Wednesday, January 7, 2009

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?

5 comments:

Stagflationary Mark said...

Just so you know, I would have included all the words in the musical tribute, but I didn't feel that the last half of the song would be appropriate for children.

There was a LOT of swearing, lol.

Anonymous said...

Stag,

Looks like Bush finally solved our China problems. Whew! And to think, I was worried Bush would act like a lame duck.

http://www.yahoo.com/?fr=fptb-yff3

I have a story to share. And it might come in handy if you are ever at a fancy White House affair in the future.

I was at a Christmas dinner a few years ago and the hosts brought out their wedding China. Real gold leaf they said. Anyway, the food was great and I decided to get seconds. I went to the kitchen, reloaded the plate and tossed it in the microwave. SNAP! CRACKLE! POP! Doh! Hey, where did you say you got these plates?

One strike against gold, one strike for paper (plates that is).

Anonymous said...

Stag,

This is the Bush/China link.

http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/popup/?cl=11436125

Stagflationary Mark said...

MAB,

I liked the advertisement the best. I love that Scottrade shows off its own corporate helicopter as it tells us how we keep money in OUR pockets, lol.

Stagflationary Mark said...

MAB,

One strike against gold, one strike for paper (plates that is).

[enter grumpy old man mode]

Plates? You should only be so lucky. Back when I was a kid we ate squirrel off a stick and liked it!

[exit grumpy old man mode]

Squirrel. It's what's for dinner during recession?! Well, maybe for the Brits.
http://www.nydailynews.com/money/2009/01/07/2009-01-07_squirrel_its_whats_for_dinner_during_rec.html

Will squirrel become the food of the recession?

Well, people certainly dined on it during the Great Depression.