Free Republic

By DAVID LEONHARDT For all the pain caused by the Great Recession, the job market still was not in as bad shape as it had been during the depths of the early 1980s recession — until now. With the release of the jobs report on Friday, the broadest measure of unemployment and underemployment tracked by the Labor Department has reached its highest level in decades. If statistics went back so far, the measure would almost certainly be at its highest level since the Great Depression. In all, more than one out of every six workers — 17.5 percent — were...

Taxpayers get a 20 year bill for a problem the bond markets fixed in 6 months. The Obama administration famously refused to bail out California earlier this year on the rationale that one state bailout could well become 50. But thanks to the Build America Bonds program, part of the stimulus package passed in February, the federal government is committed to covering a portion of interest payments on at least $8 billion of the state's taxable debt for decades to come. In effect, what California saves by selling Build America Bonds gets billed to U.S. taxpayers. States, led by California...

The bailout is hurting--not helping--employment. The White House announced last week that the $787 billion stimulus package has "saved or created" more than 1 million jobs. Yet on Friday we learned that unemployment increased to 10.2%, and the number of unemployed Americans rose by 558,000 in October. If you factor in workers who gave up looking or settled for a part-time job, the real unemployment rate--what's known as U6--is an astounding 17.5%. Look out now for even more claims about "saved or created" jobs from the Obama administration. As numerous economists have explained, there is no academic or empirical basis...

President Obama is preparing to break the deadlock in negotiations on a global deal on climate change by announcing a target for cutting US greenhouse gas emissions. The US is the only developed country yet to propose an emissions target. Poorer nations, including most of Africa, are threatening to walk out of a UN summit in Copenhagen next month unless Mr Obama commits to an ambitious reduction. Mr Obama may wait until the final stages of the negotiations in Copenhagen in order to achieve maximum political impact with his announcement and give other countries little opportunity to demand deeper cuts...

The fiscal strain of deteriorating pension funding levels on local and state governments could contribute to downgrades in the next several years, especially among those governments that entered the recession with poor funding ratios or have little flexibility in their funding requirements, a new report from Moody’s Investors Service warns. In the near term, the impact of dwindling investment returns as a result of the market downturn is broad and adds yet another layer of fiscal stress on governments already faced with faltering tax revenues, heightened demand for social services, and pressure to scale back pension contributions to balance their...

Democrats Clear Impasse Blocking Health Care Vote By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS November 7, 2009 WASHINGTON (AP) -- Capping months of struggle, House Democrats cleared an abortion-related impasse blocking a vote on sweeping health care legislation late Friday and officials expressed optimism they had lined up the support needed to pass President Barack Obama's top domestic priority. A vote was expected on the legislation on Saturday, after Obama's scheduled midmorning trip to the Capitol complex to make one final pitch for its approval. The bill is designed to spread coverage to tens of millions who now lack it and ban insurance...

Last week the Obama administration issued a report purporting to show that the President’s $787 billion economic stimulus plan had saved or created exactly 640,329 jobs. Such a precise number for such a fuzzy concept as jobs “saved or created” immediately raised doubts about the veracity of the report in any honest American’s mind. And since that report was issued, a once compliant press has filed story after story tearing the credibility of the Obama administration’s job creation claims to shreds. Just enter the words “stimulus”, “jobs”, and “report” in a Google News search and these are just some of...

Broader Measure of Unemployment Stands at 17.5% By DAVID LEONHARDT November 6, 2009 For all the pain caused by the Great Recession, the job market still was not in as bad shape as it had been during the depths of the early 1980s recession — until now. With the release of the jobs report on Friday, the broadest measure of unemployment and underemployment tracked by the Labor Department has reached its highest level in decades. If statistics went back so far, the measure would almost certainly be at its highest level since the Great Depression. In all, more than one...

TurkeyÂ’s privatisation administration (OIB) received bids totalling $1.2bn at an auction of three power grids in Ankara on Friday, a test of market conditions that has persuaded it to press ahead with sales to ease strains on public finances. Eti Gumus, a recently privatised silver mining company with no previous involvement in energy, bid $485m for the Osmangazi grid, which has one of the lowest ratios of electricity loss and theft in the country. Calik Enerji, a unit of the unlisted Calik group, bid $441.5m for the Yesilirmak grid, which has 1.5m customers in the northern Black Sea region, while...

United Commercial Bank, a big San Francisco bank with branches in China, was closed by state regulators on Friday and its banking operations were acquired by East West Bancorp Inc, also active in both nations. East West (EWBC.O) said the transaction made it the second-largest independent bank in California. Based in Pasadena, East West has 137 U.S. branches, including offices in New York, Atlanta, Boston and Seattle, and four in China.

