Editorial Glance
New unemployment claims jumped by 66,000 last week to 374,000 after months settling down toward 300,000. This doesn't begin to show the real effects of the government shutdown as contractors are only now beginning to kick people to the curb. The effect this will have on the rest of economy will begin to show soon as the lack of spending by those affected by the shutdown starts to mushroom into a reduction in US GDP. This is one of those self reinforcing feedback loops that are commonly referred to as a 'death spiral'.
You see, the problem isn't confined to the simple math of less spending, but is actually multiplied by the fact that the natural mitigators of an economic downturn that we commonly refer to as 'government safety nets' are also being removed. State run programs are running out of 'pass through' money, and the charities will be affected soon. Right wingers are always saying churches could care for the poor better and somehow do it at no cost, but the christian charities get 2/3 of their money from the Feds. With Uncle Sam out the picture, their private donations will dry up too.
Prairie 2: Hobbling the Four Horses of the Apocalypse
Alex Baer: Meditations on Our Daily Horror
October: This is the traditional month for frost on the pumpkin, a jump-started sweet tooth, and a handful of artificial horrors.
Except every day is a day of all-too-real horror with Republicans. Forget Elm Street -- every day is Nightmare on Capitol Hill these days, and each day comes with at least one twisted plot twist and adrenalin rush. It's not unlike the ultimately depressing, empty-calorie gore-banquet of a slasher flick.
You know the feeling: The highly-charged, hyper-energized sensation stemming from emptying half of your Trick-or-Treat stash in one sitting. As usual, that sugar-rushing rocket ride can be exhilarating, but the plummet back to Earth is always queasy and dizzy-making.
Bruce Enberg: And I saw a Pale Horse
Obama is talking to Wall Street about the Government Default as in (the end of the F'n world) being a very real possibility. We'll see what that does to the markets starting in Asia in just a couple of hours. Is he really talking about a Pale Horse who's rider said unto him, "Come and see"....
Maybe we're just talking about the Federal Reserve going all QE666 and buying up all the outstanding dollar denominated debt on the planet. They could actually do that. It would put an awful lot of cash into circulation.... I'm not sure what that would really do.... Since all that cash would be in only a relatively few hands, maybe nothing would happen.
Alex Baer: On Exhausting All of One's Possibilities
Well, after more than a decade of heavy use and pushing their certified load limits, it's finally happened: I've broken the backs on all my expletives. They're in traction, up at Lingua Franca University Hospital, in Esperanto.
I blame the current GOP-created-and-sponsored government shutdown as much as I do the amount of overwork my profane and explicit oaths and exclamations have been subjected to, ever since Reagan slipped through the cracks of the founding fathers' notions of a wise and informed populace, and a watchdog press, keeping a close and good eye on its leaders and their use of power.
Bruce Enberg: Everything you need to know about economics is in a Pyramid
On Tuesday we will all turn into pumpkins if the Republican controlled House doesn't pass the Senate budget bill. With this fiscal 'crisis' in mind, let's debunk the favorite talking point from the Conservatives: 'We can't afford that,' or 'we're broke.'
The reality check: the US prints its own money, unlike Greece that's dependent on the German Euro we can print our own, and as much as we need to make the economy work.
Bruce Enberg: The HeisEnberg Principle isn't just for physics
Only one week until the government shutdown because the tea baggers need to be in the spotlight for as long as possible. The thing is, we've been here before.
An actual government shut down in the 90s was a disaster for the Republicans which makes seeing Newt Gingrich on the Sunday morning shows acting like an expert statesman all the more hilarious. People forget that he was run out of the Congress by Republicans. And the tea baggers have already tried this fiscal brinksmanship themselves, and failed miserably.
Alex Baer: Starbucks. Guns. Waffling.
More on our country from the only viable, mostly-untainted point of access -- the foreign press:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-24142085
My reaction?
Well, sure, I mean:
If someone doesn't get their Uber Grande Triple Mocha Espresso with Caramel Monkeybutt Sauce and Cupid's Arrow and Heart Design in their Whipped Cream just right, then, in 'Merica, that customer should have the right to pump a couple of magazines of steel-jacketed rounds and dum-dums into the bastard barista who ruined their day, week, and life, right?
Goddam right, boys and girls.
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