Review of Unemployment Report Jan 9, 2009
By Larry Doyle on January 9, 2009 at 10:04 AM in Current Affairs
***Meredith Whitney is indicating that despite the fact that banks raised $805 billion in capital in 2008 and had $125 billion injected via the TARP, the banking system will need to raise more capital in 2009. This is a clear signal that losses have not yet been recognized along with the likelihood that new losses are being incurred. A regional investment bank, Friedman Billings, believes the banking system needs $1.2 trillion in FRESH capital.
***It’s purely my speculation, but I would be willing to bet funds from “How Bernie ‘Madoff’ with $50 Billion” may have actually been directed to other hedge funds. If that is, in fact, the case the Ponzi scheme that started at Madoff may in turn spread. The fact that so many funds “put up the gates” which prevented investors from withdrawing funds is a very telling indication that this may have occurred. Some funds may have very legitimately utilized that approach and some may have not.
The widely anticipated employment report was released this morning at 8:30am. Let’s dive right into the numbers and then decipher them.
Unemployment Rate: increased from 6.7% to 7.2% versus a consensus estimate increase to 7%. One must understand, though, that the actual unemployment rate ONLY tracks people out of work who are looking for work. If we were to incorporate discouraged workers, those out of work who have given up looking, then one of every ten workers in our country are currently unemployed. With a total workforce of approximately 175 million people and projections that the unemployment rate will move up another 1-3%, our economy is likely to lose another 3 million jobs!!
Non-Farm Payroll: (for those who do not traditionally track these stats, the NFP tracks the actual number of jobs gained or lost in the economy): for the month of December 2008, the economy lost 524k jobs versus consensus estimate of 525k. One may think the soothsayers had it right with their estimated call. However, both October’s and November’s NFP numbers were revised downward by 103k and 51k respectively. Thus, over the last three months of 2008 the U.S economy lost a total of 1.431 million jobs!!!
For all of 2008 the economy lost a total of 2.6 million jobs. That is the greatest number of jobs lost since 1945.
The average numbers of hours worked fell by .2%. With more workers being laid off one may think the remaining workers may have actually had to work longer hours. Not the case. What this number indicates is that employers are looking to curtail expenses. With less hours worked, wage earners will have less income thus less consumption. Given the way that money flows through our economy, less consumption ultimately means a likely increase in closing of retail shops, an increase in commercial vacancies, further depression of commercial property values, an increase in chargeoffs for banks holding loans on those properties, and thus an increase in banks “hoarding cash” against those expected writeoffs. All of this is the exact reverse of the “originate to distribute model.”There were marginal increases in employment in three sectors: government, healthcare, and education.
Market reactions to these numbers have been generally muted. Most sectors of both the equity and bond markets were initially flat, indicating that these numbers may have been priced in to the market. The equity markets then moved down 1-2%. As the treadmill continues and we are running in place currently, I ask myself from a risk reward scenario whether I see positives to allocate capital to the market. Do I believe we will see a quick and positive impact to the economy from the government stimulus? Will the injected capital jumpstart businesses? Will consumers spend?
Virtually every Wall Street wizard is indicating that people should be adding to equity exposure at this time. I view that as “talking one’s position”, meaning those individuals earn fees by having more money under management. My answers range from an outright “No” in regard to the consumers to a definite maybe for a few select companies (those focused on infrastructure, such as Caterpillar). In summary, I see no reason to change any of my thoughts or calls on the markets that I made in our piece, “Time, Why You Punish Me.” I recommend people stay on the sidelines and continue to work at managing their own finances, primarily by getting expenses down.
Any questions, thoughts, criticisms, or concerns, please do not hesitate to write.
LD
(Release: November 13)
on sale for only $16.95.
has a spatula.)
8% Off at $11.95, with a rare five-star ranking by 294 customers: 
And check out these: 
("This crazy redhead is on to something. Her pink Rambler story alone is worth the price of the book," writes 
- “Richard Sale’s reportage on Washington, the CIA, the American armed forces, and foreign intrigue has created a perfect background for this account of the steady growth of President Clinton as a master of the game of nations.”--W. Patrick Lang, former head of Middle East Operations, DIA
"Anne C. Heller's stunning biography of Ayn Rand" uses a "plethora of newly unearthed research and fresh insight."
off topic
but abcnews.com has an article about obamas pay to play with rubin, richardsons downfall.
link? didn’t see it there.
