The Obama campaign mocked Romney for targeting Big Bird.. Well Obamacare actually "Got 'Em"

President Obama stole my Insurance

BIG BIRD and Sesame Place hit by Obamacare....

In a letter sent last week to President Obama, U.S. Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick contended that the Affordable Care Act had caused Sesame Place, one of Bucks County’s biggest tourist attractions, to terminate health benefits for its part-time employees.....................

A spokesman for SeaWorld, the amusement park’s parent company, confirmed Wednesday that the company was cutting the weekly work limit for part-time employees from 32 to 28 hours. Under the Affordable Care Act, companies can face fines if they do not provide insurance for staffers who work at least 30 hours per week.
See more here

A&P Grocery Chain Files for Bankruptcy

Bankruptcy has been filed by the grocery chain A&P, who says it is drained of cash during the sluggish economy.

As of the largest U.S. grocers, Great Atlantic &Pacific Tea Co own about 400 stores with brands like Waldbaum's, Pathmark, Super Fresh and A&P.

The company filed Chapter 11 in New York with more than $ 1 billion in assets and the same amount in debt.

A&P had nearly $9 billion in sales in its fiscal year to February 2010, but it has been losing cash at a rate of nearly $5 million a week.

Since 1859, The Great Atlantic &Pacific Tea Company Inc. (A&P) has fulfilled the shopping needs of families throughout North America with freshness, quality, variety and value.

In December 2007, Pathmark Supermarkets, with its 141 stores, joined the A&P Family of Supermarkets.

Read more here

Uncertainty.......

How come every Dem spokesman forgets Jimmy Carter's Economy?

It is not the worst since Great Depression. It is the worst since Jimmy Carter, yes. It is not as bad as Carter.....yet. Unless we can turn it around.

Are they hurting Mr. Gibbs?

Are they hurting Mr.Gibbs?
What a moron.

The people making 250K a year are not spending as much money. The people making 40K a year are not spending as much money. The 84 million people not in the workforce are not spending as much money. The 14,860,000 unemployed are not spending as much money.

There are many reasons. Many are not spending money because my investment income went into the crapper. They don't have as much to spend. Their annual income has decreased. Many are also not spending because of the uncertainty of the economy. Sooner or later, someone is going to have to pay the piper. Our debt will come due.

Gibbs talks about those with 250K incomes. Those people are not as bad off as someone with a 40K income. That is obvious.
The point he neglects is if someone had a job that pays $250K and had investment income paying $50K in 2006, and their income kept pace with inflation. They would have a $270K income and $0 from investments. Their lifestyle changed dramatically. And a net loss of $30K a year in 2006 dollars. If they bought a house at the height of the market in 2006 for 2 1/2 times their salary, $625K and put 20% down, they had a mortgage of $500,000. Say they were in the booming Phoenix Arizona market. As of March 2009, the Phoenix home market dropped 48%. That means their house is now worth $325,000, and they are still paying $2700 a month on his mortgage. Are they hurting Mr.Gibbs? They still owes $467K on a $325K house. Are they hurting Mr. Gibbs? They are now paying more for their health care, and unsure of what Obamacare will do to the health care costs. Are They hurting Mr. Gibbs? Their kids college tuition grew at 7.1% a year.They were paying $20K in 2006, They are paying $26K now. Are they hurting Mr.Gibbs? Are they pulling back?

"no doubt we're moving in the right direction."

Biden conceded that the economic recovery was not proceeding as fast as the administration had hoped, but claimed there was "no doubt we're moving in the right direction." as per the Chicago Trib

I wonder if VP Biden missed this info?
Housing starts at 5 year low
Existing US Home Sales Market Collapses With 27% Fall

"I Want Your Money" Trailer

H/t Real Revo

President Obama is having hallucinations???

He is "Calling their bluff"

Just look at the chart below.
Who is bluffing?
Or Should I ask Who is Totally FULL OF IT?

Standard of Living.....

What 152 hours work buys today

Radio Shack has put its catalogs for 1939 to 2005 on line.

Choose any date earlier than 10 years ago and you get a feel for just how much our standard of living has increased. The items are generally what we regard as junk--and they're expensive.

Some examples:
1976-77, pp. 4-5: An AM-FM radio and cassette tape deck for $179.95.
Same page: 8-Track Stereo player. Yes: 8-track. Price: $149.95.

1949: pp. 2-3: Amateur transmitter for "only" $1450.00.

1985, pp. 1972-173: MS-DOS computer, $4250.00.

H/T Econlog

What it bought in 1964

H/T Blog American

Political Cartoons by Gary Varvel

Political Cartoons by Gary Varvel

Iknow mybuddies in SWVa will understand.

A Little clip on Swedish Economy.

A Lesson for the US?

H/T Real Revo

Love Thy Neighbor

Matthew 22:36-40
"Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."

