Of course they are ?

transformer_99

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More companies are becoming hesitant to forecast
"More companies are becoming hesitant to forecast"

Justification of those contrived numbers involves accountability and responsibility. The one's making millions and not sacrificing have to justify why others are being laid off in droves and being forced to make sacrifices ?

And here is just one of the holes I've found:

Caterpillar, "That could mean the government is spending money to lay new roads, build bridges and renovate schools under the $787 billion stimulus program approved by Congress earlier this year."

What it really means, $ 787 billion that we already paid for in a bailout so that someone can go build something/anything just for the sake of building ? Are these more "bridges to nowhere" ? And as for the hinting at "renovating schools" ? WTH, we build new schools constantly. Then hear a collective whine from industry about the lack of education & intelligence. Yet teachers are being "down-sized/right-sized". And then there is news that universities such as FSU is going to shut down the Panama City, FL satellite program. Guess we need another school ? And it makes perfect sense to me, no teachers, but we need another school ? The reason higher education is being attained is that the schools they go to aren't nice enough ? Please, I only wish I could have attended elementary thru high schools that are as nice as the one's I have to drive 10 mph in front of/by ?

Another is the importance placed in the story on McDonald's prosperity ? We're back to gauging economic prosperity on a low-cost, fast food restaurant like we were doing in 2001-2004 (the first "W" Bush fiasco of an administration. So if McDonald's is booming, Does that mean these new unemployed masses are now undremployed in a low skill/low pay "Mc Job" on a McCareer path ? Don't get me wrong about slighting McDonalds, on what a majority of the masses are expected to live on, budget fast food drives America. But in the final analysis, it would just demonstrate exactly what I predicted 8 years ago would happen. We have a war on terrorism and these soldiers will be coming back to work in a Wal-Mart/McDonalds economy. And not only that, the competition will be fierce for that job, if they're even hiring at all ?

Yes, if I were an executive and/or Board of Directors member, I'd be very hesitant to make brash statements on the budgets and actual data that really exposes why so few will be fabulously wealthy in their lifetimes and others simply struggle to have a respectably clean credit rating ? And given the corporate accounting scandals and SEC failures of decades past, What makes quarter to quarter 2009 b*llshit reporting any different ?
 

lucky8

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Well if it means anything, minumum wage will be increased to $7.25 by the end of July
 

HazelGod

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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090419/ap_on_bi_ge/investor_earnings_guideWhat it really means, $ 787 billion that we already paid for in a bailout so that someone can go build something/anything just for the sake of building ? Are these more "bridges to nowhere" ? And as for the hinting at "renovating schools" ? WTH, we build new schools constantly.

Did you miss the national bridge study results that were released after that last big fatal collapse in Boston? It isn't just new roads and bridges we need...it's lots of maintenance and renovation of existing infrastructure that's in a crumbling state of disrepair. Same men, same materials as new stuff...so same job creation, etc.

As for school projects, here in Texas they're most commonly funded through bond elections...meaning the local governments incur debt to finance them, meaning they cost the community principal PLUS interest. Federal moneys being used instead provide an enormous relief in areas where such bond measures have passed...and they actually make school projects possible in areas where such ballot initiatives don't have any chance of passing.
 

Trinity

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What it really means, $ 787 billion that we already paid for in a bailout so that someone can go build something/anything just for the sake of building ? Are these more "bridges to nowhere" ? And as for the hinting at "renovating schools" ? WTH, we build new schools constantly.

Did you miss the national bridge study results that were released after that last big fatal collapse in Boston? It isn't just new roads and bridges we need...it's lots of maintenance and renovation of existing infrastructure that's in a crumbling state of disrepair. Same men, same materials as new stuff...so same job creation, etc.

The answer to the question Transformer is: in far too many cases with Obama's Stimulus Plan...Yes. We passed a $787 Billion Dollar Stimulus so that someone can go build anything for the sake of building. Obama's plan is haphazard and has too many loopholes:


Salsbury Daily Times - Maryland PIRG
Let's Not Waste the Stimulus Funds
According to a recently released study conducted by Maryland Public Interest Research Group, the states could undermine President-elect Barack Obama's plan to invest in infrastructure through funding of projects aimed at reducing oil consumption. How would they do this? The 16-state survey found that most states' wish lists focused too much on building new (additional) highways and widening existing ones and not enough on repair of bridges or mass transit projects.

Worse, the majority of the 50 states --including Maryland -- have not made public their wish lists, which have already been submitted to Congress. Among those states that shared their proposals with MaryPIRG, more than three-fourths of the total transportation funds would be used to build new highways. A backlog of deferred maintenance and repair projects was barely addressed; Maryland alone has 129 bridges that have been deemed structurally deficient.

And to demonstrate how weak Obama's Stimulus Plan is in it's structure to repair our crumbling infrastructure and to provide necessary stimulus read the article below. Shovel Ready Projects are a major part of the Obama's Stimulus Plan. There has been much debate on the validity of such Shovel Ready Projects. An example can be found in California. Cities in Los Angeles County weren't really Shovel Ready and therefore were unable to qualify for funds so cities were actually selling and auctioning to the highest bidder- Stimulus funds... because they had no projects ready. Of course when the contract selling came to light, the cities had to cancel their auction agreements, but it goes to demonstrate that Obama's Stimulus Plan has some major areas of concern:


Cities Are Selling Stimulus Funds to Each Other
— By Josh Harkinson March 10, 2009 Mother Jones.com

In Los Angeles County, cities are buying federal stimulus funds from each other at deep discounts, turning what was supposed to be a targeted infusion of cash into a huge auction.

It all started when the county's Metropolitan Transportation Agency decided to hand out $44 million from the federal stimulus package in the form of $500,000 transportation grants to each of the county's 88 cities. But some cities didn't have any shovel-ready transportation projects. So with MTA's blessing, they're selling the grants to the highest bidder: