Pouco agradável

Domingo à noite... descontraidamente surfando na net, de link em link, o resultado final é algo desconcertante:

Acerca da bolsa Robert Reich chama a atenção para a diferença entre os números e o que querem dizer os números, ou como se chegou aos números: "What's pushing the stock market upward? Mainly, unexpectedly positive second-quarter corporate profits. But those profits aren't being powered by consumers who have suddenly found themselves with a lot more money in their pockets. The profits are coming from dramatic cost-cutting -- including, most notably, payroll cuts. If a firm cuts its costs enough, it can show a profit even if its sales are still in the basement.

The problem here is twofold. First, such profits can't be maintained. There's a limit to how much can be cut without a business eventually disappearing -- becoming, in effect, a balance sheet in space.

Secondly, when businesses slash payrolls to show profits, consumers end up with even less money in their pockets to buy the things businesses produce. Even if they hold on to their jobs, they're likely to fear that they won't have the jobs for long, which causes them to retreat even further from the malls.

Most companies that have reported earnings so far have surpassed analyst's estimates, but that only means that earnings have been less bad than analysts had feared."

Qual é o maior cliente de Portugal? Qual a economia mais interligada com a nossa? Lembram-se?

Pois bem a situação em Espanha vai continuar a piorar: "Citigroup has just released a forecast which is very troubling in regards to employment and growth in the Spanish economy. With unemployment already having hit 17.9%, Citigroup expects layoffs to increase this to 22% in 2010."

Afinal não é só por cá que a alienação (no sentido marxista da palavra) dos governos acontece "This time as we pulled in we were behind a flat bed semi-truck loaded six feet high with more store shelving. These were hard shelves, gondolas, the type most people never notice in stores but I knew from my days in the auto parts business that these were expensive commodities, and this truck was loaded down with probably close to $100,000 worth about to be turned into $300 worth of scrap. These two examples are not the actions taken in a recession; these are the actions taken in a depression when business sees no future.

It is like we are living in two parallel universes, the people in one and the government in the other."

Cada vez mais parecida com a Grande Depressão. Cidades tenda na América!!!