The Second Coming (of bailouts)

[TheMercenary]

Economy loses 85K jobs as employers remain wary]

Employers cut more jobs than expected in December, unemployment rate holds at 10 percent

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Lack of confidence in the economic recovery led employers to shed a more-than-expected 85,000 net jobs in December even as the unemployment rate held at 10 percent. The rate would have been higher if more people had been looking for work instead of leaving the labor force because they can't find jobs.

The sharp drop in the work force -- 661,000 fewer people -- showed that more of the jobless are giving up. Once people stop looking for jobs, they're no longer counted among the unemployed.

When discouraged workers and part-time workers who would prefer full-time jobs are included, the so-called "underemployment" rate in December rose to 17.3 percent, from 17.2 percent in November. That's just below a revised figure of 17.4 percent in October, the highest on records dating from 1994.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Econom....html?x=0&.v=8

[TheMercenary]

If you will recall back in December, Obama's pay czar announced pay limits for those evil corporations that received bailout money. Employees of bailed out companies can no longer earn a base salary of more than $500,000. Not only that .. but at least half of that salary would have to come in the form of company stock.

Now let's move on to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. They have received more than $111 billion in taxpayer money to stay afloat. In fact, the Obama administration has since pledged "unlimited financial assistance" to Fannie and Freddie. Are you sitting down? OK ... then hear this. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac? Their two CEOs are getting paid as much as $6 million for 2009.

Boortz

[skysidhe]

Revisions to the previous two months' data showed the economy actually generated 4,000 jobs in November, the first gain in nearly two years. But the revisions showed it also lost 16,000 more jobs than previously estimated in October.

The report caps a disastrous year for U.S. workers. Employers cut 4.2 million jobs in 2009

We lost 4.2 million jobs last year but gained 4,000 jobs!?
That's recovery?

[TheMercenary]

No. But they want you to think it is.

[TheMercenary]

Demoncrats buy the union vote...

Senators Benjamin L. Cardin and Barbara A. Mikulski (both D-Md.) today announced the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act includes funding for job training in renewable and energy efficient industries in Maryland through the Department of Labor (DOL).

This $4.6 million ARRA grant has been awarded H-CAP, Inc to provide enhanced skills training to job seekers and entry-level environmental service workers for new and emerging green jobs in the healthcare industry. The project will operate in Baltimore City, Baltimore County and Prince George’s County in Maryland, as well as counties in New York, California and the District of Columbia.

“This Partnership is funded with recovery dollars and it is an investment in our future – a future in which our state and nation will become more energy efficient and independent and one that will create new, green jobs that will help grow our economy,” said Senator Cardin, a member of the Senate Budget Committee.

“This funding is exactly what the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act is all about – creating and sustaining jobs today and preparing for the jobs of tomorrow,” Senator Mikulski said. “This grant will give Marylanders the opportunity to get the training they need to find and keep a job, while also helping to make sure that health care in Maryland is environmentally friendly.”

H-CAP, Inc. will partner with the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) in Maryland as well as Health Care Without Harm (HCWH), a coalition that promotes environmentally-friendly healthcare practices, to train approximately 3,000 job seekers. The project will also develop new curricula that will cover the role of environmental service workers in green healthcare, the development of cross-industry green jobs and green career pathways for entry-level workers.

Yesterday the Department of Labor announced the release of $100M in grants funded by the stimulus bill to “support green job training programs to help dislocated workers and others, including veterans, women, African Americans and Latinos, find jobs in expanding green industries and related occupations”.

This is only a portion of the $500M total allocated by the stimulus bill for such purposes. Back in November an initial $55 million in grants were released, the bulk of which went to state-run job training programs, with relatively small amounts going to community job training programs.

However, the primary recipients of the latest $100M in grants are a little more noteworthy:

* UAW Labor Employment and Training Corporation – $3,200,000
* 1199SEIU Family of Funds (disguised as “HCAP, Inc.”) -$4,637,551
* Utility Workers Union of America (UWUA), AFL*CIO – $4,993,922
* International Transportation Learning Center (whose board consists almost exclusively of union leaders) – $5,000,000
* International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and the National Electrical Contractors Association – $5,000,000
* Institute for Career Development (aka United Steelworkers) – $4,658,983
* Blue Green Alliance (whose members consist largely of unions) – $5,000,000
* Communications Workers of America – $3,969,056
* Thomas Shortman Training Scholarship and Safety Fund (SEIU) – $2,802,269

http://www.verumserum.com/?p=11408

[skysidhe]

ha!

we were looking at the same article!

I'm just slow. I need to change my user title.

sky.....You can look at one year or look at the larger issue:

For most of the past 70 years, the U.S. economy has grown at a steady clip, generating perpetually higher incomes and wealth for American households. But since 2000, the story is starkly different.

The past decade was the worst for the U.S. economy in modern times, a sharp reversal from a long period of prosperity that is leading economists and policymakers to fundamentally rethink the underpinnings of the nation's growth.

It was, according to a wide range of data, a lost decade for American workers. The decade began in a moment of triumphalism -- there was a current of thought among economists in 1999 that recessions were a thing of the past. By the end, there were two, bookends to a debt-driven expansion that was neither robust nor sustainable.

There has been zero net job creation since December 1999. No previous decade going back to the 1940s had job growth of less than 20 percent. Economic output rose at its slowest rate of any decade since the 1930s as well.

