Thursday, April 11, 2013

SAR #13101

As you shake your head over the latest political stupidity by state level politicians, keep in mind two things: your state could be next, and these folks want to go to Washington.

Deja vu all over again: The administration wants to make mortgages more widely available by extending loans to those with weaker credit, so The RecoveryTM doesn't leave the poor behind, punish those with weak credit records (without actually uttering the words 'sub-prime lending'), or exempt young people from debt slavery that might enrich the banker class. Housing officials want banks indemnified by the federal government against legal and/or financial repercussions for making riskier loans. They also want “lenders to use more subjective judgment” in granting loans. File under 'short term memory loss.'

Mumble, Mumble: So Cyprus bowed to their masters in the EU/ECB/IMF and 'taxed' about 60 or 70 or 80% of bank deposits into gift wrapping for Brussels, in return for the needed bailout. So why are The Usual Villians forcing Cyprus to sell off 10 tons of its gold? Was the cupboard bare when they showed up to loot it? Is this forced sale the reason gold is dropping and Goldman telling everyone to avoid buying it (so they can gobble it up...)?

Progression: We are currently 3 million jobs below the pre-recession employment level. At 200,000 new jobs a month it will be over another year before we get back to where we started. Oh, wait; we're not even adding that many. Good thing the labor force is shrinking so we can fool ourselves a bit longer.

Dealing From The Bottom: After defrauding more than 4 million families through shady foreclosure processes (and document forgeries and lying to courts etc, etc.) 13 lenders – as part of a no-one-goes-to-jail agreement – are beginning to pay $300 to $500 to each wrongfully foreclosed homeowner as a way of saying 'Go away, kid, y'bothering me.'

Time Out!The EPA has notified its 17,000 employees that they be will getting four extra days off between April 21 and June 15. Without pay. To celebrate the sequestration.

Rose Garden Glasses: Obama's budget assumes the economy will grow 2.3% this year, marked down from a 2.7% estimate last July and 3.0% 14 months ago. It also assumes a housing recovery and a resurgent auto industry. Less cheerily, the administration assumes unemployment will remain at 7.7% - maybe they think there are no more folks who can afford to drop out of the labor force.

Methy, Very Methy: Before we fully discover what an economic Chimera fracking is, we're going to try a new experiment: mining gas from the seafloor. No, we have not considered the environmental risks and no, we have no idea how to make it profitable, but it's energy, it's carbon, it's gonna make us rich and provide so much energy they'll give it away! What? No there's no danger of an accidental massive methane release. And burning all that methane will convert it into CO2, which warms the planet much, much slower. Yup, a whole new world.

Service/Servants: The food services industry has been adding jobs (fries w'that?) for 37 months in a row. Over 850,000 of the low paying (averaging $11.98 an hour), mostly benefit-free jobs have been added during The RecoveryTM. Health care jobs have also been growing rapidly – and we're talking more custodial aids than nurses. Again, low paying.

Warm-up Question: Does inequality feed on itself? There's a lot of research to show that “inequality undermines the confidence of the disadvantaged and boosts the confidence of the advantaged.” It's called history. Google Rockefeller, Bush, Clinton, Roosevelt...

Footnotes: Without mentioning the pipeline rupture in Arkansas, or the spill in New Orleans or the nearly forgotten Exxon Valdez thingy, the National Safety Council (which is made up of executives from Dow, Exelon, DuPont and... Exxon) has given ExxonMobil an award for excellence in public relations “safety, security, health and environmental performance". They were necessarily absent, so BP accepted the award for them.

Same, But Different: Republicans in North Carolina want to make background checks for welfare applicants mandatory, while opposing background checks for buying a gun. But if you get the gun, maybe you can get the food without the background check.

The Parting Shot:

130411

Viola pubescens Yellow violet.

9 comments:

Sukh Hayre, CGA said...

In regards to jobs, how much of it can be explained by factors such as, the increase in the number of people collecting disability pensions, more people truly retiring compared to number entering the workforce, and finally, number of people who may have moved back to Mexico.

I know the last two are probably not big, but disability definitely has been.

Charles Kingsley Michaelson, III said...

Methinks you've fallen for the latest rightist propaganda about the lazy no good 47%. The reason SAR has not cited any of the drivel about how those who don't want to work are flocking to disability unemployment is that it is drivel.

Anonymous said...

Links to walled items aren't cool, sorry.

Charles Kingsley Michaelson, III said...

Yes, you are right. I try to avoid them but sometimes I don't have the time to go looking for another source or a work-around - although most readers know they can often get to the article via Google.

Once in a while I'm guilty of trying to have a life...

Anonymous said...

CKM

i appreciate your progressive point of view and relentless aggregation of news stories that show the country is being mis managed to the detriment of the many for the benefit of what many o us like to call the oligarchy

please, please take the tim to watch this TED talk by lawrence lessig that was released this week

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mw2z9lV3W1g

its about how money, the powerful and the faux divisiveness induced into the political system by the "owners" of america and how they have taken the representative democracy away from the people...and what we need to do to take the country back

i certain you know every line in this talk by heart...but...if you find the presentation worthy, then maybe you might give it a headline...for the good of us all

thanks

and best wishes
mock turtle

Anonymous said...

sorry for the typos..i have an impairment and for reasons i dont know why often spell check et does not function

unable to edit after posting

my fault ...should type entries first in my word processor, then c and p


mt

cakeEater said...

re: methy

what, me worry?

http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2013/04/02/Giant-pockmarks-found-on-Pacific-seafloor/UPI-57781364947020/

TulsaTime said...

Allow me to suggest an item from NEkkidCapital about 'possible' accounting irregularities at our good friend The Walmark. Seems there have been dynamic variations in Shrinkage. But Look! Profits, Inventory, Stock Price are all just super, thanks for asking.

if walmark, then many others, else goto GNP???

Charles Kingsley Michaelson, III said...

1. mock turtle: thanks for the link and nevermind the spelling - I generally feel people know what I meant or else they wouldn't send in corrctions. First Reader is fussier. And thanks for the TED link.

2. I read the pockmark/methane article and thought I'd linked to it.

3. I read the Walmart shrink item and as a former retail loss prevention manager for a national chain I can assure you that playing games with shrink (to the point of overage) is not news and is nearly impossible for the corporate office to rein in if there are bonus dollars for low shrink managers. I'm not convinced that senior corporate officers are involved - although mmore than once I've herd people at that level 'look the other way'.