TGI: Thank God It’s

…the CHEAP SHIT! Maybe we’ll make some moola!

NJ: BARS PUT CHEAP BOOZE IN PREMIUM LIQUOR BOTTLES

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — Twenty-nine bars and restaurants, nearly half of them TGI Fridays, filled premium brand liquor bottles with lower-quality booze and sold it to patrons who thought they were buying the good stuff, authorities said Wednesday.

A yearlong investigation by the state Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control, dubbed Operation Swill, found that the establishments had swapped out the good liquor in an effort to fool customers and increase profits.

Thirteen of the restaurants cited are TGI Fridays located in central and northern New Jersey.

TGI Fridays Inc. said in a statement it was working with the franchisee and owner of the TGI Fridays restaurants to investigate the allegations, which it called serious. The statement said the company had just learned of the allegations.

I’d demand a refund!!

But then I wouldn’t be in those dumps anyway. The TGI chain went to shit YEARS ago. Went from our GO-TO, outstanding funky food place in the mid-80′s to a sold-their-souls-to-the-Jack-Daniels-Grill, corporate devils’ unrecognizable/inedible menu. The staff training slipped horribly as well.

Sorry, sorry, sorry excuses of miserable shells of their previous existences.

Now I’m Not Sure That Getting a GED

…should have “educational” anywhere in the title.

WASHINGTON, May 10, 2013 ? Adult basic education and GED programs, with about 800,000 students taking GED tests each year, serve a segment of society that escaped government schools, including many homeschoolers. But the national propaganda effort called the Common Core Curriculum is spreading its tentacles to them.

While many may not take the GED seriously, calling it the “Good Enough Diploma,” consider that quite a few homeschoolers take GED tests as a way to cancel out high school attendance requirements and lessen the record-keeping burden on home educators caused by compulsory attendance laws in every state.

Thus, aligning GED with Common Core has the potential of erasing all the efforts and sacrifices the homeschooling parents have put in to protect their children from the centralized indoctrination.

“What’s he talking about”, you ask? What a doozy of an example he pulls from this GED test preparatory set, called the “GED Scoreboost™” series:

…Below is an excerpt from a larger Social Studies Extended Response, found on page 52 from Writing Across the Tests: Responding to Text on the Language Arts, Social Studies, and Science Test, entitled, “Does Foreign Aid Really Help?”

Those who support sending aid to poor countries do so because poor countries often have high levels of poverty, poor educational systems, an ineffective police and judicial force, and limited public services such as healthcare, transportation networks, and banking systems. They believe that when living conditions are this poor, crime levels tend to be higher. Poorer countries, because they have weak governments, often have areas that attract terrorist groups because no one is there to stop them from pursuing those types of activities. Thus, poor countries are often home to terrorist groups that are free to plan and carry out attacks on the rich, industrialized nations, without fear of being stopped. This is in fact [bold words are mine] what happened on 9/11 when terrorists from Afghanistan hijacked planes and carried out attacks on the United States. In this case, the terrorists originated in a country that had received large amounts of foreign aid from rich countries. Apparently, it didn’t work.

Whoa. DOG.

Read the whole article. Gobschmacking.

Lucky Thing Obama’s Making Sure

…we can ALL work ’til we die naturally (or ObamaCare Death Panels kill us) like little ants!

New Rule Signals Kiss of Death for Pensions

A little known rule change that allows companies to contribute fewer dollars to pension funds is signaling just how meaningless the retirement vehicle has become.

“This proves that pensions are pretty much dead,” said Greg McBride, chief economist at Bankrate.com. “The change is just another charade to mask the underfunding of pensions and increases the odds of having less money for retirement.”

“It’s not necessarily the immediate end of pensions but it’s not good for them and it’s certainly a bad sign,” McBride added.

The pension change was part of a transportation bill—called Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century or MAP-21—passed by Congress last June. The change became mandatory this year.

