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Post by mdub on Jan 7, 2011 23:15:57 GMT -6
Another thing I just came across is that the seasonally unadjusted figure shows a loss of 357K jobs. From what I understand, seasonal adjustments are gov't estimates and not very scientific. That's a difference of 460K jobs! www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t17.htm
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Post by mdub on Jan 7, 2011 22:53:20 GMT -6
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Post by mdub on Jan 7, 2011 22:51:28 GMT -6
I can't remember the last time I watched the TV news. But I remeber being annoyed after a few minutes and turning it off.
"In the last month before Obama took office, there were only 92 million not employed (11.4 million Unemployed, and 80.5 million not-in-labor-force). That's an increase of +7.6 million on Obama's watch."
As some people on this board have probably read, states have reported a loss of 6 mil. benefit paying jobs in one year. Maybe those people went in the "not in labor force category" and are no longer counted.
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Post by mdub on Jan 7, 2011 22:14:09 GMT -6
I agree with everything except that rents will increase. In Northern CA there are a lot of "For Rent"signs on apartment buildings. This has been the case for several years now. I guess that some people have become so poor that they cannot even afford rent, and are moving in with friends/family or applying for subsidized housing.
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Post by mdub on Jan 4, 2011 23:16:36 GMT -6
Here were my projections for 2102. I posted as Michael72 cause I had problems logging in....
"2010 will be a terrible year. I agree with much of what everyone said.
By the end of Q1, it will be obvious that there is no recovery and that we are in a depression, despite the best efforts of the govt and media to deceive the public. The public will lose any trust it had in the govt and MSM and there wiil be a huge flight from the Republicrat parties."
I think I was right about most people realizing that there is no recovery. It certainly feels like a depression for many. But I don't see much flight from the Dems or Repubs. People are still caught in the L/R paradigm. 1/2 point.
"The govt will extend unemployment benefits in an attempt to keep the unemployed from rioting. Despite this, there will be marches for jobs that will eventually lead to riots."
Right on the first part, wrong on the last. Apparently, Americans will tolerate any type of injustice. Short of starvation, the only way to get Americans to take to the streets is to ban beer, porn, fantasy football, junk food, and reality TV. 1/2 point.
"Tent cities will grow across the country." No significant increase. This is largely due to the increase in food stamps and section 8 housing. 0 points. (But how long can the gov't keep the sharade going without significantly devaluing the currency?)
"Foreigners will stop financing our debt, and the Fed will start printing trillions of $ to finance its wars and bankster bailouts." Yes, virtually all debt is now monetized by the Fed. 1 point.
"The govt will use the phony "lap bomber" to take away more civil liberties and to try to keep Americans distracted from the economy." Yes, they used this and the phony Christmas tree bomb incident in Portland to install naked body scanners and molest people in airports. These measures will be expanded to malls, hotels, etc. I don't expect much resistance from most Americans. 1 point.
"Obama's approval rating will go into the 30s." It's curently @ 47%. I have to wonder who these people are. Repubs hate him. Independents are turning away. Even many liberals are upset. Are the polls fudged like all other statistics? 0 points.
"Bombings of Pakistan and Yemen will increase." Yes. Obama has quadrupled drone strikes over Pakistan in his first 2 years compared to Bush's last 2 years. Wikileaks has revealed that we have also been bombing Yemen with drones in the past year. Barry is turning out to be even more of a war criminal than Bush. 1 point.
"America's Israeli puppet government will continue to protect Israel from the rest of the world as it cotinues to steal what remeins of the West Bank from the Palestininas." Yes, that was easy. 1 point.
"Israel and it's puppet in DC will attack Iran, maybe with nuclear weapons." No, thank God. Of course, that possibility still exists, as we have imposed sanctions on Iran for doing nothing wrong. We now know that Saudi Arabia, as well as Israel, has been egging on the US to attack Iran.
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Post by mdub on Jan 4, 2011 22:37:00 GMT -6
I generally agree with your predictions, except that if the Fed prints money to bail out municipalities, you're going to see a huge rise in the prices of gold, silver, oil, and food due to dollar debasement. I also think crime will increase, especially if unemployment benefits are not extended. My neighbor is a cop and he says that crime (especially theft) has risen sharply in the last few years, and that an increasing number of the perpetrators do not fit the stereotype, as they are blue and white collar workers down on their luck.
