Economic Stories of Relevance in Today's World -- May 11, 2014

Fed Chair: ‘Deficits Will Rise to Unsustainable Levels’ - CNS News - Terence P. Jeffrey - May 7, 2014 - Federal Reserve Chairman Janet Yellen, referencing the Congressional Budget Office's long-term budget projections, told the Joint Economic Committee of Congress today that under current policies the federal government’s deficits “will rise to unsustainable levels.”                     In the 10-year budget projections it released in April, the CBO estimated that the federal government will run $7.618 trillion in deficits from 2015 through 2024. At the same time, the CBO projected that the federal government’s debt held by the public would rise from $11.983 trillion at the end of fiscal 2013 to $20.947 trillion by the end of 2024...

The “Economic Recovery” Continues: Businesses Are Being Destroyed Faster Than They Are Being Created - The Economic Collapse Blog - Michael Snyder, on May 6th, 2014 - What would you say about an economy where businesses are shutting down faster than they are opening?  Well, a shocking new study released by the Brookings Institution indicates that this is exactly what is happening in the United States.  We are absolutely killing small businesses and the entrepreneurial spirit in this country, and as you will see below, the number of self-employed Americans has been on a downward trend for a decade even though our population has been steadily growing.  Traditionally, small businesses have been the primary engine of job growth in this nation, so the fact that study after study has found that small business creation is being crippled in the United States is a really bad sign for our economic future.                        Personally, I write about our long-term economic decline nearly every day, but even I had no idea that businesses were being destroyed faster than they were being created.  According to the Brookings Institution, this first started happening in 2009...

Manufacturing Job Postings and Hiring Data Were Weaker in March - Shopfloor.com - Chad Moutray under Economy - May 9, 2014 - The Bureau of Labor Statistics said that manufacturing job openings declined for the fourth straight month. After peaking at 298,000 in November, the number of job postings in the sector has continued to move lower, with 243,000 openings recorded in March. Weather has negatively impacted overall economic activity over much of this period, and it is possible that winter conditions hampered employment growth, as well.                           Nonetheless, we would expect that this trend will reverse in the coming months, particularly if the sector resumes the rebound that was occurring last fall. There had been upward movement in manufacturing job openings from May to November of last year (up from 203,000 to 298,000), for instance. The Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) have a bit of a time lag. Fortunately, we already know that manufacturers added 12,000 workers on net in April, providing us with some cautious optimism.               In the March data, net hiring had turned negative for the first time in eight months. Manufacturers added 231,000 workers in March, down from 234,000 in February (and 269,000 in November, its recent peak). At the same time, the number of separations – including layoffs, quits, and retirements – rose from 224,000 to 236,000. As such, net hiring (or hires minus separations) shifted from a net gain of 10,000 workers in February to a decline of 5,000 in March. This was well below the net hiring rate of 41,000 observed in November, illustrating the current softness in the labor market.                Meanwhile, employment numbers in the larger economy softened slightly in March, as well. Total job openings decreased from 4,125,000 in February to 4,014,000 in March. Even with the decrease, this was still a decent figure, representing a 3.5 percent increase year-over-year. Hiring in the nonfarm business sector declined from a net gain of 240,000 in February to an increase of 194,000 in March. Education and health services and government were two major sectors that had increased hiring for the month.


Will History Record The Ending Of QE As An Archduke Moment? - Zero Hedge - Tyler Durden - May 10, 2014 - One can’t help but look at the situations transpiring around the globe and hope: things are different this time. The problem is being different puts it right back in line with that other caveat: history doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme. And so lies the most troubling aspect facing not only the U.S. economy, but quite possibly the world as whole. For if things rhyme anything inline with past events in history: We’re all in a dung heap of QE based minutia, with Geo-political ramifications the “intellectual” crowd never contemplated as possible – let alone probable.                        It was just a mere 4 years ago this month in which then Fed. Chair Ben Bernanke announced to the world via his now infamous Jackson Hole speech that QE would basically be adulterating the financial markets indefinitely. i.e., QE1 became QE2 signaling QE4eva. And since that time the Federal Reserve has done just. And as always that decision was heralded by the financial media as “genius.”                              And why wouldn’t they since this would now afford them a seemingly never-ending revolving set of happy faced hedge fund managers that could tell the world how they were just making a killing for their investors. Everything once again seemed just ducky. “Don’t fight the Fed.” again became the clarion call. However what most of these “wizards of smart” couldn’t read past their teleprompter is that the world may turn and fight them – literally.                          The distortions in financial markets throughout the world have been breathtaking to anyone who’ll look using a thimble full of common sense. As the emerging markets became overheated and searched for ways to deal with hot money inflows wreaking havoc within their own markets. The Fed. and crew kept the pedal down, year, after year seemingly not giving any notion of care that others may retaliate in ways never contemplated by the intellectual crowd. i.e., War...



