INSTANT VIEW: GDP up 3.5 percent; jobless claims fall | Reuters

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. economy grew in the third quarter for the first time in a year as consumer spending and investment in new home-building rebounded, data showed on Thursday, unofficially ending the worst recession in 70 years.

This is interesting, especially the part about the jobless claims. I have not heard of any places that are starting to hire again, and expand payrolls. What happens is that six months go by and jobless assistance runs out, then people cannot go in to claim their unemployment checks anymore. They don't have jobs still, they're not as employed as they want to be, but they can't show up to claim unemployment.

And the news reports this as a decrease in unemployment.

It seems dishonest, and some of that bears through in this Reuters article, because it says that these numbers "unofficially end" the recession. Meanwhile, the actual number of people who are not as employed as they want to be (meaning they have no job at all or are working part time when they wish to be working full time) is not being reported.

We need to press the newspapers to honestly report the jobs figures. Also, there's a difference between the Nominal GDP Growth and Real GDP Growth. Once you factor in inflation, we are probably still seeing negative GDP Growth.

Don't let Washington and Wall Street fool you. We haven't seen the end of this by a country mile.

Obama Asked "Why Do People Hate You?" By Fourth Grader (VIDEO)

Obama Asked "Why Do People Hate You?" By Fourth Grader (VIDEO): "At a town hall meeting in New Orleans Thursday, fourth-grader Terrence Scott earnestly asked the question that has probably been on many people's minds as they witnessed the rage that has been directed at Obama these last few months: 'why do people hate you?' The young man seemed genuinely concerned as he asked the question, and he went on to tell Obama that 'They supposed to love you.' Obama responded by giving the young man a hug while saying, 'That's what I'm talking about.' Then came the hard part of actually answering his question."

He actually said "They supposed to love you. God is love, so..."

This was wonderful.

Follow the link for the video of President Obama's response to this heartwarming question.

Nobel Committe Chair Explains chioce.

Swine flu's bigger impact on blacks and Hispanics is not being addressed

..."But several recent studies from local health departments around the country suggest a broader trend is already underway in minority communities:

• Boston's Public Health Commission found that 37% of all swine flu cases in that city occurred among blacks, though the black population is only 25%. Likewise, Hispanics comprise 14% of Boston residents but one-third of all confirmed H1N1 cases. Even more disturbing, three of every four people hospitalized for the virus in Boston have been black or Hispanic.

• Chicago's Department of Public Health studied 1,500 lab-confirmed swine flu cases between late April and late July and found blacks and Hispanics were four times more likely to be hospitalized than whites.
  


• Oklahoma's Department of Public Health reported last week that African-American children in the state were being hospitalized for swine flu at three times the rate of white children and twice the rate of Native American children.

  The higher hospitalization most likely reflects disparities in health conditions among population groups, experts say. Asthma and obesity, for instance, are more prevalent among African-Americans and Latinos, precisely the kinds of conditions that can lead to more severe reactions to the H1N1 virus. ...

I've had the H1N1 for two weeks now and I am no longer contagious, that last for 72 hours, the Swine Flu knocked me out. It started with an unavailable sore throat. My sore throat lasted for about two days and then I was drained and tired, It felt like I was hit by a truck, all the typical flu symptoms. However, what followed was this persistent and painful cough that I could feel deep in my chest. I have asthma, my Doctor call's it "runner's induced asthma," that usually flares up when I am exercising or in extreme cold weather or when I catch a cold. I am in pretty good shape and cannot recall the last time I have had a need or used my asthma medication. My Doctor told me that the H1N1 hits the respiratory system, the lungs. I was told that if my breathing does not get better I should go to the emergency room. I can only wonder what would have happened had I not been in the shape that I am in.

Michael Williams for United States Senate

Michael Williams for United States Senate: "Let’s talk about race. As an African-American son of the south, I grew up in a time and place where you didn’t have to divine intent or deconstruct code words to find racism. When it raised its ugly head it was like a blunt instrument waved in your face to keep you in your place. It was as unmistakable as it was demeaning.

Unfortunately, with political waters getting rough for the first time for our president, his supporters are quick to latch on to the actions of a fringe element, and ignore the racial transformation this country has made to take us back to a past era where opposition to a black man was about the color of his skin and not the content of his ideas."

So much for the cynical "Token" hypothesis. From my perspective, the Democrats are rightly scared that they will face a future where they actually have to give something back to African Americans in return for their vote.

It amazes me how quickly people forget the 2000 election, when the Democratic President of the Senate gaveled down the Congressional Black Caucus and denied them a chance to press their rights during the ratification of the Florida ballot. Not ONE single senator in the vaunted Democratic Party was willing to stand beside the Congressional Black Caucus to debate whether illegal and racist voter suppression had taken place in Florida.

Not one.

Democrats take the black vote for granted, and their lock on the black vote is changing all over the country.

Deficit May Prove Obstacle for Senate Health Measure

If the health care reform effort were a boxing match, the Democrats would just have suffered a massive body blow:

Bloomberg: "Concerns about the federal budget deficit may thwart efforts by Senate Democrats to pass legislation this month calling for the biggest expansion of the U.S. health-care system since Medicare’s creation in 1965.

