Higher Prices + Lower Wages = ???

I found this article on Investment Watch online.  I thought you might be interested to look at the "inflation" that doesn't exist (according to our government it's only 1% YOY).  ...Dennis

This does not bode well:

At a time when wages have been trending down, prices have been going up. And nothing pushes up prices like higher transportation and shipping prices, due to higher fuel prices. Higher prices + lower wages = slower growth.

Price increases over the last 10 years include:

Eggs: 73%
Coffee: 90%
Peanut Butter: 40%
Milk: 26%
A Loaf Of White Bread: 39%
Spaghetti And Macaroni: 44%
Orange Juice: 46%
Red Delicious Apples: 43%
Beer: 25%
Wine: 60%
Electricity: 42%
Margarine: 143%
Tomatoes: 22%
Turkey: 56%
Ground Beef: 61%
Chocolate Chip Cookies: 39%

And if you think that’s bad, since 1986, the cost of college tuition in the United States has risen by 498 percent. Since 2010, employee health insurance premiums have been rising an average of between 8 and 9 percent a year, and we haven’t even really seen Obamacare kick in yet.

So why is the Government telling us that inflation is just 1% yoy? 

It’s because “the way that inflation is calculated has changed more than 20 times since 1978, and each time it has been changed the goal has been to make it appear to be lower than it actually is.”

Wake up and smell the inflation America… U.S. PPI rises more-than-expected

U.S. producer prices rose more than expected in June, pointing to an apparent increase in inflationary pressures that could make the U.S. Federal Reserve more comfortable about reducing its monetary stimulus.

The Labor Department said on Friday its seasonally adjusted producer price index increased 0.8 percent last month.

A Reuters survey of economists had forecast prices received by the nation’s farms, factories and refineries rising 0.5 percent last month.

A jump in gasoline prices fueled much of the increase and could weigh on consumers by leaving them less money to spend on other things.

Read more: http://www.foxbusiness.com/economy/2013/07/12/wholesale-inflation-rises-more-than-expected/#ixzz2YvpfF08E

Behold The Part-Time Worker Society

Are you aware that in just the last year there has been a MAJOR transformation in the hiring of full-time vs Part-time workers?  Almost all the restaurant owners in America are in the process of shifting to part-time workers and are saying that their pattern will continue in order to comply with the Affordable Care Act (requiring employers with 50 or more full-time workers to offer insurance or face fines).  Obama recently "delayed" the provision requiring companies to comply, but for most, it doesn't change a thing.  ...Dennis

"We Won't Start Hiring Full-Time People"

Once again, as always happens with a very substantial delay, two themes that have been covered extensively on these pages in the past much to the ridicule of the mainstream media, namely that while the US may have "No Manufacturing Jobs But More Waiters And Bartenders Than Ever" and that Obamacare has finally struck as "Part-Time Jobs Surge To All Time High; Full-Time Jobs Plunge By 240,000" are now begrudgingly covered and in fact, endorsed, by the very same MSM.

Enter the Wall Street Journal which blends the two themes well known to our readers, and writes that "More Restaurants Replace Full-Timers, Concerned About Insurance."

To wit: "Ken Adams has been turning to more part-time workers at his 10 Subway sandwich shops in Michigan to avoid possibly incurring higher health-care costs under the new federal insurance law. He added approximately 25 part-time workers in May and June as he reduced some employees' hours and replaced other workers who left. The move showed how efforts by some restaurant owners and other businesses to remake their workforces because of the Affordable Care Act may be turning the country's labor market into a more part-time workforce." In other words, the already worst paying jobs in the US are getting even more of the shaft, downgraded from full time to part time status. Precisely the New "part-time worker society" that we predicted would happen back in 2010...

For the entire U.S. workforce, employers have added far more part-time employees in 2013—averaging 93,000 a month, seasonally adjusted—than full-time workers, which have averaged 22,000. Last year the reverse was true, with employers adding 31,000 part-time workers monthly, compared with 171,000 full-time ones.

The Affordable Care Act requires employers with 50 or more full-time equivalent workers to offer affordable insurance to employees working 30 or more hours a week or face fines. Some companies have said the requirement could increase their costs significantly, although others have played down the potential hit.

