<p>dstark- do you follow rail car activity? On another board someone posted that there is strong year over year numbers which to him indicates they economy is in better shape than is being reported.</p>
<p>I will cut and paste what he wrote.</p>
<p>Here it is- let me appeal to your contrarian instincts. What if the economy is actually a bit better then everyone thinks? I don’t know if it is or not, but out of curiosity, I’ve looked back over the last 14 weeks of rail car data (from the week ended June 25 through the week ended September 24). The results are a bit surprising. Here’s a summary:</p>
<p>Total loadings have ranged from +1.06% to -3.21%, with half the weeks positive and half the weeks negative.</p>
<p>I make two adjustments:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>I exclude grains. The spring planting season was horrific, and harvests have been poor as a result, so you’d expect to see a decline that has little to do with economic conditions. Excluding grains, the highest week was +5.8% and the lowest was -2.6%, with 5 negative weeks total and 9 positive.</p></li>
<li><p>I isolate coal. Coal is by far the largest item shipped on the rails, and its use can vary for some non-economic reasons (though, clearly, coal is used in lots of industrial applications, but the largest use is in coal fired generation plants and weather might have an impact on shipments).</p></li>
</ol>
<p>If you look at the data less grains and less coal, there has not been one single down week over the last 3.5 months, and the higherst gain was 7.7% with the lowest at 1.3%.</p>
<p>If you look at the data back in 2008, we were negative for most of the year BEFORE the onset of the crisis in the fall.</p>
<p>Finally, intermodal volumes have held in reasonably well with only 3 down weeks over the last 14.</p>
<p>Seems to paint a muddling picture, but perhaps a little more positive muddling than you’d think.</p>
<p>Other noteworthy items: motor vehicles and equipment has had two down week, one in June and one in July. All of the remaining weeks were up, and up strongly. Chemical shipments have had only one down week.</p>
<p>Tom1944…</p>
<p>I do like that info…</p>
<p>I don’t know what to make of that info, but I like it. :)</p>
<p>dstark- I always find it both informative and bewildering all the economic data that financial people look at. Sometimes I think they can find any data they want that gives them the conclusion they want but there really are indicators that reflect what is going on in the economy.
What scares me is we may have become so productive that we can have economic strength but not need jobs.</p>
<p>[Police</a> Arrest More Than 700 Protesters on Brooklyn Bridge - NYTimes.com](<a href=“Police Arrest More Than 700 Protesters on Brooklyn Bridge - The New York Times”>Police Arrest More Than 700 Protesters on Brooklyn Bridge - The New York Times)</p>
<p>I don’t watch TV, but I heard there’s mostly been a media blackout about this event and all the arrests, is that true? </p>
<p>700 people is a LOT of people to arrest, especially since many of them thought the police were allowing them to walk on the main roadway of the bridge. I’m sure if you’re a few people back in the crowd, you wouldn’t necessarily hear a police order unless they made it good and loud. </p>
<p>It reminds me of the police action a few years ago in DC where they funneled protesters into Pershing square park, ordered them to disburse, didn’t let them leave the park, and then arrested all of them for failing to obey a police order! Many years and lawsuits later the city had to pay each and every arrested person and the judge ordered the chief of police to print an apology in all the local newspapers. Will that happen here? Somehow I think we’re less civilized now and take our civil liberties in partial doses.</p>
<p>Tom1944, I do wonder if that is true…</p>
<p>Yesterday…I used an ATM machine…used a machine to pay a parking bill…used thd self check out stand in a grocery store…paid a bridge toll electronically…</p>
<p>I wonder if efficiency is overrated…</p>
<p>Tom1944… Another thing I wonder about is why it takes so much debt to get this economy going…</p>
<p>Total debt in the United States is over 3 times GDP and this is the best economy we could get?</p>
<p>Debt has just exploded over the last 30 years. I am not just talking about government debt. Indivudual debt and corporate debt have exploded too.</p>
<p>Yes- I have seen that. Starting with Reagan our economic gains have all been debt driven. Have we had a phony economy for the past 30 years and as they say the chickens have now come home to roost?</p>
<p>Well…the chickens are Definitely coming home…</p>
<p>On the plus side…the net worth of the USA is still large…</p>
<p>[Financial</a> position of the United States - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_position_of_the_United_States]Financial”>Financial position of the United States - Wikipedia)</p>
<p>The downside…</p>
<p>The wealth is concentrated at the top…</p>
<p>This based on a report by Deloitte.</p>
<p>[Meet</a> the Global Financial Elites Controlling $46 Trillion In Wealth | | AlterNet](<a href=“http://www.alternet.org/story/151999/meet_the_global_financial_elites_controlling_%2446_trillion_in_wealth?]Meet”>http://www.alternet.org/story/151999/meet_the_global_financial_elites_controlling_%2446_trillion_in_wealth?)</p>
