Joblessness: Bad News Is Unexpected News
Thursday, February 4th, 2010When bad things happen during the Obama administration it’s always so “unexpected”. The latest round of unexpectedly unexpected news was in the jobs arena. The AP reports:
WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of newly laid-off workers filing initial claims for jobless benefits rose unexpectedly last week, evidence that layoffs are continuing and jobs remain scarce.
The rise is the fourth in the past five weeks. Most economists hoped that claims would resume a downward trend that was evident in the fall and early winter.
The Labor Department said Thursday that new claims for unemployment insurance rose by 8,000 to a seasonally adjusted 480,000. Wall Street economists had expected a drop to 460,000, according to Thomson Reuters.
The four-week average, which smooths fluctuations, rose for the third straight week to 468,750.
The figure is the highest in the past two months. Initial claims dropped sharply in late December, raising hopes among economists that layoffs were nearing an end and the economy would soon start generating net gains in jobs.
Why one might think that the easing of joblessness in December (people STILL lost jobs) was due to seasonal hirings and that now, those people and many, many more don’t have jobs.
One would think that, if they weren’t a press person who had their heads so far up the administration’s financial guru’s rear that he too was blinded by Obama’s light.
The American people find this “unexpected” news laughable. It’s what they see all around them. And they don’t expect things to get better any time soon.
If this was the Bush administration, the recession would be called The 2nd Great Depression.
The jobless numbers are disheartening. There are reasons they’ll continue to get worse. And it will continue to be unexpected because any bad news surrounding the Obama administration is unexpected.
It’s going to get worse, morons. There are so many reasons in the underlying economy (commercial mortgage loan resets, increasing home defaults, scaling back work force–many companies cut salaries, not employees, etc.) for bad, not good, things to happen.
Layer on to the actual economy the administration’s mixed messages and outright hostility toward business, and you have an EXPECTEDLY unstable economic environment.
The jobless woes should surprise no one.
No, I Don’t Want To Be Like Europe, Paul Krugman
Tuesday, January 12th, 2010No, I don’t want to learn from Europe. And this is why:
5. Although Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark are among Europe’s wealthiest countries, as U.S. states they would be between 14.5% and 18% below the U.S. average.
Go read the whole thing. Also this.
These are just financial, quality of life reasons I don’t want to learn from Europe. There are also cultural reasons I don’t want to learn from Europe.
When I visited Washington, D.C. and saw the mind of Thomas Jefferson writ large in the Library of Congress, I knew that I would never be embarrassed about American culture ever again. The Library, along with the D.C. architecture holds knowledge and learning and ideas that vestiges of European monarchies can only dream about.
Go to any major American city and take in the opera or the orchestra. Hell, go to any church in America. You’ll hear the sounds that make up the music of a free life.
Visit New York City and see what upward mobility means. Travel through the rolling, vast plains of the midwest and see the neat farmers fields that feed the world.
I’m not knocking Europe. Paris is the most romantic city in the world, bar none. Britain has history going back thousands of years. I get it.
Still, America’s elites need to stop foisting this b.s. about what America can learn from Europe. The only thing America should be learning is what happens when socialism comes knocking at the door. Europe should be a warning about what NOT to do when you have wealth and prosperity.
Are you sick of being lectured by these guys yet?
A Cool 12 Trillion
Wednesday, November 18th, 2009Remember the era of fiscal responsibility that Barack Obama was going to usher in? From CBS News:
Technically, the debt hit the new high yesterday, but it was posted on the Treasury Department website just after 3:00 p.m. ET today. The exact calculation of the debt is a 16-digit tongue-twister and red-ink tsunami: $12,031,299,186,290.07
This latest milestone in the ever-rising journey of the National Debt comes less than eight months after it hit $11 trillion for the first time. The latest high-point is not unexpected, considering the federal deficit for the just-ended 2009 fiscal year hit an all-time high at $1.42-trillion – more than triple the previous year’s record high.
Much of the increase in the deficit and debt is attributed to government spending outpacing revenue – both exacerbated by the recession and the government response to it – including hundreds of billions in bailouts and stimulus spending and tax cuts along with decreased tax revenues due to rising unemployment.
