America's #1 Online Cigar Auction
first, best, biggest!

What do you think?

Voting isn't going to be affected. NY & NJ were both going to Obama without question. Saw tonight on the news that a blue collar neighborhood in Staten Island residents are complaining the rich are getting taken care of first. They stopped short of blaming Obama.

Depends on how much is insurance pay out and how much $ the gov't prints.

Saw the same thing. There is only so much anyone can do when there is a disaster of such great proportion. Blame is on the storm, not Obama. Just like New Orleans where Bush didn't deserve blame.

As to voting, I am looking at it from a different perspective: I was literally too sick to vote in 2000. Had you carried me to the poll, I was incapable of filling in a ballot. I felt absolutely terrible about not having been able to exercise my patriotic right to vote- something I truly will never be able to forget. It had noting to do with my candidate winning or losing- just that i didn't get to stand at the voting booth, something i truly look forward to at every election.

My perspective is that many, many people simply will not be able to vote- not which way their states go.

The economy was already on the ground. Sandy just gave it a good hearty Hollywood action style kick to the ribs- not debilitating but a wee painful.

Sandy's irrelevant except to Obama who needs all the help he can get looking "presidential" and will get a short bump & to Christy who is a jackass for helping him. For once I admire the little whiny NY governor for saying no to Hussein's photo op which would have tied up manpower and other resources unnecessarily IMO.

I didn't vote because I didn't see the option: "anemic business continues as usual".

His image as a call it as he sees it maverick gets a black eye from me & others who now see him as just another pandering politician.
Idiot would have gotten the help from FEMA regardless.

Sure. But then he decides to dump all of those same resources into running a marathon. Am sure having cops standing in every intersection for 26 miles won't take anything away from the recovery effort.

Just like starting a war with Iraq did n't take anything away from the effort in Afganistan.




...................................................................................................................................................................... morons.

It will make many jobs and we always rebuild better.

I was in New Orleans this year and it was a hundred times nicer than befoe Katrina,,

The marathon folks have brought in a couple of generators that could have given power to over 800 homes and the lapdog media has done same.

They just canceled the NY marathon.
See? They're knot stoopid.

I bet this year we would have seen the first sub-90 minute marathon - maybe even less than an hour

^ Really.
Now he can focus on more important business like drink sizes at fast food restaurants & leanness of corned beef at delis.

Sandy slowed US consumer spending and pay in Oct.
Published - Nov 30 2012 10:32AM EST

MARTIN CRUTSINGER, AP Economics Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans cut back on spending last month while their income remained flat. The weakness in part reflected disruptions from Superstorm Sandy that could slow economic growth for the rest of the year.

The Commerce Department said Friday that consumer spending dropped 0.2 percent in October. It was the weakest figure since May, and it compared with a 0.8 percent spending increase in September.

Income had risen 0.4 percent in September.

Work interruptions caused by the storm reduced wages and salaries in October by about $18 billion at an annual rate, the government said. The storm affected 24 states, with the most severe damage in New York and New Jersey.

Consumers may also be scaling back on spending because of fears about the "fiscal cliff." That's the name for automatic tax increases and spending cuts that will take effect in January if Congress and the Obama administration fail to strike a budget deal by then.

"The upshot is that although both incomes and spending will probably bounce back in November, the underlying trend is weak," said Paul Dales, senior U.S. economist at Capital Economics.

The depressed spending figures suggest that the economy is growing more slowly in the October-December quarter than it did in the July-September quarter. Consumer spending drives nearly 70 percent of economic activity.

Dales predicts U.S. economic growth will tumble from the 2.7 percent annual rate in the July-September quarter to a weak 1 percent in the October-December period. That's too low to lower the unemployment rate, now at 7.9 percent.

Even discounting the effects of Sandy, income and spending gains would have been meager. Income would have risen a still-weak 0.1 percent. Spending would have been essentially flat, Dales estimated.

After-tax income adjusted for inflation fell 0.1 percent in October. And spending, when adjusted for inflation, dropped 0.3 percent — the biggest such decline in three years.

The saving rate edged up slightly to 3.4 percent of after-tax income in October, compared with 3.3 percent in September.

Many economists say growth will rebound in the New Year once the rebuilding phase begins in the Northeast.

And if President Barack Obama and Congress can reach a budget deal to avert to fiscal cliff, some economists, including Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, are predicting a strong year for the economy.

Still, the storm's impact has slowed sales in the nation's most densely populated region ahead of the crucial holiday shopping season.

The International Council of Shopping Centers said 18 major retailers reported sales rose 1.7 percent in November compared with the same period a year ago. The group had been expecting sales growth between 4.5 percent and 5.5 percent.

The economic damage from the storm may be starting to fade, though. Retailers are reporting solid sales over the Thanksgiving Day holiday weekend.

And applications for unemployment benefits have fallen from an 18-month high in the first week of November. That surge was driven by applications in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Connecticut.

Still, the increase in unemployment applications earlier this month will likely depress job growth for November. Many economists predict that net job growth for November will range between 25,000 and 75,000 — well below the 171,000 jobs that were added in October.