Category: zerohedge

Every month we say it, and every month it just keeps getting worse: RIP Abenomics… until next month, when it will be RIP-er. Overnight Japan posted its latest, September, trade numbers which were absolutely abysmal, as the trade deficit rose to a fresh record high of 932 billion yen ($9.5 billion), the 15th consecutive monthly shortfall. The deficit for April-September rose to nearly 5 trillion yen ($51 billion), also a record for the first half of the fiscal year. The reason: as we warned in January when we predicted that the surging import costs of energy and food as a result of the plunging yen will far outweigh any incremental benefits for exports, is that, well, surging cost of energy and food far outweighed any incremental benefits for exports courtesy of the ongoing Yen devaluation. But at least Japan’s 0.1%, like the 0.1% in the US and Europe, have their wealth effect. The rest can just go on a diet. And walk getting there since they can’t afford gas.

Breakdown by component:

Imports rose 16.5 percent in September from a year earlier to 6.90 trillion yen ($70.3 billion), while exports, helped by recoveries in key overseas markets such as the US and EU, climbed 11.5 percent to 5.97 trillion yen ($60.9 billion). Imports of oil and gas accounted for nearly a third of the total but fell 1 percent as oil prices moderated. Imports of soybeans and other food and machinery surged at double-digit rates. Exports were boosted by rising shipments of vehicles, iron and steel, rubber, chemicals and machinery.

The US remained Japan’s largest export destination, at 1.11 trillion yen ($11.3 billion), while imports totaled 665 billion yen ($6.8 billion). The resulting 533 billion yen ($5.4 billion) surplus rose 25 percent from a year earlier.

The biggest irony, however, was in Japan’s trade relationship with its nemesis China, which has once again outsmarted its island neighbor. Instead of escalating militarily over a bunch of rocks in the East China Sea, China is now intent on using Japan as a mercantilist source of GDP growth. And, alternatively, Japan’s GDP is getting clobbered thanks to its soaring deficit with China: Japan’s trade deficit with China jumped 87 percent to 620 billion yen ($6.3 billion) as imports of such items as cellphones and solar panels surged 31 percent to 1.68 trillion yen ($17 billion) while exports were up 11 percent at 1.06 trillion yen ($10.8 billion). Japan’s shipments to China, Japan’s biggest trade partner, grew 11.4 percent to 1.06 trillion yen in September, while imports from China soared 30.9 percent to 1.68 trillion yen.

So even as Abe preaches his propaganda pomp while his policies and economy are imploding all around him, China is laughing all the way to the bank as it is sucking its militant neighbor dry.

Some more from SocGen:

 

In September, Japan’s exports rose 11.5% yoy and imports rose 16.5% yoy. The trade deficit slightly improved from August (¥962.8bn), but remained a high level of ¥932.1bn. The largest contributor to export growth was motor vehicles (+29.9% yoy). We note that motor vehicle exports to China stood out (52.8% yoy in September and 5.4% yoy in August.), supported by the base effect after political tension between China and Japan started to weigh on exports in September 2012. 

 

On a seasonally adjusted basis, exports fell 0.3% mom (after +2.2% mom in August) while imports rose 3.8%mom (after 0.2% mom in August). On balance, the trade deficit (seasonally adjusted) worsened to ¥1091.6bn (after ¥820.8bn in August). In Q3, exports grew by merely 1.4% qoq (after 4.8%qoq in Q2) while imports grew by 4.6% qoq (after 1.6% qoq in Q2). 

The worst news: Abenomics is now impacting the country so adversely, the boost in GDP as a result of consumption is now over thanks to a detraction from the net trade deficit: “As a result, the net export contribution to growth is likely to be weaker than we had expected, and it may be around zero in Q3, after 0.5ppt in Q1 and 0.3ppt in Q2.” Make that nagative.

Finally, here is Goldman:

Another significant trade deficit in September on higher imports: The trade balance continued to show significant deficit at ¥932.1 bn, following the deficit of ¥962.8 bn in August. Export values came in at +11.5% yoy, slowing down from +14.6% yoy in August. Transport equipment, which accounts for 24% of exports, came in at +19.1% yoy (August: +15.2% yoy). General machinery, which accounts for 18.5% of exports, showed a stable trend, coming in at +7.7% yoy (August: +7.3% yoy). Electric machinery (export share: 18%), however, came in at +5.3% yoy, slowing down from +10.7% in August. Export volume turned negative yoy for the first time in three months, at -1.9% yoy (August: +1.9% yoy).

