Recession, Again?

A couple pieces this weekend that encouraged me to keep ranting - because I seem to be on to something others have picked up on. I'm not crazy, only feel that way.

That was the headline on the Washington Post business section top story on Sunday.

And this quote:

"But for many Americans, the difference between recovery and recession is blurry at Best. The nation's laobr force has shrunk to the lowest level since the 1970s, partly because many people have iven up looking for work. The number of people working part time even though they would prefer full time jobs remains well above the pre-recession level."

And then there was this today. 

I noted this last week and it's one of my key issues about the 'recovery' that's happening right now. We have a low unemployment rate because the economy has been so weak for so long, a staggering amount of people have stopped looking for jobs. Remember, the thing that truly brought us out the economic challenges of the Great Depression was World War II.

Hopefully we can find a more creative way out of this economic malaise as it drags closer to a decade.

Occupied and Occupiers Syndrome

Also, in Outlook was a piece by an Israeli novelist (and IDF member during the first intifada) Assaf Gavron, about about what the occupation of Palestinians has done to the occupiers (Israelis). It's short but emphasizes how unhealthy the relationship is for both sides.

Finding a solution means getting Hezbollah out of the game and allowing more moderate voices to emerge in Iran.

There was also an interesting stat in a cartoon on A15: 158 families in the US gave almost 50% of all the presidential campaign donations in the first half of this year. 138 gave to Republican candidates.

If that doesn't tell you we need campaign finance reform, I don't know what will. These companies also own major corporations and have significant corporate interests, so they're not really populists - on either side of the aisle.

And if we can't get significant campaign finance reform, how about we simply revoke coporations' right to be considered individuals. That would be much easier and get us about 70% where we want to be since it would revoke their 'First Amendment' rights.

If wishes were horses....

Just For Fun

Finally, here's something I ran across that was interesting.

Enjoy.

American's Top 10 Fears