The Senate Finance Committee, which had planned to approve its version of a health-care bill as early as today, scrapped a vote to give the Congressional Budget Office time to complete a cost assessment. The delay threatens to dash plans by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to start debate in the full Senate next week after combining the measure with one from the chamber’s health committee."

The Senate trying to race the clock and beat the S&P 500's looming retrenchment is like Tyson trying to stay on his legs while getting his ribs hammered by uppercuts on the inside from Lewis, with foreign central banks playing the role of Lewis. (The GOP don't qualify for much other than radio commentary these days.)

Now, in the next couple of days, Democrats will have to lie through their teeth argue that the budget is in good shape and that this process can proceed to a full debate without the need to wait for news from the Congressional Budget Office. While they try to make that argument, the markets will continue to respond to news that the dollar will soon be replaced as both the world's reserve currency and the de facto metric for the value of petroleum.

In politics as in boxing, absolutely everything is connected to some degree. As I've said before, the Democrats are trying to climb a burning ladder with health care reform. Just like a boxer who has suffered too many body blows and is having trouble staying on his feet, their efforts to enact reform on this subject stand to get hammered by a weakening dollar, a burgeoning debt, growing cynicism about the foundations of the U.S. economic system from the all-important foreign central banks, and two rapidly deteriorating war efforts. Support is eroding right beneath them as they try to continue.

A political analyst has to learn how to see the whole fight, not just what the boxers' fists are doing, but also what their legs are doing. The Democrats cannot ignore the body blows from the rest of these issues forever.

Wolffe: RNC Chair Steele 'Token' African-American Put in Charge to Hide Party's Racism | NewsBusters.org

..."The poor guy has got no leash - it's not even a short leash," Wolffe said. "And to get to the race question you have to understand the Party's calculation in putting him there in the first place. It was a simplistic and crude equation they made - that to cover themselves against any accusations of racism and boy, it's not that hard to find them - they needed to have a black figure going up against an African-American president and they didn't have many people to choose from with this token gesture and so they had to choose someone that plainly wasn't ready for primetime. ..."

..."All of that is being played out now because it turns out irony of ironies, they don't even need any cover," Wolffe said. "They can be as outrageous as they like and portray the President as a witch doctor and they get on Fox News. So everything is fine. They didn't need the cover of Michael Steele. It's just ironic for a party that always complained about quotas and affirmative action; they have found themselves with one."...

I think this is important! in light of where the criticism is coming from. Last week Michael Steele was asked if the racist radical rhetoric was putting President Obama's Life in danger? and Michael Steele just laughed it off. It amazes me lately how stupid his remarks are; he acts like there was is no problem. I just could not help but think how guilty he will feel if something happens to the President. I just wondered if he would then be able to laugh it off and try to put a sentence together on how wrong he was. It's really sad to watch him defend the Republicans and not own up to his own heritage. I know many will say "We were Republicans before we were Democrats." I say the Republicans use to act like Democrats back then.

Latin American Herald Tribune - Blacks, Hispanics Join Forces to Demand Health Reform

"The groups said they support comprehensive health care reform that includes the “public option” whereby the government can compete with private insurers; has universal medical coverage, without regard for work status or people’s health, and offers high-quality coverage at affordable prices.

Calculations are that approximately 47 million people lack health insurance in the United States, and although legislators acknowledge the urgency of reforming the system, for the moment they have not managed to reach a consensus about how to do so without inflating the budget deficit.

Pointing to Census Bureau figures, the groups said that more than 100 million people belong to minorities in the United States, or some 33 percent of the population.

In Florida and Louisiana, minorities comprise 40 percent of the population."

The numbers are unbelievable, but I know this already just based on what I grew up. My grandmother, her children and my mother have always been afraid of Doctors and not trusting them. Doctors were only to be seen in absolute extreme measures, most of the time by then it was to late. Many African Americans suffer from Diabetes which is a pretty manageable disease, however more African-Americans die from the complications of Diabetes . It is very rare that you will hear that someone died from diabetes they usually die from Kidney failure or Heart disease , after years of High blood pressure. This is a result of diabetes.

Health care reform would hopefully lead to more African Americans and other minorities to seek out Doctors with the idea of preventive care then to simply ignore their health concerns and say " I can't afford to go to the Doctor".

Gold Jumps to Record as Inflation Outlook Fuels Investor Demand - Bloomberg.com

Bloomberg: "Gold is acting like the ultimate currency,” said Chip Hanlon, the president of Delta Global Advisors Inc. in Huntington Beach, California. “Central banks are following the same monetary course and trying to stimulate and inflate their way back to growth. Everyone’s concerned about the dollar, but it’s not like you can hate the dollar and fall in love with the euro or the yen.”

U.S. President Barack Obama has increased the nation’s marketable debt to an unprecedented $6.94 trillion as he borrows to spur the world’s largest economy. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. predicts the country will sell about $2.9 trillion of debt in the two years ending next September."

