This article demonstrates the effects of the lack of economic progress discussed in this post:

http://www.onepoliticalplaza.com/t-96617-1.html

Clearly these retailers are affected by the declining incomes and purchasuing power of the 90% who patronize these stores. Excess f**e money causes rising prices and when coupled with declining income equals bankruptcies of retailers.
Fiat money is destroying our nation, it is time to End The Fed.
***************************************

"These 19 Retailers Are On The Brink of Bankruptcy- 13,216 Stores to Close?
Posted: 02 Mar 2017 02:00 PM PST

"These 19 Retailers Are On The Brink of Bankruptcy-
13,216 Stores to Close?
by Thomas Dishaw

"Moody's recently released a Sector In-Depth report titled "Retail and Apparel: US: Distressed Retail and Apparel Companies Are on the Rise. Who's Next?" and its findings show that the retail bubble could soon be taking another major blow -- Bankruptcy.

We all know that retail is a very volatile market. This factor causes many companies to turn to 'financial sponsors' and hedge funds that, in return for the quick cash, offer highly leveraged funds causing many retailers to end up struggling under debt with the terms set by the sponsors. Due to these agreements distressed bond issuers in the U.S. retail and apparel markets are nearing levels that haven't been witnessed since the Great Recession of 2008-2009, tripling in the past six years. While the clock has been ticking on stores like Sears and J.Crew for quite some time, 17 other stores appear to have found themselves in the crosshairs of financial doom:

Claire's- 2,867 stores
rue21- 1,200 stores
Payless- 4,496 stores
Nine West- 800 stores
Gymboree- 1200 stores
Not Your Daughter Jeans
True Religion- 900 stores
Indra Holdings Corp.
Bon Ton Department Stores- 267 Stores
TOMS Shoes
David's Bridal- 300 stores
Tops- 126 stores
Velocity
99 Cent Only Stores- 350 stores
Charming Charlie- 350 stores
Evergreen Saver's- 330 stores

These 19 retailers including Sears and J.Crew, have more than $3.7 billion of debt maturing in the next five years, with about 30% of that total due by the end of 2018. If all of the retailers listed were to shutter their doors that alone would amount to the closing of more than 14,450 stores and leave hundreds of thousands of employees without jobs.

Aside from sponsored ownership, these apparel companies suffer from stressed liquidity, weak quantitative credit profiles, overly discounted merchandise, a decrease in traffic, challenged competitive positions, and erratic management structures. Whether or not any of these companies will be able to reverse the destruction remains to be seen. Based on the growing trend of retail bankruptcy and mall abandonment it seems highly unlikely."
- http://www.thomasdishaw.com/

Related:
Abercrombie & Fitch announces another 60 stores closing as sales continue to slide
hhgregg to close 88 stores in an attempt to stay afloat
Hershey's to lay off thousands in global workforce reduction
Wendy's to start replacing employees with 1,000 self-ordering kiosks in 2017

Does the above look like a healthy economy? Not that I would ever believe our government
would lie to us about how the economy is in "recovery", or anything else for that matter,
oh no, Good Citizen that I am, as I'm certain you are too,
but my reaction to anything they claim is best summed up like this:

https://youtu.be/kfdpcrOgUp4

I'm sure you'll agree...

Once again another Reflubican bites the dust!!! He'll yeah he talked e******n with that Russian Ambassador. And this so called Picture just appears out of the blue??? I hope y'all ain't think we fell for that shytt!!! Lmao!! Y'all dumb as hell, as Madea would say. These are bedroom lies, cause in the AM that mans gon be smiling ear ta ear. And like a monkey on crack, these fools think they fooled you!!!! That picture they say is proof, probably photoshoped. All these WHITE men in office have the same goals, to Lie to the AMERICAN PEOPLE. IF YOU BELIEVE HE AINT TALK TO THAT RUSSIAN AMBASSADOR, YOUR A FOOL!!! Liars have one thing in common a HALFASS SMIRKY GRIN. ONE IN WHICH THE REPUBLICAN PARTY SHARE!!! Just Damn shameful!!!

I know you were shocked — S-H-O-C-K-E-D — to learn that an outstanding film based on a true story of unprecedented heroics and faith lost its top Oscar nomination to a movie about gay black folks ens***ed on Urban Poverty Plantations!
"Lord, please help me get one more man."
http://patriotpost.us/alexander/45085

When ordered to retreat, one man refused. The account of his actions is coming to a theater near you!
The heroics and faith film, “Hacksaw Ridge,” is based on the incredible tale of Desmond Doss, who was awarded the Medal of Honor for arguably the most significant acts of bravery of any award recipient in history. It was rightly among the small list of films nominated in the top three categories — Best Picture, Director and Actor, but of course, it lost all three. However, it did receive two obscure secondary editing awards.

Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway errantly announced that “La La Land” won Best Picture, a gaffe being heralded as the worst in Academy Awards histroy — unless you consider most of the other awards given in this and previous years. Once all the celebrity La La Land hugs and kisses were done, the hosts corrected their error, announcing that “Moonlight,” which The New York Times described as “a movie about growing up poor, black and gay,” won best film. Moreover, Mahershala Ali became the first Muslim actor to win a trophy for his supporting role in that big screen screed.

Fact is, the Academy got it wrong twice — “Hacksaw Ridge” should have swept the awards. If you would like to read about Desmond Doss, whom I knew personally as a neighbor for many years, I invite you to read my column on the incredible life story of this most heroic of genuine heroes*.

http://patriotpost.us/alexander/45085

(Main)
Of Trump, By Trump, and for Trump!
Where the ell have you been living on Mars, for the past 8 yrs, we all know Obama and where is from and how he took
this Country from the Brink of Depression ( Because of George Bush Banking bail-out, The Housing disaster, Job disaster,
& 2 Wars and 20 Trillion in War debts Plus Bush gave the biggest Tax credit back to the Top 1% and gave the rest of us $15.00 and a smack on the butt.
All of this was after Bill Clinton balanced the Budget and there were Billions that Bush could of used to Build New Freeways and Bridges /airports, but Gave it to the Big money people and Bankers. Take a look at the real History, I sure the Hell Don't know where You were or what Planet YOU were on, or did you have your head so far up you keister that you couldn't see or hear????? Do some reading & Start after The Reagan Days and up to the present.
Now you V**ed in the Biggest Con Man in History, and r****t bigot, that Went into The Miss Teen Girls dressing rooms to look at Teen Girls, Who is a Womanizer and thinks he can stick his hand any woman's dress for a quick feel, He is just another Bill Cosby a Dirty Old man.
Give some credit where it is due Obama was not perfect and made mistakes but his Health Care System saved my Life from Cancer, without it I could not of afforded the $200.000.00 that it cost for the Dr.'s and the 48 Radiation treatments
that I had to go through, I am Registered as REP, but only because Florida is a closed e******n State, another crock on that, I V**e for a Person NOT a PARTY this way I have a choice in Local E******ns. Iam NOT a DEM or REP, but I love a good party.
Trump was the E*******l College Elected President and NOT the Favorite or Popular Person. It most democratic e******ns through out the World, The Person with the most v**es there people lead, Only here in America do we have a College of mostly White Men who controls the Money and there the 1% Club and throw in the Majestic 12 and the Jewish Nation that we support and pay Billions in Aide to, along with Billions all over the world and most of them have better Rail, Roads & Airports then we have here.
Americans we think we can Buy our way to the Top and have but there is a Rusty little hole in the bottom of the pail and its getting larger ever day, then the bottom falls out and the paper dollars you got stuffed away & stock papers will be worth Crap, I just kinda hope it holds off until I Kick the Bucket. Ready for a New Adventure or just on my way to Hell.
Seeee you all later.
So DON"T TRY & SELL ME YOUR CRAP .

So.. I watched the video... funny guy... (if you like cheesy dorks I guess)

He doesn't really say anything.
To be honest, I wrote that response after reading the first paragraph... I was turned off by the "oh, Democrats are dumm - arh, arh.." crap but I took the title and made the assumption he might have a point....

TOTAL misread!

I decided I should at least watch the video... since I'm replying to you about it... The guy's an i***t. His first stat is a percentage of a gazillion or some stupid made up s**t. I thought he was playing around and would have an actual number to back up his point... ya know like we liberals always do. But, no... he just went on to the next thing... so his entire point was based on a fraction of gazillion.

Is this where you get your knowledge buddy..? Is there someone that can check on you? 'Make sure you're not eating paint chips?

A few things to point out..

1. I have NEVER been a Democrat:
Since the article you link to seems to be targeting Democrats, I thought it might be worth bringing up. (in fact I was a Republican from 1980 to 1984)

2. Republicans are more Liberal too:
That's what the article you point to actually says. I bet that doesn't actually make sense to you. Let me explain something, starting with point #3...

3. Not all Republicans are the same:
When I registered Republican I was joining my father's party. The party I associated with Reagan. That's not the Republican party I see today. For the first half of the 20th century, the Republicans WERE the liberals... the Democrats were conservative... because the Democrats were not always the same either, which brings up point #4...

4. Political Parties Change faster than Culture Does:
Which explains why people jump parties. The entire south switched from Democrat to Republican during the Nixon campaign. Look up "Dixecrats"... I'm not making this stuff up. Americans don't trust politicians, but we ARE faithful people. We put faith in our cultures. (Yes, as in plural.) That's part of what being free means. The fact that our founders were able to construct a light weight framework for a federated government is admirable as were most liberal movements during the Age of Enlightenment but that's just what it was. The American Revolution itself was a liberal idea... to replace a monarchy with a republic. Neither Republican nor Democrat existed yet. It was all Whigs and Tories. Whigs were the liberals that supported the revolution, Tories were the conservatives, loyal to the crown... Finally, point #5...

