Apparently yesterday’s remarks from Chairman Bernanke were, er, ‘disposable’ as this morning markets have recovered all of the ground they lost yesterday and then some!
Left to your over tasked imagination is the daunting job of determining which statement is true, is the economy going to be ‘rocky’ for the foreseeable future or is the (thus far invisible) recovery still on track? (As this morning’s markets seem to indicate.)
This morning’s NY Times has this article to help us ‘ferret out’ the truth…
Stocks were sharply higher in morning trading Thursday on Wall Street after another strong batch of earnings and some encouraging signs of growth in Europe.
Investors are largely writing off a jump in weekly jobless claims that might have been skewed by seasonal factors. Instead they are focused on earnings from a broad range of companies that demonstrate businesses are not seeing a slowdown in the recovery that economic data would otherwise indicate.
Apparently ‘logic’ won’t help us in our quest for truth, the MSM insists on reporting ‘manufactured fantasies’ and accounting tricks as proof the economy is in, er, ‘recovery’.
Sadly, logic tells us otherwise. Trillions of dollars worth of ‘value’ as well as billions of dollars worth of income have been destroyed. There has been ‘zero’ return of either jobs or value so what is this recovery they’re babbling about?
Are they psycho? They have to be to persist in pointing to something that nobody else can see while making, er, ‘unverifiable’ claims that ‘economic activity’ is improving by any measurable degree.
We have a simple term for what they are doing, we call it lying, which makes them liars.
No irony should be lost on the fact that most of you would agree with that assessment. Here we encounter one more example of ‘what are you going to do about it?’
And we already know the answer to that one too…nothing.
Not right now anyway. Later, once the same bastards are hunting you down like a feral dog, you’ll remember all of their lies and swear vengeance…if you survive.
Maybe not a good plan but it’s the only one you’ve got.
So once again we wonder who are these so-called ‘investors’ and why, oh why do they believe in fantasies and falsehoods?
Perhaps it is but another symptom of ‘Conservative disease. For more on that topic we have this from today’s Alternet.
Shocking: Ben Stein Says The ‘Unpleasant’ Unemployed ‘Do Not Know How To Do A Day’s Work’
Posted by zaidjilani on @ 5:50 am
This post originally appeared on Think Progress.
Today, the Senate extended unemployment benefits for millions of jobless Americans. Despite the terrible shape of the economy, conservatives resisted extending unemployment insurance for weeks for Americans who can’t find work, launching a filibuster to prevent a vote on the benefits. [Tax breaks for billionaires but nothing for you!]
Writing at the American Spectator yesterday, former Nixon speechwriter and TV personality Ben Stein downplayed the suffering unemployed Americans are experiencing by writing that the people who are unemployed right now are “generally people with poor work habits and poor personalities.” He claims the unemployed are Americans with “unpleasant personalities…who do not know how to do a day’s work“:
The people who have been laid off and cannot find work are generally people with poor work habits and poor personalities. I say “generally” because there are exceptions. But in general, as I survey the ranks of those who are unemployed, I see people who have overbearing and unpleasant personalities and/or who do not know how to do a day’s work. They are people who create either little utility or negative utility on the job. Again, there are powerful exceptions and I know some, but when employers are looking to lay off, they lay off the least productive or the most negative. To assure that a worker is not one of them, he should learn how to work and how to get along — not always easy. [Are you ‘howling’ yet good citizen. How do you suppose Mr. Stein came by his, er, ‘familiarity’ with working people? You don’t suppose he picked up this ‘insight’ by rubbing elbows with, gasp, employers? (Because numbnuts is ‘parroting’ the vapid claims of employers.) It is laughable indeed to think employers (not bound to union contracts) don’t cut payroll by first looking at what they are paying the employee. If you show up on time every day, you can be the biggest asshole on the planet and keep your job. In fact, if you’re a real pinhead, you’ll probably get promoted!]
Of course, saying that the 15 million Americans who are unemployed right now are “generally” people with “poor work habits” is as offensive as it is wrong. The current recession is a global phenomenon caused by the collective bad behavior of the world’s largest financial institutions. Before the recession, the unemployment rate hovered around six percent; it is ludicrous to say that millions of Americans suddenly got lazier and less able to work within the span of a few months. [So we can only wonder if Mr. Stein will appear in public without bodyguards for the foreseeable future? It’s hard to determine which was more irresponsible, expressing these opinions or allowing them to be published without first consulting an attorney?]
Unfortunately, Stein is a widely respected voice on the American right who regularly appears on cable news to offer his thoughts on politics and policy. Using the Critical Mention media search engine, ThinkProgress finds that the name “Ben Stein” was mentioned 64 times in major television media networks within the past thirty days alone.
No irony should be lost on the fact that Mr. Stein has achieved the same ‘fame’ Mr. Limbaugh is noted for and that is you can’t be slandered by a ‘known liar’.
No ‘reasonable person’ would take Mr. Stein’s opinion to heart…and that’s probably a good thing. If people reacted to this the way they might if it was said directly about them, I wouldn’t give Mr. Stein good odds for surviving the day, much less the week.
The insanity rages on and we are expected to keep on doing what we do like everything was just as normal as ever as it becomes increasingly obvious nothing could be further from the truth.
It is like watching someone burn to death while they vehemently deny they are on fire. You can see the flames, why can’t they?
Is the answer as simple as they ‘refuse to believe?’
Thanks for letting me inside your head,
Gegner
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