Part 6, The Obama Presidency, The End Of An Error - Gross Economic Mismanagement

As we near the end of the Obama Presidency, I thought it would be a good idea at the 100 day mark to review what he has done to and for this country over the past eight years. Before we do that, though, let me repeat my previous background statements on my past political actions:

• I have never voted for a Republican Presidential candidate in my life and I have been voting since the the Nixon era.
• Until 2010, I have never voted for a Republican for national office in my life. 
• I am not affiliated with nor do I associate myself with the Republican Party, conservatives or people like Donald Trump. 

Okay, now that we understand where I am coming from, let me just say that in my opinion Barack Obama has been the most inept, most divisive, most narcissist and worst diplomat in my lifetime to reside in the White House. From the economy, to race relations, to the national debt, to foreign relations to government operations, to blatant disregard for existing laws and the Constitution, in just about any measure we are far worse off as a nation than prior to him coming into office.

We will breaking down the failures and disappointments of this administration into some broad categories that will take us a number of days to cover as we analyze “The Obama Presidency - The End Of An Error.” Over the past few days we have touched on a number of broad categories of Obama’s failures:

• Broken Promises and Lies - XXXXX
• YYYY
• ZZZZZ
• XXXXXX

Today, we will focus on the total mismanagement of the economy by the Obama administration. Now, I bet that many Obama supporters will try to point out what a fine job that Obama did in the economic realm over his Presidency, that:

• He has gotten the U3 unemployment rate down to about 5%. 
• He has presided over an economic recovery that is one of the longest ever. 
• He has seen steady, if low, job growth over the past six years. 
• He came into office with a nation suffering from a deep recession. 

But he had the following economic tailwinds to help the recovery, tailwinds that no other recession President ever enjoyed:

• Obama spent over $800 billion on a (failed) economic stimulus plan. 
• He enjoyed record low energy prices during his term that should have significantly spurred consumer and business economic growth, employment, and activity. 
• He had the support of trillions of fake dollars that the Federal Reserve pumped into the economy. 
• The Federal Reserve kept interest rates at low, low levels.

Despite these unprecedented tailwinds, he still managed to botch the recovery since:

Over 43 million Americans still require Federal food assistance every month, 13 million more Americans than who were on food assistance rolls when Obama took office despite six years of the Obama economic recovery.

Growth in household incomes and wages has been basically stagnant during most of the Obama economic recovery period.

Job growth during the Obama economic recovery period has been concentrated in low wage areas of the economy, e.g. food services and retailing, which is a major factor in the lack of household income and wage growth.

According to a recent Gallup poll and a different analysis by the Federal Reserve Board, over 40% of U.S. households could not easily cope with an unexpected $400 household expense.

According to a recent Chapman University survey, more than a third of U.S. households have no savings to speak off despite six years of Obama’s economic recovery.

More Americans over the age of 65 than ever have elected to stay in the workforce, possibly because they have not yet recovered from the recession, six years into the Obama recovery period.

More American millennials than ever are still living at home since many of them cannot find a job that enables them enough wage power to live on their own.

The labor participation rate is at a forty year low as Americans cannot find a suitable full time job, causing many of them to drop out of the workforce.

There are more than 94 million American adults who are not in the workforce, an all time record.

More than six million Americans are working at part time jobs because they cannot find suitable full time jobs.

A more suitable measure of unemployment, the U6 unemployment rate, which more realistically takes into account frustrated Americans who have dropped out of the workforce is almost 10%, double the now outdated U3 unemployment rate.

Annual GDP growth never came close to the long term average during this recovery, with the Obama recovery never attaining at least a 3% annual GDP economic growth rate in any single year, an unprecedented, lower than average performance relative to historical trends.

The Obama administration has doubled the national debt load from $10 trillion to about $20 trillion during its tenure, adding more debt than all previous Presidencies COMBINED, a debt load that will restrict robust economic growth into the future.

The Obama administration has done nothing to reduce the long term growth in the national debt, which will place incredible economic pressure and strains on future American workers, businesses, and households.

The Obama administration has raised the key economic measure, national debt to GDP ratio, to over 1.00, a historically and dangerously high level, making the country’s debt load dangerously high and comparable to Greece’s.

The Obama administration spent over $800 billion on a failed economic stimulus program, that did nothing to promote long term economic growth (e.g. no substantial infrastructure was put in place despite the infamous “shovel ready jobs” slogan.)

The Obama administration implemented a series of inane, ill fated and amateurish economic programs that failed miserably including Cash For Clunkers, Cash For Appliances, and Cash For Insulation.

The Obama administration’s economic policies have done nothing to improve the employment plight of minorities despite being the first African-American President.

The Obama administration gave away billions and billions of dollars to a multitude of alternative energy companies, most of which had political and fundraising relationships with Obama, and almost all of them went bankrupt with no societal benefits in return.

The Obama administration added thousands and thousands of new Federal government regulations which wasted business and business owners' time and effort, distracting them from growing their business and overall economic growth, and placed bureaucratic, taxation, and legal burdens on businesses and industries across the nation while simultaneously raising the cost of doing business in America, costs that could have better been used to grow businesses and the economy.

The Obama Care regulations forced employers to reduce many of their employees to part time status which has greatly contributed to the stagnation of household income growth and forced those business owners to waste time, effort, and resources complying with the burdensome Obama Care bureaucracy and regulations.

