What happened to all of the doom and gloom economic threads?

[Frisco_Slug_Esq]

So, government continues to grow...





Which means prosperity is just around the corner; all we need is more debt, it's so "stimulative..."

__________________
A_J's corollary #9a, “When a Republican does it, an explanation is making an excuse, when a Democrat does it, then an excuse is the rightful explanation.”

 

[Frisco_Slug_Esq]

It's now clear that the emperor has no clothes. By August 2, President Barack Obama could become largely irrelevant in our domestic politics.

Unless Monday night's presidential address turns things around, Mr. Obama is about to be a lame duck before his time. If so, the American people can breathe easier. To borrow a slogan from the 2004 John Kerry-John Edwards campaign: "Help Is on the Way."

But conservatives should not necessarily offer three cheers for this outcome -- which is, let me hasten to add, entirely of the president's own making.

As I catalogued here last week, the United States is currently passing through a moment of danger -- both domestically and abroad. The U.S. economy has now stalled, with the highest level of unemployment since before the Second World War. Indeed, we haven't had a moment like this since Jimmy Carter became president in the wake of Watergate, the First Oil Shock, stagflation, and the fall of Southeast Asia to the Communists.

Now that it's clear that something like Speaker John Boehner's package will be passed to resolve the debt ceiling crisis and whittle away a bit more at the deficit, it's doubly clear that President Barack Obama has shot his wad. Unless Mr. Obama is reelected in 2012, this president is now largely unable to do further damage domestically. Only his veto pen retains its potency.

It's a different matter abroad. There, Mr. Obama remains in charge of America's position in world affairs. As president, he is commander-in-chief of the American military, America's head of state and the Leader of the Free World.

The world, however, now sees that America's president is weak. He does not command the Congress or the confidence of the American people. He refused to pull the trigger on Moammar Gaddafi, matching his actions to his words. With seventeen months to go in his term, the president presently appears unlikely to win reelection -- or his party to retain control of one House of Congress.

This is dangerous. In this wicked world, it is important that the American president be feared. This one is not.

The last time this happened, the year was 1979. And America's enemies moved very aggressively to take advantage of the failure of the Carter presidency.

The Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. It air-lifted Cuban troops into Angola, Mozambique, and the Horn of Africa, while simultaneously funding a Communist takeover in Nicaragua and a Communist insurgency in El Salvador. The USSR also began building a blue-water navy. A Soviet brigade was planted in Cuba, and Russian bombers began flying long-range patrols along the American coast.

In the Middle East, the Iranian Revolution occurred. Soon the entire U.S. Embassy staff had been taken hostage.

http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/07/the_danger_of_a_weak_american_president.html

 

[Frisco_Slug_Esq]

Time to hit the "Overcharge" button...

U.S. intelligence agencies concluded in a classified report late last year that Russia’s military intelligence was responsible for a bomb blast that occurred at an exterior wall of the U.S. Embassy in Tbilisi, Georgia, in September.

The highly classified report about the Sept. 22 incident was described to The Washington Times by two U.S. officials who have read it. They said the report supports the findings of the Georgian Interior Ministry, which traced the bombing to a Russian military intelligence officer.

The Times reported last week that Shota Utiashvili, director of information and analysis for the Georgian Interior Ministry, said the embassy blast and others in his country were the work of a Russian military intelligence officer named Maj. Yevgeny Borisov.

“It is written without hedges, and it confirms the Georgian account,” said one U.S. official familiar with the U.S. intelligence report.

This official added that it specifically says the Russian military intelligence, or GRU, coordinated the bombings.

Another official who read a three-page summary of the report said it mentions Maj. Borisov once and connects him to the bombings.

...

Some lawmakers have sought to learn more about the matter. Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona, the chamber’s Republican whip, said he sent a classified letter in June to the House and Senate intelligence committees asking them to investigate the incident and report back to members.

“Congress should investigate through the intelligence committees what has occurred and make the findings known to Congress,” Mr. Kyl said.

