The $825B & $447B Economic Stimulus Packages

[Dutchcedar]

The Institute for Supply Management scored July as the slowest month in two years...

Its normally one of the best months for manufacturing. So when July is bad, you can rest assured that September won't be better.

[AMDScooter]

Its normally one of the best months for manufacturing. So when July is bad, you can rest assured that September won't be better.

Yup. Truth to be told.. we're probably already in a double dip. In related news... administration once again going to focus like a laser on jobs.

The Democrats’ new laser-like focus on jobs… HEY!
Stop LAUGHING!

Hey, guess what? The Democrats plan to focus on jobs! (Via Ace of Spades) Stop me if you’ve heard this one before… what, you have?

A lot?

Are you sure?

December 2009: “Entering an election year, Democrats sharpen focus on jobs” Unemployment rate: 10.0%.
January 2010: “Obama to focus hard on economy after Democratic loss” Unemployment rate: 9.7%.
February 2010: “Democrats Seek to Push Ahead $15 Billion Jobs Bill, With More Steps to Come” Unemployment rate: 9.7%.
March 2010: “Jobs Bill Signed Into Law by Obama” The first of many… err, one? Unemployment rate: Unemployment rate: 9.7%.
April 2010: “Obama election-year jobs agenda stalls in Congress.” Unemployment rate: 9.9%.
May 2010: “The American Jobs and Closing Tax Loopholes Act of 2010.” Remember this when you hit the second July 2010 entry. Unemployment rate: 9.7%.
June 2010: “Obama Urges Quick Vote to Spur Jobs” Unemployment rate: 9.5%.
July 2010: “Harry Reid stresses job-based agenda” Unemployment rate: 9.5%.
July 2010: “President Obama signs Unemployment Compensation Extension Act of 2010 into law.” Yes, that’s the same thing as the May entry. Apparently, extending unemployment benefits counts as job creation. Also, remember this when you see the unemployment rate in May 2011. Unemployment rate: 9.5% (obviously).
August 2010: “Obama Calls for ‘Full-Scale Attack’ to Revive Struggling Economy” Unemployment rate: 9.6%.
September 2010: “Senators Urge Reid to Focus on Jobs, Adjourn Early” …Yes, that one’s unkind of both me and the Nevada GOP, but it was too funny to pass up. Unemployment rate: 9.6%.
October 2010: “Obama to focus on jobs, economy on India visit.” This, a month after the Democrats failed to get an outsourcing bill past their then-59/41 majority. Unemployment rate: 9.7%.
November 2010: “Reid: Jobs Are Priority #1 For Democrats” Unemployment rate: 9.8%.
December 2010: “Obama & Labor Unions Meet to Plan Job Creation.” Based on this RedState report; Jim was as cynical about the likelihood of that happening as we were. Unemployment rate: 9.4%.
January 2011: “Obama Address to Focus on Jobs, Cutting Deficit, Unity.” Unemployment rate: 9.0%.
February 2011: “Jobs Message to Go Home With House Democrats” Unemployment rate: 8.9%.
March 2011: “Democrats’ central message on jobs might not be enough” Unemployment rate: 8.8%.
April 2011: “Democrat rips Obama for not focusing more on jobs.” Unemployment rate: 9.0%.
May 2011: “Dems target unemployment benefits bill” Unemployment rate: 9.1%. Yeah, that was some real impressive job creation that came from paying people to not work for longer, there. And would it be mean of me to remind people that we were promised by the Obama administration to be between 6 and 7% unemployment at this point? …Yes, it would probably be mean of me.
June 2011: “Obama Announces ‘All-Hands-On-Deck Strategy’ To Boost Private Sector Hiring” As I put it at the time: “Now watch this drive.” Unemployment rate: 9.2%.
July 2011: “Democrats Focus on Jobs, Continue to Urge GOP to Work Together On Balanced Agreement to Pay America’s Bills, Reduce Deficit.” You dirty terrorists, you. Also: we’re all waiting for the July numbers on Friday: who wants to bet that they’re going to be any better than June’s?
August: 2011: The Democrats plan to focus on jobs!

