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ECRI Recession Watch: Decline In Growth Index Continues To Moderate By Doug Short November 18, 2011 The Weekly Leading Index (WLI) growth indicator of the Economic Cycle Research Institute (ECRI) posted -7.9 in its latest reading, data through November 11. The latest public data point is less negative than last week's -8.5 and continues the trend off its interim low of -10.1 on October 14. Last week I posted the November 7th CNBC interview with Lakshman Achuthan, the Co-founder of ECRI. I'm again including video because ECRI continues to feature it on their website here, which I see as evidence...

I found this article "Our Relationship With the Lord" written by Bruce R. McConkie and found in the BYU Devotional dated March 2, 1982. This portion of the article left me somewhat stunned : "5. Christ worked out his own salvation by worshiping the Father.After the Firstborn of the Father, while yet a spirit being, had gained power and intelligence that made him like unto God; after he had become, under the Father, the Creator of worlds without number; after he had reigned on the throne of eternal power as the Lord Omnipotent-- after all this he yet had to...

Politics: A week ago, as the secretary of labor greeted grim job data by hailing the economy's "turnaround," the Dow fell 100 points in seconds — a vivid sign America is wising up to this administration's incompetence. Only minutes after her department reported that payrolls had shed another 131,000 positions in July, there was Secretary Hilda Solis speaking brazenly of the "strong and immediate action" the White House had taken to save or create "more than 2.5 million American jobs." But as the market action showed, investors could see she didn't know what she was talking about. But then, Solis...

Did Obama’s “Stimulus” Create or Save Jobs? The official line is that President Obama’s 2009 “stimulus” package (tax cuts and spending increases) “created or saved” more than 3.5 million jobs. Is that so? It depends on what you mean by created, saved, and jobs. It is certainly true that the federal government gave money to the states and localities, and some of that money was used to pay teachers, police officers, and firefighters. However, to say that this “saved” those jobs implies that they really would have vanished without federal money. In some cases, state and local politicians might have...

This war veteran’s puppy may have been only six months old at the time, but she certainly knew what needed to be done when her owner was in danger. Dave Sharpe, of Arlington, Virginia, was suffering with severe post-traumatic stress disorder when he decided to put a pistol in his mouth and commit suicide. But his pit bull Cheyenne saw him crying with the gun in his mouth and licked his ear, convincing Mr Sharpe he had something to live for.

(CNSNews.com) - President Barack Obama, speaking from El Salvador, said that lives have been saved in Libya because of the U.S.-led military intervention there. “I just want to emphasize to the American people, because of the extraordinary capabilities and valor of our men and women in uniform, we have already saved lives [in Libya],” Obama said on Tuesday. “In Benghazi, a city of 700,000 people, you had the prospect of [Muammar] Qaddafi’s forces carrying out his orders to show no mercy,” the president said. “That could have resulted in catastrophe in that town. Qaddafi’s forces have pulled back because of...

MADISON, Wis (Reuters) – Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker said on Friday he was canceling the layoff warning notices he sent late last week to public sector unions after lawmakers approved his proposal to restrict the collective bargaining rights of those unions. Walker said the new powers for state and local government in the bill, which he is expected to sign into law as early as Friday, would save $30 million in the current budget year, which ends June 30. The measure also requires that public servants pay more of their health insurance and pension costs.

(CNN) -- A 27-year-old mother surrendered her baby girl to firefighters in Los Angeles on Christmas Eve, authorities said Saturday. She told firefighters at Fire Station 46 that the newborn was just six hours old. The firefighters accepted the girl, wrapping her in a blanket. She was healthy and did not appear to have been neglected or abused. Firefighters named the newborn Noel, in honor of the Christmas holiday...

More than a year after Congress approved $800 billion in stimulus funds, the Los Angeles City Controller has released a 40-page report on how the city spent its share, and the results are not living up to expectations. "I'm disappointed that we've only created or retained 55 jobs after receiving $111 million," said Wendy Greuel, the city's controller. "With our local unemployment rate over 12% we need to do a better job cutting red tape and putting Angelenos back to work."

There was a certain man in Caesarea called Cornelius, a centurion of the band called the Italian band,A devout man, and one that feared God with all his house, which gave much alms to the people, and prayed to God alway.He saw in a vision evidently about the ninth hour of the day an angel of God coming in to him, and saying unto him, Cornelius.And when he looked on him, he was afraid, and said, What is it, Lord? And he said unto him, Thy prayers and thine alms are come up for a memorial before God.And now send...