Restaurant owners who have already begun shifting to part-time workers say they will continue that pattern.

"Does the delay change anything for us? Absolutely not," Mr. Adams of Subway said, explaining that whether his health-care costs go up next year or in 2015, he will have to comply with the law. "We won't start hiring full-time people."

FULL ARTICLE: 

Leadership Thought of the Day

Latest Trend: "Rent-A-Wheel"

Millions are finding that they simply cannot afford to replace the tires on their 10 or 15 year old automobiles, and so now there are a ton of rapidly-expanding chains with names like Rent-a-Wheel and EZ Rims 4 Rent that have discovered a lucrative market selling tires on a "rent-to-own" basis.  These are people that need safe tires so they can go off to work, but can't afford to buy them on their current salaries.  Does anyone else see the tragic irony here?  What used to be the "middle-class" is now the "nation's economic underclass"...Dennis  

Cash-short drivers roll on rented tires

By Ken Bensinger

Los Angeles Times

Like payday lenders, pawn shops and Buy Here Pay Here used-car lots, tire-rental businesses provide ready credit to consumers who can’t get a loan anywhere else. But that access doesn’t come cheap.

When the tires on their Dodge Caravan had worn so thin that the steel belts were showing through, Don and Florence Cherry couldn’t afford to buy a new set.

So they decided to rent instead.

The Rich Square, N.C., couple last September agreed to pay Rent-N-Roll $54.60 a month for 18 months in exchange for four basic Hankook tires.

Over the life of the deal, that works out to $982, almost triple what the radials would have cost at Wal-Mart Stores.

“I know you have to pay a lot more this way,” said Florence Cherry, 57, a nurse who drives the 15-year-old van when her husband, a Vietnam veteran, isn’t using it to get to his job as a prison guard. “But we didn’t really have a choice.”

Socked by soaring tire prices and short on funds, growing numbers of Americans are renting the rubber to keep their cars rolling.

Rent-to-own tire shops are among the newest arrivals to a sprawling alternative financial sector focused on the nation’s economic underclass.

Read more here:

http://seattletimes.com/html/businesstechnology/2021356321_tirerentalsxml.html

Our Second-Largest Employer is____?

It may come as no surprise that the largest employer in the United States is Wal-Mart, but are you aware that the second-largest employer is Kelly Services–a temporary work provider? With part-time jobs at an all time high, this is indeed a sad state of affairs for our country.  Talk about this with somebody today.  Ask them if they are aware of what's happening to our economy, and why it's important to prepare themselves with a secure source of income NOW...Dennis

Recovery woes: America's second-largest employer is a temp agency

BY ASHE SCHOW | JULY 8, 2013

Behind Wal-Mart, the second-largest employer in America is Kelly Services, a temporary work provider.

Friday's disappointing jobs report showed that part-time jobs are at anall-time high, with 28 million Americans now working part-time. The report also showed another disturbing fact: There are now a record number of Americans with temporary jobs.

Approximately 2.7 million, in fact. And the trend has been growing.

In the first quarter of 2013, U.S. staffing companies employed an average of 2.86 million temporary and contract workers, according to the American Staffing Association. This represents a 2.9 percent growth from the same period in 2012. For just the month of June, there was a 6.7 percent growth in the number of staffing jobs than last year.

Temp jobs made up about 10 percent of the jobs lost during the Great Recession, but now make up a tenth of the jobs in the United States. In fact, nearly one-fifth of all jobs gained since the recession ended have been temporary.

It's a sad state of affairs for our country. While part-time and temp jobs reached highs last month, full-time jobs decreased by another 240,000. The recovery, or lack thereof, is being fueled by a shift from full-time to part-time work.

LINK to article:

Tipping Point for Our Economy?

