David Horsey on 401Ks

A great cartoon from David Horsey, editorial cartoonist with the Seattle PI.

cartoon

Of cows and robber barons

The Times profiles a dairy co-op that recently suffered an all to common problem - their CEO took off, apparently absconding with funds. The article shows how interconnected all these small business interests are, from the farmers with cows to companies that sell lids for milk cartons.

article at NY Times

Tough times at Harley Davidson

The NY Times examines Harley's problems - they've been unable to attract a younger demo to their products and the Baby Boomers that are their prime market have seen their savings disappear in the current economic crisis.

article at NY Times

Gee ... can I get a deduction too?

Seems the IRS has issued guidelines allowing tax relief for victims of the massive Madoff ponzi scheme fraud. They can deduct the losses from their taxes, basically.

Hello? IRS?

I've basically been defrauded by a cabal of Wall Street investors and now my 401K is worth diddley squat? May I deduct those losses on my taxes? Hmmmm?

article at HuffPost

Yikes! Not a good sign...

Well, let's see. The last time we saw "tent cities", or something like them, popping up in the US was...hmmm...the early 30s?

article at HuffPost

The uncounted homeless

The NY Times has a feature on a growing trend - uncounted homeless people living in motel rooms. The problem is particularly acute in Orange County, California because of high rents and large numbers of empty motels.

I sometimes wonder if these folks would be better off just picking up and moving rather than trying to stay there - at least rents are much cheaper than what they're paying for a motel room in other parts of the country. I can't imagine the "paycheck to paycheck" jobs they have pay much more in LA than here.

article at NY Times

Seattle PI closing, SF Chronicle may be next

It appears the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, home of my favorite editorial cartoonist, is closing down.

This Reuters piece notes that Hearst may also close the SF Chronicle if the paper can't contain costs.

article at Reuters

What's wrong with Obama's recovery plans

A short opinion piece in the New Yorker that, in my own humble amateur economist opinion, states exactly what's wrong with the administration's plans for economic recovery and why the timidity with handling bank's toxic assets is a bad idea.

article at New Yorker

The new Prohibition

It looks like we may be entering Great Depression II, The Sequel.

An op-ed piece looks at Prohibition II - the War on Drugs - that bears a distinct similarity to the War on Alcohol of the early 20th century.

Oh, and the piece is by a former Seattle police chief.

article at HuffPost

High wages, few jobs

The New Yorker has an article that tackles an odd contradiction - during recessions and even the Great Depression, wages rise. It may be tough to find a job, but when you do, salaries remain competitive.

Companies are concerned about loosing talent and overall employee morale, but there are other factors during this economic downturn - the "just in time" model is making companies and workers more productive and the job market more unstable.

article at the New Yorker

New Yorker films closing

New Yorker Films, a major distributor of art house and foreign flicks, is closing after 44 years. It's library of films, which includes major classics, was put up a collateral for a loan by the distributor's owner. Now, since the loan is due and the films are being auctioned off, New Yorker's going under.

article at NY Times

Charities going bankrupt

The bad economic news continues. The Times has a piece about the growing number of non-profits declaring bankruptcy in recent months.

One thing I'm curious about though, reading through the massive debt and mislaid plans of these organizations is if we're looking at some "weeding out" of badly managed groups. Some of what they were doing and the debt they were taking on sounds nutty.

article at NY Times

Forget about that Swiss bank

It seems that UBS has lost a case dealing with tax evasion with the IRS and has agreed to disclose information on 19,000 US citizens that have Swiss bank accounts that are suspected of tax evasion.

This would mark a big change - many think that Swiss banks will no longer be a "safe haven" for those wishing to keep their finances quiet.

I suppose cash is the safest bet.

article at HuffPost

Octomom at my economic stimulus

Sigh.

Is there any end to the weirdness coming out about Nadya and her never-ending need to birth? When will California's Social Services department take these poor kids away from this grotesque, bizarre, mentally ill woman? When will the State of California take away the medical license of her IVF doc and forbid him from touching any other human being in a medical context for the rest of his life?

Now it seems Nadya wrote creepy letters to Angelina Jolie ... and had plastic surgery to look more like her.

Ewww....

thread at buzzfeed

She now claims that she's receiving death threats via phone and email after putting up a website asking the public to support her kids. Police are investigating.

