The Business Cycle Throws The GOP A Curveball
By Ralph Benko
This blogpost originally appeared on Forbes, February 6, 2012.
243,000 new jobs? This is more than respectable. No unseemly disparagement by Republicans welcome, nor victory lap by Democrats. A pox on both their houses.
Proto-Supply Sider (who, among other things, generously cut oppressive tariffs) King Canute achieved mythic status by ordering the tide to cease rising. What often is forgotten is that he did so to show his sycophants the limits — not extent — of his powers.
As medieval chronicler Henry of Huntington wrote:
[A]t the summit of his power, he ordered a seat to be placed for him on the sea-shore when the tide was coming in. Then, before a large group of his flattering courtiers, he spoke to the rising sea, saying, ‘Thou, too, art subject to my command, for the land on which I am seated is mine, and no one has ever resisted my commands with impunity. I command you, then, o waters, not to flow over my land, nor presume to wet the feet and the robe of your lord.’
The tide, however, continued to rise as usual, dashing over his feet and legs without respect to his royal person.
Then the King leaped backwards, saying: ‘Let all men know how empty and worthless is the power of kings, for there is none worthy of the name, but He whom heaven, earth, and sea obey by eternal laws.’
“Obey … eternal laws.” The business cycle is as sacrosanct as the law of gravity. Utopians sacrifice Virgins and pray (Cut Entitlements!) for Endless Summer; Neo-Keynsians chant mumbo jumbo (Stimulate Aggregate Demand!) and command winter to end. Harry Truman famously once said (long safely retired from the presidency): “My choice early in life was either to be a piano player in a whorehouse or a politician. And to tell the truth, there’s hardly any difference.”
The House GOP Authors a Jobs Recovery
By Charles Kadlec
This blogpost originally appeared on Forbes.com, March 12, 2012.
Speaker of the House John Boehner, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor and their fellow House Republicans should claim credit for this jobs recovery. It never would have happened had they not stopped the counter-productive fiscal policies of the Obama Administration — starting with blocking the job killing increase in personal income tax rates that otherwise would have taken place on January 1, 2011, and then last fall refusing to vote for yet another round of wasteful “stimulus” spending and money losing investments in “green jobs."
Green Ideology & Working People
By Charles Johnson
July 7th, 2012
Four years into a dangerously long recession, we must re-evaluate the green ideology’s stranglehold on environmental policy.
The command-and-control approach to protecting nature—regulation under the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, and Endangered Species Act—has done some good in the last four decades. We have a healthier environment because of it. But unfortunately this approach, like government entitlements, seems to have no stopping point.
Disability Ranks Outpace New Jobs In Obama Recovery
By John Merlin
This piece originally appeared in Investors Business Daily on July 6th 2012
More workers joined the federal government's disability program in June than got new jobs, according to two new government reports, a clear indicator of how bleak the nation's jobs picture is after three full years of economic recovery.
The economy created just 80,000 jobs in June, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday. But that same month, 85,000 workers left the workforce entirely to enroll in the Social Security Disability Insurance program, according to the Social Security Administration.
The disability ranks have outpaced job growth throughout President Obama's recovery. While the economy has created 2.6 million jobs since June 2009, fully 3.1 million workers signed up for disability benefits.
Government to Small Business: “Never Enough”
The campaign rhetoric about government as our guardian against abuse by big business distracts us from its burdens upon small business. And those should concern us more—partly because government is a monopoly and therefore inescapable. In addition, the big guys in the marketplace can usually live with more regulation and higher taxes. The little guys can’t.
President Obama’s “you didn’t build it” remark, blurted out in a pro-government riff at a recent campaign stop, was a defiant response to small-business owners’ natural tendency to claim moral stature based on their hard work
Employment Report: Obama Recovery Still in Last Place
The following is a Press Release from the Joint Economic Committee’s Kevin Brady.
Washington D.C.-- Responding to today’s employment report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX), Vice Chairman of the Joint Economic Committee, issued the following statement:
“Today’s employment report, despite a better than expected gain of 172,000 private payroll jobs, yet again, confirms the failure of President Obama’s economic policies.” Brady added, “Using the White House’s own metrics of talking about private payroll job gains from the cycle low, President Obama’s recovery remains in last place among post-World War II recoveries.”
Unemployment: Much Worse Than 8 Percent, Little Improvement on Tap
By Charles S. Johnson
August 4th, 2012
The “8 percent unemployment” rate in recent months, unfortunate though it is, paints a too- optimistic picture of our economy.
Real unemployment is a frightening 15 percent, if we count the officially unemployed plus two other categories—people who have stopped seeking work but still want a job, and those who are working only part-time (and thus probably aren’t meeting their financial needs) because that is all they can find.
The U.S. Labor Department compiles two separate job reports. The economy gained 163,000 jobs in July, which helps to explain why the uptick in official unemployment was only marginal. But the Labor Department also found that 195,000 fewer people are considered employed than a month ago.
To learn how many jobs the economy gained or lost, the government surveys businesses. To learn how many people are working, it surveys households. From households, it obtains both the widely reported “unemployment rate” that’s based on active job-seekers who aren’t working and a less-publicized “U-6” unemployment rate.
The Choice Of 2012: Obama Austerity vs. Romney Growth
This article article orginally appeared on Forbes.com on October 8, 2012.
Here is the most important take away on economic policy from last week’s debate:
- President Barack Obama plans to raise revenue by imposing $1 trillion in new taxes on the U.S. economy that will destroy nearly 1 million jobs;
- Governor Mitt Romney plans to raise revenues by pursuing policies that will create more taxpayers through increased private sector employment.
Obama Recovery Officially Dead Last in Job Creation
The following is a press release from the Joint Economic Committee:
“Budget deficit twice as high, 3.7 million more Americans unnecessarily searching for work as a result of Obama’s poor economic choices,” says GOP economic leader
Washington, D.C.— In a jobs report unaffected by Hurricane Sandy, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today that the U.S. economy added 171,000 nonfarm payroll jobs during October with a gain of 184,000 jobs in the private sector. The unemployment rate increased to 7.9%.
The Growth Recession On President Obama's Watch Continues
This article orginally appeared on Forbes.com on February 4, 2013
The U.S. economy remains in the grip of a growth recession, and there is no relief in sight. Slow growth means continued high unemployment as workers bear the brunt of the burden of President Obama’s failed economic policies. Continued slow growth also means trillions of dollars will be added to projected deficits and more contentious battles over spending and taxes. But, corporations appear to have adjusted to a plodding economy by cutting costs enough to be on their way to reporting record profits, driving stock prices to within reach of their highs hit before the Great Recession.
Economic activity in the fourth quarter was flat, as overall GDP contracted at a teeny tiny 0.1% annual rate. Two one-time events – a 22% annual rate of decline in defense spending and a reduction in inventories subtracted about 2.5 percentage points from the growth rate. But, these were offset by the recovery in residential investment and consumer spending on durable goods which was boosted in part by an aging auto fleet feeding new car sales. Accelerated bonus payments of $45 billion (at annual rates) and dividend payouts of – get this — $317 billion artificially inflated personal income and the savings rate during the quarter as individuals scramble to protect as much income as possible from the Obama tax increase.
