Central Perk

vineri, 19 iulie 2013

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis

Japan Tells Firms "Stop Sitting on Cash", Ignore the Lack of Customers

Posted: 19 Jul 2013 09:40 PM PDT

If you are looking for idiotic policies in action, the theories of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe should be right in your spotlight.

Abe now tells Japanese firms "Stop Sitting on Cash"

Okuma, a Japanese machine-tool maker, has seen its stock price rise around 30% this year. Its customers have outdated machinery that needs replacing. But, for now, the company isn't investing. Instead, it is sitting on a pile of cash worth about $280 million—50% higher than its pile a decade ago, equivalent to one-fifth its annual sales, and more than twice the level required for the firm to be deemed loan-worthy by a bank.

Why? Senior director Chikashi Horie says the answer is simple. Okuma's clients "are not investing, not even to raise efficiency, so we are not investing either," he says.

Okuma's thinking embodies one of the key challenges for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's ambitious growth plan: persuading Japan's famously stingy companies to stop stashing their earnings in the bank, and putting the money to more productive use, helping complete—rather than short-circuit—the virtuous economic cycle.

Blatantly Obvious Idiocy

What is with these central planning fools anyway?

Not only do they think they know better than the free markets, they want companies to produce what their customers clearly do not want.

The irony in this situation is that Abe is hell bent on producing inflation in Japan.

Here's a simple question: What happens to prices when more products are produced in the face of falling or static demand?

Abe is a fool in the first place for his inflation targets, but he is even more of a fool to think producing merchandise no one wants is the way to achieve that goal.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com

Avalanche of City Debt Downgrades and Eventual Bankruptcies Coming Up; Numerous Cities Bankrupt Over Pension Promises

Posted: 19 Jul 2013 10:15 AM PDT

Yesterday Moody's downgrades Chicago's credit rating, pension debt to blame.

Chicago's credit score is on the way down. The city is getting a small down grade from Aa3 to A3, because of the city's pension problem.

Moody's Investors Service says it's making the move because of "formidable legal and political barriers to pension reform" in the state. The downgrade affects $8.2 billion in debt and means it will cost the city more to borrow money.

According to Moody's Chicago has $19 billion in unfunded pension liability and faces a "tremendous strain" in meeting their budget and paying law enforcement.

Avalanche of City Downgrades Coming Up

With the bankruptcy of Detroit and numerous cities in California, it will not be long before the rating agencies downgrade city debt en masse.

Zombified Cities

Philadelphia: 5th Largest City in US is Effectively Bankrupt; Mayor Holds Closed Meeting With Wall Street to Discuss Asset Sales
Houston: CPAs state Houston is Bankrupt
LA: Mayor of Los Angeles Says "Bankruptcy is Not an Option" (Of Course It Is)
New York Cities: Public Pension Ponzi Scheme - New York Cities Borrow From Pension Plan to Make Contributions
Baltimore: Time for Baltimore to "Pull a Vallejo" and Declare Bankruptcy
Miami: Miami Commissioner Says Bankruptcy is City's Best Hope; Chris Christie Says New Jersey Careens Towards Becoming Greece
Chicago: Chicago's Mayor Daley Discusses Bankruptcy For City Pensions
Scranton: Scranton Mayor Slashes All Public Worker Wages to $7.25 per Hour, Including Police, Fire, His Own; City Effectively Bankrupt
Harrisburg: Pennsylvania State Capital Files for Bankruptcy
Zombified Cities Roundup: Detroit Becomes Dumping Ground for the Dead; Financial Urgency in Miami; Oakland Pension Time Bomb; How Pensions Crashed Stockton and San Bernardino

There is absolutely no way Chicago, Oakland, Baltimore, Philadelphia, LA, Houston, and numerous other cities can meet pension obligations without a major restructuring of promises.

Given that public unions seldom if ever agree on even the smallest of pension concessions, expect many of those haircuts to happen in bankruptcy court.

This article regarding the bankruptcy of Stockton, California shows why bankruptcy is inevitable: Federal Bankruptcy Court Lets Stockton, California Cut Retiree Health Care Benefits

The bankruptcies in California cities and Detroit provide a backdrop of what's about to happen. In the meantime, expect an avalanche of city debt downgrades.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com

Damn Cool Pics

London flooded by Romanian Gypsies

Posted: 18 Jul 2013 09:08 PM PDT

Roma gypsies refuse to leave parks in central London. Germany, France, the UK. It seems like many Roma gypsies moved from Romania to the Western Europe after Romania has joined the European Union. This is what one shop owner from London says:

'They really smell, they don't clean, they don't shower, and they will not wash their hands. I serve them here every day. The way I serve them, I say to them stay outside the shop. I have asthma so the smell is not good for me.

President Obama: Trayvon Martin Could Have Been Me

Featured

President Obama: Trayvon Martin Could Have Been Me

This afternoon, President Obama spoke from the White House Press Briefing Room about Trayvon Martin and the verdict of the trial that followed the Florida teenager’s death.

