Even in the US.
The global stock market rally since mid-February has allowed stocks to recover at a blistering pace, or so it seems. And you’d think from all the hype that the bear-market episode is behind us.
By Friday afternoon, the Dow was just 4.6% below its all-time high, set a year ago, and the S&P 500 only 3.9%. On Friday, the S&P 500 edged back into the green year-to-date, while the Dow remains in the red. The Nasdaq is still down 8.8% from its high a year ago. But those were the cleanest dirty shirts of the major global indices.
So, now that we’re relieved the whiff of panic has blown over, it’s time to have a look again at our Bear Market Tracker, lest we think all is well in the world of equities.
Everyone defines a bear market differently. For our purposes, an index is in a bear market when it’s down 20% from its cycle high. I made one exception: the Russian RTSi in USD. Due to its stubborn predilection for falling ever lower, after brief upticks, I used its high in 2011.
In the US, small caps are still struggling mightily. The Russell 2000, which tracks them, is down an embarrassing 14.1% from its peak. Small caps tend to be on speed – on the way up and on the way down. They tend to lead the pack. But now they’re not leading the pack up. They’re not leading at all. They’re dragging behind. Something is amiss.
The five US indices in the Bear Market Tracker below are marked in blue. The S&P 500, the Dow, and the Nasdaq occupy the top – the world’s least dirty shirts:
And what US index is still in a bear market? The IPO index….
Renaissance Capital’s IPO index tracks US-listed stocks that recently went public. They stay in the index for two years after their IPO date. With 64 components currently, the index reflects the “top 80% of newly public companies based on full market capitalization.” However, it imposes a 10% cap on large companies.
Top 5 holdings (weight in index): Alibaba (9.9%); Synchrony Financial, the GE spinoff (9.7%); Citizens Financial Group, the Royal Bank of Scotland spinoff (8.3%); JD.com, a Chinese e-commerce company (5.0%); and Mobileye, an Israeli driverless-car software company (4.4%).
The index peaked in July 2015. By mid-February, it was down 36%, with the IPO window just about closed. It has since recovered some and is now down “only” 21.6%. But numerous of its components have gotten totally crushed, including Lending Club, which deserves a special mention.
When the peer-to-peer lender went public in December 2014, it soared 67% from its IPO price of $15. This was beautifully hyped on CNBC. Lending Club would “transform the entire banking industry,” CEO Renaud Laplanche explained. The company had a market value of $9 billion at the time, about the same as the 14th biggest bank in the US. Stephan Paternot, an early investor, called it a “no-brainer.” Shares made it all the way to $27.90. They’re now at $3.99, down 86%.
Only three of the major European indices are NOT in a bear market: the London FTSE (-13.6%) despite the deafening end-of-the-world rhetoric about Brexit reverberating around the globe; the Swiss SMI (-16.1%); and the French CAC 40 (-17.6%).
The remaining four European indices in the Bear Market Tracker are stuck in a bear market, ranging from the German DAX (-20%) to the Italian MIB (-26.3%), even though Draghi had promised back in 2012 that he’d do “whatever it takes.”
Note that the Nikkei is still down 20.1%, despite the scorched-earth tactics of the Bank of Japan, as Abenomics is now widely acknowledged to have been the speech of a false prophet.
France and Switzerland are thus the only two countries under the dictum of negative-interest-rate policies that are not in a bear market – though they’re just a couple of lousy trading days away from it – which says something about the glorious effects of NIRP.
These effects of NIRP are visible elsewhere: the European banks. They have all kinds of problems beyond NIRP. And Italy is trying to dodge a full-blown banking crisis, as its banks are buckling under their mountain of nonperforming loans. But investors have trouble swallowing the Kool-Aid, and the Euro Stoxx 600 banking index, which track these slippery critters, is down 35.1% from its peak in July last year – the fourth-worst performer in the bunch.
Shanghai seems to be stuck at around the 2,800 level and can’t seem to budge much up or down, which leaves it 45.4% off its peak of last June. And Hong Kong, which faces a host of issues, including an imploding housing bubble, is down 30.6%.
So the bear markets are still with us in many corners of global equities, and central-bank policies, no matter how absurd, can’t seem to whisk them away, to the greatest astonishment of these central banks.
