Category Archives: Economy

Economics Category

U.S. Manufacturing: Worst Hit Since June 2009 as Sequester and Slowing Consumption Bite Are to Blame

US Manufacturing May 2013May 2013 Manufacturing numbers have come in and shows a contracting economy.

Forbes reports: “As many try to minimize the impact of fiscal restraint and the sequester on the U.S. economy, the May manufacturing ISM printed at a contractionary 49%, the lowest reading since June 2009.  While it is too early to determine if this is just a slowdown or will ultimately result in an outright contraction, the manufacturing sector is suffering from “sluggish” economic conditions and “flattening” demand both in the U.S. and abroad.  The stock market didn’t seem to care much, falling initially but jumping right back to higher highs in the aftermath of the report.

The first contraction in manufacturing activity since last November indicates “a flattening or softening in demand due to a sluggish economy, both domestically and globally,” the Institute for Supply Management noted on Monday.  And, while stock markets are firing on all cylinders, the underlying economy is showing signs of fatigue.

The overall reading fell 1.7% to 49% in April, led by big declines in the production index and new orders, which fell 4.9% and 3.5% respectively.  The employment index ticked down 0.1 percentage points but remained in expansionary territory, while the price index fell 0.5 percentage points, indicating prices for raw materials declined in May, and giving further evidence of deflationary tendencies in the economy.  Deflation is the Federal Reserve’s worst enemy, giving Chairman Bernanke & Co. reason to question whether it is the right time to taper its asset purchase program, or QE.”

Read rest of article here.

RED STATES, POOR STATES: Latest Study Identifies Red/GOP States With Greatest Economic Potential

Red States, Poor States
A new study from the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) ranked all 50 U.S. states for their economic potential.  Low and behold, nearly all top 10 states are GOP, red states.

The study called “Red States, Poor States” of course, coined from the popular 1979 miniseries “Rich Man, Poor Man,” was a study using 15 factors, including labor policies, rates of taxation, and more.  The top state is Utah and Michigan gets the nod for being the worst.

When it comes to economic growth and potential, it’s better to be “red.”

So says a new study out of the American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC, which ranked all 50 states in terms of their economic outlook — and found those that tend to vote Republican had the most potential.

The “Red States, Poor States” study, the sixth of its kind to be released by the conservative think tank, measured states based on 15 factors, ranging from minimum wage laws to tax rates to labor policy.

Almost all of the top 10 tend to vote “red” in presidential and state elections. At the top of the list, for the sixth year in a row, was Utah.

“The real key to Utah is low tax rates, but more than that a predictable tax climate,” said Jonathan Williams, with ALEC. “Utah legislators are very conscientious about the fact that they don’t spend beyond their means and also they don’t make changes in tax policy retroactively.  They make changes very gradually and they generally make them in a lower tax direction.”

The bottom 10 states in economic outlook, Williams said, tend to be “blue” states with higher taxes and more restrictions on business development.

New York and Vermont round out the bottom two.

But not everyone thinks those states on the bottom are getting it wrong.

Tracy Gordon, with the Brookings Institution, said: “It’s hard to say that states should try to pattern themselves after Utah.”

Gordon noted states have different strengths and weaknesses.

“So for example, I know the authors are not fans of the income tax, but in good years the income tax performs very well in states like New York and California that rely on it heavily. So should California and New York try to look more like Utah? Probably not,” Gordon said.

Another part of the ALEC study looked at the states’ economic performance from 2001-2011.  The state that grew the most during that time was Texas, and the state that struggled the most was Michigan, according to ALEC’s calculations. This part of the study was based on the states’ gross state product growth, population shifts and job growth.

ALEC says this shows where states have been, and the 2013 economic outlook rankings show where the states are likely to go. This study did not take into account factors such as natural resources, weather and social policies, Williams explained.

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TED CRUZ: ‘Let Me Be Clear, I Don’t Trust Republicans’

Let me be clear, Ted Cruz is one of our best hopes we have as conservatives to turn the tide away from this fascist President and his minions.  Here, Cruz basically rebuts John McCain’s slobber speech that would in essence allow a “back room deal” to occur that would raise the debt ceiling.  All on our nickel!  It’s senators like Ted Cruz that I still have hope for the conservatives to save us from further assault by the liberals. But, we must pull together to make this happen. PLEASE Like and Share on Facebook.

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VIDEO TRANSCRIPTION:

“Senator from Texas and President that senior senator from Arizona urged this body to trust the Republicans.

Let me be clear I don’t trust Republicans and i don’t trust the Democrats.

And I think a whole lot of Americans likewise don’t trust for the Republicans and the Democrats because it is leadership in both parties that has gotten us in this mess.

You know my wife and I have two little girls at home they’re five and two. When Caroline was born our national debt was ten trillion dollars today it’s nearly seventeen trillion dollars.  In her short five years of life a national debt has grown by over sixty percent madam president what we are doing to our Kids and Grandkids, I think is a immoral.

Now, I commend the Democrats in this body for their candor. The Democrats and President Obama have been very explicit — that is their intention to raise the debt ceiling and to do so with no conditions whatsoever just keep borrowing and borrowing and borrowing money without any structural reforms to fix the problems.  That is it intellectually consistent position I think it is a dangerous position but it is at least candid.

And that is the reason why everyday for sixty days the Democrats have opposed taking the debt ceiling off the table in this discussion.  But unfortunately one of the reasons we got into this mess is because a lot of Republicans were complicit in this spending spree.  And that’s why so many Americans are disgusted with both sides of this house because we need leaders on both sides to do is my friend from Virginia said to roll up our sleeves to compromise to work together and fix the problem, fix the enormous fiscal and economic problems, stop bankrupting our country.

What this issue is all about is very simple.  Will we allow the debt ceiling to be raised in an unlimited amount with just a fifty vote threshold?  And if the answer to that is yes yet in effect just voted to raise the debt ceiling because the Democrats hold a majority of this body fifty-five cities and the Democrats are explicit they want to raise the debt ceiling.”

Republican Budget for 2013 Balances Budget in 10 Years

Republican Budget 2013House Republicans led by Paul Ryan (R-Wis), unveiled an ambitious budget that included an aggressive cost-cutting plan on Tuesday; and would balance the budget in 10 years without raising taxes. The plan also repealed ObamaCare and included an overhaul of Entitlements; this same plan will most likely fall on deaf ears from the Obama administration.

Obama’s plan on the other hand, will add $41 trillion dollars over the next 10 years…

Obama’s budget will be debt-boosting political gambit, Carney says

dailycaller.com3/11/13

GOP leaders, however, are trying to pass a balanced budget plan through the House. “Instead of spending $46 trillion over the next 10 years, we’ll spend $41 trillion,” predicted the House GOP’s budget chief, Rep. Paul Ryan.

The House Republicans plan however, takes dead-aim at the Democrat spending sprees.

Ryan’s budget: GOP takes aim at Dem spending plans – Herald Online

www.heraldonline.com3/12/13

Driving the House GOP plan is a promise to pass a budget that would balance the government’s books, which the measure would achieve by cutting $756 billion over 10 years from the Medicaid health program for the poor

2012 4th Quarter Shows Economy is Contracting, Not Expanding

Despite what reports you hear coming out of Washington, the economy is not faring well.  After nearly 4 years of pumping trillions of dollars into a haggard economy, Ben Bernanke is now claiming foul when it comes to alternatives. The revised 2012 4th quarter shows the economy is contracting, not expanding like predicted.

Peter Schiff Blog: The Reason It Does Not Feel Like A Recovery For

peterschiffblog.blogspot.com3/3/13

“People think the economy is expanding. We just got the GDP number, the revised fourth quarter, and it showed a slight expansion, +0.1%. But that`s because the government assumes there`s no inflation. They want us to

Surprised? U.S. Economy Shrinks — and See What the White

www.theblaze.com1/30/13

Surprised? U.S. Economy Shrinks — and See What the White House Blames. Jan. 30, 2013 10:09am Becket Adams · The New Normal: U.S. Economy Declined in Q4. SAN FRANCISCO – MAY 13: A pedestrian walks by a sign announcing a

US Economy Shrinks in Last Quarter 2012

US Economy Shrinks in Last Quarter 2012.

Let’s be clear, the U.S. economy has not fallen off a cliff… yet anyway. There have been a few economic signs of “modest increases,” according to main players and policy makers.  However, things are looking much grimmer than last year at this time, and has indeed contracted. Economy did show a slight increase of +0.1%, government but assumed no inflation exists.

Liberalism: The Ultimate False Positive Paradox

obama_socialistThe liberal ideology is based on a philosophy that liberty and equality must exist.  In theory, it touches on many parts of humanity.  In reality, liberalism is nothing more than a concocted theory that edicts a False Positive Paradox and ultimately casts a net of disaster for everything in its wake.

“The false positive paradox is a statistical result where false positive tests are more probable than true positive tests, occurring when the overall population has a low incidence of a condition and the incidence rate is lower than the false positive rate.”

In layman terms, a false positive is a result that indicates a given condition is present when it is not.  An example of a false positive in the real world, would be if a particular test designed to detect cancer returns a positive result but the person does not have cancer.  The False Positive theorem may have been borrowed to prove a point, nevertheless it accurately delineates the emanation when liberal policies are thrown into the wild.

Liberalism is a political, economic, and cultural movement that emphasizes the rights and freedoms of the individual above all else.  The ideology’s premise and ultimate success are heavily weighed on a self-regulated government.

On the surface, liberalism seems plausible to bring about fairness and equality to all.  Yet many liberal polices end up with less than desirable results at best, to almost certain catastrophic aftermath as the norm.  Of course, anytime government capitalization is used as the main dish rather than a condiment (intended purpose), failure and calamity will ensue.

What is a good example of a liberal policy producing a false positive?

