More jobs were created last month than were expected, with 147,000 created in the private sector and 1,000 public sector jobs lost that need to be subtracted from the number. The unemployment rate continues to fall as that is based on a large household survey, and is down to 7.7%. While the number of people that reported working didn't change, the rate at which the boomers are retiring is picking up. Some economists estimate that we need as few as 75,000 new jobs per month to keep up with the growing millennium generation. The underemployment rate continues in the high teens, with nearly one million reporting that they are not looking for work as no jobs exist for them.

Super Storm Sandy has been determined by the Labor Department to not be the the big job killer that it was feared to be. 'Super Storm' is another new word to describe the 'new normal' we are living with. Why don't we just call them 'interesting times' after the Chinese curse? Everything else is made in China.

Some people on the left are alarmed that Treasury Sec Timothy Geithner is leading negotiations to deal with the Fiscal Cliff (or the Fiscal Bunny Slope) being held between the Obama administration and the Congress. Okay, he wouldn't be my pick, but he does have the expertise and the staff to deal with it.

Let's clear up a couple of things, Geithner never worked for a Wall Street bank. He was Governor of the NY Fed, which is largely responsible for riding herd on the the Wall Street banks, but that business was completely out of control before he got the job.

Now this doesn't prove anything one way or another, but Geithner was simultaneously on the board of the Bank of International Settlements (BIS). It was this body that pulled the plug on the Wall Street banks transferring money between banks in 2008 over their involvement in the selling of a quadrillion dollars ($1,000,000,000,000,000) worth of un-backed derivatives. This effectively froze the US banking system overnight.

Selected numbers appear to show consumer spending is way up, thanks to the 'black' days, cyber day, and on and on with the hype. A closer looks suggests it's really more like a one or two percent increase for the quarter; it's really all about building up a shopping frenzy. Are consumers really spending more at all? Or are they simply desperate to stretch their ever declining incomes to meet pent up demand to replace worn out consumer goods?

Then there is the gnawing need to provide the American dream for yourself and your family. It's not that people really feel the need to buy more junk from China, it's that they know deep down that they're in trouble. And they want so badly to kid themselves that they are still middle class. The evidence for this is that consumer debt is way up. The business channel folks actually point to this increase in debt as proof that the economy is turning around, and there is a certain amount of truth to that, in the same way a soap bubble is a new house.

The billionaires who pass out the right-wing Kool-Aid are desperately trying to push the fantasy that they are going to act out Ayn Rand's novel, and leave us all to starve if we allow that Kenyan Socialist to raise their taxes by a couple of points. That's not what it's about of course. These people will still have more money than they could ever burn if they tried. They're really afraid that the middle class will realize they've been screwed and start wanting their country back.

Own a chain of mediocre restaurants that allow you to live in castle (literally) while you pay the help almost nothing? You might be paranoid about the peasants catching on that you aren't really entitled to do that. They are scared to death of Liberals because of the very meaning of the word. Liberal is short for Liberal Enlightenment, the idea that we all have a say in the society we live in. The idea that the rich and powerful aren't really the enlightened few who get all the rewards from our work because they are in charge.

Drudge.com has a map on their web page that shows the US as 99% Red. The typical dim bulb who follows them will assume that somehow this means Acorn stole the election for Obama.

The reality is, of course, that most of the 'Red' counties (small in population) weren't 'red' by all that many votes, depending on the concentration of 'trailer trash'. In fact, the 'Blue' voters don't bother in areas where there isn't any point in voting. Combine that with the tens of millions who don't know what the 'left' is really saying about a 'right' that sees them only as potential dog food. Confronted with the actual 'reality,' their vote would be different.

The push from the right now is to preserve the billionaires. Even if you don't think Obama is 'liberal' enough for you, it's time to call the White House and tell him that you have his back on the 'fiscal cliff.' Tell him that we will all take the tax hike from the expiration of the Bush tax cuts to keep the billionaires from robbing the country blind.

www.prairie2.com

Eighty big corporate CEOs are issuing joint statements through Murdoch's Wall Street Journal about the dangers from Congressional inaction on the fiscal 'crisis'. They talk down the economy, they are making announcements about layoffs, highlighting below expectation earnings, and generally spreading panic based on Congressional inaction on the 'fiscal cliff'. Just before the election, coincidence?  Probably not. Nothing about the 'fiscal cliff' requires immediate action, they aren't laying off people because of it, if they are really laying off people at all. Demand creates jobs, not corporate CEOs.

It doesn't matter what the 'lame duck' Congress or the President does right now about any of 'fiscal cliff' items. The Republicans demanded it be set up this way, when they were holding the country hostage over the debt ceiling. They would have had 'the fiscal cliff' happen on election day, but that would have been too obvious politics even for dull witted 'independent' voters. They just pretended that everything would 'magically' come to a head at the end of the year. Pssst, the fiscal year ended September 30th. The real concern is who will be making the decisions at the end of January, when it counts for the next two years.