And what do they intend to say about October's unemployment rate. October's unemployment rate is going to be high and that's no more unexpected than last month's increase.
What's going on?
It's the fiscal year. 2009 ended September 30th and Fiscal Year 2010 started October 1st. Private sector employees found themselves cut as the fiscal year ended. October will show the results from the public sector work force. It's a point Trina's made repeatedly (most recently here). Last Wednesday, across the country, many government employees (especially city and county ones) completed their last days of work.
A large public works program might have avoided that but Barack Obama's no FDR. What little was put towards public works programs is not being utilized. Michael Grabell (ProPublica) reported Friday that though the CBO's estimate was the Transporation Department would spend $5 billion by September 30th of this year, "only $3.4 billion" was spent.
He did support Bully Boy Bush's TARP plan, however. And that program celebrated its one year 'birthday' yesterday. Today, The Philadelphia Inquirer wonders where the money went:
How the TARP money has been spent, and whether it's being repaid, are still largely mysteries.
Neil Barofsky, special inspector general of TARP, told Congress that the Treasury Department's "attitude towards transparency ... remains a significant frustration." The Obama administration needs to be reminded that taxpayers footed the bill for this massive bailout, and they are entitled to know where the money went.
Paul Kiel (ProPublica) observes, "Putting a dollar amount on the financial rescue isn't an easy task, as we've noted before [1]. Those looking for an answer can find estimates from a few trillion to as high as $24 trillion. That's mainly due to different judgment calls on what should count."
And the bank failures continue with three more on Friday. Before we get to the latest, let's drop back to our August roundtable to note that 2008 saw 24 banks closed, 3 closed in 2007, the FDIC states: "There were no bank failures in 2006," repeats that message for 2005, four were closed in 2004, 3 in 2003, 11 in 2002 and 4 in 2001. Adding it all together, 72 banks were closed from 2001 to the end of 2008. Friday the FDIC announced:
Southern Colorado National Bank, Pueblo, CO with approximately $39.5 million in assets and approximately $31.9 million in deposits was closed. Legacy Bank, Wiley, CO has agreed to assume all deposits. (PR-181-2009)
Jennings State Bank, Spring Grove, MN with approximately $56.3 million in assets and approximately $52.4 million in deposits was closed. Central Bank, Stillwater, MN has agreed to assume all deposits. (PR-180-2009)
Warren Bank, Warren, MI with approximately $538 million in assets and approximately $501 million in deposits was closed. The Huntington National Bank, Columbus, OH has agreed to assume all deposits, excluding certain brokered deposits. (PR-179-2009)
A total of 93 banks have been closed so far in 2009. Repeating, in the previous eight years, 72 banks were closed. More banks have shut down this year than in the previous eight years. The 93 are from various parts of the country but we'll note 16 of the 93 were Illinois' banks.
No jobs, banks failing and here come the holidays. Stephanie Rosenbloom (New York Times) reported yesterday that retailers are hoping that "this Christmas will be as bad as last -- which is to say, one of the worst on record." Holding the line is better than dropping below it. At least for businesses and Barack doesn't know the first thing about business (remember his laughable self-praise of his business 'skills' in 2008 when he referred to his campaign as a business?). Yesterday, his national address found him lying yet again about how he'll grow the economy:
It will require us to lay a new foundation for our economy -- one that gives our workers the skills and education they need to compete; that invests in renewable energy and the jobs of the future; and that makes health care affordable for families and businesses -- particularly small businesses, many of which have been overwhelmed by rising health care costs.
This is something I hear about from entrepreneurs I meet -- people who've got a good idea, and the expertise and determination to build it into a thriving business. But many can't take that leap because they can't afford to lose the health insurance they have at their current job.
I hear about it from small business owners who want to grow their companies and hire more people, but they can't, because they can barely afford to insure the employees they have. One small business owner wrote to me that health care costs are -- and I quote -- "stifling my business growth." He said that the money he wanted to use for research and development, and to expand his operations, has instead been "thrown into the pocket of healthcare insurance carriers."
And there's nothing in Barry's 'plan' that's going to stop money being "thrown into the pocket of healthcare insurance carriers." In fact, Barry's 'plan' encourages even more money to be tossed in those pockets. As Gore Vidal told Tim Teeman (The Times of London) last week, "He f***ed it up. I don't know how because the country wanted it. We'll never see it happen." We know how and Gore would as well if he'd bothered to study Barack's action in Chicago before becoming a US senator. But, like the media he castigates, Gore Vidal skipped out on doing that homework.
But grasp what Barry refuses to: (A) in a faltering economy, you do not add a new mandate requiring that every US citizen have insurance or be personally fined and (B) in a faltering economy, business growth is held back by 'plans' like Barack. Liz Peek (wowOwow) observed Friday:
Other than providing work for an ever-expanding number of speech-writers in the White House, the administration isn’t long on job-creating initiatives. [. . .] President Obama talks incessantly about creating "green jobs," which seems like a dandy notion until it turns out that much of our spending on solar panels and the like is actually zipping over to China and to other countries that are quickly outpacing us. I see considerable irony in the fact that the head of the U.S. trade group Solar Energy Industries Association is Roger Efird, who works for Suntech, China’s largest solar panel maker.