Radio's Rush Limbaugh is not only good for his own business -- with a new eight-year contract offering him the potential to make $400 million -- he's also good for Fox News. Limbaugh's appearance on "Fox News Sunday" set a ratings record for the year so far for the network's Sunday morning counterpunch to "Meet the Press" and the rest. Limbaugh drew 3,892,000 viewers, including 1,180,000 in the coveted 25-54 age group, for the show on the Fox broadcast network and cable's Fox News Channel (2.35 million tuned in at FNC.) "I'm a ... guy who earns a percentage of...

After giving free markets a bad name, investment banks are turning to religion. These guys really have no shame. They pose as free marketeers when every penny they make is propped up by government, and now they want to invoke the good words in the Bible to justify their scamming. IB's are now hitting the churches of London, before they divvy up this year's loot. It is an attempt to do what they do best, confuse great truths with their scams. Barclays Plc Chief Executive Officer John Varley stood at the wooden lectern in St. Martin-in-the- Fields on London’s Trafalgar...

Economists agree that the home-buyer tax credit is risky and stupid. So why does Washington love the policy? ___ Ted Gayer of the centrist Brookings Institute issued what one CNN blogger described as a "smackdown" of the credit. Simon Johnson, the former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund, and James Kwak, who writes a Washington Post column with Johnson, have called the credit "throwing good money after bad." And conservatives—Kevin Hassett, the director of economic policy studies at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, and Ronald Utt, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, have penned pieces slamming the...

Five more banks, including a California-based institution that reportedly received federal bailout funds in 2008, were closed Friday by regulators, bringing the 2009 total to 120 failed banks. The latest banks to be taken over were United Security Bank of Sparta, Ga.; Home Federal Savings Bank of Detroit; United Commercial Bank of San Francisco; Gateway Bank of St. Louis and Prosperan Bank of Oakdale, Minn., according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. United Commercial, which had branches across the U.S. and also in Hong Kong and Shanghai, focused on the Chinese-American market in the U.S. and had obtained a very...

With a Westchester decision, the feds decree that neighborhoods must seek minority residents.___ The leafy towns and villages of central and northern Westchester County, New York, with their large-lot zoning, stone walls along winding lanes, and the wooden stables of horse country, are among the wealthiest in the United States. From Pound Ridge to Scarsdale, from Chappaqua to Bedford, they might seem remote and insulated from Washington policy disputes. But thanks to a legal settlement announced on August 11, they have become the testing ground for a federal social policy that seeks a dramatic change in the organizing principle of...

A Call to Catholics Don't let abortion politics stand in the way of affordable coverage for all. By Kathleen Kennedy Townsend | Newsweek Nov 6, 2009 Nearly 50 years ago, President Kennedy delivered his famous "Catholic" speech in which he stated, "Whatever issue may come before me as president—on birth control, divorce, censorship, gambling, or any other subject—I will make my decision in accordance with these views, in accordance with what my conscience tells me to be the national interest, and without regard to outside religious pressure or dictates. And no power or threat of punishment could cause me to...

A rising Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) means better times are on the way, right? Not necessarily, according to CNBC CME floor reporter and tea party movement inspiration Rick Santelli. Santelli made an appearance on CNBC's Nov. 6 "Fast Money," a show which the host, Melissa Lee, is skittish about a discussion that politics interferes with the market is a reality. Nonetheless, Santelli explained there so happens to be correlation between a rise in unemployment rates and the rise in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. "[I] think we're building a stairway to heaven in Dow prices on the back of...

President Obama today signed a $24 billion economic stimulus bill one of whose main features is an extension and expansion of a "temporary" first-time homebuyer tax credit worth up to $8,000 per household. The House and Senate each passed the measure earlier this week by the respective margins of 403-12 and 98-0. In so doing, lawmakers laid the groundwork for even more inefficiency and corruption.

Second straight quarterly gain for insurer. merican International Group, the insurance giant whose near-collapse last year prompted a massive federal bailout, on Friday posted its second consecutive quarterly profit as some of its units continued to stabilize and improved financial markets boosted the company's bottom line. The New York-based insurer reported a third-quarter profit of $455 million, or 68 cents a share, compared with a $24.47 billion loss, or $181.02 a share, during the same period last year, according to a regulatory filing. For the second straight quarter, AIG elected not to hold an investor call to discuss its results....

