The press is announcing a low social security cost of living adjustment for 2014, a 1.5% increase. The problem with this headline announcement by the press is the social security cost of living increase has not been announced yet and is highly dependent on government inflation statistics for September. These September statistics have not been released and due to the shutdown, probably will not be this week.
Brought to you by the GOP - Manufacturing artificial crises one at a time to rob you blind....again.
Good Morning! Rise and Shine! Get that Cup O' Joe...
break out the O.J....hang out with the pooch...for it's time to check out the funny slams and bams of government shutdown and economic Armageddon.
In This Crisis It's Not Stupidity, It's the Money: Three Relevant Laws
There are three basic laws about discussion, especially political discussion, that are useful in the contentious government situation we have today. The third of these laws is especially relevant because it warns us that what is happening in Congress is not a passing aberration, but in fact a threat to democracy in our country.
The DOL reported people filing for initial unemployment insurance benefits in the week ending on October 5th, 2013 was 374,000, a 66,000 increase from the previous week of 308,000. We've seen strange soarings in initial claims before yet this was unexpected, so what happened?
The real crisis is not the “debt ceiling crisis.” The government shutdown is merely a result of the Republicans using the debt limit ceiling to attempt to block the implementation of Obamacare. If the shutdown persists and becomes a problem, Obama has enough power under the various “war on terror” rulings to declare a national emergency and raise the debt ceiling by executive order.
This moment is historic. For the first time in history a woman is nominated to chair the Federal Reserve. Assuming Dr. Janet Yellen does a good job, this alone will help millions of women in finance and economics, which to this day is fraught with gender bias and glass ceilings. She is already inspiring the phrase, Yellenomics and referred to as Bernanke Redux for most perceive the Fed and their policies will not change much in the transition.
The IMF has released their World Economic Outlook report and projects unemployment will remain unacceptably high in advanced economies as well as the Middle East and North Africa, an area of unrest. The IMF also warns if the U.S. debt ceiling is not promptly raised, serious damage to the global economy would probably result.
How many of us have tuned out the never ending Tea Party crazy rhetorical drum beat blasting Obamacare? With people whose only purpose in life is to shaft the middle class and poor, as a result, such folk have lost all credibility with most of America and thus tune them out we do. Over and over again we see the Republican agenda is clearly to stiff Americans on benefits they have earned, such as social security and Medicare.
The Federal Reserve's consumer credit report for August 2013 shows a 5.4% annualized monthly increase in consumer credit, driven by student loans. Once again student loans increased, while credit card debt declined. Revolving credit declined by -1.2%, and non-revolving credit jumped another 8.0%. This is the third month in a row revolving credit has declined.
The September 2013 ISM Non-manufacturing report shows the overall index decreased by -4.2 percentage points, to 54.4%. The NMI is also referred to as the services index and the decrease indicates slower growth for the service sector. The business activity index dropped by -7.1 percentage points to 55.1%. Both indexes are still above June 2013 levels.
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