Financial News

[Jenksismyhero]

anyone get hit like this lady?

 

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/chicago/proper...?bouchon=602,il

 

According to the Cook County Clerk's office, tax rates are up for schools, park districts, municipalities and other government bodies. Some of those tax levies have made double-digit increases in tax rates.

 

The property tax reality was setting in with Markham homeowner Patricia Taylor on Wednesday.

 

Asked if she can keep her house after receiving an $8,100 property tax bill, Taylor said, "I don't know right now. It's bad right now, it's really bad."

 

That's because her property tax bill for her three bedroom, one bathroom house shot up from $6,400 last year to $8,100 this year — a whopping 27 percent jump.

 

 

Mine went up a little, but only because I lost the senior exemption from the people we bought it from. My assessment dropped quite a bit though.

[jasonxctf]

We've been banging this drum about the "conservative recovery" for several months, and this report shows it in very plain and stark relief. In this expansion, companies are increasing their payrolls while state, local and federal governments are trimming theirs. This trend would be much more pronounced if not for the tens of billions of dollars in stimulus funds given to states to patch up budgets. So, in September, the private sector added 137,000 jobs — decent but nothing to write home about -- while the government sector cut 34,000 jobs. Since January 2010, the private sector has added 2.556 million jobs while government has cut 503,000. In January 2010, 82.6 percent of payroll jobs were in the private sector; today, the total is 83.2 percent. Declining government spending has been, and continues to be, a contractionary economic force.

 

So i saw this quote earlier today in an article on Yahoo.

 

Interesting numbers.. wondering what the unemployment rate would be in the 503,000 government jobs weren't cut?

 

According to the bls.gov website, http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t01.htm

 

the total number of eligable workforce people are 240,071,000. I'm guessing this excludes children, retirees, prisoners, etc from the 300,000,000+ people in this country. They call this 240,071,000 number, Civilian Noninstitutional Population.

 

They also say that the seasonally, adjusted number of unemployed people are 13,992,000. So 13,992,000/154,017,000 (civilian labor force)= 9.0847%

 

So I'm guessing, 13,992,000-503,000 govt jobs= 13,489,000 unemployed assuming no govt job cuts. 13,489,000/154,017,000= 8.7581%.

 

If my math is correct, govt doesnt cut these jobs over the past 18 months or so, unemployment rate is 8.8% vs 9.1%.

 

Of course this number doesnt taken into effect these 503,000 positions, having people in them buying goods/services within the marketplace, which of course would prompt additional jobs in the private sector. So maybe 8.7% would be a better guess?

[southsider2k5]

http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uui...76-2A619FE02B55

 

Email: 'Time to kill the wealthy'

By: Tim Mak

October 6, 2011 07:27 AM EDT

 

Several influential New York state lawmakers have received threatening mails saying it is “time to kill the wealthy” if they don’t renew the state’s tax surcharge on millionaires, according to reports.

 

“It’s time to tax the millionaires!” reads the email, according to WTEN in Albany. “If you don’t, I’m going to pay a visit with my carbine to one of those tech companies you are so proud of and shoot every spoiled Ivy League [expletive] I can find.”

 

State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and State Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos reportedly received the email, as did State Assembly Majority Leader Ron Canestrari. The governor’s office did not tell the New York Daily News whether the governor received the email.

 

The email, with the threatening subject line of, “time to kill the wealthy,” was detailed and disturbing.

 

“How hard is it for us to stake out one of the obvious access roads to some tech company, tail an employee home and toss a liquor bottle full of flaming gasoline through their nice picture window into their cute house,” wrote the author of the email.

 

The email references terminology that has been used in the “Occupy Wall Street” movement — that the1 percent, the super rich, are exploiting the remaining 99 percent of Americans. The angry message demanded that Albany politicians “stop shoveling wealth from the lower 99 percent into the top 1 percent” and “set aside your ‘no new taxes on anybody’ pledge.”

 

The New York surcharge on the wealthy is set to expire at the end of this year, and Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Senate Republicans oppose continuing it. Under the surcharge, passed into law in 2009, individuals earning $200,000 or more pay 1 percentage point more in taxes, and those earning $500,000 or more pay a rate that is 2.12 percentage points higher than those earning less than $200,000. Less than 3 percent of New York households are affected by the surcharge.

