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Economy

Obama Economy: 03-10-2010

by Libertys Army on March 10, 2010 · 0 comments

in Economics

Budget Deficit in U.S. Widens to Record $221 Billion

Written By: Vincent Del Giudice

The U.S. budget deficit widened to a record in February as the government boosted spending to help revive the economy.

The excess of spending over revenue increased to $221 billion last month, compared with a shortfall of $194 billion in February 2009, according to Treasury Department figures released today in Washington. The figures show the deficit this year will likely surpass the record $1.4 trillion in the fiscal year that ended in September.
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Spending for February increased 17 percent from the same month a year ago, to $328.4 billion. Revenue and other income rose 23 percent to $107.5 billion, marking the first increase in receipts since April 2008, according to the Treasury.

The deficit five months into the 2010 fiscal year was $651.6 billion compared with $589.8 billion during the same period in the previous fiscal year.

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Canadian dollar likely to trump US greenback: experts

The Canadian dollar, or loonie as it is affectionately called here, is likely to soar above parity with the US greenback this year, experts at a Canadian bank said Wednesday.

Canadian Imperial Bank of Canada (CIBC) chief economist Avery Shenfeld said the Canadian dollar had already gained several cents in recent weeks as the market firms up expectations of an interest rate hike in July.

If as expected, the central bank “is out in front of the US Federal Reserve by a couple of quarters” in raising interest rates, the Canadian dollar could reach 1.02 dollars versus the US dollar by September, before dipping back to 0.97 dollars by year end,” Shenfeld said.

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Oil Rises to Eight-Week High, Gasoline Surges on Fuel Supplies

Written By: Mark Shenk

Crude oil rose to an eight-week high and gasoline surged after a government report showed that U.S. fuel supplies declined as demand climbed and refineries idled units.

Gasoline inventories dropped 2.96 million barrels to 229 million in the week ended March 5, the Energy Department said. Total fuel consumption increased 0.2 percent to 19.7 million barrels a day, the highest level since August. Refinery operating rates fell for the first time in five weeks.

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Obama Economy: 03-05-2010

by Libertys Army on March 5, 2010 · 0 comments

in Big Government, Economics, Employment, Videos

Payrolls fall by 36,000; U.S. jobless rate steady at 9.7%

Written By: Rex Nutting

U.S. nonfarm payrolls declined for the 25th time in the past 26 months, falling by 36,000 in February to a seasonally adjusted 129.5 million, the Labor Department estimated Friday.

The nation’s jobless rate was steady at 9.7% as the number of people employed rose by 308,000, according to the household survey.

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Video: Harry Reid: Only 36,000 Lost Their Jobs Today

Oil rises to near $81 ahead of key US jobs report

Written By: ALEX KENNEDY

Oil prices rose to near $81 a barrel Friday in Asia as crude traders followed equity markets higher ahead of a key U.S. jobs report.

Benchmark crude for April delivery was up 48 cents to $80.69 a barrel at late afternoon Singapore time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell 66 cents to settle at $80.21 on Thursday.

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CBO: National Deficit to Hit Nearly $10 Trillion Over Upcoming Decade

A new congressional report released Friday says the United States’ long-term fiscal woes are even worse than predicted by President Barack Obama’s grim budget submission last month.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office predicts that Obama’s budget plans would generate deficits over the upcoming decade that would total $9.8 trillion. That’s $1.2 trillion more than predicted by the administration.

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Federal Workers Paid More Than Private Employees For Similar Work

Federal employees are earning considerably more than people doing similar work in the private sector, according to an analysis from USA Today — news that’s sure to rile lawmakers already concerned about the rate of federal spending.

In more than eight out of 10 occupations, federal employees earned higher salaries, the newspaper’s analysis of federal data found.

Among the higher earners are federal accountants, nurses, chemists, surveyors, cooks, clerks and janitors.

Federal workers earned an average salary of $67,691 in 2008 for jobs that exist both in government and the private sector, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data. By comparison, the average pay for the same batch of jobs in the private sector was $60,046 in 2008, the most recent data available.

The figures don’t include health, pension and other benefits, which averaged $40,785 per federal employee and $9,882 per private employee in 2008, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis.

The federal government spends about $125 billion each year on compensation for about 2 million civilian employees.

