Now They Tell Us
Now that Barack Obama is safely ensconced in the White House for another four years, several items which should have been noticed or revealed before Election Day have come to the fore. Collectively, they tell us two things: that the pre-election economy was worse than voters were led to believe, and that the prospects for meaningful improvement under the current regime are bleak at best. Additionally, in at least one instance, economic activity itself was likely manipulated.
The probable gamesmanship occurred at Government/General Motors, which is still effectively under Obama administration control, still on track to saddle U.S. taxpayers with a loss of $25 billion or more, and still losing market share.
Despite already-bloated inventories at its dealers, GM’s production lines ran full throttle during September and October. Thanks to that ramp-up and unimpressive sales growth, retail inventories grew by an astonishing 99,000 in October and November. Dealers received five vehicles for every four they sold during those two months, bringing their on-hand stocks from an already unsustainable 689,000 in September to an absolutely ridiculous 788,000. GM estimates that its dealers have a 4-1/2 month supply of full-size pickups — if the economy doesn’t tank.
It seems all too likely that a presidential campaign which used “GM is alive, Osama is dead” as its campaign theme ordered or pressured GM executives to keep the assembly lines running all-out regardless of the business consequences. The campaign of challenger Mitt Romney should have been paying closer attention, as half of GM’s inventory spike occurred and was reported before Election Day. But instead, it let itself get distracted by mostly irrelevant noise about Chrysler’s plans for its Jeep brand in China. It even missed touting Chrysler parent Fiat’s announcement that it plans to manufacture a new Jeep model for the North American market in Italy.
Earlier this week, almost a month removed from election-related visibility, the Wall Street Journal reported that the company “is taking steps to cut excess production,” specifically citing a plant in the critical swing state of Ohio, and “signaled there may be more to come.” Imagine that. If the economy sputters badly, layoffs could easily begin occurring at GM and throughout its supply chain.
News in the housing market, particularly concerning sales of new single-family homes, suddenly went from pre-election exuberance to post-election bleakness. The Census Bureau’s final pre-election report told us that new-home sales had reached a seasonally adjusted annual level of 389,000. The administration’s press apparatchiks dutifully reported that figure as the highest in 2-1/2 years. The Associated Press, aka the Administration’s Press, told readers and subscribing outlets that the news was “further evidence of a sustained housing recovery that could help lift the lackluster economy.”
Oops. The bureau’s post-Thanksgiving release revised September’s number down by over 5 percent to 369,000 and also reported a slight October decline. Overall, it showed that the housing market has gone nowhere during the past eight reported months. Actual monthly sales during the past five months have badly trailed 2009, when most observers thought that things were already as bad as they could get. Those who believed that clearly underestimated the Obama administration’s ability to perpetuate misery throughout a sector which would have long since recovered if it had simply been left alone. The AP’s still overoptimistic reaction to the September revision was to insist that “the housing market (is) starting to recover more than five years after the bubble burst,” and to push a large portion of the blame for October onto Superstorm Sandy.
Readers are going to be seeing a lot of Sandy-related excuse-making during the next several months, and — who knows? — maybe even the next several years. Already, Sandy is being peddled as the reason why the ADP-Moody’s November private-sector employment report came in with only 118,000 jobs added. Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, claimed that the number would have been 86,000 higher if it weren’t for Sandy. Logically then, the December catch-up added to a supposedly typical month with 200,000 jobs added should cause the next ADP-Moody’s report to show a gain of almost 300,000. Wanna bet, Mark? November’s jobs report from the government released on Friday, though presented as pretty decent by the press, really wasn’t.
Now even the press is turning dour on the economy, as if lousy conditions totally invisible before November 6 have suddenly (and of course, “unexpectedly“) appeared to ruin things. But so are Obama and Democratic legislators, who while demanding economy-retarding, job-killing pound-of-flesh tax increases and insisting that entitlement spending stay off the table for another ten years, want to add “tens of billions of dollars of … stimulus measures” to any deal to prevent the January 1 “fiscal cliff.”
The only things which seem likely to arise out of all of this are trillion-dollar deficits as far as the eye can see, continued lackluster or worse economic growth, and indefinitely higher than acceptable levels of unemployment and under-employment. Oh, and one more thing, courtesy of Howard Dean and despite the administration’s insistence to the contrary: tax increases for everyone.
More: 73% of Jobs Created in Last 5 Months Have Been Government Jobs
I’m not surprised that they fudged the numbers. Look what they did with the unemployment numbers just before the election – and the MSM went on a cheering spree for Feckless Won’s sprint to the finish – saying the economy was robust and on it’s way back. Yeah – look at how well it’s doing. The damned thing is on a resuscitator. One can only wonder if it can survive 8 years of such indifference.
I heard from the MSM (insert alphabet news station here) that things are actually perking up in the economic world. Remember during the Bush years when everyone that had a job was working? And making money – paying taxes – buying houses etc etc? Private debt was actually pretty low as compared to the present. But the MSM pissed and moaned daily about something – anything – like some people were ‘only’ working part time. Gas prices were creeping up – what was Bush going to do about that? they asked? About part time employment? And yada yada yada!
