Why are all these stores closing nation wide, if the stock market is up and things are peachy?

So just from an earlier script writer then, no more believable.

Only in America would they name a store after a blow job, I mean come on, BJ's? Really?

Next you'll be naming one after licking someone's bum. Oh yeah you already have Rim dont you the company behind Blackberry.

Capitalism is an ancient system. Collectivism will replace this mess.

Not while monarchy is still alive.

Which is where anarcho-collectivism takes place.

yeah tell that too Ca gov J. Brown... where he was crowing that Ca is in the clear now from all these high taxes we've been paying... don't have money to buy things

or total serfdom, which is where we're headed currently.

Your choice.

MARKETS ARE TOTALLY RIGGED!
YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THEY ARE PREPARING... ONCE YOU FIND OUT, IT WILL BE TOO LATE.

not rigged. gamed, but not rigged.

Someone has a sense of humor?
[link to en.wikipedia.org]

Stores closing and laying off means cutting the fat which can increase the value of a stock.

Wall Street is a speculative game and less based on the PE ratio now than ever. Big players and hedge funds with their instant electronic trading runs the show now. They can make big money when stocks are crashing buying puts so it doesn't matter if the market is going up or down there is money to be made if you are a big player.

Main street is headed for a depression and the common man will feel the sting all too soon.

You are wise. This is called a sucker's rally.
The sheep are about to get sheared. Just watch.

This rally will last much longer than people expect.
The market MUST be "credible" for another 2 years. It will be only in mid 2015 that they'll crash the markets... BIG TIME.
The problem is; that will be the FINAL CRASH! No more recovery!
NWO after that.
That information is easily verifiable by doing a technical analysis of $SPX.

Very good catch, OP! Try showing these figures to an Obama supporter! My wife works with a lady that constantly extols how wonderful things are now that we don't have that 'retarded bastard' Bush in the White House.

My wife will bring up the unemployment, the cost of gas, the Quantitative Easing, and other issues and the woman responds with what we have come to call 'Obama facts'.

She will tell you: Obama got Bin Laden. He stopped the job losses. He got the stock market back.

Of course, if she explains to said half-wit that if a patient bleeds out and we replace the blood with water, how long can the patient survive?

The lady has no answer, ever. She just continues banging her pot for the Caramel Commander.

Is it better to be awake and find there's nothing you can do about what's going on anyway? Or to be completely asleep and happy?

There's a reason people want to stay plugged into the matrix.

TSP?

Believe me the market has no concience,the firms that are going down the pan are Zombies.
the banks have been propping them up for years.Once these ailing companies fold we should see more continuity within the labour market.
the market has already factored the closure of such companies .thus they have very little effect on the market stats.

It will last as long as they keep making money out of thin air.

Yep. My co-workers and I just got slapped with a 2 percent pay cut on top of the 2 percent we lost with the social security tax increase. And this is after the 23 percent increase in our health care premiums.

those companies which fleece the middle class and the poor are doing amazingly well,those who actually produced goods not so much.

Simple - the stock market doesn't reflect economic fundamentals. The 'stock market' that we watch is the DOW and the NASDAQ, which are both owned almost exclusively by the super rich. Its 'value' isn't responsive to the economic situation on the ground, but instead to the irrational whims of stock brokers, and to the dictates of government.

If they know government will assure financial backup, which they do, stock will go up. The big problem in '08 was the financial corporations lost faith that the government would back them, especially in the housing market. Fannie and Freddie were bankrupt, and the banks with mortgage holdings lost faith in the dollar so to speak. So the stock fell in price. This is why, after letting Bear Sterns fail as a warning to non-cooperative bankers, the government made sure to let everyone know that no one else would fail.

Economics on the grounds hasn't changed much since '08. In some respects, like in unemployment, it's gotten worse. Real unemployment is over 20%, a crazy figure. The real economy is basically in a depression.

Online sales. Nobody needs to go to those stores anymore. Death of the mall, ever been to a dead mall? It's sad.

