teamlysol

Unemployment by the Numbers

Figures don't lie, but liars figure, and I figure that the reason that unemployment is higher is because people don't have any money, either real, or promissory, and, as a result, sales volumes are lower, which means lower operating revenues for businesses, which means less job positions, lower salaries, and generally a lot less money in circulation. Comma. 10.2% UNemployment also translates as: 89.8% EMployment, and, if you were looking at the whole thing differently, say the conventional grading scale, that would be a B+. Not a bad result for having just watched 14 trillion dollars wash out of the Con Me. But, if the truth of the matter is closer to 18%, as some have theorized, then you're talking about a B-, there, which is a little less good, but still better than some countries, where unemployment is something like 60%, which is a prolonged exercise in hunger and poverty, usually accompanied by famines, rampant disease, civil war, locusts, the whole program, there.

Could the United States get to 20% unemployment, if we really unapplied ourselves, if everyone quit their jobs tomorrow, and bought a VW van with their last 1200 dollars, and wore hempen clothes, smoked dope, and dropped out of society? I don't know, that's a lot of dope, and the economy would probably trundle on, just from the sale of all-natural foods, herbal remedies, sunglasses, medical marijuana, and VW parts and memorabilia. I think we'll survive the 21st century economically, maybe not in the style to which some people were accustomed, but soup is good food, and economic projections make for some great birdcage liner.

Unemployment Rate Approaches 10%

I don't know, somehow the kid with the pimpy 'fart' muffler on his car seems to have money, I don't know what he does for a living, but it seems to keep him in car wax and New Car Smell, so maybe the economic situation isn't quite as dire as it's being billed, or he has a 'home-based business' he doesn't want to tell anyone about.

In the world of W-2 wage stubs, though, things aren't so rosy at the moment, and don't promise to improve anytime soon. But, that's one thing you aren't promised in the Constitution, a job. People seem to think they're entitled to lifelong employment these days, and that's where I want to say 'hey, this isn't Europe', and they aren't doing so well Over There these days, either. Matter of fact, their unemployment rate seems to track along with ours pretty closely.

I personally wonder how much of this unemployment stuff is purely political, where corporations have revenue they COULD be spending on wages, but have simply decided not to. Then you get into the whole issue of things like immigration, and runaway growth that characterized the first 5 years of the 21st century, and of course the spectacular bellyflop the DOW index took in 2007, and the small mountain of debt sitting atop our heads these days, and...you've got an interesting situation that'll make getting a 'day job' a little more interesting, going forward. But, we'll survive. Even if we're standing in line, singing Iggy Pop songs, and waiting to get that 5-pound block of cheese. Now, if you just had pasta, water, a pot, and a good heat source, you'd have something...

Homebuilders: Time to Short Again?

Isn't about half the global Con Me problem we're having these days because of run-amok real estate speculators? Everybody wants to be Donald Trump, and now it's gotten so bad that we're paying taxes AND rent to entities overseas. The job of the 'real estate industry' is to put a roof over people's heads, not to play speculation and extortion games. Reverse mortgages and other forms of exotic property finance have helped drive a lot, no, make that a LOT of people, into the poorhouse, the outhouse, or even in some cases, into tents and cars. I would never invest in any kind of real estate company, nor will I ever sign mortgage papers. Those people never seem to stop, and playing their game is just kind of aiding/abetting, and encouraging them. This isn't Monopoly, it's real life, and stuff, and they don't know when to say 'when'. But, whatever.

Federal Reserve's Kohn: We Plan to Keep Throwing Gasoline onto the Fire

All The Government can do in the event of a financial crisis is appoint lawyers and investigators and industry experts to go forth and seek out wrongdoing, and print money. That's about it. Past that, you're talking some real crystal ball type stuff, and a lot of people blaming others for problems that they most likely knew about, but didn't speak up because they were probably profiting from the situation, or themselves didn't really understand, or care about all that much.

