http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-10-31/futures-unable-ramp-higher-despite-cornucopia-disappointing-macro-news
If the "success" of Abenomics is measured by the soaring prices of food and energy, if little other inflation, by the exploding monetary base and by a wealth effect, pardon, stock market which has flatlined in the past 3 months, then it has so far done passable job of being considered good policy. If, however, one actually looks at the general improvement in living conditions measured most directly by that key metric -wages - then Abenomics has been the worst thing to hit Japan since the Fukushima tsunami, and an unmitigated disaster. As the Japan labor ministry reported overnight, the nation's salaries extended the longest slide since 2010, as regular wages excluding overtime and bonuses fell 0.3 percent in September from a year earlier, marking a 16th straight month of decline. That this is happening even as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe "urges companies to raise workers’ wages as part of his bid to reflate the world’s third-largest economy" is merely the latest slap in the face of central-planners everywhere who believe that flipping an economy and deeply engrained behaviors can happen on a dime.
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 10/31/2013 06:11 -0400
http://twitchy.com/2013/10/31/bombshell-obama-officials-said-more-than-half-of-employer-sponsored-health-plans-will-be-canceled/
Futures Unable To Ramp Higher Despite Cornucopia Of Disappointing Macro News
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 10/31/2013 - 07:07
In addition to the bevy of ugly European unemployment and inflation news just reported, the overnight session had a dollop of more ugly macro data for the algos to kneejerkingly react to and ramp stocks to fresh time highs on. First it was China, where the PBOC did another reverse repo, however this time at a fixed 4.3% rate, 0.2% higher than the Monday iteration and well above the 3%-handle from early October, indicating that China is truly intent on tightening its monetary conditions. Then Japan confirmed that despite the soaring imported food and energy inflation, wages just refuse to rise, and have declined now for nearly 1.5 years. Then, adding core insult to peripheral injury, Germany reported retail sales that missed expectations of a +0.4% print wildly, declining -0.4% from a prior downward revised 0.5% to -0.2%. And so on: more below. However, as usual what does matter is how the market digests the FOMC news, and for now the sense is that the risk of a December taper has risen based on the FOMC statement language, whether warranted or not, which as a result is pushing futures modestly lower following an epic move higher in the month of October on nothing but pure balance sheet and multiple expansion. The big data week in the US rolls on with the highlights being the Chicago PMI and initial jobless claims, which are expected to print their first accurate, non-impaired reading since August.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-10-31/europe-stuns-surprising-record-high-unemployment-print-inflation-4-year-low-euro-tum
Europe Stuns With "Surprising" Record High Unemployment Print, Inflation At 4 Year Low; Euro Tumbles
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 10/31/2013 - 06:35
Those following the Euro FX pairs saw a plunge at 6 am Eastern, when Eurostat released the latest Eurozone unemployment and inflation statistics. They were, in a word, abysmal. After the August unemployment data finally saw a modest drop forcing many to announce the end of the European depression, not only did the the September number revise the August print from 12.0% to 12.2%, a new record high as 73,000 thousand people became unemployed, but more importantly made the September unemployment rate 12.2% as well following another 60,000 Eurozoneans losing their jobs, effectively meaning that for all the talk of a European recovery, its unemployment rate keeps hitting new all time record highs every single month.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-10-31/dismal-abenomics-leads-16th-consecutive-decline-japanese-wages
Dismal Abenomics Leads To 16th Consecutive Decline In Japanese Wages
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 10/31/2013 - 08:25
If the "success" of Abenomics is measured by the soaring prices of food and energy, if little other inflation, by the exploding monetary base and by a wealth effect, pardon, stock market which has flatlined in the past 3 months, then it has so far done passable job of being considered good policy. If, however, one actually looks at the general improvement in living conditions measured most directly by that key metric -wages - then Abenomics has been the worst thing to hit Japan since the Fukushima tsunami, and an unmitigated disaster. As the Japan labor ministry reported overnight, the nation's salaries extended the longest slide since 2010, as regular wages excluding overtime and bonuses fell 0.3 percent in September from a year earlier, marking a 16th straight month of decline. That this is happening even as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe "urges companies to raise workers’ wages as part of his bid to reflate the world’s third-largest economy" is merely the latest slap in the face of central-planners everywhere who believe that flipping an economy and deeply engrained behaviors can happen on a dime.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-10-31/obama-approval-rating-drops-record-low
Obama Approval Rating Drops To Record Low
It seems like it was an eternity ago that Obama was doing his post-government shutdown gloating media tour, when day after day the world was bombarded with news of the GOP's record low popularity rating, paradoxically following their attempt to do what even the president is now desperate to achieve: delay Obamacare. Well, the tables have turned and now that the government shutdown is history, at least until January, and the public focus has shifted to where it should have been in the first place - namely the embarrassing ponzi scheme experiment that is Obamacare, and the epic failure surrounding its rushed rollout - it is Obama's turn to suffer a record low rating, which is precisely what happened according to a just concluded WSJ/NBC News poll.
The WSJ reports that "the popular discontent that engulfed Republicans amid the partial government shutdown has now washed over President Barack Obama, whose job approval rating has sunk to an all-time low. Americans just weeks ago heaped scorn largely on congressional Republicans over the dysfunction in Washington. But the new poll found a sharp turn against Mr. Obama, during a month in which lawmakers tiptoed up to a potential debt default and the White House fumbled the rollout of its signature health-care law.