In San Francisco, the self-appointed mecca of liberalism, the black population today is less than half of what it was back in 1970, even though the city’s total population has grown.  Why?  Severe restrictions on building housing in San Francisco have driven rents and home prices so high that blacks and other people with low or moderate incomes, have been driven out of the city. The same thing has happened in a number of other California communities dominated by liberals.  This is a very real example of how a liberal policy can eradicate an otherwise thriving economy.

How about an example of a false positive on a macro scale?

Minimum wage increase sure sounds good on the surface.  Barack Obama recently called on Congress to raise the federal minimum wage to $9 an hour from $7.25, and to automatically adjust it with inflation, a move aimed at increasing the earnings of millions of cooks, janitors, aides to the elderly and other low-wage workers.  Many would welcome an increase and be seen as a way of helping the less privileged gain a bigger piece of the American pie and improve the lives of their family.  But with an obvious benefit, comes a huge price tag with detrimental ramifications to the aggregate.

The reality of a minimum wage increase proposed by Barack Obama would eliminate at least 467,000 jobs at a time when the country already has a 7.9% unemployment rate.  In the past, raising the minimum wage has not helped reduce unemployment.  From 1997 to 2007 in fact, there was no increase in the minimum wage and overall unemployment stayed below 5% while youth unemployment (ages 16-24) remained around 10%.

Critics worry raising the minimum wage would only place this already fragile economy on life support.  This very fact is why Obama is now pushing for a wage increase, which we will see later why.

There are numerous reasons why liberal policies fail, but the absence of sound economic principles has always been at the forefront.  Liberals may talk a good game on race, gender, gay rights and scores of other important cultural issues.  However it’s rare to witness a liberal be able to articulate economics, corporate hegemony, and global financial capitalism in a coherent manner.

The Socialist-in-Chief is a prime example of impudent ignorance of basic economic principles — taking his severely flawed ideologue totally out of the equation, he is simply inept to make any major economic decision based solely on the merits of his knowledge.  Making matters worse, 90% of his cabinet has never even worked in a private sector job.  Hence, our national debt topped $16 trillion in late 2012, and is expected to exceed $20 trillion before we can run this nut out of office in 2016!

Moreover, the liberal foundation and principles do not preclude the existence of successful economic policies.  Liberal policies incentivize failure, create a hostile business environment, burden businesses with excessive taxation, and stifles creativity of doing things better, cheaper, and faster.  Fact: a lean private sector will always outperform a stagnate government.  

Even Karl Marx noted in the Communist Manifesto, capitalism is a great “engine of growth,” a proposition few informed observers of the economic scene would disagree.  Yet liberals continue to hinge their very existence on governmental frameworks, and rely heavily on government stimulus at every turn.

But there’s something even more grim and disturbing coming our way, and it’s about to play out in our very own backyard.

Between the 2008 election and the 2012 presidential campaign, Barack Hussein Obama was seen by some as a “centrist” president (I saw him only as a flat out far-left liberal), pushing his left-of-center agenda for the “good of our country.”  Post 2012 election however brought about a much liberated, more vengeful Obama onto the scene.  He was now free to act out his fantasies on the world’s largest stage and show his true socialist colors — nobody and nothing was going to stop him now.  He would now be able to jockey past those pesky little checks and balances that the constitution put in place explicitly for this situation, and jam any policy right down our throats at any time.  Total freedom to execute his abominable scam.  And that’s precisely what he is doing.

Well, if it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it is a duck.

The Socialist-in-Chief is now free to gut our beloved free market system and take liberalism to a whole new level.  All under the guise of a “president for the people,” armed with the unabridged version of the Cloward-Piven strategy acting as his guide every step of the way.

Before socialism is able to function on its own, in true unadulterated form, Obama must first break down every major economic pillar of our country.  Ensuring the death of capitalism, he will then “blow up the bridge” behind him in grand “Bridge Over River Kwai” fashion, to eliminate the possibility of our country ever prospering again under the free market system.  Pure evil.

In other words, Alinsky-in-Chief is now playing out the economic destruction of our country, all in order to allow his socialist framework to cure and amalgamate into every economic and cultural fabric, replacing the free market that has been in existence for over 230 years.  Scary huh?  It should be, because this exact scenario is unfolding right before our very eyes.  Well, for those that can see past their entitlement piggy bank anyway.

One must never forget where Obama came from to truly understand his evil.  He was brought up on extreme anti-American tutelage beginning in his early childhood, extending through his adulthood.  Either his father Barack Obama Sr. or communist extraordinaire Frank Marshall Davis were right there during the Tyranny-in-Chief’s developmental years to help shape his warp but very predictable viewpoints.  Marxism may be the bedrock of his now methodical ways, but is now a mere sidelight in his planned destruction of the United States.  It is this same strategy that is now playing out in his second term.

To liberals, Obama’s policies may be seen as equal and just, when in fact he’s laying out the red carpet in preparation for what lies ahead, the economic jihad of a free country — the Grand False Positive. God help us.