In essence, MAP-21 lets employers put less money in their pension plans by allowing them to value their liabilities— what they have to pay out to pensioners—using a 25-year average of interest rates instead of current rates.

Oh

…peachy.

Why the Jobs Outlook Just Got a Whole Lot Worse

Weak corporate top-line growth is likely to spell an equally troubled bottom line for the 11.7 million unemployed.

Quarterly earnings thus far have shown the typical strong level of profit beats, with just more than two of three companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500 exceeding Wall Street expectations.

But when it comes to actual sales growth, the results have been just north of dismal.

And some moron on Twitter last night was telling me the GOP wanted us all to be a Third World country, jobs-wise.

Pffft.

Of course, that was right after he’d Tweeted that Islam was far older than Christianity, so what does a H8R like me know?

It’s a Good Question

Have they? Are they the flour/sugar/butter union coup de grâce?

Have Twinkies Killed the Union Movement?

Original Twinkies are coming back—but under new management—and with a vow to use nonunion workers.

Some five months after Hostess shut down over a standoff with its unions, the restructured company is expecting to put its snacks back on store shelves in the coming months.

The Hostess closing left more than 18,000 people out of work across the country—with the vast majority belonging to the Teamsters and the Bakery Union.

With Hostess back in business, labor analysts say the union movement may have taken a major hit just when it seemed to be gaining lost energy with recent walkouts or job actions.

“The Hostess strike will be a lasting image and not for the good of unions,” said Marc Bloch, a labor and employment lawyer at Walter & Haverfield.

“I think any management team will hold up a photo to its workers of Hostess strikers and say, ‘What’s a union going to do for you?”’ Bloch said. “The case can be made that they did nothing.”

Oopsie! What’s the Word I’m Looking For Here?

Never mind. I’m sure it’s in the story.

Durable Goods Report Delivers More Bad News for Economy

Orders for long-lasting U.S. manufactured goods recorded their biggest drop in seven months in March and a gauge of planned business spending rose modestly, adding to signs of a slowdown in factory activity.

Durable goods orders slumped 5.7 percent as demand fell almost across the board, the Commerce Department said on Wednesday.

Way to go, Team Skippy!

Besides Water on Chemicals, Helps If the Fertilzer Plant Is Upfront

…about what’s inside.

Texas Fertilizer Plant Didn’t Heed Disclosure Rules Before Blast

The fertilizer plant that exploded on Wednesday, obliterating part of a small Texas town and killing at least 14 people, had last year been storing 1,350 times the amount of ammonium nitrate that would normally trigger safety oversight by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

Yet a person familiar with DHS operations said the company that owns the plant, West Fertilizer, did not tell the agency about the potentially explosive fertilizer as it is required to do, leaving one of the principal regulators of ammonium nitrate—which can also be used in bomb-making—unaware of any danger there.

Fertilizer plants and depots must report to the DHS when they hold 400 lb (180 kg) or more of the substance. Filings this year with the Texas Department of State Health Services, which weren’t shared with DHS, show the plant had 270 tons of it on hand last year.

Sweet Mary, Mother of God.

That’d make a difference in how Big the Bang is.

That Screeching You Hear Is More Brakes

…screaming as they protest the sudden deceleration.

NY Fed Manufacturing Growth Slows Sharply in April

The pace of manufacturing growth in New York state slowed sharply in April to its lowest level in five months, the New York Federal Reserve said in a report on Monday.

The New York Fed’s “Empire State” general business conditions index dropped to 6.56 from 20.21M in March, far below economists’ expectations for 18.00. It was the lowest level since last November.

Oh, not to worry, lads! TWO geniuses in charge there. Obama AND Cuomo have it all well in hand, so back to your hives!

On Twitter, They Are Arguing If K-Mart Just Made

…the greatest commercial eh-vah.

“I just shipped my drawers!“

Sort of slipped those classy Martha Stewart bonds, but what the hell, eh?

Stupid Company Tricks

I don’t know if JC Penney’s is salvageable.

