#3 Where Is The Damand!!??!!??!!

I just posted excerpts from this necessarily shortened article.

So, you can go and read the whole thing on Bloomberg:  believe me, there will be many, many more like it over the next twenty years of the remaining two waves of the secular Kondratieff Tsunami. 

Even though it is four months old, it is still quite relevant to all retailers: very sad and related blog posts are those of:

Tuesday, March 4, 2014  Middle Class Evisceration

 and

Thursday, December 19, 2013 It Ain't Just Detroit -- Folks!!

 

Can you guys feel the cold winds of the Kondratieff blowing away your former means and methods of doing business?

Do you have even the slightest understanding of what winds of deceit and betrayal to American businesses have been sweeping over this land these last forty years?

Can you retailers out there vaguely understand the internet and the madly racing Fed Ex and UPS trucks, and what these two phenomena portend for your businesses?

Have you devised a counter strategy?

If you haven’t a clue then go to our website at polestarcomm.com
and   sign up for our services and find out what so many others are now discovering!

  

The Impossible American Mall Business. 'We Surrender'

By Matt Townsend Nov 21, 2014 12:00 AM ET

Townsend/Bloomberg

On a crisp Friday evening in late October, Shannon Rich, 33, is standing in a dying American mall. Three customers wander the aisles in a Sears the size of two football fields. The RadioShack is empty. A woman selling smartphone cases watches “Homeland” on a laptop.
“It’s the quietest mall I’ve ever been to,” says Rich, who works for an education consulting firm and has been coming to the Steeplegate Mall in Concord, New Hampshire, since she was a kid. “It bums me out.”
… It’s a time of reckoning for an industry that once expanded pell-mell across the landscape armed with the certainty that if you build it, they will come. Those days are over. Malls like Steeplegate either rethink themselves or disappear.
This summer Rouse Properties Inc., a real estate investment trust with a long track record of turning around troubled properties, decided Steeplegate wasn’t salvageable and walked away. The mall is now in receivership.

…. ‘We Surrender’

“Rouse is basically saying ‘We surrender,’” said Rich Moore, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets who has covered mall operators for more than 15 years. “If Rouse couldn’t make it work and that’s their specialty, then that’s a pretty tough sale to keep it as is.”
….The suburban mall once sat at the center of American life. It was a place where parents one-stop-shopped and their kids hung out. The Galleria in Sherman Oaks, California, featured prominently in the seminal film “Fast Times at Ridgemont High” as well as Frank Zappa’s “Valley Girl.” Today malls represent a darker mood in the popular culture. Consider the shuttered shopping center colonized by the dispossessed in “Gone Girl.”
….
 This year, amid dwindling cash flow, Rouse wrote down Steeplegate’s value by almost half to $27 million. With a $47 million balloon payment due in August, the owner handed the mall’s keys to the lender.

#2 Where Is The Demand??!!??!!

 

OH, Woe is me, Woe is my business!!

“Where has all the demand gone!?

“Gone to graveyards every one.”

Can anybody out there spell Kondratieff??

Do any of the econo-nutcase class even know what the Kondratieff Is??

And, if they do, do they then understand that there are three waves to the Kondratieff super-secular cycle??

And, if they vaguely suspect that, do they then understand that the crisis of 2007/08 was only the 1^st of those three waves???

Following is just the first sentence:  for full story go to http://www.marketwatch.com/story/february-durable-goods-orders-drop-14-in-weak-report-all-around-2015-03-25?siteid=bnbh

So, if you have nothing better to do, then read their whole story that is really quite meaningless.

And that is because they tell you nothing of why this erosion of aggregated consumer demand is continuing after nearly six (6) full years of a recovery --- that is not a recovery. 

And I hope you guys are not fooled by the channel-stuffing in the auto industry that is the very direct result of allowing all the ATCFAM’s *  to lease a new car – that they could never, ever buy in their wildest imagined daydreams!!

In other words, the American middle-class is right now where the PTB want them, broke and stupid, but still trying to show everybody that they are doing well. 

*ATCFAM – anybody that can fog a mirror.    For other handy-dandy acronyms go to the bottom of our wepage  @  polestarcomm.com

 

Market Pulse

February durable-goods orders drop 1.4% in weak report all around

By Jeffry Bartash

Published: Mar 25, 2015 8:30 a.m. ET

" WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - Orders for durable or long-lasting U.S. goods fell in February for the third time in four months, showing little sign that businesses are willing to spend and invest in a more aggressive manner. "

Where is the Demand??!!??

So where did all that demand go?

#1 Oh, Woe, woe is me, and why is this happening to me?

#2 Well, sports & porn-satiated blokes and assorted pumpkin-heads!  How about middle-class America has been eviscerated???