Lets see how we’re doing today. Private debt is up today – supposedly because the consumer confidence is up. Err – maybe thats because more people are supplementing income (or lack thereof) with credit purchases? Gee – I wonder where they got that idea??? The unemployment rate is down to 7.7% – or 14.6% – depending on who you believe. Or maybe it really is ‘only’ 8.6%? Gee – wasn’t it 5.4% during most of Bush’s tenure? Oh – we don’t want to talk about that?
So – lets raise taxes on that 2%! Whatta ya say guys? Who buys those big pickup trucks anyway? Or new houses? Or goes on vacations? Or invests money in venture capitalism to create jobs? The rich? With things tanking all around us why not raise taxes on the rich? Whats one less percentage point on the GDP anyway? Let the Dems tank this thing. Let them burn it down as far as need be to get the attention of those low information voters so we can then start to bring some sanity into the picture.
Good God! I’m getting fed up with these Democrat loons and their manipulations with facts and figures. And we’ve got more than 4 years left of this idiot and no guarantee that the stupid low information voters will pay attention long enough to reject the probable Feckless Won – the Hilldabeast – in 2016.
“And we’ve got more than 4 years left of this idiot and no guarantee that the stupid low information voters will pay attention long enough to reject the probable Feckless Won – the Hilldabeast – in 2016.”
Damn! Should read ‘enough to reject the probable heir to The Feckless Won – The Hilldabeast – in 2016′.
Sure glad I didn’t have that fourth beer…
Sometimes too much to drink is never enough. – Mark Twain
This will probably become a popular slogan during the next four years.
Why do you think people drank so much in the former Soviet Union?
Why do you think there is all of a sudden such a huge interest in legalizing the recreational use of cannabis?
I’ve heard it said that religion is not the opium of the people – opium is.
When people perceive no opportunities and nothing but declining prospects, they retreat into a chemical nirvana. Big time.
I’m not saying this is good – it isn’t – I’m just saying it happens.
If the only jobs available are part-time, low-wage, and with no insurance, what does anybody expect people will do? You can’t support a family – or even yourself – on that.
Pretty soon we’ll be looking at 20 people crammed together in a small apartment and living on potatoes to save money, just like the former Soviet Union.
Too much drink, indeed. Don’t people realize that the Liar-in-Chief is also an alcoholic, as is his Sec of State? And don’t get this blogger started on weepy, blood shot eyed Boehner, an alcoholic of all alcoholics!
And liars and thieves do what they do best – they lie and steal! So, where is the shock that some major arms were twisted in order to pull the wool over simpleton citizens’ eyes? Because only a simpleton would have believed their crock of bull.
Besides, one doesn’t go over the fiscal cliff without a damn reason, meaning, a horrific economy to begin with! – http://adinakutnicki.com/2012/10/13/the-liar-in-chief-his-many-tall-tells-end-game-purposefully-tearing-the-u-s-from-its-constitutional-roots-commentary-by-adina-kutnicki/
Hillary is reputed to be an alcoholic. Obama’s drugs of choice are cannabis and cocaine, and yes, he’s addicted. I don’t know whether he has added excessive use of alcohol to the mix, but nothing would surprise me any more.
I’d totally agree with you were it not for the fact that I could lose MY job.
Guess again…. it won’t be President Hillary in 2016, it will be Madam President Michelle Obama… mark my words! We’ve got 12 more years of Obama’s in the house. God help us all!
Just a replay of the Gregoire Rossi Washington Economy in 2008.
Christine would have never exaggerated the condition of the Washington economy – she is a lawyer after all. I think it was her administration that put WA into full vote fraud by mail. Interesting how many crates of votes were missed in the first 2 recounts that appeared for the 3rd, and how they were 60% for her.
Yup it’s easy to see that the failure to get this news to the American people is all the fault of the Romney campaign. Not the failure of a corrupt and biased media that is supposed to inform the people.
EXACTLY!
While the MSM is culpable in this whole affair, I feel it is extraordinairily naive to think Romney’s camp didn’t know about this. After all, Zero Hedge has been running the GM channel stuffing story for two years! The reality here is Romney called Barry Soetoro on virtually nothing because the two of them represent virtually the same interests.
May God have mercy on us.
www
The National Academy of Sciences has been pumping out reports for months on conferences that have been held over the last several years on reorganizing the American economy around the Ecosystem. Using Tech Companies and Big Data to redesign and centrally plan the economy around Green Energy and Low Carbon Fuels. A place where there is no more distinction between the public and private sector and the sectors “collaborate to compete.” http://www.invisibleserfscollar.com/protected-producers-vs-paying-consumerstaxpayerswho-will-prevail-on-education-and-the-economy/ is based on listening to a Brookings Institute presentation a few months ago on Metropolitanism (as Agenda 21′s Regionalism is now called) and the new economy).
