The Causey Consulting Podcast

Saturday Broadcast 36

February 18, 2023
The Causey Consulting Podcast
Saturday Broadcast 36
Show Notes Transcript

Key topics:

✔️ ICYMI news, 2/11 - 2/17.
✔️The official narrative is now shaping up. Pandemic ➡️ Unprecedented times. ➡️ Zoom boom & WFH. ➡️ Red hot markets & overhiring. ➡️ Market is now "normalizing." ➡️ Don't worry about it because this is just a normal market correction and NOT a bubble popping or a market crashing. 😒
✔️The MSM needs to quit LARPing that everyone can go get a job in a hospital or a fast food joint and all will be well. That makes no sense.
✔️More UFOs. Are we in a MindWar now?

Links:

https://tinyurl.com/yspvna69

https://tinyurl.com/2p9dy7es

https://www.linkedin.com/news/story/layoffs-come-for-biotech-too-6166714/

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/latest-jobs-report-red-hot-182815798.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etO8RH4JCV0

https://twitter.com/nytimes/status/1624536743969185792

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/02/12/heres-where-the-jobs-will-be-during-the-rolling-recessions.html

https://tinyurl.com/bdezkwec

https://www.yahoo.com/now/goldman-sachs-ceo-david-solomon-230457780.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T501LHx0R_Q

https://twitter.com/Snowden/status/1625241477642088454

https://www.linkedin.com/news/story/latest-layoffs-companies-making-cuts-6157626/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ClS8OELu1o

https://www.linkedin.com/news/story/many-realtors-now-need-second-jobs-6172394/

https://www.linkedin.com/news/story/walmart-plans-rto-closes-hubs-6171074/

https://tinyurl.com/ycy7yz92

https://www.linkedin.com/news/story/latest-layoffs-docusign-kpmg-more-6157626/

https://www.linkedin.com/news/story/fidelity-defies-trend-hiring-4000-6173890/

https://www.linkedin.com/news/story/disney-staff-push-back-on-rto-5556620/

https://www.linkedin.com/news/story/making-sense-of-the-jobless-rate-5554620/

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/quiet-quitting-trend-over-140008899.html

Links where I can be found: https://causeyconsultingllc.com/2023/01/30/updates-housekeeping/

