Showing posts with label Economy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Economy. Show all posts

Monday, June 11, 2012

No, Mr. President: the Private Sector Ain't "Doing Fine"

Once again, The Foundry speaks truth to power.

In now-infamous comments on Friday, President Barack Obama informed America that “the private sector is doing fine.” This, of course, was news to the 12.7 million people who are out of work and the millions more who are struggling with the part-time jobs they can find, or have simply given up looking.

While the President’s comment is astoundingly out of touch with the public—and economic reality—perhaps even more distressing is that this wasn’t a passing verbal gaffe. This is actually a consistent talking point of the President and Democratic leadership that goes largely unchallenged by the media.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D–NV) made the same case last fall when he was pushing a $35 billion bailout for state and local governments. “It’s very clear that private-sector jobs have been doing just fine,” Reid argued. “It’s the public-sector jobs where we’ve lost huge numbers, and that’s what this legislation is all about.”

This is the President’s and the Majority Leader’s solution to the jobs crisis: more so-called stimulus and more government employees.

...If anyone is “doing fine,” it’s government employees. This goes beyond the far more generous pension and health benefits they enjoy. While the private sector lost 4.6 million jobs (a 3.9 percent drop) since the recession began, government payrolls have only fallen by 240,000 jobs (a 1.1 percent drop). Federal employment has actually grown nearly 12 percent since the end of 2007, and while the country suffers from 8.2 percent unemployment, the unemployment rate for government employees is just 4.2 percent.

In any case, the federal government borrowing more money to transfer to state and local governments is not a job-creation policy, and it is outside the scope of the federal government. It’s merely a ploy to please union bosses, who are always eager to draw more federal dollars... This government-boosting strategy also ignores the fact that it has been tried before and found wanting. President Obama’s first trillion-dollar stimulus plan was a failure (and a waste). And Europe is in the shape it is because of years of government largesse. Ironically President Obama sought to focus the media’s attention on Europe on Friday in an attempt to divert it from his own economic mismanagement.

...Following a flurry of outrage over his Friday comment, the President backtracked, saying what he meant was that “we’ve actually seen some good momentum in the private sector. That has not been the biggest drag on the economy.” ... Moving from 8.1 percent unemployment to 8.2 percent can only be considered “good momentum” in this White House. However, he’s correct about one thing: The biggest drag on the economy isn’t the private sector, but Washington.

What Democrats and the media (but I repeat myself) can't comprehend is that employment is not the same as productive employment. It is the private sector that produces wealth. It is the public sector that sucks wealth from a society, launders it through countless wasteful agencies and offices, and then redistributes it.

Every dollar spent funding the public sector is a dollar that an entrepreneur could have invested in his business, a dollar a venture capitalist could have used to fund a budding company, or a dollar a corporation could have used to buy new equipment. Every dollar spent funding the public sector is a dollar that could have grown GDP, not detracted from it.

Only those functions of government authorized by the Constitution are legitimate. All other functions must be dismantled, piece by piece, until we have returned to the legal framework our founders created.

And November is coming.


Sunday, June 10, 2012

The genius of Democrat governance: businesses and non-profits alike shutting down thanks to Illinois' deadbeat budget

Well, this certainly comes as a surprise, seeing as how the public sector unions -- and their political wing, commonly known as the Democrat Party -- control the Illinois state budget.

Illinois lawmakers have found a way to whittle $1.3 billion from state government’s massive backlog of unpaid bills, but it comes too late for The Counseling Center of Lake View... The Chicago nonprofit, a mental health services provider, shut down at the end of April, waiting on about $200,000 in state money.

...Across Illinois, the now $8.5 billion backlog has become a fact of life for people doing business with the state. As The Associated Press reported in a series last fall, the state has turned to a deliberate policy of not paying billions of dollars in bills for months at a time, creating a cycle of hardship and sacrifice for residents and businesses helping the state carry out some of its most crucial tasks.

Public schools, as of late May, are waiting on $562 million, social services $329 million and Medicaid $944 million, according to the state Comptroller’s Office...

