Free Republic

22 Stats That Prove That There Is Something Seriously Wrong With Young Men In America By Michael Snyder December 17th, 2012 When are we finally going to admit that we have a very serious problem with this generation of young men in America? We have failed them so dramatically that it is hard to put it into words. We have raised an entire generation of young males that don't know how to be men, and many of them feel completely lost. Sometimes they feel so lost that they "snap" in very destructive ways. Adam Lanza and James Holmes are two...

On the heels of winning its first premiere week in the A18-49 demographic in nine years, NBC has picked up three of its new fall series - the adventure-drama "Revolution" and the comedies "Go On" and "The New Normal" -- for full-season commitments for the 2012-13 season, it was announced today by Jennifer Salke, President, NBC Entertainment.

A majority of Americans now define success as not falling behind. They worry that fundamental changes in the economy are making it more difficult for them—and their children—to get ahead. The road still rises. But the climb is steeper, and the falls are more frequent. That’s the view of prospects for upward mobility in the modern American economy that emerges from the latest Allstate/National Journal Heartland Monitor Poll. Although an overwhelming majority of Americans still define the U.S. as “the land of opportunity,” nearly as many agree that getting ahead is more difficult for workers today than it was for...

FOOD STAMP USE CLIMBS TO RECORD 46.7 MILLION

Just how much the Great Recession reshaped baby boomer retirements is becoming clearer: More than ever they expect to retire later or work when they're "retired." In 1991, just one in 10 workers told the Employee Benefit Research Institute that they planned to wait to retire until they were older than 65. By 2007, three in 10 said that. This year? More than four in 10. Boomers cruising toward a traditional retirement suffered a financial comeuppance in the economic slump that began in late 2007. The downturn sapped jobs, stock and housing values, and interest on savings. Many also were...

NBC’s Utah affiliate KSL-TV strikes again. The station, which is owned by the Mormon church, announced today that it won’t air the network’s new comedy series New Normal. Co-created by Ryan Murphy and Ali Adler, The New Normal stars Andrew Rannells and Justin Bartha as gay partners who are having a baby through a surrogate. “For our brand, this program simply feels inappropriate on several dimensions, especially during family viewing time,” Jeff Simpson, CEO of KSL’s parent company, Bonneville International, told local papers, including KSL sibling Deseret News. The New Normal is scheduled to air Tuesdays at 8:30 PM. Simpson...

We’re living in two Americas. But unlike 50 years ago, when Michael Harrington’s “The Other America” shone a spotlight on poverty among certain groups within the U.S., today’s “other America” is one of profound differences in the most precious of all commodities – the length of our lives. We’ve known for some time now of the health and longevity disparities between blacks and whites. But, as new findings by the MacArthur Foundation Research Network on an Aging Society, recently published in Health Affairs, demonstrate, the story about these longevity gaps has gone through some rather startling changes.

Pro 'gay marriage' / 'gay family' show on the way. http://www.nbc.com/the-new-normal/

1 — Be a skinflint. Cut down on your spending. And be very nice to your boss, assuming you still have a job.2 — Think in terms of NOT losing money. Forget about easy Wall Street profits. There aren’t going to be any easy profits — not without a huge new infusion of borrowed money.3 — Be sceptical of everything you read. The media is desperate for circulation, and it will slap on the cover of its magazine or newspaper any damn fool statement that it thinks will sell.4 — Have faith in your gold. As confidence in the...

We aren't going to have another financial crash. In fact, nothing at all is going to happen. Forecasting the United States economy is about as exciting as predicting next quarter's gross domestic product in 1957 Poland. You want to know what's going to happen, comrade? Read the Five Year Plan. With 40% of US personal income coming from transfer payments, it's almost nostalgic to call it capitalism. The so-called American economic recovery won't die, because it's undead. It was a zombie to begin with. Equity investors during the past six weeks came to the collective conclusion that the US is...

Accessing Capital for Commercial Real Estate Is Difficult in the New Normal May 04, 2011 | Staff Writer By Richard Gatto Executive Vice President – The Alter Group With the nation’s banks sitting on between $1.2 and $1.3 billion worth of capital, they are nevertheless reluctant to lend on commercial real estate because of the elevated level of risk and current valuations of properties already on their books. Many banks own portfolios of commercial real estate whose valuations have declined significantly and do not want to increase their exposure. Currently, banks are under pressure to de-leverage and raise their book...

