Our Awful Situation

Archive for the ‘Employment’ Category

Dow falls on poor jobs report, oil at $133 per barrel

Posted by Charlie Kilo on June 6th, 2008

The Dow is taking a hit today due to bad news on several fronts:

Stocks plunged after the sharpest jump in the unemployment rate in more than 20 years and news that wholesale inventories ballooned. Oil jumped more than $6 a barrel.

The employment report showed that U.S. employers cut jobs for a fifth straight month. Nonfarm payrolls shed 49,000 jobs in May, better than the 58,000-decline expected. April was revise to show 8,000 more job losses than previously expected. The unemployment rate shot up to 5.5 percent from 5 percent in April, the biggest monthly jump since 1986.

“I’ve been trading these markets for 25 years; to see a jump like this is a little scary,” Jack Bouroudjian of Brewer Investment Group told CNBC. “But, these markets have already factored in that weakness.”

The market’s initial knee-jerk was a sharp sell-off but economists pointed out that the historically high jump in the unemployment rate was likely a statistical fluke.

Economic ‘misery’ more widespread

Posted by Charlie Kilo on May 14th, 2008

Some experts argue that true inflation and unemployment - the components of the economy’s ‘Misery Index’ - are higher than the government’s official figures.

Really…

Americans are feeling a lot more economic pain than the government’s official statistics would lead you to believe, according to a growing number of experts.

They argue that figures for unemployment and inflation are being understated by the government.

Unemployment and inflation are typically added together to come up with a so-called “Misery Index.”

The “Misery Index” was often cited during periods of high unemployment and inflation, such as the mid 1970s and late 1970s to early 1980s.

And some fear the economy may be approaching those levels again.

The official numbers produce a current Misery Index of only 8.9 - inflation of 3.9% plus unemployment of 5%. That’s not far from the Misery Index’s low of 6.1 seen in 1998.

But using the estimates on CPI and unemployment from economists skeptical of the government numbers, the Misery Index is actually in the teens. Some worry it could even approach the post-World War II record of 20.6 in 1980.

“We’re looking at government numbers that are really out of whack,” said Kevin Phillips, author of the book “Bad Money.”

3rd World Status: A Pink Slip Away

Posted by Charlie Kilo on April 10th, 2008

Thanks for the hard work…YOU’RE FIRED!

The U.S. is on life support from foreign nations. The Chinese, Arabs, East Indians, Japanese et al, loan us approximately $3 Billion per day in an attempt to keep us treading water. More than 3 Million jobs have been lost in industry and farming continues its slide to corporate ownership.

There are between 12 and 15 million known illegals in the U.S.. Medicare is slated to fail within 10 years. Personal savings remain negative for the third consecutive year (never before seen in our history). The first of 78,000,000 baby boomers became eligible for social security in January.

The national debt has increased by 1000% in the last 25 years to $9 Trillion and we have become the largest debtor nation on earth. Middle America is being selectively wiped out by our own countries trade policies. What have we done?

Some how, some way, Middle America has to awaken to these and other discouraging facts; life as we know it for this class of Americans is in the balance. Not one of our current presidential candidates has a viable plan for saving Middle America. They are totally and completely beholden to special interests…rich special interests.

Continued…

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