Part of the “unfortunate new normal.”
Corporate America has spoken again. The Business Roundtable, a lobbying group composed of the CEOs of the largest members of Corporate America, released its third quarter 2016 CEO Economic Outlook Survey today. And what it said about employment was ugly.
These companies matter in the US economy. They have combined global revenues of $7 trillion per year and a combined stock market capitalization of $7.9 trillion (that was probably before today’s selloff). They employ 16 million people. They buy nearly $500 billion a year from small and medium-sized firms annually. When they turn negative on employment, it has a ripple effect.
The overall economy remains mired in the “unfortunate new normal” – that’s how Business Roundtable Chairman and Caterpillar CEO, Doug Oberhelman, summarized the survey results. This “unfortunate new normal” is the condition where the economy is “pretty much stuck in neutral rather than moving forward.”
The survey results “show a continuation of an economy that’s failing to live to its potential,” he added. Which has been the case for years.
The overall economic outlook index – a composite of CEOs’ six-month projections for sales, capital spending, and employment – dropped 3.9 points to 69.5, well below the historical average of 79.6. But anything above 50 in this diffusion index (the index ranges from -50 to +150, with a midpoint of +50) means growth, however slow it may be. And so these CEOs pegged 2016 GDP growth at “just” 2.2%.
Lousy as this sort of economic growth is, it could still be a stretch, given how crummy the last two quarters had been: real GDP in Q2 was only up 1.2% year-over-year. So there better be a boom in the second half.
And two of the three sub-components are further deteriorating.
Expectations for sales over the next six months fell by 9.3 points, with 59% expecting an increase, 29% expecting no change, and 11% expecting a decrease. But they’re an optimist bunch. They always are when it comes to sales, no matter how tough the situation. This includes BRT Chairman Oberhelman, whose company, Caterpillar, has been dogged by revenue declines since 2012. But it’s always going to get better.
In the second quarter, the S&P 500 companies have booked year-over-year revenue declines for the sixth quarter in a row! The last quarter with a revenue increase had been Q4 2014. That was a long time ago!
But on the premise that it’s always going to get better, the diffusion index for sales, though down 9.3 points, came in at 98.3 – well into growth territory, though on a downward slope of optimistic projections. And sales optimism hasn’t been this low very often (chart by BRT):
Employment projections by these CEOs portray a much tougher, and perhaps more realistic view of the economy, than their sales projections. Expectations for employment declined by 3.4 points from last quarter, with only 27% of the CEOs expecting to increase their payroll, while 37% expect no change, and a chilling 36% expect to cut their payroll.
This puts the employment index at 40.8, down from 44.2 in Q2 and flat with Q1 – the worst levels since the Financial Crisis. The index has been in contraction mode (below 50) all year. Last time it contracted was in Q3 and Q4 2012 (44.2 and 49.3), during the peak of the euro debt crisis that had rattled the nerves of these multinationals. I added the red line to BRT’s chart to show just how ugly these employment plans have become:
The fact that 36% of these big-company CEOs are planning to cut their payroll over the next six months, while only 27% are expecting to increase their payroll, is a very unwelcome harbinger of an economic situation that, from their point of view, is getting tougher and tougher, and requires greater cost cuts and payroll reductions. And if – or when – they’re implemented, they’ll ripple through the economy. Not exactly the rosy scenario we would like to see.
They’d believed in six years of Wall Street hogwash. Now reality sets in. Read… The Great Debt Unwind Beneath the Surface: US Commercial Bankruptcies Soar
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If sales are shrinking and employment has been cut why do these CEOs keeping getting more money and more stock options. They should be getting less money if the businesses are shrinking.
But we know their pay will keep exploding, the accounting tricks will become more convoluted, and the companies will eventually implode without anybody knowing how it happened. Unless, unless, they can buy out an even more messed up company than their own.
Remember back when Enron, Worldcom, et al, blew up? The CEOs all went Hogan’s Heros’ Sargent Schultz. They knew nothing. They had no idea what was going on, but were absolutely deserving of their obscene pay packages.
This is a fine mess and we have been in it for way too long. I fear much pain must be endured if, and I do mean if, we reset to a more sustainable system. As long as greed is embraced as a virtue, regular folks are just fodder for the machine.
“When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men in a society, over the course of time they create for themselves a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it.”
― Frédéric Bastiat
As the saying goes: “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for the good to do nothing”
Or, “The best way to rob a bank is to own one.”
