Tomorrow is Election Day. If you have a mail-in ballot, make sure you have it filled out tonight to go in tomorrow’s mail. If you actually have to go to the polling place, clear some time to be there. Be aware that it may take a little longer than it should. If you witness irregularities, report them.
Elections can work! Really! They kept this man out of public office.
In closing, a missive from the Duhpartment of Research: seat belts on school busses could prevent student injuries.
Today’s employment news is that new jobless claims are higher than expected, and employment costs are up, mostly because benefits cost more than they used to. So maybe you heard yesterday that the American economy added 128,000 jobs in October. The fact that these stats came out before the ink was even dry on some of those paychecks should alert you to the fact that these are preliminary numbers, subject to revision. Don’t let that worry you, however. Worry about the fact that this number is far lower than the 150,000 to 200,000 that the American economy needs each and every month to keep up with people who are just joining the workforce.
Or maybe, don’t worry about that too much?
An item in The Economist suggests that the American economy is slowing, and it might be because the workforce is contracting. Something called the “labour force participation rate” is falling (they’re British). And why is that? They blame retiring/near-retirement baby boomers, women who are dropping out of the workforce, and teenagers who are not working.
Let’s take a close look at those boomers. Sure, some of them will be able to retire, but I think it more likely that the majority of them will scale back their work. Joe Average doesn’t have enough savings for a prolonged retirement in an environment where the politicians have been shouting at him for years that he can’t count on Social Security and it’s all his fault for being one of the millions of babies born after World War 2. However, as much as Joe wants to work, the fact of the matter is that for many people like Joe, health concerns are beginning to affect the ability to get up and go do a job every day. This is particularly true for people in physically demanding occupations.
As for women dropping out of the workforce, there are two separate things going on. First, I think there is a large group of women who lost their jobs early in the Bush Administration, and having failed to find a new job in a timely fashion gave up. But instead of calling them “discouraged workers” we are falling back on the fact that they have kids at home. Having no money for childcare, these women have become de-facto stay-at-home-moms (SAHMs). But the second thing that happened — both to these women and those with different circumstances — is far more interesting. This post from *itch, PhD sums it up nicely:
My observations suggest that at least some, if not a majority of stay home moms and dads are not only working as parents and housekeepers; they also serve as unpaid support and teaching staff for local public schools, unpaid case managers and caregivers for sick and elderly relatives, and unpaid volunteers/part-time help for a wide variety of social services and programs including libraries, hospitals, art, music, and sports programs, and political organizations…. But the point remains: a lot of stay-home parents are doing a lot of unpaid work to keep society running.
The women who are not counted in the official workforce are doing vital work that they couldn’t afford to pay someone else to do. And that doesn’t even account for those who — like me — do not receive a paycheck but through various Department of Labor loopholes are officially “employed.”
And that brings us to the last group mentioned by The Economist, teenagers and young adults. They tell us:
This decline is a bit of a mystery, since job growth in the kinds of industries that tend to employ young people—restaurants and shops—has been well above the national average. It may have happened because teenagers are staying at school or college longer, and are working less on the side. More education may mean higher future productivity, but in the medium term it cuts the number of available workers.
Oh it would be easy to say it’s the fault of No Child Left Behind, and say that fewer teens in the workforce is the result of higher academic requirements. It isn’t that simple. Those “kinds of industries that tend to employ young people” have much greater choice in employees than they used to. Even the ultra-conservative Heritage Foundation admits that 53% of minimum wagers are under 23, so that must mean 47% are 23 or older. The reader is left to wonder what the percentages would look like if we discussed workers younger than 19. Some sources imply that adults are up to 80% of the work population that earns under $7.25 per hour. It is reasonable to say that probably about half the jobs that have traditionally been held by young people are now held by their elders. And frankly that’s a sad statement about the economy. It is also worth mentioning that more college kids have loans than part time jobs, and that changes to vocational education are having an unknown effect on the issues.
The one thing it all adds up to is that the unemployment rate is artificially low because of people who can be — and probably should be — in the work force, but are not.
In closing: on CNBC, great documentaries run as often as they can get away with it; do slave laborers in the Marianas Islands count as part of the American workforce?; on being an Iraqi woman; next country over cash for the vacation of a lifetime, as long as you don’t mind the people who would rather you were dead; treat kids like animals and then act all surprised when they live up to your expectations, be sure to read the second page, about how the school library has exactly zero books; if the Feds knew where 10,733 gang members, kidnappers, child molesters, sex offenders, carjackers, and burglars were, why did they wait until two weeks before a national election to arrest them?; and finally, smile, and start up a random conversation, because you never know where it will lead.