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Obama Economy: 03-02-2010

by Libertys Army on March 2, 2010 · 0 comments

in Big Government, Economics, Employment, Progressives, Radicalism

Obama Begins His Assault on Your Life Savings

Written By: Terry Jeffrey

The welfare state and your life savings are two cars heading down a one-lane road in opposite directions. One must yield, or there will be a crash.

For Americans who believe in the old-fashioned virtues of hard work, self reliance and respect for private property, the solution is obvious. The welfare state must yield.

For politicians who believe in the welfare state and redistributing wealth, the solution is equally obvious. Your savings must yield.

Barack Obama is of the latter group. In the new health care proposal he outlined this week, he suggested a series of unprecedented tax increases that would extend the greedy hands of government into the life savings of hard-working Americans.

These new taxes would essentially construct a new fiscal pipeline capable of carrying money out of the savings of private citizens and dumping it into government coffers specifically for subsidizing Medicare under the new health care system Obama envisions. The White House summary of Obama’s proposal presents this would-be pipeline as a facilitator of economic justice.

“Under current law, workers who earn a salary pay a flat tax of 1.45 percent of their wages to support the Medicare Hospital Insurance (HI) trust fund, but those who have substantial unearned income do not, raising issues of fairness,” says the summary. “The Act will include an additional 0.9 percentage point Hospital Insurance tax for households with incomes exceeding $200,000 for singles and $250,000 for married couples filing jointly. In addition, it would add a 2.9 percent tax for such high-income households to unearned income including interest, dividends, annuities, royalties and rents (excluding income from active participation in S corporations).”

There are, of course, multiple unanswered questions here. For starters, wouldn’t increasing the Medicare payroll tax on “households with incomes exceeding $200,000 for singles and $250,000 for married couples filing jointly” violate Obama’s pledge that, as his campaign literature put it, he would “not raise any tax rate on families making less than $250,000 per year, period.” Plenty of single Americans, who are raising children or taking care of other dependents, file their taxes claiming “head of household” status. Aren’t they “families” covered by Obama’s tax pledge?

Secondly, wouldn’t slapping these households with a new 2.9 percent tax on interest, dividends, annuities, royalties and rents also violate Obama’s tax pledge?

But the most important question is this: Would allowing the government to tap into the savings of one group of Americans to pay entitlement benefits to another group create a system of taxation that could swiftly destroy the American dream?

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AP: Obama’s Homebuyer Credit Has ‘Failed’

White House Blames Winter Weather for Potential Job Losses

The White House wants a do-over for February’s yet-to-be released jobs numbers, arguing that the blizzards that hammered the country last month also dented the economic recovery.

Though the February unemployment figures are not out yet, White House economic adviser Larry Summers is already lowering expectations and claiming that winter weather is to blame for any posted decline.

In an interview with CNBC, Summers urged the country not to make any judgments about where the economy is headed based on the upcoming statistics.

“Who knows what the next number is going to be. The blizzards that affected much of the country during the last month are likely to distort the statistics, and in past blizzards those statistics have been distorted by 100,000 to 200,000 jobs, so it’s going to be very important … to look past whatever the next figures are to gauge the underlying trends,” he said.

Summers has clearly noted the dismal weekly employment data that’s come out and is bracing for some bad news at the end of the week.

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Obama Economy: 03-01-2010

by Libertys Army on March 1, 2010 · 0 comments

in Big Government, Economics

Don’t go wobbly on us now, Ben Bernanke

Written By: Ambrose Evans-Pritchard

Barack Obama’s home state of Illinois is near the point of fiscal disintegration. “The state is in utter crisis,” said Representative Suzie Bassi. “We are next to bankruptcy. We have a $13bn hole in a $28bn budget.”

The state has been paying bills with unfunded vouchers since October. A fifth of buses have stopped. Libraries, owed $400m (£263m), are closing one day a week. Schools are owed $725m. Unable to pay teachers, they are preparing mass lay-offs. “It’s a catastrophe”, said the Schools Superintedent.

In Alexander County, the sheriff’s patrol cars have been repossessed; three-quarters of his officers are laid off; the local prison has refused to take county inmates until debts are paid.

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American reliance on government at all-time high

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Thomas E. Woods: Keynesian Predictions vs. American History

by Libertys Army on February 19, 2010 · 0 comments

in Economics, Revolution 2.0, Saving Our Country, Videos

Presented by Thomas E. Woods, Jr. at “The Failure of the Keynesian State,” the Mises Circle in Houston, sponsored by Jeremy S. Davis. Recorded Saturday, 23 January 2010. Includes introductory remarks by Mises Institute president Douglas E. French.

