Archive for the ‘Economy’ Category

The Greening of the Public

by snork ( 196 Comments › )
Filed under Economy, Politics at March 12th, 2010 - 6:00 am

In the South, there’s a funny expression: “you’re greening me”. It means you’re taking me for a dope; it seems to come from assuming someone is a greenhorn. These days, there’s a whole lot of greening going on. Over at PJM, there’s a pretty good article, The True Meaning of ‘Go Green’. And over at Reason, Green like Me.

I detect a turning point in the talking points. With CRU and the IPCC in tatters, climate is no longer a viable buzztopic. Time to “MoveOn”, as they say. So now “green” is in. From the PJM article:

It’s omnipresent now, appearing in every form of media, in grocery stores, on any sort of product. Smiles and earth tone images greet us as we are told over and over again to “go green,” it’s the right thing to do. Don’t be left out, everyone’s doing it! Green is in, save the earth. It’s in all the schools — green is good, kind, and moral. Green is our future. Without it there will be no future.

Notice that they’re no longer talking about anything tangible. Greenness is simply holiness. You would never question your clergyman on whether holy is good would you? Horn goes on to make a critical point:

To “go green” is a metaphor for a cause, but the cause is not the one you might think it is. Green is not about saving energy. It is not about conservation or living more efficiently by recycling. It’s not about electric cars or hydrogen power or solar panels.

Green is not about you. Green is about saving nature. From you.

In other words, it’s no longer, as it was in the case of the climate emergency about saving us and our progeny. It’s about saving the fish. And the bears. And all kinds of other animals who would just as soon eat you as not.

The phrase “go green” seems harmless enough — what’s so wrong with being more efficient and looking for new ways of producing energy? It’s true, there’s nothing wrong with looking for new energy sources. But going green has been promoted as the answer to all of our energy needs, the idea being that if we “go green” we can save the earth and still produce plenty of energy and create new jobs. This is part of the lie.

What you must always keep in mind is that the only goal of the environmental movement is to save nature from you. There is no other reason for its existence. The environmental movement does not care what happens to your job, your family, your future, the future of your children, this country, any country.

But they package it as good for you. Thus……Green Jobs!!! From Reason:

While the phrase “green jobs” evokes organic farmers and wind turbine repairmen, there is no clear, common definition of what a “green” job is. Without one, special-interest lobbying will transform even well-intentioned programmes. Consider corn-based ethanol, a technology with no redeeming features. Corn-based ethanol is bad for the environment, placing unsustainable demands on water supplies and increasing harmful farming practices. It is bad for people, raising corn prices for some of the world’s poorest people. It provides little, if any, environmental benefit, with a net energy gain often close to or even below zero (the exact amount depends on the weather during the growing season, among other things). Yet corn-based ethanol has received billions in taxpayer support and continues to be favoured in so-called “green” energy legislation….

First issue: no clear way of measuring the greenness of a job. This is guaranteed to lead to a lot of the same kinds of shenanigans that this administration plays with “jobs saved or created”.

Second issue: Real life choices, like the wind or ethanol examples listed above are mixes of pluses or minuses. Nothing (except death) is absolutely green, and nothing is absolutely without benefit. Even when you throw tires into the ocean, it creates reefs, for example. So greenness is basically a marketing claim, like new and improved.

“We found employers have a broad view of what constitutes a green job,” [an official] said.

Green jobs counted in the report include engineers and architects; farmers and fishers; salespeople and lawyers; carpenters and truck drivers.

And even though employers responded to the survey last winter, in the depths of the recession, they were forecasting green jobs would increase 14 percent between 2008 and 2010.

I think it’s pretty clear that green jobs are going to increase by those kinds of margins because existing jobs are going to be declared “green”. From the PJM article:

The opportunities of “going green” have not been lost on corporate America. Corporations have joined in a strange alliance of sorts with the environmental groups. Some very large companies are promoting “go green” in their ad campaigns — you can’t watch a commercial from General Electric without seeing a windmill. Insurance companies promote “going green” as a responsible and eco-sensitive way to insure your car or house. Solar panels are ubiquitous in advertising, lighting our way to a brighter future. Yet corporations could care less about the environmentalist goal of “going green” — the phrase is, again, meant to sucker, to make the consumer feel good about buying the product from the company. It’s no different than the use of words like “new,” “improved,” or “natural.” “Green” is just another marketing tool, and the act of “going green” in the corporate world is the same as it has always been, even if the color of money is not always green anymore.

