Dow 7000?
Filed under: Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Ohio Economy, U.S. Economy, U.S. Financial Crisis
Back on October 6, I predicted - well sort of predicted by writing a headline on some market news aggregation - Dow 8,000. Based on the economic and financial industry news of that day just 2 1/2 months ago (seems longer) the Dow dropping to 8,000 and staying in that vicinity for some period of time seemed reasonable.
At the time we had been through Fannie and Freddie, Lehman was failing, more banks were failing and the federal government and media began explaining things like credit default swaps to America. Things looked bad, but some were still touting the “fundamentals” of the U.S. economy and the publicly traded companies on our major stock exchanges shouldn’t pay too high a price (with dropping share values) for the excesses of the financial services industry. Also at that time, I was reading Kevin Phillps’ book, Bad Money. If you want a better understanding than the average bear - or bull - of the current U.S. financial system Bad Money is a must read. At any rate, under the influence of that book, it was just obvious that as stocks dropped sharply that day there were probably many more shoes to drop, hence the market wasn’t at the bottom yet.
Now I’ll revise my estimate. On top of the crisis in the financial system and all that it entails, from failing banks to a still too tight credit market there are many more economic indicators pointing to the final quarter of 2008 just being the beginning of a difficult economic downturn. Here are a few things that immediately come to mind: Read more
With DHL Leaving, Who Other Than Ted Strickland Would You Want in the Governor’s Office?
Filed under: Barack Obama, Gov Strickland, Ohio Economy, State of Ohio Govt
During a Tuesday trip to Wilmington, Gov. Ted Strickland told the Southwest Ohio community, “We will get through this, and we will do it together.”
Strickland was of course talking about the planned closure of DHL’s operations at the Wilmington Air Park. According to a story in the Dayton Daily News, DHL employs between 7,400 and 7,800 people there. The city of Wilmington itself has a population of around 12,000, but the Air Park employs people from a several county area.
For folks faced with the prospect of losing their jobs, there doesn’t seem to be much room for hope in the current economy. One thing people in Clinton and other area counties may glean some measure of hope in is who they have advocating for them.
Governor Ted Strickland represented Wilmington and Clinton County when it was part of the old Sixth Congressional District. He knows the area well and has bonds with members of the area’s business and political communities. He’s advocated for them before, he’s advocated for them as Governor and with things looking grim, it’s a given he’ll redouble his efforts.
Strickland has talked about seeking assistance from the federal government for extended unemployment and other benefits to get workers through the interim and help them get back on their feet. It’s one thing to say Strickland cares and he’ll work hard to get results. It’s another thing to say that Strickland’s political organization just delivered the White House for the first Democratic president in eight years.
If there’s any governor better positioned to advocate for federal help in turning around an economic crisis within their state, it’s Strickland. That doesn’t mean Southwest Ohio will receive a get out of recession free card. There’s a whole nation of people hurting out there and President-elect Barack Obama’s administration will be under intense pressure from every conceivable direction from day one. Still, it can’t hurt having Strickland on our side.
Ohio Agency Director Put on Leave & Other News from the Buckeye State
Filed under: Barack Obama, Ohio AG's Race 2008, Ohio Economy, Presidential Campaign 2008, State of Ohio Govt, ohio politics
Helen Jones-Kelley Coverage
- Emails get state leader in trouble – Columbus Dispatch
- Jones-Kelley on paid leave pending investigation - The Plain Dealer
- Stivers event among topics of emails under investigation - Dayton Daily News
- Governor places family services director on leave – Dayton Daily News
- Agency chief put on leave -Toledo Blade
Politics & Elections News
- GOP’s grip on County’s suburbs slipping – Columbus Dispatch
- Editorial: GOP must make honest appraisal of its defeat – The Plain Dealer
- Obama’s victory in Cuyahoga was overwhelming – The Plain Dealer
- Obama won – so did shirt sellers – Columbus Dispatch
- Maureen O’Connor’s huge totals may lead to something else – The Plain Dealer
- Brunner calls summit on vote –Columbus Dispatch
- Ohio GOP to work on ‘identity crisis’ – Columbus Dispatch
- Dolan out of Minority Leader race – The Plain Dealer
- The new Ohio Senate and House – Columbus Dispatch
- Timing of Cordray’s start as AG uncertain – Columbus Dispatch
- Total state approach aided Obama – Columbus Dispatch
- No Treasurer replacement yet – The Plain Dealer
- Editorial: House Democrats in charge – Akron Beacon Journal
Other News
- Jobless rate highest in 14 years – Columbus Dispatch
- Hard recovery seen for Ohio – Associated Press
- Wilmington worried about pending DHL announcement – Dayton Daily News
- Glowing review earns Gee possibly $2 million – Columbus Dispatch
Ohio Newsbreak
- Crime fighter showdown: Cordray v. Crites - The Other Paper
- Ohio’s rules hinder progress say ‘business leaders’ – Cleveland Plain Dealer
- 12 OHP Troopers fired for cheating on test – Cleveland Plain Dealer
- Strickland orders $540 million more in state cuts – Cleveland Plain Dealer
- Cuyahoga party leaders talk politics – Cleveland Plain Dealer
- Keep politicians sticky fingers off of Third Frontier money – Cleveland Plain Dealer
- Biden honors emergency services workers – Columbus Dispatch
- What’s next for Wilmington, air park? – Columbus Dispatch
- Governor: No probe of safety official – Columbus Dispatch
- 7th U.S. House District: Race Profile – Columbus Dispatch
- Candidates spar on taxes, sick leave – Columbus Dispatch
- Red tape holds down Ohioans; Task Force says – Columbus Dispatch
News – Strickland, DHL, Palin in Lebanon, Obama in Ohio, ODOT, Brunner and ballots, Space, Husted, Kim Jong-Il Revered Glorious Leader, Hurricane Ike, Pakistan-Afghanistan, U.S. Budget Deficit
Filed under: Barack Obama, Bush Foreign Policy, Cuyahoga Corruption, Gov Strickland, Ohio Economy, Presidential Campaign 2008, Russian/Georgian Conflict, Sarah Palin, State of Ohio Govt
Ohio News
- Strickland administration says DHL job-cutting plan may be illegal – Columbus Dispatch
- Moonbats wild about Palin in Lebanon – Columbus Dispatch
- Obama wants to double funding for charter schools – Columbus Dispatch
Dear Politicians: Charter Schools are the easy way out. Fix public education.
