Saturday - November 24, 2012

an economic black hole?

Worth your time.  Sometimes subjects like this can be quite dry and a large yawn.
See what you think.

Daley is an American, married to a Brit and been living here for many years. She well knows her way around her subject.

We’re heading for economic dictatorship

The whole of the West is falling into the economic black hole of permanent no-growth

By Janet Daley

Forget about that dead parrot of a question – should we join the eurozone? The eurozone has officially joined us in a newly emerging international organisation: we are all now members of the Permanent No-growth Club. And the United States has just re-elected a president who seems determined to sign up too. No government in what used to be called “the free world” seems prepared to take the steps that can stop this inexorable decline. They are all busily telling their electorates that austerity is for other people (France), or that the piddling attempts they have made at it will solve the problem (Britain), or that taxing “the rich” will make it unnecessary for government to cut back its own spending (America).

So here we all are. Like us, the member nations of the European single currency have embarked on their very own double (or is it triple?) dip recession. This is the future: the long, meandering “zig-zag” recovery to which the politicians and heads of central banks allude is just a euphemism for the end of economic life as we have known it.

Now there are some people for whom this will not sound like bad news. Many on the Left will finally have got the economy of their dreams – or, rather, the one they have always believed in. At last, we will be living with that fixed, unchanging pie which must be divided up “fairly” if social justice is to be achieved. Instead of a dynamic, growing pot of wealth and ever-increasing resources, which can enable larger and larger proportions of the population to become prosperous without taking anything away from any other group, there will indeed be an absolute limit on the amount of capital circulating within the society.

The only decisions to be made will involve how that given, unalterable sum is to be shared out – and those judgments will, of course, have to be made by the state since there will be no dynamic economic force outside of government to enter the equation. Wealth distribution will be the principal – virtually the only – significant function of political life. Is this Left-wing heaven?

Well, not quite. The total absence of economic growth would mean that the limitations on that distribution would be so severe as to require draconian legal enforcement: rationing, limits on the amount of currency that can be taken abroad, import restrictions and the kinds of penalties for economic crimes (undercutting, or “black market” selling practices) which have been unknown in the West since the end of the Second World War.

In this dystopian future there would have to be permanent austerity programmes. This would not only mean cutting government spending, which is what “austerity” means now, but the real kind: genuine falls in the standard of living of most working people, caused not just by frozen wages and the collapse in the value of savings (due to repeated bouts of money-printing), but also by the shortages of goods that will result from lack of investment and business expansion, not to mention the absence of cheaper goods from abroad due to import controls.

If capital cannot grow – if there is no possibility of it growing – it becomes worthless in international exchange. This is what happened to the currencies of the Eastern bloc: they became phoney constructs with no value outside their own closed, recycled system.

When Germany was reunified, the Western half, in an act of almost superhuman political goodwill, arbitrarily declared the currency of the Eastern half to be equal in value to that of its own hugely successful one. The exercise nearly bankrupted the country, so great was the disparity between the vital, expanding Deutschemark and the risibly meaningless Ostmark which, like the Soviet ruble, had no economic legitimacy in the outside world.

At least then, there was a thriving West that could rescue the peoples of the East from the endless poverty of economies that were forbidden to grow by ideological edict. It remains to be seen what the consequences will be of the whole of the West, America included, falling into the economic black hole of permanent no-growth.

READ THE REST

Posted by peiper     on 11/24/2012 at 07:00 AM   
Filed Under: • Economics • International •  
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   Thursday - October 18, 2012

The fully expected unexpected facts

Maybe the figures were held back a few days at Obama’s request, just like those layoffs last week, so that he could have a pre-debate number below 8%? This smells to high heaven.

Weekly applications for U.S. unemployment benefits jumped 46,000 last week to a seasonally adjusted 388,000, the highest in four months. The increase represents a rebound from the previous week’s sharp drop. Both swings were largely due to technical factors.

The four-week average of applications, a less volatile measure, fell slightly to 365,500, the Labor Department said Thursday. That is a level consistent with modest hiring.

Last week, California reported a large drop in applications, pushing down the overall figure to the lowest since February 2008. This week, it reported a significant increase as it processed applications delayed from the previous week.

A department spokesman said the seasonally adjusted numbers “are being distorted ... by an issue of timing.”