Need more? Email me: https://causeyconsultingllc.com/conta

Welcome to the Causey Consulting Podcast. You can find us online anytime at CauseyConsulting LLC.com. And now, here's your host Sara Causey.
Today it is Saturday February 11. Again starting this Saturday broadcast early because as I said before, I barely will get a segment recorded or an episode processed and published before we have new layoff announcements, or some new dust up put some new kerfuffle happens and I don't have time to get it on the air. Apparently, yesterday, there was a second high altitude object that was shot down. Over on CNBC, we find a US fighter jet shot down a high altitude object off the coast of Alaska less than a week after a high altitude Chinese surveillance balloon was shot down off the coast of South Carolina. White House spokesman John Kirby hesitated to characterize the aircraft as a balloon. We're calling this an object because that's the best description we have right now he's well object can be so many different things. The latest object was smaller than the spy balloon and flying at a lower altitude, which posed a threat to civilian aircraft The White House said in quote yeah, I've said for a while if the war hawks want war, I hope they don't I pray they don't. But if the war hawks want war, pretty much thing that's going to be the direction we go in. Again, I really hope not. I pray not but I mean, something is getting fomented here. Or alternatively, all of these spy balloons high altitude object, our distraction points to keep us from knowing something much more terrifying. Up to you what you think on the matter, I don't know, latest layoff so let's go back to LinkedIn and find out what we've missed. Daily harvest, which is facing wilting sales after one of its products allegedly made customers sick, aim to layoff about 60 people this month, Bloomberg reports. Yikes. And yet on this running tally of new layoffs, we still see at the top the top paragraph is despite an avalanche of layoff announcements in tech and beyond the latest Labor Department data shows this is still a workers job market. How can anybody say that with a straight face? I don't know man. Oh no. We also find on LinkedIn today, layoffs come for biotech too. And that article we read. After years of easy funding layoffs are hitting the biotech branch of technology as investment in new drugs and research dries up amid rising interest rates. job cuts at pharmaceutical and life sciences companies totaled 7387 Last year, according to outplacement firm, Challenger gray and Christmas with almost 1500 layoffs in January alone compared to 174 at the same time last year. Other headaches for the industry include America's touchy relations with China, where much drug manufacturing has been outsourced. Oh, great. And a new federal law allowing Medicare to negotiate some prices since 2021. The SPDR s&p biotech ETF has dropped by almost half in quote. You know, I'm seeing this outplacement firm challenger gray and Christmas mentioned a lot in these various studies. Almost 1500 layoffs in January alone. So apparently things are not looking good in the biotech world. Someone in the comment section under this article, made the comment here is your weekly reminder, dot dot dot new biotech drugs are so expensive because the discovery and commercialization process ain't easy. Okay, no doubt, no doubt. It might be Who of you? You know, those of you that listen to this podcast and read my blogs, I believe that you're smarter than the average bear. I want to give you a massive pat on the back. I think that it might be worthwhile to take a look at big farmers budgets. Is it really due to research and development? because that's what we're told those of us that are supposed to be the ignorant unwashed masses out here and the general public, we're told, hey, look, the reason why medicine in America is so flipping expensive compared to the same cost of the same drug, or compared to the cost of the same drugs and other parts of the world. It's because research and development, it's because we're cutting edge. We're told that until that until that now part of that plays into the American western world exceptionalism mentality. But it's pretty easy to just sort of shove that narrative onto john and jane Q Public, well, hey, look at all these new drugs. Hey, look, science is not cheap. You have to be able to pay the researchers they need their funding, they have to do their experiments, it might be an interesting assignment for you to take a look at how much gets spent on marketing and advertising. And then to juxtapose that marketing and advertising budget with the r&d budget. And you know, I don't know, I'm just kind of spitballing kind of thinking out loud speculating out loud here. You know, I would not be surprised if you were to discover that the marketing and advertising budget is significantly higher than the r&d budget. And that it's entirely possible that those of us in the general public who believe that Big Pharma is so huge and so crazy expensive because of research and development. Or as this gentleman reminds us, biotech drugs are so expensive, because the discovery and commercialization process ain't easy. You know, we're supposed to believe that. And it's easy for us to believe that. But you know, I think if you were to look at how much money and time and effort gets put into the marketing, and advertising for Big Pharma, I think you might be surprised at the lopsidedness, shall we say, between those two budgets. So I think this idea of like, oh, well heavy as the head that wears the crown, you know, they've got to keep going and the process is so expensive on them. Hmm. Yeah, I'm not completely sold on that narrative myself. If we go over to Yahoo Finance by way of fortune, we find the latest jobs report was red hot, red, hot, red hot. But ominous LinkedIn data tells a different story about the economy. Berber Berber. So this was published yesterday in the afternoon. And we find, despite layoffs and hiring freezes at big tech firms, including Amazon and metta, the labor market has proved to be incredibly resilient. The US economy added 517,000 jobs last month, topping economists estimates and pushing the unemployment rate to a 53 year low of 3.4%. My goodness, may forecasters hadn't anticipated the robust jobs report, given the Federal Reserve's year long campaign and interest rate hikes to fight persistent inflation, which typically causes higher unemployment. I'm gonna butt in and say, Well, yeah, it's causing higher unemployment, right, flipping now. Even Fed Chair Jerome Powell said Tuesday at the Economic Club of Washington DC that the report was stronger than anyone I know expected. Oh, was it there, Jer. Was it JP, huh? No, I don't think it was stronger than expected. If you were aware ahead of time of what's being coordinated. I think if you were expecting it to be high, so the Fed could then use it as justification to keep crashing the labor market. I don't think it was a flipping surprise at all. But new data from LinkedIn shows the strength of the labor market may be fading. Oh, fading, hiring through the employment focus social media sites, St. 23%. Year over year in the US in January, the US labor market is starting to normalize. Oh, okay. So that's what we're going to say. Okay. All right. That's the narrative now got it. The US labor market is starting to normalize with a slowdown in hiring quits and wage growth Rand Gad, head of economics and global labor markets at LinkedIn explained in a Tuesday article, companies have started to tighten their belts and take a more judicious approach to recruiting. Okay. You know, that's a Bible narrative, right? Because in the FOMO, and the yellow of the great resignation Back in 2021, companies were just catches catch can. And there were companies doing speed hiring all all speed dating. Let's get on the telephone for 10 minutes, have a brief chit chat. If you say you're interested and you want the job you're hired. Now, I'm not saying they did that for every position. I'm not telling you they did that for like CEO, President EVP type roles.
I'm talking about more. So for Gen labor, or for entry level positions. It really got to the point of Do you have a pulse? If we hold a mirror under your nose, will we see breath appear? Mirror? Okay, great. You're hired. So it's a it's a very believable narrative now to go, Hey, look, it's normalizing the FOMO, the YOLO, the craziness that we had a couple of years ago, that's going to settle on down. And companies are just going to be more judicious. We want to keep using this very gentle, very soft, very non scary, non threatening language so that you don't panic. Now, that's just my opinion. I could be wrong, but that's how I'm reading the tea leaves here. I'll continue. While hiring was down across almost all countries on LinkedIn in January, US hiring slowed more than most only Ireland, India and Singapore posted worse results. LinkedIn derives its country level hiring measure by dividing the number of users who add a new employer to their profile during the month, their new job began by the total number of users in that country. So I mean, is that a good yardstick? I don't know. Do I think hiring is slowing down amongst almost all countries that are profiled on LinkedIn? Hell, yeah. That I think is highly believable. LinkedIn also studied users posts for signs that a labor market strength is waning. And the recent data isn't pretty. The number of posts mentioning the word layoff or entrenchment on LinkedIn soared 37.7% between December 26 of 2022 and January 22 2023, compared with the four weeks prior, and post mentioning open to work increased by 18.5%. Over the same period, there is evidence that the labor market is cooling me on the ongoing layoff announcements from industries that saw massive over hiring during the pandemic, ie real estate technology information and media et cetera. Guy at noted, The Economist pointed to the gradually declining ratio of job openings to active applicants over the past few months as evidence of companies hiring slowdown. But he also noted labor market conditions vary by industry as the effects of COVID related disruptions are still being felt by some companies today. The tech sector for example, has returned to its pre pandemic baseline and hiring, while in other industries like energy and healthcare Guyot said it is still very much a job seekers market and quote, yeah, and healthcare probably it is. If you're an ER doctor, if you're a registered nurse, if you're a physician's assistant that's willing and able to be an LT or to work in an urgent care that's under staff, you probably do have picking choice. But to act like that is the case and the economy overall, is just complete and utter bullshit, in my opinion. But so here we go, I think we can start to see the overall story, shaping up over hiring COVID unprecedented times a pandemic, a life or death scenario that no one ever expected to see in our lifetimes. People didn't quite know how to react, the markets didn't know how to behave. These companies over hired, there was a zoom, boom, there was a tech boom, more people were taking laptops and technology into their home and working from home. And then when they got home, they might have figured out the house was too small for everybody. Because hey, the kids were also home from school, they're doing distance learning on their technology. The house was too small the neighborhood sucked. Didn't like the environment anymore wanted something different. So there was also this big FOMO and Yolo and the housing market oh when the interest rates were crazy low as well. So people felt like they could justify buying an overpriced house because the rate was so low. All of these factors went into a toxic stew and golly gosh, gee bang whiz, who? Who I asked you who could