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Newspaper layoffs! Heck yeh we are in a recession!

Posted by Mr. Simple on Friday, May 23, 2008 4:20:40 PM

With all the newspaper layoffs, it must mean that the U.S. is in a recession.

It couldn't be the publishers fault. After all, housing is down. Employment is horrible  (who cares if it 5% unemployment, which used to be considered 100% employment.) And of course they are maximizing their web offerings so it can't be the web..can it??

The fact is the newspaper industry is facing it's first real competition ever. As result of 'it want happen to us thinking' by management they are having their first serious round of layoffs probably ever in most of management's career. And, until that is done, you can bet we will read on the front pages of America's newspapers that we are in a recession and there is no end in site.

Want to see the layoffs? 2,000 in the last six months, check this out. (And then go look at their stocks, most all 50% of what they were last year at this time and at 52 week lows.)


Interactive Map of U.S. Charts Newspaper Layoffs 

By E&P Staff 

Published: May 23, 2008 12:49 PM ET 

NEW YORK Web site graphicdesignr.net is charting the amount of newspaper layoffs -- by company and by paper -- in the United States by offering an interactive map pinpointing the latest job losses.

The blog, titled "Paper Cuts," also links to stories about newspaper industry layoffs and cutbacks, many of which were broken on E&P Online.

Check out the chart here  

http://graphicdesignr.net/papercuts/


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Oil is about to crash:China/India Middle Class can't afford it.

Posted by Mr. Simple on Thursday, May 22, 2008 1:31:45 PM

The biggest excuse for the surge in oil prices has been the growing demand from countries such as China and India that have large emerging middle classes. While there is no doubt an emerging middle class in these countries, the reality is that their income is still way beneath that of the industrialized nations. 

As such, if a middle class family in the U.S. with a household income of 75k is having a hard time with the price of gas, then how much more so is the middle class family in China or India that makes 10k a year being affected? How much more, if any,  can these emerging middle classes, with minimal discretionary income,  not make dramatic changes in their consumption of fuel?

The simple fact is that they cannot continue to consume at an increasing rate. Their consumption / demand will dramatically decrease and at a much faster rate than the industrialized middle class family. Thus the premise that emerging middle classes are driving demand no longer holds. 

I would suggest we have already passed that point and soon the speculators will see it also and thus be bailing out of the market as the price of oil begins to crash. I think $80 bottom is realistic as sanity rules the market once again.


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Edwards answered like true trial lawyer

Posted by Mr. Simple on Saturday, May 26, 2007 12:48:12 AM
When asked in the South Carolina Debate what he would do "if, God Forbid, two bombs went off in the US and we knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that it was Al Qaida" Edwards answered like a good trial lawyer...

"...find out how did this happen without our intelligence operations finding out that it was in a planning stage; how did they get through what we all recognize is a fairly porous homeland security system that we have in this country that has not been built the way it needed to be built?

You know, did the weapons that created these two simultaneous strikes come through our ports? Were they in one of the containers that have not been checked? How did these weapons get here, and how do we stop it from happening again?..."

This is basically trial lawyer speak for ...Hey, there is bound to be somebody we can sue!

Thats right. Instead of going after the individuals / organization / government that perpetrated (or helped in any way) in this horrific event on our country with the full force of American Power, John Edwards looks for some hard working American or company to blame first.

If he did find the bombers, it would only be because he needed a star witness on how the lack of security created such a powerful temptation that no right thinking Islamic fascist could be blamed for acting on it.
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