Job Creation

As we know Obama called a jobs creation summit.

Also as we know, job creation is now foremost in people's minds. This is the dominating issue at the moment and barring something utterly horrendous, it will remain so.

Republicans are calling for a removal of business taxes and using the old trickle down notion. Democrats are calling for government assistance, a new, new deal of sorts.

Democrats are calling for newly repaid bank tarp funds to be used for job creation, while Republicans want that money used to pay down the debt.

One might suspect that elections in 2010 and beyond will hinge on the success or failure of job creation activity. Its hard to imagine but a Republican presidential candidate in 2012 will be dragging out Ronald Reagan once again. Palin is already on it.

We can critique this till the cows come home as we will. But its important to recall that the public is itchy and woozy.

McClatchy: Afghanistan was Tuesday. Now, what to do about jobs?

Attendees called for everything from lower corporate taxes to trade protection to government loans for smaller firms.

...jobless rate could peak at 11 percent or higher next year as the economy grows at a pace that's insufficient to reduce the disquieting jobless numbers significantly.

To help pay for the jobs bill, Pelosi suggested a tax on financial transactions.

Reuters: Obama vows to tackle jobs challenge head-on

Reuters News Clips

The Market On Friday

The weekend calls. We are demolishing the bathroom this weekend. Starting Monday we rebuild and modernize with an eye toward a major improvement. The present bathroom was remodeled about 50 years ago. I think its about time.

At 7:50 a.m. futures are slightly up. Investors are basically hoping that today's highly anticipated November non farm payroll numbers will be good. Good means only 100,000 jobs lost give or take. We are down to wiping out a small city numbers.

The numbers come in at 8:30 a.m. so right now the futures activity does not have much relevancy for the day. Its really a crap shoot at this point.

Reuters: Futures edge higher ahead of jobs report

...non-farm payrolls is expected at 8:30 a.m

U.S. monthly factory orders are also expected Friday.

CNN: Wall Street preps for jobs report

...a job loss of 105,000 or less will be "something to celebrate" and would likely result in a rally.

'Memories Are Made Of This'

Dean Martin

Dean meets the shadow of Pete Seeger? Its too strange...

Kaine On Republicans

'Mattress'

Glee

Nikkei Opens Lower On Friday

The DOW stumbled today. The reason is being placed on the shrinking of the service sector in November. Now there is a new fear that the recovery is not happening, or would that be half happening.

We need those jobs.

Reuters: Nikkei slips 0.4 pct after breaking above 10,000

Paying Off The Credit Card

According to Yahoo if you have multiple credit card debt, the idea is to pay off the one that is near the limit. You want no card to exceed 30% of your maximum.

Yours truly busted a-double to get the credit card next to nada. Never again, but hey if I need a serious operation or something, even though I have insurance, its not enough.

Yahoo: Ignore Your Credit Card's Minimum Payment

...when your debt-to-available-credit ratio starts creeping above 30% (e.g., carrying $3,000 in debt on a card with a $10,000 limit), red flags start waving and your credit score takes a hit. That single measurement counts for 30% of your overall score.

So job No. 1 is paying down any debt that's bumping up against the limit. Once you get the ratio down to less than 30%, then start paying down the card that carries the highest interest rate.

Gibbs Mocks Rumsfeld

The context is not appealing but the rebuff of Rumsfeld is overdue.

Listening to Terry Gross on 'Fresh Air' tonight, I got part of her interview with journalist x, whose name I did not get. The journalist talked about Tora Bora and how Rumsfeld dropped the ball and let not only bin Laden but all of the al Qaeda higher chiefs escape. He also mentioned that there were more journalists in Tora Bora than soldiers and insisted that if the journalists could get there, why couldn't the military.

I think this is a serious question. You go to war to fight al Qaeda and then let bin Laden slip away. This seems very strange. Do we smell investigation? Obama seems to be determined to not question his miserable predecessors. And one more thing, why isn't FOX all over this...

Ronnie Update

It must be great being 62 going on 13.

Ronnie may have assaulted his 20 year old girlfriend.

Boston.com: Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood is arrested

Leahy Takes On Cheney

Right on the money...

Get It Moving

Obama seems prepared to get down to work with job creation. Give him credit, a Bush administration would never even make this summit a consideration.

What is disturbing here, is that Obama will be pressured to use the Reagan-Palin directive of cutting taxes for an alleged trickle down economy. You know those tax and spend Democrats.

As we recently heard, look out for anything that trickles.

Kansas City.com: Conflicting ideas but no illusions set for White House jobs summit

Some summit participants, such as former Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Alan Blinder and Nobel laureate economist Paul Krugman, endorse the federal government as an “employer of last resort.” That philosophy wants federal dollars put into creating public-works and public-service jobs, a remedy akin to President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s 1930s Works Progress Administration and Civilian Conservation Corps.

Other participants, such as Schramm, want the government to cut employers’ taxes, freeing private-sector dollars for business expansion. That position is akin to the Reaganomics — or trickle-down

The Market On Thursday

Going outside this morning I couldn't quite remember which month it is. It is warm today, unseasonably warm. I mean like mid springtime warm. We had this a few years ago when a December warm spell convinced the bulbs to start blooming.

