Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Growth! Ha!

So last quarter we had "growth" in the economy. All those who are drinking the magic "green shoots" kool-aid are screaming from the rooftops that we have seen the end of the recession.

The trouble is we are in a depression, not a recession. More importantly, the reason we saw a positive growth in the economy is rather simple. It's the government-funded Cash for Clunkers and the $8000 Tax rebate for first home purchases.

So when you boil it down, there really was no growth whatsoever. More smoke and mirrors, pay no attention to the man behind the curtain. This is probably the last trick they have up their sleeves, and it's perfect timing. Our economy is ~70% consumer spending, and with the holiday travel, gift buying, so on and so forth, I expect to see "growth" for this quarter as well.

The sheep will buy it lock, stock, and barrel, but it's just the eye of the storm. The financial hurricane is still raging around us, but the sheep will chill out in the pasture and think everything is just ducky.

Do not be fooled. Watch the year to year and "seasonally adjusted" numbers for a real look at our economy. Notice with all the hoopla around the growth, no one is mentioning these numbers in the MSM? It's propaganda. It would be right at home in the pages of 1970's Pravda Newspaper.

I have job interviews scheduled, so I'm not going to get to Maine this week it looks like. I'll be putting the time here to good use. I've got a lot of items I'm going to sell through craigslist, even an older Jeep I was going to work on. Bill needs ammo for the FrankenFAL, so I'll load some up for him. I hate working on new military brass, removing the pocket primer crimp is a pain in the wrists. Although, I'm not goign to drop $300 for the Sinclair tool that's motorized!

5 comments:

Bitmap said...

"removing the pocket primer crimp is a pain in the wrists"

I use two methods depending on how many I have to do at a time.

If it is just a few then I use the small end of an RCBS deburring tool. Just put it in the primer pocket and turn it a couple of times and you are done. The tool costs less than $20.

If I have more then I use the RCBS primer pocket swager combo. It looks like a reloading die and you use it in your regular reloading press. It costs less than $30.

Removing them is still an extra step but these make it fairly easy and don't cost a lot of money.

Western Mass. Man said...

Good to see ya back Nat.
Sorry for your troubles at work.
Good luck on new prospects.

Pete Smith said...

You are so right about the smoke and mirrors with the economy. The Gov-ment has been pumping up the economy and the dollar for years and it is about to pop. We all need to make a stand and be ready for the evil over the hill.

Mayberry said...

A lot of people have trouble with 2+2=4, and their eyes glaze over when you try to explain the workings of an economy to them. Plus, the criminals in DC, and the fed specifically have been telling them 2+2=7. or something like that....

Ryan said...

I am slightly less than confident about our recovery also. I am still investing (for the LONG term) but am also buying PM's and currently thinking I can use another couple cases of ammo. One of .223 and a half each of 9mm and 7.62x39