Basically saying the same thing. Horn goes on:

“Go green” stands for reduced economic activity. The idea is to change the world — scale down the world’s economies to save the climate and the world from prosperity seeking humans. Why else would all these eco-groups demand we meet the now defunct Kyoto Protocol carbon emission reductions? Why else would they demand we reduce carbon emissions by 80 percent by 2050? Because they know the only way to meet those carbon reductions is to radically change everything. The environmentalists fully intend to beat down the economies of developed nations and to stamp out any hopes of the third world.

The next time you see or hear or read “go green” remember it means “go back” — to a time when people lived half as long as today. To a time when humans were at the mercy of nature.

Don’t fall for it.

They’re greening the public. They’re taking us for greenhorn dolts.

New Study: Capitalism Newer Than We Thought

by snork ( 101 Comments › )
Filed under Anti-semitism, Economy, Islamists, Sharia (Islamic Law) at March 9th, 2010 - 5:54 pm

A world leader has uncovered some new facts about history. In this interview, Van Jones Mahmoud Ahmadinejad tells us what we all already know:

The president described the September 11, 2001 destruction of the twin World Trade Center buildings in New York as a preconceived “scenario and a sophisticated intelligence measure” and emphasized that the 9/11 incident was a “big lie intended to serve as a pretext for fighting terrorism and setting the grounds for sending troops to Afghanistan.”

But here’s the real news:

Ahmadinejad reiterated that with the advent of the Islamic Revolution the materialistic mentality was challenged and Marxism was destroyed.

“Today,” he added, “With blessings from the Almighty, the Capitalist system, founded by the Zionists, has also reached an end.”

[Scratches head]

Mr. Jones Ahmadinejad didn’t explain how it was that Marxism, which was a reaction against capitalism, could have happened before the Zionists invented capitalism.

Clever, those Zionists.

The end of the road for Barack Obama?

by Speranza ( 176 Comments › )
Filed under Barack Obama, Democratic Party, Economy, Media, Politics, Progressives at March 9th, 2010 - 12:30 pm

According to the Obama people, the problem is that too many people are watching Fox News! Expect another anti Fox dirve soon even though the last one was a flopping failure.  I also do not think that the author really understands the success of Fox News – Fox is successful not because it is conservative leaning, but because it is populist. Obama’s problems are caused by Obama’s policies, not what Sean Hannity has to say about them.  The Narcissist-in-Chief has got to be one of the dumbest people to ever sit in the oval office.

hat tip Weasel Zippers

by Simon Heffer

It is a universal political truth that administrations do not begin to fragment when things are going well: it only happens when they go badly, and those who think they know better begin to attack those who manifestly do not. The descent of Barack Obama’s regime, characterised now by factionalism in the Democratic Party and talk of his being set to emulate Jimmy Carter as a one-term president, has been swift and precipitate. It was just 16 months ago that weeping men and women celebrated his victory over John McCain in the American presidential election. If they weep now, a year and six weeks into his rule, it is for different reasons.

Despite the efforts of some sections of opinion to talk the place up, America is mired in unhappiness, all the worse for the height from which Obamania has fallen. The economy remains troublesome. There is growth – a good last quarter suggested an annual rate of as high as six per cent, but that figure is probably not reliable – and the latest unemployment figures, last Friday, showed a levelling off. Yet 15 million Americans, or 9.7 per cent of the workforce, have no job. Many millions more are reduced to working part-time. Whole areas of the country, notably in the north and on the eastern seaboard, are industrial wastelands. The once mighty motor city of Detroit appears slowly to be being abandoned, becoming a Jurassic Park of the mid-20th century; unemployment among black people in Mr Obama’s own city of Chicago is estimated at between 20 and 25 per cent. One senior black politician – a Democrat and a supporter of the President – told me of the wrath in his community that a black president appeared to be unable to solve the economic problem among his own people. Cities in the east such as Newark and Baltimore now have drug-dealing as their principal commercial activity: The Wire is only just fictional

[...]

