If the DHL story at the top of the hour does not hurt you to watch, you have a dark heart.
*** Update ***
Ugh:
The U.S. economy contracted violently in the fourth quarter, with gross domestic product falling at its fastest pace in more than 25 years, economists said ahead of what promises to be a grim week of economic news.
“Real economic activity fell off a cliff during the fourth quarter, producing a sharp drop in employment, output and spending,” wrote economists at Wachovia.
And the worst part is that it’s not over. Economists expect another huge decline in the first quarter, with a smaller contraction in the second quarter.
Getting worse.
Just Some Fuckhead
Agreed.
Laura W
My jaw is on the laptop.
Bob In Pacifica
Don’t look now but the Post Office is losing money. Billions.
calipygian
The second story is pretty fucking depressing, too.
cosanostradamus
.
Best of luck to all our friends in Ohio. Sorry for your trouble. Maybe you’ll all give up that nasty habit of voting Republican, for good; your own good.
Meanwhile, "Gung ho fat choy," ox peoples!
.
calipygian
If that woman at the end of the Scott Pelley piece didn’t express the boiled down essence of Fascism, then I don’t know what Fascism is.
Legalize
I can already hear the cries of "anti-semitism" ringing out re the Israel/Palestine story.
BettyPageisaBlonde
So far it’s just utterly depressing. Sometimes I actually think we just might be fucked and it doesn’t really matter who’s in charge.
Then I pop another beer and think this is the one that will solve all of our problems.
But yeah, bummer.
Oh, great. Now I need to drink wine.
Fuck.
And watching animals in cages – even for good! – doesn’t help.
60 Minutes, damn you!
Jay
That story is just the first. They just announced that 400 coal miners will be laid off in my area in March and THAT’S just the first in what will be the crash of the coal industry in WV a la 1979.
But the 2nd story….Good God, we HAVE to cut Israel off! No more paying for their war crimes and human rights abuses.
We, the U.S., are to Gaza what China is to Darfur, and it has to stop.
Montysano
I missed the first two segments of 60 Minutes, as I was watching "Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten". Although I was never a huge Clash fan, this is a fine film about a fascinating man.
dsc
agreed, the two opening stories were on depressing nightmares our benevolent overlord must now deal with. He didn’t have anything to do with making the messes, but he’s got to try to do something about them.
On Tuesday afternoon (after hours of crying and toasting with some killer resposado), I walked my dogs and felt as if a huge weight lifted off my shoulders. How much is "that one" going to be able to bear?
Especially with those harpies in Congress–God, Bob Corker and Lamar Alexander "represent" me–unemployed, uninsured, hanging on–they don’t even see people like me.
Joshua Norton
Didn’t Wachovia just crash and burn? I guess they’d have first-hand info about the crappy economy. Too bad for us that they did more than their part to contribute to it.
They may be right, but I think I’d rather get my financial advice from someone who didn’t just drive their own company over same said cliff.
shortstop
Yeah. It isn’t that he can save us, just that with him we may be able to slow down the exsanguination. Even on the worst day, and after stories like this, I can give thanks that the grownups are in charge. Can you even imagine what we’d feel like right now if we’d inaugurated McCain on Tuesday? The country’d be in freefall, literally and emotionally.
TheHatOnMyCat
Right there with ya. I told people back before the election, if McCain wins, I don’t have a plan. I don’t think I can face it.
I don’t think I could have faced it.
kay
@dsc:
Especially with those harpies in Congress—God, Bob Corker and Lamar Alexander "represent" me—unemployed, uninsured, hanging on—they don’t even see people like me.
Well, they’re going to see you, because there are domino effects that will be hard to ignore, and, whether they like it or not, they’ll share some pain.
Lay-offs are just the first hit. The hospital in Wilmington, Ohio derives 8 million in revenue a year from DHL-provided health insurance. Or did. Uh, oh.
You have to hit them over the head with a brick, but they’ll eventually see how your well-being impacts…. theirs.
JL
I missed 60 Minutes due to the fact that I had to finish cleaning the house in prep for company. After reading John’s comment on the episode, I went to John Boehner’s site to see what he had to say. How Ohio could elect such an asshole is beyond me. On the front page was an section on how he is calling for an investigation into why ticket holders to the inauguration were not seated. The entire front page is devoid of any mention of the hardship of the citizens of Ohio.
Brick Oven Bill
What these stories never talk about is the option of becoming a protectionist nation. In the 1930s, we were the world’s biggest exporter. When we set up trade barriers, and other nations retaliated, this hurt our export-based economy. Britain, on the other hand did not get hurt as they were an importer. Britain’s economy only shrank 5% during the Great Depression because the trade barriers forced the work to be done on the Island.
We are now the world’s biggest importer, and protectionist policies would do two things:
(1) Create a source of income to pay for these programs everybody loves. As best as I can tell, we import around $2 trillion annually. A return to the historic 35% tariff would bring in $700 billion per year.
(2) Shift the economics, and make domestic production economically feasible. This would create real jobs, not some imaginary government position, or fraudulent wind-power hype job.