have seen the catastrophic results of all of this? Well, anybody with a flippin brain? Anybody that's lived through these in my life. In totally engineered and manufactured boom bust cycles before. But there's your story over hiring an unprecedented times global pandemic scary world we were living in. Companies over hired, they overreacted, they got caught up in the FOMO. And the yellow of the great resignation worker saying hell no, we won't go, we want to be at home, we've had to rethink our priorities. We don't want to be stuck in the cube farm anymore. And you can't make us because global pandemic. So there's all this over hiring all of this extra technology. But now, now that we're being told, COVID is winding down, it's going to be with us forever, we'll never be rid of it. But we'll just have to learn to live around it so that we're not an emergency pandemic status anymore. And the mayors of these large cities want you to go back downtown and shop and cross pollinate and eat in the restaurants in the diners, corporate America is more and more telling you you're gonna get your butt back in the cube farm and get back in the office. Now, the labor market is normalizing. Okay, so it was red hot now that it's cooling off. It's not crashing, it's normalizing. Things are just kind of getting back to normal. And this is all okay. So we're going to go from we're going to talk very gentle, we're going to be very NLP about all of this. I'm going to wear something very soft and pastel so that you feel like I'm soft and gentle. And you can trust me. And I'm going to tell you in a very soft, gentle, melodic voice almost like I'm trying to hypnotize you and put you to sleep little baby. I'm going to tell you that people over hired, they got trigger happy during the Great resignation. So now the layoffs and the market correction. It's okay. Because what it means is that the labor market is normalizing everything and everybody will be okay. You don't need to pay attention to mass layoff announcements. You don't need to be worried about wage stagnation or wages declining. You just need to understand this is a normal market correction. It's a normal cooling off period. It's not an artificially created bubble that's now bursting and causing a hell of a lot of chaos for people. Oh, no, it's normalizing. See how easy it is for people to get out in mass media and do this kind of spin golly, hypnotist routine? I don't know if you're seeing it, but I sure am. Today is Sunday, February 12. I watched a video this morning from redacted titled banks admit the collapse is coming and they don't want you to know about it. I will be talking in more detail about this exact topic, particularly bank bail ins and unsecured creditors. I think on Thursdays podcast episode this week. If this is not a topic that you know anything about if it's not a topic you've ever paid any real attention to, in my opinion, you would be smart to look into this information. As I always say I am not an economist, a financial planner or advisor, a credit counselor, a banking expert, a hedge fund manager for a bazillionaire etc. Nothing that I say to you is financial advice or advice of any kind. I sit here and I opine for your entertainment only. And I think for your entertainment, you ought to check out some information about these topics. The write up for the redacted video that I'll drop a link to says why are people around the world unable to withdraw money from their banks? Are we in for a bail in, meaning banks borrow from citizens to bail themselves out? It is not unprecedented. It has happened in more than 11 countries in recent years. And very well could be coming in the US and Europe in quote.
I think you would do well to educate yourself on this topic. The video that I will be talking about in this week's broadcast will come from Kitco news. They did a great interview, I think with Lynette Zeng, and she gets into not only the bail ins and the legislation that makes that possible that how Wall Street now has access to your deposits. The devaluing of the currency the kind of joke unfortunately that the US dollar has become the pathway to see the D sees as well as the great r e s e t. It's fascinating and terrifying at the same time, but I think you need to know about it. And if you're wondering why there are certain things that I've spelled out or kind of spaced the language out weird. It's because there are certain things that you just can't talk about, unless you are going to speak favorably if you're going to toe the line of whatever the mainstream media tells you to think about a particular topic. Whatever is Overlord approved, then then you can say that. I mean, totally, if I wanted to get on here and seal clap, and tell you that the jobs report is awesome. There is no recession to open jobs for every one unemployed person. And isn't this great? Well, I would get probably 50 times as many downloads, I would have a million followers by now. I just got out here and said when I'm supposed to say, you can really tell like, who, who's who's putting forth truth and who isn't. Because it gets harder and harder, the more truth that you actually spit out, I'll just leave it at that. But this redacted video is excellent, I think. And it shows people actually trying in these various situations to confront the banks about money that's missing out of their account, or people having a bank run, I think it was in Nigeria, there's a video of wealthy customers being allowed to take their money out, but I guess the poor unwashed masses not being able to. I feel like this is something that ought to be on your radar screen. I will be talking about it in more detail this week. I hope you will tune into that episode, share it. If there's anybody in your life that you think needs to know about it. Please don't bury your head in the sand. In other news, the New York Times tweeted an image that in some ways, I just wish I had never seen the information that goes along with this reads this high rise tower in China isn't a housing block. It's a pig farm, with each floor operating like a self contained farm. Towers like this are part of China's push to reduce its dependence on agricultural imports. And I'll drop a link to the tweet so you can check it out. It just It looks like any sort of high rise or large office complex type building, maybe even housing complex. It very much to me looks like you will own nothing and you will be happy except for die Schweine. Die Schweine will own nothing. It's horrible looking. This is not a farm. In many ways, it reminds me of why I do what I do why I work so hard. There's a bumper sticker that says I work hard so my cows can have a better life. It's not so far off the mark for me. Just why I do animal rescue and rehabilitation. Why I take in animals with special needs. I mean, I can't imagine an animal living this way. No sunshine, no fresh air, no grass, no nature, just going and being able to do normal animals things that they need in order to be happy and healthy. Now the pigs are gonna get shunted into their modular unit. But I guess they don't even have virtual reality headsets to put on. Ah, ah, God, this gives you such a headache. I mean, wow, who wants to live this way? This is not natural. This is so artificial. To me. We're gonna put pigs into a high rise building. Dish Fina. We're gonna put dish fina in there first. But you know what? They're going to do this to pigs? What do you think they're going to do to people? Hmm. So think about that. on CNBC, there was a headline this morning, here's where the jobs will be during the rolling recessions. Okay, so we've talked about that nomenclature before slow sessions, rolling recessions like let's just try to come up with some name for it to make it sound less scary. In the TLDR key points, we find rolling recessions has become a popular term these days for what the US has faced since a slowdown that started in early 2020. Now excuse me, 2020 to early 2022, housing, manufacturing and finance all have shown signs of contraction, though the economy broadly has escaped the recession definition. Oh has it? That's probably because the technical definition of a recession was changed. So that whoever's in office right now. I mean, they're all replaceable and exchangeable to me. Whatever neocon or Neo live is in office right now. I guess it's bumbling old man, Neo lib that's in office right now. So we changed the technical definition to make him look good. Okay. Sure. Some of the best places for workers to find jobs this year will include accommodation, oil and gas, hospice and health care. According to LinkedIn data, tougher sectors will be government administration, education and Consumer Services, unquote. Hmm. Let's think about this. As I've said before, there are certain sectors that just have high too turnover, and they seem to always have a shortage of employees health care being the number one, in my mind. Seems like hospitals are always saying they're understaffed, urgent cares and medical clinics. But not everybody has the correct qualifications to get in to health care. I wouldn't consider myself to be an intelligent person. But if you threw me into an emergency room and asked me to do brain surgery, that would not go very well. I don't have the correct education and training and years of a residency and an internship to be able to do something like that. And I think we need to quit LARPing that everybody can just go get a job. In healthcare, everybody can go get a job and fast food and make ends meet. You know, this is like that jab at the coal miners will go learn how to code. Oh, really, because now big tech has a bunch of layoffs. You know, it's like they tell you to do things. And they say it so flippantly and so blase. Like, oh, this is just common sense. This is like so self evident, go low, go go learn to code, you fill out the coal miner. Now, if that person learned to code, they might still be out of a job.
I guess now, instead of let them eat cake, it's go learn to code, go get a job in healthcare. Go get a job as a hospice worker, even if you have no qualifications to do that, go get a job working as a desk clerk at a hotel, go get a job as a burrito maker. That's how you'll survive a rolling recession. Geez. And so let's get into this article. deep, heavy sigh recession light conditions rolling through the US economy are likely to cause more ripples through an otherwise strong jobs market. Rolling recessions has become a popular term these days for what the US has faced since a slowdown that started in early 2022. The term connotes that while the economy may not meet an official recession definition, there will be sectors that will feel very much like they are in a contraction. Okay, this reminds me a lot of Phil Gramm poppin off back in oh eight that the peons were in a mental recession. You heard of a mental depression? Well, this is a mental recession. Y'all need to quit whining. Right? Okay, so some sectors are going to feel very much like they're in a contraction. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain, you're going to feel like you're in a contraction, but you're not really in a contraction and everybody else around you is going to be okay. No wonder people are talking about words like gaslighting being the word of the year, we are being gaslighted. That will be true as well for the jobs market, which overall has been strong but has seen weakness in sectors that could intensify this year, according to data from popular networking site LinkedIn all been in again and say, why is it that we're all supposed to just assume that LinkedIn is the be all end all for the jobs market? I mean, they are for all intents and purposes, in my opinion, a social media, a social networking site, that kind of sort of centers around the job market. It's almost like Facebook, but with people talking about where they work, or Twitter, but for people that are maybe looking for jobs or maybe want to be found by recruiters, when I myself just my personal opinion, which could be wrong, would I in my personal opinion, consider them to be some beacon of accuracy about the job market. No. Economist there in fact, have identified multiple sectors that will show varying degrees of tightness this year. Labor markets remain tighter compared to pre pandemic levels said ran guide head of economics and global labor markets at LinkedIn. You know, I'm gonna read this because I've already read from the information from that person over and over again, I don't even want to hear it anymore. Various dominoes already have fallen during the Rolling Rolling recession period say that a few times about the ruling recession period. Housing entered a sharp downturn last year and the widely followed manufacturing indexes have been pointing to to contraction for several months. In addition, the most recent senior loan officer survey from the Federal Reserve noted significantly tighter credit conditions indicating a slowdown is hitting the financial sector. Other sectors could follow as economists broadly expect that the US will see at best slow to moderate growth this year. Because they're not going to tell you that things are in the dumper. They're going to tell you slow, slow to moderate growth. We're not going to tell you You can traction we're not going to tell you oh, we're just gonna say slow to moderate growth. LinkedIn data, which comes from job postings and other data from the sites, more than 900 million members worldwide is markedly different from government data in an interesting way. Oh, you don't say. Whereas the more widely following data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics finds an extremely tight labor market with nearly two Oh, Jesus, here we go. With nearly two open jobs for every available worker that makes me want to puke. Do you understand how tired I am of saying that? Even saying it sarcastically even just reading it in these articles that I cover for you, it is churning my stomach. LinkedIn labor market tightness metric has shown about a one to one ratio that looks to be loosening a bit more. The implications are important. The Federal Reserve has cited the historic tightness of the labor market as motivation for its series of interest rate hikes aimed at taming inflation. If the market trends are unfolding, the way LinkedIn data indicates it could provide impetus for the central bank to ease up on its own tightening measures and quote, If you believe that come down here to the landlocked Midwest, I'll sell you some oceanfront property for top dollar. In my opinion, the red hot labor market is being used as justification for the Fed to keep going. They've not been shy in saying that they want to see unemployment go up, and wages go down. Ignore that information at your own risk. If you want to go out and read hot air and hopium and bullshit, in my opinion, it is your right to do that. And Lord knows you can find it by the truckload. I think it's more important to pay attention to what these fat cats say in private, to the investors, the Board of Directors, the wealthy people, the folks that they consider to be important, and to watch what they do. What they say to the peons and plebs in this corporate controlled mass media. Clown world is ridiculous, as I hope you can see. Now, according to this article, where will the jobs be? Okay, so here we go all over again, moderately tight markets include tech entertainment, information and media, professional services, retail estate, retail and financial services. In these industries, job applicants are having an easier time finding opportunities while employers are having to step up recruitment efforts. What the eff I'm not saying that. No, no, sir. No, ma'am. No, I am seeing candidates in these exact sectors that they're talking about languishing on the market for weeks or months. As a freelancer in what I would consider to be the professional services arena. I've put bids in on proposals that just sat there nobody even responded. Or at some point you get the well, we're gonna put this on hold. Well, we had to rethink our budget. Well, maybe in q2 Well, recession. I am not. No, I would not consider any of the things that they just rattle off to be a moderately tight market. Tech. Are you kidding me with all the tech layoffs, holy cannolis. Media information and media with all the media companies and publishing houses that have had layoffs. Oh, my God. extremely tight labor markets include accommodation, oil and gas, hospice and health care. LinkedIn says that those field in those fields employers cannot fill vacancies fast enough. We again maybe in health care, maybe something like locums tenants situation. Hey, we need a nurse down here today. Who do you have? I would believe that your accommodation Okay, well, maybe leisure and hospitality and fast food maybe those industries are still having a labor shortage, but to LARP and play pretend that that's what's going on in the broader economy is ridiculous. Also to play pretend that anybody that gets laid off from any sector can just plug in and work at a hotel. They can just plug in and work at a hospital. That's bogus as well. Hmm. Yeah. Well, I mean, all I can say at this point is I hope to God that the average person is not looking at this and believing it. I hope they have more common sense than that. Today, it is Monday, February 13. This morning, I was thinking about the movement there for a while to make the Monday after Super Bowl Sunday into a holiday and I was like whatever happened to that I know they moved the start time up so that the Super Bowl even in the event of overtime doesn't run so late into the night. I was like man, whatever happened to that? I guess it lost momentum somewhere over the weekend apparently there was a third unidentified object the third one in three days and I think that one was shot down somewhere Overlake here on so What is even happening now? I think I heard something about it like a weird octagonal shape with things hanging off of it. What even is this you know, you have to laugh to not cry because we are just living in such bizarre times. Over on CNBC, we have headlines such as new inflation warning is coming from the supply chain. Europe is looking to tackle sky high debt loads after signs it will dodge a recession.
Really? What signs are those? Also, we find this juicy tidbit. Ukraine plots post war rebuilding effort with JP Morgan Chase as economic adviser. Wow. Isn't it interesting how many of these titans of corporate America and Wall Street are involved in building Ukraina back better? Got BlackRock and then now we've got JP Morgan Chase. Wow. Now I'm sure this is all benevolent. I'm sure it is just from the kindness of their hearts that they are doing this. In the TLDR key points we find. JP Morgan will tap its Debt Capital Markets operations payments and commercial banking and infrastructure investing expertise to help the country stabilize its economy and credit rating, manage its funds and advance its digital adoption. According to a person with knowledge of the agreement. Of particular importance is advising the nation on efforts to raise private investment to help it rebuild and invest for future growth in areas including renewable energy, agriculture and technology. The full resources of JPMorgan Chase are available to Ukraine as it charts its post conflict path to growth. CEO Jamie Dimon said in a statement. Wow. Well, isn't that something? My Goodness me. In the article we find? Diamond added JP Morgan was proud of its support for Ukraine and was committed to its people. The bank led a $20 billion debt restructuring for the country last year and has committed millions of dollars in support for its refugees. On Fridays Alinsky spoke via teleconference with guests of JP Morgan's annual Wealth Management summit in Miami after the agreement was signed. Also worth noting, I think the discussion was moderated by ex UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, and former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in quote. So interesting advance its digital adoption. Mm hmm. Now she, you know, I wonder what that could mean. I wonder if people like Russell Brand, and the anchors over there at redacted who have been warning us about the implementation of A, C, B, D. C, and saying, you know, I'm sure with their tinfoil hats firmly in place, that maybe just maybe Ukraine was going to be used as a sort of proving ground or a testing ground for launching digital currency. And then here we see in mass media advance it's digital adoption. Hmm. I'm sure that is just completely a coincidence. I'm sure all of that is unrelated wink. Also in terms of like weird business situations, we have cheeps when Super Bowl is Rihanna reveals pregnancy. And Elon Musk hangs out with Rupert Murdoch. Hmm. Wonder what they could have been discussing up there. on Yahoo Finance by way of fortune, we find Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon tells partners he regrets not firing employees sooner after laying off 3200 last month. Oh, okay. It's read. Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon made a difficult decision to cut about 3200 jobs last month. Does he have any regrets? Yes, he wishes he had done it sooner. Apparently. As the environment was growing more complicated in q2 of last year, every bone in my body believed we should be much more aggressive in slowing hiring and reducing headcount. Solomon said Sunday at a closed door game othering with about 400 Goldman Sachs partners in Miami, according to the Financial Times, I'm going to button and say what I always tell you, I believe it is really important to look at what the fat cats and the investment bankers and these hedge fund managers and Wall Street to dues what they say in private. What do they say to the investors, the shareholders, the people who they believe really matter? Not what kind of fluff pieces are they putting out to John and Jane Q public, but what do they say behind closed doors? So automatically, my antennae are up, but this was at a closed door gathering. I'll continue to read. The banks on net profits tumbled by nearly half in 2022. Compared to the year before, it's been scrambling to cut costs, with partner bonuses taking a hit and the use of private jets coming under scrutiny. On what came to be known internally as David's demolition day, a large number of employees were let go on January 11. Some employees were fired after showing up for what they thought was a routine meeting for which they had been emailed a calendar invite. Solomon reportedly said in Miami that the layoffs and cost cutting would have been less severe had he acted sooner, and he took responsibility for not moving faster. Solomon has taken heat for living a glamorous life amid the bank's woes leading some Goldman Sachs insiders to question his focus on leading the company. In addition to hobnobbing with celebrities and taking private jets to the Bahamas. He's known to DJ for live audiences as DJ D Sol at clubs and events around the world. You could not make that up if you tried. Oh, wow. Okay, so I guess we had Marie Antoinette saying let them eat cake or allegedly saying let them eat cake. We had meero allegedly fiddling while Rome burned and you've got this guy being DJ D Sol at clubs and events around the world. The Board announced last month that Solomon's pay for 2022 was $25 million. That was down 29% from 2021. But partners as a group saw their bonuses slashed in half. Pod. That's pretty sad to have to take such a drastic pay cut that you wind up at 25 million. Oh, and then your bonus gets slashed in half. Allow me to get out the teeniest tiniest of violins and play a sad song. Some Goldman Sachs insiders are