I do know that any company that gives someone a clause like this when they hire him

Johnson will likely take a hefty paycheck with him. Recent regulatory filings show that he was guaranteed a $150 million payout if he resigned or was fired, Business Insider reports.

deserves to fail, and any Board that signs off on such a ridiculous package should be publicly flogged.

Dear Mr. President ~ May I Reiterate My Earnest, Heartfelt Sentiments Yet Again?

You SUCK, Skippy. Please believe I mean this with ALL my heart.

Why US Jobs Market Is Going to Get a Lot Worse

…Weakening labor demand, not rising layoffs, is the key problem with the U.S. economy, according to Shepherdson. The weakening demand is mostly coming from smaller firms that are below the radar of the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) survey, which reflects national factory activity.

The National Federation of Small Business job survey has done a decent job in foreshadowing movements in payrolls in recent years, according to Shepherdson, and it’s this report—due to be released on Tuesday—that’s warning of troubled waters ahead, he said.

“While actual job creation appears to be rising, plans to create jobs [in March] took a dive, falling 4 points to a net zero percent of small employers who plan to increase total employment. It seems that the stamina for growth is waning,” William C. Dunkelberg, chief economist for the NFIB said in a press release last week.

Man, I Can’t STAND This Guy

His cartoony 5% give back, while he keeps his vacays, rockstar parties, weekend golf outings, fashion icon wife’s jet-set destinations and kids’ ski or Bahama Island trips and constantly LYING PIEHOLE running about how fucked up I am, make me want to puke.

You balled THIS up, Skippy.

US Job Creation Plunges, but Rate Drops to 7.6%

…Moreover, the drop in the jobless rate was little more than a statistical anomaly, with the labor-force participation rate tumbling to a 34-year low of 63.3 percent. However, a broader measure of unemployment that counts the discouraged and underemployed also fell, declining to 13.8 percent from February’s 14.3 percent.

The actual level of employment dropped by 206,000 and the number of Americans considered still in the labor force tumbled by 496,000.

“Having such a disappointing figure in March will have a volcanic negative impact on sentiment in critical economic areas, such as housing,” said Todd Schoenberger, managing partner at LandColt Capital. “Wall Street will not be happy, and are certain to punish stocks today.”

Oddly Enough This Didn’t Rate A Mention On CNN

I can’t imagine why

The trustee for the now-defunct U.S. brokerage firm MF Global, former FBI Director Louis Freeh, issued a 124-page investigatory report blasting former MF Global CEO and Obama bundler Jon Corzine for “negligent conduct,” employing trading strategies with lax oversight, and surpassing board-approved limits for European trades.

The report says the vaporization of $1.6 billion of MF Global customer money was largely the fault of Corzine.

“The risky business strategy engineered and executed by Corzine and other officers and their failure to improve the company’s inadequate systems and procedures so that the company could accommodate that business strategy contributed to the company’s collapse,” said the report.

Thank goodness for Dan Collins.

My Ebola is in Mourning

Disney Shuts Down LucasArts, Cancels Star Wars 1313 And Star Wars: First Assault

Disney has laid off the staff of LucasArts and cancelled all current projects.

Staff were informed of the shutdown this morning, according to a reliable Kotaku source. Some 150 people were laid off, and both of the studio’s current projects—Star Wars: First Assault and Star Wars 1313—were cancelled. Disney will still use the LucasArts name to license games, but the studio is no more.

Publicly, Disney is saying their current games could be licensed out to a different publisher or developer, but according to our source, that’s unlikely. Our source says Lucas has pursued the option for “one or both games,” but nothing happened. “With the teams now basically being dispersed I think both games are effectively dead forever,” our source said.

A second source also told Kotaku this afternoon that the chances of Lucas licensing out 1313 are very slim. The odds are “effectively zero,” the source said.

And there is a black, black cloud over Tucson as he attempts to absorb this.

