Category: Economy

The Economic Crisis defined by the neocons, isn’t the fact that folks are losing their homes/jobs/retirements, etc.  No, Economic Crisis for the neocons is the fact that folks are finally waking up to the fact that our country has been robbed blind and these sleepy folks may soon be seeking justice and/or blood.

The Political Crisis defined by the neocons isn’t the fact that our politicians and government have been bought by corporations and are corrupt to the core.  No, Political crisis for the neocons is the fact that folks are finally waking up to the fact that our politicians and government agencies have been bought by corporations and are corrupt to the core.

Its a pickle for the neocons…..how can they continue with business as usual when so many folks are on to them.

There was once an alarmist diary at dKos about the coming hard times, and how people in the country can grow their own food, but city-dwellers and those people who will be rendered homeless by the mortgage implosion during the Great Depression Redux will have no such recourse.

And it made me remember a few things.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/u…

That link goes to a pic of one of the most famous headlines in 20th Century U.S. journalism:

“FORD TO CITY: DROP DEAD”

and it ushered in what we were subsequently to understand was the GOP’s compassionate conservatism toward all beings, human and otherwise.

Greetings folks, welcome to another edition of Manufacturing Monday.  Sorry about last week, it’s normally my goal to have a new edition out on the first day of the week, but sometimes life can be unpredictable and throw you a curve ball. Well, several interesting things this week ranging from manufacturing activity to California looking to gain Tesla’s plants.  Plus the Financial Times reports on China dethroning the US from it’s Manufacturing title.

“You can’t imagine the happiness I am feeling,” said Maria Benedita Sousa.

Sousa is an American success story. She has pulled herself up by the bootstraps in one of the poorest areas of the country and now owns her own business. Sousa now employs 25 people that produce 55,000 pairs of women’s underwear a month. Not only is she a small business owner, this mother of three has bought and restored a home for her family and is helping pay for her daughter’s schooling to become a pharmacist. When she graduates from college, she’ll become the first in the Sousa family to do so.

“I battled and battled, and today my children are studying, with one in college and two others in school. It’s a gift from God,” she said.

Proof positive the American dream is alive and well… in South America – Brazil to be precise.

(Author’s note: Much thanks to Bondad for the data, without him, I could not complete this. )

It seems Congress is looking into getting the tax code to work in bringing jobs here.  Also, on the inflation front, Dow Chemical is reporting that material costs have become a financial tumor.  Folks, welcome to another edition of Manufacturing Monday!

<sup>Cross posted on

The Economic Populist –

A Community Site for Economics Freaks and Geeks</sup>

Failure in war can be a bad thing.  Failure in business can be a personal loss, and in some instances a detriment to the economy.  With the recent calamity hitting the two largest mortgage lenders, not to mention other large American business concerns, it seems to a select few that failure is indeed a viable and good option.

A gamble with very high stakes is being openly promoted by adherents to a free-market orthodoxy.  These individuals, gaming on anger and the perceived loss of utility of these given enterprises, are pushing the public onto this wager.

I was going to launch into a rant about how not to throw a local festival, but as I began writing I realized there was an underlying reason behind the individual failures responsible for a bad show.

A local producer rented the venue space, arranged for bands and vendors, and then opened the gates.  Unfortunately not many people actually showed up.  End result, disgruntled vendors, musicians and fans.  He printed up small fliers and got them out to other concerts but failed to advertise in the local alternative press due to financial matters.  He had to wait for a few people to show up and pay him before he could run out and get supplies, this slowed him down and the event suffered as a result.  Due to the economy he could not afford to pay people to help him during the weekend and though there were plenty of volunteers you get what you pay for.  

Now if the kids who go to the concerts can still afford their internet services they had a chance of finding out about it, if they could afford to put gas into a borrowed vehicle, scrape together $75 bucks for a ticket and grab some bologna and bread on the way out of their college ghetto apartments they could have actually made it to the festival and enjoyed themselves.  Unfortunately only about 150 kids were able to do that and I’m guessing half of those were local musicians looking to make contacts.

Another aspect to this dilemma is distraction…I’m quite content to sit on a lounge chair and watch one good band after another hit the stage, that’s what makes me part of a dying breed.  The younger generation needs more stimulation and activity than that.  They get bored with only one thing to focus on and boredom leads to bad ideas.

cross posted from The Dream Antilles with a special h/t to Mishima for including it in Thursday’s DD Times

Salicornia

Salicornia, believe it or not, is a plant that can grow in inhospitable, desert soils and can be watered with, of all things, ocean salt water.  Never heard of this?  Neither have I.  I’ve sat on the beach and wondered what it would take to remove the salt from sea water to grow things in sand, but I never thought about reversing the process,  leaving the salt in the water and finding something that would grow in it.  In today’s LA Times I found an “ah hah” moment.

