Full Circle

Large corporations that have boomed in India amid the country's nimble economy have been drawn to the U.S. where unemployment has soared. Struggling residents desperate for work are paid between $12 and $14 a hour to be stationed in tiny cubicles for long shifts of telesales work. Once the employees are established, many are offered the chance to be flown to India themselves - the same tactic Western countries have done in India. Experts said that the phenomenon, which could become more widespread in the coming years, is partly due to Indian workers demanding higher wages and higher living standards.

The Great Ressession Is Not Over

Bernanke Signals Stepped-Up Efforts to Spur Economy

The Federal Reserve chairman, Ben S. Bernanke, gave his strongest indication yet that the central bank was ready to resume huge purchases of longer-term debt, and was
determined to prevent the economy from slipping into a cycle of falling prices.

While Mr. Bernanke emphasized that deflation was "not a significant risk for the United States at this time," he said the Fed "will strongly resist deviations from price stability in the downward direction." It was his most robust statement to date that the Fed would do its part to avoid a Japanese-style deflation from taking hold.

Read More:

Too late, Ben. Deflation and a decade of Japan's stagnant styled economy are here, and they're going to stay. Can't say the same for you, your boss or the morons in Congress who said they were going to come in and fix it. They wanted it, they got it. They threw a bunch of slush funds at it, took over a bunch of companies, continued to escalate foreign wars - and then decided to take over another 19% of the GDP with Obamacare. And they still haven't rolled up their sleeves to get the bad mortgages out of circulation - or dealt with Fredie or Fannie. Yeah, it's ALL Bush's fault. I didn't say Bush and his policies didn't build the kindling, but the Democrats are running around yelling fire - when they asked for, and are currently holding the garden hose. Don't kid yourself, they're just as much to blame for all this as everyone else, too. No one's getting out of here without some soot on their faces.

Start investing in ammo, gang. That is, while you can still get it.

Suday Comics - The Week In Review

The week in review - where we sum up everything we missed or were ranting about this week with a cartoon...

Russia caught on fire this week...
And Pakistan drowned...
Charlie Rangel told the Ethic's Committee to go f*ck themselves and the 80 year old danced at his birthday party.
It seems Harry Reid really is a racist. He said that his boss, Mr. Obama did not have a “Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one” and that he was popular because he is “light skinned”. He's been called out as an anti-semite, and this week called all hispanic men Democrats. Harry Reid once again demonstrates that it is that it is OK to be a racial bigot, so long as you are a leftwing racial bigot. Folks in Nevada, please, pretty please, get rid of this stupid nut. He makes you look bad. And forget his racial slurs - he's also an idiot. The racial slurs are just cherries on top of his crap ice cream banana split of incompetence.
The recovery isn't what they said it would be.
All this noise about a bitchy little child of a flight attendant taking a couple beers down the slide to say he quit... well the real reason he's being heralded as a hero? You bet - there's a job opening at Jet Blue!And here's an interesting observation on the ruling oligarchy political class...
And in California - the land of Fruit and Nuts...
And finally. in the history of bad advertising placement, this one wins the splattered mud pie.
Have a great week folks, if we all make it through, we'll see each other next week.

Union Hired Non-Union Workers to Protest Hiring Non-Union Workers

Need some picketers make your protest more legit? You can hire picketers – yes, demonstrators-for-hire that march wherever you want them to march and chant whatever you want them to chant.

That in itself may be a solution, but when you’re a labor union protesting the hiring of non-union workers, then that’s a level up of hypocrisy and irony wrapped in kosher bacon.

Billy Raye, a 51-year-old unemployed bike courier, is looking for work.

Fortunately for him, the Mid-Atlantic Regional Council of Carpenters is seeking paid demonstrators to march and chant in its current picket line outside the McPherson Building, an office complex here where the council says work is being done with nonunion labor.

"For a lot of our members, it’s really difficult to have them come out, either because of parking or something else," explains Vincente Garcia, a union representative who is supervising the picketing.

So instead, the union hires unemployed people at the minimum wage—$8.25 an hour—to walk picket lines. Mr. Raye says he’s grateful for the work, even though he’s not sure why he’s doing it. "I could care less," he says. "I am being paid to march around and sound off."

Jennifer Levitz of the Wall Street Journal reports: Link, and I promise I'm going to try harder to show my sources...

Sunday Comics: Week in Review

Ah what a week it's been if you've been paying attention.