 

“You’re going to do it [renew the surcharge], or we are going to sow the kind of choas [sic] you are unequipped to deal with,” the email said. “And you’re going to find yourself in a country where you and your wealthy friends are gonig [sic] to be hunted.”

 

State Police told the New York Daily News that they are aware of the email and are investigating the incident.

[Balta1701]

It's just a joke! Like when the tea party shows up outside of Obama's speeches with mock assault rifles! Hilarity!

[mr_genius]

It's just a joke! Like when the tea party shows up outside of Obama's speeches with mock assault rifles! Hilarity!

 

was at the protest again today. started the "BURN IT DOWN'" chant.

 

tea party mr_genius: 1

balta: 0

[StrangeSox]

[Balta1701]

was at the protest again today. started the "BURN IT DOWN'" chant.

 

tea party mr_genius: 1

balta: 0

It's like advocating second amendment solutions to the problem of a socialist Kenyan president! See, ironic!

[mr_genius]

It's like advocating second amendment solutions to the problem of a socialist Kenyan president! See, ironic!

 

meh

[StrangeSox]

I missed being at the air & space museum when the protestors got maced by 10 minutes.

[NorthSideSox72]

I missed being at the air & space museum when the protestors got maced by 10 minutes.

Really? I was down there that day too. We were going to take my daughter to the Air and Space museum, but at the last minute she said she wanted to see dinosaurs, so we went to Natural History instead. Got on the Metro to go home, around the time the incidient at Air and Space started.

 

[NorthSideSox72]

So, interesting thing to watch for tomorrow - SEC, CFTC and Fed will do a joint release tomorrow of a draft version of the new implementation of the Volcker Rule (aka Glass Steagle II). Early indications are that it softened somewhat from the original suggestions... for example, IB's can still do prop trading, but only on a principal basis of a maximum of 3% of total bank invested assets. Also, the rule will be phased in over a longer period than the original 2 years, and will be done over 6. I'm OK with both of those, but I want to see more details, such as how portfolio risk is going to be analyzed across each firm, what exactly will be bounded within "prop trading", and how systemic risks will be addressed. But getting this out there is an important step.

 

[Jenksismyhero]

 

Not gonna lie, that's pretty f***ed.

 

I don't get why "conservatives" are annoyed so much by these protests. Yes, it's stupid for some of these guys to be protesting with their ipods/ipads/laptops, crying about how terrible their lives are. But at the end of the day, especially for young graduates out of work, I feel for them. I spent 1.5 years looking for a job and basically lucked into one. So, as far as I'm concerned, preach on. It must suck immensely to be out there right now without a job. At least their doing something instead of playing xbox all day.

 

[StrangeSox]

Really? I was down there that day too. We were going to take my daughter to the Air and Space museum, but at the last minute she said she wanted to see dinosaurs, so we went to Natural History instead. Got on the Metro to go home, around the time the incidient at Air and Space started.

Yeah, if we hadn't spent a little extra time at the Hirshhorn, we would have been walking in right with the protesters. We also happened to be back by the protesters' "camp" when they were going over the incident with the crowd. Hilarious distortions ensued. Peaceful protesters simply walking into a public museum were instantly assaulted by throngs of armed officers, "at least" 100 people were pepper sprayed (media reports: 1 person, who pinned an officer to a wall).

 

Back home now, man are my feet sore from walking all over the mall.

Edited October 11, 2011 by StrangeSox

[StrangeSox]

I don't get why "conservatives" are annoyed so much by these protests.

 

tribalism

[Y2HH]

Not gonna lie, that's pretty f***ed.

 

I don't get why "conservatives" are annoyed so much by these protests. Yes, it's stupid for some of these guys to be protesting with their ipods/ipads/laptops, crying about how terrible their lives are. But at the end of the day, especially for young graduates out of work, I feel for them. I spent 1.5 years looking for a job and basically lucked into one. So, as far as I'm concerned, preach on. It must suck immensely to be out there right now without a job. At least their doing something instead of playing xbox all day.

 

Let's call it like it is. They're annoyed by the protestors for a few reasons, but mainly, it's because they don't share their opinion(s) and/or ideologies. And that's that. It's also why you're annoyed with conservatives to the point you put the word in air quotes.

 

I consider myself all over the map, and depending on the specific subject at hand, I can either be off the charts liberal, or off the charts ultra conservative. I firmly believe that this is how everyone should be, and if everyone were, this country would be a much better place, with a much wider variety of representatives (not just D or R).