Oh, and let's not forget, she's $50,000 in debt and on food stamps and a couple of her pre-existing kids were on disability. Some have tallied that the hospital cost for her eight babies will be $1.3 million. The total cost of raising all her kids through age 17 are estimated at between $1.3 million and $2.7 million.

Oh well... there's goes the economic stimulus!

article at HuffPost

Another sign of changing times

The Book Exchange, which opened in the early 1930s in Durham, NC, is closing its doors on February 14th.

The store carries an eclectic mix of used books and was a fascinating place to visit. Currently, they're offering a bag of books for $10 and the rest will be donated to charities after the store closes.

article at the News and Observer

The peanut scandal - the missing detail

With all the attention paid to the Peanut Corporation of America's problems with salmonella and shipping tainted products, along with the seemingly lax FDA inspections that have led to this miss, there's a couple of details that are getting ignored.

Stewart Parnell, the owner of the company, was on the FDA's Peanut Standards Board. He was appointed to the position in 2005 and was taken off the board only a few days ago.

Also, the company was involved in two lawsuits, in 1990 and 1991, when they supplied peanut products to candy manufacturers containing toxic mold.

article at Wikipedia

Parnell appeared before a Congressional committee today; invoked the Fifth Amendment and refused to answer questions.

This is the type of behavior that makes me want to throw out all corporate law - I don't think crap like this would happen if a company President/CEO/owner could be held personally liable for damages or legal punishment for endangering the public.

article at CNN

Noooo!!!! Not satellite radio!!!! Nooooo!!!!

Sigh.

I've been a subscriber to satellite radio for some time. I'm rather sad to hear that Sirius-XM will soon be filing for bankruptcy.

Sat radio's a great service, so there's a possibility that somehow the company or some variation of it will survive. However, I can't see anyone going out of their way to buy a radio and subscribe with Sirius-XM in bankruptcy, which will likely erode the audience and income base of the company further.

Both Sirius and XM weren't able to make a go of it as individual companies and merged a few months ago. With such a great idea - a selection of commercial free and limited commercial stations in a broad range of genres, a great alternative to bland commercial and public broadcasters - it's hard to believe that someone could screw it up.

In my thinking, the companies focused in the wrong areas - too much on the automobile market and not enough on flexible, portable devices (like the Inno); too much on flash in the pan "stars" and expensive sports packages and not enough on strengthening the diversity of the shows.

If Sirius-XM does go the way of so many failed tech companies, I'd petition the FCC to require all AM and FM stations with a certain power level to upgrade to HD Radio and to limit the number of ad time per hour on existing stations.

article at NY Times

However, there is a bright side to all this bad economic news for technology and entertainment companies. Muzak, that purveyor of bad elevator music and annoying shopping ear drivel is in bankruptcy as well.

article at The Street

IBM's doing what?

A poster of a comment at Wonkette noted something interesting. I'd like to see some verification of this and some quick laws enacted to make it illegal if it's true.

Basically, the poster says that IBM is offering to send American workers to India to do the same job they do here. They'll pay for the visas and paperwork.

The catch?

You only get paid the going wage in India for the job, which is significantly less than what you'd make here.

If you turn down the offer and are let go from your job, you're not eligible for unemployment, of course.

So, is this one true?

comment at Wonkette

Breastaurant? ... *shudder*....

The depths of sleeze to which American businesses go to appeal to a mass market never ceases to amaze me.

Currently, the hot buzzword in the restaurant biz is "breastaurant" - yes, Hooters has become not just a "one note" wonder, it's an actual "concept" or theme. Competitors with names such as "Twin Peaks" and "Bone Daddy's" (oy vey) are set to go mano-a-mano against grandaddy Hooters in an all out Smackdown for the frat boy/redneck guy with a mammary fetish market segment.

It seems they think Texas is a prime market for this restaurant "concept". Go figure.

Hmph. I'm surprised that wrestling's Vince McMahon has't started a chain of WWE-themed "breastaurants". Seems like a similar customer base.

article at the Star-Telegram (in Texas, of course)

The Bush economy tanks and sucks even more

Circuit City has announced they're closing all of their stores.

This article at Wired notes that it will add another 30,000 to the ranks of the unemployed and create over 300 more big empty big box stores at malls and shopping centers, adding more empty space to the stores already going under.

Something's wrong when the nation's second largest electronics retailer is going out of business.

Bush=Hoover

article at Wired