The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly

The ongoing saga…

The Good:  Philadelphia philanthropist Gene Epstein is supporting an initiative called Hire Just One and will donate $1,000 donations to the charity in the name of any business that hires an unemployed person and keeps the worker on the payroll for at least six months.  In other Philadelphia news, the San Francisco Giants are tied with the Phillies in their race for the pennant.  Overseas, the Commonwealth Games ended in India unscathed despite grumbling about how the games were handled, accommodations for the athletes, and a host of other difficulties.  And the Minnesota Vikings (Sandi’s team) under Farve’s leadership eked by the Cowboys in what was touted as “The Bummer Bowl.”

The Bad:  As America hurtles toward the midterm elections, the stagnant job market is unlikely to help incumbent Democrats across the nation.  Since January 2010, the unemployment rate has budged downward a mere 0.1 percent to 9.6 from the year’s start of a 9.7 percent unemployment rate. Economists of many different perspectives hold conflicting ideas on next year’s forecasts, but it doesn’t take Nostradamus to see that things are going nowhere fast.  And to make a down economic forecast even worse, the Green Bay Packers lost.

The Ugly:  The increasing partisan vitriol of the campaign season makes some of us ill.  As we move toward the final weeks of the mid-term elections the negative campaigns are coming out of the closet and being unleashed.  Let’s see what happens.  Let’s hope it doesn’t continue beyond the electoral campaigns, but then again, I’m an optimist…

Kevin Fickenscher, MD

The views and opinions expressed herein are my own and do not necessarily represent the views and opinions of Dell Services or its affiliates.