The Daily Middle

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Here’s the always brilliant George Carlin detailing and poking fun at the way politicians use words and describe certain circumstances “in such a way.” Hopefully you’ll enjoy the video as well as on the oncoming weekend. Stay safe!

Best Regards,

The Daily Middle Team

“The Dow Jones is now up 70% from it’s low in March 2009. Oil is up 86% from it’s low in February 2009. Copper is up 172% from it’s low in December of 2008. Prices for almost all stocks and commodities have been going through the roof. Having analysts on Wall Street proclaiming the recession is over and economic recovery is here. But how can an economic recovery be here if U-6 unemployment is still at a multi-decade high of 16.9%? The truth is our economy is not recovering. Prices are only rising due to inflation. Our economy is currently experiencing a ‘Meltup.’ The Federal Reserve has held interest rates at 0% for 17 months. Our financial system has been flooded with trillions of dollars in newly printed money. Those with access to the Fed’s cheap money have done well in the past year.”

From: Bankrate

Each day, nearly 3 million American workers head to work at temporary jobs. They range from clerks to construction workers, attorneys to medical aides, engineers to accountants.

Once the realm of people who preferred part-time, flexible work schedules or newbies needing a foot in the door, agency-placed temporary jobs are a growing haven for laid-off professionals and those in skilled trades. And with companies cutting millions of full-time jobs this year, staffing industry experts say they’re fielding more and more applications from seasoned workers.

“Staffing firms have been flooded with candidates,” says Steve Berchem, vice president of the American Staffing Association, a staffing industry group based in Alexandria, Va. After a slump in 2008, hiring has stabilized this year, with professional and managerial posts making up about 50 percent of temporary jobs.

The weekly paycheck may not be as fat as at your previous job, but it definitely pays to work at temporary jobs. The average worker in the temporary sector earned $14.77 per hour in March, reports the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Depending on your abilities and background, the rate can range from minimum wage for day laborers to more than $120 per hour for doctors and senior executives.

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From: Wisebread

Rumor has it that we tend to spend less in retirement, but it sure seems as though we come up to the buying intersection more frequently as we grow older. Worst of all, it’s as if the intersection gets wider with more traffic so our decision gets more complicated as we age too. Will buying that HDTV affect our savings goal? Do I have enough for my kids’ college if I change my car now? Luckily, for the most part, buying is rarely our only option. Here are 7 alternatives to buying.

1. Make It Instead
One of the great products of the information superhighway is the abundance of how-to guides and access to people with unique expertise. If you are willing to put in some effort, a vast majority of stuff can actually be made. Note: DIY isn’t always cheaper though. There are situations in which DIY is more expensive.

2. Fix What’s Broken
Repairing is really becoming a lost art. In our modern society, replacing is often a cheaper solution but fixing is not solely about cost. Fixing is sometimes about convenience and self sufficiency too. Just the other day, a fluorescent light fixture in my home stopped functioning. Despite my efforts, no electrician wanted to come replace it because the job was too small. I ended up taking it apart myself and changing out the ballast, which took all of 15 minutes to do. Could I have eventually found someone that I can pay enough to come by? Of course, but how long will that take?

3. Refurbish What You Already Own
Whether it’s giving your car a fresh coat of paint of refinishing your furniture, many of what you already have can be made fresh again. If you’ve never done this, you might be surprised at how simple updates can completely change the perception of whether something needs to be replaced or not. Note that quality of work matters a good deal. If you are going to repaint your car for instance, it’s crucial to find a reputable body shop that can do a good job. Going with the lowest cost is rarely a good idea, so think carefully before you decide!
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From: Mint.com

Buying food in bulk can save you a lot of money — unless the food goes to waste. After all, how many families are going to eat five pounds of strawberries in one week?

To cut waste and take advantage of the deals at warehouse retailers, households across the country are starting informal food buying clubs. While the clubs aren’t super structured, they do require organizing, planning and a level of flexibility to make them a success.

Get the Word Out

To state the obvious, your food buying club won’t be much of a success without club members. The question is, how many?

In traditional food co-ops, the larger that number, the more money the group will save. But if you are simply looking at shopping in bulk at a warehouse retailer or local supermarket (rather than work with a local farmer as is the case with most food coops), having too many members may make things too complicated. Keeping the group at between five to ten families makes more sense, says Patricia Seaman, director of marketing at National Foundation for Financial Education.
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Vice President Joe Biden has declared that the heavy lifting is over for the year, and it’s time to begin campaigning and talking about the White House’s accomplishments. The heavy lifting might be over, but it sounds like the heavy shoveling is just beginning.

- The Tonight Show with Jay Leno

“The artificial life support is low interest rates. If the Fed pulls the plug, this phony economy is going to die. Now, it needs to die unfortunately because we need to replace it with a viable economy, not the phony one that is living off the low interest rates. But that’s reality. Just look at the housing market; I’ve been watching a lot of analysts talk about the fact that, ‘we need to help refinance, we need to get homeowners to take advantage of these low interest rates to refinance their mortgages.’ Everybody focuses on the borrowers side of this exchange. Yes, the borrower gets to refinance, he gets to save money. But there are two sides to this equation. There’s the borrower and there’s the lender…”

From: Walletpop

From running your dog at a city dog park and parking your car, to visiting the local community center, the use of government services can be like feeding a vending machine as residents find themselves nickel and dimed for services that once cost little or nothing. Here are 10 places where you will now have to pay up. Call it a symptom of the Great Recession, as governments struggle to reconcile budget shortfalls in creative if unpopular ways.

1. Public Parks
Be sure to have cash in hand when heading out for a Sunday picnic. Starting Aug. 1 in Phoenix, Ariz., city mountain parks and reserves will charge $5 per day or $75 a year to park a car. The city’s parks board had considered a $10 daily parking fee, but compromised.

2. Property and Tax information
If you’re cruising the Information Highway, the city of East Lansing, Mich., charges a $2 fee to access property and tax information online. Property owners will still be able to get their property records and tax data for free online, but a detailed search of their property or search of other properties will cost $2.

3. Loo Tax
In Newark, N.J., city workers will soon have to start bringing their own toilet paper to work because the city isn’t buying it anymore.
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From: Europac

By: John Browne

At long last, a good portion of mainstream economists now concede that a ‘double dip’ recession is in the cards for the United States. To head off the pain, sixteen top economists addressed an open letter to the President urging him to “stimulate” the economy with a massive new round of government spending. We feel this is a recipe for driving a recession into a depression. However, there can be few doubts that such a move is being considered in the highest policy circles. Flush from victories in financial regulation and healthcare, the Administration may feel the conditions are ripe to push through another bold initiative.

If so, the United States may find itself in a very diminishing bloc of nations who fail to appreciate the magnitude of the global debt crisis. Its policies will become increasingly at odds with the drift of other world powers. Given American dependence on economic support from abroad, the risks of such isolation are significant.

On July 20th, UK Prime Minister David Cameron made his first official visit to the US. At a joint press conference that followed the private meeting, President Obama and Mr. Cameron papered over the fundamental economic disagreements that separate both governments.
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From: Moneynews

By: Dan Weil

Harvard economic historian Niall Ferguson has an explanation for why unemployment remains stubbornly high at 9.5 percent. It’s the threat of tax increases as the Bush tax cuts end this year.

“Why is it that small- and medium-sized businesses in the United States today are not hiring? Why is it that they’re not expanding?” he said on CNN.

“It’s because they see the tax hikes coming that are implied by this fiscal policy.”

The United States is running a budget deficit estimated by the White House at $1.47 trillion for this year. And the government debt burden totals around 10 percent of GDP.
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