LD, your posts are timely and informative.
A neighboring city lost three companies in one week. One company just closed their doors with no consultation with city leaders.
Without jobs being created, rather than lost, our economy will continue to worsen.
Some analysts have already spread the pain for another three years.
That is not good!
Thanks a lot, LD. I lost my job in August. I worked for an investment management firm. It’s all about the AUM (assets under management) of course. An equity mananager can lose enough assets (just by the market crashing) that they are no longer able to eligible for searches. Regarding existing clients, some pension funds have requirments that a company have over a a certain amount AUM in order to be an eligble manager. (Example: To be an investment manager for the Teachers’ Pension Plan of the State of Fredonia, a manager must have at least $500 million dollars in total AUM.)
I’m sorry that I’m unemployed, but I am relieved that I don’t have to handle the AUM hot potato when talking to consultants.
Arabella….Thanks so much for sharing these GREAT insights. For those with experience in the investment biz, we know it is all about the AUM. Thus no surprize when Wall St. wizards are talking the markets up.
Best of luck with your future!!
Ah, finally somebody understands the conflict and torture I endured before I parted company with my employer! As the performance analyst, one of my jobs was providing the AUM number.
I had numerous disagreements with the marketing guy about what that number was. Not that I’m saying any wrong-doing was done: this was an extremely ethical company.
Thanks for the good wishes!
I heard the post office now has a hiring freeze and is asking employees to retire early.
My job is going away as well, being moved out of state. If it gets too bad, I may have to rent out my house and go there, Colorado or Minnesota until things get better. We have a hiring freeze which may be a godsend for me.
Good luck!
I am fortunate that my husband and I have no debt and no children. We would be OK if it were not for the expense of health insurance. These are scary times.
thank you, glad to hear that you all are doing relatively well considering. I am in a much better position than most. I have a chunk of money saved and am saving more over the next couple months. I also have some other options on saving on monthly pmts. like re-fi etc. I will get 2 months notice and 2 months severance. After that unemployment. If I still don’t have a job, I can live off what I have saved for about 3 years. I was unemployed 20 years ago, few skills, nothing saved, totally unprepared. Luckily I have no health problems and could do wo insurance. You’re right…it’s not looking good.
My position is similar to yours. I have savings, live frugally, no debt etc. Plus my husband is self-employed in a blue collar trade. Although business is slow for him right now, they haven’t figured out a way to outsource his trade. If your toilet is stopped up, your heating system craps out, or you fry your electrical system, you can’t call Bangalore. Yet.
Unfortunately, I take prescription meds that are expensive. I stopped taking the most expensive ones. COBRA is very expensive. It makes me laugh when I read that the lawmakers in DC are thinking of “extending COBRA.” You pay the FULL cost of your insurance under COBRA, including the share that your employer paid every month. Plus an administrative fee.
I got a small severance package, and now I’m on unemployment. There is a corny saying “Tough times don’t last, but tough people do.” I choose to believe this.
LD, your posts are always very informative and you manage to explain things without treating those of us who don’t have your depth of knowledge like idiots. Thank you.
I was highly amused this morning to see an article on abcnews.com about the difficulty laid-off workers have being able to afford to pay for health care. I didn’t think this was actually “news” anymore, but what do I know? Perhaps, as more and more millions are laid off, the opposition of so many to true universal, single-payer health care will disappear. They can no longer say that they’re OK, so why do we need to change anything. This would be a golden oportunity for substantial change in the delivery and payment of health care if we had someone to do it in the White House, or even in Congress. But Hillary got kicked aside.
in regards to immigrants,if there are no jobs, maybe they will go home. Unless illegals are now eligible for welfare.
The illegals won’t go home. Pelosi has a new plan to give them a big chunk of your money. I was going to post her quotes on an open thread. It’s unbelievable what that wingbat thinks she is going to do to people who work – taking their money and not only giving it to people who DON’T work, but giving it to illegals who don’t work. Very, very scary times ahead. Also, I live in CA. Most people believe that the CA economy would collapse without the illegals. I don’t get that logic. I guess it’s because they will do the jobs that others won’t do, and for less that minimum wage, under the table. My response to that is why do people get to choose not to do work that is available to them? What a mess.