Anyway, your predictions are better than mine were last year....
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Post by mdub on Dec 31, 2010 17:44:56 GMT -6
I have to wonder what is causing this. It's clearly not the result of people finding good paying jobs and therefore having more money to spend, which pushes up demand. But I'm sure the MSM will spin this as proof of a recovery. The same goes for increasing Christmas time sales and state tax revenue. It's likely the former is a result of steep discounts and the latter is a result of higher sales taxes.
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Post by mdub on Dec 25, 2010 18:57:36 GMT -6
Who are these 45% who support Obama? Even most people I know who voted for him have turned away.
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Post by mdub on Dec 21, 2010 20:02:12 GMT -6
Thanks, that clears things up:)
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Post by mdub on Dec 18, 2010 17:33:31 GMT -6
Jeffolie,
Are derivatives insurance policies taken out on investments, or are they investments themselves? Thanks.
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Post by mdub on Dec 18, 2010 17:14:19 GMT -6
ULC, thanks for the encouragement. I did manage to open my roomate's eyes about some of the things going on. I checked out the responses on the Democratic Underground and it sure seems that many on the left are pissed at Barack. The question is whether they'll vote for a populist 3rd party candidate or hold their noses and vote again for Barack or Hillary because they are the "better of 2 evils."
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Post by mdub on Dec 17, 2010 22:51:29 GMT -6
"But I don't see them pulling themselves away from American Idol, facebook, Limbaugh, video games, fox news and routinely stuffing themselves into a diabetic coma at the local fast food joint."
Not only do Americans not think about important things, if you try to explain to them what's really happening in the US and the world they think you are a "doom and gloomer" or a "conspiracy nut". The other day at the hospital where I volunteer I was trying to explain to people that the Fed was debasing the dollar with QE2 and that oil and commodity prices were going up as a result. Eventually, those higher commodity prices are going to be passed on to consumers. I recommended stocking up on food, water, and buying gold and silver. A few people laughed and the rest were probably laughing inside. None of these people know anything about the Fed or any other important topic. I listen to doctors and paramedics talk about important topics like the metrodome roof collapsing, the Miami coach who tripped an opposing player, and how their fantasy team is doing. These are grown men, yet they have the minds of teenagers. How pathetic.
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Post by mdub on Dec 9, 2010 0:55:57 GMT -6
Net loss of 3.4 million private sector jobs in the last 10 years.... I would say that's a "severe structural problem"!
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Post by mdub on Dec 9, 2010 0:28:39 GMT -6
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Post by mdub on Dec 7, 2010 17:59:44 GMT -6
Here is a good (although depressing ) article from Dave Lindorff about Assange's arrest and gov't censorship in America. We are not far away from becoming a 3rd world police state. I only wish that the majority of Americans were as informed as the people on this board. www.counterpunch.org/lindorff12072010.html
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Post by mdub on Dec 7, 2010 17:55:44 GMT -6
I read that it was 42 mil., but this is still horrible.
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Post by mdub on Dec 4, 2010 20:28:50 GMT -6
Jesse Ventura is a brave man who loves his country. Here he shows beyond doubt that FEMA camps exist. In the 3rd part, he talks to one of "our" representatives who sponsored HR 645 and he doesn't even know that these camps are in the bill.
If you supported Ron Paul, oppose Israel, or are doing any of those other bad things you know you're not supposed to be doing, you may be monitored by the gov't.
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Post by mdub on Dec 4, 2010 19:40:25 GMT -6
I just bought 40 1 oz silver coins. I did as a good investment, thought I would love to see JP Morgan and all of those other banker crooks go down. Most people don't like big banks, yet they continue to keep their money there. Take your money to a credit union or a local bank, or just put it in a can in your garage. That will really hurt the big banks.
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Post by mdub on Nov 25, 2010 23:32:06 GMT -6
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Post by mdub on Nov 17, 2010 23:22:49 GMT -6
When will people get it thru their heads that there is no difference between the 2 parties on any major issue? They are both controlled by the same special interests - health insurance companies, pharmaceuticals, AIPAC, giant banks, the "defense" industry, and multinational corporations.