Now is it easier to fundamentally restructure like this in an up economy or an economy in a recession? Which one calls out for what Von Mises called Interventionism? Since the whole reason for the Green Energy/CAGW push is to gain government/Crony control over the economy and future development of Technology (put that Creative Destruction away!), tanking the economy just makes it easier to continue the Transformation to a Fair Shares economy during the “Crisis.”
The Belmont Challenge is very real and its envisioned post GDP/Quality of Life/Personal Well Being for All Society sure looks to me like what was described during the 70s as the Fair Shares Society.
And again it’s a big part of what makes negotiating with this Administration so dangerous. It’s all about leverage for the Transformation. The worse the crisis, the easier to justify transformative measures. Taking out small business and the professional class is key. They must all come to understand that only political allegiance can restore their access to prosperity. And even then it will remain tenuous on continued faithful service.
I agree with you. But, given the crickets you’re getting here, I expect the sheep are mostly unaware or just can’t bare to look at this. Too bad, really. It seems we’ve given up as a nation on trying to restore our system and that includes the conservatives. Many of them are moving to the redoubt (read retreat as in run away) and digging bunkers to live in. I expect DeMint to show up there soon. As we see with Boehner, the establishment GOP is jockeying for positions in Obama’s new politburo.
Oh, it’s more than crickets. My work can be hard to read if you want to avoid ugliness. It is why I try to use snark and humor whenever possible.
We cannot confront what we are unaware of and we cannot hope to fix what we do not understand. One of the good things about being a corporate lawyer by training and experience is disputes are what I now how to do and ugliness is something I have had to confront. And then find the best way forward. I like to think I bring that skill and experience to telling this story.
Metropolitanism matters because the politically connected have bought up land just waiting for the government to be able to dictate where businesses go, who must be hired, and what must be paid. It is the incentive to Cronyism that is largely the reason that radicals adore Green Energy. It offers an emotional justification for what is really central planning.
A recovery from the housing crash? Not. Gonna. Happen.
Let is get worse. There is only one way out of this mess and that is a conservative revival. That’s not going to happen with our current Republicans who at best are Democrat lite, and at worst complicit through cowardess and inaction. They are unwilling to put their jobs on the line because they don’t want to be the target of the media’s derision.
You not going to change the mind of the general populace because they’ve been told, and believe that it was Bush’s fault and that people like Mitt Romney are actually social conservatives (which they are not) and that they could or would attempt to take away their stuff. I can never find who the quote was actually attributed to, so maybe others can help:
“The average Roman cares nothing for the affairs of state, only the pebble in their sandal”
I agree with your comments and have no doubt that we are entering a period of consequences. However, the idea of Boehner “walking away”, “voting present” or “just letting things burn” is not my idea of strong American leadership.The power and cunning of Communist politics is that it appropriates slogans (for the “Romans who care nothing for the affairs of state” and in our case the media as well). Milan Kundura speaks of his own experience as a Czech by pointing out how the “idiotic tautology, Long live Life! attracted people indifferent to the theses of Communism. Hope and Change is Obama’s slogan and he won this election by inciting class warfare but he is not a serious president. His political movement rests not on the rational attitude of fixing our economy but on the “fantasies, images and words that come together” to form his “political kitsch” or as Kundera defines kitsch, “lie”. I pray that Boehner will not resort to his own political kitsch but tell the Americans the real numbers of GM,unemployment,the percent of govt jobs, and the reality of our debt. If the Simpson Bowles plan is the best we can do, then put that forward and tell the people that this is Obama’s own advisors, not perfect perhaps but it truly is the best compromise between conservative principles and Bill Clinton’s economics that we can come up with that will lead us in the direction of prosperity for all AND THEN STICK TO IT!
conservative’s strategy for dealing with the media from here on out should be to cite actual numbers and data in common english, and immediately admonish them to do their jobs and prove or disprove these facts. always demand that they verify conservative’s numbers and refuse to allow them to accept liberal statements as facts. hammer them into doing their jobs as journalists. eventually, even the casual news-watchers will see the difference between the two ideologies.
As Mr. Blumer points out, much “bad” news has emerged since the election, and much of that news was available before the election if any journalists had wanted to uncover it and report it. They did not. As many of us were once taught, the first job of a free press was to insure that the government could not manipulate the citizenry through either the suppression or the manipulation if information. The press no longer upholds that responsibility, and their failure is a serious threat to our democracy. For anyone who might have missed it, Mr. Cadell’s oservations on this theme is instructive.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2012/09/29/pat_caddell_media_have_become_an_enemy_of_the_american_people.html
Hey, but don’t worry, the Chevy Volt is going to “turn things around” and “save” GM. Sure, right. Another dismal failure for not only the Obama administration, but for the country in general for pushing such a loser of a car. Instead of going for more sensible hybrid cars, like the Toyota Prius, GM was forced by the Obama administration to go the Full Monty for the all electric car. And how did that turn out for GM? Not so good, especially now that people see the expense involved in buying this turkey and that there is very little (if any) demand for this car on a “used” basis. This is what you get when you have government trying to market and force a product on the American public. It usually doesn’t end up so well and we usually get stuck with the bill.