At 8:20 a.m. futures are slightly up and barring uncertain news between now and 9:00 a.m., the market should open higher.

Staying higher is a different issue altogether.

Are you like me, and so happy that you could just cry knowing that Bank of America will be repaying its government billions. Poor babies, we have helped them pull out of disaster and in so doing have done our patriotic best. Who cares if 1 in 5 are out of work. Who needs a job anyhow. In banks we trust.

CNN: Stocks ready for a boost

"There's still substantial uncertainty about this whole financial system..."

Reuters: Bank of America repayment plan lifts futures

Investors awaited data on productivity, weekly jobless claims and ISM non-manufacturing index as well as November same-store sales from major retail chains.

'Birth Of The Blues'

Louis Armstrong and Frank Sinatra

Nikkei Opens Higher On Thursday

Sideways type of day it was....

Reuters: Nikkei gains over 2 percent, metals shares jump

...gold prices rose to record highs.

'Dead Man Walking'

Susan Sarandon and Sean Penn

Turning The Other Cheek

This is the very best answer yet for all the anti-gay marriage people out there.

John Marcotte at Protect Marriage is calling for a ban on divorces.

This is an excellent protest statement and work of activism. Actually its one of the best I've seen in a while.

Sure ban gays from marriage but then if marriage is so sacred, ban divorce as well and secure the "sanctity" of marriage.

The Sacremento Bee: Man behind bid to ban divorce says he's playing it straight

"If you want to protect traditional marriage, don't stop gay people from getting married," he said. "Stop straight people from getting divorced."

"You said 'Till death do us part.' You're not dead yet."

Raising Objections

So into Afghanistan go 30,000 more troops. We knew this was coming, as the majority of leaks have indicated this number or more.

I listened to some of the senate hearing with Gates and Clinton before the panel.

Yes, they speak eloquently and politely, they speak patriotically and as if the purest of motivations are in place. That's fine, we applaud that. One thing I have learned is that we live with the politicians we have, not with the politicians we want or even truly need. Rumsfeld provided the form.

Politicians by nature need to be an arrogant lot, pushy, intelligence is clearly not a requirement, but a loud and hissing voice when pushed is.

So why am I still objecting to what is being defined by the most articulate president in my lifetime, a president whose logic and thought flow are clear as a bell. This is a president that I want to hold dear.

I don't want to go on for too long but here are a few problems.

First off who do we trust. Reagan called bin Laden a freedom fighter. The Taliban have been to Texas to discuss oil lines. This is true.

And then the most saliently ugly point of all.

This occurs in the PNAC document where chief neocons clearly desired a calamity to befall the American people so that they could enact their endless war policy. Its there, read it, nobody can make this stuff up. The statement about a need for a new Pearl Harbor is there in plain English even for all conservatives and teabaggers to read.

So what's the problem with the statement. The main problem is that it set in motion a series of events that do not to this day have any type of truthful resolution to them.

How can the neocons state that they want a new Pearl Harbor and then get one with 9-11 as if it were a wish come true.

Then Bush goes into Afghanistan, and promptly drops the ball on bin Laden and heads off to Iraq. The war with Iraq is properly likened to an invasion of Mexico after 9-11.

Meanwhile the Taliban regain a foothold in Afghanistan and we are back to the 1980's take 3.

All the while that this is happening, Central Asia beckons with its natural resources and energy. All the while Afghanistan beckons with its access to these goodies.

At least Hilary Clinton had the decency to state in the hearings that she saw a long term commitment in Afghanistan. Interpret this to mean, corporate interests.

What do we have. Its a fundamental distrust of the entire mechanism and an extra load of distrust on a policy initiative created by the neocons.

Obama On Afghanistan

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

The Market On Wednesday

At 6:45 a.m. futures are slightly down.

The Reuters vs. CNN articles on today's expectations are in slight conflict. The Reuters article was written earlier and at that time futures were slightly up. That changed by the time the CNN article came out. Reuters will probably revise it.

Three things to keep in mind for today. First, the dollar is up against world currencies. Second, oil is slightly down. Third, a report on private sector unemployment is due out before the bell rings.

These unemployment numbers will still be high but less than the previous months, or so they are predicting. Investors like trends that allegedly indicate improvement.

Right now the market has that sideways feel to it give or take within a 50 point range, but of course you never know.

CNN: Mixed start seen for stocks

Payroll services firm ADP releases its survey on private-sector employment shortly before the start of trading. Employers in the private sector are expected to have cut 150,000 jobs from their payrolls in November, according to a consensus of economists surveyed by Briefing.com, after cutting 203,000 in the previous month.

Reuters: Futures point to Wall Street extending gains

Also due out is the Federal Reserve's periodic Beige Book survey of regional U.S. economic conditions.

'The Best Is Yet To Come'

Tony Bennett and Diana Krall

And yes I think Diana Krall is it.