Horrible, horrible economic management despite the four major tailwinds we listed above. So yes, Obama did get the outdated U3 unemployment rate down to about 5% but that accomplishment was attained with low wage jobs and in the face of millions of Americans dropping out of the workforce from frustration. 

Yes, he did preside over one of the longest economic recoveries of all time but he did it by doubling the national debt and generated far less economic growth than most other economic recoveries that were shorter in duration.

And yes, he did come into office in the midst of a recession but so did other Presidents, almost all of whom managed the country out of the recession into far more robust recoveries.

Overall, very forgettable economic strategies and management despite incredible conditions that should have had the economy soaring. More failures tomorrow.

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:

www.loathemygovernment.com

It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:


http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.bankruptingamerica.org
http://www.conventionofstates.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w

July, 2015, Part 2, By The Numbers: Subsidizing Billionaires, Alzheimer's Crushing Weight, and More

On a semi-regular basis we revisit the theme "by the numbers" just to check in on the state of the country and political class using actual realities and their underlying numbers, not the spin or lies from our politicians. You see, politicians usually have nothing to gain by looking at reality and the numbers since they are more than likely to have screwed up reality and our lives in the first place.

That is why they would rather lie and deceive than tell the truth. But that approach can be destroyed by looking at the hard numbers behind the mess they have created. I once worked for a boss whose favorite saying was: "There is nothing more devastating to an opinion than the right number.” And that is what we try to do with this theme, devastate politicians’ opinions by looking at the right numbers.

So let’s take a look at the numbers that have recently cropped up and again prove that the political class in America continues to be one of the worst set of people to ever hold office, given the state of the country, the many ways they screw up our wealth and government functions, and their inability or non-desire to step up and tell the truth.

1) Yesterday we discussed the reality that even though Obama and his supporters would like us to think that the economy is doing well, we showed with a series of real numbers how that is not the case. With first quarter GDP shrinking, 45 million Americans still needing food assistance every month, low or no wage growth, etc., the economic numbers and reality show a very weak, under performing economy.

And new numbers from the University of Michigan's famous index of consumer sentiment adds to that proof of a low performing economy. During the month of July the index value dropped from 96.1 in June to 93.3 in July. Experts had predicted that the index would be basically unchanged in July, surprising them also. The Greek financial crisis and the economic slide in China were most often cited by survey respondents as the reason for their growing pessimism. 

Just another nail in the theory that we have always subscribed to: Washington politicians have no idea how to manage a growing and vibrant economy.

2) We have often decried the reality that Washington politicians are very good at handing out taxpayer wealth to companies and individuals who do not deserve such wealth. Those individuals and companies should be using their own wealth or their stockholders' wealth to fiannce their operations and take the financial risk associated with their operations. 

Which makes the following story from the June 12, 2015 issue of The Week magazine, based on an article from the LA Times, most appropriate. Billionaire Elon Musk has three companies that he has put together: Tesla Motors, SolarCity, and SpaceX. 

Together, the American taxpayer, courtesy of the Washington political class, has funded and underwrote those operations to the tune of $4.9 billion via grants, tax breaks, and environmental credits. Additionally, SpaceX has received $5.5 billion in government contracts from NASA and the Air Force. 

The obvious question is if these are such good ideas and Musk is so rich, why isn't he funding these operations out of his own checkbook and the checkbooks of his backers, why are the American taxpayers funding these business risks for him? Government and politicians should not be in the business of picking winners and losers in a free market, that is the job of the market and those that compete in that market. 

Those billions of dollars benefited virtually no one who helped fund them, the American taxpayer, and benefited only the insiders and favored few who were involved with those businesses.

3) Frequent readers of this blog know that we have shown dozens and dozens of time how Obama Care is the worst piece of legislation ever passed. It tries, and fails, to solve a public health issue with a lame, unwieldy and expensive insurance solution. Past proof of our assertion on this legislation can be viewed by entering the phrase, "unfolding disaster that is Obama Care" in the search box above.

More proof that Obama Care totally missed the mark was presented in an article on Alzheimer's disease in the May 29, 2015 issue of The Week magazine. The numbers from that article are truly frightening:

• 5.3 million Americans currently suffer from Alzheimer's disease.
• Those 5.3 million sufferers consumer almost 18 billion hours a year in unpaid care from friends and family.
• However, with 76 million Baby Boomers entering their golden years, that affliction number is likely to go as high as 13.8 million in the coming decades.
• Treatment costs for those almost 14 million Alzheimer's patients could get as high as $1.1 TRILLION annually and consume over 30% of Medicare's annual budget.
• Such a wave of will swamp nursing homes and the country's ability to pay for and care for the millions more of Alzheimer's patients in the coming years.

While this trend has been gong forward in unabated, the Obama administration has been worried about how much a Bronze Plan in the Obama Care legislation would cost. In reality, the numbers do not lie since a Bronze Plan cost, and Obama Care in general, will be overwhelmed by the Alzheimer's numbers and become meaningless unless the challenge of Alzheimer's and other aging diseases is resolved.

Unfortunately, the Obama administration has not addressed or set out a strategy for resolving this issue, costing the country five years in finding a remedy for the disease and the crushing financial numbers it will cause.