Please join me below.

In talks with the Japanese Prime Minister prior to the G8 Summit next week on the Japanese island of Hokkaido, our National Embarassment and all around Shameless President, George W. Bush is either:

A.)  Having constructive talks with the Japanese P.M. on how to make positive economic and environmental changes for the betterment of the world population

B.)  Having destructive talks with the Japanese P.M. on how to shirk positive economic and environmental changes for the betterment of the world population

C.)  Saying the same ol’ shit over and over like a broken record

Now, I know there are a couple of choices there that are tempting, and one that is completely ridiculous on many levels.  However, the MOST correct answer is the one we are looking for here today.

The correct answer is C !!  Saying the same ol’ shit over and over like a broken record

For those of you who may or may not have been not fooled by the “shirk” question (which by the way is MOSTLY right), we will discuss this more in just a bit.

See me below.

This is a follow-up to Retrofit Suburbia Redux

At Ezra Klein, in a post about The Costs of Cap and Trade, a commentator, “Black Political Analysis” frames the Auto-Uber-Alles position as:

I intuitively agree with your logic, which is correct government policy can move the markets in any particular direction. The real matter is at what points will Americans see increased regulation as better than the status quo. For now, Americans seem quite willing, not content, but willing to pay $4/gallon. The American desire to have the most liberty possible (i.e. the government not telling the people what to do) is quite high; so economic circumstances must be quite severe before Americans embrace your ideas (even though they are good ideas).

July 4, 2008 12:03 PM

I answer:

Except when it comes to regulations preventing a lot near a suburban transport stop from being redeveloped to ground floor professional or retail space with townhouses stacked on top … sacrificing liberty in that situation is done without a moment’s thought.

Cars are liberating if you are the one with the car and not too many other people have them in any given area. Either take away your car, or establish a system of government subsidy and regulation that ensures that everyone must ride a car to get anywhere, and the liberty vanishes.

Indeed, a freedom that rests on the lack of freedom of others is not what I write down under the heading of “liberty”.

It’s refreshing to see that some businesses are doing well in today’s economy.  Perhaps the most successful venture going today is the pawn shop.  From Peoria to Pasadena,  pawn shops are seeing a boom in clients.

Says Doug Robinson, a pawn shop owner in Pasadena,

We’ve been on a continuous uphill run for a number of months.  I don’t see anything that will stop it.

Worse even than the paycheck advance loans, a pawn shop loan typically involves an annual interest rate in excess of 50%.  Yes, that is fifty percent per year.  In Mississippi, the cap is 25% per month, which is 300% per year (if not compounded monthly).  

Given that credit card debt is often 18% or higher, it is incredibly sad to imagine the poor soul who pawns an object at 50% interest to pay that very same object off on the 18% credit card debt.  

Or at the least that first effects of The Recession have finally arrived on privileged corners of Manhattan.

This from the The New York Times, which as you will recall, contains all the news that’s fit to print, and chronicles events in the world from its lofty perspective.  The headline: “In weak economy, forgoing $4 lattes for home brews.”

The ”latte effect” of the go-go years had consumers spending $4 a day on coffee. Now the downturn is forcing them to rethink the wisdom of such habits.

As inflation squeezes budgets, middle-class Americans are taking fresh stock of their spending in search of ways to save a nickel or a dime. The result: People are giving up a variety of small financial vices.   ..snip

While the idea that little costs add up is nothing new, it comes with added sticker shock as food and gas prices sprint along at a record pace. The result is that people are finally putting the breaks on vices once considered necessary — like frappuccinos. ..snip

The result is fewer latte runs. Literally.

Last month, Starbucks Corp. blamed rising food and gas prices when it reported a 28 percent drop in second-quarter earnings, and said sales at U.S. stores open at least a year had dropped — indicating some may finally be summoning their inner Scrooges.

This cute article is a sign that even the New York Times, which usually lives in an opulent world, recognizes that the economy is crashing and that even greater discomfort is coming.  Being The Times, it says it’s no big deal.  Ha ha ha.  People are just tightening their belts a little bit.  It’s not a big deal, really.  We’re all doing fine, right??  Well, aren’t we?