Monday, October 06, 2014

Greenspan: 'Economy's Outlook Isn't Good'

by JASmius



I'm not entirely certain why, but this story reminds me eerily of a Family Guy clip.....



Productivity increased only 0.9% last year and declined an average of 1.1% in the first two quarters of this year.

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan is concerned.

"Our productivity rate is slowing dramatically, causing [wage shrinkage], and that's causing a lot of the problems in the economy over the long run," he told Fox Business Network.

"What concerns me most is that unless and until we can rectify that problem, our economy's long-term outlook is not good."

Productivity is a synonym for labor efficiency.  "Getting the most bang for the buck," as it were.  In my former career as a small-company financial controller, I was the epitome of labor efficiency, as I rarely had any accounting staff supporting me and did most or all of the work myself.  Which eventually left me overworked, burned-out, and, ultimately, screwed.  But I was productive.  Supremely so.

My guess is a fusillade of part-time, benefitless burger-flipping "jobs" aren't doing much for productivity or wage levels.

So what's holding back pay raises?

"When you get significant decline in productivity growth, which we've had, that immediately spills over into the wage levels," he explained. "And that's one of the reasons why real earnings are not moving very fast at all."

Oh, come off it, Mr. Chairman; you know very well that what's holding back pay raises is the "do-nothing Republican House "Congress"'s refusal to jack the minimum wage up to fifteen bucks an hour.  Because every "job" should provide an upper-middle class living, no matter how many businesses have to be bankrupted.  And every last one of them is going to be held by the next outside influx into the U.S. "labor market"....



What will happen if Janet "Old" Yellen's brain turns to clam sauce and she starts raising interest rates, leading to the next economic Obamapocalypse?  Don't worry, O.B.A.M.A. will handle it...



....very "efficiently".



Kinda reminiscent of the IRS, isn't it?

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