4) Let's get back to the economy for our final set of numbers. An article in the July 17, 2015 issue of The Week magazine reported on how Microsoft was laying off almost 8,000 workers which works out to about 6% of the entire workforce.  The company is also taking a $7.6 billion write down as a result of its acquisition of Nokia's smartphone business. Not a good economic indicator omen when a bell weather company like Microsoft is taking such dramatic actions.

So, today the numbers showed that Americans are having less and less confidence in the economy, the political class continues its crony capitalism ways related today to subsidizing billionaire Elon Musk, Alzheimer's disease makes Obama Care even more irrelevant in the long term, and Microsoft is feeling the pains of a weak economy. The numbers do not lie even if politicians do.

More numbers tomorrow and they are likley NOT to be good numbers since they involve the Amerian political class.

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:www.loathemygovernment.comIt is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.Please visit the following sites for freedom:http://www.reason.com/http://www.cato.org/http://www.robertringer.com/

http://realpolichick.blogspot.com

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w

July, 2015, Part 1, By The Numbers: Weak Economy, Weak Govenrment Systems Security, Weak Audit Controls, Weak Politicians

On a semi-regular basis we revisit the theme "by the numbers" just to check in on the state of the country and political class using actual realities and their underlying numbers, not the spin or lies from our politicians. You see, politicians usually have nothing to gain by looking at reality and the numbers since they are more than likely to have screwed up reality and our lives in the first place.

That is why they would rather lie and deceive than tell the truth. But that approach can be destroyed by looking at the hard numbers behind the mess they have created. I once worked for a boss whose favorite saying was: "There is nothing more devastating to an opinion than the right number.” And that is what we try to do with this theme, devastate politicians’ opinions by looking at the right numbers.

So let’s take a look at the numbers that have recently cropped up and again prove that the political class in America continues to be one of the worst set of people to ever hold office, given the state of the country, the many ways they screw up our wealth and government functions, and their inability or non-desire to step up and tell the truth.

1) Think about how bad the job situation is in America, based on the June employment statistics from the Federal government:

• The June job numbers were not only weaker than expected but the previous two months' job estimates were reduced by 60,000.
• Underneath we see that the number of part time jobs increased substantially, 161,000, but the number of full time jobs dropped by more than twice as much, 350,000.
• 640,000 Americans dropped out of the workforce in just the single month of June.
• A whopping 94 million American adults are now sitting idly outside of the labor force.

Now Obama supporters will point out that this administration has been in power during the past 57 months of consecutive job growth. Impressive….until you realize that:

• While the job growth has been positive for almost six years, the growth is still anemic, barely keeping up with population growth.
• Wage growth has been virtually non-existent for most Americans during that time period, meaning that most Americans lost buying power over those 57 months.
• A very high proportion of those created jobs were part time jobs and in lower wage industries, accounting for much of the stagnant wage growth.
• Having 94 million Americans NOT working or employed, the lowest labor participation rate since the dark days of stagflation during the Carter years, means that this is not a healthy economy.

The numbers do not lie, Washington and the Obama administration do not know how to operate a vibrant, growing economy.

2) In this blog, the TSA, the Social Securriy Administration (SSA) and the EPA constantly stick out and compete for the title of worst performing Federal entity. Just when you think that the TSA is the worst, the SSA screws up royally to move ahead when out of the blue the EPA does something remarkably inept to forge a lead.

That is where we find ourselves today with one unbelievable number from the EPA. According to a recent Inspector General (IG) report, an estimated 90,000 tons of hazardous waste comes into this country every year from foreign countries, but the Environmental Protection Agency often can’t say what or where the dangerous stuff is: “Based on our assessment of data in EPA information systems, the EPA has an incomplete picture of hazardous waste entering the country. This can give rise to undetected and unenforced violations of federal hazardous waste laws, which could result in unknown human and environmental exposure to toxic substances.”

Some toxic waste shipments analyzed by the IG never reached their intended destination, but the EPA couldn’t confirm whether those shipments were lost since the EPA cannot locate those shipments. The EPA officials also weren’t sure about the exact volume of hazardous waste entering the U.S. In some cases, they incorrectly identified where the waste shipment originated.

Inept on all counts, with dozens of tons of toxic waste floating around inside the country somewhere unbeknownst to the EPA.

3) We have previously reported on how the Federal government’s personnel data systems are so inept that Chinese hackers were able to steal the private and confidential information on over 4 million current and past Federal government employees. Such a serious hack is likely to cause massive identity theft issues for Federal employees in addition to exposing Federal employees and their families to blackmail and extortion threats.

But the numbers recently got even worse. It is apparently not 4 million Americans who had their private information stolen but an amazing 21.5 million Americans who got hacked via the inept Federal government. In addition to over 21 million Social Security numbers being stolen, the stolen information included employment history, family information, addresses and information regarding mental health, including drug abuse, on almost 20 million Americans who had submitted to background checks as part of the Federal government job application process. An additional 1.8 million records were those of associates and family members of those applicants. Many of the records stolen included fingerprints, educational history and health information.

As dire as this hack was, the reaction to it was just as bad or worse, according to the numbers. Congressional testimony shows that while the hack began in May, 2014, those responsible for protecting that information did not apply a security fix until an atrocious eight months later.

4) You can always tell when people do not know how to do their jobs, they end up working on trivial stuff that they can handle but which makes no contribution to resolving major issues they are supposed to be resolving. Such is the case with the latest set of numbers. 

