National debt: $13,872,907,209,101.48 according to the US National Debt Clock as of 21 Dec 2010 at 11:52:51 PM GMT.
Number of people: 308,745,538 according to the US Census.
Lessee… carry the one… and voila! Your share is $44,933.14.
Category: Finances
Mechanical Investing, balancing the checkbook, and trying to find change for the vending machine
Making It Up
The US Labor Department released unemployment figures this morning that beat expecations.
The figures released, though, were just made up. Nine states, including California, did not report numbers due to the Labor Day holiday.
From Bloomberg,
For the latest reporting week, nine states didn’t file claims data to the Labor Department in Washington because of the federal holiday earlier this week, a Labor Department official told reporters. As a result, California and Virginia estimated their figures and the U.S. government estimated the other seven, the official said.
If you’re just making up the numbers anyway, beating expectations is easy. “I expected to say ‘2’ but I suprised myself by saying ‘3’!”
My Tax Burden
Would you like to know why the US economy is about to take a nosedive yet again? It’s because people will have less to spend. A *lot* less.
Check out MyTaxBurden.org. Plug in fictitious numbers if you want. Then press the “Calculate” button and see how much more in taxes you’re about to spend next year when the Bush tax cuts expire.
People have less to spend, so they spend less. Rocket science.
Fourth Quarter GDP Growth Soars 5.7 Percent
Fourth Quarter GDP Growth Soars 5.7 Percent. Or at least, that’s what the news media and the government would have us believe. Yippee, the recession is over.
Except I don’t believe it. I see no evidence of it. I think I’m being lied to.
Do you believe what you’re being told?
Stimulating Toads
- Image via Wikipedia
A plague of frogs is coming, funded by the US Government: the Wyoming Toad Recovery Program.
I’m hoping for a Locusts Recovery Program next.
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Open Letter to Obama
Dear Obama, this is what we think of your fiscal policies so far since you’ve taken office.
Perhaps you should pay attention. What you’re doing now, we don’t like.
Congress Gives Themselves a Raise
Because they gave away billions… no wait, over a trillion dollars of taxpayer’s money…
… because in order to approve %750 billion of it, they had to add $150 billion in pork…
… because they pressured banks to lend money to people to buy houses they couldn’t afford…
… because the same people like Barney Frank who helped cause this mess are now charged with trying to fix it so that they can cover up their mistakes…
… because all this inflated the dollar against other countries…
… because all this ruptured the economy to that our 401(k)s are now worth only 101(k)…
… because our national debt has so many digits now, the numbers no longer fit on the national debt clock…
… because a single individual can perpetrate a %50 billion ponzi scheme under the nose of the SEC…
… because they have a 9% approval rating because they focused instead on congressional hearings about steroid use in baseball …
… Congress decided to give themselves a raise. Job well done, guys. You totally defined “hubris” in a grand way.
