"The world will never run out of oil"... Deutsche Bank analystsThey say efficiencies are increasing and that oil will average $65 a barrel in 2010.
Most Republicans advocate for the lowest estate tax possible, but Democrats "are not of one mind on this," said Clint Stretch, managing principal of tax policy at Deloitte Tax."not of one mind on this"
"about 25 percent of single-family homes with mortgages have negative equity"oy.
"7.5 million foreclosure sales will have taken place between 2006 and 2011. The majority of these sales, however, have not emerged yet, with 4.8 million foreclosure sales expected between 2009 and 2011"
"Foreclosure sales will increase, and home prices will resume their decline by early 2010 as mortgage servicers figure out who will not qualify for a modification"
I’ve had businesses for 30 years.
This is all very simple. Businesspeople are not stupid. They aren’t hiring because:
1. They don’t know what tax increases are coming.
2. They don’t know what new burdensome regulations are coming.
3. They don’t know what changes to the health care system are coming, and if perhaps they will be responsible for everyone’s COBRA or similar for years.
4. They don’t know if it will be harder to fire people in the future.
5. They don’t know if every employee will be allowed to join a union, increasing costs and headaches.
6. They don’t know what new procedures will be invented to upend the bond markets completely, overturning centuries of settled law.
7. They don’t know if Washington will unilaterally cut their compensation.
8. They don’t know if cap-and-trade will double their energy costs.
And on and on and on and on and on and on and on.
I can’t imagine hiring anyone until all this nonsense shakes out. I wouldn’t be surprised to see unemployment above 13%.
I can hold off generating taxable activity a lot longer than Democrats can retain Congress, that’s for damn sure.
- Posted by Chester White
"On the auction block in Detroit: almost 9,000 homes and lots in various states of abandonment and decay from the tidy owner-occupied to the burned-out shell claimed by squatters... Despite a minimum bid of $500, less than a fifth of the Detroit land was sold after four days."
"As interest rates rise, as they must, and international commodity and other prices rise as the global economy recovers, real, after-tax, inflation and tax-adjusted disposable incomes will continue to fall. This means real consumption can rise temporarily but will likely fall again, giving the United States a double-dip recession."Welcome to your lost decade, America.
"The pace of U.S. job losses hit a one-year low last month but the unemployment rate jumped to a 26-year high of 9.7 percent"So how does lower job losses this time cause the unemployment rate to go up? Mystery.
"a record 16.8 percent in August from 16.3 percent in July"I won't even go into the stats for minorities, young Americans (18-29)... and worst of all: young blacks and hispanics.
"Each electric Prius motor requires 1 kilogram (2.2 lb) of neodymium, and each battery uses 10 to 15 kg (22-33 lb) of lanthanum"FOLLOW THE MONEY
"With appropriate federal assistance for research, development and capital costs, Molycorp Minerals is prepared to move forward to reestablish domestic manufacturing capacity on an expedited basis"Big Oil has grubstaked it's future on what it knows best: Controlling The Feed of critical resources.
"There are no quick fixes to achieve U.S. national security interests in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The danger of failure is real and the implications are grave."
- Barack Obama
"Tobacco use will kill 6 million people next year from cancer, heart disease, emphysema and a range of other ills"
"Tobacco accounts for one out of every 10 deaths worldwide"Sooooooo... tobacco kills every year about 6 million people (and rising). The Nazis killed about 6 million Jews in the Holocaust.
"At best, it would take 167 inbound lanes, or 84 copies of the Queens Midtown Tunnel... At worst, 200 new copies of 5th Avenue. Somewhere in the middle would be 67 West Side Highways or 76 Brooklyn Bridges. And this neglects the Long Island Railroad, Metro North, NJ Transit, and PATH systems entirely."...except Manhattan would need a parking lot three times the size of Central Park so this is all just for perspective.
"If our home-price forecast is correct, roughly one in two mortgage borrowers and one in three homeowners will owe more than their home is worth"That is IF they are right. If finance people have proved one thing in the past few years it is that just about everyone can be simultaneously wrong.
The unemployment rate fell even as employers continued to cut jobs because the Labor Department estimated there were 237,000 fewer people it counted as unemployed....even though in actual fact: thay ARE NOT working - they just are no longer counted.
