Obama On U.S. Trade And Jobs

U.S. President Obama is stressing job creation by the public and private sector as the way out of the current economic recession-turned depression.

U.S. President Obama

In a public address given this past weekend, the President stated, the United States is willing to trade with anyone. Does “anyone” as we know the term to mean, include Cuba and Iran?

In other news, Obama's job numbers are still being scrutinized by the press and economists as inaccurate and costly to the taxpayers. The housing and job markets are still very bad, as is the deficit and budget.

Obama: Private, public sectors must create jobs

President Barack Obama said Monday the public and private sectors must find more ways to create jobs to continue the nation's climb out of an economic recession...

The president said job losses would continue for weeks and months to come and called for bold, innovative action by his administration, Congress and the private sector to create more good-paying jobs.

He also said the U.S. must break out of a "debilitating gridlock on trade policy," by ending the false choice between a wide-open, free wheeling import policy or fearful, protectionist approach to trade. He called for a more balanced policy of letting the world know America wants to compete and trade — fairly — with anyone. He gave no specifics...

We've got a long way to go. We are still seeing production levels that are significantly below peak levels and most distressing is the fact that job growth continues to lag.

http://www.google.com

Obama tempers economic news with caution on jobs

WASHINGTON — ...The good news of the week: The economy is on the rise for the first time in more than a year. Fro m July through September the economy grew by 3.5 percent, the strongest uptick in two years. Obama called the development no cause for celebration, but a welcome sign after so many months of distressing news.

"While we have a long way to go before we return to prosperity, and there will undoubtedly be ups and downs along the road, it's also true that we've come a long way," Obama said in his weekly radio and Internet address. "It is easy to forget that it was only several months ago that the economy was shrinking rapidly and many economists feared another Great Depression."

Yet the economic indicator that matters most to the majority of families — stable, solid employment — is still lagging.

Unemployment hit a 26-year high of 9.8 percent in September, and the October report due in the coming week could show it topping 10 percent.

"Economic growth is no substitute for job growth," Obama said. "And we will likely see further job losses in the coming days, a fact that is both troubling for our economy and heartbreaking for the men and women who suddenly find themselves out of work. But we will not create the jobs we need unless the economy is growing."

He added, "Positive news today does not mean there won't be difficult days ahead."...

http://www.google.com

Dollar Homes Lack Buyers

Sat, Oct 31, 2009 - The housing market is so bad you can't even give away homes these days. Officials in suburban Barrington put three homes up for a sale at just a dollar a piece - a dollar! - and didn't get a single bidder...

http://www.nbcchicago.com

Obama Job Creation Numbers Disputed

CBS News, the Wall Street Journal, Politico and a number of other news sources are refuting the White House’s job creation numbers as grossly inaccurate and overstated. The fact of the matter is the U.S. economy is still in very bad shape and sugarcoating the problem is not going to solve it.

$160,000 Per Stimulus Job? White House Calls That 'Calculator Abuse'

October 30, 2009 7:12 PM - Posting its results late this afternoon at Recovery.gov, the White House claimed 640,329 jobs have been created or saved because of the $159 billion in stimulus funds allocated as of Sept. 30.

Officials acknowledged the numbers were not exact, saying that states and localities that reported the numbers have made mistakes...

Brian Schmidt, director of planning and programming for the commission said that his staff originally reported to the Obama administration that the stimulus money saved 250 jobs. Then, realizing they had mistakenly double credited, they later changed that to 125 jobs. Tuesday, they updated it again to 74 jobs...

So let's see. Assuming their number is right -- 160 billion divided by 1 million. Does that mean the stimulus costs taxpayers $160,000 per job?

Jared Bernstein, chief economist and senior economic advisor to the vice president, called that "calculator abuse."

He said the cost per job was actually $92,000 -- but acknowledged that estimate is for the whole stimulus package as of the end of 2010...

http://blogs.abcnews.com

‘Jobs Created or Saved’ Is White House Fantasy: Caroline Baum

Oct. 28 (Bloomberg) -- ...But the government has no money of its own to spend; only what it borrows or confiscates from us via taxation. Oops.

“Government job creation is an oxymoron,” said Bill Dunkelberg, chief economist at the National Federation of Independent Business. It is only by depriving the private sector of funds that government can hire or subsidize hiring.

That’s why “jobs created or saved” is such pure fiction. It ignores what’s unseen, as our old friend Frederic Bastiat explained so eloquently 160 years ago in an essay...

Fiction Lags Reality...

Only 30,383 jobs were created or saved by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, according to Recovery.gov, the government’s once-transparent Web site that has become a complex blur of numbers, graphs and pie charts. These are only the jobs reported by federal contract recipients. The Obama administration will report the larger universe of ARRA-related jobs on Oct. 30...

http://www.bloomberg.com

Consumers Aren't Buying Stimulus Jobs "Success"

I'm getting sick and tired of everyone talking about how much worse shape we would be in, but for (fill in the blank: TARP, stimulus, auto bail outs...) Even if it's true, it doesn't make anyone feel better. That's what I keep thinking when Obama Administration officials sound like cheerleaders claiming victory over job creation that occurred as a result of the $787 billion stimulus...

http://www.cbsnews.com

Stimulus Jobs Check: Are They for Real?

