By Mark Thompson
Before 1994, anybody who was a discouraged worker, irrespective of the period of time, was counted as a discouraged worker.
So that where you have the U3 unemployment rate at, I believe it’s 8.2% in March, the government’s broadest number U6 and also includes people who work part-time for economic reasons that’s running up somewhat over 14%.
By Mark Thompson
From 1862 to 1879 the US used greenbacks, paper money, and returned to species payment in 1879.
Under a return to the gold standard from 1879 to 1897 prices fell 1% per year. GDP growth averaged 3.7% per year. From 1879 to 1889 the CPI declined 4.2% and wages rose an astonishing 23%. An increase in earning power for the average American of 27%!
By Mark Thompson
Washington and the various data collection agencies have for years now been telling the American public that the economy has been improving. It’s a lie. They know it and thinking Americans know it.
Here are six graphs that bring home the state of the economy today as seen by the average American…
By Mark Thompson
Florida State Representative Steve Precourt authored a bill (HB 7209) to revise the Florida Public Service Commission. The Public Service Commission exists to protect consumers from unnecessary rate hikes from utilities who enjoy a near monopoly.
Insiders believe the reform was to neuter the power of the PSC who rejected rate hikes the previous year…
By Mark Thompson
Dodd-Frank helped the too big to fail top four banks who now enjoy a 42.06% market share in the top ten states. The eight firm concentration ratio is now in the moderately concentrated area of over 50% of the market share.
Instead of decentralizing the banking system in 2008 now there will be a continuous march towards centralization and oligopoly market structures…
By Mark Thompson
Florida Congressman John Mica has long been thought to have been the biggest supporter of Sun Rail in Central Florida.
But the $1.2 billion Sun Rail project needed a special session in Tallahassee and support from state elected officials to become a reality. Many Republicans supported Sun Rail but perhaps none more than Representative Steve Precourt.
By Mark Thompson
The West’s governments are going to default, one way or another. Politicians cannot bring themselves to stop spending money the governments do not have.
The deficits of the major Western governments are now so great as to be irreversible. The governments must now borrow money to be used to pay interest on money already borrowed…
By Mark Thompson
The nonthinkers look at the wealth of the elites and think it was ripped off from the hard working people and they are justified in stealing it back.
In the case of the Federal Reserve they are correct, but they are too obtuse to understand economics and what is really going on and who the real thieves are.
By Mark Thompson
On March 5th, 2012, the Florida House voted on House Bill 1399 that included a provision to remove the only elected official from the Orlando-Orange County Expressway Board; Mayor Teresa Jacobs.
The removal of Jacobs from the Board created a controversy and pitted Tallahassee politicians versus local governments…
By Mark Thompson
First off I hate writing about “racial” stories where someone black is involved. If you are not in lockstep with the New York City media elite you are labeled a racist. One bad word about black people and you are a racist, 100% proof positive, when you disagree.
This has been going on since I was a child in the 1960s and it seems to have gotten worse as time passes…
By Kim Carroll
Women have the power. They take their right to vote seriously and show up at the polls in greater numbers than men according to the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University.
In 2008, 60.4 percent of eligible female voters cast their vote versus 55.7% of eligible males. According to the same study, more women are registered to vote than men, 66.6 million versus 63.5 million. Maybe that’s why the “War on Women” has taken a front seat in this election…
By: George Noga
This post kicks off a three-part series about the crisis of spending, debt and deficits.
The next part deals with the interval between now and the inevitable arrival of the Minsky Moment, i.e. the unknown and unknowable time when an unsustainable economic phenomenon suddenly collapses.
The third post will address Gotterdammerung, or what happens after the Minsky Moment.
By Tom Tillison
It’s a fair guess that Connie Mack has seen some recent polling that has gotten his attention.
As the week closed out, the rhetoric coming from the Mack campaign took on a rather fervent pitch. In a press release sent out Thursday, it made the claim that opponent George LeMieux has “endorsed raising Florida’s sales tax to a nation-leading 16 percent.”
By L. Persona
Florida Democrats believe they can win a few Republican seats in Congress and are preparing a major offensive against several Republicans facing tough challenges this year. They believe that redistricting gives them a chance to offset the seats they are sure to give up.
However, the Democrats still fail to realize the albatross that ObamaCare places on their party’s efforts…
By Lloyd Marcus
A big well dressed black guy attended the Dallas, TX tea party rally with his white buddy. Both men missed my singing performance on stage minutes earlier.
I asked the black gentleman who had an impressive physique how often he worked out. He replied, “Everyday.” His white buddy said with a chuckle, “He thinks the Tea Party is racist.”