Windfall Tax on Retirement Income
Adding a tax to your retirement is simply another way of saying to the American people, you’re so darn stupid that we’re going to keep doing this until we drain every cent from you. That’s what the Speaker of the House is saying. Read below……………
Nancy Pelosi wants a Windfall Tax on Retirement Income. In other words tax what you have made by investing toward your retirement. This woman is a nut case! You aren’t going to believe this.
Madam speaker Nancy Pelosi wants to put aWindfall Tax on all stock market profits (including Retirement fund, 401K and Mutual Funds! Alas , it is true – all to help the 12 Million Illegal Immigrants and other unemployed Minorities!
This woman is frightening.
She quotes…’ We need to work toward the goal of equalizing income, (didn’t Marx say something like this), in our country and at the same time limiting the amount the rich can invest.’ (I am not rich, are you?)
When asked how these new tax dollars would be spent, she replied:
‘We need to raise the standard of living of our poor, unemployed and minorities. For example, we have an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in our country who need our help along with millions of unemployed minorities. Stock market windfall profit taxes could go a long way to guarantee these people the standard of living they would like to have as ‘Americans’. (Read that quote again and again and let it sink in. ‘Lower your retirement, give it to others who have not worked as you have for it’.
SF would re-elect her and foist her on the rest of us – ditto for Frank. I know it’s going to get much worse and some of us weren’t as prudent as Wodliej and Arabella. However, I am saving all I can now and trying to pay off those pesky credit cards my partner insisted on using for stupid things.
I agree and I think they are full of shit if they think a person would rather starve then take a job no matter what it is. I sure as hell wouldn’t
what exactly is Pelosi trying to do? She is fucking whacko~~
Sandi78….thanks for the plug. Happy to help.
I would like to know how many of those jobs are construction related and how many of those jobs were held by illegal immigrants. I have a sneaky suspecion that the jobs held by illegals are factored into the job loss.
With 20 million illegals currently residing in the U.S. (Border Patrol estimates it could be higher), how many people would have a job, that while it may not provide the salary of a CEO or UAW member, it is a job?
I was told that the TEC office in Austin was having a hard time trying to find enough Spanish speaking employees to handle the claims from Spanish speaking only applicants for unemployment.
The Mexican Counselor in Dallas has stated that the number of Mexican citizens requesting “rights of return” to Mexico has increased precipitously. (you see, a Mexican citizen cannot just return to Mexico and plunk their children down in a school, they have to get permission from the Mexican government to bring their personal belongings, like furniture, back into Mexico and they have to get permission from Mexico to be able to enroll their kids in school once they get there).
I think it is important that we are advised how many of those jobs lost were held by those who were here illegally. To not report on that number is to give a jaded impression of Americans losing jobs.
Quite interesting that Mexicans need permission to enroll children in school in Mexico. Our system is so much nicer for them isn’t it? They just have to show up with their kids and we have to pay to educate them.
The job loss picture is definitely grim. I haven’t seen it this bad in 20 years.
Thank you for the information on the mexican workers. As I noted above, if there are no jobs, then maybe illegals will go home. Then we can seal the border and make sure future immigrants come over legally.
No doubt this has had an impact on our economy too. All the compassion in the world won’t change the fact that corporations can hire illegals, allow them free health care in the emergency room, free schooling for their kids, all kinds of other freebies and pay little taxes, and it will all balance out. It wont’.
wodiej, what the new unemployment rates are is a reflection on the business world’s attitude toward Obama. Where is all that “hopey change” that we were to count on? Where is the confidence in Obama that he is going to fix the economy. What supporters of the Big 0 do not want to accept is that this loss of jobs in December is a clear reflection on Obama and his ability to help the economy, not on Bush since he has no time to help the economy.
American business are now looking toward the Obama administration, and they are NOT confident so they are laying workers off. But don’t expect the circus that is currently running D.C. to ever admit that. Two years from now we will see t-shirts being sold on the Obama website that say “It is STILL all Bush’s fault”.
The upside is that illegals are leaving because they no longer have jobs, and the prospects of getting a job are slim to none since they primarily work in the construction and service industries. Carpenters who once made $18/hour in Chicago have come to the border states (heading southward) and are now working for $8/hour and are rapidly losing those jobs as housing starts continue to fall.
Think of the offset: fewer illegal children for school districts to provide class rooms, supplies and teachers for; fewer patients at ERs that are required to suck up the cost; fewer crimes committed by illegals requiring police, jails and courts to prosecute them lowering the costs to municipalities, fewer illegals that are living in public housing and getting public assistance. In border states, that could work out to be huge savings that can go to benefit those “Americans” who have lost their jobs.
