zoocrew

You have to watch the first episode. It's on line. REALLY good.

I've always believed you to be level headed and have a lot of common sense. Still do. But do you honestly believe the government would manipulate the numbers just to make Obama look good? If that were true, wouldn't they make the numbers look much better than the are now? In the age where the internet has brought transperency, if the numbers were manipulated, it would be discovered in a matter of days with a big pay out for the whistle blower with book deals and a movie. But the numbers are transparent. No one questions them because everyone has the same access to the same information. Onl

I don't think anyone blamed Reagan. I think it is a waaay oversimplification to blame this on the Democrats and Fannie Mae. You should really watch the Front Line Special that takes an in depth look at the cause of the mess. It interviews the people who were there, from all sides of the political isle, and they don't lay the blame on the Democrats or anything like that. Instead, they say it was a bubble caused by a lot of factors that all came together at a massive congruence of disaster. The final 2 hours is on tonight. Here is the link. It is well worth your time. My link

It's a good group and they are for mostly non-indigent patients. In other words, they get a higher class of patient than say Grady. I don't know the Labor and Delivery people personally, but management at all hospitals change often. What is a good operation today may not be tomorrow for a variety of reasons, and that will lead directly to management changes and then operations changes. It's a cycle just like in any corporate conglomerate. I can tell you that the people I've talked to in the past have like Piedmont but the drive from Paulding is a pain because of traffic.

The lower skilled, blue collar type jobs, pay much more here. The higher skilled white collar jobs are a different story. We are right now doing a "sister-system" program with a Chinese medical facility. The issues are the same. The problems are the same. The only difference is the Chinese system is not nearly as sympatheitc to condition of being human than our system is. Pay? The staff comparisons for non-skilled wages are extremely low in China compared to ours. Doctors and upper management are more similar but we still pay more here than the similar system in China. At least that is my

Can y'all add some links so we can check these out?

I read the dinner threads and I see people often talk about places they've eaten. So where are the Top 5 (or so) Best Meals/Restaurants you've ever been too? And add some links so others can check out your Best Meal places.

Husband will be out of town Wed and Thur so tonight is date night for us. So he is taking me to Appalachian Grill in Cartersville.

You realize, of course, that there are always job losses and job gains every day, right? The article said it was a business decision due to production costs being higher here than in China. When China costs go up, those facilities will move somewhere else. Of course, the company has no moral mandate to look out for its existing employees, does it?

Don't forget to compare it to corporate profits. My link

How about The Magus by John Fowles?

The real estate bubble that burst a few years ago is still be felt in many parts of the country, but some places have rebounded nicely. My link

With education becoming more and more expensive, is the existential understanding that liberal arts colleges provides enough to continue their relevance? And can the liberal arts schools afford to exist without reinventing themselves? My link

Here's the chart for retails sales and you can see that it has been climbing for the last 3 years, since the early 2009 low. Total sales are above where we were in 2007. My link

As more people go back to work and wages start to rise again, retails sales are following suit. Results were stronger after 11 of 13 sales categories showed increases, including electronics, clothing and furniture stores. My link

March retail sales numbers were up. My link

Love Jasper Fforde but haven't read this one yet? Review, please? Try The Name of the Rose, an old classic.

Actually, no. Consumer spending has INCREASED over the last three months. In fact, it has been increasing for a while now. Why? Well, more people are going back to work. Also, salaries are going up nationwide. My link However, like the first article I posted, the rate of consumer spending was a bit slower. Consumer spending still INCREASED but at a slower rate than the previous month. That happens. People don't run a faster mile each time and often times it is hard to run that mile. Same with consumer spending and confidence and every thing else.

I usually only run 6 miles a week and the rest of the days, I go to the gym for an hour or two. The weather was so nice in the early mornings, I decided to spend more time running. Loving it! But my work is suffering with the extra work outs.

Go to the link. Put in the begin date of September 1991, a few months before Clinton took over from Bush 1 in January 1992.

So where is everyone planning on spending some time away this year?

No way. Not Ryans. Not Golden Corral. It would have to be something terribly wrong for me to go in those places.

Actually we are higher than we were when Carter first took over. We are vastly improved from where we were in 2009. The last time we were this bad was under Bush 1. My link Things don't go straight up or down. There are longer trends and a lot of information that goes into this.

There are many ways to help the environment. Here's just one. For more, go to the link. My link

The stories didn't give a different message at all. The latter said consumer spending is still growing but has slowed over last month. That is normal during a recovery. It is also normal for unemployment to go back up a bit during a recovery. The point is that bad news is not fatal news. Bad news is always out there. Things don't go straight up. But we are still growing. A recession is certainly on the horizon but who knows when. It could be today or 5 years from now. That doesn't mean things aren't growing now.