Stacy Summary: Oh boy that ol’ inflation / deflation thang  . . .

• U.S. consumer prices rise offset first declines ever recorded in residential rents & housing costs

With prices rising faster than wages, real hourly earnings fell 0.1% in September, the government said. Real weekly earnings (wages adjusted for price changes) fell 0.4%. Real weekly earnings are up 2.5% in the past year, but have fallen 1.9% since December.

Medical-care prices rose 0.4%, the largest increase since April. Prescription-drug prices rose 0.6%

Stacy Summary:  These guys totally rock.  They deserve every penny they take at this point.  It’s not as if they are hiding the corporate/fascist takeover of the Treasury.  They invested wisely in the most expensive Presidential campaign in US history.  And they have bought the best propaganda money can buy;  and if 90 percent of the population believes smoking Marlboro makes them look cool or that drinking Coca Cola will get them laid or that giving Goldman billions in manufactured ‘profits’ might make them an oligarch one day.  Then so what?

• Goldman Sachs bankers set for bumper bonuses as profits triple

“Fundamentally everything’s fine and is probably going to remain strong into next spring,” Jon Fisher, a fund manager at Fifth Third Asset Management, told Bloomberg. “The risk really is just on the sentiment side: political fallout or just expectations getting too bullish in the short term.”  (stacy – lol, they got sentiment on their side in the American delusion!)

Update: Meanwhile, while waiting for their winning oligarch lottery ticket, the peasants getting shot for stealing water from CVS. Maybe he was stealing water because he is one of those losing their homes at an increasing rate in the same quarter that Goldman was reaping a profits whirlwind?

Stacy Summary: This is what I am reading on the financial blogs this morning.  The future generation cannot be saved while mommy and daddy believe with every ounce of their soul is invested in a rigged system that will one day (they think) benefit them.

• It takes two to tango, but almost everybody likes dancing (ZeroHedge)

The sad thing is that all this is done at the expense of future generations and when the bubble bursts nobody will be better off…

• Wall St set to top 2007 with a record bonus year (Jesse’s Cafe Americain)
  

While the world suffers, Wall Street pays itself record bonuses, larger even than the peak year of 2007, by taxing the productive economy to maintain an extravagant lifestyle. These bonuses are being paid with your money, and your children’s money, if you hold US dollars.

Stacy:  And some additional reading on what to do with this economic reality in which the future is looking increasingly feudal.

• If Joe & Jane Bag of Donuts want to do something to stop the bankers’ financial attacks

• If Joe & Jane Bag of Donuts don’t stop believing in fairy tales, however, then perhaps take Citigroup’s 2006 investment advice on profiting from plutonomy