Mitch Gann’s

If you want to save a buck, go to the US Postal Service web site before midnight and buy 100 Forever Stamps for $41. Monday it will cost you $42.

“Mother’s Day money advice” The Christian Science Monitor:

While greeting their college graduates back home, [Baby Boomer] mothers also assume economic responsibilities for the care of an aging parent, grandparent, or relative. A 2008 study indicated that almost 3 out of 10 baby-boomer mothers now fit the term “sandwich generation,” supporting a child under the age of 18 and a parent or grandparent.

Seventy-five percent of caregivers are women, assuming weighty financial obligations. Long-distance annual caregiver expenses were almost $9,000, with caregiver expenses for someone living nearby half that amount, according to a 2007 study by Evercare and the National Alliance for Care-giving. The majority of mothers will provide care for three or more years. And they frequently trade off a secure retirement to financially support an aging parent, taking out loans or increasing credit-card debt.

Comment: Not for the first time, I’m glad I’m a dad. But enjoy your day, Moms. If it were up to me, you would get two.

“Sparring Over Gas Tax Continues” The Washington Post:

In Indianapolis, Obama portrayed Clinton’s proposal for a gas-tax holiday this summer as an example of Washington at its worst, calling it the latest in a long line of “phony ideas, calculated to win elections instead of actually solving problems.”

Clinton fired back from the back of a pickup truck in Gastonia, N.C. Spotting a sign in the crowd that said “A gas tax holiday is blatant pandering,” Clinton told the audience: “I’ll tell you what. I’d rather the oil companies pay the gas taxes than you pay the gas taxes this summer.”

Well, you already know where I stand on the great gas tax holiday debate. I’m with Obama, and against Clinton and McCain. The gas tax has nothing to do with the oil companies. The gas tax is a fee we pay to drive on the public roads. Still, I could live with having the oil companies pay the gas tax for us consumers, but why just in the summer? I think they should pay it for us year-round. As far as that goes, why don’t they just give us the damn gas? Then we could pay the tax ourselves.

Recalling the recent federal bailout of the investment banking firm Bear Stearns, she [Clinton] added: “I didn’t hear people talking about it being pandering. I think it’s time we didn’t just bail out Wall Street. What about bailing out Main Street?”

Now, I am with Clinton in her implied criticism of the Bear Stearns deal, but not because it was pandering. It wasn’t pandering. First, the Fed bailed out Bear Stearns, and the Fed is not running for office. So it can’t pander to the voters. Second, if the Fed were running for office and wanted to pander to the voters, it would do so by proposing a summer gas tax holiday. Duh.

“Clinton calls for gas tax vote, Obama calls it ’shell’ game” AP:

Hillary Rodham Clinton called for a vote Friday in the Democratic-controlled Congress on a summertime suspension of the federal gasoline tax, a plan that Barack Obama dismissed as a political stunt that would cost thousands of construction jobs.

“It’s a Shell game. Literally,” Obama said to laughter from his campaign audience, adding it would mean little for hard-pressed consumers.

Comment: I’m with Obama on this one. A couple of weeks ago, John McCain was proposing the same silly tax suspension idea for the same purpose: to pander to the voters. It was a counter-productive idea then, and it is still counter-productive.  We need to discourage, not encourage, gas consumption. We also need money to maintain our crumbling infrastructure.  Pot holes don’t patch themselves, Hillary and John. Gas tax is what you pay for using the public roads.

“Jobs: ‘Not as bad as we thought’” CNN Money:

Employers trimmed jobs in April for the fourth straight month, according to a government report Friday that was not as weak as Wall Street’s expectations.

There was a net loss of 20,000 jobs in the month, according to the Labor Department report, compared to the revised loss of 81,000 jobs in the March reading. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com had forecast a loss of 75,000 jobs in April.

The unemployment rate slipped to 5% from the 5.1% reading in March. Economists had been forecasting unemployment would rise to 5.2% in the latest report.

“It’s not good news, but it’s not as bad as we thought it would be,” said David Wyss, chief economist for Standard & Poor’s. “It’s consistant with the view it’s going to be a mild recession, but an extended one, where you spend a lot of time bouncing around the bottom.”

Comment: As long as the experts keep forecasting economic woes bigger than those that actually develop, we will be in good shape. Of course, in my home state of Michigan, we have an unemployment rate of 7.2%, so even the originally fore-casted rate of 5.2% would look good here. In fact, according to a chart at the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Michigan’s unemployment rate currently ranks 51st out of the 50 states. That’s quite a feat.

We’ve been bouncing around the bottom for several years now. It’s beginning to get irritating.

“For Exxon Mobil, $10.9 Billion Profit Disappoints” The New York Times:

Exxon Mobil, the world’s largest publicly traded oil company, said Thursday that its first-quarter net income rose 17 percent, boosted by surging oil prices.

But even as it posted the second-most profitable quarter in its history, Exxon’s earnings managed to disappoint investors because of a drop in oil production. Shares were down more than 3 percent Thursday after the company missed earnings estimates by a dime a share.

Record oil prices have lifted corporate profits to new heights throughout the industry but they are also masking an increasingly tough business environment for international oil companies, marked chiefly by rising development costs and stagnating hydrocarbon production. In the refining business, profit margins have plummeted as refiners have been unable to pass through all the increases in oil prices onto gasoline.

Comment: Sure, an $11 billion profit is nice, but not if you were expecting, say, $15 or $20 billion. Or, who knows, maybe $30 billion. When it comes to our emotions, absolute numbers mean nothing. It’s all relative. Personally, I think we should all chip in a few more bucks at the pump today and make ”em feel better over at Exxon. What do you guys think?