When George W. Bush was president and people talked about the softening economy, you could always count on Glenn Reynolds to put up some inane tale about how he went to a mall and there were tons of people there so any economic slowdown was clearly a myth. Now there’s a Democratic president, and so [...]
Economy News
Economy Healing, Bit By Bit
August 7th, 2009
68 Comments
Thank goodness we elected Barack Obama.
Employers throttled back on layoffs in July, cutting just 247,000 jobs, the fewest in a year, and the unemployment rate dipped to 9.4 percent, its first decline in 15 months.
It was a better-than-expected showing that offered a strong signal that the recession is finally ending.
The new snapshot, released by the [...]
Jobless Claims Drop
August 6th, 2009
27 Comments
Slowly but surely we recover from the mess George W. Bush and the Republican congress created.
First-time claims for jobless benefits dropped to a seasonally adjusted 550,000 for the week ending Aug. 1, down from an upwardly revised figure of 588,000 in the previous week, the Labor Department said.
That was much lower than analysts’ estimates of [...]
Fed Sees Economy Stabilizing
July 29th, 2009
8 Comments
Stay tuned…
The U.S. economy is finally showing signs of stabilizing in some regions of the country — especially in parts of the Northeast and Midwest — bolstering hopes of a broader-based recovery this year.
A Federal Reserve snapshot of economic conditions issued Wednesday found that most of the Fed’s 12 regions indicated either that the recession [...]
Housing Crisis Over?
July 27th, 2009
19 Comments
Link
The annual rate of US new home sales jumped 11% in June, government figures have shown, a further indication that the housing sector is over the worst.
The Commerce Department said sales hit a seasonally-adjusted annual rate of 384,000 in June, against an upwardly-adjusted rate of 346,000 in May.
June’s sales figure was the strongest pace seen [...]
Biden On Recovery
July 26th, 2009
68 Comments
Vice President Biden, in the Sunday NY Times:
The care with which we are carrying out the provisions of the Recovery Act has led some people to ask whether we are moving too slowly. But the act was intended to provide steady support for our economy over an extended period — not a jolt that would [...]
Housing Recovery?
July 23rd, 2009
5 Comments
Link
The U.S. housing market has started to recover from the most far-reaching crisis since the Great Depression, data released Thursday shows.
Sales of previously occupied homes rose for the third month in a row in June, the National Association of Realtors reported. That hasn’t happened since early 2004, during the boom.
Bobby Jindal Does Stimulus Two-Step
July 21st, 2009
17 Comments
Hey Kenneth, you aren’t allowed to take credit for dispensing stimulus money when you opposed the stimulus.
Also, VOLCANOES.
Stimulus @ Work In Indiana
July 21st, 2009
72 Comments
OMG teh socialism.
More than 2,400 people are now at work on federal stimulus-funded roadway projects in Indiana, according to a state report being released today.
Covering 83 projects and listing a total payroll of $2.8 million, the Indiana Department of Transportation report details only a small fraction of the hundreds of projects so far selected for [...]
Snap Judgement Based Solely On Headlines #1
July 21st, 2009
1 Comment
Republicans, Drudge Rage At Spending Money To Assist Poor Impacted By Bush Economy
July 20th, 2009
17 Comments
Drudge made a stink about it this morning, and the USDA responded:
‘Through the Recovery Act, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has made $100 million available to the states for The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP), which acquires food that is distributed to local organizations that assist the needy – including food banks, food pantries, and [...]
Florida Gators To Use “Tax Cut” Offense This Season
July 19th, 2009
19 Comments
(Gainseville) — in a shocker, University Of Florida Gators coach Urban Meyer announced that the incumbent national champions would be scrapping their entire playbook and moving to a “tax cut” based offense.
“For a long time conservatives have pushed tax cuts as the solution to every problem, so I figured — why not college football? So [...]
OMG Teh Taxes!!! (No, Not Really)
July 19th, 2009
82 Comments
Via Matt Yglesias comes this handy dandy chart showing the vast millions of regular Americans the tiny amount of the uber rich who whould pay a smidge more on their taxes in order to help fund health care reform that would bring America up to par with the modern world.
Yes, the Republican caterwauling you hear [...]
GOP Has Sudden Interest In The Economy
July 16th, 2009
151 Comments
They plan to ride it into success in 2010. Of course, the problem is they have no real solution to the economic problem besides the magical tax cuts that helped make the problem worse in the first place. That said, my guess is the economy will begin improving before election time next year – and [...]
GM CEO Who Drove Them To Bankruptcy Gets $10 Million Retirement
July 14th, 2009
28 Comments
Oh, golden parachute!
Former General Motors Corp. Chairman and CEO Rick Wagoner will retire Aug. 1 with a pension and benefit package the automaker valued at more than $10 million.
Wagoner, 56, who was ousted by the Obama administration on March 30, will get $1.64 million in benefits annually for each of the next five years, plus [...]
Michael Moore’s Next Movie: “Capitalism: A Love Story”
July 9th, 2009
62 Comments
Start the wingnut harumphing now.
Michael Moore’s opting to spoof romantic conventions in titling his upcoming documentary “Capitalism: A Love Story,” which addresses the causes of the global economic meltdown.
“It will be the perfect date movie,” Moore said in an announcement Wednesday. “It’s got it all — lust, passion, romance and 14,000 jobs being eliminated every [...]
Whatever Happened To Hank Paulson?
July 7th, 2009
8 Comments
For some reason I have been wondering these last few days: what the heck happened to Hank Paulson? The former Wall Street Wizard for Goldman Sachs turned Secretary Of The Treasury under George W. Bush, he presided over the near-economic collapse of the United States. Not many treasury secretaries can profess to such things.
Not only [...]
The Stimulus
June 14th, 2009
1 Comment
Jim Ewart of South Carolina is clearly more with it than South Carolina’s throwback governor Mark Sandford.
Jim Ewart is a Vietnam War veteran who calls John McCain ‘a great American’ and gave the Arizona senator’s presidential campaign $500.
Ewart, though, is glad Barack Obama won the election.
‘It needed to be a Democrat,’ Ewart said. ‘I’ve got [...]
Dow Is Positive For The Year
June 12th, 2009
98 Comments
Clearly this is the fault of Barack Obama’s socialism.
There Is A Demon, Socialism Be His Name
June 4th, 2009
26 Comments
This is the vast socialist plot that has Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, and the rest of the GOP braying at the moon and wetting their beds over. (via)