Is this where I trot out the Left’s snide old “I question the timing” remark? Because I DON’T. Neither do you. “delayed from the previous week” my ass. On purpose. We both know damn well the numbers are fudged and manipulated for political purposes by our governing Elites and their brothers in the running dog media.

Posted by Drew458     on 10/18/2012 at 12:27 PM   
Filed Under: • Economics • work and the workplace •  
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   Friday - October 12, 2012

That Was So Unexpected

A sharp drop in the number of weekly jobless claims filed last week was caused by the failure of one large state to report all of its claims,, a Labor Department spokesman confirmed to FOX Business.

Initial jobless claims, which are a measure of the number of people recently laid off, fell by 30,000 to a seasonally adjusted 339,000, the lowest level in more than four years.

But the Labor Department spokesman said the numbers were skewed by one large state that underreported its data. The spokesman declined to identify the state, but economists believe California is the only state large enough to have such a significant impact on the overall numbers.

According to the spokesman, the reason that state’s claims numbers fell short was because the state left out a pile of unprocessed claims related to seasonal factors around the beginning of the fourth quarter, which began Oct. 1.

In a research note, Stephen Stanley of Pierpont Securities summed up the data: “In short, this reading is worthless in terms of informing on the general economy.”

California huh? And it was an accident because the unionized government employees didn’t get their task done on time? Yeah right. Pull the other one, it’s got bells on.

Coming a month ahead of the presidential election, some have suggested that the numbers are being manipulated for political purposes. Specifically, some supporters of Republican candidate Mitt Romney have accused the Obama Administration of doctoring the numbers to support President Obama’s re-election bid.

The White House and the Labor Department have denied the charges.

Denied the charges? Well now, that IS news.

Not.

update: Well yeah, all of that, plus this. Category shifting can hide plenty; it’s a form of accounting.

Posted by Drew458     on 10/12/2012 at 05:41 AM   
Filed Under: • Economics • Government • Corruption and Greed • Obama, The One •  
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   Friday - September 21, 2012

republicans are a threat to the world economy. bet you didn’t know that.

well good morning cranks and crazies. woo-hoo.
now, not only are the islamic cucarachas upset with us, we’re also out of favor with Wayne Swan.  who the heck is he? he is australia’s treasurer
and he says republicans are a threat to the world’s economy.  he is not too fond of the tea party either.
so as usual and in case you folks missed it .......

and there’s even a video of him at the link giving us what for.  quick, lets attack the aussie embassy. yawn. too tired today. tomoro too busy.

Australian leader attacks US Republicans as cranks and crazies

Wayne Swan, Australia’s Treasurer, has launched a scathing attack on the United States Republicans and warned the party’s “cranks and crazies” are the greatest threat to the world’s economy.

By Jonathan Pearlman, in Sydney

Mr Swan lashed out at the Republicans for recklessly endangering the economies of the US and the world.

“Let’s be blunt and acknowledge the biggest threat to the world’s biggest economy are the cranks and crazies that have taken over a part of the Republican Party,” he said in a speech in Sydney.

“Despite President Obama’s goodwill and strong efforts, the national interest was held hostage by the rise of the extreme right Tea Party wing of the Republican Party. The consequences were grave.

There can be few things more alarming in public policy than a political movement which was genuinely prepared to see the US government default on its obligations in order to score a political point.” Mr Swan said he was concerned the Republicans would again threaten global stability during looming negotiations to prevent a “fiscal cliff” – a massive reduction in spending if the president and Congress fail to reach a budget compromise.

“Fast forward to today, against the backdrop of a very close presidential campaign, and global investors are once again keenly focused on political gridlock in the US,” Mr Swan said.

Julia Gillard, Australia’s prime minister, backed her colleague’s foray into US domestic affairs.

“The Treasurer has been making appropriate comments today about potential risks for the global economy and consequently for the Australian economy,” she said. “You would expect him to be doing that.” The Opposition said the Treasurer’s comments were an embarrassing insult to Australia’s ally and would prove highly damaging if Republican candidate Mitt Romney wins the US presidential election.

