The House is on fire…please relax in the living room.

Kick up your feet. Watch some tv. Nothing is wrong. Enjoy yourself!

The Rant: The Media disappoints us.
Call us crazy, but thats how we crackhead writers feel when we watch a news story on television. Reporters tell tales based on edited stories intended to support the administration and/or mislead the public. They frighten us with doom and gloom, lack foresight, but attempt to reassure us. It’s like telling a guest your house is on fire, but assuring them all will be fine while they sit in the living room. There is no need to react, panic or prepare for anything. Hell, we don’t know if the house will burn down or not. Just relax.

For a long time, prior to all this economic chaos, the media told us there was no fire and we should not expect one (do you remember that?). Surely things could never spiral downward in America. People who predicted these days would come were ridiculed and that’s why we crackheads have issues with the media. Why weren’t we informed before all this happened?

There is a lot going on and Americans should be informed so they can educated decisions, protect their families, etc.. As such, our gripes are simple:

1. Some things are complicated and can’t be explained in 4 second sound bites.
2. Tell the WHOLE story. There are facts missing that many Americans would want to know. Why do we have to read about these things in blogs and forwarded emails? Why are they omitted from the news reports?
3. The news is supposed to inform us, but they don’t do that. The current trend has been to invite pundits, alleged experts, that will discuss an issue or debate with another expert. The public is often misinformed (explained below) or left to make their own conclusion. Should you buy a house? Sell a house? Invest in the stock market? The experts debate. The reporters never answer the question. How can we make an educated decision based on a 4 minute yelling fest debate?

How can we trust them? They keep giving us biased pieces of the puzzle and we’re too busy to put it together. As per their reports, the solution involves dousing the fire with our own money through brainless consumer spending (to keep companies alive) and the misappropriation of our hard earned tax dollars (to bail companies out). The media continues downplaying the damage and the events that led up to this crisis.

Well… We are tired of it. We decided to put the puzzle pieces together in an attempt to see the bigger picture. What we came up with is just a tip of the iceberg. Let us know what you think.

Corporate America: The sky is falling.
Starbucks is closing 600 stores (cutting 12,000 jobs) in the United States, 61 stores in Australia and cutting back 1000 jobs. We hate to hear about employees losing their jobs, but it seems like most people are fighting for stores to stay open so they can get that grande crackacino. That shows you were our priorities are… “Screw the layoffs. I just want my expensive coffee drink.” FYI, Starbucks just posted their first quarterly loss ever.

While we’re on the topic, GM is going to cut 15% of its staff in the US and Canada (about 5000 jobs). The company stated it will cut jobs and sell assets to survive. Chrysler is cutting 1000 jobs and no longer leasing vehicles. Other companies are facing similar problems. AOL gets rid of crappy free services while it’s bloggers blog for free. American Airlines says it will cut 1300 jobs (mostly maintenance workers and mechanics). Earlier this month there was a report that stated American expected to cut 6840 jobs. We assume the cuts will be closer to 10,000 jobs combined, but we could be wrong. Seimens will cut over 16,700 worldwide. Indy Mac, which has since tanked, was supposed to cut 3800 jobs. I’m going to assume that number has gone up. Newspapers have cut jobs and some have opted to outsource jobs abroad to save money. I don’t know about you, but papers seem to have smaller articles, bigger pictures and fewer pages. NPR reports that employers cut over 60,000 jobs in June. The New York Daily News reports about the cuts here and here. Whats frightening is the fact that I could go on listing more companies and job cuts… This is just a drop in the bucket.

What’s that smell? It must be the unemployment data. I heard an NPR story the other day. They touched on the unemployment figures (now at a 4 year high) and according to this article (also linked above), Americans are losing an average of 73,000 jobs a month. At the end of the show someone asked what we should expect in the near future. Would unemployment rise of fall? To summarize the reply, they could not say, as there are some pessimists and optimists. Wow. I’m still shocked by that response. I assume some of the cuts I mentioned above should be reflected in next months unemployment report. So, forget what the media is saying. Based on their reports unemployment figures should rise drastically in the near future.