I agree w you on all counts.
hopey changey = not a lick of sense
The other thing that is happening is that business owners who heard loud and clear that Fraudbama planned to “redistribute their wealth” started taking their companies overseas months ago. Corporations don’t have to be citizens LOL so a lot of my friends started taking their businesses elsewhere when they saw what is coming. Sort of what happened to Venezuela when those with wealth decided to take it elsewhere, although thank God a lot of that ended up HERE. All the Fraud needs to do is start that crap with taxing people who work and create jobs, and handing it to people who won’t work and I bet even more businesses and jobs go overseas. And, yes, the markets are showing what they think of the Fraud too.
The job offerings are grim. There are no jobs out there even in huge Metro’s. I have NEVER seen it this bad including the early eighties. This is of grave concern. The bailout was supposed to help stop foreclosures given the reasoning that blight was bad for the community and it’s local market.
They NEED to bailout the little people from foreclosure to stop the bleeding from the the economical downturn. Animals are a by product of the suffering as they have to go to the pound. This is over the top and we have a dumbass in there who knows nothing about economics or foreign relations. This is scarier than I can stand. RAISE THE VOTING AGE OR DIE
I was very amused by a report on abcnews.com this morning about how the newly-laid-off are having difficulty paying for health insurance. This is news? Maybe when millions more people find themselves either paying an arm and a leg for pitiful insurance coverage, or find that they can’t afford any at all, we’ll actually get real change (sorry, I had to use that word, it’s relevant!) in the delivery and payment of health care. It’s a pity the person going into the White House has no clue and the Senate kicked Hillary aside.
Sandi78, perhaps you would like to enlighten me? Where is it listed in the U.S. Constitution that you have a right to health insurance or that the government has the right to steal the money from one person to pay for the health insurance for another person?
Just wondering since I can find no mention of that right in the Constitution.
First, let me apologize for the double post. I don’t know how that happened.
retire05: Where did I say any of those things? I will say that democracies which take care of the health and welfare of their citizens are strong, and include every single western democracy other than the USA. Not something to be proud of. I will say that a far more sensible and economical use of health care dollars would be to have a single-payer system. No other country in the world pays so much for health care and yet leaves a significant percentage of its population without access to care. I come from the UK originally and I know first-hand that such a system is far superior to the mish-mash we have here now. The US could be in the position of designing the best single-payer system in the world, taking the best from all the existing plans. What a pity that so many are more than willing to pay a fortune for Defense, yet unwilling to have a similarly funded system of health care for all Americans.
Sandi, perhaps before you came here, you should have thought about your health care. Or are you someone who realized that even with our current health care system, your earning power was still greater here than in the UK?
I am tired of the saying “Why can’t we be more like (name the foreign nation)” by people who have come here from those very nations.
As you age, your health care will become more and more important. May I suggest that you return to the UK as fast as possible to secure the care you think this nation should provide? Or perhaps you should take a good hard look at how fast France, and the UK to a certain extent, is going broke paying for “universal” health care.
And may I also suggest that while you slam us (which is not your right to do so) for our support of our defense systems, that the UK would re-evaluate it’s defense systems rather quickly when there is a terrorist attack in London that takes the lives of 3,000 Britons.
Don’t come to my nation for the opportunities it provides and then feel you have the right to slam it over it’s system of health care, or any other policy for that matter. You don’t have that right, but you do have the right to leave on the first flight out of JFK back to the nation you seem to think has all the answers.
retire05, shove it. I’ve been here for over thirty years. It is narrow, provincial minds like yours that prevent serious and necessary changes from happening. You seem to have difficulty with reading and comprehension.
Just curious…why are these “necessary changes?” Some of us don’t want Universal Health Care because we have seen the health care that Canada and the UK have and think it’s horrific. My friends who live in both places think it’s atrocious. One of my close friends was a nurse in the UK, her hubby a doctor, and they returned to the US after they saw what a disaster they were living with. I don’t think I should have to die of cancer because my health care has been deteriorated to the point of waiting 6 months for appointments and care. I pay my own insurance and my doctor doesn’t even TAKE my insurance so I pay out of pocket for my doctor. It sucks but I’m alive and well so far.
