@MrMarkAndrew Yep.
@ubergigglefritz Smart. I enjoy your posts on many threads.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/nathanlewis/2015/09/09/the-u-s-embraced-a-gold-standard-for-182-years-why-is-it-impossible-today/
https://www.vox.com/platform/amp/2014/7/16/5900297/case-against-gold-standard
@SunsetSnuggles if only, haha! Sadly, the US stock market is not...
@achetocuddle I try to give back best I can to other local businesses. So much more rewarding than helping big corporations. We're all trying to survive best we can. Beyond that, what matters are connections. I appreciate your sentiments. 😇
Involved in the supply chain a few things come to mind.
Less competition in many industries.
TWO big players in the soft drink/beverage PepsiCo and Coke Cola
TWO big companies that supply many of baby needs like diapers. Kimberly Clark and Proctor Gamble. We already saw what happend when Abbott Industries put a non compliant formula factory out of service.
There are just NINE shipping companies that move container freight worldwide.
Just FOUR big chicken processing plants. Even less for Pork. I'm unsure about beef.
The big players in the oil industry have zero incentive to refine more light sweet crude for the domestic market. They are holding back supply and driving allocation shortages to pipelines and fuel buyers.
They are making record profits for themselves and the shareholders. They don't give a damn about how much it costs anybody else. When world wide demand was down two years ago prices absolutely tanked.
The infrastructure system was built on higher tax rates for the top percentage of earners in the country.
The slide started decades ago when the government all but abandoned the idea of regulating monopolies.
Money buys power and influence. Those with no money do not matter or have any influence.
It's broken. It's been fractured for years. And it's going to get worse.
Those that will do okay are either financially set already or have built networks of like minded people to network with for survival and getting basic needs met like housing, and food.
Sorry to be a Debbie Downer. This is just my view from my own little spot in the ditch we are all in, working like mad just to stay off the very bottom.
I knew years ago I was never going to be above the ditch. But I was never going to make life worse for those beneath me.
@KYtransplant i really enjoyed reading everything you wrote … my most important position in the defi world is a company that is digitizing trade finance, it is really nice to see a genuine inside view.
The jobless rate is low because a large number of people have either retired or quit working.Theres nothing positive about it.
@ubergigglefritz I appreciate your sentiments and sensibilities. If only enough people understood what you expressed. @KYtransplant Yep. @Alan2018 Yep.
@Alan2018 so true. Whenever I hear the WH or some news outlet touting supposedly good news about jobs, I shake my head.
The dollar is being destroyed by inflation. It's only a matter of time.
@MrMarkAndrew @Alan2018 Me too.
I guess so. I was told by another pro that, that may be why I'm not getting clients on here. Although she has had a few and signed up a month after I did, marketing in the same area 🤷♀️I'm guessing the ones who want to cuddle me can't afford it. And the ones who want to cuddle everyone else, can.
Gah!! ~ Shush all you doomsday naysayers!!
I really need some big wig, loud mouth, sunshine and rainbow spewing 'experts', to start preaching about how everything's wonderful and it's a great time to invest!!
I totally blew it by listing a month too late!! 😭
@FunCartel: Eh, our friend who cuddles in the mountains might be talking from the viewpoint held by, you know, that loosely associated group of doomsday preppers with lots of guns and not much else.
My parents have been in there my whole life, so....
When I was a kid it was all "the liberals will come to take our kids away and we'll shoot them and take over the country and make things right." Then it was "the liberals will come to take our guns away and we'll etc." Last I checked it was "the liberals are taking our everything away (just look, it's bad and only getting worse) and we need to and inevitably eventually will etc."
At some point, they figure, there'll be this massively armed grassroots uprising that'll go much better than Take One! At The Capital, and then there'll be a period of chaos from which they'll arise victorious and make America great again.
Probably nothing much will come of it.
If the due diligence done by redditors is correct, then I am ready and hedged for the incoming doom. Been hesitant to book cuddles though. Should be hoarding cash incase they we are wrong 🫣
@DaringSprinter That has been our friend’s past MO
Between 1990 and 2019, global population increased by 45% (5.3 billion to 7.7 billion). However during that same time frame, ship borne global trade increased by 175% (4 billion tons to 11 billion tons). Today there is 2,800 lbs of global trade for every person in the world and that figure only includes what arrives by ships. In the US, 35% our trade (as measured by $ not volume) arrives or departs by air or truck.
This is a huge factor in our supply chain problems. We have a massive truck driver shortage that the industry was warning about over 10 years ago so this particular aspect of our problems spans several presidential administrations (I am not pointing fingers, just acknowledging this particular problem cannot be blamed on any one person or party). The 2021 annual report on the trucking industry estimated the US driver shortage at 80,000 drivers.
Over the past couple of years we have witnessed an acceleration in a long term trend of consolidation in many industries as pointed out by @KYtransplant excellent post above. I won’t make predictions beyond my area of expertise (supply chain management and data analytics) but I will say a number of factors have put the US economy in a very vulnerable position. Where it goes from here is anyone’s guess.
