial industries is 4 times of that of other industries. GE supposedly makes real stuff, but its financial branch supplement the rest to stay afloat. There is no simple and easy fix.
Unemployment ....Going To 35%....
- Thread starter libertad
- Start date
There is no incentive for U.S. companies to make "real stuff", making no-real stuff is much more profitable. One example is that profit in financial industries is 4 times of that of other industries. GE supposedly makes real stuff, but its financial branch supplement the rest to stay afloat. There is no simple and easy fix.
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...................................................................
Just to beat a DEAD horse .....
Here it is...........
15% C tax only....no other taxes
10% State....5% Fed.... by state mandate
No more lobbyists
No more two party nonsense
Remove legal largesse (US is a legal cesspool)
What % of every price ? 20..50%
Refurbish/enhance the securities exchange....with relevent regulations....
Internet.....becomes educations' centerpiece....
Medical costs should reflect medical relevent costs only....
Same procedures in almost any other country is a fraction of US costs....
The list gets longer.....and longer....
Now.....manufacturing can take hold....
US will not recover without being able to undercut BRIC....
Lawyers are no different than us traders.
A case is an investment. They invest time and money, they lose a lot and win a lot and in the end, money is merely redistributed.
In theory, we provide "price discovery and liquidity."
In theory, defense lawyers protect capital, and plaintiff's lawyers protect consumers/rights. (I'm speaking of litigators here, not transactional attorneys)
Trial Lawyers exist but for the insurance companies' largesse. But as the balance sheets of Insurance companies tank - corp bonds, commercial real estate, securities, etc... you'll see fewer lawyers. Lawyers are only as successful as are the insurance companies' pockets are deep.
Anyway, that industry is experiencing some major bloodshed. Don't get me wrong, there are a lot of wealthy lawyers... but most of the new ones are screwed. Layoffs among the big firms are rampant. Transactional lawyers outside of bankruptcy are feeling the most pain.
Recently an attorney in Philadelphia won a 12 million dollar settlement (or verdict, not sure). His client lost his legs in an accident. Although I will say that is horrific... but 12 million? One way or the other, we all pay those settlements.
Would you really agree to have your legs removed for 12 million dollars?
That's a raw deal.
We're probably at 20% UE right now, and I can see 35% by Dec. or Jan.
Merry Xmas and Happy New Years.
Merry Xmas and Happy New Years.
libertad: You might try & have a look at a real, truly world-class urban economy some time. The kind that exists in and around NYC, LA, Chicago, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Dallas, Seattle, San Francisco, and probably other places I'm forgetting.
First of all, not many nations can boast that many cities with large, diverse economies pumping out myriads of products. Seattle is the latest example: in and around that town are Boeing, Microsoft, Amazon, and Starbucks, to name only the instantly recognizable ones.
Behind these are a myriad of smaller companies that supply them with all kinds of services and goods: sugar, creamer, swizzle sticks, cups, plastic caps, coffee machines, air conditioning, cash registers, stools, lighting, and so on for Starbucks; software, merchandise, shipping, payment services for Amazon; parts of every type imaginable for Boeing; server hardware, DVD's, advertising for Microsoft.
Note the overlap: Microsoft isn't the only one who needs advertising; all of them need air conditioning and lighting for their offices and factories and warehouses; payment services and shipping are essentials for Microsoft as much as for Amazon.
In any complex urban economy, the majority of businesses cater only to other businesses, not to the end-consumer. CIT, which has been much in the news, is a prominent example. They exist in the background, and provide the infrastructure on which everything else is based.
A developed economy, or more accurately, collection of developed urban economies, like the US, has this in multiple, redundant layers. China is getting this now, but is still at a stage where it needs external demand to continue to provide the fuel for its growth, as those multiple layers are still not all in place yet.
For us, our growth can come entirely from within, from the cost savings and competitive advantages that can be produced almost like magic by these multiple layers of business-to-business enterprises. Think what FedEx did for small businesses all over the country, for example.
That's what we have over China, and really over most of the rest of the world, because no other country has the large number of complex urban economies that we have.
The sheer competition provided by all the enterprises we have keeps both inflation and unemployment in check in all but the most extreme circumstances, something no economist would say, because they don't live in the real world, where people fight every day to make a living. If you need to cut the price by a bit to get some business, you'll do it. If you need to hire someone to keep some big customer happy, you'll do that too, because in both cases you really won't feel like you have a choice.
Which is why all of my life I've been reading about how stagflation is going to destroy us, but it only ever came close to doing real damage once, and that was nearly thirty years ago by now.
You can, and very likely will, go broke betting on that happening again at any time in the reasonably foreseeable future.
First of all, not many nations can boast that many cities with large, diverse economies pumping out myriads of products. Seattle is the latest example: in and around that town are Boeing, Microsoft, Amazon, and Starbucks, to name only the instantly recognizable ones.
Behind these are a myriad of smaller companies that supply them with all kinds of services and goods: sugar, creamer, swizzle sticks, cups, plastic caps, coffee machines, air conditioning, cash registers, stools, lighting, and so on for Starbucks; software, merchandise, shipping, payment services for Amazon; parts of every type imaginable for Boeing; server hardware, DVD's, advertising for Microsoft.
Note the overlap: Microsoft isn't the only one who needs advertising; all of them need air conditioning and lighting for their offices and factories and warehouses; payment services and shipping are essentials for Microsoft as much as for Amazon.
In any complex urban economy, the majority of businesses cater only to other businesses, not to the end-consumer. CIT, which has been much in the news, is a prominent example. They exist in the background, and provide the infrastructure on which everything else is based.
A developed economy, or more accurately, collection of developed urban economies, like the US, has this in multiple, redundant layers. China is getting this now, but is still at a stage where it needs external demand to continue to provide the fuel for its growth, as those multiple layers are still not all in place yet.
For us, our growth can come entirely from within, from the cost savings and competitive advantages that can be produced almost like magic by these multiple layers of business-to-business enterprises. Think what FedEx did for small businesses all over the country, for example.
That's what we have over China, and really over most of the rest of the world, because no other country has the large number of complex urban economies that we have.
The sheer competition provided by all the enterprises we have keeps both inflation and unemployment in check in all but the most extreme circumstances, something no economist would say, because they don't live in the real world, where people fight every day to make a living. If you need to cut the price by a bit to get some business, you'll do it. If you need to hire someone to keep some big customer happy, you'll do that too, because in both cases you really won't feel like you have a choice.
Which is why all of my life I've been reading about how stagflation is going to destroy us, but it only ever came close to doing real damage once, and that was nearly thirty years ago by now.
You can, and very likely will, go broke betting on that happening again at any time in the reasonably foreseeable future.
Hell no. Though I have asked others and some would do it for less! They argue that high end prosthetics nowadays are the reason they would.
But seriously... How much should that guy have gotten? 30 million? 5 million? 100 million? What's reasonable?
And where does that money ultimately come from?
We all pay.