Freddie Mac (NYSE:FRE - News; NYSE:FRE - News), the second largest provider of U.S. residential mortgage funding, on Friday posted a loss of $5 billion in the third quarter and predicted it would need more government support amid a "prolonged deterioration" in housing. Increases in the value of securities Freddie Mac held over the period helped buoy its net worth, however, erasing its need to tap government funds for a second straight quarter to stay solvent while continuing to buy and guarantee home loans. Including a $1.3 billion dividend payment on senior preferred stock bought by the Treasury in previous...

Global cooling charts have been updated through October 31, 2009. The chart trends definitely indicate why politicians such as Lindsey Graham, Boxer, Obama, Waxman and others are finding it so difficult to convince Americans that the world is suffering from "global warming" climate change.

Members of Congress and the general public may not be aware of “potential emerging threats to the stability of the financial system,” thanks to a Thursday vote by a House panel shepherding the bill that’s supposed to end “too big to fail.” Members of Congress and the general public may not be aware of "potential emerging threats to the stability of the financial system," thanks to a Thursday vote by a House panel shepherding the bill that's supposed to end "too big to fail." The vote was on an amendment offered by Rep. Gregory Meeks, a New York Democrat, and...

While a slight improvement over last month's numbers, today's employment update from the Bureau of Labor Statistics presents a dismal picture for American workers. As policy makers search for the best remedies to strengthen our economic performance, they can't afford to overlook new firms and young firms. Unfortunately, in troubled economic times the language of recovery is too often tilted toward large, established companies or to "small businesses," a broad term that traditionally applies to businesses with fewer than 500 employees. The conventional wisdom is that such businesses account for half of the labor force and are therefore the engine...

The Motor City wants change. At least that was the message sent from the polls on Tuesday night’s general municipal election. While some of the election results had been easily predicted, there were some minor surprises. City Council President Kenneth Cockrel Jr. was expected to come out second if not on top of the city council race. Instead, voters demoted him, placing the former interim mayor fourth behind three fresh faces to the council. But as the polls predicted, Charles Pugh got the most votes, making him the new city council president. Gary Brown, who had been expected to be...

November 06, 2009 AMA's Endorsement of House Health Care Bill Sparks Internal Uprising Some AMA members are outraged that the group's trustees made the endorsement without the formal approval of the organization's House of Delegates. The American Medical Association's much-touted endorsement of the House health care reform bill has triggered a revolt among some members who want the endorsement withdrawn. Some members are outraged that the group's trustees made the endorsement without the formal approval of the organization's House of Delegates. On Monday, delegates will vote on a resolution offered by some members that, if approved, will withdraw the AMA’s...

The health bill that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is bringing to a vote (H.R. 3962) is 1,990 pages. Here are some of the details you need to know. What the government will require you to do: Sec. 202 (p. 91-92) of the bill requires you to enroll in a "qualified plan." If you get your insurance at work, your employer will have a "grace period" to switch you to a "qualified plan," meaning a plan designed by the Secretary of Health and Human Services. If you buy your own insurance, there's no grace period. You'll have to enroll in...

Comparing the relative strengths of India and China is a time-honoured parlour game. Which nation can grow faster? Which will be the more important power in the 21st century? Which one has a better model for growth? After China’s dramatic Olympic showcase and its ability to get its economy growing quickly after the global financial downturn, many have wondered if China has the jump on India today. But courtesy of an innovative London-based think tank, we have a comprehensive way of comparing India and China—one that is far more useful and comprehensive than anything that has come before it—and the...

Rising productivity is usually one of the best things you can hope for in an economy. It means people are producing more for each hour they work. That's the path to higher living standards. But the huge burst in productivity that the U.S. economy experienced in the third quarter is not entirely good. In fact, it's a sign that the U.S. economy is still in a sickly condition—a conclusion that is likely to be driven home by the latest job-loss figures release on Nov. 6. Economists who cheered the productivity number are ignoring the dark side of its sudden growth....

Regulation: Washington is quietly preparing a hostile takeover of Wall Street with a new bill that would put regulators in control of managing asset prices. While all eyes are fixed on the cobra poised to strike the health care industry, a python is wending its way through Hill banking panels that would squeeze the life from the whole economy. By Christmas, House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank hopes to pass legislation that would create an uber-regulatory body called the Financial Services Oversight Council. It would give the Treasury secretary power to pick which large finance firms are "systemically critical,"...

Before addressing the article, people should know that the AMA has gone from an organization that virtually all MDs belong to down to only about 17%. Gee I wonder why? That said, according to the article "The American Medical Association (AMA) is facing a rebellion from some of its members, who have introduced a resolution to revoke the organization's endorsement of the Democrats' healthcare proposals. AMA delegates tell Newsmax that the association's board of trustees failed to obtain delegate approval before endorsing the reform proposals. The AMA's delegate assembly is considered the group's primary policy-making body. Dr. James Dolan, the...