...The umbrella group Illinois Partners for Human Service periodically surveys its 700 member agencies about the impact of late state payments. In the most recent survey, late last year, just under a third of the 169 agencies that responded had fired staff, 8 percent had skipped paying staff for some period and almost half had to borrow money.

...Those that stay open struggle to pay their own vendors and suppliers such as janitors, food-service companies and the like.

But remember, folks: Democrats are for the little people. You know, the 99 percent.


Image adapted from: KVAL.

Obamonopoly, the most exciting board game you'll never get to play




READ THE REST...

Friday, June 08, 2012

What do you call a president who presided over a 100 percent spike in food-stamp spending in only three-and-a-half years in office?

No, you can't. Because that would be racist. Or so the Left tells us.

The vast majority of federal spending in the Senate farm bill, which is estimated to cost over $100 billion annually, is going toward food stamps, representing a 100 percent increase since President Barack Obama took office, according to Alabama Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions.

“The legislation will spend $82 billion on food stamps next year, $82 billion and an estimated $770 billion over the next ten years. So, to put these figures in perspective, and they’re so large it’s difficult to comprehend, we will spend next year $40 billion on the federal highway program,” said Sessions, the ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee...



...Federal funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) program has doubled since 2008 which accounts for 80 percent of the farm bill’s cost, according to an analysis of Congressional Budget Office and White House Office of Management and Budget data conducted by the Senate Budget Committee’s Republican staff...



“When the food stamp program was first expanded nationwide, about 1 in 50 Americans received food stamp benefits. Today, nearly 1 in 7 receive food stamp benefits,” Sessions said in a floor speech.

Food stamps enslave people to entitlement programs.

Food stamps are proven to lead to single-parent families and violent crime.

Food stamps are fraud-prone -- to the point where no one knows just how food stamp fraud there really is.

Food stamps are abused by Democrats to build a culture of dependency.

But November is coming.


Thursday, June 07, 2012

Pethokoukis: "Obama’s entire reelection problem in one chart"

The peerless James Pethokoukis:

This chart from the good folks over at Strategas research shows why Team Obama should be worried if it already isn’t. President Obama is below the reelection Mendoza line...



Weak growth equal weak incomes equals a one-termer.

From your lips to God's ear, James.


Update: The Two charts Obama and the Democrats never wanted you to see.

Wednesday, June 06, 2012

Pass this along to a teenager: this is 'one sick labor market'

Some brutal facts from David Rosenberg as relayed by Tyler Durden.

• The share of long-term unemployment is at its highest level since the Great Depression (42%).

• Fully 54% of college degree graduates under the age of 25 are either unemployed or underemployed.

• 45 million Americans are on food stamps — one in seven residents.

• 47% of Americans are on some form of government assistance.

• The employment-to-population ratio for 25-54 year olds is now 75.7%, lower than it was when the recession supposedly ended in June 2009.

• The number of people not in the labour force has swelled eight million since the recession ended; absent that effect, the unemployment rate would be 12% right now (about the same as President Obama's election chances would be).

• The number of people confident enough to leave their jobs fell 11% in May for the second month in a row to 891k, the lowest since November 2010.

• The ranks of the unemployed who have been looking fruitlessly for work for at least 27 weeks jumped 310,000 in May, the sharpest increase since May 2011.

• The unemployment rate for males aged 16-19 is 27% and for males between 20 and 24 it is 13%. Draw your own conclusions from a social (in)stability standpoint.

• One in seven Americans are either unemployed or underemployed...

...A mere 16% of the 2009-2011 graduating class has found full-time work, while 22% are working part-time. Even those hired from 2006-08, just 23% are working full-time.

According to a poll cited in the NYT, just 14% of high-school grads today believe they will have a more successful financial future than their parents Line of the day, as depressing as it is, comes from an 18-year old: "Thank God I had a buddy at Burger King who could help me out".

According to Rasmussen, Obama's approval rating has dipped to only 24 percent.

In spite all of this, America's young people -- who have been hammered by Obama's destructive economic policies -- still overwhelmingly support the SCOAMF. So you and I have a lot of education to do between now and the election.

America's youth are literally having their future earning power plundered by the reckless, record deficit spending of Obama and his sycophants.


