DOOM: Another day older and deeper in debt

All the Federal “Jobs training” programs teach is bad work habits. Hours and hours of "diversity" training, sexual-harassment training, and conformance to the thousands of federal rules and regulations. But actual, you know, work skills? Not so much. Basically, Federal jobs training programs only train people to work in the Federal government. And I use the term "work" very loosely.

If Greece can leave the Eurozone, anyone can. That's the bureaucrats' true fear in expelling Greece from the Euro: it may cause a domino effect that blows the whole thing to flinders. But the architects of this flawed currency union never anticipated the problems that face the Eurozone now, so there's no fallback position or Plan B. The whole thing is coming to a crisis right now.

Could the Eurozone's problems sink us as well? A collapse of the Eurozone would put the hurt on the world economy, no doubt, but our biggest problems are of our own making.

If you just can't get enough of the Eurozone trainwreck that is unfolding before our very eyes, you can get your "Eurozone crisis porn" right here.

The job-seeker’s paradox. It’s going to be a hard world for people who have trouble adapting to fluid work situations.

Depressing economic statistic of the day: your grand-dad made more money than you do. But he didn't have 24x7 access to terabytes of (essentially free) online porn, so at lease we've got that going for us.

Teh Krugman, hoist on his own petard. And never was a blackguard so righteously busted.

Hey, I know how to save the Euro! Let's turn the banks into mutual funds! (I immediately conjure up the scene of Wile E. Coyote rubbing his hands together and muttering, "Gad, I'm such a genius!")

WSJ: Get ready for the hosing of a lifetime, businesses. The tax-man cometh. Funny how the "fair share" that we're supposed to pay keeps going up, isn't it?

Who's to blame for the U.S. Economy? Everybody. There are no good guys in this crime story. We got our own asses into this crack -- and when I say "we", I mean the citizens of this Republic. We elected the idiots who now infest our state houses and the Federal Capitol. We chose to far outspend our personal incomes. We chose not to save for our own futures. We chose not to invest in R&D, but rather squander our money on impulse purchases. If we want to see the villain, all we have to do is look in the mirror.

Debt is not an inherently bad thing; it is just a financial tool like any other. But like any powerful tool, it can cause great harm if used improperly, and we've been misusing this particular tool for a long time now.

China decides not to take on that expensive European mistress after all. Besides, the local girls are just as lovely and are more appreciative.

Annals of the boned: San Francisco's public-sector pension battle is heating up. I call this the "blue on blue" war being waged in the economy right now, as liberal public-sector spending programs compete with each other for a shrinking pool of public money.

Rhode Island, the bantamweight member of the LOTB who has lately been contending with the big guys, is warning of a "death spiral" for the tiny state's public-sector pensions.

Tyler Cowen on neo-Keynesianism vs paleo-Keynesianism.

Confused by the Right on macro, you’re a New Old Keynesian; confused by the Left, you’re an Old New Keynesian.

Retail sales in August were flat, and promise to remain so for the rest of the year. That's going to put a crimp in temporary holiday-season hiring.

UPDATE 1: From Ben in the comments, Chrysler's war on the young. Take it easy on the young 'uns, you older folks; they're going to be funding your Social Security check. Or maybe they won't. Know what I mean?

UPDATE 2: Good advice to Greece from a guy who knows what he's talking about. If you're going to default anyway, you might as well go big and get as much debt off your books as you can -- the market won't thank you for going small.

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posted by Monty at 08:55 AM

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