This article tells a recent unemployment related news. On this Monday, the Labor Day, president Obama, while speaking to an estimated crowd of 13,000 in Detroit, Michigan, said he would propose “a new way forward on jobs” in his speech on this Thursday, promising job-creation measures to reduce a 9 percent unemployment rate.
Even though he did not offer any details, Mr. Obama said that "millions of unemployed construction workers would be able 'to get dirty' building roads, bridges and other public works under his infrastructure proposals. " Except for infrastructure proposals, he will also call for "extending and expanding temporary tax cuts for businesses and individuals."
President Obama has been faced serious skepticism because of the persistently high unemployment rate. "Recent polls give him his lowest ratings to date for job approval and his handling of the economy, though the ratings of Congress, and especially Republicans, are even more negative."
As the 2012 election is coming soon, every policy relates to unemployment rate Obama makes now could be somehow decisive. Let's wait for his hopefully magical new measure to reduce unemployment rate on Thursday.
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Monday, September 5, 2011
After EU Financials Tanks, The BofA Death Watch Heats Up
Not only the banks in Europe are facing difficulties by falling 8.4% on Friday. Bank of America is facing difficulties as well. It goes hands in hands the European financial market especially in German DAX index fell from 5.28% to 5.246%. Royal bank of Scotland fell 12% and Deutsche Bank fell around 6%.
In order to help with the situation, Bank of America is trying to reduce 3,500 jobs and to layoff 10,000 employees in the near future.
If this condition get worse the FED offers many options one of them is to issue separate class of shares tied with Merrill Lynch securities unit which managements at the bank already took that offer. Since they bought Merrill Lynch in 2009 and are now their most profit category. Also Bank of America sold half of their stocks at $3.3 billions to a bank in China. They are trying to do as many things they can in order to survive.
Even though Warren Buffet bought Bank of America stock at $5 billion this didn’t help with Bank of America financial situations since the stocks haven’t been paid off yet.
Bank of America have losses three out of six quarters since 2010 with $8.8 billions lose during Quarter 2 of this year. If Bank of America fail this will cause many consequences around the world.
Amazon Tax Battle With Cali
So here’s the situation, online sales giant, Amazon, refuses to pay sales taxes in the state of California, even though a law on the matter had been drawn up 2 years ago. Political figures in California have accused Amazon of not caring about the people of California as the taxes would be used to help better the state, where it is needed. The argument is that e-commerce companies are making it hard for businesses like neighborhood bookstores to prosper so this proposed taxing is a sort of divine retribution if you will, to let Amazon share in the tax payout that other struggling companies already have to pay. Amazon however, is trying its best to resist this tax as it would then have to succumb to other taxes across the country if it loses its footing in California. To appease the calls to tax, Amazon states that it would open two warehouses in the state of California which would then generate 7000 jobs. This is obviously a tempting offer considering the state of California’s 12% rate of unemployment and the nation’s rather high 9.1%. On the other hand, this whole issue affects many small time online retailers who are affiliates of Amazon in California, which it has decided to cut ties with to avoid taxes.
This tax law, if it falls through, is proposed to provide approximately $300 million in revenues for the state. And if what Amazon fears also comes true, it could also provide millions in revenues for other states. However, with other online stores not wanting to comply with this tax as an online store owner states in the article, is the Government looking for money they can’t attain? With that said, it is my opinion that the government take up Amazon’s offer of creating jobs in this time of high unemployment, if this effort is all for naught.
Sunday, September 4, 2011
The Bear
I really really liked this article. I like how the writer compared our economy to a bear charging at you and how to react to it. The writer tells people to quit running and freaking out. The best way to fight back is stand your ground. If you can stand your ground and remain level headed in, a bear attack or, our economy then everything will be okay. There will be less fluctuation in everyones stocks. Now the writer also says that if you can remain level headed in an economy and take yourself out of the moment everything will also be okay. What some economists and stockbrokers need to do is to stop getting caught up in the sudden peaks and valleys because they are just creating more headaches to themselves. Along with creating more headaches they create more uncertainty with their clients. The writer also talks about what you should do if you do take a step back and you are still continuing to lose money. He says in that situation then go about stopping it by making little changes nothing drastic. People just need to relax and be confident in our economy because the more confident people are the better things will be in the long run.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/rickferri/2011/08/04/how-to-escape-from-a-bear/
Fed Divisions Led to a Compromise on Interest Rates
At the Federal Reserves’ meeting this month, a broad of disagreements occurred on the interest rate. In the end, the Federal Open Market committee took a middle ground and decided to keep interest around zero till mid-2013. Since the divisions, the Federal members decided to hold a meeting again during September to have more time to discuss this issue. This meeting also assessed the disappointing economic performance for the past summer and the downgrading economic growth in the next few months. The interest rate has been keeping this low for the past two years and it is not good to the economic because this policy cannot stimulate economy anymore. Under the Depression, the prolonged low interest rate is just going to make the economic worse.