 

Import value came in at +16.5% yoy (August: +16.1% yoy), outpacing exports. However, import value of mineral fuels such as crude oil and LNG, which has been a significant factor behind the surge in import value, came in at -1.0% yoy (August: +17.5% yoy), turning negative for the first time since November 2012. On the other hand, there was prominent growth in the import value of electric machinery (+46.6% yoy vs. +21.9% in August, import share: 15%), with semiconductor components, telecomm devices, and electric measuring instruments all growing by more than 50% yoy. The import value of general machinery (import share: 7.4%), also grew 37.9% yoy (August: +21.7% yoy). There is a clearer sign of slowdown in overall import volume, however, which came in at -2.2% yoy (August: -1.9%).

 

Exports to Asia and Europe slow down, imports from China surge: Looking at exports by region, exports to the US remained buoyant in September in value terms, rising 18.8% yoy (+20.6% yoy in August) while there was a slowdown in exports to Europe (September: +14.3%, August: +18.1%) and Asia (+8.2%; +13.4%), exports to China also declined (+11.4%; +15.8%). Meanwhile, imports from China grew 30.9% yoy (+17.6% yoy in August), contributing to the growth of Japan’s overall import value by 6.7% points. Imports of electric machinery from China, telecom equipment in particular, are growing rapidly, with the September figure coming in at +55.8% yoy (+23.2% in August).

 

In short: with every passing month Abenomics does merely more of  what it was meant to do – cripple the economy, destroy the workers and hurt end consumers, while the soaring stock market helps just the ultra wealthiest. Good job Goldman Sachs advisors to the BOJ.

via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/LYUWkzQDLr0/story01.htm Tyler Durden

Japan’s under-40s appear to be losing interest in conventional relationships. Millions aren’t even dating, and increasing numbers can’t be bothered with sex. For their government, “celibacy syndrome” is part of a looming national catastrophe. Japan already has one of the world’s lowest birth rates. As The Guardian reports, 45% of Japanese women aged 16-24 are “not interested in or despise sexual contact”. More than a quarter of men feel the same way. Is Japan providing a glimpse of all our futures? Many of the shifts there are occurring in other advanced nations, too. Across urban Asia, Europe and America, people are marrying later or not at all, birth rates are falling, single-occupant households are on the rise and, in countries where economic recession is worst, young people are living at home…

 

 

Via The Guardian,

Ai Aoyama is a sex and relationship counsellor who works out of her narrow three-storey home on a Tokyo back street… she did “all the usual things” like tying people up and dripping hot wax on their nipples. Her work today, she says, is far more challenging. Aoyama, 52, is trying to cure what Japan’s media calls sekkusu shinai shokogun, or “celibacy syndrome”.

…

Japan’s under-40s appear to be losing interest in conventional relationships. Millions aren’t even dating, and increasing numbers can’t be bothered with sex. For their government, “celibacy syndrome” is part of a looming national catastrophe. Japan already has one of the world’s lowest birth rates. Its population of 126 million, which has been shrinking for the past decade, is projected to plunge a further one-third by 2060. Aoyama believes the country is experiencing “a flight from human intimacy” – and it’s partly the government’s fault.

…

The number of single people has reached a record high. A survey in 2011 found that 61% of unmarried men and 49% of women aged 18-34 were not in any kind of romantic relationship, a rise of almost 10% from five years earlier. Another study found that a third of people under 30 had never dated at all. (There are no figures for same-sex relationships.) Although there has long been a pragmatic separation of love and sex in Japan – a country mostly free of religious morals – sex fares no better. A survey earlier this year by the Japan Family Planning Association (JFPA) found that 45% of women aged 16-24 “were not interested in or despised sexual contact”. More than a quarter of men felt the same way.

…

Official alarmism doesn’t help. Fewer babies were born here in 2012 than any year on record. (This was also the year, as the number of elderly people shoots up, that adult incontinence pants outsold baby nappies in Japan for the first time.) Kunio Kitamura, head of the JFPA, claims the demographic crisis is so serious that Japan “might eventually perish into extinction”.

…

“Both men and women say to me they don’t see the point of love. They don’t believe it can lead anywhere,” says Aoyama. “Relationships have become too hard.”

Marriage has become a minefield of unattractive choices. Japanese men have become less career-driven, and less solvent, as lifetime job security has waned. Japanese women have become more independent and ambitious.

…

Aoyama says the sexes, especially in Japan’s giant cities, are “spiralling away from each other”. Lacking long-term shared goals, many are turning to what she terms “Pot Noodle love” – easy or instant gratification, in the form of casual sex, short-term trysts and the usual technological suspects: online porn, virtual-reality “girlfriends”, anime cartoons. Or else they’re opting out altogether and replacing love and sex with other urban pastimes.

…

Aoyama cites one man in his early 30s, a virgin, who can’t get sexually aroused unless he watches female robots on a game similar to Power Rangers.

