Unintended Consequences of Obamacare!

According to the Congressional Budget Office (an independent scorekeeper) Obamacare will reduce the number of full-time employees by 2.5 MILLION people over the next 10 years!  Not only that, a recent Duke University report found that employers will "choose not to hire and may lay people off."  In fact, "Nearly one-third of firms may either terminate employees or hire fewer people in the future as a direct result of ACA."  Can you imagine the implications for our business?  Dennis

Duke University: 44% of U.S. firms consider cutting health care to current workers

Adding to a devastating CBO report of how Obamacare could damage the economy, a Duke University survey of top companies found that 44 percent are considering reducing health benefits to current employees due to Obamacare, confirming the fears of millions of American workers.

In its December survey of chief financial officers around the country, Duke also found that nearly half are “reluctant to hire full-time employers because of the Affordable Care Act.”

And 40 percent are considering shifting to part-time workers and others will hire fewer workers of fire some to avoid the costs of the program.

What’s more, they said in the study, “One in five firms indicates they are likely to hire fewer employees, and another one in 10 may lay off current employees in response to the law.”

"Persistent Economic Insecurity"

Talk to almost anyone and you'll quickly find out that they are touched by "economic insecurity" either directly (themselves) or indirectly (they know someone personally who is experiencing it).  Our JOB is to reach out to people who are looking for security and prosperity and let them know that we have found a better path!   Dennis

Nearly Half of America Lives Paycheck-to-Paycheck

The economic picture is looking brighter these days. The federal government announced Thursday that economic growth had picked up to its fastest pace in two years, while employment growth over the past five months has averaged a healthy 185,000 new jobs. But as evidenced by a report out Thursday from the Corporation for Enterprise Development, nearly half of Americans are living in a state of “persistent economic insecurity,” that makes it “difficult to look beyond immediate needs and plan for a more secure future.”

What American Workers Have to Look Forward To...

As this article explains, Americans have much longer workweeks to look forward to, not to mention, flat or declining wages to go along with it. But after all, this IS the new normal (where the large corporations and bosses have all the leverage over you).  Whoever controls your income, controls your LIFE.   Dennis

Good News For Employed Americans: You Are Now Working Longer Than Ever

We have some great news for those Americans who are still in the labor force (so that excludes about 92 million working age US citizens) and still have a (full-time) job: you are now working longer than ever! In fact, as JPM's Michael Cembalest observes using Conference Board data, the average manufacturing workweek is now just shy of 42 hours - the longest in over 60 years. And there are those who say Americans are lazy...

Of course, with labor productivity stuck in limbo this is to be expected: corporations, desperate to extract every last ounce of efficiency from their workers, are making them work hard, not smart, in order to boost bottom lines, and activist investors' P&Ls.

One tangent: even as companies are putting more people into the same amount of office space, reducing square footage per worker, the point at which more space will have to be added, or where the lack of slack becomes unbearable, is a long way away: as the chart below shows, while there was over 330 square feet per worker in 2011 when the average workweek was a little over 40 hours, it is currently roughly 20 square feet higher over 350. So yes: the slack if being absorbed. Very... Very... Slowly. 

In fact at this rate, courtesy of the tens of millions of Americans who no longer have any chance of reentering the work force, all those betting on wage inflation as a result of slack absorption may have to wait another 5, 10 maybe 15 years before the existing labor capacity is hit and office space and new workers have to be added.

Having a JOB is NO LONGER Good Enough...

Let these quotes sink in for a few minutes:

"A low-wage job supplemented with food stamps is becoming more common for the working poor," said Timothy Smeeding, an economics professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who specializes in income inequality. "Many of the U.S. jobs now being created are low- or minimum-wage - part-time or in areas such as retail or fast food - which means food stamp use will stay high for some time, even after unemployment improves."  (After reading this article, I would love to hear your comments regarding how this impacts our business.)  Dennis

THE NEW FACE OF FOOD STAMPS: WORKING-AGE AMERICANS

WASHINGTON (AP) -- In a first, working-age people now make up the majority in U.S. households that rely on food stamps - a switch from a few years ago, when children and the elderly were the main recipients.

Some of the change is due to demographics, such as the trend toward having fewer children. But a slow economic recovery with high unemployment, stagnant wages and an increasing gulf between low-wage and high-skill jobs also plays a big role. It suggests that government spending on the $80 billion-a-year food stamp program - twice what it cost five years ago - may not subside significantly anytime soon.

Super Bowl Tickets Are....Available AND Cheaper???

When the economy cuts into Super Bowl tickets (as in...they can't be sold unless prices come down), you know things are not doing well...Dennis

Prices plummet for SB tickets

Two hungry fan bases and the wealth of the New York metropolitan area had some guessing that Super Bowl XLVIII would turn out to be the most expensive ticket in Super Bowl history.

However, judging from the reaction of the resale ticket market in the past 24 hours, it could turn out to be one of the least expensive.

Since the conference championship games ended, ticket prices have steadily plummeted.

Julia Vander Ploeg, general manager of Ticketmaster's resale business, which runs the NFL Ticket Exchange, said the number of tickets on the market has increased by 10 percent in the past 48 hours. And that's before the NFL has even given the physical tickets to the majority of people the league is taking care of.

"What we have now is like a panicked stock market," said James Kimmel, owner of Epic Seats, a ticket brokerage in Seattle. "The buyers have frozen, and the sellers are panicking."

On Friday, Kimmel said he got an offer to buy a man's tickets for face value, something he said he never expected to hear. 

FULL STORY

What's YOUR Misery Index?

From the Washington Examiner: “Unemployment in its truest definition, meaning the portion of people who do not have any job, is 37.2 percent."  Isn't this what your "instincts" are telling you when you look around?  As we watch retailing giants like Sears and J.C. Penney close their doors and lay off thousands more, how can we deny what's knocking on our doors?  Talk to someone today about our business...while they have time to build. Dennis

Wall Street adviser: Actual unemployment is 37.2%, 'misery index' worst in 40 years

Don't believe the happy talk coming out of the White House, Federal Reserve and Treasury Department when it comes to the realunemployment rate and the true “Misery Index.” Because, according to an influential Wall Street advisor, the figures are a fraud.

In a memo to clients provided to Secrets, David John Marotta calculates the actual unemployment rate of those not working at a sky-high 37.2 percent, not the 6.7 percent advertised by the Fed, and the Misery Index at over 14, not the 8 claimed by the government.

You Can't SAVE Your Way to Security...

The old models of "saving for the future" don't exist anymore in traditional business.  Why?... Well, for one thing, your money in a bank account is not accumulating enough interest to stay anywhere NEAR the inflation rate.  So even if you are able to save money every week and put it in the bank, you're actually LOSING money over the long term.  What we all need is a consistent income that grows with the times! ...Dennis

Saturday Humor: "High-Yield Savings"

Frequent Zero Hedge contributor Mike Krieger sent this in: "Just got this in the mail. No, it's not meant to be a joke." Which is why it is unclear if one should laugh or cry at this fantastic offer for a "High-Yield" savings account...