Apparently fear is creating a disconnect from reality according this article. But is fear causing a global slowdown or is reality plotting its course ?
People do not riot around the world because of fear; rather their revolt is a result of pent up frustration and tougher living conditions.
Comments »The analyst expects no cut in interest rates and with Europe’s debt woes a problem for China’s exports…
Comments »Essentially the banks of Europe have committed to shrinking themselves via asset sales. This will help them raise cash and reduce risks of their exposure.
Some analyst say this will be not enough and that they may need as much as 2 trillion Euros…
Comments »Cheering Economic Terrorism- SEIU Getting Ready To Terrify DC: Steven Lerner At SEIU Meeting Outlines Rules To Creating a Crisis: We want their kids to hate them, name enemies like Glenn Beck, shut down bridges, long occupations, recruit Tea Party.
This was from September 22nd. Yet the media still wants you to believe this is grassroots, and NOT part of the Obama re-election strategy.
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKqHL8eJZO8 603 500] Comments »This article describes the deficiencies present in typical measure of income inequality, describes some trends, and list some possible causes.
As we continue to examine the #OWS raised issue of income inequality, ask yourself if the data being presented in the media is accurate. Furthermore, are the causes of income inequality as simple as #OWS would have you believe?
In one sense, the growth of inequality in the last part of the twentieth century comes as a surprise. In the 1950s, the bottom part of the income distribution contained large concentrations of two kinds of families: farm families whose in-kind income was not counted in Census data, and elderly families, many of whom were ineligible for the new Social Security program. Over subsequent decades, farm families declined as a proportion of the population while increased Social Security benefits and an expanding private pension system lifted elderly incomes. Both trends favored greater income equality but were outweighed by four main factors.
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Family structure. Over time, the two-parent, one-earner family was increasingly replaced by low-income single-parent families and higher-income two-parent, two-earner families. A part of the top quintile’s increased share of income reflects the fact that the average family or household in the top quintile contains almost three times as many workers as the average family or household in the bottom quintile.
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Trade and technology. Trade and technology increasingly shifted demand away from less-educated and less-skilled workers toward workers with higher education or particular skills. The result was a growing earnings gap between more- and less-educated/skilled workers.
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Expanded markets. With improved communications and transportation, people increasingly functioned in national, rather than local, markets. In these broader markets, persons with unique talents could command particularly high salaries.
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Immigration. In 2002, immigrants who had entered the country since 1980 constituted nearly 11 percent of the labor force (see immigration). A relatively high proportion of these immigrants had low levels of education and increased the number of workers competing for low-paid work.7
These factors, however, can explain only part of the increase in inequality. One other factor that explains the particularly high incomes of the highest-paid people is that between 1982 and 2004, the ratio of pay of chief executive officers to pay of the average worker rose from 42:1 to 301:1, and pay of other high-level managers, lawyers, and people in other fields rose substantially also.
Read the rest of the research here.
Comments »(Reuters) – Apple Inc stunned Wall Street by reporting results that missed expectations for the first time in years, blaming rumors of the new iPhone for hurting demand in the September quarter.
Shares of Apple fell 7 percent in extended trading on Tuesday, wiping some $27 billion off the value of the world’s largest technology company.
It was Apple’s first quarterly earnings under Chief Executive Tim Cook, who took over from Steve Jobs in August at a critical juncture for the company. Apple is battling Google Inc in the mobile arena, as well as other challengers such as Samsung and Amazon.com Inc.
“Investors are going to start to speculate that there is change under way now that Jobs is gone, and that there’s trouble ahead. We don’t share that point,” said Channing Smith, co-manager at Capital Advisors Growth Fund, which holds Apple shares.
“The iPhone is where the weakness was and it’s an explainable one. The strong demand for the iPhone 4S set up strong demand for the holiday season.”
Apple said it sold 17.07 million iPhones in its fiscal fourth quarter ended September 24 — well short of the roughly 20 million forecast by analysts. The iPhone is Apple’s flagship product, yielding some 40 percent of annual sales.
Revenue rose 39 percent to $28.27 billion, lower than the average analyst estimate of $29.69 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. It was the first time Apple missed revenue expectations since the fiscal fourth quarter of 2008.
Net profit was $6.62 billion, or $7.05 a share. That fell shy of expectations for earnings of $7.39 per share. The last time Apple missed EPS estimates was in the first quarter of 2001, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
“Expectations for this company were red-hot, that is why we downgraded it,” said BGC Partners analyst Colin Gillis, who lowered his rating on the shares days before. “The reality is their business is not an annuity. They have to sell their quarter’s worth of revenue every 90 days.”
“They had a big upgrade cycle with the iPhone, the numbers came in weak. They need to set records every time they report to keep up the momentum.”
Read the rest here.
Comments »Moody’s Investors Service has today downgraded Spain’s government bond ratings to A1 from Aa2. This rating action concludes the review for possible downgrade that Moody’s had initiated for Spain’s rating on 29 July. The ratings carry a negative outlook. The main drivers that prompted the rating downgrade are as follow:
(1) Spain continues to be vulnerable to market stress and event risk. Since placing the ratings under review in late July 2011, no credible resolution of the current sovereign debt crisis has emerged and it will in any event take time for confidence in the area’s political cohesion and growth prospects to be fully restored. In the meantime, Spain’s large sovereign borrowing needs as well as the high external indebtedness of the Spanish banking and corporate sectors render it vulnerable to further funding stress.
(2) The already moderate growth prospects for Spain have been scaled back further in view of (i) the worsening global and European growth outlook and (ii) the difficult funding situation for the banking sector and its impact on the wider economy. Specifically, Moody’s now expects Spain’s real GDP growth in 2012 to be 1% at best, compared with earlier expectations of 1.8%, with risks mainly to the downside. Over the following years, the rating agency continues to expect a very moderate pace of growth of around 1.5% on average per annum.
(3) Lower economic growth in turn will make the achievement of the ambitious fiscal targets even more challenging for Spain. Moody’s expects the budget deficits for the general government sector to be above target both this year and next. In particular, Moody’s continues to have serious concerns regarding the funding situation of the regional governments and their ability to reduce their budget deficits according to targets.
Moody’s is maintaining a negative outlook on Spain’s rating to reflect the downside risks from a potential further escalation of the euro area crisis. The rating agency expects that the next government to emerge after Spain’s parliamentary elections on 20 November will be strongly committed to continued fiscal consolidation. Spain’s rating would face further downward pressure if this expectation did not materialise.
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