Cost reductions feed the bottom line but they cannot mask sales volume loss and/or margin compression. Management heavily compensated by stock options and profitable are going to squeeze staffs to maintain their bonuses. Mergers and acquisitions are another option. However that in the end leads to redundancies reductions and synergies to cover the acquisition costs.
Its not going to matter if the stock market is buoyed by central bank because cost reductions can only go so far.
It is my guess that the 36% planned reductions is well understated. Nice article Wolf. Snowball rolling down hill from here.
…and I can only hope Micheal, that Sisyphus will step aside this time, and let that rock called Wall Street roll straight on down to Hell …. !!
They deserve it ! … in spades !
Polecat: I fear in the great scheme of things, we are Sisyphus. We are the expendables. Now, get that shoulder back under that rock! Those at the top have yachts to feed.
Funny you mention yachts ….. there’s a mega-yacht builder not but a mile from where I live …. and I would not work at such a place, if it was the last employer on Earth!
Now, if they were, say, a Greek Trireme manufacturer … then I would apply for work in a new york minute … assuming they were to be powered explicitly by scheming corporate hacks, vulture hedge funders, lying politicians, and others of ill repute!
The CEOs are getting more money because its more and more expensive year over year to live the lifestyle they demand. The reason for that is the dollar buys less and less.
The CEOs want to cut payroll. Why? It increases a profit. It’s less expense to hire, train, monitor, and employ and employee. Jobs are an expense. The idea and goal and objective is to eliminate jobs not create or save them. If they could find a way to produce a product or service by employing less they will. This is accomplished initially by sending the jobs overseas and those people in those manufacturing jobs are the modern day physical slaves. Soon and ongoing it is accomplished by artificial intelligence, robotics; etc. This is a long time ongoing project that began with the technocratic age with the invention of the conveyor belt. They have even distorted the meaning of the word: “economy”. I think economy used to mean how miserly or efficient and productive one ran his family company or household. Now it has taken on this whole esoteric scientific analytic equations and percentages about “national economy” .. etc.
I also believe a factor is the dwindling population. The population is in decline and the heyday happy day 1950’s or roaring 1920’s type eras are over. This is why there is a push for refugees coming in and to make legal the “undocumented workers”. They don’t want the pyramid scheme to stop. Keep in mind too it’s all based on debt and creation of more debt and people willing to fuel and accept this kind of governance. We who keep taking on more debt are the debt slaves.
The goal is to sale a product or service at the highest price, at the lowest cost, by any means necessary. To take care best of all the ones at the top of the hierarchy… at the top of the triangle.
If there is less demand than expected, so what, so long as the guys on top have a comfy lifestyle. It’s always been this way whether the “economy” was good, growing, or bad.
“I also believe a factor is the dwindling population. The population is in decline and the heyday happy day 1950’s or roaring 1920’s type eras are over.”
FYI, the U.S. population went from 140 million in 1945 to 320 million today.
True, however fewer people are in the workforce.
http://www.usnews.com/news/the-report/articles/2015/07/16/unemployment-is-low-but-more-workers-are-leaving-the-workforce
do you step on the gas, or just go out and get a new car?
wait, everybody already has.
Surely what matters is whether the 36% will cut more than the 27%. If they are net neutral, then we are back at square one.
I don’t think the US economy is great, but it’s year 8 of the “recovery” and I am not seeing anything that’s close to a Lehman moment yet.
The US still has the potential to do well. As an ex employer I have to say that the lawyers and worker`s comp as well as the fraudulent doctors were a huge part of my costs. As a result I outsourced anything and everything I could. And then I finally shut it down. My view is that it is the legal system. It cripples management and salaries are just not that bad….it is the insurance and management costs for bad employees. I heard somewhere that Google and Apple spend more on lawyers than they do on research for new products. I would believe it in California.
With 5% of the world’s population we have 75% of the world’s lawyers. This nation is going to litigate itself to death!
You hired them. Take a look in the mirror. You outsourced? Surely you are not part of the problem LOL
Salary at the top is part of the problem. Elaborate on how CEO pay adds value. Here is my Harvard MBA analysis – It doesnt.
Yet the charade is kept going with the buying back of their own company shares.
The benefits of capitalism far outweigh the negatives .
In capitalism there are failures and successes.
To the victors go the spoils they say.
