Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Overall economy

I've never claimed to be a whiz at macroeconomics. I try to check out those who do it for a living for a general sense of where the economy is going. From the B3 blog we have Bonddad
The nice thing about his blog is that you don't need a degree to fully understand his articles at least most of the time. Here's a link to some basic charts concerning what's going on at present.

Simple charts



Did I mention he's partial to Weimaraners?

Daddy not around to bail him out?


Mr Decider is now looking for options from anybody to bail out his failed policys. I've got one for you George. Get out of Iraq and lower the price of gas by the $2 billion a month you're wasting there. Then start rebuilding the infrastructure here. That would put a ton of people to work.

Bushwacked

Monday, April 28, 2008

Unemployment

It just puzzles me that the talking heads keep saying how wonderful the stock markets and other investments are going. Everywhere I see people are cutting back on their spending. Not that they really want to but because gas is so high and food prices are following. If anyone were to continue to spend in their customary fashion they would soon notice a very slim bank account at the end of the month.
The employment figures for our state were just posted last week. Usually Wa. is one of the last states to feel the economic punch of a downturn. This one has come very quickly. Employment had held steady up until last month (Mar) that's when unemployment edged upwards by .4%. It doesn't seem like much unless of course you are one of the .4%. I am in that catagory, but having been in this up and down profession for nearly 18 years now, I am patient. Time to look back and reflect on the sheer volume of work I've done over the years. I think if it was placed in a pile it would look like a small mountain with a stream of liquid waste flowing down the sides. The sheer tonnage even boggles my mind.
The bad part of unemployment is what to do after you've remodeled your place, cleaned out all the closets and cleaned and scrubbed the kitchen and bathroom twice a day. There's nothing on the boob tube and I think I've been everywhere on the internet that I'd care to go. One more page of Jane Smith's baby photos and I'll need an erp rag. I can't plant a container garden like I'd planned as they're still painting the building and doing repairs. So here I sit rambling about something everybody already knows. And life goes on.

Saturday, April 26, 2008

Will trade rice for oil



With the increase of the price of rice of late there are actually only three countries that are in trouble in terms of rice production and consumption. They are Bangladesh, Indonesia and the Phillipines. In all other major producing countries production surpasses consumption. So that presents the obvious observation that the rise in prices are due to the increase in oil and the speculators that have been driving up the cost on commodities for the last few months.

Rice

If we could just get these greedy bastards out of the equation then I'm sure there would be more peace in the world.

Friday, April 25, 2008

Beavers gone high tech



brought to you by the Raincoaster blog from one of their friends.

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Primary

Here's what we have left of the Democratic primary and my predictions for the results.

North Carolina - Obama
Indiana - Obama
Oregon - Obama
Kentucky - Toss up
West Virginia - Toss up
Montana - Obama
South Dakota - Clinton
Puerto Rico - Obama
Guam - Obama

I could be totally off on this. You never know about surprises with elections. What I do know is that there is no way McCain will be in the white house unless there is cheating like in the last two elections.
Assuming I'm wrong on even half of these primarys Clinton still can't win.

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Abramoff just keeps giving


It just keeps going on and on and on you know those convictions of people associated with Jack Abramoff.
The gift that keeps on giving