Tag Archives: Economy

2010 Election, Economy, Politics

No Budget, Just More Fear, Uncertainty, And Doubt

For two years now, starting as a presidential candidate, President Barack Obama has said how creating jobs was going to be his top priority. How he will not rest until everyone who wants a job can get one. Judging by all the vacations he has had, are we supposed to think that he has fixed the economy? With unemployment and home foreclosures at an all time high, I don’t think so.

It’s been a busy week in Washington. While they were spinning their wheels on campaign finance issues and creating faux small business stimulation, they also saw fit to adjourn without passing a budget (so much for that debt commission‘s warning of fiscal cancer, and the now missing 2011 budget) and without dealing with the fact that taxes will be going up come January when the ten-year Bush tax cuts are scheduled to expire.

Congress did manage to extend the FUD Factor indefinitely though.

Businesses are not expanding, growing, or hiring; not because they can’t get loans, but because they are in a business climate right now of fear, uncertainty, and doubt over what the future will bring. And going on recess without dealing with the tax code shows the President’s commitment towards turning the economy around. It’s not there. All his promises were ‘words, just words.’ His priority has not wavered from the politics of remaining a majority party. He could care less about your wallet, your bank account, or that of future generations of Americans.

There is fear over what business or industry is next in line for government intervention or control. The uncertainty of the full effects of Obamacare on businesses, insurance carriers, and their employees. And the doubt that America will remain a free-enterprise, market-driven, capitalistic society for much longer. That’s why businesses are sitting on whatever capital they have. They are hoping that Obama makes a U-turn in his drive towards centralized government control. Or, that we get an adult in The White House who knows something about the Constitution, freedom, and liberty, the pillars of what has made the United States the greatest country in the world in just a couple hundred years.

All the major legislation Obama pushed through his Democrat-controlled Congress was based on the fear of the world coming to an end if it wasn’t passed immediately. It was always an emergency. There was no time to read what was in it.

Seems to me that spreading the FUD factor has become the modus operandi of this administration. And November 2nd can’t some soon enough.

Economy, Energy, Florida, Politics

Jobless ‘Recovery’, And Here’s Why

Top 10 Reasons for Obama’s Jobless Recovery

by Donald Lambro

1. Stimulus package didn’t stimulate: The economy is growing too slowly under President Obama’s failed government-spending stimulus because it lacks any incentives for increased private investment, risk taking, venture-capital formation and new business formation, the basis of new job creation. The mediocre economic-growth rate is not strong enough to drive down a nearly 10% unemployment rate. (It’s approaching 12% in Florida.)

2. Business uncertainty: Widespread uncertainty across the business community about Obama’s job-killing tax, spending and regulatory agenda that has prevented businesses from expanding and hiring more workers and reinvesting an estimated $1.8 trillion in reserve funds.

3. Tax uncertainty: No uncertainty is more paralyzing than the administration’s plan to allow President Bush’s 2001 and 2003 top tax cuts on dividends, capital gains and upper incomes to expire at the end of this year, raising them at a time when the economy and businesses are still struggling in a weak economic environment.

4. Tax impact: Private investment is the life blood of a dynamic and growing economy and the wellspring of all new jobs. If Obama goes through with his plan to let the Bush tax cuts expire, small business, family-owned enterprises, working families, investors and retirees will be hit by very large tax hikes that will weaken capital reinvestment and kill job creation.

5. Government spending: The more money that government takes from the economy to feed an insatiable spending binge, the less there is in the private sector to create new jobs.

6. Obamacare impact: Obamacare’s job killing impact on businesses large and small has been swift and undiscriminating. Soon after Obama signed the bill, major corporations were forced to take billions of dollars in new charges on their profit line to cover the increased cost of the new law. Major firms like Boeing, Caterpillar, John Deere & Co. and Illinois Tool Works, among others saw their tax deductions for companies offering drug benefits had been cut to pay for the plan’s nearly $1 trillion cost.

7. Financial regulation bill: This sweeping government regulation legislation will raise costs throughout the entire banking and financial regulation industry. That will mean higher costs for consumers and in turn force the industry to prune payrolls or other cost-cutting moves to bolster their bottom line earnings.

8. Energy cap-and-trade taxes: The so-called climate-change tax bill that Democrats passed in the House, and has been stalled in the Senate, was one of the biggest economic uncertainties threatening economic growth and job formation. It would impose sharply higher, job-killing energy costs across the nation’s entire energy industry, hurting producers, businesses and manufacturers, and consumers. U.S. businesses, to avoid the tax, would have to move plants elsewhere to avoid the tax, moving jobs out of the country.