Consider what is going on in America today. The economy is weak, 45 million Americans are getting food assistance every month, ISIS is terrorizing the world, our public schools still stink at education, we are still losing the hopeless “war on drugs,” millions of Americans are homeless, our military veterans are dying after not receiving the health care they were promised, etc. 

All of these major issues are going down but over two dozen Congressional members are working to eliminate the words "husband" and "wife" from Federal law. Are you kidding me? Of all the crises, of all the suffering many millions of Americans are experiencing, two dozen politicians want to edit Federal law for two words, according to the bill from Congresswoman Lois Capps: "The Amend the Code for Marriage Equality Act recognizes that the words in our laws have meaning and can continue to reflect prejudice and discrimination even when rendered null by our highest courts. Our values as a country are reflected in our laws. I authored this bill because it is imperative that our federal code reflect the equality of all marriages."

And it is not just one screwball politician doing this, news reports are saying dozens of them have nothing better to do, or are incapable of doing anything constructive, and are working on this garbage. Pathetic priorities.

5) One last set of numbers for this month but these will be in graphic form. As most informed people know, the government Greece is facing a severe financial problem since they have run up so much debt in running their government that the debt load is crushing their financial integrity and economy. Bloomberg recently ran a graph that shows how their debt over time eventually outran their economic ability to support such high debt levels:




As we see, about seven years after the Greek government debt exceeded the annual Greece GDP, the whole economy started to fall apart.

Now look at the U.S. numbers of national debt vs. GDP from the www.zerohedge.com website:



The U.S. GDP level is the blue line and the Federal government debt is the red line. They crossed about a year ago which, if the numbers hold true, by around the year 2021 or so we can expect the U.S,. economy to also implode if we do not heed the Greek numbers and find a way to the out of control Federal government spending and debt under control.

Unfortunately, as we see today, it is very seldom that the numbers created by the Washington political class are good numbers. The economic numbers are weak, the EPA audit numbers are weak, Federal government systems controls are weak, and politicians; priorities are weak, and pathetic. The numbers do not lie even if politicians do: the numbers say we are in a bad way in every way imaginable way due to the incompetence of the American political class.

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:

www.loathemygovernment.com

It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

Term Limits Now: http://www.howmuchworsecoulditget.com
http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.bankruptingamerica.org
http://www.conventionofstates.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w

January, 2015, Part 7, Political Class Insanity: Ripping Off The Defense Department, Presidential Profanity, and Debt Through The Roof

jan2015insanity7.txt

Open with

It is the beginning of both another year and another month which means it is time to review the latest political class insanity from the American political class. For regular readers of this blog, you know that as 2014 progressed, the insanity, stupid quotes, ineffective governing and legislating, and general incompetence of our politicians seemed to accelerate as the year grinded on. No major issues got addressed, never mind resolved. Obama Care’s implications across the entire country and entire economy continued to unfold in disaster after disaster. Our foreign policy, or what was passed off as a foreign policy, was in tatters. Terrorism was on the march across the world. Veterans were dying because the Federal government could not fulfill the medical and health care promises those brave veterans were promised. The national debt hit a mind boggling $18 TRILLION. 

And our President continued to play golf and go on political campaign swings like no other President ever did. Congress narrowly missed becoming the least productive Congress of all time. Billions were spent and wasted on the November elections to elect people that did not deserve the time of day never mind billions of dollars. Racial division spread across the country, a division that was fomented and spread by those in office with something to gain. 

And guess what? Over the past week or so, we have seen nothing has changed except the calendar. The political class is still out of control, the government entities that they rule over are bloated and ineffective, and the quality of life and freedom in this country continues to deteriorate. 

Today will be the last post in this series of political class insanity so enjoy one last day of the many ways that the political class wastes your tax dollars, screws up our freedoms and liberties, and generally messes up everything it touches. 

1) Of all the Federal government entities, the Department of Defense is probably the most pathetic when it comes to financial and accounting integrity. We once reported that their accounting processes are so screwed up that even highly trained auditors gave up trying to figure out where they spend their out of control budget dollars. 

Yahoo Finance on December 9, 2014 uploaded an Associated Press article about some food service companies that had formally admitted to cheating the U.S. military out of millions of dollars via their Afghanistan food contracts. Even worse than the scamming of taxpayer wealth, the two guilty companies were not even American companies that our government had contracted out the food service operations to. Supreme Group B.V. is a privately held Dutch corporation, and its subsidiaries, Supreme Foodservice GmbH and Supreme Foodservice FZE are based in Switzerland and the United Arab Emirates, respectively. 

The companies agreed to pay back $288 million in fines and restitution, plus $101 million to resolve a whistleblower suit: "Supreme Group accepts full responsibility for, and deeply regrets our actions that led to this situation," Emma Sharma, a Supreme Group attorney and ethics officer, said in a statement on the company's website. 

The scam involved the companies fraudulently inflating the price of fresh fruits and vegetables, bottled water and other products as part of its contract with the Defense Department. The government was overcharged by $48 million between 2005 and 2009. 

At least these bad guys got caught and are paying the price for criminal activity. Makes you wonder how many hundreds of other contractors for the clueless defense Department accountants are getting away with similar schemes. 

2) One saying that has me get through life goes as follows: people curse and swear because at the time they are cursing they are not intelligent enough or creative enough not to curse.” Everybody gets frustrated in life and everyone has probably cursed or swore in their own way at a life obstacle. 