All this business activity is engaged in by people that are trying to make a buck. When someone comes up with a novel way to make a billion, or several billion, they risk it. Why? Who wouldn't want to? Business is business, as they say, so what if grampa gets shooed out of his home because you squeezed up his mortgage payments to the point where his family had to bail him out, and now they're all living together down at the homeless shelter? You've got the yacht, the hot n cold running waitresses, 6,000 dollar shower curtains, and millions rat-holed where no one will find them, lighting cigars off $100 bills like a mafia boss, life is good, right? Right.

Wall St. is a big casino. That's all it is. They try to dress it up like it's more than that, but basically you're betting on the horses. Your horse wins, you make a killing, and retire to the french Riviera where you and your snob friends can try out the new yacht. Meanwhile, the company that you cleaned out that used to support a small town goes under, the people go out of work, and apply for federal unemployment or welfare or somesuch, and the country goes another billion in the hole. Thirty billion take away thirty-five billion equals a 5 billion dollar taxpayer liability, and the question of where the thirty billion went TO is the subject of government investigations into all these offshore tax shelters in Europe or the Carribean, or wherever else they're dodging the authorities, these days, and when you boil it right down to the bottom of the pan, basically Wall St. is just a bunch of computers, and a bunch of people placing their bets and puts and calls and speculation securities, nobody really knows what goes on in the back room, there, and if they do, they're probably sworn to secrecy or something, personally I think it's a big racket, I currently owe the IRS money as a result of supposed profits that I made with the stock market, it's only 13K they want out of me, and I'll have it paid off someday, but I'll never invest another penny, anywhere, and you can take THAT to the bank. Better to do like they do in poorer neighborhoods, and buy yourself a good rubber band, and a coffee can, and let that be your bank, that's my view.

What Comprehensive Healthcare Reform Should Look Like

Healthcare, unfortunately, is more about money than it is about actually treating sick people. We are talking multi-billion-dollar institutions, insurance companies pharmaceuticals companies, and other entities that generate some pretty serious revenue, employ a lot of people, and were you to call all of the components a 'system', then a system that's responsible for 100k avoidable deaths per year due to malpractice.

Want to reform healthcare? Great. Make all relevant details concerning all the workings of this system completely public. Publish how much money people are making in these jobs. Publish how much it costs to put someone up in a hospital bed for 24 hours. Find out how much the janitor makes, make that public, too.


Anytime there's going to be government spending involved, these details have to come out. One detail that's come out has to do with an entity called SEIU, which stands for Service Employees International Union. This is a very powerful political entity. VERY powerful. So powerful, they can spend millions of dollars in the political arena.

As usual, there are a lot of lobbying groups at work trying to effect this or that outcome on various issues, including the one called 'healthcare'. My question is this, how did we ever get to where we are in this day and age without 100% full coverage for every american citizen? Another question would be just how much better off institutions like GM would be, if they were not getting the shakedown to dump money into healthcare, as well as the other 300 million or so people that live in this country?

Insurance companies aren't necessarily honest institutions. I'm trying to currently disinvolve myself from one that automatically opened up an auto policy in my name. Do you honestly think that insurance companies magically become more ethical when the topic is a person's health? How about the tooth fairy, do you believe in the tooth fairy? Santa? Religion? I'm sorry, more information and total disclosure, please, before we go anywhere near anything that stinks like a healthcare TAX. The federal government already pays out 3 ways for people's healthcare, Medicaid, Medicare, and Medicare Advantage.

As people age, they become infirm, both mentally and physically.
When someone is eligible for federal benefits, such as the above, and they aren't 'all there' mentally, not on their toes anymore, they are prime pickin's for some of the less ethical institutions out there that specialize in stripping revenue out of the taxpayers, and using seniors as a means of doing so.