Why are businesses not investing in new jobs? Ohio Governor John Kasich explains why the Obamaconomy is devastating to business

Wisconsin's Scott Walker is not the only Republican Governor doing a bang-up job in the so-called "Rust Belt". Ohio's John Kasich has also revitalized the Buckeye State in spite of the ongoing Obama depression. When asked recently why businesses aren't investing in new jobs, Kasich's answer was both accurate and poignant.

There's so much uncertainty.

This national debt is growing and they can't seem to get anything done whatsoever in Washington, which tells business people to look out for a big fat tax increase.

They're talking about raising the taxes on capital gains and then you have Obamacare. And if you're a small businessperson, you have no clue how you're going to deal with the unfunded costs of Obamacare. Then you have Dodd-Frank financial reform legislation and no one knows what the rules are you going to be.

Let's just take you and I. If you and I are going to invest in a business, but we don't know what the rules are going to be, we're likely to just wait. And that's what's happening right now.

It's extremely frustrating to me. At the end of the day, and this is a totally unrealistic thing, but wouldn't it be great if the Congress and the President got together and sat down and said, "We've got a crisis here." I mean, Rome is on fire. And it's singeing places like Ohio. I'm very concerned about it. We've been making great progress... but the headwinds, they're kicking up again.

We [in Ohio] finally got out of an $8 billion hole, and we build up a rainy day fund, and we have people in the legislature saying, 'let's just go spend it.' I mean, are you kidding me? ...It's very disappointing to see [the president unable to act]... as someone who was there when we got something done there, I just look at this and just shake my head. [It's] just dysfunctional.

Ohio erased an $8 billion budget deficit, the largest in history. It cut taxes -- including killing the death tax (get it?) -- by $800 million. It brought sunlight and transparency to the budgeting process. And in response, S&P and Moody's both upgraded Ohio's credit rating while while downgrading the United States under Obamanomics.

Methinks we need more straight-shooters like Kasich and Walker in Washington.


Tuesday, June 05, 2012

Non-partisan CBO: dude, we keep trying to run our computer models with the Obama budget and we keep getting blue-screens

The smartest man in Congress, Paul Ryan (R-WI), believes that America has only two or three years to slash federal spending and reduce the deficit before it's too late. And by too late, I mean let's imagine Mad Max in Road Warrior, only without the fancy amenities.

And it would appear that the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) agrees.

A stunner from the Congressional Budget Office in its new long-term budget forecast [Ed: PDF]. When the government budget scorekeepers took into account the worst-case scenario impact of debt on the U.S. economy, its economic forecasting model, well, broke:

Under the assumptions leading to the most negative effect on GNP, debt would reach 250 percent of GDP by 2035.



CBO’s model cannot reliably estimate GNP after debt reaches that amount, in the agency’s judgment
: The assumptions about private saving and capital inflows incorporated in CBO’s model are based on historical experience, and if interest rates and the debt-to-GDP ratio rose to levels well outside of that experience, those assumptions might no longer be valid. In 2035, GNP would be 21 percent below the benchmark under the assumptions leading to the most negative effect on GNP; beyond 2035, the negative effect on GNP would grow under those assumptions as debt continued to increase relative to the size of the economy.

The above chart shows the U.S. economy in a long recession starting in the early 2020s and then just … stopping... Debt is so high, a massive 250% of GDP, that the CBO can no longer calculate its harmful impact on the economy...

Folks, they talk about important elections, but to say that 2012 is make-or-break for this country is an understatement.

No country can sustain trillion-dollar deficits, year after year, without catastrophic repercussions.

Tell your family, your friends and your colleagues. Mobilize them. We need to crush the Marxist Left at the ballot box. We have no choice if we are to save this country.


Three Gut-Wrenching Slides From Mary Meeker's Presentation on the Future of the Internet

Famed technology analyst Mary Meeker, now a partner at venture capital firm KPCB, gave a lengthy, fascinating glimpse into the future of technology and economics at the recent D10 conference. Her topics covered everything from mobile devices to America's fiscal health.

It is the latter topic that should be of the most concern for all of us. Meeker's summary for the U.S.? "A lot to be excited about in tech, a lot to be worried about in other areas."