All 30 companies in the Dow have now reported first quarter earnings. Of them, 19 also reported “adjusted” earnings that they skillfully draped over their GAAP earnings, and now it all looks just so much prettier. Even the SEC woke up. But what will the media do? Read… OK I Get it, Corporate Earnings are a Fairy Tale and Reality is Crummy, But Do They Have to Push it This Far?
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Shanghai wont go down as the CCP wont let it.
NIRP may in fact be holding the other markets up.
As to many are faced with a, where do we put it, in these cash glutted times.
Draggi is screaming at bank’s to lend, the problem is, anybody the bank wants to lend to, dosent want a loan. As they have no work for the money.
Draggi is doing what didnt work to well, for the FED, or the BOJ, and expecting a different result.
Einstein called that.
Insanity.
d Here is an idea i kicked around with my Dad. The ptb in the old days were very very exclusive and knew to not kill the golden goose and did not invite many into their club. The problem today is that the uppy-ups got invaded by their own version of “sharers”, who don’t want to stop until they are as rich as the richest. I see the island retreat mentality as a support of this premise. Thanks for answering my National Mint question.
The old wealth looks down on new money, The 80/20 ruel also applies to new money 80% dont last 100 years in the wealthy section of society.
Post WW II the english socalist went to war on Old money now the Blairs of teh world want be seen near old money.
But old money still dosent want to Know them.
One of teh few to malke the transition scuseffuly in one step was Grace Kelly she belonged.
New money will alway flaunt and tell you what to do.
old money if you notice it will help you.
Flashy American Tourist to the Queen of England who she interrupted walking her Corgis, “I have never met the queen Have you I heard she lives around her”.
Queen to the American “I haven’t. But I believe He has” Indicating her Accompany bodyguard. Before quietly walking on with her dog’s.
America is still mostly New money. All A and no Class.
On the Other side of the world we have similar problems.
New money buys up the urban beach-front’s, them wants the public transport stopped. As it brings people to the area who cant afford to live there (Anymore). In some Idyllic spots they have even achieved that.
The Sharers (Creature) will never be as rich as teh richest as they simply dont and will never learn how to properly use and respect wealth.
Stock brokers over the road from us as a child would drive past our house and look down their noses at us.
Old man from just down teh rioad would stop in his 53 year old Rolls and talk to my father for ages. That mans family had been in the same house for over 250 Years and the rolls survived WW I as it was hidden under in a barn from the requisition officers when it was new.
The stock brokers didnt realise that they had paid a fortune for his old farm labourers cottage’s. Which he admitted wre really very poorly built. We lived in the old Gamekeepers House which my father refurbished. Old money will treat you like a person. New money dosent know how to do that.
The no exit lane that lead to the old mans house was unsealed the old man an his neighbors hand many arguments with the council to prevent them sealing it, as it only went to 3 house’s, would raise the rates if it was sealed, and as it was unsealed, the new money people would not use it.
On satellite view, its still unsealed.
The Shiller 10 P/E is at 25.7, and its historical mean is 16.7.
IIRC read somewhere that the actual PEs of SP500 stocks is 24.7 IF using GAAP. To say this market is richly valued (priced) is a major understatement. And the economic fundamentals in no way support even the massaged PE now. Not that fundamentals matter at all (they don’t) as the only thing that counts now is what the fed is going to do. Central banks have assumed total control and main street USA sucks hind tit. Sad but true THIS DOES NOT END WELL.
It does not end well for the 99%. It ends pretty well for the 1%.
Until they see the rope………
What do you think the Cayman’s and various other Island havens are for???
Only a minimum number of native slaves allowed in those places.
Mere Millionaires need not apply.
The difference between now and the 1770’s that the mob forgets, is that the elites have highs-peed transport and communication systems mere mortals can not even access.
Access to a Helicopter is a compulsory status symbol, and a very convenient emergency transport model.
This time the rope wont get any of those that really matter, apart from those directing who to use the rope on in the first place.
Just as in the 1770’s the rabble rousers eventual met the same fate as the innocent wealthy they murdered. Organized by then friends of the murdered.
