Economy

Minnesota employers cut 7,500 jobs last month

Minnesota’s unemployment rate edged up to 6.0 percent last month, with employers slashing 7,500 jobs, according to new figures from the Department of Employment and Economic Development. In September the state’s unemployment rate was at 5.9 percent, with job losses of 2,300.
There were 16,400 fewer jobs available last month than at the same point in [...]

University of Minnesota imposes hiring freeze

The U of M puts the brakes on hiring.

On an afternoon already ruined by the worst kind of freezing sleet, University of Minnesota President Robert Bruininks announced a system-wide hiring freeze for all non-essential positions. Bruininks told university faculty and staff by e-mail that the “pause” in hiring is in anticipation of poor state budget [...]

Last-second ad flurry ads hits 6th District

Before Rep. Michele Bachmann’s Oct. 17 statements on MSNBC about “anti-America views” she feared some in Congress hold, the airwaves in the 6th Congressional District were relatively quiet. But over the past two weeks well over $1 million in campaign contributions from people outraged by her comments have poured into the campaign of DFLer El [...]

Ad blitz continues in the 6th with new DCCC release

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is putting up a new television spot in the 6th Congressional District attacking Rep. Michele Bachmann on the economy.

Meanwhile, Bachmann’s ad attacking Democratic challenger El Tinklenberg gets panned by Minnesota Public Radio’s Tim Pugmire who says, the “Facts don’t support Bachmann ad claims.”
“One of the latest twists in the too-close-to-call [...]

Chamber of Commerce funnels money to Norm Coleman to protect banks, thwart unionizing

National businesses and banks have been feeding Norm Coleman major sums of cash this last quarter, despite the fact that corporations and, especially the financial sector, are withering in a crippling economy and asking taxpayers for bailouts. According to a story in L.A. Times last week, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce spent $30 million on lobbying in the third quarter of this year, more than twice as much as it spent for the same purpose in the previous quarter. And a chunk of that change is going to Minnesota senator Norm Coleman.

How did “spreading the wealth” become a dirty deed?

Of all the criticism lobbed at Barack Obama over the last week, the one that gets the biggest hoots and hollers from John McCain supporters is that Obama wants to, in McCain air quotes, “spread the wealth.” Crazy, right? Crazy that a candidate would invoke, as the New Yorker notes, the godfather of free-market capitalism, Adam Smith, who wrote in “The Wealth of Nations” that, “It is not very unreasonable that the rich should contribute to the public expense, not only in proportion to their revenue, but something more than in that proportion.”

Minneapolis home sales are up, but prices are down again

It’s become a broken record of late: Home-price declines breaking records. With the economy on the skids and the subprime crisis still unfolding, home values are getting devoured first. This morning the S&P/Case-Shiller home-price index was released, revealing that the trend doesn’t show any signs of slowing down. The 20-city index showed year-to-year August price declines of 16.6 percent. Minneapolis saw a drop of 13.3 percent over the year period, with a 1 percent decline from July to August.

‘Joe the Plumber’ finds new career winterizing Minnesota’s foreclosed homes

Joe, Steve, Scott, Mario, Rodney, and Paul the Plumber are not only in recession-immune jobs, they’re making a career out of a collapsing economy. According to KAAL-TV in Rochester, Minnesota, a company called 1st Class Plumbing and Heating is getting most of its calls for service from banks and Realtors needing foreclosed and vacant homes [...]

Video: And the last shall be first — Wall Street meltdown edition

Received this video over the weekend from a friend; according to Dailymotion, it was made by a 28-year-old in France, but the subject is entirely American.
Any further description would spoil the punchline, so we’ll just say… watch it.
The jobby trescourt

Party like it’s 1979: Holidays go on layaway

Remember the good ol’ days, when there was a handful of Crisco in every cake and a layaway desk at every department store? Mom would drag you along once a week to that crummy counter you couldn’t see beyond, where she’d pay for a longed-for item bit by bit until that one fruitful day when [...]