Thursday, September 1, 2011
World of Class Warfare - Warren Buffett vs. Wealthy Conservatives
Here is a little bit of political and economic satire in the form of Jon Stewart.
The Potential Economic Effect of An NYC Hurricane on the U.S. Economy
What would happen if a class 5 hurricane hit New York city? According to Mr.Silver's calculations $16 Trillion worth of damage, that is $1.34 trillion dollars more than the U.S. GDP. Such an event could, especially in this economy, devastate the global economy. To be fair this possibility is a near impossibility, some say that a class 4 hitting the north-east is impossible. A more interesting case is that of Hurricane New England which made landfall in Long Island and passed within 40mi of Manhattan. That cost $45 Billion, if it had directly hit the city could according to the model cost $239 Billion. Such an event could easily push back into a deep recession.
What should also give pause is that several climate change models predict increased magnitude and frequency of extreme weather.
What should also give pause is that several climate change models predict increased magnitude and frequency of extreme weather.
U.S. tax debate approaches battle over billionaires
As the country's getting more and more riled over over the current state of the economy AND with the presidential election looming ever so close, the blame game, the "solutions," the circus, or whatever you'd like to describe the state of U.S. politics is in full gear.
One huge source of debate is the Taxes... Both sides of the political spectrum surprisingly agree on one thing, this huge deficit has got to go. Even that was hard to come to terms since cutting the deficit would mean Democrats' large spending measures would have to be cut. With the recent crisis with the debt ceiling, however, it seems that the Democrats have finally conceded that they can't just keep borrowing and spending. Now that the Democrats have conceded, the table's been turned to the Republicans. Republicans are faced with the reality of having to promote cutting benefits from everyday people with cuts in student loans, medical benefits, and even benefits for veterans, or raise taxes on the rich.
In my opinion, although I know Republicans are basically talking heads for the rich anyways most of the time, they have to concede on raising taxes or face the consequences of alienating the rest of the public. As the article shows, there is really no legitimate excuse for not raising taxes. Yes, tax cuts to the firms lead to higher investment, which leads to higher productivity of the country. However, it's a hard argument to tell the public that Paul Allen getting to keep his yacht will somehow help the American economy in the long run.
Republicans are at a very good position. Obviously, Obama has failed to deliver in most of his promises, and the economy has not gotten any better. The economy has to recover sometime soon and if the Republicans can take control, they'll reap the benefits of a surging economy. I think the Republicans have to concede on this issue of taxation because really, it's the sensible thing to do. (Something they have increasingly alienated themselves from) It's not like Republicans have to concede the ideology that tax breaks lead to increased productivity. Cut spending (needless spending), and increase tax revenue and deficit goes down. Easy. Simple. But probably not gonna happen.
One huge source of debate is the Taxes... Both sides of the political spectrum surprisingly agree on one thing, this huge deficit has got to go. Even that was hard to come to terms since cutting the deficit would mean Democrats' large spending measures would have to be cut. With the recent crisis with the debt ceiling, however, it seems that the Democrats have finally conceded that they can't just keep borrowing and spending. Now that the Democrats have conceded, the table's been turned to the Republicans. Republicans are faced with the reality of having to promote cutting benefits from everyday people with cuts in student loans, medical benefits, and even benefits for veterans, or raise taxes on the rich.
In my opinion, although I know Republicans are basically talking heads for the rich anyways most of the time, they have to concede on raising taxes or face the consequences of alienating the rest of the public. As the article shows, there is really no legitimate excuse for not raising taxes. Yes, tax cuts to the firms lead to higher investment, which leads to higher productivity of the country. However, it's a hard argument to tell the public that Paul Allen getting to keep his yacht will somehow help the American economy in the long run.
Republicans are at a very good position. Obviously, Obama has failed to deliver in most of his promises, and the economy has not gotten any better. The economy has to recover sometime soon and if the Republicans can take control, they'll reap the benefits of a surging economy. I think the Republicans have to concede on this issue of taxation because really, it's the sensible thing to do. (Something they have increasingly alienated themselves from) It's not like Republicans have to concede the ideology that tax breaks lead to increased productivity. Cut spending (needless spending), and increase tax revenue and deficit goes down. Easy. Simple. But probably not gonna happen.
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Gender Gap
CNN uses various statistics in conjunction with the World Economic Forum to determine which countries have the most equallity between men and women and compare them to each other. The United States ranked 19th out of 134, but is said to have room for improvement.
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
big mac index
This is the economist's famous Big Mac Index.
It makes exchange rate differences more understandable to the normal citizen.
It also makes for an interesting glance as it may indicate if the currency is being pegged to another currency.
You can also derive a number of things from this like how long you have to work to earn a big mac and so on.
Undervalued currencies are also somewhat the from the countries that export a lot. As such that can also be derived.
Although the dollar may be the fiat currency you can compare two different currencies by converting them to dollars.
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