Tax Cheat Tim Is a Comedian; Updated POR Economy Benchmarking; NYT Stock at All-Time Low
Problem is, he didn’t intend it, and the markets didn’t get the joke.
We are in trooooooouble. Tim Geithner has been heavily involved with the bailout since its inception and has known of his nomination for almost three months. Yet on Monday night before Congress, and on Tuesday in front of the world, we got Geithner the Indecipherable.
This seems as good a time as any to remind readers that the POR Economy, benchmarked mostly to June 1 of last year to approximate when it began, has performed as follows:
- Unemployment — was 5.5% as of the May 2008 BLS report); now at 7.6%.
- Dow Jones Industrial Average — was at 12638, closed today at 7889, down 37.6%.
- S&P 500 — was at 1400, closed today at 827, down 40.9%.
- NASDAQ — was at 2523, closed today at 1525, down 37.0% (corrected from a previous miscalculation).
- GDP Growth — was 2.06% in the 12 months preceding July 1, 2008; an annualized -2.15% since (-0.5% in the third quarter, -3.8% advance estimate for the fourth).
- Inflation — was 4.2% in the 12 months ended May 31, 2008; prices have dropped 3.0% in the seven reported months since then, and are up 0.8% in those seven months excluding food and energy.
- Prime rate — was 5.0%, is now 3.25%.
Thanks, guys.
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UPDATE: Proving that yours truly can see a silver lining in any cloud, in the sense that the perps in this case should be and are paying the price for their misdeeds, I’m pleased to report that New York Times Company stock closed at $4.23. This is the lowest share price in the Times’s 23-year history as a pubic company.
Look at what the POR Economy has done to Times stock:
Of course, the Times richly deserves a large share of the blame for being in the tank for the Punk President for so long. But aren’t there laws against doing this to Old Gray Ladies?
Under the new Health Care Program that will be passed with the stimulus, old gray ladies are no longer eligible for health care as it’s not cost effective, and certainly not from self-inflicted wounds.
Comment by suzee — February 11, 2009 @ 1:31 pm
I was completely shocked by the lack of preparedness exhibited by Geithner. It was a major red flag to have postponed the announcement in the first place. But then to show up without any details for his plan showed a great deal of incompetence.
Scary.
Comment by Elliott — February 11, 2009 @ 7:13 pm