Sunday, December 6, 2009
Food, Inc.
In June 2009, a stirring new documentary called Food, Inc. (link to blog post) is being release in theaters. From the producers of An Inconvenient Truth, this film takes a pointed look beyond the dinner table at how your food is grown, processed and sold. For many, youll never look at dinner the same way again.
Who Killed the Electric Car?
A 2006 documentary film that explores the creation, limited commercialization, and subsequent destruction of the battery electric vehicle in the United States, specifically the General Motors EV1 of the 1990s. The film explores the roles of automobile manufacturers, the oil industry, the US government, the Californian government, batteries, hydrogen vehicles, and consumers in limiting the development and adoption of this technology.
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Unemployment Numbers
The unemployment rate jumped from 9.8 percent in Sepetember to 10.2 in October (which is the highest level since 1983) and a net loss of 190,000 jobs in October. It is seemingly possible that the nation might yet confront the worst joblessness since the Great Depression.
In the six decades since the government began compiling such data, the highest level of unemployment came at the end of 1982, when it hit 10.8 percent. Despite the widespread assumption that the recession has already ended, and even as the economy has resumed growing, the government’s latest snapshot of the labor market released Friday testified to the uncomfortable truth that expansion had yet to translate into jobs.
The unemployment facts:
-1 out of 10 members of the workforcs is unemployed (that's 15.7 million people),
-For every 10 unemployed people, more that three have been unemployed for at least six months,
-Including part time, but want to work full time and discouraged workers (individuals who have given up looking for employment), the jobless rate is 17.5 percent,
-The last time unemployment was this high was in 1983, it took almost 5 years to return to pre-recession levels of unemployment.
In summary, we have unemployment that was worse than expected. Stimuli such as extending unemployment benefits as well as the first-time home buyer tax credit is barely keeping us above water.
On the next blog..."What cures a big recession?"
In the six decades since the government began compiling such data, the highest level of unemployment came at the end of 1982, when it hit 10.8 percent. Despite the widespread assumption that the recession has already ended, and even as the economy has resumed growing, the government’s latest snapshot of the labor market released Friday testified to the uncomfortable truth that expansion had yet to translate into jobs.
The unemployment facts:
-1 out of 10 members of the workforcs is unemployed (that's 15.7 million people),
-For every 10 unemployed people, more that three have been unemployed for at least six months,
-Including part time, but want to work full time and discouraged workers (individuals who have given up looking for employment), the jobless rate is 17.5 percent,
-The last time unemployment was this high was in 1983, it took almost 5 years to return to pre-recession levels of unemployment.
In summary, we have unemployment that was worse than expected. Stimuli such as extending unemployment benefits as well as the first-time home buyer tax credit is barely keeping us above water.
On the next blog..."What cures a big recession?"
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