It is my morning habit to watch CNBC as I get ready to face the world. CNBC is a financial news network, focused largely on the markets — and the economy as it impacts the markets. Needless to say everybody there has been pretty happy, with the Dow being over 12,000. Now, they do also cover politics and world events, but again mostly as it impacts the markets.
As almost all of you are aware, there is a major American election coming up. And the Republican party (which controls both the White House and both houses of Congress) is widely expected to lose some of the Congressional seats it holds.
Now, I didn’t pay it much mind last week when Maria Bartiromo had an exclusive interview with the President of the United States, George W. Bush. He is, after all, the President. This was not a 5 minute interview, but rather a lengthy sit-down in the White House. They played clips of this thing all day to drum up ratings for the whole thing being played in the evening. Mr. Bush has appeared previously on CNBC, most notably on the Larry Kudlow show. For the record, I liked Kudlow a lot better before his current bout of Kool-Aid poisoning.
Today, however, it was announced that there would be an exclusive interview with the Vice President, Dick Cheney. Again, not the first time he’s been on.
But doesn’t anybody else think it’s a little bit slanted to have the two most visible members of the dominant party on CNBC within a few weeks of a major election without having equally significant members of the other party on as well? Where is the interview with Howard Dean? Nancy Pelosi? Harry Reid? Couldn’t they even get Eliot Spitzer or Barack Obama?
When elected officials from only one political party has an unusual level of access to the media, no good can possibly come of it. And yes, I would say this if the slant were the other direction. In order to make informed decisions about issues, it is necessary to consider all positions, even if we immediately choose to dismiss one or more of them. The only possible explanation is that these interviews are politically motivated, and they must be watched with that in mind. In the meantime, maybe Maria can talk to some people on the other side of the aisle.
Sheesh.
In closing, only 1 out of 4 Americans beleives their vote will be counted right; most Americans like their activist judges, thank you; not time to be afraid yet, but be cautious; hundred million year old bee; global warming gasses on the rise again, and Al Gore is on the case, but most Americans don’t remember the environment in the polling booth; a sad milestone; okay, one more election related item; and the temporary homeless.
I don’t often have enough material for Shorties before 9 AM, so here you have it: the first ever Shorties Double Feature.
Security Theatre Act XIV: Security Hacker.
Election Roundup: Let’s start with Middle Class Voters Abandoning GOP, and follow up on yesterday with the Republicans’ favorite wedgie issue — I hope everyone saw that one coming.
If you only read one link today: Then let it be this item from Maya’s Granny.
Housing follow-up: Even the British have noticed that the housing decline is negatively impacting the American economy.
Two items on Education, sort of: If College fundraising is at record levels, and college tuition is rising faster than inflation, where the heck is all the money going? Meanwhile at the school district level, more schools are considering making a D a failing grade. I have mixed feelings about this: when I was teaching, I generally found that anybody who made less than about 85% on one of my tests didn’t understand the material; on the other hand, I fear that saying anything less than 70% is failing is just asking for grade inflation (“Well Johnny, you got 4 points for putting your name on the paper, which brings you up to 69.6% and let’s round it up!”)
A great idea, or a chance to pass the Soma? There’s nothing unusal about an HMO holding medical seminars, where a doctor stands up and presents on a topic and participants have a chance to ask questions afterwards. But it’s very unusual for these seminars to be strictly for patients to attend. (What’s Soma?)
And finally: I hope all you food addicts have discovered Slashfood. Have a great weekend. Enjoy fall color while it lasts.
Security by obscurity, or maybe it’s just as well that American kids don’t know geography: A man in Washington State was arrested when the 14 year old he was trying to meet for illicit purposes decided she wanted to meet him earlier than planned and ended up flying to Washington DC. There are so many levels of stupidity, I won’t even go into them all.
Lou Dobbs: Let’s stop pretending a 700 mile fence on a 2000 mile border (and no fixes to our other borders) is going to change anything. Choice quote, but do read the whole thing:
American middle-class families are all too often left out of the discussion of immigration reform in Washington. Instead, this country’s special interest groups dominate the debate. Big business associations like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and organized labor unions enjoy the benefits of open borders and hope to keep the status quo: big business, to exploit the cheap labor that is provided by illegal aliens, and labor organizations, to add to their membership rolls.