“It was a calculated insult to the elected representatives of our key ally,” said the Opposition’s foreign affairs spokeswoman, Julie Bishop. “He is showing reckless disregard for the debt burden the US faces.” Australian politicians typically avoid intervening in the domestic political affairs of other countries, particularly allies.

cranks and crazies source

I guess I’m supposed to be if not angry at least a tiny bit put off.  The thing is, I found it funny. It must be something my wife put in my coffee this morning.

Posted by peiper     on 09/21/2012 at 06:51 AM   
Filed Under: • Economics • Politics •  
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   Tuesday - September 11, 2012

Those Perfidious Albion

This has to be one of those things that try Brit souls.

And there’s no answer sadly.  Well there is actually but nobody will do anything.

$8 million of Brit aid to India is spent on … are you sitting down?
£5 million converts to eight million American dollars, and that’s what is spent on US experts – to tell Brits how well they have spent their aid cash.  Good grief. Are they fuckin mad?  Have they finally gone and lost their collective minds.  Well apparently something like that.  The story came and went to be replaced by really important stuff to make Brits feel very good about themselves.
The paralympics.  Woo-woo. 
Okay, these are people who have managed to overcome life altering conditions and I take nothing away from that.  Much Kudos to those folks who even with missing limbs could outmatch me at my youngest and best.
Thing is though, you folks would not believe the papers this past week.  First there was the Olympics of course and the Brits fell all over themselves with national pride and joy and why the hell not.  They haven’t much else these days and no Churchill on the horizon.  The world of the Olympian on the full front page of many papers and page after page on the inside. And then the fireworks and the opening and closing ceremonies all to be done again for the Paralympics least they feel left out of things. And again the papers full of it days after day.  I can’t imagine what their TV must have been like.  Or maybe I can.

So, this story was buried on page 49 or 50 when it should have led. 

The Brits are pissing away tens of millions of dollars at a time when services are being cut or ended because people are told, we have no money. But the powers that leach have hired “consultants” to tell India how to run its own affairs.
I could not dream this up.  I haven’t the talent it takes to write fiction. Oh if only.

India has massive poverty. Has had for the past 100 years and the hundred before that.  What it never had before though, was the money to fund its own space program.
Yet millions and millions of Brit cash is going not to the needy, but straight into the pockets of companies, some of them American, that are paid to hold meetings and produce reports.  One US university alone (Duke) received £5 million (that’s $8,000,000)
in aid money.  Why?  What?  Brits can’t do the job?  I guess someone thinks not.
It gets worse.

India is (for all its poverty) an economic superpower. India has its own overseas aid program and gives away £2 billion a year.  In dollars that’s $3,213,855,815.
And Britain gives India £1.1 billion which is slightly over $ 1,606,988,540.

£3.1 million was given to a consultancy firm to tell India’s housing ministry how to cut poverty. Is that pathetic?  But wait.  There’s more and worse yet again.
£1 million was given to ‘consultants’ to advise charities on how to support Indian and British government policies. 

Christian Aid was hired for £24.5 million to advise India on how to narrow the gap between rich and poor. And finally though really there is more but I’m tired and fed up.

India’s economy is ranked 11th in the world with a GDP of £1.85 trillion.
Last month India announced they would spend £52 million, $ 83,553,714,
sending a probe to Mars next year.

India’s finance minister has said publicly, that India did not need British aid, which he described as,

“a peanut in our total development exercises.”

-30-

Posted by peiper     on 09/11/2012 at 02:54 PM   
Filed Under: • Economics • Outrageous •  
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   Friday - August 31, 2012

Same Old Same Old

Doc Jeff reminds me that some things never change ...

... from last year, a news item that “shovel ready “ O-stimulus money to build roads and bridges is being sent to China to hire coolies imported foreign workers to do the jobs.

http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/video/us-bridges-roads-built-chinese-firms-14594513?tab=9482930?ion=1206853&playlist=14594944

I just hope they use American steel, paint, asphalt, etc. The only thing worse than crappy Chinese steel is crappy French plastic. Let’s not even look at their paint ... again.

And in case you missed it in the news ... this is what happens when the typical Chinese shortcuts and lack of QA occur:

Ok, it wasn’t a suspension bridge, but the thing still literally fell apart at the seams. I don’t want that kind of infrastructure development going on in my country.