He said the report is important because the administration is pursuing Russia’s membership in the World Trade Organization and looking to seal a cooperative missile-defense agreement with Moscow.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/jul/26/us-report-russia-tied-to-embassy-blast/

 

[Ulaven_Demorte]

Good morning Cap'n.

I see you're making the obligatory rounds of the Right wing echo chambers.
American Thinker, The MoonieTimes.. Too early for NRO, Pajamas, and HotAir?

Such varied sources, as usual.. right, far right, fucking batshit right..

 

[Frisco_Slug_Esq]

I see your batshit crazy sourcing has no good economic news for us today...




Otherwise, you'd have something for us other than name-calling.

 

[Frisco_Slug_Esq]

Which leads me to the most destructive myth about history: the idea that if we are to prosper, government must make smart plans for us. I was taught that in college, and despite the failure of the Soviet Union, many government leaders still believe it.

It's no coincidence that the countries with the least economic freedom, according to the Heritage Foundation -- Cuba, Zimbabwe, North Korea -- are the worst places to live. They not only lack freedom, they are also poor.

Who's at the top of the economic freedom list? Hong Kong. (The United States is ninth.) Hong Kong has low taxes, and as I demonstrated in an ABC special years ago, they make it easy to become an entrepreneur. I got permission to open a business there in one day. In my hometown, New York City, it takes months.

Hong Kong doesn't even have democracy, but because its rulers protected people's personal safety and property and left them otherwise free, Hong Kong thrived. In 50 years, it went from horrible poverty to income levels that are among the highest in world. Prosperity, thanks to economic freedom.

We should try that here.

John Stossel
Townhall.com

 

[Frisco_Slug_Esq]

While officials from the Obama Administration raised their rhetoric over the weekend about the possibility of a debt default if the debt ceiling isn't raised, they privately have been telling top executives at major U.S. banks that such an event won’t happen, FOX Business has learned.

In a series of phone calls, administration officials have told bankers that the administration will not allow a default to happen even if the debt cap isn't raised by the August 2 date Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner says the government will run out of money to pay all its bills, including obligations to bond holders. Geithner made the rounds on the Sunday talk shows saying a default is imminent if the debt ceiling isn't raised, and President Obama issued a similar warning during a Friday press conference after budget negotiations with House Republicans broke down.

...

A senior banking official told FOX Business that administration officials have provided guidance to them that even though a default is off the table, a downgrade "is a real possibility for no other reason than S&P and Moody's have to cover (themselves) since they've been speaking out on the debt cap so much."

This guidance is a big reason why Wall Street has largely dismissed the possibility of default, and though the markets have been jittery amid the talk of default, they haven't imploded as would be the case, many economists fear, if the nation missed a payment on its debt.

...

Even without a default, banks expect some market turbulence if the triple-A sovereign-debt rating is cut, sources tell FOX Business. While bank officials do not believe there will be a “catastrophic” effect to a downgrade, that’s not to say there won’t be negative ripple effects, notably to bond deals and derivatives priced off triple-A-rated Treasurys.

Read more: http://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/2011/07/25/obama-to-banks-were-not-defaulting/#ixzz1TJ5yRSZw

 

[busybody..]

Durable goods down 2.1%

They keep using teh WORD

UNEXPECTD and SURPRISING!


When under BUSHCO it was growing 3-4% and unemployement was 5% they were saying

DURABLE GOODS ROSE ONLY 4%

and unemployement fell to ONLY 5%!!!!!

ASSHOLE MEDIA PROTECTS THE USELESS NIGGER

 

[Frisco_Slug_Esq]

You need to ease up on your rhetoric, you're starting to sound like Nancy Pelosi...




Good news is, if we lose AAA, the dollar falls and our goods become cheaper.

*nods*

 

[busybody..]

the US credit defalut swaps

are now lower

Than some AFRICAN CUNTRIES!



As I said

Obama will turn us into a TURD WORLD NATION!

 

[Frisco_Slug_Esq]

Ayers, me matey, we're all Somali pirates now running under a Kenyan flag!



Let's pick up our crew in Chicago...

 

[busybody..]

Chicago is over run with KILLINGS

I blame OBAMA!

 

[busybody..]

