Talk about something cheerful.
The preliminary job numbers (via) for the private sector don’t look too bad, but the government cuts will likely drag the total numbers down a bit.
by DougJ| 77 Comments
This post is in: Open Threads, Readership Capture
Talk about something cheerful.
The preliminary job numbers (via) for the private sector don’t look too bad, but the government cuts will likely drag the total numbers down a bit.
Comments are closed.
Culture of Truth
Economists predicted 50,000 to 150,000 additional jobs for June. Companies added 176,000 jobs, more than forecast.
Citizen_X
@Culture of Truth: So…the private sector’s doing…fine?
Culture of Truth
Construction + 8,000
Factories + 4,000
Manufacturers & builders + 16,000
Service jobs + 160,000
Hill Dweller
Obama needs to hit the Republicans for public sector layoffs. That has, and continues to be, the biggest drag on the economy.
dmsilev
I’d like to congratulate Mitt Romney on executing a flip-flop-flip with extra half-twist on the “is the mandate a tax?” question. Granted, he did trip and fall on his face in the landing (mandatory 1 point deduction), but it’s a difficult move.
Hunter Gathers
Like the jobs number actually matters. Unless it’s more than a million, it will be ‘weak’, ‘disappointing’ ‘lackluster’ or a thousand other negative metaphors. Because this is America and the president’s black. Of course if McCain were president, any job report showing positive job growth would be a sign that it’s Morning In America.
Litlebritdifrnt
@Culture of Truth:
Yabbut this is bad news cause all them there service sector jobs are teenagers working for the summer. Which is exactly what I predict Limbaugh will say come 12pm. There is ALWAYS a way to spin bad news.
Culture of Truth
The ECB cut the overnight deposit rate to zero.
Litlebritdifrnt
@Hunter Gathers:
You beat me to it.
Culture of Truth
ECB cut interest rates to 0.75%
Linda Featheringill
It’s good news for the folks who didn’t have a job and now do. Congrats, people.
EIGRP
I saw a guy on the corner of Monroe and Goodman yesterday. He had on a Guy Fawkes mask and was holding a sign that said “MISSING” and then what looked to be a copy of the US Constitution underneath it.
There was only 1 guy, and it was probably 2:15 in the afternoon. Seemed way to hot in Rochester to be doing that.
Has anyone else seen this in their town?
Eric
jibeaux
Something cheerful…well, that lets out local NC news straight away…how about, some family members we’ve missed have moved back home due to getting something close to a dream job, my daughter is learning to embrace her curls, and my son recently finished a very long sentence with “and that’s all I know about the internal combustion engine”, which made me laugh.
DougJ
@EIGRP:
I think I may have seen that once before.
jibeaux
Oh, and we refinanced our house and knocked 9 years off the term of the mortgage for just pennies more in payments, and will be building equity faster.
Linda Featheringill
ECB: It would be nice if Europe could collect themselves and crawl out of the hole.
I noticed somewhere that France is trying to pay off its debts by increasing taxes on the wealthy. Commies.
Edited. Spelling.
Goblue72
Douchehats in the neighborhood setting off fireworks till past 3 am last night. Is it justifiable homicide if I knock off a hipster in skinny jeans today?
Culture of Truth
it’s technically hipstercide
Hunter Gathers
@Goblue72: Only if they are drinking PBR. Milwaukee’s Best will also suffice.
Chris
@Linda Featheringill:
Fairly proud of Hollande for that. Somewhere in the free world there’s still a government with a goddamn shred of common sense.
realbtl
Cheerful huh. I’ve discovered a sport bike sized hole in my motorcycle stable so I’m off to test ride (and likely buy) an 02 VFR800. Gorgeous sunny day here in NW Montana.
NotMax
A triad of items which particularly caught the eye thus far during this so-called ‘slow news week:’
Cambodian children die from mystery disease
“Green Fleet” sails, meets stiff headwinds in Congress
Vanishing Dust Belt Around Star Baffles Scientists
J.W. Hamner
Here is an HDR shot of some sun pickles I’m making. I’m pretty happy with how it turned out. Note that the color of the brine is because of my choice to use red wine vinegar instead of white, not because of crazy filters or anything.
rikyrah
The GOP is committing ECONOMIC TREASON against this country.