(Note: all unemployment rate numbers are from here and here).

Well. I guess that you were. I suppose that this commentary from Joe Biden back in October 2008…


…says it all, really.

[kbohip]

Yup. Truth to be told.. we're probably already in a double dip. In related news... administration once again going to focus like a laser on jobs.

Double Dip? Let's face it, the first recession never ended except in the eyes of the media and the government. April 2009 my ass.

[tucker]

^^^ A lot of people on Main Street share that view including me.

In other news.

Economic Fears Slam Wall Street, Stocks Plunge

The markets fell sharply after concerns over the sluggish pace of the economic recovery, coupled with a late-day selloff in European markets, overshadowed the Senate’s passage of the debt ceiling increase.

Today's Markets

As of 2:45 p.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 180 points, or 1.5%, to 11,951, the S&P 500 slipped 23.2 points, or 1.8%, to 1,263 and the Nasdaq Composite slumped 52.3 points, or 1.9%, to 2,692. The FOX 50 fell 12.9 points to 905.

Foreign markets sold off in late trading, with European shares hitting an 11-month closing low. Additionally, the blue chips are presently on a seven-day losing streak -- the longest in nearly a year.

Personal spending unexpectedly dipped 0.2% in June, according to the Commerce Department, shy of the 0.2% increase economists expected. The decline was the first in nearly two years. Meanwhile, personal income grew at a pace of 0.1% for the month, slower than forecasts of 0.2%. The consumption sector directly affects broader economic output.

This report comes on the heels of disappointing data showing growth in the manufacturing sector essentially stalled last month.

The closely-watched monthly employment report for July is on tap for Friday, and is expected to show the economy added 57,000 jobs, which would keep the unemployment rate steady at 9.2%. The labor market has been extremely slow to come back during the economic recovery.

The House of Representatives and the Senate passed a bill to raise the U.S. borrowing limit and cut the deficit by roughly $2.1 trillion over the next decade. President Barack Obama signed the bill into law shortly afterward. The measure was the subject of heated debate on Capitol Hill for months and voting came on the day of the deadline set by the Treasury Department.

While the passage of the bill will help the country avoid a catastrophic default, the chance remains that credit ratings companies may choose to downgrade America's coveted 'AAA' credit rating, which could strongly impact world credit markets, analysts say.

Fitch said Tuesday the compromise-deal is in line with the 'AAA' credit rating, and represents a step in the right direction. However, the ratings company noted the country will have to confront difficult choices to balance tax and spending while dealing with a weak economic backdrop.

The debt deal "does not put the U.S. on a sustainable fiscal path," economists at Barclays Capital wrote in a note to clients, adding "weakness in U.S. growth has the potential to offset most of the savings claimed by the debt reduction package."

The euro zone debt crisis also worried traders on Tuesday after BNP Paribas, Europe's biggest lender by assets, took a roughly $757 billion writedown on its Greek sovereign debt. Greece, which has an enormous public debt burden, is in need of a rescue package from euro zone authorities and has seen its credit rating being sliced into junk territory and just slightly above default.

Concerns also remained that the crisis in small countries like Greece would spread to more economically-prominent ones like Spain and Italy.

On the corporate front, Dow-component Pfizer (PFE: 18.36, -0.65, -3.42%) revealed second-quarter earnings, excluding one-time costs, of 60 cents a share, topping estimates by a penny. The pharmaceutical giant posted revenue of $17 billion, just slightly higher than analysts forecast.

Energy markets were mixed. The euro fell 0.31% against the U.S. dollar, while the greenback dipped 0.01% against a basket of world currencies.

Light, sweet crude fell 45 cents, or 0.47%, to $94.48 a barrel. Wholesale RBOB gasoline rose 1 cents, or 0.28%, to $3.06 a gallon.

Prices at the pump were once again stable overnight, but remain highly-elevated as compared to last year. A gallon of regular costs $3.70 on average nationwide, up from $3.57 last month, and the $2.74 drivers paid last year, according to the AAA Fuel Gauge report.

Gold jumped $18.60, or 1.1%, to $1,640 a troy ounce. Silver gained 77 cents, or 1.9%, $40.07 a troy ounce.

