NC Media Watch

Nevada County's investment in green technology?

Russ Steele

 
I have advised against local investment green technologies, especially those that are dependent on government subsidies for several years.  Once the subsidies are gone the businesses will collapse. Now with the release of the data from the University of East Anglia Climate Research Unit, we find out that much of the climate change data supporting the need to go green has been contaminated by fraud. If you have green investments, or investments in companies going green, you might want to examine the increased risk created by last weeks news that human caused climate change is a scientific hoax. 

Nevada County's Economic Resource Council needs to proceed with caution. This whole going green issue may vanish over night and local green investors will be holding the bag.

CA's Unemployment is at 12.5%, up from 12.2% (Updated 11-21-09)

Russ Steele

The states reporting a record jobless rate were California at 12.5 percent, South Carolina at 12.1 percent, Florida at 11.2 percent and Delaware at 8.7 percent. The District of Columbia also set a high with an 11.9 percent rate.

Joblessness rose in 29 U.S. states last month compared with 22 in September, the Labor Department said today in Washington. Michigan had the highest jobless rate at 15.1 percent, followed by Nevada at 13 percent and Rhode Island at 12.9 percent.

Full details at Bloomberg.com

UPDATE (11-21-09)  Nevada County unemployment rate for October is 11.3%, up from adjusted 10.9% in September. The City/Region Numbers for October:

Grass Valley: 10.2%
Nevada City:17.0%
Penn Valley: 15.4%
Truckee: 9.3%
Alta Sierra: 8.2%

The only bright spot was Information with a 2.8% increase in employment, about 30 jobs, but it is still down -7.5% from the beginning of the year.

Stimulating Government

Russ Steele

Tom McClintock today spoke in Congress about the economic stimulus bill, here are some excerpts:

“As of this morning, the administration claims that in my 4th Congressional District of California, the brain trust at the Treasury Department has spent $182 million to save or create all of 168 jobs.  That’s $1.1 million per job!”

ooo
 
"They claim to have saved or created 110,000 jobs in California.  75,000 of those jobs occur in a single zip code, 95814."
 
"What is 95814?  That’s the zip code that encompasses the state capitol and the state bureaucracies.  Stimulating the economy?  All we’re doing is stimulating government at the expense of the economy."

More government jobs will only result in more demands for additional taxes to pay for those new jobs once the stimulus money is spent. 

How’s that new EPA transparency working out?

Russ Steele

We are up to two and counting the number of cases where the EPA Administrator has attempted to silence her own staff from setting the record straight with the truth. The truth is not allowed when it is not deemed consistent with the political desires of the Obama Administration. According to the EPA telling the truth is wrong if it conflicts with policy? 

The Wall Street Journal’s Kim Strassel writes:

Meet the Obama EPA, and its new suppressing, paranoid style. It was the president who once ripped the Bush administration for silencing scientific critics, and it was EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson who began her tenure promising the agency would operate like a “fishbowl.” But that was before EPA realized how vastly unpopular is its plan to usurp Congress and regulate the economy on its own, based on its bizarre finding that CO2 is a danger to health.

EPA Attorneys: Cap and Trade Is Fatally Flawed

There are real jobs and then there are Obama jobs

Russ Steele

An audit by the Washington Examiner has found that 75,343 jobs that were created or saved by the Obama administration are bogus. The Recovery.org site claims 640,000 jobs created or saved, but many of those job were create or saved in Congressional Districts that do not exist.

In Minnesota’s 57th Congressional District, 35 jobs have been saved or created using $404,340 in stimulus funds. In New Mexico’s 22nd Congressional District, 25 jobs have been saved or created using $61,000 in stimulus cash. And in Arizona’s fighting 15th Congressional District, 30 jobs have been saved or created with just $761,420 in federal stimulus spending. None of the above Congressional Districts actually exist.

The Washington Examiner has created an interactive web page to track the creation of bogus jobs here. Some examples in California:

San Joaquin, CA: The Regional Rail Commission double-counted 125 jobs it had created with a stimulus grant. Source: AP

Los Angles, CA: "Los Angeles-based Syska Hennessy Group Construction reported 93 jobs stemming from an Army contract...The number is closer to two jobs because the construction work has not started yet..."  Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Sacramento, CA: The California State University system received $268.5 million in stimulus funds and claimed that the money allowed them to save over 26,000 jobs or half its workforce. But when pressed, the California State University system admitted they weren't really going to lay off half their workforce, and that in fact few or none of these jobs would have been lost without the stimulus. "This is not really a real number of people," a CSU spokesman said. "It's like a budget number." Source: Sacramento Be

The audit is just beginning, so far 11.7 percent are bogus jobs and the numbers are increasing. What to guess the final results?  Put your guess in a comment.

H/T to Heritage Foundation's Morning Bell.

California misses the top ten of Best Cities

Russ Steele

Milken Institute has published it's Best-Performing Cities Index. California cities are not in top ten of the big cites or top ten of the little cities.

