Global Economy Bursting?

[Randolph Kinney]

Q: Charles G. writes, "One of President Obama's goals is to extend unemployment benefits for one year. I have exhausted my 99 weeks of unemployment benefits. Will this apply to me?"

A: No. When unemployed people exhaust their regular state benefits (maximum of 26 weeks in California and most states) they become eligible for up to 73 weeks of extended benefits paid for by the federal government. These federal benefits are set to expire Dec. 31.

The American Jobs Act of 2011 proposed by President Obama will continue federal extended benefits for another year if Congress approves it. "However, it does not include any additional weeks of benefits to increase the maximum of up to 99 weeks of benefits that are available now," the California Employment Development Department says on its website.

So when people hit 99 weeks of unemployment benefits, that's it, there is no more.


11 Reasons Why the Unemployment Crisis Is Even Worse Than You Think

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-thornton/11-reasons-why-the-unempl_b_967952.html

The Great Recession has cost US workers millions of jobs and those jobs have not come back as quickly as they disappeared and in many cases those jobs will never return. According to the Economic Policy Institute, "In total, there are 6.9 million fewer jobs today than there were in December 2007."

 

[Randolph Kinney]

California's budget faces new legal challenges

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-state-budget-20110928,0,2319021.story?track=rss

School officials, including those at the L.A. Unified School District, said they would file suit Wednesday alleging that Gov. Jerry Brown and state legislators illegally manipulated California's voter-approved education funding formula to shortchange them by $2 billion. And a coalition of disability-rights activists said they planned to sue Wednesday as well to block nearly $100 million in cuts to services for the developmentally disabled.

The state is already in court battling redevelopment agencies over an attempt to take $1.7 billion from them. And California officials are pleading with the Obama administration for permission to reduce Medi-Cal spending by $1.7 billion.

If state income falls short of lawmakers' budget forecast, automatic cuts inserted as a fiscal safeguard will go into effect, slashing spending on schools, universities, libraries and programs for the needy. Some school districts could shorten the academic year by up to seven days.

 

[Austin]

I saw the light on where housing was headed back in the late 1980's. I stopped doing GSE appraisals because I could see it for what it was. I divined that it was just a matter of time before the bottom fell out. But the bottom didn't fall out. The bubble kept balooning and I keep waiting. Finally I said to myself that I don't believe anything can stop this madness. Maybe I have it all wrong and this is just going to go on forever I reasoned.
Then around 2006 I saw the cracks forming and knew the cascading had begun. The house came tumbling down. That is the way I feel about how the economic crisis will unfold. I keep watching California because I believe that is where bottom will fall out. I expected it this spring but again, it just keeps on keeping on like housing did for 15 years. Again I say I don't believe they will ever run of options, delays, law suits, accounting gimicks, etc., and this could go on for 15 years. The tech bubble and peace dividend from the cold war gave us 15 more years on the housing bubble so I don't expect California to last nearly that amount of time with the debt problems. I can even see that state being taken over and divided into two or more states like north and south, one free and one slave. Where have we heard that before? There is a fine line between employment and slavery. Employees work by the hour but slaves have a life time job. Debt is the most sublime form of chattel slavery.

PS: The full faith and credit of the American tax payer to the world's wealth is nothing more that a modern version of "A Doctrine of Slavery of The American Tax Payer on Whose Shoulders This All Rest."

 

[Randolph Kinney]

No Faith in the Ballot Box - Here Comes the Riots

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/28/w...e-grows-protests-surge-around-globe.html?_r=3

Hundreds of thousands of disillusioned Indians cheer a rural activist on a hunger strike. Israel reels before the largest street demonstrations in its history. Enraged young people in Spain and Greece take over public squares across their countries.

Their complaints range from corruption to lack of affordable housing and joblessness, common grievances the world over. But from South Asia to the heartland of Europe and now even to Wall Street, these protesters share something else: wariness, even contempt, toward traditional politicians and the democratic political process they preside over.

They are taking to the streets, in part, because they have little faith in the ballot box.

 

[coolhandluke]

No Faith in the Ballot Box - Here Comes the Riots

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/28/w...e-grows-protests-surge-around-globe.html?_r=3

Hundreds of thousands of disillusioned Indians cheer a rural activist on a hunger strike. Israel reels before the largest street demonstrations in its history. Enraged young people in Spain and Greece take over public squares across their countries.

