Money is rushing into stock funds at a rate higher than at any point over the last five years. And yet the Dow barely budged yesterday.<\/p>\n
Japanese stocks, on the other hand, are moving up. Apparently, other investors are coming to think that our “Trade of the Decade” was not such a bad idea after all.<\/p>\n
Who knows?<\/p>\n
Bernanke, Draghi, Carney, Shirakawa… and all the others… are pumping as much money into the system as they can. They say they need more money to keep the system from falling back into recession.<\/p>\n
They don’t mention it, but without central banks’ EZ money, zombie industries — including health, education, Wall Street, defense — would be in big trouble.<\/p>\n
As central banks<\/strong><\/a> pump, the private sector is trying to wring the debt out as fast as What will happen? We’ll come back to that tomorrow…<\/p>\n Today, let’s look again at the sad plight of the young in America<\/strong><\/a>. They get whacked coming and going. They have few jobs and little money, thanks largely to deleveraging. But they have plenty of debt and high living costs, thanks largely to the feds’ vigorous pumping.<\/p>\n It’s no accident, we’ve been saying. They’re victims of dirty dealing by their parents and grandparents.<\/p>\n Here’s Bryan Goldberg at PandoDaily.com:<\/p>\n [Y]oung people need to understand how You kids are beyond screwed.<\/em><\/p>\n It’s not hard to see how it works. Healthcare has become very, very expensive… with spending reaching over $7,000 for every single American. Who spends the money? Overwhelmingly, it is done by or for old people. Who foots the bill? Mostly younger people.<\/p>\n Why are the costs so high? Because healthcare costs have been collectivized. Through insurance and government, old people found they could get healthcare benefits — and that someone else would pay for them. Only 1 out of 10 dollars of healthcare spending is paid by the person who gets the service; the rest is paid by someone else, usually someone younger.<\/p>\n And it gets worse and worse. The baby boomer generation is big. And it expects extravagant healthcare services. But it won’t pay the costs. Someone else will have to pick up the tab. Who? Younger people.<\/p>\n Of course, the story is deeper and more nuanced… which is to say there’s a lot of rotten wood in this pile. Costs went up because the feds created an almost unlimited demand for healthcare, financed by an almost unlimited line of credit.<\/p>\n For the old-timer, it’s “use it or lose it.” If he doesn’t get the pills and the tests, it’s like a free vacation he didn’t take: lost forever.<\/p>\n And now, for every person who is providing something that might be described as useful healthcare… there are three others who are creating expensive new drugs, filing insurance claims, shuffling papers, defrauding the system, giving tests and threatening lawsuits.<\/p>\n The zombies have taken over the healthcare system.<\/p>\n They’ve taken over the education system too…<\/p>\n Here’s Goldberg again, with some advice:<\/p>\n If you can get into an ultra-top-tier The world doesn’t need any more girls But won’t a college degree pay for
\npossible. And Gary Shilling says there will be “another five years of painful deleveraging.”<\/p>\nThe War on Youth<\/h3>\n
\nmuch their grandparents’ generation has ruined things for them. The
\naverage American retires with less than $70,000 of savings, but an
\nelderly man and woman receive about $275,000 in medical care during that
\ntime — and you kids are paying for it by inheriting trillions upon
\ntrillions in Medicare bills that granny and grandpa never intended to
\npay and will be too dead to worry about soon. <\/em><\/p>\nRotten Wood<\/h3>\n
\ncollege, then go ahead and do it. An Ivy League degree is worth getting,
\nat least for undergrad. The value of a law or business degree is
\nbecoming more and more questionable each year. But for the rest of you,
\nit may be worth skipping college altogether.<\/em><\/p>\n
\nwith Spanish degrees from California State, Long Beach. Sorry, but it
\njust doesn’t. We need you gals to learn how to build software in equal
\nnumber with your male peers. They are no smarter than you, and they are
\ndefinitely way less organized and far less attentive to detail. So go
\nshow them what you are made of.<\/em><\/p>\n
\nitself? It probably won’t. According to UC Berkeley’s website, a
\nfour-year education will cost you $210,000 in tuition and living
\nexpenses, and a private education could run you way more. A part-time
\njob at Starbucks will eat into very little of that sum, and you will be
\nforgoing a real job during that same time. And — if I can convey just
\none point in this whole article, let it be this… saving money takes
\nforever. Even if you do get that coveted six-figure job, you will find
\nthat it takes forever to save $210,000. Decades even.<\/em><\/p>\n