Infinite Borrowing

 Americans have substantially increased their borrowing in October, due to big increases in auto and student loans, and the largest rise in credit card debt in five months.

Consumers have increased their borrowing by 18.2 billion dollar since October to a seasonally adjusted $3.08 trillion, accordion to the Federal Reserves Friday reports, which happens to be a record level and follows up a September increase of $16.3 billion.

$13.9 billion rose in borrowing from auto loans and student loans, But  borrowing in the credit cards category has rose $4.3 billion dollars, following a decline of $218 million in September. One of the possible reasons for this could include Black Friday shopping but Christmas coming around the corner a slight increase could be expected. Another possible contributor is society's encouragement to go back to school and learn new trades in a time where wages increase very minimally. Since student loans account for the biggest increase in borrowing debt since the recession that ended in June 2009, controlling that could but a dent in this increasing issue. 

The only problem is that the Fed's borrowing report tracks credit card debt, auto loans and student loans but not mortgages, home equity loans and other loans. Meaning that there is still a cause of a the rising debt that is unaccounted for, but will have to be analyzed further to ensure our economy takes yet another step in the right direction. 

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/12/08/teen-dies-aboard-delta-airlines-flight-from-seattle-to-atlanta/?intcmp=trending

Fading Unemployement

In obamas second (and obviously last term) the U.S. unemployment rate fell to a 5-year low of 7 percent. November was the fourth straight month of solid hiring, this glimpse of hope shines bright for our economy. 

The Labor Department estimated that employers across the nation added about 203,000 jobs, nearly matching October's revised gain of 200,000. The jobs gained dramatically helped lower the unemployment rate from 7.3 percent in October to the flat 7 percent rate it's is recorded at today with hope of lowering even further. 

The rejuvenating job market is likely to create speculation that the Federal Reserve may start to revise their bond purchases in their next scheduled meeting. 

The economy has now generated an average of 204,000 jobs from August through November. In contrast to the average of 159,000 from April to July. 

An extremely surprising fact is that many of the November jobs acquired were in higher-paying industries. Manufacturers are reported to have added around 27,000 positions, (the most since March 2012), while, construction firms gained about 17,000.

In a year containing horrific murders, suicides, immense poverty, and an generic struggle embedded within the common American's life this serves as an empowering symbol that gives just enough strength into our economy's pale, weak hands to hold us together a little longer for a bigger and better change. The change Obama 1st campaign consisted of, but until then those trapped in fates cruel side must hang on with the this new glimpse of hope. 

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/12/06/us-unemployment-rate-falls-to-5-year-low-7-percent-as-employers-add-203000-jobs/

Controlling The Thirsties.

 There is a major crisis on the rise, there is a wine shortage around the world. The industry is experiencing an under supply of almost 300 billion cases a year.  There are a total of 2.8 billion cases produced globally each year, which Europe is 50% responsible for. In the last year the global production of wine fell almost 5%, which is the lowest production has ever been since the 1960's. What's causing the wine shortage you may ask? Well, the best grapes are harvested in Argentina and France which are both having some severe weather. When it's extremely cold outside and the ground freezes the crops die from lack of nutrition. 

 Production is just the European states alone has dropped a full 10% in 2012! In 2012 the consumption of wine rose by 1% also. Imagine that, the supply of the necessary things that are needed to make wine are down, which makes the demand even greater.

 The French are the top consumers of wine, followed my Americans, leaving the Chinese as the third largest consumers in the world. Wine has become very popular in China because if you could afford it you were considered to have a higher standard of living. China is trying to help solve the problem by beginning to produce their own wine. 

 America only produces about 8% of the worlds wine, yet consumes around 12% and consumption has risen by 2% in the last year alone. America is also trying to get the wine industry booming by creating "wine boutiques", but it still isn't enough to satisfy the rest of the worlds wants. 

NObamacare!!

  After three weeks of the Obamacare websites being open to the public there have been many negative complaints. Many people are having difficulties signing into healthcare.gov. When the site was first launched there was an error that wouldn't let you sign into the network and kept you on a page that appeared to be loading. But, as of now applicants are sent an error message. Maura Grady, from Florida, expressed to CNNMoney her frustration about the network flaws. When asked if she would try it again she replied "2, maybe 3 years! When I'm in the mood for some aggravation." I thought that was hilarious, but at the same time unfortunate that a problem caused her so much stressing which is going to make her miss out on a great opportunity. But, hey, can we blame her?

   Another great issue is that when isurers are getting the applicants forms sometimes very important information is missing like their full name, address or email address. Since the Obamacare plan is starting out to be a major busy it looks like the economy is going to suffer (as if the government shut down wasn't already bad enough). Obamacare care was made to help people, not to add stress. These issues need to be fixed immediately if the website is going to be effective for applicants because they are not going to waste there time on it.

Privately Public.

  The owner of a privately run inn along the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina is back in business five days after the federal government forced him to close as a result of the governments inability to reach a budget.

Bruce O'Connell, owner of the pisgah inn, told Fox News that hopefully his business was reopening and by Wednesday it was. 

O'Connell was one of the many private business owners who argued that the government implemented on their rights/ability to sufficiently make money, and the closing down of his inn was yet another example. 

