The Jobs Picture Still Looks Bleak

Many outsourced jobs will never return, and median income will likely continue to fall just like it did during the last so-called recovery.

By ROBERT REICH WallStreet Journal

The U.S. economy added 162,000 jobs in March. That sounds impressive until you look more closely. At least a third of them were temporary government hires to take the census—better than no job but hardly worth writing home about. The 112,000 real new jobs were fewer than the 150,000 needed to keep up with the growth of the U.S. population. It's far better than it was—we're not hemorrhaging jobs as we did in 2008 and 2009—but the bleeding hasn't stopped.

Since the start of the Great Recession in December 2007, the economy has shed 8.4 million jobs and failed to create another 2.7 million required by an ever-larger pool of potential workers. That leaves us more than 11 million jobs behind. (The number is worse if you include everyone working part-time who'd rather it be full-time, those working full-time at fewer hours, and people who are overqualified for the jobs they're in.) This means even if we enjoy a vigorous recovery that produces, say, 300,000 net new jobs a month, we could be looking at five to eight years before catching up to where we were before the recession began.

Given how many Americans are unemployed or underemployed, it's hard to see where we get sufficient demand to support a vigorous recovery. Outlays from the federal stimulus have already passed their peak, and the Federal Reserve won't keep interest rates near zero for very long. Although consumers are beginning to come out of their holes, it will be many years before they can return to their pre-recession levels of spending. Most households rely on two wage earners, of whom at least one is now likely to be unemployed, underemployed or in danger of losing a job. And even households whose incomes have returned are likely to be residing in houses whose values haven't—which means they can't turn their homes into cash machines as they did before the recession.

Martin Kozlowski

While consumers have been shedding their debts like mad—often simply by defaulting on loans—their remaining burdens are still heavy. At the end of last year, debt averaged $43,874 per American, or about 122% of annual disposable income. Most analysts believe a sustainable debt load is around 100% of disposable income, assuming a normal level of employment and normal access to credit—neither of which we are likely to have for some time.

To Continue this article go to WallStreet Journal

WHAT IS WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE!

SEIU starts third party in North Carolina

By: Mark Hemingway
Commentary Staff Writer
04/09/10 10:21 AM EDT

Apparently statewide Democrats aren't sufficiently pro-union in North Carolina. So the nation's most politically influential union has decided to start a third party to run their own candidates in the state. It's also being done to punish moderate Democrats that voted against health care:

In a shot across the bow of Dems, the labor powerhouse SEIU is starting a new third party in North Carolina that hopes to field its own slate of candidates, part of an effort to make the Democratic Party more reliable on issues important to labor, I’m told.

SEIU officials setting up the new party, called North Carolina First, are currently on the ground collecting signatures to qualify as a state party, SEIU officials tell me, adding that there are around 100 canvassers on the ground right now. The goal: To have the party up and running so candidates can run in this fall’s elections.

It won’t be lost on political observers that three House Dems who voted No on reform are from the state: Heath Shuler, Mike McIntyre, and Larry Kissell.

Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/SEIU-starts-third-party-in-North-Carolina-90350619.html#ixzz0ke2pVfhK

************************************************

COMMENTARY: SO, IS IT ME OR HAS SEIU STARTED COPYING WHAT THE TEA PARTIES DO???

When the media reports about anything that is connected to the Tea Party movement, they like to keep the Tea Parties in an unfair and dishonest light. Let's see what they say about SEIU!

Truth About ‘Global Warming’

PSU YAF Petitions for Independent Inquiry to Turn Up the Heat on Penn State Climategate Professor

STATE COLLEGE, Pa., April 1 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- On February 3, 2010, the Pennsylvania State University (PSU) released a report on its internal inquiry of Professor Michael Mann, clearing him of any wrongdoing for his involvement in the "climategate" scandal. Mann's work, including the infamous "hockey stick graph," concluded: "the 1990s was the hottest decade of the millennium." Mann's study has been debunked by the academic community, but has played a key role in aiding the "global warming" propaganda used in the attempt to pass legislation to end such warming effects. PSU Young Americans for Freedom (YAF) has launched an online petition urging Penn State to preserve academic integrity and order an independent investigation of Mann and his role in climategate.