Today, Ranking Member of the House Ways and Means Committee Dave Camp (R-MI) released a letter from the non-partisan Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) confirming that the failure to comply with the individual mandate to buy health insurance contained in the Pelosi health care bill (H.R. 3962, as amended) could land people in jail. The JCT letter makes clear that Americans who do not maintain “acceptable health insurance coverage” and who choose not to pay the bill’s new individual mandate tax (generally 2.5% of income), are subject to numerous civil and criminal penalties, including criminal fines of up to $250,000...

The 27-kilometer (16.8 mile) LHC suffered serious overheating in several sections after the small piece of baguette landed in a piece of equipment on the surface above the accelerator ring. Dr Mike Lamont, the LHC’s Machine Coordinator, said that a “a bit of baguette”, believed to have been dropped by a bird, caused the superconducting magnets to heat up from 1.9 Kelvin (-271.1C) to around 8 Kelvin (-265C), near the mark where they stop superconducting. The Large Hadron Collider (left) and its arch-nemesis (right) A failure like this, known as a “quench”, can be expected at around 9.6 Kelvin, CERN...

WASHINGTON — Just when it was beginning to look a little better, the economy relapsed Friday with a return to double-digit unemployment for only the second time since World War II and warnings that next year will be even worse than previously thought. The jobless rate rocketed to 10.2 percent in October, the highest since early 1983, dealing a psychological blow to Americans as they prepare holiday shopping lists. It was another worse-than-expected report casting a shadow over the struggling recovery. President Barack Obama called it "a sobering number that underscores the economic challenges that lie ahead." He signed a...

The voters be damned: That seems to be Speaker Nancy Pelosi's attitude in the wake of big Democratic losses on Tuesday. "House Democratic leaders, undeterred by delays in the Senate or this week's Republican electoral triumphs, plan to call a vote Saturday on the most sweeping overhaul of U.S. health-care policy in four decades," Bloomberg reports: The House will move on the $1.05 trillion legislation that would cover 36 million uninsured people and create a government plan to compete with private insurers even after the election of Republican governors in New Jersey and Virginia. President Barack Obama will go to...

Zvi Goffer, was charged with insider trading.......nicknamed "Octopussy" for having so many sources of information. Goffer -- formererly with Galleon Group hedge-funder Raj Rajaratnam (busted last month on related insider-trading) -- allegedly led a rogue group on an "illegal tip-and-trade binge" that raked in upwards of $20M between April 07-May 08. The ring took "a page from drug dealers' playbook," using "hard-to-trace, pre-paid cellphones to avoid detection. According to a SEC complaint, Goffer, 32, gave one of his tipees a disposable phone to share info about the impending acquisition of 3Com. After the deal was announced, Goffer pulled out the...

Today at 2pm the House Rules Committee will meet to consider the rule for H.R. 3962 , the Affordable Health Care for America Act. As of this morning 104 amendments had been filed with the Rules Committee for consideration. Republican’s have filed 87 amendments and Democrats have filed 17. The debate in the Rules Committee and a final vote could continue well into this evening.The rule being debated today will not only cover HR 3962 but will also apply to HR 3961, the Medicare Physician Payment Reform Act, also known as the Doc Fix. This is a procedural gimmick that...

Rep Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) recently met with senior officials of Goldman Sachs. The confusion she displayed during that meeting is astonishing. Here is her report : This week I had an opportunity most Americans would relish, just as I did. I was able to unload on two top executives of Goldman Sachs who descended from on high to my office because I clearly needed some educating. One was a Vice President and the other their Chief Risk Officer. I had authored a letter on October 28, along with Congressman Peter Welch, that read, "We understand Goldman Sachs is expected to...

Britain should give up its place on the International Monetary Fund to make way for a single European Union seat on the fund’s board, a leading economist has said. Simon Johnson, a former IMF chief economist, said that the passing of the EU’s Lisbon Treaty, should accelerate moves towards a common European position in international economic institutions. The Lisbon Treaty will take force next month, taking the EU another step closer towards acting as a single entity in international affairs. The treaty creates a European president and a new European “foreign minister”, who will be able to speak for all...

I just surfed through the websites of the local TV stations and the two main newspapers here, The Tennessean and the Trashville City Paper and not a single one of the TV stations or newspaper websites has one article or story on anything to do with unemployment, let alone the fact that the numbers are now at 10.2%. Its disgusting!

