The Rest Of The Story

A perspective worth understanding.  Quote: "The immorality associated with violation of the principle of self-ownership lies at the root of problems that could lead to our doom as a great nation. In fiscal 2015, total government spending -- federal, state and local -- was about $6.41 trillion. That's about 36 percent of our gross domestic product. The federal government spent $3.69 trillion. At least two-thirds of that spending can be described as government's taking the property of one American and giving it to another. That's our moral tragedy: We've become a nation of people endeavoring to live at the expense of others -- in a word, a nation of thieves."    http://townhall.com/columnists/walterewilliams/2016/04/27/a-superior-vision-n2153268?

Here is a good example to consider.  The BLM has long manipulated labor statistics for the benefit of the Washington elite.  The mainstream media dutifully plays along.  Quote: "It’s my favorite day of the month. The Bureau of Lies & Scams issues their double seasonally adjusted, massaged to provide a happy ending, birth death adjusted unemployment propaganda, designed to keep the masses in the dark about their own dire financial circumstances. Even though the equally manipulated GDP is at 1% or below, retail sales are plunging, corporate profits plummeted by 15% in the 4th quarter and Challenger & Grey corporate layoff announcements were up 42% in January versus last year, our fraudulent friends at the BLS announced glorious employment figures this morning.

The Establishment data that gets all the headlines blared that 242,000 net new jobs were created in February. Of course, 129,000 fake birth/death jobs were factored into that number. Anyone with a functioning brain (excludes Wall Street economists, CNBC shills, and any government apparatchik) knows that more businesses have been closing than opening for the last four years as Obamacare and government solutions destroy the economy. Rather than adding 129,000 jobs, small businesses likely subtracted 50,000 jobs in February. That would put the true number at about 60,000."    https://www.lewrockwell.com/2016/03/jim-quinn/lies-damn-lies-bls-statistics/  

Quote. David Stockman "... recently noted that the frogs of Wall Street linger in the boiling pot because they are under the delusion that stocks are cheap based on the sell-side hockey sticks that always show $135 per share of S&P earnings and a 15X multiple in the next year ahead.   Besides that, should anything go awry with the economy, Washington purportedly stands ready to bail-out the stock market with a new round of fiscal stimulus after the election.  The latter delusion brings to mind what might be called the “CBO hockey stick,” which is a fiscal fantasy so unhinged from reality as to make the Wall Street stock analysts look like models of sobriety by comparison. To wit, CBO’s latest 10-year budget projection assumes that the US economy will hit full employment next year, and remain there with nary a bump or recession in sight through September 2026, at least."   David Stockman: Trillion Dollar Deficits Are Coming Back Soon    Does that seem believable to you????   Not even...  Government numbers are always wrong.

This item discusses the globalization initiatives associated with the progressive left's drive to support TPP and other disastrous trade deals.  Good for leftist governments and their big corporatists crony capitalist partners.  Bad for the people.       https://jonrappoport.wordpress.com/2016/05/02/tpp-ttip-obamas-secret-trade-deals-vs-trump-and-bernie/

  

It would be nice it a progressive/liberal/Democrat to explain why and how the mountain of regulations imposed on this nation are for our own good.  This study is most revealing.  Please liberals refute the findings.  Quote: "The cost of U.S. regulations is now larger than Germany’s economy, amounting to a $4 trillion loss to the American economy, according to a new study by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University.  The study, released Tuesday, found that regulations over the past several decades amount to a loss of $13,000 for each American worker."     http://freebeacon.com/issues/cost-us-regulations-germanys-economy/?   Bear in mind Obama has set a record for issuing useless, unnecessary, wasteful and oppressive regulations.  If elected president, Hillary will only add to that burden.

  

Do numbers like this suggest a healthy economy?     http://freebeacon.com/issues/1-5-families-u-s-no-one-works/?   

