Steve Wynn, a casino resort / real-estate developer who has been credited with spearheading the dramatic resurgence and expansion of the Las Vegas Strip, talks about the Fall of America.

Rasmussen Employment Index slips to lowest level since January – August 3, 2010

Click for 1:36 min video

Here’s a scary animated unemployment map. The map shows the whole country by county and begins with a 4.6% rate in January, 2007.

It shows the steady rise in unemployment after Obama took office and right on through the stimulus spending, and to me that is the real interesting part. The map is updated through May, 2010 with an unemployment of 9.7% but that doesn’t include those that have given up and no longer go to employment security offices.

Grad student LaToya Egwuekwe created the map as a school project at American University. She appeared on CNN in December 2009 and said she got an “A.”

The Washington Times:

President Obama’s choice to be the government’s chief budget officer received a bonus of more than $900,000 from Citigroup Inc. last year — after the Wall Street firm for which he worked received a massive taxpayer bailout. [Bold added.]

The money was paid to Jacob Lew in January 2009, about two weeks before he joined the State Department as deputy secretary of state, according to a newly filed ethics form. The payout came on top of the already hefty $1.1 million Citigroup compensation package for 2008 that he reported last year.

Administration officials and members of Congress last year expressed outrage that executives at other bailed-out firms, such as American International Group Inc., awarded bonuses to top executives. State Department officials at the time steadfastly refused to say if Mr. Lew received a post-bailout bonus from Citigroup in response to inquiries from The Washington Times.

But Mr. Lew’s latest financial disclosure report, provided by the State Department on Wednesday, makes clear that he did receive a significant windfall.

Read the whole thing….

Governors hamstrung by the sluggish economic rebound in their states and bound to balance their own budgets are pressing anew for Washington to step up with more help, some say even if it means adding to the nation’s red ink.

Republicans and Democrats alike wrestled with how to capitalize on a fledgling rebound as they talked dollars and sense at their summer meeting just days into a new state budget year and as the economy shapes dozens of gubernatorial races across the country.

“All states still are facing tough fiscal situations even though I do believe we’re in recovery,” said West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin, a Democrat who’s taking over as chairman of the National Governors Association.

Added Gov. Jim Douglas, R-Vt., the outgoing chairman: “Governors have done what is necessary to get through this” — repeatedly cutting budgets, restructuring government, laying off workers and draining rainy day funds.

Read the whole thing….

What a bunch of butt-wipes! Not one of them has met the “crisis” in the right way. You know….the approach you and I take when our incomes drop. We simply cut spending. What the hell is so hard about that?

This came in over the transom and I found it so factual that I couldn’t resist the urge to post it. The author is unknown. If its yours, let me know so I can give credit.

Sometime this year, we taxpayers will again receive another ‘Economic Stimulus’ payment.

This is indeed a very exciting program, and I’ll explain it by using a Q & A format:

Q. What is an ‘Economic Stimulus’ payment?

A. It is money that the federal government will send to taxpayers.

Q. Where will the government get this money?

A. From taxpayers.

Q. So the government is giving me back my own money?

A. Only a smidgen of it.

Q. What is the purpose of this payment?

A. The plan is for you to use the money to purchase a high-definition TV set, thus stimulating the economy.

Q. But isn’t that stimulating the economy of China?

A. Shut up.

Below is some helpful advice on how to best help the U.S. economy by spending your stimulus check wisely:

* If you spend the stimulus money at Wal-Mart, the money will go to China or Sri Lanka.

* If you spend it on gasoline, your money will go to the Arabs.

* If you purchase a computer, it will go to India, Taiwan or China.

* If you purchase fruit and vegetables, it will go to Mexico, Honduras and Guatemala…

* If you buy an efficient car, it will go to Japan or Korea.

* If you purchase useless stuff, it will go to Taiwan.

* If you pay your credit cards off, or buy stock, it will go to management bonuses and they will hide it offshore.

Instead, keep the money in America by:

1) Spending it at yard sales, or
2) Going to ball games, or
3) Spending it on prostitutes, or
4) Beer or
5) Tattoos.

