Miercoles 14/09/11 Precios prod., inventarios negocios

[admin]

+37

[admin]

VIx down 36.48

Euro up 1.3726

Au down 1,826

Oil down 89.60

China dijo que los paises tienen que ordenar su "casa" (politica fiscal)

+62.81

[admin]

AAPl +0.87%

USO -0.26%

FAS +2.38%

ERX +0.54%

EPU -0.48%

Au down 1,823

[admin]

Oil down 89.48

+41.43

[admin]

SCCO -0.26%

Oil down 89.55

+30.80

[admin]

EPU -0.70%

VIX down 36.34

+36.25

Oil down 89.77

Au down 1,823.40

Ag down 40.64

[admin]

BVN +0.17%

[Raiden]

Census Data: Poverty Rates, Median Income Drops Get Worse & Worse
Posted: September 13, 2011 at 2:24 pm

Print Email
inShare
2

The Census Bureau is out with the 2010 figures on income, poverty, and health insurance. About all you can hope for is that 2011 is magically better than 2010 because many of the figures are literally eye-popping. We have higher poverty rates, lower median income, higher uninsured rates, greater racial inequality, and even more young adults depending upon mom and dad than most of us have ever seen.

24/7 Wall St. has gone through the figures released by the Census Bureau today and removed much of the noise to focus on the larger issues that affect most of America. That also means that much of the data affecting smaller groups or measuring other metrics was eliminated. When you consider the direction of the current economic data compared to earlier this year and the risks of another recession growing more and more, it is alarming.

Median household money income for the nation fell 2.3% to $49,400 in 2010 in real terms, the lowest reading back to $49,112 in 1996 and down from a peak of $53,252 in 1999 and down from a more recent peak of $52,823 in 2007. The 2010 official poverty rate for the nation was 15.1% in 2010 versus 14.3% in 2009: 46.2 million people in poverty, up 2.6 million since 2009. The drop in real income the year after a recession was the worst in percentage terms going back to at least the 1960s.

Apparently there is an age-bias on the drop of income as well. If you fell into the age bracket of 15 to 24, the average income was down a whopping 9.3%. There was a 1.9% drop in household income for those 25 to 34 years old and there was no significant change in the age group of 35 to 44 years old. Then came the second largest drop of 4.3% in those aged 45 to 54, yet there was no significant drop in the 55 to 64 and the 65 and older brackets.

Women now earn about 77% as much as men and that appears to have been one of the best ratios going back 50 years. The rate of households with children is also atrocious. Married-couple families are at 8.8%, but single-mother households ticked back up again to a decade-plus high of 40.7%.

By race, the poverty rate appears to have ticked up for all but Asians. Black was 27.4% in poverty, Hispanic was 26.6% in poverty, Asian was 12.1%, and white was 9.9%. Age is the worst feature of all… 22% of those under 18 years old now live in poverty.

The doubling-up, those households with children above 18 years old rose substantially as well. This measure was from 2007 to 2011. There was a 25.5% gain in those of age 25 to 34 living with their parents, and the total number was up 10.7%. The doubled-up households grew to 21.8 million in 2011 from 19.7 million in 2007. The number of young adults aged 25 to 34 who live with their parents grew from 4.7 million in 2007 to 5.9 million in 2011.

Real median household income was down to $49,400 to the lowest reading in more than a decade and the poverty rate was back at a cycle peak of 15.1%. The number of those in poverty was a real high (with population growth) of 46.2 million in 2010.

People without health insurance coverage in 2010 was basically the same as 2009 at 16.3%, but the number of uninsured rose to 49.9 million in 2010 versus 2009′s reading of 49.0 million. Of all people in America without health insurance, the reading rose to 16.3%, but the rate of children without health insurance was 9.8%. Government coverage rates continued to rise and those with employment-based coverage fell to 55.3% and those with any form of private coverage was 64.0%. Those two compared to 62.1% and 75.5%, respectively, in the late 1980′s.

If you go back to 1999, the 2010 uninsured rates by race were the highest at 30.7% for Hispanic but that is under the 31.9% in 1999 and under the peak of close to 33% in 2006. Uninsured rates were the highest in 2010 since 1999 for Whites (at 11.7%), Asians (at 18.1%), and Black (at 20.8%).

The uninsured rates were as you would expect, the higher the income the lower the uninsured rates are:

Over $75K : 8%
$50K to $75K: 15.4%
$25K to $50K: 21.8%
Under $25K: 26.9%
The full PDF is here. http://www.census.gov/newsroom/releases ... points.pdf

In all seriousness, is the American Dream alive and well?

JON C. OGG

[Raiden]

iPhone — Cool, But Outta School? (AAPL, GOOG, RIMM, HP, MSFT, T)
Posted: September 14, 2011 at 9:09 am

Print Email
inShare
1
Smartphone adoption in the US market has reached 35% of US adult mobile phone users, and 42% of all mobile phone owners. In Europe’s five leading markets (France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the UK), smartphone adoption grew by 44% year-over-year in July. Smartphones are taking over, feature phones are disappearing, and the iPhone from Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) may be losing is cachet among the young and the restless.

