Talk about when it rains it pours...well in Shelby County, TN not only does the county intend to layoff 100 county workers but expects a minimum property tax rate hike of 4%. Ouch. The expected tax rate hike is a minimum expectation since the proposal is current being debated. As for the 100 county workers headed for the unemployment line; 31 of them are with the County Sheriff's office which includes jailers. Talk about squeeze ball tactics. Yet another example of how the little guy gets caught up in the game of pass the buck and reverse Robin Hood. You can expect quite a bit of these burden shifting fear tactics to be widespread around the country considering the state of the economy. This is too bad for the good folks of Memphis. Even if you could digest the situation, to follow it up with job cuts too, is inconceivable. Not cool. Regardless of how you twist and turn it, job cuts and a tax hike is nothing short of a double whammie for the good folks of Shelby County.

Looks like the United States Postal Service has joined in on job cuts. In fact, the USPS has cut 25,000 jobs this year alone, citing massive deficits that it is trying to rein in. Currently, the USPS employs 635,000 employees down from 800,000 a decade ago. As everyone else is feeling the pinch and cutting costs that part seems par for the course. The kicker is that the USPS has continually raised its rates while trimming staff. Hummh. So, now patrons of the Postal Service pay more for the exact same services that are "serviced" by less people. In short, raising prices and employing less staff generally means service suffers. If this is so, what incentive do patrons have to remain loyal when UPS and FedEx are getting it done at virtually the same price for many services? The bottom line is the postal service cutting jobs and raising rates at the same time is a bad idea. Uuuuhh Ohhhh. Starting the week out with foot in mouth.

Looks like there are fresh signs of an economic recovery on the way...or so the data suggests anyway. The Commerce Department has stated that new home sales moved north ever so slightly for the month of April i.e. 0.3 percent. At the same time jobless claims dropped by 13,000 to 623,000. So that's good news right!!! Yes it is, but hold on to your hat for second. While "new" jobless claims are down "continuing" jobless claims are up again. As a matter of fact, continuing jobless claims are up to a record high of 6.79 million. Wow folks that is a staggering number.

To put matters into perspective the 6.79 million unemployed nationwide is now larger than the entire population of some states like Arizona, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, Arkansas, Missouri and Tennessee to name a few. This is serious business folks; especially to the whiners complaining the government should stay on the side lines. If the government doesn't continue to move forward with its economic recovery initiatives, undoubtedly, the current 6.79 million unemployed would only reach an even more ridiculous number. The only real question is...where is the private sector? What exactly is the private sector doing to revitalize the economy? Just because new jobless rates have fallen, doesn't mean more work isn't necessary, especially since continuing unemployment claims hit record highs. Bottom line - It's time to step up and make it happen.