Archive for the 'Economy' Category

Republican Recession Watch: Confidence Drops, Home Values Drop

Published April 29, 2008 in Economy, George W. Bush, John McCain and Republicans. 3 Comments

House For Sale

Clearly this is good for out of touch John McCain.

Americans’ confidence in the economy continued to plunge this month as their homes lost value at the fastest rate in two decades, according to reports released on Tuesday.

The data suggested that the housing slump was far from a recovery and the job market might continue to weaken, ratcheting up pressure on the Federal Reserve, which began a two-day meeting on Tuesday, to take steps to stave off a prolonged slowdown.

The reports were consistent with a recession, economists said, though some optimists have insisted the economy is growing, albeit at a snail’s pace. President Bush remained in the latter camp at a news conference on Tuesday, where he said the economy was facing “a tough time.”

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Out Of Touch John McCain: The Failing Economy Is Like Carrying Your Own Bags

Published April 22, 2008 in Economy, John McCain and Republicans. 23 Comments

I kid you not. John McCain’s speech trying to connect to the failing Republican-led economy compares his piddling campaign troubles last year to the U.S. economy. “I feel your pain” it is not.

Sure, you lost your job, your house, the dollar is weaker than the loony, but that’s just like John McCain carrying his own bags.

Oh, and he picked a failing Ohio factory as backdrop for his argument in favor of free, unfettered trade.

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McCain: Economic Problems In America Are “Psychological”

Published April 19, 2008 in Economy, John McCain and Newsweek. 25 Comments

This guy just doesn’t get it. In an interview with Fox News’ Neil Cavuto, John McCain told him that America’s economic problems are “psychological” and just a little of his patent-pending straight talk would do wonders for the Republican Recession.

That’s right folks, McCain thinks the cure to our economic woes are the bad jokes and patter he shares with his base in the media.

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Sen. Obama On John McCain’s Claim That There’s Been “Great Progress” On The Economy

Published April 18, 2008 in Barack Obama, Economy and John McCain. 4 Comments

Obama:

“Only someone who has spent two decades in Washington, could make a statement as disconnected from the hard times that people are facing all across America,” said Obama. “Only somebody whose campaign is run by Washington lobbyists could think we’re making great progress while so many Americans are struggling.”

UPDATE: Think Progress has the video of McCain lauding President Bush’s “great progress” on the economy.

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Republican Recession Watch: Clearly, This Is Good For John McCain

Published April 16, 2008 in Economy, John McCain and Republicans. 5 Comments

The economy is getting worse.

The country’s economic health deteriorated further in the early spring as shoppers buckled under the strains of the housing and credit debacles and a weaker employment climate.

Manufacturers and others businesses, meanwhile, were walloped by zooming prices for energy and other raw materials. However, their ability to jack up retail prices to customers was mixed, with some companies restrained by competitive pressures, according to the Federal Reserve’s new snapshot of nationwide economic conditions released Wednesday.

“Economic conditions have weakened,” the Fed report stated.

Food and energy prices are going up.

Consumer prices pushed higher last month as increases in energy, food and airline tickets overwhelmed the biggest drop in clothing prices in nearly a decade.

The Labor Department reported Wednesday that consumer prices rose 0.3 percent in March after being unchanged in February.

Gas hit a new high (and it isn’t summer yet)

Oil prices rose to new heights Tuesday, surging to almost $114 a barrel after the U.S. dollar fell and worries mounted about the global oil supply.

A report from the International Energy Agency said Russian oil production dropped this year for the first time in a decade. Crude oil shipments along one U.S. pipeline were said to be moving below capacity. And Italy’s ENI reported a 5,000 barrel per day reduction in production at one of its facilities in Nigeria.

This is clearly the sort of environment where we should elect yet another Republican who doesn’t know a thing about economics and surrounds himself with believers in supply side economics that don’t work.

Surely.

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Since When Is A Comparison To Fred Thompson A GOOD Thing

Published April 16, 2008 in Conservatives, Economy, Fred Thompson, John McCain and Republicans. 9 Comments

In John McCain’s Bush 2.0 tax plan he rolled out Tuesday, former Fred Thompson staffer Sean Hackbarth sees echoes of old mint julep himself. Considering the way Thompson shuffled and ambled two inches in the campaign before falling flat on his face, how is this a good thing?

Of course, these are the guys who seriously think privatizing social security is a good thing. Yes, put our senior’s future in the next Bear Sterns or Enron. Brilliant! Go with that.