But according to the above saying, that reflects at least a temporary brain freeze of lack of intelligence or creativity. When a President does that in public then I get really worried because that to me indicates a leader who is out of control, lacking intelligence and creativity at that point in time. 

And apparently the current residence of the White House fits that leadership shortfall description. According to long time Washington journalist Ann Compton, Obama is not below swearing up a storm and directing that wrath at journalists who are trying to do their job. 

Former ABC News White House correspondent Ann Compton told C-SPAN she saw President Barack Obama get so angry twice when he purposely went off the record to curse at the White House press corps. She Compton told C-SPAN’s Brian Lamb in an interview that one time his tirade was "profanity-laced, where he thought the press was making too much of scandals that he didn’t think were scandals." 

In the other case or Presidential profanity, Obama took the Washington press corp. to task for not understanding the limits that he has with foreign policy "and the way he’s dealing with the Middle East and Iraq and Afghanistan." 

Very childlike, very immature. Not cool having a President who loses control, his intelligence, and creativity because a professional journalist says bad things about him. Compton, in fact, showed more maturity with her response to the profanity laced tirades: "When policy decisions and Presidents are inaccessible and don’t take questions from the press on a regular basis, I think they reap what they sow." 

To see her C=SPAN interview and comments go to:

http://www.newsmax.com/US/Ann-Compton-Obama-media/2014/12/08/id/611806/?ns_mail_uid=32283367&ns_mail_job=1598664_12092014&s=al&dkt_nbr=uxtc9qfh 

3) We have often made the case that this country is headed to a national debt disaster as the Washington political class continues to spend money that it does not have. Recently, Washington pushed the national debt level to over 418 TRILLION. This comes out to a household debt burden of about $156,000 for every household in the country. 

And while every previous Presidency has contributed to this overbearing debt burden, it is the Obama administration that has taken bad debt management to new lows. Consider the following U.S. Bureau of Public Debt graph which shows national debt as a percentage of the nation’s GDP. This is a good way to get a feel whether or not the country can pay that debt as both the economy and the debt level grows (double click on the graph for a bigger view): 

As you can see, through both the Clinton and Bush administrations, the Debt to GDP ratio was quite constant at around 60%. However, once Obama took office and the Democrats still had control of Congress in 2009, our debt situation went desperately wrong. Our Debt to GDP ratio has skyrocketed up to over 100%, a lofty position that puts us into the area where Spain and Greece got into so much financial trouble. 

No one in Washington seems to care or have the will or intelligence to address this issue. At some point, though, the debt bomb that the Washington political class has inflated, especially during the Obama Presidency, is going to explode into an economic crash, the likes of which we may have never seen before. And that would truly be insanity. 

Okay, I know I promised today would be the last post on this month’s political class insanity but I failed, we will need tomorrow to wrap up the craziness and incompetence that is the American political class.

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:

www.loathemygovernment.com

It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

Term Limits Now: http://www.howmuchworsecoulditget.com
http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.bankruptingamerica.org
http://www.conventionofstates.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w

Will The Economic Plight and Suffering Of Young Greek Adults Become the Same Plight For Young American Adults?

As most informed people know, Greece has been a fiscal basket case for the past several years. Corruption, mismanagement of the economy, and political economic ignorance has driven the country into defacto, if not official, bankruptcy. Sky high national debt, sky high and chronic unemployment, and no viable economic or financial plan to turn the country around has created hardships for just about every Greek citizen.

But it seems that young adults in Greece, those that should be embarking on their careers and building their futures today, seem to be getting hit especially hard. Consider some of the findings from a recent Businessweek article about the young adults in Greece:

• While overall unemployment in Greece is about 27%, for young Greek adults that unemployment figure is about twice as high.
• In 2013 and 2014 it is estimated that about 40,000 government employees will lose their government funded jobs, making a horrible unemployment situation even worse.
• Over 100,000 young Greek adults have left the country to find better paying employment overseas.
• The Businessweek article discusses the plight of a young Greek woman who applies for one of 21 social worker jobs that are being interviewed for. She is one of about 2,000 people trying to land on of those 21 jobs.
• Many young Greeks have been forced to move back in with their parents and families or need financial support from their families to get by.

Heart breaking that people have to leave their country to have any chance of a good life and good paying job and career.

But, the situation in Greece is not that different than the heartbreaking challenges and frustration of young adults in this country. Consider some facts and realities, as pointed out in a recent article from the Independent Journal Review website (“8 Signs You're a Young Adult During the Obama Administration“)
from August 6, 2013:

