Its amazing the people that get elected, but have absolutely no clue.

Once again i'm copying a funny if not so sad blog.  It amazes me the way people think.   This actually had me laughing out loud while reading it.

http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
I am considering a new feature: The Economically Illiterate Quote of the Day.
Perhaps it is impossible to keep up with the number of candidates, and perhaps some days do not have an award. However, today's quote is quite a masterpiece.

Here is the background: LA Councilman Jose Huizar wants to balance the books by borrowing more money. Meanwhile, other councilmen are wavering under threats from unions.

The LA Times picks up the story in Some L.A. Council members resist spending cuts, layoffs. That article contains our Economically Illiterate Quote of the Day.Let's take a look.

The drive to slash spending at Los Angeles City Hall is starting to crumble, as a growing number of City Council members waver in the face of angry constituents, disgruntled community groups and powerful union leaders.

With a vote scheduled Wednesday on whether to eliminate 1,000 jobs to help counter the city's $208-million budget shortfall, some members have begun speaking out against the various plans to scale back services and shut the city's smallest departments.

A majority of the council's Budget and Finance Committee has refused to sign off on the job-cutting plan.

Councilman Jose Huizar suggested that the city balance its books by borrowing more money.

My comment: Councilman Jose Huizar represents economic madness at its finest.

Councilman Bill Rosendahl vowed to protect the city's calligraphers, the handful of artists who design ornate proclamations that elected officials hand out to constituents. "Whatever we need to do to preserve it, I want to do," he said.

My Comment: Oh my God, Councilman Bill Rosendahl is correct. It is impossible to do without calligraphers. I am starting a "save our calligraphers" campaign tomorrow. There is no more urgent need anywhere.

If council members try to shield each department that comes out to protest, Councilman Greig Smith said, "then we're going to come out of this right where we were expecting to be on July 1st: We're going to be out of money, out of cash and bankrupt."

My Comment: Greig Smith for mayor.

Labor leaders said they are open to shrinking the workforce as long as each targeted employee is moved safely into another vacant position.

My Comment: In effect, labor unions are saying they are open to a shrinking workforce as long as the labor workforce does not shrink. That makes perfect sense to no one but unions. However, that sentence was implied, not actually stated. Quotes of the day awards must be an actual quote. We have standards to maintain.

The quote of the day goes to LA Councilman Jose Huizar, from the above article (but not highlighted above):

"If I'm facing hard times . . . I'm going to go to my uncles. I'm going to go to my aunt. I'm going to ask them to borrow money. I'm going to tell them: 'You know, I've got this '67 Chevy. I could sell it a year from now and maybe I'll pay you back with that.'"

"Can we do anything like that?" he asked the city's budget advisors.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com

Unemployment and the silly stats that the Government issues.

Here is an unreal view at how bad the stats that come from the government.  Only missed by 1.8 million jobs.  Makes one wonder how bad the other stats they use are?   They change the accounting in these stats just in order to portray whatever they wish.  Im sure they wish that people couldnt actually check their work.  Its really so depressing.  Not only the real stats, but how inept or corrupt those in power really are, your choice to what is more depressing.


This is from zerohedge.com

Explaining The Government's 1.8 Million Job Overestimation In Pictures

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 02/03/2010 14:32 -0500

Last October the BLS announced it would revise historical payrolls lower by 824,000 on February 5 (this Friday's NFP release). While this number will not impact the actual January NFP report (a loss of nearly one million jobs in a month would probably even take out the persistent SPY algo that has been hugging the bid for the past 10 months), it will be prorated across all months in the 2008-2009 reporting period. The reason for this adjustment has to do with a huge glitch in the birth-death model, which is exactly the same problem that the rating agencies faced when housing prices plummeted: the birth/death model assumes, in the long-run, jobs are created, not destroyed. Any period of excess volatility in the stock market therefore translates into major prior downward revisions to already disclosed payrolls. And while we know what the current revision will be, the scarier prospect is that the next historical adjustment, due out in early 2011, will be even larger, at least 990,000. This means that the government has overrepresented running payroll data by over 1.8 million jobs over the past 20 months.
Bloomberg has prepared a wonderful interactive presentation explaining just how the BLS is full of itself, absent the L.
First, here is what we know will be the BLS adjustment on Friday.

Second, the reason for the adjustment has to do with the great recession, which having run for over 2 years now is still in no way abating (contrary to what you may be hearing in other still GE-contolled media outlets).

Lastly, and most notably, the number that will have to be whacked from the payroll report in 2011 retroactively is even larger: according to Bloomberg it will be at least 990,000. And this is only for 9 months in the current period.

In essence, a Moody's-like glitch has misrepresented the true payroll picture due to modelling error to the tune of over 1.8 million jobs. How that will impact the president's "jobs saved or created" calculation has yet to be determined. Unless of course all those jobs appear merely on the same excel file that the BLS uses for all it other erroneous calculations.