Liberals and conservatives each have their own intellectual food chains. They have their own think tanks to provide arguments, politicians and pundits to amplify them, and news media outlets to deliver streams of prejudice-affirming stories. Independents, who are the largest group in the electorate, don’t have any of this... --snip-- The most telling races this year were the suburban rebellions across the country. For example, in Westchester and Nassau counties in New York, Republican candidates came from nowhere to defeat entrenched Democratic county officials. In blue Pennsylvania, the G.O.P. won six out of seven statewide offices... --snip-- The percentage of...

Employment in the service sector -- the main source of U.S. jobs -- fell 61,000 in October. Business and professional services companies shed 18,000 jobs. Retail trade cut 40,000 jobs and leisure and hospitality employment fell by 37,000.

There were, once upon a time, usury laws that generally held any interest rate greater than 10% was illegal. The Federal Reserve under Paul Volcker believed that interest rates needed to be raised to insane levels to stop the runaway inflation, which was the first stone that hit the water sending the shock waves that we are having to pay for today. Once the usury laws were altered so the Fed could fight inflation, it set in motion the doubling of household debt, not to mention the national debt. At 8%, the principle is doubled through interest in less than...

Gorbachev and his ilk call for ‘new thinking,’ but really mean new ways to dictate how people should live This week, German Chancellor Angela Merkel told the U.S. Congress that inaction on climate change amounted to a new “Berlin Wall” of “short- sighted self-interest.” Ms. Merkel’s claim was upside down. There is indeed a new threat to freedom in the offing, but it is the Green Wall that she is recommending. It will span the globe, and there will be no escape. What collapsed twenty years ago was Communism. What didn’t collapse was anti-capitalism, which remains the principle driver of...

U.S. President Barack Obama says new figures that show the nation's unemployment rate reached double digits in October are a reminder of the challenges that remain. The 10.2 percent jobless figure is the highest since 1983. President Obama stood in the White House Rose Garden shortly after the number was announced, and said the U.S. economy has more work to do on reducing unemployment. "Although we lost fewer jobs than we did last month, our unemployment rate climbed to over 10 percent, a sobering number that underscores the economic challenges that lie ahead," said President Obama. The Labor Department says...

U.S. citizens are joining immigrants in store parking lots

WASHINGTON, Nov 6 (Reuters) - President Barack Obama said on Friday the jump in the unemployment rate to 10.2 percent in October was a "sobering" figure that underscored the economic challenges ahead. Obama, speaking after the U.S. jobless rate unexpectedly rose to a 26 1/2-year high, also said he had signed a bill that extended jobless benefits and homebuyer tax credits. "I just signed into law a bill that will help grow our economy, save and create new jobs and provide relief to struggling families and businesses," Obama said in a statement delivered in the White House Rose Garden. "The...

Fort Hood, Texas (CNN) -- The police officer who ended the Fort Hood massacre by shooting the suspect was known as the enforcer on her street, a "tough woman" who patrolled her neighborhood and once stopped burglars at her house. "If you come in, I'm going to shoot," Kimberly Munley told the would-be intruders last year. It was Munley who arrived quickly Thursday at the scene of the worst massacre at an Army base in U.S. history, where 13 people were killed. She confronted the alleged gunman, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, and shot him four times. Munley was wounded in...

BARCELONA - The United States is likely to bear the brunt of the blame among recession-hit developed nations for a six- to 12-month delay to a new global climate deal hoped for December in Copenhagen. U.S. failure to match expectations with a carbon target by the December deadline may dent confidence in its power to ever be able to deliver, despite President Obama's strong commitment to fight climate change. Governments were meant to agree a global deal to succeed the Kyoto Protocol, the first period of which runs out in 2012, at the December 7-18 meeting in Copenhagen. But many...

Not a week goes by that someone on the right isn't longing for the "Reaganomics" of the '80s. These people are either being dishonest, have selective amnesia, or are just ignorant of the facts. During Ronald Reagan's eight-year tenure, the budget grew by 69 percent, from $678 billion, to $2.3 trillion. ... The deficit rose from $79 billion to $212 billion and he added $1.9 trillion to the federal deficit. His response to this? "I am not worried about the deficit. It is big enough to take care of itself." In his second year in office, he presided over the...

I recently sat down with legendary investor Ted Forstmann to discuss why, on the one-year anniversary of the financial meltdown, the press has largely ignored the role of government in creating the meltdown—and possibly setting the stage for another one—by allowing Wall Street to borrow cheaply and easily during the past three decades. "I guess reporters think writing about greedy investment bankers is more interesting," Mr. Forstmann laughed. [....] The greed merchants needed a co-conspirator, Mr. Forstmann argues, and that co-conspirator is and was the United States government. "They're always there waiting to hand out free money," he said. "They...