The Blago circus opened the tent. I know most folks are thinking, hey, it's just Illinois. Wrong. This is National Politics, and the Chicago Machine that is running the country. This is how Obama Governs... and the current DNC. And since Blago has proven that he's a 'wild card', if he's going down, he'll gladly pull down the main poll and bring the tent down with him. This is going to be an awesome circus.
And now here are some useless numbers pulled out of some graphic designer's ass...
Look, a moped in space would require oxygen to complete the internal combustion - oh. Well, here's something else to ponder Mrs. PhotoShop - that number you spout out is one day and a half of USA's consumption. Other than the dead birds, it's a minor inconvenience. Speaking of...
Maybe Mr. Obama shouldn't have been so harsh about Katrina? Nah, helped him get elected. But let's keep an eye on how well that bites him in the ass in a couple years. And I hear Bobby Jindal's doing a heck of a job organizing clean up efforts. Heck, He even asked Obama To End Moratorium On Deepwater Drilling.‎
Is this the Grog and Hizzog that George Bush thought would begin the Armageddon? Nope, just another day in Gaza. But speaking of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse...
Pretty much everyone knows that the North sunk the South's ship. Iran saber rattles some more. There are five open fronts on the 'War on Terror' and Israel is sinking 'peace floats'. Oh, and the world economy is in the crapper. It's like some little kid has been setting up dominoes...
Sigh.

Hey single ladies, Al Gore is available! Get your hands up...
Eric Holder can't read. At least, that's what I've been told about it.

The Sestak Offer continues to have ZERO traction. But at least he created a job finally.
I'm personally pissed that my State has cut library funding... so I'll just have to buy more books.

Oh, and everyone was supposed to have quit Facebook this week.
Great week everyone. Let's do it again next week.

Oh, and today was D-Day. Thank a WWII vet if you know one.

Great News! Everyone's Working Again!

Did you hear the good news this morning? Everyone's working again!

U.S. Payrolls Grew by 431,000 in May; Jobless Rate Fell to 9.7%

Employers added 431,000 nonfarm jobs nationwide in May, the biggest increase in a single month since the recession, the Labor Department just said!

*ahem* the bulk of the "growth" was in government jobs, driven by hiring for the Census, and private-sector job growth was weak. So, we added people to the dole, and increased the burden on the working people -- while there were fewer working people supporting the dole. Got that? When you felt the weight load get heavier - it was a bunch of Census workers jumping on your back.

The unemployment rate fell to 9.7 percent nationwide, from 9.9 percent in April, the department said. If you count it the way they do.

The figures for May represented the fifth consecutive month that payrolls have risen, but fell below analysts' expectations that 540,000 jobs would be added to the economy.

Burning Bridges

Godspeed, Peter.

Bush Gets a Classy New Jerb

Classy Gig For Ex-President

Former President George W. Bush has signed up to be the "special guest speaker" for one of those traveling arena-size motivational speaker extravaganzas:

Bush's first "Get Motivated!" gig is next Monday in Fort Worth. He does a second one in December in San Antonio.

This is the same "business seminar" series that signed up Colin Powell, Rudy Giuliani and Steve Forbes. Laura Bush is also a speaker. The promoters promise:

Our world-renowned speakers appear LIVE ON-STAGE to provide you a full day of hundreds of proven ideas, formulas and success keys. GET MOTIVATED! is guaranteed to help you and your organization reach new heights of success. You'll be inspired, enlightened, motivated, trained and entertained by America's foremost success experts!

George W. Bush, one of "America's foremost success experts."

Apparently, W. isn't alone among his predecessors:

Past speakers have included Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, and Gerald Ford. (Bill Clinton does gigs for Tony Robbins's competing organization at $300,000 a pop--but only in Canada.)

Good News, Everybody!

Only in the twisted world of doublespeak can the news of the elimination of another 247,000 jobs in July be turned into good news. It's as if those quarter of a million people WANTED to be fired. The unemployment rate, which has been rising for months, ticked down, to 9.4 percent from 9.5 percent in June. It was expected to touch double digits, which would have been politically devastating to Obama - just because the number 10 is so scary. However, no one has been keeping track of the number of people who are STILL unemployed, and how many people dropped out of the hunt for work, ceasing to list themselves as unemployed.

And let's pretend that there is a recovery coming from the Great Recession. Fine. But no one's hiring. There were still a quarter of a million people laid off. And they aren't all from Bears training camp.

And last week the government announced another significant improvement — the overall economy contracted at an annual rate of only 1 percent in the spring quarter! Wow! Contraction - good news! To their credit, it was vastly better than the fall and winter months. The New York Times says, "the two reports have convinced many forecasters that when the history of the Great Recession is written, these summer months will be the big turning point, when the economy started to grow again."