restive and have discussed who might replace Solomon according to Insider, that hasn't been helped. The Economist that hasn't been helped by I think it's supposed to be buyers should be in there that hasn't been helped by the Economist running a cover story entitled The humbling of Goldman Sachs a few weeks ago. Meanwhile, many workers who were laid off last month receive no bonus a major chunk of employee pay at Goldman Sachs, I was really looking forward to that bonus that would have helped me with some of my expenses with school and things of that nature that I'm currently paying for a former analyst at Goldman's Salt Lake City office told fortune, everybody deserves to get their bonus whether you were laid off or not, you deserve it. Fortune has reached out to Goldman Sachs for comment and quote, yeah, I don't really think that they give a shit about whether you deserve your bonus or not whether you were laid off or not. I think that corporate America and Wall Street kind of don't think they'd give a shit about the little guy. Huh, kind of think that they mostly care about themselves and the shareholders and the investors and the politicians that they need to grease poems with. I don't really think that they're worried about John and Jane Q Public. I'm just saying, I could be wrong. That's just my opinion. And I could be wrong. But I don't really think that they're worried about average working class people. It also certainly doesn't read well to think about somebody saying, Yeah, I regret not having a purge sooner, we should have just let everybody go a lot faster. And then maybe it wouldn't have been so bad. That's no consolation to you if you were one of the people that got laid off. But I think it's also worth noting that he was talking about the environment getting much more complicated in q2 of last year. I think when you own and operate a business, where you have your own freelancing desk, I mean, anytime you're in a situation where you're out and about, you're hustling and you're in and out of the market, and you can see what's going on in the business world and in the broader economy. You just have a different viewpoint than someone who is working a full time w two job they're clocking in or clocking out, and they're not in and out of those markets every day. For me, it was palpable. I have told this story before it was palpable to me. January 1 of 2022. It felt like a door slammed shut And that sense of hesitation that maybe we need to slow down, maybe we don't really need to fill this position at warp speed, maybe the speed hiring or speed dating needs to get cut out, man, maybe we've been a little rash. Whenever that started to happen. It became clear to me, Oh, the times they are changing. And in April, I wrote that blog post about when the pendulum swings, because I knew that it would. I knew that at some point, the great resignation would grind to a halt. And people would want to start staying put, companies would have layoffs and hiring freezes.
It doesn't matter if you change the technical definition of a recession. It's pretty clear that we're in one. So I do find it interesting that in this closed door meeting, not, you know, inviting the unwashed masses into it in a closed door meeting, which is partners of the company was talking about all the way back in q2, there was a sense that things were changing. That part I believe is true. I think q1 q2 of last year, it was palpable. You could feel it. If you owned and operated a business, you were starting to see the warning signs of trouble. That part I believe. But as I said, if you're one of the people that got laid off hearing him say, oh, yeah, I wished I had done it sooner. We should have trimmed the fat around here. But why? That's, that's going to be of no consolation to you. And so I hope and I pray, you've roughed out your job loss survival plan, you have an RTO survival plan so that if you want to keep your job, and you've been working remotely, and they say, all right, starting Monday morning, it's time to come on back. Are you prepared for that? There was during the Superbowl, what I would call a dystopian and creepy commercial. Maybe not everybody felt that way about it. But I did I, I didn't like it, it gave me the willies. But it was this commercial of a family where everybody has been working from home and they've been doing distance learning. And the family dog is happy to have everybody there in the house. But then when they all have to go back to school and back to work, then he's lonely being in the house by himself because he's gotten accustomed to everybody being home with him. And they go through all the pageantry of oh, we need to be back in the office next week. Oh, we're going back to the classroom. And one of the characters in the commercial says the pandemic is over, yay. And so they all load up and leave and the dog is having temper fits and separation anxiety, and he's tearing things up in the house. So the solution to the problem is they go to a shelter or someplace there's this dog to sort of appears in a crate. And they bring another dog in to help keep the dog company. I'm just like, the what do you need a monogrammed invitation. Do you need trumpeters, like from the olden days to show up? You know, they used to play in the monarchs. Bam, here comes the king. Is that Is that what it's gonna take for you to get that RTO is happening. Like this is the here this is the now welcome to the land of you don't have a choice. This is what's coming. I mean, at this point, even Amazon is telling you, you're going back. So make your provisions if you need to get a doggie crate if you need to adopt another dog so that your dog doesn't tear the ever loving hell out of the house while you're gone all day. You better be doing it because the pandemic is over. And you're gonna get your butt back in that cube farm. If you're a school kid, you're going back to your desk and you're going to be on site at the schoolhouse. For people that haven't gotten it by now, I'm just not sure that they're going to get it. Today it is Tuesday, February 14. Over on Yahoo Finance, we find inflation rises point 5% over last month in January the most since October, year over year inflation cool to 6.4% as the annual inflation gauge saw its seventh straight month of decline. Really? Point 5% Overall, it's cool down to 6.4%. I don't know about that. It certainly doesn't match what I'm seeing in real time in real life day in and day out. I subscribe to Investopedia is newsletter the Term of the day that they send out every morning and the term for today was disinflation. So they give a little definition and then they talk about why they selected that as the term of the day, which it's largely because of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the consumer price index and what Jerome Powell and the Fed are talking about, and I will read from this newsletter for you now. Last week, Fed Chair Jerome Powell said the US economy has entered a disinflationary process as the US economy has been experiencing a slowdown in the rate of inflation, though he emphasized the need for additional rate hikes to bring inflation closer to the Feds target rate. of 2% disinflation is not to be confused with deflation, which refers to a fall in prices. You don't say, as Investopedia is editor in chief Caleb silver noted in this week's episode of the Express podcast, we've seen deflation across parts of the economy, including energy prices and lumber, but not in key areas that impact consumers the most like food, shelter and wages. That's why the Fed will likely continue to stay aggressive on interest rates and quote, yeah, so in other words, the things that really matter to you for I don't know basic survival, like food, water, shelter, your ability to earn a living wage. Now, not in those key areas, but there's been deflation and energy prices on lumber, and I'm sitting here like, Right Okay, so my energy bills have not gone down. I haven't noticed any dramatic decrease in gasoline prices either. I mean, compared to what they were a while back, I guess. But I'm not seeing it like pre pandemic levels at this point. And at least not here in the Midwest. I can't speak for every place in the country but to sort of act like rah rah the economy is in good shape is just BS to me. I'm sorry, it is. Also on Yahoo Finance, we find stock swing after January CPI shows inflation picked up. Ford F 150. Lightning Evie production halted Coca Cola see signs of pals disinflationary process? Hmm, well, I'm glad they do, because I don't. US new car prices rise 6% year over year. Is it really only up 6%? Because some of the horror stories I've heard from people who've been going out trying to look for a new car seems like it's more than 6%. They also report that the average monthly payment reaches $770 a month. This is also not new news. We've been hearing about new car payments being in that 750 to $1,200 a month range for a while now, which is absurd to me. I mean, that's I can't fathom making that kind of a payment for a vehicle. egg prices up 70% compared to a year ago, small businesses remain cynical about the economy. Yeah, that's probably because those of us who own and operate a small business know how completely effing difficult it is right now. Over on LinkedIn tally of latest layoffs. Let's go see what we may have missed. Oh, it looks like several things. Okay. So we've got iRobot, the maker of Roomba vacuums, announced its q4 earnings report. It is laying off about 85 employees or 7% of its workforce. The company is in the process of being acquired by Amazon. Remember I told you, we would see mergers and acquisitions, we would see them of companies that are doing well. And we would also see them in companies and banks that are not doing well. LinkedIn members are writing about layoffs at software company commerce hub, LinkedIn has laid off an undisclosed number of staff on its Talent Acquisition team. According to a company spokesperson. That's interesting because it's almost like resumes or LinkedIn profiles where the person refers to themselves in third person. It seems a little pompous to me. It's just a stylistic thing. I don't like it. It seems weird. So they're reporting on LinkedIn as though they're not LinkedIn, which is kind of funny. LinkedIn has laid off an undisclosed number of staff according to a company spokesperson. Despite a prior round of cutbacks that affected 11,000 people, and better than expected earnings in the fourth quarter Mehta may be implementing further layoffs in March The Financial Times reports citing anonymous sources. Righetti computing, which is in peril of being delisted from the NASDAQ over its low stock price is replacing its CFO and CTO and laying off 28% of its workers. Cloud communications firm Twilio is cutting 17% of its workforce approximately 1500 jobs. CNBC estimates Wow. But yay, read on labor market. disinflationary processes beginning maybe we will still have a soft landing. What hype what hopium? What nonsense in my opinion. So there was a video that popped up. I am not familiar with the concrete podcast though it definitely looks pretty interesting. This premiered on November 8 of last year and it's titled Harvard scientist exposes CIA mind control weapons still being used today. I thought immediately of mind war, I thought of the episode that I did about no place to hide. But does anyone care? You know, almost a decade after that book and the revelations from Snowden Does anyone care has everyone just accepted mass surveillance. It's not only present just in day to day living, it's definitely present in your workplace. How many bosses admit to using spyware to track every flipping thing that you do all day long? This is this particular episode really does get into the idea of a mind war. I mean, they talk about neurological weapons, Mind Control,