#3 Or, how many more jobs are to be moved to Mexico and everywhere else with slave labor wages and no benefits to worry about paying enlightened and competent workers --- before anyone around here wakes up?

 #4 Where is Henry Ford who realized that your workers should be able to afford your products, when you really, really need him?

 

Comprende??

 So, do any of you guys get it yet??

As in Bedeee, Bedeee THAT's ALL FOLKS!!!!!

Dow 26,000, Here we come!! Yowweeee!!! 

As in:

 $$Millions more for me & my buds and fellowfreakin monsters from HELL ON THE UPPER EAST SIDE!!!!!!!!!!

&

Zippo for you schmucks!!!!!

 

 

J.C. Penney, Macy's to shutter dozens of stores, lay off scores of workers

Gary Strauss, USA TODAY 5:32 p.m. EST January 8, 2015

After posting holiday shopping sales on the high end of muted expectations,department store chains J.C. Penney and Macy's head into 2015 with a focus on smaller operations and fewer employees.
J.C. Penney JCP is shuttering 39 underperforming stores and laying off 2,250 workers, while Macy's announced a restructuring that will shift workers from 830 Macy's and Bloomingdale's stores and shutter 14 Macy's stores, which could cut up to 2,200 employees.
"Our business is rapidly evolving in response to changes in the way customers are shopping across stores, desktops, tablets and smartphones. We must continue to invest in our business to focus on where the customer is headed – to prepare for what's next," Macy's CEO Terry Lundgren said.
Macy's also announced a new 2016 Macy's store in Los Angeles and new Blomingdale's store to open in San Jose by late 2017.
The moves comes nearly a year after Lundgren announced 2,500 layoffs and five store closures in January 2014. … Penney said mall-based stores in 19 states will close by early April. Word of the store closures - which represent about 4% of the middle-market chain's stores - came just days … …
Troubled teen-centric Wet Seal said earlier this week that it would close 338 stores and lay off 3,700 employees in an effort to avoid a bankruptcy filing.
Consumer psychologist Kit Yarrow, author of Decoding the New Consumer Mind, says, "Retail is in a massive transformation period. Consumers have lost their enthusiasm for trolling through massive stores hunting for a bargain. They can do that online.
"The only big department stores that will remain relevant to consumers are those that are incorporate tricks and treats into the shopping mix — like product offerings you can't find online, special demonstration or sampling, cushy or fun relaxation areas."
J.C. Penney "is bloated with deteriorating real estate at a time when people want smaller, easier to navigate, technology-enhanced shopping experiences,'' Yarrow says.
"Poor Penney. I bet I'm not the only Boomer that really, really wants to shop there for the sake of their heritage, but can't," Yarrow says.

1st Warning for 2nd Half of 2014

For those who don’t know us: our lack of posts to this FREE Blog over the last many months does NOT indicate that we are dead or too dumbfounded to post anything.

 

Oh No!  Actually it is just the opposite.  All of our many predictions and forecasts over the last five years are all coming true – right on schedule. 

 

#1 The US economy is still contracting at roughly 4 to 6% per year, when one calculates the GDP accurately, with rate of inflation that we all have to deal with in the real world that is actually around 7 to 9.5%, before exploding in 2015 and into 2016.

 

#2 All of our earlier prognostications are coming true right on schedule, e.g. we predicted 17,000 on the DOW in the Fall of 2014 two years ago:  and the DOW is still on the way to 25,000 in the latter half of 2016, slightly leading the incipient Bond Bubble IMPLOSION that will precipitate the second wave of the Super Tsunami Kondratieff Long-Wave that will NOT be seen in advance by any of the economic pundits, Federal Reserve Officials, politicos, pumpkin & potato heads, charlatans, sycophants and assorted other fools that led this nation into the Real Estate HELL of 2007 through 2011.

 

#3 The second wave of the Super Tsunami Kondratieff Long-Wave will then crash over all our heads - all over the earth - with much greater economic upheavals than were seen in the Credit-Crisis of 2007/08. 

 

#4 We are still waiting for one more downturn in Gold to $950 an oz sometime this summer.  But this final manipulated crash may not come: and we are certain that this is the next to last year of gold under $2,000 per oz.; before it skyrockets to well over $5,000 per oz. as the second wave of the Super Tsunami Kondrateiff Long-Wave breaks over all the economies of this earth

 

BUT, guess what?

 

Just like last time in 2004 through 2008, there are other rather erudite and perceptive entities out there that are also getting ready for the inevitable.

 

 The BIS (Bank For International Settlements) is issuing somber warnings almost of the same tenure and tone as those that they issued in the halcyon days of 2004-2006.