• Since young American adults struggle to find a decent-paying job these days after graduating from high school or college, they are often left with no other financial option than to return home to live with their parents and families. According to a recent Pew Research poll, a record 36% of young adults (that's over 21 million) live with their parents. 
• This fact has consequences all throughout the economy. Since fewer households are formed, the housing market does not grow as fast to accommodate the lower number of new households formed, less furniture and appliances are sold since there are fewer new households, etc., all of which depress economic growth beyond the fact that young adults cannot find decent employment.
• As proof of this previous point, the article points at some research from Pew which found that while 40% of young adults owned their homes in 2007, the number dropped to 34% in 2011 in just four short years, and in a few of those years we were supposedly in an “economic recovery“ mode.
• The Independent Journal article cites another article, this one from Soopermexican, that pointed out 7 out of every 8 jobs added by the Obama administration have been part-time employment. Given that 2 million American young adults graduate college every year, this administration and its economic policies are turning most of those graduates into part time workers.
• While part time work for a college graduate can be frustrating, consider a recent assertion from NPR. NPR claimed as many as one-third of internships in this country are unpaid, and an even higher percentage pay less than minimum wage. Thus, it may be a better option, from a financial perspective, to flip hamburgers at minimum wage than to work for nothing or near nothing as an intern with only a faint promise of moving into full time work out of the internship.
• No job means no money which probably means no new set of wheels. According to CNW Research, while young adults account for 27% of new car sales, that is down significantly from 38% in 1985. Thus, not only does the housing industry suffer from the economy’s inability to create worthwhile employment for young Americans, the auto industry suffers also.
• Not only can’t young Americans look forward to that first big, full time, good paying job, they are already looking at how hard it is going to be to pay off their college loans. The Project on Student Debt estimates that in the past 25 years, the cost of college has risen by 900%. The Wall Street Journal estimates that two-thirds of college graduates have mounting student debt. Thus, young Americans might almost immediately take a hit on their credit scores since they cannot pay off their college loans because their college loans did not pay off in a good job. Thus, bad credit leads to the future inability or lessened ability to get a home mortgage or car loan, further depressing those two industries.
• As a direct consequence of delayed financial, career, and housing stability, young adults in America are waiting until they're older to get married. A Pew Research analysis estimates that the median age at first marriage is higher than ever in America, 26.5 years old for brides and 28.7 years old for grooms.
• Given the fact that young Americans are finding it difficult to find a good paying, full time job, they are saddled with debt , and raising kids is an expensive proposition, the Population Reference Bureau estimates that the U.S. fertility rate (# of children per woman) is now 1.9. How bad is that? 1.9 is lower than the fertility rate during the Great Depression, another bad economic time when kids were viewed as an expensive like to have, not have to have. Only this time, it is worse than the Great Depression.

Let’s go beyond these global trends and look at the latest Federal government jobs report as reported in Yahoo Finance on August 3, 2013 (“We Have Become a Nation of Hamburger Flippers”): 

• Only 162,000 jobs were created in the month of July, a month that most economists expected to see at least 200,000 jobs created.
• Even worse, updated job creation estimates for May and June were revised downward from their current estimates.
• 69% of the jobs created in the second quarter  and 57% created in the first half of 2013 – were in the three lowest-paying sectors of the economy: retail trade, administrative services, and leisure and hospitality. 
• These positions, which account for 33% of all private sector jobs, pay an average of $15.80 per hour.
• “What you’re seeing is now the spreading of low wage growth,” says Dan Alpert of Westwood Capital, “Really, we have become a nation of hamburger flippers, Wal-Mart sales associates, barmaids, checkout people and other people working at very low wages. The fact is that the U.S. employment situation is more of a wounded beast than a bull.” 

Consider more, yet similar, details from an Associated Press report from August 3, 2013:

• The 162,000 jobs the economy added in July were a disappointment as were the poor quality, pay wise and career wise, of those 162,000 positions.  Low-paying retailers, restaurants and bars supplied more than half of July's job gain.
• "You're getting jobs added, but they might not be the best-quality job," said John Canally, an economist with LPL Financial in Boston.
• Year-to-date in 2013, low-paying industries have provided 61% of the nation's job growth, even though these traditionally low paying industries represent just 39% of all U.S. jobs, Mid-paying industries have contributed just 22% of this year's job gain.

This is the so-called economic recovery that the Washington politicians have created for us, the weakest and lamest economic recovery in a long, long time in this country. We have over 20 million Americans either unemployed or under employed. We have the record for longest number of consecutive months with the official unemployment rate over 7%. We have a sky high national debt of almost $17 TRILLION that every American will have to pay off. 

And we have a train wreck (Senator Max Baucus’s words) called Obama Care about to hit young adults in America where they will become criminals in the eyes of Obama Care and Washington if they do not sign up for compulsory health care insurance, an added expense that many just cannot afford. Yes, from a young American adult’s perspective, the Washington political class has made their world and their future look a lot like Greece.

What can be done to change the situation before we actually become Greece? Albert Einstein once said that “the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.”  Four years after the Great Recession ended we obviously have to do some things differently. What Obama, Reid, Pelosi, Boehner, McConnell, et al have been doing for the past four years has not worked, especially for young adults in this country.

Here’s a couple of potential solutions, based on Einstein’s observation:

1. Kill Obama Care altogether and start over in addressing our health care cost crisis.  This act that would terminate the asinine requirement that anyone working over 30 hours a week  is “full time.” This insanity is causing/forcing businesses across the country to change their personnel profile from full time employment to part time employment, all because of Obama Care. Killing this law would free up time for business people to focus on growing their business, with both full time and part time employees, and growing the economy and not on what Obama Care’s 2,500 pages mean for their business.
2. Dramatically reduce the thousands and thousands of  useless Federal government regulations on the books that cause business owners to waste time, energy, and money complying with many regulations that are useless from an environmental and safety perspective. 
3. Create a one time tax holiday that would amnesty the over one trillion dollars of cash that American businesses have stashed overseas in order to avoid paying high Federal taxes on. Put in some restrictions that prevent those funds from being used for executive compensation, stock buybacks, etc. and allow only employment creating expenses to be incurred with these funds (e.g. building factories, hiring more shifts, providing job training, etc.)
4. We need to overhaul our entire education system so that it is more focused on efficiently spending the way too much money the country already spends on education for far too poor results. Find out what other countries do to educate their kids far better than how we educate ours and then steal their good ideas. Make a case that becoming a welder, plumber, etc. is not a bad thing to pursue, that college is NOT for everybody.
5. Rewrite the tax code so that it fosters economic growth rather than foster revenue growth for the Federal government and for the Washington politicians to waste.
6. Allow only individual citizens to contribute to politicians’ campaign funds, not corporations, unions, PACs, and super PACs. I recent read an article that touched home in this area. The article made a data, fact based case that it is now a better business decision to spend a million dollars on Washington incumbent politicians and lobbyists to get a sweetheart deal from the government than it is to invest that million dollars in new plant and facilities, an option that would generate jobs in the process. Currently, that million dollars only creates a handful of high powered lobbyist jobs while corrupting the democratic and governmental processes in this country.

Unfortunately, according to Einstein, the odds of the current set of politicians doing something different, something effective is pretty small. They thrive and advance their political careers by maintaining the status quo. They keep their full time jobs, the fates of the careers of young American adults be damned. Even if it does turn the country into Greece.

But there is a way to take Einstein’s advice before it is too late. Visit the following website and join the cause to impose term limits on all Federal politicians. The current set of politicians are part of the problem, join the term limits drive and you can be part of the solution that results in Greece becoming a nice vacation and not becoming the financial reality for our kids and family members:

www.howmuchworsecoulditget.com

Doing things differently to help the young adults in America: sounds like a good idea and besides, how much worse could it get?

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:

www.loathemygovernment.com

It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

Term Limits Now: http://www.howmuchworsecoulditget.com
http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w 

Latest Economic, Trends, Opinions, And Statistics, October, 2012 - Part 2: Too Much Uncertainty, Too Many Regulations and Taxes, Too Little Leadership

Yesterday we reviewed the latest economic and financial trends using Associated Press reports and Bankrupting America’s website, focusing on the latest unemployment numbers. While the typical, limited measure of unemployment surprisingly decreased by .3%, there were many other reasons for concern.

For instance, this measure of unemployment does not account for those Americans that have become so discouraged from their job hunting that they dropped out of the workforce or take into account Americans that are underemployed relative to what they want to do. That measure is almost 15% and is higher now than when Obama took office and since the recession ended.

There were other stats and trends we covered yesterday from these two sources that were also trending down or poorly. Today, we will focus on the opinions and views of those in the economic and financial industries to see what they are forecasting and touch on some other sources of economic dodata:

- Peter Morici, a professor at the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland confirmed some of our discussion points we made yesterday regarding the latest unemployment results. While the economy added a net 114,000 jobs in September and the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that total employment rose by 873,000 in September, much of that increase was because 582,000 Americans took part-time positions because of slack business conditions or those jobs were the only work they could find.

He also reported that if the same number of Americans were still in the job market today vs. January, 2009 rather than having dropped out of the job market because of discouraging job hunt results, we would be at 9.7-9.8% unemployment, not 7.8%. 

- According to a Moneynews October 5, 2012 article, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink does not expect a full blown real estate housing recovery until later in 2013 despite the latest small, but encouraging signs in the industry. However, the fast approaching fiscal cliff and other economic maladies could delay the recovery even more.

- An October 3, 2012 Bloomberg news article quoted Nobel laureate Paul Krugman’s assessment “the United States and the European Union are “nowhere close to ending” the financial crisis and German-led austerity efforts may lead to a 1930s-style economic depression.”

- In an October 3, 2012 Moneynews article, John Berlau a senior fellow for finance and access to capital at the Competitive Enterprises Group, asserted his opinion that the third round of the Fed’s quantitative easing effort is very dangerous and could lead to higher unemployment and soaring inflation. As you may know, the first two rounds of quantitative easing, the equivalent of printing money out of thin air, injected $2.3 TRILLION into the economy without making much of a dent in unemployment or economic conditions.

The Fed is now pumping upwards of $40 billion a month into the economy with its latest easing program. Berlau believes that even if money is available to lend by the banks as a result of the easing efforts, it will not find a home since there is not $40 billion worth of loans and mortgages to be found each month. As a result, the money stays in the banks’ reserves.

He attributes a lot of this lack of demand to the fact that legislation like Dodd-Frank, Sarbannes-Oxley, and Obama Care have injected so much uncertainty and over regulation into the market that people are not sure what the future holds and are holding back from spending, investing, opening new businesses, etc.

He worries that these TRILLIONS of dollars could spike inflation and weaken the dollar so much that investment and economic growth, and the related employment picture could all hit us at the same time, resulting in the stagflation scenario of the Carter era: high inflation AND high unemployment. His remedy: delay or repeal Obama Care, Dodd-Frank, and other regulations to allow the economy to have some certainty and some freedom to grow on its own.

- In a Bloomberg news article from October 3, 2012, also related to the Fed’s quantitative easy, Lawrence Goodman, president of the center for Financial Stability, stated that “the Federal Reserve’s promise to hold borrowing costs at record lows into 2015 risks a loss of its credibility and a downward spiral in financial markets.”

He went on to say: "If rates edge higher due to factors such as inflation or credit issues, then the Fed will suffer a loss of its reputational state and that could have complications all across the yield curve. That can happen quickly and can unleash a forceful slide in the market and could thrust the economy back into recession.”

