Jobless Produce U.S. Profit on Productivity
With Less Inflation
By - Jun 28, 2010
The 6.8 million Americans out of work for 27 weeks or longer -- a record 46 percent of all the unemployed -- are providing U.S. companies with an eager, skilled and cheap labor pool. This is allowing businesses to retool their workforces, boosting efficiency and profits following the deepest recession since the 1930s, and contributing to a 61 percent rise in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index since March 2009.
“Companies are getting higher-productivity employees for the same or lower wage rate they were paying a marginal employee,” said James Paulsen, who helps oversee about $375 billion as chief investment strategist at Wells Capital Management in Minneapolis. “Not only are employees higher skilled, you have a better skill match. You have a more productive and more adaptive labor force.”
U.S. productivity gains averaged 2.9 percent from 2000 through the first quarter of 2010, compared with 2.1 percent in 1990-1999 and 1.5 percent in 1980-1989, according to the Labor Department. The increased efficiency has helped improve earnings, with more than 80 percent of companies in the S&P 500 index reporting profits that exceeded the consensus analysts’ estimates during the most recent quarter, Bloomberg data show.
“Very specific skill sets is what will get people hired these days,” said Gary Townsend, president of Hill-Townsend Capital LLC in Chevy Chase, Maryland, a hedge fund that specializes in financial firms. “Companies are able to slice off the weakest members of the team and find very highly qualified and motivated [read: desperate] replacements. There is very little wage pressure.”So, cheer up, American workers! Because higher stock prices means the economy is better! Whether you have a decent job or not is not really relevant.
The U.S. economy grew at a 2.7 percent annual rate in the first quarter, less than the 3 percent estimate issued last month, according to Commerce Department data released June 25. The economy contracted in five quarters during the recession that began in December 2007, the worst performance since the Great Depression.
Whereas the county sheriff is the chief law enforcement office of the county; therefore Resolved, assert the Tenth Amendment and put the US Government and Idaho State on notice, that all police Actions be under and approved by the sheriff - including - but not limited to FBI, ATF, state Highway Patrol, and USFS. . . .
We recognized the failure of the Federal Reserved [sic] System to maintain a sound US dollar and the danger of merchantile [sic] controlling the issuance of our currency. We believe the Federal Reserve Bank should be abolished. . . and encourage citizens to engage in a systematic acquisition of precious metals which represent real value as opposed to paper currencies.
Let free Idahoans pay taxes, and other fees due to the State, County and City in silver and or gold in any form. Payments to City, County, or State employees requested to be paid in silver and or gold, Will be complied with.
Pornography – We urge our governmental bodies to enforce laws regarding all forms of pornography. We urge more stringent legislation to prohibit all pornography including virtual pornography and operation of sexually–oriented businesses.But where will the RNC hold their fundraisers?
We oppose the legalization of sodomy. We demand that Congress exercise its authority granted by the U.S. Constitution to withhold jurisdiction from the federal courts from cases involving sodomy.
Further, we urge Congress to withhold Supreme Court jurisdiction in cases involving abortion, religious freedom, and the Bill of Rights.
Our policy [on Israel] is based on God’s biblical promise to bless those who bless Israel and curse those who curse Israel and we further invite other nations and organizations to enjoy the benefits of that promise.
We oppose a one-world government in direct opposition to our basic principles and eroding our sovereignty. We oppose the implementation of one world currency.
PrinciplesWe Believe in:
1. Strict adherence to the Declaration of Independence and U.S. and Texas Constitutions
3. Limiting the expanse of Government Power.
Constitution in Public Schools – We believe that all state-funded schools should read and teach the constitutions of the
United States of America and the State of Texas.
Conscience Clause – We believe that doctors, nurses, pharmacists, any employees of hospitals and insurance companies, health care organizations, medical and scientific research students, and any employee should be protected by Texas law if they conscientiously object to participate in practices that conflict with their moral or religious beliefs,.
including but not limited to abortion, the prescription for and dispensing of drugs with abortifacient potential, human cloning, embryonic stem cell research, eugenic screenings. .
Companion Animal Welfare – We support legislation to license and regulate large-scale commercial dog and cat breeding
facilities to ensure the humane handling and care of dogs and cats in those facilities.
Ethics in Broadcasting – We call upon the Federal Communications Commission to revoke broadcast licenses of stations
that air programs and advertisements in violation of existing laws and FCC guidelines. We further oppose reinstatement of
the Fairness Doctrine and any similar concept, which would limit outlets for free speech.