5. The Article is Telling you that Smarter People Tend to be Liberal:
When he says Republicans are more liberal he is qualifying the subset of Republicans that are... more liberal. To that subset of liberal Republicans, he is crediting smartness that exceeds even the Democrats, which precedence being set, he could filter anyway he wants.

;)

T***p w*n the e******n... So why is it soooo important for him and his supporters to lie about illegal v**es? I noticed you offer no link... You just said "a new study"... OK, I got one ... "New Study" by Dr. E. P. Morris shows that all Republicans have smaller brains sizes than Democrats... There ya go... How's that?

Better yet... let me show you what a link looks like.

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/features/the-gops-stealth-war-against-v**ers-w435890

This link is to a Rolling Stone article by investigative reporter Greg Palst (Author of "Best Democracy Money Can Buy"). He wrote this article (and I read it) before the e******n even happened. The article discusses a system called the Interstate V***r R**********n Crosscheck Program, which was started by Kris Kobach, Republican representative from Kansas, who was also responsible for a racial profiling system following 9/11 that has since been deemed inappropriate. Kobach has been working on this new system for years now and leading up to the 2016 e******n it's been promoted by a powerful Republican operative AND by Trump. The "official" concept is to find v**ers who have registered in more than one state, add those v**ers to a list and disqualify their v**es. So it's an "anti-fraud" system. Except... the v**ers get no warning or notification... They aren't even told that their v**e is discounted so the v**er never even knows. Here's the genius part... The list itself is kept secret. How's that for a t***sparent system?

As it turns out, part of the list was leaked, containing the names of 1 million v**ers... that's just the part that was leaked. You might wonder if this is normal. Do millions of v**ers really cast b****ts in more than one state? Why has this never been discovered before..? Did these v**ers suddenly realize in 2016 that they can drive a car across state lines? I've been watching the Republicans pulling these stunts for years. The classic move in v**er suppression is redistricting... In Texas, this seems like a weekly event... every time time more Hispanics move in to the state the Republicans rearrange their congressional districts to minimize the effect of their v**es.

I actually remember the investigation that Bush launched that the article describes. Bush was miffed about the Florida recount and launched the investigation into possible v***r f***d (which had to have been rampant for such a wide chasm to appear between the actual count and what Bush thought should have been the count.) In any case after five years and plenty of tax money they came up with nothing.

So when I heard about the Crosscheck system I was pretty much already expecting something like that. Republicans rely too much on old white people with r****ts hangups and that demographic is shrinking, so they continue to rely more and more on v**er suppression techniques, disguised as v***r f***d prevention.

As it turns out, several states pulled out of the system, citing problems with the methodology, as Oregon's secretary of state recently explained: "We left Crosscheck because the data we received was unreliable." Still, 28 states stuck with the system. Among them, Virginia which produced a list (part of what was leaked) showing 342,556 names which they apparently cancelled from the v**er rolls right before E******n Day. Lists from Georgia and Washington state were also leaked. It turns out that a quarter of the list that was leaked didn't even match middle names or suffixes like "Sr." or "Jr." On the Georgia list alone there was 357 people with the name "James Brown" and there were no SS numbers at all!

I'm sure you won't read the article because it's not going to tell you what you want to hear. But just so you know... there are a lot of us that aren't making out with the Republican sphincter and we are at liberty to review the investigations commissioned by either side and when you do that it becomes really obvious that Republicans have been playing dirty pool for a long time.

I haven't made a big deal out of this until now, because it's not worth arguing with a bunch of right-wing maggots about v**er suppression when they will only deny it. Besides, the way I see it, T***p w*n the e******n whether it was fair or not. Sometimes c***ters win. You just have to move on and maybe work toward making e******ns more fair in the future.

Still, judging by Trump's record breaking low approval ratings and the record breaking protests against him, along with many other indications, I would say he lost the popular v**e by a margin far greater than the 3 million actual v**es that were counted. I would guess there were another 2 million at least that were qualified to v**e but were not even counted because of bulls**t systems like Crosscheck.

I'm sure the "study" you reference in you original post comes from these bulls**t lists... It would be just like the Republicans to quietly disqualify the v**ers based on erroneous data and then hold up the list and state that these people v**ed illegally... and of course lie and say their v**es were counted.

Thee three investigations going on looking into the Russia connection to the Trump campaign when it is finished Trump may be looking at some time In the slammer. That clanging sound you will hear is the cell doors slamming shut If we cant get him for that he will be hounded every where he goes for the next four years he will have no piece. The last two weekends at his estate in Mar a Lago cost us $#10 million and a lot of it went to Mar a Lago as rent for the space he could have stayed in the White House but Mar a Lago needed the profit