economy

Politico reports Heath Shuler and the rest of the Blue Dogs are ready to kill the jobs bill because it requires a waver of the pay-go rules and would slightly increase the deficit. I guess Heath thinks that a decade of double digit unemployment is better than growing the deficit. He must have flunked Macro Econ in college. The Blue Dogs and the rest of the neo-Hooverites are determined to replay the Great Depression.

P.S. There are plenty of economist who are saying that a short term increase of the deficit by a jobs bill will actually decrease the deficit in the long run, by putting people back to work and returning tax revenues back to normal. Don't forget that 1/3 to 1/2 of the existing deficit is from decreased tax revenues caused by the economy cratering.

Okay, here is something I saw on an email. With the majority of the lawyers in either house of congress being democrats and the majority of the businesspeople in either house of congress being republicans, why should we not get the two together.

SAW IT ON EMAIL so take it for what it is worth. PLEASE do not go berserk trashing me for it.

Worth thinking about. I am sure there will be adequate disagreement about it.

Thanks, guys :)

On just about every blog and in just about every political newspaper column and just about every TV News Program, it seems we are hearing about how democrats are gonna get the stuffing beat out of the

I was surprised to receive a phone call from the Kenneth Lewis campaign a couple of weeks ago; I knew a few things about the Durham attorney, who has jumped into the U.S. Senate race to dislodge Richard "Bank Run" Burr from his seat -- 1) he has little name recognition; 2) he has not held public office before and 3) he has worked behind the scenes in politics for a long time, fundraising and organizing on several campaigns, including the U.S. Senate campaigns of Harvey Gantt and Erskine Bowles. In 2008, he was part of the finance team in North Carolina for the Obama campaign.

Serious economists are now arguing that we should not reflexively celebrate “innovation” in the financial sector as we do innovation in the real economy. I was ahead of my time. I said the same thing almost two years ago, and people laughed at me.

Okay, that may have had something to do with how I said it.

When the House debated predatory mortgage lending legislation on November 15, 2007, I responded in an extemporaneous floor speech to Republican arguments that the legislation would throttle innovation in the financial sector, using an example of innovation in the real economy that was within my reach:

So there’s a lot of conversation out there about car dealerships being told they won’t be selling cars for Chrysler and GM any more.

The idea, we are told, is to save the auto manufacturers money by reducing the number of dealerships with whom they do business.

I don’t really know that much about the car business; and I really didn’t understand where these cost savings would come from, but I was able to have a conversation with the one person I do know who actually could offer some useful insight.

Follow along, Gentle Reader, and you’ll get a bit of an education at a time when we all need to know a bit more about these companies we suddenly seem to own…and about the closure of thousands of local businesses that will make the news about our bad job market worse.

Organic food prices continue to drop to an average of $1.65 per meal per person since the high of $1.88 in February, using the Cook for Good menu plan. Regular meals are up a penny to $1.16. You can go green for $0.52 a meal or 44% more total for the month.

See more details below, plus learn why splurging on strawberry shortcake is an affordable indulgence after all.

I thought I'd start this forum as a place for folks to post their ideas and thoughts about how to save some cash during the downturn. I lived through this as a kid in Pennsylvania back when Steel and Coal disappeared. It was pretty much like it is now, except at the time it was only Pennsylvania that was suffering the pain. So, here are some thoughts about how to survive the downturn. Please add your own in the space below and I'll keep adding more as they come to me.

1. Start buying generic groceries, which in this day and age means buying store brands. Yes, you'll be jacked up with chemicals and preservatives and artificial colors - but you'll save some money in the process.

As the reality of the recession sinks in, consumer confidence has reached frightening lows. People all across the income spectrum here in North Carolina are hunkering down – and worse. With job losses reaching record levels, the global economy has become a literal death spiral. People in my neighborhood are foregoing medical treatment to pay for food and shelter. People in other countries are simply starving.

As President Obama said last night, this precipitous decline has come on the heels of the greatest transfer of wealth – from the middle class to the super rich – in modern history. It is time for the wealthy to do their part. And not just by paying higher taxes.

I am not a fan of the Huffington Post. I rarely can find my way around and I'm not that concerned with what celebrities think - even if they are very bright. Today her headline caught my eye. It is one of those that reaches out and grabs you.

Stimulus Package: If you jump halfway across a chasm, you fall into the abyss.

That's exactly what we are doing. The senate needs to add more infrastructure spending and it needs to be "shovel ready." (I know some don't like that saying, but it works.)

The Economic Stimulus Plan does not concern me, Democrats concern me. I have come to the conclusion that Democrats are so eagerly and meekly courting conservative consent for the Stimulus not because they want true bipartisan support or because they value their ideals, but because they honestly do not think it can work. They want someone with which to share the blame, because they have absolutely no way of knowing if any of this capital injection, infrastructure spending and, yes, tax cuts will do anything but put us in a bigger fiscal debt and without thousands of new jobs for working families.

John Hood says we shouldn’t fix broken things, because we could buy new things instead of fixing broken things which still stimulates the economy, but just in a different way. Got all that?

Of course, hasn’t Hood always encouraged restrained government spending in the name of opportunity cost budgeting? Well, no.

However, if his column doesn’t make sense, it doesn’t matter. You’re just supposed to think he’s smart because he cites Keynes and Bastiat.

Blather available here

Erik Sorenson fears a class war that the rich won’t win. Even though he does frown on a $37,000 toilet, he’s frightened that $100,000 in salary just isn’t enough. I wonder what the janitors at MSNBC made when he led the company.

Comfort poor little rich boy here

I submitted the following idea on change.gov and it has quite a few votes so far.  I am hoping that others will see it and vote it to the top of the list so it gets referred to President Elect Obama. 

Funding for conversion of homes to solar/alternative energy power details

The Mountain Xpress features this story:

Two major N.C. incentives programs sent large portions of funding for increased corporate expansion and job creation to areas of the state that basically needed it the least, according to a study by the Durham office of the Corporation for Enterprise Development, a Washington, D.C.-based advocate for federal and state economic policies.

And he gets paid to teach economics to children?

I couldn't let this go by without posting.

http://www.wral.com/business/story/4280363

Locke Foundation hack-on-the-side Dr. Mike Walden "assesses" that BB&T is cutting jobs because of a "lack of lending opportunities."

Any business folk out there want to tell Dr. Walden and BB&T where to find a "lending opportunity" to use the bajillions they've taken from the government?

Apparently they can't find anywhere to lend money, so they have to cut jobs.

WTF?