BorgWarner adding 150 jobs in Buncombe County - WRAL (Raleigh) - May 8, 2014 - ARDEN, N.C. — A company that makes turbochargers will expand its plant in Buncombe County, creating more than 150 jobs. BorgWarner said it will spend $55 million to expand its plant in Arden over the next five years. About 60 of the jobs are expected in the next three years. The company says the 154 jobs will include engineering and production positions. They are expected to pay around $75,000 annually, including benefits. The plant opened in 1977 and currently has more than 650 employees. BorgWarner expects an increased demand for its turbocharger systems with stricter emissions standards. The company's turbochargers are used in commercial trucks and in high-performance race cars in the IndyCar races...


10 Ways That Birth Order Affects Your Life - Zero Hedge - Tyler Durden - May 9, 2014 - 
Where you exist in your family’s birth order can profoundly inform your path in life, whether because of genetics or simply the way that family members tend to treat firstborns vs. middle children vs. youngest children.  Psychologists have been debating the “Why?” since the 1800s, but, as ConvergEx's Nick Colas notes, the outcome is certain regardless of the cause – the effects of birth order last for a lifetime...                     Via ConvergEx's Nick Colas,                            For example, firstborn kids are often rules-following and do better in society, while younger children tend to be revolutionaries, artists and so forth.  Only children generally act like firstborns.  Today’s Note from ConvergEx explains how birth order matters through the lens of a top 10 list of things you should know about birth order psychology.  After all, much of business and investing depends on your ability to evaluate people, and this is another useful tool.                            Note From Nick: If you had to size up a stranger and you could only ask them one question, what would it be?  For me, the answer is simple: “Where are you in the birth order of your siblings?”  Are you a first/only child, or a later born?  As Beth outlines today, the answer is quite telling.  By virtue of genetics or childrearing (the debate rages there), birth order matters a lot to the person you become.                            Question: What do Hillary Clinton, Marissa Mayer, Oprah Winfrey and Beyoncé have in common?  Answer: They are all firstborn girls.  Who all happen to be on the Forbes list of most powerful women in the world.  And if you consult findings from the vast field of birth order psychology, you’ll see that there is probably more than coincidence at play here.  A study released just last month found that firstborn girls are statistically the most likely to succeed among any combination of birth order and gender, for the simple explanation that parents devote more time and energy to them.  It could be that they are more intelligent too, but evidence points to the role of parental investment as the leading cause.                            Well what about Jeff Bezos, Steve Jobs and Aristotle?  They were all adopted.  And according to Adam Pertman, author of a book on the subject titled Adoption Nation, adopted people “feel more compelled to show that they can do it” due to a sense of loss of their original family.  A feeling of rejection often pushes adopted children to wonder if they are good enough and whether they are the reason their original family is no longer intact.  As a result, they’re predisposed to prove their worthiness and avoid another tragedy.                           While birth order is not the end all be all – for example Ted Bundy was also adopted – it certainly impacts our personality and therefore the course of our lives.  Success in the business world is partly dependent on your ability to read people and understand their emotional intelligence, of which birth order plays a key role.  Thus we’ve compiled a top 10 list of things you should keep in mind about birth order psychology and how it factors into our lives.  Read on for the details…


The Hound: I was asked to begin summarizing the articles in the Economic Stories of Relevance and how they relate to where we are today. Once again we are seeing no real economic recovery. Projections for the U.S. Deficit are not improving. Kicking the can down the road is only growing the deficit/debt in a exponential manner. Small businesses/Start-ups are the main thrust of initial businesses, but they are having a harder and harder time competing against established businesses, because only the larger businesses can compete in  in the Corporocratic Environment in which the largest businesses own the regulatory process.

Endarkenment

Listen to the link below where Alice Walker, who wrote the book The Color Purple, talks about this time period in history.

Alex begins this sequence talking about there are some good people in government and they have written some good laws, but the Corporate Culture is twisting everything. That is what leads to the conversation above. Ms. Walker says that she wants to go down in consciousness with good people surrounding her.
 
'When Blacks were slaves in this country, white people thought they could never be slaves and would be in control'... Alex says, 'Sharecroppers were just as bad off in a lot of ways, but at least they could be mean to the black people.' Ms. Walker says, 'now many Whites are getting to see the system and how Blacks have been living.' She says she likes to call this awakening 'Endarkenment.'

'Its all about exploitation. The great Native American Russell Means said the Federal Government broke every treaty they made with us and now they are breaking the treaty they made with you - The Constitution. Your skin is not going to save you.'

Newsletter about the City Council meeting of May 6, 2014

I began video recording the City Council in 2012, because of my desire that the City do it on their own as any modern 21st century community began doing long ago. I had people tell me that they couldn't make it to the meetings, but they would like to see what is going on. I was also told by some council members that my summaries did not truly reflect the record, so having a video/audio recording cannot be misinterpreted.