Not all of us think we should be drained to pay for others. That’s a myth. My personal opinion is that there is a better way to secure better health care for people through stopping all the insurance fraud and graft and making insurance the focus. Rather than the usual liberal take the money from those who work and hand it to those who don’t nonsense. And it’s especially irritating to have to do it for illegals and people who don’t belong here in the first place. This country simply can’t TAKE the burden of supporting anyone and everyone who comes here for a free ride, doesn’t work and doesn’t pay taxes. That’s ridiculous.
“Provincial” Ah, yes, the elitist attitude of the Europeans.
Frankly, I don’t care if you have been here 50 years, Sandi. The offer still stands that if you, as a former Brit, feels that Great Britian offers better opportunities for you, you are free to return to the UK.
You know, you remind me of the illegals who come here that are trying to escape the governments that have failed them only to want to turn our nation into those same nations they came from.
I state loud and clear: if you think that another nation will provide you with the things you need better than the U.S. can, then by all means, since self perservations is the one greatest motivation for selfishness, feel free to seek that benefit from the nation you think has a better answer to your needs. To do any less would show stupidity on your part.
But you have no right to complain about a system that you accepted when you came here. No more than I would have a right to complain about the taxation systems of the UK if I chose to live there. That would be a choice I made freely, accepting the policies and practices of the UK government when I moved there.
And take your elistist European attitude and shove it. Remember, the UK, the most powerful nation on the face of the earth at the time, was kicked in the rear by a bunch of ragtag citizen soldiers who thought your system was not so hot.
Perhaps a little humility for being granted the right to live in this country would serve you well.
I hope your blood pressure is under control.
One article I read predicted unemployment would be 9 to 10% by the end of the year and with job losses fairly equal to The Great Depression, does anyone doubt the Obama administration will turn out to be more of a Hoover rather than an FDR?
When the Supreme Court appointed George W. Bush, I said we would never survive 8 years of him and now I’m saying that even 4 years of Obama will finish us off because not only does he not have any innovative plans, he’s downright lazy. The only thing he seems to be good at is begging people for money and then blowing it on ostentatious self-aggrandizement.
And We the People are getting tired of saying “I told you so!“
I just started collecting unemployment in December. I do have a part time retail job that enables me to earn up to 1/3 of my weekly total benefit. I am single person with no dependents. I can survive if I’m careful BUT next year I will have to pay taxes on my earned benefits. I can’t survive if I have taxes deducted now. Oh yeah, I live in Massachusetts. It is mandatory that I have health insurance. I have been working as contractor (temp) and have been paying for my insurance out of pocket. I could apply for the state to subsidize it but I earned too much money last year to qualify.
The Massachusetts state legislature just got a 5.5% pay raise.
oh, isn’t that nice. That takes alot of nerve. Well hang in there. I have always thought that was a crock to make people pay taxes on unemployment benefits! What the hell!!
Oh yeah! A few of the legislators are either refusing the pay increase or donating it to charity. I want names and numbers!
I thought I had read recently that this new stimulus package would include no taxes paid by the unemployed collecting benefits. That would be nice. What’s a few billion here and there?
I got on a bunch of Obama e-mail lists for some reason. I just got an invite from Democracy for a House Meeting
Here is part of it:
I’m showing up with my resume. I’m not looking for meaning, fun or dignity. I’m looking for a job.
Arabella….thanks again for sharing. I hope that through our work here and the development of this community, you can find plenty of meaning, fun, and dignity!!
LD – Thank goodness for people like you and for No Quarter! You sustain my soul.
I participate the care of my 82 year old mother (who still works) and an adult autistic brother. My brother lives in a group home, and I take him to visit my mother every Saturday. Plus I still volunteer in the community. And I am active on many literature discussion groups. All this is by way of saying that I find it funny that “meaning and dignity” is something I might NEED now.
I need money!
I’m going to scare the stuff out of these people at the meeting. I’m a 56 year old woman with gray hair. At the one Obama meet-up I tried to attend, I was pretty much ignored. And I am not a shy person, as you can see.
But I would be a mess without No Quarter. I rely on everyone here more than can tell you.
Retire05 says we have no constitutional right to health insurance. We have no constitutional right to an education, food or a place to live either. Maybe we should all take our constitutionally authorized guns, go live in caves and wait to die.
You got the memo too, ritamary?
Yes, if you are older 50 you should just die. Especially if you are a woman.
I believe the constitution states we have a right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happines we dont’ have a right to just have them handed to us.
