Spoke last night with an old American friend working in a Wall Street firm in London . He came up with a frightening pre-July 4th holiday statistic. In December 1999 there were 130.53m people officially employed in the US. As of the end of June 2009 there were 131.69m people in employment. If the economy loses a further 1.16m jobs over the next six months ( it lost another 467,000 in June ) then there will have been zero job creation in the entire first decade of the new century. I'm sure the figures for the UK,Canada,Germany etc won't be that different. Here in Italy unemployment is soon expected to reach 11% - a high number in a country with absolutely no unemployment benefits.Up and out early with the boyz this morning to check on the trees and water the lavender plots. Boy is it hot! Real New Orleans type weather. Serious thought will need to be given to getting up at 4.30 am in order to avoid the heat. The enforced 50% ration diet seems to be having an effect at long last. Wilf has certainly shed a few pounds and Digby seems to be losing it in certain places while stubbornly retaining it around the midrift. Perhaps he will regain a waspish waistline when the weather cools down again.