Posted by Drew458     on 08/31/2012 at 08:22 PM   
Filed Under: • Economics • Obama, The One • work and the workplace •  
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   Monday - August 06, 2012

the night watchman

I do not recall ever seeing this before.

H/T Doc Jeff yet again. 

NIGHT WATCHMAN

Once upon a time the government had a vast scrap yard in the middle of a desert.

Congress said, “Someone may steal from it at night.”

So they created a night watchman position and hired a person for the job.

Then Congress said, “How does the watchman do his job without instruction?”

So they created a planning department and hired two people, one person to write the instructions, and one person to do time studies.

Then Congress said, “How will we know the night watchman is doing the tasks correctly?”

So they created a Quality Control department and hired two people. One was to do the studies and one was to write the reports.

Then Congress said, “How are these people going to get paid?”

So they created two positions: a time keeper and a payroll officer then hired two people.

Then Congress said, “Who will be accountable for all of these people?”

So they created an administrative section and hired three people, an Administrative Officer, Assistant Administrative Officer, and a Legal Secretary.

Then Congress said, “We have had this command in operation for one year and we are $918,000 over budget, we must cut back.”

So they laid-off the night watchman.

NOW slowly, let it sink in.

Quietly, we go like sheep to slaughter. Does anybody remember the reason given for the establishment of the DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY during the Carter administration?

Anybody?  Anything?  No?  Didn’t think so!

Bottom line is, we’ve spent several hundred billion dollars in support of an agency, the reason for which very few people who read this can remember!  Ready?

It was very simple; and at the time, everybody thought it very
appropriate.

The Department of Energy was instituted on 8/04/1977, TO LESSEN OUR DEPENDENCE ON FOREIGN OIL.

Hey, pretty efficient, huh?

AND NOW IT’S 2012—35 YEARS LATER—AND THE BUDGET FOR THIS “NECESSARY” DEPARTMENT IS AT $24.2 BILLION A YEAR. IT HAS 16,000 FEDERAL EMPLOYEES AND APPROXIMATELY 100,000 CONTRACT EMPLOYEES; AND LOOK AT THE JOB IT HAS DONE!

(THIS IS WHERE YOU SLAP YOUR FOREHEAD AND SAY, “WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?")
34 years ago 30% of our oil consumption was foreign imports. Today 70% of our oil consumption is foreign imports.

Ah, yes—good old Federal bureaucracy.

NOW, WE HAVE TURNED OVER THE BANKING SYSTEM, HEALTH CARE, AND THE AUTO INDUSTRY TO THE SAME GOVERNMENT?

Hello! Anybody Home?

Signed, The Night Watchman

Posted by peiper     on 08/06/2012 at 02:01 PM   
Filed Under: • Economics • Oil, Alternative Energy, and Gas Prices • USA •  
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   Saturday - July 28, 2012

last weeks news. are kids being encouraged to grass tax avoiders?

PUPILS are being encouraged to rat on tax dodgers to their teachers by HM Revenue & Customs.  That’s what is being reported on lately.
Apparently, tax officials have developed teaching modules for schools where kids are asked if they know about anyone in their local area who isn’t paying what they should.
The tax folks say that isn’t true as reported. They say they don’t use children to gain info about tax dodgers or cheats. 
What is known, say the reporters following this, is that the tax ppl have drawn up these modules to teach children at secondary schools about the pay as you earn plan and also national insurance.

They use video games and facts and have quizzes teaching things about finance and citizenship issues. Like.

“What do you think of those who refuse to pay tax or try to defraud the benefits system? Can you think of any example you may have heard of in your local area?”

One module, headlined “tax responsibilities of a good citizen”, aims to help teenagers “understand the obligations if being a good citizen and discuss what should happen to hose who are not prepared to work under such obligations”.
One lesson plan – targeted at 14 to 16 year olds – requires students to “discuss whether it is good to pay the tax we do, considering the benefits we receive. If it is good, then why do people try not to pay?”
It continues: “Show class the remaining factfile slides on tax evasion. What do students think of those who refuse to pay tax or try and defraud the benefits system?
“Can they think of any example they may have heard of in their local area?”
A further “plenary session” asks: “What do students now think about paying taxes? In what other ways can we contribute to working together for a better society?
“What do students think about people who try to avoid paying taxes? Is it a victimless crime? What kind of penalties should such people be given when they are caught?”