So below is the City Council meeting. With each agenda item, you can click on the links and it will take you to that specific point in the meeting. You can always drag the marker on the video display to the point in the broadcast that you are interested in seeing.

Agenda about the City Council meeting of May 6, 2014

Thoughts about last night's Hickory City Council meeting - May 6, 2014





Invocation by Rev. Whit Malone, Pastor, First Presbyterian Church

 
Special Presentations
A. Proclamation for National Police Week May 11-17, 2014. - Mayor Wright read and presented the National Police Week Proclamation to Chief Tom Adkins, and other members of the Hickory Police Department.
 
B. Proclamation for Lupus Awareness Month May 2014. - Mayor Wright read and presented the Lupus Awareness Month Proclamation to Ms. Angela Berasa.

Mayor Wright recognized Scouts in attendance from First United Methodist Church, Troop 234, and Scouts from Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Troop 300.
Mayor Wright also recognized students from Ms. Davis’, St. Stephens Honor Civics class.


Persons Requesting to be Heard 
Cliff Moone -  addressed Council on Inspiring Spaces. He commented that he is for Inspiring Spaces and for letting the people have a referendum to let Council know how they feel. He believes in referendums, and he also believes in Council making decisions. He knows that when we do things, when we go up, and standup, and start doing something, new people will come. It will be a good thing. He has served on Inspiring Spaces Committees and on Innovate Catawba, and he has seen the ideas. He is not for every idea that is put out there, and he will challenge them when he feels the need. He is with Council, he if for this, and he hopes Council is for it, and fully behind it. He thinks it will make our City a better place to live work and grow.



Larry Pope -  addressed Council on Inspiring Spaces. He stated he was taking a different position than Reverend Moone took on Inspiring Spaces. He has been disappointed within the last several years about how money, City Council has spent, and City Council not accounting for the expenditure of that money. He stated that City Council had disbanded the Inspiring Spaces Committee because, when they went to Charlotte to meet with the consultants, they found out as a City Council that Committee could not exist, and Council will do a referendum for the funding that Council feels is needed for the Inspiring Spaces. He stated that once a referendum is done the same Committee will be reappointed, because that is the only legal way that Council can do it. He is tired of Council playing games with the City to accomplish the things that Council wants to accomplish that may not be the best for this City. He referenced survey’s done regarding the swimming pools, and commented that it was voted by citizens in Northeast, Northwest Hickory, that they wanted a swimming pool in every quadrant of the City, and a centrally located swimming pool. Council paid for that survey, and for those consultants to do the work. Council turned around, because they got bit in the backside, because they did not expect those citizens to vote that way, and put that on the shelf, and it is somewhere on a shelf collecting dust. If Council can’t raise the taxes, then they are talking about doing a bond referendum to have every citizen in this City to pay for a bond. That work may not be done within their communities to improve their communities, but they are going to have to pay for that bond. He stated that he will be the most outspoken person that ever existed to encourage citizens to vote against that bond. He will also be very vocal to encourage citizens to raise cane if Council tries to raise their taxes, because we have so many senior citizens in our City that are property owners, that cannot afford to have their taxes raised. Council spent, they claim, $500,000 plus dollars for the Sails on the Square, Council took the money that was designated for a parking deck and used it. When that money was raised for that parking deck, which was much needed downtown, what is going to happen now to folks that come downtown for events and there is nowhere to park. We are going to have to quit telling citizens that we are raising money for one thing, and then turn around and do something else with those funds. Bond referendum, no. Raising taxes, no. Council can find another way to do what they want to do.


Consent Agenda:
Item L was removed from the Consent Agenda and discussed - Release of Bond Claim and Assignment of Claims Executed by the City of Hickory to Westchester Fire Insurance Company. - Council previously declared American LaFrance to be in default of a contract to build a ladder engine truck for the Hickory Fire Department after American LaFrance closed its operation and failed to deliver the truck to the City. American LaFrance had purchased a performance bond from Westchester Fire Insurance to cover such instances of default. Notice was given to Westchester in March that the City was making a claim on the bond for the amount paid to American LaFrance for the ladder truck in the amount of $729,864. Westchester has investigated the City’s claim on the bond and made the determination the claim is valid. Westchester will pay the claim in full subject to the City executing a release form. The release form was received and reviewed. Seeing no issues with the release’s provisions, staff executed the release and returned to Westchester to expedite the process. Staff requests Council to ratify the execution of the release and assignment of claims.


