Martin Armstrong: All Economic Theories Today are Worthless

"Economics is not a science but a social gathering of opinions with the end objective of manipulating society like lab rats" -- Martin Armstrong

Employers in U.S. Cut More Jobs Than Forecast in September

From a Bloomberg article today:

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Employers-in-US-Cut-More-Jobs-bloomberg-126013039.html?x=0&sec=topStories&pos=main&asset=&ccode=
The U.S. lost more jobs than forecast in September, reflecting a decline in government payrolls that shows the damage being done by rising fiscal deficits.

   So, the economists doing the forecasting are continually wrong month after month. What are they good for then? What else do they do in their offices? Play desktop pool? Surf porn sites? What?

Employers cut staffing by 95,000 workers after a revised 57,000 decrease in August, Labor Department figures in Washington showed today. The median estimate of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News called for a 5,000 drop. The unemployment rate unexpectedly held at 9.6 percent.

   I love the following sentence: "The unemployment rate unexpectedly held at 9.6 percent." Why should the unemployment rate at 9.6% be unexpected? Are the economists so out of touch with reality that these data points are "unexpected?" I've said it before and I'll say it again. Economists are useless. Worthless. They'd serve society better if they worked at a Staples or an Office Depot... at the copier machine. At least they'd be working with data that's useful for someone.

Pending Home Sales Rise 4.3 Percent in August but Remain Below Last Year's Pace - AP

   Some good news on housing coming down the pike? Nah, not really. From today's AP article on home sales:
   WASHINGTON (AP) -- The number of people who signed contracts to buy homes rose in August for the second straight month but remained far below last year's pace. The weak economy and fears that prices will fall are keeping many consumers away from the housing market.
The National Association of Realtors said Monday that its seasonally adjusted index of sales agreements for previously occupied homes rose 4.3 percent to a reading of 82.3. That's still more than 20 percent below the pace in the same month a year earlier.
Economists surveyed by Thomson Reuters had expected the index would rise to 81.4.

   Don't you love the part about economists expecting the index to rise to 81.4? I do. It bolsters my contention that economists are far removed from reality and operate on models, dogma, and "data" that insulates them from what's happening in the real world. I'll bet that no economist surveyed by Thomson Reuters has a clue about how the average American family lives or what the price of a quart of milk is. Until the reality of life blows through the sanctified world of the economists, we'll continue to get dumb and nonsensical expectations about the real estate market and the economy.