Or, what I think, it could be a slight pause in the hemorrhaging.

The fact is the Net Wealth of US Households has "declined from a peak of $22 trillion to just under $12 trillion in early March." The problem is compounded by the fact that Total US Household debt, as of first quarter 2009, amounts to roughly $13 trillion, and has stayed within that range for the last 3 and a half years.

"From the end of 2007 through Q1 of 2009, household equity has declined by 94%. Is it surprising that today's GDP number would have been a complete debacle if the consumer had been left alone to prop the U.S. economy, on whom 70% of the economy is reliant? Obama pulled a Hail Mary with the stimulus: without it there would be no debate America is in a depression right now." (more)

The boil down is that the consumer is out. Credit and home equity are all but dust and that's trouble for an economy that's 70% dependent on consumer spending for growth. Unless that fact turns around, don't start expect things to 'go back to normal' any time soon.

Add that to the trouble that the US Treasury is having in pawning our debt to China and other suckers - and then we'll start talking about inflation. Once inflation starts, you'll get your $500,000 back in your house equity - while you're buying bread for $10.

Inactive Wear

Dear AIG - I Quit!

The following is a letter sent on Tuesday by Jake DeSantis, an executive vice president of the American International Group’s financial products unit, to Edward M. Liddy, the chief executive of A.I.G.

DEAR Mr. Liddy,

It is with deep regret that I submit my notice of resignation from A.I.G. Financial Products. I hope you take the time to read this entire letter. Before describing the details of my decision, I want to offer some context:

I am proud of everything I have done for the commodity and equity divisions of A.I.G.-F.P. I was in no way involved in — or responsible for — the credit default swap transactions that have hamstrung A.I.G. Nor were more than a handful of the 400 current employees of A.I.G.-F.P. Most of those responsible have left the company and have conspicuously escaped the public outrage.

After 12 months of hard work dismantling the company — during which A.I.G. reassured us many times we would be rewarded in March 2009 — we in the financial products unit have been betrayed by A.I.G. and are being unfairly persecuted by elected officials. In response to this, I will now leave the company and donate my entire post-tax retention payment to those suffering from the global economic downturn. My intent is to keep none of the money myself.

I take this action after 11 years of dedicated, honorable service to A.I.G. I can no longer effectively perform my duties in this dysfunctional environment, nor am I being paid to do so. Like you, I was asked to work for an annual salary of $1, and I agreed out of a sense of duty to the company and to the public officials who have come to its aid. Having now been let down by both, I can no longer justify spending 10, 12, 14 hours a day away from my family for the benefit of those who have let me down.

You and I have never met or spoken to each other, so I’d like to tell you about myself. I was raised by schoolteachers working multiple jobs in a world of closing steel mills. My hard work earned me acceptance to M.I.T., and the institute’s generous financial aid enabled me to attend. I had fulfilled my American dream.

I started at this company in 1998 as an equity trader, became the head of equity and commodity trading and, a couple of years before A.I.G.’s meltdown last September, was named the head of business development for commodities. Over this period the equity and commodity units were consistently profitable — in most years generating net profits of well over $100 million. Most recently, during the dismantling of A.I.G.-F.P., I was an integral player in the pending sale of its well-regarded commodity index business to UBS. As you know, business unit sales like this are crucial to A.I.G.’s effort to repay the American taxpayer.

The profitability of the businesses with which I was associated clearly supported my compensation. I never received any pay resulting from the credit default swaps that are now losing so much money. I did, however, like many others here, lose a significant portion of my life savings in the form of deferred compensation invested in the capital of A.I.G.-F.P. because of those losses. In this way I have personally suffered from this controversial activity — directly as well as indirectly with the rest of the taxpayers.

I have the utmost respect for the civic duty that you are now performing at A.I.G. You are as blameless for these credit default swap losses as I am. You answered your country’s call and you are taking a tremendous beating for it.

But you also are aware that most of the employees of your financial products unit had nothing to do with the large losses. And I am disappointed and frustrated over your lack of support for us. I and many others in the unit feel betrayed that you failed to stand up for us in the face of untrue and unfair accusations from certain members of Congress last Wednesday and from the press over our retention payments, and that you didn’t defend us against the baseless and reckless comments made by the attorneys general of New York and Connecticut.

My guess is that in October, when you learned of these retention contracts, you realized that the employees of the financial products unit needed some incentive to stay and that the contracts, being both ethical and useful, should be left to stand. That’s probably why A.I.G. management assured us on three occasions during that month that the company would “live up to its commitment” to honor the contract guarantees.