period.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
I’m not sure it can be called “cheerful,” but I found it quite interesting. I was at a meeting of a county association of police chiefs, held at the county sheriff’s office. This is an extremely red* Ohio county and it was announced that the
King’sGovernor’s staff, and perhaps theKinghimself would be in town next week to announce increased state funding for police telecomm equipment. Someone said “[last name of the King] himself; really?” The sheriff replied, “we should try to get as high a concentration of idiots in one place as we can.” Other mumbles went throughout the room about “us idiots.”It’s clear these folks have not forgotten – and certainly not forgiven the King for his comment about getting pulled over for disregarding an emergency vehicle’s signal. In case you aren’t aware, at a state employee meeting – teleconferenced to many agencies throughout the state, the King announced that he’d been pulled over by “an idiot,”(emphasis his) when he hadn’t been aware there was an emergency vehicle. He probably noted that the LEO was “an idiot“(emphasis his) 3 or 4 times while relaying the story. Of course the dashboard recording showed the LEO was nothing but professional and courteous during the encounter, and that the King was as gracious as expected. Which is of course, not at all.
This was 2 years ago, and an entire county of reliably Republican LEOs are still furious about it. Interesting, no?
*I’d rather not name the county in case the King’s court has eyes on Balloon Juice as the clerks of Chief Justice Roberts do. I will note that it has a famous inn, owned by the family of a current Senator, where White House residents have been known to overnight, both before and after such residency.
rlrr
but the government cuts will likely drag the total numbers down a bit.
Conservative should be celebrating this. To them, those jobs weren’t real jobs to begin with.
rikyrah
I coulda told you months ago Miss Ann that nobody in the Prudential Building is playing with Willard.
You’ve been up against amateurs and grifters.
You’re so ENTITLED, that you and your ENTITLED husband just thought Barack Hussein Obama was gonna hand over the Presidency
‘ cause it was YOUR TURN’.
Bitch, he gotta be ELECTED
…………………………………………….
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505263_162-57466625/ann-romney-obamas-whole-campaign-strategy-is-lets-kill-this-guy/
Gin & Tonic
How much do you have in your IRA, if you have one at all? Willard Romney has between $20 million and $100 million in his. How does someone do that when IRA contributions are limited to $2,000 per year, you may ask? Easy, you just contribute the maximum every year for about 25,000 years. Piece of cake.
If you don’t expect to live for 25,000 years before retiring, though, you can accomplish the same thing by using what even the Wall Street Journal is calling “highly unusual” strategies. Unfortunately, there is nothing in any of Willard’s public disclosures which would allow anyone to determine precisely which strategies he used.
Phylllis
@jibeaux: I have teh curly hair. It’s all about the right products. For me, it’s the Ouidad line.
NonyNony
@Linda Featheringill:
That will never work – I’ve been assured that there can’t possibly be any wealthy people left in France. The taxes in a Yurpean nation are so oppressively high that the rich flee the country in fear and move to less oppressive places like Dubai and Shanghai. After all, why would anyone with any kind of wealth want to live in a dystopian Communist place like Yurp?
Amir Khalid
I was just wondering: where can I get me one of them Dagwood Bumstead shirts with one humongous button in the front?
@dmsilev:
I guess the Republican party elders are privately horrified at Mitt’s candidational ineptitudity.
Incidentally, this is all coming to pass exactly as I predicted last year. Then I likened the party base to the bride in an arranged marriage, who reluctantly settled on him because the other suitors were all obviously drooling idiots. But then I also said it would end in tears when his own shortcomings came to be exposed. We are now in that second phase, watching the Mitt-train wreck happen in slow motion. I don’t think anyone is surprised.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Culture of Truth: But justifiable hipstercide. Which I think may be redundant, on further consideration.
The Red Pen
My brother accused Obama of “being in favor of big government,” and immediately excoriated him for cutting government jobs during a period of high unemployment.
He also accused me of not reading what he writes carefully, leading me to ask, “Do you read what you write?”
amk
@rikyrah: “kill romney ” ? How much more dog whistly this man’s campaign is going to get ? A niggah comment is in the offing ?
Corner Stone
@Citizen_X:
No. It is not.
Culture of Truth
“C-I-L-L Romney”
Starfish
@Gin & Tonic: I thought the IRA contribution limit is closer to $5k or $6k these days, but I also thought that when you leave a job, you can transfer your 401k to a rollover IRA. And the limits do not apply to these rollovers. I thought the maximum contribution to a 401k was closer to $15k in pre-tax dollars. But I thought if you accidentally end up over your limit, you just end up contributing post tax dollars.
NotMax
Found this snippet taken from the biographical sketch at an archive of some of Mitt’s mother’s papers of some interest.