Evil always wants do destroy the good it finds.

There are those that need to have everything for themselves and smirk that they got it for nothing, and the only way to do that safely is to depopulate on an industrial scale

Good post Alethian. The real numbers for unemployment are a lot higher than what they want you to believe. Factor in underemployment and you will know why the economy is not improving. I know many people who are not working or working in a job that doesn't pay a lot. There aren't many high paying jobs out there right now. People have to settle for making less. I don't see improvment coming anytime soon.

The people have no money. That's the real answer. If food stamp usage doubled over the last 6 years....who the fuck has money for a new tv?

The Stock Market is purposely being pushed up higher and higher to make it appear that the economy is doing better than it is. It is also being done in order to push up peoples IRAs. The government wants the IRAs to get as high as they can before they take them away, to use for the government spending, giving the people a coupon for the supposed value of their IRA. This way, the government can get trillions of your dollars from your IRAs, and give you nothing in return.

Just another thieving government plot to steal more of your money. If you really paid attention, the real stock market number would be in the mid-8000s instead of over 14000.

But look at THESE stores. Is there anything that we really NEED that they sell? other than Sears hardware dept, when people wonder how they will eat, or how to pay the electric bill, who needs Radio Shack or Barnes and Noble, etc. I don't need clothes from Penneys, I need freeze dried food.

Now, if they opened up departments for SHIF needs, their business would be booming.

The companies in the DOW and SP probably sell good globally.

I have been awake long before the 'fall' of 08. Going all the way back to 1998! I never believed the Y2K shit, however, 911 did not catch me off guard.

Sure, there was the first moments when I could decide if it was an invasion or not, and that thought crossed my mind. I was a paramedic then working on my degree working a full-time medic job and working part-time in the chemistry lab doing inventory, setting up freshman lab experiments, and helping the professors do their research for publication.

I remember a professor, a young woman, who came to me and said, "A plane hit the World Trade Center. They don't know what's going on."

I went straight home, packed my wife and son in the car, and drove to my parents. They live on a farm, same as I do now. As my wife and I were packing the car, we saw the second plane, and I really just felt like 'shit, I knew this was coming'.

As for the 2008 pre-quake tremor, I knew that shit was coming, same as 911, all the way back then. I was doing part-time carpentry work in the summer because you can make more money picking up cans on the highway than being a paramedic, and I would frame these fucking McMansions.

I would see the realtors bring these asswipes around trying to see these people 300K homes. People who weren't making as much as I was as a paramedic! People making 35K!

I would come home to my wife and just shake my head. I knew then we were building a false economy.

Yeah, sorry but Sears... The only people that shop there are the same people who get the Senior discount at the Sizzler. Same for Radio Shack. Those stores are bullshit. JC Penny and Sears are also anchor stores for malls. Nobody does their shopping at the mall anymore, therefore no need for JC Penny. I honestly can't remember the last time I bought something at JC Penny, either. Their stuff sucks.
Barnes and Noble and Borders crashed as soon as people started buying digital editions of books on Kindle and the likes, same goes for media from Best Buy and Game Stop. Guess you've never legally downloaded a movie or game before? Netflix, Hulu, PSN and XBL basically cover the entire field. It's also why Blockbuster, Hollywood Video (etc) basically don't exist anymore. As far as electronics goes, you're better off buying them on Amazon in America.
Office Max and Office Depot sell office supplies.. Pens, paper, etc., basically crap we don't use anymore because we do everything on a computer. They don't sell Apple or anything so why would anyone want to buy from them? You can get any computer, laptop, monitor, camera, etc, online at much more reasonable prices and without having to wait around for someone to help you.

So there you go, you wanted it broken down, all of those stores suck. Lots of other retail stores are doing awesomely.

Here in Japan, people still prefer hard copies of everything, and electronic goods stores are still way popular. They even rent CDs here (but not video games?!?!?) so ..Yeah.. Anyway American customer service is bullshit. I hate going to the states and shopping just because of the people inside the stores. Pretty sure others feel the same.