If you can hang on for fourteen months,
there’s light at the end of the tunnel.
A survey by The Fed predicts this recession will last...
through the middle of next year—that it began in April,
and will last fourteen months. Until around...June.
Things WILL get worse, before they get better.
A LOT worse, according to surveys of both economists and manufacturers.
They’re forecasting job losses at FIVE TIMES their previous forecast.
Nearly a quarter-million jobs-a-month, in these final three months of 2008.
But we are catching small breaks, along the way.
Seventeen states now have gas at less-than two bucks a-gallon.
It’s the cheapest it’s been since March 2005.
And, because gas is cheaper, wholesale prices are down...
which should translate into lower prices on most things—including FOOD.
Wholesale prices fell a record two-point-eight percent last month.
We won’t be giving or getting quite so many gift cards, this year.
With big retailers like Tweeter, and Circuit City, and Linens-N-Things going under...it’s hard to tell which stores will be around in ’09.
Folks who got Sharper Image gift cards last year
lost a combined 20-million dollars.
Experts recommend we use gift-cards from a big shopping mall...
or...from Visa, MasterCard, Discover, or American Express.
And fewer of us plan to use CREDIT cards for our holiday shopping
this year.
A 42 percent majority say they plan to use debit cards or cash, instead.
The numbers show we’re already using them less...
in addition to spending less, overall.
We are still spending more, however...on guns.
Gun sales are up... more than they were before Y-2-K...
and more than they were after Nine-Eleven.
Sales are up more than fifty percent, compared to this time last year.
And it’s all because the President-Elect...is named Obama.
In Wichita Kansas, something called
The Spirit One Christian Center has a marquee that reads,
“America, we have a Muslim President. This is a sin against the Lord.”
What—as we like to ask—could POSSIBLY go wrong?
Quoting the...pastor...
”They call me and tell me he’s NOT a Muslim because he’s a Christian. That’s not the point! The point is, he’s not a CHRISTIAN!”
That Catholic priest in Greenville South Carolina,
denying communion to parishioners who voted for Obama...
now says all they have to do to get back in line...is repent.
All of this has stirred-up demonstrations for and against the priest.
One protestor’s sign read, “Saint Mary’s is un-American.”
Meanwhile, back on the earthly plane...
It appears the Bush administration’s gonna leave more than half
of that 700 billion dollar bailout package...to the Obama administration.
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said-so in today’s Wall Street Journal,
who sounds as though he’s got a plane to catch.
Quoting him,
“I’m not going to be looking to start up new things,
unless they’re necessary.”
Yup. All done here!
The Bush administration has used less-than-half the emergency fund,
to bail out the financial sector.
It’ll be left to Obama to use the other half...
to bail out the housing sector, to which he says he’s given top priority.
And while government’s been busy bailing out banks...
the Pentagon’s been throwing bails of money out the window.
A new Inspector General’s report says the military has spent
600-million dollars on projects in Iraq that were canceled
because of mismanagement.
We paid more than 172 million for seven projects
that were never finished...or never even STARTED.
Hillary Clinton has reportedly accepted Barack Obama’s job offer,
to be the next Secretary-of-State.
Questions have been raised about the donations
Bill Clinton’s charitable foundationhas received
from some of the countries Hillary will be dealing-with.
Democrats say they think she will be easily confirmed by the Senate...
so long as the news channels don’t make too big a deal about it.
As we mentioned yesterday, Obama wants to surround himself with former rivals, in much the same manner as Abraham Lincoln.
But Obama doesn’t just look back at history.
He looks at his Blackberry. A lot. He says he’s addicted to it.
But, because of a law known as The Presidential Records Act,
Obama may have to give up the device...or be willing to have it published.
The law says all Presidential correspondence has to go into the official public record.
That’s one reason President Bush avoided using e-mail altogether.
And Obama says, as President,
he plans to put his weekly RADIO address on YouTube—complete with video.
In fact, he’ll start this Saturday, on his own website, Change-Dot-Org.
The weekly, Saturday morning Presidential radio speech
was launched by President Reagan
The first to give radio speeches was Franklin Roosevelt,
who tried to reassure Americans during The Great Depression.
FINALLY:
The Dean at Emerson College in Boston has written an e-mail
to all students, faculty, and staff...reminding them that
marijuana is still illegal.
Apparently, you wouldn’t know it from the aromas wafting around campus.
But illegal it is, and the Dean says using it on campus is not permitted,
and can lead to a fine on top of the one you’d have to pay city hall.
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