Watch the President's remarks, then share this email with your friends and family.

Why You Should Blog Less and Update More Graywolf's SEO Blog

Why You Should Blog Less and Update More
How to Build an Affiliate Website Google Doesn’t Hate
The Role Social Media Plays In Crawling a Website
The Importance of Testing in SEO
How Google’s Javascript Bot Can Kill Your Website
How To Protect Your Home Business From A Natural Disaster
Building a Niche Website
Google FINALLY Admits That GWO Could F*** Up Your Rankings
Is Social Media The Best Use of Your Time?
How Google is Filled With Hypocrisy and Will Steal Your Intellectual Property

Why You Should Blog Less and Update More

Posted: 26 Feb 2013 09:49 AM PST

While there aren’t many marketers who still feel you need to blog everyday, most will agree that you should blog often for a variety of reasons. However, I’m going suggest that it might be time to bring that sacred cow to the slaughter house and that, the more posts you publish, the more of a [...]

The post Why You Should Blog Less and Update More appeared first on Graywolf's SEO Blog.

How to Build an Affiliate Website Google Doesn’t Hate

Posted: 21 Feb 2013 09:50 AM PST

In over a decade of working on websites I’ve see a lot of affiliate websites. Some were good but a lot were very bad. In this post, I’ll share my experiences about what I think Google is looking for and the common traits of things I’ve seen fail. Single Offer Website When I first started, [...]

The post How to Build an Affiliate Website Google Doesn’t Hate appeared first on Graywolf's SEO Blog.

The Role Social Media Plays In Crawling a Website

Posted: 19 Feb 2013 10:00 AM PST

There have been many debates about the value social media plays in having content rank. While nothing has been definitively resolved, it has been shown to be beneficial in the short term. In this post I’d like to take a look at a different aspect: the impact social media has on crawling and indexing. Recently, [...]

The post The Role Social Media Plays In Crawling a Website appeared first on Graywolf's SEO Blog.

The Importance of Testing in SEO

Posted: 15 Feb 2013 09:57 AM PST

As a WebmasterWorld Moderator for the Google SEO section I am asked questions everyday and honestly most of them really upset me. I don’t mean a little upsetting, I mean like turning into a big green monster that starts saying “me hulk smash tings”. Why am I so worked up? Because the questions are simple [...]

The post The Importance of Testing in SEO appeared first on Graywolf's SEO Blog.

How Google’s Javascript Bot Can Kill Your Website

Posted: 13 Feb 2013 10:39 AM PST

In recent years due to developers misguided attempts to make the web a more interesting place with things like JavaScript and Ajax, search engines have had to come up with new tools to make the content that’s hidden behind these technologies accessible. While I’m sure the people at the Googleplex have nothing but the best [...]

The post How Google’s Javascript Bot Can Kill Your Website appeared first on Graywolf's SEO Blog.

How To Protect Your Home Business From A Natural Disaster

Posted: 29 Jan 2013 08:05 AM PST

As some of you may know I live on the south shore of Long Island, and this was one of the areas that was hit by the storm surge and flood waters from Hurricane Sandy last year. We had 38″ of water in the street and 15″ on the first floor of my house, so [...]

The post How To Protect Your Home Business From A Natural Disaster appeared first on Graywolf's SEO Blog.

Building a Niche Website

Posted: 26 Sep 2012 10:40 AM PDT

Tips on how to build a successful niche website, that is easy to run and doesn't require much maintenance.

The post Building a Niche Website appeared first on Graywolf's SEO Blog.

Google FINALLY Admits That GWO Could F*** Up Your Rankings

Posted: 19 Sep 2012 10:08 AM PDT

Google’s official line on their Google Website Optimizer (GWO) A/B testing tool was that using it would not make your site trip a cloaking filter (since essentially A/B or MVT testing shows different versions of the same page to different people). They claimed it was SEO-safe in other words. BULL****. At Pubcon Las Vegas in [...]

The post Google FINALLY Admits That GWO Could F*** Up Your Rankings appeared first on Graywolf's SEO Blog.

Is Social Media The Best Use of Your Time?

Posted: 07 Sep 2012 10:26 AM PDT

When it comes to small businesses, time is usually one of the biggest hindrances. Every small business owner I know (myself included) would love to have a few more hours each day. Since our time is limited, it’s important to plan and be productive with every hour. Almost every day, I will have 10 hours [...]

The post Is Social Media The Best Use of Your Time? appeared first on Graywolf's SEO Blog.

How Google is Filled With Hypocrisy and Will Steal Your Intellectual Property

Posted: 04 Sep 2012 10:08 AM PDT

If there is one thing Google is good at, it’s framing themselves and their actions as being “good for the user” and for the benefit of others while playing down how their actions are self-serving. However, those of us who have been around the block a few times know that Google plays fast and loose [...]

The post How Google is Filled With Hypocrisy and Will Steal Your Intellectual Property appeared first on Graywolf's SEO Blog.