(quotes from The Telegraph)

Here’s the issue that brought this conversation on. It is people who pay for services with cash, to avoid the tax that might normally be charged. 
For example, for years and years and years the late MIL paid a man to cut the lawn. He still does.  She always gave him cash. We continue that practise.  After all, whose gonna write out a check for say five dollars. Or eight dollars once a month when the window cleaner guys come over. Or the lady who used to come over and help the wife with odd garden jobs she no longer can easily do. All mostly local people who’ve been here even longer then my wife. And this was her home before we met 40 some yrs ago.
There was a storm raised in the last week or two, by some officials and I can’t even remember who now, that claimed it was morally wrong to avoid even those taxes where the law allowed you to.  So they were NOT merely speaking of tax cheats in the legal sense.  They were speaking of those who have LEGAL accounts offshore and who take advantage of the LEGAL LOOPHOLES the law allows. 

Well as you would expect there was this bru-haha with some ppl naming names and some newspapers, all of em actually, naming names and reporting on folks who paid less tax then the “people” thought they should.  And the left was on the issue like ducks on a June bug you bet.
There it was. Proof positive how awful and immoral capitalism is.

Sure, it doesn’t look good when some can manage to avoid paying much on huge incomes but hey, then change the law covering off shore accounts and close the loopholes.  But don’t castigate the people taking advantage of something perfectly legal.  Who would want to pay more when they can pay less?  Right. Warren Buffet and Bill Gates.  But besides those guys.  I don’t actually know for certain if either wants to pay more.  But I think I read that Buffet said he’d be happy to. Or willing. Something like that.  Easy for anyone who has enough and can make low interest loans to god.

Always seems to be a lynch mob out to do in the wealthy.  The baying mob of have nots in a world of never wills.

Posted by peiper     on 07/28/2012 at 01:15 PM   
Filed Under: • Economics • Taxes •  
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Iffy Indices

Porn actress Victoria Rae Black on the business of The Business:
“I think the economy is slowly starting to turn around. I saw a dip in the scenes I was shooting in the last two years but now things are on an upswing, companies are making more money and therefore producing more content.”

US Garbage Indicator Is Sending An Ominous Sign For The Economy

Among the 21 categories of items shipped by rail, none have a tighter correlation to GDP than waste. According to a 2010 piece on Bloomberg, economists Michael McDonough and Carl Riccadonna note that waste has an 82 percent correlation to US economic growth.

This should be pretty intuitive.  The more you produce, the more you throw out. McDonough, a Bloomberg BRIEF economist, tweeted out an update on the indicator.

And frankly, it stinks.  Waste carloads are way down.

So, what does this mean?

Have market efficiencies and local recycling been so effective that waste haulage is significantly lower, and the economy is improved enough so that the demand for private entertainment is on the rise again?

Or is it that when we don’t have squat, we have even less to throw away, and we’re so effed and depressed about it we need some secondary stimulus to help us ignore that reality for even a few minutes at a time?

Posted by Drew458     on 07/28/2012 at 12:05 PM   
Filed Under: • Economics •  
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   Friday - July 27, 2012

$54,900,489 bribe to unions?

Well, I must say if this be true I am a bit disappointed in our Boris.

He’s the American born mayor of London and about as Brit as they come I suppose. Would have to check with Lyndon on that to be certain tho.
I know he’s a conservative and he’s beaten Red Ken for the office. Red Ken Livingston being the avowed former commie mayor.

Seems only recently Boris banged on about controlling unions etc. 
This article makes it appear as if Boris Johnson is responsible for all of this. And that he’s caved in.  I can’t believe that. Or maybe I’m just tired and not reading correctly.  Or I simply don’t want to believe it.
Here.
You decide.  Interesting stuff.

It’s a Boris bonus: London mayor offers hand outs to transport workers totalling £35m to stop them striking during Olympics

London Underground drivers will get around £1,000 for working throughout the Olympics

London Underground station staff will get a bonus of around £850

At Network Rail, around 800 maintenance and control staff have negotiated a pay rise of £3.50 an hour for the whole of the summer

By BECKY BARROW

Bonuses worth up to £35million are being handed out to transport workers in a desperate bid by London Mayor Boris Johnson to stop strikes during the Olympics.  ( $54,900,489 )

That is despite the fact that Mr Johnson has repeatedly called for reform of employment laws to make strikes harder to call.