The Volt isn’t even an Edsel. At least the Edsel was a marketing failure because it was too far ahead of its time (some say). Its styling and features were not to come out for another ten years.
But the Volt is the quintessential example of “trying to push a string”. It’s like the Queen of 17th century Spain deciding to go to the moon with a vehicle made of wood, canvas and nails.
The day will come in the future when the zero-emission car may be realized. That day is not fast approaching and, indeed has been slowed by virtue of government involvement. Discovery happens as much by luck as by intent. Innovation leads to more discovery. But, quoting Captain Kirk in “The Ultimate Computer”, “But genius doesn’t work on an assembly line basis. Did Einstein, Kazanga, or Sitar of Vulcan produce new and revolutionary theories on a regular schedule? You can’t simply say, “Today, I will be brilliant.” No matter how long it took, he came out with multitronics. The M-5.”
No, and government historically has done the opposite of brilliant and usually installs the mundane, the obvious and the uninspired, while, of course, claiming the exact opposite. Although government funded the(now defunct) space program, the brilliance came in the form of private enterprise with people competing for results. Not government functionaries dictating every move made, which is why the Soviet Union failed miserably.
People need the freedom to explore, try new ideas and FAIL in order to try again. Government stands in the way of that. Always has, always will.
So how it is Zero Emmission is only on the vehicle, not its fuel source. The electric car only stores energy, the energy supplied to it had plenty of emissions in its production.
Gas Powered > Refinery Emissions > Distribution of Gas emissions > Burning in engine.
Electric > Coal, nat gas ‘mining’ > Power plant emissions (except for the occasional windmill) > loss in distribution (also heat to enviro) of 10% magnifying the plant emissions > loss in charging of 15% > use at car.
Anyone that has heated their house with electricity vs oil heat knows that electricity is much more cost – it is those losses. Well running a modern gas engine is well more efficient than electric. Besides we can drive more than 50 miles.
Yes, the energy loss is one of the points I make regularly as to the inefficiency of an all-electric car. Energy is lost when converting coal or natural gas to heat, to steam for powering the turbines and then through the transmission lines. Hence the expression, “The coal-powered car”.
If it were only so nifty that you could plug your car into the solar cell, charge it up in a few minutes, then drive it for 400 miles before needing that again, well, then there’d be competition for gasoline or diesel-powered vehicles.
Surely the ancient Egyptians had this figured out with how they were able to lift multi-ton blocks to great heights, no?
The technology isn’t ready and it may never be. If this planet had no fossil fuels at all, then it might be the way for people to get around. It’s still a novelty right now and woefully impractical for the needs of today’s people.
How dare you dispair the Volt, its sales are up recently – to something like 1,200 a month. As the unsold GM inventory is 800K right now it should be SO APPARENT that the VOLT is saving GM.
(if saving GM is to produce so few that the $ 7,000 loss per vehicle doesn’t kill the bottom line)
What happens to Volt sales when the EPA closes some 70 power plants over the next 5 years.
You seem grossly misinformed. Not sure where you got your info from. GM’s stated 5 year goal is to have a little less than 5% of all of their sales world wide to be from battery technology vehicles of all types. That includes plug-ins, hybrids, and light hybrids. That doesn’t sound like they’re expecting the Volt to “save” them. The decision to go ahead with the Volt car program was made in 2006. The production form of the vehicle was finalized in 2008. That means all of the original R&D money and a large portion of the production development funds were spent by that time.
I expect hybrid and light hybrid market share to continue to grow into the future and become large volume models. Plug-in vehicles will always remain niche market vehicles with some advantages in the urban fleet vehicle market.
Why do you expect that? There will be enough oil and natural gas to run all of our vehicles and heat all of our homes for more than 150 years, if we are ever allowed to drill for it. To think, in 1929 the US Government came out with a report that we would be out of oil reserves before 1950. Here we are more than 60 years later, subsidizing wind and solar to the tune of nearly 60%, so that we can take advantage of energy solutions that will require a wallpapering of the entire landscape of the country in order to provide us with enough energy to run these lamo electric cars and give us hardly enough heat to keep us from moving to the tropics. The Gang Green will continue to push these “solutions” until we are all living in abject poverty and burning our neighbor’s houses for fuel. And then they will blame a long since forgotten oil and gas industry for the predicament they got us in because their goal was always just to feed at the public trough. Follow where the tax dollars are getting spent, if you want to ever know what is going on. If not, I would say I have already read plenty of this kind of Collectivist drivel for my lifetime!
Jim, Sounds like you basically have two categories – petroleum and not petroleum. Hybrid’s and light hybrids are actually in both of your categories.
There’s a couple of reasons why I think their market share will continue to grow. First is just market trends. It looks like we’re on track to have around 400,000 in hybrid/light hybrid sales this year. I think with second and third generation models hitting the market now, price and performance are much more attractive to more buyers than ever before. There were 42 different hybrid models sold in the US this year.
Second is that they help the car companies continue meet their CAFE targets while continuing to supply larger sized and higher performance vehicles that are popular in the US market.
