Just The Numbers, Mam
By: Les Dunaway
In Nov 2011 I wrote about the DOL jobs report and discussed how those numbers had been cooked to make the job situation look better. Well, as has been said “You ain’t seen nothin yet”. We can expect bogus numbers month by month leading up to November.
Last weeks report has an even more tenuous relation to reality. First, let’s talk about what … Read more...
Just The Numbers, Mam
By Les Dunaway
On Wed, the 14th, Reuters published an excellent summary of the situation in Italy. From my reading, you can apply the same lessons to Greece, Portugal, Spain, France and (possibly) England.
When I read it, I got chills because all that’s required for it to describe our country, in a few years, is to change some names. We are not as far … Read more...
Just The Numbers, Mam
By: Les Dunaway
The announcement by major world banks that they’ll funnel money to European banks is the latest step in the saga of “Let’s borrow more money so we can keep spending”. Only, this time it’s “Let’s print money we don’t have and loan it to people who won’t pay it back at cheap rates so they can keep spending.” [read] [read… Read more...
Just The Numbers, Mam
By Les Dunaway
Well the suspense is over – what little suspense there was.
“Super Committee Says It’s Unable to Agree on Debt Reduction Deal“
We all knew that Boehner got rolled on the debt limit deal. [read] [read] [read] He should have asked Bush I about trusting Democrats. At least, he called Obama out … Read more...
By Les Dunaway
The monthly unemployment numbers came out from the DOL this week. They were summarized in the media as a drop from 9.1 to 9.0. Many people reacted with surprise as such a drop was counter-intuitive, especially when the reported jobs-created was 80,000 – somewhere between a third and a half of what’s needed to reduce unemployment.
I’m happy to report that the confusion was simply government book-cooking, … Read more...
By Les Dunaway
This morning about 6am, as I do each week day, I read the Financial Times “Asia: AM” which looks at what’s happening in the Asian and European markets. The top story was “EU reaches agreement on Greek bonds”.
The top line on the “agreement”, which has not been agreed-to by anyone at this point, is that all holders of Greek-debt bonds will get new bonds – whose … Read more...
By Les Dunaway
I’ve read the Wall Street Journal most every weekday for 20+ years. Being a money junky, I also read Forbes, Financial Times, … Over the past few weeks, when we’ve had some of the worst market swings in memory, the discussion has recognized that the world, not just the US, is hanging on the edge of a really nasty depression. That’s to be expected and isn’t news … Read more...
By Les Dunaway
The Occupy Wall Street demonstrations have brought up a subject that needs more scrutiny. A member of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, who dissented from the report, summarizes what happened in the Oct 12th Wall Street Journal.
Judging from the squealing from the left, below, he struck a nerve. Take a look a these videos, in light of what we know now, and see if … Read more...
By Les Dunaway
In a debate co-sponsored by NYSE and Corporate Responsibility (CR) magazine’s COMMIT!Forum the Agenda 21 people made clear their agenda – the destruction of capitalism. Of course, anyone who has looked at the website wasn’t surprised.
[Reuters report] [Advisor One report] … Read more...By Les Dunaway
“When institutions protect the liberty of individuals, greater prosperity results for all.”
Adam Smith in “The Wealth of Nations”, 1776
This truth is a key measure of the fitness of a government to survive. When any government fails this test, the citizens of that government must resort to another statement, written the same year:
…We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, … Read more...
By Les Dunaway
Well, we now have President Obama’s plan to “to put more people back to work and more money in the pockets of those who are working”. A long list of business leaders had little hope that the speech would contain anything substantive. They were proven right. What we got was more of the same, both in terms of the programs offered and the tax increases to pay … Read more...
By Les Dunaway
During the budget debate last December, during the lead-up the the debt-ceiling debate, … I’ve listened to statements made by various politicians, pundits and some real people. I’ve concluded that there really are people who believe that we can just raise taxes to support any desired level of spending. When they are asked about the example of Spain, Portugal, Greece, Ireland, … they respond “Well, that’s Europe; … Read more...