Economy

With the economy in the dumps and everything in sight seeming to be overpriced or at least that is what it seems like, gas hits the $4 dollar mark officially today. This comes the day after Associated Press reports that unemployment rate has reached 1986 levels. There are more people with no jobs and many more with underpaid positions who can not afford the $4 per gallon gas to get them to their low paying jobs.

Of course we can thank Republicans for raising the minimum wage since 1997 to $6.50, since they were so eager to it. I wonder how big this mess would be had they fought Democrats on this measure. Another field that Republicans have been wrong about is Health Care.

Interesting enough the relationship between Quality of Health care and Quantity of Money Spent on that Health care does not have a logical correlation. One would thing the more money you throw into the system the better results it should have. Doctors in the U.S. make money from prescribing treatments ergo they prescribe people with pharmaceutical drugs at higher rates. The end result does not prove any more satisfactory- just more money in the bank for the prescription drug companies. This simple minded strategy and Republican thinking has proven to be flawed. It seems MORE is not always better.

Tell that to the Bush Administration who are hell-bent to privatize our Education system. They have done everything in their power to sabotage the American Public School System. Beginining with the "No Child Left Behind Act" they standardized public schools across the board. They teach to the test per se. Their end goal is to make the public education system horrible so they can push privatization of the system. It seems that private is not necessarily better. A study found last month that public schools are just as good as private schools. I do not expect this to hold up if Republicans have their way.

So, if you happen to find yourself a bit depressed about not finding a job because of the economy, don't worry. Your student loans were not that bad of an investment if you went to a public institution of higher education. Hop into your car and spend the $4 to drive yourself to the local drug store so that you can continue to pop those pills that help "treat" your depression. At least be happy . . . the cure may be just around the corner, this November.

So, many of you may have heard of rumors around how the IRS will be distributing your stimulus check this May and I did some digging around to get the right story. It is true that the IRS has a system set up for the checks they shall start distributing under the Economic Stimulus Package Act signed into law by President Bush.

Here is the scoop . . . if you get your rebates via direct deposit then you are in luck because you should be getting your money by the end of next week at the latest.

Now if you are still old fashion then expect a delay . . . and by delay I mean some of you will not see your check until after the 4th of July. This could be good or bad depending on how you want to see it. You will not have any disposable income for the Memorial Sale but at least you will have that extra cash for your summer vacation.

You can check out the IRS site for a personal disclosure of your Stimulus payment . . . but do not expect anything as detailed as tracking a package via FedEx.

Many folks may not anticipate what will happen tomorrow. But in the last 48 hours the once Microsoft/Yahoo! deal that was expected to save Yahoo! from financial trouble has fallen apart. The fate of Yahoo! and its future will be determined by tomorrow's actions.

In order to bring most of you up to speed on the ongoing developments between Yahoo! and Microsoft I shall quickly recap. Yahoo! has been facing attempting to negotiate a deal to merge with someone over the last few months. Its main rival Google would be a no go since it the deal would face scrutiny due to monopoly laws. The only other viable source would be Microsoft who had the capital and justification for the purchaser. News Corporation (Murdoch's MySpace Company) became interested but could not afford the asking price form Yaho0. After months of negotiation, the deal was suppose to be finalized by tomorrow, May 5, 2008.

The deal ended up going sour before the due date and the fate of Yahoo! is on the line. What is the impact of this situation though? In the current troubled economic state that we are in, the sky is the limit. This in turn may possibly be the catalyst that history will refer to in books or nothing at all may occur.