RECOVERY BUMMER (CONT’D): 500 Day Retail Recession Ahead, Says Analyst. Wait, how many days left until the election again?

KEEP

ON

PROTECTING

THE

NIGGER

 

[busybody..]

RECOVERY BUMMER (CONT’D): Orders for durable goods drop 2.1 percent in June with weakness led by fall in aircraft demand.

Hmm. A “fall in aircraft demand?” Whenever Obama opens his mouth, jobs die . . . .

KEEP

ON

PROTECTING

THE

NIGGER

 

[koalabear]

Stocks rally on Obama's debt plan.

Updated: 07/27/2011 01:39 ET
DOW 12,379.86 -121.44

 

[busybody..]

RECOVERY BUMMER (CONT’D): Fed survey: Growth slows in nearly half the US, due to weakness in housing and manufacturing.



WHO OWNS THE DEBT-CEILING ISSUE AGAIN? “Of the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling we have now, $4.5 trillion got added by Democrat-controlled Congresses since taking control in 2007. That corresponds exactly with the expansion in spending by Democratic Congresses over the same period.”

Please

Protect

the

NIGGER​

 

[Frisco_Slug_Esq]

For U_D and merc

Menger insists throughout his work that value is essentially subjective, and that therefore economics must be in the main a subjective science. Goods have no inherent value in themselves. They are valued because they help to satisfy some human want or need. A given quantity or unit of a certain good will satisfy a man's most intense desire or need. He may also want a second, third, or fourth increment. But after each unit is consumed or employed, his desire or heed for a further unit of that good may be less intense, and may finally become completely satisfied.

It follows that each increment of that good at his disposal will have a reduced value to him. But as no unit of the total available quantity of that good can have a greater value in exchange than any other (of the same quality), it follows further that no other unit will be worth more in the market than the "final" unit of the supply. Thus in a given community the exchange value of a given increment of each good will be determined by the relation between its total available quantity and the intensity of the human need or want that it fills.

...

The concept itself is extremely nebulous. Neoclassical economists seem obsessed today with setting up complicated algebraic equations stipulating the conditions of equilibrium or functional relations under "perfect competition" and the like, but it is difficult to specify precisely what their x's and y's stand for. They cannot refer to physical quantities, because you cannot add apples to horses, or a ton of gold watches to a ton of sand. One might add or compare quantities times prices, but what would be the meaning of the total, or any of the parts that make it up? The price, even of one commodity, differs from hour to hour, place to place, and transaction to transaction. The value of the currency itself fluctuates and constantly changes its exchange ratio with commodities. If we simply add or compare "values," then we must recognize that values are purely subjective. They are impossible to measure or to total because they differ with each individual.

If we pass over these fundamental difficulties, where do we arrive? Even if we assume that there may be a persistent long-run tendency toward general equilibrium, we must admit that there is also a persistent short-run and long-run tendency toward the persistence of disequilibrium.

This is not only because there is a tendency of entrepreneurs, in increasing or reducing production in response to market and profit signals, to overshoot the mark, but because individual entrepreneurs, so far from making merely automatic responses, are constantly gaining new knowledge, alert to new opportunities, changing methods and reducing production costs, improving products, innovating — turning out entirely new products or inventions. And consumers too are constantly learning, changing tastes, and demanding new products to meet new wants. So Austrian economists seldom speak of market equilibrium, but of the market process.

My own suspicion is that the enormous attention now being devoted to stipulating the mathematical conditions of "general equilibrium" is a pursuit of a will-o'-the-wisp, of questionable help in solving any real economic problem.

Henry Hazlitt
(Author of Economics in One Lesson)

http://mises.org/daily/3561/Understanding-Austrian-Economics

 

[koalabear]

Stocks soar as not as many jobs were lost as expected.

Updated: 07/28/2011 11:05 ET
DOW 12,337.93 +35.38

 

[NeverEndingMe]

clearly we need more spending.

For U_D and merc


Henry Hazlitt
(Author of Economics in One Lesson)

http://mises.org/daily/3561/Understanding-Austrian-Economics

 

[koalabear]

Pentagon Push to Cut Contractors Takes Toll on Businesses

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/201...ctors-takes-toll-on-businesses/#ixzz1TQDsobXg

 

[busybody..]

