Impending signs

[Young Master Smeet]

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/feb/02/us-bond-market-rout-fears-trigger-wall-street-sell-off

So, rising wages provoke a fall on the Wall Street stock exchange.  

Quote:

Investors headed for the exits amid growing fears over a bond market rout, triggered by early signs of inflation in the US as economic growth accelerates andwages appear to finally be rising after years of stagnation. US government bond yields, which rise as prices fall, hit the highest level since January 2014.

What was that about class struggle.  As a matter of record, though, rising wages are often a preeluide to an economic crisis, as markets extend beyond the bonds of resourcers available, and the labour market tightens, cutting margins for capitalists.  Those US government bond figures are bad news for TRump, as he is relying fairly heavily on borrowing to fund his tax cuts.

Over here, House of Fraser is having difficulty insuring its credit:

http://www.cityam.com/280018/trouble-store-house-fraser-credit-insurer-pulls-cover

This is one of the way crises become general, as firms extend insurance and credit to cover their problems, until the insurers begin to fail or the credit markets dry up.

[alanjjohnstone]

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-42942921Dow Jones dropped by 1,175 points.The leading US stock market index closed down 4.6% at 24,345.75, one of the largest falls in recent years. The S&P 500 stock index, down 4.1% and the Nasdaq, down 3.7%.The FTSE 100 index of leading companies also fell to close down 1.46% Japan's Nikkei 225 was down 4.8% Australia's S&P/ASX 200 was down 2.7%. South Korean, the Kospi was down 2.3%. There was a drop of 2% for both the CSI300 index and the Shanghai Composite Index, while the Hang Seng saw a 3.8% dip.Has the bubble eventually burst? I had been expecting it lot earlier. 

[Ike Pettigrew]

Not that this is scientific, but one thing I have noticed – which I am sure others here will have – is that economic crises under capitalism seem to occur roughly once every 8 to 10 years.  1973/74, 1981, 1992, 2000, 2008, etc.  The next one is about due.

[alanjjohnstone]

Worth a read on Marx and Engels on crises cycles

Quote:

In his Outlines of a Critique of Political Economy (Deutsche-Franzosische Jahrbucher. 1844) Engels mentioned that slumps occur every five to seven years, "just as regularly as the great plagues did in the past". He repeated this in Principles of Communism (1847) while, in the Condition of the Working Class in England in 1844 (1845), there are references to five-year and five to six-year cycles. Marx held similar views during this period. for in an Address on Free Trade delivered in Brussels in 1848 he drew attention to "the average period of from six to seven years — a period of time during which modern industry passes through the various phases of prosperity, overproduction, stagnation, crisis and completes its inevitable cycle". At the same time, they both expected crises to become "more frequent and more violent"  Wage Labour and Capital. Marx. 1847) and "more serious and more universal" (Outlines of a Critique of Political Economy, Engels. 1844). By the time Marx came to publish Capital (Volume I. 1867) he was writing that "the course characteristic of modern industry" was "a decennial cycle

Marx and Engels and the ‘Collapse’ of Capitalism

[Ike Pettigrew]

I take that back, Alan.  I was being scientific (!)

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