December 2009

Metro Unemployment - Otober, 2009

Submitted by on

The BLS released the Metropolitan unemployment for October 2009 today.

BLS Metro 10-09

In October, 124 metropolitan areas reported jobless rates of at least 10.0 percent, up from 13 areas a year earlier, while 75 areas posted rates below 7.0 percent, down from 280 areas in October 2008.

El Centro, Calif., and neighboring Yuma, Ariz., continued to record the highest unemployment rates, 30.0 and 23.5 percent, respectively. Among the 15 areas with jobless rates of at least 15.0 percent, 9 were located in California and 3 were in Michigan. Bismarck, N.D., registered the lowest unemployment rate in October, 2.8 percent, followed by Fargo, N.D.-Minn., and Grand Forks, N.D.-Minn., 3.5 percent each.

Overall, 138 areas recorded unemployment rates above the U.S. figure of 9.5 percent, 229 areas reported rates below it, and 5 areas had the same rate.

Burning Ben

Submitted by on

There is a huge push to not confirm Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke going on at this moment.

My problem with all of this activity is the Federal Reserve Chair is nominated by the President of the United States. frying pan fire Is a Bernanke alternative on the level of JP Morgan Chase Jamie Dimon, who is being considered to replace Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, in the pipeline?

Will we go from frying pan to fire in not confirming Helicopter Ben?

To date, no financial reforms, including the Federal Reserve reforms, have even passed Congress. Isn't the point of all of this to never give another Alan Greenspan that level of power over the United States Financial system and policy?

Just sayin'.

CBO new report on Stimulus - Using Private, Commercial Forecasting Models

Submitted by on

The Congressional Budget Office has a new report out on the Stimulus.

Buried deep in the actual report is this little mention, in an appendix:

In analyzing the economic effects of ARRA, CBO drew heavily on versions of the commercial forecasting models of two economic consulting firms, Macroeconomic Advisors and Global Insight, as well as on the FRB-US model used at the Federal Reserve Board.

The CBO outsourced their job? Anyone aware that Global Insight has produced biased reports for corporate lobbyists?

Firstly, one would have to be dead to not hear about the massive errors from the White House on jobs created from the Stimulus. It appears the CBO is busy covering the White House's ass from the CBO blog statement:

Goldman staff arming themselves against angry proletariat

Submitted by on

Goldman Sachs has forgotten the 21st Century version of the golden rule: you can steal from all of the people some of the time, and some of the people all of the time, but you can't steal from all of the people all of the time.

(Bloomberg) -- “I just wrote my first reference for a gun permit,” said a friend, who told me of swearing to the good character of a Goldman Sachs Group Inc. banker who applied to the local police for a permit to buy a pistol. The banker had told this friend of mine that senior Goldman people have loaded up on firearms and are now equipped to defend themselves if there is a populist uprising against the bank.

An Infrastructure Program for Millions of New Jobs

Some men see things as they are and say why. I dream things that never were and say why not. —Robert F. Kennedy

According to figures compiled by the America Society of Civil Engineers, a multi-year program of just repairing all existing U.S. infrastructure requires an additional $1.134 trillion dollars than already planned funding.

Using various employment multipliers specific to types of infrastructure (more discussion below), such a program spread over five years cen be expected to create 4.605 million direct and indirect jobs.

Support Building for Tobin Tax

Submitted by on

Bloomberg is reporting a Tobin Tax is gaining momentum.

John Maynard Keynes proposed a tax on financial transactions in the middle of the Great Depression, and another economist, James Tobin, revived the idea in the 1970s as a way to counter currency market speculation. Neither effort gained much acceptance. Now, a growing number of economists and politicians argue that it’s time for a levy on trading stocks, bonds, currencies and derivatives.

Pages