Oct. 30, 2009 - Where are all the jobs the White House is talking about? California got $18.5 billion in stimulus money, producing more than 110,000 jobs. Illinois got nearly $6.5 billion, and turned that into more than 24,000 jobs. CBS News correspondent Ben Tracy brings us the story from California, and CBS News correspondent Dean Reynolds reports from Illinois.

At Fairfax High School in Los Angeles, classrooms and budgets are tight despite the influx of stimulus dollars.

California received $7 billion for education. The government says that created or saved 62,000 jobs. But the teacher's union says California also made $6 billion in cuts to education resulting in 20,000 jobs lost. Friday, California's governor said that number could have been much worse...

http://www.cbsnews.com

Flat incomes, weak consumer spending raise concern

MARTIN CRUTSINGER, AP Economics Writer Martin Crutsinger, Ap Economics Writer – Fri Oct 30, 4:42 pm ET

WASHINGTON – Flat incomes suggest more weakness ahead in consumer spending, reinforcing concerns about a ho-hum holiday shopping season and a sluggish economic recovery.

"This recovery is going to be very weak. Consumers are in no position or mood to spend. Their wages are down and they can't get credit," said Sung Won Sohn, an economics professor at California State University's Smith School of Business...

http://news.yahoo.com

British Political Parties Agree To TV Debate

Video: Brown agrees to TV election debate - ITN NEWS

Labour leader and Prime Minister of Great Britain, Gordon Brown, has agreed to television and radio debates with rival, Conservative counterpart, David Cameron. This should prove very interesting. May the best man win.

The climate has grown quite tense in the British political world, due to Britons displeasure with U.S. led wars in the Middle East and the economic downturn that began in America, hitting investors in the United Kingdom, that bear ties to Corporate America, much like during the Great Depression.

U.S. President Barack Obama (left) and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown (right)

This in turn created a massive decline in employment and a spate of foreclosures, shadowing the decline that transpired in America. Due to heavy taxation of 40% on personal income and 40-61% on business income, Britain had more reserves to tie them over during the crisis.

However, the U.S. government has been printing more money as the solution, which places the nation in firm danger of inflation. A tax increase on the rich in America would have been the more appropriate, prudent choice.

David Cameron and wife Samantha

There have been improvements in the financial state of Britain since the 2008 global financial crisis began, which Gordon Brown will no doubt tout, but conversely, David Cameron will state, the incumbent Prime Minister and his predecessor, Tony Blair, created the problem in the first place. Ah politics.

Bernake Thinks Recession Is Over

...I Beg To Differ

Fed Head, Ben Bernake, believes the U.S. recession/depression is over. I disagree. The word "recession" is defined as, "Going back or receding - a temporary falling off of business activity during a period when such activity has been generally increasing."

Where is the increase? How can the nation be out of the "recession" when there is a massive fall off in the number of employed people. That depletion is defined as recessing, as in the word "recession."

Even more painfully, the continued downward spiral in the sheer number of foreclosures that continue to pummel many innocent homeowners, who were victims of a banking system that sorely took advantage of them, for undue financial gain. Once again, that depletion is defined as recessing, as in the word "recession."

How can the nation be out of the "recession" - yet continue to shed jobs and homes at an unprecedented rate. Economically speaking, that is abnormal behavior.

Market factors and several other indicators reveal, the nation is still in the thick of it, with more trouble to come, due to inaction on crucial issues effecting the economy.

The Cash for Clunkers program gave the economy a costly, artificial, short term boost that is already spent and over.

Real growth is much deeper and more profound than a one time, expensive project, which ironically ended up benefiting foreign carmakers, more than domestic entities.

The financial data for the nation is not pleasant, but it must be addressed, lest it create worst problems for the economy in the long run.

The massive overspending and overly ambitious initiatives, bearing costly price tags, shall not help matters either, as recoupment for those funds must come from somewhere.

The government is falling into a pattern of making premature and unsubstantiated announcements of the "recession" weakening or ending, to create spending booms on the stock market that fizzle shortly after. This is not a financially health cycle and weakening the word of the Treasury.

As it stands, the government has failed to correct many of the financial difficulties that were left behind via the juggernaut of problems and issues, former President Bush, created out of sheer ignorance and lack of fore-planning.

I can understand wanting to be optimistic, but unethically wishing a problem away, pronouncing it gone, when it is still present, is not financially sound or helpful to the nation. The problems still need to be fixed.

It is the equivalent of one's mechanic stating they have fixed your automobile, but when you turn it on, it still will not start.

Bernanke: Recession 'Likely Over'

SEPTEMBER 16, 2009 - Fed Chief Doesn't Expect Many New Jobs to Appear Soon; Retail Sales Climb 2.7%

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said Tuesday that the recession was "very likely over," as consumers showed some of the first tangible signs of spending again.

Mr. Bernanke, who had become cautiously more upbeat in recent weeks amid signs of third-quarter growth, said for the first time that forecasters agree "at this point that we are in a recovery."...

http://online.wsj.com