To all of the rest left over from the economy of greed go the
Scraps.
From theses scraps millions of us scrape by a living .
“In capitalism there are failures and successes”
Sure sounds like somebody hasn’t been paying attention in class……there is no f’ing bailout in capitalism and failure is an integral part of capitalism but to the connected failure isn’t allowed…..hence, NOT capitalism
with the bailouts of 2008 we were all taught that the USA is no longer a capitalist system.
The current Wells Fargo fraud case has also taught us that, in the USA, fraud pays and it pays very well.
The United States economy is based on fraud, accounting trickery and market rigging….NOT capitalism.
here endith the lesson.
Did the CEO of Caterpillar, or any of these CEOs take a pay cut or give up bonuses?
I look at so many CEOs, economists, board of directors, and actually the list is endless, as viruses. Viruses like the AIDS virus. Without mercy or conscience, They suck the life out of the company, their people until there is nothing left…and move on to the next victim. The CEO hires the board, the board gives the CEO all he wants, the CEO raises the boards pay. That easy, and we are blind.
Perhaps, these folks that are destine to loose their jobs are H1B1 holders.
You want your voice heard? Stop buying, stop buying a company’s product that you have an issue with. Tell your friends. I do not patronize any company that Warren Buffet has ownership in, including Kraft, Dunk Donuts, Baskin Robbins, Wells Fargo, and many more. That is just one company that I boycott for good reasons. Sell the stock if you have it. Put you money where your objections are. Cash in your 401k before THEY raise the tax rate and wipe out all your ‘profits’ ( after all how does the 20 to 21 trillion dollar debt get paid off?)..
I think larry sommers came out and said 2% gdp growth is the new normal and the best we can now expect.
According to this article which I ask you read and that many thousands of people have read this morning (in fact I read myself in a local newspaper while recalling the night before having read this wolfreport story), stating that the economy is a bed of roses, in fact it is doing exceptionally well. The article in essense is to bash doom-sayer/non-believers and pull away support for Trump.
See:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2016/09/13/a-new-report-brings-very-good-news-about-the-economy-what-will-trump-say-about-it/?utm_term=.41e8c4c9fd12#comments
This is what I mean to say and that is that these articles are like the judicial system, one can find an article/decision/statistic that presents one view and then another decision is the exact opposite. Who to believe? Certainly not the statiticians. Certain fundamental facts remain true no matter what.
My comments were the first time posting so I may not be an expert touting percentages and citing economic reports.
Felix_47 is right about his point. The lawyers (a cost of doing business, billable hours, consultations; etc.) factored in with many other costs (which create jobs and revenue for the economy), like force placed “health” insurance and all the other multitude of benefits, costs, outsourcing, expenses, risks, and contigencies associated with employment and running a business, which help fluff up the economy. There is no money in jobs. The money is not in jobs. There is an incentive to lay off. I don’t think it’s surprising at this point. Blue collar and white collar; either are not immune. All that matters is what’s good for the CEO’s, preferred stock-holders, and bankers and those who do business with bankers (i.e. insurance brokers, investors; etc).
Why would a CEO take a pay cut? So he can retain employees who are no longer needed due to low demand? And low demand due to low wages, and deflated worthless dollars. Of course, not, he will cut them first and save himself first.
<>
I wonder – Why is this index run from 0 to 150 ? And why is over 50 means growth ? so what anything over 100 is irrational exuberance ?
What is the historical accuracy of these predictions ?
Great piece Wolf !
Meme Imfurst – The world sure would be a better place if you could get cooperation from the public in the way of boycotting companies with bad boy moves by the CEO or the corporation. Would GM have fixed the ignition key defect as soon as it was found? Would VW have not decided that a cheat was better than just saying we can’t meet the diesel emission standards…?
I think it’s just part of the moral slide down hill from the good old 1950’s to the “Greed is Good” and anything goes mess we are all in now….
.
It’s a survey-based diffusion index. So the data that go into it are percentages. Many but not all diffusion indexes use 50 as the mid-point (above 50 = expansion, below 50 = contraction). Others use 100 or zero as midpoint. It’s a choice that the index provider makes.
In this case, the range of the index is from -50 to +150, with the midpoint at 50. This setup is a choice the BRT made.
These indices might make more intuitive sense if the midpoint were set at zero. But then you’d get negative numbers – and people would freak out!
“But then you’d get negative numbers – and people would freak out!”