Sheesh. I can hardly believe it myself. Lucas Arts has been almost as much a part of our lives as the Brat has. In the early 90′s, when he was a young lad and world famous Jedi, breaking into the online games to design starships, make custom skins for people and DOS bombing miscreants who cheated (not to mention win copious amounts of tournaments), the folks at Lucas Arts liked what his evil, creative, self-taught little brain could do, going so far as to offer him a spot at Skywalker Ranch for his freshman summer of college, if he [insert DUM DUM DUMMMM music] “kept his grades up”. If only he’d been a senior in high school instead of going into his sophmore year. So much for that carrot with his “oooh, something shiney/did-that-on-to-the-next-thing” personality, and any hopes we had of living off of our kid like any self-respecting Lohan or Jackson parent went ‘poof’.

My only consolation is that Ebola ~ never one to mince words ~ would have been canned the second he heard about JarJar Binks anyway, so it’s not like it would have been a long term thing.

But, still…

It Would Be Easier to List What the Administration Has Delivered “On Time” Than What Is Tardy, N’est Pas?

As it is, this little laggard of a deliverable is certainly…awkward.

ObamaCare in Trouble? Exchange provision delayed, as lawmakers push to repeal another

Parts of ObamaCare are starting to fray, even before full implementation.

The Obama administration now says a special system of exchanges designed to make it easier for small businesses to provide insurance will be delayed an entire year — to 2015.

“Lots of small businesses struggle with providing insurance for their workers so this was supposed to facilitate it and make it easier for small business to do this,” said Jim Capretta of the Ethics and Public Policy Center. “It was a huge portion of the sale job. When they passed the law in 2010 there were many senators and members of Congress who were saying ‘I am doing this because it’s going to help small businesses.’”

The exchanges were designed to give workers a range of choices supported by dollars from their employers. But now they will have only one choice until 2015, which could mean they can’t shop for insurance that includes their current providers.

Capretta said the administration is “way” behind schedule.

So you might not get to keep your current insurance (AS PROMISED), even before they have anything to replace it with that you might (or might not) prefer. Way to go, El Presidento!

I found myself nodding in agreement with Jim Geraghty’s Morning Jolt assertion the other day ~ Obama wasn’t frogmarched out of office for the simple fact that the horrible, miserable, ill-considered, unimplementable provisions of his monstrosity of a Health Care takeover had yet to kick-in, and start to severely discomfit the very people who had bought into and voted for him, ergo, IT. So, no harm, no foul, check the box for Barack.

NOW, some months after his little paw has safely made it in the air to assume the office yet again, the PRICE we are all paying for the money-for-nothing types is starting to come into focus and the mewling is beginning. Oh, STOP, Juicy Couture, making your employees part-timers, you brutes! NEWSFLASH, girlfriends! You’re on the ass-end of the trend:

Part-Time Workforce Surges Ahead Of ObamaCare Mandate: Gallup

The shift to part-time work accelerated in February ahead of a key, midyear ObamaCare deadline, Gallup reported on Monday.

Gallup’s survey found that the percentage of part-time workers as a share of the overall labor force surged to 20.6%, the highest level in data going back to the start of 2010 — just as the employment recovery began.

The report provides the most dramatic evidence yet of the impact the 2010 health law is now beginning to have on employers of modest-wage workers and — even more importantly — on their workers.

Catch that? “In FEBRUARY”? And who already had secured a second shot at his gig? Yeah. I like this quote, too ~ goes to my earlier post:

“Policymakers should not be misled by the surge in part-time jobs in early 2013,” noted Gallup Chief Economist Dennis Jacobe. “The economic reality is that the U.S. job situation worsened in February.“

Oh, SNAP.

So your hours are cut to part-time, you could very well lose what insurance you have right now, leaving NO access to any insurance for the forseable future because the guy you voted for doesn’t have a plan yet, and the plan he and his botoxed witch sister passed lets all this happen FIRST, without making sure you’re covered in the meantime.