PSU YAF Chairman Samuel Settle said, "The university's supposed independent inquiry report by Professor Mann's colleagues clearly states they never wanted to do an inquiry and sounds more like a letter of recommendation for their friend Mann than a legitimate investigation of academic integrity. This report does not address the student and community concerns regarding the possible suppression of data by a faculty member. This report by Penn State is a whitewash, nothing more." Settle added, "Many students go to college expecting to 'stick it to the man,' however, Penn State Young Americans for Freedom (YAF) is now 'standing up to the Mann' and his university lackeys calling for a fair, independent investigation of Mann and his involvement in the 'Climategate' scandal."

Jordan Marks, YAF Executive Director, said, "Students are held to a high level of academic integrity on a daily basis and when the academic code of honesty is broken universities go to great lengths to investigate and administer justice." Marks continued, "The cover up of Professor Mann's suppression of climate data because he is one of the faculty's own is a disgrace to the academic community and an insult to the students who buy into the system of integrity and honesty. The fact that Mann falsified data to promote his personal agenda should be cause for him to stripped of his PhD and removed from his position as a Professor."

To sign the PSU YAF online petition urging Penn State preserve academic integrity and order an independent investigation of Professor Mann, please go to http://yaf.com/petition/.

Court: FCC can't regulate Internet

A federal appeals court threw a major roadblock into the Federal Communications Commission’s Net neutrality plans as well as its broader National Broadband Plan, ruling that the agency lacks the authority to regulate the Internet.

A three-judge panel in Washington said that while Congress gave the FCC broad and adaptable power to keep pace with evolving technology, it needs, and lacks, express authorization from Congress to interfere with the management of broadband by the providers.

While the decision was not specifically aimed at the Net neutrality policy, the FCC agrees that the reasoning applies to it, conceding that it invalidates its “approach to preserving an open Internet.”

“Nobody knows if there are any protections left on broadband services for consumers or industry for that matter,” said Maura Corbett, a partner at Qorvis Communications who has worked for Net neutrality advocates.

And it’s possible that the FCC is now powerless to implement the National Broadband Plan the administration rolled out to great fanfare last month promising to chart the next decade of Internet development, Corbett said.

The FCC’s limbo could be resolved in three ways, all of which come with distinct downsides, she said. Congress could grant the FCC the needed authority, but lawmakers have shown little appetite to take on another contentious issue in a year already packed with controversy. The commission could appeal the decision, which is unlikely because there is little chance of success. Or officials could try to tweak existing regulations, which is the practice the court knocked down today.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0410/35450.html#ixzz0kS5669UA

GET READY TO PAY!!!!!

IRS chief: Buy health insurance or lose your tax refund

Individuals who don’t purchase health insurance may lose their tax refunds according to IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman. After acknowledging the recently passed health-care bill limits the agency’s options for enforcing the individual mandate, Shulman told reporters that the most likely way to penalize individuals that don’t comply is by reducing or confiscating their tax refunds.

Speaking at the National Press Club on Monday, Shulman downplayed the IRS’s role in enforcing the recent overhaul of the health insurance industry by claiming the agency would not aggressively target individuals who don’t purchase coverage. He noted that the health-care bill expressly forbids the agency from freezing bank accounts, seizing assets or pursuing criminal charges, but when pressed said the IRS would most likely use tax refund offsets to penalize those that don’t comply with the mandate. The IRS uses refund offsets to collect from individuals that owe the federal government a delinquent debt.

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2010/04/05/irs-chief-buy-health-insurance-or-lose-your-tax-refund/#ixzz0kS0rS5Wk

IRS Launches New Global Program to Target ‘High Wealth Individuals' Tuesday, April 06, 2010 By Penny Starr, Senior Staff Writer

SOURCE: CNSNews.com

The Internal Revenue Service has launched a new global program to target what it calls “high wealth individuals,” IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman said Monday.

“Through our new global high wealth operating unit we are taking a unified look at the entire web of business and economic entities controlled by high wealth individuals so we can better assess the risk such arrangements pose to tax compliance,” Shulman said at the National Press Club on Monday.

Shulman said the IRS is using “our robust and evolving enforcement program that ensures that everyone pays what they owe.”