While companies slash and cut, the number of foreclosed homes increases. The number of mortgages in default increases. Even an Extreme Home Makeover property faces foreclosure. Housing prices continue to fall in most areas. The number of unsold homes on the market has gone up as well, yet some firms are still building homes (900k+ in Utah, condos that start at 1 million in Hollywood, CA). Who will buy these? Unfortunately, some pundits have recently suggested people start buying homes, assuming that we have hit bottom and prices will rise in the near future. What are they smoking? When we take everything into consideration, we can’t see how this is possible. More on that here.

The high price of oil reaps record profits for the oil companies and record changes in the lives of the working class. When was the last time you heard about people driving 100 miles to buy gas in Mexico? Recently, the price of crude oil has gone down… but that drop is not being reflected at the pump.

We wonder why drilling is necessary if the oil companies are receiving record profits while we face record hardships. Drilling will only make them richer and have no short term effect on the cost of gas at the pump. Let’s not get into the environmental impact of drilling, but it could be a high price to pay for no good reason. Besides, no one has been able to explain the cause of this oil crisis. Everyone has a different story and none of them stick. If we (the people) don’t know the cause of the crisis, how can we know… find… rally for a solution? We crackhead writers don’t buy the supply and demand argument. Forget about Denmark. Something stinks in America.

Costly oil has lead to less demand in the US. Less demand has had a negative impact on funds for various highways. Some say highways will be privatized (ie: owned by some company) in the future. Private ownership means they will operate for profit, not public service. The oil companies operate for profit and not public service and you see how that hurts your bottom line at the pump. Think about it.

Ethanol was blamed for the rising cost of corn food, but ethanol plants are getting wiped out faster then innocent civilians in Iraq. Despite the many stories about struggling ethanol plants, California still intends to build a multi-million dollar Ethanol plant. I don’t know about you, but that doesn’t sound like a wise decision at this time.

Speaking of which, food prices continue to rise even higher. Food banks (here and abroad) are running out of food, as the middle class can no longer afford groceries or much else. Even pet pantries are struggling. Some brands and/or stores stoop to tricks and tom foolery for survival profit, as they deviously decrease the size of their products while maintaining or increasing the price. Some stores offer deals that are anything but deals in an effort to get more money from their customers. So much for integrity. Please pay attention when you shop.

Yesterday is not the shadow of today. These troubling times have given birth to a new day filled with firsts and weird events. For example, a $200 domestic flight on Delta Airlines will cost you $300 if you have two checked bags. Other airlines continue to find ways to charge baggage fees in an attempt to survive. Despite their desperate attempts, fewer Americans will be flying these unfriendly skies.

Mervyns just filed for bankruptcy. It wasn’t alone. Bennigans filed for bankruptcy too. These companies are not alone. There is a growing list of companies with issues including big names like Linens N Things. But that’s not all. Even consumer bankruptcies were up 38% in 2007 according to this article. We wonder what that figure looks like now.

But I digress… Bear Sterns, Indy Mac, Freddie Mac, Fannie May, Countrywide, and a few lesser known banking institutions are either gone or in a deep pile of fecal matter. Word on the street is Wamu and/or Wachovia are next, but that’s just a rumor. It’s hard to say what will happen. These banks seem to operate during the week, close on Fridays, work with the Fed over the weekend and give the unexpected announcement on Monday morning. Meanwhile…

Big Brother gets bigger… but goes broke in the process
The government is hurting. Governor Paterson said the economic condition in NY is devastating. In California, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger laidoff 20,000 state employees and authorized pay cuts for 200,000. Note that most mainstream media stories we saw forget to mention he is cutting salaries down to minimum wage. In march he had to layoff 14,000 teachers and those notices may not be rescinded, as California does not have a state budget at this time.

