A Video talking about jobs numbers before I run through the news.

    

       Good Evening.  Rhino here.  I have declined for a while to talk about the stock market because, despite the fact that there has

Is this YOUR office in six months?

been nothing but bad news for a dogs age from the financial pages, the Market itself has been remarkably resilient.  There is a reason I am writing about it again today.  The market lost 245 points today, on news about the absolutely abysmal jobs report that came out and jobs news from Alcoa.  Alcoa is cutting out 13,500 jobs from it’s workforce, due to the lack of demand for aluminum.  But that was only the tip of the Iceberg, news-wise.  The bulk of the Iceberg was the 693,000 jobs lost in December.  The total number of jobs lost for the year is around 2,400,000.  For those regular readers of this column, I said that i thought that the total job loss for the year 2008 was going to be approximately one million, and to be honest I thought i was being a bit of a pessimist with that prediction.  I think at the time the monthly job rate was around 80,000. I did some math and simply extended those numbers out for the entire year, figuring that number would be about average per month for the year. 

     I did not predict, and could not have foreseen, that I was being insanely optimistic with my guess.  I am certain that I am not the only one who made predictions that, bleak though they felt, were nevertheless optimistic when talking about the economy in 2008.  It would surprise me if the same happened in 2009.  But with 2.4 million jobs lost in 2008, the number Joel Prakken in the above video uses, saying 2,000,000 more jobs will be lost this year, sounds…well…a bit optimistic.  If we lost almost 700,000 in a month to end 2008, we can easily shed a great deal more than that 2 mil if the economic news continues to be as grim as it is nowadays.

     And there is talk that even the Massive stimulus package that President elect Obama is putting forth may not be enough to fix the financial problems that have amassed during the last few years.  This I first heard from a man I greatly respect, economist Paul Krugman, about a week and a half ago.  He basically said that Mr. Obama’s Plan, for all that it is huge, $800,000,000,000 huge, may not be enough to really fix the problems we are facing.  Why is that huge number not enough? By Mr. Krugman’s estimation, it takes about $200,000,000,000 a year to move Unemployment 1% from where it would be normally.  The numbers right now suggest Unemployment will peak somewhere around 9%, and that number may end up being conservative.  To try to completely fill that 9% hole, you would need a stimulus package of 1.8 trillion dollars.

     I understand Mister krugman’s thinking, but I also understand not wanting to use THAT much money, after the $700,000,000,000 wall street bailout, which looks for all intents and purposes a failure.  Half spent, no real movement in the credit markets.  No goal reached, nothing realistic accomplished.    I don’t want to throw good money after bad.  But I don’t just want to give up and just see what happens if we let the house burn down either.  Which is why the Obama plan, while not able to fill the bill like Mister Krugman would like to see, is in fact massive enough where it will do real good without completely breaking the bank, and hopefully won’t make our massive financial problems worse than they have to be.

     And the nations infrastructure could really use a shot in the arm. 

    The second Video is from change.gov, With Barack Obama talking about the need for a stimulus package.

     

  One Final video, A few quotes, and I am done.

      After all that crap about the economy, I think I need a break.

      Mike Rowe talks about a day on the Job as a sheep rancher, and doing things right. Hard work is good. And this is not a good video, it is a great video.

   

    That’s it for me.  Later!

Today’s Nuggets, Via Wikiquote:   The few who understand the system, will either be so interested in its profits, or so dependent on its favors that there will be no opposition from that class, while on the other hand, the great body of people, mentally incapable of comprehending the tremendous advantages…will bear its burden without complaint, and perhaps without suspecting that the system is inimical to their best interests.     Rothschild Brothers of London communiqué to associates in New York June 25, 1863

We are not afraid to follow truth wherever it may lead, nor to tolerate any error so long as reason is left free to combat it.  Thomas Jefferson