Say family does not have insurance to pay cost of precautionary check-upThe family of a 17-year-old Zion teen credited with saving a drowning boy on Monday in Kenosha, Wis., say the good deed has unfairly saddled them with more than $2,000 in medical bills. “He did what the lifeguard should have done — Trevor saved the boy,” Nicole Bollinger said Tuesday of her cousin, Trevor Hall. “Now the hospital phones me this morning to say that they’re sending off the bill for Trevor being taken to hospital as a precaution afterwards.

They didn’t take his bailout money, but the president claims credit all the same: The year before I took office, this industry lost hundreds of thousands of jobs. Sales plunged 40 percent — 40 percent. When the financial crisis hit and this great recession hit, that collided with an industry that for a long time had put off some hard choices, had put off adapting to changing times. And we had to face a hard, unimaginable reality, which was two of the Big Three automakers — GM and Chrysler — were on the brink of liquidation.

A soldier who stood on a landmine and was shot in the chest in Afghanistan is convinced a rosary saved his life in exactly the same way as his great-grandfather towards the end of the Second World War. Glenn Hockton, 19, who is now home from a seven-month tour of duty with the Coldstream Guards in Helmand Province, was on patrol when his rosary suddenly fell from his neck. His mother Sheri Jones said today: 'He felt like he had a slap on the back. He bent down to pick up his rosary to see if it was broken. As...

Moral Isn’t the Same as Holy…Romans 2:1-11 Posted on July 27, 2010 by billrandles Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest: for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things.(Romans 2:1) Being disgusted by the squalid effects of the morally ruined, spiritually bankrupt, reprobate world we have created for ourselves and our unfortunate children and grandchildren can be deceiving. It is normal and healthy to feel moral repugnance at the twisted,perverse ,obscene media culture of today, but that does not equate to being Righteous ourselves. That is the point...

NORFOLK A dog was rescued and then revived after a fire at a two-story residence in Ocean View on Sunday night. Shortly before 10 p.m. firefighters were called to the duplex in the 9200 block of Coleman Ave., and though there was no fire showing from the outside of the structure, witnesses in the first-floor residence reported smelling smoke, said Battalion Chief Harry Worley, a spokesman for Norfolk Fire-Rescue. When firefighters entered the second floor, they found a fire and a pit bull puppy that was inside a kennel cage. The puppy was rescued, and a pet mask was used...

Stimulus-related construction spending is up in the city of Portland -- but it's not clear how many jobs have been created from that uptick, according to a city audit released Monday. City Auditor LaVonne Griffin-Valade said a key reason is the city did not require contractors to track the number of people hired for projects. In 2009, state lawmakers borrowed $172 million for "Go Oregon" public works projects, and required contractors to submit forms detailing the number of people hired and for how long. As a result, state officials boasted that more than 7,500 jobs were "created or retained" with...

TAMPA, Fla. (June 3) - Capt. Sam Gibbons knew his mission was in trouble when he hit the ground in the early hours of the D-Day invasion 63 years ago. The future congressman's 101st Airborne troops were scattered far from their intended drop zone. And the only nearby soldiers he could see where German. "People are always talking about behind enemy lines. Hell, there ain't no lines in combat," said Gibbons, who was 24 when he parachuted into Normandy on June 6, 1944. "We jumped right on top of the Germans." On the ground, in the dark, the scattered American...

How is Something Saved Measured? The reason for my question is the wide variety of figures offered by President Obama and his administration regarding jobs created or saved. We know how they measure the number of jobs created but we don’t know how they measure the number of jobs saved. What data allows the Obama administration to give us the number of jobs saved because of some action on his part? In simple terms, how do they know, how do they measure it?

WASHINGTON—The Obama administration, in its latest progress report on the $787 billion stimulus program, said both the overall economy and employment continued to be in better shape at the end of 2009 than they would have been without the government’s help. The council’s report, the second of the quarterly assessments mandated by Congress, said that in the fourth quarter the stimulus plan’s tax cuts and spending added about 2 percentage points to the gross domestic product, which is the size of the economy as measured by the total goods and services produced. Though unemployment reached 10 percent at year’s end—two...

In the 6000+ years of man’s history, the “pinnacle moment” is the Abomination of Desolation, the key event that will occur in the midst of the Tribulation (a terrible seven-year period that will mark the end of this age). It will be the time when the Man of Lawlessness (i.e., The Anti-Christ) will break his covenant with Israel (Daniel 9:27) and establish himself as Almighty God (Daniel 11:36-37, 2 Thess. 2:2-4, Rev. 13:14-15). He will demand total, absolute allegiance and worship (Rev. 13:16-18). This master politician of Europe's Socialistic European Community (Daniel 9:26) will rise to power, but it isn't...