Celebrating Labor Day With President Hopey-Changey

Now, let's go over all this again, a bit more slowly, so my Democrat friends can understand it.

Mr. Obama told us in January that if Congress didn't pass his 'stimulus package' (i.e. The Mother of All Pork-barrel Bills) that the unemployment rate would exceed 8%, but that if it did, then 'millions of jobs will be created and saved', 'cuz He said so, and He's always right.

So, now here we are: He got His bill, and the interstate highways are shut down coast-to-coast with construction projects of one sort or another(like fences installed in the medians--truly a necessity!), and the unemployment rate is officially 9.7%.

Mish Shedlock shared this graph from the Bureau of Labor Statistics--and the most telling bit is on the bottom row, on the right-hand side. The true unemployment/dropped-out/working part-time out of necessity rate is now approaches 17%.

Wow, that really worked out great!

In defense of Our Fearless Leader, perhaps all this was baked-in before He ascended the throne. But His assertions that everything will just get better if we just spend-spend-spend and trust Him for the outcome erode the basic confidence needed to put a recovery together.

And He wonders why there is such trepidation about handing the country's health care system over to Him?

People have a hard time feeling confident about future risk if they sense they are not being told the truth in the present tense.

In a way, OldSouth hopes The One is lying, 'cuz that means He knows the truth and cynically chooses not to convey it. In that scenario, there is a glimmer of hope.

After all, Saul of Tarsus was struck down on the road to Damascus, and Change We Can Believe in occurred in that instance.

The really scary bit is that He may really really believe His own version of reality...

A Little Peek Ahead

A few posts ago, I passed along some information for Mom, Dad, and Junior about the future of college admissions.

Once again, thanks to Inside Higher Ed, another peek into the future: borrowing for higher ed has spiked 25% in the past year. Which means that the day when the class of 2014 will be able to climb out from under student debt and purchase that first home will be postponed for some years now.

Mom, Dad, Junior: The best use of junior's time on the time/money scale will be spent on making certain academics and selected extra-curriculars(such as classical music study)are in excellent shape. If Junior is out earning cash, every dollar he socks away is a dollar not borrowed for college, i.e. each of those saved teenage dollars looks more like five dollars by the time he's thirty. He may look cool in the new car with the high insurance payments, but he'll need the purchasing power for that new car fifteen years from now.

Another good use of Junior's time will be to visit daily with Mish Shedlock, who patiently explains what is happening to the economy, and what it well may mean for Junior's adulthood.

Hope, Change, Change, Hope...

A big hat-tip to Jr. Deputy Accountant for passing along this from the Washington Post.

The cogent bits include:

J.P. Morgan Chase, an amalgam of some of Wall Street's most storied institutions, now holds more than $1 of every $10 on deposit in this country. So does Bank of America, scarred by its acquisition of Merrill Lynch and partly government-owned as a result of the crisis, as does Wells Fargo, the biggest West Coast bank. Those three banks, plus government-rescued and -owned Citigroup, now issue one of every two mortgages and about two of every three credit cards, federal data show.

A year after the near-collapse of the financial system last September, the federal response has redefined how Americans get mortgages, student loans and other kinds of credit and has made a national spectacle of executive pay. But no consequence of the crisis alarms top regulators more than having banks that were already too big to fail grow even larger and more interconnected.

Now, let's review: What happens when any structure becomes top-heavy? Is there not a reason aircraft carriers and battleships have wide keels and only travel in deep water?

What happens to a society when too much power is concentrated into too few (and by definition, fallible) hands?

This phenomenon began years ago, to be fair to the current People In Charge. However, it has accelerated dramatically since January 2009.

We have to assume this is their view of the World As It Should Be.

Heaven have mercy on The United States.

To Begin the Week

1. The Julia Project continues with 'Nun Lob, mein Seel, den Herren', a setting of a hymn tune common in Bach's day. I'm struck by how tolerant Bach was of dissonance, how creatively he moved in and out of those dissonant moments.

The theory texts I endured in school had totally sanitized the dissonances out of the process of learning how to harmonize, while still presenting the material as if it were based upon Bach. No wonder I slept through class!

I browsed through the theory text of a college freshman last week, and nothing has changed about the American approach to theory teaching. Dry, pedantic, and unconnected to the rich realities of Western music. Your tax dollars, once again, at work on campus. Multiply this example by a few thousand, across other disciplines, and understand the task ahead.

2. Two Green Shoots Awards candidates: Chicagoland's Brookhaven Market, and New Harmony Indiana's The White House Restaurant. Both are small operations, and fabulous experiences on last week's travels. It is businesses like these, that understand profits are made by truly serving customers(as opposed to raping them!), that will create the next American Renaissance. Three loud cheers for each establishment.

By the way, New Harmony Indiana was an inspiring visit...too long a task to detail now.

3. Speaking of awards--stumbled over an hour of sheer hilarity on CMT--the annual 'Here's Your Sign' Award, honoring the absolutely most stupid moments caught on video this year. My favorite was the guy who sawed off a tree limb while sitting on the part destined to fall...where have we seen that lately?

4. Walked nine holes from the blues, always kept the ball in play, started and ended on the same ball...6 over my goal of 'bogies from the blues'(carrying the bag, persimmon woods). But what fun!