Recession-Warning-Media-Confusion-Bob Davis Podcast 855

What Is All This Talk About Recession

These days it’s hard to tell who to believe. In many ways it’s the best economy ever. The best time to look for a job. An unprecedented economic boom. Why is everyone suddenly talking about a recession. Learn more in Recession-Warning-Media-Confusion-Bob Davis Podcast 855.

Not Making Predictions

First of all I am not here to tell you the economy is in the tank, or that it is booming.

Recession! Depression! Do I have Your Attention Now?

Truth is if you put the words recession, bust, or depression in an article you’re going to get people’s attention. In addition it doesn’t hurt to have a couple of historic drops in the stock market.

Now that I have your attention…Listen to Recession-Warning-Media-Confusion-Bob Davis Podcast 855.

Market Drops and Yield Curves Mean New Media Story Lines

It doesn’t matter if the markets recover from those drops.

What matters is now the media has a story line that predicts doom and destruction.

Fool’s Errand

Especially relevant is a lesson I learned a long time ago. It doesn’t matter how well informed a commentator might be. Making predictions about a force of nature like the world’s largest economy, is a fool’s errand.

Shallow Expansion, Debt and Slowing Growth

Even more, it is true our economy is growing and we are enjoying the longest economic expansion in memory. It’s also true it’s a shallow expansion and that growth just above the inflation line, isn’t really booming. Moreover, the expansion is getting pretty long in the tooth, as the say.

There Is A Season

In contrast like the seasons, economies operate on a cycle. Truth is anyone who predicts a recession will ultimately be right. Just like fall into winter recessions have a purpose. Economic contractions kill off the weak plants and animals and insects so the strong and grow again in the spring.

So when the yield curve inverts and the market drops it is certainly worth paying attention.

Seems like we’re missing something though. While the politicians and talking heads trade insults about who’s predictions are right, what are we thinking about?

Election Year Economics

In conclusion what plans to we the people have for the future economy of the United States. I sat down to do a podcast on the yield curve, claims about unemployment and recession predictions. I ended up with an essay on the pitfalls of talking economy in an election year, the ballyhoo on the current economy when the real questions aren’t even being asked. Let alone answered.

It’s 1950 In America…Coal Mines and Manufacturing, right?

Where are we going? What are we trying to accomplish? What kind of economy do we expect in the future. Is it really manufacturing jobs in Ohio and Coal Mines in West Virginia?

Sponsored by Ryan Plumbing and Heating of Saint Paul and Reliafund Payment Processors

Recession-Warning-Media-Confusion-Bob Davis Podcast 855

 

News-Information Vacuum-Personality Cults-Propaganda-Podcast 731

I find it more difficult these days to talk about breaking news. Propaganda passes for actual news. Find out more in News-Information Vacuum-Personality Cults-Propaganda-Podcast 731.

Attack or Leaping To Defend

In addition correspondents are on the attack or leaping to defend the president’s summit with the North Korean leader. Furthermore, rather than report on the economy talking heads assert there is a ‘boom’ without new GDP numbers to support their contention.

The Narrative Is Controlled By The Wizard Of Oz

What happened to news reporting? Now the narrative is controlled by the president. Media personalities seeking relevance are expected to defend Trump’s increasingly bizarre assertions or say he can’t do anything right. Moreover the media seeks to predict elections before they happen.

Twitter and Catfights

Moreover, newsrooms don’t cover issues.

Reporters cover twitter feeds and catfights.

Since the president inflates any small accomplishment as a world beater it’s especially relevant to talk about actual results.

Results? We Don’t Need No Stinking Results

What are the results of the Trump-Kim meeting? The so called booming economy? The draining of the ‘swamp’? Find out in News-Information Vacuum-Personality Cults-Propaganda-Podcast 731.

Trump Political Vacuum

Welcome to the Trump Political Vacuum. You’re either defending or attacking Trump. Everything else is fake news. Trump is the antichrist. Trump is under the protection of God. The president is a child, or playing “four dimensional chess“. Take your pick. There’s no in between.

Welcome To the Delusion

In conclusion people suffer in the vacuum. Finding a good source is almost impossible. Discerning what’s real and opinion is even more difficult.

So, we live in a dreamworld of delusion.

Finally without facts surrounding an event a free society cannot make informed political choices. I can identify two times in history when it was this bad. Neither ended well. Moreover, this kind of situation erodes the foundations of a free society.

(Editor’s Note: These days in these rambling podcasts sometimes I make confused references. This time I made a reference to the Berlin Wall falling ‘in 1983 or 1984’. Of course I know the fall of the Berlin Wall occurred on November 9th, 1989. Subsequently the Soviet Union collapsed in December of 1991.)

Sponsored by Ryan Plumbing and Heating of Saint Paul and Reliafund Payment ProcessorsI

News-Information Vacuum-Personality Cults-Propaganda-Podcast 731

 

 

 

PODCAST 430

You’re Not That Hot Anymore. Are the institutions of our society failing us, or just failing to live up to their over the top narratives? A bad customer service experience leads into a discussion – presented as sort of a rant but meant as a question  – about whether the business models and technology that seemed so forward five to ten years ago don’t seem that way at all now. Technology companies, Internet Service Providers, consumer products, office supplies, services, health care, travel, utilities and all kinds of services in the western world seem to have stopped progressing in terms of service to the customer a few years ago. No longer is it good enough to deliver a great product or service, you have to have an ‘amazing’ story, be saving the whales, or making your product in some aboriginal prefecture where you pay fair wages and post the obligatory pictures of building schools, or handing out water at the local marathon or breast cancer walk. What happened to buying a toaster that works, and when it doesn’t being able to rely on a customer service approach that says, “Yep, here’s a new one”? Instead you get protocols, upsells, long waits at the help desk (with the same three songs that play over and over) bored, surly or overwhelmed ticket agents, or admissions ‘techs’. The gauntlet of nose-ring festooned ‘greeters’ sporting ‘man-buns’ or just plain mean city, county, state and federal workers is actually the new normal. We need to talk about it, and we need to fix it. Is the problem that companies are spending too much time saving the whales, and not enough time saving the customer? Or is it excessive government regulation, poor economic growth, or we’re just not as competent as our ‘amazing’ history and resume says we are? No institution in our society is more dangerously corrupt and incompetent than the government, despite what the politicians say about Wall Street. What can be done? Meanwhile…still on hold with customer service. Sponsored by X Government Trucks and Pride of Homes and Luke Team Real Estate. (Editor’s Note: Podcast 429 isn’t done yet, and will be on the way…so here’s podcast 430. Don’t worry you didn’t miss one.