Quote: "In my recent Outside the Box, the authors demonstrate that inflation in the main four categories—rent, food, energy, and medical care—has been running at roughly 3% since 1995, significantly more than the 2.2% the BLS data yields, especially when you think about the compounding effect.  That 0.8% differential has compounded to over 20% in the 20 years since 1995, which has to be deflated against incomes. When you look at the stagnant income growth of the middle class and then reduce that income by 20%, (rather than by the official inflation rate), it is not hard to grasp why significant majorities in both political parties are pissed off (to employ a technical economics term)."    http://www.newsmax.com/Finance/JohnMauldin/inflation-economy-spending-higher/2016/05/13/id/728644/?

How bad is Obama's economy?   Quote: "The inability of people aged 40 and above to find a decent job to support their families has led to an epidemic of suicides.  But as Betsy McCaughey points out in this New York Post column, you'd never know it to hear President Obama and Hillary Clinton talk. President Obama insists that the "“American economy is pretty darn good right now. False. The Obama economy is stalled. It grew at a measly .7 percent annualized rate the first quarter of this year. That’s compared with the 3.5 percent rate the US enjoyed for most of the 20th century — what’s needed to sustain employment and optimism."    http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2016/04/the_obama_economy_is_killing_people.html 

Quote: "Just last week Aeropostale and Sports Authority announced they were closing all of their stores. Other businesses have been struggling to meet investors’ expectations in the retail sector as well. Sears, Walmart, Best Buy and others have been struggling to make a profit in many locations and have announced recently they will also be closing some of their stores. Retailers across the nation need to close about a third of their locations in order to be as productive and competitive as they were just 10 years ago.

This is not only the case in retail but it's happening in the service sector much more quietly. Real estate firms, mortgage operations, insurance companies and other service businesses have way too much square footage. The ‘sticks and bricks’ component of all of these businesses is crushing them in the age of Amazon, Travelocity, Zillow and eBay."    http://finance.townhall.com/columnists/bryancrabtree/2016/05/11/is-it-a-sign-of-a-weakening-economy--retailers-are-failing-left-and-right-n2161290? 

  

Quote: "The territory's "generous" government squandered the island's resources. Decades of leftist governors hired their friends. In Puerto Rico and Greece, about one in four workers works for government, compared to 14.6 percent in the mainland U.S..   Puerto Rico's current governor points out that Puerto Ricans enjoy 30 days of paid vacation every year, 18 sick days and 14 paid holidays. That's about two months paid leave every year. No wonder businesses wither. The government gives "free" energy to government-owned enterprises. This encouraged "investments" like the government-owned ice rink. Yes, ice skating was what bureaucrats thought the tropical island needed. Maybe they saw that movie, "Cool Runnings," and thought winter sports in the tropics sounded fun."     http://townhall.com/columnists/johnstossel/2016/05/04/money-down-a-hole-n2157599?

Michael Snyder provides us with a full display of global economic reality in this piece.   http://www.thesleuthjournal.com/economic-collapse-erupting-planet-global-leaders-begin-panic/

When looking at statistics be aware what you are told about the numbers may well not be so.   http://finance.townhall.com/columnists/nicholasvardy/2016/03/02/why-most-statistics-are-misguided-misapplied-or-outright-lies-n2127431/page/full   This is a statistic the no red blooded tax paying American likes.  It reminds us that "This year, Tax Freedom Day falls on April 24, or 114 days into the year (excluding Leap Day)." 

I have been following Mish for a long time and almost always find his analysis quite interesting and informative.  This one is worth sharing for its educational value.   http://finance.townhall.com/columnists/mikeshedlock/2016/04/07/university-professor-asks-how-accurate-and-at-what-cost-is-bls-data-n2144503/page/full 

You just have to shake your head in wonderment when considering the insane tax philosophy of Obama and his leftist progressive acolytes.  This item clarifies the inane logic of the left's aversion to lowering the US business tax rate which is the highest in the world.  Yet, they want to punish them for moving overseas to reap the benefit of much, much lower tax rates.  Quote: "Then progressives argue that corporate tax cutting is a rich person’s tax cut.  Utterly untrue.  Numerous studies have shown that the biggest beneficiary of corporate tax cuts is the middle-income wage earner.  By the same token, companies don’t just pay corporate taxes out of their own pockets.  They pass it along in the form of lower wages and benefits to the work force, higher prices for consumers and lower stock valuations for investors.  Again, the data show that wage earners get the biggest benefit, consumers second and shareholders third.  One key reason why average wage earners have had virtually no pay increases in the past 15 years is the high corporate tax rate.  That is why so many Americans are so angry with Washington – They want BIG change."   http://www.newsmax.com/Finance/LarryKudlow/tax-inversions-middle-class-war/2016/04/05/id/722465/?