voice to Skull technology, the void, the so called Voice of God weapons, it is terrifying. Whether you believe any of it's true or not. It's it's even terrifying just to contemplate. And on that note, speaking of Snowden on his Twitter account, he put out an interesting tweet, I think it was yesterday. And the tweet reads, it's not aliens. I wish it were aliens, but it's not aliens. It's just the old engineered panic and attractive nuisance ensuring that SEC reporters get assigned to investigate balloon bullshit, rather than budgets or bombings all on Nord Stream. Until next time. You Yeah. And then he also tweeted on February the 10th. The military industrial complex is recession proof, and it includes a screenshot of an article from Politico. Biden prepares largest Pentagon budget in history as spending cuts loom. The byline reads lawmakers have threatened defense cuts in larger battle over the debt ceiling. Well, yeah, the military industrial complex is recession proof. I've told you before if the engines of war, decide we're going to war, we're having a conflict. We're getting into the thick of it with somebody, guess what's going to happen? Are these balloons real? Are they manufactured? I don't know. Are they outer space? Aliens? Are they weapons from some other country? Is this all legitimate? I also have no idea. I'm certainly not going to pretend that when we think about the vastness of the universe, there's just no possible way that life could exist somewhere else other than Earth. I think about Wayne Dyer saying the universe is not only bigger than you imagine it's bigger than you can imagine. I think that's true, then if we start to contemplate what if there's actually is a multiverse. We could go down these rabbit holes all day long. My point is, I'm not going to be so arrogant as to think well, there's just no possible way. Earth is the only planet in this entire universe that has life living on it. With that said, Do I think that these balloons or octagonal shapes with streamers off the end? Whatever the hell these things are? Do I think that that automatically means aliens are doing it? No, I don't. Are these things real? Are they a distraction? Are they a legitimate threat? Is this some kind of means of ensuring that we go to war with somebody dammit, so that the military industrial complex gets its pound of flesh? Maybe? I don't know. But I think that we are rapidly converging on a time where you would better be asking yourself these questions. I don't get on here and tell you how to think or what to think. I don't tell you what to do. I opine for your entertainment only. And I think for entertainment purposes. If nothing else, these are important questions for you to contemplate.
Are you looking for more? Don't forget you can find Sierra on her blogs at Causey consulting llc.com. And at Sara causey.com. You can also read her content on medium and substack on with the show.
Today it is Wednesday, February 15. And as per usual, weird, mixed bag of tricks. People can't get their story straight don't know what's going on. Welcome to 2023 on the side panel for LinkedIn, we find retail sales rocketed in January. Really not sure that I believe that. Scott Walters has a video up right now I'll drop a link to it, where he walks through a very affluent shopping mall in California. The stores are empty. The restaurants are empty some of them as he says the lights are on No one's home. The lights are on but the place is shuttered and closed. In another dystopian moment there's an ad for a buy now pay later service inside the mall because they know you're going to be putting it all on a credit card unless you're independently wealthy, I guess. But Sure. Retail sales rocketed in January. Of course they did. Latest layoffs, companies making cuts bump up a bomb. So we can add to that list. Udemy is reducing its headcount by 10%, the Ed Tech platforms CEO announced Airbnb notches. First yearly profit, Ford hits pause on f1 50 Lightning, many Realtors now needs second jobs. Well, that's a sad reality, who didn't see it coming. And at the risk of getting a shitload of hate mail, I hope that some of them are arrogant individuals who told me that we were not in a housing bubble, that we would never have another 2008 scenario that I should buy a doodoo poop overpriced house, I should marry the house and date the rate I can always refi later. I don't feel sorry for them. I don't like somebody peeping on my leg and telling me it's raining. I have zero sympathy for that. Now, if somebody's out there, and they're ethical, and they're honest, and they just got smacked upside the head by this thing. I have sympathy. But if somebody's a con artist and a huckster and they're trying to treat me like I have no intelligence at all. Zero sympathy for you. In this article we find in January 2021, the number of Realtors in the US surpassed the number of homes for sale. But as mortgage rates ascend and home buying slows real estate professionals are seeing their ranks dwindle. membership in the National Association of REALTORS dropped from 1.6 million agents in October to 1.5 million in January. The Wall Street Journal reports for those who want to remain in the field making ends meet may require a second job until sales pickup. This is not an easy market to navigate for even a seasoned agent Jackie Lau CEO of LaMancha Realty tells the journal and quote. Yeah, but remember how home prices are going to stay high forever. This is not an artificially manipulated market. It is not a bubble you better buy right damn now it could be your last chance. Oh, sure, sure. And now those people need second jobs. How times change but yet how they stay the same. Inflation stayed strong in January, Shopify cut 320,000 hours of meetings. Holy God. You haven't been talking about this with a couple of the writers I really like on medium recently. And it's just it's amazing to me. How many HR and talent acquisition departments waste time and energy on incessant meetings, wall to wall meetings, and then they act like they can't understand why nothing productive ever gets done. Hmm. I don't know. Maybe because you're in wall to wall meetings? Maybe because you're obsessed with Zoom and slack and teams? I mean, that could have something to do with it. I'm just saying Amazon to double down on IRL or in real life stores. Walmart plans are to closes hubs Tesla to open up charging network? Hmm. Yeah, you know, I told you, I heard whispers on the wind about the 24 7365 stores going away, that's not going to be a thing anymore. More and more we are seeing that bear out to be true. I also heard some whispers on the wind that some of the stores that are closing up will turn into distribution hubs, kind of like how Amazon has distribution facilities all over the place. Some of the larger big box stores and global conglomerates may start to do that, too. So there may be areas where in person shopping is just not going to be a reality for some people. Again, that's just a whisper on the wind. I can't independently verify that. So I can't unless I can give you a source and that source says yes, you can drop my information on your podcast. We just have to assume it's a rumor, a whisper on the wind. Now this is interesting also because Walmart plans are to this is another case of I told you so because I did these people that are still out right fighting and they're Oh, there are work from home champions and we're going to be remote forever. I hope you're right. But I also hope you have an RTO Survival Plan roughed out in case you're wrong. In this article we find Walmart has a new tighter tech strategy. The retail giant says it plans to close three technology hubs in the US and require many tech workers to relocate and work in person at least two days per week for The Wall Street Journal. Walmart pledged to pay for relocation costs. A spokesperson confirmed insider and said Some employees may transition to full time remote work. Last March, Walmart expanded its tech footprint with new hubs in Toronto and Atlanta and said it would hire around 5000 additional tech workers. Walmart has 11 tech hubs around the world six of which are outside the US. The planned closures are in Austin, Texas, Carlsbad, California and Portland, Oregon. As of last March, the company had around 20,000 global tech employees Wow. Oh. So they're gonna pay relocation costs they want you back but in seat in the cube farm so bad that they will pay to relocate you there. But then you're going to tell me that this is about cutting costs. Bullshit? I don't think so. Over on fortune.com we find Elon Musk reportedly ordered Twitter engineers to boost his tweets after more users saw Biden Super Bowl post what a cesspool social media has gotten to be. There was a tweet earlier that the Wall Street Journal put out about maybe you should just skip breakfast. Of course, I'll be blogging about that because it reeks of the same article we saw on Bloomberg last year, eat lentils take the bus don't get medical care for your pets. Nobody said this was going to be fun. So now it's escalated to just don't eat. If you think the fat cats the corporate raiders, the hyper elites, do you think they're missing any meals? Oh, hell no. To me, it's like Why don't y'all go first? Instead of having your spring water and your high priced sustainably sourced seafood at Davos, why don't you skip some meals? Why don't you get your asses back in the cube farm under the digital pan Opticon be surveilled all day. Or be afraid that you are being surveilled all day. And skip breakfast just having a cup of coffee and sit there in the queue ignore the fact that your stomach is growling because it's empty and you're uncomfortable and just work. Why don't they go first and show us how it's done. We also find the most in demand skills right now are basically about being a good boss. Well, yeah, because I'm trying to think about and say this without getting a bunch of hate mail. But it's like we are because too many bosses are still a holes. And it's only going to get worse with RTO. Oh, speaking of which workers are more burned out than ever, as they worry about layoffs and being forced to return to the office. Told you so. See, if you had been reading my blogs and listening to this podcast, really, at least ever since I started the Saturday emergency broadcast, you would know you would have already roughed out your plans and you would be ahead of the curve. So I hope that that's you. bosses say coming into the office improves culture and productivity. A new study proves them wrong. I'm sure it does. But it's not about culture and productivity. It's about obedience and compliance. I published a blog post earlier today about so called personality hires. And this is just my opinion, this is just me editorializing for your entertainment only, in my opinion, so much of that personality hiring boils down to one of us. You're going to rah rah everybody. You're going to bring the fun, you're going to crack the jokes. It's like those staged events and staged photos. Look at how much fun we're having. Look at how much fun it is to work here.
