StickWithANose

Today’s cheery theme is brought to us by Glenn Greewald… Salon

Does anyone doubt that once a society ceases to be able to afford schools, public transit, paved roads, libraries and street lights — or once it chooses not to be able to afford those things in pursuit of imperial priorities and the maintenance of a vast Surveillance and National Security State — that a very serious problem has arisen, that things have gone seriously awry, that imperial collapse, by definition, is an imminent inevitability?

Yves Smith points us toward the ugliness that is Friday’s job report… Naked Capitalism

While the preparation of economic data is always a fraught business, one hopes that errors are more or less symmetrical, particularly in data series that (as is the case for some important metrics in the US, like GDP), are released on an initial basis (almost without exception the only one Mr. Market notices) and tidied up subsequently. It’s troubling when a statistical release shows a marked bias over time in corrections. It suggests at best a need for a change in methodology (something statisticians are reluctant to implement, since it means the series will not be strictly comparable over time) or at worst, political meddling (pressure to interpret legitimate ambiguities in the early findings so as to produce a prettier picture).

The Employment to Population Ratio is dismal… The Vantage Point

The Bureau of Labor and Statistics released new data today that shows the US employment to population ratio is continuing to plummet. As of July 2010, the employment to population ratio stood at 58.9%, down from 59.5% last month.

Income Inequality is equally dismal… Modeled Behavior

Its impressive that the income for the Top 1% races off while the income for the middle and lower class is squished towards the bottom.

Wyoming threatens to sell chuck of Grand Tetons to raise money for education… Guardian

Governor Dave Freudenthal is threatening to sell off a chunk of one of America’s most beautiful national parks unless the Obama administration comes up with more money to pay for education in the financially beleaguered state.

He says he will auction land valued at $125m (£80m) in the Grand Teton national park, one of the country’s most stunning wildernesses. Part of the park was donated by John Rockefeller Jr.

Other parts belong to the state government including two parcels of land of about 550 hectares (1,360 acres) designated as school trust lands to be “managed for maximum profit” to generate funds for education in Wyoming.

Man, do I need a vacation before classes start up or what? I’ll let George Carlin close this out with some parting wisdom about the state of the world…