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Obama Economy: 02-18-2010

by Libertys Army on February 18, 2010 · 0 comments

in Economics

Fed Raises Discount Rate; Fed Funds Rate Unchanged

Written By: Tom Granahan

The Federal Reserve on Thursday raised its discount rate to 0.75% from 0.5%, an effort to return its lending facilities to more normalized levels.

The Fed said the move, along with other recent modifications to its credit programs, does not signal a change in its outlook for the economy or for monetary policy, and the more important fed funds rate remains in its range of 0% to 0.25%.

The Fed usually changes the discount rate at the same time it does the fed funds rate, but after the unprecedented steps taken to combat the financial crisis, the Fed is eager to start bringing rates back to more traditional levels, and Thursday’s move is a start.

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Jitters over China’s waning taste for T-bills

Walmart suffers first US sales decline

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Obama Economy: 02-17-2010

by Libertys Army on February 17, 2010 · 0 comments

in Economics, News

On anniversary, Obama defends economic stimulus

Written By: Matt Spetalnick and Lisa Lambert

President Barack Obama vigorously defended his $787 billion stimulus on Wednesday, insisting it rescued Americans from the worst of the economic calamity and ripping Republican critics who called it a waste.

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White House: Stimulus Had ‘Undeniable’ Impact on Economy

The White House stood its ground Wednesday on the impact of the economic stimulus package, arguing that the bill signed a year ago has given an “undeniable” boost to the economy and that Republican critics are just playing politics.

On the one-year anniversary of the bill’s signing, President Obama said the $787 billion package saved 2 million jobs and helped prevent a “second depression.” White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said that while many Americans have soured to the program, the bill is working and taxpayers will “absolutely” have a different outlook once it has had its full effect.

Administration officials fanned out Wednesday to build the argument that the reason unemployment is still at 9.7 percent on the stimulus anniversary is because the jobs-building aspect of the program hasn’t yet come into full force.

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Silver Lining Hard to Find for Some on Anniversary of Stimulus

Written By: Judson Berger

While the Obama administration and congressional Democrats are out in force this week touting the success of the $787 billion economic stimulus package signed exactly one year ago, critics are pointing to a still-dismal jobs picture and deflating public confidence as signs that the ballyhooed benefits of the stimulus bill, as one GOP leader put it, were a “fiction” and not worth the cost.

The United States of America owes $1.6 trillion more today than it did a year ago. The jobless rate has climbed from 8.1 percent to 9.7 percent. And the deficit has soared to record levels, with another record likely to be set this year.

Happy anniversary.

While the Obama administration and congressional Democrats are out in force this week touting the success of the $787 billion economic stimulus package, signed exactly one year ago, critics are pointing to a still-dismal jobs picture and deflating public confidence as signs that the ballyhooed benefits of the stimulus bill, as one GOP leader put it, were a “fiction.” And certainly not worth the cost.

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Written By: Matt Kelley

More than $3.5 billion in economic stimulus funds are going to programs that President Obama wants to eliminate or trim in his new budget.

The president’s budget released this month recommends getting rid of Army Corps of Engineers’ drinking-water projects, which got $200 million in stimulus funds, and a U.S. Department of Agriculture flood-prevention program, which received $290 million from the stimulus, a USA TODAY review of stimulus spending reports show.

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DNC Assails Republicans as Hypocritical for Accepting Stimulus Money

Written By: Jake Gibson

Democrats have targeted Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell in their effort to paint Republicans as hypocritical when it comes to stimulus money.

The Governor’s office confirmed Monday that Virginia will receive $24 million in federal funds over the next four years to use on health care information technology.

That money comes from funds made available to states by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

McDonnell has emerged as a rising star in the Republican party since his landslide election victory last November.

McDonnell’s office released a statement on Monday heaping praise on the funding, “I thank U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius for approving Virginia’s application for cooperative funding…”

However, during his campaign McDonnell said the stimulus bill would bring dangerous long term debt.

The DNC wasted no time in jumping on the issue.

“The spate of Republicans being exposed for seeking stimulus dollars under the radar, proves that either Republicans were just being sarcastic when they assailed the stimulus and they actually love the Recovery Act, or their objections are based on politics and not principle,” said Hari Sevugan, DNC spokeswoman.