(Edited to correct a typo)
@JohnR1972 Don’t forget the shortage of longshoremen and the persistent labor issues at the ports, particularly on the west coast. Ships are in a seemingly gridlocked traffic pattern outside Long Beach. Plus as you probably know, there are “transport” fees which are basically extortion fees to get your product on the boats in Asia. This is because of the shortage of containers. We did not have these fees 3 years ago and now we do. And tariffs have not gone away. All this piles up to drive costs up.
@FunCartel - I agree. I was trying to keep my post relatively short because I could easily go on about various factors for hours and hours. In the US, our infrastructure has not kept pace with the increased demand placed on it by the massive increase in global trade over the past 30 years.
If you just look at the Port of Los Angeles, in 1990 they handled 2.1 million Twenty foot Equivalent Units (TEUs - intermodal cargo containers measuring 20’ long by 8’ wide by 9’ tall). By 2019, they were handling 9.3 million TEUs, 4.5 time more than they were handling just 29 years earlier. However, the capacity of the port did not increase anywhere near that amount - this is one of many bottle necks contributing to the supply chain problems we see today.
(Edited for a typo)
@FunCartel There has been an inflation nightmare developing for about fifteen years. They’ve been creating new money ever since the real estate crash. Presidents and Congresses from both parties had a hand in that.
@FunCartel I heard there’s a lot of longshoremen’s contracts that are up at the end of the month. That sounds like an iceberg.
According to the Atlanta Fed's 3rd Q2 revision of GDP down to 0, we are technically now in recession. The Fed hiked the Fed Funds rate by 75 bps today in an effort to effect to fight inflation via demand degradation , which in turn will lower company profit margins going forward and instigate layoffs which we're already beginning to see. Tighten your belts as the housing market hasn't even deflated yet.
@JGalt 💯 told my sis she did very well selling her house 50 over asking …. I would say give it a good 10 months (give or take), & the housing bubble’s gonna pop.
@JGalt Yep. @cuddles_ndream Sounds about right.
No offense to R's or D's, but the R's stimulus during covid pushed our slow march toward the cliff faster and then the D's when they took office pushed us over the cliff with more stimulus... er uh, I mean "infrastructure" spending.
The question is how bad will it be considering our other issues? Inflation pain by nature gets rid of our debt. Politicians love inflation because it devalues the peasants money and allows political parties to blame each other when both parties created this.
Americans had their chance when Ron Paul ran, but they would have had enormous pain while he righted the ship. He would have been hated for fixing the country's economic policies because Americans love their credit and don't want to live within their means.
@Snuggluffagus lots of great points !!!!!!! Can’t even argue … I love how both sides couldn’t just include a stimulus bill for the people … nah , infact the stimulus was just a fraction of the entire bill, you had money for everything under the sun … Also, I love how Shake shack (a multi billion dollar company) amongst other like pot belly ect , received a small business forgivable ppp loan, which was intended for small businesses , and they decided to do “the right thing” and return the money but only after getting caught & being exposed …. Oh yeah, & they were amongst the 1st group of business to get approved … shows gov’t corruption clear as day… you mean to tell me that shake shacks application was on top of the pile amongst all the struggling & dying businesses & mom & pop’s across the nation? & even if they beat everyone to the line (umm right), who actually approved their small business forgivable loan application? So no one’s gonna be held accountable, we’re just gonna return the money & pretend like nothing happened?!
People freak out because they lost money in the stock market. No you didn't unless you sold it. The only people who gets hurt on a roller coaster are those who jump off. It only matters what it's gonna be around retirement age when it comes time to take the money out.
@Mike403 That's not entirely true, during stock market crashes and general economic downturns there's a much greater chance of layoffs which may force you to withdraw your 401ks/stocks prematurely (either out of desperation or because your 401k was tied to your previous employer). This can have tax penalties too. Many people are not fortunate enough to have guaranteed secure income until retirement age, so the state of the economy could put their finances in great jeopardy and force them to sell.
That being said I don't think the decreasing value of the stock market is the primary concern for most people right now anyway. The broader, more practical issue for most people are expenses skyrocketing along with inflation eroding the value of the dollar and purchasing power.
The problem with the small business loan was not that it was a bad idea, but that it was executed by morons. The loan was an almost 0% loan and my company (which is a small private company with 65 employees and $55 million in revenue each year plus no debt) like any company that is not asleep at the wheel took it, put it in interest bearing investments then paid it back in advance. It was a self-created new revenue stream. Politicians are not business people and they wonder why they get burned.
I do Grubhub as a side hustle and some people still don't tip even though gas prices are what they are. This is an offer I received on Sunday. This is the total payout to pick up and deliver the order. We don't make an hourly wage. At least as independent contractors, have the ability to reject offers. I hope they went hungry.