Mob revolt and murder, guarantees the same cycle will repeat.
Hispaniola, had great slave rebellions.
The Place has been a despotic crony run Poohole ever since.
The mob never learns..
Try that.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Book-Revolutions-History-Popular-Uprisings-ebook/dp/B007H886YK#reader_B007H886YK
Had it decades ago as a coffetable book.
The conclusion.
Over time every single one of them apart from the Protestant Reformation which is not in there.
Made a bigger mess, long term.
As “d” mentioned, the world is a very different place nowadays. The 1% or the 0.001% have a ton of things in their disposal that they didn’t have access to back in the days. They could go to a private island, release some virus/nuke that wipes out the Lemmings, etc. And you know who built those virus/nukes? Lemmings.
Heck those things are not even necessary. The Lemmings will probably shoot out each other in no time perhaps out of some guilt that they could have stopped this had they stopped watching Game of Thrones and pay attention occasionally.
Nah … one hour to Episode 5
d, you overestimate how smart these 1% are; they are good at one thing that matters in the current economic system. That should not be translated into general survival skills in a totally wild and open environment.
Secondly, if you have been to any of the so called paradise islands you would know that they are heavily dependent on imports of basis commodities. True, you can deplete the fish in an already depleted sea, but eventually you would have to rely on something more readily available…
“Secondly, if you have been to any of the so called paradise islands you would know that they are heavily dependent on imports of basis commodities. ”
I have been to enough of them.
By the time essential supplies run down most of the KILL THE RICH fervor will have died down and there will be plenty of tough’s around willing to protect the rich and help them obtain what they need
There always are those willing to protect the rich for a fee, it’s what the Mafia started as.
“d, you overestimate how smart these 1% are; they are good at one thing that matters in the current economic system. That should not be translated into general survival skills in a totally wild and open environment.”
And you underestimate their ability to think that far. They always have just enough handy people around to construct a new army of oppressors and suppliers for them.
Think Mafia and robber Barron. The old Robber Barron allowed his strong arm men to keep their Concubines in his castle.
The rich are a natural and normal factor of human nature they are also a higher % of any survivor group in any catastrophe. Always have been.
Correction the top .001 % as many in the 1 % will be screwed as well.
It may be that the mob “learns nothing” nut neither do the upper classes. Basically they forget nothing forgive nothing and they learn nothing. The upper classes in a revolution either survive with flying colors in which case they soon take over again or they are completely wiped out.
US markets in a bear market about 1 year now. The Fed/CBs is/are a one trick pony. If ZIRP didn’t work, then the logical progression (in their addled minds) then is NIRP, even though normalizing rates is the correct policy here. Keynesian economics supports Socialist policies, but both are a disaster for the real economy. While economics is “the dismal science”, apparently The Scientific Method does not apply in this case.
“It doesn’t matter how beautiful your theory is, it doesn’t matter how smart you are. If it doesn’t agree with experiment, it’s wrong.” – Richard P. Feynman
Finally, While loose monetary policy can show some positive growth in the short-term, it is a dismal failure in the long-term since 1) pulls demand in and 2) pushes debt restructuring out. That is of course until the tipping point, which is soon approaching. The Fed is not bigger than the markets (even in an election year), and regression to the mean eventually asserts itself.
“There is no means of avoiding the final collapse of a boom brought about by credit (debt) expansion. The alternative is only whether the crisis should come sooner as the result of a voluntary abandonment of further credit (debt) expansion, or later as a final and total catastrophe of the currency system involved.” – Ludwig von Mises
“The popularity of inflation and credit expansion, the ultimate source of the repeated attempts to render people prosperous by credit expansion, and thus the cause of the cyclical fluctuations of business, manifests itself clearly in the customary terminology. The boom is called good business, prosperity, and upswing. Its unavoidable aftermath, the readjustment of conditions to the real data of the market, is called crisis, slump, bad business, depression. People rebel against the insight that the disturbing element is to be seen in the malinvestment and the overconsumption of the boom period and that such an artificially induced boom is doomed. They are looking for the philosophers’ stone to make it last.” — Ludwig von Mises (1940)
Read an SF Book once (can not remember what it was called), where one of the core concepts in it, was that Human society had divided into 2 camps.