- ODOT pays $2 million in overtime to workers who aren’t eligible – Columbus Dispatch
- Ohio Lawmakers Reluctantly back Bailout – Columbus Dispatch
- Absentee ballot policy under fire – Columbus Dispatch
- Space-Dailey Race – Columbus Dispatch
- Husted won’t say whether he’s SecState candidate – Cleveland Plain Dealer
- J. Kevin Kelley campaign contributors draw FBI scrutiny – Cleveland Plain Dealer
Hurricane Ike
- Across Haiti a Scene of Devastation – Washington Post
- Billions of damage in Cuba, Ike Sets Sites on Texas – Reuters
World News
- Glorious leader almost certainly ill – BBC
- Russians hail Georgia deal as big win – Christian Science Monitor
- U.S. still weighing stronger action against Russia – Los Angeles Times
- Zadari, Karzai pledge new era of cooperation – Washington Post
Has Zadari told the ISI?
- U.S. federal budget deficit approaches $407 billion – Associated Press
Thanks, Shrub! We’re not only safer because you created terrorists over there in Iraq so you could talk about not having to fight them here … you’ve left us bankrupt! You Jackass.
Monday p.m. – DHL headman to McCain: No Alternative, DHL prepares severance, Education panel, Ohio education funding and reform, Perrysburg on tap for 134 new jobs
Ohio News
- DHL Chief to McCain: No alternative to “drastic measure” – Cleveland Plain Dealer
- DHL preparing severance packages for workers – Dayton Daily News
- First Solar to expand in Perrysburg - MarketWatch
- Editorial: Don’t assume worst about voters – Dayton Daily News
- State needs to change way it thinks about education – Columbus Dispatch
- Unified party? Clinton as VP might do it – Columbus Dispatch
- GOP continues fight on early voting flap – Columbus Dispatch
- Editorial: State of confusion – Columbus Dispatch
- Freer rein for judicial candidates proposed – Cleveland Plain Dealer
- Editorial: State and locals need to extend RTA’s reprieve – Cleveland Plain Dealer
- Editorial: Payday lenders still want to cash in big – Dayton Daily News
- Editorial: The new urbanism – Toledo Blade
Sunday Papers – Ohio Pres Campaign, AG Harassment, Cuyahoga Land Deal, Casinos, Strickland, Boccieri, Schuring, DHL, Sick Days
Filed under: Barack Obama, Cuyahoga Corruption, Gov Strickland, John McCain, Marc Dann, Ohio Economy, Paid Sick Days, Presidential Campaign 2008, State of Ohio Govt, U.S. Congress
Ohio News
- On the trail in Ohio: The Spots that Draw Politicians Like Flies – Columbus Dispatch
- State gets hearing in AG-Harassment case postponed – Columbus Dispatch
- Editorial: November’s Prospects – Columbus Dispatch
- Op-Ed, Joe Hallett: Here’s a fishing trip both candidates should go on – Columbus Dispatch
- Op-Ed, Jonathan Riskind: Ohio’s conservatives still distrustful of McCain – Columbus Dispatch
- Land deal a series of missed chances – Cleveland Plain Dealer
- Editorial: Ohio must make itself heard by the candidates – Plain Dealer
- Op-Ed, Thomas Suddes: Casinos as revenue machines ‘iffy’ – Cleveland Plain Dealer
- Strickland supporters gather for cornhole & speeches – Akron Beacon Journal
- Editorial: Depceptive ballot language – Akron Beacon Journal
- Editorial (from Friday): Deadline for a deal – Akron Beacon Journal
- Rural economic woes may provide opening for Obama – Dayton Daily News
- Editorial: McCain Right on DHL But it’s Not Pretty – Dayton Daily News
- Meet the men behind 16th Congressional Distr Race – Canton Repository
- Ohio sick days compromise heading to big fight – Canton Repository
- Editorial: Sick Days initiative could cost more Ohio jobs – Warren Tribune Chronicle
In Labor’s War for Paid Sick Days, Ohio is the Wrong Battleground
In places like Ohio where many battles great and small have been fought by organized labor on behalf of underpaid, overworked, and exploited workers we understand the great advancements this movement has brought to the ordinary American’s standard of living. What labor – and its front-group – Ohioans for Healthy Families doesn’t seem to grasp is that those battles were waged in an American economy that was transcendent.
Competition these days, especially in states like Ohio and Michigan, are eating the U.S. and former industrial states like Ohio alive. Just a month ago my wife and I traveled over to the Zanesville area to check out the once-thriving pottery industry in Ohio. Walking up the pathway to the entrance of the Ohio Ceramic Center you traverse a graveyard of signs which list the names of dozens of former ceramic businesses that have gone under. Looking at the dates of operation on the signs most of them went under in the last 35 years.
Center staff then informed me that Friendship Pottery – which had been afloat by producing Longaberger items – is also gone. Longaberger now has their all-American goods made in China.
Many of these workshops and small factories were the sorts of businesses that employed 25 people or less. Twenty-five is the number of employees that would trigger seven mandatory paid sick days in Ohio’s small businesses if the proposal by the Ohioans for Healthy Families stays on the ballot and passes.
I may be willing to say that Labor had picked a good issue to champion if it weren’t for where and how they are waging their campaign. Read more
Friday a.m. – Strickland: I Alone Can’t Deliver Ohio, AEP, Dann, DHL
Ohio News
- Dann spent over $100k trying to save job – Columbus Dispatch
- AEP wants to raise rates – Columbus Dispatch
- Strickland: I can’t deliver Ohio alone – PolitickerOH
- State officials’ campaign finance reports – Dayton Daily News
- Casino backers want perfect storm – The Other Paper
- DHL deal with UPS turns political – BusinessWeek
- Court backs Brunner – Columbus Dispatch
Sunday Morning Papers – Marc Dann et. al. called ‘pond scum,’ by hometown paper; Strickland, Education tour, DHL, Housing, Noe, Ohio EPA
Filed under: Barack Obama, Clips, Gov Strickland, Marc Dann, Ohio AG's Race 2008, Ohio Economy, Presidential Campaign 2008, State of Ohio Govt
Ohio News
- City wild about Obama, Strickland – Lancaster Eagle Gazette
The above link is the headline taken from the Gazette. It cracked me up because Lancaster is one of those areas that reflexively votes Republican. It’s Central Ohio’s little slice of Orange County. Getting 100 Dems out down there is a good thing. Not sure if that city is ‘wild’ about Obama, but if the donkeys keep working hard and staying on message we may win some extra hearts and minds this year.
- Op-Ed, Dennis Willard: Governor’s 12-city tour seems sincere – Akron Beacon Journal
Seems?! Apparently the ABJ didn’t read my post on these education forums. You can here. Governor Strickland is doing something we’re apparently not used to as Americans in the Bush/Cheney era, he’s reaching out to his constituents.
- Op-Ed, Bertram DeSouza: Slow down rush to settle AG harassment cases – Youngstown Vindicator
Holy Crikey. DeSouza unloads on the Troubled Trio (Dann, Jennings, Gutierrez) by calling them “pond scum” and “pus-filled boils on this regions backside.” He basically brands Jenn Urban a gold digger. The essential point is that the next attorney general should determine how many of our tax dollars go down the drain in settlements to the alleged victims of sexual harassment under the Dann regime. He may have something there.
- Op-Ed, Thomas Suddes: Ohio’s term limits lead to unlimited trickery – Cleveland Plain Dealer
- Ohio allowed more flexibility under ‘No Child Left Behind’ – Cleveland Plain Dealer
- State crisis team reacts to possible DHL layoffs – Cleveland Plain Dealer
- Op-Ed, Mark Moran: 400,000 reasons to care about health care reform in Cuyahoga County –Cleveland Plain Dealer
- Editorial: Media needs to get balanced for election – Cleveland Plain Dealer
- Editorial: PUCO needs to hold hearings publicly where people have access – Cleveland Plain Dealer
- Pinching pennies at the Ohio State Fair – Columbus Dispatch
- Housing Rescue: Too Little, Too Late? – Columbus Dispatch (Washington Post)
- State works on Medicaid claims delays – Columbus Dispatch
- Plan to lessen smog hits brakes – Columbus Dispatch
- State to require extra ID for registering vehicles – Columbus Dispatch
- Editorial: Americans awash in debt – Columbus Dispatch
- Editorial: Recouping money in coin scandal doesn’t minimize Noe’s crime – Columbus Dispatch
- Op-Ed, Joe Hallett: Strickland Ed Forum Taught Me a Lesson: He’s Right On – Columbus Dispatch
- Op-Ed, Bill Hershey: Strickland ‘conversation’ set for Dayton – Dayton Daily News
- Ohio EPA concerned about smog rules – Associated Press (Dayton Daily News)
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