Specifically:
Mr. Obama's job approval fell to 42%, with 51% of respondents disapproving of his performance as president. That marked a drop in his approval rating from 47% in early October and 53% at the end of 2012.At the same time, more Americans now view Mr. Obama negatively than positively, for the first time since he emerged as a national political candidate.In all, the poll of 800 Americans captured an extraordinarily deep and widespread public distaste for the two political parties, those parties' leaders and the state of politics in the nation's capital.
Elsewhere, it appears that Americans just have given up on the government system, whose increasing corruption and cooption by moneyed interests is now obvious to everyone:
Optimism about the U.S. system of government, at 30%, was at the lowest ebb in 40 years. Just 29% said their congressional representative deserved re-election—a new low—while nearly three-quarters said Congress was contributing to the problems in Washington instead of working to solve them.House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, both Republicans, hit their highest negative ratings, as did Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Democrat."Americans are voicing their frustration at a Congress that cannot keep the government open for business and an administration that cannot get health care open for enrollment," Mr. Hart said.Republican pollster Bill McInturff, who conducts the survey along with Democrat Fred Yang, described the findings as a "shock wave" that showed the depth of "anger and frustration with everybody in Washington."
Frustration... and yet nobody will dare to change anything for fear of losing their precious entitlements, which are unsustainable as is and like in Detroit will end up with pennies on the dollar, or for fear of infringing on their Dancing with the Stars TV time.
Visually:
Poll numbers will continue to fall as trust in the President falls further - lies matter !
ObamaCare lies ...
According to Forbes writer Avik Roy, “Obamacare’s disruption of the existing health insurance market—a disruption codified in law, and known to the administration—is only just beginning. And it’s far broader than recent media coverage has implied.”
Obama Officials In 2010: 93 Million Americans Will Be Unable To Keep...
and...
http://hotair.com/archives/2013/10/31/three-states-forced-wholesale-insurance-cancellations-because-of-obamacare/
Three states forced wholesale insurance cancellations because of ObamaCare
POSTED AT 8:01 AM ON OCTOBER 31, 2013 BY ED MORRISSEY
Democrats desperate to defend Barack Obama from his own “you can keep your plan” lie have spent this week trying to shift blame to insurers. They didn’t have to change their plans, advocates argue, and could have had them grandfathered into the exchanges — even though HHS and the White House deliberately wrote the rules to make that all but impossible. CNN reports that insurers had nothing to do with it in at least three states, where the states themselves forced the cancellations in order to comply with ObamaCare:
President Obama may have promised Americans that they can keep their insurance if they like it, but that’s not the case in at least three states where insurance companies are required to discontinue plans that don’t meet Obamacare’s new coverage standards.Virginia, Kentucky and Idaho have told insurance companies that they must scrap insurance plans that don’t meet the minimum coverage requirements laid out in the Affordable Care Act. Some states allow insurers to amend their current plans to include the new benefits, such as maternity care and prescription drug coverage, required under Obamacare.But these three states have determined that with so many changes required under Obamacare, it’s easier to start over than to try to bring existing plans into compliance.Ronda Sloan, a spokeswoman for the Kentucky Department of Insurance, explained the policy this way: “In this case, you’re talking about an entirely new product. They had to file a completely new policy. … It was easier just to start from scratch.”
Kentucky has been held up as a success story by ObamaCare advocates, where enrollments have been a little more robust than on the federal exchange. That may have been in part because the state forced insurers to cancel half of the plans in the state’s individual market, used by 600,000 people to buy insurance. Virginia didn’t give CNN any numbers, but did say that the cancellations force consumers back into the ObamaCare exchanges whether they wanted that insurance or not.
It’s as true in the other 47 states as well. Insurers had to change their plans in order to comply with ObamaCare requirements, not just out of sheer whimsical delight. CNN’s Jim Acosta tried to pin down Jay Carney on this point, but Carney insisted that it was the insurers’ fault. He added in enough caveats to Obama’s oft-repeated promise to make it sound like the small print at the end of a Cialis ad, though:Obama may be getting most of the heat from this lie, but he’s far from the only politician who should have to account for it. The Hill takes us on a “you can keep your plan” stroll down Memory Lane:
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), who rallied all members of his caucus to support the landmark law, promised the Affordable Care Act (ACA) would let people keep the insurance plans they had at the time.Reid touted that aspect of the law among its other benefits.“It not only means making sure you can keep your family’s doctor or keep your healthcare plan if you like it, but also that you can afford to do so,” he said on the Senate floor on July 28, 2009.Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (Ill.) made the same promise two days later.“Many people say: ‘I like my health insurance right now. I don’t want to change. I don’t want to go into Medicare or Medicaid. I like what I have. Would you please leave people alone?’ ” Durbin said.“The answer is yes,” he added. “In fact, we guarantee it. We are going to put in any legislation considered by the House and Senate the protection that you, as an individual, keep the health insurance you have, if that is what you want.”Senate Budget Committee Chairwoman Patty Murray (D-Wash.) said on June 10, 2009: “If you like what you have today, that will be what you have when this legislation is passed.”
We’ll see if they fall into line behind Carney’s double-speak, or they distance themselves from the White House. I suspect that will have a lot to do with whether they have to face voters again in 2014 or 2016.
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