And now, President Obama is talking about “getting the deficit under control” even as he’s pushing for a vast new entitlement program. Health care will drive up the debt [and be a disaster to boot] and deficit and President Obama has the nerve about cutting down government debt. Even the Chinese see the folly and they’re communist.
Do you see a way for President Obama to get out of this self-created mess? He created the stimulus to pay off constituencies which created mountains of debt. And he promised the middle class he wouldn’t raise their taxes. And he wants to pass health care to appease the hard left socialists. So many promises.
Meanwhile, the interest on this money accrues and the dollar loses value. Tax revenues will continue to decline because of all the people out of work. It’s only the press that’s keeping President Obama’s hope and change alive. How long can that last?
Bogus Jobs: An Awesome Map From The Washington Examiner
Monday, November 16th, 2009Wow. Want to participate in this map? Go to the link and send your information.
Here’s my contribution via a reader on Twitter who pointed to me this from Doubleplusundead:
Well, lookie here. Sure enough, the O-bots are claiming that five jobs were saved in the 14th MO Congressional District. Only problem? Missouri only has nine Congressional Districts.
This made me guffaw. Another reader said that the five counties are found in those extra seven states that exist only in Barack Obama’s head.
Yeah, job loss is hilarious unless you’re one of the over 10% of Americans without a job. Don’t worry, though, President Obama will be talking about your pain in December. That will make it better.
Unemployment Numbers: Another Reality Check
Friday, November 6th, 2009This is unsurprising:
You don’t create jobs by making the bureaucracy bigger. You pull resources from the private sector making job creation impossible.
President Obama is making all this worse by creating complete instability. No one knows what he is going to do next. So, businesses hoard cash. Business continue hiring freezes even as business seems to turn a bit. Basically, the whole country is in a holding pattern.
If Cap and Trade and Health Care passes, small businesses and their owners will have to cough up any excess cash they’re hoarding to supplement government fantasy programs. They know this. If Card Check passes, big businesses, mostly in the south, know that they will have to fend off threats of unionization and the financial mess that creates.
Instability everywhere does not foster a business and therefore, a job creating environment. It doesn’t look like President Obama or Congress intend to shift directions, so joblessness it is!
Sarah Palin V. Barack Obama: Round Whatever
Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009As President Obama pontificates before the UN talking about his four pillars, the first one being disarmament, also known as defanging the West so they’re helpless before an enemy that will never disarm, Sarah Palin talks about what is important to the American people and the economic world: It’s the economy, stupid.
Foreign policy often hinges on economic policy. The guns just back up the message.
Did Sarah Palin’s message work? No one can fully say. The press wasn’t allowed in to hear it. But here are a few of her words via the Wall Street Journal:
“We got into this mess because of government interference in the first place,” the former Republican U.S. vice presidential candidate said Wednesday at a conference sponsored by investment firm CLSA Asia-Pacific Markets. “We’re not interested in government fixes, we’re interested in freedom,” she added.
Is Barack Obama’s speech before the UN working? He is saying some interesting things, but the meta-message, weakness, will trump all words. No wonder the UN members like him, says the UK’s Nile Gardiner:
It is not hard to see why a standing ovation awaits the president at Turtle Bay. Obama’s popularity at the UN boils down essentially to his willingness to downplay American global power. He is the first American president who has made an art form out of apologizing for the United States, which he has done on numerous occasions on foreign soil, from Strasbourg to Cairo. The Obama mantra appears to be – ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do to atone for your country. This is a message that goes down very well in a world that is still seething with anti-Americanism.
It is natural that much of the UN will embrace an American president who declines to offer strong American leadership. A president who engages dictators like Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Hugo Chavez will naturally gain respect from the leaders of the more than 100 members of the United Nations who are currently designated as “partly free” or “not free” by respected watchdog Freedom House.
The UN is not a club of democracies – who still remain a minority within its membership – it is a vast melting pot of free societies, socialist regimes and outright tyrannies. Obama’s clear lack of interest in human rights issues is a big seller at the UN, where at least half its members have poor human rights records.