Between 12 million and 20 million illegal aliens are living in the United States. But as that range suggests, no one — not the Border Patrol, not Immigration and Customs Enforcement, not the FBI or the Department of Homeland Security — has any true idea how many illegal aliens are here. Why not?
I suspect one major reason is the same federal government that refuses to secure our borders and enforce our immigration laws is determined not to accurately measure the number of illegal aliens in the country so as to further cover up both the cost of illegal immigration and the necessity of creating a rational public policy.
Dinosaur guts! and the interesting things they tell us about life millions of years ago.
A Missive from the Duhpartment of Research: “Some Gulf Coast Rebuilding May be Unwise. Gee, do you think? Maybe some of the things that were build shouldn’t have been there in the first place.
Bookends on House Prices: The Associated Press says it’s the biggest drop in home prices in 35 years, but Reuters tells us it’s because builders slashed prices. Oh well, at least they aren’t having to promise Detroit style bargains.
Maybe they don’t hate us for our freedoms: A Federal judge has ordered the release of graphic, crime scene films from Abu Gharib. No word on whether anyone who accesses the released footage will then immediately be accused of posessing child pornography.
The enemy of my enemy… oh wait, the friend of my, oh never mind: New Jersey Supreme Court sucessfully puts the Gay Marriage Political Football back in play just 2 weeks before a national election. Way to go. I think. Comments about [liberal] activist judges in 3…2…1…….
Two items about the issues facing America’s working classes: Please read before voting. Alternet presents The Permanent Middle Class (I don’t know, many of them are the “has credit so isn’t quite destitute” class) and someone else who is tired of red/blue and believes voters both want and deserve Answers.
“If I looked well, I wouldn’t be in the hospital!” If you are ever unfortunate enough to be a patient at Los Angeles Metropolitan Medical Center, make sure you don’t seem like you might be homeless. Now they have been caught sending newly released patients to Skid Row, regardless of whether or not they have other places to go.
That’s it. Have a great weekend and don’t forget to read those voter guides to find out where candidates allegedly stand before voting.
Wondering where I’ve been all week? Geeking out.
This week, The Hot New Computer Game of the Season was released, Battlefield 2142. And yes, I was playing it. It was not an easy road to this point. And that brings me to today’s post.
First thing, it was supposed to have been released Tuesday. And it was, if you were in Canada. We Americans had to wait until Wednesday. And nor was it as simple as walking in to your favorite retailer and picking up a copy; I had a couple on pre-order. Let’s just say I had one of the first copies and the very last copy out the door of the local Best Buy on Wednesday. By the time I arrived home Wednesday night, I was ready for action!
Or so I thought.
The box clearly stated that an 8x or better DVD drive was required. No problems, as my desktop box sports a snappy 12x drive. Unfortunately, an undocumented requirement for the installer is a 16x drive. InstallShield is apparently not smart enough to tell this is a problem; it pretends to start installing, and 5 minutes later when you realize the status bar has not moved, you check and find that no processor cycles are being used. I think InstallSheild and EA Games share the blame for this problem. One helpful soul from one of the grown-ups only gaming clans suggested a new DVD drive. Nope, not happening at 10 PM on a Wednesday night when all I want to do is play. This problem was solved by
putting the disk into a notebook computer on the other side of the room and mounting it remotely from the installation box a couple of reboots later! Kludgy, but functional.
At this point, it was time to download the patch. Yes, that’s right, brand new first-day-of-release game and there were already patches to download. Let’s just say I didn’t have any of the problems reported by so many others and leave it there.
Now, even before it was released, people were complaining that it contained Spyware. Those of you who understand how the internet works, move down to the next paragraph while I get everybody else up to speed. Simplified content follows: When you clicked on the link that sent you here, or typed my url into your browser, you were actually doing something pretty complicated. An IP (Internet Protocol) address is a number that is assigned to every computer on the internet. Most of you probably have “dynamic” IPs, which are randomly assigned by your internet service provider when you log in. Sites like mine have “static” IP addresses, which stay the same and allow people to find them. So when you told your browser to display my page, the first step was to ask a Domain Name Server what my IP was. Once your computer knew where to find me, your browser sent a request to my server to send the contents of this page to your IP address. As you can see, you cannot get any content without the server knowing what your IP is. Furthermore, many sites use something called “cookies” to keep track of you. This is what allows Amazon.com and Yahoo! and eBay to know who you are when you log in to your account. Anyway, back to the so-called spyware.
