Blue Monday downer
Bensblurb #559 July 12, 2010
Hunker Down, it‘s Blue Monday:
Has Robert Gibbs planned his own departure from the White House? Apparently. This flat-tire White House press secretary said yesterday on Meet the Press: "There's no doubt there are enough seats in play in races[ for the House]," for Republicans to gain control.” he said, on Meet the Press-- See ya. Good riddance.
Lousy recession to linger
Michael Barone unloads, in Washington Examiner: Home mortgage interest rates are the lowest in history, but house sales are plunging. Banks can make money easily because of the Federal Reserve's low interest rates, but they're not making many loans. Major corporations are sitting on something like $2 trillion in cash, but they're not investing.
Unemployment is running at 10 percent, rounded off, for the 11th straight month, but few employers are hiring and a million people have stopped looking for work in the last year. Small-business hiring is at a nine-month low, and retail sales are tailing off.
Government policies designed to stimulate the economy seem to be having the opposite effect. Consumers aren't buying, businesses aren't hiring, and those fortunate enough to have some cash on hand don't seem to be investing... This hurts the economy, but it's a rational response to the Obama Democrats' public policies.
"Why aren't businesses hiring?" asks tax lawyer Hale "Bonddad" Stewart. "Uncertainty: There has been a tremendous amount of change over the last 12 months. Businesses are still trying to figure out what this means for their bottom line. Until there are firm answers, they will freeze hiring."
In other words, the Obama Democrats' vast expansion of the size and scope of government -- and the threat that they may pass even more such legislation in a lame duck session of Congress after the November election -- has chilled the animal spirits that John Maynard Keynes said were the driving force for economic growth.
Instead of stimulating the economy, the Obama Democrats' policies have shocked it into immobility....At least one [further shock] is definitely coming: The Bush tax cuts expire at the end of the year, which means that high earners can be sure they will very soon keep less of what they make.
Politicians up for re-election are taking notice. Congressional Democratic leaders can't round up the votes for another stimulus package and have not dared to ask their members to vote for a budget resolution.
Barone isn’t alone.
Check this AP story:
BOSTON — The heads of President Barack Obama's national debt commission painted a gloomy picture Sunday as the United States struggles to get its spending under control.
Republican Alan Simpson and Democrat Erskine Bowles told a meeting of the National Governors Association that everything needs to be considered — including curtailing popular tax breaks, such as the home mortgage deduction, and instituting a financial trigger mechanism for gaining Medicare coverage.
The nation's total federal debt next year is expected to exceed $14 trillion — about $47,000 for every U.S. resident.
"This debt is like a cancer," Bowles said..."It is truly going to destroy the country from within."
--As Ronald Reagan once said, "The fact is, we'll never build a lasting economic recovery by going deeper into debt at a faster rate than we ever have before. ..”
Free Press?
Journalists who come too close to oil spill clean-up efforts without permission could find themselves facing a $40,000 fine and even one to five years in prison under a new rule instituted by the Coast Guard late last week--Daniel Tencer at Raw StoryIt's a move that outraged observers have decried as an attack on First Amendment rights. And CNN's Anderson Cooper describes the new rules as making it "very easy to hide incompetence or failure."
---Ben Blankenship
###############
Hunker Down, it‘s Blue Monday:
Has Robert Gibbs planned his own departure from the White House? Apparently. This flat-tire White House press secretary said yesterday on Meet the Press: "There's no doubt there are enough seats in play in races[ for the House]," for Republicans to gain control.” he said, on Meet the Press-- See ya. Good riddance.
Lousy recession to linger
Michael Barone unloads, in Washington Examiner: Home mortgage interest rates are the lowest in history, but house sales are plunging. Banks can make money easily because of the Federal Reserve's low interest rates, but they're not making many loans. Major corporations are sitting on something like $2 trillion in cash, but they're not investing.
Unemployment is running at 10 percent, rounded off, for the 11th straight month, but few employers are hiring and a million people have stopped looking for work in the last year. Small-business hiring is at a nine-month low, and retail sales are tailing off.
Government policies designed to stimulate the economy seem to be having the opposite effect. Consumers aren't buying, businesses aren't hiring, and those fortunate enough to have some cash on hand don't seem to be investing... This hurts the economy, but it's a rational response to the Obama Democrats' public policies.
"Why aren't businesses hiring?" asks tax lawyer Hale "Bonddad" Stewart. "Uncertainty: There has been a tremendous amount of change over the last 12 months. Businesses are still trying to figure out what this means for their bottom line. Until there are firm answers, they will freeze hiring."
In other words, the Obama Democrats' vast expansion of the size and scope of government -- and the threat that they may pass even more such legislation in a lame duck session of Congress after the November election -- has chilled the animal spirits that John Maynard Keynes said were the driving force for economic growth.
Instead of stimulating the economy, the Obama Democrats' policies have shocked it into immobility....At least one [further shock] is definitely coming: The Bush tax cuts expire at the end of the year, which means that high earners can be sure they will very soon keep less of what they make.
Politicians up for re-election are taking notice. Congressional Democratic leaders can't round up the votes for another stimulus package and have not dared to ask their members to vote for a budget resolution.
Barone isn’t alone.
Check this AP story:
BOSTON — The heads of President Barack Obama's national debt commission painted a gloomy picture Sunday as the United States struggles to get its spending under control.
Republican Alan Simpson and Democrat Erskine Bowles told a meeting of the National Governors Association that everything needs to be considered — including curtailing popular tax breaks, such as the home mortgage deduction, and instituting a financial trigger mechanism for gaining Medicare coverage.
The nation's total federal debt next year is expected to exceed $14 trillion — about $47,000 for every U.S. resident.
"This debt is like a cancer," Bowles said..."It is truly going to destroy the country from within."
--As Ronald Reagan once said, "The fact is, we'll never build a lasting economic recovery by going deeper into debt at a faster rate than we ever have before. ..”
Free Press?
Journalists who come too close to oil spill clean-up efforts without permission could find themselves facing a $40,000 fine and even one to five years in prison under a new rule instituted by the Coast Guard late last week--Daniel Tencer at Raw StoryIt's a move that outraged observers have decried as an attack on First Amendment rights. And CNN's Anderson Cooper describes the new rules as making it "very easy to hide incompetence or failure."
---Ben Blankenship
###############
posted by Ben Blankenship at
8:58 AM
