Bad headed towards Worse

The Day is really blah, mainly because of these Releases from the BLS, but connected with the fact that Consumer Demand will not get substantially better, until the Job loss slows. No one expects any bright glow from traditional economic industries in the foreseeable future; a major factor channeling a downturn in Business movement. House Construction has left the realm of the individual Household; these Entities will buy, but lack real impetus for anything but a Completed Buy. Retail Construction will not recover if Developers have to finance the Construction, with eventual Title transfers eating up too much Time. American Exports will begin to shrink from two Sources: the strengthening Dollar; and shrinking American Imports will leave foreign economies from purchasing a more expensive American Product mix. Oil is going up again, and it is probably reversible in the Short-term, but will again face a Long-term creep upwards. No one is happy with the current Mix, and Investment Agents are simply interested in maintaining a stable Schedule without enthusiasm for any Development.

Economists express the general feeling of the American markets. We are coming off the Rebates in traditional bad shape, with no discernible Gain derived from those Rebates. Oil is not a stimulus Package either, as it will not generate new Retail Sales unless Pump prices return to original Gas prices before the Oil runup; a factor likely only in one’s dreams. I could almost wish for economic policy power to insist on a Across-the-Board Wage Increase of 3%. I would rather lose Marginal labor Jobs, than I would knock down Solid-Wage labor because of inability to shift Production Costs onto Prices. I will really be declared a Communist!

Arnold Kling worries about long-term entitlements. I agree that the Numbers are atrocious, and are about to get worse in the Short-term. The Long-term impact is quite another matter. There must be erosion of Wage scales in Health Care as its labor rolls grow. This will be in combination with another Condition I must mention: previously in this Post, I have already established my bonafide disrepute of being a psuedo-Communist; now, I can be acclaimed as murderous and unfeeling, by the revelation that I expect Life Expectancy to start to decline in the next couple of years. Lack of universal maintenance health care, in conjunction with the over-medication of American and World Patients, will join with general Starvation in poor Countries to lower the Life Expectancy Worldwide, but especially in the United States. (There will be Those who doubt, but degrading Antibiotics will combine with ingestion of artificial substances, with delays of diagnosis, will start the downward Curve which will accelerate). lgl