Unemployment Up in NC. Whoops.

And the only inkling of job growth is from….government jobs. Ta-da!.

We are well on our way to permanently crushing private sector job creation in much of the country — including North Carolina.

But I’m more convinced than every that we will stay on this path unless and until 1) Two-thirds of the elected officials in this state and in Congress are replaced 2) One-half of all government employees at all levels of government are fired and not replaced. We didn’t get here by accident. This is on purpose. Some voters in some jurisdictions might figure it out and begin the process of re-sovereignization and re-enfranchisement sooner than others.

I’d put North Carolina and Mecklenburg County at the absolute tail-end of any such sea-change.

How Many Hmong Speakers in Charlotte?

Good thing those new Wells Fargo ATMs include that language, huh?

This is the clearest sign yet that WFC is just transferring its West Coast template to points East without any type of re-jiggering. ATMs with options for Hmong, Korean, and Vietnamese might make sense in California. In Waxhaw, not so much.

Accordingly, for our Redneck readers, these additional details:

* Six language screen opshuns (English, Spanish, Chinee, Ha-mong, Ko-re-an, Vietnamese)
* Voice instruckshuns fo’ th’ visually impaired in English an’ Spanish
* Account transfers an’ mini-statemints
* U.S. postage stamps in menny of th’ ATMs. (Wals Fargo is th’ largess financial services re-tailer of postage stamps in th’ count-ree.)

And yes, I’ll take a window seat.

“Borrowers usually cannot pay their mortgages without jobs”

Facepalm.

That’s the Gray Lady folks, suddenly figuring out that high unemployment rates just might — might mind you — have something to do with the “new wave of foreclosures” out there. We’ve been trying to point this connection out, especially with regard to the housing market in Charlotte, for over a year now.

Mecklenburg County has settled in at a steady 1,000 foreclosures a month, a figure which does not include various other states of distress including pre-foreclosure. Nationally, lenders have been parking more and more properties just outside of foreclosure and hoping for the best. The truth is no one really knows how many unperforming loans are out there — aside from the banks, which have no incentive to acknowledge them.

All I know is one new wave deserves another.