Stocks Are Tumbling Around The World: US Nonfarm Productivity Tumbles Most Since 2008, In Europe, France Collapses Right as Spain, Italy & Greece Become Embroiled in Corruption Scandals, & Wall Street Insiders Expect Something Really BIG To Happen Very Soon!!

InvestmentWatch

Stocks Are Tumbling

Dow /quotes/zigman/627449 13,882 -105 0.75%
Nasdaq /quotes/zigman/12633936 3,140 -27 0.87%
S&P 500 /quotes/zigman/3870025 1,502 -10 0.67%
GlobalDow /quotes/zigman/629063 2,102 -12 0.54%
Gold /quotes/zigman/8702781 1,669 -10 0.58%
Oil /quotes/zigman/2291769 96.48 -0.13 0.13%

Initial Claims Miss For Second Week In A Row As Nonfarm Productivity Tumbles Most Since 2008

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more importantly, the BLS also reported Q4 unit labor costs and nonfarm productivity and as a result of the previously reported adjustments to worker data and negative GDP print, it was widely expected that productivity would drop. It did, but it did so far more than most expected, plunging by a whopping 2%, which “reflects increases of 0.1 percent in output and 2.2 percent in hours worked. (All quarterly percent changes in this release are seasonally adjusted annual rates.” The offset: unit labor cost which soared by 4.5% in the fourth quarter of 2012, the combined effect of the 2.0 percent decrease in  productivity and a 2.4 percent increase in hourly compensation. Unit labor costs rose 1.9 percent over the last four quarters.

<a href=”http://investmentwatchblog.com/sacre-bleu-france-collapses-right-as-spain-italy-and-greece-become-embroiled-in-corruption-scandals/” target=”_blank” title=”Exclusive: Worried Germany seeks study on French economy:

Sacre Bleu! France Collapses Right as Spain, Italy and Greece Become Embroiled in Corruption Scandals”>France Collapses Right as Spain, Italy and Greece Become Embroiled in Corruption Scandals

The following is a excerpt from a recent client letter.

The house of cards that is Europe is close to collapsing as those widely held responsible for solving the Crisis (Prime Ministers, Treasurers and ECB head Mario Draghi) have all been recently implicated in corruption scandals.

Those EU leaders who have yet to be implicated in scandals are not faring much better than their more corrupt counterparts. In France, socialist Prime Minister Francois Hollande, has proven yet again that socialism doesn’t work by chasing after the wealthy and trying to grow France’s public sector… when the public sector already accounts for 56% of French employment.

France was already suffering from a lack of competitiveness. Now that wealthy businesspeople are fleeing the country (meaning investment will dry up), the economy has begun to positively implode.

The first sign of this came actually came from Germany. As we noted a few months ago, Germany had prepared a working group to examine the impact of an economic collapse in France.

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble has asked a panel of advisers to look into reform proposals for France, concerned that weakness in the euro zone’s second largest economy could come back to haunt Germany and the broader currency bloc.

Two officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters this week that Schaeuble asked the council of economic advisers to the German government, known as the “wise men”, to consider drafting a report on what France should do…