Labor Day 2012

I needed to burn off the last vacation days I had this fiscal year, so I took the last two days in August off. There was not much to do except get my lawn work done before the Isaac storm paid Indiana a visit.

And, boy, did it! It is the first time in months that my back yard has turned into a moat, a pool of water alongside the street. One day I may ask the town (a) if there a drain somewhere under the yard where I can tap into, and (b) if I can tap it. On the other hand, I know the big maple tree in back sops up use all that water, which is the only reason it lives when other trees in my yard do not.

Labor Day has become ironic in recent years: One out of every ten able-bodied Americans is out of work. And that does not count those who either have given up looking for work, or have settled for part-time to make some money or are doing volunteer work to pass the time.

This has been the case since 2008, when the Great Recession hit, when the financial markets collapsed from too many bad mortgages hidden in too many deceptively-labeled investment packages. The finance capitalists get off scot-free (and even get free money from the State), while the rest of the country rots. Businesses (the non-multinational kind) cannot hire because (in part) the banks won't lend.

Meanwhile the popular media lies through its teeth, telling us over and over that the Great Recession is over, and even talking in hushed and fearful tones about the dreaded double dip. Yet, out here in the Flyover Nation, where most of those fools have never visited, the truth is plain to see.

This is why the radio show Marketplace Money is such a joke. Those people are such a bunch of saps. Saving money in bank accounts will destroy the economy, my ass!