10% unemployment # is BULLS***

The labor force contracted by 661,000. This did not show up in the headline jobless rate because so many Americans dropped out of the system. The broad U6 category of unemployment rose to 17.3%, according to the UK Telegraph

Nearly 600,000 people are not counted among the "Unemployed"in December, even though they were included in November.
In October there were 138,242,000 people working. Unemployment was listed as 10.1%
In November there were 138,381,000 people working. Unemployment was listed as 10%.
So far so good.
Well in December there were 137,792,000 people working, That is 450,000 less people working than in October. That is 589,000 less than November, but the official unemployment rate stayed the same.
When President Obama was inaugurated 142,221,000 people were working, and there were 80,599,000 people not in the workforce. In December 137,792,000 were working and there were 83,865,000 people not in the workforce. That is 3.26 Million people who are not counted anymore

The workforce was listed as 154,140,000 in January 2009. It dropped to 153,720,000 in November, and further dropped 10 153,059,000 in December 2009. That is a 1.08 million person drop. Where did they go?

The official unemployed number is 15.27 Million
If you add all the "new" people not in the workforce, and the official unemployed, that comes out to 18.5 million people who are not working.

How Big is YOUR Deficit President Obama? And You dare to talk about "Monopoly Money"?

Who Is He Blaming This Time?

After he blames what he inherited, as usual, he then goes on to ignore his role in the process.
H/T Real Revo

$160,000 Per Stimulus Job?

Jake Tapper works his calculator. WH calls it ABUSE
The White House argues that the actual job number is actually larger than 640,000 -- closer to 1 million jobs when one factors in stimulus jobs added in October and, more importantly, jobs created indirectly, such as "the waitress who's still on the job," Vice President Biden said today.

So let's see. Assuming their number is right -- 160 billion divided by 1 million. Does that mean the stimulus costs taxpayers $160,000 per job?

Jared Bernstein, chief economist and senior economic advisor to the vice president, called that "calculator abuse."

He said the cost per job was actually $92,000 -- but acknowledged that estimate is for the whole stimulus package as of the end of 2010.

See the full story and video here

Smart People are the first to leave a sinking ship

Top employees leave financial firms ahead of pay cuts
It was reported in the Washington Post......
Even before the Obama administration formally tightened executive compensation at bailed-out companies, the prospect of pay cuts had led some top employees to depart...............
At Bank of America, for instance, only 14 of the 25 highly paid executives remained by the time Feinberg announced his decision..........
At American International Group, only 13 people of the top 25 were still on hand for Feinberg's decision.........

Watch for a business exodus to Australia, Ireland and New Zealand and other freer economies

US Moving Down in World Economy

The World Economic Forum published the list of 133 world economies.
The US went down. Venezuela, Bolivia, Honduras, all moving down.

Switzerland tops the overall ranking in The Global Competitiveness Report 2009-2010. The United States falls one place to second position, with weakening in its financial markets and macroeconomic stability. Singapore, Sweden and Denmark round out the top five. European economies continue to prevail in the top 10 with Finland, Germany and the Netherlands following suit. The United Kingdom, while remaining very competitive, has continued its fall from last year, moving down one more place this year to 13th, mainly attributable to continuing weakening of its financial markets.

The U.S. as the world's largest economy lost last year's strong lead, slipping to number two for the first time since the introduction of the index in its current form in 2004 according to Reuters

