Tab Clearing 2

A really interesting look at state budget deficits.

History of deficits and surpluses in the USA.




A look at, among other things, the difference between the headline unemployment numbers and the true, revised, numbers quietly released later.




 The general thought by professionals is that the recent jobs reports have been a little screwy.
Here's the head economist for Gallup explaining why.
Essentially, the labor force continues to shrink.  Explains apparently falling unemployment numbers, not even close to good news.
And here's Jack Welch explaining how stratospherically rapidly the economy would have to grow for the numbers to actually be real and be good news.

The economy is not in a free-fall. Oil and gas are strong, automotive is doing well and we seem to be seeing the beginning of a housing comeback. But I doubt many of us know any businessperson who believes the economy is growing at breakneck speed, as it would have to be for unemployment to drop to 7.8% from 8.3% over the course of two months.
The reality is the economy is experiencing a weak recovery. Everything points to that, particularly the overall employment level, which is 143 million people today, compared with 146 million people in 2007.

And finally, it turns out that America expects its rich to pay a larger share of taxes than ANY OTHER industrialized nation.  

"The United States is actually more dependent on rich people to pay taxes than even many of the more socialized economies of Europe. According to the Tax Foundation, the United States gets 45 percent of its total taxes from the top 10 percent of tax filers, whereas the international average in industrialized nations is 32 percent. America’s rich carry a larger share of the tax burden than do the rich in Belgium (25 percent), Germany (31 percent), France (28 percent), and even Sweden (27 percent)."