Thursday, January 29, 2015

The World Is Not Enough For Wall Street

Wall Street is predicated upon the infinite growth paradigm,which doesn't exist in the natural world
Historically unprecedented profits are meaningless, because they are already "priced in" to current valuations. The only thing that matters is profit GROWTH.

15 Years of Nowhere at Microsoft
The stock price (black line) is back at a level it first reached in Y2K. However, profits have grown 250% since Y2K. During that time, the growth rate slowed hence the stock has gone nowhere (the Price/Earnings multiple that Wall Street applied to the stock, was lowered in-line with growth).

Fifteen years of growth was "priced in" at the peak in Y2K, so when profit growth didn't meet expectations in 2014, 18,000 people had to lose their jobs, despite operating profit at an all time high of $28 billion. Level of income is meaningless to (rising) stock prices. 

The red line is earnings per share (x100 to scale on the graph):


Billionaire wealth requires profits to continue growing forever which is impossible, so they monetized the middle class in a final bid to inflate their wealth.

The likelihood that profits can be maintained at these levels much less grow in the future, is the limit approaching impossible. They ate the seed corn, and their wealth is a fucking illusion.