Gary Gibson, McDonald’s CEO, & Peter Schiff: Rising House Prices Are A Central Bank Scam. ‘We’ve Seen Starts and Stops of a Recovery’ in US. 2/3 of America to Lose Everything!!

Economic Recovery Is Illusory, A False Sense Of Prosperity.

Sen. Paul: I’m a little worried that some of the economic recovery, if we’re getting it, is illusory, in the sense that it’s coming from quantitative easing. It’s coming from this false sense of prosperity you get when new money comes into the system, but then once it chases goods long enough, prices rise, and there was an illusion of gain, an illusion of profit, but its not really there. So I think it’s still very tenuous. I think there is great pent-up prosperity that could come from the marketplace, but the way to do it is not by printing more money and not by creating more debt.
Economy May Stink; the Market Doesn’t Care.

RISING HOUSE PRICES ARE A CENTRAL BANK SCAM

It’s odd, but Americans get happier when the roofs over their heads get harder to afford. Over the past hundred years or so, Americans have come to see houses not just as another commodity which should be getting cheaper over time thanks to market forces, but as a government-aided “investment” that makes them better off by getting more expensive!
But the unadulterated truth is that housing is just another basic appliance, like a washing machine or a car, but more essential. Society grows richer when the market’s efficiencies makes appliances more affordable, not when government intervention makes them harder to afford.
Here is a brief list of things that make our life better when they become cheaper relative to incomes:
Gas
Electricity
Clothing
Designer clothing
Shoes
Healthy groceries
Gourmet food
Restaurant meals
Cars
Luxury cars
Cell phones
Smart phones
Desktops
Laptops
Information
Housing belongs on this list, too. Yet only one in a hundred million people understands that. That’s because government has had a decades-long indoctrination program that has taught its citizens to look at homes for personal use as “investments” instead of a consumption. And as with “education”, government has been artificially inflating the cost of housing in a mix of propaganda and easy lending policies….

McDonald’s CEO: ‘We’ve Seen Starts and Stops of a Recovery’ in US

The U.S. economy is going through a bumpy rebound, making things difficult for retailers, says McDonald’s CEO Don Thompson.
“I think what we’re seeing relative to the U.S. is that we’ve seen the starts and stops of a recovery,” he told CNBC.
The Commerce Department Friday reported that gross domestic product (GDP) grew 2.5 percent in the first quarter, buttressed by consumer spending.
…
“We saw some good resilience from the consumer, particularly given all the headwinds,” Michael Feroli, chief U.S. economist at JPMorgan Chase, told Bloomberg.
“The weakness in government spending is an issue. It’s going to be tough to repeat the first-quarter performance this quarter.”

CHART OF THE DAY: Corporations Are Now Growing Profits As Sales Actually Fall

Here’s the chart from FactSet.  The green line shows how Q1 sales growth expectations have only deteriorated.

FactSet

 Dallas Fed Implodes: Biggest Drop And Miss On Record Send Market To Intraday Highs
Why the Jobs Outlook Just Got a Whole Lot Worse

With the April unemployment report coming Friday, weak corporate top-line growth is likely to spell an equally troubled bottom line for the unemployed.

Recovery for the 7 Percent — Paul Craig Roberts

Since the recession was officially declared to be over in June 2009, I have assured readers that there has been no recovery. Gerald Celente, John Williams (shadowstats.com), and no doubt others have also made it clear that the alleged recovery is an artifact of an understated inflation rate that produces an image of real economic growth.
Now comes the Pew Research Center with its conclusion that the recession ended only for the top 7 percent of households that have substantial holdings of stocks and bonds. The other 93% of the American population is still in recession. http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2013/04/23/a-rise-in-wealth-for-the-wealthydeclines-for-the-lower-93/
The Pew report attributes the recovery for the affluent to the rise in the stock and bond markets, but does not say what caused these markets to rise….
QE Effect: U.S. And Euro Area Savings Rate Drops To Record Low, Incomes Disappoint, Corporate Cash Accumulation Starting To Slow

Peter Schiff: 2/3 of America to Lose  Everything Because of This Crisis

…
“The crisis is imminent,” Schiff said.  ”I don’t think Obama is going to finish his second term without the bottom dropping out. And stock market investors are oblivious to the problems.”
“We’re broke, Schiff added.  ”We owe trillions. Look at our budget deficit; look at the debt to GDP ratio, the unfunded liabilities. If we were in the Eurozone, they would kick us out.”
Schiff points out that the market gains experienced recently, with the Dow first topping 14,000 on its way to setting record highs, are giving investors a false sense of security.
“It’s not that the stock market is gaining value… it’s that our money is losing value. And so if you have a debased currency… a devalued currency, the price of everything goes up. Stocks are no exception,” he said.
“The Fed knows that the U.S. economy is not recovering,” he noted. “It simply is being kept from collapse by artificially low interest rates and quantitative easing. As that support goes, the economy will implode.”
…

El-Erian: Fed must let markets work on their own, Chances U.S. will hit real growth 50-50

The chances that the U.S. will achieve genuine growth right now are 50-50, Mohammad El-Erian, chief executive of Pimco, said Monday. Speaking at the Milken Global Conference here, El-Erian said the key is that the Fed eventually needs to let markets work on their own without government assistance. Further, concerns remain that resources are being misallocated and that there are market bubbles forming, he said. “The excitement in the marketplace is being accompanied by anxiety,” El-Erian said.