 

This protest annoys me, but not because I'm a "conservative", but because I see them as a waste of time, with no clear message and further, no realistic changes to come of them. Then again, I feel this way about most protests. Everyone they interview gives a different answer as to why they're doing it, so the message gets eroded, and in the mean time, like you said, I have to listen to a bunch of spoiled American youth with their expensive computers, iPods, etc...talking about how hard life is, when 99% of them haven't lived anything near a hard hour, let alone a hard day. Maybe they need to stop at Starbucks for another 5$ drink before they hit the streets again, and start spreading a more unified message...which I still don't understand...

 

Do they want to kill everyone that works on Wall Street? Do they want to force those that do to make 7$ an hour and have to pay the rest in taxes? I don't really know. Either way, neither is going to happen...no matter how ridiculous of a statement I make.

 

Then, since I have a DeLorean complete with a Flux Capacitor, I traveled into the future to see what's become of these "protestors", and just like the hippies in the 60's before them, these same protestors are the very people working on wall street and dining on diamond encrusted plates telling the poor people to shut their faces.

 

It's ironic, I know.

 

In all seriousness, those that helped cause the collapse, in any area, should be paying for it...a message needed to be sent loud and clear, but it wasn't...and why? Because it was Washington that enabled it...and it was Washington that oversaw it, and allowed it to happen, and assured the people everything was fine all the while the house of cards was coming down, so unless congress wants to throw themselves in jail along with the evil bankers and corporations, you'll never see it happen.

Edited October 11, 2011 by Y2HH

[NorthSideSox72]

Let's call it like it is. They're annoyed by the protestors for a few reasons, but mainly, it's because they don't share their opinion(s) and/or ideologies. And that's that. It's also why you're annoyed with conservatives to the point you put the word in air quotes.

 

I consider myself all over the map, and depending on the specific subject at hand, I can either be off the charts liberal, or off the charts ultra conservative. I firmly believe that this is how everyone should be, and if everyone were, this country would be a much better place, with a much wider variety of representatives (not just D or R).

 

This protest annoys me, but not because I'm a "conservative", but because I see them as a waste of time, with no clear message and further, no realistic changes to come of them. Then again, I feel this way about most protests. Everyone they interview gives a different answer as to why they're doing it, so the message gets eroded, and in the mean time, like you said, I have to listen to a bunch of spoiled American youth with their expensive computers, iPods, etc...talking about how hard life is, when 99% of them haven't lived anything near a hard hour, let alone a hard day. Maybe they need to stop at Starbucks for another 5$ drink before they hit the streets again, and start spreading a more unified message...which I still don't understand...

 

Do they want to kill everyone that works on Wall Street? Do they want to force those that do to make 7$ an hour and have to pay the rest in taxes? I don't really know. Either way, neither is going to happen...no matter how ridiculous of a statement I make.

 

Then, since I have a DeLorean complete with a Flux Capacitor, I traveled into the future to see what's become of these "protestors", and just like the hippies in the 60's before them, these same protestors are the very people working on wall street and dining on diamond encrusted plates telling the poor people to shut their faces.

 

It's ironic, I know.

 

In all seriousness, those that helped cause the collapse, in any area, should be paying for it...a message needed to be sent loud and clear, but it wasn't...and why? Because it was Washington that enabled it...and it was Washington that oversaw it, and allowed it to happen, and assured the people everything was fine all the while the house of cards was coming down, so unless congress wants to throw themselves in jail along with the evil bankers and corporations, you'll never see it happen.

 

I mostly agree with this.

 

Wanted to point out one thing that I found interesting... the lack of message and actions is the biggest problem these protestors have. But nice to see, the Chicago "branch" of this movement plans to vote on a set of 10 initiatives today, which would make them the first group to put down a real set of goals. So that's a start.

 

[southsider2k5]

I mostly agree with this.

 

Wanted to point out one thing that I found interesting... the lack of message and actions is the biggest problem these protestors have. But nice to see, the Chicago "branch" of this movement plans to vote on a set of 10 initiatives today, which would make them the first group to put down a real set of goals. So that's a start.

 

The disorganization is going to be gone. Now that groups like the SEIU have taken over, it will become the Democratic platform instead of the individual messages. In a matter of a week and a half or two weeks, this group has been co-opted. It has to be record time. It really makes me wonder if this was the origin of the group in the first place for all of these other organizations to have things like signs ready and people in place to lead these rallies.