1 the Creditors:
With a society based on: Non-Durable good’s, Consumerism Capitalism, ever-expanding Population, Fiat Currency, and cheap Credit.
2 the Durables? (Can’t remember exact name.):
With a society based on, Durable goods, Environmentally and Resource Sustainable Capitalism, Managed stable Population, Bullion based Currency, and Credit only to buy Dwellings.
Eventually, after several long Planetary Wars. The Creditor’s lost a major one, and were forced to leave the Planet.
Off course from time to time the Creditors always came back and caused trouble. Normal as a result of, or just before. One of their regular, but slightly larger than normal, Financial Collapses.
============
Environmentally, Resource Unsustainable, Consumerism, and Credit based, Capitalism. Requiring an ever-expanding Population, is bad enough.
Add, Keynesian Socialist spending, and Fiat currency to this. Then you have the impending Financial Disaster, we face today.
The mobs answer to the financial disaster, repeatedly, is a “Kill the Rich” revolution. This seems to have a 250-400 year cycle. Sometimes much shorter (USSR 73 (APP)Years) that is continuously repeating.
We have the communication systems, and access to the history now. That shows us, the Mobs, “Kill the Rich” tear it all down approach, is not working, long term.
Perhaps this time, we should save ourselves a lot of time and trouble, …
Then sit down with the Rich (The Rich are themselves. A normal feature of Human Nature) and work out what to do. So we don’t keep returning to the situation of the mob demanding “Kill the Rich” in the streets, every 250 – 400 Years.
As from a Historical perspective, it’s getting rather boring and predictable.
Haven’t you ever read Marx and Engels? They discuss this in great detail. Their analysis of why it happens is quite sound though not necessarily the conclusions they draw from it about what to do. At least you are thinking in the right ball park…..
Marx, Engels, and Lenin. I had to wear triple-profile badge of the great comrades since age of 6 I think.
Have you guys seen this economist’s view.. Pretty scary..
http://www.hussmanfunds.com/wmc/wmc160516.htm
Read both and discussed them with my aunt (who gave them to me to read) who met Stalin, more than once.
Before Junior High (Equivalent).
Marx and Engels have too much leftist, Wealth, Royalist, hate in them, they are not a pure credit V noncredit conflict.
Marxist/Leninist Socialism/Communism can never persevere, as it kill’s the core human instinct, of personal endeavor, for personal gain.
Because I am hungry. I go out and dig up 10 shell fish. To eat. Not to give them to you. So you can keep 9 of them, and tell me “1 is my ration for my endeavors. As other’s ( Who are doing nothing, but talking about being hungry) are hungry as well.” Which is what Communism/Socialism, does.
+
Due to the Corrupt American Political System. Globalized Vampire Corporates Aided by COMMUNIST/Mafia State china (with the intent of destroying the US)
Are currently directing an unsustainable, almost unregulated form of Consumerist Capitalism, based on Cheap Credit, and an ever expanding Consumer base.
That is as Ecologically and Financial untenable. As Communism is. Financially, and Human instinctively, untenable.
Marx, Engels, Lenin, were against so much more than just Credit based Capitalism.
They promoted a system, that produce. Totalitarian Genocidal monsters, like, Stalin, Mao, Himmler, Pol Pot.
Inside every Leftist/Liberal, there is an, Oppressive Totalitarian, Screaming, to take total control.
What is one to do? Is gold an answer for such times? Thanks!
Gold
Not at its currently grossly manipulated price level.
Check the divergence between, gold, silver, copper, lead, and tin, since 1900.
Which is being manipulated, which way, is an open debate, but all is not as it should be, and my money says. Gold is being deliberately held up.
Metals basket’s have always been a store.
One has to buy them at the wright time, to get the wright price.
What ever currency medium comes and goes, it is always traded against those metals. Along with Platinum, Titanium, Tungsten. Etc.
The other thing with metals.
You must keep them in a place where your control of them, can not be usurped.
Which means you need land, or a legal anchorage, you control.