After a 45-minute closed session, the Old Fort Aldermen voted unanimously Monday to do away with their pay and the mayor’s pay. The action was taken because the town is about to lose its biggest water and sewer customer, Pisgah Yarn & Dyeing. Last month, Jack Lonon Jr., president of the family-owned company, announced that the company’s assets will be sold to Spinrite Yarns of Canada and the plant will soon shut down its manufacturing operations in Old Fort. The closing of Pisgah Yarn & Dyeing will mean the town will no longer get approximately $150,000 in water and sewer...

Anne, 45, has always considered herself middle-class: As a single mom earning $65,000 a year in ad sales, she was able to rent a one-bedroom apartment on the Upper East Side for $1,000 a month and send her daughter, now 12, to private school. “I was able to make it,” she says. “Even go on vacation sometimes.” In the span of 15 months, she has come to define herself as poor — even if the government won’t, denying her multiple applications for welfare and food stamps because, she says, she once made “too much money.” Upon losing her job in...

Most investors would be happy if they knew what was going to happen in the next 10 days. Nick Colas, chief market strategist at BNY ConvergEx, thinks he’s got it licked for the next 10 years. In a note released Wednesday, he calls it the “New Abnormal.” So give the man credit for a nice play on words that stands Pimco’s “New Normal” forecast, and much of its underlying principles, on its head. Colas draws some common-sense conclusions based on all the inflation likely to be pumped into the system and the higher tax rates that will be needed to...

Productivity growth is strong, monetary policy is easy, inventories are thin and corporate profits are growing. There have been three distinct, and very diverse, sets of economic forecasts circulating in the past year. First, the end of the world forecast--call it, Depression II. Second, the "new normal" forecast of weak and anemic growth. And third, our expectation of a V-shaped recovery and relatively strong 4% real gross domestic product growth. With GDP scheduled for release next week, our estimate for annualized second- quarter real GDP growth is 3.5%. This is a significant reduction from our 5.5% forecast (made back in...

U.S. stock investors should curb expectations, adviser says Technology, materials and industrials should perform as economy recovers By Kate Gibson, MarketWatch NEW YORK (MarketWatch) - As stock investors hunt for higher returns in light of what some are calling a "new normal" of reduced expectations, analysts point to early- cycle stocks as among those that stand to gain as Asian demand for goods picks up. Equities investors accustomed to an average rate of return in any rolling 20-year period at around 11% would be wise to adjust their expectations downward, says Doug Lockwood, chief investment officer at Cornerstone Wealth Management....

Welcome To The New Normal by: John Mauldin September 27, 2009 And What We Don't See The Statistical Recovery A Double-Dip Recession? Welcome to the New Normal Birthdays, New Orleans, and then the Road Trip from Hell Unemployment is high and rising. But if the recession is over, won't employment start to rise? The quick answer is no. We look deeper into the Statistical Recovery and find yet more reasons to be concerned about near-term deflation. This week we consider all things unemployment and ponder the need to create at least 15 million jobs in the next five years to...

NEW YORK – The economic crisis isn't over yet, but ABC News is concentrating some reporting on what life will be like when it is. A network-wide series of reports next week on "The New Normal" will look at how businesses and personal habits have changed in the wake of the recession. "World News," "Nightline" and "Good Morning America" will all do stories, culminating in a "20/20" special on June 19. ABC News President David Westin said the network has held a series of off-the-record meetings with economists, business leaders and regulators over the past year and he was struck...

DES MOINES — Former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich said Friday that Americans need to be ready to wage the war on terrorism for 50 to 70 more years. The possible 2008 Republican presidential candidate also called for a restructuring of presidential debates and campaign events to bring more substance and fewer shrill attacks.

Anne Hendershott, a professor of sociology at the University of San Diego, boldly uses in the title of her latest book, The Politics of Deviance (Encounter, 2004), a word that many dare no longer speak. WORLD: Is anything deviant anymore? Hendershott: We have become reluctant to label behaviors "deviant." Drug abuse, promiscuity, abortion, and even homosexual acts are all behaviors that in the past were viewed as quite deviant. Today, in many cases, these behaviors have been normalized—or, as the late Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan said, we have "defined deviancy down." I was curious how that happened and decided to...