Tag Archives: Economy

The Recoverless And Jobless Recovery

Unemployment Line

There’s a reason Obama’s economy and so-called recovery is referred to as the recoverless recovery. For much the same reason that drops in the unemployment rate don’t mean that we are creating jobs.

This video illustrates the performance of the last eight recessions and why the last three all look different.

In Obama’s jobless recovery, the unemployment rate is going down. Not because more people are working, but because fewer people are working.  296,000 less in February than in January. The BLS simply shrinks the job universe of workers, referred to as the labor force participation rate, before computing the unemployment rate. It is as though those unemployed whose 99 weeks of unemployment have run out, and are still unemployed, have died. The government stops counting them.

This is how the BLS describes it . . .

The civilian labor force is the sum of employed and unemployed persons. Those persons not classified as employed or unemployed are not in the labor force. The unemployment rate is the number unemployed as a percent of the labor force. The labor force participation rate is the labor force as a percent of the population, and the employment-population ratio is the employed as a percent of the population.

  • When you include those unemployed as still living, the real unemployment rate, the U-6, is 14.3%.
  • Multiple job holders, those needing and getting two or more jobs, grew by 340,000 since January 2013.
  • There are 1,129,000 fewer workers in the work force in February 2013 than in February 2012.
  • The number of unemployed that have been unemployed for 27 weeks or over increased by 89,000 from January 2013.
  • Unemployment rate for “Black  or African Americans” ages 16 to 19 years old went from 37.8% in January to 43.1% in February 2013. Same age bracket for “White” was 20.8% in January and 22.1% in February 2013.

The “highlight” that The White House and the media report is “Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 236,000 in February, and the unemployment rate edged down to 7.7. And, that 236,000 number includes second and third jobs found by the still employed. And,  when you consider that due to retirements and population growth, a break-even in job creation would be 250,000 jobs per month, that we not only have a recoverless recovery, but a jobless recovery as well.

The details are here . . .

Employment Situation for February 2013 by

Smaller Government Wins 2 to 1

You would never know it by listening to what comes out of The White House or the President’s mouth. But, according to this Washingtonbudget_cuts Post / ABC News poll, cutting government spending is exactly what a vast majority of Americans want.

You can tell it pains the WaPo to say exactly what’s in their poll, because they don’t. You have to look at the graphic to see that not only do most “adults” support a five percent across the board cut in federal spending 61 to 33 percent, but they also oppose an eight percent cut in defense spending by a 60 to 34 percent margin. And those numbers reflect Democrats, Liberal Democrats, Independents, and Republicans.

What the Post says in print is “Some 55 percent of liberal Democrats also back the eight percent slashing of the U.S. military budget included in the sequester.” That falls in line with the administration’s liberal bent. But in its entirety, the poll shows that the American people support the exact opposite of what Barack Obama is doing.

2013-03-06Cuts2

h/t Rush Limbaugh, “We are not on the losing side when it comes to the majority of thinking in this country.”

Link: Cut government spending? Sure….in theory.

Georgia, Replace Income Tax With Consumption Tax

Georgia Sen. David Shafer, the Duluth Republican who is serving as Senate president pro tem, dropped two bills this week that could convert state David_Shaferfunding to the consumption tax. The move, he said, could make Georgia more competitive with places like Florida and Tennessee, which do not charge an income tax.

“I’ve always believed we should tax consumption instead of production,” Shafer said, echoing the argument for the federal FairTax, which U.S. Rep. Rob Woodall has advocated since taking over for the original sponsor John Linder after his retirement from Congress.

Link: Shafer proposes ‘fair tax’ for state

Thoughts, 2013 State Of The Union Speech

joe_walter_barack_john

The day after the President gave his SOTU speech, and after having watched it, my favorite R&B radio station’s facebook page, WDAS-FM, posed the question “What do you think?” about it. What follows is what I thought about it. Your mileage may vary.


Pretty much the same SOTU speech he’s made every year for the last 4 years. The relevant question is, or should be, have you seen any of his promises come to fruition yet?

Still says creating jobs is top priority, domestic oil production a top priority, so-called green energy a top priority. Reducing the debt a top priority. That $785 billion stimulus bill was to go for infrastructure. That was 3 yrs ago. None of any of that has happened. He repeated all of it over again last night. He didn’t spend it last time on what he “said” it was supposed to be for. What makes anyone think he’ll keep his word this time?