Their complaints range from corruption to lack of affordable housing and joblessness, common grievances the world over. But from South Asia to the heartland of Europe and now even to Wall Street, these protesters share something else: wariness, even contempt, toward traditional politicians and the democratic political process they preside over.

They are taking to the streets, in part, because they have little faith in the ballot box.

RK-I won't speak to SE Asia and Europe,Israel, but the protesters on Wall Street are more wary and contemptuous of what Wall Street represents. these financial institutions nearly destroyed the US and World economies exercising their unquestioned right to unfettered avarice. I'm sure they hold plenty of angst for our politicians and government too, but to equate the Wall Street protests to those in other parts of the world is a false analogy in my opinion.

 

[coolhandluke]

The Great Recession has cost US workers millions of jobs and those jobs have not come back as quickly as they disappeared and in many cases those jobs will never return. According to the Economic Policy Institute, "In total, there are 6.9 million fewer jobs today than there were in December 2007."

RK-If those numbers are accurate, which I believe they are, 6.9 million less jobs multiplied by the US Median Personal Income of $40,000 would equal 276 billion dollars of individual wealth lost ANNUALLY. (could someone check my math please, my abacus doesn't have enough beads to cipher this one)

Maybe this has something to do with our nations deficit and inability to climb out of recession, No?

Wrong again Luke, its uncertainty caused by a health care bill that won't fully take affect until 2016 and anxiety among the job creators who might see their taxes bought back to pre GWB rates and all these pesky social programs which were designed to be a safety net for the lower and middle class in times of economic downturn.

What should we do? Herb Cain in 2012!

 

[Big ole Boy]

Musing about galactic orders and such .

. . . .... so the cone of the unknown continues its expansion as the observer peers and digs deeper and deeper into the meaning of the things .... the deeper the observer peers the faster the cone of the unknowable expands ....... such a process must give one repose ......

... to consider perhaps to let go of the mind in favor of the spiritual for another opportunity with a different reward ...



...... the cosmological cart hath been put in front of the cosmological horse time and time again throughout history ......

..... and now the galactic order must release pressure from the tectonics plates of the terrestrial mule ....

.... the manifest destiny's lamp of the West ..... abandoned its mule ..... and the bride of galactic granduer morphs .... no more can the madness of wishful thinking lay the path .....


to have any preference is to suffer ... and suffer is the price for looking into the fruit of knowledge ...

...

... heck, what else is there to do ... its a slow news day .......

...t & c

 

[Randolph Kinney]

Consumer Spending in U.S. Slows as Incomes Fall

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-...n-august-as-incomes-unexpectedly-dropped.html

Yes Matilda, incomes are falling and people are living out of savings. Health insurance, auto insurance, home insurance are now major expenditures in the household budget exceeding the principal and interest payments on the mortgage.

People are selling their homes to avoid and eliminate those expenses so as to pay for other priority items in their budget and capture the remaining equity. It is a slow meltdown but people are throwing in the towel.

My neighbor has his home pending sale now after lowering the price to $435,000 from $479,000. 8 months ago, the values were over $500,000. Listings have dried up, just 2 left - low is now $449,000. Once the pending sale closes, that's another $14,000 drop in value.

 

[Randolph Kinney]

RK-I won't speak to SE Asia and Europe,Israel, but the protesters on Wall Street are more wary and contemptuous of what Wall Street represents. these financial institutions nearly destroyed the US and World economies exercising their unquestioned right to unfettered avarice. I'm sure they hold plenty of angst for our politicians and government too, but to equate the Wall Street protests to those in other parts of the world is a false analogy in my opinion.

You realize that the NY Times is focusing on these protestors as if they are real and that they represent a majority. The fact is, there are many people who are not making it. The only real protests are coming from unions.

Riots like in Europe won't happen here until someone goes to the bank to cash a payroll check and it bounces or the bank can't honor the check because they don't have enough money.

Jobs are not increasing. The president tells us that he has a jobs plan. Wait until he comes up a bank plan.

 

[Randolph Kinney]

How to Equalize Women's Income to Men

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/01/u...uality.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha23

The recession was bad for everyone, but women experienced at least one silver lining: Their median earnings edged a bit closer to men’s. It happened not because women earned more, but because men earned less, according to an analysis of new Census Bureau data.

Median earnings for men, adjusted for inflation, fell by $2,433 — or 6 percent — from 2007 to 2010. Women’s earnings, meanwhile, fell by just $253 in the same period, a drop of 0.9 percent.