The Political Bridge

Decide for Yourself: Watch Michael Moore Being Interviewed on CNN(September 23, 2009)

NY Times: U.S. Job Seekers Exceed Openings by Record Ratio

New York Times, September 26, 2009

Despite signs that the economy has resumed growing, unemployed Americans now confront a job market that is bleaker than ever in the current recession, and employment prospects are still getting worse.

Job seekers now outnumber openings six to one, the worst ratio since the government began tracking open positions in 2000. According to the Labor Department’s latest numbers, from July, only 2.4 million full-time permanent jobs were open, with 14.5 million people officially unemployed.

The Biggest Federal Bailout Is Yet to Come

From Slate; Thursday, September 24, 2009 - 1:04pm

By Heidi N. Moore

Geithner is preparing to beg Congress for an increase on the debt ceiling—a limit on federal borrowing already set at $12 trillion—which we could hit as early as mid-October…That's quite a sketchy bill of health for a system that's allegedly "back from the brink."

The government isn't really quitting its bailouts at all. It is just shifting strategy away from banks and financial services to a new set of quieter bailouts,   Now it is, even to the point that the government is at risk of creating another mortgage bubble...

ABC NEWS: The Public's Economic Outlook Runs Counter to the Feds' Outlook

ABC News

The public's grim outlook runs counter to some economic assessments, including Federal Reserve reports of stabilization and a slower pace of layoffs. Americans more likely are focused on unemployment, now at a 26-year high 9.7 percent and expected to worsen before it gets better. In an ABC News/Washington Post poll last week, one in four Americans reported a job loss or layoff in their home in the past year, with predictably negative consequences.

Famed Investment Analyst Says Be Wary, Very Wary of this Bull Stock Market

By Simon Maierhofer of the ETF Profit Strategy Newsletter 

 The Baltic Dry Index(BDI) is a reliable measure of world trade and economic expansion. In fact, movements in the BDI often foreshadow stock market movements.

It should be a concern to any investor that, simultaneous to the rally in stocks, the BDI has dropped from above 4,000 to below 2,000, within less than four months. In 2007 and even 2008, the BDI reached tops between 11,000 and 12,000. This means that shipping/distribution activity has contracted by nearly 85%.

The American Economy: The Financial Crisis and America’s Casino Culture , a New York Times Week In Review

Throughout the history of American commercial life, one cultural trait has tended to dominate: Americans are optimists, a people prone to seeing the glass as not merely half-full but rapidly expanding, and bearing liquid that might yet be turned into gold.

This exuberant optimism has proven beneficial, emboldening risk-taking that has achieved innovation and wealth. It has prompted entrepreneurs to invest borrowed money in untested ideas that sometimes yield breakthroughs. It has encouraged ordinary people to accept debt in the name of accelerated gain — more comfortable homes, higher education, late-model cars.

Read more: The New York Times

Fed Considers Sweeping Rules to Regulate Pay at Banks, reports The New York Times

WASHINGTON — The Federal Reserve is preparing what would be the most sweeping rules yet to regulate the pay at banks across the country, people close to the discussions said on Friday.

The rules would apply not just to the compensation and bonuses of top executives but also to traders, loan officers and other employees. But rather than focusing on the specific amount employees are paid, Fed officials will be scrutinizing whether the structure of compensation, like the use of bonuses based on the volume of loan origination, encourages excessive risk-taking.

Read more: The New York Times

CBS NEWS: Obama Adminstration Has Concluded that Its Cap And Trade Energy Politics Could Cost Families $1,761 A Year

 

The Obama administration has privately concluded that a cap and trade law would cost American taxpayers up to $200 billion a year, the equivalent of hiking personal income taxes by about 15 percent.

A previously unreleased analysis prepared by the U.S. Department of Treasury says the total in new taxes would be between $100 billion to $200 billion a year. At the upper end of the administration's estimate, the cost per American household would be an extra $1,761 a year.

Click CBS NEWS for more on this story.

The Washington Post: Michael Moore's New Movie about Capitalism Attacks Dems as well As Repubs

The Washington Post

PITTSBURGH--Just when it looked like conservatives might be cornering the market on angry populism, along comes Michael Moore. But that doesn't mean Democrats in Washington should rest easy.

"Capitalism: A Love Story," the filmmaker provacateur's latest documentary, had its American premier Monday at the AFL-CIO convention that is underway in this working-class city (President Obama is addressing the convention Tuesday).

"Capitalism," which will open in theatres nationwide in October, manages to use just about everything lousy that's happened in the past year to build Moore's case against eat-what-you-kill, free-market Reaganomics--from foreclosures on prairie farmhouses to kids...