9. Economic restructuring: One of the big reasons for slower job growth stems from our economy’s ability to boost productivity with fewer workers through increased technology, mechanization and other production innovations. Faster economic growth would increase hiring in all of business sectors and new business formation would lift our economy to a much higher employment rate. Lower business tax rates, faster depreciation of capital purchases for new equipment, zeroing out capital gains and dividend tax rates to unlock new capital investment for start-up companies would spark an explosion in new firms and hiring.

10. Minimum wage: No government initiative has killed more entry-level jobs than the higher minimum wage. Congress pushed up the federal minimum wage in the midst of a severe recession, from $6.55 in 2008 to $7.25 in 2009. Small businesses struggling to survive in the downturn were hurt most and quickly cut their payrolls. Unemployment shot way up for younger workers, especially among blacks, Hispanics and other unskilled minorities. Almost half of blacks between 16 and 34 are jobless, up 13% since March 2008.

2010 Election, Economy, Florida, Politics

Khavari’s Plan Is Florida’s Recovery, And Yours

Only 1 candidate for FL governor has a real economic plan for over 1,000,000 new jobs

Alex Sink and Rick Scott get most of the media attention. But there is an Independent candidate on the November ballot who is a respected economist and author of nine books: Farid Khavari.

Sink and Scott say they can create jobs by lowering taxes on business–but this has never worked before. Khavari will create over 1,000,000 private sector jobs without subsidies or “stimulus” plans.

The Khavari Economic Plan includes creation of a bank owned by all Floridians. 2% fixed-rate, 15-year mortgages (new and refinance) will earn billions for the state while reducing costs of home ownership by more than half. Housing prices will stabilize and there will never be another bubble. Our children will be able to afford homes, too. Combined with low-cost financing for business, energy, and 6% credit cards, Floridians will save many billions per year, while creating over 1,000,000 new jobs. Khavari’s plan will stop foreclosures and put people back in their homes. State and local budgets will balance overnight without new taxes. Florida will be recession-proof forever. This is common sense economics, from a common sense economist. Khavari’s plan has received national acclaim and candidates in other states have adopted it. Florida needs the Khavari Economic Plan.

Sink, a multi-millionaire retired banker and current Chief Financial Officer of Florida, has done nothing to create jobs and allowed the State Board of Administration to lose billions in phony investments. Scott made over $200,000,000 as CEO of a health-care company. Aren’t people like that part of the problem? Khavari has the solution.

Find out more at www.khavariforgovernor.com. Vote to save Florida’s economy, before it’s too late. Vote Khavari.

2010 Election, Economy, Florida, Pensacola, Politics

Privatizing Citizens Is Wrong

1 Comment

Let Floridians save 30% while the state earns billions!

Rick Scott’s proposal to privatize Citizens Property Insurance Corp. is simply a bad idea. It would guarantee increased rates. There is a much better way to fix Citizens. Citizens is a mess with potentially huge exposure. That can be remedied, with 30% savings for all Floridians while the state treasury can earn billions per year. You don’t need to be an economist to understand this. It is just common sense.

Citizens is in trouble because it guarantees private insurers’ profits, and foists all of the risk onto Florida taxpayers. This is an obvious recipe for disaster. Citizens covers the riskiest 22% of Florida homes, nicely protecting the private insurers at our expense. Private insurers exploit Floridians worse each year. State Farm raised rates 14.7% and dumped another 125,000 policyholders this year. Was there a hurricane I missed?

Citizens should offer all homeowners in Florida coverage identical to what they have now from private insurers, at a 30% discount. Just bring your policy to an agent and save 30% by switching to Citizens.

Adding the “safest” 78% of Florida homes to risk pool would dilute Citizens’ risk to the lowest in the nation. Then Citizens could reduce rates by 30% to its existing customers, too. Even the worst hurricanes affect only a small percentage of Florida’s 8 million homes.

Six million new customers, saving only $500 per year, is $3 billion per year. That would generate at least $25 billion per year of economic activity in Florida, creating 30,000 jobs. The state could earn $5 billion per year in profit. Citizens would no longer be just the largest property insurer in Florida, but the safest and most profitable in America.

$25 billion in economic activity this year will make $50 billion next year, and another 30,000 jobs. And so on.

No need to argue about “socialism.” The state is already in the insurance business, with no realistic way out. The question is, shall we make some money at it and save Floridians billions per year? Or encourage more private insurers to suck even more blood out of our families and our state’s economy?

When everyone works for the state, we call it socialism. What do we call it when the state works for everyone? Common sense.

Sincerely,

Farid A. Khavari, Ph.D.

