Job Markets Keep Getting Worse
Posted: March 6, 2009 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: economics, labor markets, unemployment statistics 5 Comments
651,000 jobs disappeared during the month of February according to the BLS. This was the fourth month in a row with job losses over 600,000. The unemployment rate is now at levels unseen since 1983. We have an official unemployment rate of 8.1% but that belies a lot of stories including the number of people forced into part time jobs, the number of people so discouraged they have given up hope of finding a job, and the sectors and people who find themselves most vulnerable to this awful economy. I’m not a labor economist and don’t do research in the area so I’m basically limited to what I know from teaching and attending my own basic economics classes. The most important basic thing to know about labor markets is to dig in there into the break downs behind the unemployment rate for the full story.
Unemployment hits people differently. That is why the major statistics are sliced and diced several different ways. Age and ethnicity are frequent subcategories of interest. Today’s unemployment statistics showed the usual story.
The unemployment rate continued to trend upward in February for adult men (8.1 percent), adult women (6.7 percent), whites (7.3 percent), blacks (13.4 percent), and Hispanics (10.9 percent). The jobless rate for teen-agers was little changed at 21.6 percent. The unemployment rate for Asians was 6.9 percent in February, not seasonally adjusted.
Asian unemployment is always the lowest followed by white unemployment. The worst hit by unemployment are black teenage men whose unemployment rates can average about 30% even in the best of economies. Do you know why women always manage to have lower unemployment rates than me? Well, if you checked Heidi Li’s post on the wage gap, you have your answer. Women are employed on the cheap and are much more likely to be kept on during a bad economy than their over paid male counterparts. Older people generally fare better than younger. That is just the last hired, first fired behavior of businesses trying to hold on to their loyal and most experienced employees.
Cramer Responds to New White House Meme
Posted: March 5, 2009 Filed under: Equity Markets, Global Financial Crisis, president teleprompter jesus, Team Obama, U.S. Economy | Tags: axlerove, blogzkrieg blots, cramer, Obama Propaganda 7 Comments
We’ve been talking about Cramer, Suze, and Santelli recently and listening. They’ve stepped into the arena in defense of the US Everyman and the investments we make in our homes, our pensions, and our children. These folks have made money but are not the high rollers that gambled away our savings, drug the weakest among us into bad mortgages, and bankrolled the campaigns of Obama, Biden, Dodd, Grahm, Leach and a bunch of other pols who did not and do not have our interests at heart. When Cramer started talking about Obama-proofing your investment portfolio and finally begged POTUS to stop ignoring the messages screaming out of Wall Street Markets, he became just another target for the Blogkrieg Botz. Two days ago, I outlined what I saw was a concerted on-line effort to assassinate his character and professional standing. The MSM has also been repeating what was sure the latest Axelrove meme. Cramer doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Cramer makes money off you at your expense. He’s one of those bad guys. Meanwhile, the infusions of taxpayer dollars to the real culprits behind the meltdown as well as the complete lack of any regulatory reform sallies forth unabated. Barney (subprime mortgages r us) Frank is now calling for a super regulator and is planning on holding ‘hearings’. Just what we need. More hearings while the pensions and home values of every one of us continue their decline.
Today, Cramer hit back and I say more power to him.
The lines are drawn pretty clearly: If you can help people make money to be able to retire, enjoy life, pay for college, pay down debt, etc., you are a “good guy,” so to speak. If you take the other side of the trade, you are, well, let’s say, a less favored fellow. And if you gun for the gigantic investor class that is out there that includes 90 million people in one form or another, whether it be 401(k)s or individual stocks or pension plans, then you are on my enemies list.
I am a member of that ‘gigantic investor class’. But it also includes people like Penny Pritzker who was head of Obama’s Finance Committee during his election and is now one of his advisers. If you’d like to read about her and her part in the Financial Crisis, just Google away. It’s every where. Just read about this FAILED BANK that was really one of the first that greed brought down. At the time it was one of the most expensive bank closings on record costing in the realm of about $500 million. Of course, that sounds like chicken feed now. But she’s just typical of the mega rich that gamed the system. She’s also the typical mega investor that funded Obama and owns him lock stock and barrel. That’s probably why the Blogzkrieg Bots are on the warpath of the likes of the Cramers of the world. They’re messing with the Obamessiah’s imagine and that could cost the megainvestors in Obama their tax payer bailouts.
