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When the jobs gains were posted for March it was yet another reminder that the reported drop in the unemployment rate from 7.7% to 7.6% does not begin to tell the real story. The real unemployment rate is closer to 14%. A paltry 88,000 jobs were created, with most of those jobs being part time, temporary, or low paying jobs. Economists predicted a gain of 190,000 jobs. Over half a million people stopped looking for work.
The labor participation rate fell again to 63.3%, the lowest level since December 2007. Over 90 million people are out of work. There are 7 million fewer people working now than when President Obama took office. People who live in the real world know the job market has not improved. Many college graduates are working at low paying jobs not utilizing their educational background. Young people and minorities have been particularly hard hit.
Was there any real expectation that a President with no business, economic, or management experience would have the knowledge and expertise to understand the fundamentals of job creation? His policies of onerous regulations and burdensome taxation only serve to reduce the prospects of meaningful job formation. But rather than man up and take responsibility for the dismal job numbers President Obama chooses instead to blame the sequester and Republicans.
The sequester was a plan created by the President. The anemic cut of 2.4% in spending has absolutely no effect on job creation. The sequester does not cut spending it merely slows the rate of increase in government spending. Until voters wake up and demand government get out of the way of business we will continue to see an inexorable decline in the US job market. The pathetic jobs gain in March was just another Another Reality Check.
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The good news is: consumer spending increased in January for the third straight month. The bad news is: incomes sank 3.6%. Since he who controls the numbers controls the message it is difficult to place any faith in the recent string of numbers. Whatever spin the President and White House will choose to place on these numbers the cold hard facts are inescapable.
Since President Obama took office we have added $6 trillion in new debt, about $20,000 for every man, woman, and child. We borrow 40 cents of every dollar we spend and spend a trillion more than we collect in revenues. Real unemployment is closer to 14%, long term unemployment has increased dramatically, there are two million few people working now than when the President took office, and the majority of jobs created are low paying, temporary, part time jobs.
The cost of energy has soared, trillion have been spent propping up the stock market, hastening runaway inflation, while savings accounts and CD’s bring a near zero return on investment. A hostile business environment and strangling regulations are forcing our remaining jobs overseas. As government continues to expand the private sector continues to contract. Since 1947, thirty two percentage points of our economy have been transferred from the private sector to government.
The average hourly compensation for people on welfare now exceeds the average hourly compensation for workers. It is not a question of if our economy will collapse but when it will collapse. Those who have good jobs and have been unaffected by our pitiful economy are oblivious to the fate that awaits them as well. We are a nation largely in denial. We cling to the slightest bit of good news as a baby clings to its security blanket. But our day of reckoning is coming and will not be a mix of Good News – Bad News.
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The Republican circular firing squad continues. When Speaker John Boehner stated that he was postponing a vote on a Hurricane Sandy relief bill, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie decried the ‘selfishness and duplicity, the callous indifference to the people of our state for that decision. Representative Peter King (R-NY) accused Boehner of “plunging ‘a cruel knife in the back’ of storm-ravaged residents ‘who don't have shelter, don't have food.
It was in October, just after Hurricane Sandy and just before the November election that President Obama made a photo op appearance in New Jersey. President Obama and Governor Chris Christie looked like a newly married couple as they sung each other’s praises. The coming of the President meant the healing of the planet or at least the East Coast. The President promised to move heaven and earth and that FEMA would do everything in their power to make the residents whole.
The President had won reelection but the East Coast was still devastated and promises were once again broken. But rather than vent their anger at the true villain, the President, Christie and King chose to attack Speaker Boehner. Rather than look at the facts and redirect their efforts they chose the least culpable person.
The estimates of insured losses from Sandy come to about $20 billion while the proposed package was about three times that amount, with $28 billion marked for future disaster projects. These projects include operation Head Start, fisheries in Alaska, free money for the Secretary of Health and Human Services, and repairs to the Smithsonian. It was exploitation of a disaster to sponsor a massive pork bill with no spending offsets. Once again the bill was put together last minute with scant time to read or study the bill to make an informed decision, an instant replay of every piece of legislation proposed by the Obama administration.
It is now January. The President and Democrats had almost three months to propose an aid package but chose to invent a crisis, creating an opportunity too good to waste. More importantly, we must question exactly which party does Governor Christie and Representative King represent? And where exactly had they been these past three months? And where exactly is the responsibility of the people, the community, and the State? When disaster struck Joplin and Branson Missouri, residents did not complain or wait for government to fix their problems. They rolled up their sleeves and rebuilt their communities. They did not respond to a tragedy with Righteous Indignation.
