Category Archives: Economy

Economy, Energy, Politics

Dep. of Interior Goes Rouge On Dakota Pipeline

This is a prime example how the unelected bureaucracy, with its regulatory agencies, drive up cost of everything, including the Dakota Access oil pipeline in southern North Dakota.

After a decade of planning, research, and obtaining approvals for same, Obama’s Dept. of Interior throws a wrench into the project by using the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to deny an easement for the completion of the project.

The pipeline is largely complete except for the now-blocked segment underneath Lake Oahe, a Missouri River reservoir.

But that’s not all it did. The Department also inserted a pack of Indians, protesters, with zero interest in the project into the negotiating and planning process.

According to a news release, Assistant Secretary for Civil Works Jo-Ellen Darcy said her decision was based on the need to “explore alternate routes” for the pipeline’s crossing. What? Now that it is already built is no time to explore alternate routes.

And anyone should even wonder why the Obama administration is the most unfriendly to business and industry?  Especially the energy industry. And why they move overseas wherever possible to avoid this kind of interference?

Links: The Dakota Access Pipeline Project  |  Army Corps blocks route of Dakota Access oil pipeline

2016 Election, Economy, Politics, Race Relations

Jobs Situation, October 2016

The last jobs report before the presidential election  from the Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics is out today. Here is the “progress” President Obama is talking about today in Fayetteville, NC while he campaigns for Hillary Clinton.

Two things you should know about what you will hear from the mainstream media. One is that they will report an unemployment rate below 5%, 4.9%  (Table A-1) The number is only that low because they don’t count millions of people who’s unemployment benefits have run out. It’s like they don’t exist any more. The real unemployment, the U-6, is 9.5%, not 4.9%. (Table A-15)

There were 161,000 jobs created in October 2016. (Table B-1) And this number includes people who have lost their FT job and taken on a PT job. It also includes those who have a job and got a 2nd or 3rd job. Taking into account births, deaths, immigration, and retirements, a minimum of 250,000 jobs is considered break-even. So 161,000 jobs created represents an 89,000 net job loss.

At the start of the Obama administration in 2009, there were 80,380,000 people not in labor force. As of Oct ’16, this has increased to 94,609,000. Obama’s economy since taking office represents a net negative job growth. And minorities are hit worst.

Black labor participation rate (Table A-2), the number of people who can work that are working, is Oct 2015, 62%. Oct 2016, 61.8%. Fewer Blacks working this year than last year.

Black unemployment Oct 2015, 8.3%. Oct 2016 8.6%. (Table A-2) Unemployment rate for Blacks is double that for Whites at 4.3%.

The jobs being created are not the better paying jobs. Comparing Oct ’16 to LY, employed persons by occupation, the largest sector growth is in the low-paying services sector at 1.12 million. (Table A-13)

Oct ’16 compared to Oct ’15, there is a 430,000 increase in people having multiple jobs. Because they have to just to get by. (Table A-9)

October ’16 compared to LY, there were 163,000 more people NOT in the labor force. Compared to the previous month, Sept 2016, the increase  is 425,000. (Table A-1)

Employment Situation October 2016 by Ross Calloway on Scribd

This dismal economic situation should open your eyes to what you can expect if Hillary Clinton should become the next president, because she is campaigning on continuing, if not exacerbating, Obama’s path.

Link: Employment Situation October 2016  |  94,609,000 Not in Labor Force; Participation Rate Drops to 62.8%

 

2016 Election, Economy, Media, Politics

September Jobs Picture, Sad

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the September Employment Situation looks like this.

All you will hear about it from Secretary Clinton and President Obama, and their spokespeople in the media, is three blurbs . . .

  • Unemployment rate 5.0,
  • 156,000 jobs created,
  • and nn of consecutive months of job growth.

Not sure how many number of consecutive months it has been, but it doesn’t matter, because it amounts to a net job loss.

To put the numbers you hear and see from the administration into perspective, realize that a monthly job creation of 250,000 is considered to be a break-even number when retirements, deaths, and population growth (births, immigration) are factored.

For September 2016, 156,000 jobs were created. Far short of break-even. Aside from that, and even worse, 284,000 jobs were lost in September. Of the 156,000 jobs created, 30,000 of them were in the foodservice industry.

Compared to last year, 1.8 million people were not counted. Of that group, 553,000 of those were in September 2016. Any thinking person might wonder how the employment rate can be 5% (Table A) when there are more people not working? Fair question. But the media never worries about that. The way the BLS arrives at that low percent is because they don’t count the millions of people who haven’t been working so long that their unemployment benefits have run out. They didn’t die. They’re still unemployed. If they were included, the REAL unemployment rate is 9.7 %. It’s called the U-6, (Table A-15).