“Obama’s big problem,” a senior Democrat told me, “is that four times as many people watch Fox News as watch CNN.” The Fox network is a remarkable cultural phenomenon which almost shocks those of us from a country where a technical rule of impartiality is applied in the broadcast media. With little rest, it pours out rage 24 hours a day: its message is of the construction of the socialist state, the hijacking of America by “progressives” who now dominate institutions, the indoctrination of children, the undermining of religion and the expropriation of public money for these nefarious projects. The public loves it, and it is manifestly stirring up political activism against Mr Obama, and also against those in the Republican Party who are not deemed conservatives. However, it is arguable whether the now-reorganising Right is half as effective in its assault on the President as some of Mr Obama’s own party are.

Mr Obama benefited in his campaign from an idiotic level of idolatry, in which most of the media participated with an astonishing suspension of cynicism. The sound of the squealing of brakes is now audible all over the American press; but the attack is being directed not at the leader himself, but at those around him. [...]

Read the rest here: The end of the road for Barack Obama?

The Big Squeeze

by snork ( 98 Comments › )
Filed under Economy, Politics at March 6th, 2010 - 12:00 pm

Something’s up with the FDIC. At this economic blog, a letter from a real estate developer:

I work in the construction business and something has been creeping to the forefront of my attention for the past few weeks and now it seems to be moving full steam ahead.

Banks are forcing developers/builders (especially smaller ones) to give up their properties (unsold homes and lots).

Banks say the reason is that the properties in question are no longer performing assets. I am sure there are some loans out there that are not performing and the owners are going under. I am equally sure that there are plenty of developers that are still selling homes – just not at the pace originally planned on the pro formas.

[...]

Down in the comments, we have this:

Your construction industry source raises an interesting issue. Since I work for a relative healthy bank, I don’t see that in my bank.

However, we have had federal auditors in the bank for the past couple weeks and I’ve noticed an interesting development. They are getting tougher on banks recognizing loans that they view as a problem and pushing for downgrades.

So, the very problem might be federal auditors are forcing banks to down grade loans to a doubtful status. In such cases as nonperforming real estate assets, this essentially forces the bank to do something more than wait and see if the developer can turn his investment and pay off the bank.

It forces banks to resolve the issue mostly by enforcing their rights on the collateral, which is why they are probably recommending the developer walk away, so they can their hands on the collateral sooner (maybe deeding it over to the bank) versus going through foreclosure and potential bankruptcy on behalf of the client, which can draw out the process for months.

[...]

So what does all of this mean? It means that the FDIC is turning the screws on the banks to get the non-performing loans off the books, even if it means trading something with a glimmer of hope of performing a ways down the road for collateral that has zip, zero, nada market.

Or does it? A large investor, with deep pockets (quite likely foreign) might be just waiting in the wings to snap up these distressed assets at fire-sale prices. Alternately, the banks with deep pockets may want to push the ones with less deep pockets over the edge (i.e. the ones choosing to receive TARP funds may want, with the connivance of the Feds, to push the ones who chose not to take TARP funds over).

In the long run, of course, a clearing of excess inventory is both a good and necessary thing. But pushing teetering banks over the edge, and taking marginally viable development businesses with them probably isn’t the best plan for the weak economy right now. But I can see no end of players, both inside and outside of the country, who would stand to gain from this.

Most transparent administration in history, my itching butt.

Update: Heh™:

Breaking News: Obama to use Reconciliation

by Rodan ( 200 Comments › )
Filed under Barack Obama, Democratic Party, Economy, Elections 2010, Healthcare, Liberal Fascism, Progressives at March 3rd, 2010 - 11:43 am

Barack Hussein Obama showed his 3rd World Dictator colors today. In a move that would make Mugabe, Idi Amin, Castro and Hugo Chavez proud, he is going to shove his Eugenics based Health Care bill down our throats. Ignoring the polls and the election of Scott Brown in Massachusetts, he is going ahead with reconciliation. This process cuts debate and allows passage of a bill with just 51 votes. This is used only for budget purposes, not a radical transformation of our Health Care system.

