All that remains of hope.

What does it say, when the sites I troll that track layoffs - have completely stopped updating them? Yeah! Recession over, like all the hack economists are saying? Hardly.

At least one of the sites gave an explanation in the vein of - this is taking up too much of my time and is crushing my soul.

So it is with great amusement that a bunch of reasonably smart people are saying the recession probably ended in July. And, I mean that in the most sarcastic way. Australia said just last night on Doomberg, that their economy had grown .6%. With a whisper at the end "well, without stimulus, we would have actually shrunk .3%".

Holy crap, that is quite a spread! +6 to -3. If only these people had thought of this before we could have never endured a recession. Why not make the growth rate +12? +20? Why stop there?

And.... I mean that in the most sarcastic way.

Listen, I believe that the only reason all shit hasn't broken loose already is because the market went up. This quarter is isn't going to be that easy. All that stupid bullshit of "better than expected earnings" - which was really "hey, at least we are still making a little profit" won't make wall street happy. If President moneybags was smart, he would be lying in the middle of the oval office curled up in a ball with a box of Kleenex sobbing his eyes out.

He has lost all control.

There are places in California that now are at 20+% unemployment. I read yesterday that Puerto Rico had 17% unemployment. BTW - that is a pretty cool link. Each state is clickable to find the unemployment number for them.

Hey, if you want something guaranteed to the make the words "holy crap" explode from your mouth, click on that link- then click on Florida, Georgia, and Nevada. That crap will make you dizzy.

Jobs should have been his only fing priority. Not making them, but making it so companies can create them. His way though - much better. And I mean that in the most sarcastic way.

Factory after factory shut. Oh - and all the states have run out of time, so the 6 month notice they've needed to provide for the unions will be kicking in this month and next. Because of you know - plunging tax revenue.

They can't even control the unemployment departments. They are completely overwhelmed. The web sites crash. People can't get through on the phones. I don't even know how many states are borrowing money to fund unemployment at this point. Hey, even I've given up tracking it. Oh wait - I'm so crafty sometimes. Look here. This is from August - which I'm pretty sure more are borrowing. But, it fun and exciting to see how many numbers they can string together.

So yeah.. when the stock market pulls back - which apparently it historically does at this time. Who knows what will happen. I do know that barely anyone gets hired in the tech world from October to January. My whole career I made sure to never be unemployed at this time.

I don't know.. it's hard to be positive. They layoffs are starting to tick up again. Despite what they told you on the news today. Subscribe to a twitter feed on layoffs. That's what I've had to do, because they websites that track this stuff have just given up. Yeah, it's depressing.