I speculate that Yahoo! stocks will take a tumble this week and in 14 days or so, Yahoo! will be bought out by a rival at a discount price. As a cynic, I believe that Microsoft setup this situation in their favor from the get go. Their interest to take over Yahoo! would benefit them the most as it would negatively hurt the most. Microsoft needs some leverage in order to compete with Google and acquiring Yahoo! would help. When other parties became interested in the deal, Microsoft has to commit to their guns and offer a price that other companies could not afford. In a way they inflated the value of Yahoo! temporarily in order to prevent others from attempting to purchase it. At the last minute, Microsoft pulls out of the deal and during the ongoing days and weeks, Yahoo! would lose monetary value and become desperate and accept the first check that rescues them. Would you be surprised if by the end of this ordeal Microsoft ends up with Yahoo? Neither would I. Michael Arrington of TechCrunch offers a similar view on the fate of Yahoo.

American Cancels 850 More Flights - American Airlines canceled 850 flights Wednesday — more than a third of its total — as its efforts to inspect and in some cases reattach wiring bundles in the wheel wells of its 300-plane fleet of MD-80s dragged on. The total could climb above 850, a spokesman said, as only 30 of the 300 single-aisle planes were so far cleared of the inspection process and operating.

IMF slashes world growth forecast - The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said that the world economy will grow much more slowly in the next two years as a result of the credit crunch. In its latest economic forecast, the IMF says that world economic growth will slow to 3.7% in 2008 and 2009, 1.25% lower than growth in 2007. The downturn will be led by the US, which the IMF believes will go into a "mild recession" this year.

New downtown park's a beauty, but is it money spent in the right place? - Twelve acres in front of the George R. Brown Convention Center have been transformed into Discovery Green, adding green space, restaurants, an interactive fountain, model boats, a jogging path and a small library to the downtown landscape. The new park --downtown's largest-- opens this weekend, almost four years after a massive fundraising campaign that kicked off in October 2004. In total the park cost $122 million, of which the city paid $41 million. The rest came from donors.

Oil jumps to near record on weak supply - Oil prices surged to near record levels Wednesday after a government report showed an unexpected decline in crude supplies. Light, sweet crude for May delivery rose $2.40 to $110.90 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract traded as high as $111.43, within 40 cents of the all-time intraday mark of $111.80 set March 17. Oil prices had risen to $109.31 immediately before the report's release.

Petraeus: Another troop buildup in Iraq unlikely - The top U.S. military commander in Iraq said today that he is unlikely to call for another troop buildup in Iraq, even if security deteriorates after the extra American soldiers return home this summer. Gen. David Petraeus told a House panel that such a move would be considered the last resort, in part because of the strain it would place on the Army. First, the military could try to reallocate existing troops to respond to any hotspots. It also would rely more on Iraqi forces, which are improving in capability, he said.

Army Worried by Rising Stress of Return Tours to Iraq - Army leaders are expressing increased alarm about the mental health of soldiers who would be sent back to the front again and again under plans that call for troop numbers to be sustained at high levels in Iraq for this year and beyond. Among combat troops sent to Iraq for the third or fourth time, more than one in four show signs of anxiety, depression or acute stress, according to an official Army survey of soldiers’ mental health.

Administrative problems fuel drop in U.S. legal immigration - The number of people who legally immigrated to the U.S. dropped 17 percent last year, largely because of administrative problems, according to a Homeland Security Department report. Citizenship and Immigration Services has been under fire after processing times grew because immigrants flooded the agency with applications filed last year in advance of dramatic increases in filing fees. The delays will keep some people from becoming citizens in time to vote in November.

Skybus becomes third airline this week to close - Skybus Airlines announced Friday it is shutting down its passenger flights -- becoming the third airline this week to cease operations. The low-cost carrier couldn't overcome "the combination of rising jet fuel costs and a slowing economic environment," the company said Friday.

Mugabe 'preparing for poll war' - Zimbabwe's main opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, has accused President Robert Mugabe of preparing to go to war against the country's people. He said Mr Mugabe was deploying troops and armed militias to intimidate voters ahead of a possible run-off poll. Mr Tsvangirai insisted he had won last weekend's presidential vote, the result of which has yet to be announced.

