Friday, April 3, 2015

Barker's Newsbites: Friday, April 3, 2015


A Blessed Good Friday to All...


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4 comments:

William R. Barker said...

http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/04/03/record-93175000-americans-not-in-the-labor-force/

More Americans dropped out of the labor force last month, as the number of people not in the labor force hit another record high in March.

According to Friday’s Bureau of Labor Statics jobs data 93,175,000 Americans were not in the work force in March, an addition of 277,000 to February’s level of 92,898,000.

The BLS defines people not in the labor force as people ages 16 and older who are neither employed nor have they “made specific efforts to find employment sometime during the 4-week period ending with the reference week.”

The work force decline also corresponded with a drop in the labor force participation rate, wherein March’s rate of 62.7 percent matched earlier lows seen September and December 2014 but not seen before since in 1978. February’s participation rate was 62.8 percent.

March was the first month on record where the number of people not in the labor force — whether due to discouraged worker, baby boomers hitting retirement or otherwise — surpassed 93 million.

April 3, 2015 at 11:13 AM
William R. Barker said...

http://news.yahoo.com/except-rich-americans-incomes-fell-last-220335392.html

Most Americans' incomes continued to fall last year, but the richest 20% saw theirs rise, a new Labor Department report showed Thursday.

In fresh data that adds fire to a growing debate over income inequality, the department said that Americans on average saw income decline for the second straight year in the 12 months to June 2014.

The average pre-tax income fell 0.9% from the same period a year earlier, to $64,432.

* "AVERAGE...???" AND "AVERAGE" FOR WHAT - AN INDIVIDUAL? A COUPLE? A FAMILY OF FOUR?

* FOLKS... WHEN YOU SEE "AVERAGE" AS OPPOSED TO "MEDIAN"... THAT'S A CAUTION SIGN. (IF YOU DON'T KNOW WHY... GOOGLE IT... OR ASK ME TO EXPLAIN.)

But broken down into quintiles, those in the top 20% of incomes saw their money stream grow by 0.9% to $166,048 on average. Every other group lost ground, with the bottom 20% losing the most: their average income dropped 3.5% to $9,818.

* FOLKS... WE'RE TALKING "THE DEPENDENT CLASS." (WELFARE.) HOW "INCOME" IS DEFINED AND SEPARATED FROM SUBSIDIES AND OUTRIGHT "AWARDS" (INCOME REDISTRIBUTION) ISN'T EXPLAINED HERE.

(*SMIRK*)

Those losses came despite an economy that was picking up pace and generating well over 200,000 jobs a month last year.

* BUT NOT THIS YEAR! NOT NOW! THE MARCH NUMBER IS 126K NEW JOBS... vs. 245K "EXPECTED."

(*PURSED LIPS*)

While the majority of incomes fell, consumer spending, which accounts for about two-thirds of U.S. economic activity, rose 1.0% on average.

* AND CONSUMER DEBT...??? (DID IT ALSO RISE...???)

The largest increase was an 11.3% rise in healthcare spending, which has climbed every year since 1996, to an average of $3,919.

* REMEMBER OBAMA'S PROMISE OF AN AVERAGE $2,500 DECLINE IN PREMIUMS...???

(*SPITTING ON THE GROUND*)

Housing expenditures rose 2.0% to $17,377.

(*SIGH*)

April 3, 2015 at 11:28 AM
William R. Barker said...

http://variety.com/2015/tv/news/discovery-communications-david-zaslav-156-million-salary-2014-1201466141/

Discovery Communications CEO David Zaslav received an astounding $156.1 million in compensation last year, the company disclosed Friday in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

* DISGUSTING. ABSOLUTELY APPALLING. THIS IS NOT CAPITALISM - THIS IS CRIMINAL OLIGARCHY. (BET HE'S A BIG DEMOCRAT CONTRIBUTOR AS WELL!)

The vast majority of the windfall comes from more than $144 million in stock awards that Zaslav received after setting a new six-year employment contract last year.

* I'VE SAID FOR YEARS THAT THIS STOCK GAME MUST BE OUTLAWED. LET HIM BUY HIS OWN STOCKS AND IF THINGS GO WELL FOR HIM... MORE POWER TO HIM! BUT SIMPLY CREATING "OWNERSHIP" TO BE GIVEN AWAY TO INSIDERS... IT'S WRONG.

The stock awards are largely tied to the company’s performance during the next six years. That means his actual haul could wind up being nothing if Discovery’s stock falls below pre-determined targets, or it could be worth more, if the share price exceeds those benchmarks.

* HOW DOES THIS BENEFIT OTHER STOCKHOLDERS? IT DOESN'T. IT TAKES AWAY FROM THEM BY DILUTING THEIR OWNERSHIP - WHICH THEY PAID FOR! (AGAIN... THIS IS NOT CAPITALISM... IT'S WALL STREET GAMESMANSHIP.)

April 3, 2015 at 11:10 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://dailycaller.com/2015/04/03/obama-admin-quietly-welcoming-central-american-immigrants-in-new-program/

The Obama administration is moving forward with a little-known program that will bring the families of legal immigrants from Central America to the United States.

The Obama administration launched the program, the Central American Minors Refugee/Parole Program, in December, minus any legislation from Congress, but hasn’t widely advertised it yet.

* NOR HAVE BOEHNER AND MCCONNELL. (AGAIN... FOLKS... HAVING REPUBLICANS IN CONTROL OF THE HOUSE AND NOW SENATE STILL MEANS DEMOCRATS AND LEFTISTS CONTROL AMERICA. THE GOP IS THE PARTY OF BETRAYAL.)

The joint program between the State Department and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services is bringing in primarily children (under 21) and in certain cases, grandchildren and spouses of immigrants who are from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.

The immigrants currently in the United States who are eligible include legal immigrants, including those with deferred action. The USCIS website bills it as a “safe, legal and orderly alternative to the dangerous journey that some children are currently undertaking to the United States.”

Immigrants eligible for the program can qualify for refugee status — which allows them to eventually receive green cards and ultimately citizenship. Those who don’t meet refugee requirements can become eligible for parole, which is applied in urgent humanitarian cases, according to USCIS.

State Department officials say they’ve received 329 applications so far, but haven’t approved any, according to The Washington Post.

The program is meant to target at-risk youth in Central American countries. The influx reached its peak during the summer of 2014, when over 10,000 children alone were crossing the border every month, according to data from Customs and Border Protection.

The rush of child migrants in 2014 quickly overwhelmed federal resources and many were placed in temporary shelters. The number of migrant children has been escalating since 2012, when President Obama announced during his campaign for re-election that his administration would stop deporting some illegal immigrants brought to the country as children.

The number of unaccompanied minors from Central America that were apprehended by customs officials at the border grew from just 3,933 in 2011 to 51,705 in 2014.

April 3, 2015 at 11:16 PM

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