There’s a couple of things that I think could negatively affect sales of hybrids. One is diesel vehicles. For whatever reason, they’re just not as popular in the US as Europe, but if their sales continue to develop they could take sales away from hybrids. The second is the US customer shifting to significantly smaller vehicles. If they start buying a lot more econoboxes that could also cut into hybrid sales.
Jim Baker
Are you really this curmudgeonly and uninformed or is this an act?
Toyota announced today that they have replicated a mitsubishi LENR experiment that had also been previously replicated by osaka univ researchers. Oh those tricky socialist (actually nationalist) japanese. Once all of this wasted effort in low energy physics has been turned into that which helps create absurdly efficient engines in the near future, maybe you dinosaur-like critters will quit crying about stuff. Perhaps this is above your pay grade or attention span here but there’s a lot of effort on widespread fronts that constitute the alt energy picture you so despise. The key to future prosperity is energy and the holder of the patents is the winner.
I really do wish that you far right types would at least try to get some education here and grasp what the big picture is. It’s one thing to have an opinion on energy policies; apparently it’s quite another to have an informed one.
Once again a utopian and farcical reply to what is and has been reality for the last 100 years…
Just because they did it at some lab does not correlate to reality. And even though I personally hope and pray that LENR becomes a reality in the near term, I do not delude myself that it will.
And don’t kid yourself, the Japanese culture doesn’t operate like any other on the planet. Yes, they have a form of socialism/fascism or more accurately corporatism for govt. They all know and work from the baseline of profit makes the world operate.
The point is that the IP is crucial. Boeing has to compete with the combined EU to sell aircraft. Corp vs multiple countries. So we spend extra from the gov’t to help kickstart stuff. Not my fantasy either but reality of how things work in the realpolitik world. Look at pictures of all of the modern operating rooms worldwide. Look at the equipment. Who do you think holds the patents?
If you actually have real interest in learning read Strategy of Technology by Possony and Pournelle. If you’re simply one of the vapid yammering “drill baby drill” arguers, get a new schtick. I can’t tell whether people on this site are obtuse or simply ignorant. For you for now I’ll just assume the best.
random – Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you for assuming the best of us naifs here.
It is so ironic that the discovery of so much new energy on this continent via fracking will be one of the few bright spots in the American economy. But Obama does not seem happy about it because his plan was to get us weened from carbon fuels. BTW, where does the energy for electric cars come from? Sunshine? Corn? Grass? Don’t think so…..
that’s weaned.
How naive is Mitt Romney that he didn’t address any of this during that ridiculous “election?” I’m so angry at Republicans, I don’t think I’ll ever vote for them again. Why vote anyway? The Dems have ensured that any votes for anyone other than their candidate are either lost or changed. We no longer have a free country and Republicans are as much to blame as Democrats, possibly more. And I hope that plant in Ohio shuts down. Serves them right.
Ermmmm
What we are ALL failing to focus on is that while Romney ran a too polite and wimpy campaign, the MEDIA is supposed to tell the whole story, and they DIDN’T, AT ALL. While we all pss and Moan and point fingers at each other and the RINOs that represent us, the REAL problem is that the Media isn’t doing its job as proscribed in the Constitution. Perhaps if we focus on the media and drive them out of business, the spineless Rs will feel more open to acting conservatively. If not, at least the blame will begin to be laid at the feet of the REAL culprits. If the Media had actually reported ALL the news, people would have been more capable of making an informed decision.
Remember Benghazi!
The problem with GOP is they do not understand the opposition. They think The Dems truly believe in democracy where the contrary is true. The prove is Hussein O himself. He thinks the congress is just a bunch of robots who must approve everything he orders. Just like a benevolent King who controls his subjects.
Until GOP and the rest of us call the spade a spade and expose The Dems for what they are TYRANNICAL EVILS there is no hope. We need people who are not afraid of MSM – actually Democrat party propaganda arm – and confront them in front of their brain death audience.
The problem with the GOP is not understanding the opposition it is that they are the opposition to constitutional govt. They are Democrat country clubbers, elitists.
Running a successful presidential campaign against a hostile media and a party that promises goodies and good times now and forever is not an easy task.
Ever hear the term “Root Canal Republicans”? If we insist on cutting back entitlements as the sole solution to the deficit problem we will again earn that sobriquet.
It’s gonna be really tough if you’re a responsible adult living in the World of O (pick either Obama or Oprah). Anything you have is subject to devaluation and/or outright confiscation. One things for sure, the market bubble in equities is gonna burst and in a huge, huge way. There’s not likely any safe investment out there at the moment but be prepared to buy equities and hard assets when reality hits. Sometime in 2013, perhaps a small opportunity this month as folks final realize the tax man cometh for sure.
We’re on the cusp of rampant inflation that’s recongnized versus the silent kind where Kleenex napkins “shrink” inside the box and water is added to the tuna can. Thus, buy on the crash and ride the inflation upward.