When you dig deeper into the statistics, you come across a “MULTIPLE JOBHOLDERS” category, (Table A-16). These are people who have a second (or more) jobs because they have to and are able to, just to support themselves and their family. That number increased by 549,000 for Sept 2016 over LY. The dirty little secret about the multiple jobholders stat is, the second or third job that they get is counted as a “job created.” It’s still one person. Keep that in mind when you hear Barack or Hillary tout the number of jobs created. Makes me wince at their dishonesty when I hear them.

The Labor Participation Rate remains at 62.9%. That is the level it was under the Great Malaise administration of Jimmy Carter.

This is Obamanomics. We are living the consequences of Obamanomics. It’s more like, Trickle Up Poverty.

If you think it’s time for a different approach to job creation, one that will actually create more high-paying jobs, your choice in November can only be Donald Trump.

Link: Employment Situation Summary

 

2016 Election, Economy, Fair Tax, IRS, Media, Politics

The Campaign Tax Discussion

What an opportune time to talk about tax reform, thanks to the ft-how-federal-income-taxes-were-distributed-in-2014_04282015-lgClinton campaign and their publicist, the New York Times. Accusing Trump for not paying “his fair share.” To chastise Trump for having to hire a team of accountants and lawyers just to file his taxes, shows what an abortion of tax code Americans are saddled with. For example . .

  • The top 1 percent of earners (incomes in excess of $615,000) are paying nearly half — 45.7 percent — of individual income taxes for tax year 2014.
  • The top 20 percent, with incomes above $134,300, pay nearly 84 percent of all federal income taxes for tax year 2014.
  • The growing complexity of the U.S. tax code has led to large compliance costs for households and businesses.
  • Americans will spend more than 8.9 billion hours complying with IRS tax filing requirements in 2016.
  • Put in dollar terms, the 8.9 billion hours needed to comply with the tax code computes to $409 billion each year in lost productivity, or greater than the gross product of 36 states.

That’s not how much taxes were paid. That’s how much it cost us, as a country, just to comply with the tax laws to file our taxes.

Under the FairTax plan, that’s $409 Billion per year that stays in our pocket, FOR FREE. Under the FairTax, you don’t “file” your taxes any more. There’s nothing to file under a consumption-based tax system. And April 15th is just another day.

So Hillary and her lemmings want to paint Trump as a tax cheat when he follows the tax law. Legally spreading a single loss in 1995 of $916 million dollars over 18 years. (Must be nice to have a loss like that to be just a bump in the road.) Unlike Al Sharpton, Trump did not break the tax law. They are great at name-calling on phony accusations.

Well guess what? Come to find out, the New York Times didn’t pay any taxes either, for 2014! And on top of that, got a “tax refund” of $3.5 million (of taxpayer money), even though they had a pre-tax profit of $29.9 million. How do you like the tax code now?

But when it comes to one of their own, like Rev. Al Sharpton, who in fact did not pay his income and payroll taxes, who has tax liens on him for over $3 million, well, he’s a frequent VIP in The White House.  Go figure!

Nowadays, Bill Clinton and Al Sharpton will tell you the hot money seems to be made in Charities and Foundations. They don’t pay taxes, especially when you can donate to yourself. Two different worlds, two different standards.

2016 Election, Economy, Obamacare, Politics

Hillary’s Campus Rally

Hillary shared the stage with the Bern yesterday “to appeal for youth votes.” Worried about shrinking support from millennials (now the same as ‘college-age’), she echoed the “free stuff” theme of making public colleges tuition-free, for families earning less than $125,000.

Odd that the campus rally wasn’t open to the students without an invitation. Attendees described many of them as middle-aged, members of local Democratic organizations, or invited by the campaign. Phony much?

Although Sanders lost to Clinton, he consistently drew younger voters to his side with promises to take on Wall Street and make college less expensive.

Hillary’s version is not as bold when it comes to taking on her major donors, Wall Street. Speaking to student debt, she’s not talking about forgiveness, she’s talking about “those who already have student debt to refinance.”

Having lived through the real estate crash caused by Fannie / Freddie and bailing out Wall Street (which they continue to do), and what Obamacare has done to health care costs and the health insurance industry, managed by politics and not economics, what Hillary has in mind is just more of the same.

You can’t expect for the people who created the problem to now know how to fix it.  Like Trump says, “follow the money.”

