Robert Oak's blog

Sunday Morning Comics - Singing the Money Blues Edition

Brought to you by Economic Fiction - Helping Win Elections By Spinning Tales of Prosperity One Lie at a Time!
Cup O' Joe

 

Good Morning! Rise and Shine! Get that Cup O' Joe...
break out the O.J....hang out with the pooch...time to check out the money funnies.

 

Congress Passes Social Security Reform Bill

 


Cartoonist: R.J. Matson

 

Meet Obama's New Council of Economic Advisers Chair, Labor Economist Alan Krueger

Who is Alan Krueger?  More importantly, is anyone in this administration going to propose solid legislation and policies, well thought out in detail, that will actually work to get America back to work?  Bottom line, it looks like the same ole party line and finding anywhere Krueger has crossed it comes up empty.
line in sand

Saturday Reads Around The Internets - Hurricaine Hype

shocknews
Welcome to the weekly roundup of great articles, facts and figures. These are the weekly finds that made our eyes pop.

 

Hurricane Hype for Advertising Bucks

In the wee hours of Saturday morning, MSNBC had some knuckle head reporter position himself on the Outer Banks so it gave the illusion waves were lapping at his back. Stay Safe was said during every interview in a voice of dire concern, the reporter would be swept out to sea, live on air. With that, we bring you Get Real: Hurricane Irene Should Be Renamed Hurricane Hype:

Bernanke Jackson Hole Speech Kicks the Can Over to Obama and Congress

bernake say whatFederal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke gave his long awaited Jackson Hole speech this morning. Now all are reading between the lines on whether more quantitative easing will be done and picking apart every single word as if Bernanke speaks in cryptography.

 

First, here is the speech paragraph that will generate quantitative easing, or QE3 buzz:

In addition to refining our forward guidance, the Federal Reserve has a range of tools that could be used to provide additional monetary stimulus. We discussed the relative merits and costs of such tools at our August meeting. We will continue to consider those and other pertinent issues, including of course economic and financial developments, at our meeting in September, which has been scheduled for two days (the 20th and the 21st) instead of one to allow a fuller discussion. The Committee will continue to assess the economic outlook in light of incoming information and is prepared to employ its tools as appropriate to promote a stronger economic recovery in a context of price stability.

Clearly QE3 is still on the table from this speech.

I Like Statistics and So Should You

statistically significantFunny title for an article. Numbers, statistics, stats....those boring people with their spreadsheets, graphs, always showing you up at a party in a game of Trivial pursuit.

Facts! Who needs 'em! Uh, we do. A very obscure thing is happening in Washington D.C. All of those dusty agencies with their legions of geeks and geekettes, cranking through numbers and collecting data are under attack.

Here are some of the statistical and science programs cut....so far the BEA has not been cut, but the Census was, by -$6.2 billion. This is before the infamous super Congress was created to cut much more out of the budget.

As a result the Statistical Abstract is about to go bye-bye. People are speaking out trying to save this treasure trove of data. According to this op-ed requesting America save the statistical abstract:

The agency’s 2012 budget would eliminate the Statistical Compendia Branch, which compiles the Stat Abstract and other publications (example: the “County and City Data Book”). The cut: $2.9 million and 24 jobs. Both the book and online versions of the Stat Abstract would vanish. This is a mighty big loss for a mighty small saving.

Pages