Another Sunday morning in the dying empire of lies. It will be deceptively, unseasonably warm and sunny today, matching the state of the state. The apparent calm hides the malevolence brewing under it all.
The two biggest stories of the new year are the exuberance underlying the market gains and jobs reports AND the Persian drama.
Apparently some major players moved into equities early this week driving the DOW higher. Who and why I can't fathom. Nothing changed for the better since the market ended in December. The Euro is lower and oil prices went higher but all of that is based upon bad news about Greece and Iran. The Greek economy is still dying and Iran will somehow retaliate against sanctions. Neither will be good for the DOW in the long run. Or the economy.
The job gains touted for December are nonsense, especially the claim that unemployment had dropped to 8.4%, the best in three years. The bottom line is that the workforce has permanently shrunk and shifted to low paying jobs. The government claiming that 42,000 minimum wage, temporary Christmas gift delivering couriers employment is cause for optimism is absurd.
Everything coming out of the government this year will be about employing Obama for another 4 years. That's all that matters. The rest of us can just die.
What we have is 80% of the 146 million american workforce playing musical chairs with decent paying jobs while the the other 20% struggles to find work that will barely keep them alive. If you're one of the lucky 117 million, life is Ok to good, if you're one of the 29 million, sorry about you luck.
The MSM has turned the unemployment/underemployment crisis into a problem of lacking job skills, AKA education credentials. If only the 29 million unemployed would get some skills, they'd be working and making good pay. That's utter bullshit because I know lots of people with degrees who can't find work or make decent wages. Much of that has to do with the modern online hiring process that screens good people into permanent unemployment. The system couldn't assess skills if companies lives depended on it. It's broke.
Five weeks after my boss left the company I still don't have a boss as the company goes through "reorganization". There is no communication from senior management and over half the employees have left the company. Those of us who remain go through the motions every day but there is no direction. We still get paid but wonder how long that will continue with few customers and no path forward.
I applied for a couple of jobs this weekend that current employees said I was well qualified to perform. I used the online application tool that corporate HR required as referrals are not allowed. I prepared my resume and cover letter then used the online screening tool. I'm fairly certain I'll be rejected based upon the screening tool as my "credentials" don't precisely match the job.
The jobs have been open for more than 6 months and apparently no-one qualifies! Even though I know of at least a hundred people, including myself, who qualify closely enough. Instead the companies are killing their current employees trying to cover the unstaffed tasks. It's a mindless mystery.
I turn 61 in a week. I'll keep showing up at work with my existing "employer" until the doors are locked one morning. Then I'll decide what to do. Unemployment until early retirement? Drive two hours one way to work every day? Fly to Beijing every month to do contract work? Drive and fly all over the country doing field service work? Not anything that I want to do for the last few years of my work life.
Maybe I should retire then let the government pay for me to go back to school to get my "credentials". Then when I graduate at age 65 I could re-apply for the jobs I can already perform. Do you think employers would consider me? More important, would the MSM and government consider me a "success story" even if employers laugh at me?
It's the damnest thing every morning when I drive to work. Hundreds of cars heading north while me and hundreds of other cars drive south 50 miles to work. Why? Some want to live where they want to live. Most can't sell their house. So we commute. $13 worth of gasoline a day. Most people say I could do the two jobs open for 6 months where I live. But corporate HR geniuses with their killer apps beg to differ.
It's all lies, all the time now in the dying empire. But we have killer apps.