More experts now warn U.S. already in grip of recession - It's no longer a question of recession or not. Now it's how deep and how long. Workers' pink slips stacked ever higher in March as jittery employers slashed 80,000 jobs, the most in five years, and the national unemployment rate climbed to 5.1 percent. Job losses are nearing the staggering level of a quarter-million this year in just three months. For the third month in a row, total U.S. employment rolls shrank — often a telltale sign that the economy has jolted dangerously into reverse.

Lawsuit Challenges Immigration Raids in New Jersey - Immigration agents systematically entered homes and made arrests without proper warrants during raids to round up immigration fugitives in New Jersey, according to a federal lawsuit filed Thursday. The lawsuit, brought by lawyers at the Center for Social Justice at Seton Hall Law School in Newark, will provide a constitutional test of law enforcement methods often used by immigration agents since May 2006 when they began operations across the country to track down and deport immigrants who had been ordered to leave by the courts.

Olympics 'worsening China rights' - China's human rights record is getting worse, not better, because of the Beijing Olympics, a rights group says. According to Amnesty International, China is clamping down on dissent in a bid to portray a stable and harmonious image ahead of the Games in August.

80,000 Jobs Cut in March; Unemployment Rate Rises - The economy shed 80,000 jobs in March, the third consecutive month of rising unemployment, presenting a stark sign that the country may already be in a recession. Sharp downturns in the manufacturing and construction sectors led the decline, the biggest in five years. The Labor Department also said employers cut far more jobs in January and February than originally estimated.

Back to pencil and paper for 2010 census - Technology problems will force the government to count all of the nation's 300 million residents the old-fashioned way in the 2010 census -- with paper and pencil.

Gene links smokers and lung cancer - Three new studies analyzing the genetics of lung cancer have identified two inherited gene variations that raise white smokers' chances of getting the disease by as much as 80 percent compared to tobacco users without the genes. All smokers have a tenfold greater risk for lung cancer than nonsmokers, but less than 20 percent of smokers eventually develop the disease. Scientists believe heredity is why some smokers are more likely to develop lung cancer.

Princeton University Political Science Professor Larry M. Bartel is causing a stir in the blogosphere with his new book "Unequal Democracy" which will be available June 2008. The matter at hand actually is a chart that visually plots the how the economy differs under Democrat or Republican Administrations. The books purpose is to show that the "increasing inequality [between the rich and poor] is not simply the result of economic forces, but the product of broad-reaching policy choices in a political system dominated by partisan ideologies and the interests of the wealthy."

The chart illustrates that income growth during Democratic presidencies is more beneficial to the poor but higher for everyone as whole compared to those of Republican administrations. Democrats as opposed to Republicans, are better on economic growth and distribution for Americans. It seems odd that there is data that supports this since the first lesson I learned in my American politics class was that the President has little control over economic policies. In fact, most policy does not have enough time to have a direct impact within an administrations tenure. This is perhaps the most perplexing issue with the chart.

Ezra Klein at The American Prospect theorizes that perhaps, "It may be that the election of Democratic executives happens, in general, in times when the culture is trending in a more egalitarian direction, and so the Democrat is being elected for the same reason distribution is improving. And, conversely, it can be the example set by presidents -- as when Reagan fired the striking air traffic controllers to usher in the era of union busting, or Bush cut taxes for the rich and opposed increases in the minimum wage -- that help steel the will of the greedy and lower the working class's expectations and estimation of their own power."

Whatever is the reason why Americans as whole do much better under a Democratic Administration, the real question is: How do Republicans explain that the economy suffers under their power? As Dick Gephardt once said, "If you want to live like a Republican, you have to vote for Democrats."

In Economic Drama, Bush Is Largely Offstage - For a man who came into office as the nation’s first M.B.A. president, Mr. Bush has sometimes seemed invisible during the housing and credit crunch. As the economy eclipses Iraq as the top issue on voters’ minds, even some Republican allies of the president say Mr. Bush is being eclipsed and is in danger of looking out of touch.