A study by the Pew Research Center of US smartphone users reveals some interesting tidbits. Among smartphone owners, 35% use devices running the Android operating system from Google Inc. (NYSE: GOOG), 24% use iPhones running iOS, 24% use Blackberry devices from Research in Motion Ltd. (NASDAQ: RIMM), 6% use WebOS devices from Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ), and 4% use a Windows platform from Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT).

One of the interesting tidbits from the Pew research is that young adults aged 18-24 own more than twice as many Android-powered phones as they do iPhones. And while the gap narrows as the age cohorts get older, it isn’t until the 55-64 year old group that iPhone owners outnumber Android owners — and then by just 1%. In the 35-44 year-old age group, Blackberry phones also outnumber iPhones

By ethnicity, 12% of whites own Android phones compared with 10% who own iPhones. Among blacks, 26% own Android phones compared with just 5% who own iPhones and 12% who own Blackberries. Among Hispanics, 16% own Android phones, 10% own iPhones and 14% own Blackberries.

Apple gets most of the notice in the smartphone market, but Android is getting most of the sales. And that’s especially true among the young. Why is Apple losing among the young and the cool?

One reason could be selection. Android-powered phones come with a wider variety of models and price points than do either iPhones or Blackberries. iPhones are considerably more expensive than Android phones, so parents purchasing a phone for their college-age students may go for the cheaper Android phones.

Besides, the initial buyers of the iPhone were most likely the parents of the 18-24 year olds. How cool is it to own the same phone as your stodgy old parents?

There’s also the possibility that Apple’s early decision to stay with just one vendor, AT&T (NYSE: T), is coming back to haunt it. Couple that with the company’s high markup and nearly total control of the iPhone’s ecosystem, and we might be seeing the start of a replay of the Mac-PC wars of the last century. That war almost killed Apple.

Can the iPhone get its groove back? Apple probably needs to introduce a price-competitive phone with all the features that are available on a similarly priced Android phone. Re-establishing its cool factor among the young will be harder, and could involve loosening the company’s grip on the iPhone ecosystem.

Neither of these is something that the folks in Cupertino are likely to do unless forced. The Pew report, though, ought to give Apple a push.

Paul Ausick

[admin]

El 51% de los americanos dudan que el paquete de estimulo de Obama para la creacion de empleos rebajara el desempleo.

El 62% de los Americanos desaprueba el trabajo que Obama esta haciendo con respecto a la economia.

El 66% de los independientes desaprueba el manejo de la economia.

Obama Approval Plummets on Jobs Plan: Poll
By Julianna Goldman - Sep 14, 2011 12:01 AM ET .

Obama Approval Plummets on Jobs Plan: Poll Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg
By a margin of 51 percent to 40 percent, Americans doubt the package of tax cuts and spending proposals intended to jumpstart job creation that President Obama submitted to Congress this week will bring down the 9.1 percent jobless rate.

Obama called on Congress to pass a jobs plan that would inject $447 billion into the economy through infrastructure spending, subsidies to local governments to stem teacher layoffs, and cutting in half the payroll taxes paid by workers and small-business owners.

U.S. President Barack Obama pauses while making a speech to a joint session of Congress at the Capitol in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Thursday, Sept. 8, 2011. Obama called on Congress to pass a jobs plan that would inject $447 billion into the economy through infrastructure spending, subsidies to local governments to stem teacher layoffs, and cutting in half the payroll taxes paid by workers and small-business owners.

.A majority of Americans don’t believe President Barack Obama’s $447 billion jobs plan will help lower the unemployment rate, skepticism he must overcome as he presses Congress for action and positions himself for re- election.

The downbeat assessment of the American Jobs Act reflects a growing and broad sense of dissatisfaction with the president. Americans disapprove of his handling of the economy by 62 percent to 33 percent, a Bloomberg National Poll conducted Sept. 9-12 shows. The disapproval number represents a nine point increase from six months ago.

The president’s job approval rating also stands at the lowest of his presidency -- 45 percent. That rating is driven down in part by a majority of independents, 53 percent, who disapprove of his performance.

“I don’t think he’s done as good a job as I think he could have,” said Paul Kaplan, 58, an unemployed Democrat from Philadelphia. “We were hopeful that things would improve in the economy and they’ve only gotten worse. People in Washington just don’t seem to want to cooperate with each other and work for the people.”

The poll hands Obama new lows in each of the categories that measures his performance on the economy: only 36 percent of respondents approve of his efforts to create jobs, 30 percent approve of how he’s tackled the budget deficit and 39 percent approve of his handling of health care.

Jobs Bill Skepticism
By a margin of 51 percent to 40 percent, Americans doubt the package of tax cuts and spending proposals intended to jumpstart job creation that Obama submitted to Congress this week will bring down the 9.1 percent jobless rate. That sentiment undermines one of the core arguments the president is making on the job act’s behalf in a nationwide campaign to build public support.

Compounding Obama’s challenge is that 56 percent of independents, whom the president won in 2008 and will need to win in 2012, are skeptical it will work.