Congress and their inability to come up with a new budget affects this business owner because his inn/gift shop/country store was leased on federal land it was temporarily closed putting a small dent in Bruce's pockets. 

Initially he attempted civil disobedience and kept his shop open, but his rebel days were short lived due to rangers from the national park service showed up and block the entrance refusing to let anyone enter. 

O'Connell reports that there were 3 cars of 5 rangers attending to a 24/7 blockade to prevent any business of and sort until billing was possible. 

Rep. Doc Hastings, chairman of the House Committee on Natural Resources, told FoxNews, “It appears to me the Obama administration is choosing to make this shutdown as painful as possible by unnecessarily forcing privately run small businesses to close just because they happened to be located on public lands, especially when this didn’t happen in the last government shutdown." 

Wednesday marked the ninth day of the government shutdown and hundreds of thousands of federal employees are unpaid, such as veterans, federal land including national parks, and even cancer treating places such as NIH are unable to accept new applicants. 

The government are relentlessly searching for a solution, but until then many government services shall remain on hold.  

Hidden Consequences

The government shutdown was dedicated to repeal or change unrelated laws, which in turn would benefit the people of our nation, but once again the government has overlooked the downfall of their decision. 

One recipient of the shutdowns consequences is 30 year old cancer patient, Michelle Langbehn. She has a rare form of cancer known as fibrosarcoma and was days away from being accepted to the national institute of health, but now that the government has closed they are now not able to accept any new applicants. Cancer is unpredictable so in the event that overnight Michelle's cancer advances to a deadly stage would the blood be on the governments hands? 

Another example is Ameri-Corp who provides an learning environment for underprivileged children as well as jobs to the unemployed, but now that the national budget isn't settled their funding may not make it in time to open their winter program. This is depriving the possible chance to further educate those born without  the same advantages as others, thus lowering their chances to make the economical impact our nation truly needs. 

Even the 57 year old disabled veteran, Robin A. Davidson has to deal with the consequences. The navy reservist was supposed to have surgery this week at Travis Air Force Base, but because of the shutdown, it was canceled. So as of know he is trapped with the constant pain in which he quoted as, significantly impacting his ability to work and due to his failure to meet the required age for retirement, he must muster the strength to continue. 

All in all the shutdown was done with good intentions, but certain provisions to further minimize its consequences should've been taken. Although the effects are a bit extreme, it serves as a guideline to be corrected in the event that a shut down is ever required again, just as every other failure in American society. 

Food vs. Family

President Barrack Obama presented his plan to raise minimum wage at the beginning of his 1st campaign which rapidly turned big business against him due to the increased cost of labor. The sheer thought of 15 million workings getting paid more may present a few major problems such as lower funds to higher more employees and the possible need to raise other positions wages, but after reading CNN's article of 23 year old, Dejun Jackson I felt the push was desperately needed. 

Dejun wakes up 5 days a week at 4:30 am to prepare for his 5:30 shift at chick-fil-a. He works until 1 pm then walks to his next job at Walgreens by 1:15. He then fights a battle against the clock until 9:30 when he finally gets to begin his journey home to his 5 year old son and 4 year old daughter asleep in their beds. The only real time he feels he gets to fulfill his fatherly duties is on the weekends resembling a split household. Once he crashes into his bed he soon hears the screech of his alarm clock faithfully at 4:30 to start the cycle again. 

"Their mom is doing it all," he said. "I work to put food on the table. My money is needed, but so is my time, and all I want to be able to do is give them more time."

Out of the two days he manages to output 70 hours a week and makes 8.75 at Chik-fil-a and 10.22 at Walgreens, but still makes 50,000 a year. Now the amount may seem sufficient, but at what cost? Should a child loose their father just to provide for them? The struggle he endures for them has the possibility to make them feel like a burden to a man whom they must care dearly about, and there are other places in which the money goes. The children's daycare cost 150 a month and to create more time for his kids he is attending college to gain his bachelors, in hopes if getting a job that allows him to provide both financially and emotionally, but until then Jackson has no choice but to continue missing the little moments that make being a father so important. He says it's just something he had to do. 

So once again, acknowledging the difficulties in raising minimum wage, I feel this is just the surface of the pain and suffering a family must endure just to keep food on the table, clothes on their backs, and maintain a family bond. 

Band Bathsalts!

If you're like me, you never knew that something as soothing as bath salts could be abused and used as a drug. I've heard many stories of people inhaling bath salts and it causing them the hallucinate. In one, a woman allegedly tried to behead her 71-year old mother. Bath salts are characterized as an synthetic drug. For example, synthetic marijuana, which is sold in stores labeled as "potpourri". Marijuana and cocaine are less harmful than synthetic drugs because unlike bath salts and synthetic marijuana they come from plants. Synthetic drugs are man made, usually containing methamphetamine, and can be fatal if consumed. Because of this, the government wants to make all synthetic drugs illegal. Banning bath salts would be unfair for the inventor and would change the economy in a minor way. That business would no longer have anything (legally) to sell which which make the company irrelevant.

 

"What you need to know about synthetic drugs"

 http://www.cnn.com/2013/09/13/health/synthetic-drugs-7-things/index.html?c=us&page=4