But they had to pass it to find that out. Let the pissing and mewling begin.

ME-owwwww.

TRUMPeting the 3% Factory Orders BOOM on the Telly Last Night

…they forgot to mention it was thanks to a sharp uptick in the “volatile” aircraft orders category.

Factory orders rise, boosted by aircraft

New orders for factory goods rose in February but a gauge of planned business spending slipped, suggesting factory activity continued to expand at a modest pace.

The Commerce Department on Tuesday said orders for manufactured goods climbed 3.0 percent. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast orders advancing 2.9 percent.

…Gains in new orders were modest when stripping out more volatile categories.

Orders excluding transportation equipment increased just 0.3 percent.

TWO additional new Boeing airplane orders caused a “95.1%” increase and sent that rate skyrocketing. (Say what?) Pull them out and it’s a big, fat “meh”.

Why screw up a chirpy headline, right?

Today’s survey of your burgers and fries folks isn’t going so well, though:

Service Sector Growth Weakest in Seven Months: ISM

The pace of growth in the vast U.S. services sector slowed in March to the lowest level in seven months as new orders and employment measures pulled back, an industry report showed on Wednesday.

The Institute for Supply Management said its services index fell to 54.4 last month from 56 in February, falling short of economists’ forecasts for 55.8. It was the weakest reading since August.

…The forward-looking new orders index slipped to 54.6 from 58.2, while employment dropped to its lowest level since November at 53.3 from 57.2.

And those people are mostly PART-TIMERS, right? (Well, they WILL be after the ObamaCare they voted for really starts to stick it to them.) But they won’t be giving up that “Apple pie with those fries?” job just yet, I’m thinking, because the JobsJobsJobs SOOPER-GEEN-EE-US in the White House has better days planned for all of us, doncha know.

Work Slowdown? ADP Says Job Creation Slowing

Private-sector job creation was considerably less than expected in March, indicating that the labor market’s improvements could begin stalling.

A joint report Wednesday from ADP and Moody’s Analytics showed 158,000 new positions, well below economist expectations of 200,000.

Expect another “pivot/Crazy Ivan” to J.O.B.S. any minute now! Fer SURE!

(I’d just let “Shotgun Joe” know before you do. It’s better to be safe than sorry.)

We Are Saved! Cars Sales Are Up!

This is proof, PROOF, that all you H8TRS were wrong wrong wrong and that our Wise Dear Leader Obama is the greatest economic genius EVUH.

Or maybe not

(Reuters) – Thanks largely to the U.S. Federal Reserve, Jeffrey Nelson was able to put up a shotgun as down payment on a car.

Money was tight last year for the school-bus driver and neighborhood constable in Jasper, Alabama, a beaten-down town of 14,000 people. One car had already been repossessed. Medical bills were piling up.

And still, though Nelson’s credit history was an unhappy one, local car dealer Maloy Chrysler Dodge Jeep had no problem arranging a $10,294 loan from Wall Street-backed subprime lender Exeter Finance Corp so Nelson and his wife could buy a charcoal gray 2007 Suzuki Grand Vitara.

All the Nelsons had to do was cover the $1,000 down payment. For most of that amount, Maloy accepted Jeffrey’s 12-gauge Mossberg & Sons shotgun, valued at about $700 online.

In the ensuing months, Nelson and his wife divorced, he moved into a mobile home, and, unable to cover mounting debts, he filed for personal bankruptcy. His ex-wife, who assumed responsibility for the $324-a-month car payment, said she will probably file for bankruptcy in a couple of months.

Subprime loans as the primary force behind our economic recovery.

What could possibly go wrong?

The Exeter loan Nelson and his wife got, for example, carried a 21.95-percent rate. Exeter, which is majority-owned by private-equity giant Blackstone Group, assumes that one in four borrowers will default on their loan, according to an Exeter investor pitch book reviewed by Reuters.

The government is lending them the money at basically 0%.