Three slides, in particular, stood out for me.



Consumer confidence has never recovered from the housing bust thanks to the policies of Barack Obama and Democrats in Congress. They were more interested in passing draconian, centralized programs for socialized medicine and "financial reform" than spurring job creation. Now, for you drones out there: compare the Obama "recovery" with that of the Reagan era. Under Reagan, consumer confidence at this stage of the presidency was skyrocketing as the private sector began to thrive. Under Obama? No hope and no change.



Deficits, thanks to the massive Stimulus and its progeny, are at record-setting levels. All of the trillions of dollars Obama has wasted haven't solved any of America's economic problems. Because stealing money from the private sector and laundering it through government bureaucracies can't increase productivity. Wealth redistribution robs the productive sector and prevents job creation.



And, as Meeker observers, on the Obama trajectory, the American economy is headed for collapse.

The laws of mathematics are immutable. And yet Democrats, because they think they're immune to facts, logic and reason, persist in their destructive plans. And it will not be you or I that bear the brunt of their foolishness; it will be our children and grandchildren.

November is coming.


Tweet o' the Day: That's a bold strategy, Cotton

Gotta give RNC head @Reince some credit for this one.


Obama's refusal to visit Wisconsin means one of two things: (a) DNC internal polling indicates that Wisconsin is going to go for Walker in a big way; or (b) the president is pure poison for any Democrat campaign, even in an ostensible blue state.


Monday, June 04, 2012

Free citizens of Wisconsin: Reject the Democrats' Despicable Voter Intimidation Efforts #wirecall #walker #wiright #wigop

Attorney and blogger Ann Althouse recently received the following mailer in Wisconsin.

Incredibly creepy mail today from the Greater Wisconsin Political Fund:



I obscured names and addresses, but be assured, this was a list of real names and addresses of people who live near me, with the information about whether they voted in the last 2 elections. This is an effort to shame and pressure people about voting, and it is truly despicable. Your vote is private, you have a right not to vote, and anyone who tries to shame and an harass you about it is violating your privacy, and the assumption that I will become active in shaming and pressuring my neighbors is repugnant.

Not voting is a valid choice. If you don't have a preference in the election, don't vote. If you think no one deserves your vote, don't vote... This may be the most disgusting thing I have ever received in the mail.

And just who is "The Greater Wisconsin Political Fund"? You guessed it: a bunch of Democrat- and union-affiliated thugs bent on intimidating voters.

The implication seems to be that if you don’t vote, they will know. And like Liam Neeson in that movie where they steal his daughter and whatever they will find you. And they have the money to do it. According to MSNBC, Greater Wisconsin Committee, the parent of the Greater Wisconsin Political Fund, took $500,000 donation from AFSCME and a $900,000 donation from the Democratic Governors Association to fuel  massive GOTV campaign ahead of the Tuesday vote. They’re also the motivating force behind such stellar things as RecallScottWalker.org. As a C4, their donors are protected in return for giving up the ability to take a tax deduction, but a significant list of public contributors is available here (its public record, after all)...

The Greater Wisconsin Committe does have a number of board members. At the very least, Jane Gellman, GWC’s VP is a major Democratic donor who appears to have once supported John Edwards. The others appear to be major movers and shakers for Democratic and “social justice” causes as well. SHOCKER.


There's a way to fight against this kind of mischief, and it's called a "tidal wave election".

Free citizens of Wisconson: it's time to take your state back and reject the despicable, "any means necessary" tactics of the SEIU-Obama Marxists. It's time to punish the Left at the ballot box.


Sunday, June 03, 2012

Citizens of Wisconsin: On Tuesday, The Election Represents Scott Walker Versus Barack Obama

Free citizens of Wisconsin: on Tuesday, you have a chance to choose between two agendas. You can kowtow to the public sector union bosses who are proxies for Barack Obama. Or you can choose fiscal sanity and a sustainable future for your children.


If I lived in Wisconsin, I would walk on broken glass to cast a vote for Scott Walker... and to repudiate the destructive agenda of the current administration and its union backers.


