Chicago Daily Observer

The dismal retail sales figures are in for Black Friday and the news is . . . good?

Wait a minute, the news was supposed to be bad, awful, ghastly, dreadful, etc. Analysts, almost to the person, were predicting that retail sales would decline from last year’s level, if not plummet. Some forecast economic calamity, because so much depends on consumer spending.

Not to pick on anyone in particular, but here are a few examples of pre-Black Friday conjectures:

• Marshal Cohen, chief retail analyst with NPD Group, said “this could be the worst holiday [shopping season] ever.”

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Part 1



For decades now, the culture sage Michael Medved has been sharing with us certain bitter truths about Hollywood…and one of them, surprisingly, is this: a host of examples show tinsel-town that America wants wholesome entertainment…not saccharine stuff but entertainment that can give them a particle of hope. But Hollywood steadfastly refuses to package these shows…not because they would be economic failures…but because the film colony itself is so damnably cross-eyed that it is unable to see straight because it concentrates on a prism of abhorrent scripts…hate America scripts, if you please…gruesome, sadistic dark films of perversion and hatred...which generally either fail at the box-office or are keen disappointments to their investors.

I have just read an interview with Joe Eszterhas, a gifted screenwriter who has turned away from this Hollywood aura and wants to make wholesome, ethically redemptive films-not candy-coated ones. He thinks…in fact KNOWS…there ... Read More...

At yesterday’s close in West Texas:

Nymex Crude Future 49.13 -.15 -.30%

Dated Brent Spot 47.42 .73 1.57%

WTI Cushing Spot 49.28 -5.15 -9.46%

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Last week the USA Today had it that Barack Obama was “injecting confidence into the battered psyche of investors and working quickly to hatch a plan meant to jolt the economy out of its worst funk in decades” after a five day run of increases in the Dow Jones.

OK, back to reality; the market dropped 679 points today or 7.6%. Quoting the WSJ on Phil Gramm “there are two kinds of Democrats on economics: those who want to milk the cow but so dislike the cow that they want to punish it, and those who want to milk the cow and thus want it to grow. The good news about Barack Obama’s emerging economic team is that most of them don’t hate the cow”.

The election is over. How about a firm announcement that President Obama will not raise taxes and tariffs?

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The current recession is unlike any other in the last couple of generations. Usually recessions happen because monetary policy gets tight or tax rates go up. Sometimes, like in the Great Depression, rising trade barriers lead to a contraction in economic growth.

This time around, the recession is not due to tight monetary policy, higher tax rates, or protectionism. It’s due to a sudden and sharp plunge in the velocity of money – what we have been calling “risk aversion hysteria” – where the speed with which money moves its way through the economy slows down as both consumers and businesses decide they want to increase their cash holdings.

Idiotic mortgage loans started the financial fire and overly stringent mark-to-market accounting rules acted as an accelerant, forcing financial firms to write down the value of their assets even when underlying mortgage cash flows are likely to grossly exceed fire-sale prices ... Read More...

It was and is a strange duo, the lady and the champ, carefully tapping through their predetermined steps in the appropriately named Continental Ballroom of the Hilton Chicago on a snowy Monday morning.A cast of others was there, too. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, just named to a new term, and Gov. Janet Napolitano, the next homeland security chief. Attorney General-designate Eric Holder and the next national security adviser, retired Marine Corp Gen. Jim Jones.But it was the dance between the lanky Chicagoan and the tough-talking New Yorker that drew all eyes, and Barack Obama and his chosen secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, hit their marks.In what wasn’t so much a sultry samba or wonkish square dance but a waltz sans elegance, both bent over backward – rhetorically – to convince a watching nation that past feuds are over and one happy national security team exists.

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Much good has resulted since Illinois lawmakers joined 35 other states and placed limits on medical damage awards three years ago. Doctors no longer flee the state in droves, and health care is more accessible. But if the trial lawyers prevail in a case heard by the Illinois Supreme Court recently, those trends could be reversed.

In 2005 the state General Assembly passed a law that capped medical malpractice jury awards for pain and suffering at $500,000 against doctors and $1 million against hospitals. At the time, the state’s medical litigation climate was one of the nation’s worst; jury awards soared. Between 1998 and 2003, damage awards for pain and suffering in Cook County (Chicago) grew by 247%.

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If it’s Sunday, it must be worship time at the Temple of Obama, at least at the Chicago Tribune. Today the top of the front page has a picture of Barack and Michelle embracing. The headline is: “White House romances: Obamas’ affection is notable among presidential pairs.” Page 4 carries the story, also shown on the Trib’s Web site with the headline “Scenes from Obamas’ love story.” We learn:

Over the last two years the future first couple has made a practice of sharing such small, intimate moments on the grandest of stages, whether trading fist bumps, whispering “I love you” or stealing quick kisses on the campaign trail

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In the weeks since Mr Obama’s election, Chicago – a city used to proclaiming its global status while often measuring up short next to New York and Los Angeles – has been basking in the international spotlight. The president-elect’s victory celebration in Grant Park showcased its handsome skyline, parkland and lakefront to millions all round the world. His transition team is based in the city, attracting a global media circus. Many of his appointments have come from Chicago’s political elite.

