Business Is Booming...

...in at least one area of the economy, according to the Washington Times:

The economic impact of the firearms industry is up 66 percent since the beginning of the Great Recession, providing an unexpected shot in the arm for the economy, according to a new study.

The National Shooting Sports Foundation says the economic impact of firearm sales — a figure that includes jobs. taxes and sales — hit $31 billion in 2011, up from $19 billion in 2008.

Jobs in the firearms business jumped 30 percent from 2008 to 2011, when the industry employed 98,750.

The industry paid $2.5 billion in federal taxes in 2011, up 66 percent in three years.

“Ours is an industry with a rich history and heritage that remains vital and important to the American economy today,” NSSF Senior Vice President Lawrence G. Keane said in a statement. “To millions of Americans our industry’s products represent liberty, security and recreation.”

...

Although there is no single indicator that tracks the number of firearms sold in the country, the FBI reported that a record 14.4 million criminal background checks were requested for gun purchases in 2010, and that preliminary numbers project the figure to be above 16 million for 2011.

According to the NSSF’s numbers, requests for gun-related background checks was up some 17.3 percent for the month of January 2012 compared to the same period a year earlier — the 20th straight monthly increase in background check requests.

FBI officials say that just over 1 percent of such background checks result in denials, and not every background check results in a final gun purchase. But the numbers are widely considered a reliable proxy for gun sales trends generally.

As the saying goes, there's always a bull market somewhere!

Bang-bang.

Comments

[John]

How many remember this? April 20, 1914: The Ludlow Massacre

Some snapshots of our past - or maybe our future http://whataboutmarx.blogspot.com/2012/04/how-many-remember-this-april-20-1914.html

[It's a battleground out there]

Jon Corzine Still Bundling for Obama

As ABC reported, "President Obama once hailed [Corzine] as an 'honorable man' and one of his 'best partners' in the White House." Since that time, Obama has tried to distance himself from Corzine, who at one point was considered for the treasury secretary slot.

But apparently Obama is still willing to use campaign funds from the embattled Corzine.

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/jon-corzine-still-bundling-obama_640493.html

Jon "Teflon Don" Corzine and his Posse Roam Free ahead of new MF Global Hearing

http://youtu.be/454NpJfjfhw

[Rocky]

In these hard times, you too can realize your fantasy to live in a house fit for the Dowager Duchess of Grantham. For only $445,000, you can buy "Stone Hedge", an 11 bedroom, seven bath, 9638 square foot home in central Detroit. Bring your own body guards. Featured on NPR this morning, it is another indication of how far the Arsenal of Democracy has fallen. Coming soon to the rest of America.

[Maelstrom]

USA Today Website - Politics Page has ALL the Presidential Candidates in the Race.... Except ONE Candidate is not listed at all... Guess who that is.

I know, you will just never guess who that one person is that does not exist it seems.

Seriously?! Do they really think people are going to believe Ron Paul never existed? Do they really think that people are going to just forget about Ron Paul?

http://sherriequestioningall.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/usa-today-website-politics-page-has-all.html

http://sgtreport.com/2012/04/my-rant-to-usa-today/

[That's what he said]

Mitt Romney, American Parasite

His formula was simple: Bain would purchase a firm with little money down, then begin extracting huge management fees and paying Romney and his investors enormous dividends.

The result was that previously profitable companies were now burdened with debt. But much like the Enron boys, Romney's battery of MBAs fancied themselves the smartest guys in the room. It didn't matter if a company manufactured bicycles or contact lenses; they were certain they could run it better than anyone else.

Bain would slash costs, jettison workers, reposition product lines, and merge its new companies with other firms. With luck, they'd be able to dump the firm in a few years for millions more than they'd paid for it.

But the beauty of Romney's thesis was that it really didn't matter if the company succeeded. Because he was yanking out cash early and often, he would profit even if his targets collapsed.

"When Bain Capital took over, it seemed like everything was being neglected in our plant," Sanderson says. "Nothing was being invested in our plant. We didn't have the necessary time to maintain our equipment. They had people here that didn't know what they were doing. It was like they were taking money from us and putting it somewhere else."

History would prove him correct. While Georgetown was beginning its descent to bankruptcy, Romney was helping himself to the company's treasury.

There were early signs that he might topple the Kennedy dynasty. Much like today, Romney was pitching himself as a commander of the economy, a man with the mastery to create jobs. Yet he suffered an affliction common to those atop the financial food chain: He assumed that what was good for him was good for all. Call it trickle-down blindness.

Bain's first move was to fire all 258 workers, then invite them to reapply for their jobs at lower wages and a 50 percent cut in health care benefits.

"They came in and said, 'You're all fired,'" employee Randy Johnson told the Los Angeles Times. "'If you want to work for us, here's an application.' We had insurance until the end of the week. That was it. It was brutal."

http://www.villagevoice.com/2012-04-18/news/Mitt-Romney-american-parasite/

[What actually happened?]

The case against Lehman Brothers

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7406224n&tag=component.0;topnews

[Booming as in everybody needs to protect themselves before the riots begin?]

1 in 2 new graduates are jobless or underemployed

WASHINGTON (AP) — The college class of 2012 is in for a rude welcome to the world of work.

A weak labor market already has left half of young college graduates either jobless or underemployed in positions that don't fully use their skills and knowledge.

Young adults with bachelor's degrees are increasingly scraping by in lower-wage jobs — waiter or waitress, bartender, retail clerk or receptionist, for example — and that's confounding their hopes a degree would pay off despite higher tuition and mounting student loans.

http://www.seattlepi.com/news/article/1-in-2-new-graduates-are-jobless-or-underemployed-3501033.php

[What did you expect after Nafta?]

Poverty In America: Defining The New Poor

April 22, 2012

Welfare changes in the 1990s helped slash cash benefit rolls, yet the
use of food stamps is soaring today. About 15 percent of Americans use
food stamps. The program has become what some call the new welfare.

A big reason why is a deal struck between President Clinton and the
Republican-controlled Congress in 1996. At that time, the number of
Americans who received cash payments — what's often thought of as
welfare — was at an all-time high.

The Clinton overhaul made it much harder to qualify for those
payments, and today the welfare rolls are down 70 percent, but that's
only if you define welfare in one way.

"We decided cash assistance is welfare and that's bad, but we decided
food aid is nutritional assistance and that's good," says New York
Times reporter Jason DeParle. "We made [the food stamp] program much
easier to get on."

DeParle, who covers poverty for the Times, tells weekends on All
Things Considered host Guy Raz that 18 million Americans have had to
apply for food aid since the economic crisis began.

http://www.npr.org/2012/04/22/151166529/poverty-in-america-defining-the-new-poor?

[bailey]

Crime is down all over the talking heads of media say. Yet in Chicago where "crime is down" murders are up 68%. How can crime be down? One police blog told the story of how a bank robber was never charged with armed robbery but simple theft because he never actually showed the teller the gun. He was apprehended in possession of a firearm, but in all likely hood was eventually released. These are the tricks the politicos are using to try and calm the uneasy middle class(whats left of it).