Corporate News

Sirius XM Radio (SIRI: 2.09, -0.02, -0.95%) raised its full-year new subscriber outlook to 1.6 million, from a previous forecast of 1.4 million, sending shares jumping.

Barclays (BCS: 14.11, -0.24, -1.67%) unveiled a 38% drop in quarterly profits, prompting a fresh round of layoffs.

Foreign Markets

The English FTSE 100 fell 0.7% to 5,733, the French CAC 40 dipped 1.5% to 3,533 and the German DAX plunged 2.2% to 6,801.

In Asia, the Japanese Nikkei 225 tumbled 1.2% to 9,845 and the Chinese Hang Seng dropped 1.1% to 22,422.


http://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/2...debt-concerns/

[AMDScooter]

Double Dip? Let's face it, the first recession never ended except in the eyes of the media and the government. April 2009 my ass.

To be fair.. I stick with the two quarters of negative growth standard. But point out that when the GDP growth was at 3.3% under GW they MSM and libberals were declaring we were in a recession. The "double dip" probably won't be a technical "recession" with negative growth... it'll probably hover in and under the 1% figure for the foreseeable future.

Economy on the Brink of Double Dip Recession

It’s worse than anyone thought.

Economic growth in second quarter of 2011 is just 1.3 percent – a half percent less than expected – and the estimate for the first quarter of 2011 was revised downward from 1.9 percent to 0.4 percent – essentially no growth.

Technically, a recession is two quarters in a row of negative growth. You don’t have to be a mathematician to see that we are basically in a mild recession, since the economy has ceased to grow. With unemployment at 9.2 percent and growing, I’d say it feels like a recession to me.

Here’s what President Obama should do:

1. Fire his economic team. No letters of resignation. Fire them. They can all go to Harvard to teach.

2. Stop fundraising and campaigning for reelection.

3. Accept a temporary increase in the debt ceiling that Speaker Boehner is offering him.

4. Spend the next several months making drastic reforms to government that slash spending by trillions of dollars so that the deficit is under control and our economy has a fighting chance.

THIS IS BIGGER THAN YOU, MR. PRESIDENT.


What happened to all the nonsense about how you’d be a one-term president if you could just do some good in the world? Please, you’re just another politician, grasping at power like an alcoholic straining for a quart of bourbon.

YOUR POLICIES ARE A FAILURE. YOU MUST CHANGE THEM.

You have ignored the greatest peril to the economy – the deficit – while going about your merry way creating new regulations, changing the health care system at a cost of nearly $1 trillion and counting, and trying to boost the economy with a poorly crafted $800 billion stimulus.

IT HAS NOT WORKED.

Instead of shifting course, the president today spent a few minutes propagandizing on the debt ceiling. I won’t bore you with quotes. You’ve heard it before.

Here’s how Council of Economic Advisers Chairman Austan Goolsbee began his statement on the latest economic figures:

Today’s report shows that the economy posted the eighth straight quarter of positive growth . . .

This competes with “Other than that, Mrs Lincoln, how was the show?” for the prize for delusional avoidance of uncomfortable facts.

These people are are divorced from reality. Goolsbee is actually leaving the White House soon to go back to academia, where he can get some more experience living in fantasyland. Good riddance.

Mr. President, I’m rooting for you to change policies and succeed. Because I’m rooting for the country.

But I just know you won’t.

[AMDScooter]

Flashback: “Welcome to the recovery!”

The NRSC wants to give some equal time to Democrats in its latest web ad, and so they let their opponents do all of the talking. The spot flashes back to statements from Barack Obama, Harry Reid Claire McCaskill, Tim Geithner, and Jay Carney extolling the recovery that they created — a recovery that new data shows never really happened. With economic indicators falling and Wall Street hitting reverse, it’s a good time to recall the sales job conducted by an administration that had no product in the first place:


