CNN Money is reporting that Wal-Mart is cutting jobs from it's Bentonville, Arkansas headquarters. 800 total white-collar jobs down the drain at the world's biggest retailer. While it may seem like a drop in the bucket compared to the hundreds of thousands of jobs being shed by companies such as GM it does call for pause.
Wal-Mart... laying people off. Wal-Mart.Click your heals 3 times....there's no place like home, there's no place like home, there's no place like home, there's no place like home...
Take a look at this clip from C-Span of Rep. Paul Kanjorski (D-PA) discussing the initial $700 Billion TARP Program. At about 2:20 into the video, he reveals what the Federal Reserve and Hank Paulson told Congress on September 15, 2008. The banking system was hours away from a complete meltdown.
Gee. Thanks. Place a check in the "Things We Already Knew" column.
What is most disturbing is this... and you have to watch the entire video to pick it up... it's worth it...
The clip begins in the middle of a rant from a woman caller explaining she's paid $600 in utility bills, is out of money, and the $800 Billion "stimulus" package should put money directly in the hands of the people and we'd stimulate the economy ourselves (she actually says this)...
Kanjorski then eschews the virtues of the decisions they've made, the impending collapse of the system and why TARP changed. This takes most of the rest of the video... here's the kicker...
At the end he actually says... and I shudder at this... he actually suggests that we ask people like the caller at the beginning of the clip for their opinions because they may have better ideas. Because, as Kanjorski puts it... they are not financial geniuses and don't have all the answers. MY GOD... as if we didn't know.
People... this man is a CONGRESSIONAL CAPITAL MARKETS COMMITTEE MEMBER. Shouldn't he have a certain level of expertise? Shouldn't he have better ideas than the caller who can't pay her utility bills? Shouldn't he be able to come up with something better than "let's solicit ideas from everyday Americans because they know better than us"...??????
WAIT... oh.... maybe he's actually on to something. This is scary, folks. This is our government in action.
It's amazing what politicians can twist and how blind they can be. Take a look at the chart below. It compares job losses in the current recession (depression) to the 1990 and 2001 recessions.
Notice anything different? I'll spare the insult to your intelligence and just ask this simple question... does anyone really think a second half rebound is in the cards? Oh... and another question... does anyone really think spending another TRILLION DOLLARS of our grand children's money will do anything? Anything at all?