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Airlines: Don’t Repeat 2001’s Mistake - Let Them Fail

Published April 12, 2008 in Business and Economy. 12 Comments

Remember this from 2001?

In the wake of last week’s terrorist attacks involving hijacked airplanes, Congress Friday passed a measure for a $15 billion financial aid package to help the crippled airline industry and set up a government compensation fund for victims to help deter lawsuits.

The House approved the measure late Friday night, 356-54. The Senate passed the package earlier in the day, 96-1.

The White House response was quick with press secretary Ari Fleischer saying in a statement: “A safe, viable and effective commercial air travel system is important to America’s economy and to our way of life.”

“The president commends the Congress for its quick bipartisan passage of the Air Transportation Safety and System Stabilization Act.

“This legislation will help ensure the safety and stability of the nation’s vital commercial airline system.”

The measure gives the nation’s airlines $5 billion in immediate cash assistance and $10 billion in loan guarantees in an effort to keep several major carriers from collapsing. Sen. Peter Fitzgerald, R-Ill., was the only senator to vote against the bill.

Like they did on almost everything for the year following 9/11, the President proposed really stupid and damaging stuff and the Congress rubber-stamped it. We continually deal with the fallout of that age of compliance and will for the foreseeable future. I can already guess that some lobbyist somewhere is prepping a campaign to go to Washington and yet again snooker us about the most recent airline disaster.

More than almost any other industry the airlines have gotten away with running a shoddy business while treating their customers like a stain on their shoes. It’s high time we let them just sink on their own and thin the herd for the businesses who perform well and respond to their consumers.

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Airline Welfare Bailout Produces Crappy Airlines, Repeat

Published April 11, 2008 in Business, Economics and Economy. 0 Comments

I was thinking about this but then someone actually did the work. One of the major issues I wrote about on this blog back after 9/11 was about the free money congress and the president handed to the airlines. Just let them die. Trust the market, and let them die. I fear that my sentiments about Bear Stearns are going to work out similarly.

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Republican Recession Watch: 80,000 Jobs Lost In March And John McCain Doesn’t Know Much About Economics

Published April 4, 2008 in Economy, John McCain and Republicans. 12 Comments

Welcome to the suck.

The employers cut payrolls for a third month in a row in March, slashing 80,000 jobs for the biggest monthly job decline in five years as the economy headed into a downturn, government data on Friday showed.

The Labor Department revised the first two months of the year’s job losses to a total of 152,000 from a previous estimate of 85,000. The March unemployment rate jumped to 5.1 percent from 4.8 percent, the highest since a matching rate in September 2005.

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Republican Recession Watch: Food Stamp Usage Up

Published March 30, 2008 in Economy and Republicans. 4 Comments

Clearly the solution to this is another tax cut for Paris Hilton.

Driven by a painful mix of layoffs and rising food and fuel prices, the number of Americans receiving food stamps is projected to reach 28 million in the coming year, the highest level since the aid program began in the 1960s.

The number of recipients, who must have near-poverty incomes to qualify for benefits averaging $100 a month per family member, has fluctuated over the years along with economic conditions, eligibility rules, enlistment drives and natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina, which led to a spike in the South.

But recent rises in many states appear to be resulting mainly from the economic slowdown, officials and experts say, as well as inflation in prices of basic goods that leave more families feeling pinched. Citing expected growth in unemployment, the Congressional Budget Office this month projected a continued increase in the monthly number of recipients in the next fiscal year, starting Oct. 1 — to 28 million, up from 27.8 million in 2008, and 26.5 million in 2007.

As Archie and Edith Bunker sang…

Mister we could use a man
Like Herbert Hoover again.

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Big Business Uses Your Money As Their Private Bank: Republican Economics

Published March 27, 2008 in Business and Economy. 20 Comments

Insane.

Big Wall Street investment companies are taking advantage of the Federal Reserve’s unprecedented offer to secure emergency loans, the central bank reported Thursday.

The lending is part of a major effort by the Fed to help a financial system in danger of freezing.

Those large firms averaged $13.4 billion in daily borrowing over the past week from the new lending facility. The report does not identify the borrowers.

The Fed, in a bold move Sunday, agreed for the first time to let big investment houses get emergency loans directly from the central bank. This mechanism, similar to one available for commercial banks for years, got under way Monday and will continue for at least six months. It was the broadest use of the Fed’s lending authority since the 1930s.

Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers and Morgan Stanley said Wednesday they had begun to test the new lending mechanism.

On Wednesday alone, lending reached $28.8 billion, according to the Fed report.