The NRSC uses this ad to argue for a new Republican Senate, and they do play the now-risible cheerleading from a number of Democratic Senators — Reid, McCaskill, Joe Manchin, and Jon Tester — but also Obama, Carney, Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, and former DNC chair (and now Senate candidate) Tim Kaine. If viewers think that the argument is broader than just the Senate, I’m pretty sure that the NRSC won’t mind a bit. It’s an effective ad, especially with the “shovel ready” practical demonstration, complete with a donkey watching from a distance. However, at 45 seconds, it’s not necessarily a good fit for TV buys. Hopefully the NRSC will have 30- and 60-second versions ready to play in key states. (via Jim Geraghty)

&

Detroit Bureau Uses Money Meant To Feed Poor To Buy $314 Trash Cans

Three stainless-steel trash cans with motion-activated sensor lids: $314.93 each. A 500-lb capacity ottoman for the cafeteria: $469. Mahogany-finished conference room table: $3,000. The line items sound extravagant enough on their own. When you learn that they were to makeover a Detroit city office that handles the federal money for feeding and clothing the poor, and the credenzas and sofas and such came out of that money, it's time to get livid.

The Detroit Free Press blew the lid off this misspending and waste after it used a Freedom of Information Act request to get a copy of the receipt for the pricey office furniture that was delivered to Detroit's Human Services Department. You can look at the entire receipt here (PDF).

The $210,000 used to buy the office furniture came directly a $1.2 million grant that was specifically supposed to cover the salaries and administrative costs of hiring employees for food and clothing banks, reports the Detroit Free Press. What makes the misappropriation all the more enraging to the citizens of Detroit is that this same Human Services Department, saying they were short on funds, didn't open a high-demand warming center for homeless people until late this winter. Employees were amazed to see the new furniture arrive, considering their wages had been cut 10% last year.

The Free Press story kicked off an FBI investigation and resulted in the Director of the office and several other employees being suspended. The Mayor's office, the police, and the city's auditor general are wrapping up their investigations of the office following the report. The Mayor said the results would probably end up with most, if not all, of the suspended employees getting fired.

"Mayor Bing has made it clear that city government must work for residents," mayoral spokesman Dan Lijana told the Detroit Free Press. "He has zero tolerance for the reality or appearance of misuse or mismanagement of funds."

[AMDScooter]

Geesus. We've gone from "recover bummer" to "that ain't mah' job..".

Old and Busted: The White House Will Soon Be Creating 500,000 Jobs A Month
New Hotness: The White House Does Not Create Jobs

Joe Biden, April 23, 2010:

"All in all we're going to be creating somewhere between 100[,000] and 200,000 jobs next month, I predict," Biden said, according to a pool report, adding that he "got in trouble" for a job growth prediction last month. "Even some in the White House said, 'Hey, don't get ahead of yourself.' Well, I'm here to tell you, some time in the next couple of months, we're going to be creating between 250,000 jobs a month and 500,000 jobs a month."

Jay Carney, August 3, 2011:

“The White House doesn’t create jobs,” Carney said, adding “the government, together — White House, Congress — creates policies that allow for greater job creation.”

You know who creates jobs though? And who therefore should get the blame, should jobs not be created?

Congress. Note that just after claiming the White House doesn't create jobs, Carney demands that Congress create some jobs.

This is really a slip of the tongue, I imagine. But having laid down the marker that the White House doesn't really create jobs (refuting all the previous WH statements about "saving or creating" jobs), he starts speaking of Congress creating jobs.

He is working very closely with his senior economic advisers to come up with new proposals to help advance growth and job creation. He is working with members of Congress to help advance growth and job creation. And he will continue to do that. There are things that Congress can do now to create jobs, and they should. There are things that Congress will be able to do when they return from recess to help create jobs and spur growth, and they should. And he looks forward to working with Congress to do that.

Odd, isn't it, that when there are jobs being created -- or at least predicted to be created -- it's the White House creating them.

But when no jobs are being created, that's not the White House's problem.

After all, it's Congress that creates jobs.

Thanks to soothie for the Biden quote.

brb, lowerin' the bar, shiftin' blame

[AMDScooter]

Still ain't stim-u-latin'....



July payrolls rise soothes recession fears

. . .
The unemployment rate dipped to 9.1 percent from 9.2 percent in June, but that was because discouraged job-seekers gave up the hunt.
. . .

