As of this writing at 2 PM EST, the Dow has dropped 420 points (pot heads can laugh at the irony of that number). This means that something I said would happen six month ago, that the Dow had a 90% chance of a 10% correction, has come true as they passed that milestone today. There is still a 70% chance of a 30% drop in the coming weeks and a 30% chance of an all out collapse of the monetary system. Those are not good odds. My father laughed at me when I told him to look out come October. He's not laughing anymore as his portfolio is taking a big hit, along with anyone else in the market, which dropped to just over half of the country owning stock and down around 20% since 2007.
The sad fact is that the Euro is barely hanging on as all the steps necessary to stem the tide was never done. Instead, they relied on more trickle down economics, which was never going work as it never has. I am still waiting for anyone out there who can name me an economy where this economic philosophy has worked ever in human history? Good luck, because it doesn't exist. Yet voters in this country are still convinced it does due to herd mentality and Fox news.
We are a global economy. China is fading fast due to an unsustainable housing boom that is going bust stat. Japan has never recovered from their economic bust way back in 1990 and their current policies are making things worse. All of the EU countries are in recession, with only the dreaded socialistic ones (non EU as well) like Sweden and Denmark are unhurt so far, because they know how to run a government.
Here at home, retail sales for September sucked and sucked hard. Auto sales have collapsed along with our fading home sales, and both are jumping up in repos. Auto repos are up 70% from this time last year, another fact regular readers will see I said would happen six months ago as well. Housing foreclosures have jumped dramatically as well in NJ and NY, rising 20% over the last year. A sure sign of a global slowdown is the plummeting prices of oil which is great for the consumer but a sure fire bell curve as to how bad things are going as well. In the past two days alone, crude dropped almost seven dollars. God knows has it's doing today, but badly is a great bet. Here's how the numbers look:
When even Amazon shows people pulling back, you know things are going South as bad weather cannot be a factor for that, a reason they love to throw at us with no evidence whatsoever.
We have been so worried about inflation, which is far higher than they are telling us, deflation may be in the cards where prices, like oil fall, demand ends, as no one has any money, and unemployment rises as layoffs occur. This is what happened in 2008 and it looks like we may be headed for a repeat performance.
Here is what some in Europe are looking at for prices:
Does anyone seriously think that this won't affect US markets? The so called "experts" from the last few months certainly didn't.
None of this bad news however can hold a candle to a rising Ebola crisis that our President seems oblivious to. A second case of Ebola has been confirmed, Amber Joy Vinson, who was also a nurse at the same hospital treating the now deceased Liberian man. In what can only be described as a "HOLY CRAP ARE YOU PEOPLE STUPID OR WHAT?" moment, turns out the Vinson decided now would be a great time to visit relatives in Ohio and was on a plane less than 24 hours before she became symptomatic. WTF? Are you trying to end the world? Why aren't all of these people quarantined for the next three weeks, let alone denied air travel? The CDC says she broke protocol by flying, which is just like Dr. Nancy Snyderman who recently broke a voluntary quarantine to go get take out, resulting in armed guards now watching her. This proves that self -regulation doesn't work any better with people than it does with corporations. Until we start treating this like a serious problem, this could spread a lot faster than the CDC is telling you.
It's also doesn't help that there may be two more cases in Texas, not related to the hospital. One is the boyfriend of the first nurse infected, who is being looked at right now and may or may not be symptomatic and a person who lives in the same apartment complex as Patient zero. Neither of these are confirmed, but as the CDC doesn't want to start a panic, they wouldn't be telling us anything until bodies start to pile up, so who knows what is the truth and what isn't anymore.
As a result of utter moron Amber Joy Vinson, hundred of people on her flight are now Ebola risks, not to mention the airport itself and anyone else who traveled on that plane. The plane made five more trips before being retired for extensive cleaning, and while the risk is low for anyone traveling on those flights, it is not zero either. Studies have shown how Ebola can survive on surfaces up to six days in certain, limited circumstances. I don't want to be the test subject for that experiment.
Also not helping comes word that the safety suits worn by nurses in Texas Presbyterian had exposed surfaces that they were told to tape over, which doesn't really work. This is the state of our health care when the people who are supposed to know what they doing, are in reality, spastic three year olds with no knowledge over how things work.
Now to be fair, all sides are to blame for this. Republicans have cut the budget for the CDC for years now, money I sure wish we had now. Obama, on the other hand, has inexplicably left our borders open from infected countries, causing these outbreaks in the first place. If a travel ban had been in place, Patient zero would never have entered the country and at least two, possibly four people, would not have the disease right now. As the CDC said today, more people are going to be infected before it gets better. Wonderful.
All of this is sucking any energy from the Democrats whose poll numbers are going south quick, especially the President's poll numbers that are falling faster than the Dow. Close our borders from infected countries already you dick. A recent poll said 97% of the country agrees on this. We can't get half this country to decide between vanilla and chocolate ice cream, but ending flights to and from Ebola ravaged countries we can. For God's sake, for once in your miserable Presidency, do something, anything that might be good for the country. And if democrats want any chance of winning, keep blaming the GOP for the Ebola crisis. Treat as if the right is chanting Benghazi, Benghazi, Benghazi. It doesn't matter if it's true or not (which it is), make people believe it. Or else watch the Senate go red and with it, the country.
No comments:
Post a Comment