Economist and Candidate for Florida Governor (Independent, 2010)

2010 Election, Economy, Florida, Politics

The Gamblers; Crist, Sink, And McCollum

2 Comments

It may be a difficult read, but if you really want to know who is responsible for losing billions of dollars of Florida’s pension funds, you must read this. Next thing is, don’t reward them with your vote.

For governor of the State of Florida, stick with Dr. Farid Khavari. An economist who not only knows better on how to manage resources, but he is the only one with a sound economic plan to put Florida back on the path to prosperity and to replace the money lost by Sink, McCollum, and Crist.

Related Links: Risk won; taxpayers lost – St. Petersburg Times |  Khavari for Governor

Economy, Politics

It’s Obama’s Tax Increase, Not Obama’s Tax Cuts

In a typical yet clever way to halt his falling popularity, the Obama administration is framing the current tax debate from the Bush tax cuts to Obama’s tax cuts.  The reality is, the only tax issues on the table right now are tax increases ‘for the rich.’

A non-revisionist history lesson will show that the current tax rates are what they are right now after having been cut for all Americans by the previous administration.  That is why President Obama wants to keep the lower tax rates the same, and call them tax cuts, and raise the higher tax brackets on ‘the rich,’ making them pay (according to the Dear Leader) ‘their fair share.’ Committing class warfare and wealth envy is what community organizers do.

The last time I checked, poor people typically don’t hire the unemployed. And increasing taxes on the people who do, and expecting that to generate private-sector jobs, is what economic ignoramuses do.

Economy, Florida, Pensacola, Politics, Supreme Court

Hearings On Obamacare Begin Tomorrow

Hearings on the State of Florida (and dozens of others) v United States begin tomorrow at U.S. District Court in Pensacola, Florida. The state is challenging the health care legislation on several angles, not the least of which is that the Federal Government can not force citizens to buy health insurance or a certain kind of health insurance if they don’t want to.

Economy, Politics

Recovery Winter?

‘Recovery summer’ was a bust. Obama has moved the deck chairs around and replaced Christina Romer as the head of his Council of Economic Advisers with yet another university professor with zero real-world business experience, Austan Goolsbee.

It doesn’t take a professor of economics to see that the jobless rate is likely to remain high. Unless Obama’s economic policies take a 180, high unemployment will be the new norm.

Link: Obama adviser: Jobless rate likely to remain high – Washington Times.

2010 Election, Economy, Media, Politics

One Thing That’s Up, Poverty

The number of people in the U.S. who are in poverty is on track for a record increase on President Barack Obama’s watch, with the ranks of working-age poor approaching 1960s levels that led to the national war on poverty.
But here’s the good part. The sympathetic media calls it ‘unfortunate.’

It’s unfortunate timing for Obama and his party just seven weeks before important elections when control of Congress is at stake.

Unfortunate timing for Obama? Is that the news analysis? Screw the folks, their readers, I guess.

But rest assured that Obama will not rest until everyone that wants a job has one.

Link: Record gains for U.S. poverty

2010 Election, Economy, Florida, Politics

Khavari Names Running Mate

1 Comment
Author, Financial Analyst Richardson joins Khavari Ticket

MIAMI, AUGUST 31 — Gubernatorial hopeful Farid A. Khavari named his running mate today, announcing that author and financial analyst Darcy G. Richardson of Jacksonville qualified for Lieutenant Governor on Wednesday.

“Darcy’s wealth of political experience and economic expertise are of inestimable value to this campaign,” says Khavari, 67 of Miami. “More importantly, they will prove indispensable when we take office next January and begin the job of turning Florida’s economy around.”

Richardson, 54, is a nationally known figure in independent political circles, not least for Others, his multi-volume history of third-party politics in America. He’s managed numerous campaigns, including the 1988 independent presidential campaign of former US Senator Eugene McCarthy. He also ran for office himself twice in the 1980s, on the ticket of Pennsylvania’s Consumer Party.

As a former senior specialist for a major brokerage firm, Richardson has more than a dozen years experience in the financial services industry. His seventh book,  Collapse: How the Managerial Class Plunged the Nation into the Greatest Depression is slated for publication in October 2011.

The centerpiece of the Khavari/Richardson platform is the formation of a state bank to serve the financial needs of Florida’s people and the requirements of the state’s economy.

“The banking industry’s dirtiest secret,” says Richardson, “is that it’s half ‘socialist,’ and in the worst sense of that word. While privately held at the profit end, it externalizes all the attendant risks to the public. If the people of Florida are going to bear the risks of finance, we contend that they should also reap its benefits.”

Khavari and Richardson will face Democrats Alex Sink and running mate Rod Smith, a former State Senator from Gainesville, and Republican Rick Scott and his yet-to-be-named running mate in the November 2nd election.

Link: Khavari for Governor