…

Mendokusai translates loosely as “Too troublesome” or “I can’t be bothered”. It’s the word I hear both sexes use most often when they talk about their relationship phobia. Romantic commitment seems to represent burden and drudgery, from the exorbitant costs of buying property in Japan to the uncertain expectations of a spouse and in-laws. And the centuries-old belief that the purpose of marriage is to produce children endures. Japan’s Institute of Population and Social Security reports an astonishing 90% of young women believe that staying single is “preferable to what they imagine marriage to be like”.

…

The sense of crushing obligation affects men just as much. Satoru Kishino, 31, belongs to a large tribe of men under 40 who are engaging in a kind of passive rebellion against traditional Japanese masculinity. Amid the recession and unsteady wages, men like Kishino feel that the pressure on them to be breadwinning economic warriors for a wife and family is unrealistic. They are rejecting the pursuit of both career and romantic success.

“It’s too troublesome,” says Kishino, when I ask why he’s not interested in having a girlfriend. “I don’t earn a huge salary to go on dates and I don’t want the responsibility of a woman hoping it might lead to marriage.” Japan’s media, which has a name for every social kink, refers to men like Kishino as “herbivores” or soshoku danshi (literally, “grass-eating men”). Kishino says he doesn’t mind the label because it’s become so commonplace. He defines it as “a heterosexual man for whom relationships and sex are unimportant”.

…

Is Japan providing a glimpse of all our futures? Many of the shifts there are occurring in other advanced nations, too. Across urban Asia, Europe and America, people are marrying later or not at all, birth rates are falling, single-occupant households are on the rise and, in countries where economic recession is worst, young people are living at home.

…

“Gradually but relentlessly, Japan is evolving into a type of society whose contours and workings have only been contemplated in science fiction,”

…

Japan’s 20-somethings are the age group to watch. Most are still too young to have concrete future plans, but projections for them are already laid out. According to the government’s population institute, women in their early 20s today have a one-in-four chance of never marrying. Their chances of remaining childless are even higher: almost 40%.

…

“Japan has developed incredibly sophisticated virtual worlds and online communication systems. Its smart phone apps are the world’s most imaginative.” Kelts says the need to escape into private, virtual worlds in Japan stems from the fact that it’s an overcrowded nation with limited physical space. But he also believes the rest of the world is not far behind.

Getting back to basics, former dominatrix Ai Aoyama – Queen Love – is determined to educate her clients on the value of “skin-to-skin, heart-to-heart” intimacy. She accepts that technology will shape the future, but says society must ensure it doesn’t take over. “It’s not healthy that people are becoming so physically disconnect
ed from each other,” she says. “Sex with another person is a human need that produces feel-good hormones and helps people to function better in their daily lives.”

Aoyama says she sees daily that people crave human warmth, even if they don’t want the hassle of marriage or a long-term relationship. She berates the government for “making it hard for single people to live however they want” and for “whipping up fear about the falling birth rate”. Whipping up fear in people, she says, doesn’t help anyone. And that’s from a woman who knows a bit about whipping.

 

Read more here

via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/76qmBD3wdGY/story01.htm Tyler Durden

As we explained last week, the sad fact is that cashed-strapped Americans are looking for new ways to make money and selling body parts is becoming a rising trend. Bloomberg crunched the numbers and found out what parts will earn the biggest pay day on and off the black market.

 

via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/fYNg1VwHGJ0/story01.htm Tyler Durden

As we explained last week, the sad fact is that cashed-strapped Americans are looking for new ways to make money and selling body parts is becoming a rising trend. Bloomberg crunched the numbers and found out what parts will earn the biggest pay day on and off the black market.

 

via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/fYNg1VwHGJ0/story01.htm Tyler Durden

Submitted by Adam Taggart of Peak Prosperity,

This week’s podcast interview introduces a new monetary measurement developed by Alasdair Macleod: the ‘Fiat Quantity of Money’, or FMQ.

Alasdair explains how FMQ is derived, as well as what it can tell us about the true levels of fiat money supply. In the case of the dollar, it reveals that levels are far above what is commonly appreciated – so far, in fact, that a currency crisis could arrive sooner than even many dollar bears expect.

 

What ‘Fiat Money Quantity’ (FMQ) Is Signaling

I started off with the desire to put together a metric of money which allows me to compare sound money with fiat money. My approach to this was to look at what happens in how fiat money was created.

 

It originally involved the money substitute. In other words, you and I or our great-grandfathers or our great-great-grandfathers would deposit gold in the bank for safekeeping. The bank would give them either notes, which they could then cash anywhere where it was accepted where that bank’s credit was valuable, or alternatively, it would give them an account – a deposit account – which would show that yes, the bank holds the gold on your behalf. That was the starting point. So that was how deposits and cash were originally created as money substitutes.