So, what's happening here is that the Federal government has spent the last 18 months engaging in various bailouts, "stimulus" bills, and other types of inflationary policy.

But where does the money come from? And why would it lead to "inflation", or higher prices?

The government works with the Federal Reserve and the rest of the banking system in the U.S. to create new money through a process called "monetization of debt". In other words, for every "dollar" created by the Fed, a corresponding amount of debt is sold in the form of U.S. "Treasury Certificates" (T-Bills) on the foreign markets. Other country's central banks such as China, Japan and Russia, purchase U.S. Treasury Certificates to use as a "reserve currency" in their central banks. This is needed because the world banking system is no longer on the gold standard, and countries need to back their currency with some other form of money just in case their currency loses its value. But we know that Treasuries are valued in terms of dollars, and dollars are nothing more than a representation of Treasury debt.

It's circular logic. The government makes dollars out of thin air, then sells Treasury debt to foreign governments, which implies that our dollars are valued in terms of foreign good will. But we can only pay back our debt in dollars. So if one of the foreign central banks decides to move out of the dollar as its reserve currency, then the value of the dollar plummets relative to the value of goods and services. In other words, goods and services cost more in terms of the dollar.

So, as the federal government creates more paper money (out of thin air) to pay for more bailouts, more stimulus, more wars, cash for clunkers, more tax rebates, more medicare, more social security, and all of the other things that Americans are unwilling or unable to produce for each other but feel entitled to, other countries' central banks are footing the bill. And when the rest of the world decides that it's had enough of our hollow promises to repay them, and when they realize that they will be paid back in yet more paper money that was made out of thin air, they'll decide to dump U.S. Treasuries, or at least not to buy as many of them. This causes the "value" of the dollar, or its purchasing power to fall, and correspondingly, causes prices to rise.

There is a limit to the amount of debt we can accrue as a nation, before we destroy the dollar altogether. This is not a partisan issue--both parties have stood by and watched the Federal Reserve steadily diminish the buying power of the dollar for the last 80 years. Since 1930, the dollar has lost 95% of its value.

You used to be able to buy a Coca-Cola for a nickel, and college cost 600 dollars a year.

Ultimately the question is this: how, in a nation where the governors of the federal banks can literally make money out of thin air, can minorities ever hope to compete with the ruling class? Every dollar they print makes your dollar worth a little bit less.

Gold broke into record highs today, and the value of gold is a true inverse metric of the strength of the dollar. As gold rises, the value of the dollar falls. With gold go all other commodities such as food, water, energy, heat, gasoline, all of the things that cannot be made out of thin air.

They get richer, and the rest of the world, including us, get poorer. Even if this doesn't make perfect sense, know that it is factoring into the debate in Washington about health care reform.

US Senate Debate On Health-Care Overhaul Faces Delay - WSJ.com

Wall Street Journal: "U.S. Senate debate on health-care legislation likely will be pushed back further into October, with a Senate Finance Committee vote on its health-care bill expected later this week.

According to an aide for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., Senate debate on the legislation is likely to be delayed 'at least a week.' Reid had earlier slated debate to begin the week of Oct. 12.

The delay occurs as the Senate Finance Committee waits for a cost estimate of its bill from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO). According to a Senate Finance Committee aide, the committee expects to receive the cost estimate 'later this week.'

With the recent bad news on unemployment, the GOP is making hay over their claims that health care reform could deliver a knockout punch to small businesses. It is likely that the Senate is responding with extreme caution, and that health care reform will not include a government option, if it happens at all.

The rally in the S&P 500 that started last Friday is predicted to be nearing its close, so we could see a large dip in the markets in the next week or two, which would correspond to the decision making process of the Senate. So, the argument that a public option would be "bad for the job market", justly or unjustly, will almost certainly receive support from the markets in the next 5-10 business days.

Health Care and Abortions?

I don't want to get these two topics twisted together because they are separate. The health care debate is about the Millions of minorities that do not have access to health care. This is not about African American women that have abortions. The previous blog points out an important concern that African American women need to look at in our community. I am pro-choice on this issue and I think that a woman has the right to do with her body what she wants.

The great thing about statics and numbers is that anyone can use it to their advantage. Example, Presdient Obama's numbers just came out and said that 56% agreed with the way he was handling the economy and 40% disagreed. So, the Democrats could say almost 60% of Americans agree with what he is doing. And the Republicans could say that almost 50% disagee with the way the President is handling the economy. Both statements are true.

However, the devil is always in the details. My colleague's post does not say WHY these women are having abortions. When you look at the current state of African Americans, having a child out of wedlock may not be the best thing. But, this is a family values issue, sex safe issue and the prevention of HIV in African American women. Yes, the FAMILY has broken down considerably in our community and this is valid point and the conversation should be directed in that direction.

As we exam our politics it is essential that we exam ourselves. I hear many of our people say that there are no more excuses on why WE cannot do, and achieve anything we want now that we have a Black President.

"If you want to make the world a better place take a look at yourself and make a change..."