The Global Competitiveness Index 2009–2010 rankings and 2008–2009 comparisons
Country Rank Rating Previous year Ranking.
Switzerland 1 5.60 2
United States 2 5.59 1
Singapore 3 5.55 5
Sweden 4 5.51 4
Denmark 5 5.46 3
Finland 6 5.43 6
Germany 7 5.37 7
Japan 8 5.37 9
Canada 9 5.33 10
Netherlands 10 5.32 8
Hong Kong SAR 11 5.22 11
Taiwan, China 12 5.20 17
United Kingdom 13 5.19 12
Norway 14 5.17 15
Australia 15 5.15 18
France 16 5.13 16
Austria 17 5.13 14
Belgium 18 5.09 19
Korea, Rep. 19 5.00 13
New Zealand 20 4.98 24
Luxembourg 21 4.96 25
Qatar 22 4.95 26
United Arab Emirates 23 4.92 31
Malaysia 24 4.87 21
Ireland 25 4.84 22
Iceland 26 4.80 20
Israel 27 4.80 23
Saudi Arabia 28 4.75 27
China 29 4.74 30
Chile 30 4.70 28
Czech Republic 31 4.67 33
Brunei Darussalam 32 4.64 39
Spain 33 4.59 29
Cyprus 34 4.57 40
Estonia 35 4.56 32
Thailand 36 4.56 34
Slovenia 37 4.55 42
Bahrain 38 4.54 37
Kuwait 39 4.53 35
Tunisia 40 4.50 36
Oman 41 4.49 38
Puerto Rico 42 4.48 41
Portugal 43 4.40 43
Barbados 44 4.35 47
South Africa 45 4.34 45
Poland 46 4.33 53
Slovak Republic 47 4.31 46
Italy 48 4.31 49
India 49 4.30 50
Jordan 50 4.30 48
Azerbaijan 51 4.30 69
Malta 52 4.30 52
Lithuania 53 4.30 44
Indonesia 54 4.26 55
Costa Rica 55 4.25 59
Brazil 56 4.23 64
Mauritius 57 4.22 57
Hungary 58 4.22 62
Panama 59 4.21 58
Mexico 60 4.19 60
Turkey 61 4.16 63
Montenegro 62 4.16 65
Russian Federation 63 4.15 51
Romania 64 4.11 68
Uruguay 65 4.10 75
Botswana 66 4.08 56
Kazakhstan 67 4.08 66
Latvia 68 4.06 54
Colombia 69 4.05 74
Egypt 70 4.04 81
Greece 71 4.04 67
Croatia 72 4.03 61
Morocco 73 4.03 73
Namibia 74 4.03 80
Vietnam 75 4.03 70
Bulgaria 76 4.02 76
El Salvador 77 4.02 79
Peru 78 4.01 83
Sri Lanka 79 4.01 77
Guatemala 80 3.96 84
Gambia, The 81 3.96 87
Ukraine 82 3.95 72
Algeria 83 3.95 99
Macedonia, FYR 84 3.95 89
Argentina 85 3.91 88
Trinidad and Tobago 86 3.91 92
Philippines 87 3.90 71
Libya 88 3.90 91
Honduras 89 3.86 82
Georgia 90 3.81 90
Jamaica 91 3.81 86
Senegal 92 3.78 96
Serbia 93 3.77 85
Syria 94 3.76 78
Dominican Republic 95 3.75 98
Albania 96 3.72 108
Armenia 97 3.71 97
Kenya 98 3.67 93
Nigeria 99 3.65 94
Tanzania 100 3.59 113
Pakistan 101 3.58 101
Suriname 102 3.57 103
Benin 103 3.56 106
Guyana 104 3.56 115
Ecuador 105 3.56 104
Bangladesh 106 3.55 111
Lesotho 107 3.54 123
Uganda 108 3.53 128
Bosnia and Herzegovina 109 3.53 107
Cambodia 110 3.51 109
Cameroon 111 3.50 114
Zambia 112 3.50 112
Venezuela 113 3.48 105
Ghana 114 3.45 102
Nicaragua 115 3.44 120
Côte d’Ivoire 116 3.43 110
Mongolia 117 3.43 100
Ethiopia 118 3.43 121
Malawi 119 3.42 119
Bolivia 120 3.42 118
Madagascar 121 3.42 125
Tajikistan 122 3.38 116
Kyrgyz Republic 123 3.36 122
Paraguay 124 3.35 124
Nepal 125 3.34 126
Timor-Leste 126 3.26 129
Mauritania 127 3.25 131
Burkina Faso 128 3.23 127
Mozambique 129 3.22 130
Mali 130 3.22 117
Chad 131 2.87 134
Zimbabwe 132 2.77 133
Burundi 133 2.58 132
*The 2008–2009 rank is out of 134 countries. One country covered last year,
Moldova, had to be excluded this year for lack of Survey data.
Table 4: The Global Competitiveness Index 2009–2010 rankings and 2008–2009 comparisons
GCI 2009–2010 GCI 2008–2009 GCI 2009–2010 GCI 2008–2009
The Global

Germany out of recession????

Bloomberg writes.........
“There is a more-than-decent chance that euro-zone economic activity has now hit a bottom and will expand again in the third quarter, as many other economies follow Germany and France out of recession,” said Martin van Vliet, senior economist at ING Bank in Amsterdam. “However, we fear that the recovery will be relatively slow and protracted.”
Didn't Germany have TAX CUTS????

Fishersville Mike has a new song parody.

Sung to the beat of Elvis' Suspicious Minds.
See the original video over at Mike's


We’re caught in a trap
We can’t get out
Because you spend way too much money

Why can’t you see
How worthless bonds will be?
When you don’t control your spending?

We can’t go on together
With deficit spending (deficit spending)
And we can’t build a future
On this pile of debt

So, old friend, I know
When I drop by to buy gold
Will there be suspicions on your eyes?

Here we go again
Asking for more credit
You can’t see these bills are real
I’m holding (bills I'm holding)

We can’t go on together
With deficit spending
And we can’t build a future
On this pile of debt

Oh can the world survive
Or pay the debts that you’ve got
Let’s not make our children cry
When Obama, you know
I can’t bail you out
Mmm, yeah, yeah

We’re caught in a trap
We can’t get out
Because you spend way too much money

Why can’t you see
How worthless bonds will be?
When you don’t control your spending?

"Transparent" Obama Admin hiding bad news

AP reports that the White House is being forced to acknowledge the wide gap between its once-upbeat predictions about the economy and today's bleak landscape.

The administration's annual midsummer budget update is sure to show higher deficits and unemployment and slower growth than projected in President Barack Obama's budget in February and update in May, and that could complicate his efforts to get his signature health care and global-warming proposals through Congress.

The release of the update—usually scheduled for mid-July—has been put off until the middle of next month, giving rise to speculation the White House is delaying the bad news at least until Congress leaves town Aug. 7 on its summer recess.