 

Then the next thing happened: Central banks were invented. What happened was that they took over the note-issuing monopoly. They were given, by the government, essentially a monopoly. In return for that, all of the banks within the central bank’s system would take the gold that was originally deposited and move it into the central bank in return for – guess what? – deposit accounts and nice new bank notes.

 

So really what I wanted to do was to quantify that process [by creating the FQM]. It involved taking cash, all of these instant-access deposits, or deposits which are readily accessible, plus the deposits that the banks have at the central bank, because that is money just the same as your deposit account is in your bank; it is exactly the same in that sense. If you look at that, you get some very interesting statistics.

 

Going from 1960 to the month before the Lehman crisis in 2008, the average exponential growth rate was around about 5.9%, year in/year out. It followed that track very closely. Then of course we had TARP and all of the rest of it.

 

And then we had QE. And guess what? The level of fiat-money quantity is now over 60% above that long-term trend line. Now, if we stand back unemotionally and look at that chart, we would say that this is monetary hyperinflation.

 

Here we have this situation now where the Central Bank, the Fed, is having to produce money to finance the government deficit. It’s having to produce money to keep interest rates down so that the banks don’t have balance-sheet problems. And if it slows down in that production of money, and even if it doesn’t increase the rate of the production of that money, then our world is going to come to a rather nasty halt.

 

It looks like not only are we in a debt trap, but we are in a hyperinflationary trap, potentially. We need someone who is really quite strong and understands these things to be able to stand on the system and say, no more!

 

So my question to you, Chris, is, can anyone do that? Do you think Janet Yellen will do that?

 

One of the things that’s interesting in this, which I think is a dynamic that is going to play out over the next few months, is, here we are expanding a quantity of money hugely. But at the same time, what we’re not seeing is the prices of raw materials, of things like that really reflecting that expansion of money. Now, there is always a time lag between the two effects. But actually we are seeing this effect on certain things, and in a way in which one would expect. That is that asset prices, particularly things like property, are beginning to rise.

What FMQ Indicates for Gold

The one thing which I think is being triggered is gold. We had a good rise today. We had about a $40 rise. Now I think that this is something quite significant, really, for a number of reasons, but if I go back to my FMQ (fiat money quantity), if I adjust the price of gold from just before Lehman Brothers went under, I think I’m right in saying that in July 2008, the price of gold at the close of that month was $918/ounce.

 

Now, if you adjust that price by the extra fiat money quantity that is now in circulation, gold has actually gone down, in real terms if you like, by about 30%. Put another way, if the price of gold was to match in real terms that $918 level, it would today be about $1,860. So we have this extraordinary thing where gold, for whatever reason, has become extremely undervalued compared to where it was before Lehman Brothers went under. Now this is important, because before Lehman Brothers went under, not many people actually understood systemic risk. So the price of gold did not really include the weighting for systemic risk.

 

The other thing I would say is that since then, with our FMQ having taken off, there is a substantial hyperinflation risk that is going to affect prices somewhere down the line. And yet, gold is trading at a discount of 30% to where it was before all of this happened, so it is horribly mispriced.

Click the play button below to listen to Chris Martenson’s interview with Alasdair Macleod 45m:56s):

Click here to read the full transcript

via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/4oMBRp_D-Og/story01.htm Tyler Durden

While some have proclaimed the 36,000 enrollment in The Affordable Care Act "a good start," the online marketplaces that Obamacare has become more infamous for have been plagued with problems in the brief two weeks since launch. Politico provides 25 of the most telling and colorful comments made about the "glitches" the online exchanges have faced…

 

1. “I hope they are working day and night to get this done. When they get it fixed, I hope they fire some people that were in charge of making sure that this thing was supposed to work.” — former White House press secretary Robert Gibbs on MSNBC’s “Now with Alex Wagner,” Oct. 14

2. “A thousand Social Security numbers being sent to the wrong people is not a glitch!” — CNBC contributor Carol Roth on HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher,” Oct. 12

3. “How can we tax people for not buying a product from a website that doesn’t work?” — House Speaker John Boehner, Oct. 10

4. “Despite the widespread belief that the administration was not ready for the health law’s Oct. 1 launch, top officials and lead IT contractors looked us in the eye and assured us all systems were a go. Instead, here we are 10 days later, and delays and technical failures have reached epidemic proportions.” — Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.) in a statement, Oct. 10

5. “We’re going to do a challenge. I’m going to try and download every movie ever made and you are going to try to sign up for Obamacare — and we’ll see which happens first.” — Jon Stewart to Secretary Kathleen Sebelius on "The Daily Show," Oct. 7

6. “It’s a new rule: If something doesn’t work, you get rid of it! If the post office is late today, let’s get rid of the post office! If the plane is late an hour, get rid of airplanes! It’s ridiculous!” — MSNBC’s Chris Matthews, Oct. 12

