Money & Economics

Ok somebody please help me and post something good (not fake blabber) about the economy and/or markets …please

 
Don't you just love semantics? Just got a postcard from DTE (Detroit Edison). All customers on auto-pay will be unenrolled on February 27. To continue on autopay, you need to re-enroll after March 2, agreeing to pay the card processing fee (which DTE has eaten forever). Here are where the semantics come into play. "Processing fees do no benefit DTE and are paid directly to the payment processor". Now let me see... I pay more while DTE keeps more. Hmmm...
 
  • Like
  • Sad
  • Angry
Reactions: mat200, garycrist, gwminor48 and 2 others
Ssayer said:
To continue on autopay, you need to re-enroll after March 2, agreeing to pay the card processing fee (which DTE has eaten forever).
Click to expand...

If they want to charge a fee for cc payments, what can you do, but what's the excuse for charging the fee for debit card payments?


DTE will soon begin tacking on credit card fee to utility bill payments

"One of Michigan’s largest utilities will soon start tacking on a fee when customers pay gas and electric bills with credit or debit cards."
 
  • Angry
Reactions: mat200, tigerwillow1 and bigredfish
bigredfish said:
Warsh, the next Fed chair, will inflate the debt away.

He is in favor of yield curve control.

  • This means pegging US short-term interest rates to an artificially low level
  • The Fed commits to buying unlimited amounts above that level to push interest rates down

This would be reminiscent of the WWII period.

Back then, US debt-to-GDP was 125% vs 121% now.
YCC enabled the government to borrow vast amounts of USTs without blowing out interest expenses.

Those costs were pushed onto citizens via inflation.

From 1945-1980, the US gradually brought debt-to-GDP down to 30%, which later enabled Volcker to raise rates to 20% to kill inflation. This seems to be Warsh’s playbook.
Click to expand...

bigredfish said:
Because inflating away the debt is the plan. The DOW may well hit $100K
Your 401K will look beautiful

But a loaf of bread will cost $10 or more because your money will be worth 50% less. Inflation doesnt just make the stock market go up, it raises the price of everything while devaluing your money
Click to expand...

It seems to me that's not the worst-case scenario... I'd bet that rather than using the reduced debt interest cost to finally pay off some of the debt, more money just ends up in a bunch of crooks' pockets... so we get the higher prices, and keep the debt :(
 
  • Like
Reactions: bigredfish and Ssayer
The Market is nuts.
Red everywhere on all of the stocks I follow, but overall market Green. Thanks to a handful of big large caps.

Then there's this
Reminds me of the saying "The market can stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent"






"Interest on the US debt is ultimately what's predicted to destroy the US economy. That debt payments will eventually grow out of control, and the dollar will be abandoned because it essentially turns into monopoly money. A fair amount of folks believe the US debt is already out of control, which is why they're swapping to actual long-term assets like precious metals, nuclear goods, or refinement," Larry Fink of BlackRock has said.
 
A total of 181.000 jobs were created in ALL of 2025.

For comparison - a total of 1.459.000 job were created in 2024.

Historic Negative Jobs Revisions: 1 Million Fewer Jobs Added In 2025, Only 15,000 Avg Jobs Added Monthly

(*But we somehow miraculously added 130,000 jobs in January :rofl:
 
Last edited:
  • Wow
  • Sad
Reactions: quiet.tea and johnfitz
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom