At Least 75,000 Jobs To Be Cut:

Caterpillar, the giant maker of giant equipment, expects to layoff one out of eight of its employees, and at least a dozen other major companies around the country are planning large, long term reductions in the number of workers they employee.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the U. S. economy has already "shed 2.55 million jobs since the recession began" a year ago, and the current unemployment rate is 7.2 percent as of last month (See Catherine Rampell's "Layoffs Spread to More Sectors of the Economy" in today's New York Times). According to The New York Times, "66,600 retailing jobs were lost in December, the worst period since the late 1930s." (Numerologists will note the three 6s in a row.)

A Personal Note: Train tracks, coal cars, and the dirty back yard of a major city

Images from my past appear in today's New York Times—an endless stream of coal cars moving west to the power plants that provide the electricity for St. Louis, with the Gateway Arch in the background. As I've mentioned before, both of my grandfathers were coal miners whose deaths were at least in part attributable to the effects of mining coal.

As I look at the picture, I remember growing up in a home that was heated with coal, as were most homes in those days, and the endless string of "bad colds" my friends and I suffered through in those years, finding it difficult to breath for weeks at a time. By the time I was discharged from the Army in the late 1960s, much of the region had switched to natural gas for home heating. Suddenly, it seemed, the cure for the common cold had been found. Of course that's not true, but the number of respiratory illnesses dropped dramatically, at least in my family.

Good News for Starbucks:

Swedish and Danish researchers have shown there may be a link between drinking coffee and reducing the risk of dementia, including Alzheimer's. The study is reported on in today's New York Times. At this point, it appears that the more you drink, the better. Within limits, of course. The magic number seems to be five cups a day, but the Times' story fails to indicate whether "a cup" is equivalent to one of Aunt Margarette's tea cups or one of those two mug deals you get at the bistro. Also, it isn't clear just how strong the brew was or if it mattered where the beans came from. Does it matter whether the brew was made from fresh ground, or will instant do? At this point, the researchers won't even make a claim for the palative action, calling their study simply an "observation." But I'll bet you're glad to hear our bad habits might have a silver lining.

Rebuking Obama:

David Brooks delivers a veiled rebuke to the new president for his repudiation of the previous administration's method's in his inaugural address, in today's New York Times' Op-Ed section. Brooks cites former Chicago Cubs' second baseman Ryne Sandberg's acceptance speech from his Hall of Fame induction, recalling Sandberg's words about respecting the players that came before him and the organization and the game.

The Bushites are all aflutter over Obama's openly stated rejection of at least some of the Bush policies with the former president sitting only a few feet away. Where, one wonders, was Brooks' rebuke when Bush and Cheney were undermining American traditions of openness for the past eight years?