You will be amazed, how many people never look hard at, or consider the inside of, a sailboat keel.
i didn’t say anything about Lenin. History has shown convincingly that his ideas don’t work. Can you think of a single Leninist state that did NOT end up as a totalitarian tyranny? Stalinism is not some aberration on Leninism but its natural and inevitable outcome. Lenin and his ideas failed disastrously and deserve to thrown on the trash heap of history. What Leninism led to was Fascism, specifically the “red” Fascism of stalin rather than the “black” fascism of Hitler.
Fascism is the dark side of Socialism. the awful outcome when things go wrong. For the record. Marx firmly believed that socialism had to happen on a world wide scale, not on a national scale, had to be radically democratic, not authoritarian or totalitarian (Marx condemned the latter as “barracks communism”) and had to develop from an over-ripe and decadent capitalism, not backwardness and poverty. Lenin violated all three of these principals. Any surprise that he failed catastrophically?
“The man who uses unscrupulous means can only accomplish unscrupulous ends” Karl Marx
Yes, however Marx and Lenin were different sides of the same bush face.
They still both have at the core of their system, the suppression of individual human endeavor, for personally retained gain.
Which is instinctively unnatural for human’s. The Achilles heel that will always doom their system.
Totalitarianism is as more accurate term. For Stalin, Mao, Kim, Pot, and others, they all became corrupt Mafia states. Than your black and red Fascism.
Hitler gave Fascism a bad name. As he turned Germany into a Totalitarian Dictatorship, from Democratic Fascism. Then allowed his administration to perpetrate an evil, that has been blown out of all proportion. Compared to the greater evils, perpetrated by Stalin, Mao, and Pot.
Singapore is getting better, or at least going sideways, not getting worse and it seem’s to have avoided the pitfalls of, Mafia State corruption.
Yes Marx was much closer, a communist/socialist system can only be born and possibly succeed Globally.
From a DEBT FREE successful Global Capitalist System in which all needed infrastructure exists and is also debt free.
Realistically such a Global Capitalist state, is a pipe-dream. Unless credit for anything but Personal Dwellings is outlawed, Globally.
And it will still be undermined, by the basic Human Instinct, Personal, endeavor for retained personal gain.
You can get people to pay tax, to fund a social, poverty level, safety net.
You can not get them to work twice as hard as the person beside them, for the same return.
Communist and Socialist systems Pay/Reward the lazy/Non-worker’s the same as the hardest worker. So they are Forever DOOMED.
Communism anf socialism are very different, amd Marx avoided using “communism” in his mature thought. Real communism’ and I am not sure it is desirable can only happen after the computers and robots have taken over, through drastic technological change. I do not see socialism as antithetical to free enterprise, whereas our current situation seems very much antithetical to it. As I perceive it, socialism means the upper layers of economic power are in the hands of democratic institutions answerable to the people. Public funding will also be the primary source of investment capital, not some layer of superwealthy elite, and the profits will benefit the nation as a whole and keep taxation reasonable. The basic message I get from Marxism is “no Star Bellied Sneetches”! You will not have an all powerful aristocratic upper class owning everything, controlling everything and taking the profit from everything. The democratic institutions of the people will hold the reigns of power and a great deal of emphasis will be placed on education to make sure they are prepared to do so.
I do not see any problem with having eminent and wealthy individuals but that wealth will be earned rather than the result of speculation or chicanery. If a family becomes known for wealth it will be because they earn that wealth in every generation. Very wealthy individuals will be encouraged to invest the bulk of their wealth in their nation or rusk seeing the bulk of it confiscated on their death. No hereditary aristocracy of the idle rich will be permitted. From those to whom much is given, much will be expected. Every effort will be made to discourage gaining wealth through speculation and manipulation. It will have to be earned by doing something useful
As time goes on’ producing the basics of life will be taken over by automation and robotics and the products will be distributed more or less socially. The luxuries of life will be produced by free enterprise capitalism and a free labor market of individuals who do not have to work to survive but are working to earn money for the goodies they crave. under my concept of socialism, owners of factories are freed from the crushing burden of having to meet all the needs of their laborers which will greatly benefit their profits. I think you can see where all this is headed. It will happen not through revolutionary political movements so much as through technological change forcing it upon us. \
As I understand Marx’s mature thought, his ultimate goal was to create a world where the economic and political levers of ultimate power would be held by the people and not by a privileged elite. Only then will the human race be free to achieve truly worthy goals.