And it's almost like people being taken hostage. You know, when the hostage has to stand there with today's newspaper and fight back the tears and the and the fear. As they're saying, I'm being kept. I'm fine. I've not been harmed. It's the same vibe, same energy where like it always have fun we're having. I'm a personality hire that got brought to bring the fun. Corporate America doesn't care if you're stressed out. They don't care if you don't have a plan. You're getting your butt back in that cubicle. I don't care what other what other so called experts and hopium smokers are out here telling you that work from home is gonna last forever. And don't you worry your pretty little head about a thing. I'm on here telling you what I see as the inevitable truth. Today it is Thursday, February 16. I thought it was Friday. I'm so tired. And I was like, oh, it's not Friday. It's only Thursday. So for those of you that are doing whatever you feel is necessary to make ends meet. You're trying to get ahead. You're trying to pay down debt. You're trying to prepare for whatever this downturn may be. I feel you I really do and I salute you. Over on CNBC, we have headlines today such as dow sheds 300 points as stocks turn lower after another hot inflation report. Microsoft's Bing AI is producing creepy conversations with users. Hmm. Tesla recalls more than 300,000 vehicles says full self driving beta software may cause crashes. Biden says three recently downed aerial objects were not linked to Chinese spy program. So are they going to tell us next that they were a little green aliens? For from another planet. I nothing. Nothing would surprise me at this point not a thing. Speaking of things that shouldn't surprise me, something that might be as as interesting as little green aliens we have from relief to not to devastated why some laid off workers aren't rushing to find new jobs. Hmm. I'm gonna have to say it. I'm gonna have to say it, y'all. In my opinion, this is hot air and opium. This is the type of headline that is designed so that if someone is sort of Mindlessly scrolling, or they're just halfway reading, they go, Okay, well, all right. Maybe old Mitch McConnell, the turtle was correct. Maybe people are still flush with cash that they got from the 2020 STEMI checks. They're living at home in grandma's basement, or they're crashing on a girlfriend's couch. And so it's Nbd. It's whatever, oh, I got laid off. But if then people, I'm going to be just fine. Do you really think that that's the majority of people after experiencing a layoff? Do you think that that's how the majority of people are feeling right now? I'm going to be willing to bet the answer to that is no. Go to indeed some time and take a look at how many applicants there are per job. It's insane. I spoke to a hiring manager the other day who told me that in a 24 hour period, he had collected 1600 resumes. Normally, I would roll my eyes and assume that was hyperbolic bullshit. But in this economy in this climate? I don't think so. I don't think so I'm inclined to believe him. Because you can have an ad for like a project or contract based position, hey, we just need somebody from for the next six weeks no benefit, just the money and get 500 applicants easy. But yet, we're supposed to believe that there are all these people who were like, Ah, I'm not in a rush. It's whatever. Let's read from this article. Relief at peace not too devastated. That's how some recently laid off workers view losing their jobs. Despite the era of loud layoffs and ever constant recession fears. The calm outlook runs counter to the shock of bad news coming from tech and related industries in recent months. mass layoffs have overtaken companies ranging from tiny startups to behemoths like Amazon, Dell, Disney, Google, and Microsoft and quote. So because they are able to find three people, three whole people who would use terms like relief at peace and not too devastated. The intimation is that you should believe Hey, not everybody's in a rush people are people are doing great. Oh, I'm so sorry. I don't believe it. I don't be leave it if you got a fat severance package, if you are independently wealthy, and you work because you want to not because you have to. I'm not hating on that. I'm not hating on it at all. My point is, I do not believe that. That is the vast majority of Americans and I don't believe it's the vast majority of people who have been impacted by these layoffs. If that were true, then you would not see people mass applying and frantically trying to find a job. Here's another potential insight as to why some people don't feel a rush could it possibly be by now pay later? Could it possibly be that loans and debt are financing this situation? I can't speak on the people who were willing to appear in that article. I don't know them and I wouldn't claim to we find on fortune.com Americans are drowning in credit card debt thanks to inflation and soaring interest rates. In the byline we read as Americans credit card balances soared at the end of 2022 delinquency started to creep up as well. Hmm, YOLO and FOMO. I'm going to put this on a credit card. I'm going to hope it works out. I'm not going to get in a rush man. I'm going to I'm going to have some me time. The vibes are off. I don't want to look for a job right now. So I'll live on this credit card and then assume I'll land another big fat job with a big fat paycheck and I'll pay it down. I hope that that works out for you. I really do. I just wonder how that's gonna go. If it doesn't work. I'm just I'm just wondering, just wondering out loud. Over on the side panel for LinkedIn, we find YouTube CEO to resign latest layoffs, and then we'll dip in there. Chipotle to enter the food bowl business, retail shops for CEOs in new places. The World Bank President has also quit you know this is another like weird period of time where We're starting to see politicians and CEOs resigning. I don't know what that means. I just feel like there's another sort of shift in the waters. There's something else coming on the horizon. So when we look at latest layoffs, let's see where we were when we left off last time. I think Udemy was the last one that I read off. Let's see what's new DocuSign which said 9% of its staff in September has announced plans to layoff another 10% KPMG is letting go of nearly 700 people or about 2% of its staff in the US making it the first of the big four accounting companies to do so. Prediction alert. I bet it won't be the last. LinkedIn members are posting about layoffs at Criteo an ad tech firm that's in search of a buyer. Okay. robofont Let me just before I go on, let me just say this is another thing that sometimes confounds people How are you laying people off but hiring at the same time corpo America does this. Robo financial advisor Betterment is closing its Philadelphia office and terminating 28 positions. Rent To Buy startup Divi homes laid off 12% of its staff or about 40 people as rising mortgage rates bad or home sales. Neiman Marcus group is shaking up its leadership team and eliminating about 500 positions 100 of which will affect corporate employees. And I think I read an article I can't remember if it was unfortunate, or where it was at that Neiman Marcus was going to stop trying to cater to anybody other than the ultra wealthy. They assume that the wealthy and the ultra wealthy have money to spend and they're willing to buy luxury goods. So trying to court business at any other price point is just not going to really be relevant for them. That tells me everything that I need to know it really does. They're these high end luxury retailers are basically telling you the people who already have money, the people who already are wealthy, they're going to be the only ones that really have cash to burn. The rest of you are going to be hurting and suffering for a while. If you haven't pieced that together yet, I'm not sure what it's going to take. I just hope that you're prepared adequately for whatever this is. Today it is Friday, February 17. Now I can say TGIF and breathe a sigh of relief. Over on CNBC we have headlines such as dow jumps 100 points but still heads for losing week as investors fret about high rates. Amazon tells employees to be in the office at least three days a week. Told you so. Ford warned some f 150 Lightning owners about a separate battery issue before this month's vehicle fire 401 K balance is dropped 20% in 2022. But investors barely flinched. You know, I think I would be doing more than flinching if the 401 K balance had dropped 20% And I was getting anywhere close to retirement. I think I would be doing more than flinching. Over on Yahoo Finance Today we find
is the quiet quitting trend over featuring an interview with yours truly, I will drop a link so you can check it out if you want to. My quote from this piece is ultimately I think the next phase is loud staying said Sara Causey Yours truly, I was alive and well during the great recession and whatever you needed to do to keep your job you did it. If that involves staying late or working on projects you loathed you did it. At that time, I was working for a company where people called and walked in on a daily basis looking for work, but there was nothing to offer them. If we see unemployment tick up, which I believe we will people will not only settle in at work but will become overt about wanting to stay. This is bucking the trend, y'all. We're still getting told that it's a workers market. Unemployment is supposedly 3.4% to legitimate open jobs for every one unemployed person. I just see things from a different perspective. Over on the side panel for LinkedIn, we find power outage shuts JFK terminal. New York City might let city workers go hybrid fidelity defies trend hiring 4000 Oh, wow. Well, that sounds promising. Let's click on that. While some competitors are streamlining costs and cutting jobs, Fidelity Investments is staffing up. It announced plans to hire 4000 new workers over the next four months mostly in customer service and technology roles. The privately owned asset manager acknowledged there is market uncertainty, but it says it's staying focused on long term goals. Fidelity has 68,000 employees and is coming off a year of record headcount growth in 2022. Over the last few weeks layoffs have hit rivals BlackRock, the world's largest asset manager and Alliance Bernstein huh I hope that this is good news. Now, is it going to be the same thing as go get a job at Chipotle or go get a job working at a hotel or a motel? I don't know. I don't know how much their customer service jobs pay. There was one person on here of course that got featured with his comment because it's Erbert. You know, let's seal clap everything. Somebody from Australia who tells us you won't see these headlines being published in the mainstream. It's not all gloom and doom folks. Yeah, but it is published in the mainstream. It's over here on LinkedIn, which is owned by Microsoft. It literally is in a mainstream media source. And the article has also been published in business journals and in the Boston Globe, I would not be on Barron's dot com, I would not say that those are fringe right or fringe left outlets or somebody you've never heard of. I feel like this is yet again, helping him. Go get a job doing customer service at Fidelity, go get a job making burritos at Chipotle, go get a job at Mickey D's provided that they're not going to all be automated. Go get a job as the night desk manager at the hotel, and you'll be fine. Really. We also find Disney staff pushback on RTO Hmm. More than 2300 Disney employees have signed a petition asking the company to reconsider its RTO mandate. The Washington Post reports. staff had been told to work from their offices four days a week starting next month, which they say will trigger force resignations among some of our most hard to replace talent and vulnerable communities, while dramatically reducing productivity, output and efficiency according to the petition. Wow, a petition. I'm sure that corporate America is quaking in its collective boots at the idea of a petition. I saw an article the other day on medium and it was a good article, I'm not ragging on the writer. I just likewise felt like it was hopium and hot air, this idea of let's just all have a nationwide strike against RTO. If we all sit at home and say hell, no, we won't go, then corporate America will bend to our will. And I'm out here again feeling like the lone voice of common sense in the wilderness going. I don't think so. You have too many people drowning in debt. You have too many people living paycheck to