Workers who have scooped bonuses simply for turning up to work include:

London Underground drivers, who enjoy an average salary of £45,000, will get around £1,000 for working throughout the Olympics. London Underground station staff will get a bonus of around £850.

At Network Rail, around 800 maintenance and control staff have negotiated a pay rise of £3.50 an hour for the whole of the summer.

In total, they will scoop around £500 despite the fact that no maintenance work will actually take place throughout the Olympics, except emergency troubleshooting.

Around 550 workers at the Docklands Light Railway, which connects the City to East London, will get an average of £1,132 from the Olympics and Paralympics.

They will get a weekly bonus of £100, and will also be guaranteed a minimum of five hours of overtime a week, for which they will be paid 25 per cent above their standard overtime rate.

Bus drivers will get a £577 Olympic bonus, even if their route is nowhere near a Games venue. They will get a payment of £27.50 each time they complete a duty over the 29 days of the Olympics and the Paralympics.

Around 220 permanent workers who are employed by the service giant Serco, which operates the Barclays Cycle Hire company, better known as ‘Boris bikes’, will get £500.
They will also get overtime worth up to double their normal hourly rate if they work over the weekends.

Launched two years ago, there are around 8,900 bikes and 612 docking stations in London which can be used by anybody to do short journeys around the capital.

DAILY MAIL

Posted by peiper     on 07/27/2012 at 06:11 AM   
Filed Under: • Economics • Corruption and Greed • UK •  
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   Saturday - June 30, 2012

health care and ins.  questions, questions

I didn’t intend to go into the health care ruling as Drew has already covered that subject better then I would have. In fact, I couldn’t due to huge gaps in my knowledge and understanding of the subject. And what a subject it is.

I know it will appear small minded of me.  I should be for or against things on merit.  But I can’t help human nature and the feeling that if someone, in this case Obama and Democrats are for something, then I have to be against it even if I don’t understand what it is exactly I am for or against. I am reminded of an old Groucho Marx routine on that score. 

So, I’m using this front page instead of comments because I have questions on the subject and am interested to learn the thoughts of those who may have gone into this subject in more detail. 

I’ll be honest. Living here as I do, while I was aware of the subject, I just didn’t read a lot on it. There is so damn much going on, some of it personal, that between things happening in our personal lives and the work needed on the property and then the time it takes to do blog stuff, some reading just gets ignored. And there is so much happening on our doorstep, it just consumes time. 

I am still not clear even after reading what I did, which obviously was far less then Drew and some of you, I don’t understand how those with very small incomes or none at all, will fair.  How about small businesses.  Most small business does not provide employee health care. Will they now be forced by this new scheme to do so?  If the answer is yes, I would assume correctly I’d wager, that fewer ppl would be hired do to simple economics.  What happens to those who quite honestly can’t afford the high prices of health ins. due to their circumstances?  Wow. What a can of worms this is.

And thanks for your patience.

Posted by peiper     on 06/30/2012 at 05:29 AM   
Filed Under: • Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat Leftists • Economics • Personal • USA •  
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   Friday - June 22, 2012

Free Fallin’

I always wanted to rewrite the old Tom Petty Free Falling song with Weird Al style lyrics to make a paean to allergy season -
Now it’s tree pollen, yes it’s tree pollen
which just shows you how dangerous the combination of an unhinged imagination and a hearing problem can be.

But that has nothing to do with this post, which is yet another bash against Teh Won. His efforts haven’t done squat to revitalize the economy, and things are going from bad to worse. Worse to worser even.

Oil prices fell Thursday, hitting an eight-month low, as markets continued to react to disappointing economic news across the globe.

The price of oil for August delivery fell to $78.58 a barrel as markets settled, down nearly 4% from Wednesday. This is the first time since October that oil prices hit below $80, what analysts consider a key psychological number.

Signs of a slowdown in manufacturing in China, Europe and the United States delivered the oil market another blow on Thursday.

“Prices have gotten clobbered, and it’s being driven by the deteriorating economic data,” said Matt Smith, a commodity analyst at Summit Energy Services [not the guy currently playing Dr. Who].