<p>"While 68.3 million Americans struggle to get enough food to eat and wages are declining for 90 percent of the population, US millionaire household wealth has reached an unprecedented level. According to an extensive study by auditing and financial advisory firm Deloitte, US millionaire households now have<em>$38.6 trillion</em>in wealth. On top of the $38.6 trillion this study reveals, they have an estimated<em>$6.3 trillion</em>hidden in offshore accounts.</p>
<p>In total, US millionaire households have at least $45.9 trillion<em>in wealth, the majority of this wealth is held within the upper</em>one-tenth of one percent*of the population."</p>
<p>Why would anybody ever protest against Wall Street?</p>
<p><a href=“http://ampedstatus.org/exclusive-analysis-of-financial-terrorism-in-america-over-1-million-deaths-annually-62-million-people-with-zero-net-worth-as-the-economic-elite-make-off-with-46-trillion/[/url]”>http://ampedstatus.org/exclusive-analysis-of-financial-terrorism-in-america-over-1-million-deaths-annually-62-million-people-with-zero-net-worth-as-the-economic-elite-make-off-with-46-trillion/</a></p>
<p>"VII :: Tax Breaks For The Rich, Budget Cuts For The Rest Of Us</p>
<p>To further demonstrate how the mega-wealthy have seized control our political process, consider that the richest 400 Americans paid 30% of their income in taxes in 1995, but they now pay only 18%.</p>
<p>In fact, 1,470 Americans earned over $1 million in 2009 and didn’t pay any taxes.</p>
<p>The average tax rate for millionaires was 22.4% in 2009, down from 30.4% in 1995. The average millionaire saves $136,000 a year due to reduced tax rates.</p>
<p>Looking at the tax rate from a long-term perspective, the amount of money the richest people and most profitable corporations pay in taxes has fallen dramatically since 1955. Corporate tax accounted for 27.3% of federal revenue in 1955. In 2010, corporate tax accounted for only 8.9% of federal revenue. Corporate taxes accounted for 4.3% of overall GDP in 1955, in 2010 they accounted for only 1.3%."</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>That’s in a nutshell. We built a house of cards and it’s finally collapsed. IMO, * nothing <a href=“additional%20gov’t%20stimulus,%20lowering%20tax%20rates,%20raising%20tax%20rates,%20printing%20more%20money,%20cutting%20the%20deficit”>/i</a> is going to get us out of feeling the pain. The economy is just going to have contract back to where it should have been all along. This is like having a bad case of the flu…there’s nothing to do but ride it out and hope it’s over as quickly as possible. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, the debt crisis in Europe is making everyone nervous on top of what’s going on in our economy.</p>
<p>The Economist has an interesting piece in this month’s issue called “Be afraid.” Last paragraph… “Too many rich-world politicians have failed to tell voters the scale of the problem.” </p>
<p>I think people are finally beginning to realize this is much worse than a normal cyclical recession.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Well, to be fair, it’s not as if altruism was the prime motive for all of those bad loans. The bankers who made them got filthy rich (and then got bailed out by the taxpayers in late 2008). Oh, and those are the same people who now want tax cuts for themselves.</p>
<p>So who is going to feel the pain?</p>
<p>Looks to me like some people not only do not want to share the pain, but they want to exploit the economic situation by increasing their gains to the detriment of the majority.</p>
<p>Some of the proposals…</p>
<p>Taxing capital gains and unearned income at zero…who benefits? Really? Who benefits?
Cutting the top income tax rate? Who benefits?</p>
<p>Cutting SS and medicare? Who loses?
It is not that hard to figure things out. </p>
<p>Getting rid of the mortgage deduction. Who loses?
Getting rid of tax free health care benefits. who loses?</p>
<p>Getting rid of the mortgage tax Deduction, getting rid of tax free health care benefits and then cutting the top income tax rate…who wins and loses?</p>
<p>But dstark, the benefits will trickle down! Really, they will! They’ve been saying so for 30 years, and sooner or later it’s bound to happen!</p>
<p>I was completely taken aback by a BBC reporter this past week. Discussion programs now in Europe are scary. Twelve months and individual wealth will be lost. Be smart.</p>
<p>But back to 30 years ago: low rent, low house prices, low wages, no shop til you drop, no credit cards for all, little travel, money in the bank, high interest rates if you put money in the bank, no clothes tagged with designer labels and fancy purses.</p>
<p>It’s been a fake bubble.</p>
<p>I completely support this wall street protest.</p>
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</p>
<p>LOL…you need to put that on a bumper sticker!</p>
<p>“But dstark, the benefits will trickle down! Really, they will! They’ve been saying so for 30 years, and sooner or later it’s bound to happen!”</p>
<p>Lol…</p>
<p>Regarding media coverage of OWS:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>[MSM</a> slow to pick up on Occupy Wall Street](<a href=“http://blogs.metrotimes.com/index.php/2011/09/msm-slow-to-pick-up-on-occupy-wall-street/comment-page-1/]MSM”>http://blogs.metrotimes.com/index.php/2011/09/msm-slow-to-pick-up-on-occupy-wall-street/comment-page-1/)</p>
<p>^^And I never expected otherwise (the lack of media coverage).</p>