Joe the Plumber advises GOP-ers – Yahoo! News:
“Wurzelbacher, who became a household name during the presidential election, will be focusing his talk on the proposed stimulus package. “
(Via Yahoo!News.)
Absolute comedy.
Category: Biz and Econ
Discussion on all things business related.
Will the Stimulus Work?
Will the Stimulus Work? | The FactCheck Wire:
“In the meantime, if you want to keep up with the experts and their (sometimes quite technical) arguments for and against the stimulus plan, we suggest Krugman and former Clinton Treasury official Brad DeLong on the pro side and Becker and George Mason’s Tyler Cowen on the con side. The Atlantic’s new Atlantic Business page helpfully breaks down the experts’ arguments for the layperson.”
(Via FactCheck Wire.)
Check out both sides before arriving at an opinion.
Stimulate the Economy
Obama stimulus plan faces changes in Senate – Yahoo! News:
“WASHINGTON – A top Republican called for more mortgage relief and additional tax cuts in President Barack Obama’s massive economic stimulus package as Democrats conceded privately they will drop items that have drawn bipartisan criticism.”
(Via Yahoo! News.)
Finally, some sense from the Congress. I’ve been suspicious of them since the TARP fiasco. Whatever happened to good governance? Apparently, once you are in power, it fades into the background. I’ve seen tortured logic trying to justify “pork” projects that don’t stimulate the economy. These projects are to vary degrees laudable and worthy of legislation all on their own, but let’s get real here. Tax cuts and government spending that creates jobs is what is needed. Condoms are not stimulative in the proper sense!
Mad Men
The Word – Mad Men | Wednesday November 19 | ColbertNation.com:
“”
(Via The Colbert Nation.)
Steve brings the moneytheism gospel.
Op-Ed Columnist – How to Fix a Flat – NYTimes.com
Op-Ed Columnist – How to Fix a Flat – NYTimes.com:
“‘In return for any direct government aid,’ he wrote, ‘the board and the management [of G.M.] should go. Shareholders should lose their paltry remaining equity. And a government-appointed receiver — someone hard-nosed and nonpolitical — should have broad power to revamp G.M. with a viable business plan and return it to a private operation as soon as possible.”
(Via NY Times.)
Amen. Been saying this for all government bailouts. Incompetence should not be rewarded and put in charge of fixing itself.
Why Apple Will Always Be a Hardware Company
Apple earnings, profits, and cash embarrass Microsoft — RoughlyDrafted Magazine:
“While Microsoft executives like to talk about Apple as an insignificant company with less than 5% of the worldwide market share of all PCs and servers sold, the company now has more cash than Microsoft and earns more than half of its profits and over three fourths Microsoft’s revenues.”
(Via RoughlyDrafted Magazine.)
Increasing the Minimum Wage Doesn’t Kill Jobs
Minimum Wage Impacts on Employment: A Look at Indiana, Illinois, and Surrounding Midwestern States:
“These patterns in job growth between 2003 and 2005 indicate that Illinois’ increasing minimum wage rates did not reduce overall employment growth for private employers and preliminary statistical analyses confirm this lack of an impact”
(Via Indiana University.)
Once again we see how ideology is soft-think. This is has been proven over and over, yet we see no public discussion on this at the pragmatic level. Just ideological back and forth. “Fairness” vs. “Jobs.” Whatever. Try “reality.”
AP INVESTIGATION: Palin pipeline terms curbed bids – Yahoo! News
AP INVESTIGATION: Palin pipeline terms curbed bids – Yahoo! News:
“Gov. Sarah Palin’s signature accomplishment — a contract to build a 1,715-mile pipeline to bring natural gas from Alaska to the Lower 48 — emerged from a flawed bidding process that narrowed the field to a company with ties to her administration”
(Via Yahoo! News.)
The closer you look, the less mavericky she gets. Palin is more politician than maverick.
What Will Wall Street Look Like in the Fall of 2009? — New York Magazine
What Will Wall Street Look Like in the Fall of 2009? — New York Magazine:
“And while any president will be an improvement over the current one, there is a growing belief on Wall Street that Barack Obama has the capacity to lead us out of this wilderness while John McCain does not. I’ll go a step further: Obama is a recession. McCain is a depression.
Wall Street usually favors Republicans when it comes to managing the economy, but this time around the financial community is skeptical. John McCain has done everything he can to avoid talking about the economy, lest he be tarred with the brush of George Bush’s ineptitude. And when McCain has attempted to step into the fray, he’s been far from reassuring. First, he insisted that the fundamentals of the economy were sound; then he turned around and told us it was the end of the economic world as we know it, and suspended his campaign to scramble back to Washington and save the day on the bailout bill—only to have little visible effect. For all his talk of being a maverick, McCain looks an awful lot like President Bush on the credit crisis: He doesn’t seem to understand Wall Street or Main Street, he is dogmatically anti-regulation, and his economic team is a joke. “
(Via New York Magazine.)
Boo yah!!!