Link: Clinton enlists former foe Sanders in appeal for youth votes

2016 Election, Economy, Immigration, Politics

“Immigration Law” Is “The Deportation Force”

Last year, when CEO Trump mentioned the use of a “deportation force” to ostensibly deport the 11-30+ million illegal aliens already in the country, the opposition party (which included his republican primary challengers) ran with the demagoguery a la Adolph Hitler.

Now that the rubber is getting closer to hitting the road, what once looked like a police state actually has boiled down to something as simple as just enforcing current immigration laws.

As a secure border that will halt the illegal flow of humans and drugs is being established, law enforcement and the border patrol will be allowed, and empowered, to do their job. A 180 degree turnaround from the shackles put on them by the Obama administration and the Dept of Injustice.

As illegals (Visa overstays or otherwise) come into contact with them, they will be dealt with as the law requires. It is a kinder, gentler, way to deal with the illegal alien problem created by decades of neglect, and an administration breaking the law to break the law. It may take longer than a “deportation force” would, but the result will be the same. And, the American people will accept that as a more humane way to re-establish law and order and protect our economy, jobs, and culture. As illegals will not have sanctuary cities to run to, and won’t have employers that will hire them or landlords to house them, they’ll hit the road in one of two ways. Voluntarily return home, or as they come into the justice system, will be handled accordingly.

Those who may remain will be those who are somehow productive and, will be dealt with in a way yet to be determined. It should start by getting in line behind the immigration requests filed in accordance with our laws. To do that, they must come out of the closet and register themselves as an illegal, seeking to stay here under some earned legal status.

Assimilation is required. If they just want to use America instead of become American, then they will not meet the minimum requirement for the path to ‘citizenship.’

It will take as long as it takes for them to get their chance to become an amnestied American citizen. However many years that may take is what it will take. No jumping to the head of the line. And to remove the political motivation from the equation, amnestied American citizens will not have the right to vote in federal elections. After all, this is supposed to be a humanitarian issue, not a political one. A  small price to pay to stay and live in the United States of America.

We will learn more of what Trump’s immigration policy is about tomorrow. Will be interesting to see how it compares to mine.

Economy, Gun Control, Politics, Race Relations, War On Terror

Deadliest July In Chicago

65 people killed in Chicago in July, a toll that pushed the number of homicides in the city this year to nearly 400.  The total for all last year was 490. By comparison, total U.S. casualties in Operation Enduring Freedom for this year is 5.

It was the deadliest July since 2006, when 65 homicides were also recorded, according to Chicago Police Department records.  Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson noted that the month was still lower than June, when 72 homicides were reported.

That was for July. In less than a week for August, between last Friday afternoon and early Thursday, at least 99 people were shot in the city, 24 of them fatally.  At least nine people were killed on Monday alone, the deadliest day in Chicago in 13 years, according to Tribune data. Among the wounded that day was a 10-year-old boy shot in the back as he played on his front porch in Lawndale. That’s a 4:1 shoot/kill ratio.

Here’s a stunning statistic for you to ponder.  40 of the weekend’s shooting victims had been arrested 672 times.

Those killed over the weekend included 23-year-old Abner Garcia, an Army veteran with no criminal history, and 19-year-old Arshell Dennis, a college student whose father was a police officer. On Sunday, a 6-year-old girl became the third child under 10 to be shot in the past week, and a pregnant woman was shot in her chest.

When and how will it end? It won’t end until Democrats own up to the destructive nature that their feel-good social engineering is having on poor people; Black, White, and everywhere in between. Patrick Smith, the father of the  armed thug who was shot this weekend in Milwaukee, got one part of  the problem right when he said . . .

“Being on the street, doing things of the street life: Entertaining, drug dealing and pimping and they’re looking at their dad like ‘he’s doing all these things.’ I got out of jail two months ago, but I’ve been going back and forth in jail and they see those things so I’d like to apologize to my kids because this is the role model they look up to. When they see the wrong role model, this is what you get.”

If you believe that giving illegal aliens a drivers licenses will save innocent victims from their DUI and hit-and-runs, then I have a suggestion for cities like Chicago where gun violence is so prevalent. If just one innocent life could be saved . . .  Innocent lives would be spared if the thugs had better marksmanship skills with their illegal guns. If, through proper weapons training, we could get their efficiency closer to 1:1 than 4:1, then that little 6- yr-old girl would be alive today. It’s a win-win.

2016 Election, Economy, Media, Politics

Why I’m Voting For Trump

What a disappointing campaign season this is. Not for the lack of media bias, lies and obfuscation, but for all the political noise that is keeping Hillary Clinton and her record off of the front page. Have you noticed that her poll numbers rise the less she is heard? It is the reason she hasn’t had a real news conference in 249 days.