Informational Item
A. Report of Mayor Wright’s travel to Asheville, North Carolina



New Business - Departmental Reports
1. Vacant Building Revitalization and Demolition Grant for 56 3rd Street SE - Dave Leonetti Presentation - Unanimous Consent

2. Street Resurfacing - Public Services Director, Chuck Hansen will present an analysis of the City’s street program resurfacing.  - Chuck Hanson - Unanimous Consent


General Comments
Alderman Seaver stated that he was substituting at Hickory High School and had attended the Academic Awards Banquet and Dr. Blake Brandes was the speaker. He was a former Key Club President of Hickory High in 2002. He works in a Champions for Kids program raising money to help kids. He has helped over a million kids in three years. At the Key Club Banquet, the year that he was President, Graylyn Scholarship Committee was present there to observe him, and interview him after the banquet. He received that prestigious scholarship through Wake Forest. While at Wake Forest he received the Marshall Scholarship, which paid for his Masters, and his PhD at Kent University in England. While there, he was operating a business, he was making albums while he was in High School. Alderman Seaver tried to get Mr. Brandes to attend the Kiwanis meeting to speak but he was busy with some other schools in the Rowan Salisbury School District, and some others around the State. He is moving from New York City to San Diego as well. Alderman Seaver commented that maybe we could get him to attend a Council meeting to speak.

Alderman Seaver also commented that he had Kiwanis pancake tickets for sale. The event would take place Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, at St. Luke’s United Methodist Church.

Mayor Wright commented that it is good breakfast and the money is for the kids.

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Hound's Notes: Not much to add to the notes. Go read my thoughts about the meeting. The next meeting will be the City Manager's recommended budget. I saw in the Hickory Daily Record that Newton raised its tax rate to cover operational costs and also spoke about the loss in revenue due to loss of property value. That is exactly what I was addressing in my notes. Just to remain revenue neutral, Hickory Inc. is going to have to raise the property tax rate; add to that the monies they want to spend on their proposed projects and there should be a substantial increase in the property tax rate. 

Thoughts about last night's Hickory City Council meeting - May 6, 2014

Agenda about the City Council meeting of May 6, 2014

 
 The Hound's Notes:

1) The most interesting events of the evening were the presentations made during Persons Requesting to be Heard. Cliff Moone speaks for Inspiring Spaces and the Bond referendum and Larry Pope speaks against the Inspiring Spaces process and the Bond referendum. Take note that when Mr. Moone speaks he is not given the 3 minute time notification. Mr. Pope is given the 3 minute time notification. Is this because Mr. Moone is speaking in support of the Council?




Hound Note: I do find Mr. Moone's unconditional support of this initiative to be troubling to the extent that it certainly seems to be following the pattern of the "Sails on the Square" project. A project that Mr. Moone stood in opposition to many times.

Once again we have been witnessing Hickory Inc. ramrodding a process... putting the cart before the horse. There has been no citizen input to this point and through everything that has been said thus far, Hickory Inc. intends to find a way to do these projects by hook or by crook. Witness City Manager Berry telling a group of citizens that if the Plan A Bond Referendum does not pass, then they will go to Plan B. Then he refuses to address Plan B, when asked to explain Plan B. How can the public make informed decisions, when Hickory Inc. refuses to provide vital information. Information that by all rights belongs to the public.

The City is playing a Shell game here, as Mr. Pope gets into. And being a Shell, I know one when I see one.



2) From the Agenda as produced here. I spoke about the  City’s street resurfacing program. I do believe that there are legitimate issues with the city streets in Hickory. The $450,000 shown in the graphic below, that has been shown multiple times on this site was the monetary number that Mr. Hanson revealed last night - $450,000. So if that number is relevant to carry forward into the picture, then the others must be also.

This subject last night in my opinion was a pre-salvo volley to lend legitimacy to the necessity as to why Hickory Inc. is going to raise property taxes this year. As already stated multiple times, this isn't new information. City Manager Berry talked about it at the City Council meeting of May 21 of last year (2013). Below is the screenshot of estimated costs including street resurfacing, revenue losses and operational increases, and what they call an Economic Competitiveness Plan, which includes their Inspiring Spaces plan.

Last year they told the public that the cost of moving to a 30 year resurfacing plan from the current 58 year resurfacing plan would be a 1-cent increase in the property tax rate.

The next city council meeting will be the meeting where the City Manager will unveil the Recommended Annual Budget for Fiscal Year 2014-15. The Budget has to be approved in June for the Fiscal Year that begins on July 1, 2014. The present year's budget was approved on June 4, 2013.

So, all indications seem to point to Chuck Hansen telling you that your property tax rate will be rising in part to pay for street resurfacing.





3) Plan B is that the City is going to raise your taxes above what they need to cover the necessary operational expenses and the road improvements. If the bond referendum fails, then they will take the additional revenue coming into the General Fund, that would be "Unfunded Balance" and they will earmark it to begin work on the Linear Park sidewalk from Union Square to Lenoir-Rhyne. The failure of the bond referendum will force them to do Hickory Inc.'s Inspiring Spaces program piecemeal, but they are going to do it whether the public wants it or not.

