How ironic that the new January 2013 Jobs Report states that the national unemployment average, the U-3 rate, increased to 7.9% just one day after Barack Obama failed to renew the charter for his Jobs Council. The Labor Department released its figures compiled by the Bureau of Labor Statistics and only an estimated 157,000 jobs were added in January. Hardly enough to keep up with population growth. Most of the non-farm jobs created in January were in the retail, construction, mining and health sectors. The largest decline was in the transportation sector, with manufacturing and other sectors remaining essentially flat. The Civilian Labor Force only added about 143,000 to the ranks of job holders and seekers, keeping the labor participation rate steady at 63.6%. The average work hours for those lucky enough to be employed remained steady at 34.4 hours per week and wages increased a whopping $0.04 per hour. The overall U-6 unemployment rate also held steady at 14.4%.
While the Obama Administration tries to point the finger of blame for the 4th Quarter contraction of the GDP on Hurricane Sandy and Republicans, the real blame lies within his own White House. The many failures of Obama in dealing with the economy are piling up. As I noted yesterday, the monthly Consumer Confidence Study issued by the Conference Board showed a marked decline from 66.7% in December to 58.6% in January. Fears of job security stem mainly from the implications of ObamaCare mandates as businesses adjust to meet the requirements under the Affordable Care Act laws. Small businesses will be very shy to hire more than 50 workers while larger companies review their policies on providing health insurance. Even the major labor unions are now requesting waivers to ObamaCare, realizing that their insurance costs will increase dramatically.
And yet, a mass of Low Information Voters returned this boob of a president to the White House for another four years! There was no credible evidence that Obama was making any headway in resolving our economic problems. After his first four years, adding an additional $5.8 Trillion dollars to the National Debt, spending a record high average of $3.6 Trillion dollars per year (40% more than George W. Bush′s average of $2.5 Trillion), we have little progress to show. Obama said many times that he spends everyday working on improving employment, but there is absolutely no evidence of that. Even the St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank is now warning that the National Debt has become a genuine drag on the economy, but Obama refuses to accept the realities of his free-spending ways.
So now the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the national average unemployment rate has increased to 7.9%. The Labor Department issued its January 2013 Jobs Report this morning just one day after the Barack Obama White House disbanded its Jobs Council. Not that they did anything anyway! They had not even met for a year since Obama was too busy campaigning to save his own job to be bothered with getting America working again. The Obama Administration proves the old saying that as long as they have their jobs, there is no recession, no depression. Too bad the rest of the country cannot share in their comfort!
February 1st, 2013 at 9:55 am
Your entire argument seems based on some “Consumer Confidence Study issued by the Conference Board”. Would that be THE Confidence Board or some confidence board of your own making? You come up short on specifics. Perhaps you’re referring to the National Industrial Conference Board or NICB? It’s hard to say as you seem to have a phobia or such of links, references, or pretty much any qualifiers for your claims. One can only guess.
But what one doesn’t have to guess at is the blatant ignorance and/or dishonesty in your spew. The 4th Quarter contraction of the GDP was a direct result of Republican policy which was shoved down the electorate’s throats, which damaged our credit rating, which was all done with an admission of unseating Obama, which they soundly rejected in the last election, which I gave you overwhelming references to, which you chose to ignore, only to regurgitate your same debunked nonsense perhaps in hopes that some fool will believe you. To claim otherwise is an abject denial of reality.
Seriously Andrew, you’re sounding dumber than a box full of Mickys.
February 1st, 2013 at 10:18 am
Of course, overspending by the tune of over a trillion a year, increased regulations, no budget for 4 years and looming taxes and increased expenses in government programs has absolutely nothing, nothing, nothing to do with the economy struggling to create new jobs.
February 1st, 2013 at 10:50 am
“The 4th Quarter contraction of the GDP was a direct result of Republican policy which was shoved down the electorate’s throats,”
You’re too much.
You btch about the authors lack of sources/links and then you yourself have nothing to back up the blame you place on the right.
“Seriously Andrew, you’re sounding dumber than a box full of Mickys.”
If I’m so fcking dumb why dont you stop hiding and prove it ?
I’ll tell you why.
Everytime you’ve decided to try and debate me I crank it up just a notch, (thats all it takes) get a little more astute,and hand your ass to you using bookoo sources and irrefutable historical facts to which you end up arguing against with nothing more than opinion
You’re fcking dumb that you have no idea how much you sound like Obamas personal pocket pu$$y.