One thing about Democrats and the media you can count on is this. They will tell you who they fear the most by the focus and intensity of their attacks.  And it is unquestionably, Donald J. Trump.

There’s a curious contradiction in the campaign coverage going on. All we hear from the media is that the Trump campaign is going down. Trump’s ratings are falling and, he should drop out of the race, and Republicans should pick someone else. (reassuring to know that the media cares  so much for Republicans that they are giving them free advice)  If all that is true, or if they believed what they were saying, one would think that they would be happy, ignoring Trump and talking about all of Hillary’s accomplishments. Oh wait . . .

What’s different? Why does Trump get the support he does? What people need to understand about him is, he’s not a politician. And he’s not a community organizer hell-bent on fundamentally changing the country. He’s a successful CEO of a multinational private company.  And like all successful CEO’s, he’s a problem solver who knows how to get things done with minimal cost. And, keep the relationship between the people and the government the way the founding fathers intended it to be.

There’s nothing this country needs more than a pruning of needless and ineffective bureaucracies that, contribute to a bloated government (taxpayer’s overhead) and, are holding back our economy. You’ve heard politicians pledge to rid the government of waste, fraud, and abuse from the time you began listening to them.  And no one, not even the “watchdog media,” can point to where that ever happened. What has the politicians in both parties so unscrewed this time is that, in addition to that, he’s going to do the pruning that needs to be done to make government and their power smaller by transferring the power to the people, where it started and where it belongs.

Because he, as a CEO, has done it before, Trump is equipped, and committed, to actually doing this for our country. He calls it “Make America Great Again.”

Came across this in social media today, with a couple of enhancements from yours truly.  Suitable for spreading around.

Continue reading Why I’m Voting For Trump →

Economy, Organized Labor, Politics

$15/hr Quid Pro Quo

Consider what the political Left, beholden to Big Labor, tell you about raising the minimum wage, then piling on ‘living wage’ on top of that. Then look at this video.

All you need to know from me is, it’s Big Labor who wants the minimum wage to go up. And for their own selfish reasons.

For labor contracts tied to the minimum wage, those workers will get an automatic raise. On top of their already over $45/hr in wages and benefits they are getting. (Non-union is just over $32/hr)

Democrats advocate it to complete the money laundering scheme. That would be the campaign contributions, the ground support, and the Astroturf protestors that supporting Big Labor affords them for supporting Big Labor. And for advocating to increase labor union membership. The latter of which is no business of the federal or state government.

Obama and Hillary like to talk about the wage gap. They aren’t looking at the wage gap, that is getting wider, between union employees and non-union employees. 

Their sales pitch to you sounds so compassionate. But, to say that by forcing employers to pay an artificially high wage will act as an economic stimulus is just not based in economic experience. The laws of economics, like the laws of gravity, can not be changed. They are what they are.

MinWagePayneThe consequence of a $15/hr minimum wage will increase unemployment and, put those entering the workforce at a disadvantage. Neither of these consequences will  help the demographic (the voters) that these politicians say will be helped. Black youths are hit the hardest. The only demographic that will be helped is Big Labor, and the DNC.

2016 Election, Economy, Obamacare, Politics

ACA Fail, On Schedule

The collapse of the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare, was predicted. Basically because it was designed to fail.

Three years ago we learned that, in order to get insurance companies to cover the extra mandated coverages, the act (aka taxpayers) would reimburse the insurance companies for their losses for three years. The gamble was that by that time, so many young and healthy people would enroll to cover their costs. Well, that didn’t happen.

Now, because they will no longer be reimbursed for their losses, the insurance companies are pulling out. And those staying with it are raising their rates accordingly.

The failure of Obamacare to deliver on its promises, and the insurance carriers pulling out, paves the way for what Democrats have been longing for, and something that Americans have rejected ever since it was first proposed 73 years ago by John Dingell Sr. in 1943. Single-payer health care. Or to put it another way, Medicare for all. The government can’t take proper care of veterans. They can’t deliver affordable health care for the ten percent of Americans that had no health care. So why would anyone believe they can take care of 320 million of us?

This presidential election will be the deciding point. The Republican sides wants to fix it with private sector solutions. The Democrat side wants to exacerbate the problem regardless if it makes health care worse.

Links: It’s Working: Nation’s Largest Insurer Pulling Out of Obamacare in Nation’s Largest State  |  STILL THINKING OBAMACARE IS AFFORDABLE?  |  DAYS OF INCREMENTALISM ARE OVER