I also call this 'healthscare'. I don't know if you could quite call it medical terrorism, but somewhere in there there's a scare tactic being used to try and get people to give up larger and larger portions of their monthly pay for medical insurance, AKA health insurance. That's B.S. It's illness insurance, or hospital insurance, because if you were to get sick tomorrow, seriously ill, to the point where you needed surgery, if you didn't have that insurance, your next stop when you left the hospital would be the welfare office, because you'd be unemployed, AND broke.

Should the government just start taking over hospitals? That would be one method of healthcare reform, probably pretty effective, too, but the real reform will come when people stop looking at medicine as a career, so much, or revenue stream, and start looking at it as a general duty to the larger body of the public. Hold your breath for that.

Unemployment Will Peak Sooner than Expected

I think it's a lot of tea-leaf reading and conjecture, our manufacturing n the US has fallen off, year after year after year, with people expecting to get paid more and more along with healthcare benefits, and eventually you've just done something unspeakable to your final price-per-unit, as with Detroit, and people buy a Honda instead, and that's the end of the movie unless The Government bails you out(which they did).

Right now, US unemployment ranges from 9 up to 21%, depending on the county and area. It could go higher, the 'official' national percentage is 9.7, the unofficial goes up to something like 16%, nationwide, and frankly, I don't believe a word out of anybody's mouth anymore about the entire subject. Lots of money at stake Big Global Poker Game in progress...so, like the man said, believe half of what you read, and a third of what you hear.

Another State descends into Financial Crisis

This whole mess is nothing less than the issue of the proverbial chickens coming home to roost. People living in hock right up to their eyeballs for far too long, and now that there've been problems like the various playaz in da oil biz along with their usorious(?) business partners in Bankerstan raking in the dough like madmen, a lot of people are high and dry, and still in debt. Thanks to BushCo, it's harder and harder for people to get out from under that debt, leaving a disgruntled population that's all but owned, body and soul(AND house).

What to do, what to do. Personal finance reform, and let The Government figure out their own problems. But the only person that you can truly affect is yourself, so cut up that credit card, brew up some fresh coffee, sit down, and pencil out YOUR situation, and figure out how you're going to get out of it. Avail yourself of legal and other resources, ask questions, make phone calls, get on the Internets, and get er done. When you're out of debt, and find yourself 10 or so bucks to the good, then seek to help someone else, so forth, and so on, and even if it means sending the 'jingle mail', resolve that you WILL do whatever's needed to get debt-free. Then, when you can call your soul your own, and others around you are doing likewise, then ponder out what kind of policy might be of general benefit to others, and write your state representative. Eventually, there'll be change. Might not be immediate, but for the long term, we'll get out of this mess.

California, and other states, are going to have to curtail spending in order to balance THEIR books. Translation? Soup is good food, don't get your hopes up, and if you can think of information or some other idea that might be of help, publish. Even if it's just a morale-booster, a good laugh, even that is worth something to people that are on hard times...

Employment: Minimum Wage, Maximum Stupidity

Why does the government have to 'create jobs' to begin with, and why do I get the sinking feeling that all that's missing from the average american worker's personnel file is a label for an ear tag? I think there's been a lot of college-level muck-mucking going on in the working world for years, I think some people and their grandiose ideas can't leave well enough alone, and their government-funded studies and speculations have finally come back to bite them(and us) where it counts.

There is so much politics and artifice surrounding the world of employment these days, it's a small wonder people actually get any work done, anymore. But, that's people for you, entitlement mentalities and unforgiving cost of living problems, and the competition is neverending...

I think we'll see 15% unemployment, nationally this year, if we're not there already, and probably more unpleasant revelations about the whole game before the year is up. Look for foreign investors moving in to the United States to buy up real estate...but unable to find tenants.

Second Quarter 2009 – Market Review

At the rate all these financial wizards seem to be going, I see a can of Purina or Alpo in the future...and it's not for the dog, either...