Consider this factual assessment which repels Obama's made-up assessment. Quote: "Anybody who says we are not absolutely better off today than we were just seven years ago, they’re not leveling with you. They’re not telling the truth,” Obama said last week.

“By almost every economic measure, we are significantly better off.” For a second opinion, just ask Obama’s own economic adviser Robert Wolf. He told CNN’s Carol Costello on Tuesday: “I don’t think anyone is saying the economy is great right now.”
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/432688/president-obama-economy-slow-recovery?

The trade deficit our country is carrying could result in economic disaster.  Quote: "Because our exports are falling faster than our imports, our trade deficit is blowing out once again.  Every year we buy hundreds of billions of dollars more from the rest of the world than they buy from us, and this is systematically wrecking our economy.  Over the past several decades, we have lost tens of thousands of manufacturing facilities, millions of good paying manufacturing jobs, and major exporting nations such as China have become exceedingly wealthy at our expense.  We are being absolutely killed on trade, and yet very few of our politicians ever want to talk about this."    http://www.thesleuthjournal.com/killed-trade-rapidly-declining-exports-signal-death-blow-u-s-economy/

You might find this one interest, too. Quote: "Barack Obama recently stated that anyone that is claiming that America’s economy is in decline is “peddling fiction“.  Well, if the economy is in such great shape, why are major retailers shutting down hundreds of stores all over the country?  Last month, I wrote about the “retail apocalypse” that is sweeping the nation, but since then it has gotten even worse.  Closing stores has become the “hot new trend” in the retail world, and “space available” signs are going up in mall windows all over the United States.  Barack Obama can continue huffing and puffing about how well the middle class is doing all he wants, but the truth is that the cold, hard numbers that retailers are reporting tell an entirely different story."     http://www.thesleuthjournal.com/economic-recovery-13-of-the-biggest-retailers-in-america-are-closing-down-stores/

Beware those touting the goodness of tariffs.  Quote: "Tariff policy beneficiaries are always seen, but its victims are mostly unseen. Politicians love this. The reason is simple. The beneficiaries know for whom to cast their ballots and to whom to give campaign contributions. Most often, the victims do not know whom to blame for their calamity."  And, "When Congress creates a special privilege for some Americans, it must of necessity come at the expense of other Americans. Then Americans who are harmed, such as the steel-using auto industry, descend on Congress asking for some kind of relief for themselves. It all reminds me of a passage in a Negro spiritual play written by Marcus Cook Connelly, titled "The Green Pastures," wherein God laments to the angel Gabriel, "Every time Ah passes a miracle, Ah has to pass fo' or five mo' to ketch up wid it." I think Congress ought to get out of the miracle business and leave miracle-making up to God."   http://townhall.com/columnists/walterewilliams/2016/03/09/the-seen-and-unseen-n2129811/page/full

Have you heard Obama publically announce this?  Quote: "There were 372,000 fewer Americans who were hired in January, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.  There were 5,401,000 hires in December 2015. That number declined to 5,029,000 in January 2016."  Didn't think so.     http://freebeacon.com/issues/372000-fewer-americans-hired-in-january/?

More about the falling manufacturing numbers.   http://finance.townhall.com/columnists/mikeshedlock/2016/03/02/global-manufacturing-pmi-signals-stagnation-in-february-n2127330?

Does this fact suggest to you that our economy is on sound footing?   http://freebeacon.com/issues/food-stamp-beneficiaries-exceed-45-million-for-56-straight-months/?

George Burns