You will not hear this option on CBS because CBS relies on its corporate advertisers, who profit from the Globalization theory. I fear that the system will have to break before it can reset.
America is in excellent shape however long term. We will be energy independent and food independent, shortly after we decide to be. Until then, I’ll keep cultivating potatoes.
tomjones
Doesn’t the Republicans’ obsession with shovel-readiness kinda make them like grave diggers?
donovong
If it were just in Ohio, it would still suck – but, it’s not. I’m afraid Obama’s second week in office is apparently going to be greeted by a shitload of bad economic news.
I did notice that they mentioned a snippet of the great unspoken truth – if you include underemployed people in the numbers, the depth of the problem is much more depressing. First time I have heard that mentioned in the MSM.
Glenn
Yes, getting far worse. The GOP has no intention of helping Obama turn this around. It’s obvious the lords of the economy now have the billions they need to retire so screw the rest of us. Reagan youth is now in the saddle and these are a pack of rapacious punks who are as self-centered a bunch as has ever been on this planet.
Laura W
Channel hopping now…John King about to interview David Plouffe over on CNN. Our hero.
(Probably a repeat from this morn, but I missed it, blessedly.)
gex
What kills me is that we all have to sit back and watch Congress, especially Republicans fight tooth and nail against any proposals that help people/families. They just want to funnel it all to corporations who will do nothing to expand their employment rolls.
kay
@JL:
Sherrod Brown has it covered. He seems to be on a "poverty tour" of Ohio. They don’t vote for Democrats in Clinton county, but he’s not holding that against them. The single best campaign donation I ever made.
Boehner’s busy. Perhaps you’ve seen him on television? That’s what he does.
JL
@kay: Boehner could probably feed a family of four for a year or more just by donating the amoung of money that he spends on makeup.
Pavlov's Dog
More good news for the Republicans.
cyntax
If that had happened I can tell you that I’d be driving some ridiculous sales of both prozac and tequila–to the point that there might not have been that contraction in the 4th quarter.
JL
@cyntax: If you saw Carly Fiorina on This Week with George Steph… today, you would understand that it would take more than tequilla to survive.
Bhall35
You know, I couldn’t watch past the 10 minute mark because I couldn’t stop crying. However, I must point out two things:
Many of the people in the story were frighteningly overweight.
The first interviewee (the father), talked about god closing one door but opening another one, and I suddenly realized, the "opiate of the masses" characterization of religion never seemed more apt. Pay more attention to your fucking politicians and the policies they support, not whether some benign god is going to take care of you. Fuck, people, there is nothing more important than what is going on right now. Forget the afterlife.
kay
@JL:
Boehner’s a dandy. He’s repulsive. Brown is a little earthier. I went to his poverty tour forum here and noticed he was wearing a dark t-shirt with printing across the back underneath his white dress shirt. He must get dressed in the dark. Or in the car. On the way up the stairs to the event?
Brick Oven Bill
Obama’s plan calls for 3,000 miles of new electrical power lines. These are advertized to be to bring electricity from our ‘wind corridor’ to our urban areas. This is based on bad information. Wind will only be able to provide 15-20% of the nation’s electrical power because the wind stops and there needs to be a conventional backup.
These 3,000 miles of utility corridors will require the use of eminent domain to obtain the real estate. This is something an individual would not have been able to do. Prediction: There will be private water lines running under these public electrical power lines. Hat’s off to the very smart individual who got the President to bite that hook.
A far better stimulus would have been to waive burdensome regulatory barriers by Executive Order, build nuclear power plants by the dozen, and electrify the railroads. Building electrical transmission lines above existing railroad right-of-ways is the ultimate ‘shovel-ready’ project. The lines could be blanket permitted by Executive Order, a standardized design could be drawn in something like a day, and the work could begin one day after that.
Missyme
Boehner says that the republicans are there to bring the good ideas (this morning on Meet The Press). He says he wants the Repub Party to be the party of the better ideas. As soon as I heard that, I asked myself if I were living in outerspace. Is he for real? Suddenly, he wants the Repubs to have good ideas. Where has he been for the past 8 years? I think Boehner is delusional.
cyntax
@JL:
Well, if you were watching Carly without the aid of tequila, you’ve got more mojo than me.
=)
Joshua Norton
Permanent tax cuts for the rich. Then more tax cuts for the rich.
No money spent on USA. However, keep sending lots and lots of money to contractor crooks in Iraq.
Nothing to see here. Keep moving.
Dave C
I know it’s probably not the most productive or healthy reaction, but after watching that DHL piece, I can’t help feel the urge to kick the entire Republican Congressional leadership in the balls for doing what they’re doing to obstruct the financial rescue package (as imperfect as it is).
Montysano
@Brick Oven Bill:
The Perfect Storm of global economic collapse and Peak Oil may take care of the "reset" for us. Did it ever make any sense, for example, to close shoe factories in our home states so that we could bring shoes from 10,000 miles away? For the last generation, each and every American has had a cadre of slaves toiling for him/her on the other side of the world.
