Conservatives have been well known for bad-mouthing our European ancestors — especially the French 1 — calling them "socialists" and whatever other insults they can think of to hurl at them 2.
September 2014 Retail Sales decreased -0.3% for the month. August was revised to a 0.6% increase. Retail sales have now increased 4.3% from a year ago. September's decline was due to autos and gas, yet many sales categories were down for the month. Even Online retailers declined while Electronics and Appliance stores had an unusual 3.4% monthly increase.
According to the Mortgage Monitor for August(pdf) from Black Knight Financial Services (BKFS, formerly the LPS Data & Analytics division), there were 912,898 home mortgages, or 1.80% of all mortgages outstanding, remaining in the foreclosure process at the end of August, which was down from 935,460, or 1.85% of all active loans that were in foreclosure at the end of July, and down from 2.66% of all mortgages that were in foreclosure in July of last year.
If for no other reason, the Republican party's ABSOLUTE REFUSAL to raise the federal minimum wage should be the best reason for why the GOP should lose the 2016 congressional elections. Republican voters (who might earn more) should understand that, by setting the ground floor for the lowest federally mandated minimum wage, that also puts great pressure on their employers to raise their wages as well. How can their bosses explain to a factory worker in Tennessee (or elsewhere) that McDonalds employees are earning more than they are?
After the Great Recession had officially began (but prior to the stock market crash of 2008/09) George W. Bush responded to the early signs of economic trouble with a "helicopter drop" in the form of lump sum tax rebates to wage earners to help stimulate the economy. They were provided for in the Economic Stimulus Act of 2008, with support from both the Democrats and the Republicans. The bill was signed into law on February 13, 2008.
As most people are well aware by now, that while computers, automation, robotics and other methods in the workforce may have increased worker productivity, gads of publications have shown that wages haven't kept pace for the past 30 years. In a service job, such as at a restaurant or bar, an individual's workload is primarily governed by the flow of customers into the place of business and the management's scheduling of its employees.
This essay is part of on going series built on the simple proposition that there has never been a sound theory of economics (see The Unraveling of Economics). In short, the new model proposes the critical intellectual error lies in a 200 year old idea of the Quantity Theory of Money (i.e. the supply of money determines the price level). The implications of this error will be used to critique the popular notion of Fair Trade" as a panacea to our economic woes. The key conclusion we will draw here is that achieving any form of fair trade is an impossible task.
Walmart is at it again, slashing benefits for their workers. This time Walmart will deny health insurance to employees working less than 30 hours a week. That's about 28,000 Walmart workers. Walmart isn't alone in throwing part-time workers under the healthcare bus as Target, Home Depot, Walgreens and Trader Joe’s. have already denied healthcare coverage for their workers.
The BLS JOLTS report, or Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey shows there are 2.0 official unemployed per job opening for August 2014. Job openings were around 4.8 million with hiring coming in at a lower rate than July. Job openings returned to precession levels while hires have only increased 27% since June 2009.
How much would you pay for a year of life? It seems Big Pharma has figured that number out and are charging over $100,000 a year for life saving Cancer drugs. Yes, surprise, surprise, the more dire the disease, the more the great for profit pharmaceutical industry is charging for the cure. In 2012 alone, of the 12 cancer drugs approved by the FDA, 11 cost over $100,000.
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