Friday, August 05, 2011

Thanks, Congress!

Well, don't we have good news this morning?

Yesterday, Wall Street tanked yet again as a result of what one commentator said was an atmosphere of "total fear."


I suppose I could look at the bright side and think that at least the rubble has been swept away from the smoking hole where my 401k used to be. But I won't.

Let's see how the rest of this year is shaping up at the Bilbo household:

Job in jeopardy as a result of automatic budget cuts which will be imposed if the Congressional "super committee" can't agree on "savings" (yes, good luck with that) ... just in time for Thanksgiving and Christmas, no less ... check.

Retirement savings pretty much wiped out ... check.

Social Security and Medicare on the ropes just as retirement savings pretty much wiped out ... check.

Ability to land another job in the current economic climate ... forget it. And this article pretty much sums it all up: No One Knows What the Hell to Do About Jobs. Here's the key part of that article:

“The White House's jobs agenda is always, always, a re-branding of stimulus spending. The GOP's "jobs agenda" is always a cocktail of plans they've already proposed, which are never about using government spending or intervention to create jobs, and always about deregulation. Check out the list of job-creating GOP bills - half of them are about opening up new energy exploration or peeling back the post-BP oil spill limits on licensing. Good ideas! Just not representative of a surge of GOP jobs ideas ... The horrible truth is that Democrats are not being stopped from implementing ideas that will grow the economy at double-speed. Nor is it that Republicans are being stopped from unleashing bold new ideas that'll fix the housing or employment crises. The truth is that no one knows what to do in the short term.”

Want some more good news? Steven Pearlstein is here to help: The Global Economy Comes to the End of Its String.

Thanks, Congress! Hope you're enjoying your vacation.

I really need to go dancing tonight to try to forget about this mess for a few hours. It will be a little strange watching the ladies fan themselves between dances, though ... check out this wonderful analysis from eViL pOp TaRt: The Language of the Fan, Updated.

Tomorrow is Cartoon Saturday ... maybe I'll feel better then. Don't hold your breath.

Have as good a day as you can. More thoughts tomorrow.

Bilbo
(aka, Mr Crankypants)

1 comment:

Mike said...

I got a town hall call last night from my Rep. Todd Akin(r). I listened for awhile as he bashed the Dems. He's getting ready to run against Senator McCaskle(d). I've met him and he's Mr. negative about everything. They say he's to the right of Genghis Khan. Oh and he's been caught voting in the wrong city.