With the media focused on a presidential election that is now five months away, any jobs data is going to be viewed from the standpoint of its possible impact on the campaigns. Today’s dismal report that only 69,000 jobs were created last month, with jobs data for the last two months revised downward and the [...]
Archive for the ‘The Economy’ Category
Bad Weather On The Jobs Front
Posted in America, Politics, The Economy, tagged America, Joblessness, Mitt Romney, Politics, President Obama, The Economy, Unemployment on June 1, 2012 | 1 Comment »
When People Give Up
Posted in America, The Economy, Work, tagged America, Giving Up, High Unemployment, Parenting, Qutting, The Economy, Unemployment, Work on May 14, 2012 | 1 Comment »
The April unemployment rate dropped slightly, to 8.1 percent. Unfortunately, the decline was due not so much to the creation of new jobs, but to the fact that hundreds of thousands of people just quit looking for work. Under the government’s approach to calculating the unemployment rate, those people just aren’t counted as unemployed any [...]
Canada Loses Its Cents
Posted in America, Humor, Technology, The Economy, World, tagged America, Canada, Canadian Penny, Cash, Coins, Currency, Humor, Money, Pennies, Technology, The Economy, World on May 6, 2012 | 1 Comment »
On Friday, Canada minted its last penny. The rationale for this move is that it costs more to mint the penny ($.016 each) than the penny is worth. In addition, Canada’s Finance Minister concluded that people weren’t using the penny for business. Instead, they were just putting them in jars at home. So, no more [...]
Teetering On The Brink, And Stuck In The Mud
Posted in America, Politics, The Economy, tagged America, Mitt Romney, political campaigns, Politics, President Obama, The Economy, Unemployment, Voters on May 4, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Today the April unemployment report is released. It probably will be read more closely in the lobbying offices on K Street than in the trading pits on Wall Street. Americans vote with their pocketbooks. For all the recent talk about Mitt Romney’s roof transportation of a family pet years ago, President Obama eating dog meat [...]
The Dreaded Double Dip
Posted in Humor, The Economy, TV, tagged Double Dip Recession, Great Britain, Humor, recession, Seinfeld, The Economy, TV on April 25, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Today Great Britain published statistics indicating that its economy has slid back into recession, making England the victim of a dreaded “double dip” recession. Economic officials in the United States are holding their breath and hoping that the American economy doesn’t suffer a similar fate. “Double dip” recessions are no laughing matter — but we [...]
Mill, Baby, Mill!
Posted in Ohio, Technology, The Economy, tagged Ohio, Oil and Gas, recession, Steel Mills, Technology, The Economy, Utica Shale Formation on April 25, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
In Ohio we are getting a first-hand look at the ripple effect in the economy when America’s energy resources are tapped — and it has been a real economic boon. As I’ve mentioned before, eastern Ohio is home to the Utica shale formation, an incredibly deep layer of rock that apparently is a rich repository [...]
Bulging Biceps And Bulging Bags
Posted in Columbus, The Economy, tagged Arnold Classic, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Arnold Sports Festival, bodybuilding, Columbus, Columbus Conventioin Center, Exercise, The Economy on March 2, 2012 | 3 Comments »
The Arnold Sports Festival is back in town this weekend. Every year, Arnold Schwarzenegger’s favorite event gets bigger, and better, and packs even more people into various Columbus venues. Today the Bus-Riding Conservative and I walked down at lunch to check out the Arnold. There were lots of people on the streets — many of [...]
A Glimmer On The Horizon
Posted in America, Politics, The Economy, tagged America, Jobs, Politics, President Obama, Republicans, The Economy, Unemployment on February 4, 2012 | 1 Comment »
Yesterday’s unemployment report contained some good news, for a change. The Bureau of Labor Statistics released data stating that 243,000 new jobs were created, and the unemployment rate fell to 8.3 percent. Both results are better than what economists and analysts — who never seem to be right — were expecting. There are some curious [...]
Tuning Out
Posted in America, Politics, The Economy, TV, tagged America, Politics, President Obama, recession, State Of The Union speech, The Economy, TV, Unemployment on January 26, 2012 | 1 Comment »
I didn’t watch the President’s State of the Union speech earlier this week. It turns out I’m not alone. According to the New York Times, 37.8 million viewers watched the President’s speech. That’s down from 42.8 million in 2011, 48 million in 2010, and 52.3 million for the President’s 2009 speech to Congress. In short, [...]
The President As Pitchman
Posted in America, Politics, The Economy, World, tagged America, Disney World, Politics, President Obama, The Economy, Tourism, We Can't Wait, World on January 21, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Last week President Obama went down to Disney World to tout tourism in America and got his picture taken with the Disney castle in the background. The trip was part of the President’s “We Can’t Wait” campaign, in which he does things by himself that are supposed to promote job growth and show that we [...]
Capitalism 301 (And The Food Network)
Posted in America, Food, The Economy, tagged America, Bain Capital, Capitalism, Food, Mitt Romney, Restaurant Impossible, restaurants, Robert Irvine, The Economy, The Food Network on January 18, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
If, like Kish and me, you like to watch The Food Network from time to time, you’ve been exposed to capitalism at its very essence. Whether it is Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, where great food made from scratch earns raves and steadfast loyalty from customers, or the latest competitive cooking or baking show, or Restaurant [...]
Capitalism 201
Posted in America, The Economy, tagged America, Bain Capital, Capitalism, Democrats, Mitt Romney, Republicans, taxes, The Economy, Venture Capital Firms on January 12, 2012 | 1 Comment »
If Mitt Romney ends up as the Republican nominee, we’ll be hearing a lot more about his stint at Bain Capital. I think that would be a good thing for a lot of reasons — one being that we would all be better served if our citizenry and our politicians had a clearer understanding of [...]
Capitalism 101
Posted in Politics, The Economy, Work, tagged Capitalism, Firing People, Jobs, Mitt Romney, Politics, Republicans, The Economy, Work on January 11, 2012 | 3 Comments »
Let’s see: Mitt Romney discusses health insurance and says he likes to being able to fire people who provide services for him . . . and his Republican opponents say that makes him a heartless bastard? I know that politics involves a lot of silliness, but this latest tempest in a teapot is ridiculous. In [...]
The President’s Curious, Overcooked Metaphors
Posted in America, Politics, The Economy, tagged 2012 Presidential Election, 60 minutes, America, Politics, President Obama, Public Speaking, Ship Captains, Ships, The Economy, Unemployment on December 31, 2011 | 1 Comment »
Although he has a reputation as a fine public speaker, President Obama often struggles to make his point and move on. At times, he seems to get trapped within expanding metaphors, fighting without success to make his way out. I first noticed this after he was elected, when he sought to explain why he wouldn’t [...]
Zombie, Or Not Zombie?
Posted in Humor, The Economy, tagged Halloween, Hardware, Humor, Occupy Wall Street, The Economy, Undead, Westlake Ace Hardware Zombie Preparedness Center, Zombies on October 18, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
Halloween is just around the corner, and a person’s thoughts naturally turn to . . . zombies. We’ve all seen movies about them. We know there is a good chance that, any day now, some misguided government program, alien virus, or bacteria from the bottom of the sea could turn our peaceful fellow citizens into [...]