7. “There’s so much wrong, you just don’t know what’s broken until you get a lot more of it fixed.” — Aetna CEO Mark Bertolini, Oct. 14

8. “They had three years to get this ready. If they weren’t fully ready, they should accept the advice Republicans are giving them: Delay it for a year, get it ready and make sure it works.” — CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, Oct. 9

9. “I heard that [the website] had over 8 million hits — people that have tried to sign up — and so far they have people in the single digits that have signed up.” — Rep. Buck McKeon (R-Calif.), Oct. 9

10. “The shutdown has completely gotten in the way of the message of Obamacare not working. If there were no government shutdown, Republicans could train all their fire on the failures of the exchanges in a ‘See, I told you so’ approach.” — Republican strategist Ron Bonjean, Oct. 1

11. “The fact that there is any disruption in the website is inexcusable. But I think the attention is being diverted from the slowness of the website to the fact that we’re in this financial crisis.” — Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), Oct. 10.

12. “Basically, HHS has screwed this whole thing up.” — Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), Oct. 9

13. “Consider that just a couple of weeks ago, Apple rolled out a new mobile operating system, and within days, they found a glitch, so they fixed it. I don’t remember anybody suggesting Apple should stop selling iPhones or iPads or threatening to shut down the company if they didn’t.”  — President Barack Obama, Oct. 1

14. “If Apple launched a major new product that functioned as badly as Obamacare’s online insurance marketplace, the tech world would be calling for Tim Cook’s head.” — Ezra Klein and Evan Soltas in The Washington Post Wonkblog, Oct. 4

15. “It’s bad enough that Sebelius and Co. produced a terrible taxpayer-funded product. It’s even worse that they didn’t heed the warnings or spot the red flags. They put on a smile, flipped the switch and sat by as it crashed…[T]he first person fired should be Secretary Sebelius.” — RNC Chairman Reince Priebus, Oct. 15

16. “The secretary does have the full confidence of the president. She, like everyone else in this effort, is focused on our No. 1 priority, which is making the implementation of the Affordable Care Act work well. People are working 24/7 to address the problems and isolate them and fix them, when it comes to the website and enrollment issues.”  — Press secretary Jay Carney, Oct. 15

17. “If the problems persist another three or four weeks, those at the back of the line will not have coverage.” — Dan Schuyler,  consultant who helped design a health insurance exchange in Utah, Oct. 11

18. “If we are already running into issues at the user account stage, we’re going to run into a lot more issues when we get to the more complex operations at the [subsidy] eligibility determination.” — Dan Schuyler, consultant who helped des
ign a health insurance exchange in Utah, Oct. 11

19. “The volume obviously is a factor: For the first day or two, it worked. A week and a half later, it’s no longer an adequate explanation.” — Washington and Lee University School of Law professor Tim Jost, Oct. 12

20. “In retrospect, they should have said to the public before Oct. 1, 'This is going to take a while; give us some time and wait.'” — John Rother, president of the National Coalition on Health Care, Oct. 12

21. “It is not unique that when you have a very large, new software program come out that people work to clean it up.” — Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, Oct. 6

22. “[It’s] pretty clear that they’re working on the glitches in Obamacare, and it’s pretty clear that we need a geek squad for the website, not a firing squad for the entire bill.” — Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Oct. 10

23. “In eight weeks, we will find out what the cause was and work it out with the help of HHS and the Small Business Administration, to make it easier to enroll.” — Rep. Rubén Hinojosa (D-Texas), Oct. 10

24. “This week, Sebelius continued wasting taxpayer dollars on advertising and promotional tours. This included failed rallies at NFL stadiums and appearances on comedy shows to promote enrollment while at the same time, Americans were unable to sign up for health care plans as promised. Even Jon Stewart didn’t think it was a laughing matter.” — Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), Oct. 11

25. “[It’s] like trying to repair a car while someone is driving it.” — George Edwards, computer scientist, to FoxNews.com, Oct. 10

 

We are sure this will all end well with the administration declaring some kind of "victory"… though that last quote seems to ring extremely true of every government plan we have seen in the last decade or 10…

via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/G3DfFZ7xIgo/story01.htm Tyler Durden

While some have proclaimed the 36,000 enrollment in The Affordable Care Act "a good start," the online marketplaces that Obamacare has become more infamous for have been plagued with problems in the brief two weeks since launch. Politico provides 25 of the most telling and colorful comments made about the "glitches" the online exchanges have faced…

 

1. “I hope they are working day and night to get this done. When they get it fixed, I hope they fire some people that were in charge of making sure that this thing was supposed to work.” — former White House press secretary Robert Gibbs on MSNBC’s “Now with Alex Wagner,” Oct. 14

2. “A thousand Social Security numbers being sent to the wrong people is not a glitch!” — CNBC contributor Carol Roth on HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher,” Oct. 12

