Wow, That Stimulus – Just What Was Needed! More, Please!
Another indicator that those in charge haven’t a clue about what they’re doing and anything they say or claim should be taken with a large grain of salt.
Chart: Innocentbystanders.net
So let’s see, given the “logic” which has driven the “solution” thus far, what this calls for is more stimulus money, right?
~McQ
Recession Over? Not Yet Says NBER
Some indicators are looking better, but others, not as good:
While the U.S. economy is showing signs of stabilizing from a recession that started in December 2007, it’s “way too early” to say the contraction is over, said the head of the group that officially makes the call.
Gross domestic product estimated on a monthly basis “had a trough earlier this year, but it is way too early to say that it is a true trough rather than a pause in a longer decline,” said Robert Hall, who heads the National Bureau of Economic Research’s Business Cycle Dating Committee.
So while you continue to hear the happy talk about economic recovery, the experts aren’t yet ready to say whether we’ve bottomed out or are just taking a breather in the midst of a longer decline.
~McQ
Zyklon B 2.0
Barack Obama recounted the contributions of Islam yesterday during his speech in Cairo. This may not have been what he was talking about:
German media outlets reported last week that a Saudi inventor’s application to patent a “killer chip,” as the Swiss tabloids put it, had been denied.
The basic model would consist of a tiny GPS transceiver placed in a capsule and inserted under a person’s skin, so that authorities could track him easily.
Model B would have an extra function — a dose of cyanide to remotely kill the wearer without muss or fuss if authorities deemed he’d become a public threat.
The inventor said the chip could be used to track terrorists, criminals, fugitives, illegal immigrants, political dissidents, domestic servants and foreigners overstaying their visas.
Another wonderful tool for the state. My guess is it will be beta tested in NoKo.
~McQ
[HT: Neo]
“More Czars Than The Romanovs”
That’s what John McCain has said about the Obama tendency to appoint “czars” to oversee various issues. As McCain points out, these czars operate outside of any real oversight.
And apparently there’s going to be another new “czar” in town. A – are you ready for this? – “pay czar”.
The Obama administration plans to appoint a “Special Master for Compensation” to ensure that companies receiving federal bailout funds are abiding by executive-pay guidelines, according to people familiar with the matter.
The administration is expected to name Kenneth Feinberg, who oversaw the federal government’s compensation fund for victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, to act as a pay czar for the Treasury Department, these people said.
A tendency toward fascism?
I’d have to say yes. There’s no question that this is a very deep intrusion into the management of a company which will have negative consequences on down the road (the companies still compete for talent in the same pool as companies not under these restrictions). But apparently their competitive health is less important than enforcing some arbitrary and political level of “fair” compensation.
~McQ
Government Motors? Oh Yeah …
Politics and special interests now run General Motors – a company which should be making business decisions based on what is best for the company and its future and not what is best for some politician:
Rep Barney Frank (D-Mass.) won a stay of execution on Thursday for a General Motors plant in his district that the automaker had announced it would close.
No other lawmaker has managed to halt the GM ax. As chairman of the House Financial Services Committee Frank oversees the government’s bailout program, known as TARP. Frank’s staff said the lawmaker spokes with GM CEO Fritz Henderson on Wednesday and convinced him to keep the Norton, Mass. plant open for at least 14 months.
Because what happens in about 14 months boys and girls?
The 2010 midterms. And who controls all the bailout programs? Why the guy who was able to change Government Motors mind on the plant in his district.
Of course had some backbench freshman congressman from a red state district made the same request, what do you suppose the answer would have been? It doesn’t get any more blatant than this — but who among our “leaders” has the stones to call him on it?
About the only thing you could hope for in this instance is a bankruptcy judge would say “no dice” and force GM to carry out its original plan, but as stagemanaged as this whole bankruptcy procedure is, I doubt something like that would happen.
~McQ