Here’s what the alleged spyware does:
2142 includes monitoring software which runs while your computer is online, and records “anonymous” information like your IP address, surfing habits (probably via cookie scans), and other “computing habits” in order to report this information back to ad companies and ad servers, which generates in-game ads.
Now, Battlefield 2142 is a mostly online game. You play head-to-head against other players, who might be anywhere. The only way the information about what these other players are doing can possibly be sent to you is if the server knows your IP address. As for the adware, already lampooned here, apparently the system might use information about where you shop online to determine what ads they should place on the in-game billboards. Of course whether or not Martha Stewart would still be a viable brand in the year 2142 is anybody’s guess. That’s not important! Of course, maybe I’m not as worked up as I should be about this because the box on whilch I play the game is strictly a gaming box. Let’s see them figure out what to advertise based on the fact that Jedi Knight 2 and Lego Designer have run on it recently!
Yesterday — the day after release for those of you counting — I encountered a different and utterly frustrating problem. I was consistently kicked off servers wihtin minutes of joining by PunkBuster, a widget that is supposed to prevent cheating in online games. Rest assured I was doing nothing wrong. After a number of attempts at fixing the problem, I googled and found a thread on EA’s site that referenced the problem. Let me save you the reading. If you are being kicked off 2142 servers by Punkbuster, download the manual update tool from EvenBalance.
By the time I got this sorted out, a new and exciting problem I couldn’t solve came up. The master server at EA — the one that keeps track of how well everyone is doing and hands out rewards accordingly — wasn’t working right. As a result, nobody was getting promotions and nobody was able to unlock new skills or weapons. Since at this point people were working on basic stuff like the ability to run more than 50 meters without getting winded, this was a big deal. Luckily, EA was on the problem and fixed things within about 18 hours.
Even with all these problems, the gaming community still rates it a nice solid B+/A-. Now if you will excuse me, I have some shooting and fragging to do.
In closing: it’s all Iraq, Iraq, and more Iraq. Would you like some extra Iraq with that?
You know it isn’t very often that I find something compelling enough to make a second post of the day. But here we are.
As you are doubtlessly aware, the 2006 elections will be here in a few weeks for those of us who live in the United States. Issues you, Dear Voter, will have to decide upon include every member of the House of Representatives, a slate of state officials, a bevy of ballot initiatives, a locust swarm of local officials, and maybe even an amendment or two to the State Constitution. Your mileage will vary by jurisdiction.
Controversy on voting machines aside, the Republican party is concerned about what will happen next month. They are “focus[ing] on best bets” and trying to convince us that low taxes are the answer to all our problems (again) Allow me to gloss over the deficit and that the lions share of tax cuts have gone to people who don’t need them.
Why the sudden backtracking? Because the so-called “Values Voters” have become disenchanted with the Republican Party. Nor is the problem just a Foley Backlash:
While such issues [as gay marriage and abortion] motivated the Republicans’ social-conservative base in the past, they are overshadowed in this year’s congressional election campaign by concerns about the Iraq war, the economy and national security, according to opinion polls and political strategists. “Poverty, the wealth gap, health care — people can’t afford Medicare. Something’s got to be done about that,” Sue Harrell, a school teacher in Monroe City, Indiana, said recently.She said “Christian values” were important in previous votes but her top issues now are education and the prevalence of methamphetamine abuse and poverty in Knox County, Indiana.
Such talk has Republicans nervous and Democrats scenting opportunities to recapture the House of Representatives after 12 years in the minority, as well as reduce the Republican advantage in the Senate.
More to the point, perhaps it turns out that doing the right things on poverty, the wealth gap, health care, education, the War in Babylon, and drug abuse are “Christian values.”
In closing: goodbye, Cheyenne Mountain; East is the New West as American kids learn Mandarin; and the upcoming 3 Branches of Government Showdown on suspected terrorists and their (lack of) rights.