I believe events are proceeding in accordance with the “progressive” plan:
1.) The depression—not recession, but depression—will be worsened and prolonged by new taxes from the so-called “Affordable Care Act,” additional tax increases, and renewed and expanded feral government squandering. What worked for Franklin Roosevelt ought to work as well for President You Didn’t Build That: the depression is an effective rationale for greatly expanding feral control over business and markets; in addition, the economically suicidal taxing and squandering scheme lets YDBT punish the successful, (which may, in fact, be his primary motivation.)
2.) The Republican face of the Big Government party seems determined to make a spectacular fool of itself in the public eye. Does that weaken opposition to the Democratic [sic] face of the Big Government party? No. It merely enhances the illusion we still have two opposed political parties. All the finger pointing and name calling must mean something big is going on, right? The louder and more elaborate the show, the more credible-looking.
3.) The greater the economic disruption, the nearer the nation moves toward the “serious crisis” Rahm Emmanuel was foolish enough to mention. One shudders to imagine what could be done with “emergency measures,” “temporary economic rescue plans,” “desperately needed action to save the economy,” and the like.
None of it’s accidental.
Agree. Economy getting worse is not going to help Republicans anymore because the Obama Team has played the game so well that now all bad news will be blamed on the Republicans.
I might be wrong. But if Obama Team lets the Fiscal Cliff happen, then only because it is just another move in their game to get back the House in 2014.
Who needed to tell you the economy wasn’t getting better?
Well, duh… and all the suckers who took the free phone and voted Democrat are actually surprised.
zerohedge has been constantly beating the drum about GM’s channel stuffing for a long time. The over-arching problem is that the government involved in everything. I cannot wait to hear of the phenomenal health improvements whenever there’s a guy with the suffix ‘-D’ in the WH.
After the hurricanes of 2004 in Florida, the demand for roofers, roofing materials and delivery, general home repair, tree/limb removal, fence and screen room rebuilding was so great that materials and workers were nearly impossible to find. I would think that those damaged by Sandy would have similar needs. The demand for skilled labor should have gone up. I realize some businesses were adversely affected, but when that much stuff is flooded and blown apart, workers are needed to put it back together.
A lot of those kinds of workers are either self-employed and never show up on anybody’s statistics, or are illegals ditto, or show as employed even when they’re just working a few hours a week and now that they work overtime *still* won’t show as a blip.
Yes, but still the materials must be purchased and manufactured. Maybe so much of it is coming in from overseas that it has no impact. Logically it should, but what is logical these days?
I have always been a huge Ford fan, especially their pickups. However, I have to admit that GM’s pickups are good. Their drivetrains are especially good. That is why it baffles me that they are not competing as well as they used to. Could the reason be bailout backlash? If so, then why are Dodge trucks doing so well? I’ll admit that for some reason Chrysler is not feeling the same stigma, perhaps because the “Government Motors” moniker is so catchy.
As a longtime Ford fan, I used to dream of the day when Ford would finally regain the top spot from Chevrolet. I never dreamed I would see the day when Ford would have nearly the same market share as all of GM combined. Much of that credit goes to Ford. While GM put a huge amount of money and reputation into the money-losing Volt, Ford has been quietly improving their hybrid and engine technology to the point where their hybrids now outperform Toyota’s. What a testimony to the wealth producing power of the free market.
Blame Bush was an effective election strategy over 2 elections and – given that he stopped defending himself in the last 2 years of his second term and that the narrative of Bush as failure was well established – not defending Bush was a reasonable election strategy for the GOP. I do blame Bush for starting a war and then not defending it until it was won and in particular for not explaining the role of al Qaeda in elevating hostilities (the bombing of the Golden Mosque in Samarra being the prime example) and prolonging the war, but the time has come to compare the Bush economic record with the Obama record.
Obama has succeeding in blaming Bush for the 2008 banking crisis and subsequent economic collapse when the fact of the matter is that they were the culmination of the Democrat Party’s policy of government interference in the mortgage market.
It is beyond argument that the author of Truly Failed Economic Policies is the son of the 2 commies, not the son of the war hero and American patriot who lacked good communication skills.
Peter Ferrara at Forbes has an excellent primer, which I highly recommend. The time to attack the false Obama narratives is now, not 3 years from now.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/peterferrara/2012/12/06/why-america-is-going-to-miss-the-bush-tax-cuts/
Finally, Obama has taken credit for ending the war in Iraq when the fact of the matter is he opposed the very action – The Surge- that enabled the war to be ended. This false narrative should also be attacked and destroyed.
Good advice and I would add one more, Terry. The myth that is Bill Clinton – the benefactor of serendipity. We need to begin to tell the real story of the “balanced budgets” of the last ’90s – because Clinton and his cronies had little or nothing to do with it, unless watching on the sideline makes you the victor.
The thing I remember from the budget debates was the MSM showing Gingrich to be the bad guy at every turn while also showing video of an enraged Bill-Jeff, as if to show “how angry those pesky republicans make us”. All the more reason to point out that the reason Bill-Jeff was so angry was not because the republicans were “stonewalling” but to point out it was those same republicans that forced Bill-Jeff to sign a balanced budget..which, of course, the democrats are so ready to claim as their own.