As in zero.

It’s the Federal Reserve that’s made it all possible.

MONEY, MONEY EVERYWHERE

In its efforts to jumpstart the economy, the U.S. central bank has undertaken since November 2008 three rounds of bond-buying and cut short-term interest rates effectively to zero. The purchases of mostly Treasury and mortgage securities – known as quantitative easing and nicknamed QE1, QE2 and QE3 – have injected trillions of dollars into the financial system.

The Fed isn’t alone. Central banks from Tokyo to Frankfurt to London are running their printing presses overtime. The heavily indebted advanced economies are trying to reflate their way out of the prolonged bout of crisis and recession that crystallized with the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc in 2008. That crisis, of course, followed a nearly decade-long cycle of easy money and exotic financial products that itself began with the collapse of the tech-mania bubble of the late 1990s.

The Fed’s program, while aimed at bolstering the U.S. housing and labor markets, has also steered billions of dollars into riskier, more speculative corners of the economy. That’s because, with low interest rates pinching yields on their traditional investments, insurance companies, hedge funds and other institutional investors hunger for riskier, higher-yielding securities – bonds backed by subprime auto loans, for instance.

This is what this pathetic ‘recovery’ has been built on: cards, smoke, mirrors and fluff.

Oh and massive debt for our children.

Barf

[Insert Loud Braking Noise]

Shocka.

US Manufacturing Growth Slows, Misses Forecast: ISM

The pace of expansion in the U.S. manufacturing sector unexpectedly slowed in March, according to an industry report released on Monday.

The Institute for Supply Management (ISM) said its index of national factory activity fell to 51.3 from 54.2 the month before. The reading was shy of expectations of 54.2 according to a Reuters poll of economists.

…The new orders index fell to 51.4 from 57.8. The prices paid gauge slid to 54.5 from 61.5, compared to expectations of 59.8.

Oh, “expectations”, like “hope” and “change”, can be such troublesome things.

I Won’t Say “Unexpectedly”

I’ll just say, “Well, I’ll be a Monkey’s Uncle!”

Not-So-Great News for Jobless Claims and GDP

The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits rose more than expected last week, but probably not enough to suggest the labor market recovery was taking a step back.

Also, the U.S. economy expanded at a sluggish pace in the fourth quarter although a big gain in business investment and higher exports of services led the government to push up its previous estimate for growth.

Gross domestic product expanded at a 0.4 percent annual rate, the Commerce Department said, just below the 0.5 percent gain forecast by analysts in a Reuters poll.

The growth rate was the slowest since the first quarter of 2011 and far from what is needed to fuel a faster drop in the unemployment rate. It was, however, higher than the government’s previous estimate of a 0.1 percent growth rate.

Overall, the news for the economy wasn’t great Thursday.

Yes, Actually, We Do Plan To Keep Stealing Your Money

Anyone in Europe who has even a single penny in the bank is a fool

Cyprus bail-out: savers will be raided to save euro in future crises, says eurozone chief

Savings accounts in Spain, Italy and other European countries will be raided if needed to preserve Europe’s single currency by propping up failing banks, a senior eurozone official has announced.

The new policy will alarm hundreds of thousands of British expatriates who live and have transferred their savings, proceeds from house sales and other assets to eurozone bank accounts in countries such as France, Spain and Italy.

The euro fell on global markets after Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the Dutch chairman of the eurozone, announced that the heavy losses inflicted on depositors in Cyprus would be the template for future banking crises across Europe.

Funny the things that the consortium of Big Government and Big Banking can do to an unarmed population.

Repeat after me: $19.2 trillion dollars is currently held by US citizens in 401k and other retirement accounts.

Do you really think the government doesn’t want to “help” you manage that money?

All your money are belong to us.