As far as you’re concerned, the man has never done one thing wrong.
You calling me stupid is quite rich considering you’ve never displayed one original thought ever.
Your philosophy is about as retarded and simple minded as it gets.
“Obama good.
Republicans bad”
“Ungha bungha”
You have no idea what a fckin pathetic tool you are
February 1st, 2013 at 2:31 pm
Ronald must work for Axelrod. What he is saying is illogical. All the problems this country is having is direct results from Obama’s policies.
Obama wants the economy to slow and go negative. The left want to punish and wipe out responsible humans that do not believe or except their lies.
This 1984 language that Obama and Ronald use is to fool the useful idiots. They get angry at those who do not believe their lies.
The present economy cannot keep up with the young adults ready to enter the job market. Obama and the left help desolve 8 1/2 million jobs in the US. These job do not exsist any more. When anyone points that out they become angry when the truth is revealed. The left want me to except their lies and not to believe my lieing eyes.
February 1st, 2013 at 4:03 pm
Don’t try to teach a Marxist about economics.
February 1st, 2013 at 4:41 pm
This just in as of market close today.
Below is a quote from Reuters and is largely comprised of these things called “facts”.
I did something similar the other day and they were labeled as “lies” (even though they were merely a summary of economic indicators).
As Joe Friday said, “Just the facts, Ma’am.”
Momentum can be a funny thing and the economy can be influenced. If our GDP takes a minor leap this year our fiscal problems start to ease. Scream spending all you want, but a major component of our fiscal problems were lack of revenues due to stalled economy.
Of course, if our economy does improve I am certain I will hear, “Econimies are cyclical and this was bound to happen”.
I hope this makes everyone a little happier today:
“Stocks took off on Friday, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average ($INDU +1.08%) closed above 14,000 for the first time since October 2007 as investors cheered a decent jobs report and improvements in U.S. manufacturing and consumer confidence.
The market rally was set off by Friday’s jobs report, which estimated that employers added 157,000 jobs in January, although the unemployment rate moved up slightly to 7.9% from 7.8% in December. Revisions showed that job gains in November and December were stronger than originally thought.
The market gains put the Dow up 6.9% for the year, with the S&P 500 up 6.1%. The Nasdaq is up 5.2%. The Dow finished January up 5.8%, its best January since 1994. The S&P 500’s 5% gain was its best for a January since 1997.
A solid market rally became a big rally after when the Institute for Supply Management said its January index of manufacturing rose to 53.1 from 50.7 in December. Analysts had expected a reading of 50.7.
And the University of Michigan’s second reading of consumer sentiment showed a rebound to 73.8 from 71.3. Economists had expected the index to reach only 71.5.
Auto sales for January were strong. Chrysler reported a 16% gain. Ford Motor (F +0.54%) sales were up 22%, and General Motors (GM +0.28%) sales added 22%. Toyota (TM +2.89%) said its January sales jumped 26%.”
February 1st, 2013 at 4:49 pm
“Obama wants the economy to slow and go negative. The left want to punish and wipe out responsible humans that do not believe or except their lies.”
You’re kidding right? Why would anyone want to do that?
Once a week you seem to write that Obama wants to ruin America on purpose, punish people and then suggest that anyone that is not on the far-right are “useful idiots”.
Again, why would Obama, or anyone for that matter, want to ruin America? Punish whom, and why?
Well of course, since he is a Muslim from Kenya…
Just out of curiosity, ask some people that own businesses. Those that have survived the recession are telling me everyday that business is starting to improve and this is in housing, auto parts manufacturing and even the restaurant business and I am in Detroit so I can only imagine that other places are doing better.
February 1st, 2013 at 6:20 pm
“Again, why would Obama, or anyone for that matter, want to ruin America? Punish whom, and why?”
Thats a fair question.
You could answer it for yourself if you were honest enough to take the total of his comments and see the context they conclude.
First, only because he used the exact phrase “punish your enemies”
That quote was in direct relation to other American citizens who also would be anyone not voting along Latino interests.
As Joe Friday said; “just the facts ma’am”.
Who cant forget one of his first boasted intentions.
“we are five days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America.”
He never made it clear exactly what this meant.
One can argue that even though many sectors have recieved punishment in various forms we dont know if it was intentional or just a collateral effect of his idiocy.
Regardless, many Americans from gun owners to media outlets to policemen to small businesses and large corporations have felt punished by many various means of action on Obamas part.
