After disappearing for the past 8 years, scientific truth will return to the White House as President-elect Barack Obama pledged to ensure that “facts and evidence are never twisted or obscured by politics or ideology.” [Read more →]
Republicans just kissed 3 million more votes good-bye. With elections over and no longer any need to paint themselves as champions of the American worker, Republicans showed their true colors by turning the screws to the auto industry rank-and-file. In exchange for a bridge loan that would hopefully keep the auto industry running long enough to complete an effective and sensible restructuring plan, Senate Republicans insisted that UAW immediately agree to receive pay in parity with non-union US autoworkers employed by Toyota, Honda and other foreign companies manufacturing cars in the United States. In contrast when Wall Street Investment firms, Banks, AIG, Freddie and Fannie Mae needed a bailout the money came flowing.
A collapse of the auto-industry would make the the fall of Lehman Brothers look like a sunny day. Millions of Americans would lose their jobs, healthcare and pension. Tax revenue would fall, unemployment spending would increase and the loss to the economy is estimated to exceed $200 Billion.
By the way, Senator McCain voted against the bridge loan. What does Joe the Plumber think of him now? We know what Joe the Mechanic thinks.
If you think bailouts are a recent solution to economic woes, think again. These captains of commerce and industry pioneered government bailouts decades ago.
I couldn’t resist posting this again since it’s more relevant than ever. Who would have guessed that a sitcom would have such foresight?
Campbell Brown hits the nail right on the head about Merrill Lynch’s CEO John Thain who put in for a bonus of $10 million.
My mother was right—Happiness is Contagious. She used to tell me that if I stayed around happy, positive people I would feel better. Now her advice is confirmed by a medical study where Dr. Nicholas A. Christakis, a physician and social scientist at Harvard Medical School and Dr. James H. Fowler, an associate professor of political science at University of California at San Diego looked at twenty years’ worth of data on more than 5,000 individuals taking part in the Framingham Heart study.
Published in the prestigious British Medical Journal, the study found that when any one person was happy, their friends became more likely to share that joy. [Read more →]
Today the U.S. stock market plunged 680 points on news that the U.S. economy is officially in a recession. So where have these brilliant brokers been that this even comes as news? But I still need to get this straight, the “experts” hear that the National Bureau of Economic Research reported that we have been in a recession since December 2007 and they start to sell. They didn’t know this last week? These must be the same people who thought loaning money to people without income was a good idea and invested in it.
I actually took today’s recession announcement as good news. The downturns since World War II have ranged between 6 and 18 months, with an average of 11. While this downturn will unlikely be average, chances are we are at least halfway through it. So perhaps the glass is half-full. Maybe it’s not time to sell but to buy, I did.