It’s Not A Good Sign

Nope. The last thing you want when your country is bankrupt and you’re trying to calm international lenders so you can fleece them borrow even more money is for the Governor of your Central Bank to be named PANIC

(Reuters) – Russia rebuffed Cypriot entreaties for aid on Friday, leaving the island’s increasingly isolated leaders scrambling to strike a bailout deal with the European Union by next week or face the collapse of its financial system.

In Nicosia, the country’s biggest bank urged politicians to make haste and cut a deal with their EU partners as parliament considered proposals to nationalize pension funds, pool state assets and split the country’s second-largest bank in a desperate effort to satisfy those exasperated European allies.

The governor of the Central Bank, Panicos Demetriades, warned political leaders the country would face a disorderly bankruptcy on Tuesday unless they approved the bills, an official present at the talks said.

Remain calm.

All is under control.

aaaaiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Well This Is Comforting

Euro Finance Ministers admit they’re “in a mess”

(Reuters) – Euro zone finance officials acknowledged being “in a mess” over Cyprus during a conference call on Wednesday and discussed imposing capital controls to insulate the region from a possible collapse of the Cypriot economy.

In detailed notes of the call seen by Reuters, one official described emotions as running “very high”, making it difficult to come up with rational solutions, and referred to “open talk in regards of (Cyprus) leaving the euro zone”.

The call was among members of the Eurogroup Working Group, which consists of deputy finance ministers or senior treasury officials from the 17 euro zone countries as well as representatives from the European Central Bank and the European Commission. The group is chaired by Austria’s Thomas Wieser.

Cyprus decided not to take part in the call, a decision that several participants described as troubling and reflecting the wider confusion surrounding the island’s predicament.

“The (Cypriot) parliament is obviously too emotional and will not decide on anything, if Cyprus does not even feel that they can attend the call it is a big problem for us,” the French representative said, according to the notes seen by Reuters.

When the French think you’re acting too emotional…

Oh, Jerry Brown and the Boys Got it HAPPENIN’!

As far as “California Dreamin’” goes. Everything else is “going” out of the state as FAST as it frickin’ can.

MetLife to move jobs from California to North Carolina

Insurance giant Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. said Thursday it will move 2,600 jobs from offices in five eastern states and California to lower-cost locations in two North Carolina cities, while also getting tax breaks and other incentives that could reach $100 million.

The insurer is shifting the jobs from Aliso Viejo and Irvine in California, and from Massachusetts, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Rhode Island, MetLife spokesman John Calagna said. The positions will be consolidated in Charlotte, which will become the U.S. headquarters for MetLife’s retail business, and at a global technology and operations hub in the Raleigh suburb of Cary. The company’s retail segment sells and services life, disability, auto and other insurance.

…The new jobs, paying average salaries of nearly $82,000 a year, would include product management, marketing, sales and customer support in Charlotte and information technology positions in Cary. The company had about 140 workers in Charlotte before Thursday’s announcement.

“The strong business climate, access to universities and colleges and the desirable cost of living in North Carolina were significant factors in choosing to establish these new campuses in Cary and Charlotte,” MetLife executive vice president Eric Steigerwalt said.

Party in Charlotte, anyone?

H/T CA Political Review

Yeah. About That Tumbling Drop in the Unemployment Rate

Get past the orgasmic gymnastics in the headline:

Job Creation Surges as Rate Falls to 7.7%

Job creation broke out in February, with the economy creating a net 236,000 new jobs as the unemployment rate fell to 7.7 percent.

Private job creation stood at a robust 246,000, finally indicating that the economy may be ready to escape the tight growth range in which it has been held since the financial crisis.

…(“ROBUST”?) to the brutal truth:

…A separate unemployment measure that includes workers no longer looking for jobs and those working part-time for economic reasons edged lower to 14.3 percent. At the same time, the labor force participation rate, which measures workers and those looking for jobs,

also fell, to a 32-year low of 63.5 percent, tied with where it stood in August 2012.

Hey, Skippy. Hiring at The Olive Garden or Target might be picking up, but the vast majority of the people are still sitting home, feeling pret-tee hopeless.