“Very wealthy individuals will be encouraged to invest the bulk of their wealth in their nation or rusk seeing the bulk of it confiscated on their death. No hereditary aristocracy of the idle rich will be permitted.”
Nobody has the wright to take at death what has been legally earned and tax paid. Unless the deceased says you can. It belongs to their descendants, and should not be taxed again, as it is already tax paid.
Nobody should pay a higher % rate of tax than another, simply because they have more.
Any system that promotes those concepts, will fail. EVERY TIME.
Soicalism = wealth redistribution by force. It is Communism, with enough capitalism to keep it running a little longer than Communist systems do.
Which mean’s the wealthy musty have the wright to oppose this, BY FORCE.
Which will put you in a state of continuous class, and civil, war.
To get a system that work’s. The Taker mob with its socialist Taker masters. Must take less, and do more. (If humanity is to survive on this planet its size must also be managed, and go back to where it was at least circa 1900).
“free labor market of individuals who do not have to work to survive but are working to earn money for the goodies they crave.”
And the money for their everyday needs is unfairly taken from “the wealthy.”
Socialism is Communism light. It is still wealth redistribution by force, from doers, to do nothing’s.
Neither system can ever survive, long or even medium term.
Germany and the Nordic country’s are not Socialist. They are capitalist. With a strong social safety nets, And good infrastructure.
That muslim’s illegal Economic migrants are about to destroy. Just as they have destroyed the. English Social Safety net which use to function well, as it was in Balance. Prior to mass unskilled immigration from the Indian subcontinent.
Until now Nordic and German people have not objected to much to paying for it, as they get something back. As soon as the wealthy in those states are forced to pay more and get less, in their perception, they will revolt. Then those States will develop all the issues that go with tax resistance as well.
Tax resistance cause by Socialism is impossible to eradicate as it become quickly ingrained. See greece.
Any tax collector will tell you, people who cheat a little, are not the problem. Those who wont pay, or cheat a lot, are, and it costs more to chase them, than you ever get from them.
Even the Kibutz which has voluntary and exit. does not survive without state funding. Which the State takes from WEALTHY CAPATILISTS.
As any Kibutz not stringently managed, ends up with a large number, doing very little, but consuming very much.
“Socialism always fails. When it runs our of other peoples money”
Maggi, the Green Grocers Daughter.
I tried to wade through all of that but I am still not sure it makes sense. The wealth of the people was created by the great majority then expropriated by the few. The”makers” are those who work hard and long to create the goods and services we all use and the “takers” are the parasites who exploit them, the few at the top of the system. We have to force redistribution of the wealth expropriated by the top elite or they will vampirically drain the rest of society until it dies. Nobody has the right to claim as their exclusive property the means of survival of everybody else. What you are espousing boils down to feudalism and slavery. The wealthy and powerful are in a great position to advance society but they also are in a position to destroy it and I deny that they have that right. When the decisions of the elite hugely impact everybody else than everybody else has a right to question those decisions and demand that they be rectified. I am not talking about the legalism you refer to, that has nothing to do with right and wrong, I am talking about justice which is the common birthright of all.
Where do you stand?
You are completely wrong and you know it.
You have simply spun what was written to suit your, leftist, Socialist greed base, envious agenda.
The takers are the nonworking Street mob’s and their leftist controller’s. Taking from the rich who make the investments and take the risk.
You have no wright what so ever to force redistribution of any wealth.
One of the reason the real economy in America has stayed dead since 08 in America.
Is that O bummers Wealth redistribution policy’s, have caused main street investors to sit on their hand’s. As they do not trust or feel confident, in his Administration.
No investment, NO good JOB’S. Simple.
“I am talking about justice which is the common birthright of all.”
Justice:
No Inheritance Tax to appease the, lazy, Greedy, Socialist/Communist, Envious, Taker, Street Mob’s.
1 tax rate % for all.
Sales tax on all new goods, and services.
History shows us.
That if the wealthy dont work a staying wealthy (which gives many others work and a good living) they dont stay wealthy for very long at all (1 or two generation’s unless, they work hard at keeping their wealth).