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Stimulus funds going to slashed programs

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Obama Economy: 02-16-2010

by Libertys Army on February 16, 2010 · 0 comments

in Big Government, Economics, National Debt, Videos

Foreigners cut Treasury stakes; rates could rise

Written By: Martin Crutsinger and Bernard Condon

A record drop in foreign holdings of U.S. Treasury bills in December sent a reminder that the government might have to pay higher interest rates on its debt to continue to attract investors.

China reduced its stake and lost the position it’s held for more than a year as the largest foreign holder of Treasury debt. Japan retook the top spot as it boosted its Treasury holdings.

The Treasury Department said foreign holdings of U.S. Treasury bills fell by a record $53 billion in December. That topped the previous record drop of $44.5 billion in April 2009.

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Tough Economic Choices

Dumped! Brand names fight to stay in stores

Written By: Parija Kavilanz

Don’t be shocked if you can’t find your favorite salad dressing or mouthwash on your next trip to Wal-Mart.

Large retailers — including Wal-Mart (WMT, Fortune 500), the world’s biggest — are wrestling with having too many types of brand-name products. At the same time, shoppers are buying less and looking for bargains.

So unless a particular brand is a top seller in its category, it’s getting knocked off the shelf — and sometimes getting replaced by a cheaper store brand.

For example, Wal-Mart recently removed Glad and Hefty-branded storage bags from shelves, replacing them with its own lower-priced Great Value brand, according to the parent companies of both products.

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Lone voice warns of debt threat to Fed

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Obama Economy: 02-11-2010

by Libertys Army on February 11, 2010 · 0 comments

in Big Government, Depression, Economics, Employment, Federal Reserve, National Debt, News, Obama Administration, Progressives, Radicalism, TARP, Taxes

Obama ‘Agnostic’ on Deficit Cuts, Won’t Prejudge Tax Increases

Written By: Rich Miller

President Barack Obama said he is “agnostic” about raising taxes on households making less than $250,000 as part of a broad effort to rein in the budget deficit.

Obama, in a Feb. 9 Oval Office interview, said that a presidential commission on the budget needs to consider all options for reducing the deficit, including tax increases and cuts in spending on entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare.

“The whole point of it is to make sure that all ideas are on the table,” the president said in the interview with Bloomberg BusinessWeek, which will appear on newsstands Friday. “So what I want to do is to be completely agnostic, in terms of solutions.”

Obama repeatedly vowed during the 2008 presidential election campaign that he would not raise taxes on individuals making less than $200,000 and households earning less than $250,000 a year. When senior White House economic adviser Lawrence H. Summers and Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner suggested in August that the administration might be open to going back on that pledge, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs quickly reiterated the president’s promise.

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Bailout panel cites commercial real estate danger

Over the next several years, failed commercial real estate loans could litter American cities with empty stores and office complexes, cause hundreds of bank failures and weaken the economy, a watchdog report says.

Banks face up to $300 billion in losses on loans made for commercial property and development, according to a report released Thursday by the Congressional Oversight Panel. The panel monitors the government’s efforts to stabilize the financial system.

The report says the defaults could lead to reduced lending and cause the eviction of families from rental properties. Bank failures also could contribute to job losses and hurt the economic recovery.

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Fed in Talks With Money Market Funds to Help Drain $1 Trillion

Written By: Craig Torres and Christopher Condon

The Federal Reserve is in talks with money-market mutual funds on agreements to help drain as much as $1 trillion from the financial system as policy makers prepare for the first interest-rate increase since June 2006, according to a person familiar with the discussions.

The central bank is looking to the $3.2 trillion money- market mutual-fund industry because the 18 so-called primary dealers that trade directly with the Fed have a capacity limited to about $100 billion, estimates Joseph Abate, a money-market strategist at Barclays Capital in New York.

Money-market funds may welcome the opportunity to trade with the Fed after the financial crisis reduced the supply of safe assets in which they can invest. In one example of demand for such assets, auctions on four-week Treasury bills have attracted an average of $5.47 in bids for every dollar sold this year, compared with an average of $3.77 last year, according to Bloomberg data. Yields on the four-week bill fell to five basis points from 20 basis points a year ago.

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Job growth may not curb unemployment rate: WHouse

A new White House economic forecast showed Thursday the US economy is set to start producing job growth this year at a rate of 95,000 per month, but that the unemployment rate will remain high.

President Barack Obama’s annual economic report to Congress said the economy is on the verge of pulling out of a period of steep job losses stemming from the worst recession in decades.