Chicago has not lacked promoters. Since he was elected 20 years ago, Mayor Richard Daley has been an energetic salesman for the city and there are several organisations dedicated to raising Chicago’s profile internationally. In the past, that has often involved dispelling its reputation as a gritty, industrial, crime-ridden urban sprawl. Mr Obama’s worldwide popularity has given the publicists a new song to sing.

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Chicago forks over more money in lawsuits—especially lawsuits against the police—than LA, Houston, Phoenix, Philly, and Dallas put together.

In January, after years of legal and political battles, the city agreed to pay $19.8 million to settle lawsuits by four men who were tortured by police under former commander Jon Burge. Signing off on the deal, aldermen condemned the abusive officers and hoped aloud that the settlements would let the police department start a new era. “I’m glad this is over,” said the Fifth Ward’s Leslie Hairston. “It’s definitely a black eye on Chicago and on our history. But it’s also an opportunity for us to get a chance to turn the page.”

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Conservatives shouldn’t chortle too much over the beginning appointments made by Barack Obama, jibing that they are re-treads from retaining George W. Bush’s secretary of defense Bob Gates to picking Hillary Clinton for secretary of state, recycling Paul Volcker (an original Jimmy Carter appointment) to plucking up Larry Summers and making him a White House adviser. I had feared from the outset that the appointments would be denizens of the Harvard or University of Chicago faculty lounges…theorists with no experience whatever, similar to those Franklin Roosevelt picked and who paralyzed the recovery.

I would damn sight rather be governed by Bob Gates as defense chief, Paul Volcker as head of an economic commission and Larry Summers than some of the names who were suggested. At any rate, Obama will turn leftward in time…which will upset us all: with appointments to the federal bench and regulatory agencies.

Sometimes conservatives bother me…as ... Read More...

Before her death, Barack Obama’s grandmother in Hawaii gave his campaign $2,300, which is precisely $2,300 more than Obama himself donated to his $639 million, record-breaking war chest.

And in this practice, Obama is in good company. Buried in federal election records is a curious fact: Candidates often don’t financially support their own campaigns.

Records show that John McCain, he of the seven houses, did not donate to his presidential campaign. Neither did Sarah Palin. Joe Biden didn’t chip in for his own national run either. Mayor Richard Daley also has a closed wallet when it comes to funding his or anybody else’s campaign.

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Does anyone remember when advertisements for the Christmas retail blitz began after Thanksgiving? Now, it seems that the holiday shopping season begins immediately after Halloween. Someday, I am afraid that the nonstop commercials will start airing following Labor Day.

In a more innocent time, we contented ourselves during the long winters of our discontent with such wonderful gifts as board games. The names of companies such as Milton Bradley, Parker Brothers, or the Chicago based game manufacturer, Cadaco, were familiar to all of us as children. We did not need game chips and electronics to while away the hours in solitary confinement as seems to be the case for youngsters today. Board games required group participation and some of the games were actually educational.

The coming administration may seek to ban “Monopoly” for promoting capitalism, but the game managed to teach one how to count money. Given the current economic ... Read More...

If I don’t look fast, my suburban garbage truck will have come and gone without my noticing. And unlike in Chicago, which has three people working each truck, my scavenger service has only one—the driver.

The holy writ in Chicago is that you can’t have just one, and therein lies one of the reasons that Mayor Richard M. Daley’s city is in such awful financial shape: Chicago’s government doesn’t exist for the benefit of those who pay for it; it’s purpose is to feather the nest of the people who run it.

How better to explain the recently approved $6-billion city budget that had to levy new taxes to eliminate a $469 million deficit? Of course, Chicago attempted to blame the sagging economy for the shortfall—and that’s surely part of it—but the bigger part is the waste and corruption built into the Machine.

Consider the deal that requires three-man crews ... Read More...

Despite attracting millions of new contributors to his campaign, President-elect Barack Obama received about the same percentage of his total political funds from small donors as President Bush did in 2004, according to a study released today by the non-partisan Campaign Finance Institute.

The analysis undercuts Obama’s claim that his supporters “changed the way campaigns are funded” by reducing the influence of special-interest givers.

“The myth is that money from small donors dominated Barack Obama’s finances,” said Michael Malbin, the institute’s executive director. “The reality of Obama’s fundraising was impressive, but the reality does not match the myth.”

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