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Archive for the 'history' Category

News from the past: Legalize beer to create jobs!

Monday, February 16th, 2009

From the Time magazine article of October 26, 1931, covering an American Federation of Labor convention: “Opposed by a handful of waiters and onetime bartenders who wanted the entire 18th Amendment discarded, the convention voted as it has in the past to urge Congress only to modify the Volstead Act. legalize the manufacture of 2.75% beer. “A favorable Congress,” President Green had said, “could legalize beer in 48 hours. Immediately an estimated 1,000,-ooo men or more would find jobs. . . .” “

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News from the past: Have we hit the bottom yet?

Friday, February 13th, 2009

According to San Jose Mercury News (April  12, 2001): “One of the great ironies of the stock market — and one reason why it’s so hard to time — is that you never know you’ve reached a bottom until it’s well over. No one officially announces, “Ladies and gentlemen, this is it. You may now resume having fun.”

But with the rallies in the Nasdaq index and the Dow Jones average this week and last, it’s worth asking the question: Have we passed the bottom? Was Wednesday of last week the low ebb? Is the worst behind us?”

(On April 12, 2001 Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 10126. It took another year and  half for the market to hit the bottom: on September 27, 2002 Dow Jones closed at 7701 ~ LayoffBlog.com)

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News from the past: Unemployment figures condemn New Deal.

Thursday, February 12th, 2009

From Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 12th of February, 1936:

There are no definite and conclusive figures on unemployment. The various agencies collecting these reports seldom agree and it is possible that total of 11,401,000 [population was ~126 million back then - layoffblog] recently given out by William Green, president of the American Federation of Labor, may be somewhat high.

But what difference does it really make in viewing the broad aspects of the problem whether the correct figure is nine million or eleven million? Either figure presents a tragic situation, and the failure to make real headway against it proves that the present Administration lacks the practical business knowledge and experience required to cope successfully with this critical and distressing problem.

For three years, the Administration has had a free hand. It has experimented with one plan after another. It has wasted billions of dollars in senseless boondoggling. Yet relief and work relief figures are almost as high as they were at the start, and unemployment continues near the peak.

Posted in FYI, US, history, unemployment | No Comments »

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