[Dutchcedar]

^^^ Even Geitner can make pretty good predictions if ya let him call it late.

[SteveW]

Geez, Obambi's fiscal record is pretty dismal.

I know what we need, a new Health Care plan should fix everything........ Saddle our failing economy with more unpaid debt - thanks Nancy!

How about a Stimulus Package that will create thousands and thousands of Shovel Ready jobs for our infrastructure? Maybe some Green Jobs too along the way! I know, we can stimulate the auto industry with a Cash for Clunkers program! That outta do it! What about some first time Homebuyers rebates and handouts? A sure fire cure for an ailing economy......

[AMDScooter]

MOAR STIMULI!!!

Charles Krauthammer Smacks Down Margaret Carlson's Call for More Stimulus Spending: 'It Worked in ’09 and in ’10'

not...

[SteveW]

MOAR STIMULI!!!

Charles Krauthammer Smacks Down Margaret Carlson's Call for More Stimulus Spending: 'It Worked in ’09 and in ’10'

not...

Don't worry, they'll come up with another "Stimulus" concept - Yeah, "Cash for Clunkers" may have failed, "First Time Homebuyers" may have backfired, and the bailouts, well.......let's not give up hope on Obamanomics........they'll figure it out!

Meanwhile.......

As NewsBusters reported Friday:

"Since the Democrats took over Congress in 2007, the deficit has grown tenfold from $160 billion to $1.6 trillion. Spending has increased $1.1 trillion or 41 percent as the debt exploded $5.9 trillion or 68 percent. Meanwhile, unemployment has gone from 4.4 percent to 9.1 percent.

How could anyone need any more proof that governments can't spend their way out of recessions?" Actually, if the government had the case reserves on hand, we could indeed spend our way out of this recession - what we cannot do is "Borrow" our way out.

[AMDScooter]

Recover bummer recap..

[AMDScooter]

"Stimulus" stupid of the day... food stamps "obviously putting people to work....".

Video: Obama Ag Secretary says rise in food stamps is putting people to work

Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack told MSNBC’s Morning Joe that the Obama administration has a jobs program already in place — and it’s food stamps. When asked about new numbers that show one in every seven Americans now receiving food stamps from the federal government, Vilsack said that’s good news. Food stamps create jobs, Vilsack insisted, and managed to even come up with a new multiplier effect number:



So here’s the question. If food stamps create jobs, like Vilsack says here, and we’re putting record numbers of Americans on food stamps, then why aren’t we seeing record job creation? If every dollar spent on food stamps creates $1.84 in production, as Vilsack argues, and the number of food stamp recipients keeps rising, then why haven’t the GDP numbers reflected that fabulous growth?

There are two answers, the first of which is two words: opportunity costs. The supposed multiplier effect does not take into consideration the cost of taking capital from the private sector, where it can be put to use for actual growth and job creation, for use by the government. In this case, the opportunity costs have a heavy burden of interest, since we’re not taking money from current capital but from future capital, thanks to runaway deficits. Not only does this make less efficient use of capital, it underscores the signals to investors that the US government will practice sharply confiscatory tax policies in the future, which stunts investment and produces … well, the stagnation we’re seeing right now.

The other answer? The multiplier effect is completely bogus. For one thing, much of the money gets absorbed by the government bureaucracies that manage these programs. Second, as I alluded earlier, the evidence we see all around us shows us that we can’t get economic growth through government welfare programs. If what Vilsack said was true, we’d be better off seizing all income and handing out food stamps.

There are good humanitarian and social reasons for safety-net programs like unemployment insurance and food stamps, but economic growth isn’t one of them. The rise in both are indicators of failing economics.

Record numbers of people on food stamps = doing a good job. These functional retards in the administration think pushing people into poverty is their job.

[tucker]

"Stimulus" stupid of the day... food stamps "obviously putting people to work....".

Video: Obama Ag Secretary says rise in food stamps is putting people to work



Record numbers of people on food stamps = doing a good job. These functional retards in the administration think pushing people into poverty is their job.

The really scary thing is there are millions of retards that actually believe crapola like that.