WASHINGTON (AP) – President Barack Obama urged Congress Wednesday to vote “up or down” on sweeping health care legislation in the next few weeks, endorsing a plan that denies Senate Republicans the right to kill the bill by stalling with a filibuster.

“I don’t see how another year of negotiations would help. Moreover, the insurance companies aren’t starting over,” Obama said, rejecting Republican calls to begin anew on an effort to remake the health care system.

Read it here: Time to act on health care, Obama declares

If there is any doubt about the Totalitarian nature of the Progressive movement, this is evidence of it. Barack Hussein Obama is living out his childhood fantasy of being a 3rd world tyrant. The problem is – he’s doing it here in America. With more debt and more government control, Obama is making sure we become the 3rd World nation of his dreams.

How Free Market Economics saved Chile

by Rodan ( 63 Comments › )
Filed under Economy, Politics, Progressives, Tranzis, World at March 2nd, 2010 - 11:00 am

Chile, which was recently hit with a massive Earthquake and is dealing with some chaos in the aftermath, is no Haiti. Unlike Haiti, Chile is a modern 1st world country that has a thriving economy. This is due in large part to Augosto Pinochet who removed the Totalitarian Progressive regime of Salvador Allende. He realized the way to remove the appeal of Progressivism was to modernize Chile’s economy. He did this by putting Chilean Economists of the “Chicago School” in charge. Chileans who learned economics in the University of Chicago at the hands of Milton Friedman.

Milton Friedman has been dead for more than three years. But his spirit was surely hovering protectively over Chile in the early morning hours of Saturday. Thanks largely to him, the country has endured a tragedy that elsewhere would have been an apocalypse.

Earthquake magnitudes are measured on a logarithmic scale. The earthquake that hit Northridge in 1994 measured 6.7 on the Richter scale. But its seismic-energy yield was only half that of the 7.0 quake that hit Haiti in January, which was the equivalent of 2,000 Hiroshima-sized bombs exploding all at once.

By contrast, Saturday’s earthquake in Chile measured 8.8. That’s nearly 500 times more powerful than Haiti’s, or about one million Hiroshimas. Yet Chile’s reported death toll—711 as of this writing—was a tiny fraction of the 230,000 believed to have perished in Haiti.

Read it here: How Milton Friedman Saved Chile

Thanks to Pinochet’s strong leadership and Chicago Boys economic tutoring at the hands of Milton Friedman, Chile enjoys the highest standard of living in Latin America. Chileans once immigrated, now Chile is filled with Immigrants from Argentina, Peru and Bolivia. Their privatized Social Security has enabled many Chileans to retire wealthy and enjoy the fruits of their years of work.  Chile is an example for all nations, even America, to model after.

(more…)

Nature begins to eerily reclaim the abandoned neighborhoods of Detroit

by Speranza ( 116 Comments › )
Filed under Crime, Economy at February 27th, 2010 - 11:00 am

There is something almost post apocalyptic about the city of Detroit. Up until 1962 Detroit was actually a pretty good town (I am told), but then the failures of liberalism (rising crime rates for instance) created the “white flight” that we are all too familiar with, combined with the race riots of 1967, confiscatory taxes, a hostile business environment, runaway welfare rates, poor city services, the failure of the auto industry and one party (guess which party?) rule -well you have late 20th century Detroit which is starting to resemble several of those destroyed European cities of world War II.

hat tip Tammy Bruce

Nature begins to eerily reclaim the abandoned neighborhoods of Detroit

Paul Ryan Schools Barack Hussein Obama

by Rodan ( 138 Comments › )
Filed under Barack Obama, Democratic Party, Economy, Elections 2010, Healthcare, Liberal Fascism, Progressives, Republican Party at February 26th, 2010 - 12:30 pm

Rep Paul Ryan of Wisconsin is rapidly becoming my favorite Republican. He has offered a Blueprint called Move America Forward. The plan calls for a balanced budget and making America competitive again. Yesterday at the Health care summit, he really took Obama apart. While Obama appealed on fairness and emotion, Paul emphasized facts. He took apart Obama’s plan and made the case that the spending was not sustainable.