But the report also said that the unemployment rate may not come down much from the current level of 9.7 percent, and may even rise because of labor market growth and the return of more discouraged workers to the labor force.

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Announcing the new U.S. policy to curb illegal immigration: Make the U.S. economy less attractive to potential illegal immigrants.

US: 7 percent fewer illegal immigrants last year

The number of illegal immigrants in the United States fell by seven percent last year to 10.8 million, coinciding with the country’s financial crisis, a Department of Homeland Security report said Tuesday.

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Polk school district to give iPods to some parents

The Polk County school district is giving away iPods to some parents.

The school district is using the device to reward parents of children with disabilities who fill out a 10-minute online survey. The district wants to know how well it’s connecting with the parents and how to get parents involved in their children’s education.

The district is spending about $350,000 in federal stimulus money for the iPods.

The district has more than 10,000 students with disabilities.

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Obama Economy: 02-10-2010

by Libertys Army on February 10, 2010 · 0 comments

in Big Government, Employment, National Debt, News, Obama Administration, Progressives, Radicalism

Obama Doesn’t ‘Begrudge’ Bonuses for Blankfein, Dimon

Written By: Julianna Goldman and Ian Katz

President Barack Obama said he doesn’t “begrudge” the $17 million bonus awarded to JPMorgan Chase & Co. Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon or the $9 million issued to Goldman Sachs Group Inc. CEO Lloyd Blankfein, noting that some athletes take home more pay.

The president, speaking in an interview, said in response to a question that while $17 million is “an extraordinary amount of money” for Main Street, “there are some baseball players who are making more than that and don’t get to the World Series either, so I’m shocked by that as well.”

“I know both those guys; they are very savvy businessmen,” Obama said in the interview yesterday in the Oval Office with Bloomberg BusinessWeek, which will appear on newsstands Friday. “I, like most of the American people, don’t begrudge people success or wealth. That is part of the free- market system.”

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Hmm, let’s take a look back…

Obama Says Bonuses Are Violation Of “Our Fundamental Values”

Chinese see U.S. debt as weapon in Taiwan dispute

Written By: Bill Gertz

China’s military stepped up pressure on the United States on Monday by calling for a government sell-off of U.S. debt securities in retaliation for recent arms sales to Taiwan.

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China Wields Debt Threat

Global bank tax near, says Brown

Obama’s Lack of Business Sense

Written By: Robert P. Kirchhoefer

Some baffling comments by President Obama in today’s press conference.

Asked how how and why small business loans would help small business, President Obama replied:

“If [small businesses] can get the bank loans to boost their payroll… they will do so.” He further claimed that in his “travels” he has spoken with small business owners nationwide, and they see optimism and new customers.

I’m curious where these travels took him? A land inhabited with a fairy, children, and a flying boy in a green suit?

Unfortunately, a Presidential decree that small businesses are ready to hire, even from this President, does not make it so. In truth, small businesses are not excited about their 2010 prospects. They need to be. As a Wall Street Journal economic report states, small businesses are stymied:

“Optimism has clearly stalled in spite of the improvements in the economy in the second half of 2009,” said William Dunkelberg, chief economist for the lobbying organization. “Small-business owners entered 2010 the same way they left 2009 — depressed.”

Yet, our President advocates taking loans for the purpose of boosting payroll — in the middle of an economic draught. It just makes no sense. Unnecessary risk is not what strengthens and repairs the backbone of our economy — small business.

Going into debt for the purpose of maintaining payrolls you cannot afford is not how capitalism works. It’s not how industries recover.

It was how the Soviet Union worked, however — before it imploded.

And to think McCain was the one who claimed a weakness in economics. Would that other leaders were as honest.

Small businesses need a long term commitment to conditions necessary for growth — long term. They need to be shown that their taxes will stay low, and they need to be shown that their government will help them, by getting out of the way.

They don’t need false hope, and neither do we.

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Obama Economy: 02-07-2010

by Libertys ArmyFebruary 7, 2010 0 comments Read the full article →

Obama Economy: 02-04-2010

by Libertys ArmyFebruary 4, 2010 1 comment Read the full article →

Obama Economy: 02-03-2010

by Libertys ArmyFebruary 3, 2010 0 comments Read the full article →

Obama Economy: 02-01-2010

by Libertys ArmyFebruary 1, 2010 0 comments Read the full article →

Obama Economy Update 1: 01-31-2010

by Libertys ArmyJanuary 31, 2010 0 comments Read the full article →

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