Where IMHO you’re mistaken is in calling for costly and complex solutions to keep alive what J.H. Kunstler calls the Happy Motoring society. It won’t happen.
But in essence I agree with you: globalization is doomed, and I’ll be happy to dance on its grave.
NickM
Bhall –
You should have watched the end. That same guy says this:
Bhall35
@Nick M:
I cannot pretend to know what losing a son is like. But he did die for questionable reasons, and this epiphany (not to mention the religious docility preceding it) does nothing to convince me that he or many others have learned the lessons of this war.
kay
@NickM:
I’m sympathetic, I really am, and I live in a place like Wilmington, but I listened to the DC Republicans today and they’re still yammering on about income tax cuts, while at the same time babbling incoherently about fiscal responsibility, which I guess means they don’t want to pay for whatever help that father may require.
That recipe’s not going to help him now. He doesn’t have any income to tax. Clinton county votes 2 to 1 Republican. If the cavalry comes, it won’t be because Clinton county backed it.
srv
My heart is dark, a tint of red wine, so I’d rather have Tim comment on the Resveratrol segment.
The American Way? Consumerism? Hubris? Halliburton? Hegemony? Fear?
DHL helped put a lot of small shippers out of business. Not commenting on the morality of that, but don’t whine about economic darwinism when it bites your own, extremely, fat ass.
Pliggett Darcy
60 Minutes said that Mike O’Machearley, one of the people losing their jobs at DHL, makes custom knives. I googled him, and here’s the URL —
http://www.omachearleycustomknives.com/index.htm
I know nothing about knives, but if you like them, this is surely worthy of your patronage.
Brian J
I don’t know enough about monetary policy to really have an opinion. While I understand that it’s the preferred way of dealing with a downturn at first, it’s hard to figure out what parts of which argument to believe in when it comes to whether fiscal policy can help with the problem or whether monetary policy has any juice left. And this may be a total misinterpretation of their position, but it seems like a big part of the conservative argument is that, far more than anything, we need to ride this out. That’s certainly part of it, but if that’s the case, then when can we expect to be back to normal?
Those are just some of the thoughts going through my head. Like I said, I don’t know enough to have a truly informed opinion. (I think I’m more informed than most, but I don’t know the ins and outs of the debate as well as I would have like to.) Of course, perhaps the best thing we have going for us is competent governance, particularly at the top, not just because it’s good for us in general, but because it’s psychological relief.
GuyFromOhio
They don’t vote for Democrats in Clinton county, but he’s not holding that against them. The single best campaign donation I ever made.
Thank you.
demkat620
@Brick Oven Bill:
Know what Bilge? Build the fucking windmills anyway. What’s the worst that could happen, we get some of our electricity from wind.
Just cause it ain’t perfect ain’t reason enough not to try.
And I don’t know Bilge, I live in a triangle of Limerick, Peach Bottom, and Three Mile Island. Everything seems fine but my kids glow in the dark. So maybe nucular is the way to go.
Kewalo
Everytime you hear one of the wingnuts on TV talk about tax cuts you should send of an email protesting. It’s all BS. Not too long ago Krugman put a graph on his blog that shows job creation during Clinton and Bush. It clearly shows that the tax cuts at the beginning of Bush’s term did nothing for jobs.
We need to start speaking up forcefully.
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/06/11/job-creation/
Kewalo
Everytime you hear one of the wingnuts on TV talk about tax cuts you should send of an email protesting. It’s all BS. Not too long ago Krugman put a graph on his blog that shows job creation during Clinton and Bush. It clearly shows that the tax cuts at the beginning of Bush’s term did nothing for jobs.
We need to start speaking up forcefully.
Kewalo
Dang, I have no idea what happened here. Please excuse me, but I’m really computer illiterate.
pattonbt
@Missyme:
I couldnt agree more. Boehner has been all over the airwaves with his faux earnest ‘party of better ideas’ junk. Yet he cant articulate one idea which is better (or a single idea period which isnt tax cuts). He just spouts ‘better ideas’ repeatedly.
The Republicans are a party of contrarians, even when they are in power. They are at their vile best, due to those they have elected and the platform they have chosen to follow, when they can fling poo and throw a monkey wrench in the process. I just dont get how anyone takes them seriously.
As is said over and over here, we need at least two sane parties to keep any one party from getting too full of themselves and becoming too corrupt. But the Republican party surely isnt sane and cant fill that role.
TenguPhule
My heart is dark. Somehow I just can’t muster up the energy to care anymore.
Delia
@srv:
Look, it’s not that I don’t think the whole war was a huge crime. But I still feel really bad for this guy. He’s lost his son because of the fucked up arrogant Republican foreign policy. Now he’s lost his livelihood due to the fucked up arrogant Republican economic policy. And he doesn’t know how to make sense out of any of it. Nothing has prepared him for this. I just feel bad for him.
gopher2b
Interest rates are at 0%. A stimulus is all we have left and nobody knows if it will work because it’s never really been tried before. My opinion is that if its for projects we need or should do anyway, then let’s do it. But, if you think this is bad, wait until you we get PRIME at 10+%