Economy- December jobs report

[BenRaines]

If any of you did not see it the jobs report was out today and over 500,000 people lost their jobs last month. While it is sad that anyone lose their job, my son in law lost his, it is not as bad as the number seems. According to reports it is the highest number in 34 years. While it is the highest number it is an unfair representation. There are a lot more people working now than there were 34 years ago.

As a percentage of working force it is the 41st worse job loss report on a monthly basis since it has been tracked.

I wish that those who report these numbers would tell the truth, the whole truth and not half truths.

Whole truth does not sell news only half truths.

Ben Raines

[skylercollins]

It's unfortunate that because of government intervention, we've been living in an economic fantasy. It's also unfortunate that the government believes that more intervention is going to bring us to economic reality, when in fact it will change but prolong the fantasy. The return to economic reality will be painful but necessary if we don't want it to be even more painful later on.

[NeuroTypical]

As a percentage of working force it is the 41st worse job loss report on a monthly basis since it has been tracked.

It's a good skill to develop - to be able to sense unwarranted conclusions.

The next time you hear on the news "This is the worst (economy/unemployment/stock crash/etc) in X years!", just think about what you were doing X years ago. You'll be amazed to remember yourself off living life, happily unencumbered by any 'sky is falling' notions that are being floated around today.

LM

[a-train]

I think the media is being influenced to scare the public into support of bail-outs.

-a-train

Edited December 6, 2008 by a-train

[Aesa]

There are a lot more people working now than there were 34 years ago.

Have you measured this by percentage? Or by population 34 years ago vs. population 2008? That's an unfair representation.

[BenRaines]

Aesa, I believe a fair comparison is versus current workforce. It is not a matter of population. There is a portion of the population that is too young to work, too old to work, too sick to work, too lazy to work. My comparison is to workforce versus job loss versus workforce of years ago.

News report is based on pure number of job losses being worst number in 34 years. An unfair comparison. Was much worse 34 years ago since there were much fewer workers with the same number of losses.

Ben Raines

[Palerider]

Is it safe to assume that in the next week or two we will hear a revised report and it will tell us it wasn't as bad as first reported......I say this because last month they reported how many were unemployed and then a few days later there was a revised number....and it was lower than the original report.

[Aesa]

Probably. Corporate media loves to scare you.

[Aesa]

I've just looked at an article on this, and I'm not sure I understand your disagreement.

533k job losses is the highest number of people to lose their jobs in a short period, in 34 years.

link

[Moksha]

KSL Television reports that there will be about 19,000 Utah jobs lost after the first of the year.

[miztrniceguy]

when i went to work today, i found out they eliminated a 4 person dept at my location, and at similar locations company-wide. the crappy part was those 4 people were not even offered a chance to move to another dept...one gal had been with the company about 10 yrs

[Palerider]

The Chrysler plant in the St Louis area has been cut back to one shift.....they offered buy outs and early retirement and so far about 1800 employees have accepted one or the other....the company expects a few more to take one of their options and they will need to hire back 500 or so of the ones who were layed off a few months ago to fill jobs that will be open. They were not expecting so many to jump at their offer.

[BenRaines]

Aesa, yes the number 533,000 is the largest number in 34 years but not near the largest as a percentage of the whole. An example. If I have 100 employees and I have to layoff 10 of them then it is 10% of my workforce. Thirty years later we are now 500 employees. This slowdown I have to layoff 25. You can report the new two ways. Largest layoff in 34 years at XYZ corportation or you could write 5% reduction. Now a 5% reduction is half of what it was 34 years ago but it is still more people.

I hope I have explained it clearly.

Ben Raines

[zookeeper]

I hear you Ben! Things are rough, and the media competes by upping the drama. Fear stumps the economy so we are in a bit of a rut. We've come out before... History does repeat itself... So this should all turn around eventually. (knock on wood) (fingers crossed) Meanwhile, get out of debt and get your food storage!!

[Aesa]

I hear you Ben! Things are rough, and the media competes by upping the drama. Fear stumps the economy so we are in a bit of a rut. We've come out before... History does repeat itself... So this should all turn around eventually. (knock on wood) (fingers crossed) Meanwhile, get out of debt and get your food storage!!

