The ISM manufacturing index in July fell to a two year low, 50.9, with the new orders index falling to 49.2, indicating contraction in that index.
And Barack Obama just put through massive cuts in government spending.
Month: August 2011
BTW, It Ain’t Just US Conservatives Who Want to F%$# Us All
Because British Prime Minister David Cameron’s brain trust is hard at work:
Ministers yesterday disowned controversial ideas floated by David Cameron’s strategy guru, including the scrapping of maternity leave and consumer rights and the closure of jobcentres.
Steve Hilton came under fire after it emerged that he had put forward numerous proposals to boost Britain’s fragile recovery. His friends blamed the disclosure on obstructive civil servants who do not admire his free-thinking approach to policy.
The 42-year-old former advertising man, who cycles to work and walks around Downing Street in a T-shirt and socks, is seen as one of Mr Cameron’s closest two advisers – the other being the Chancellor, George Osborne. The Prime Minister admires Mr Hilton’s original thinking although he often backs Mr Osborne when the two men clash. Insiders say Mr Hilton has a “scattergun” approach to policy ideas, many of which do not get off the ground. The suggestions leaked yesterday look certain to join the list.
What the f%$3 is wrong with this people?
On This a Day, Trust Newt to Make Me Smile
It’s just schadenfreude, but I’ll take it.
It turns out that most of Newt Gingrich’s Twitter followers Are fake:
Yesterday Newt Gingrich laid out a new argument for why he should be the GOP presidential nominee: He’s got the most Twitter followers. But according to a former Gingrich staffer, he bought them.
Gingrich complained yesterday that the press is ignoring his prodigious Twitter audience: “I have six times as many Twitter followers as all the other candidates combined, but it didn’t count because if it counted I’d still be a candidate; since I can’t be a candidate that can’t count.” Which is true! Gingrich currently boasts 1,325,842 followers, whereas competitors Mitt Romney and Michele Bachmann have yet to crack 100,000.
But if Newt is winning the Twitter primary, it’s because of voter fraud. A former staffer tells us that his campaign hired a firm to boost his follower count, in part by creating fake accounts en masse: …
Heh.
When he leaves the race, I’ll miss him almost as much as The Daily Show writers will.
The House Passed the Debt Deal
And about half the Democratic caucus voted for it.
Looking at the tally, my Congresscritter, Jon Sarbanes, voted against it, but Hoyer, Ruppersberger (no surprise there) and DCCC chair Van Hollen all voted for this sh%$ sandwich.
Any Democrat who votes for this deserves a primary challenge, and the fact that Van Hollen is running the DCCC means that you should not give to that organization, but instead choose your candidates a la carte, because the DCCC will continue to spend their money on spineless wimps with no moral compass.
As to the substance of the deal, words fail me, but they don’t fail the Rude Pundit (NSFW, but if you know the Rude One, you knew that).
Also, read Krugman, whose New York Times OP/ED, The President Surrenders, is a marginally more polite take down.
Me, I don’t think that Obama is as bad a negotiator as we would like to think. I think that he is getting much of what he wants, and using Boehner as a useful idiot for political cover from his own base.