How ’bout now? Balanced budget? Republicans’ fault? Not-so-fast.
If people didn’t listen to Pravda America and instead they would measure things with their eyes open and a dose of common sense, they would see what I am seeing – the things that can’t be fudged, or spun, or lied about. Just a couple.
For instance, have you heard mention that The Salvation Army can’t fulfill requests this year, many of its Christmas warehouses for distribution are empty? Empty. One here in Tulsa, OK, sits completely empty.
Or the CFO of Walmart, as good a gauge as any of the middle class consumer staples, saying the standard Walmart customer is having more difficulty each passing month stretching their paycheck to make basic ends meet?
Oh, times are much tougher than the Washington D.C. crowd realizes, or at the very least wants you to realize, and you can’t find the charitable works of even a couple of years ago. A lot of these Obama voters are going to feel the pinch much quicker than I ever dreamed. Say about December 25th just for starters.
And I’m running on empty with sympathy after last November 6th. These rubes own Obama and his policies now.
The really galling part of all this is thanks to the MSM propaganda machine, it will be Bush’s fault and/or the Republican’s fault. We are facing a “fiscal” cliff all because a majority of deluded lemmings decided to go over the credibility cliff and vote the biggest “speed bump” in America’s economic history back for another four years of incompetency.
“It even missed touting Chrysler parent Fiat’s announcement that it plans to manufacture a new Jeep model for the North American market in Italy.”
Wait, what? It’s more efficient to build a car in Italy (Italy?) and ship it to North America, than to build it in North America? What’s next, building the Chevy Volt in Greece?
General Motors is becoming China Motors
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lvl5Gan69Wo
Good post, Tom.
The dishonesty of this administration seems unprecedented in American history, it’s very Stalinist, very 1984. The MSM has completely foresaken their traditional role of busybody, now they are there For The Cause.
We’ve elected a cadre of fools who know neither science nor economics, much less their politics. They have a green vision, or they listen to some raving lunatics who claim to have such a vision.
Also unprecedented is the incompetence of the opposition party, facilitated of course by the fact that the MSM suppresses all debates as they suppress all attempts at accurate information. Where did we get these individuals who make up the MSM? Where did we get a public that pays them any attention?
I think there’s a lesson here, the public was brought up with the idea that the traditional press organs are worth listening to, so even after they have mutated and rotted, people persist in listening. The form overrides the content.
Or something.
To which I might finally add, so why is GM so friggin’ weak in the first place? One answer is that they’ve been suffering under union rules for too long, that went obsolete by about 1970. However, that does not explain their failure to build interesting and worthwhile popular mainstream vehicles for the last 10, 20, 30 years and more. Their engineering and corporate cultures are broken and sick. If one wanted a place to start to fix things, maybe that would be the better place.
Think about this. Where are the stories about the homeless? Have they disappeared? No. Probably worse. But you won’t hear that during a democrat’s reign. Only when Republicans are in office will the media bring that up. I don’t bother watching any network news any more. Or even 60 minutes. I guess I should determine which corporations advertise on them and refuse to buy from them as well.
If the MSM had been one fifth as critical of Obama as they were of Bush Obama would have been toast (except among the blacks – even though the Democratic party basically supports murder of black children and wanted to throw God out of the part they will always vote on race and not qualifications).
The MSM reporters and talking heads are probably thrilled to death: another 4 years of lobbing softballs at their beloved President and fawning over the First Lady while at the same time ignoring any problems that plague this administration… Sure beats doing any real journalism!
An axiom of a successful (survivable) democracy is an educated population of voters. A key characteristic of education is critical thinking. Another is the availability of written analysis, which has worth, conveying concepts, facts, and insightful thoughts. And a democracy requires leaders of extraordinary talent and selflessness. This last election demonstrates the results of two generations of weak public education, inept media coverage, and mendacious candidates.
In my expertise, energy engineering, I see little hope for the future for a clear, national survivable energy policy. The winner has a trace record of giving $90 Bn to technologies that do not work, economically. Mandated usages, government purchases, and regulation/ litigation of competing technologies has become our defacto policy. The certain result will be financially back breaking costs, and a weakened industrial base. It dumbfounds me that no clear debate of this national security issue occurred. Yes it was mentioned, but not defined as a choice of national survival, by either candidate. Yet, together they spent over $2 Bn on the contest. Does any one know a clear path to fracking? Yucca Mountain repository of spent fuel? Hydrocarbon extraction on public or private lands, or off shore? New nukes? An understanding of ubiquitous naturally occurring “pollutants” which dwarf the signal from energy plants? An international system of addressing global green house emissions? (This month is the last month of the last year of the obligations created by the widely, hotly debated 1997 Kyoto Treaty, signed by many nations, but not the US. Who met their commitments? What was the improvement? What was the cost? The press coverage, in the beginning, the pressure for America to join the treaty was massive; the silence, at the end, is deafening.)