One would like to think that he knows what hes doing so we’ll give him the benefit of the doubt and say at least one of the above was intentionally punished only because Obama does in fact have friends (some he called “mentors”) from Ayers to a few others who have condoned, preached and attempted the destruction and punishment of capitalist America.
To lean additional financial obligations and fees/taxes/fines/penalties/regulations against anyone or group for reaching a certain income or profit bracket can only be seen as a deterent to success which in most intellectually honest circles is only viewed as punishment.
True, progressive taxation is a spawn of both parties but Obama takes the prize hands down by being victim of his own quoted wish to “spread the wealth” and setting his sights on successful Americans by demoralizing and demonizing them as the culprits of our economic woes, therefor its only logical he would feel those being successful/rich must pay retribution.
Better known as “punishment”.
And lets not forget the winner…
“AT SOME POINT YOU’VE MADE ENOUGH MONEY”
What better way to have an economy “slow and go negative” as Sue says, than to have a president say hes feels there should be limits to ones income or goals ?
The rest of your post is ridiculous.
Any investor worth his salt does not base “daily” results of the stock market as an indicator of the markets behavior for any substantial term any more than that day.
All that your boasting is pretty irrelevant as its simple to see that as far down as our economy has gone its only rational that a few sectors have no other direction to go but up.
All you brag about and none of it even begins to have any positive impact on the things that will continue to makes this growth the slowest ever unable to keep up with population growth never mind the massive debt and deficits we have, which according to the left can only be solved by even more taxation and more spending on useless government interventions.
Six trillion dollars and four and half years later were no better off, and actually worse off except for those sectors who picked up the slack brought by loses to those in the same markets.
Of course retail food sales rise when no one can afford McDonalds anymore.
More people are eating at home.
With that example, please stop insulting our intelligence by pointing to rises in volume in sectors that only obtained that rise by others sinking as some example of success on Obamas part.
February 1st, 2013 at 6:39 pm
“Just out of curiosity, ask some people that own businesses. ”
I have, and only one out of about 10 has anything good to say.
Of course, you’re one of them.
You stated before that you’ll hit the mother-load when Obamacare is fully implemented.
Meanwhile many other areas of the healthcare industry have raised prices way past normal rates of inflation due to anticipation of losses resulting from mandates and regulations that are already law or will be by 2014.
And also in anticipation of those that will flock to “free healthcare”.I have no doubt that those providers receiving most of the governments business will be those with doctors who got on stage with Barry and said how great universal government mandated healthcare will be.
I’d rather have a capitalist rationing my healthcare than some politician.
The capitalist only cares about the money.
That involves only one obstacle.
The politician, especially the liberal, will use Obamacare as a means to apply his version of social justice, and wealth redistribution which involves a huge spectrum of obstacles.
February 1st, 2013 at 8:30 pm
How did we hurt gun owners, media outlets or even policeman (unless of course you mean laying them off dut to governmental cost cutting)?
Where did I brag?
Again, I merely cited figures that are over a period of time, not “daily”.
It took us more than five years, but the broadest measure of the U.S. stock market finally closed at an all-time high today. The Wilshire 5000 finished the day at 15,878.72. The previous high close came on October 9, 2007 at 15,806.69.
Again, I didn’t say the economy was great, but I did cite “facts” (or as you call it, bragging) that indicate a positive trend.
Wilshire, Dow, Nasdaq, S & P, (that helps people with mutual funds, pension funds, union funds, etc., etc), consumer confidence, auto sales and manufacturing.
I thought these were good things. My mistake.
February 1st, 2013 at 8:35 pm
“And also in anticipation of those that will flock to “free healthcare”.I have no doubt that those providers receiving most of the governments business will be those with doctors who got on stage with Barry and said how great universal government mandated healthcare will be.”
That simply is not the way it works. It goes to a bid, simple as that.
February 1st, 2013 at 8:50 pm
When you hate the president more than you love America, no progress is a good thing.
February 1st, 2013 at 9:38 pm
I love America more than I hate Barry.
I could never hate him as much as I love my country.
Because I love my country, not its leaders.
“That simply is not the way it works. It goes to a bid, simple as that.”
Simply brilliant, because I say so.
Wise up.
Any siting president cant determine whether a job is up for bid or not. Ya’ll pitched a fit over Halliburton, remember ?
“How did we hurt gun owners, media outlets or even policeman (unless of course you mean laying them off dut to governmental cost cutting)?”