First, they eviscerate your character and your professional ability.
I am a fight-not-flight guy, so I was on my hackles when I heard White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs’ answer to a question about my pointed criticism of the president on multiple venues, including the Today Show.
“I’m not entirely sure what he’s pointing to to make some of the statements,” Gibbs said about my point that President Obama’s budget may be one of the great wealth destroyers of all time. “And you can go back and look at any number of statements he’s made in the past about the economy and wonder where some of the backup for those are, too.”
They do it in the Media, they do it from their podiums, they hire folks on Craig lists to visit blogs to convince every one there is a swell of outrage for the Obamessiah.
Then they send out the message that Cramer isn’t acting in your interest. Obama is the one fighting the nasty ‘bankers’. His program is going to help every one of you little guys.
Gibbs went on to say, “If you turn on a certain program, it’s geared to a very small audience. No offense to my good friends or friend at CNBC, but the president has to look out for the broader economy and the broader population.”
How much I wish it were true right now that stocks played less of a role in peoples’ lives. But stocks, along with housing, are our principal forms of wealth in this country. Only the people who have lifetime tenure, insured solid pensions and rent homes but own no stocks personally are unaffected. Sure that’s a lot of people, but believe me, they aspire to have homes and portfolios. If we only want to help those who have no wealth to destroy, we are not helping the majority of Americans; we are not helping the broader population.
Then third, it’s the nastiness that he inherited from Bush that’s causing all these problems and Cramer’s just a closet Republican, a Racist, a R@tf*cker!
You can argue, of course, that Obama inherited one of the worst hands in the world. I had been a relentless critic of the Bush administration’s “stewardship” of the economy, calling repeatedly for changes to avert the disaster that I saw coming, although perhaps Gibbs hasn’t seen my CNBC meltdown. Seemed pretty prescient to me.
I, like everyone else, have made less authoritative and wrong statements in the past, but that rant still stands as something that I am sure everyone in the Bush administrations’ Treasury and Fed listened to. My calls to sell 20% of your stocks in September at Dow 11,000 and then all of your stock if you need the money for the next five years at Dow 10,000 in October, might have eluded Gibbs, too.
I said it here just a few days ago and I will say it again. There is a very active proproganda wing of this POTUS.
You are right about the paid bots only these are a whole new crew. Criag’s List today had a job posting for Bloggers Needed. They are offering $5.00 per finished conversation…whatever that means. It’s listed under the computer jobs. I do believe this is recruitment to become an Obot. Thanks to the stimulus porkulus, jobs are being created in this sector. {{snark}}
So as they hire more kids on taxpayer dime, you will see more manufactured Obots. They only get paid per conversation so remember to ignore them and they will quit their new bot jobs when they don’t get paid for a ‘completed’ conversation. Spread the word.
I can’t tell you how many folks have come to my site today to say they’ve noticed the uptick in that propaganda effort. Here’s the type of criticism they don’t want to hear from Cramer who supported Hillary Clinton in the primary.
But Obama has undeniably made things worse by creating an atmosphere of fear and panic rather than an atmosphere of calm and hope. He’s done it by pushing a huge amount of change at a very perilous moment, by seeking to demonize the entire banking system and by raising taxes for those making more than $250,000 at the exact time when we need them to spend and build new businesses, and by revoking deductions for funds to charity that help eliminate the excess supply of homes.
We had a banking crisis coming into this regime, but now every area is in crisis. Each day is worse than the previous one for this miserable economy and while Obama’s champions cite the stimulus plan, it’s really just a hodgepodge of old Democratic pork and will not create nearly as many manufacturing or service jobs as we hoped. China’s stimulus plan is the model; ours is the parody.
And here’s the money line from the mad money man:
If that makes me an enemy of the White House, then call me a general of an army that Obama may not even know exists — tens of millions of people who live in fear of having no money saved when they need it and who get poorer by the day.
Hey Cramer, Obama knows the army is out there. Be prepared to be called a deadender for Hillary. Have you got the call-outs for being racist yet? How about a ‘bitter knitter’? You’re not a woman, but if they can find something akin to calling you a dried up old va-jay jay get ready for that too. Because there are a lot of folks out there, and the purpose of propaganda and the Blogzkrieg Bots is to silence you. They will try to intimidate you into silence. Don’t let them.