People did not listen then.

Will they listen now?  


And are you and your company getting ready?? 


IF not, why NOT???!!!???

 

http://www.bis.org/publ/arpdf/ar2014e.htm

 

84th BIS Annual Report, 2013/2014

A new policy compass is needed to help the global economy step out of the shadow of the Great Financial Crisis. This will involve adjustments to the current policy mix and to policy frameworks with the aim of restoring sustainable and balanced economic growth.

The global economy has shown encouraging signs over the past year but it has not shaken off its post-crisis malaise (Chapter III). Despite an aggressive and broad-based search for yield, with volatility and credit spreads sinking towards historical lows (Chapter II), and unusually accommodative monetary conditions (Chapter V), investment remains weak. Debt, both private and public, continues to rise while productivity growth has extended further its long-term downward trend (Chapters III and IV). There is even talk of secular stagnation. Some banks have rebuilt capital and adjusted their business models, while others have more work to do (Chapter VI).

To return to sustainable and balanced growth, policies need to go beyond their traditional focus on the business cycle and take a longer-term perspective - one in which the financial cycle takes centre stage (Chapter I). They need to address head-on the structural deficiencies and resource misallocations masked by strong financial booms and revealed only in the subsequent busts. The only source of lasting prosperity is a stronger supply side. It is essential to move away from debt as the main engine of growth.
Overview of the economic chapters

84th Annual Report by chapter

Table of contents, letter of transmittal		5 pages
I. In search of a new compass	15 pages

The global economy has shown encouraging signs over the past year. But its malaise persists, as the legacy of the Great Financial Crisis and the forces that led up to it remain unresolved. More...

II. Global financial markets under the spell of monetary policy

17 pages

Financial markets have been acutely sensitive to monetary policy, both actual and anticipated. Throughout the year, accommodative monetary conditions kept volatility low and fostered a search for yield. More...

III. Growth and inflation: drivers and prospects

23 pages

World economic growth has picked up, with advanced economies providing most of the uplift, while global inflation has remained subdued. Despite the current upswing, growth in advanced economies remains below pre-crisis averages. More...

IV. Debt and the financial cycle: domestic and global

19 pages

Financial cycles encapsulate the self-reinforcing interactions between perceptions of value and risk, risk-taking and financing constraints, which translate into financial booms and busts. Financial cycles tend to last longer than traditional business cycles. More...

V. Monetary policy struggles to normalise

18 pages

Monetary policy has remained very accommodative while facing a number of tough challenges. First, in the major advanced economies, central banks struggled with an unusually sluggish recovery and signs of diminished monetary policy effectiveness. More...

VI. The financial system at a crossroads

19 pages

The financial sector has gained some strength since the crisis. Banks have rebuilt capital (mainly through retained earnings) and many have shifted their business models towards traditional banking. More...

The BIS: mission, activities, governance and financial results

119 pages

Middle Class Evisceration

I am a child of the middle class and our family shopped at Sears and JC Penney and Kmart.

When I have said on these blogs and on our website  www.polestarcomm.com  that the middle class is dying, I just concluded these things not only from my own observations down here in Sarasota Florida but from our nation wide canvassing surveys that have been extremely accurate in all prior periods.

 

But here follows what is  - IMO - incontrovertible evidence of these things:  and the news from Radio Shack just this AM supports our conclusions.

Now, if you can’t extrapolate the impacts of these macro-economic shifts on your business, then you had better subscribe to our services: and I would suggest you do this now,  before the  proverbial SH-T starts Hitting the Fan, which will begin just ahead of when the 2^nd Wave of the Super Tsunami Kondratieff Long-Waves  breaks over your head!

http://beluscapitaladvisors.com/2013/10/21/sears-vanishing-minds-shocking-14-photos/

http://www.businessinsider.com/photos-inside-jcpenney-2014-1

http://www.businessinsider.com/photos-insider-kmart-2013-11

In my opinion, these stores are dying because the middle class is being gradually suffocated and will eventually be extinguished in this country.

The primary, yet totally unrecognized, reason is that the first of three Super Tsunami Kondratieff Long-Waves has wracked macro-economic chaos in the middle class life styles of Americans; and their spending habits to support those life styles will never be the same as those seen in the latter half of the 20^th Century!

And there are yet two more waves of the Super Tsunami Kondratieff Long-Waves to break over all the world’s economies in the not too distant future.  If you would like timing on these things then go to our Contact Page and sign up for our services, because I guarantee you that the Potato and Pumpkin Heads on you FV’s (Funny Visions) and all of the economic pundits will have no clue of these things!

