"Hedge funds raised bullish bets on oil to a three-month high on signs that Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke will take measures to bolster U.S. economic growth and spur a rally in commodities.
"Money managers increased net-long positions, or wagers on rising prices, by 18 percent in the seven days ended Aug. 21, according to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission's Commitments of Traders report on Aug. 24. They were at the highest level since the week ended May 1." (Bloomberg)
Higher prices at the pump. That ought to rev-up consumer spending, don't you think?
Still, Bernanke and his fellow doves at the Fed aren't going to be deterred by something as inconsequential as the travails of working people. Oh no. After all, he has his real constituents to consider, the parasitic Wall Street robber barons. Their needs come first, and what they want is another round of funny-money so they refill the larder at the Hamptons with Beluga and bubbly. That's why members of the Fed have already started chirping for more "more accommodation". Here's what Chicago Fed President Charles Evans had to say last week in his ominous-sounding bulletin titled "Some Thoughts on Global Risks and Monetary Policy":
"Finding a way to deliver more accommodation ... is particularly important now because delays in reducing unemployment are costly. An unusually large percentage of the unemployed have been without work for quite an extended period of time; their skills can become less current or even deteriorate, leaving affected workers with permanent scars on their lifetime earnings. And any resulting lower aggregate productivity also weighs on potential output, wages and profits for the economy as a whole. The damage intensifies the longer that unemployment remains high. Failure to act aggressively now could lower the capacity of the economy for many years to come.
"Given the risks we face, I think it is vital that we make such moves today. I don't think we should be in a mode where we are waiting to see what the next few data releases bring. We are well past the threshold for additional action; we should take that action now."
What gall! Does anyone really believe that a Fed president gives a rat's ass about lower unemployment? It's a joke.
And where's the proof that QE lowers unemployment, increases wages or benefits the economy as a whole? Nowhere. Evans idea of "accommodation" is just another way of shoveling money to his rich friends.
Now get a load of this in the Wall Street Journal:
"During the recession, people who lost long-held jobs struggled to find new employment and often took substantial pay cuts if they did find new work. Little appears to have changed after the recession ended, a new Labor Department report shows.
"From 2009 to 2011, 6.1 million workers lost jobs they had held for at least three years. Just over half -- 56% -- of them were reemployed by this January, the department found in its latest survey of displaced workers. Two years ago, the survey found that 49% of people who lost such jobs from 2007 to 2009 were reemployed.
"People lucky enough to find new work are often taking steep wage cuts. Of the displaced workers who lost full-time wage and salary jobs from 2009-2011 and were reemployed by January, just 46% were earning as much or more than they did in their lost job. A third of them reported earnings losses of 20% or more." ("New Jobs Come With Lower Wages", Wall Street Journal)
So even the people who were "lucky enough to find work" are worse off than they were before. Hey, but at least they found a job, right? What about the people who weren't able to find work at all? What will happen to them?
No worries. Obama and his deficit-slashing buddies in the congress have that all figured out. As soon as the election's over, President Socialist is going to start kicking people off extended unemployment benefits as fast as humanly possible, leaving millions of working people without enough money to house or feed their families. Here's how it's all going to go down:
"Over 500,000 people have lost extended unemployment benefits since the start of the year, and two million more are scheduled to lose their benefits on January 1, 2013... Emergency Unemployment Compensation (EUC), is scheduled to end completely on January 1, ending unemployment payments for 2 million more people overnight.
"With the start of the new year, there will be no part of the country that offers more than 26 weeks of unemployment benefits. This is far less than the average duration of unemployment, which has hovered near 40 weeks for over a year...
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