The Mayor says in the Hal Row interview this week that a $40 million bond would result in an $80 increase in the tax bill for a $100,000 home owner. Look at the above Power Point slide. That number falls in line with what they are proposing for the Economic Competitiveness Plan; although Inspiring Spaces is only supposed to be one part of that plan. Also factor in that Steve Mull, a member of the Inspiring Spaces Committee, is stated in a Hickory Daily Record article, from last week from the Inspiring Spaces meeting, as saying that what was proposed would cost $45 to $55 million. He also added that any plan should include all four quadrants of the city to get buy-in.

So in looking at the Power point slide we can assume an additional 1.5-cents for operation expenses + 1-cent for road improvements + 8-cents for Inspiring Spaces alone. The city will be asking for a  10.5 cent increase in the property tax rate, if the Sites and Buildings monies and Redevelopment monies that are in the slide above are lumped in with that total. It will be more if they aren't. So at a minimum City of Hickory residents will see their property tax rate rise from 50-cents to at least 60.5 cents.

Please also remember that with the devaluation of much of the Commercial and Industrial property that much of the property tax base burden has been shifted onto residential properties at a time when homes in the area have also lost value. The loss of assessed property value alone will require a property tax rate increase, if the county is honest about the assessed valuations.  Morganton residents saw their tax rate rise by 21-cents this year ((5-cent increase for the City of Morganton - from 48-cents to 53-cents) and a (16-cent increase for Burke County - from 52-cents to 68-cents)), Don't think something like that can't happen in Hickory, if Hickory Inc. bites off more than it can chew with its spending spree.

The Mayor said in the Hal Row interview that the worst thing that can happen is that 'We spend the money and the businesses don't come here, but we live in a nicer community.' The part he fails to mention is the little part about having to pay back the $40 million in debt. We also see with the roads situation that it isn't only about building. The community has to maintain what it's got. I think Hickory Inc. needs to work on fixing what it's got before spending more money on adding. There's no need to buy a 100-inch 3D Television, if the walls are going to fall down around you.


Final Thought
When you constantly operate in a behind the scenes, dark, closed door, hide the information, non-transparent manner against the wishes of the majority of the people, then that by definition is Tyranny.

Tyranny
1. arbitrary or unrestrained exercise of power; despotic abuse of authority. Synonyms: despotism, absolutism, dictatorship.

Joe Fox - Desperate Robocalls do nothing to help ones cause or move a community forward

We've seen the future and it's the same as the past. We can expect it to happen again during the upcoming bond referendum process that Hickory Inc. is pushing forward with. Listen to Hickory Inc.'s chosen candidate in an 11th hour desperate, night before the election, robocall; where he tried to evoke fear and hatred by mischaracterizing a person's support of a single issue.

Thank You Hickory Area citizens, by a vote of more than 4 to 1 margin, you rejected this type of fear based, lowball politics.






Mr. Fox, your mother is one of the greatest community organizers that this community has ever known. She is one of a handful of people who spearheaded the Hickory Downtown Development Association movement; which is one of the, if not THE, most powerful political forces in the Hickory Community. She also spearheaded the movement towards local neighborhoods having their own associations to (drum roll please!!!) organize. I also remember seeing your mother at both Clinton and Obama events in photographs. Besides that, I have never heard anything but admiration come from Jay Adams mouth, when it comes to speaking about your mother's passion for the community.

Mr. Adams was never a part of the CEG. He has never attended a meeting of the CEG, other than one meeting that was open to the public (that means everyone) in which ward specific voting was talked about. He did voice his support of the referendum on ward specific voting. I won't debate the merits of ward specific voting in this post, other than to say that there is nothing radical about it. There are plenty of communities that vote that way throughout the United States.

I've seen the list of people who endorsed Jay Adams and many of those people stood staunchly against the referendum. I am sure that those people were not happy that you were basically lumping them in with the Citizens for Equity in Government. Again, I will not get into how Hickory Inc. has unfairly mischaracterized the CEG and created a rift in this community.

If you compare Jay Adams to Barack Obama, then you certainly don't know Jay Adams -- or you are lying.  If people want to move this community forward, then it is time to call out and put a stop to these disingenuous political practices.

20140505 - Monday Morning Meeting with the Mayor

The following is the interview of Mayor Rudy Wright on 1290 WHKYam Radio's First talk program with Hal Row.

WHKY does not archive these programs and make them available to the public, so I am putting this important public interview up under Fair Use guidelines.

The Mayor talks about Transportation Insights move to the Old Lyerly Mill Building. He gives his reasoning for wanting to have the bond referendum, but gets into no specifics. He does talk about a $40 million referendum costing the person who owns a $100,000 house an an additional $80 per year if it were to pass. He does believe there will be a referendum this year. He talks about the lack of population growth in the community.

Listen and fill free to comment.

