Thursday, March 8, 2012

Barker's Newsbites: Thursday, March 8, 2012


Well, folks... if no newsbites get posted today don't be alarmed.

It looks like it's a slow news day.

Hey Mike D. - Are you still alive...???

Mary S. - Same question!

If either of you has sent me an email in the past week... I haven't received it.
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4 comments:

William R. Barker said...

* TWO-PARTER... (Part 1 of 2)

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/not_too_warm_for_labor_dept_snow_jrlRdFEy5YPQx5nXh8zhNL

When Americans were asked recently about the most basic economic issue — if they were having trouble putting food on the table — 18.6% said yes, they were.

That was the highest percentage since the financial crisis began four years ago.

I’m mentioning that survey because tomorrow is when the Labor Department reports how many jobs the economy supposedly created in February. Statistics, especially when only taken at their face value, tend to hide what’s really going on.

* ESPECIALLY WHEN DELIBERATELY MISUSED FOR PARTISAN PURPOSES.

Let’s go through the numbers first so you will not be bamboozled by Labor’s jobs report — or Wall Street’s reaction to it.

The experts think Labor will report that the economy created 206,000 new jobs in February.

That guess might have even climbed a bit since yesterday, when the ADP National Employment Report, which monitors payroll taxes to determine who just got a private-sector job, said companies created 216,000 jobs last month. That was slightly higher than the experts were predicting.

(The difference between ADP and Labor’s report is that ADP doesn’t count government jobs.)

Labor’s figures — as I’ve been telling you for years — don’t give a very good depiction of what is going on in the economy at a particular moment in time. That’s why Labor adjusts and adjusts and adjusts its statistics. Only after those tweaks do you get a very clear idea of what the economy was doing two years ago.

(*SMIRK*)

Government statisticians would contend that it isn’t their fault that Wall Street has the urge to trade billions of dollars of stock and bonds before the employment numbers are completely polished.

(How do I know they’d say that? Because government economists in Washington have said this to me many times.)

Take, just as a single example, Labor’s report in early February. It showed that 243,000 new jobs were created in January.

The only problem was that the number wasn’t true.

The pure, undoctored (not seasonally "adjusted") figure showed there was really a loss of 2.689 million jobs.

(There is always a loss of jobs after the Christmas season.)

(*NOD*)

* To be continued...

March 8, 2012 at 12:24 PM
William R. Barker said...

* CONCLUDING... (Part 2 of 2)

As I’ve reported before, the 2.689 million job loss turned into a gain of 243,000 only because Labor’s seasonal adjustment programs expected the job losses to be bigger. The warm winter weather probably kept some people from being put out of work, and this threw off Washington’s calculations.

Will that same thing happen with tomorrow’s number?

That isn’t likely. Yes, the weather has remained warm. But Labor’s computers are expecting undoctored, not seasonally adjusted growth of more than 800,000 jobs in February. So there’s less chance that the seasonal adjustments will be pleasantly surprising. And February isn’t one of those months in which Washington includes a huge guesstimate for jobs added by companies it thinks, but can’t prove, were just started.

(*RUEFUL CHUCKLE*)

After the January employment report, commentators started spewing nonsense that despite a high 8.3% unemployment rate and sharply rising gasoline prices, voters were suddenly OK with the economy.

Well, that is turning out to be very wrong.

And if you don’t believe people are still very concerned about money issues, just visit a soup kitchen here in New York City.

One recent morning I rode along with City Harvest, a charitable groug you should get to know, as it “rescued” food from some of Manhattan’s finest restaurants. Some 564 restaurants — including some of the best in town — as well as top-notch supermarkets contribute food that is turned into meals for the needy. And City Harvest is reporting the same results as the survey — people are having trouble feeding themselves.

In its most recent survey last November, City Harvest said there was a 25% increase in demand for food since the recession began. And the situation isn’t getting better.

It only took one big drop in stock prices before Wall Street and Washington started urging the Federal Reserve to come to its aid.

Even though one Fed official last week told investors to stop depending on “morphine” from the central bank, the cry for another version of quantitative easing went out less than 24 hours after the Dow Jones industrial average fell 203 points on Tuesday.

Why not give Wall Street what it wants?

Because the Fed’s money-printing operation is leading to higher commodities prices.

(*SIGH*)

* AND SO IT GOES... AND SO IT GOES...

March 8, 2012 at 12:24 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0312/73795.html

The [Democrat-controlled] Senate on Thursday rejected an attempt to fast-track the Keystone XL pipeline...

The White House and Democratic leadership squeaked out a 56-42 vote on an amendment to the Senate’s highway bill, winning only because 60 votes were needed for passage.

* OBAMA AND REID WIN; AMERICA LOSES.

President Barack Obama had personally lobbied Democrats with phone calls urging them to oppose the measure, as Republicans continue to push the pipeline as a job-creating project...

* AND A NATIONAL SECURITY PROJECT!

No Republicans opposed the measure, but two senators — Mark Kirk of Illinois and John Thune of South Dakota were absent.

* AND WHY WERE THEY ABSENT...???

The amendment, proposed by Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.) would have approved the pipeline despite an undetermined final route through Nebraska, cutting out the State Department approval normally required for an international pipeline.

March 8, 2012 at 5:20 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://atlanta.cbslocal.com/2012/03/08/illegal-immigrant-allowed-to-collect-winning-750000-lottery-ticket/

* TITLE THIS ONE: IT'S SICK OUT THERE AND GETTING SICKER.

An illegal immigrant from Guatemala will be able to collect $750,000 he won from a lottery ticket he purchased in 2010.

* AS OPPOSED TO THE MONEY GOING BACK INTO THE LOTTERY AND THE ILLEGAL ALIEN BEING DEPORTED...

* GREAT! JUST FRIGG'N GREAT!

A Houston County Superior Court jury ruled in 27-year-old Tony Cua-Toc’s favor Thursday that he was the rightful owner of the Jingle Jumbo Bucks lottery ticket, according to the Macon Telegraph.

* AMERICAN CITIZENS ARE ENTITLED TO BE TRIED BY A JURY OF THEIR PEERS. ILLEGAL ALIENS SHOULD HAVE NO SUCH RIGHT.

Cua-Toc, who entered the country illegally in 2000, claimed that the business owner he worked for, Erick Cervantes, claimed the winning lottery ticket for him and ended up keeping the money, according to the paper.

* SO... ARREST CERVANTES FOR THEFT AND THROW HIM IN JAIL... PUT THE MONEY BACK INTO THE LOTTERY... AND DEPORT CUA-TOC!

Cervantes said in court that he was the rightful owner of the ticket because he gave Cua-Toc $20 to purchase it for him.

* BUT THE JURY SAID THEY DIDN'T BELIEVE HIM!

The Macon Telegraph also reports that the jury awarded Cua-Toc $207,000 in attorney’s fees and is also entitled to punitive damages.

* FUCKING INSANITY.

March 8, 2012 at 5:36 PM

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