3. “How can we tax people for not buying a product from a website that doesn’t work?” — House Speaker John Boehner, Oct. 10

4. “Despite the widespread belief that the administration was not ready for the health law’s Oct. 1 launch, top officials and lead IT contractors looked us in the eye and assured us all systems were a go. Instead, here we are 10 days later, and delays and technical failures have reached epidemic proportions.” — Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.) in a statement, Oct. 10

5. “We’re going to do a challenge. I’m going to try and download every movie ever made and you are going to try to sign up for Obamacare — and we’ll see which happens first.” — Jon Stewart to Secretary Kathleen Sebelius on "The Daily Show," Oct. 7

6. “It’s a new rule: If something doesn’t work, you get rid of it! If the post office is late today, let’s get rid of the post office! If the plane is late an hour, get rid of airplanes! It’s ridiculous!” — MSNBC’s Chris Matthews, Oct. 12

7. “There’s so much wrong, you just don’t know what’s broken until you get a lot more of it fixed.” — Aetna CEO Mark Bertolini, Oct. 14

8. “They had three years to get this ready. If they weren’t fully ready, they should accept the advice Republicans are giving them: Delay it for a year, get it ready and make sure it works.” — CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, Oct. 9

9. “I heard that [the website] had over 8 million hits — people that have tried to sign up — and so far they have people in the single digits that have signed up.” — Rep. Buck McKeon (R-Calif.), Oct. 9

10. “The shutdown has completely gotten in the way of the message of Obamacare not working. If there were no government shutdown, Republicans could train all their fire on the failures of the exchanges in a ‘See, I told you so’ approach.” — Republican strategist Ron Bonjean, Oct. 1

11. “The fact that there is any disruption in the website is inexcusable. But I think the attention is being diverted from the slowness of the website to the fact that we’re in this financial crisis.” — Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), Oct. 10.

12. “Basically, HHS has screwed this whole thing up.” — Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), Oct. 9

13. “Consider that just a couple of weeks ago, Apple rolled out a new mobile operating system, and within days, they found a glitch, so they fixed it. I don’t remember anybody suggesting Apple should stop selling iPhones or iPads or threatening to shut down the company if they didn’t.”  — President Barack Obama, Oct. 1

14. “If Apple launched a major new product that functioned as badly as Obamacare’s online insurance marketplace, the tech world would be calling for Tim Cook’s head.” — Ezra Klein and Evan Soltas in The Washington Post Wonkblog, Oct. 4

15. “It’s bad enough that Sebelius and Co. produced a terrible taxpayer-funded product. It’s even worse that they didn’t heed the warnings or spot the red flags. They put on a smile, flipped the switch and sat by as it crashed…[T]he first person fired should be Secretary Sebelius.” — RNC Chairman Reince Priebus, Oct. 15

16. “The secretary does have the full confidence of the president. She, like everyone else in this effort, is focused on our No. 1 priority, which is making the implementation of the Affordable Care Act work well. People are working 24/7 to address the problems and isolate them and fix them, when it comes to the website and enrollment issues.”  — Press secretary Jay Carney, Oct. 15

17. “If the problems persist another three or four weeks, those at the back of the line will not have coverage.” — Dan Schuyler,  consultant who helped design a health insurance exchange in Utah, Oct. 11

18. “If we are already running into issues at the user account stage, we’re going to run into a lot more issues when we get to the more complex operations at the [subsidy] eligibility determination.” — Dan Schuyler, consultant who helped design a health insurance exchange in Utah, Oct. 11

19. “The volume obviously is a factor: For the first day or two, it worked. A week and a half later, it’s no longer an adequate explanation.” — Washington and Lee University School of Law professor Tim Jost, Oct. 12

20. “In retrospect, they should have said to the public before Oct. 1, 'This is going to take a while; give us some time and wait.'” — John Rother, president of the National Coalition on Health Care, Oct. 12

21. “It is not unique that when you have a very large, new software program come out that people work to clean it up.” — Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, Oct. 6

22. “[It’s] pretty clear that they’re working on the glitches in Obamacare, and it’s pretty clear that we need a geek squad for the website, not a firing squad for the entire bill.” — Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Oct. 10

23. “In eight weeks, we will find out what the cause was and work it out with the help of HHS and the Small Business Administration, to make it easier to enroll.” — Rep. Rubén Hinojosa (D-Texas), Oct. 10

24. “This week, Sebelius continued wasting taxpayer dollars on advertising and promotional tours. This included failed rallies at NFL stadiums and appearances on comedy shows to promote enrollment while at the same time, Americans were unable to sign up for health care plans as promised. Even Jon Stewart didn’t think it was a laughing matter.” — Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), Oct. 11