That may be why you decided to accelerate by three months more than a quarter of the amounts due under the contracts. That action signified to us your support, and was hardly something that one would do if he truly found the contracts “distasteful.”

That may also be why you authorized the balance of the payments on March 13.

At no time during the past six months that you have been leading A.I.G. did you ask us to revise, renegotiate or break these contracts — until several hours before your appearance last week before Congress.

I think your initial decision to honor the contracts was both ethical and financially astute, but it seems to have been politically unwise. It’s now apparent that you either misunderstood the agreements that you had made — tacit or otherwise — with the Federal Reserve, the Treasury, various members of Congress and Attorney General Andrew Cuomo of New York, or were not strong enough to withstand the shifting political winds.

You’ve now asked the current employees of A.I.G.-F.P. to repay these earnings. As you can imagine, there has been a tremendous amount of serious thought and heated discussion about how we should respond to this breach of trust.

As most of us have done nothing wrong, guilt is not a motivation to surrender our earnings. We have worked 12 long months under these contracts and now deserve to be paid as promised. None of us should be cheated of our payments any more than a plumber should be cheated after he has fixed the pipes but a careless electrician causes a fire that burns down the house.

Many of the employees have, in the past six months, turned down job offers from more stable employers, based on A.I.G.’s assurances that the contracts would be honored. They are now angry about having been misled by A.I.G.’s promises and are not inclined to return the money as a favor to you.

The only real motivation that anyone at A.I.G.-F.P. now has is fear. Mr. Cuomo has threatened to “name and shame,” and his counterpart in Connecticut, Richard Blumenthal, has made similar threats — even though attorneys general are supposed to stand for due process, to conduct trials in courts and not the press.

So what am I to do? There’s no easy answer. I know that because of hard work I have benefited more than most during the economic boom and have saved enough that my family is unlikely to suffer devastating losses during the current bust. Some might argue that members of my profession have been overpaid, and I wouldn’t disagree.

That is why I have decided to donate 100 percent of the effective after-tax proceeds of my retention payment directly to organizations that are helping people who are suffering from the global downturn. This is not a tax-deduction gimmick; I simply believe that I at least deserve to dictate how my earnings are spent, and do not want to see them disappear back into the obscurity of A.I.G.’s or the federal government’s budget. Our earnings have caused such a distraction for so many from the more pressing issues our country faces, and I would like to see my share of it benefit those truly in need.

On March 16 I received a payment from A.I.G. amounting to $742,006.40, after taxes. In light of the uncertainty over the ultimate taxation and legal status of this payment, the actual amount I donate may be less — in fact, it may end up being far less if the recent House bill raising the tax on the retention payments to 90 percent stands. Once all the money is donated, you will immediately receive a list of all recipients.

This choice is right for me. I wish others at A.I.G.-F.P. luck finding peace with their difficult decision, and only hope their judgment is not clouded by fear.

Mr. Liddy, I wish you success in your commitment to return the money extended by the American government, and luck with the continued unwinding of the company’s diverse businesses — especially those remaining credit default swaps. I’ll continue over the short term to help make sure no balls are dropped, but after what’s happened this past week I can’t remain much longer — there is too much bad blood. I’m not sure how you will greet my resignation, but at least Attorney General Blumenthal should be relieved that I’ll leave under my own power and will not need to be “shoved out the door.”

Sincerely,
Jake DeSantis

Those Nit-Picky Facts

Obama's assurance that his mortgage-relief plan will only benefit deserving homeowners is a stretch.

Oficials in his administration, the supporters of the plan in Congress and the Federal Reserve chairman expect some of that money will go to people who should have known better than to buy that huge house... or give it to that one guy who couldn't qualify to RENT a place...

The president glossed over a number of complex realities in delivering his speech to Congress and a nation hungry for economic salvation.

And let's take a moment to look at some of his assertions, shall we?

OBAMA: "We have launched a housing plan that will help responsible families facing the threat of foreclosure lower their monthly payments and refinance their mortgages. It's a plan that won't help speculators or that neighbor down the street who bought a house he could never hope to afford, but it will help millions of Americans who are struggling with declining home values."

THE FACTS: If the administration has come up with a way to ensure money does not go to home buyers who used bad judgment, it hasn't announced it.

Defending the program Tuesday at a Senate hearing, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said it's important to save some of those people for the greater good. He likened it to calling the fire department to put out a blaze caused by someone smoking in bed.

"I think the smart way to deal with a situation like that is to put out the fire, save him from his own consequences of his own action but then, going forward, enact penalties and set tougher rules about smoking in bed."

Similarly, the head of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. suggested this month it's not likely aid will be denied to all homeowners who overstated their income or assets to get a mortgage they couldn't afford.

