15 Jobs Lost Per Minute (Musical Tribute)

ADP shows 693,000 jobs lost in December

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- U.S. private-sector firms shed 693,000 jobs in December, far worse than expected, according to the ADP employment index released Wednesday.

Had I made a prediction, I would have been too optimistic again. I'm never bearish enough.

Without further adieu, here's a tribute to the Dogs of the Dow. It is a summary of the fee-based investment advice given by the major financial investment firms over the past year even as job losses continued to mount.



You really need to buy and buy, and buy and buy, and buy and buy, and buy and buy, and buy and buy, and buy and buy, and buy and buy... NOW HOLD! It isn't easy but you gotta hold, and hold and hold, and hold and hold, and hold and hold, and hold and hold, and hold and hold... YES HOLD! There's nothing we can do... BUT FOLD! We must fold, and fold because you sold, and sold, and sold and sold, and sold and sold, and sold and sold, and sold and sold...

Please sing along! Seriously. It took me a LONG time to get the syllables fairly well lined up. Plus, you'll need to be in a good mood for the rest of this post and singing lifts the spirits.

In the time it took to sing that minute waltz, roughly 15 American jobs were lost in December (24 hours a day, 7 days a week). Since we are all a part of this ownership society one must also wonder how many homes per minute will eventually be lost due to those lost jobs. 1? 2? 5?

In a related story, here's a look at what the long-term recession in Zimbabwe has done to help their economy.

Zimbabwe’s Stock Exchange Fails to Resume Trading (Update1)

Inflation in Zimbabwe is estimated by the government at 231 million percent. Price increases have been fuelled by 10 years of economic recession that caused shortages of food, fuel and other basic commodities. Investors with cash in Zimbabwe prefer to buy shares to avoid their money losing value, helping some individual stocks on the Harare-based exchange to post increases of as much as 100,000 percent a day last year, according to Imara Holdings Ltd., a Gaborone-based brokerage.

I wonder if they have given any thought to printing more money to dig their way out?