NIGGERS ARE HAPPY

CAUSE TEH NIGGER

WONT MAKE EM WORK

AND

NIGGERS DONT WANNA

WORK





ObamaNomics Fail: Unemployment Rate Among Blacks Near Great Depression Levels…


If a Republican was president the left would be pissing and moaning about his or her “racist” economic policies.

(Fox News) — The unemployment situation across America is bad, no doubt. But for African-Americans in some cities, this is not the great recession. It’s the Great Depression.

Take Charlotte, N.C., for example. It is a jewel of the “new South.” The largest financial center outside of New York City, it’s the showcase for next year’s Democratic National Convention. It was a land of hope and opportunity for many blacks with a four-year college degree or higher.

According to an analysis by the Economic Policy Institute, in Charlotte, N.C., the unemployment rate for African-Americans is 19.2 percent. If you add in people who have given up looking for jobs, that number exceeds 20 percent, which, according to economists Algernon Austin and William Darity, has effectively mired blacks in a depression.

“You’re looking at a community that is economically depressed in my opinion,” Austin said. “And we need action that will address that scale of joblessness.”

Vanessa Parker worked hard to get ahead. She was an administrative assistant at IBM in Charlotte. She went to night school to better herself, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in finance. Parker and her husband saved up enough money to move from a bad neighborhood to a quiet, middle-class street. But instead of moving up in the company, IBM moved out. Now she works at a big-box store for minimum wage.

 

[Frisco_Slug_Esq]

Stocks soar as not as many jobs were lost as expected.

Updated: 07/28/2011 11:05 ET
DOW 12,337.93 +35.38

*chuckle*

Looks like that stimulus got as a AA-rating!

Way to go President Obama, U_D man!

 

[Frisco_Slug_Esq]

Dollar for Dollar
Mark Steyn

It’s not a dollar-for-dollar match if Obama gets an extra trillion bucks in his pocket now in return for 900-and-whatever billion stretched out over ten years. That formula’s a crock.

Furthermore, at some point the crock risks straining the ratings system beyond repair. Just as Obama and Boehner want credit for talking about cuts without having to cut anything, S&P and Moody’s want credit for musing on downgrading without actually having to do it. That’s understandable: downgrading the United States has consequences that downgrading Ireland and Portugal doesn’t. But, having flopped out in 2008, they want something on the record this time round.

I don’t think that will be enough. The European Union, you’ll recall, was fulminating against the ratings gang a couple of weeks back, and threatening to criminalize them. I regard the EU as a pestilence and have no use for the Euro, but their complaint is not without merit — as I noted in my weekend column. Nobody in Greece, Portugal, Spain, or Ireland is talking about “out years” and exciting plans for spending cuts in 2020. They’re getting on with it now — and they’re still being downgraded.

By contrast, both U.S. political parties are playing croquet on the lawn in August 1914 — and the ratings agencies are stringing along with them. Whatever the comparisons of debt-to-GDP ratios between Greece, Ireland, and the U.S., the actual hard dollar amount involved here is of an entirely different order. The Boehner plan tells us that real fiscal discipline is impossible within the U.S. political system. At some point, the ratings guys have to call them on it — or render their system meaningless.

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/272924/dollar-dollar-mark-steyn

 

[kbate]

*chuckle*

Looks like that stimulus got as a AA-rating!

Way to go President Obama, U_D man!

So what. AA is still better than most countries have. If we hadn't had the stimulus, our rating might have gone as low as A because the somewhere between 1.4 and 4.5 million jobs saved or created by stimulus* spending would not exist and wouldn't be paying the taxes that the rich aren't paying their fair share of.


*depending on which government spending multipliers your jobs saved/created model uses

 

[Frisco_Slug_Esq]

Ironic how the stimulus that "saved" us, like so many millions of jobs, is now the debt that sinks us into, if one is to believe the hysteria, a Great Depression, which, of course, the stimulus (and TARP) prevented...