Posted on 12/19/2013 5:54:16 AM PST by John W
(Reuters) - The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits rose last week to the highest level in nearly nine months, casting a shadow on the labor market.
Initial claims for state unemployment benefits increased 10,000 to a seasonally adjusted 379,000, the Labor Department said on Thursday. That was the highest level since March and marked the second straight week that claims have risen.
Claims for the prior week were revised to show 1,000 more applications received than previously reported.
Economists polled by Reuters had expected first-time applications to fall to 334,000 last week.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
“Not this year (its been really light for several years now). The mall is a freaking ghost town.”
My wife decided to swing into a shopping outlet in PA on her way back from her company’s North Jersey home office to do a little last-minute Christmas shopping. All but three of the stores were closed — as in “Out of Business”. This is in an affluent area of Bucks County, PA that is a fairly popular shopping destination.
Things are very bad out there.
I recommend shopping at Target...NOT.
Did some Christmas shopping last night right after dinner. The stores were remarkably NOT crowded and I made it home in twenty minutes on a lightly traveled road.
Oooh, Ahhhh, Woooo, Wow, what a surprise.
NOT of course.
What kind of prancing queer add is obastard going to trot out to propagandize this?
I had at least a couple of thoughts yesterday.
This administration is like the class bullies taking over the classroom when the teacher leaves the room or a substitute teacher sits in. The good kids are very uncomfortable and just trying to stay out of the way so they don’t get hurt or blamed and hoping order returns soon. All the while bullies are running amok and the want to be bad seeds are becoming more bold. Problem is, the “good kids” the bonehead pubbies are joining in because they are afraid the teacher won’t return or something. Maybe they are just stupid and senile.
The Clintoons would probably have done what this gang is doing but they didn’t move fast enough. They held back when resistance was met in the first two years. I wondered why they had not done what this gang is doing when I read Podesta’s remarks and remembered that Clintoon picked him for chief of staff. That says to me that the Clintoons and odumbo are of similar minds. So why wasn’t Clintoon able to pull it off? Because he controlled the Administrative and Legislative branches only for the first two years. In that first two years is when I threw a boot into the TV. After that there was a republican house and senate. This is why Clintoon is remorseful and I believe, jealous of odumbo but I think it is also why he probably coached odumbo.
The house and senate margins of control have been getting thinner and thinner each year showing how polarized the country has become. Used to be people crossed the party line to vote for what is best for the country because their prosperity was tied to the prosperity of the country. There were no handouts. As handouts came so did people voting only for who gave them more handouts. By the 1980’s the influence of generations who believed in the country was disappearing from the democratic party and the sense of entitlement had begun. See how the voting pattern changed?
H.W. Bush and Nixon hardly had a chance. Bush was for all intents and purposes a failed presidency. Only doing the “right” think in Kuwait saved him. Look at all the junk that was pushed through when Nixon was president.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Presidents_and_control_of_Congress
We’ve been having chain restaurants closing...at least three of them. Last one was a Boston Market, a few weeks ago. I thought to myself, why close right before the Christmas rush...oh wait.
Wow, the Christmas rush is already over.
Started shopping at HF some and what stuff I’ve bought, no complaints.
Harbor Freight - tools that are “good enough”.
I’ve heard a lot of pros express disdain for the quality,
but for half the price, I’ll take 75% of the quality,
especially since I’ll be using it at about 25% of the rate of “the pros”.
“The real number is over 20% unemployed.”
I have it at 40% since many “employed” are not full-time as they were but part timers. Without going back and checking numbers I think I deduced that there are only 27 million full-time salaried workers right now. The rest are part-time or non-salary/hourly, and most of these were people holding 2 or more jobs to get to 40 or more hours per week.
The average household income has dropping under Obama from $54,000 to $46,000. That’s a painful drop by any measure.
It’s important to consider that in-store traffic may be a less reliable indicator of commercial activity. More people buy online than ever before. From that point of view attention should be paid to how well Amazon and other online giants are doing. See the following link:
http://news.yahoo.com/amazon-slaying-brick-mortar-stores-holiday-gadget-sales-214035148.html
Most of the tool and equipment I have sees a little intense periodic use and a lot of sitting and collecting dust in the basement.
Do not forget about workforce attrition that falls off the radar.
Another consequence of the shutdown of America. This could all be EASILY fixed, but that’s not the goal of the Marxocrats and the America-hater globalists who want more than anything to see America brought to its knees.
Read the headline in the newspaper on the floor by the failure to launch.
That sums it up!
And to think Healthcare.gov still has problems.
“Wow, the Christmas rush is already over.”
My wife and I have been saying that, since Black Friday week failed to bring in as many $’s as last year.
Besides Walmart, and even their customer traffic seems lighter than in the early fall months, we are not seeing as many shoppers and people eating lunch and early dinners as past years.
I have been posting about this lack of people buying and spending since Black Friday week. Even our so called conservative business media outlets seem to be ignoring what many of us are seeing.
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