Nonsense and No Cents

Here were economic headlines for Friday.....on what planet does any of this balance? Or do any good for all the folks in the great middle economy with salaries in the 25K-45K? We can't get aid because we earn "too much", our futures and credit are being destroyed and yet our congress goes on vacation.
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New York Times
Jobless Rate Climbs to 5.7% as 51,000 Jobs Lost in July

By MICHAEL M. GRYNBAUM
Published: August 2, 2008

The nation’s employers eliminated 51,000 jobs in July, the seventh consecutive contraction in the labor market, as the unemployment rate reached a four-year high, signs that the pressure on business owners and consumers was likely to continue. (more)

Exxon’s Second-Quarter Earnings Set a Record

By CLIFFORD KRAUSS
Published: August 1, 2008
HOUSTON — Exxon Mobil reported the best quarterly profit ever for a corporation on Thursday, beating its own record, but investors sold off shares as oil and natural gas prices resumed their recent decline. (more)

Tampa Tribune

Stores Join Students In Dreading Back-To-School Season

By JACOB SCHNEIDER The Tampa Tribune

TAMPA - In seven years of selling school supplies, Traci Torres cannot remember a back-to-school shopping season shaping up as gloomy as this one.
"Since last January or February, people are, instead of spending money on supplies ... using it to live," said Torres, manager at AOE Artworld, an art supply store in Tampa. "They're buying supplies only as needed. They're not coming in with a class list and saying we need everything on the list." (more)

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As a teacher who is struggling economically like many others, I am having to think VERY carefully about every penny I spend for my classroom. Yes, if you didn't know we pour much of our salaries back into "our kids" education. There just won't be much to pour this year.