Good News: World Economic Forum Ranks U.S. 46th for Manageability of Public Debt

Every year, the World Economic Forum publishes a Financial Development Report (PDF), which -- among other measures -- ranks 60 of the world's largest countries for their financial stability.


The news for the United States is decidedly poor: due to the phenomenal (and some would say historic) levels of debt rung up by President Obama and Democrats, who have gone a record 1,100 days without passing a budget, it ranks the United States 46th of 60, behind such stalwarts as Turkey, Tunisia, Pakistan and Spain.


Even better, the U.S. is ranked 55th for its high frequency of banking crises (fun reference quote, courtesy of Joe Biden: "The first guy we called for economic advice is Jon Corzine.") and 51st for the "distortive effect of taxes and subsidies on competition" (additional fun reference quote from President Obama: "The true engine of economic growth [is] companies like Solyndra.").

The policies of this administration are literally turning the United States into a third-world country.

Grim Milestone: As Americans Suffer, President Poised to Surpass 100 Rounds of Golf This Weekend

Other than retirees, who has time for 100 rounds of golf over the course of three-and-a-half years? Apparently our beloved president does, since there are no pressing matters of national concern, least of all the economy and endemic joblessness.

According to Keith Koffler, last week the President completed his 98th (documented) round of golf. White House watchers anticipate that by the end of this weekend, the president may well have completed his 100th round of golf since becoming president.

But not to worry, dear citizen: that's not all the president spends his time on.

According to London's Daily Mail (not our old media, of course), Obama has spent more time fundraising than the previous five presidents combined.

And last week, White House Dossier reported that Obama, desperate for cash, held six fundraisers in one day, likely a record for a presidential campaign in June.

So for the record-setting number of long-term unemployed, those about to be foreclosed upon thanks to a worsening housing market, folks losing their jobs courtesy of a rogue EPA, and all others suffering because of this disastrous, faltering economy, please take heart: the president's handicap has reportedly dropped four strokes since he assumed the presidency.


Friday, June 01, 2012

We're in the very best of hands: Obama's new economic plan is for you to go buy that "thingamajig" you've been putting off for a while

Tammy Bruce elucidates on the Stimulator-In-Chief's latest plan to boost the cluster-economy:

Here’s a bit of today’s disastrous economic news:

Unemployment goes up to 8.2%

Stocks plunge, on Pace for Worst Day in 2012

Government Motors outsources pensions, offers lump-sum buyouts

And what is Obama’s response to the disaster he’s created? Go buy a “Thingamajig.”



"Maybe somebody'll be replacing some... uhm... thingamajig for their... furnace! They been putting that off, but if they got that extra money... they might just go out there and buy that thing... right?"

Holy freaking crap.


Thursday, May 31, 2012

Five Reasons the Economy Remains in the Obama Depression

The funny thing is, President Obama still tries to blame President Bush for the current and ongoing malaise. But everyone knows that Obama had Congressional super-majorities of Democrats for his first two years in office. And they implemented every single progressive wet-dream possible, from Obamacare, to Cash-for-Clunkers, to various mortgage programs, to "Financial Reform", to green energy scams, and heaven knows what else.

And what did we get for that five or six trillion in additional Democrat debt?

1Q GDP was revised down to 1.9% from 2.2%. The previous four GDP quarters of Obama recovery: 0.4%, 1.3%, 1.8%, 3.0%. Keep in mind that research from the Federal Reserve finds that that since 1947, when two-quarter annualized real GDP growth falls below 2 percent, recession follows within a year 48 percent of the time...

Initial claims for state unemployment benefits rose 10,000 to a seasonally adjusted 383,000. Claims have now risen in seven of the past eight weeks. The four-week moving average for new claims increased 3,750 to 374,500.


ADP said 133,000 private-sector jobs were created in May vs. analyst expectations of 150,000.

Job cuts jumped by 53% in May from April... according to a report by consultancy firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. CNBC also notes that “employers announced plans to cut 61,887 staff from their payrolls in May, 67 percent more than in the same month of last year. The figure represents the most job cuts since last September.”

• The Rasmussen Consumer Index find that 59% think the U.S. is currently in a recession.