The following synoptic observation is how I originally wrote about just one of the social phenomena that will accompany this dramatic series of alterations to the American Retail Landscape. 

I first wrote this in the midst of the Credit-Crisis in March of 2008, and then posted it to our website in October of 2011.  This is from our New Normal web page at www.polestarcomm.com and everything written herein still stands – IMO!

The "Age of Frugality"

Any company that ignores the emotional impact of this “New Normal” on the average US consumer or investor will likely see their market share progressively shrink and their corporate visibility diminish. 'Value' will become the consumer’s watchword, as they will no longer spend impulsively or carelessly giving birth to a totally new consumer class - 'Mission Shoppers.'  Shopping will become a 'Mission,' whereby a consumer will sally forth to purchase a specific product or service and not venture out aimlessly in a whimsical pursuit of things. 

The American consumer binge is NOW over and the 'Age of Frugality' has begun.  Sometime after the winter of 2012/13 will begin the collapse of all markets.  ...

 (These original projections of ours were extended over five times: we were forced to do so by the continual extension of the FED's ZIRP - by the Panicked Banking Authorities.  Therefore, we were forced to extend the projected timing of the ultimate Mother of All Crashes out to roughly the summer 2016!)

... After the "Great Deception of 2012" has been fully played out and ever more Trillions of dollars of investor capital has been 'smoked,' all businesses will have to cope with a consumer that will be totally focused on buying only what they need - when they need it.  Except for the super-rich (and there will be many fewer of them in the future), the days of just 'Shopping to Shop' are going to be replaced with 'Shopping to Survive.'  The mission of the new class of 'Mission Shoppers' will be to buy ONLY what they need and not what someone else thinks they should buy.  Therefore, only those companies that fulfill a need and not a desire will survive this new age.

After the bursting of the final 'Bubble' - The 'Bond Bubble' - investors will be finished with stocks and bonds and houses and will be totally intent on survival. In the coming economic debacle, other than inflation hedges and stores of value, investors will become too frightened to invest in anything.

In this now imminent fragile economic environment, consumer and investor behavior will respond best to those Marketing and Advertising 'messages' that recognize the “New Normal’ by offering solace, support and solutions to the exigencies of the day that promise to become much more severe than anyone now suspects possible.

 

  

Everything is RIPPING Along!!!

Ok Folks.  We have been very engaged in ours and client projects, but will make a few updates here.  Our advantage is that our thoughts are based on secular and generational trends and cycles that are never in need of revision:

# 1 American economy is in Super Tsunami Kondratieff Downturn that will last approximately twenty five more years.

#2 Inflation for everything that we need to live is literally ripping along at roughly 9 to 13 % a year, and will very soon accelerate to well over 20%, or so.  The examples are just so numerous that I literally don’t have the time and unless your maid or your butler does the shopping and pays your bills, you already know these things, anyway!

For instance, nails, screws, asphalt shingles, lumber, all food, insurance and medical care and floor tiles and tires and windshield wipers and razor blades are all going to be too expensive to buy anymore - for most people, .e.g I just paid $0.68 for a rather unexceptional screw at my local Rip Off Hardware store, and $24 for a pack of stupid razor blades, which I will never buy again!!

And in the same week I paid $6.88 for three (that is 3!!) Ambrosia apples!!!!

Do any of you guys out there realize, even yet, that the US Commerce Department inflation numbers are outright LIES?

#3 Because the USCD GDP numbers are incorporating totally false inflation numbers of 1.5 to 2.5 % in their calculations of the US GDP, the real US GDP numbers are not 2 to 3% up per year!! 

Rather they are down 5 to 7% -- and dropping rapidly every day!!

Nevertheless, as we first projected on March the 16^th of 2009 (and put up here in Oct 2011) the Dow Jones is going to go to the moon – and now to Pluto!!

Our current projections on these things are Dow Jones 25,000 by summer 2016!

Gold probably still goes to $925 sometime this year and then goes to $3,000 to $7,000 per ounce sometime in 2016 to 2019.

Aggregate retail sales will continue to plummet, as the middle class continues to evaporate and demand for all things continues to collapse!

And as we wrote about two and three years ago on these blogs, virtually all the world is going to buy stocks.

And this article proves it!

Get ready folks for the economic Roller Coaster Ride of your life!  If you need any further insights subscribe to our services.  Or since everything unfolding before your eyes is just as we predicted, go back and read all our free blogs.

From: http://seekingalpha.com/article/2059673-nyse-margin-debt-reaches-record-451_30-billion-in-january-with-risk-rank-at-no-10?source=email_macro_view_mar_out_5_5&ifp=0

NYSE Margin Debt Reaches Record $451.30 Billion In January, With Risk Rank At No. 10