September 2009
24 posts
GM fun fact
As a result of GM’s backruptcy, the million people or so it provides health care to have had a reduction in benefits.
One of the biggest: no longer will Viagra perscriptions be filled, major loss to employees & more importantly the retirees.
August 2009
25 posts
The FDIC is broke!
They only have 13 billion left in their fund, down from over 53 billion a year ago!
Six health-care lobbyist for every member of...
There are 3,300 registered lobbyists working the halls of Congress on health-care reform legislation, according to the Center for Responsive Politics
(via Bloomberg)
“Anyone who smoked in an elementary-school hallway today would be thrown out of...”
– The New York Times (via marco)
“All charming people have something to conceal, usually their total dependence on...”
– Garrison Keillor
Can't trust traditional news
eyeheartroc:
theeheadspace:
I have recently started depending solely on independent media to provide me with current news and am absolutely shocked at the comparison between these outlets and the traditional news media outlets that I used to rely on.
Gone are the spun facts, hate language, and subliminal corporate plugs that once slipped by my radar completely undetected. I highly urge all of...
Trade deficit rose 27 billion in June
This is a “good” thing for ending the recession… Economics hurts my brain
After it attracted attention
the House leaders scrapped a plan to buy four exectutive jets for more then $300 million by tacking the amount onto a Pentagon spending bill of $636 Billion.
“Get your facts first, then you can distort them how you please”
– Mark Twain
“The state jobs estimates are inherently more speculative than the overall...”
– Council of Economic Advisers - ESTIMATING JOB CREATION BY STATE - Recovery.org
Current credit card rates
American Express just sent me a little love note stating that my APR is going to increase and the late fee is also increasing. For cash advances the rate is going from 21.99% to 25.24%. Not a bad way to make some cash if your a credit card company. Especially when the interest rate on TARP loans are 5-9% & the fed fund rate is 0.16% at the time of this writing.
the deficit to a record $1.3 trillion in July,... →
Due to bailouts for financial firms and rescession causing billions in tax revenue lost
The US Treasury actually cut the amount it expected to barrow in the 3rd quarter because several large US banks have paid back $70 billion in TARP funds.
How much good news? it’s only barrowing 406 billion, instead of the planned 515 billion. Lovely.
Pop some pills until you feel normal
1 in 10 Americans is now taking antidepressants
source: http://tinyurl.com/msm2b8
“Change is hard”
– Barack Obama (Portsmouth, NH)
Only the US is left in Iraq
@ the height, the colation troops consisted of 38 countries, last week Great Britian & Austrialia pulled out.
“By the time a man realizes that maybe his father was right, he usually has a son...”
– Charles Wadsworth
Breaking news: it has reached over 90 degrees in NYC for the first time this summer
Wages are about the same
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that hourly wages rose to $18.56 for the month of July from $18.53 in previous months.
More reading: http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2009/08/hourly_wages_rise_a_bit_after.html
247,000 jobs were lost in July
The U.S. unemployment rate now stands @ 9.5% vs 9.4% June according to the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Housing prices are up!
But it could be due to the forclosures stopping in the Spring, now that forclosures are back in full force, expect prices to dip again.
US dollar is worth less than 0.70 Euros
2nd time in recorded history
That it did not reach over 90 degrees for the months of June and July in NYC