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Quantitative Easing may be defined as a government monetary policy occasionally used to increase the money supply by buying government securities or other securities from the market. Quantitative easing increases the money supply by flooding financial institutions with capital, in an effort to promote increased lending and liquidity.
Central banks tend to use quantitative easing when interest rates have already been lowered to near 0% levels and have failed to produce the desired effect. The major risk of quantitative easing is that, although more money is floating around, there is still a fixed amount of goods for sale. This will eventually lead to higher prices or inflation.
Quantitative easing is an option not open either to individuals, small businesses, or corporations, neither is unlimited borrowing, or the ability to arbitrarily increasing revenues. Our Federal government has the ability to make their own rules and set their own standards. Because the prime rate is essentially at zero percent and the Federal Reserve has printed trillions in paper money it is no surprise that the stock market has risen steadily. With nowhere else to put their money with an expectation of a reasonable return on their investments individuals and investment firms are putting their money in the stock market.
Rather than apply the proven principles of a free market economy where supply and demand determine pricing and availability the Federal Reserve and the Obama administration have decided to use smoke and mirrors to create a fictional recovery. As our government grows, and it has grown substantially, the private sector contracts, leaving a decreasing number of individuals and businesses to support and ever expanding bureaucracy.
While quantitative easing may appear enticing in the short term. The long term fallout is hyperinflation, a shortage of goods and services, high unemployment, higher taxes, a stagnant housing market, permanent trillion dollar budget deficits, an enormous national debt, shrinking household incomes, and dwindling family assets. It is not that Bernanke and President Obama are out of ideas or solutions; they never had ideas or solutions.
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The Republican buzzword for surrender is “compromise”. John Boehner once stated, “Sometimes it’s hard to do the right thing.” Republicans seem resigned to raising taxes to avoid the “fiscal cliff” and reduce the budget deficit.
Good never compromises with bad, right never compromises with wrong, and justice never compromises with injustice. But, in a nation that has lost its moral compass, what was once crystal clear no longer sees the light of day.
Did Jesus compromise when faced with crucifixion? Did Christians compromise when facing persecution? Did Patton or McArthur compromise when facing the enemy? Would a parent compromise when it comes to the safety and security of their family?
We have become a nation that no longer recognizes a moral standard or a power greater than our government. We have corrupted our media, our family values, our Judeo Christian roots, our Constitution, the rule of law, the Separation of Powers, the sanctity of marriage, and our civility.
Our values and our spirit distinguish us from other living creatures. We have sold our souls to the devils to satisfy our thirst for power and material things. If we do not have our honor and our dignity we have nothing of value. Do we want to be remembered as a people of unshakeable principles or a people of pitiable Compromise?
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Barack Obama supporters celebrated his reelection into the wee hours of the morning. Drunk with the power of big government there will be the consequences of an economic hangover. Elections have consequences and consequences there will be.
In just four short years our President has amassed $6 trillion in new debt, saddled us with trillion dollar deficits as far as the eye can see, printed worthless money at a record pace, expanded government, and drastically increased spending.
Even if the President succeeds in punishing the “evil rich”, the maximum increased revenues will total no more than $70 billion dollars. This pales in comparison to a projected budget deficit of $1.2 trillion. How is taxing the job creators going to create more jobs? Where exactly will the additional revenues come from: the middle class of course? With 20 new taxes on all income levels in Obamacare, massive new taxes are coming to the middle class.
The fact is: there is no plan to decrease spending. At best, there will only be a decrease in the proposed levels of increased spending, namely, a continuing increase in government spending. Companies and corporations have already begun laying off employees or decreasing the maximum number of hours they may work, eliminating the possibility of participating in company health insurance plans.
As government continues to grow the private sector will continue to contract. Since 1947, 32% of our economy has been transferred from the private sector to our government. As the government presses continue to print money at a frenetic pace, hyperinflation is just around the corner. We will seen energy prices skyrocket as coal and oil production are strangled by onerous regulations.
High unemployment, stagnant economic growth, and a depressed housing market will become the new norm. The President is hell bent on destroying the goose that lays the golden egg. As you reduce corporate profits you decrease corporate taxes, thereby reducing government revenues. Every tax or regulation on businesses and corporations is ultimately a tax on consumers. As Liberals have ushered in another four years of economic calamity, Let the Pain Begin.
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The current administration likes to point to the recovery of the stock market as a sure sign of economic recovery. They want us to ignore $6 trillion in new debt, perpetual trillion dollar deficits, chronic unemployment, disastrous housing market, devalued market, soaring energy prices, and rising inflation.
