[Arsenal]

My company just laid off 10% of a 1500 worker company. Ouch. At least I still have a job.

[Heineken]

That's an interesting site, cbx.

I think we're seeing just the trickle before the deluge. Many companies have areas other than personnel they can do belt-tightening in before they start hacking away people.

[burn0gas]

You can also watch the layoffs happening in real time:
http://search.twitter.com/search?q='lay ... 'laid+off'



I have to say, I tried that again last Friday and the hits were coming in the fastest I've ever seen in the past couple months.

[kpeavey]

I still help out at that restaurant now and then, have one more banquet to cover, then I exit. An interesting twist to 4 restaurants closing in this one horse town is that business is picking up, for now at least. Fewer people dining out, but fewer restaurants per diner-capita is giving the place a much needed boost. For the sake of all my girls still working there, I hope he's able to keep going.

[venky]

I think the worst is over maybe..........

[Armageddon]

I think the worst is over maybe..........

It's barely started.

[Cyrus]

Wow the next town over, Naperville Illinois is listed as having 20 layoffs on there. Wow!

[Rod_Cloutier]

Omama in a desperate attempt to confront a historic and unprecidented deficit has named a fiscal officer to cut wasteful government programs. In good economic times this would have been considered long overdue, and this would be great news!

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid= ... refer=home

In the middle of a recession/ depression, particularily in the United States this spells terrible news. Not only is every mom & pop store and their suppliers and associates, laying off all their employees, we are also witness to giant corporations that have been around for a hundred years being declared bankrupt, and now the government is going to cut 'all the waste' out of its own government spending.

Typically the government is the employer of last resort in a recession or depression. It is now clear in this depression that this won't be the case because the government is effectively broke and well aware that cut backs and layoff's both within the government and in terms of government sponcered programs are long overdue.

Hard to see that this crisis is ending or that a recovery is well under way.

[vision-master]

Contrary to the way it is being portrayed by many media outlets and blogs, the Obama administration has put forth a plan that increases overall defense spending by 4% for next year. Over at TPM, Josh Marshall and crew have been monitoring the media meme, stoked by such GOP luminaries as Dick Cheney and Newt Gingrich, that Obama's priorities may be making the country less safe. Here's an exchange between MSNBC and former Defense Secretary William Cohen, who tries to set the record straight:

Link

[Plantagenet]

Obama has exploded government spending to never before seen levels.

Why would you imagine the US government will lay people off? Where is the slightest evidence that government layoffs are starting?

[TWilliam]

Why would you imagine the US government will lay people off? Where is the slightest evidence that government layoffs are starting?

So ummm... how would you interpret statements such as this in that article PA?

Obama said in his regular radio and Internet address that he plans to announce in the coming weeks the elimination of dozens of “wasteful or ineffective” government programs to help bring spending under control.

[Cloud9]

He may be thinking about shutting down DEA sending the cream of the crop over to ATF and firing the rest.

[eastbay]

Why would you imagine the US government will lay people off? Where is the slightest evidence that government layoffs are starting?

So ummm... how would you interpret statements such as this in that article PA?

Obama said in his regular radio and Internet address that he plans to announce in the coming weeks the elimination of dozens of “wasteful or ineffective” government programs to help bring spending under control.

Shutting down a handful of the many thousands of wasteful government 'programs' doesn't necessarily translate into a large number of federal government layoffs. In fact, it'll most likely be a mixed bag with federal employment increasing overall and state and local government employment decreasing in the coming period.

[americandream]

Obama's only cleaning up the mess jesus boy and rednecks left in the first place. How else is he to handle this shitpile? Anything really meaningful and your average spoilt white American would go ballistic!

What you guys need is a good dose of realism...is any politician black or white going to deliver....not on your nelly. Jesus runs America..........from Wall Street.

[vision-master]

Obama's only cleaning up the mess jesus boy and rednecks left in the first place. How else is he to handle this shitpile? Anything really meaningful and your average spoilt white American would go ballistic!

What you guys need is a good dose of realism...is any politician black or white going to deliver....not on your nelly. Jesus runs America..........from Wall Street.

Is he 'black'?

[americandream]

Obama's only cleaning up the mess jesus boy and rednecks left in the first place. How else is he to handle this shitpile? Anything really meaningful and your average spoilt white American would go ballistic!

What you guys need is a good dose of realism...is any politician black or white going to deliver....not on your nelly. Jesus runs America..........from Wall Street.

Is he 'black'?

He's probably closer to Europe than Africa

But lets be blunt here. This fellow has freshly taken up residence as caretaker in a house with its roof on fire and the owner occupants in severe, most likely paranoid denial. WTF is he supposed to do?

Thats what I'ld love to know!

[Plantagenet]

Why would you imagine the US government will lay people off? Where is the slightest evidence that government layoffs are starting?

So ummm... how would you interpret statements such as this in that article PA?

Obama said in his regular radio and Internet address that he plans to announce in the coming weeks the elimination of dozens of “wasteful or ineffective” government programs to help bring spending under control.

I'd give it just as much credibility as Obama's earlier claims that he would end earmarks in the budget, and move to a "pay-go" budget system, and cut the deficit, and make the US energy independent, and appoint people who aren't crooks or tax cheats, and not appoint lobbyists, etc. etc. He's broken all those promises already---why not this one?

The reason spending is out of control is Obama's own porkulus bill and earmark stuffed supplemental budgets. Obama better look in the mirror---his own pork-filled spending bills are what has caused the government to start spending like a drunken sailor and creating HUGE budget deficits. Obama's own budget director, Peter Orzag, promises us huge trillion dollar deficits into the future.

[vision-master]

Obama's only cleaning up the mess jesus boy and rednecks left in the first place. How else is he to handle this shitpile? Anything really meaningful and your average spoilt white American would go ballistic!

What you guys need is a good dose of realism...is any politician black or white going to deliver....not on your nelly. Jesus runs America..........from Wall Street.

Is he 'black'?

He's probably closer to Europe than Africa

But lets be blunt here. This fellow has freshly taken up residence as caretaker in a house with its roof on fire and the owner occupants in severe, most likely paranoid denial. WTF is he supposed to do?

Thats what I'ld love to know!

He can quit lying about 90% of Mexico's assault weapons coming arcoss the US borders.

Fully Automatic weapons are illegal in this Country.

I caught him on this deceitful statement.

[Tyler_JC]

Every president claims that they are eliminating wasteful programs but I've rarely seen any evidence of this claim.

Can you name one major program that has been eliminated in the past 50 years?

The only one I can think of is AFDC, which they converted to TANF. (Welfare to Workfare). That program was a success but Obama seems intent on rebuilding the old welfare system. So it is yet to be seen whether we will see the permanent death of AFDC.

That particular issue aside, can anyone think of a major government program that was successfully dismantled, reduced, or eliminated?

[ReverseEngineer]

That particular issue aside, can anyone think of a major government program that was successfully dismantled, reduced, or eliminated?

Banking Regulation.

Reverse Engineer