Hmmm, look how pensive I can Be. You know, I think. . . HITLER!!! Stalin!!!
Is U.S. Now On Slippery Slope To Tyranny?
By THOMAS SOWELL
When Adolf Hitler was building up the Nazi movement in the 1920s, leading up to his taking power in the 1930s, he deliberately sought to activate people who did not normally pay much attention to politics.
"Useful idiots" was the term supposedly coined by V.I. Lenin to describe similarly unthinking supporters of his dictatorship in the Soviet Union.
In our times, American democracy is being dismantled, piece by piece, before our very eyes by the current administration in Washington, and few people seem to be concerned about it.
The president's poll numbers are going down because increasing numbers of people disagree with particular policies of his, but the damage being done to the fundamental structure of this nation goes far beyond particular counterproductive policies.
Just where in the Constitution of the United States does it say that a president has the authority to extract vast sums of money from a private enterprise and distribute it as he sees fit to whomever he deems worthy of compensation?
And yet that is precisely what is happening with a $20 billion fund to be provided by BP to compensate people harmed by their oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
But our government is supposed to be "a government of laws and not of men."
If our laws and our institutions determine that BP ought to pay $20 billion — or $50 billion or $100 billion — then so be it.
But the Constitution says that private property is not to be confiscated by the government without "due process of law."
Of course, nothing was "confiscated," but I'm going to go ahead and just assume that that won't be a relevant distinction.
Technically, it has not been confiscated by Barack Obama, but that is a distinction without a difference.
No it isn't! You can't just say "oh, well there's no difference," as if saying makes it so! You can't complain about property being confiscated and then say that the fact that it has not been confiscated is not relevant.
Hello, police? I'd like to report my car stolen. Well, technically, I traded it in on a newer model, but that hardly seems germane to the matter at hand!
Jerusalem revives plan to raze homes
A Jerusalem planning body this week approved a plan to raze 22 Palestinian homes in east Jerusalem
A Jerusalem planning body this week approved a plan to raze 22 Palestinian homes in east Jerusalem to make room for a tourist center
The plan calls for the construction of shops, restaurants, art galleries and a large community center on the site where some say the biblical King David wrote his psalms. The 22 displaced families would be allowed to build homes elsewhere in the neighborhood, though it is not clear who would pay for them.
Back in March, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had pressured Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat to hold up the plan so authorities could consult with Palestinians losing their homes — a delay that appeared to be aimed at fending off U.S. criticism.
Sarah Palin Defense Fund Was
Created Illegally,
According To Ethics Probe
RACHEL D'ORO | 06/24/10 08:47 PM |
Sarah Palin did something dishonest? You don't say!
That's not them. These kids were a bit older.
TAPPER: George, I want to start with you. I know you don't agree with what Republican Texas Congressman Joe Barton had to say, but does the idea of this $20 billion escrow account make you uncomfortable?
WILL: It does. Look, there is no defense of BP which has an execrable safety record in this country, from the refinery disaster in Texas in '05, the Morris Slope leak in '06, all of that and so no apology from BP. But if you don't want to live in a Northern Hemisphere Venezuela, you ought to be a little queasy about the fact that a president, any president of any party, using raw political power, without recourse to courts that exist for this sort of thing. . .
Oh, the courts! Suddenly, the right is all in favor of people using the courts to have their grievances redressed! You know, Torts? The righties just loooooove torts!
. . . under laws, with due process, essentially confiscates $20 billion from a publicly held corporation, about half of its shares held by Americans, to be dispensed, again, with out judicial supervision, as the political branch sees fit.
Supervision by judges? What if they're activist judges? Since when has the right wing had any respect for the judicial branch?
That is worrisome. Even, they have even said that BP maybe held responsible for the lost wages caused by, not BP, but the administration's own moratorium, six-months moratorium, on deepwater drilling. Which maybe more costly to the economy of the Gulf than the spill itself.Really? A six-month moratorium on drilling more costly than having the shrimping, fishing, and tourism industries destroyed for at least a generation? Really? That's what you're going with? You're gonna just go ahead and stick with that, then, hmm? Yeah? The six month thing, more costly than the giant catastrophe? Yeah? Really?