James Pethokoukis includes the accompanying chart in his piece, which tracks President Obama's Intrade reelection odds. While they're dropping, they remain over 50 percent.

Which means all of us have much more work to do: educating our friends, neighbors, coworkers, and family members.

We have a society to save.


New York City's Official Acceptable Behavior Guidebook, by Mayor Michael Bloomberg

Hi, I'm Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York City. And here's the first chapter of our Official Acceptable Behavior Guide for visitors to the Big Apple!


Crapping on official city vehicles, including police cars? A-okay!

Possessing soft drinks larger than 16 ounces in size? Sorry, you'll have to visit some other city for that!


Stay tuned for our next chapter, where we'll discuss heroin use versus salt consumption.


Hat tip: Aaron.

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Chart: Major Leaguer vs. Rookie Leaguer

I wasn't blessed to know Ronald Reagan, but Mr. Obama -- you are definitely no Ronald Reagan. In fact, you're not even in the same league.

Forget the Reagan recovery. What if the Obama recovery was just, you know, average? Maybe in some alternate reality Obama’s stimulus plan involved cutting taxes for investors and entrepreneurs. And maybe Earth-Two Obama took a pass on government-centered healthcare reform.

Here is what the economy might look like today:


...Investors Business Daily has the rest of the chart.

As I've mentioned before, Mr. Obama is historic, but not in any way that can be construed as good for America.


Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Cutting Through the Crap: Which President Was the Biggest Spender in Recent American History?

The Cato Institute helps refute the laughable administration claims that President Obama is some sort of deficit hawk. That could be true, but -- if so -- it's only in some sort of alternate universe, like the one where Mr. Spock wears a Fu Manchu mustache.

...the main debate is about which president was the biggest overall spender. So I’ve run through the numbers... and here’s a new table looking at the rankings based on average annual changes in inflation-adjusted primary spending, minus the distorting impact of deposit insurance and TARP.

Obama is still in the second-to-last position, but spending is increasing by “only” 5.5 percent per year rather than 7.0 percent annually. This is obviously because defense spending is not growing as fast as domestic spending.

Reagan remains in first place, though his score drops now that his defense buildup is part of the calculations. Clinton, conversely, stays in second place but his score jumps because he benefited from the peace dividend after Reagan’s policies led to the collapse of the Soviet Empire.

Let’s now look at these numbers from a policy perspective. Rahn Curve research shows that government is far too big today, so the goal of fiscal policy should be to restrain the burden of government spending relative to economic output.

This means that policy moves in the right direction when government grows more slowly than the private sector, as it did under Reagan and Clinton.

But if government spending is growing faster than the productive sector of the economy, as has been the case during the Bush-Obama years, then a nation eventually will become Greece.

Hey, Axelrod -- here's a helpful hint: when even the Associated Press shreds your propaganda, you may want to switch your line of attack. Cause it's definitely not working.

I blame Bush: Facebook loses $35 Billion In Value Since IPO

In emulating President Obama, I feel it imperative that we identify a scapegoat for this disaster. And who better than George W. Bush? Or, at the very least, Millard Fillmore? Or anyone but the Democrat National Committee's Wall Street backers, in fact.

Pain, pain, and more pain for Facebook’s stock. Facebook sunk into the $20s for the first time today, declining about 9 percent as options trading started. The decline also came a day after a third wave of reports came out about a Facebook phone, which would push the company into the risky and expensive world of building hardware.


Shares hit a new low of $28.65 and have closed nearly 10 percent lower at $28.84. After-hours trading has the company down another 0.5 percent to $28.69. That gives the company a market capitalization of $79.02 billion, down from $115 billion market cap Facebook opened at on the day of its IPO when it started trading at $42.05 a share.** (That said, if you’re a glass-is-half-full kind of person, Facebook is now cheap, cheap, cheap!)

The key factor affecting share prices might be options trading. Bloomberg said that puts are exceeding calls by 1.3-to-1.

This must be a good thing, right? Because we know that income inequality is evil. Certainly it's not fair that Facebook's founders are worth billions. We need everyone to be equal, kind of like in North Korea or Cuba or Zimbabwe.


Hat tip: BadBlue.com/tech.