Our country is already saturated with too many people who don’t want to work because it’s pretty easy to sit on their ass and flip the remote control and wait for that welfare check and go get free health care, free education, free college even if they are dumber than a box of rocks, free utility and rent assistance, not pay any taxes and then get a tax refund, tax rebates etc. Mexicans figured this system out too. I certainly have no problem helping seniors, handicapped people. Others who have lost a job and are looking for work, I don’t mind helping them either. But I am SICK AND TIRED of helping people who are getting a free ride, there are millions here now and that is part of the problem.
wodiej…You are right. Welfare, etc. were great programs that were created to give people a leg up and to help the people who truly need it. Now it’s way out of control and this country was NOT founded on sitting on one’s azz and being handed things. What makes America amazing is that everyone has the opportunities to make something of themselves and, yes, the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. I am WAY sick and tired of seeing what the free ride is doing to this country. We have NO business absorbing all of the illegals, paying for them, etc.
If you want to talk about healthcare…how about the fun trick of people with no insurance using the ER as a doctor’s office? I broke my foot a while back in Tahoe, went to the ER, and in front of me was a cracked out AA woman with SIX of her family members. She was checking them all in…her daughter had a tummy ache, her grandson had a cold, her granddaughter had a rash, etc. Do you REALIZE what a burden that is to our system? My bill for my broken foot was TWO THOUSAND DOLLARS. Can you imagine a family checking in SIX PEOPLE and what that bill was?
And of course they go to the ER because NO ONE can be turned away at an ER. NO ONE. You can thank George Sr. for passing that bill. In California, the illegals who are having babies, will LITERALLY drive around the parking lot of the hospital while the woman is in labor, just so they can deliver in the ER. Obviously this is so they don’t have to pay the bills. Does anyone realize how many people use the ER and the hospitals and never pay bills? And we wonder why the system is in trouble? Illegals can waltz into ANY ER and just get care, no matter what. Is that okay?
I was thinking of that all last night.
41% of Americans, mostly blacks and Illegals, are on government hand-outs. The remaining 59% are working hard to foot the bill and are treading water. nObama is a clod. He needs to put those 40% to work and collect taxes from them and stop giving them a free ride off of the backs of those who get up everyday and go to work but barely make ends meet.
I agree, but remember, MEchelle said that Obama is gonna make everyone work! I’m sure right about the time my unicorn is delivered (or do they just appear? They are magical and all!) all those great jobs will show up for the unemployed, too!
ritamary, if you can find any of those things listed in the U.S. Constitution as “rights” please, enlighten me.
You seem to not understand the meaning of the word “persuit”.
And while you’re at it, you can also show me the part of the Constitution where it says the federal government has the right to steal (yes, steal through force) from me to give to another.
Are you a libertarian, retire05?
No, Arabella Trefoil, I am an American.
I second that….
Your answer to me seems a disinenguious and defensive. Do you mean to imply that everyone who does not share your views is not American? Americans have many different political persuasions. I was just wondering what your philosophical approach to politics might be.
Do you propose that there should be no government at all?
Because I say that I am an American you find that disingenuous (you need to buy a dictionary) and defensive? Since when is proclaiming that you are an American is now disingenuous and defensive? Or are you one of these people who find shame in being an American?
You, if you will recall, asked if I was a libertarian. I answered you. You got your Hanes in a was because I did not give you the answer you were looking for. You said nothing, not one damn thing, about my philosophical approach to politics. If that was what you wanted to know, you should have asked that.
Now that you have, I will tell you: I am a Constitutionalist. I believe that the Constitution was written by the finest thinkers of that time, and they put into the Constutition those things that would be, and would remain, important. Anything not delegated to the federal government is under the purveiw of the individual states and that if you don’t like the laws of the state that you live in, you have the U.S. Constitutional right to move or you have the right to petition that state government for a change in their laws.
I believe that the current system of federal government is anti-Constitutional, assuming powers that were never granted to the federal government.
Does that answer your question?
What Constitution? The liberals are wiping their Fannies and Freddies with it.
If we’re quoting the Declaration of Independence, why not include the rest of the phrase:
“Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,–That whenever any Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it…”
Nothing in that excludes thinking that a healthcare system might be part of happiness.
Nearly 3,000,000 jobs were lost in the finance sector last year.