WILL: Well, among those asking, upon what meat doeth [sic] our Caesar feed that he has grown so great?, is "The Economist" of London, which I think we have all accept as a mainstream publication. They say, in a section of their lead editorial, called "Vladimir Obama", "The collapse of BP's share prices suggest he has convinced the markets that he is an American version of Vladimir Putin, willing to harry firms into doing his bidding. If the president does not stand up for due process he will frighten investors across the board. The damage to Americans environment is bad enough, the president risks damaging the economy, too." That's not a partisan outfit, "The Economist".
Vilifying BP also gets in the way of identifying other culprits, one of which is the government. BP operates in one of the most regulated industries on earth with some of the most perverse rules, subsidies and incentives. Shoddy oversight clearly contributed to the spill, and an energy policy which reduced the demand for oil would do more to avert future environmental horrors than fierce retribution.
Photograph by Konstantin Zavrazhin, Getty Images
A Russian pagan puts on a fiery show Saturday during Kupalo, a summer solstice festival held in a forest about 37 miles (60 kilometers) from Moscow.
Photograph by Matt Cardy, Getty Images
A man dressed as Druid King Arthur Pendragon conducts a summer solstice 2010 sunset service near Stonehenge in the United Kingdom on Sunday.
Photograph by Konstantin Zavrazhin, Getty Images
Russian pagans jump over a ritual fire during a summer solstice 2010 celebration on Saturday.
Photograph by Konstantin Zavrazhin, Getty Images
Followers of Slavic neo-pagan religious movements gather in a Russian forest for a summer solstice 2010 celebration on Saturday.
In order to relieve these girls from what seems like little more than a cosmestic issue, Dr. Dix P. Poppas cuts out parts of the clitoris' shaft, saving the glans, or tip, for reattachment. Poppas triumphantly calls the procedure -- rebranded a clitoroplasty -- a "nerve sparing" one unlike the FGMs practiced in other countries.
How does the good doctor know that nerves have been spared? Well, Poppas and his nurse practitioner developed a series of sensory followup tests involving Q-tips, their fingernails and vibrators. But don't worry, a family member was always present in the room. As the resulting journal article notes, management of such situations requires a "compassionate and multidisciplinary approach."
3) Gail Posner, Late of Miami Beach, Florida: 
When Ms. Posner died in March at age 67, Conchita and two other dogs inherited the right to live in her seven-bedroom, $8.3 million Miami Beach mansion, their comfort ensured by a $3 million trust fund.
In a 2009 interview with a blogger for browardpalmbeach.com, Ms. Posner said Conchita typically accompanied her on lunch dates and then shopping. Ms. Posner said she at one point considered getting the dog her own Range Rover, for transportation to the animal's weekly spa appointments for manicures and pedicures, but Ms. Posner decided to get herself a new car and gave the dog her gold Cadillac Escalade, she told the blogger.
(editor's note: by the way, she never earned a goddamned cent of that money. She inherited it from her late father, who was, according to the Wall Street Journal, "A master of the hostile takeover who became one of America's highest-paid executives, Mr. Posner pleaded no contest to tax evasion charges in 1987 and was later barred from involvement with public companies.")
I apologize. I do not want to live in a country where any time a citizen or a corporation does something that is legitimately wrong is subject to some sort of political pressure that, again, in my words, amounts to some sort of a shakedown.
By midafternoon, Barton was back on the dais with a statement that was something short of what the leaders had demanded.
"I want the record to be absolutely clear that I think BP is responsible for this accident," he said. "If anything I said this morning has been misconstrued, in opposite effect, I want to apologize for that misconstruction."
okay, see, that's really not the issue. You never said or implied that they were not responsible for the spill, you just apologized to the person responsible for the very idea that he should pay for the damage for which you freely admit he was responsible. See, that's worse. If you thought that BP was somehow not responsible for the disaster, then it's just a problem of you being stupid and/or ignorant. But when you acknowledge that BP is indeed responsible, then there's no excuse for your stance.
Barton then issued, and House Republican leader John Boehner's office forwarded out a somewhat different written statement.
"I apologize for using the term 'shakedown' with regard to yesterday's actions at the White House this morning, and I retract my apology to BP," it began, and finished: "I regret the impact that my statement this morning implied that BP should not pay for the consequences of their decisions and actions in this incident."
NO. No, you didn't imply that they shouldn't have to pay. You apologized and called it a "shakedown." What the hell would motivate a person to act like this?
Barton has received $100,470 in campaign donations from oil and gas interests since the beginning of 2009, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
Ah. Say no more. Please, say no more.
