Power Outage Haiku

Two late-night walkers
On darkened streets, passing 'neath
The shadows of trees.

Dr. Goose and his muse, Gloria the Cairn Terrier, must continue to make our nightly rounds in Irene's ghostly gloom. When power returns, so too will Limericks Économiques.

Uninsurable Irene

In many a coastal locality
There's a state-run insurance modality,
Though critics insist
That in lowering risk,
The hazard is one of morality.

As Hurricane Irene bears down upon the U.S. East Coast, millions of households are making last-minute checks: food and supplies, evacuation plans… and homeowner’s insurance. The Wall Street Journal reports that 677,000 households in Irene’s path live in coastal areas considered too risky by private insurers, and are therefore covered by state-sponsored “insurers of last resort.” Insurance pools such as the North Carolina Beach Plan have $196 billion total exposure. Should an especially severe storm exhaust their resources, they will draw on both reinsurance and privately insured state residents to cover any shortfall. Therein lies the Moral Hazard: by spreading the risk of living in hurricane-prone areas, the states end up encouraging more construction in harm’s way and increasing the overall financial risk of natural disaster.

Apple CEO No More

Said Jobs: "I'm no longer the ruler now,
But review my achievements and you'll avow:
The tools of the geek
I made sexy and sleek -
Thanks to me, your technology's cooler now."

Steve Jobs' resignation as CEO of the company he co-founded in 1976 prompted an outpouring of tributes that seemed like obituaries, if not to the man - who, though evidently gravely ill, is very much alive - then to his visionary leadership of America's iconic technology company. Indeed, the word "icon" itself gained new meaning with the introduction of the first graphical interface computer - the Macintosh - in 1984. The story of Jobs' rise, fall, exile, triumphant return and rise to the top is already the stuff of legend, but his signature achievement is the transformation of technology into beautiful objects of desire.

Seismic Media

In our national corridor of power
Was a quake felt in many a tower;
Though the trembling in it
Would last for a minute,
The twittering lasted an hour.

From the Beltway to Broadway, and from the Federal Reserve to the New York Stock Exchange, people up and down the East Coast stopped what we were doing yesterday, gripped by fear and uncertainty at the (mostly) slight trembling of the Earth and swaying of buildings. The 5.9-scale quake, which would have barely raised eyebrows in California, unleashed an all-time wave of Twitter messages as millions of earthquake virgins used social media to share their "first time."

Hold On There, Pahdnah

Unemployment adjusted for population growth

Said a well mathematic'ly versed one:
"On Texas, let me be the first one
To confirm their job rates
Are the best of the states,
Whether Perry's the best or the worst one."

In response to last Friday's limerick ("Faith-Based Economics"), which cited the work of economists attempting to debunk the "Texas Jobs Miracle," a conservative friend sent a link to a meticulously researched blog post that concluded, in essence: "Now wait a minute - this here Jobs Miracle is real!" The Political Math Blog, by Matthias Shapiro, analyzes the data behind the claims and counterclaims that are loosed in the heat of electoral combat. Shapiro concludes:

My advice to anti-Perry advocates is this: Give up talking about Texas jobs... Not only are they creating them, they're creating ones with higher wages.

Whether Texas Governor Rick Perry, in his eleven years in office, had much to do with the Miracle is another matter, and may lead us to question the extent to which any political executive can ever be said to create (private sector) jobs.

The $1.2 Trillion Rainy Day Fund

At a time which the bankers were stunned in,
The Fed gave emergency fundin'
To hundreds of banks
Of high and low ranks
In New York, Waukegan and London.

The US Federal Reserve has published the data on the 21,000 emergency loans to over 400 recipients, totaling $1.2 trillion, that it made from August 2007 to April 2010. Thanks to Bloomberg, the public can now comb through some very illuminating interactive graphics to compare and contrast the credits to companies large and small, American and international, banks and non-banks. Most know that the heaviest bailing-out went to Morgan Stanley, Citi and Bank of America; many are also aware that European banks such as Deutsche, Dexia and Dresdner availed themselves. But how many know of the lifelines thrown to Legacy Texas Group, Sharon Savings Bank and Stupp Bros.?

Faith-Based Economics

Gov'nor Perry, waxing quite lyrical,
Says: "Texas produced a jobs miracle!"
But economists who
Put this claim to review
Say the Miracle isn't empirical.

Texas' Governor - and now Republican Presdential hopeful - Rick Perry likes to boast about the "Texas Miracle": that the Lone Star State added more jobs more quickly than any other. Unfortunately for Mr. Perry, his candidacy wasn't more than a week old when the Miracle was disproven by a number of authoritative sources. The Big Picture blog probably sums up the takedown most comprehensively; in short, Texas' unemployment rate, though somewhat better than average, reacted like everyone else's to the recession. What's more, the employment rate (number of working adults / total population) is worse than average, and Texas ranks near the bottom on a host of quality-of-life measures.

Job One is Jobs

Said Obama: "'Til now I've done little
To answer the job-making riddle:
Though employment may grow
At high wages or low,
It's hollowing out in the middle."

President Barack Obama, touring the midwest while Republican Presidential candidates campaigned in Iowa, was acutely aware of the pressure on his administration to help restart the engine of job growth in America. The President promises a major address on this topic after Labor Day (how appropriate), and hopes to put some of the pressure to create a job-creation package on the Congressional deficit-reduction super-committee.

Always Low Prices?

Said an analyst: "Time for rethinking
Whether Wal-Mart is rising or sinking;
Though still they do well,
Their core clientele
Find their incomes and credit lines shrinking."

Kelly Evans, the Wall Street Journal's Ahead of the Tape scribe, writes that Wal-Mart is at a crossroads: though retail analysts see the company's earnings growing at 10% a year, surveys indicate that 60% of Wal-Mart's customers no longer believe it has the lowest prices. This leaves Bentonville, Arkansas' big-box powerhouse in the awkward position of moving up from its financially troubled core demographic to compete more directly with the likes of Costqueau and Targét. Wal-Martre, anyone?