The left, in general, bragged.
Gun owners were characterized as clinging to religion and their guns.
Cops were characterized as acting stupid and made to drink beer with racist professors.
Fox, the Whine house attempted to leave them out of briefing(s)
Citizen excercising free speech jailed why Benghazi murderers go free.
Please Buzz, I defined punishment pretty damn well in a few forms.
Your question was answered.
Period
February 1st, 2013 at 10:45 pm
Sue says; “Ronald”,
“All the problems this country is having is direct results from Obama’s policies”.
“Obama wants the economy to slow and go negative”.
“The left want to punish and wipe out responsible humans”.
“Obama and the left help desolve 8 1/2 million jobs in the US”.
Patrick responds with “Don’t try to teach a Marxist about economics”.
The disturbing thing is that these folks honestly think they’re rational.
February 2nd, 2013 at 12:46 am
“All the problems this country is having is direct results from Obama’s policies”. – Perhaps not all, but Obama’s policies are certainly not helping.
“Obama wants the economy to slow and go negative”. I concede that maybe it’s not on purpose. But the thought that it’s pure incompetence is too scary.
“The left want to punish and wipe out responsible humans”.- I don’t think so, because then they’d run out of others’ money.
“Obama and the left help desolve 8 1/2 million jobs in the US”. – Of course it’s wrong. It’s “helped dissolve”.
“Don’t try to teach a Marxist about economics”. – I don’t agree either. Where there’s life, there’s still hope.
The disturbing thing is that these folks honestly think they’re rational. – If by rational you mean understanding how we can spend our way out of debt, then I have no hope but to be irrational.
February 2nd, 2013 at 6:54 am
First, @Ronald…,
While I disagree that the entire premise for my article is a report from THE Conference Board, their index on consumer confidence does show a sharp decline.
http://www.conference-board.org/data/consumerconfidence.cfm
As for the 4Q contraction, this nonsense about Hurricane Sandy can be disproved mathematically. Let us say, for simplicity sake, that our GDP is about $16 Trillion annually, which is close to the truth. So each quarter, one would expect an average of about $4 Trillion dollars.
According to most insurance analysis of the cost of Sandy, the impact on the economy was around $60-80 Billion dollars. Let us go with $80 Billion. 80 divided by 4,000 (in Billions of dollars) equals 0.02, or 2%. Hardly enough to qualify as the primary cause of the 4Q contraction.
As for the Republicans and the Fiscal Cliff ’scare’, who is truly to blame for that? Obama and the Democrats run the White House and the Senate. If they actually negotiated in good faith, then our worries would be over. But they don’t! Reid won’t touch anything that spells B-U-D-G-E-T and Obama keeps moving the goal posts around. First he wants $800 Billion in new revenue, then when the GOP agrees, he demands $1.2 Trillion. We are not going to solve anything with actions like that.
February 2nd, 2013 at 7:00 am
@Buzz,
As I said the other day in a comment on the GDP thread, Wall Street always likes bad jobs reports. I’ve been watching the markets for decades and just about any time there are big lay-offs announced by a company, their stock gets a big bump.
So it does not surprise me that there was a big gain yesterday that pushed the Dow above 14,000. Funny that for much of the past four years all we hear is about how different Wall Street is from ‘Main Street’. How disconnected the two are. But now, you want to put them neatly together in lock-step as a sign to show how wonderful Obama-nomics are.
February 2nd, 2013 at 9:11 am
I think I included much more than just the stock market, but also cited some of the underlying reasons.
I play in a golf league where 90% of the members are employed by auto parts manufacturers. They all tell me that they have business booked for the next 2 to 3 years. The work is for the Big 3, but also Honda, Mercedes, VW, Toyota etc., because there have been a number of plants built in the U.S. over the last decade.
Why? Because that is how the auto industry now operates. Of course, Jeep is expected to make all of their cars in Ohio and ship them overseas. Sure that would dramatically increase their price and make their products cost-prohibitive, but at least those jobs would be in America for a few months before it becomes obvious that they are overpriced.
Dow Industrial Average for Clinton’s first term + 111%
Dow Industrial Average for Clinton’s second term + 55%
Dow Industrial Average for Bush’s first term -1%
Dow Industrial Average for Bush’s second term –24%
Dow Industrial Average for Obama’s first term + 60%
As of Feb. 1st 2013 14,009
Main street is different than Wall Street, but as I mentioned, much of America is in invested in Wall Street through various means.
In other words, this is not a “bad” thing.
Of course, the market will not continue to go straight up and, in reality, since it has gone up quite steadily for years, it is due for a considerable correction and a round of profit-taking.
So in a few weeks you can all say, “Na, na, na, na, na.”
February 2nd, 2013 at 9:12 am
I disagree with your premise.
“Marxist”.
February 2nd, 2013 at 11:13 am
Ronald;
“The disturbing thing is that these folks honestly think they’re rational.”
That means nothing coming from you…
a man who cant find one thing wrong with Obama.
And please, dont all of a sudden bless us with your critique of his taste in shoes or dogs or some irrelevant crap.
Since you blessed us with your presence I’ve noticed you’ve never offered one disparaging word issued to Obamas performance, ever.
Buzz, the last time the stock market hit this note was in 97.
And what happened right after that ?
“I play in a golf league where 90% of the members are employed by auto parts manufacturers. They all tell me that they have business booked for the next 2 to 3 years. ”
BFD.
Everyone has a car and will for the 2-3 years.
Problem is, the bump in car sales is mostly attributed to foreign cars, Toyota especially.
True, the majority of those are American jobs but uts not helpful to Americas bottom line as it were if GM or Chrysler made enough to clear their tab and get tax payers their money back.
I mean really, if the prez is going to lie about GM making a roaring comeback when GMs sales are one of the easiest to track and everyone knows they’re still loosing money then what else would he lie about ?
Please, stop assuming everyone is dumb enough to buy your sht.
It makes you look dumber than you think we are.
For every positive note you’ve got any simpleton could blow ten to its contrary.
Your personal stories are kind of irrelevant.
I know a guy who builds coffins in Connecticut and just saw a boom in baby coffins.
So what ?
February 2nd, 2013 at 11:22 am
I wish people on the left would just emasculate themselves. Anyone supporting this regime is anti-freedom & would serve
America and the rest of the world well by leaving. There are many foreign countries implimenting their retarded ideas and failing in grand fashion. They probably wouldn’t take them though. There are only so many productive people to rob.
February 2nd, 2013 at 11:45 am
Craig, odd coming from one who is in the party which only believes in equal freedoms, if you’re a white heterosexual Christian male.
Face it, the GOP is becoming a relic of the past, a great thing for progress. We’ve all heard your corporations over people ideas, your anti-woman, anti-homosexual policy ideas, your attempts to force religion into schools, etc. We’ve all seen your gerrymandering and redistricting tactics, your attempts to change the rules so you guys can be relevant again at the expense of our democracy, but with any luck you guys will continue to fall despite these tactics as your party continues its downward spiral into complete and utter irrelevancy. It’s okay though, this is what’s best for America.
February 2nd, 2013 at 1:10 pm
Ronald, I’m not sure that I would classify your Marxism as irrational. The main problem has always been that the labor theory of value is plain wrong, and everything else is based on it. Faulty assumptions yes, irrational no.
February 2nd, 2013 at 1:15 pm
“I wish people on the left would just emasculate themselves. Anyone supporting this regime is anti-freedom & would serve
America and the rest of the world well by leaving.”
Oh, the old, “America, love it or leave it bumper sticker”.
Considering the people who would embrace that rhetoric are now in the vast minority, who exactly should be leaving?
I love it, support the second amendment at all costs, but if people employ free speech they should leave?
February 2nd, 2013 at 1:26 pm
“Auto sales for January were strong. Chrysler reported a 16% gain. Ford Motor (F +0.54%) sales were up 22%, and General Motors (GM +0.28%) sales added 22%. Toyota (TM +2.89%) said its January sales jumped 26%.”
You must have missed this part of the quote and also how they are also making substantial profits, with the only drag being slower European sales.
So by the right’s logic we should have let GM and Chrysler perish (Bob Lutz, a staunch conservative laughs when people suggest there was anywhere but the government to go to for financing) and foreign car manufacturers are “not helpful to America’s bottom line”. Well then I suppose America should simply not be in the auto industry (even though it is the country’s largest private employer as an industry).
Lastly, just because we have a difference of opinion does not render me dumb, a simpleton or whatever name calling you have chosen for the day. I am none of those things.
As far as my “personal stories”, I rarely use them unless it is directly relevant and being in Michigan does offer insight into the auto industry.
You don’t think it is an example of “pot calling the kettle black” when you have been posting your autobiography here for years.