25. “[It’s] like trying to repair a car while someone is driving it.” — George Edwards, computer scientist, to FoxNews.com, Oct. 10

 

We are sure this will all end well with the administration declaring some kind of "victory"… though that last quote seems to ring extremely true of every government plan we have seen in the last decade or 10…

via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/G3DfFZ7xIgo/story01.htm Tyler Durden

You have to laugh really… We presume the rally in Japanese stocks and weakness in the JPY reflects an assumption that this dismal miss for both imports and exports – leaving Japan’s adjusted trade deficit the worst in Bloomberg’s 20 year history – means moar Abenomics. Of course, the headlines will be all about Abe’s ‘any minute now’ comments or Kuroda’s ‘just one more quarter’ hope (as he speaks later today) but the reality is that things are not getting better in the radioactive nation as this marks the 30th consecutive trade deficit… but, like Venezuela, when has that even been reason not to buy stocks… S&P futures are up 2.5 points (below Friday’s highs still for now), gold has given back its earlier gains and is unchanged, and Treasury Futures are down a tick.

 

For the 30th consecutive month, Japan ran a trade deficit and this time it was the biggest ever as imports rose 16.5% YoY (missing the 19.9% YoY expectations by the most in 15 months) and exports rose 11.5% (missing the 15.6% YoY expectations by the most in 14 months)…

 

But of course, you buy stocks and sell the JPY on that shit-aweful news… (this is not catch up to US equities as it is an extension of the futures market’s gains from Friday…)

 

 

Charts: Bloomberg

via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/HsZvrGfjkvU/story01.htm Tyler Durden

You have to laugh really… We presume the rally in Japanese stocks and weakness in the JPY reflects an assumption that this dismal miss for both imports and exports – leaving Japan’s adjusted trade deficit the worst in Bloomberg’s 20 year history – means moar Abenomics. Of course, the headlines will be all about Abe’s ‘any minute now’ comments or Kuroda’s ‘just one more quarter’ hope (as he speaks later today) but the reality is that things are not getting better in the radioactive nation as this marks the 30th consecutive trade deficit… but, like Venezuela, when has that even been reason not to buy stocks… S&P futures are up 2.5 points (below Friday’s highs still for now), gold has given back its earlier gains and is unchanged, and Treasury Futures are down a tick.

 

For the 30th consecutive month, Japan ran a trade deficit and this time it was the biggest ever as imports rose 16.5% YoY (missing the 19.9% YoY expectations by the most in 15 months) and exports rose 11.5% (missing the 15.6% YoY expectations by the most in 14 months)…

 

But of course, you buy stocks and sell the JPY on that shit-aweful news… (this is not catch up to US equities as it is an extension of the futures market’s gains from Friday…)

 

 

Charts: Bloomberg

via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/HsZvrGfjkvU/story01.htm Tyler Durden

With an increasing focus in America on the ever growing entitlement society, we thought it might be useful to get some context of how the welfare states stack up across Europe. As Britain prepares to "test" immigrants in an effort to stymie "benefit tourists", The Telegraph's Ed Malnick, details what health care and child, unemployment and housing benefit a 30-year-old single EU migrant with a child but no job can access in each member state.

 

Via The Telegraph,

AUSTRIA

Health care Available immediately, but only if you pay “social insurance”

Child benefit Immediate payment of £89 per month

Unemployment benefit Only available to people who have paid social insurance

Housing benefit No equivalent scheme

 

BELGIUM

Health care Available after a year

Child benefit £115 a month, available immediately

Unemployment benefit Have to have previously worked in Belgium

Housing benefit No national scheme; amounts vary regionally.

 

BULGARIA

Health care Free emergency care immediately; other treatments only available if you pay social insurance

Child benefit Targeted schemes restricted to Bulgarian citizens

Unemployment benefit Minimum of nine months of working in the country required to qualify

Housing benefit Immediate monthly allowance buzt only if you have a local authority home already

 

CYPRUS

Health care Free, available immediately

Child benefit Immediate yearly payment of £444

Unemployment benefit Six months of work in Cyprus required to qualify

Housing benefit Immediately available, limited to £506 a month

 

CZECH REPUBLIC

Health care Available immediately but cash charges apply

Child benefit £23 a month available immediately

Unemployment benefit 12-month minimum qualifying period

Housing benefit Available immediately

 

DENMARK

Health care Free, available immediately

Child benefit Up to £161 a month available after 12 months

Unemployment benefit Minimum of one year’s work required to qualify

Housing benefit No equivalent scheme

 

ESTONIA

Health care Available immediately but cash payments required for some treatments

Child benefit £16 per month available immediately

Unemployment benefit £12.50 per week available immediately

Housing benefit No equivalent scheme

 

FINLAND

Health care Public health service charging flat-rate fees. Available immediately

Child benefit £88 per month available immediately

Unemployment benefit Basic weekly unemployment allowance available after two months