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McCain’s YOYO Economics

Published March 25, 2008 in 2008 Election, Economy, John McCain and Republicans. 0 Comments

Echoing Bush in Katrina: You’re On Your Own.

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McCain To Bush: I See Your Deficit, And I Drink Your Milkshake

Published March 23, 2008 in Economy, John McCain and Republicans. 6 Comments

McCain’s economic adviser says McCain’s economic plan would make the Bush-created deficit and make it bigger (reminder: when President Clinton handed Bush the keys the budget had a surplus).

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As Warren G Said, We Must Regulate

Published March 22, 2008 in Business, Conservatives, Democrats, Economics, Economy, Liberals, Regulation and Republicans. 3 Comments

Wall Street and the right want to eat their cake and have it too. They want vital financial institutions to be left alone, given free reign to do as they wish - but when they screw up and cause a ripple effect throughout the economy they come running to the government for a no-strings-attached bailout.

Eh-eh.

You want the government to have a hand in the game, you have to play by the rules. You need oversight, regulation, a catchers mitt over the invisible hand. The crisis we’re facing now is a product of our government abandoning its watchdog role and becoming nothing more than a cheerleader on the sidelines. It’s time once again for our government to put on its referee’s uniform and get this game back under control.

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Republican Recession Watch: Jobless Claims Increase

Published March 20, 2008 in Economy, George W. Bush and Republicans. 1 Comment

monopolyman.gifRemember, John McCain just doesn’t understand economics… and he won’t learn any more in the next 8 months that he hasn’t in his many decades in the senate. Now, about that economy of ours.

A rise in jobless claims and a drop in a key forecasting gauge provided the latest evidence that the U.S. economy is faltering and may be slipping into recession.

The Conference Board, a business-backed research group, said Thursday that its index of leading economic indicators fell in February for the fifth consecutive month. The index, which is designed to forecast where the nation’s economy is headed in the next three to six months, dipped 0.3 percent to 135.0 in February after slumping 0.4 percent the month before.

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Jeremiah Wright Said Some Crazy Things, Ergo We Must Ignore The Economy Collapsing

Published March 18, 2008 in 2008 Election, Economy, Media and Politics. 6 Comments

depressionbankrun.jpg
Depression-era run on a bank. Coming soon to your local lending institution?

Look folks, I’m not pooh-poohing that Jeremiah Wright said some nutty things and that Senator Obama has and will address them, but I don’t think I’m out of line saying that a guy peddling 9-11 conspiracies is several orders of magnitude less important than the Federal Reserve not knowing what the hell to do. I’m just saying. It may affect a few more people. Like the entire global economy. Or something.

The U.S. Federal Reserve is expected to slash interest rates by as much as a whole percentage point at its policy meeting on Tuesday as investors warily await investment bank results that could aggravate fears of a full-blown markets crisis.

Traders expect the Fed to cut rates by a full percentage point in an effort to stop hemorrhaging in financial markets and boost the flagging economy. The Fed is expected to announce its decision around 2:15 p.m. EDT.

The Fed has cut overnight rates by 2.25 percentage points to 3 percent since mid-September as a rise in defaults on subprime mortgages has escalated into a financial crisis that this weekend claimed one of Wall Street’s most venerable firms, investment bank Bear Stearns, as a victim.

But the news is slow this month, economics is more difficult than a missing white woman to cover, and Jeremiah Wright said something really loud in a church. So…

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The People In Charge Of Our Financial System Are Clueless

Published March 16, 2008 in Economy. 10 Comments

Completely and utterly. As I’ve noted numerous times before, one does not have to be a financial wizard to realize that the panicky cutting of the interest rates in the last six months is a sign of a system in trouble. Along comes news that the Fed has cut rates again, on a Sunday night.

In related news, JP Morgan Chase is buying Bear Sterns - the mismanaged company being bailed out by your tax dollars - for $2/share, it had been trading for $50-something.

They. Don’t. Know. What. They’re. Doing.

UPDATE: This seems like a good time to remind folks of this quote from John McCain: “I don’t understand economics very well”

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The Long Johns: Subprime

Published March 10, 2008 in Economics, Economy, Humor and Subprime. 3 Comments

The people on Wall Street have no idea what they’re talking about.

(via)

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Republican Recession Watch: There Go Those Jobs

Published March 7, 2008 in Economy. 13 Comments

Time and time again: this is the effect of Republicans on your government.

Employers slashed 63,000 jobs in February, the most in five years and the starkest sign yet that the country is heading dangerously toward recession or is in one already.