The problem is, were living in a debt based currency system.

It's interesting to note that all the major world wars and depressions have happened since the federal reserve was created in the early 1900's.

[Wingnut]

The Chrysler plant in the St Louis area has been cut back to one shift.....they offered buy outs and early retirement and so far about 1800 employees have accepted one or the other....the company expects a few more to take one of their options and they will need to hire back 500 or so of the ones who were layed off a few months ago to fill jobs that will be open. They were not expecting so many to jump at their offer.

GM is laying off 2000 in Cleveland, regardless of whether or not the bailout goes through.

[Aesa]

The bailout is mostly being used my criminal bankers to consolidate assets.

[skylercollins]

The bailout is mostly being used my criminal bankers to consolidate assets.

Criminal? Please explain...

[Aesa]

Oh come on, what "at the top" International Banker is good hearted?

How did we get into the current financial mess? Great question.

Turmoil in the Making

In 1910, seven men held a secret meeting on Jekyll Island off the coast of Georgia. It's estimated that those seven men represented one-sixth of the world's wealth. Six were Americans representing J.P. Morgan, John D. Rockefeller, and the U.S. government. One was a European representing the Rothschilds and Warburgs.

In 1913, the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank was created as a direct result of that secret meeting. Interestingly, the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank isn't federal, there are no reserves, and it's not a bank. Those seven men, some American and some European, created this new entity, commonly referred to as the Fed, to take control of the banking system and the money supply of the United States.

In 1944, a meeting in Bretton Woods, N.H., led to the creation of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. While the stated purposes for the two new organizations initially sounded admirable, the IMF and the World Bank were created to do to the world what the Federal Reserve Bank does to the United States.

In 1971, President Richard Nixon signed an executive order declaring that the United States no longer had to redeem its paper dollars for gold. With that, the first phase of the takeover of the world banking system and money supply was complete.

In 2008, the world is in economic turmoil. The rich are getting richer, but most people are becoming poorer. Much of this turmoil is directly related to those meetings that took place decades ago. In other words, much of this turmoil is by design.

Power and Domination

Some people say these events are part of a grand conspiracy, and that might well be. Some people say they represent the struggle between capitalists, communists and socialists, and that might be, too.

I personally don't participate in the debate over a possible global conspiracy; it's a waste of time. To me, the wider struggle is for power and domination. And while this struggle has done a lot of good — and a lot of bad — I just want to know how to avoid becoming its victim. I see no reason to be a mouse trying to stop a herd of elephants from fighting.

Currently, many people are suffering due to high oil price, the slowdown in the economy, loss of jobs, declines in home values, increased bankruptcies and businesses closings, savings being wiped out, the plummeting stock market, and rising inflation. These realities are all direct results of this financial power struggle, and millions of people are its victims today.

An Extreme Example

I was in South Africa in July of this year. During my television and radio interviews there, I was often asked my opinion on the world economy. Speaking bluntly, I said that South Africans had a better opportunity of comprehending the global turmoil because they're neighbors to Zimbabwe, a country run by Robert Mugabe.

In my interviews, I said, "What Mugabe has done to Zimbabwe, the Federal Reserve Bank and the IMF are doing to the world." Obviously, my statements disturbed many of the journalists. I did my best to comfort them and assure them I was not an anarchist. I explained, as best I could, that Zimbabwe was an extreme example of an out of control power struggle.

After they were assured I was only using Zimbabwe to illustrate my point, I said, "If you want to understand the world economy, take a refugee from Zimbabwe to lunch." I advised them to ask the refugee these questions:

1. How fast did the economy turn?

2. When did you know that you were in financial trouble?

3. When did you finally decide to leave Zimbabwe?

4. If you could do things differently, what would you have done?

Three Approaches to a Crumbling Economy

I spoke to three young couples from Zimbabwe while I was in South Africa. Two couples were recent refugees now living in South Africa, and one couple still lives in Zimbabwe. All three couples had interesting stories to tell.

