respublica

Heard on the morning news

MSNBC's Morning Joe today

Administration officials asked at a news conference on yesterday's White House Jobs Summit how many senior officials have a background in business answered...

...zero...none.

No one dealing with the serious jobs issue has owned, run or managed the one part of the economy which provides jobs.

Black Friday shopping results

Just as sports writers analyze how teams won or lost, news reporters are out in force the day after Black Friday shopping to analyze the minds and wallets of shoppers.

The New York Times veered off of last night's local reporting on the biggest shopping day of the year by taking some of the glow off the spending habits of the large crowds which flocked to stores and malls.

Part of today's story reads:  "Despite the improved mood, frugality has not gone out of style. Many of Friday’s shoppers seemed to stick to lists and take advantage of discounts, rather than give in to impulse purchases."

Take a look at some of the photos accompanying the story and pictures of shoppers in other papers.  Good grief, carts are full of things that people want, rather than what they really need.

A dog's Christmas

A survey from the American Research Group as reported by Time, reveals that more Americans will be cutting back on Christmas gifts for their spouses in order to keep gifts to their children at past levels.

While 22% of women will be cutting back on presents for their husbands, only 14% of women will cut back on gifts for their dogs.

Heh.

Bravo Joe

Joe Lieberman:

"We're trying to do too much at once," Mr. Lieberman said. "To put this government-created insurance company on top of everything else is just asking for trouble for the taxpayers, for the premium payers and for the national debt. I don't think we need it now."

Who's to blame for the weak dollar?

According to Politico, it's the Drudge Report.

Seems some "journalists" are embracing the effort to marginalize news outlets the administration does not like rather than concern themselves with the real question of the why and the how of the dollars demise.  They must be part of the group of White House correspondents who enjoy being "patted on the head by the White House."

First they came for....

Toby Harnden in the London Telegraph: 

"Those journalists sitting this one out need to ask themselves what they will do when the White House comes after them or their news organisation.

Because if Fox is allowed to be placed out of respectable bounds in this way then when the going gets tougher – as it will - the White House will simply move on to another target."

Here's another Politico headline today:

Obama Strategy: Marginalize Most Powerful Critics

Shouldn't this frighten other journalists who are either throwing confetti in the air or sitting on the sidelines?

No rise in Social Security Benefits?

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) showed no change when its report came out last Friday.  According to economist, Mark Lieberman, this may be seen as a benign situation, but it has a huge effect on those collecting social security benefits.

With no inflation present or increase in the CPI, social security recipients will see no increase in their monthly checks reflecting a cost of living uptick.  This has never happened.  Folks.  This has never happened before.

Social Security benefits are dependent on the CPI after a 1975 law was enacted.  To see no increase coming this year after so many consecutive years will be a shock to many.  Lieberman also sees the possibility of no increases on the horizon for several years. 

A pragmatist who could operate the federal budget without having to pay any mind to the political ramifications to his/her actions, might believe that past CPI and cost of living increases to SS checks were too generous, too high.  But that person does not exist. 

It's also possible that curbing the annual cost of living increases or limiting the amount/percentage would actually help if not save, social security from going broke.

But, with all the attention being paid to the health care issue, not many are paying attention to this.  When the checks begin arriving, they will be.

Illinois scores a zero

On a scale of zero to one hundred, Illinois got a zero on their stimulus spending website.  Maryland did the best, rating an 80.

"Researchers tried to determine, based on a point system, just how comprehensive and user-friendly the sites are. That included looking at how much information state sites contained about the amount of federal money spent in each place, and found that Illinois' site had no such detail, according to the report."

Illinois governor, Pat Quinn's spokesperson said their site is being redesigned and more information will be coming.

Missouri got a 25.

"Working on the website".  Always a handy excuse these days.

Here is the page with all the other states' scores with explanations.

Global investors-what is it they do?

Goldman Sachs, a global investment group, received 10 billion or so dollars from last fall's government bailout.  Somehow they quickly earned enough money to pay it all back and are once again so profitable that they can give their executives huge bonuses.

It's a mystery to me just what companies like Goldman Sachs do.  A part of me really wants to know how they make such huge amounts of money while another part of me realizes I just wouldn't understand it.

Unfathomable. 

The 18 million dollar website

18 million dollars of stimulus money has been allocated for the redesign of the Recovery.gov website.

This is incomprehensible and incompetent.  No wonder the first stimulus isn't working.

Not very stimulating

There is discussion on the possibility of another stimulus, the first one didn't work well so experts say. 

Other discussions point out that only a small percentage of the stimulus money has been given out or used.  Some states have used the money in ways that weren't what the cash was intended for.

So why do we need another huge stimulus influx if someone is still sitting on the original pile of money?