There’s a strange phenomenon that just didn’t happen when I was a kid, and it appears to be more popular in certain regions: parents tend to start their kids — particularly white boys — in kindergarten a year late. The school office and adminstrative staff just smile and say that’s fine, because they arrive in school more mature and academically prepared. They just ignore the fact that every class will have a minimum two year age spread, and this will eventually mean they have fifth graders hitting puberty hard. Now, we are not talking about kids whose birthdays fall close to the state mandated cutoff for kids starting kindergarten. I can understand letting those kids stay home an extra year rather than have them be the youngest kid in the class, and maybe not developmentally ready.
This odd practice is called “redshirting,” based on a collegiate sports practice of benching a freshman athlete to allow better development and more reliable performance. And when all is said and done, I beleive it is done with kindergarten boys for the exact same reasons. It turns out that there are few academic advantages to being the oldest, biggest kid in class. But come high school, there are a number of advantages on the sports field. I wonder, when these kids reach high school, are coaches going to be enthusiastic about having these bigger, more physically mature players? And will coaches still be as enthusiastic when they realize these kids will legally be adults by the end of Junior year?
The parents who are thinking of the future sporting career of a kindergartener are not merely being vain either. They are thinking towards college. Or perhaps more accurately, thinking towards college scholarships. Joe and Jane Average can see that the cost of a college education is rising far faster than inflation, and far faster than their paychecks. They may not know is that financial aid isn’t keeping pace with the rise in college costs, either. And as if that isn’t bad enough, many familes find themselves sandwiched between aging parents, underfunded retirement savings, and kids going to college. It’s enough to make kids rethink going to college at all, and that’s a shame. The Chicago Sun Times pointed out just last week that “Huge college costs are a barrier to a smart workforce.
But frankly, none of that is my point today. The article that got me thinking about all of this stuff is Parents low-ball college costs. Here’s a great quote:
The study found that 87 percent of parents believe scholarships and grants will cover at least part of their children’s undergraduate expenses, and nearly three-quarters think their children are “special or unique” enough to win a scholarship.
Financial aid administrators said 92 percent of parents overestimate the amount of scholarship money their children will receive.
Almost 75% of parents think their kids are “special” enough to earn a scholarhip! Now don’t get me wrong, all parents think their kids are special and unique. It’s part of the job description. But don’t mistake your son’s ability to play “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” using nothing but his armpits for a future music scholarship! Sure, everybody is unique and special; not everybody is unique and special in a way that is valuable to a university. They go on to point out that most parents only end up saving about one year’s worth of college expenses. And that’s assuming a public school.
This country needs to get realistic about college, college expenses, vocational schooling, and financial aid. And they need to do it before the age of an average high school senior is 21.
We interrupt your October Suprise to bring you this October Suprise: Next week, a battle fleet headed by the aircraft carrier USS Eisenhower and a second fleet of support vessels will arrive off the coast of Iran. There may be a second aircraft carrier on the way. How’s that for diplomacy? Sure beats pedophile Congressmen.
Meanwhile, in the next country over…: a new study estimates at least 600,000 Iraqis have died in the war and occupation. It is only fair to point out that President Bush disputes that figure, and 2660 Iraqi civilians are confirmed killed in Baghdad alone last month. Oh, and the United States Army plans to maintain troop levels there until 2010.
Elsewhere in the “Axis of Evil”…: North Korea says sanctions would be an act of war. And somehow or another, McCain blames Clinton for this mess. His rationale for this is that when North Korea did bad things, Clinton “rewarded” them with talks. Now lets see: diplomacy is bad, sanctions via the UN weren’t happening because China would veto them (remember, McCain was one of the guys who supported sending John Bolton to the UN), and if Clinton had done anything military against them he would have been accused of trying to get people to forget about Monica. I hope that was tasty Kool-Aid, Senator.
Axis Roundup: Iraq had no nukes, but we invaded them. Iran has a program through which they hope to develop nukes; a battle fleet is steaming their direction as we speak. North Korea has nukes and is testing them, potentially destabilizing the region; the Administration hopes the UN — ineffectual as our Ambassador to the UN says they are — can do something maybe. I hope you have found this scorecard useful.
If you can’t get enough gay scandal: Here’s a gay activist who is tired of the hypocrisy in the Republican party, and the attitude of “Send your money, cast your votes, and for pity sake stay in the damn closet.” He will be outing two Republicans a day, beginning with low level aides, working his way through elected and appointed officials, and ending — he claims — with “senior” Republican officials. Ed Schultz is hoping he can cut a deal to have this fellow announce his information on the air. Could it be we may finally find out why exactly Gannon-Guckert spent so much time at the White House? Appropriately enough, he begins this grand outing parade today, National Coming Out Day.
