Couldn’t Help But Notice (112206)
Just in time for Ted — Ohio’s seasonally adjusted October unemployment rate was down to 5.1%, and total employment increased 75,000 in the past year. The not-seasonally-adjusted numbers (what should be thought of as the raw data) show an unemployment rate of 4.7% and a 92,700 increase in jobs. Too bad for Bob Taft and his party that he didn’t start looking at business-tax reform and cutting the state’s indivdual income tax sooner. The cloud on the horizon is the phase-in of the Commercial Activities Tax (CAT), which should be killed before it does the inevitable damage any gross receipts-based tax does.
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A Wall Street Journal survey of economists (requires subscription) says that “The worst of the housing bust is over, economists said by nearly 2-to-1 in the latest WSJ.com economic forecasting survey. But they still predict that the average selling price of a house will fall next year ….. by 0.5%.” I think the economy can handle that, but I’ll betcha that 2007’s number ends up positive. Check back in March 2008, when the final Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO) report is issued.
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I have to apologize for being a poor role model to the world. I do NOT have the patience for this (requires subscription) when it comes to getting children to eat a new food:
(Penn State researchers) discovered it can take up to 15 exposures to a new food before a child will accept it.
Only saints need apply; I’m not one.
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Don Wildmon’s American Family Association is calling for a two-day boycott of Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club on Black Friday and the day after over the company’s recent deliberately visible support of gay-community causes. This active embrace of political correctness is, in my opinion, yet another example of how “Wal-Mart Has Lost Its Way” (follow-ups here, here, and here). It will do nothing to satisfy its opponents in groups like Wake Up Wal-Mart, but has the potential to alienate a broad cross-section of its customer base. If Wal-Mart and Same’s have a bad weekend while everyone else does fine, you’ll know why. For both its sake and the overall economy’s, the company needs to get back to basics (”always low prices”), and cut away the distractions — all of them.
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Was there any economic growth in France in the third quarter? Non.
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Hillary Clinton, who could have won re-election without setting foot in her adopted “home state” of New York, spent more money ($30 million) than any other US Senate candidate. Incredibly, “that leaves Mrs. Clinton with little financial advantage over her potential rivals for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination — and perhaps even trailing some of them.” Shameless plug: Someone should have sent her here before the campaign began.