Do you know what’s going on in your neck of the woods? Seems like many states and municipalities have huge budget deficits (ie: they’re broke). Struggling governments may cut jobs, raise taxes, make marijuana legal (I assume for tax revenue), and cut public services…starting with education, libraries, parks, etc.. Whats going on where you live? You might want to find out.

Meanwhile… The federal goverment has added “800 billion to the national debt” by signing the housing bailout relief bill into law. FYI, that bill included the following that no major media outlet (I’m aware of) reported:

1. All credit card purchases reported to the IRS (applies to all Americans)
2. Mortgage professionals must get fingerprinted

I’m no rocket science, but I guess we’d have to add that to the 400+ billion reported here. Thats story, along with this one, seems to go along with our predictions here. Walmart seems to confirm this as well in todays Wall Street Journal (see WSJ: Wal-Mart Warns of Democratic Win 8/1/08).

In other government related news, socialism has always been a bad word in this country (and for no good reason)… As a part of the recent bailout, the government can now buy shares of Freddie and Fannie, but the president claims the companies are not socialized. We can’t quite figure that out. They bailed out Bear Sterns and now we’re wondering which big firm is next, as the government ignores dying small businesses and a struggling working class.

Thus far, the government has bailed out specific corporations that reaped the rewards (huge profits) and consequences (smaller losses) from risky investments. Nevertheless, Bush wants everyone to know that the government does not bailout speculators. Hmm… Well what about the rest of us?

All this while the war machine budget hits an all time high of 1 trillion dollars and we continue to spend money on wars based on lies. Speaking of war and lies, Karl Rove is in trouble, but the mainstream media forgot to tell you why (18 minutes in). Speaking of wars and lies, we have a hard time figuring out where all that Iraq war money goes, but we know its not being spent properly and someone is making a killing off of our hard earned tax dollars… We need to do something about that. And what’s up with our excongressmen helping Russia sells arms to Iraq during this war?

The point is the government doesn’t seem to have our interests at heart based on the above. It’s not helping struggling small businesses. It’s not helping those who are struggling after receiving their pink slip. It doens’t seem to be interested in the value of the dollar. The last time I checked,$1.00 was worth about $1.02 in Canada dollars. At least that went up a tad.

In the meantime… McCain and Obama raise millions upon millions (as Hilary did) in an attempt to get elected. Given all that is going on, we think this is yet another case of poorly allocated funding. As of July 31st, this article claims 50 million was spent on advertising alone. That’s just a fraction of all the money the presidential candidates spent in their attempt to gain entry to the white house. The question is not just why so much is being spent, but also why these people are willing to spend so much to become president. Surely, no one spends like that without foreseeing a return and the presidents salary is only 400,000 a year.

Why should we help Hilary get rid of her campaign debt while the pink slips keep coming? Who is helping us with our debt?

In other government news, one elected official was recently indicted after misreporting many “gifts” from an oil company in Alaska. We’d like you to take the time to think about the amounts of money given to politicians (think lobbies and campaign contributions). Now think about who benefited from those funds (I know I didn’t get anything). Special interest groups are spending money for political favors, but who is lobbying for the people? Political bribery is still legal and millions will continue to go into the pockets of politicians while the public continues to struggle.

Slate redefines bad.

What’s especially troubling about much of this post is the fact that the majority of the information presented here occurred in the month of JULY (2008). It is apparent that we need change, but this change will not come from anyone person. It will not come from any elected official. We feel as though the changes being made will make things worse, not better, and change must come from the people. We must stop being isolated islands and join one another to thrive and survive come what may.

If you think we’re wrong… well…

Don’t worry. You can relax and assume everything is going to be fine. Sit on the couch and watch some TV. We’ll bring you a sugary beverage, something fattening to eat and a pill that will make all of your problems go away while promoting weight loss and memory rentention… Don’t mind the side effects.

See you at the end of August.