The stock market has risen for two primary reasons: trillions in printed worthless money to buy up bad debt and near zero interest rates that offer no return on savings, CD’s, or money market funds. The stock market is the only potential source of a reasonable return on investments. Corporate earnings have risen because they have cut costs, namely employees, to achieve profitability. Jobs lost will never come back.
Federal Reserve Chairman Bernanke has decided to double down on failed Keynesian economics and continue to print more worthless paper money. He is committing $40 billion per month to purchase mortgage backed securities for an indefinite period of time in an attempt to keep interest rates low. People and businesses will not borrow money just because it is available.
While Bernanke claims it is a non-political decision there is no doubt it will help President Obama at least in the short term. What this action will do for sure is devalue the dollar and fuel inflation. There is irrefutable evidence that both are occurring. Liberals are doggedly persistent in their belief government intervention will spur our economy.
The fact that Bernanke is implementing QE3 is an admission that TARP, the Stimulus, the Omnibus Bill, QE1 and QE2 were not successful. The trillions spent thus far have been flushed down the proverbial toilet. If pervious plans and trillions in previous spending has not worked what would make him believe that more spending will now work. President Obama, his administration, and Chairman Bernanke, devoid private sector experience and common sense and out of ideas, have decided that the only way to put us on the road to prosperity is to print More Monopoly Money.
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When Republicans warned the President and Democrats that blocking the Keystone would encourage Canada to pursue oil deals with China they were scoffed at and accused of endangering the environment. Even though thousands of miles of pipeline already existed in the network throughout the States with no record of environmental damage, we were lead to believe this one section of pipeline would be a catastrophe.
China’s state run oil company CNOOC is poised to finalize a $15.1 billion dollar deal, the largest ever foreign acquisition for a Chinese company. Like Rip Van Winkle, Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi have awakened from their 100 year slumber to sound the alarm bell. If these modern day Paul Reveres had been around at the time of the Revolutionary War we would still be sipping tea and eating crumpets.
With politicians such as Pelosi and Schumer, devoid of private sector experience, making decisions that affect our lives it is no wonder why our country is in chaos and on the verge of bankruptcy. With an energy policy guided by ideology not economics and available resources there is little wonder why consumers pay almost $4 per gallon of gas.
Democrats and the Obama administration seem incapable of getting out of their own way. North Dakota has lead the way in energy exploration and utilization, soaring employment, lowered taxation, and economic prosperity while the Federal government remains mired in an economic quagmire. When President Obama made the political decision not to allow the Keystone Pipeline he ignored the Law of Unintended Consequences.
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What do European countries and the United States have in common: a Socialist form of government, devalued currency, high unemployment, scant economic growth, a downgraded credit rating, bloated bureaucracies, out-of-control entitlement spending and government pensions, a shrinking private sector, burdensome regulations, onerous taxes, and class warfare?
Europe is an economic catastrophe and appears unwilling to admit that Socialism and Keynesian economics have led them into a financial abyss. As Margaret Thatcher said, “The problem with Socialism is that eventually you run out of other peoples’ money.” As the number of people living off the government dole increases and the number of people available to support them decreases a tipping point is reached and their economies come to a screeching halt.
But President Obama, the self-proclaimed “smartest man in the world”, believes that problem is not the system; the people running the system are the problem. Rather than learn form the mistakes of other nations, President Obama is doubling down on failure. Rather than learn from history he is determined to repeat it.
The mark of any good manager or leader is the ability to objectively self-evaluate their performance and make the adjustments necessary to achieve their primary goals. But President Obama, a man with no economic, financial, or management experience and a penchant for ignoring the advice of others, lacks the background necessary to right our sinking ship.
But European countries have found a loyal follower and have taken heart. After all, Misery Loves Company.
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The President and his Press Secretary have claimed that the President has created millions of green jobs. But it begs the questions: what exactly is a green job and who gets to define what a green job is.
Green jobs are variously described as jobs in businesses that: produce goods or services that benefit the environment or conserve natural resources, make a process more environmentally friendly, use renewable resources, or produce products or services that improve energy efficiency.
Green jobs are also described as: products are service that remove, reduce, or recycle greenhouse gases or reduce or eliminate waste materials and products or services conserve natural resources. Green jobs include: products or services that deal with environmental compliance, education and training, and public awareness, jobs in which workers that use processes that are more environmentally friendly or use fewer natural resources, or use technologies that improve energy efficiency, reduce or eliminate the use of hazardous materials or hazardous waste products.
Under the vast array of green job definitions and categories, essentially any job can be classifies as green if the government defines it as being green. Our government defines what green jobs are, determines which jobs meet that criteria, collects the data, and issues the reports. That explains why this administration can state unequivocally that millions of green jobs have been created. Kermit the Frog had it wrong; it really is Easy Being Green.
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