The oil markets also reacted to jobless claims, which analysts said showed little improvement. Prices were also still coming down from disappointment over the Federal Reserve’s decision to hold interest rates steady.
...
The sharp dive in prices over the last month and a half has analysts concerned. Crude oil prices are often indicative of what’s going on in the larger global economy.

“This is a tempering of optimism and expectations in economic growth beyond the oil market,” Smith said.

Gas prices fell below to $3.472 per gallon on Thursday, below $3.50 for the third day in a row after more than four months above that mark, according to AAA.

Kloza anticipates that gas prices will continue to fall as the summer driving season heats up, and well into the fall.

“The market is telling you that right around Election Day, the average price is going to be below $3 a gallon,” he said.

I watched the New York City news on TV last night, and their bit of coverage on this story said how NYC drivers going to the NJ shore would be pleasantly surprised with the price of gas on NJ’s highways, which averaged $3.42. This is cheap by NYC standards, because of the high taxes imposed by both the state and the metropolis. New Jersey taxes just about everything except gas, so our state always has the least expensive gas. But $3.42 is a rip. My station down the street here reacted to the latest price drop by lowering their price to $3.19. We’re down 50-60¢ in the past month; to heck with Election Day, I’m expecting $2.99 by the end of the month.

The economy is flatlined, still. Beeeeeeeeep. And all the stimulus in the world won’t defibrillate it, not with the Sword of Damoclse government regulation (EPA, Obamacare, et al) hanging over business’s heads. Way to go Mr. President.

Posted by Drew458     on 06/22/2012 at 09:15 AM   
Filed Under: • Economics • Government •  
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   Sunday - June 17, 2012

top model six years in a row earns $45,000,000

Outside of national debts, til last year or the one before, I had no idea how much money that models earned. When I became familiar with the name Kate Moss, cos her face and figure were everywhere, I also learned she made millions. OK.
Then last year I saw something on line about the top 10 models and what they all made, and was really blown away. Most especially by the figure (in money terms) of this lady. And now, this mommy of soon to be two, is again and for the 6th straight year, the top money earner, with $45,000,000. But it gets confusing because the story date say it’s for 2012. How can that be right when 2012 has many more months to go? 

So here’s a link to a list of the ten top models. 

And here’s our top earner again.  Loads of photos at this link but I have to say it. I’m puzzled cos I’ve think I’ve seen prettier.

The Girl from Ipanema

1. Gisele Bündchen
Made: $45 million

How: Bündchen is the world’s highest paid model by a country mile. Currently rumoured to be expecting her second child with husband Tom Brady, she holds onto her first place spot for the sixth consecutive year, equalling her earnings from the previous year. She currently holds endorsemant deals with Pantene, Esprit and Versace, and also has her own line of sandals named Ipanema. Bündchen and Brady were named the world’s highest paid celebrity couple last year.

Posted by peiper     on 06/17/2012 at 04:05 AM   
Filed Under: • Economics •  
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   Saturday - June 02, 2012

An Unexpected Oops

Nice catch by Right, Wing-Nut! for this. Go visit and read his post, and a half dozen more well written recent posts on the economy and the O-regime.

Employers probably created 150,000 jobs last month, according to a Reuters survey of economists, after generating a paltry 115,000 positions in April - the fewest in six months.

That would bring nonfarm employment growth closer to its 176,000 a month average of the past three months and temper fears that economic activity could be stagnating...

Turns out that a mere 69,000 jobs were created in May.

(news item from the day before ...)

New claims for unemployment benefits rose last week for the fourth straight week, which could heighten concerns the labor market recovery is softening.

Initial claims for state unemployment benefits rose 10,000 to a seasonally adjusted 383,000, the Labor Department said on Thursday.

The prior week’s figure was revised up to 373,000 from the previously reported 370,000. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast claims unchanged last week.

Claims have now risen in seven of the last eight weeks. Most of those increases were marginal and the overall level of claims has held at levels consistent with a modest recovery in the labor market.

But the steady increase could add to the concerns raised by April’s disappointing 115,000 gain in nonfarm payrolls. A Labor Department report due on Friday is expected to show employers added 150,000 jobs in May.

Posted by Drew458     on 06/02/2012 at 10:21 AM   
Filed Under: • Economics • Media-Bias •  
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