I’ve been dealing with a lot of negative numbers for a long time and i concur…..i AM FREAKING OUT.
According to the BLS (2014 data) the US has a total of 150.6 (million) jobs. Of that, 120.6 are service jobs, the remainder 19.1 goods producing and 2.1 agriculture.
Service jobs are parasitical to the economy. It is more or less passing FRNs back and forth. You either need a surplus of goods to trade to pay for them or a surplus of debt.
Anatomy of an Economy
Agrarian ————->
Industrial ———–>
Service —————>
Collapse
Per capita energy use in the US is on the decline while it is on the rise in countries like China and India…an indication of where the actual production of goods has gone.
“where the actual production of goods has gone.”
Exactly, I’m unclear on why any international company would pay $33k per annum ($20~$35/hr) when they could simply move to Mexico and pay $26/day.
Something’s seriously wrong with those who think $15 min wage is realistic, it just doesn’t work.
It would raise the buying power of the public and stimulate business activity and consumption. This would lead to greater employment and profits. Ever heard of the multiplier effect? It is dangerous to look at something as complex as economics so one-sidedly.
“Ever heard of the multiplier effect?”
how many times have we heard this trickle down bullshit? The thinking goes “if we make rich people insanely rich some of their wealth will trickle down to everyone else” but as we’ve seen for 30 years that isn’t how the real world works.
“Something’s seriously wrong with those who think $15 min wage is realistic, it just doesn’t work”
i agree completely IF a house cost $50K and rent is $450 a month BUT here in the real world (admittedly my area real world) a house costs $550K and rent is $2500 a month.
so i ask, who are the boomers going to sell their assets to? the $10 an hour service worker? the $8 an hour under the table illegal immigrant?
once again math rears it’s ugly head.
the American economy can not exist at current asset price levels on what the average worker earns IMHO.
June 13, 2016 Which Corporations Control The World?
A surprisingly small number of corporations control massive global market shares. How many of the brands below do you use?
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article44864.htm
LOL, this is pure comedy.
We’ve spent the last 30 years destroying American industry and exporting all the well paying jobs and the “experts” can’t seem to understand why there is a lack of “growth” and “demand” in the economy.
it’s kinda like this -10 well paying jobs +5 low paying service based jobs does not = a growing economy.
it’s just math folks.
Would that be old or new, math? There must be some reason the “experts” can’t seem to comprehend the numbers.
Heck, even people who appear to comprehend the numbers still insist on a $15/hr minimum wage. That expense alone prices the US worker out of the market, add to this the regulatory costs, legal costs, etc.
Why can’t we just have an honest conversation instead of trying to mislead and talk someone’s book?
The American economy will self destruct if we DON’T raise the minimum wage! The current wage is too low and does not allow workers enough to live. The severe depression in income keeps consumption low with wide spread devastating impacts on the entire economy. You are the one who seems to not understand math! Besides, you seem to have a real lack of heart and to be positively gloating over the poverty and misery that low wages cause while being blissfully unaware of the deadly impact this has on the national economy. Do you think that if a worker has a roof over his head instead of cardboard he has it way too good? If he eats 3 times a day instead of once every few days he is outrageously coddled? If he wears clothes and shoes instead of rags he is extravagant? If he has access to health care instead of just being sent home to die so as to decrease the surplus population he is being sinfully spoiled?
I nominate you for the Ebenezer Scrooge Award for sheer hard-hearted callousness!
It appears to me you’re shooting the messenger.
You’ll just have to get used to the reality (somehow).
And just why do you think American labor should be “competitive” with labor in Bangladesh, Haiti and Indonesia and reduce the American people to the same level of wretchedness and misery? I find your point of view disturbing and loathsome!
How do you compete in the workforce if your wage isn’t competitive globally, isn’t this the definition of globalization? For instance, if I were Ford, I’d move manufacturing to Mexico.
Oh wait, they just did, so case in point it appears, no?
So please explain, how does a factory floor worker making $26/day afford your $500k house, or how does he afford the hamburger flipper’s $15/hr hamburger?
Your new math doesn’t add up.
SEPTEMBER 12, 2016 Why Won’t Americans Focus on the Issues That Really Matter?
Over the past twenty to thirty years, the United States has lost a massive number of lower and middle class value-added jobs. These are largely the manufacturing jobs that allowed the United States to support its own needs and export goods, which builds real wealth.
http://economyincrisis.org/content/why-doe-america-focus-on-the-issues-that-dont-count
“These are largely the manufacturing jobs that allowed the United States to support its own needs and export goods, which builds real wealth.”