The Labor Department’s report, released Friday, also indicated that the nation’s unemployment rate dipped to 4.8 percent as hundreds of thousands of people — perhaps discouraged by their prospects — left the civilian labor force. The jobless rate was 4.9 percent in January.

Job losses were widespread, with hefty cuts coming from construction, manufacturing, retailing, financial services and a variety of professional and business services. Those losses swamped gains elsewhere, including education and health care, leisure and hospitality and the government.

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How Stupid Is Glenn Reynolds?

Published March 2, 2008 in Economy. 11 Comments

There were a lot of people at his local mall, ergo the economy is doing well. No foreclosures, no stagnant economy and certainly no gas price increases. Because… there were people at the mall.

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In Which, God Help Me, I Praise George W. Bush For Something

Published February 28, 2008 in Economy. 5 Comments

Just for a nanosecond. A moment from the start of today’s presidential press conference:

Q Mr. President, bad economic news continues to pile up, the latest today with the GDP barely growing. Are you concerned that a sagging economy and hard times will help defeat John McCain, like it did your father in 1992? And how far are you willing to go to prevent that?

THE PRESIDENT: I’m concerned about the economy because I’m concerned about working Americans, concerned about people who want to put money on the table and save for their kids’ education. That’s why I’m concerned about the economy. I want Americans working.

Reporters are obsessed with framing everything as a campaign issue. For them, the years between elections are just filler between campaign seasons. But for the rest of us, in reality, it isn’t. Bush answers this question in the right way, knocking out the reporter’s stupid framing of it as a campaign issues. The economy matters because it affects the life of Americans. Not because it may or may not hurt John McCain in the fall. Leave that kind of stupid question to fellow journalists and pundits.

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Republican Recession Watch: Economic Slowdown

Published February 28, 2008 in Economy. 1 Comment

When it comes to Republicans and the conomy, we see time and time again: No, they can’t.

The economy skidded to a near halt in the final quarter of last year, clobbered by dual slumps in housing and credit that caused people and businesses to spend and invest more sparingly.

The Commerce Department reported Thursday that the gross domestic product increased at a scant 0.6 percent pace in the October-to-December quarter. The reading — unchanged from an initial estimate a month ago — underscored just how much momentum the economy has lost. In the prior quarter, the economy clocked in at a brisk 4.9 percent pace.

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Republican Recession Watch: Signs, Signs, Everywhere

Published February 15, 2008 in Economy. 3 Comments

This is your economy on Republicans.

With the price of oil near record levels, import costs grew in January at the highest annual rate in a quarter century, the Labor Department said. In New York, manufacturing activity fell to its lowest level in five years. And consumers, responding to a national survey, said they felt worse about the economy than any time since the recession era of the early 1990s.

“This is just horrible,” wrote Ian Shepherdson, the chief United States economist for High Frequency Economics, a research firm. “The sustained volatility in the markets, the rise in energy and food prices and, of course, the catastrophe in the housing market, is making consumers extraordinarily miserable.”

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Republican Recession Watch: Retail Plummets

Published February 8, 2008 in Economy. 2 Comments

Major indicator.

For retailers across the country, January will be one for the record books, although not in the way they had hoped.

Following an already dismal holiday season, discounters and specialty chains alike reported worse-than-expected results for the four-week period ended Feb. 2. The month goes down in history as the worst January on record for retailers since the International Council of Shopping Centers began tracking same-store sales among U.S. retailers in 1969. The industry association said sales across the U.S. grew a meager 0.5% year over year.

“With uncertainty about the economy and the possibility of a recession, consumers have pared their spending,” said Michael Niemira, the council’s chief economist and director of research. “Looking forward to February, we expect much of the same, as U.S. economic problems do not seem to be dissipating anytime soon.”

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Republican Recession Watch: Service Sector Begins Fail

Published February 5, 2008 in Economy. 32 Comments

We continue to pay the price for Republican economics.

New recession alarms shook Wall Street Tuesday as a key survey of service sector executives showed business activity retreating in January for the first time in nearly five years.

The Institute for Supply Management’s (ISM) non-manufacturing index came in with a reading of 44.6, a new summary number for the report.

The 44.6 summary number is a new reading that does not have comparable readings from past reports.

The reading for business activity in the service sector plunged to 41.9 in January from 54.4 in December. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com had forecast a reading of 53.

A reading above 50 indicates growth in the sector, and a reading below 50 represents a sector-wide decline. The January reading is the first below 50 since March 2003.

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