Halfway, Already

The week is spinning by, probably because I was home Monday, keeping a close eye on the heartworm puppy.  She seems to be doing better - still coughing a bit, but was showing signs of more energy than we've seen for quite a while. I'm thinking the big challenge for a while may be in keeping her as quite as she needs to be. She really wanted to run to the fence to bark at the neighbor dog during her on-the-leash potty break last night; I had to really reign her in and hurry her back in the house.

This evening, there's a lot of economic information to talk about.  It was one of the topics of the President's news conference this morning.  I find it fascinating to read reports from both the left and right, comparing the confusing spin. All I know is that our utility bills are dramatically higher than last year, gasoline is jumping again and a trip to the grocery store is frightening.  Our kids are grown (college and beyond), so our food needs are much lower than a few years ago - I honestly don't know how a family could manage expenses right now.  I was behind a customer with an overflowing cart the other day - her total bill was just over $200. It doesn't take long when you have several gallons of milk and lots of meat and vegetables.  With that in mind, it's off to the money races -

Most California Families Can't Make Ends Meet, Study Suggests--Poverty Line Inadequate Measure

Note: This is only about California, but the message is national.  Our measures of economic need are severely out of whack, which is a significant contributing factor in the making of bad social policy. A new report from the California Budget Project, the fifth iteration of "Making Ends Meet: How Much Does It Cost To Raise A Family In California?" [PDF], shows that the basic cost of living a no-frills, no-savings existence in California is substantially above the poverty line, the minimum wage, and even--for most families analyzed--the median hourly wage.  Nearly half of California's full-time workers cannot make ends meet in a [...]

Foreign buyers running from US

Republican presidential candidates can spin it however they like and perhaps their supporters are too thick to look around and see the truth, but the rest of the world is quickly losing faith in the US economy. In August, foreign investors unloaded $163 billion of US securities. It is no wonder that since the world started this most recent round of dumping US assets, the US dollar has [...]

The budget was front and center in the News Conference and it's one focus of this very complimentary post from the Right -

President Bush: Towering Above the Democratic Congress

Ed Morrisey takes note: George Bush has turned out to be the master of misunderestimation. Following the 2006 election, Democrats crowed over President Bush's lame-duck status, insisting that they now controlled the agenda on all fronts and that Bush should [...]

More Money Talk-

Inflation Steady in September

...Inflation stayed steady in September, indicating that the Federal Reserve has room to cut interest rates again, but perhaps not this month. Prices of consumer goods ticked up 0.3 percent in September, slightly faster than expectations and a reversal of [...]

Lay-offs Are Moving To Healthy Sectors In The Economy

Workers in industries that are not doing well usually get laid off. But, it is not a good omen when workers in robust sectors of the economy are losing their jobs. Countrywide (CFC) has said that about 12,000 jobs will be lost at the mortgage company. The Mortgage Bankers Association says that 30,000 jobs in their industry will disappear next year due to [...]

Powered by Qumana