Economic Stories of Relevance in Today's World -- May 4, 2014

US economy slowed to 0.1 percent growth rate in Q1 - AP through myway news - MARTIN CRUTSINGER - April 30, 2014 - WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. economy slowed drastically in the first three months of the year as a harsh winter exacted a toll on business activity. The slowdown, while worse than expected, is likely to be temporary as growth rebounds with warmer weather.                      Growth slowed to a barely discernible 0.1 percent annual rate in the January-March quarter, the Commerce Department said Wednesday. That was the weakest pace since the end of 2012 and was down from a 2.6 percent rate in the previous quarter.                     Many economists said the government's first estimate of growth in the January-March quarter was skewed by weak figures early in the quarter. They noted that several sectors — from retail sales to manufacturing output — rebounded in March. That strength should provide momentum for the rest of the year.

17 Facts To Show To Anyone That Still Believes That The U.S. Economy Is Just Fine - Zero Hedge - Tyler Durden - April 30, 2014 - ...
#1 The homeownership rate in the United States has dropped to the lowest level in 19 years.
#2 Consumer spending for durable goods has dropped by 3.23 percent since November.  This is a clear sign that an economic slowdown is ahead.
#3 Major retailers are closing stores at the fastest pace that we have seen since the collapse of Lehman Brothers.
#4 According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 20 percent of all families in the United States do not have a single member that is employed.  That means that one out of every five families in the entire country is completely unemployed.
#5 There are 1.3 million fewer jobs in the U.S. economy than when the last recession began in December 2007.  Meanwhile, our population has continued to grow steadily since that time.
#6 According to a new report from the National Employment Law Project, the quality of the jobs that have been "created" since the end of the last recession does not match the quality of the jobs lost during the last recession...

• Lower-wage industries constituted 22 percent of recession losses, but 44 percent of recovery growth.
• Mid-wage industries constituted 37 percent of recession losses, but only 26 percent of recovery growth.
• Higher-wage industries constituted 41 percent of recession losses, and 30 percent of recovery growth.

#7 After adjusting for inflation, men who work full-time in America today make less money than men who worked full-time in America 40 years ago.
#8 It is hard to believe, but 62 percent of all Americans make $20 or less an hour at this point.
#9 Nine of the top ten occupations in the U.S. pay an average wage of less than $35,000 a year.
#10 The middle class in Canada now makes more money than the middle class in the United States does.
#11 According to one recent study, 40 percent of all Americans could not come up with $2000 right now even if there was a major emergency.
#12 Less than one out of every four Americans has enough money put away to cover six months of expenses if there was a job loss or major emergency.
#13 An astounding 56 percent of all Americans have subprime credit in 2014.
#14 As I wrote about the other day, there are now 49 million Americans that are dealing with food insecurity.
#15 Ten years ago, the number of women in the U.S. that had jobs outnumbered the number of women in the U.S. on food stamps by more than a 2 to 1 margin.  But now the number of women in the U.S. on food stamps actually exceeds the number of women that have jobs.
#16 69 percent of the federal budget is spent either on entitlements or on welfare programs.
#17 The number of Americans receiving benefits from the federal government each month exceeds the number of full-time workers in the private sector by more than 60 million...



US Economy Is A House Of Cards — Paul Craig Roberts - April 30, 2014 -   The US economy is a house of cards. Every aspect of it is fraudulent, and the illusion of recovery is created with fraudulent statistics.                                   American capitalism itself is an illusion. All financial markets are rigged. Massive liquidity poured into financial markets by the Federal Reserve’s Quantitative Easing inflates stock and bond prices and drives interest rates, which are supposed to be a measure of the cost of capital, to zero or negative, with the implication that capital is so abundant that its cost is zero and can be had for free. Large enterprises, such as mega-banks and auto manufacturers, that go bankrupt are not permitted to fail. Instead, public debt and money creation are used to cover private losses and keep corporations “too big to fail” afloat at the expense not of shareholders but of people who do not own the shares of the corporations.                           Profits are no longer a measure that social welfare is being served by capitalism’s efficient use of resources when profits are achieved by substituting cheaper foreign labor for domestic labor, with resultant decline in consumer purchasing power and rise in income and wealth inequality. In the 21st century, the era of jobs offshoring, the US has experienced an unprecedented explosion in income and wealth inequality. I have made reference to this hard evidence of the failure of capitalism to provide for the social welfare in the traditional economic sense in my book, The Failure of Laissez Faire Capitalism, and Thomas Piketty’s just published book, Capital in the 21st Century, has brought an alarming picture of reality to insouciant economists, such as Paul Krugman. As worrisome as Piketty’s picture is of inequality, I agree with Michael Hudson that the situation is worse than Piketty describes. http://michael-hudson.com/2014/04/pikettys-wealth-gap-wake-up/                       Capitalism has been transformed by powerful private interests whose control over governments, courts, and regulatory agencies has turned capitalism into a looting mechanism. Wall Street no longer performs any positive function. Wall Street is a looting mechanism, a deadweight loss to society. Wall Street makes profits by front-running trades with fast computers, by selling fraudulent financial instruments that it is betting against as investment grade securities, by leveraging equity to unprecedented heights, making bets that cannot be covered, and by rigging all commodity markets.


Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center to cut 350 jobs - WGHP (High Point, NC) - Web Staff and Joe Dominguez - May 1, 2014 - WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center announced Thursday that they are laying off approximately 350 employees.                    The job cuts are to help close the increasing gap between growing expenses and declining reimbursement from federal and state health insurance and other revenue sources, according to a press release.                    Here in North Caroline we got the first part of that with the cuts but we did not get the expanded Medicaid program.                          “At the end of the day the Affordable Care Act is just reforming payments, it’s not really reforming health care,” said John McConnell, CEO of Wake Forest Baptist. “That job is left up to institutions like ours to figure out how we drive up quality and drive down cost.”                            The Medical Center employs approximately 14,686 faculty and staff at all of their locations.                         The release states that the announcement was not unexpected...


Seattle mayor unveils plan for $15 minimum wage - CNN Money - Gregory Wallace - May 1, 2014 - Mayor Ed Murray unveiled on Thursday his proposal for a $15 minimum wage, a plan he said has broad support across the local government, business and labor communities.                         Washington already has the nation's highest state-level minimum wage of $9.32. The Seattle proposal would be more than double the current federal minimum wage of $7.25.                          Mayor Murray's plan would take effect over several years and apply first to some large businesses starting in 2017, and ultimately to all businesses by 2021.                      All told, the wage hike will apply to 102,000 workers, according to 15 for Seattle, an advocacy group that supports the plan. Annual increases would then be tied to inflation.                           The city council will begin considering the proposal next week and hold a series of public meetings this month, Councilmember Sally Clark said.
Related: What is the minimum wage in your state?... 


Money Pit: Officials struggling to fix state ObamaCare exchanges - Fox News - Jim Angle - May 01, 2014 - As the Obama administration touts its latest enrollment numbers for the ObamaCare exchanges, some state networks are grappling with major changes ahead of the next sign-up period – meaning more cost to taxpayers.                       The biggest overhaul came out of Oregon, which last week decided to junk its broken health care exchange and turn to the federal government for help.
"Their health exchange has been a disaster,” said Michael Cannon, of the Cato Institute.                   "They're the only state in the country that built their own exchange and couldn't get it to a level of functionality to sign a single person up,” said Jim Capretta, of the Ethics and Public Policy Center.
But Oregon isn’t the only state still struggling, months after the major problems with HealthCare.gov were addressed.                           Systems in Vermont, Massachusetts, Nevada and Maryland continue to have problems.                        "The federal government spent about a billion dollars on those five state exchanges, and none of them are very likely to work well ever,” Capretta said. “So that's a lot of wasted taxpayer money."                        Maryland's exchange imploded, and it decided a month ago to adopt the system used by Connecticut. But officials say they’ll need $40-50 million more to cover the costs.
Officials refuse to say where the money will come from, but taxpayers somewhere will pay.
In all, the state exchanges cost taxpayers almost $4.2 billion to build,and will cost even more to fix.
Meanwhile, the administration reported updated figures Thursday showing more than 8 million signed up in the first enrollment period.
But Republicans in Congress cast doubt on the figures in a report a day earlier, putting out estimates they claim show how many people actually paid their first month’s premiums.
The House Energy and Commerce Committee said, based on information from insurance providers in the federal exchange, only 67 percent of people who selected a plan on HealthCare.gov had paid their first premium as of April 15.
“Now what we don't know is how many of those have continued to make that payment and are successfully enrolled," noted Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn.
The information from Republicans came from contacting 160 insurance companies listed on HealthCare.gov and getting payment rates as of April 15.
The administration argues some didn't have to pay until May 1 and several insurers have reported higher payment numbers.


About that jobs report...maybe it wasn't so great - CNBC - Jeff Cox - May 2, 2014 - While the numbers may change, the story of the U.S. labor market ultimately is the same. Job growth continues, but significant weakness remains.                    Friday's nonfarm payroll report was the best in months, with 288,000 new jobs and an unemployment rate dropping all the way down to 6.3 percent.               The internals were somewhat less impressive.                     The headline rate fell due to a stunning decline in the labor force, the quality of new jobs remained iffy and long-term unemployment is still immune to ultra-easy monetary policy as the average length of joblessness holds at more than 35 weeks.                          "The unemployment rate, which fell to 6.3 percent in April from 6.7 percent the prior month, wholly masks the extent of the problem," University of Maryland economist Peter Morici said in an analysis. "The percentage of adults seeking employment dropped precipitously. One out of 6 men between the ages of 25 and 54 are without jobs, and many have given up looking for work and are not counted in the jobless rate."...                        For the Federal Reserve, then, the report likely does nothing to move policy. The central bank will continue on its road of decreasing monthly bond purchases but holding its key policy rate near zero. The Fed already has given up on its old yardstick of 6.5 percent unemployment to begin raising rates, and the uneven internals of the report probably will only fortify that position.                         "All of this leaves the Fed on its super-slow exit path," Michelle Meyer, U.S. economist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, said in a note to clients. "They want a full healing and that means getting the unemployment rate below 6 percent and getting wage growth back to normal. Today's data helped us move toward the first goal, but we actually took a small step back on the second goal."