When welfare and food stamps were originally created, "food assistance" was designed to be a "safety net" only.   It was NEVER meant to be a lifestyle!  Unfortunately, that is exactly what it has become.  Today roughly one-third of the U.S. population is receiving "subsidized food assistance" from our Federal Government. This means the number of Americans now receiving "free" food is LARGER than the total number of private sector workers!  Holy Smokes!  Is there anyone out there that sees the problem here? ...Dennis

101M Americans Get Food Aid from Federal Gov’t; More Than the Number of Private Sector Workers

July 8, 2013 - 11:32 AM

---

By Elizabeth Harrington

(CNSNews.com) – The number of Americans receiving subsidized food assistance from the federal government has risen to 101 million, representing roughly a third of the U.S. population.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that a total of 101,000,000 people currently participate in at least one of the 15 food programs offered by the agency, at a cost of $114 billion in fiscal year 2012.

That means the number of Americans receiving food assistance has surpassed the number of private sector workers in the U.S.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), there were 97,180,000 full-time private sector workers in 2012.

The population of the U.S. is 316.2 million people, meaning nearly a third of Americans receive food aid from the government.

Of the 101 million receiving food benefits, a record 47 million Americans participated in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), commonly known as food stamps. The USDA describes SNAP as the “largest program in the domestic hunger safety net.”

The USDA says the number of Americans on food stamps is a “historically high figure that has risen with the economic downturn.”

According to a July 3 audit by the Inspector General, the USDA’s Food Nutrition Service (FNS) “may be duplicating its efforts by providing participants total benefits in excess of 100 percent of daily nutritional needs when households and/or individuals participate in more than one FNS program simultaneously.”

Food assistance programs are designed to be a “safety net,” the IG said.

LINK to full article:

Part-Time is the NEW Full-Time

The "American dream" has become farther out of reach for most, as many employers are now ONLY hiring part-time workers.  There are many reasons for this of course, but the fact remains, the so-called "Job Recovery" only has to do with part-time workers (or those willing to work entry-level, part time jobs). Pay particular attention to the NEXT Generation, those college students who can't get work--VERY powerful statistics below. THIS IS REALITY IN AMERICA TODAY...Dennis

America's Job Recovery Is Only For Part-Timers

Employment: From the media to Wall Street, June's jobs report is being spun as a major positive, a sign the economy is getting back on track. Maybe the pundits should look at the actual numbers, which are abysmal.

To hear some of them, the 195,000 payroll jobs added for the month while the unemployment rate stayed at 7.6% were a big deal. One investment house called it a "very good report." Another termed it "solid."

Really? Let's take a little closer look at the numbers.

The total number of payroll jobs in the economy, at 135.9 million, is still 1.6% below 5-1/2 years ago, when the recession began. We're not even back at scratch.

At June's pace of 195,000 new jobs a month, it will take 11 months to get back to where we were in 2007. If you factor in monthly growth of 120,000 in the labor force, that will barely make a dent in unemployment.

In short, this jobs recovery isn't solid. It's pathetic.

It's even worse when you consider all of the net addition to June jobs — repeat, all — were part time. Compared with the 360,000 part-time positions created, full-time employment shrank by 240,000.

Year to date, only 130,000 full-time jobs have been added to our economy. The rest of the jobs — 557,000 — have been part time.

And tucked deep into the jobs report was this little tidbit: The underemployment rate, which measures those working in a job for which they're overqualified, or working part-time when they really want full-time work, shot up from 13.8% to 14.3%.

This isn't a solid jobs report. It's a crisis.

A new report from McKinsey & Co. says 45% of college graduates today have jobs that don't require college degrees. A generation of young, educated workers — our future human capital — is being wasted on waiting tables and selling shoes.

And those are the young people who can get jobs. The unemployment rate for 18- to 29-year-olds stands at 16.1%, with 1.7 million having dropped out of the labor force entirely.

Why is this happening?

Certainly five years of "stimulus" by President Obama and quantitative easing by the Federal Reserve haven't helped. And thousands of pages of new regulations, higher taxes on entrepreneurs and a deep philosophical antipathy toward healthy free markets by this administration have made businesses wary of hiring.

The No. 1 culprit, though, is ObamaCare. The added costs this monstrous piece of legislation has imposed on employers of full-time workers encourages them to hire only part-timers, who get few benefits and no health care.

So don't count us among those singing the praises of the latest employment numbers. From this vantage point, they look like more of the same: mediocrity.

LINK: