Good for Wall Street

So I was watching Real Time with Bill Maher from last Friday (full disclosure, you know I dvr'ed and watched it on Sunday, but same difference). And he has this writer on there Joe Queenan who right off strikes me as a serious asshat (and no he wasn't a conservative—he was a liberal, see I am not a blanket love all my lefty-types gal after all). I will say that he made several good points, but he got my dander up when Bill asked the panel to grade President Obama.

Queenan said that if the stock market had closed on Friday over 9,000 (I believe this was his number) he would give Obama a 90-something (aka an A), but that if it closed under he gave him an 87 or a B.

What Mr. Queenan was oh-so-less than subtely implying was that if Wall Street is happy the rest of us are doing OK. Uh, dude? Not so much. I mean yahoo and all that Goldman and Bank of America are making money, but that doesn't mean that the REAL America, the folks I see in the grocery day in and day out are hunky dory. Corporate America and therefore the stock market is doing well and making money because THEY ARE LAYING PEOPLE OFF. STILL. I can't say that with enough implied screaming.

I would never say that my life or little world is indicative of how the rest of the country is going, but chew on this little tidbit gentle readers, I live on a corner, two houses down from me one member of that household has been laid off for at least six months now. My immediate neighbor just got laid off on Friday and of course I was laid off the end of April. So three houses in a row, all have members who have been a victim of this recession. And don't even get me started on how all three are women. Nothing funny afoot there at all.

So Mr. Queenan, you can take your stock market rally and shove it up your sanctimonious ass, as far as I am concerned. That is not to say that I don't believe that a lot of what Obama has done is good, I do. But some of it ain't, mostly as it pertains to the money the banks got and the fact that there weren't enough rules and regulations placed on how they had to use that money. But you know the stock market closed over 9,000, why aren't we all happier?

It's the End of the World As We Know It . . .

And I feel like shit. There I said it. Pollyanna is on vacay today and my mood is sour, sour, sour. It is raining. I am hungry. And I have a heinous meeting tonight that I have been dreading for weeks. Perhaps tomorrow I will hoist up my bra straps and get back on my happy horse, but not today folks.

Let's start with yesterday's layoffs. Anytime someone, anyone gets laid off it sucks. No matter what your back up plan, no matter how prepared you are, even if you know it is nothing personal or at all related to your job performance it sucks. It sucks financially, it sucks for your self-esteem, and it certainly doesn't make our economy any better. (Maybe I should have titled this post "It Sucks"—that seems to be my true theme here.)

How many got the axe yesterday when Microsoft, Caterpillar, Home Depot, Sprint and the merging Wyeth and Pfizer, among others, lowered the boom? According to AP about 40,000. Lovely. And in that 40,000 were three of my friends. They were three of 10 who got laid off at one of my previous employers. I have had friends laid off before, and while I know that three or 10 seems like chump change in comparison to 40,000, I knew most of these people and that makes it all different. Everything is relative gentle readers.

And what is best served with a delicious main course of "It Sucks?" Why a healthy spoonful of "We Know It Sucks," as consumer confidence declined again in January (wonder how much lower the numbers would be if the stats had come out after people knew about all the layoffs?) Did I mention I was hungry?

Meanwhile, the GOP bone heads in Congress are trying to rally support to block Obama's economic stimulus plan. Dang. I sure do hope John Boehner (or as I like to call him Boner) have some money socked away in their mattress's for a rainy day. I wonder how many of his (and the other Republicans) constituents have been hit by yesterday's layoffs and are desperately looking for something, anything to give them some hope or a way to keep their families feed and sheltered? I wonder if they will like that the GOP is trying to block the new administration's efforts to help? I wonder if they wouldn't like an explanation from the previous Congress and administration on where exactly that previous bailout money went? It isn't like the banks are giving loans to average folks like me these days. Hell no. They are too busy giving back door bonuses to their high dollar employees like Merrill Lynch did before their buyout by Bank of America went through. Classy, real classy folks.

Forgive my ranting, but it makes me angry and I don't know what to do with my anger. (If you can id the movie I stole that line from, I might just smile a little today. Maybe.)

Now They Have Gone Too Far

With the economy tanking more and more each day (and yes I have been aware—I just haven't posted about it because if the good people at Bank of America thought I were even attempting to sound self-righteous about money and debt I would get another concerned phone call from them about "is my debt causing me stress?" No, you people harassing me is causing me stress. Without people like me, Kevin at the call center wouldn't have a job. Oops! I think I might have started to rant there . . . how unusual and also I don't frankly understand most of what is going down. All I do know is that the fat cats are going to walk away with millions and my 401K is dying a slow death. Maybe I need to practice welcoming people to Walmart for my "retirement" gig. Now back to your regularly scheduled rant) it is good to know that you can still seek consolation in the certainties in life—like chocolate.

Au contraire mon frere! Perhaps in responsible to everyone's metaphorical belt tightening, the good folks at Hersey's have REMOVED chocolate from many of their candies. Yep, gentle readers, you are now buying chocolate-less chocolate. Don't ask me how.

Crispy on the Outside as the scoop.