(These are the only American businesses still operating in the U.S. )

Conclusion:
Go to a ball game with a tattooed prostitute that you met at a yard sale and drink beer all day!

No need to thank me. I’m just glad I could be of help.

Who would’ve thunk it! — Well, actually I did.

Obama sent over $500 billion to state and local governments to retain civil servants on government payrolls and for make-work projects. — Governments can do NOTHING to create real job growth. All they can do is collect taxes and accept largesse from Washington (all taxpayer money) to pay civil servants or to pass on to contractors. — So, when the giveaway stops, aren’t we right back where we started?

Why yes, as a matter of fact, I do believe that’s exactly where we are.

If they had reduced corporate taxes by $500 billion, wouldn’t we have seen a jump start in job growth like we saw with the JFK and Ronald Reagan tax cuts?

Obama has just demonstrated how to quickly blow hundreds of billions and he’s thinking about doing it again.

The U.S. economic recovery downshifted dramatically this spring as various stimulus measures enacted by Congress ended or started to wane.

The sudden softening of growth, which also coincided with the outbreak of a debt crisis in Europe, is prompting many economists to caution against withdrawing stimulus too soon, and some are even calling for another round of government action to prop up the economy for a while longer.

The downshift was most dramatic in the housing market, where the April 30 end of a tax credit for signing a purchase agreement caused an unexpected collapse in sales to record lows. But reports last week also showed a slowdown in manufacturing, which had been leading the economic recovery, and a second month of tepid private job growth in June.

News of a major slowdown in China’s economy also added to doubts that the U.S. could continue to rely on export-led growth. The accumulation of reports sparked worries in financial markets that the loss of momentum means the economy is in danger of going into reverse, prompting a drop in major stock indexes to their lowest levels of the year.

Read the whole thing….

Democrats, with strong support of the media (including “conservative” media like the WSJ and Washington Times) have successfully obscured the real cause of the financial collapse of 2008 that is getting worse.

Mrs. Pelosi accused Republicans of defending “Wall Street gambling” and a “status quo” of Washington regulators who did not enforce the law and allowed the Wall Street debacle to unfold unfettered by regulatory restraints.

Well… that’s the Pelosi spin. Notice she didn’t mention the roles played by Barney Frank, Chris Dodd and Ted Kennedy who manipulated Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac into extending home mortgage credit to millions upon millions of people with little or no down payment knowing full well that they had NO CHANCE of EVER being able to afford escalating payments built into “adjustable rate mortgages” (ARMs).

But a Texas Republican understands what really happened.

“The cause of the crisis was not deregulation. It was dumb regulation” that encouraged banks to make loans to people who could not afford to buy houses and repay their loan obligations, said Jeb Hensarling, Texas Republican.

Far from sitting on the sidelines, federal regulators — at the behest of Congress — “strong-armed financial institutions” to make risky subprime loans and then ordered mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to purchase the lion’s share of them to make more money available for further risky lending, he said. [Bold added]

“This legislation perpetuates the same dumb regulation. It doesn’t go to the root cause” even as it seeks to end bailouts and risky financial practices by creating new layers of federal regulation, he said.

Left in place by the bill, he noted, are both Fannie and Freddie, and the “mother of all bailouts” that resulted when the Treasury took custody of the mortgage giants in September 2008 to absorb the huge and growing losses from defaulting loans held or guaranteed by the agencies.

Read the whole thing….

The question crops up in job postings around the Charlotte region, in subtle and not-so-subtle ways.

“Are you currently employed?” inquires one CareerBuilder.com listing for a pharmaceutical job. On Craigslist, an ad for a purchasing manager warns, “Do not apply UNLESS you are currently employed.”

More and more, job seekers and recruiters report, companies are trimming growing stacks of resumes by drawing lines – telling applicants not to bother if they’ve been out of work for too long. Some firms allow five or six months, while others say two is the limit. Still others say they’ll only consider applicants who have a job.

The practice is still rare in the Charlotte area – but it’s a growing concern in a region plagued with long-term unemployment and a seemingly bottomless pool of qualified job seekers.

Read the whole thing….