April 9, 2013: National Equal Pay Day

Well, gentle blog reader, today is Equal Pay Day in the USA. National Equal Pay Day is the date that symbolizes how far into 2013 must work to earn what men earned in 2012, given women earn $0.77 for every $1.00 that men earn. That’s pretty pathetic if you ask me.

Have Things Improved Over the Past 5 Years?

Interesting comparisons–at least the US household debt figure improved:

The Last Time The Dow Was Here…

“Mission Accomplished” – With CNBC now lost for countdown-able targets (though 20,000 is so close), we leave it to none other than Jim Cramer, quoting Stanley Druckenmiller, to sum up where we stand (oh and the following list of remarkable then-and-now macro, micro, and market variables), namely that “we all know it’s going to end badly, but in the meantime we can make some money” – ZH translation: “just make sure to sell ahead of everyone else”, just like everyone sold ahead of everyone else on October 11th 2007, the last time stocks were here…
Dow Jones Industrial Average: Then 14164.5; Now 14164.5
Regular Gas Price: Then $2.75; Now $3.73
GDP Growth: Then +2.5%; Now +1.6%
Americans Unemployed (in Labor Force): Then 6.7 million; Now 13.2 million
Americans On Food Stamps: Then 26.9 million; Now 47.69 million
Size of Fed’s Balance Sheet: Then $0.89 trillion; Now $3.01 trillion
US Debt as a Percentage of GDP: Then ~38%; Now 74.2%
US Deficit (LTM): Then $97 billion; Now $975.6 billion
Total US Debt Oustanding: Then $9.008 trillion; Now $16.43 trillion
US Household Debt: Then $13.5 trillion; Now 12.87 trillion
Labor Force Particpation Rate: Then 65.8%; Now 63.6%
Consumer Confidence: Then 99.5; Now 69.6
S&P Rating of the US: Then AAA; Now AA+
VIX: Then 17.5%; Now 14%
10 Year Treasury Yield: Then 4.64%; Now 1.89%
USDJPY: Then 117; Now 93
EURUSD: Then 1.4145; Now 1.3050
Gold: Then $748; Now $1583
NYSE Average LTM Volume (per day): Then 1.3 billion shares; Now 545 million shares

Iceland’s president explains how his country recovered so quickly from the recession:

“The government bailed out the people and imprisoned the banksters — the opposite of what America and the rest of Europe did.”

Welfare Mother vs Corporate Welfare Mother

Funeral for a Twinkie

How could they? — Twinkies are sacred!

Gonna miss those Hostess Twinkies — that’s for sure!!

We’re not for everyone — just the 1% that matters.

“Occupy Wall Street” sign in NYC.

I guess Romney’s better — at least, with him, it’s the 53 percent who matter.

The next time someone tells you that Obama is destroying the economy…

…remind them that the stock market is close to an all-time high and that corporate profits are as well.

When they tell you that that hasn’t helped them any, remind them they’ve just admitted trickle-down economics doesn’t work.”

Carlos Slim is worth $69 Billion …

… We #occupy because one person should not control more capital than 88,819,899 people.

Put the Politicians on Minimum Wage

…and watch how fast things change!