I hope Paul Ryan runs for President. He offers a clear contrast to Obama’s Totalitarian Progressive agenda. We don’t need another Compassionate Conservative. We need a Fighter!

Update:  New CNN Poll out says  Majority says government a threat to citizens’ rights. This is part of America’s rejection of  The Totalitarian Ideology of Progressivism.

Health Care Summit recap

by Rodan ( 231 Comments › )
Filed under Barack Obama, Democratic Party, Economy, Elections 2010, Healthcare, John McCain, Progressives, Republican Party at February 25th, 2010 - 3:00 pm

I didn’t get to watch much of this summit. However in my Lunch Break, I did get see Eric Cantor and yes, even McCain take Obama to task. What I noticed is that Barack Hussein Obama the whole time was smirking at the Republicans. he seemed arrogant and also looking at them as they are inferior. His posture was that of a 3rd World Dictator feeling untouchable looking down at the Peasants.

What are the Netizen’s take on this?

Let’s have a discussion on this summit.

Update: below are some Clips showing Obama’s arrogance.

Obama on Time Division

Obama: We’re Not Campaigning

Obama Scolds Cantor

(Video Hat Tips:Breitbart TV)

Barack Hussein Obama decries Socialist label

by Rodan ( 152 Comments › )
Filed under Barack Obama, Economy, Politics, Progressives, Tranzis at February 25th, 2010 - 10:00 am

After a year in office, there is no doubt that President Barack Hussein Obama is a Socialist. He has taken over companies and bashes businesses as “greedy”. He is ignorant of market economics and believes the government knows better than the American people. He calls himself a Progressive. Well Socialism is a Progressive Ideology that believes the State should make economic decisions, not the people. There are various schools of Socialism and Obama belongs to the International variety also known as Transnational Socialism (Tranzi).  As usual he lies when he claims he is not one.

President Barack Obama launched a vigorous defense of his economic agenda Wednesday, rejecting critics who call his policies “socialism” and insisting he aims to boost U.S. competitiveness abroad.

Speaking to the Business Roundtable, which groups some of the country’s top chief executives, Obama called for support of his administration’s efforts to overhaul financial regulation and create jobs.

Read it all here:  Obama Rejects Attackers’ Cries of ‘Socialism’

How is printing money, creating more regulation, proposing new taxes and accumulating more debt making America competitive? Clearly he is ignorant of global economic forces or he is such an Ideologue that he would rather Americans be more poor and dependent big government. These policies are Socialist and have not helped America’s economic standing. Fidel Castro praised Obama as a Socialist and wouldn’t you think he knows?

The Obama illusion continues to collapse in the face of reality. Unemployment claims continue to go up. Only 25% of Americans support his Eugenics based Healthcare Bill. Now Obama is even coming up with a smaller bill that takes steps towards the Progressive goal of Eugenics based Healthcare. Clearly President Hussein doesn’t care about reality. He is a fanatic who will stop at nothing to achieve his Totalitarian goals. He will even lie about his Socialist policies when it is clear to everyone that’s what they are.

The Great Farm

by m ( 75 Comments › )
Filed under Economy, Humor, Open thread at February 23rd, 2010 - 1:30 pm

Blogmocracy in Action!
Guest Post by Bunk X


The Great Farm: Urban Forester Scores Job Measuring Barley Crop
Field Correspondent Bunk Strutts


[Tyler Stevenson, an urban forester, measures barley that is growing in the fields at the Great Park on Friday morning.]

Irvine, California (Strutts News Services, Opinion Section) –

Everyone knows that Urban Foresters are in great demand today (even though there is no such thing as an Urban Forest) and Tyler Stevenson is one who excels at his trade.

There are no forests or jungles within hundreds of miles of Irvine, California, so he gets to measure the height of a local field of barley, not just eyeball it. He measures it. And he gets paid to measure it with a tape measure and a cameraman in tow just to prove that he’s not exaggerating the growth.


[Stevenson's Tape Measure in action.]

Great Park workers have literally planted the seeds for the park’s first major round of construction, kicking off a $65 million development plan by attempting to reawaken more than 100 acres of once-fertile agricultural fields.

