Bdogslo wrote: Ransom is misleading. Obama hasn't manipulated anything. Unemployment is one of many economic indicators, all of which appear to be improving. – in response to Obama Unemployment Magic Trick: Indefinitely Detain 4 Million People from Workforce
B-Dog,
I stand by the article.
You may not like it, but I think it’s legitimate to point out that Obama is benefiting from the fact that he’s drawn out this recession. You don’t think his economic folks knew that the survey would show more people qualifying as “long-term discouraged,” thereby deflating unemployment numbers the longer the recession continues?
The real problem, and the one Obama and everyone else ought to be concerned about, is the diminished capacity for output that a long, drawn-out recession is taking on the economy, as noted by my friend and fellow Townhall writer, economist Dan Mitchell. What people should be very concerned about is that 4.4 million people have permanently left the workforce because of the length of the recession. That’s a population number that would qualify as the 26th largest state in the country.
Imagine a state the size of Kentucky or Louisiana not having any jobs. That’s extremely harmful to the long-term future of the country and it will take at least a generation to repair the damage. And Obama praises it as progress?
The point is that the government unemployment number masks what is really going on in the economy. That’s the Obama magic trick, and it always has been.
He makes “investments” in green energy which even the Washington Post says is just graft. He “saves” healthcare by killing healthcare. As long as he continues to use words as a dodge against what he really stands for, people like me will be there calling him out about his real motives.
If you don’t like it, next time trying nominating a president who tells the truth and follows the constitution.
Patches wrote: Obama also deserves the Cy Young award for that pitch he threw! It was a beauty! – in response to Obama Unemployment Magic Trick: Indefinitely Detain 4 Million People from Workforce
Dear Patches,
He’s also playing some of the best linebacker I’ve seen since Joe Mantegna.
Trooperj wrote: Nice piece, but it doesn't matter. The unemployment number will be reported as "trending" downward before the election. That's what the AP will report. When they report it, it's in 2,000+ US newspapers. Reuters will do the same. Obama will be hailed as the employment king by the time of the election. Viola, he's re-elected. We are doomed. – in response to Obama Unemployment Magic Trick: Indefinitely Detain 4 Million People from Workforce
Dear Trooper,
I don’t think that’s the case necessarily.
Just like the Japanese tsunami hit the US fairly hard, I think the credit crisis in Europe and slowing growth in China combined with Obama politicking will diminish the US economy’s capacity to create jobs before the next election.
End of the year, beginning of the next year is usually a pretty good time for the economy. But when you look at profits from the Christmas retail season it was decidedly a very mixed bag; housing is picking up, but with the delinquencies little unchanged, it looks more like a dead cat bounce to me.
I would look for unemployment to get worse before it gets better.
Ken wrote: Aside from the graft, the reason solar energy cannot make any progress may be owing to the lack of technical expertise involved. I am an engineer and cannot get any technical information; all I find is sales people. I need solar energy because I built a house off the grid and must generate my own power. Furthermore, I have a good location for solar, almost perfect. Yet, I have been unable to make myself buy solar. – in response to When Graft Won't Save You, It's Called Green Energy
Dear Ken,
This is how a friend recently explained it to me:
Solar energy is the futile effort of reversing entropy. A photon is the end of a nuclear reaction not the beginning. You can't beat entropy cheaply. By burning hydrocarbons entropy is going in the correct direction. By building nuclear power plants entropy is going in the right direction. Everything we do when we produce useful affordable energy is actually refining entropy. We throw away everything of high entropy and keep everything of low entropy and then let it do what it does naturally. Waste turns out to be virtuous. The good news is that energy is constant, we will never run out of energy. The problem is fuel, and photons aren't fuel.
Liberals are in love with the idea of being able to capture the “free” source of energy that comes from the sun, because liberals never really want to pay for anything.
Laserfocus wrote: The government giving subsidies to green energy companies is questionable. The government giving subsidies to the most profitable industry on Earth (the oil industry) is inexcusable! – in response to When Graft Won't Save You, It's Called Green Energy
I’m in favor of removing ALL subsidies from energy production. But where you and your liberal friends get confused is in defining subsidies. Depreciating oil reserves is not a subsidy, but an accounting method that every company that has assets uses. The truth is that the amount of a real taxpayer supported subsidy to the oil industry is less than the government will lose on Solyndra.
Take this example provided by Heritage:
Government R&D. The Department of Energy (DOE) has spent taxpayer dollars on oil research and development, including funding for unconventional oil, gas, and coal. Although President Obama’s FY 2012 budget request significantly cuts funding for the Office of Fossil Energy, decreasing its size by $417.8 million below the FY 2010 appropriation, it does not go far enough. The only funding in this area should maintain the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, for which the President’s budget requests an appropriate $121.7 million. Eliminating all other fossil energy funding would save $399 million.
The Solyndra loss alone was $535 million.
Now as to the oil industry being the most profitable, that’s not really the case.
Oil and gas has about a 6 percent net profit margin. That ranks 114 out of 215 industries according to a table from Yahoo Finance cited at Seeking Alpha.
Some industry groups that rank higher than oil?
Those fat cats in candy making (100), Auto Parts Stores (97), Home Furnishings (95), Beverages (29) and Railroads (15) make a higher margin than oil companies do. A gallon of milk at around $5.00 is more expensive than a gallon of gasoline.
Shubi wrote: I am going to say something really stupid so I can get on the Hate Comments this week. ;-) – in response to The Fitting End to the First President of the Universe
Dear Shubi,
The new phone book's here! You’re somebody now! Millions of people look at this article every day! This is the kind of spontaneous publicity...your name in print, that makes people! You’re in print! Things are going to start happening to you now.
Summers wrote: When I was pregnant with my second child, I worked the Louisiana Legislature in 1976 to get 'Right to Work' passed. My experience with the thuggery of unions made me a committed advocate against unions. Our group was elated when we got the bill passed, but that was short-lived. Jim Leslie, who put so much work into 'Right to Work' was gunned down at the Prince Murat Hotel when he left the Capitol Building and went back to his room. The man who killed him was later found murdered. It was an experience that gave me sleepless nights and made a lasting impression. -in response to The Fitting End to the First President of the Universe
Dear Summers,
That’s why we all hate unions.
I grew up in Chicago. It was worse there.
The weird thing is that when it comes to union violence, the long arm of the law seems to short-arm everything.
From American Thinker:
Union violence is not rare. The National Institute for Labor Relations (NILR) has collected over 9,000 reports of union violence since 1975 and the actual number is much higher--by as much as a factor of ten. Only a fraction of such offenses result in arrest and conviction.
On Monday, Teamsters Union president James Hoffa proudly declared, "The one thing about working people is we like a good fight." (Fight, not good, being the operative word.). Echoing Hoffa, ILWU President Bob McEllrath said "It shouldn't be a crime to fight for good jobs in America."
Oh, trust me, it’s not a crime to use criminal methods if you are in a union.
The fight crowd has certain federal legal precedent on its side of the ring. According to NILR, the U.S. Supreme Court's 1973 Enmons decision, among other factors, makes prosecution of union violence difficult. According to the Cato Institute, violence "deemed to be in furtherance of ‘legitimate’ union objectives” is exempt from prosecution under federal anti-extortion laws.
Exempt from anti-extortion laws?
Who do they think they are, Congress?
That’s all you need to know.
V/r,
JR
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