The United States has a study in contrasts–as does the world. There will be those who dismiss Sarah Palin’s quaint provincialism and extol Barack Obama’s egalitarian moral equivalence. Eventually, though, a world economy driven into the ground by soft-socialistic policies makes even the most ruthless tyrant hunger for the good old days when there was food and riches and wealth.
It’s a good day for evil world leaders if America goes down the toilet, but it’s a suicidal impulse. Americans, too, might want a softer place to land economically, they might desire big spending Eurpoean social programs, but that makes America weak and beholden to foreign nations. Suddenly, American foreign policy is dictated by dictators and those who hold the economic power.
In the end, Sarah Palin’s speech and philosophy will mean more for American security and sovereignty than President Obama’s empty words to a heedless world. They adore Obama but they disrespect the United States because we are buried in debt.
Foreign policy and economic policy are so wrapped together, one can’t be discussed without the other one. President Obama’s philosophy is making America weak both ways.
More on Obama’s policy objectives here:
Undermine our allies. Embolden our enemies. Diminish our country.
Those nine words define the Obama doctrine with respect to American security policy. All three elements were much in evidence in the president’s benighted decision last week to cancel the “third site” for intercontinental-range missile defenses in Eastern Europe. They will be on display as well during this week’s several conclaves with foreign leaders.
The cumulative effect is predictable: A world in which the United States has fewer friends, more enemies and fewer options for assuring its security.
Are We Witnessing The Decline And Fall Of The American Non-Empire?
Tuesday, September 8th, 2009America, as Bill Whittle so eloquently pointed out, is not, and never has been an Empire builder. Still, America has been a world-power since almost her inception over 200 years ago. Is it over?
Today, we learn that America lost to the Swiss as the world’s most competitive economy.
Consider, too, MaxedOutMama’s take on unemployment (read the whole thing):
At this point one must interpret a bit. One could, if one were to be polemical, argue that the self-employed worker expansion means that the economy is improving so much that contracting jobs are easier to get and highly lucrative. However, I find that completely implausible in view of the massive drop in wage and salary employment, which has never in our experience been a sign of an improving economy. If wage and salary employment were stabilizing, one might indeed expect to see casual contracting picking up, and indeed, at some point this will happen. Companies are extremely loathe to hire in first stages of economic recoveries.
Instead, what I think we are seeing is the first group of long-term unemployed who are losing unemployment benefits and scratching a living. You only have to be employed one hour of one day of the reference week in order to be classified as employed.
A further comment about the government employment – because of the steadiness of government entities, these numbers are generally pretty reliable in both surveys. It is, however, a rather large drop in view of expanded federal employment, especially the census workers, and likely indicates the depth of the state and local combined tax/retirement problem. The combined impact will only increase for years to come.
So, I wonder what you think. Is America going through a downward cycle or is the downward economic trend spelling doom? Is America declining and diminishing, never to rise again? As a cultural, economic, political and military influence, is America over?
2% Too Much: Federal Employees Should Get Pay Cuts, Not Pay Raises
Tuesday, September 1st, 2009Federal government employees make nearly 100% more, on average, per year, than the average American worker. With the deficit soaring, Nancy Pelosi suggested a 19% pay increase. President Obama is getting props for saying it should be 2%.
Pardon me, but what the hell?
Private sector employees are either taking a cut in hours, are laid off or have pay freezes–because that’s what people do to stay competitive in a down economy.
But with the American taxpayer ponying up for Federal employees wages, the sky is the limit. What a disgusting system.
Podcast: Chuck DeVore On Environmentalism Gone Wild [Hello Cap-n-Trade], I.O.U.’s, Prison Release & Other California Craziness–Like Barbara Boxer
Thursday, August 20th, 2009Don’t look now, but while the citizenry wrestles over the notion of Health Care legislation and what that all means, a big (literally bigger) pile of odious legislation sits in committee waiting to enslave Americans with taxes and limited lifestyle: Cap-n-Trade. To understand just how awful Cap-n-Trade is, one only has to look at California to catch a clue.
