Interactive Map of Employment In Various Industries, Greece Approves of G-Pap, Greenspan on Inflation, and David Stockman on the IMF

Check out this neat chart via Mish which basically looks at employment trends across the country in various sectors of the economy over the past 10 years:

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After everything that has happened over the past few weeks, the Greece Parliament continues the the craziness as it votes in confidence of Prime Minister George Papandreou's new cabinet:

Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou won a vote of confidence, bolstering his new government’s chances of pushing through austerity measures to secure further international financial aid for the country.
A total of 155 lawmakers supported the motion in the 300- seat parliament in Athens early this morning, with 143 voting against, the speaker, Filippos Petsalnikos, said. Papandreou reshuffled his Cabinet and sought the approval of the chamber after fending off a revolt within his socialist Pasok party last week. After the vote, police used tear gas to disperse crowds protesting Papandreou’s budget cuts.

At least the people in Greece are preparing for the worst, via Financial Times:

Sales of gold coins have soared as savers seek a safer and fungible source of value.
“When the global financial crisis started, our sales of coins to investors overtook bullion for the first time,” said Harry Krinakis, at Sepheriades, a Greek precious metals trader. “Now the sales ratio has reached five to one.”
Tomas, a computer technician, has exchanged his euro savings for gold coins: “I keep them at home just like my grandmother did in the second world war.”
Monthly bank withdrawals were running at €1.5bn-€2bn (£1.3bn-£1.8bn) in the first quarter. Last year, depositors withdrew €30bn, equivalent to 12.3 per cent of total savings, according to the central bank. Greek deposits worth an estimated €8bn were transferred to banks in Cyprus in 2010. But the flow has dried up this year amid fears that Cypriot banks could suffer contagion.

I have always been tough on Alan Greenspan on this blog (and rightfully so) but once again the man keeps trying to redeem himself by making some rather good economic predictions.  Check out some excerpts from Greenspan's interview with Charlie Rose via EPJ:

At the 14:30 to 16:00 mark, he pretty much makes the same case that I do that there is huge amount on new liquidity in the system and that this will ultimately result in significant price inflation.

At 19:00 to 21:00, Greenspan discusses the debt problem and notes that most think the U.S. has about two years to solve the debt crisis. He suggests that a crisis could happen at anytime, which he says, in his understated manner, "would not be good for the United States."
Finally, at 24:00 to 26:00, Greenspan discusses the technical concept, excess reserves. This is a topic I have been harping on. I have consistently pointed out that most of the QE1 and QE2 money pump never entered the system and is simply sitting as excess reserves with the Fed.

Greenspan was good, but David Stockman is way better.  Check out this interview with CNBC:

In Europe, Stockman raged against a dichotomy of tax and debt slavery created by the EU: “They're attempting to go turn the prudent Europeans of the north into permanent tax slaves in order to bail out the big banks in France and Germany and elsewhere who don't deserve a bailout,” he said, adding that, “In order to accomplish that, they will attempt to turn the millions the of people who live in southern Europe into permanent debt slaves in order to pay the piper from the guarantees coming from the north.”

“The IMF is an absurd institution,” he said. “It's destructive. It's the source of holding this whole thing together with bailing wire.”

“And the sooner their number is called, he said, “The better off I think we'll all be.”

So what would Stockman do if he were still in Washington? First off, as an investor, he’s short bonds and warned me of “bond Armageddon,” where rates could potentially go up to five percent. He told me he’d expire the Bush Era tax cuts and raise taxes—including a switch to means testing where the more you make, the more you pay. He’d also cut defense spending— after all, he told me, "Osama is dead!"

Damn, he really nails the IMF.  He is dead wrong on the tax cuts though.  There is absolutely no reason to raise taxes when there is literally a million things that can and should be cut.

Occasionally on this blog I will point out a miracle (maybe too strong of a word) of capitalism.  Well check out this lady:

Osakis, Minn. — Dr. Susan Rutten Wasson sits on the corner of a bed in the cramped bedroom of Alice Johnson, a 91-year-old Osakis resident everyone calls "Grandma Alice." She's examining Johnson's arm, which is swollen, she's determined, because of a tight sleeve cuff.

Also in the room are Alice's daughter, Ione, and granddaughter, Anne, who lives downstairs in the farmhouse Johnson has occupied for decades. A Rottweiler mix as big as a Shetland licks the face of 18-month-old Sarah, Rutten Wasson's daughter, who sits on the doctor's lap.

It's more a scene from the days of frontier medicine than from the modern health care system. And that's because Rutten Wasson, 42, is a throwback to a time before HMOs, electronic health records and hospitals with fountains in their lobbies. She sees patients the same day they call if she's not booked up, spends at least a half-hour per visit — compared to the more typical 15 minutes — and usually charges only $50 for a consultation. She takes cash or check, but no insurance — and sometimes accepts gratuities of a dozen fresh eggs or a pie.

In an era of high overhead, ever more byzantine regulations and payment models, cuts to Medicaid and Medicare benefits, and large medical systems swallowing independent practices, Rutten Wasson relishes her straight-forward manner of practicing. Since many federal health care reforms — such as those requiring electronic medical records — are tied to Medicare, they tend not to apply to her.

Her practice serves as a critique of the modern health care system, the complexity of which has pushed some providers and clinics to find dramatic work-arounds, despite the fact that it can be tough to make a living outside the mainstream. A small but growing number of physicians practice "concierge medicine," charging patients annual retainers for basic medical care. A 2010 nationwide survey commissioned by a congressional agency pegged the number of concierge doctors at 756, up from 146 in 2005.

And yet the Paul Krugman's of the world will continue to scratch their head and wonder why more government regulation isn't encouraging people to enter the medial field but rather opt out of the system completely.