Friday, March 9, 2012
Barker's Newsbites: Friday, March 9, 2012
Well... I guess it's official - Mary S. and Mike D. are dead.
So sad... so sad...
(*SIGH*)
On a brighter note... I'm having fun jousting with Maria L's friends on Facebook!
On a totally serious note, I'll just never "get" why people seemingly desire to remain ignorant.
(Ya had to be there!)
Today is an off day from the gym. YEA! Looking forward to tonight's Lenten (sp?) Friday treat: Large pie... extra cheese... garlic... onions...
(*SMACKING MY LIPS*)
Anyway... let's see if there's any news worthy of posting and commenting on!
To the comments section...!
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3 comments:
http://news.yahoo.com/us-trade-deficit-hits-52-6-billion-january-133525871.html
The U.S. trade deficit surged to the widest imbalance in more than three years in January as imports hit an all-time high...
* OH, YEAH... THE OBAMA ECONOMIC RECOVERY! (*SNICKER*)
The January trade deficit widened to $52.6 billion, the biggest gap since October 2008, the Commerce Department reported Friday. Imports rose 2.1% to a record $233.4 billion. Exports were up a smaller 1.4% to $180.8 billion.
* I'M GUESSING THEY'RE REFERRING TO EXPORTS OF AMERICAN OIL TO ASIA - THE EXPORTS THAT ARE HELPING KEEP OIL PRICES OUTRAGEOUSLY HIGH RIGHT HERE.
* OH... AND IN RELATED NEWS:
For all of 2011, the economy expanded by just 1.7%, roughly half the rate in 2010.
* BUT... BUT... BUT... THE MEDIA - AND THE DEMS - TELL US WE'RE IN AN ECONOMIC RECOVERY... (*MOCK SCRATCHING OF MY HEAD*) (*SMIRK*)
The rise in imports in January reflected a 3.3% increase in petroleum imports to $39.1 billion...
* THIS "RISE..." I'M GUESSING THEY'RE MEASURING "RISE" IN TERMS OF PRICE... NOT NUMBER OF BARRELS. AFTER ALL, WE'RE BEING TOLD PART OF THE REASON FOR CURRENT HIGH GAS PRICES IS THAT WE'RE SENDING OUR STOCKPILES OVERSEAS.
* ANYWAY, FOLKS, HOWEVER YOU SLICE IT... OUR ECONOMY IS STILL MOVING IN THE WRONG DIRECTION.
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/03/an-american-auto-bailout-for-france/
Attention U.S. taxpayers: You now own a piece of a French car company that is drowning in red ink.
That’s right. In a move little noticed outside of the business pages, General Motors last week bought more than $400 million in shares of PSA Peugeot Citroen – a 7% stake in the company.
Because U.S. taxpayers still own roughly one-quarter of GM, they now own a piece of Peugeot.
Peugeot can undoubtedly use the cash. Last year, Peugeot’s auto making division lost $123 million.
And on March 1 – just a day after the deal with GM was announced – Moody’s downgraded Peugeot’s credit rating to junk status with a negative outlook, citing “severe deterioration” of its finances.
In other words, General Motors essentially just dumped more than $400 million of taxpayer assets on junk bonds.
(*SARCASTIC CLAP-CLAP-CLAP*)
The deal will allow the Peugeot family to reduce its share of the family business.
* Hmm... I WONDER IF THE PEUGEOT FAMILY ARE BIG OBAMA DONORS...??? (JUST KIDDING!)
The Peugeots declined the opportunity to buy a piece of GM.
(*SNORT*) FOLKS... YA CAN'T MAKE THIS SHIT UP!
GM’s European operations, primarily the carmaker Opel, lost more than $700 million last year.
* NOW AIN'T THAT JUST ICING ON THE CAKE?!
* O-BAM-A! O-BAM-A! O-BAM-A! O-BAM-A!
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/part-time-economy-redux
* JUST READ IT.
(*SIGH*)
* AND IF YOU SCROLL DOWN TO THE BOTTOM OF THE PIECE WHERE "OTHER SUGGESTED READINGS" ARE LISTED... (*SIGH*)... READ THEM TOO.
While not shocking to most, the jump in temporary workers...is perhaps the biggest indicator of [a lack of] job 'quality' gains.
[T]he U.S. market economy remains mired in a low quality (“first-fired, first-hired categories rather than the type of core hiring that would build a stronger foundation for income growth,” as FTN's Jim Vogel describes it) recovery.
About 160k of private jobs added in February are 'low-paying work' which left average hourly earnings up only 0.1% (notes David Ader at CRT) - hardly the recipe for a sustainable recovery.
[W]hile the BLS may play around with various numerators, denominators, seasonal adjustments, and other irrelevant gimmicks which are only fit for popular consumption...a deeper analysis confirms our concerns that not only is America slipping ever further into a state of permanent "temp job" status, but that a "quality analysis" of the jobs created shows that the U.S. job formation machinery is badly hurt.
[T]hese very jobs [being "newly created"] are now generating far less in so very critical tax revenue for the U.S. treasury, and continue declining steadily in quality.
[Examine] the NSA number of Part-Time jobs from the Household Survey:
At 28,096,000 this number is just shy of the all time high of 28,106,000, and represents 19.4% of total employment.
Second...the number of people holding Multiple Jobs rose by 286K in February, more than the entire employed increase announced in the Establishment survey, and at 7,116,000 is now back to the highest since May 2010.
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