And how IS California these days? Well, the air is cleaner, which is nice, but unemployment is approaching 15-20% generally and nearly 40% in the agricultural industry. In addition, taxes are going up, prison populations are being released, I.O.U.s are being given, and the state has a prohibitive cost of living associated with less jobs.
Can you say misery?
And yet, the very elements that made this mess, sit in the Cap-n-Trade bill. That bill, by the writers admission, will cause unemployment to increase. There is a provision for more welfare to be paid for those who would be put out of work. It’s a mess of a bill, that would make failed California the model for the nation.
Chuck DeVore talks about all of these problems and the solutions. One solution is to start voting conservatives into office. Barbara Boxer wants to visit upon the nation the Great Depression circumstances now in California. She needs to go.
Chuck DeVore will be challenged in the primary by Carly Fiorina. Voters need to look closely at this woman. Fired from HP, fired from the McCain campaign, not interested enough (or too worried about the political implications) to make a stand and vote, Ms. Fiorina has a couple things the Republican leadership love: money and name recognition. Since America is not yet a Fiefdom, it would seem that ideals and character should matter too. I hope California voters pay attention to this race.
Listen to it all on the podcast. It’s informative.
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Weariness In The Face Of The Government Wolf
Tuesday, August 4th, 2009My concern with the health care debate is that the American people will just be worn down. There has been a lot of wolf crying with non-stop media hysteria. Well, the wolf wants to devour a sixth of the American economy. The wolf is here. The time to fight is now:
You are so sick of the debates. You have a freaking life after all. You have a mortgage. You have kids you worry over. You have a job, if you’re lucky. You like sports. You like your family. You like your car. You like your country. You believe there is a God and after this short time on earth, if there’s any justice, bad guys will pay and good guys will ultimately win. You’re an American. Imperfect, sure, but mostly decent.
It is simply unfathomable that someone would would see that life and think it is bad. It is difficult to comprehend that someone or a group of people would see this life as evil. And yet, many do.
The traditional suburban family, job, kids, house, SUV, sports, dogs, etc. are viewed with suspicion and pure hatred by some. Americans are viewed as wasteful, consumptive, selfish, stupid, parochial simpletons.
The solution to the “problem” of the average American, then, is to help the American live a better life…by force, if necessary. Doctor Zero of Hot Air’s Greenroom has a must read piece titled “The Aggressor State“. He says:
Because liberalism defines itself as transformative, it is very comfortable with aggression. This posture serves them well with a public that believes “progress” is inherently positive. The business of building the modern super-state has been a sustained attack, using cultural pressure, legislative power, and the blunt instrument of loyal voting blocs to beat Middle America into submission. The goal of the Left is to convince the middle class to give it the power to do things they would never be depraved or dishonest enough to do themselves. Ordinary people refer to the “redistribution of wealth” as “theft.” If a man wearing a tailored suit and power tie came to your door one day, and offered to take care of your health, in exchange for surrendering all control over your medical decisions to a board of faceless strangers – who also demand unlimited control over every part of your life that might conceivably impact your health – you’d slam the door in his face and call the cops. If you caught someone writing himself a $4000.00 check from your checkbook, and he explained he needs the money as tribute to his Church of Global Warming so they can save the world from an imaginary evil, you’d shoot first and call 911 later. The mission of the Left is to convince people that all of these outrages become virtuous when elected officials perpetrate them. After all, “they won.” [Emphasis added.]
But those who view American life with contempt know that a direct assault on the American character won’t work. It must be subtle. The arguments must infer that your neighbor, the small business owner whose company earns more than $200,000 is evil, not you. The insurance company is evil–hell, you know the pain in the ass insurance companies can be. The talk show host is evil–well, crud, Mr. Big Mouth Talk Show Host sure can be annoying sometimes. Then anyone who thinks mandatory union membership seems oppressive is evil. Then people who like their incandescent lights are evil. The circle begins to expand. Like a consuming Venn diagram, suddenly, all Americans, even you, are inside the circle of evil.
How did that happen?