He said that the Affordable Care Act would reduce premiums, you could keep your doctor, and that it wouldn’t cost a dime more, and that it would by itself reduce the national debt. None of that happened.

Last nights speech was more govt. programs with no explanation as to how it would be paid for, IE. more debt. He also said that none of those programs would cost a dime more, would not add to the debt. How gullible does he think we, you, are?

I thought his slipping in the statement that not only should min. wage be increased, but the goal should be that it also be a “living wage.” All sounds good. But in reality, it will make unemployment worse everywhere. And in urban areas like Washington DC, black youth unemployment is over 50%. That number is 40.5% in Philly. So ask yourself people, do you see positive results for the over $6 trillion in debt that he himself has created so far? Other than growing the government that is.

And do you know that through the rest of his second term, he expects to increase the debt by an additional trillion dollars each year?

I think his focus should be 180 degrees from where it is now. If he knew how to stimulate the economy, we would see prices go back down for gas, utilities, food, health care. All that. And employment go up. You and your families, everyone, would have a job and their dollar would go further like it used to. Looking to increase a min wage is to accept all the inflated prices as the “new normal.” And to accept the govt as our caretaker.

You think things are expensive now, wait to see how expensive it will be when it’s free.

Buffett Railroad, Not XL Pipeline

Were it not for a caller to the Herman Cain radio show this morning spilling the beans on Warren Buffett’s railroad, vis-a-vie the XL bnsfpipeline, this story would have remained buried. It’s about BNSF Railway, a railroad transportation company wholly owned by Warren Buffett‘s Berkshire Hathaway.

BNSF figures to be the major player in petroleum shipments from the Bakken fields in North Dakota to the Texas refineries. In other words, the XL pipeline route. And to ship east to Philadelphia refineries and west to refineries in California, Oregon and Washington.

rfkjrdc2Warren Buffett is a big Obama contributor and supporter. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. But when you see Obama doing everything he can to not sign on to the XL pipeline, and last week the environmental lobby along with Robert Kennedy Jr. tying themselves to The White House fence in protest to the XL pipeline, you can see the forces at work. The only special interest group that supports Obama but wants the XL pipeline is Big Labor. Why? Because it means jobs.

So Obama has a tough call (money or jobs) to make. You have your quid pro quo to Warren Buffett and the environmental lobby on one hand, and creating hundreds of thousands of high-paying union jobs on the other. The latter would also strengthen our energy security in the long-term, cut oil dependency on the Middle East and Venezuela, will contribute to making the United States an oil producer instead of an oil purchaser, and would lower energy costs. Oil producers say shipping crude by pipeline in North Dakota adds up to $1.50 to its cost, compared to $2 or more a barrel for rail shipments. Also tied to the oil costs are food cost.

To the oil companies, it doesn’t matter one bit how the crude they produce is transported. It does matter to the folks that have to buy it. The lower the cost of transportation, the lower the cost of energy. The lower the cost of energy, the lower the cost of food, fuel, heating. The poor would benefit more from lower prices on food and energy than those eeevil one percenters would. Opening the Keystone XL pipeline should be a no-brainer. But  Obama won re-election. He doesn’t have to act like he cares for the poor or middle-class anymore.

Now that the cat is out of the bag, at least here on The Lunch Counter, let’s see if the media ever catches up and calls out Obama on being beholden to his favorite lobbyists/contributors as they are quick to say, “on the backs of the poor.”

Links: Buffett Railroad Sees Crude Cargo Climbing 40%  |  BNSF Railway  |  Warren Buffett cleans up after Keystone XL  |  No Keystone XL? Big Oil will just take the train   |  BNSF expands Bakken rail ability from N.Dakota, Montana

The Sequestration Show

It would be funny, if the debt wasn’t so serious, watching all the hand-wringing going on, on both sides of the aisle and in the media, over the impending ‘cuts’ that are planned in the sequestration legislation. The legislation gymnastics that was cooked up in The White House.

What’s funny about it all is that there are no cuts whatsoever involved. The gymnastics and linguistics of it all is that, in their mind (media included), a cut is equal to increasing the debt by 7 trillion dollars instead of 10 trillion dollars. Give or take a trillion.

