As we enter another round of quarterly earnings “surprises” on the upside for American corporations, one company continues to stand out from the crowd – Wal-Mart. The distinction is not one that Sam Walton would ever have wanted or expected: Wal-Mart has endured eight straight quarters of declining sales in stores opened for at least one year. This is the most important measure of success in retailing, because it strips out the distortions in revenue that come from adding new stores. Consider in particular how difficult it is for a retailer like Wal-Mart to achieve even one quarter of declining same-store sales; Wal-Mart’s two high-volume products are gasoline and food, both of which have experienced percentage price increases in the double digits. It should be easy for the company to achieve substantial revenue growth just on inflation alone, which means something has gone seriously wrong with the business model of the company that is a poster child for globalization.
Is Gold money? Apparently not according to Ben. While technically correct, all of those gold bugs hording their physical gold for the impending Global Economic Armageddon, round 3, are jumping at the ready.
There are some crimes so universally offensive that even mentioning the suspected crime has devastating effects. Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) raised just such a question yesterday. In a brief press statement, the Senator said:
"The reported hacking by News Corporation newspapers against a range of individuals - including children - is offensive and a serious breach of journalistic ethics. This raises serious questions about whether the company has broken U.S. law, and I encourage the appropriate agencies to investigate to ensure that Americans have not had their privacy violated. I am concerned that the admitted phone hacking in London by the News Corp. may have extended to 9/11 victims or other Americans. If they did, the consequences will be severe." Senator John D. Rockefeller IV, July 12
Rupert Murdoch has always prided himself on his ability to make or break prime ministers, presidents, and princes, but in the end it was a lowly 13-year-old schoolgirl who has reached out from the grave to bring him down. Milly Dowler, a murdered British teenager, has extracted revenge against Rupert Murdoch for his many crimes, something the wealthy and the powerful have never been able to do.
Rupert Murdoch has been about wealth and power from his earliest days as a newspaper proprietor in Australia, but it is power that he lusts after. The power to shape and move public opinion is intoxicating for ambitious men like Murdoch, and when he first got into the business, merely owning a megaphone like the editorial page of a large national newspaper was enough to provide him the tools to guide the general public into a particular voting direction. Those days are long gone. Murdoch may own respectable newspapers like The Times of London, or The Wall Street Journal, but their editorial pages carry a fraction of the influence they had a quarter century ago. The reading audience – or more particularly the voting public – have long since moved on to television, and more recently cable television and the internet. To maintain his influence over the public, and to continue to intimidate, bribe, and possibly blackmail politicians, Rupert Murdoch has had to step up his game in a very nefarious way.
As you know by now, the jobs crisis reality exploded Friday with only 18,000 jobs created for June and an even lower labor participation rate implying more people are falling out of the labor force count entirely.
The latest is Obama, as part of some debt ceiling negotiation offered to raise the age for Medicare. I kid you not.
According to five separate sources with knowledge of negotiations -- including both Republicans and Democrats -- the president offered an increase in the eligibility age for Medicare, from 65 to 67, in exchange for Republican movement on increasing tax revenues.
Who all is sick to death of politicians claiming some policy will create jobs when in fact it will destroy them? Such is the outrage from Obama's reaction to the pathetic jobs report.
Obama touted the South Korean Free Trade Agreement as an answer to the jobs crisis. KORUS is projected to lose 159,000 U.S. jobs over 7 years. For Columbia, a loss of 55,000 jobs is projected.
What was the definition of insanity? Doing the same thing over and over expecting different results? The South Korean Trade Agreement is based on the same failed model as NAFTA. The South Korean Trade Agreement is projected to increase the trade deficit in auto and parts alone by $700 million. Why would one bail out the auto industry only to enable unfair imports of Korean autos?
Panama is a tax haven with over 400,000 corporations located there to avoid paying taxes. If that trade deal goes through what meager U.S. tax haven laws we have now will be challenged. How's that for balancing the budget deficit?
Even Ben Bernanke has shown how currency manipulation is going on unabated and as a result these emerging economies, such as South Korea, are unfairly increasing their exports.
Les Hinton is the chief executive of Dow Jones and the publisher of the Wall Street Journal, the most prestigious and valued media holdings of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation media empire. Hinton is implicated as a key player in at least the cover up of illegal break-ins involving hundreds of voice mail accounts belonging to news worthy British citizens high and low. Hinton was chairman of News International, the parent company of Murdoch's London tabloids and newspapers (including the Times of London), at the time of the illegal activities and police investigations. (Image)
It's Friday Night! Party Time! Time to relax, put your feet up on the couch, lay back, and watch some detailed videos on economic policy!
Is Gold money? Apparently not according to Ben. While technically correct, all of those gold bugs hording their physical gold for the impending Global Economic Armageddon, round 3, are jumping at the ready.
There are some crimes so universally offensive that even mentioning the suspected crime has devastating effects. Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) raised just such a question yesterday. In a brief press statement, the Senator said:
As you know by now, the jobs crisis reality exploded Friday with 
Who all is sick to death of politicians claiming some policy will create jobs when in fact it will destroy them? Such is the outrage from Obama's reaction to the pathetic 
So this is how it is going to be:
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