100% CORRECT.
that’s why there is so much wealth in China…yet some still keep screeching about this $15 an hour wage thing….fuck that we need to have $30 an hour manufacturing jobs to support current price levels….the reason there is no demand is most don’t make enough money. I don’t know one boomer that could afford to buy the house they live in on their current income……AND THEIR CHILDREN MAKE EVEN LESS.
wealth is “created” by taking raw materials and making products world markets wanna buy NOT asset juggling which America has turned into.
“I don’t know one boomer that could afford to buy the house they live in on their current income……AND THEIR CHILDREN MAKE EVEN LESS.”
Hmm, there seems to be a trend. Let’s get out in front of this by legislating a solution commanding a $100 minimum wage.
How would Ford respond, would they move manufacturing out of country? Oh wait, they’re already front-running our clever legislation.
Globalization was suppose to raise the lowest boats.
You, and the globalized vampire corporations allied with china. Have abuse it, to destroy the western middle class (who just happened to be the global consumption engine) enriching themselves, whist keeping the majority of the people globalization was suppose to raise, lower than they were.
Just as we said you would.
There will be a reset, that restores the western middle class, or an implosion, that takes china and the vampire globalized corporations with it.
The path you advocate (Lower US and western wages and no protection from unfair competition, for western industry’s) is the path to a major global implosion, destroying china and the vampire globalized corporations.
Perhaps Ford should be forced by our Government (tariffs) to sell us cars at the price of host manufacturing country. Made in US = US sale prices. Made in Bangladesh = Bangladesh sale prices. Whether I live in NYC or London or Dhakka.
In absence of this, the price differential arbitrage is nothing but a tool for thieving from taxpayers who pay for Fords’s security, army, NHS and so on. Sitting ducks with fixed addresses (homes), you know what I mean.
Politicians are either too inept or too corrupt to do anything about this, whatever many times you vote for them.
The French had a good stint at dealing with parasites in their society a couple hundred years ago (guillotine and suchlike).
“The French had a good stint at dealing with parasites in their society a couple hundred years ago (guillotine and suchlike).”
The descendants of the Scumbag Takers, who operated and ordered operated the Guillotines.
Are the Pconomic and Political Scumbags, who control france today.
Now you simply wish to do it all again, which will entail installing, an even lower, stupider, class of scumbag, than last time, at the top.
Even when history show’s it top you in unbiased black and white.The global republican taker revolution, that reverberated from france, and democracy in its current form, is a huge failure.
All it achieved, was to move wealth and power from 1 set of pockets, to a lower intelligence and class, even more crony corrupt, set of pockets, than before, creating a huge mess in the process.
We are now coming to the end of that 250 350 year revolutionary cycle. Want to do it all again, making another sideways and backwards move, so you can get your hands on the wealth and power this time round.
Tearing it all down, and taking from the rich, didnt work in, france, russia, china, vietnam, korea, cuba, or the rest of south america, africa, last time, and it wont this time either.
Do we need Improvement/change, YES.
Do we need change, via destruction, and taking, by the scumbag destroyers and takers.
NO.
Interesting, you seem to have something important to say but you seem to have trouble structuring your points logically. Could you rephrase your ideas?
I’m not arguing, I’m simply asking a few questions to see where other people stand on a few subjects that seem important in the context of the big picture.
One more thing, you send jobs off-shore, chances are very good they’re never coming back unless there’s a compelling reason.
I’m prepared to read a lengthy list of realistic compelling reasons.
We need to get rid of these “free trade” agreements. They are the heart of the problem. If big business wants to move their factories out of the country, let them but treat these as foreign corporations and charge stiff tariffs to bring their products back in. Create tax disincentives to taking a factory out of the country instead of rewarding them to do so. There are many things that could be done to tip the balance away from big business and Wall Street and towards the American people but it will take good organization.
“We need to get rid of these “free trade” agreements. They are the heart of the problem.”
This seems to be a politically incorrect point of view.
So you prefer crony Globalization gone wild, where the vampire corporates allied with china enslave the planet by forcing all workers to the lowest common denominator.
Globalization without common industrial and environmental standards was, and has proven to be a recipie for disaster. For all but the few Crony vampire Corporates allied with china.Who have gamed the system to enrich themselves at everybody else expense.
