From The New York Times today:

“Investors withdrew a staggering $33.12 billion from domestic stock market mutual funds in the first seven months of this year, according to the Investment Company Institute, the mutual fund industry trade group. Now many are choosing investments they deem safer, like bonds. If that pace continues, more money will be pulled out of these mutual funds in 2010 than in any year since the 1980s, with the exception of 2008, when the global financial crisis peaked.”

It continues:

“‘At this stage in the economic cycle, $10 to $20 billion would normally be flowing into domestic equity funds’ rather than the billions that are flowing out, said Brian K. Reid, chief economist of the investment institute. He added, ‘This is very unusual.’“

This “stage in the economic cycle”? So there is a pattern since the summer of 2007 that we could have looked back at with expectations of future direction? “Unusual”? Unusual compared to what? This guy is held out as an expert and there is no there there. I don’t know Brian K. Reid, but he should be working at Burger King making Whoppers and not posing as a market useful voice.

Worth watching.

From Barrons:

“…a recent Reuters dispatch [noted] that a woman robbed a McDonald’s in Oklahoma using a pair of men’s underwear held in place by paper clips to hide her face. When a hard-working bandit can’t scrape up a couple of bucks to buy a decent mask, you don’t need Mr. Bernanke to inform you times are tough.”

Nice.

From the wires:

“The jobs picture is much worse than they’re telling you. Forget the “official” unemployment rate of 9.5%. Alternative measures? Try this: Just 61% of the adult population, age 20 or over, has any kind of job right now. That’s the lowest since the early 1980s — when many women stayed at home through choice, driving the numbers down. Among men today, it’s 66.9%. Back in the ’50s, incidentally, that figure was around 85%, though allowances should be made for the higher number of elderly people alive today. And many of those still working right now can only find part-time work, so just 59% of men age 20 or over currently have a full-time job. This is bullish? (Today’s bonus question: If a laid-off contractor with two kids, a mortgage and a car loan is working three night shifts a week at his local gas station, how many iPads can he buy for Christmas?)”

I don’t post this to be a downer. No doom and gloom here. However, I am so frustrated that the so-called leaders are leading millions to a dead end. There is a way out, but we are not headed that way. For starters:

1. Stop spending the country’s credit card.
2. Start the rollback of government employment.

Will this make things better in the short term? Of course not. But if you have a fat kid you don’t give him more food. You make him run!

From MarketWatch:

“U.S. companies won’t expand their businesses until they are sure the economy will grow, but the economy can’t grow unless businesses hire more workers and invest in new capacity, says Ethan Harris, chief North American economist of Bank of America’s Merrill Lynch unit and the top economic forecaster in July.”

The article continues:

“Harris and his team at Merrill won the July Forecaster of the Month award from MarketWatch, based on their predictions for 10 top U.S. economic indicators released during the month. He also won the contest in February.”

Let’s add a little dose of reality for Rex Nutting (the reporter):

1. Hiring workers does not mean your business will grow.
2. July Forecaster of the Month? Said with a straight face.

Please take Rex Nutting behind the tool shed to have his [blank] beat (figuratively of course) for pushing dribble.

I wasn’t going to post this, but once he mentioned the government creating ‘leaf raking’ projects…I spit my tea out!

From Bloomberg:

“In order to lose momentum, the U.S. economy has to have momentum to begin with. If it had any, I missed it. What we had was a government-prescribed course of amphetamines (to keep it up), antibiotics (to prevent infection) and antidepressants (to make it feel better). It endured regular steroid injections from both monetary and fiscal authorities. And it still has no real muscle.”

Nice.

From the wires after the Fed meeting:

“Economists doubt the Fed can turn around the economy on its own. Some believe additional help from Congress is needed. Others are skeptical that easier credit or even more government aid will persuade Americans to shop more and hire more.”

Have too many really become a homogenized mass who wait around for suits in D.C. to push them into shopping malls…all in preparation for the next bubble to pop and wipe out even more of their net worth?

Yup.