Seems there is a whole lot of downside to this third round of quantitative easing with little or no long term upside being espoused by anyone. It comes off as a desperation move by the Fed in the absence of the political class doing their job of managing our economic policies and affairs.

- In an October 3, 2012 article from Reuters, the world economy will take at least 10 years to emerge from the financial crisis that began in 2008, according to an International Monetary Fund Chief Economist Olivier Blanchard interview. He probably correctly pointed out that Japan’s economy will need decades to heal, the United States has serious fiscal problems, the Chinese economy is slowing, and in order for Europe to get out of its economic funk, Germany and its citizens will have to make some serious sacrifices on inflation and bailouts, not necessarily a guaranteed outcome.

- In an October 2, 2012 Moneynews interview, real estate billionaire Sam Zell asserted that the stock market, as measured by the Dow, should really be at the 9,000 level, not the current 13,000+ level because of the following negative factors:

• The Fed’s quantitative easing is giving stocks a temporary boost, as expected, but that effect will wear off shortly.
• The Fed’s printing of money is stoking inflation fears, causing potential home owners purchases and business expansion efforts to be delayed.
• The uncertainty about future tax levels and the so-called fiscal cliff are giving consumers and business no confidence in the future, restricting spending and investment.
• Investors are chasing a small number of stocks, e.g. Apple, which is driving up the overall stock market indices, but that limited range of stock options is also risky and could result in a significant drop if and when enthusiasm for those stocks wavers.
• Too many regulations, both now, and planned by the Obama administration if it stays in place, are also stifling business and economic growth.

Are we starting to see a pattern here? Too many taxes. Too much uncertainty. Too many regulations. Too little confidence in what the political class and the Fed are doing?

- In an October 2, 2012 Reuters article, Bill Gross, founder and co-chief investment officer of bond giant Pimco, stated that he believes that the United States could soon look like Greece in a few years if it does not get its fiscal house in order.

By his estimation, the U.S. must cut spending or raise taxes by 11 percent of gross domestic product over the next five to 10 years in order to preserve its role as financial safe haven or suffer some dire financial pains and anguish: "If we continue to close our eyes to existing 8 percent of GDP deficits, which, when including Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare liabilities, compose an average estimated 11 percent annual 'fiscal gap,' then we will begin to resemble Greece before the turn of the next decade.

While he feels that the U.S. is the best of the bad investment options in the world today, he did have two good visuals to represent where we are today and where we might be going from an economic perspective. Regarding today’s investment environment, the U.S. is the “cleanest dirtiest” shirt on the investment rack. We may not be good, but we are at least temporarily the best.

However, is we continue with our “crystal meth-like” addiction to out of control spending, someone, somewhere is eventually going to clean their shirts and leave the U.S. for better investment opportunities elsewhere in the world.

- In a September 28, 2012 Reuters article, Dallas Fed President Richard Fisher stated: "We've had a recovery that is quite disappointing.” The man is good at stating the obvious but went on to say why the recovery from the recession has been so bad. He attributed the bad economic news and recovery to the uncertainty on tax policy and regulation, "All the monetary accommodation in the world" will not get businesses hiring again.

Are we really starting to see a trend here among the experts? Too much uncertainty. Too little confidence in our economic, financial, and political leadership. Too many taxes. Too little clarity on taxes. Too many regulations. Is it any surprise that most of our economic performance, outlook, and confidence is so sour?

- The website, Bankrupting America, correctly reported on October 2, 2012, that the Federal government should have passed the standard, annual twelve appropriations bills that are needed to fund the Federal government by October 1. October 1 is important because that begins the government’s fiscal year.

Unfortunately, Congress fell a little short of that mandated goal of twelve, having passed exactly none. The House of Representatives, under Republican control, managed to pass six of the twelve. The Senate, under Democratic control, managed to pass none. Thus, the government will continue to limp along with a “continuing spending resolution” but without a budget for the next six months.

Is it any wonder that American citizens and American businesses have so little confidence in our political leadership of today, a group of people that cannot even pass a budget? And with little confidence comes little spending and investment and less economic growth.

Pathetic bunch of so-called leaders. No wonder we have a national debt of over $16 TRILLION, the politicians in Washington cannot even agree on a budget, never mind living within one.

That’s enough bad news for now. Despicably bad economic behavior and performance from everyone in Washington. Three steps from “Love My Country, Loathe My Government are needed to get this fiscal house in order:

Step 1


We invite all readers of this blog to visit our new website, "The United States Of Purple," at:

http://www.unitedstatesofpurple.com/

The United States of Purple is a new grass roots approach to filling the office of President of The United States by focusing on the restoration of freedom in the United States, focusing on problem solving skills and results vs. personal political enrichment, and imposing term limits on all future Federal politicians. No more red states, no more blue states, just one United States Of America under the banner of Purple.

The United States Of Purple's website also provides you the formal opportunity to sign a petition to begin the process of implementing a Constitutional amendment to impose fixed term limits on all Federally elected politicians. Only by turning out the existing political class can we have a chance of addressing and finally resolving the major issues of our times.

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at www.loathemygovernment.com. It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedomfor both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

http://www.cato.org/
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://realpolichick.blogspot.com/
http://www.flipcongress2010.com/
http://www.reason.com/
http://www.repealamendment