Trade agreements at least have some rules, that party’s have to abide by, for a globilized china and its allies, there are currently, no rules.
I’m amazed that so many clearly well read people have all avoided the obvious points here. Minimum wage dictations to address national economic instabilities/inequalities are a stop gap measure and will always end in further imbalance because they are neither the cause nor the solution to a problem the population of this site can’t even agree on let alone begin to address.
USA boasts the worlds top agri, pharma, financial, legal yada yada industries and corporations. USA citizens tend to pay the most in the world for these products and services. Have you ever been to a foreign country and wondered why the exact same product is so startlingly cheap? Even when it’s made by the same brand and the factory is in your country not the one you are visiting? (or at least closer) Do you think a Chinese citizen in Beijing pays the same for a Lenovo notebook that you do buying it in New York? Or even more? Not a chance. You pay, so you will always pay. The same goes for the rest of the West. Businesses will always charge what people will pay. If they are able to legally monopolise markets even including essential services like energy and healthcare due to a complete absence of resistance and lashback, they can pretty much make you pay what they want you to. In fact I believe they do.
Meme Imfurst is a type of person the world needs in droves but sadly people tend to be far too stupid, lazy or selfish to ever expect this sort of behaviour from. Don’t expect changes for the masses when the masses are the first to turn on each other and the first to sell their soul given the chance to get that next step on the ladder and become one of the top dogs.
The USA has been in a never ending series of wars since inception and this will continue so long as you all keep applauding soldiers and having your processions and parades. So long as a fundamental basis of your economy is killing millions around the globe to acquire resources you will find a hard time finding morally and ethically sound minds running your country.
To anyone debating Clinton or Trump – What are you even debating? Is it possible to have a debate on pro vs con with these candidates? The 2 most capable leaders of USA are one of these 2? Noone else is calling BS on the entire debacle?
Change the game.
Mmmmm….. Paulus, all that was terribly emotional but rather lacking in sense. Could you try throwing in some data and logic into the mix and clearly stating your point?
Now now, the US has a proud history of electing unqualified idiots and still doing OK. A certain Mr. Coolidge, or even a Mr. Harding of the 20s comes to mind. Like Bush II they oversaw nice periods of expansions and practiced laissez faire capitalism, being of course good republicans. That ended well of course, but the point here is that our present candidates aren’t that laid back. We’re probably also not looking at another expansion as after when consumer credit was first invented.
Of course, those other two presidents also did a lot of good. The rhetoric of modern times may actually be a bit tamer than that of the twenties, a period where the government poisoned 10K people per year with strychnine during prohibition, innocents were executed as terrorists and racial tensions against Italians (Italians!) exceeded the hate of present day republicans for Latin Americans. That’s my perspective.
Sep 15, 2016 President Dimon? The Banksters Are Taking Off Their Mask
Welcome to New World Next Week — the video series from Corbett Report and Media Monarchy that covers some of the most important developments in open source intelligence news.
https://youtu.be/ubuscGx1fKg
Average Joe and Jane are economically failing. Sure, they were not financial or economic geniuses and they certainly made large debt mistakes. But we have to stop dealing in blame – especially regarding the little guys. You know, the worker bees who keep the yachts floating and the elite’s mansions in repair.
A debt jubilee for regular people is vital. Remove the burden that keeps them from revolting against the Wall Street and their ilk who have not on allowed this mess but developed it on purpose to do exactly what it is doing – enslave the common folk so they are too busy surviving to revolt.
Millenials are getting it. They are not buying all the cheap crap and huge homes and prestige cars but instead are having potlucks and hiking days with friends, developing talents and interests that do not need huge sums of money, they are refusing to take jobs requiring them to work long long hours or extensively travel for their jobs. We cannot hire young talented people in our business because the job requires travel and they tell us they do not want the harried grasping lifestyle their parents’ felt forced into. They are heavily burdened with student debt as are their parents.
The way to bring down the oligarchic system we now have is to refuse to pay any debt and refuse to acquire more. The PTB will never allow a debt jubilee so those I. Debt ought to coalesce and make their own…. THAT would be a fine day.
Watch out for legislation that makes it illegal for parents to estate plan and absolve their children of their debts.
There will be no debt jubilee for the common man, only for those who are allowed to borrow at a negative rate, as their debt will evaporate over time with nirp.