State Budget Gaps and Investment Implications

I don't mean anyone HARM, necessarily, but CA has been cruisin' for a fiscal bruisin' for YEARS. Well, it's starting to look like 2009 is going to be The Year, chickens are coming home to roost and they're CHOCK-ful of Ex-Lax and Metamucil. So, stand clear, wear your Gallagher splatter-guards, be prepared for a downsized CA(and other states) budget, and beware politicians making lofty promises involving the proceeds from other people's taxes. It's up to the citizens to rally up and lend their eyes, ears, and talents to the process of getting their state budget back on track, and, if needed, some of their representation et. al. back on the unemployment line. Times are tough all over, a no-brainer approach to this problem would have been 20-30% across-the-board spending cuts, but no, but no, but no...

State Budget Gaps & Investment Implications

Basically when you buy bonds like that, you're buying a certificate that says you are now entitled to the tax reciepts taken from the citizens that live in that state or municipality, in other words, you're now taking part in the process of levying taxes against those residents. Since CA is teetering on the brink of bankruptcy, is it really smart to be adding to the problem? I say 'no'. A lot of states and cities and counties and so forth raise money in this fashion, but in the case of California, and some other places, I think it just adds to the problem, you're basically enabling their administrators to continue to overspend. So, don't buy their bonds, no matter what they're rated at. Some bureaucrats can't say 'no', but YOU can...

The President of the USA could end unemployment tomorrow with an Executive Order

What kind of dope are you smoking? Go back to Europistan. That way, at least you'll be among friends when the unemployment rate rolls up to 16-18%.

'We' don't have a 'global' ANYTHING. Use your last 300 euros, buy an airplane ticket, and go back where you came from with your 35 hour work weeks, your state-funded hospitals, and the rest of your european problems, and good riddance. People that want jobs find jobs, people that don't, come up with excuses. This is the United States, the employment office number is in the phone book, and if you were there instead of on the internet, you'd have a job of some kind by now. Yes, yes? Yes.

U.S. Unemployment Rate Approaching Europe's

Cat-burger, anyone?( Dinner's gonna be late!) LOL

Decapitation thru Cap & Trade

I think the government at any level just doesn't know how to reduce spending. I think they rat-hole billions of dollars for pet projects that they think will benefit the public, and the way they get the money is pleading duress or by just increasing things like property taxes. I think some of the people in government border on amoral, they really don't care what happens as long as THEY get paid, rather than putting the benefit of the public before themselves, and that's a questionable arrangement considering that everyone IN government, Obama included, pretty much calls themselves a public servant.

One way to deal with this situation is to do some independent study. Start learning how to conserve, and then produce your very own electricity. If a couple-three million people across this country did that, every couple of years, we might be able to say 'sayonara' to brownouts and blackouts, it would also be good for the environment, but that's secondary to helping utilities make it through August. I think maximum transparency with the public is important, when it comes to talking about energy and money, and also making sure that the auditors get to go right back through any sort of public funding for energy just to make sure that no one is doing funnybusiness.

We know that air pollution is bad, we know that air pollution is caused by burning fossil fuels, and even if you don't get global warming out of it, you still get smog, acid rain, groundwater pollution, and so forth. Sooo...it's basically a good concept to try and go 'green', but the other 'green', the money involved, is a more powerful motivator than any environmental concern, in my opinion.

WaMu on the Brink

I think that many banks are staring thoughtfully into the abyss these days, because if the real estate market ever fully tanks, their futures will be short-lived and grim. Too many people have tried to extract too much money from the business of real estate and its' financing, and there've been some speculators that've hit the magic numbers, and still others that've hit the wall. 'Flipper' isn't just a dolphin on a tv serial anymore, it's people that've ramped up the basic cost of housing and property to the point where it's unsustainable, and as small and medium businesses fall on hard times, and can't pay their leases and rents, then the property owners will succumb to similar influences and be unable to pay their mortgages, at which point there'll be banks sitting on overvalued properties and stacks of mortgage-backed securities, which will trade approximately 1-1 with a square of Charmin.