One couple said that they would have quit their jobs earlier. Instead, they hung on, hoping the economy would change. Then, virtually overnight, the value of the Zimbabwean dollar dropped and inflation went through the roof. Even though they received pay raises, the couple couldn't survive and soon depleted their savings. They left Zimbabwe by car with almost nothing. If they could've done something differently, they told me, they would have started a business in Zimbabwe and began exporting products to South Africa, so that they would have had South African currency and a bank account there before they fled.

The second couple that fled the country said they saved money and paid off their house and other debts even as the Zimbabwean dollar fell in value. Looking back, they say they would've saved nothing and gotten deeply in debt in Zimbabwe, allowing them to pay off their debt with the cheaper dollars. Instead, they fled after they lost their jobs, leaving behind their house and owning $200,000 in nearly worthless Zimbabwean dollars.

The third couple still lives in Zimbabwe. When they saw the writing on the wall, they set up a business in South Africa and, with the profits, began acquiring tangible assets in Zimbabwe. Often, they'll buy an asset in Zimbabwe and pay the seller in South African currency. They believe that once Mugabe is gone and order is restored, they'll be in a strong financial position.

Many Problems, Few Solutions

There are three major problems with the events of 1913, 1944, and 1971. The first is that the Fed, the World Bank, and the IMF are allowed to create money out of nothing. This is the primary cause of global inflation. Global inflation devalues our work and our savings by raising the prices of necessities.

For example, when gas prices soared, many people said that the price of oil was going up. In reality, the main cause of the high price of oil is the decreasing value of the dollar. The Fed, the World Bank, and the IMF, like Zimbabwe, are mass-producing funny money, thereby increasing prices and devaluing our quality of life.

The second problem is that our economic crises are getting bigger. In the 1970s, the Fed faced and solved million-dollar crises. In the 1980s, it was billion-dollar crises. Today, we have trillion-dollar crises. Unfortunately, these bigger crises mean more funny money entering the system.

Apocalypse Soon

The third problem is that in 1913, the Fed only protected the large commercial banks such as Bank of America. After 1944, the Fed, the World Bank, and the IMF began bailing out Third World nations such as Tanzania and Mexico. Then, in 2008, the Fed began bailing out investment banks such as Bear Sterns, and its role in the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac debacle is well known. By 2020, the biggest of bailout of all will probably occur: Social Security and Medicare, which will cost at least a $100 trillion.

Even if we find more oil and produce more food, prices will continue to rise because the value of the dollar will continue to decline. The dollar has lost over 90 percent of its value since the Fed was created. The U.S. dollar will continue to decline because of those seven men on Jekyll Island in 1910.

Granted, the funny-money system has done a lot of good — it has improved the world and made a lot of people rich. But it's also done a lot of bad. I believe somewhere between today and 2020, the system will break. We're on the eve of financial destruction, and that's why it's in gold I trust. I'd rather be a victor than a victim.

http://finance.yahoo.com/expert/article/richricher/124339

Start using unfiltered non-corporate news networks, and you begin to get the picture.

What's happening here is an engineered collapse, it's absolutely built into our monetary system. Totally designed tyrrnay to take away our liberties and freedoms.

Why do you think military is going to be deployed on the streets?

To protect Americans my butt! To stop riots, and to try and prevent complete social breakdown. Basically to maintain the status quo.

[mlbrowninwa]

None of us truly know how bad it really is. I for one think the number is worse than reported and what gets me is that when the that bad report was released the stock market went up! Nothing in the economy has made since for months. It will get worse before it gets better!

[Aesa]

It's all engineered.

Before the big collapse, big financial luminaries will quietly exit the markets. That's the only reason why the collapse hasn't already happened -- they're securing their assets.

You might want to ask yourself why there have been multiple depressions since the Federal Reserve Act was enacted in the early 1900's. Is it just the way money is? Or is our monetary system engineering these collapses, to benefit international bankers, and so forth?

[skylercollins]

It's all engineered.

Before the big collapse, big financial luminaries will quietly exit the markets. That's the only reason why the collapse hasn't already happened -- they're securing their assets.

You might want to ask yourself why there have been multiple depressions since the Federal Reserve Act was enacted in the early 1900's. Is it just the way money is? Or is our monetary system engineering these collapses, to benefit international bankers, and so forth?

I don't believe that our monetary system is intentionally engineering these collapses, but I do believe instability is inherent in our monetary system.