The Blogzkrieg Bots
Posted: March 4, 2009 Filed under: Equity Markets, Global Financial Crisis, Main Stream Media, president teleprompter jesus, Team Obama, The DNC, The Media SUCKS, U.S. Economy | Tags: axerod, obama blog attacks, Obama lies, obama media campaign, obama propoganda 4 Comments
Axelrove must’ve sensed a disturbance in the force because I believe the Blogzkrieg Bots are back at work in sites where the Obamessiah’s economic message has been questioned. Most of the frontpagers and bloggers that I know were chased off various blogs when they harshed the Obama mellow or dared suggest that Hillary’s campaign was better, not racist, and worthy of support. Recently, a set of anonymous email exchanges were released at Liberal Rapture. One writer of the exchange has self identifed themself (James Kunstler) and verified the authenticity of the exchange. Those of us who have dealt with the spam filter and comments in moderation can give our take on the Blogzkrieg under taken by the Obama campaign which apparently still is in full force to stop any potential anti-obama Buzzkill. Here’s the relevant exchange from a former Obama supporter that I’d like to reference.
I can also say how shocked I became at the really dishonest tactics he used, from race-baiting to caucus fraud to paying cyber stalkers to terrorize pro-Clinton writers and website owners.
The cyberstalking continues. Yesterday, I blogged about CNBC’s Kramer. I have to say that I’m a value investor, unlike Kramer, and do not follow any of his individual stock picks. I do think the man has an excellent grasp of and background in market psychology. I started listening to him more when he came out on Ellen as a Hillary supporter. He made it clear he thought she’d be best for the economy. So yesterday, I wrote on his rant on cnbc. This wasn’t his first rant but one the most eye-popping to date. All last week he was talking about Obama-proofing your investment portfolio.
Cramer to Obama:Your Agenda is Destroying the Lives of Millions of Americans
Posted: March 3, 2009 Filed under: Equity Markets, Global Financial Crisis, president teleprompter jesus, U.S. Economy, Uncategorized 7 CommentsI’ve had CNBC on in the back ground while working quite a bit lately. Some time around early September it replaced CNN as background noise in my office. I was talking to my dad about the concerns of losing about 5 years of 10 years worth of contributions to my retirement plan with the State of Louisiana. The DJ was over 12000 a year ago. It sits at half of that now. The S&P 500 is back to 1996 levels. It was bad in September. It’s in a freefall right now. Every time Geithner opens his mouth or the President does something, the markets crash. The three times we’ve see the markets quiet (including at this moment) is when Fed Chairman Bernanke speaks. I’m waiting for Geitner’s speech to start the sell off again. While talking to my dad, CNBC’s Cramer sent out a bellicose indictment of Obama and his administration.
“Until the Obama administration starts listening, until they start paying attention to what you’re watching – to the stock market, until they realize that their agenda is destroying the life savings of millions of Americans – then all I can give you is caution,” Cramer said on his March 2 broadcast.
Since Obama took office on Jan. 20, the Dow Jones Industrial Average has lost over 1,000 points, including a nearly 400-point drop on Feb. 10 after a disappointing speech by Obama’s Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on sorting out troubled assets. Cramer pleaded with the administration to take note of the possibility it might have something to do with that.
“I’m not asking for the Feds to give us a plunge protection team, to stop declines – as we always thought to be the case under Greenspan,” he continued. “I’m not saying, ‘Mr. President, stare at the Bloomberg quote machine and come to your senses. I just want some sign that Obama realizes the market is totally falling apart and his agenda has a big hand in that happening.”
Cramer was highly critical of the Obama administration for not catching on thus far. He questioned the merits of their abilities to contain the market turmoil and wondered if they were even bothered by it.
I’m watching Bernanke’s testimony at the moment with one eye on the market. But I’m with Cramer, when you talk about wealth destruction, you can count me out. I’m losing everything I’ve worked hard for during the last 12 years. My house is worth less money. I’m no longer seeing retirement on any horizon at the moment. I’m struggling to pay my bills and I’m just damn lucky I have a job at the moment. Hope is not a strategy. Change is not a plan. Stop talking in broad campaignisms and start putting out the details. Also, fix the economy and the banking system before starting any other major partisan paybacks. Now is not the time for intellectual dilettantes.







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