Leaders in this year's index, which ranks U.S. metros based on their ability to create and sustain jobs, are all metros that succeeded in avoiding the worst of the economic declines driven by falling housing markets and job losses in manufacturing and global trade. The 2009 Top 10 performers (with 2008 rankings) of the 200 largest metros are:
    1.    Austin-Round Rock, TX (4)
    2.    Killeen-Temple-Fort Hood, TX (13)
    3.    Salt Lake City, UT (3)
    4.    McAllen-Edinburg-Mission, TX (7)
    5.    Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown, TX (16)
    6.    Durham, NC (21)
    7.    Olympia, WA (9)
    8.    Huntsville, AL (5)
    9.    Lafayette, LA (14)
    10.    Raleigh-Cary, NC (2)

Regional economic factors also strongly influenced the rankings this year, with the oil and gas sector, technology and alternative energy providing stability among metros in Texas, North Carolina, Washington and Louisiana, which also benefited from low dependence on housing/construction. Austin in particular has been helped by its strong tech industry. It is the first metro to rank No. 1 twice on the index, the last time being in 2000.

The Milkin Institute has created an interactive tool that lets readers check there favorite cities ranking here.

Important Comment bumped to a Post

Russ Steele

Below is a comment by Steve Enos on Economy Trumps Green Jobs.  This is an issue being discussed on Fox News by economic experts - the solution recommended was cut spending!  But, many states are hoping for a Federal bailout. California is 12-14 Billion in the hold. We can expect more cuts, he has run out of accounting tricks.

Steve Enos wrote:

California is not alone... seems one of the states "barreling toward an economic disaster similar to California's ongoing fiscal crisis" is... FLORIDA... and Nevada and Arizona are on the list too!

Dixon, what's up with Florida? Who has been running Florida? Did Jeb set the stage or...? A study released Wednesday warns that nine states are barreling toward an economic disaster similar to California's ongoing fiscal crisis that has been marked by IOUs and budget-busting deficits. The budget woes could mean higher taxes, accelerated layoffs of government employees, more crowded classrooms and fewer services in the coming year for some of the nation's most populous states.

Arizona, Florida, Illinois, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island and Wisconsin join California as those most at risk of fiscal calamity, according to the report by the Pew Center on the States. Double-digit budget gaps, rising unemployment, high home foreclosure rates and built-in budget constraints are the key reasons. The analysis urged lawmakers and governors in those states to take quick action to head off a wider economic catastrophe. The 10 states account for more than one-third of America's population and economic output, according to the report.

"While California often takes the spotlight, other states are facing hardships just as daunting," said Susan Urahn, managing director of the Washington, D.C.-based center. "Decisions these states make as they try to navigate the recession will play a role in how quickly the entire nation recovers." California leads the most vulnerable states identified by Pew, which describes it as having poor money-management practices. According to the Legislative Analyst's Office, California has made nearly $60 billion in budget adjustments _ in the form of cuts to education and social service programs, temporary tax hikes, one-time gimmicks and stimulus spending _ since February as tax revenues plunged. Many of those fixes aren't expected to last.

The state's temporary tax hikes will begin to expire at the end of 2010, while federal stimulus spending will begin to run out a year after that. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger estimates California will likely run a deficit of between $12.4 billion and $14.4 billion when he releases his next spending plan in January. The top estimate amounts to 17 percent of the state's $84.6 billion general fund budget, the main account for day-to-day spending. General fund spending in California has dropped nearly $20 billion over the past two years. The governor warned that the toughest cuts are ahead.

Which one is NIMBY Propaganda (Up dated 11/09/09)

Russ Steele

Recently Citizens Looking At Impact of Mining - Grass Valley, or CLAIM-GV, published this picture of what the Idaho Maryland Mine would look like on the skyline of Grass Valley. A very emotionally disturbing picture for sure, with the huge smoke stacks sending plumes of gasses into Grass Valley's clean air. But, is it based on reality? 




The Idaho Maryland Mine Manager sent this rendering to a local blogger who has been critical of the mine. Note the missing stacks. 

 

Which one is propaganda?  The top one? The bottom one? Both?  Keep reading.

Nevada County Second Quarter Sales Tax down 23.4%

Russ Steele

The Weekly CEO Letter has a County Sales Tax Update for the 2nd Quarter - 2009:

Actual sales activity was down 17.5% when reporting aberrations were factored out. Adjusted for aberrations, taxable sales for all of Nevada County, including its cities, declined 23.4% over the comparable time period, while the Far North region as a whole was down 20.1%.

The Grocery Stores with out alcohol numbers were inflated due to retroactive correction of previous reporting errors.

Guess California's October unemployment rate

Russ Steele

This is a Department of labor  graphic of how California's unemployment rate is tracking the US rate.

There was a 2.4 point difference between California and the US rate in September,  with what appears to be a growing gap.  Please put your guess what you think the California October rate will be in a comment. Will it be 14.6% or higher? Or, lower?