The sprouting of barley seeds planted just before the recent rainstorms marks the first stage in an agricultural plan that will eventually cost up to $1.4 million and encompass community gardens, a farmers market and rows of fresh-grown produce.

Maybe that’s just a typo. Maybe the “agricultural plan” will reap up to $1.4 million to offset $65 million, but remember, this was FRONT PAGE NEWS. No typos are ever allowed on the front page.

We were not able to contact Mr. Tyler Stevenson because we didn’t bother. We do not intend to disparage the integrity of Mr. Stevenson or the honorable legion of Urban Foresters (heh). But it seems silly to us that in pitiful economic times that the government, local or otherwise, should be getting into the farming business, and taking work away from the folks who need it the most: the illegal immigrant community.

[Photos, italicized and indented captions via the Orange County Register.]

Rep. Paul Ryan’s Roadmap for America’s Future

by Rodan ( 114 Comments › )
Filed under Barack Obama, Democratic Party, Economy, Liberal Fascism, Progressives, Republican Party at February 22nd, 2010 - 8:30 am

The Totalitarian Progressive Media has been attacking the Republicans as the “Party of No”. They claim the Right has no ideas and just attacks their plans. With Barack Hussein Obama’s support continuing to fall, they are pounding this drum. However, this is absolutely not true. Rep. Pal Ryan (Wisconsin) has offered a plan to solve our fiscal issues, bring the budget into balance and make American economically competitive again in the global economy.

Imagine your family’s finances if you spent and borrowed like Washington: you’d owe $60 in credit-card loans for every $100 of income. Every month you’d pay back a little but borrow even more. In 10 years, you’d owe $87 for every $100 you made. At some point you’d hand off the debt to your kids. If they worked until 2035, they’d owe more than $180 for every $100 they earned. In 2050, your grandkids would owe more than $320. By 2080 they’d owe seven times their earnings. Of course, lenders would cut them off well before then, and your family would be ruined. But this is the path your government is on right now.

Today, our country faces a fiscal meltdown—and Washington’s continued cowardice is a big part of the problem. The social-insurance strategies of the 20th century—Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security—are driving our federal government and economy to collapse. It’s long been obvious that we’re ill prepared for the retirement of the baby boomers. Now, the recession and Washington’s recent spending spree have accelerated the day of reckoning.

Read the rest: Red Alert
As Obama’s national-debt panel prepares for deliberations, one congressman proposes how to get back in the black

After reading his plan, I believe it’s the way to go. When government spends less and runs a balanced budget, that allows for more capital in the market. More capital leads to more investments, which in turn creates jobs and higher living standards. It’s a simple concept, but the Progressives are against that. The reason the Left opposes a less government burden on our economy is because they want control. Their Ideology is totalitarian and government is the means they use to reshape society. Also with government involvement in the economy, they can determine winners and losers as opposed to market forces doing this. They will make sure they are the winners and we are the losers.

Make no mistake, Paul Ryan’s plan would deal Progressivism a fatal blow and they will stop at nothing to prevent this. It’s all about power and their Neo-Feudal elitist agenda.

The New Poor: Millions of Unemployed Face Years Without Jobs

by Speranza ( 144 Comments › )
Filed under Economy, Misery Index at February 22nd, 2010 - 6:00 am

Although not surprised, I think that this is probably the saddest news item I have read in a long time. The thought of being unemployed frankly terrifies me and I have decided  to throw any extra money that comes my way (sub teaching, bonus, and tax refunds) into my “catastrophe” account  i.e. my savings account where it will earn a whopping  1.5%  interest (if I am lucky) but  will be there for me if God forbid disaster strikes. I also have  noticed in my own life that  I have become in my personal habits rather “cheap” ex. I will go  three extra blocks out of my way  to save 40 cents for a gallon of milk, fear of unemployment will make you do that. I guess the stimulus plan has not created any jobs therefore the Obama administration is forced to come up with a smoke and mirrors statistic called “jobs saved”. Well if you are still working at the same job that you were doing last month I guess you can put it down as a “job saved”.