It’s An Illusion: Here Are the REAL Unemployment Numbers - SHTFPlan.com -Mac Slavo - May 2nd, 2014 - Mainstream financial pundits are falling over themselves today following a report from the Labor Department indicating that the national unemployment rate has fallen yet again, this time to just 6.3%.                           The Associated Press, whose report on the new rate is being distributed to news services around the country, says this is “the strongest evidence to date that the economy is picking up.” They cite numerous economic experts, claiming that the U.S. economy is now experiencing vigorous job growth, which they say is confirmation that the economic health of our nation is bouncing back from a rough winter. In fact, they mention bad “weather” and “winter” eight times in a single article just to make sure we understand that the problems we’ve seen over the last few months were seasonal.                        But, as is generally the case with mainstream assessments and government statistics as of late, the devil’s in the details...                               Thus, while U.S. companies added some 288,000 jobs last month, three times as many people were dropped from the official unemployment statistics and are no longer counted in the labor pool.                     At this rate we’re well on our way to achieving the Communist dream of 0% unemployment before the end of the President’s term.                        Karl Denninger looks even deeper into the report at Market Ticker and points out that, while jobs were created last month, the claims of vigorous job growth are not even close....

 

Most jobs created in this recovery are low-wage, study finds - MarketWatch Wall Street Journal - May 1, 2014 - A majority of the new jobs created in the four years of the recovery have been in low-wage sectors, according to a new report released this week.                 “Deep into the recovery, job growth is still heavily concentrated in lower-wage industries,” said the National Employment Law Project, a progressive research group which has been pushing for Congress to increase the minimum wage.                          Lower-wage industries accounted for 22% of job losses during the recession but 44% of employment growth over the past four years.                    Mid-wage industries accounted for 37% of job losses but 26% of recent employment growth.                     Higher-wage industries accounted for 41% of job losses but 30% of the recent employment growth.                   Michael Evangelist, a policy analyst at NELP, said this trend toward low-wage job is another reason to boost the minimum wage...

Thanks to Obamacare, more companies are likely to dump health benefits - Yahoo Finance - Rick Newman - May 1, 2014 - Get ready for a trip back to the 1950s.                      Back then, fast-growing companies were in the habit of offering health insurance as a fringe benefit to help recruit workers, a practice that got started during World War II to reward loyal employees when wage controls were in place. It helped that the government had passed a few tax breaks making it affordable for corporations. So it was basically by accident that employer-provided health insurance became the norm in the United States, even though the government came to oversee healthcare in most other developed nations.                             We may soon go back to a model in which employers provide healthcare more as a perk than as a routine benefit, requiring workers to get insurance from other sources. That could save big companies up to $700 billion by 2025, according to a new report from S&P Capital IQ. It’s hard to think of any other single change that could save companies that much money, indicating how powerful the Affordable Care Act (ACA) could become once it has fully impacted the U.S. healthcare system.                       S&P predicts that companies will do the math and find it irresistible to move more and more of their workers off company-run plans and into the exchanges established under Obamacare, as the ACA is known. Companies with more than 50 workers will have to pay a penalty if they don’t offer insurance, but it could still be cheaper when factoring in the savings on healthcare; that’s because insurance costs have skyrocketed during the last 20 years, making healthcare one of the costs companies find most difficult to control.                    The rising and unpredictable nature of healthcare costs led AOL CEO Tim Armstrong to make his unfortunate comment about "distressed babies" earlier this year. Armstrong took a lot of heat and later apologized, but many CEOs expresss similar frustrations (usually privately).

GOP REPORT: 1 in 3 Obamacare ‘Enrollees’ Haven't Paid - Breitbart - May 1, 2014 - WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans issued a report Wednesday saying that one-third of people who signed up for health insurance through new federal exchanges hadn't paid their first month's premium as of mid-April, which could undermine the Obama administration's claims of robust enrollment under the new health law.                             But administration officials, outside experts and even the health insurance industry immediately questioned the report, offering the latest skirmish over questionable claims and counterclaims that have come to characterize debate over President Barack Obama's signature health law.                   The report by House Energy and Commerce Committee Republicans said 67 percent of people who had signed up for health insurance through federal marketplaces had paid their first month's premiums as of April 15. That was far lower than the numbers emerging from individual insurance companies, which have been reporting payment numbers in the range of 85 percent and above. Wellpoint reported on an earnings call Wednesday that some 90 percent of people signing up for insurance actually had paid.                         Administration officials, insurers and others were quick to point out that because the GOP data cut off in mid-April, it didn't capture a surge of health law sign-ups in March prior to the end of the first open enrollment period.