These people that are mad at Obama should be mad at themselves. His lies were transparent to any objective person willing to do a few hours of research. Instead, they chose to believe all the "hope and change" bullshit. Morons.
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Post by mdub on Nov 17, 2010 22:56:20 GMT -6
Judging from job growth in the 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s, it takes a lot more than 1 mil. jobs a year to keep up with labor force population growth. Payroll data says there were 23 mil. jobs in the 90s. That's almost 2 mil. a year.
Further, this is actual data relesased by every state. It's not an assumption based on a small survey of payrolls or phone calls to a few households. This is just terrible.
My hi-tech career was destroyed by globalization years ago. I got my EMT (emergency medical technician) certificate 6 months ago. I had 1 interview in that time. After putting me thru a bunch of BS, they told me that they only hire experienced EMTs because there are so many applicants. I'm not looking for sympathy. All I'm saying is that I can relate to what is happening.
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Post by mdub on Nov 8, 2010 14:26:06 GMT -6
Apparently, the 15K jobs are the result of seasonal adjustments. After examining the government’s report, statistician John Williams (shadowstats.com) reported that the jobs were "phantom jobs" created by "concurrent seasonal factor adjustments." In other words, the 151,000 jobs cannot be found in the unadjusted underlying data. The jobs were the product of seasonal adjustments concocted by the BLS." www.vdare.com/roberts/101107_lies.htm
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Post by mdub on Nov 7, 2010 20:36:44 GMT -6
The government's A-1 survey showed the economy lost 330,000 jobs, while the B-1 survey was hyped in the MSM. If the gov't is going to use the unemployment rate from the Household survey, then it should also publish the job loss/gain from the same survey. They kept the unemployment rate at 9.6% by dropping 462,000 unemployed people from the count. So, the economy loses 330K and you need 150K to keep up with labor force population growth. That comes to 480K jobs short of the jobs needed. So all you do to keep the unemployment rate steady is to stop counting 460K. Voila! www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t01.htm
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Post by mdub on Nov 7, 2010 20:09:05 GMT -6
Here is an excellent video of Michael Savage talking about the current round of QE2.
His support for Israel and the wars really bothers me, but in this piece he is dead on.
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Post by mdub on Nov 7, 2010 20:05:50 GMT -6
How long until they move all of the production to India?
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Post by mdub on Oct 30, 2010 20:28:14 GMT -6
In a reare case of honest economic reporting, 60 minutes talks about the "99ers", those who have exhausted or are about to exhaust their extended unemployment benefits. They even talk about "jobs going overseas" for a few seconds. Maybe they feel pressured to report the truth because ratings are lower or because of public pressure. Next thing you know, they will be exposing the neocon lies about fake WMDs and the evil of giant lobbies. Well, maybe not. economicrot.blogspot.com/2010/10/soup-kitchens-rise-in-us-as-economy.html#links
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Post by mdub on Oct 30, 2010 20:17:26 GMT -6
As I had suspected, the gov't made up some terrorist plot to boost Obama's and the Dem's poll numbers and to get the public to give up even more of their civil liberties. The article does not tell the truth until the last paragraph - "Investigators examined two UPS planes that landed at Philadelphia International Airport in Pennsylvania and another at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey, said Mike Mangeot, a UPS spokesman. Authorities later gave the "all-clear" at both airports, the Transportation Security Administration said. The TSA said authorities acted "out of an abundance of caution."" Obviously, if there were bombs then specialists would have been called in to remove or disarm them. Authorities would not have given "all-clear". The posters were either too lazy to read the entire article or don't understans what all clear means, judging from their replies. edition.cnn.com/2010/US/10/29/security.concern/index.html?hpt=T1&iref=BN1
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Post by mdub on Oct 30, 2010 18:48:12 GMT -6
Basically, busineses have huge amounts of accumulated inventory that they cannot sell, hence the 50 - 70% sales at many places.
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Post by mdub on Oct 23, 2010 0:49:26 GMT -6
A good first step would be to cut gov't workers' salaries down to say 80K, just enought so they can still pay the mortgage and their bills. The budget "agreement" was a joke. They cut benefits for the poorest people. They're just putting off the problem for another year or 2, until the whole thing collapses.
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Post by mdub on Oct 22, 2010 22:08:57 GMT -6
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