It's the Economy, Stupid

Let's not talk about the debate last night. I have my opinion who won. The rest of you have your own opinion on who won. We can talk about it later.

Have you had enough of the roller coaster that is the economy this week?


I get sick every time I click into the current numbers on the Dow. I made the tragic mistake of looking at my 401K yesterday afternoon. I felt sick for all of the impending retirees over the next few months.

Makes me pine for the days in 1989 when I was a kid and had no clue what all of it really meant.

Also makes my current job hunt seem all the more desperate. The unemployment rate in New York currently is 5.8 % and New Jersey is 5.9%. That's up roughly a percentage point in each state since the same time last year....

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While driving on Monday morning I heard an interesting factoid on the Brian Lehrer show on WNYC (New York Public Radio)-and I am paraphrasing here since I can't find the exact quote online right now.



The topic was the bailout/recovery and Wall Street. The woman being interviewed said that 13% of New York State's total income was made below 14th Street in Manhattan.



Okay the state of New York is total 54,555 sq miles in size(thanks Wikipedia) and has a population of 19,297,729 (2007 quote from Wikipedia). It's extrememly safe to say that New York state makes more money and has a larger population than certain foreign nations!


And 13% of the state's income is based in an itty bitty a parcel of land that is inside of the 22.7 square miles that make up the island of Manhattan.


There's some food for thought.



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Ever wonder what $700 Billion could buy you and your family?

CNBC.com listed a nifty list of what science and technology could have landed with the Bailout/Recovery Bill;

For the sake of argument, however, here is a short list of what $700 billion would buy in the realm of science and technology:
1. Five complete Apollo space programs, which put 12 men on the moon between 1969 and 1972. Cost of Apollo program in 2005 dollars: $135 billion.
2. 23 years of funding for the National Institutes of Health. The 2009 fiscal budget is $30 billion, the same as 2008.
3. 259 years of funding for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, an independent research agency within the Department of Defense that has funded some of America's major innovations, including key elements of the solid-state electronics revolution.
4. 304 human genome projects at $2.3 billion apiece.
5. 653 MacBook laptops fully loaded with software for every child on Earth between the ages of 4 and 18.
6. 1,850 years of funding for the Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory, which is on the front lines of developing alternative sources of energy. The lab's budget was increased in 2007 to $378.4 million, from $209.6 million in 2006.

There's some food for thought.

Read the rest here-http://www.cnbc.com/id/27084395, What $700 Billion Worth of Technology Looks Like, by By David Ewing Duncan