Jobless claims shoot up to 2-year high - The number of new people signing up for unemployment benefits last week shot up to the highest level in more than two years, fresh evidence of the damage to a national economy clobbered by housing, credit and financial crises. The Labor Department reported Thursday that new applications filed for unemployment insurance jumped by a seasonally adjusted 38,000 to 407,000 for the week ending March 29.

Nato denies Georgia and Ukraine - Nato has confirmed it will not yet offer membership to Georgia or Ukraine after the 26-member alliance was split amid strong objections from Russia. Moscow said Nato's promise that the ex-Soviet republics would join one day was a "huge strategic mistake". At a summit in Romania, Macedonia was also denied Nato entry but Albania and Croatia were given the green light.

Al Qaeda No. 2: We don't kill innocents - The second-in-command of al Qaeda has said the terrorist group does not kill innocents and that its leader Osama bin Laden is healthy, according to a transcript of an audio tape released by radical Islamist Web sites. Al-Zawahiri, who led an Egyptian Islamic militant group that joined forces with bin Laden in the 1990s, said innocents who have been killed in attacks by al Qaeda or affiliated groups died as a result of "unintentional error" or because they were used as "human shields" by "the enemy."

Mugabe 'ready to face fresh vote' - Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe is ready to contest a second round of the presidential election, a spokesman for his ruling Zanu-PF party says. Deputy Information Minister Bright Matonga said if results from Saturday's election showed a second round was necessary, Mr. Mugabe would stand. Official results from the presidential poll have yet to be issued, but the opposition says it won the vote.

Gasoline, oil futures jump on tight supply report - Gasoline and oil futures rose sharply today after the Energy Department reported an unexpected jump in gasoline demand and a big drop in supplies. Prices at the pump returned to record levels, and appeared poised to extend their march higher.

Bernanke Nods at Possibility of a Recession - In his bleakest economic assessment to date, the Federal Reserve chairman, Ben S. Bernanke, said Wednesday that the American economy could contract in the first half of 2008, meeting the technical definition of a recession, and he encouraged Congress to help homeowners caught up in the mortgage crisis.

U.S. and Britain at Odds Over Guantánamo Inmate - The Bush administration and the British government are at odds over how to treat one of the last two British residents held at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, officials from the countries involved in the case and his lawyer say.

Mugabe's Zanu-PF loses majority - Robert Mugabe's party has lost its majority in parliament for the first time since Zimbabwean independence in 1980, official results show. President Mugabe's Zanu-PF party has taken 97 of the 210 seats, while opposition parties have won 109, the Zimbabwe Election Commission says.

Cubans on new freedoms: 'We'll see how far we go - In the past week, President Raúl Castro has legalized cell phone use for ordinary Cubans; granted Cubans access to previously off-limits tourist hotels; and legalized the sale within Cuba of microwaves, DVD players and personal computers. Cubans are welcoming the change, even if the costs are out of their reach.

Today has been a busy day and I did not expect to make a post. I will most likely forgo my daily "Around the World" post for the day. I have personal projects that I have to attend to.

Nonetheless, I was forwarded a clip of the independent movie "The Job" which was created by Screaming Frog Productions. One their website they claim, "the immigration debate just got a little funnier," which I do not deny with this snippet. I have now become interested in the movie myself.

The Job offers a different view on the immigration debate. As one can tell from the trailer, that it provides its opinion about the immigration issue pretty well. Other than winning many awards and gaining great press, I have not been able to determine exactly what the film attempts to portray. I will surmise from the trailer that it juxtapose the stereotypical role of "careers" with those of "immigrants'" and entertains the stigma Americans have created about day laborers.

The Job has been showing at Film Festivals around the world. The next one shall be at the Florida Film Festival in Orlando today and they move onto Phoenix this weekend for the Phoenix Film Festival. There is no word about distribution on DVD or its future endevors.

Screaming Frogs Productions originated in Chicago but now call Los Angeles home. They have other films and projects in their portfolio. There genre of choice seems to be witty satire with a mix of social commentary on contemporary American culture. Enjoy!