Day: August 6, 2009

Do You Still See A Recovery?

I* have listen to all the cheerleading from the financial pundits that the economy is slowly turning around and yet when I go around talking with the people in my area that is not exactly true.  It is an attempt to make people think things are better so they will spend and borrow….you know commit the same mistakes that has been committed in the past.

In an article for Bloomberg, Shobhana Chandra wrote:

Household income in the U.S. is weakening as the influence of the government’s stimulus plan wanes, prompting economists, Federal Reserve officials and a Nobel laureate to warn that consumer spending may struggle.“Consumers have started to change their behavior and they are going to save more,” said Richard Berner, co-head of global economics at Morgan Stanley in New York and a former researcher at the Fed. “You have pressure on wages, you have employment still declining.”

Wages and salaries, which drive recoveries in spending, fell 4.7 percent in the 12 months through June, the biggest drop since records began in 1960, according to Commerce Department figures released yesterday. The Obama administration’s tax cuts, extended jobless benefits and a one-time Social Security bonus have helped mask the damage done by the worst employment slump since the Great Depression.

Personal incomes, which include interest income, dividends, rents and other payments as well as wages, tumbled 1.3 percent in June, more than forecast and the biggest drop in four years, yesterday’s Commerce report showed. Excluding the effects of the stimulus plan, June incomes would have dropped 0.1 percent after no change in May, according to the report. In May, one-time additional payments to Social Security recipients boosted incomes 1.3 percent.

Nothing on Main Street says there is a recovery…..I have said that the government needs to create demand…kind of like the cash for clunkers gimmick to get the consumer spending….but that is good….but with job losses still raising the gimmicks will not be as effective as they hope.

If you are an investor then you will love the news from the financial clap trap, but if you are working and worrying about what tomorrow will bring then you care little for what the markets are doing.

The Health Care Ballet

This is a cross post of an post that I originally posted on Progressive Independence (visit the site it is a very good source of info….you can get there through my blogroll)

One side says we need a national health care plan….the other side says we need a health care plan but one like the one we have now…and then there are those in the middle, whose decisions will be made by the industry that contributes to their PAC……with that said….who leads in this dance?

Good question and the best answer would be…not the people that will be most effected by the decisions of the few in Congress.  There is a dance going on in Washington…call it a ballet…the two step…or a tap dance….whatever you chose, but it is a dance and it is getting nothing accomplished.

Many have bad mouthed the GOP for their stance on health.  Back about a month ago they offered the Patients Choice Act, this was their answer to the OBama plan.  It contained several “ideas”, a word I use loosely, like disease prevention, a health care exchange for one stop shopping, health care pools and Health Savings Accounts, an old tired idea, where the person could open a savings account earmarked for health care and of course the usual tax credit for health care and finally, the old reliable “tort” reform.  This is humorous but is always mentioned, make it cheaper by reforming lawsuits, which are about 1% of the total cost of health care.

That my friends is the GOP answer to health care for Americans.  Okay, I paraphrased a bit but the general ideas are there.  Well, that was last month…this month there is a different tune being sung by the GOP and the new “mouth piece” Rep. Roy Blunt of Missouri.

“Our bill is never going to get to the floor, so why confuse the focus? We clearly have principles; we could have language, but why start diverting attention from this really bad piece of work they’ve got to whatever we’re offering right now?”

In other words, why give a plan as long as we can oppose the one offered.  The GOP keeps dancing like a guy on crack, but not in a good way…they are in opposition, which is okay but at least give the American people something to grasp besides vague tax credits, pools, HSAs, etc.  There attacks are playing well with dullards, but then that is where their base is now.

The Repubs keep telling us that the American people are against the Obama plan…that is not exactly what the polls are showing…..the American people want some form of accessible health care….but let us say that they are against the plan….then the GOP should tell us what the American people really want….so far that has eluded them.  They had a plan, even if it was too weak, but now they do not or they do not have one they want to talk about.

The people should keep in mind that the people making a decision on their health care already have an excellent plan, so any decision they make will not effect them at all.

The August break is upon us and the dance of the health elves will continue through the summer…it is not over til it is over….but unfortunately for Progressives, it looks like the health bill will be watered down substantially if it is to get passed this year.

Single payer is dead…..public option is on life support……health industrey is spending $1.4 million a day in opposition……all lobbyists are working overtime….and the media is not helping at all…..so with all those symptoms…does a “good” health care bill look as if it will survive?

Sad to say….NO it does NOT!

Afterword:  Watch for my posts I will be doing a lot on this health care situation–IMO, it does not look good for the people.

The Story That Is Blackwater

They are baaaack!  You know that “security” firm that hires mercenaries, oh sorry…my bad….ex-soldiers to work as security across the world…..mostly in the armed conflict areas like Iraq and Afghanistan.

Two ex-employees of the company have turned into whistle blowers for the government.  In a report by Scott Horton some of the allegations against Blackwater, oh my bad…name change…Xe, as reported by Scott Horton:

  • Both men requested anonymity to avoid mortal threats. “It appears that Mr. Prince or his employees murdered, or had murdered, one or more persons who have provided information, or who were planning to provide information, to the federal authorities,” said John Doe #1. John Doe #2 says he received personal threats after leaving Blackwater.
  • Prince “views himself as a Christian crusader tasked with eliminating Muslims and the Islamic faith from the globe.” He “intentionally deployed to Iraq certain men who shared his vision of Christian supremacy, knowing and wanting these men to take every available opportunity to murder Iraqis.”
  • Blackwater “employees openly and consistently used racist and derogatory terms of Iraqis and other Arabs, such as ‘ragheads’ or ‘hajis.’”
  • Blackwater deployed to Iraq individuals who (a) made “statements about wanting to… ‘kill ragheads’ or achieve ‘kills’ or ‘body counts,’” (b) drank excessively, (c) used steroids, and (d) failed to follow safety and other instructions governing the use of lethal weapons. Mental-health professionals who raised concerns about deployment of such individuals were fired.
  • Prince obtained “illegal ammunition… designed to explode after penetrating within the human body” and smuggled it into Iraq for use.
  • Prince distributed other illegal weapons for use in Iraq.
  • Prince was aware of the use of prostitutes, “including child prostitutes,” at Blackwater’s “Man Camp” in Iraq, which he visited.
  • Will be interesting to see how far this will go considering that Prince and his family are heavily in the pocket of the Bush dynasty.