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08 Oct 2010 10:27

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Biz: Unemployment numbers: Same level of suckiness as last month

  • 95k number of jobs lost in September, mostly government jobs
  • 64k number of jobs gained in the private sector, which is good but modest
  • 9.6% the current jobless rate, which remains steady this month source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

07 Oct 2010 11:11

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Biz: Freddie Mac: Mortgage rates lower than they’ve ever been

  • 4.27% mortgage rates; that’s the lowest ever source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

06 Oct 2010 10:08

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Biz: September offered more good news for job growth (sarcasm)

  • 39,000 private sector job cuts (meh) source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 1 Comment • Permalink

05 Oct 2010 20:10

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Biz: Hey, stocks had their first really good day in a long while

  • 10,944 the Dow’s close at the end of today – after a huge gain
  • 11,151 the Dow’s close on May 3, the last time it was this high source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

05 Oct 2010 11:03

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Biz: Sun Chips ditches their eco-friendly (but noisy) chip bags

  • Why this bag was awesome It was completely, utterly biodegradable, which meant that if you threw it in compost, in six weeks, it was freaking gone. Yay, environment! WHHOOOOOO.

    Why this bag kind of sucked Basically, it was really, really, loud. Loud enough that people complained about how loud it was on Facebook and YouTube. With good reason – its decibel count was easily 20 above a normal chip bag.

    How Sun Chips reacted After months of using these bags to much complaining from snackers who prefer quiet to compost, they’ve chosen to ditch the bags until they find something quieter. And not a moment too soon, right?

    The lesson to take from this People love to save the environment until it inconveniences them. Then they start complaining really loudly. Save the world! But not in my back yard. source

Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

05 Oct 2010 10:19

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Biz: We didn’t invest in gold when it was cheap, so we’re kinda pissed

Gold hit another record high today. Maybe there’s something to all those ads on Fox News suggesting we sell our first born to buy a pound of gold. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

05 Oct 2010 10:10

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Biz, World: In anti-deflation bid, Japan drops its interest rate to around zero

  • 0%-0.1% the interest rate in Japan
  • » Why did they do that? Well, the country has been trying to fight off deflation for a little bit, so their latest plan is to cut inflation down to a near-zero rate to help boost lending. It’s the first time they’ve had a near-zero interest rate since 2006. Hopefully things won’t get worse, though: This is kind of a move of last resort. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

03 Oct 2010 02:07

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Biz: Remember the stock market “Flash Crash”? Here’s how it happened

  • 1 click of a mouse in Kansas caused the stock market to dip 600 points

 

 

  • $4.1B the amount in futures the mutual fund was trying to sell that fateful day
  • 75k the number of contracts the company dropped onto the market
  • 20 the number of minutes it took for them to flood everything source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

01 Oct 2010 00:10

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Biz, U.S.: TARP’s final cost could be way less than first advertised

  • $700 billion the amount TARP cost taxpayers when it first happened two years ago
  • $50
    billion     the most TARP will cost taxpayers when all is said and done source
  • » Says who?: The White House’s Treasury Secretary, Timothy Geithner, suggested that the final bill for TARP could be 7 percent of the original cost – or less, depending on how the markets go. But don’t expect anyone to gloat about this. TARP is political poison.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 1 Comment • Permalink

30 Sep 2010 11:04

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Biz: Bailout bonanza: AIG brokers a payback deal with the U.S.

  • 92.1%taxpayers’ upcoming stake in AIG
  • what The U.S. government will receive $62 billion in common shares of AIG stock to replace the $49 billion in preferred shares it currently has floating around.
  • why Because, over time, the government will be able to sell these shares and hopefully make back some of the billions it paid AIG during bailout-o-rama. source
  • » But wait, there’s more: AIG also plans to pay back $20 billion that it received from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York credit facility. An end result of all of this is that taxpayers will see an instant paper profit of $10 billion along with the long-term profits from the sale. Who wants to say “screw all those future generations” and grab a piece?
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
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