How many times does a wolf in sheep's clothing need to attack the flock before the shepherd notices?Not a surprise though. Barack Obama's history on reproductive rights has been profoundly ambivalent.—James Kelly in the comments on the Obama Administration's decision to appeal a judge's decision striking down their restrictions on Plan B birth control
Roy Roberts the retiring emergency manager appointed to run the Detroit public schools, has admitted that he was told to destroy the school district when he was selected:
Roberts also told those gathered that when he arrived at DPS, he was told to “blow up” the district and dismantle it, [Detroit Federation of Teachers President Keith] Johnson said.Only the article at the Freep has been sanitized and that quote is gone. One wonders why.
“Blow it up — those were his exact words,” Detroit School Board member Tawanna Simpson confirmed.
Good news everyone!Initial jobless claims — a rough gauge of layoffs — sank by 18,000 to a seasonally adjusted 324,000 in the week ended April 27, the Labor Department said Thursday. That’s the lowest level since January 2008.Decent numbers.
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Meanwhile, the four-week average of new claims, which smooths out weekly volatility, fell by 16,000 to 342,250. That’s the smallest amount in six weeks.
The number of people already receiving benefits, known as continuing claims, rose by 12,000 to a seasonally adjusted 3.02 million in the week ended April 20. Most states typically offer 26 weeks of unemployment pay.
At the heart of healthcare reform, it is the insurance exchanges, and your average consumer lacks the sophistication necessary to see how the insurance companies will f%$# them until it is too late:
One of the big reasons I’m so pessimistic about the new health insurance exchanges created under the Affordable Care Act is the principle behind them. The idea is that everyone will be well- informed dedicated shoppers who will know how to select the best plan to fit their needs, which will reduce cost for everyone. Aflac’s 2013 WorkForces Report shows how deeply misguided this assumption is in reality.One thing that you can be sure of is that the insurance companies will do their level best to confuse customers so that they will make a decision that will increase their profits.
Two numbers from the report really stick out. The survey found 54 percent of workers would prefer not to be more in control over their health insurance expenses and options because they will not have the time or knowledge to effectively manage it. This is completely understandable. Selecting the best insurance plan requires not only significant knowledge about every component of insurance, but also the ability to accurately predict the likelihood of future medical needs.
Unemployment in the Euro Zone has hit a record high, and there is still no sign of inflation:
The latest eurozone unemployment data, due at 10am BST, is expected to show the region's jobless rate has risen to a new record high of 12.1% in March (from 12% last month).Austerity is not working.
Italy's unemployment rate is also forecast to increase, showing the challenges facing its new government as it strives to drag the country back to growth.
And in Spain, new GDP data will doubtless confirm that the country's economy contracted again in the first three months of 2013 (economists expect a fall of 0.5%).
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Eurostat also reported this morning that inflation across the Eurozone has fallen to just 1.2% in April. That's a sharp fall on March's 1.7%, and a much smaller rise in the cost of living than analysts had expected.
That makes it more likely that the European Central Bank will bow to pressure and cut interest rates at its next monthly meeting on Thursday.
So their quantitative easing program continues unabated:
The Federal Reserve said Wednesday that its economic stimulus campaign would press forward at the same pace it has maintained since December, putting to rest for now any suggestion that it was leaning toward doing less.Yeah, calling out the entire deficit fetish in DC is a good thing too.
The Fed emphasized that it was ready to increase or decrease its efforts to spur growth and reduce unemployment as necessary, a more balanced position than it took earlier in the year, reflecting the reality that a strong winter has once again yielded to a disappointing spring.
It was the first time that the Fed had explicitly mentioned the possibility of doing more in a policy statement, although officials, including the Fed’s chairman, Ben S. Bernanke, have made the point repeatedly in public remarks.
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The Fed maintained a relatively sunny economic outlook in its statement, released after a two-day meeting of its policy-making committee. It said that the economy was expanding at a “moderate pace” and that the labor market had shown “some improvement.” It added, however, that federal spending cuts were “restraining economic growth,” an implicit critique of the rest of the government.
That language was stronger than the Fed had used in previous assessments of the economic impact of fiscal policy. Fed officials have repeatedly expressed frustration that fiscal policy is working at cross-purposes with their own monetary policy. The statement also noted that the pace of inflation had slackened, a potential sign of economic weakness. Bringing the annual rate of inflation closer to its target of 2 percent has been a primary goal of the Fed’s four-year-old stimulus campaign, but the statement expressed little concern about the recent deceleration to a pace of only about half that level.
They put up a billboard using Appalachian Trail hiker Mark Sanford:
According to AshleyMadison.com founder Noel Biderman, 60,000 cars a day will pass this billboard along 1-26 in Columbia, South Carolina, as Mark Sanford battles Elizabeth Colbert Busch for one of the state's congressional seats. ………Heh.