In reality, and by those standards, if the government spent the same amount for each of the next 10 years as they will spend this year, they would call that a 10 trillion-dollar cut.

All of it is smoke and mirrors to put the real work, saving Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, on the back burner. Kind of like putting their head in the sand.

Main Health Care Promise, Already Broke

About those pre-existing conditions covered under Obamacare . . .

Turns out that the initial fears that the state ‘high risk pools’ that were supposed to last until 2014 would be broke by the end of 2012 if 375,000 new insureds swamp the system? Well, that did not happen, exactly. They’re broke now after 100,000 insureds joined.

Can’t you just see how the Affordable Care Act is driving down the cost of health care and expanding coverage? And how it isn’t increasing the debt ONE DIME?

If the president really cared about health care for patients, he would move now to repeal it. By now, it should be obvious what his goal is, was, and always has been. Which is, being in control of your health care. Spreading the wealth always turns in to spreading the misery.

h/t Market Ticker

Link: Funds run low for health insurance in state ‘high-risk pools’

Marco Rubio Drinking Water, 229 Million Hits

If you listened to Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) deliver the Republican’s response to the President’s State of the Union show, you would have heard a reasoned, common sense, conservative approach to solving our nation’s problems. On the whole, the response was more ideological, more big picture, than the more specific, policy-oriented theme that Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) delivered in the Tea Party’s response.  Not surprisingly, the mainstream media (aka, the Obama-media) is not reporting the content of what he said. Instead, they have made hay over a sloppy production job and a not ready for prime time television personality. That’s all the excuse they needed to ignore what he said and to focus on how he looked. With this media, perception is reality. Rubio is a senator, he is not a TV personality with acting experience like say, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, and Mister Teleprompter himself, Barack Obama.

Google ‘rubio water‘ and you’ll see 229,000,000 hits. If you want to know what he said, you’ll have to do your own digging.

Or see it right here.

Link: Tea Party’s response by Rand Paul

Dr. Benjamin Carson, Education, Taxes, Health Care

Fascinating segment of Dr. Benjamin Carson‘s speech at the National Prayer Breakfast. Not a believer in Political Correctness, this segment covers Education, Taxes, and Health Care, and most of all, common sense. President Obama is struggling to stay awake as he hears everything he believes in and has done to the country look so small, and so wrong, as Dr. Carson presents it in a non-partisan way.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOuM1etgKUc

Keep a sharp eye out for this in the mainstream media. Not.

The last time I felt so moved from a speech was when I first heard Sen. Obama’s speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention. Only difference is, Dr. Carson is no BS, has the life experience and education to know what he is talking about. I’ve come to learn that Obama is all teleprompter. A vehicle for the liberal message. Otherwise, just an empty suit community organizer who managed to fool enough people twice.

If he would be so inclined, Dr. Carson has a great political future ahead of him. Able to help more people in the country from a national political office than from an operating room.

Dr. Carson’s full speech HERE.

Tax Dollars Wasted Or ‘Invested’

And in the ‘you’ve got to be kidding’ department comes this from our Dept. of Labor.

Migrant and seasonal farmworkers experiencing chronic unemployment and underemployment will soon have opportunities to upgrade skills or prepare for new occupations.

By definition, if you’re a “seasonal” “farmworker,” doesn’t that make you gainfully employed? You know, the lie that they are doing work immigrant-farm-workers-2that Americans don’t want to do. What’s next, a living subsidy support program (with cell phone) for the non-growing season? After all, why should ‘migrant’ workers have to migrate somewhere where crops are growing? Targeting migrant workers, an entire class of people coming under the microscope in the big illegal immigration debate, looks an awful lot like $9.6 million dollars of street money, courtesy of the 50 percent that pay taxes, for some who aren’t even citizens.

From the DOL’s press release . . .

$9.6 million is available for grants to operate the program in central California, Hawaii, Indiana, Michigan, Mississippi, New Jersey and Puerto Rico.

I know there are 8.5 million Americans who are out of work or underemployed. How about we concentrate our efforts there, growing the economy so they can get their job back?

Link: US Department of Labor announces grant competition to provide career training to farmworkers