Middle-income households made less in 2008, when adjusted for inflation, than they did in 1999....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...l?hpid=topnews

It become particularly dramatic and evident with the downward economic spiral in 07-08 ...the worst in 70 years.

Many economists are of the opinion that the recovery plan, even in the first 9 months of a 18-24 month plan, have contributed to slowing down that spiral. No one would suggest that the economy could be turned around over night, but most measures, except employment (always the last to recover) show improvement in the last nine months.

Most of the recovery money has yet to be spent (by intent) and is directed towards retooling the economy by focusing on developing new energy technologies, a national broadband network, wide spread infrastructure improvement, investments in health technology, investments in education...all critical if you're interest is looking forward to be better positioned to compete in a global economy in which we may have lost the competitive edge that we enjoyed for decades.

The massive tax cuts in 01 and 03, mostly for the top bracket and at a cost of more than $1 trillion, certainly didnt lead to economic prosperity for most Americans as was promised or transform the economy to a more forward thinking plain.

So, what would you have suggested doing differently?

[xoxoxoBruce]

The past decade was the worst for the U.S. economy in modern times, a sharp reversal from a long period of prosperity that is leading economists and policymakers to fundamentally rethink the underpinnings of the nation's growth.

walmart

[Griff]

It might be neat to actually make something in the States. Our wrong-headed education system is part of the problem. Real shop classes where kids build stuff are being eliminated in favor of No Child Left Behind nonsense. Kids don't use their hands at school anymore because they're being prepared for an economy that does not exist. I think I'm going to invest in welding equipment for my daughters...

[Undertoad]

Let's have a good 20% of the school year from age 13-17 be spent learning things we must actually do. Driving, personal finances, wood shop, cooking class, basic electric/plumbing/HVAC, and sex education.

[skysidhe]

Originally Posted by Griff

It might be neat to actually make something in the States. Our wrong-headed education system is part of the problem. Real shop classes where kids build stuff are being eliminated in favor of No Child Left Behind nonsense. Kids don't use their hands at school anymore because they're being prepared for an economy that does not exist. I think I'm going to invest in welding equipment for my daughters...

whoo hoo go you!

I always wished I had the opportunity to do mechanical work instead of home economics. Even recently I wish I had a lathe I would make canes and bird houses.

Welding would be another useful skill except the bird houses would be kinda wet and heavy. :p

[glatt]

John Ratzenberger (yes, the actor who played Cliff Clavin on Cheers) was talking about this in the most recent issue of Make magazine. He's pushing this idea of an "Industrial Tsunami" that's about to hit the United States. He says that the average age of skilled workers like welders, carpenters, rebar setters, etc. is in the upper 50, and that virtually nobody is training to replace them. When they all retire, he basically argues that the US is screwed. There are plenty of unskilled helpers out there, but skilled workers are very hard to find.

After reading that article, I was toying with the idea of getting a welding rig so I could teach my kids how to weld. (And learn myself.)

I settled for buying snap circuits for them.

[tw]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

walmart

Wal-Mart is example of where America does work. Wal-Mart constantly learns what and how products are manufactured. As a Wal-Mart supplier, if you are not doing your job (ie RubberMaid), then an informed Wal-Mart pressures you even to the point of bankruptcy. Wal-Mart is where America works.

Why did Wal-Mart discover incandescent bulbs made no sense? Because Wal-Mart learned how the work gets done AND demanded companies change immediately to provide innovative products. GE refused. So Wal-Mart cut GE off; went to Phillips who offered to innovate. Suddenly GE started making light bulbs that consumed seven times less energy.

America that works is a country that innovates. And that is the problem. Not that American has insufficient welders and carpenters. The problem is that America has too many students that are communication and business school graduates. People who can only promote the status quo; who have so little experience as to never even see an innovation until long after it is no longer innovative.

The problem is already appearing in patches. General Motors that will not innovate until required to by Federal regulations. Silicon Valley that cannot find technically (computer literate) knowledgeable Americans. Silicon Valley is where ICs are important. ICs - the most common employee is now a Chinese or Indian immigrant.

Some benchmarks for technical ignorance. Show me a computer repairman who knows how electricity works? Rather than use a volt meter to identify a defective power system component, the naive computer tech will foolishly keep swapping parts until something works. A problem demonstrated by Consumer Reports that could not get simplest computer problems fixed properly. Often starting by swapping the power supply - because he has no technical knowledge. So naive that he considers himself an expert only because he can swap parts.

Another benchmark - do you have a surge protector on your computer? Then you have made computer damage even easier. How many buy a surge protector only because they were told (ordered - blindly believed) to - rather than first ask questions such as what does it do? Another example of America that does not train people how to think. That only rewards those to promote the status quo.

The only thing that creates jobs is innovation. The only thing.

[classicman]

Originally Posted by tw

The only thing that creates jobs is innovation. The only thing.

Desire would be another.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally Posted by Griff

It might be neat to actually make something in the States. Our wrong-headed education system is part of the problem. Real shop classes where kids build stuff are being eliminated in favor of No Child Left Behind nonsense. Kids don't use their hands at school anymore because they're being prepared for an economy that does not exist. I think I'm going to invest in welding equipment for my daughters...

Well, the school board has been reading this.


btw, I better buy more incandesant bulbs before those fuckers at walmart force me to use bulbs I don't like, don't want and won't work on my dimmers.