Indeed, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.
imonlylurking
Well, for the first time since I have been hanging out with this group of people (i.e. 10 years) every single person is gainfully employed. Also, I made gazpacho and spinach-artichoke dip last night for my 4th of July bash, and both were well-received.
I should mention-I’ve never made gazpacho or spinach artichoke dip before.
PeakVT
@Culture of Truth: Pffft. Everybody knows they need to end up at zero, so why not cut them to zero now? Oh, wait, the markets must be kept “calm”.
Gin & Tonic
@Starfish: All questions that are answered in the WSJ article I linked. Other interesting and more complex questions raised there too.
catclub
@Gin & Tonic: “How does someone do that when IRA contributions are limited to $2,000 per year, you may ask?”
Not quite. The tax free portion (going in) is $2000, the rest is taxed as it goes in – and untaxed coming out – like a Roth.
But more complicated.
ETA: Originally $2000, which everyone remembers, but probably higher now. I could look it up but that takes like,
15 extra keystrokes.
imonlylurking
@catclub: Plus, if Mitt had deferred income in a 401K, that can roll into an IRA.
urlhix
Just enjoyed our first batch of homemade chevre from our new goats. Yum.
Gin & Tonic
@catclub: I’ll save you the keystrokes.
Yes, the limit is now $5k or $6k. It was $2k while Willard worked at Bain.
Yes, I oversimplified for dramatic effect. When the WSJ devotes 1400 words to the complexities of Willard’s IRA I’ll do that, in the hope that people might read the fucking article.
PeakVT
@Gin & Tonic: There are suggestions of self-dealing floating about (forget where I saw them) – putting cash in, buying assets, and then selling the assets at inflated prices.
Hypatia's Momma
Lifeguard fired for rendering aid.
Two other lifeguards quit in protest.
shortstop
I’m facing the third major surgery in three years! On the other hand, almost everyone else in the world has it a lot worse, and I made it for decades with no health problems to speak of, so I shall desist from whining.
Martin
I got new laptop. It’s good news for me, at least.
@Gin & Tonic: IRA contributions aren’t capped at all. The only thing that’s capped is the amount you can take a tax deduction against.
And you can certainly get $20M in your IRA if the money you invest earns some insane return. If you invested the max each year from 1980 to today and put all of that money in Apple stock, you’d be north of $20M today. Similar for a lot of the big techs – Microsoft/Google/Intel, etc.
Not saying that’s a prudent strategy or a likely one, but such are the benefits of being wealthy – you can take risks the rest of us can’t.
gene108
@rlrr:
They do celebrate it.
Origuy
Here’s a good story: A WalMart went out of business in McAllen, Texas. How is that good? The city made the building into a library. It’s the largest single-story library in the country.
Martin
@Hypatia’s Momma: The free market at work…
Hypatia's Momma
@Martin:
I wonder where “Saving Lives” is placed on that responsibility list. Does it even make the top 10?
Hypatia's Momma
@Origuy:
Awesome!
To contribute something nice:
Pre-natal care for pregnant women who are homeless.
quannlace
Cheerful, hmmm?
Well, turkey hotdogs have become quite tasty.
Turkey bacon? Still an affront to Nature.
Hypatia's Momma
@quannlace:
:( I like turkey bacon.
Paul in KY
@shortstop: Best of luck to you!
Frankensteinbeck
Good news? My editor for Sweet Dreams Are Made Of Teeth showed me the sample cover art, which is a pretty awesome experience. The editor I loudly declared as my favorite was suddenly switched to edit my third book, Wild Children. She talks around the issue and I can’t be sure it means anything, but it sure makes me feel loved.
And hopefully the home repair mess here is almost over and I can get back to serious writing on Please Don’t Tell My Parents I’m A Supervillain.
REEEEEEEALLY enjoying being employed for the first time since the recession started, and as an officially published novelist, no less. #2 on the ‘dream job’ list!
shortstop
@Origuy: That is awesome news.
@Frankensteinbeck: So is that.
@Paul in KY: Thanks! It’ll be okay. Being patient during recovery is the worst part. For someone with a serious case of the fidgets, I should be skinnier.
Hypatia's Momma
Also, for those who are interested in biology and sex and the biology of sex:
The Dirty Normal.
Recommended by a friend of mine, who says:
burnspbesq
@Gin & Tonic:
Not quite. There are IRAs and there are IRAs. When you leave a job where you are in a pension or 401(k), you can do a tax-deterred “rollover” to a separate IRA. There are large numbers of people with six-figure IRAs, and a non-trivial number with seven-figure IRAs.