[NorthSideSox72]

The disorganization is going to be gone. Now that groups like the SEIU have taken over, it will become the Democratic platform instead of the individual messages. In a matter of a week and a half or two weeks, this group has been co-opted. It has to be record time. It really makes me wonder if this was the origin of the group in the first place for all of these other organizations to have things like signs ready and people in place to lead these rallies.

Wow. You, who have stated support for the Tea Party movement, would react in a tizzy if someone used the above post to describe that movement, and it would be pretty much exactly as accurate. If someone said the Tea Party was orchestrated by monied conservatives in the first place, what would your reacction be? This is incredibly hypocritical.

 

As far as I am concerned, in BOTH cases, you have a grass roots movement that is being co-opted by a big money political machine. This one will likely be co-opted faster, due to one simple truth - it is more driven by social media and therefore much easier to "take over". But in both cases, the story is basically the same, just perhaps at slightly different paces and with slightly different modes of protest.

 

[BigSqwert]

[southsider2k5]

Wow. You, who have stated support for the Tea Party movement, would react in a tizzy if someone used the above post to describe that movement, and it would be pretty much exactly as accurate. If someone said the Tea Party was orchestrated by monied conservatives in the first place, what would your reacction be? This is incredibly hypocritical.

 

As far as I am concerned, in BOTH cases, you have a grass roots movement that is being co-opted by a big money political machine. This one will likely be co-opted faster, due to one simple truth - it is more driven by social media and therefore much easier to "take over". But in both cases, the story is basically the same, just perhaps at slightly different paces and with slightly different modes of protest.

 

It has been said, many, many times on this board.

 

The co-opting of the Tea Party movement took months, not days. Having an organized and prepared union presence at this stage means that this is something that has been planned for a while. You don't get people set into leadership positions, complete with T-shirts and pre-printed signs without having there have been a planning stage at the union leadership levels. For this to be true, it means a group had to have essentially heard about the rallies on the very first couple of days and decided right then they were going to commit time, people, and money to it, without seeing if it succeeded or not. Just counting back the days of how long this has been going on makes it more realistic than pessimistic that this was all a planned movement. These things didn't happen in the Tea Party movement until way later in the game.

[NorthSideSox72]

It has been said, many, many times on this board.

 

The co-opting of the Tea Party movement took months, not days. Having an organized and prepared union presence at this stage means that this is something that has been planned for a while. You don't get people set into leadership positions, complete with T-shirts and pre-printed signs without having there have been a planning stage at the union leadership levels. For this to be true, it means a group had to have essentially heard about the rallies on the very first couple of days and decided right then they were going to commit time, people, and money to it, without seeing if it succeeded or not. Just counting back the days of how long this has been going on makes it more realistic than pessimistic that this was all a planned movement. These things didn't happen in the Tea Party movement until way later in the game.

Should I pull out the Kap line here? It's Always Different!

 

The whole movement in this case is happening faster. It is a younger, more tech-savvy crowd, and they are relying much more heavily on social media. So by nature, it happens a lot faster. the story arc is still pretty much identical though.

 

There is no logical reason to believe that the union involvement couldn't happen very fast, like hours-fast. That is the nature of social media now.

 

[southsider2k5]

Should I pull out the Kap line here? It's Always Different!

 

The whole movement in this case is happening faster. It is a younger, more tech-savvy crowd, and they are relying much more heavily on social media. So by nature, it happens a lot faster. the story arc is still pretty much identical though.

 

There is no logical reason to believe that the union involvement couldn't happen very fast, like hours-fast. That is the nature of social media now.

 

Social media and union involvement are two different things. You still have to gather union leadership to hold votes and discussion. You still have to file requisition forms and order the signs and such. You still have to put up sign up sheets on the lines to get people to sign up for leadership roles at the rallies. You might have social media to organize at the bottom levels, but there are still procedural obstacles that the top people in these co-opting organizations have to follow per their charters and regulations. Believe me, the USW leadership isn't meeting via twitter to vote on spending money for signs. Most of the people on that level don't even know what a twitter is.

[Jenksismyhero]

 

Good for them. Let's see if they stick with it.

[Y2HH]

 

They named every party affiliation except for the one that starts with Demo.

Edited October 11, 2011 by Y2HH

[southsider2k5]

They named every party affiliation except for the one that starts with Demo.

 

Ha, I had totally missed that. Nice catch.