What a joke

Busy morning. Scanning the Memeorandum headlines, one thing becomes clear: the discussion at hand isn’t focused on what matters. Number one headline spawning multiple articles and threads: a gay Romney aide resigns. So important. Number two headline: a pastor says he was joking when he said gay kids need a punch or two. Of national strategic [...]

“Underemployment rocks because it knocks out that sense of entitlement.”

So argues Don Surber brilliantly on yesterday’s AP boo-hoo article detailing underemployment among college grads, especially those with liberal arts degrees. More: I know. I am Mister Insensitivity but into each life a little rain must come. That is why an Associated Press story on the difficulties of recent college graduates facing joblessness or underemployment [...]

Change!

From the WSJ, this is surreal: The Congressional Budget Office said Thursday that 45 million people in 2011 received Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, a 70% increase from 2007. It  said the number of people receiving the benefits, commonly known as food stamps, would continue growing until 2014. 70% increase. How about a 70% increase [...]

Obamanomics: a swing and a miss

Oh, yea! proclaimed the headlines. The unemployment rate has dropped! For those who don’t read beyond the headlines, there’s more to the story. Behold: James Pethokoukis: Swing and a miss. A big miss. A really big miss. U.S. employers added just 120,000 jobs last month, the Labor Department said on Friday. That’s the smallest increase [...]

The effect of a free education?

Yet again, look at Greece: Greeks attend university and vocational schools at a higher rate than students in Germany, Spain or Switzerland, with 43 percent of college-aged Greeks enrolled in 2007, the most recent year that statistics were available from the Organization of European Cooperation and Development in Paris. Yet only 18 percent graduate, one of [...]

Headline: 10 Places Where a Gallon of Gas Is More Expensive Than in the US

Media hacks certainly weren’t as charitable to Bush back in the day gas prices were lower, but I digress. From the headline story on Yahoo Finance [emphasis my own]: If it’s been a while since you filled up, you might be in for a rude awakening the next time you visit the gas station. Prices [...]

Rick Moranis: “How much of this country’s economy am I personally destroying by my consumption preferences?”

He’s thrifty, like me, and wonders if he’s destroying the economy as a result. A snippet from the WSJ: This morning, while I was grinding my blend of French, Colombian and Italian coffee beans, it occurred to me that I could be doing harm to the coffee shop and diner businesses in my neighborhood by [...]

Who needs credit cards, eh?

When you can pay for your jumbo crab legs with food stamps? Unreal. From a seafood market in DC: Makes sense from a retailer’s standpoint: if 15% of the national population uses a special government card, then why not garner some of that business? Especially if that population numbers higher in your specific area? Nothing like word-of-mouth [...]

He’s not the solution to your problem, Mayor Kirk

A Democrat mayor of Gloucester, Massachusetts has witnessed what “hope” and “change” can do to a town, and begs Obama to intercede: I wonder how much “hope” Mayor Kirk has that the direct job-killing policies of the Obama Administration will cease and desist. I honestly wonder how self-identified liberals can remain so in the face of its [...]

Put that fire out!

Metaphorical fire, that is. Harvard economist Martin Feldstein sees the forest for the trees in the housing debacle. In the NYT he states: I cannot agree with those who say we should just let house prices continue to fall until they stop by themselves. Although some forest fires are allowed to burn out naturally, no one [...]