NOBAMA! THE DEPRESSION PRESIDENT.I’ll tell you, If Hillary was allowed to claim her win, we wouldn’t be having more wars and a pending depression…I’m very concerned.
Obamavilles outside the White House. I hope they have wi-fi.
Beter add heat and running water to the list of necessities.
Nearly 3,000,000 jobs were lost in the finance sector last year.
Uh huh. Please remind me: Who has been minding the store for the past 8 years?
Maybe you think the same people who set the stage for our current economic melt-down would be better qualified to fix things?
I’ve kinda lost faith in the assertion that cutting taxes for the wealthiest will make the middle and working classes more prosperous. I’m a tad skeptical that excessive government regulation stifles investment and economic growth; that unbridled capitalism profits the nation as a whole; that a totally free marketplace always optimises progress toward the best of all possible futures.
Who had control of congress for the past 3 years when this all began in the finance markets? DOH! go soak your empty head!
My memory and my understanding of our economic problems extend backward in time considerably more than 3 years.
BTW, the democratic congressional majority elected in November 2006 has only just reached it’s 2-year mark, and has yet to have the support of a democratic president. Thusfar they’ve had to contend with the constant threat of White House vetos and an executive branch that governed by politically motivated appointment, presidential decrees, and signing statements.
Well, yes, and today I come home from work early and decide to take a chance and see if CNN is actually back to doing news, well, they were busy doing a piece on how to dress for the inauguration! Geezus! What the hell happened in this country? Of course they were scrolling across the bottom news of Blago and Israel/Gaza, etc., but still. For the love of God! Can we stop the Obama cheerleading squads now??? You pushed him through CNN. Whoopee for you! I hope you fall with him.
STOP THE MADNESS!!!!
Opinions about Obama vary, but he is about to be sworn in as president. Wisely or unwisely, he is the guy a majority have elected to try to lead the nation out of this mess. If he fails we all stumble. This seems to me like sufficient reason to hope for his success.
WRONG! He stole this election and it is NO SECRET. Rampant voter fraud doesn’t constitute a WIN! BITE IT bistard.
Most people are looking at him and saying OSHIT!
There were no indications of any significant election day voter fraud during the 2008 election. Much-publicized registration irregularities–the Acorn business, in particular–simply didn’t turn into fraudulent votes at the polling places. There was no repeat of 2002 and 2004. This, despite the fact that voting was very closely scrutinized. The actual election results closely paralled both weeks of pre-election polling and the predictions of exit polling on election day itself.
Cynic…what planet do you live on? There was HUGE voter fraud. All over the place.
Before the election I was worried there might be, because of all of the high-profile registration irregularities. When I looked into the topic after election day, though, I couldn’t find a single credible source documenting any significant fraud at the polling places.
Had there been any, you can bet your bottom dollar we’d be hearing plenty about it. The outcome of every close 2008 election has been fought tooth-and-nail.
I heard plenty about it…while it was happening. Because I am making a film about it, which started with the caucus fraud, we had people monitoring the voting sites in many of the places we suspected it would happen. Guess what? It did – one of the worst being Lake County, Indiana. It was reported and no one gave a damn. The fix was in four years ago and the Fraud was going to be “selected” no matter what. We can’t even get SCOTUS to uphold the Constitution we PAY them to uphold. Don’t kid yourself….this was nothing BUT a fraudulent mess.
Rolling….
In point of fact, there were a total of 2.6 million jobs lost in total in 2008. I think you added one to many zeros to your statement. Not that 300,000 jobs in finance aren’t enough, but just to keep our facts in order.
I stand to be corrected LD and 2.6 is correct but I thought I’d add the zero’s because by the time this gets read, it’ll be 3mm.
Everyone take a moment and pray for Berg’s case today which is a tipping point. God Help us!
FraudO has Bush’s war monger in his cabinet.
FraudO has no clue what he’s doing.
FraudO and the DemoncRat congress made the market crash and I’m so sick of them thinking they are not at fault here. Nazi Pelosi and her husband are in bed with haliburton. Her husband’s company gets lots of contracts. Is this the reason she wouldn’t impeach? She is evil.
OPRAH go to hell for backing this creep who’s about to take down America! Your Karma sucks! You are a very BAD judge of character.
Nuff said..need to go cool off.
I’m just so worried about this usurper and the economy.
Rolling…I feel your pain. We will do our best to stay ahead of the curve on the economy and the markets. Not a lot I can do for you as far as changing the political dynamic.