"I think it's just simply impractical to try to do a forensic analysis of each and every one of these delinquent loans," Sheila Bair told National Public Radio.

———

OBAMA: "We have already identified $2 trillion in savings over the next decade."

THE FACTS: Although 10-year projections are common in government, they don't mean much. And at times, they are a way for a president to pass on the most painful steps to his successor, by putting off big tax increases or spending cuts until someone else is in the White House.

Obama only has a real say on spending during the four years of his term. He may not be president after that and he certainly won't be 10 years from now.

———

OBAMA: "Regulations were gutted for the sake of a quick profit at the expense of a healthy market. People bought homes they knew they couldn't afford from banks and lenders who pushed those bad loans anyway. And all the while, critical debates and difficult decisions were put off for some other time on some other day."

THE FACTS: This may be so, but it isn't only Republicans who pushed for deregulation of the financial industries. The Clinton administration championed an easing of banking regulations, including legislation that ended the barrier between regular banks and Wall Street banks. That led to a deregulation that kept regular banks under tight federal regulation but extended lax regulation of Wall Street banks. Clinton Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, later an economic adviser to candidate Obama, was in the forefront in pushing for this deregulation.

———

OBAMA: "In this budget, we will end education programs that don't work and end direct payments to large agribusinesses that don't need them. We'll eliminate the no-bid contracts that have wasted billions in Iraq, and reform our defense budget so that we're not paying for Cold War-era weapons systems we don't use. We will root out the waste, fraud and abuse in our Medicare program that doesn't make our seniors any healthier, and we will restore a sense of fairness and balance to our tax code by finally ending the tax breaks for corporations that ship our jobs overseas."

THE FACTS: First, his budget does not accomplish any of that. It only proposes those steps. That's all a president can do, because control over spending rests with Congress. Obama's proposals here are a wish list and some items, including corporate tax increases and cuts in agricultural aid, will be a tough sale in Congress.

Second, waste, fraud and abuse are routinely targeted by presidents who later find that the savings realized seldom amount to significant sums. Programs that a president might consider wasteful have staunch defenders in Congress who have fought off similar efforts in the past.

———

OBAMA: "In the last eight years, (health insurance) premiums have grown four times faster than wages. And in each of these years, 1 million more Americans have lost their health insurance"

THE FACTS: The number of uninsured grew by 7 million from 2000 to 2007, the latest year for which Census figures are available, meaning Obama's claim would be true if had been talking about averages. But it's not true that the number of uninsured rose each year by 1 million. In 2007, the ranks of the uninsured dropped by 1.3 million from the year before, to 45.7 million.

———

OBAMA: "Thanks to our recovery plan, we will double this nation's supply of renewable energy in the next three years."

THE FACTS: While the president's stimulus package includes billions in aids for renewable energy and conservation, his goal is unlikely to be achieved through the recovery plan alone.

In 2007, the U.S. produced 8.4 percent of its electricity from renewable sources including hydroelectric dams, solar panels and windmills. Under the status quo, the Energy Department says, it will take more than two decades to boost that figure to 12.5 percent.

If Obama is to achieve his much more ambitious goal, Congress would need to mandate it. That is the thrust of an energy bill that is expected to be introduced in coming weeks.

———

OBAMA: "Over the next two years, this plan will save or create 3.5 million jobs."

THE FACTS: This is a recurrent Obama formulation. But job creation projections are uncertain even in stable times, and some of the economists relied on by Obama in making his forecast acknowledge a great deal of uncertainty in their numbers.

The president's own economists, in a report prepared last month, stated, "It should be understood that all of the estimates presented in this memo are subject to significant margins of error."

Beyond that, it's unlikely the nation will ever know how many jobs are saved as a result of the stimulus. While it's clear when jobs are abolished, there's no economic gauge that tracks job preservation. The estimates are based on economic assumptions of how many jobs would be lost without the stimulus.

———

OBAMA: "And I believe the nation that invented the automobile cannot walk away from it."

THE FACTS: According to the Library of Congress, (not Wikipedia) the inventor of the first true automobile was probably Germany's Karl Benz, who created the first auto powered by an internal combustion gasoline, in 1885 or 1886. Nobody disputes that Henry Ford created the first assembly line that made cars affordable.

Cube Rage

Want to see how to get fired from your dead end cube job?

There's more at Gizmodo with a security cam vid.

Now, at first, I was just going to call Shenanigans. But, I'm a little hesitant to go all the way... as it's a little wacky and stupid - and there are SO many people standing around FILMING it... but it's still better than any episode of the Office.