“I think the jobs bill is a good start, but it’s hard to look at it real positively in light of what’s just happened with the budget,” said Jason Dumas, a 40 year-old independent voter from Charlotte, North Carolina. “The partisanship is still there and it seems like we’re gearing up more for the election.”

In all of the categories gauging Obama’s performance on economic issues, the president’s disapproval rating among independents is above 50 percent.

Independents’ Disapproval
On the economy, 29 percent of independents approve of the job Obama is doing while 66 percent disapprove. Obama is weakest among independents when it comes to his ability to reduce the deficit -- under a quarter of those respondents approve of his job in that category, while 67 percent disapprove. On job creation, 30 percent of independents approve of Obama’s efforts while 63 percent disapprove. He scored slightly better among independents on health care with 34 percent approving and 57 percent disapproving.

Forty-six percent of independents say they definitely won’t vote to re-elect the president, compared to 21 percent who definitely will support him. In 2008, Obama was backed by 52 percent of independent voters, compared to 44 percent who backed Republican nominee John McCain, an Arizona senator, according to exit polls.

In addition to lost ground with independents, Obama’s 2008 supporters are less enthused in the wake of the summer’s fight to raise the debt ceiling and avoid a default, according to the poll of 997 adults conducted by Selzer & Co., based in Des Moines, Iowa.

Core Support Decline
Of the respondents who said they’ve supported Obama at one point since he launched his presidential campaign in 2007, fewer than half say they still support him as fervently. Thirty- seven percent say their support has waned and 19 percent say he lost their backing because they’ve grown disappointed or angry with his leadership.

Almost a third of Democrats and Democratic-leaning respondents say they’d like to see Obama face a primary challenge.

The job performance areas where Obama scores favorably are his handling of the situation in Libya and fighting terrorism. Another rare bright spot in the poll is his favorability rating, which stands at 50 percent and is better than all of his prospective Republican rivals. House Speaker John Boehner, an Ohio Republican, has a favorability rating of 33 percent compared to 38 percent who view him unfavorably, a ten point jump from June before the debt ceiling standoff in August.

Unfavorability Rating
Even that ray of hope is a dim one. Obama’s unfavorability rating is 47 percent, just three percentage points below his favorability, which is within the poll’s margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.

“I personally don’t think it’s his fault, I think it’s Congress,” said Krystal Carter, 40, a Democrat, who is an esthetician in Davenport, Florida. “They’re like a bunch of kindergarteners. I think we just need to vote all them out and start over.”

As Obama urges Congress to act on the jobs bill and prepares to engage in debate over a $1.5 trillion to $2 trillion debt-reduction plan, Americans give him low marks on his negotiating style. By a margin of 52 percent to 37 percent, they disapprove of how Obama negotiates with the Republican majority in the House of Representatives. Fifty-eight percent of Democrats approve of Obama’s negotiating skills, while 71 percent of Republicans disapprove. Among independents, 55 percent are critical of his skills.

Stand for Something
“If he believes in something, then he needs to stand for it,” said Dumas, the North Carolina independent who works in video production. “He needs to back it and not play both sides. It hasn’t really served him well.”

Obama has pledged to stand firm on the jobs program. “This isn’t about giving Democrats or Republicans a win. It’s about giving the American people a win,” he said at a jobs event in Columbus, Ohio, yesterday.

While respondents are skeptical that the program will reduce the unemployment rate, the poll found support for some of its components.

The plan’s call for approximately $35 billion in direct aid to state and local governments to stem layoffs of educators and emergency personnel is favored by 71 percent of Americans compared to 27 percent who oppose it. While the proposal was the most popular in the poll, it is also the least likely to pass Congress because Republicans have expressed opposition to new spending.

Tax Centerpiece
The centerpiece of the proposal -- and the plank that Republicans have said they are most willing to consider -- is a cut in payroll taxes, which cover the first $106,800 in earnings and are evenly split between employers and employees.

Respondents are evenly split at 45 percent on this approach, which would cost $240 billion to the U.S. Treasury. Independents oppose it 47 percent versus 43 percent who favor it.

The White House also would use temporary payroll tax reductions next year to offer incentives for new hiring and to assist small businesses -- something Kaplan, a Democratic Party official in Philadelphia, said would help him.

“I hope it gets passed quickly, I’m one of the people who might benefit from it directly,” he said. “I myself have been out of work for six months now. I haven’t even had an interview.”

Others are less optimistic. Since World War II, no U.S. president has won re-election with a jobless rate above 6 percent, with the exception of Ronald Reagan, who faced 7.2 percent unemployment on Election Day in 1984.

“He can promise the moon,” said Carter. “But if Congress can’t get their act together and vote to pass it, it’s never going to happen.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Julianna Goldman in Washington at jgoldman6@bloomberg.net

[admin]

Societe Generale -9%

-1.97

[admin]

EDC -5.64%

-23.20

[admin]

OIl down 89.40

+3.25

Otro de esos dias

[admin]

-47.91

[admin]

VIX up 37.01

Euro down 1.3666, es el euro.

-57.26