Housing benefit Up to 80 per cent of housing costs available immediately but system varies regionally

 

FRANCE

Health care Only available with a card proving entitlement, issued to residents

Child benefit Immediate payment, but only for parents with more than one child

Unemployment benefit Four-month qualifying period

Housing benefit Immediate; scheme based on house size and local factors

 

GERMANY

Health care Only available with a health insurance card

Child benefit £155 per month available immediately

Unemployment benefit Immediate means-tested allowance for jobseekers who have made "intensive efforts" to find work

Housing benefit Full amount of housing costs available immediately

 

GREECE

Health care 100 days of work required to qualify

Child benefit No equivalent scheme

Unemployment benefit Minimum of six months of work required to qualify

Housing benefit No equivalent scheme

 

HUNGARY

Health care Not immediately available

Child benefit £40.60 per month available immediately

Unemployment benefit Minimum qualifying period of 360 days

Housing benefit No equivalent scheme

 

IRELAND

Health care Free after living in Ireland for three consecutive years, but free immediately to UK citizens

Child benefit £110 per month available immediately

Unemployment benefit £160 per week available immediately

Housing benefit Immediate rent supplement providing short-term support

 

ITALY

Health care Free, available immediately

Child benefit No equivalent scheme

Unemployment benefit Qualifying period of three months

Housing benefit No national scheme; varies according to region

 

LATVIA

Health care Public health service with fees for GP and hospital visits, available immediately

Child benefit Immediate monthly payment of £9.30

Unemployment benefit One-year qualifying period

Housing benefit Varies locally

 

LITHUANIA

Health care Three months qualifying period but “urgent care” free immediately

Child benefit Immediate monthly payment of £24

Unemployment benefit 18-month qualifying period

Housing benefit No equivalent scheme

 

LUXEMBOURG

Health care Not available immediately, as insurance-based

Child benefit £157.10 per month available immediately

Unemployment benefit Minimum of six months of work required to qualify

Housing benefit Immediate rent allowance of up to £104.90

 

MALTA

Health care Free, available immediately

Child benefit Immediate payment; up to £81.55 a month

Unemployment benefit Immediate means-tested benefit of up to £16 per day

Housing benefit No equivalent scheme

 

POLAND

Health care Free, available immediately

Child benefit Immediate payment of up to £54 per month

Unemployment benefit Qualifying period of one year

Housing benefit No equivalent scheme

 

PORTUGAL

Health care Free, available immediately

Child benefit Monthly payment of up to £40

Unemployment benefit Qualifying period of 180 days

Housing benefit No equivalent scheme

 

ROMANIA

Health care six-month q
ualifying period, except for emergencies

Child benefit monthly payment of up to £20

Unemployment benefit minimum qualifying period of 12 months

Housing benefit no equivalent scheme

 

SLOVAKIA

Health care immediately available; nominal cash payment for treatments

Child benefit immediate monthly payment of £19

Unemployment benefit minimum two-year qualifying period

Housing benefit No equivalent scheme

 

SLOVENIA

Health care Available immediately but required to pay minimum of 10 per cent of some treatment costs

Child benefit Immediate payment of up to £97 per month

Unemployment benefit Minimum contribution of nine months

Housing benefit Only available if you already have social housing

 

SPAIN

Health care Only available with a card proving entitlement

Child benefit Immediate payment of up to £20 per month

Unemployment benefit Immediate payment available based on a variable proportion of average wages

Housing benefit No equivalent scheme

 

SWEDEN

Health care Available immediately; basic fees for care

Child benefit Immediate monthly payment of £101

Unemployment benefit Six-month qualifying period

Housing benefit Immediate monthly allowance of up to £125

 

HOLLAND

Health care only available with a certificate proving entitlement

Child benefit Immediate payment of £943 per year

Unemployment benefit Six-month qualifying period

Housing benefit Means tested, available immediately

 

UNITED KINGDOM

Health care Available immediately and free of charge under the National Health Service

Child benefit Paid immediately if the child is under 16, or 16 to 19 and in education or training, and the claimant has an individual income of less than £50,000. Amount is £20.30 a week for the eldest or only child, £13.40 per additional child

Unemployment benefit Immediate payment of £71.70 a week in Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA) after proving you are actively seeking work. EU migrants have to pass the “right-to-reside” test to show they are “economically active”. The European Commission wants to abolish this test. There is also contribution-based additional JSA which is only available after working for at least two years.

Housing benefit Available immediately if you are on a low income, whether you are working or unemployed.

How much depends on individual circumstances, but amount cannot normally exceed £250 per week for a one-bedroom property, or up to £400 a week for four bedrooms or more

via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/3KVwcs9oiKA/story01.htm Tyler Durden