There are plenty of good reasons to not like Romney. Without more info, the mere fact that he has a big IRA isn’t one of them.
Hypatia's Momma
@Frankensteinbeck:
Congratulations!
burnspbesq
@Frankensteinbeck:
Outstanding!
Gin & Tonic
@burnspbesq:
As, for instance, that found in the goddamn article I linked, which says that 8- or possibly 9-figure IRA’s are highly unusual, and that there’s a good likelihood that it got to be that size due to offshore assets or other means of avoiding the unrelated business income tax.
Yes, he may have a large IRA. No, that alone isn’t reason to dislike him. But when it’s larger than almost any extant IRA and he doesn’t disclose enough about its holdings to know whether its investment and tax strategies were kosher, that is.
Honest, folks, RTFA before jumping on the minutiae of my abbreviated pointer to it. I didn’t realize I was posting in such a hotbed of Romney-love here.
burnspbesq
George Zimmerman’s bail has been re-set to $1 million.
Patricia Kayden
I’m happy with the job numbers. Hope the unemployment rate goes down a little too.
burnspbesq
@Gin & Tonic:
All of which is speculation. If any of it moves from speculation to fact, I will be at the head of the line with pitchforks and torches. Until then, not so much.
nastybrutishntall
@Goblue72: Only if you shout at them, “Get off my lawn” first. Then you can shoot the “hipsters” dressed in their “blue-jeans” and “t-shirts” listening to loud “so-called music” without compunction or legal troubles. Or that’s what the “Tele-Vision” tells me.
Roger Moore
@Hunter Gathers:
Like the media spin matters. People pay way less attention to what the news says about the economy than what their personal experience says. If people’s perception of their own situation and their friends’ and relatives’ situations is positive, they’ll think the economy is OK even if the news says it’s terrible. If their situation is bad, or their friends’ and relatives’ situations are bad, they’ll act that way even when the news is all sunshine and roses.
I honestly think that public perception is often more accurate about these things than the economists are. 2008 was a great example. People were very pessimistic about the economy even when most economists and the media were saying everything was OK and there was little chance of a recession. It turned out the public perception was right, and properly revised numbers showed we were already in a recession in early 2008, even though the professionals were saying a recession was unlikely.
nastybrutishntall
This thread is making me want to throw my skinny jeans in the dryer for extra tightening, and run out on the street with a Ruger and cap some mom-jeans and cargo-short-wearing, goateed motherfuckers listening to dad rock. I’m 38, but fuck am I sick of listening to Gen-Xers age badly into their libertarian buzz-cuts and pudding-rings. Y’all suck. I’m with the youngs on this one.
ruemara
@jibeaux: I’m working on a return to natural, good on your daughter. It’s been quite the rediscovery of curls.
On the good news front, I sold a lot of beer yesterday to benefit the Dems. Minus… …my warrior’s dps is still laughable. So sad.
@Frankensteinbeck: Exciting! Congrats to you!
Martin
@Hypatia’s Momma:
Not on the list.
On the list would be ‘avoiding lawsuits’ which might require saving lives. This I imagine is what got the lifeguard fired. Saving the gentleman not under the company’s contractual space opens the company up to a lawsuit where it wouldn’t have been before.
This isn’t a failure of the legal system, but a place to highlight where the private sector is inefficient compared to the public sector. Conservatives keep trying to square that problem, and have failed at every turn.
Zagloba
The physics hits just keep on a’comin’:
‹a href=”http://m.csmonitor.com/Science/2012/0705/Giant-filament-of-dark-matter-connects-galaxy-clusters-say-astronomers-video”>Dark Matter!
Jebediah, The Cornstarch of the Comment Threads
I got a call just now for a job interview. They have had my resume for a bit and I was starting to think it was going nowhere. It’s not a job offer, its an interview, but I am pretty happy about it.
ETA: It’s a job I really want – I’m 98% certain it’s union and I think it will be around for a while.
Goblue72
@nastybrutishntall: Maybe you missed the setting off fireworks at 3 am part. You play some loud music at 10 pm, I don’t give a shit. You set off roman candles at 3 am and interfere with my workweek sleep, you’re getting the fuck off my lawn.
shortstop
@Jebediah, The Cornstarch of the Comment Threads: Good luck, Jebediah!
Jebediah, The Cornstarch of the Comment Threads
@shortstop:
Thanks!