And in closing: Lou Dobbs and Barbara Ehrenreich on the War Against the Middle Class. Don’t forget to check out Barbara’s new activist group, United Professionals.
What? Has the ShortWoman lost her mind? The purpose of rent control is to keep housing prices reasonable!
Well it doesn’t work.
Last week, frequent commenter Jukkou-san sent me an article entitled Americans becoming increasingly house poor; Census data shows percentage of income spent on dwelling up in 49 states. It’s an interesting article, and well worth your time to read it. But the short version is that all over the nation, people are spending more of their income on a place to live — regardless of whether it is purchased or rented — than ever before. The finger pointing begins at “why.” It’s higher interest rates, say some. It’s higher house prices, say others. No no the real culprit is that incomes are stagnant, say still others. Frankly all these points of view are valid.
But as the article drifted into warnings about overextended homeowners and the interesting mortgage products that allowed them to get that way, I got distracted by the maps. And it occured to me that there was the same red/blue distribution I discussed in July. Another phenomenon common (though not universal) to these hot housing markets are rent controls. Unfortunately, the only actual list of cities with rent control that I could find is for the state of California, but you can’t help but notice California is one of the states with the biggest problem. I don’t often agree with the Cato Intstitute, but rent controls drive the price of housing up over the long term.
To illustrate, let me use a fictional example, Utopia City. We will use as the underlying assumption that everybody needs a place to live. We can agree on that, right?
Utopia City has a thriving economy. A half dozen large companies employ about a third of the workforce, new jobs are created on a regular basis, the schools may not be world class but they are better than most urban school districts, the cost of living is decent. However, as the city grows, they are finding that they are having big city problems. They have attracted many new residents, and as a result, housing is becoming scarce. Now, any good capitalist knows that when something becomes scarce, it is possible to raise prices, right? And that is exactly what the apartment complexes of Utopia City did.
So rents went up. House prices went up too, but somehow that wasn’t a big deal. After all, weren’t houses supposed to go up in value? Ok, so maybe they were going up faster than the national average, but that’s because the local economy is good. More to the point, with house prices there is not a small number of management companies that laypeople think effectively control prices that everyone can point to as being a “problem.”
At some point there was a city council meeting where somebody mentioned that with housing prices going up, they were going to have a problem attracting people to be teachers and policemen and firemen and nurses in Utopia City. They always put it this way, rather than talking about the barristas, janitors, waiters, grocery cashiers, painters, and seamstresses that could really benefit from reduced housing prices. Somebody suggested a tax incentive for building “affordable” housing. Somebody else criticized that as a short term fix for a long term problem. No, this person went on, what we need is a way to control what housing costs. And since they couldn’t control what Joe and Jane Average were selling their house for — if it occured to them at all — they declared that there would be rent controls beginning at the first of the new year.
Well the obvious thing that happened was that landlords raised rents all through the 4th quarter, so that rents would be relatively high by January 1. They had to do this because who knew when they would next have the chance to raise them? The second obvious thing that happened is that a large percentage of the apartment complexes under construction suddenly became “condominium communities.” Some apartment complexes began the process of becoming condos, trying to sell units to the current residents. Applications for building permits to build new apartments dropped drastically. The few applications that were made were for ultra-luxury high-end high-rent communities.
Supply of rental housing had already dropped, and the regulation was brand new. The people of Utopia City still had to live somewhere; if there was no rental property, they would just have to buy. And this in turn drove house prices up. But that was just the beginning.
Over the next ten years, multifamily housing construction continued to lag. The supply of existing multifamily housing declined as landlords converted properties to condos, or bulldozed them to sell the land to home builders. The quality of rental housing declined, as inflation caused gross margins to decrease — leaving less money leftover for maintenance. The combination of less rental property and lower quality of that rental property caused people to have a higher-than-average desire to purchase a home. Again, house prices rose.
As your shampoo bottle probably says: “Lather, Rinse, Repeat.”
In closing, Religion has no need of your puny Regulations; as many as 20% of resumes may contain lies (and just so you know, I actually will call your previous employer!); Krugman on Hastert; and finallly choosy moms choose a good economy.