paycheck, struggling to make ends meet. Whatever pay bumps that people have gotten typically have not kept pace with inflation. And you expect me to believe that all of these people are going to lay at home? With no money coming in? And say hell no, we won't go for a significant length of time to cripple corporate America. No, they won't. And if they did, guess what? The AI and the bots would come in much faster than they're already planning. And you would be made to see much faster indeed, how replaceable you are. I'm not telling you that any of this is right. I'm not telling you that any of this is fair. I'm not telling you that it's good news. I'm just trying to be realistic with you. Because the unlike the commoner from Australia who's like it's not all gloom and doom, and you're not going to see this on the MSM and it's like you literally just did see it on the MSM. I don't want to blow smoke up your backside. You know, on that episode of the concrete podcast that I watched the other day about voice of God technology and mental warfare etc. One of the commentators on that podcast was like this is coming Transhumanism is coming it's too late to shake it off. It's too late to avoid it like this is coming. It just is all a matter of the speed. Is it going to come quickly? Or is it going to be slowly but one way or the other? It's coming. And see that's how I feel about this recession. That's how I feel about this economic downturn and the locking of horns between our to and work from home. Remember that song I fought the law and the law one. Corporate America has so much more money than we do. It's not that I'm telling you just give up, just give up and crawl into the ground and say peace out. I'm not saying that at all. In fact, I'm an advocate of preparation. Do you have an RTO survival plan? Do you have a job loss survival plan? It's cliche, a lot of authors and comments. haters I've used this phrase before, but it's germane. Hope is not a strategy. Hope should be part of your strategy. Hope is important. But if hopes the only thing you got, you might get steamrolled. Earlier today, I was listening to Dan over at I allegedly and he was saying if you're running a business, but you've got no clients and you have no money coming in, you're in real trouble. And that's a fact. You can call yourself anything that you want an influencer, a thought leader, a coach, a billionaire playboy, genius philanthropist like Tony Stark, but if none of that's true, if you have a business with no clients and no revenue coming in, you have real problems. If hope is all that you have, that's a problem in my opinion. We also find this little tidbit making sense of the jobless rate. News that unemployment is at a decade's long low can be hard to reconcile with the constant drumbeat of layoff announcements. But a team of JPMorgan analysts has done just that. Axios reports. Their conclusion most people receiving severance payments from former employers have not yet filed for unemployment claims they'd be ineligible while receiving any form of compensation. According to the analysts estimates, some 50,000 people could fit that category, meaning unemployment is not as low as data suggests. However, even if jobless claims were 50,000 Higher, the data would still be consistent with a rip roaring job market acciones notes do you see why I say hopes not a strategy. What on God's green earth are we even doing here? It's more clown world to me by the day. So there might be 50,000 people who are on severance right now that just hadn't filed for unemployment yet. But hey, never mind. Oops a daisy, that doesn't really matter. Because even if they all filed tomorrow, we would still have a rip roaring job market.
What the f. The only part of this that I believe is unemployment is not as low as data suggests. There was a recruiter earlier who posted something about how he was trying to make sense of the job market. And companies still need to put their best foot forward and really do right by the candidates. All of that is true. And I simply responded, it makes the job market makes a lot more sense. If you assume that the BLS numbers are bogus. And of course, nobody has touched that with a 10 foot pole. Who knows it may have even been suppressed by now. It may be shadow banned. It may be that nobody's seeing it other than me, who knows, but it's like, I'm gonna I'm gonna speak the truth as I see it. I'm not gonna get out here and seal clap and give you a bunch of hot air hopium and nonsense. That's just not who I am. And it's not what I want to do. Meanwhile, when we go and look at the latest layoffs ticker on LinkedIn, even at the top, they still have this bull shizer. About 500,000 Jobs got added in January, and an unemployment rate of 3.4%. But here we go more layoffs, former employees of the German discount grocery chain, Lidl or Lidl I'm not sure how it's pronounced our writing on LinkedIn about layoffs resulting from a restructuring of its US division. convoy is embarking on its third round of cutbacks in less than a year. According to a LinkedIn post from the digital freight networks CEO. tackle a unicorn status Cloud Marketplace has reduced its staff size by 15%. But somehow, in the midst of this red hot labor market, to legitimate open jobs for every one unemployed person, you can go work in hospitality or fast food you can go be a CSR for fidelity, all of these 1000s upon 1000s of people who have been laid off they can all go take those jobs
Wow. Well and well and well. I decided to poke around on realtor.com The other day, especially after hearing about Realtors having to take second jobs and me having a bit of Schaden Freud, hoping that some of them were the liars and manipulators who I mean just straight up lied to my face about the market and tried to sell me a bogus bill of goods. I do not feel sorry for those people. I don't, I don't like liars and manipulators who want to treat me like I am the dumbest person on the earth. I just give you no respect for that. So I poked around on realtor.com. And here in my section of the Midwest, twas ever thus, okay, we still have people that have some acreage, a house, or a house trailer or a barn by itself on some acreage trying to get top dollar, I am still seeing people acting like it's 2021. And they expect to get a million 1,000,005 for some piece of crap house and it's absurd. The houses around here where you will see sale pending are the smaller single family homes. So a house that's maybe 1200 to 1400 square feet with a postage stamp yard somewhere in the burbs, if a house like that is priced within human reason, you will see sale pending. And on the other side of the spectrum McMansions. So some of these places that are like three, four or 5000 square foot with a bigger yard but in like a yuppie gated community. Those places you will see sale pending, which I think speaks to what Neiman Marcus has been talking about screw the little guy like we just want to court the business of wealthy and ultra ultra wealthy consumers because we know they're going to have money. We're not worried about middle class people that want to LARP that their nouveau riche or parvenu in some way, we're just going to go after people that actually for real have money. So I'm noticing the the smaller single family homes and the larger McMansions in a gated community if some fancy pants place with a with an HOA. Other than that everything else is languishing on the market, these gargantuan properties where somebody is like, Okay, this is a 14,000 square foot home. And I want 14 million for it like this is Malibu. No, I've got a meth trailer on 20 acres and I want you to give me a million dollars for it. No, I am still seeing what I would call the signs of economic distress in these neighborhoods. It's sad. It's not surprising, but it is sad. Down the road. So there's a development that was built right in the pocket of that. Oh, 708 timeframe of those slap bang cookie cutter houses that just got pooped out at warp speed. That neighborhood is freaking falling apart. It looks horrible. And down the street from that there is a new one, that same kind of slap bang, the houses get pooped out overnight, and they all look basically the same. Just down the street. There's a brand new one of those. I don't know how far they will get. I think a lot will depend on how intense the depression that I believe we're in whether we want to call it recession, depression, stagflation, this downturn, I think it will depend on when that really trickles inward to the Midwest housing market, to some degree it already has because that intensity of 2021 is gone. Will they even finish it? I don't know. I think I think that's going to be an interesting question. But it's very sad houses that used to be in good condition are looking so rundown places where the fencing has collapsed, I mean neighborhoods that used to be very clean, very tidy, everybody kept their place up looking like everyone just collectively said To hell with it. It's a sad state of affairs, you know, and you have Scott Walters in that video going through empty shopping malls, restaurants that are closed in the middle of the day because there's nobody there. But yet we're supposed to believe it's not all gloom and doom. This economy is going to be okay. We are somehow going to get a soft landing. The Fed is going to rescue us hell Jerome Powell should be paid more than he already is. I got I got nothing. I'm so sorry. If you tuned in today, and you wanted me to juice up your ego and tell you that everything's great people are doing great. I try not to get political but I am so much having flashbacks to Debian and Brownie you can get all that brownie doing good old job. If you want me to pat you on the back and tell you that everything's fine and everybody in this in the government and in corporate America and at the Fed all these fat cats are doing good old job and they're a bunch of noodle guys. You pick the wrong podcast for that? Because I don't I don't have any of that to offer you. To the contrary, I hope that you're prepared, not everybody has to get steamrolled in a downturn. And as I've said many times before, in my opinion, whatever this is, is going to separate out people who paid attention from those who didn't. People who prepared from those who didn't. People who trusted bullshit news sources, versus trusting their own eyes and ears and their own community, trusting their own critical thinking and their own common sense. I hope you have that RTO Survival Plan roughed out, I hope that you're not thinking there's going to be a nationwide strike for a long period of time and no one's going to work, but somehow have a bunch of money. I hope you're not assuming that a petition. Like if you get on change.org and say we don't want to go back to work. That's going to be the best solution for everybody. And that corporate America is going to actually give a hairy rat's behind about them. I hope that you're prepared and in a very realistic way. You should still have hope. If you are spiritual pray meditate. It not all the news out there is bad news get like Bjorn said in that video, get out in nature. Go look at the trees and the sunlight and the flowers. Oh, my God, there are so many beautiful things in the world that don't have anything to do with the economy and the central bankers and the absolutely rigged system that we find ourselves in. Take some sanity breaks from all this. Read a book for pleasure, watch a movie for a couple hours and just zone out and pop some popcorn and have fun. I think you're able to better relax and do those things when you know that you've prepped. Just my opinion and I could be wrong. I don't give advice. I just sit here and opine for your entertainment only. Stay safe, stay sane. And I will see you in the next episode.
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