Hat tip Hot Air

by Peter S. Goodman

Even as the American economy shows tentative signs of a rebound, the human toll of the recession continues to mount, with millions of Americans remaining out of work, out of savings and nearing the end of their unemployment benefits.

Economists fear that the nascent recovery will leave more people behind than in past recessions, failing to create jobs in sufficient numbers to absorb the record-setting ranks of the long-term unemployed.

Call them the new poor: people long accustomed to the comforts of middle-class life who are now relying on public assistance for the first time in their lives — potentially for years to come.

Yet the social safety net is already showing severe strains. Roughly 2.7 million jobless people will lose their unemployment check before the end of April unless Congress approves the Obama administration’s proposal to extend the payments, according to the Labor Department.

Here in Southern California, Jean Eisen has been without work since she lost her job selling beauty salon equipment more than two years ago. In the several months she has endured with neither a paycheck nor an unemployment check, she has relied on local food banks for her groceries.

She has learned to live without the prescription medications she is supposed to take for high blood pressure and cholesterol. She has become effusively religious — an unexpected turn for this onetime standup comic with X-rated material — finding in Christianity her only form of health insurance.

“I pray for healing,” says Ms. Eisen, 57. “When you’ve got nothing, you’ve got to go with what you know.”

Read the rest: Millions of Unemployed Face Years Without Jobs

Remember the Misery Index?

by coldwarrior ( 61 Comments › )
Filed under Barack Obama, Economy, Misery Index at February 20th, 2010 - 6:00 am

Submitted 19FEB2010

There has been an awful lot of comparisons of the Obama administration with that of Jimmy Carter’s Presidency. Well, that got me thinking…(uptempo music starts while the scene fades out)

(Overpowering announcer voice) Come with us now as The Blogmocracy relives those heady days of yesteryear where Embassies were overrun, the Panama Canal was given away, left wing terror ruled Europe, where the American President complained about ‘national malaise’ and encouraged everyone to turn down the heat and wear a sweater, and where American ’street cred’ in the international community was lower than John Travolta’s neck line in ‘Saturday Night Fever’…Yes, Blogmocrats, come with us as we journey back to the days of the ‘Misery Index’. (End scene)

The Misery Index, indeed! This lovely little metric has been more or less forgotten about since Reagan knocked it out of the park some 20 plus years ago. But here at the Blogmocracy, we have the unblinking, all seeing eye. Its in the toolkit for Wordpress. :)

The Misery Index was first the simple equation of Unemployment + Inflation first coined by Arthur Melvin Okun . This is easy enough to grasp, but it does not paint the complete picture. Robert Barro expanded the Index to Unemployment + Inflation + Gross Domestic Product Change+ Bank Rate. This rounded out the Index and made it more accurate to reality. The difference between these two is that the Okun Misery Index is the like the informal English you use with your friends, the Barro Misery Index is the formal English you use in something like a job interview, both will get your point across. Definitions for the above terms are at the end, if you want to refresh your Econ 101.

While I don’t believe the Main Stream Media will troop out our Misery Index while President Obama is still in the White House, it is interesting to look at this historic comparison of Presidents by Prof Barro himself:

So, unemployment can be defined as the percentage of persons on unemployment compensation expressed as a percentage of total workforce. Yes, I know the real unemployment is 17% but the number used is 10%. This uses the official, Department of Labor announced rate, sorry that’s how it works.

Inflation: The inflation rate is the percentage rate of change of a price index over time. Since I am a monetarist like Milton Friedman,who stated that: “Inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon.” , I believe that inflation is too many dollars moving too quickly while chasing too few goods. Or that government action or inaction is at the root of inflation.

Gross Domestic Product is private consumption + gross investment + government spending + (exports-imports) or GDP= C + Inv + G + (exports-imports)

Bank Rate (discount rate) is the interest rate that central banks charge on the loans and advances it extends to commercial banks and other financial companies. Changes in this rate are often used as a tool to control money supply. This bank rate is the basis of the interest rate you pay on loans, its bank rate + profit margin interest and risk = the rate you pay.

Snowjob

by m ( 228 Comments › )
Filed under Economy, Global Warming Hoax, Open thread, Politics at February 15th, 2010 - 3:30 pm

Pauley the Patriot