Socialism and wealth redistribution from rich to poor by force kills Personal Endeavor, which kills growth, which kills the Economy. As the wealthy simply spend on the minimum they need, and stop investing, as the Socialist/Communist Street taker mob’s, will simply take whatever the make.
Socialism/Communism is in direct conflict with human nature, Endeavor for personal gain. Is human nature. Inheritance, father to son, is human nature
As you are going to take what I Make/Produce/Gather, once I have enough to get buy. I stop. I dont employ anybody.
Why should I do, so that you can take for free.
In the USSR everybody went to work to eat their free lunch, and the system imploded. As in the end nobody would do more, than the least productive drunken attendee at the plant.
Socialist and Communist system’s last, until they run out of other peoples money to take. DPRK, USSR, Venezuela.
Vietnam and china, now Mafia states.
Marx preached a communist Utopia based, on a successful Capitalist Utopia.
To get Marxs Utopia.
You have to first allow, a 1 World Government, and a successful capitalist system, debt free, with excellent freehold infrastructure, that the Communist/Socialist wealth redistributors can TAKE.
How many Millennia away is that Capitalist Utopia?
Perhaps 1 reason why we have Debt and Fiat currency, is to make sure it never occurs.
What I saw of the Communist system in, DDR, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Yugoslavia, DPRK. I dont want a bar of.
Everybody I have ever interacted with, who has any experience of ordinary life in a Socialist/Communist system, wants nothing to do with it.
Particularly the Survivor of the cultural Revolution. I had dinner with last week.
Human nature shows one thing very clearly. If you create a privileged elite they will abuse their power, take everything, and reduce the great majority to slavery. Looking at what is happening now, how can you deny the evidence of your own eyes? What you say seems to from the perfidious lies in the pages of Ayn Rand. She deeply despised Democracy and hated the American people as much as she hated and despised the Christian religion. You seem to be remarkably detached from reality and filled with romantic nonsense. For your information, the right to do anything in this country ultimately comes from the will of the American people and if they call for redistribution to save the economy it will happen whether you like it or not. You speak of “non-working street mobs” and their “supposed “Leftist controllers”. This is a vicious lie that slanders the good hardworking people of this country. It is purely a sick fantasy in your own mind. These people are unemployed because Capitalism (and this is happening world wide, especially among the young) can no longer provide jobs and the means of existence to the people. If I offered 50 well paid full time jobs with benefits in the media, how many tens of thousands of applications do you think I
might get? I question your patriotism Sir! You seem to harbor deep and arrogant contempt for the great hordes of desperate unemployed people who want no handouts but instead jobs, jobs that they can actually make a living at. You should not defame and sneer at them. If we expropriate the Wall Street Banks and great investors, then we can make the basic source of public funding these funds. The people will be the major shareholders of these corporations and the profits will go into the public coffers for the benefit of all.
In some countries you mentioned, especially Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia, polls have shown again and again that the people believe they were better off under “Communism” then they now are under robber baron capitalism. Russia increased its national wealth by 50 times in the heyday of the Soviet Union from the early 20’s to the early 70’s. The United States increased its wealth only 5 times and Great Britain only twice. You have no foundation for claiming socialism “doesn’t work”. Need I remind you that a pretty thorough going system of socialism was introduced at the beginning of WWII and we would have had no chance of winning it without it. On Dec. 7 1941, the United States had the 19th strongest military force in the country, just ahead of Sweden. We had exactly one division under Arms, compared to 150 for the Japanese and 300 for the Axis powers.
Why should they have imagined they would have to worry about us? But with the magic of a centrally planned and managed economy, we were able to make up those deficiencies in a couple of years. With the fervent patriotic aid of those common American workers you describe as “lazy takers”!
Admiral Yamamoto planned and executed the attack at Pearl Harbor. A victory banquet was held that evening. But unlike the great majority of the Japanese high command. he had been to America and had an idea of what the American people were capable of. He said, “Think not that we are celebrating a great victory here. I fear we have but awakened a sleeping giant to a terrible resolution!” If the super rich at the top ruin America in their pathological greed and crookedness, they will indeed wake a sleeping giant to a terrible resolution. The American people!