Why the Economy Sucks

...or more properly titled, two stories of how it got into the shape it is today.

That is, if you agree that a collapsing, sucking void is a shape. I haven't been in elementary school in a long time, so I am not current on all of the "new geometry". Circle, square, triangle...void. Hmm, now I'm not sure, I'll have to check out my nieces' toys.

"Commentary: How we got into this money mess" by Glenn Beck.

Glenn tells it like it is, and regardless of your political leanings, I think everyone can understand a story that includes a Tickle Me Elmo.

Personal favorite - the Elmo disclaimer.

"A layman's guide to sub prime mortgages" a stick figure google docs slideshow.

So easy, even a Junior Accounting Monkey can follow along!

Note - not that I have little kids reading my blog aloud, but there is some profanity involved in the text of the slideshow. But then, anyone who has ever worked in Accounting just takes that for granted. :)

Personal favorites - slide 29 and the conversation in slides 35 to 44.

All of which support MrDolomite's First Rule of Accounting, which he proclaimed back in the mid 1990's:

"Don't Dick with the Money"

Another episode from "What's Wrong with the American Legal System?"

After over two years, "Rackham must remain a golf course, appeals court rules" (Detroit News).

Seriously, it took more than 700 days, a court case, and then an appeal of that court case, along with who knows how many thousands and thousands of dollars of legal fees and court costs to figure this out?

Anyone who can read should have been able to solve this in 30 seconds, just by reading the original deed restrictions:

Q: What are the underlying deed restrictions on Rackham?

A: There are two deed restrictions in place on the Rackham property.

1. The first was put in place in 1922 by the Baker Land Company. Baker developed the Bronx subdivision within Huntington Woods (the land between 10 and 11 mile and Scotia and Wyoming). Its deed states Rackham must be used “only as a public park or golf course or for other similar purposes.” It wanted a golf course here because it wisely understood that a golf course makes a city more attractive to potential residents.
2. The second deed restriction was put in place in 1924 by Horace and Mary Rackham. This deed restriction says that the property must be used as a “public golf course for the use of the public…” If the parameters in the deed restriction are not upheld, then the property is to revert to the control of the Rackham heirs. If the Rackham heirs take back the golf course, we believe the Baker Land Company Deed restriction remains in place although this issue is currently the subject of litigation.

This all started because the clowns known as the Detroit City Council wanted to sell the golf course back in July, 2006. (ref) But that didn't stop Detroit from putting it up for sale, asking for a minimum of $6.25 million with the restriction that it must remain a golf course. If the buyer does not keep it a golf course, the price increases to over $11 million. (ref)

Oh, and in the cash strapped city of Huntington Woods, "City Manager Alex Allie said the city has spent $175,000 on legal and administrative costs to block attempts by the city of Detroit to sell Rackham to developers." (Detroit News article det27612135) This was back in December, 2006. I'm sure they have wasted away even more money by now.

And don't think the heirs of Horace and Mary Rackham weren't above whoreing themselves out for money either. "The Rackham heirs may lift their family's development ban on the Rackham Golf Course -- for the right price." (Detroit News article det24273400 of June 22, 2006).

In fairness, some of the heirs did do the right thing, including the Rackhams' great-great-nephew, R. Leigh Frackelton Jr., and Zera Patterson, who said "It's very simple: We would like the golf course to stay the way it is and be available to everybody," (Detroit News Article det22648050 of July 11, 2008)

Another episode from "What's Wrong with the American Economy?"

The [American] Axle board has awarded [CEO Dick] Dauch with a whopping $8.5 million bonus -- double what he got last round - bringing his total compensation to $15.7 million for the year.

The board justified the raise by citing Dauch and other managers for their "accomplishments and commitment during a period of significant change in our industry."

from "Pay Cuts Earn Axle CEO Mega-$Million Bonus" by Paul Eisenstein, June 28th, 2008

And these "accomplishments" <--- these are my "sarcastic air quotes" and not my "attribution to an actual source quotes". Anyway, these "accomplishments" include gems like these:

• Letting the strike linger for 87 days (link)
• Cutting 2000 workers thru buyouts or layoffs (link)
• Forcing a 33% pay cut onto the remaining workers (link)
• And then those remaining, now lower paid workers will see some holidays eliminated and the most senior workers lose one week's vacation (link)
  
• GM loses 100,000 production units in the first quarter, which had an estimated pretax loss of $800 million. (link)
  
• GM loses 230,000 production units in the second quarter to the tune of a pretax loss of about $1.8 billion (link) after more than 30 plants were affected (link)

If a company can't make a go of things, let them go bankrupt. I admit that the UAW has worked for years to get underworked blue collar workers overpaid and milk the Big Three for all they could. That's why the UAW works for its members and doesn't run the companies.

But, after the pendulum has finished swinging the other way in the automotive world, when no other supplier can be found to provide product at sweat-shop wages, I guess people will figure out you can only get so much blood out of a rock before you end up with a handful of dust.

Get ready for some football....not

Gee, with the Michigan economy in such poor shape, you would think the Lions would be lowering ticket prices, not raising them.

Fans will have to pay more to watch the Detroit Lions play, er continue to suck, this year. Prices will be raised on 83 percent of the seats at Ford Field, which has a listed capacity of 64,500. Seats affected by the increase will range from $40 to $90. Previously, the price range for those seats was $40 to $70. (ref)

That giant sucking sound is the economy in Michigan

No kidding, Sherlock, I could have told you this without spending millions of dollars gathering statistics. (link)

The national unemployment rate is 5 percent, based on the most recent data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Here are the 10 worst states to find work ranked by their unemployment rates.

1. Michigan
Unemployment rate: 7.6 percent
Population: 10,071,822
Mean annual wage: $41,230
Top industry: Trade, transportation and utilities (18.4 percent)