Our infrastructure is old, our colleges no longer teach the required coursework, and the veteran experienced engineers are retired or dead. The US has no survivable energy policy.
Carbon and Life
-It is hard to overstate the importance of carbon; its unique capacity for forming multiple bonds and chains at low energies makes life as we know it possible, and justifies an entire major branch of chemistry – organic chemistry – dedicated to its compounds. In fact, most of the compounds known to science are carbon compounds, often called organic compounds because it was in the context of biochemistry that they were first studied in depth.
-What makes carbon so special is that every carbon atom is eager to bond with as many as four other atoms. This makes it possible for long chains and rings to be formed out of them, together with other atoms – almost always hydrogen, often oxygen, sometimes nitrogen, sulfur or halides. The study of these is the basis of organic chemistry; the compounds carbon forms with metals are generally considered inorganic. Chains and rings are fundamental to the way carbon-based life forms – that is, all known life-forms – build themselves.
-Silicon is capable of forming the same sorts of bonds and structures, but opinion is divided on whether silicon-based life forms are a realistic prospect – in part because it needs higher energies to form them, and in part because whereas carbon dioxide (one of the main by-products of respiration, a process essential to all known life) is a gas and therefore easy to remove from the body, its counterpart silicon dioxide (silica) has an inconveniently high melting point, posing a serious waste disposal problem for any would-be silicon-based life form.
EPA official’s ‘crucify’ comment continues to draw fire Apr 27, 2012
http://video.foxnews.com/v/1603185814001/epa-officials-crucify-comment-continues-to-draw-fire
Hydraulic Fracturing of Oil & Gas Wells Drilled in Shale. Hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling have turned unproductive shales into the largest natural gas fields in the World.
How Long Has Hydraulic Fracturing Been Used?
The first use of hydraulic fracturing to stimulate oil and natural gas wells in the United States was in the 1940s. The method successfully increased well production rates and the practice quickly spread. It is now used throughout the world in thousands of wells every year.
What is Hydraulic Fracturing?
http://geology.com/articles/hydraulic-fracturing/
After sixty years and tens of thousands of drilled/ stimulated wells, what is new?
Concerns. Someone said that flames came out of their kitchen faucet (Unrelated to fracking). Others call for overview. The use of millions of teaspoons of polluted water ( two tanker trucks). We know that the liquids employed are lethal (dish washing detergent, injected a mile below the aquifer). We can not let private interests make a profit without regulators, thousands of regulators.
There are many new technical advances, but they are irrelevant. Once national committees of engineers defined safety standards. The committees were filled with experts, representing centuries of expertise. Occasionally they were corrupted by a single monopoly, but the vast majority of senior professionals want to do it right, and efficiently. Regulators and lawyers do not. They make a living contesting and delaying work, and rely on long loans schedules, and compound interest to break the private party into submission. This adds costs, unsustainable costs, which kills off industry, and jobs.
This is what is new, over the last two generations. But it is coming to an end. When, or if, there is a popular linkage between our litigious/regulatory system, higher costs and a continuous decline in America’s standard of living, or a threat to our existence, then fracking may be accepted. Considering the election, the odds are not good. Our recession may be the new normal. Elections should have consequences, but this last one returned the exact same crowd of screw ups back to D.C. No one was held accountable.
Today: 4.3 million of these are on welfare, 47.1 million on food stamps (SNAP) and 5.6 million on unemployment insurance for a total of some 57 million individuals on some form of government assistance program.
Adding to this, an increasing number of baby boomers, retiring to the already bloated entitlement rolls (some estimated 5.6% or 17.8 million).
One has a pretty dismal picture of USA’s increasing poverty rate. Add to this the unbelievable statistic that some estimated 21 million children in the USA live in poverty, receiving lo-cost government help (possibly illegal aliens, too).
So far, adding these catagories up (some overlap is evident): approximately 95 million individuals currently living in the USA are in some form of government assistance programs or receiving some form of government assistance. Roughly 1/3 of the country is on “the dole.!!!!” Think about this.
Now, on to household incomes: 14.9 million received some form of (SNAP) totalling 13% (in 2011)
47 states reported increases in enrollments (DC, AL,HI the highest) Oregon = 18.9% highest of all.
18 year olds and older living with parents = 17.9% up from 16% in 2007
Then there’s General Assistance ( a catchall catagory) = 2.9% of all american households.
How is this “redistribution of American income” going to ultimately work out? HUH??? The numbers just don’t add up. Credit Card debt: 2011 = $48 billion in new debt; 424% than in 2010; 572% than in 2009. How in the world is this conceivably sustainable???? And Bernanke is printing 40 billion/month in new money (Operation Twist)!!!!Pray. Amen.
I don’t know why people insist on decrying the “bias” of the media. From colonial days to the present, from phampletteers like Paine to today’s electronic media celebrities, the media has never been “fair and balanced” and furthermore nobody expected it to be until the advent of television after WWII. Even then TV news and commentary was very biased if somewhat more subtle in that bias and the networks constantly touted themselves as above the partisan fray.
Back in the days when the newspapers were the source of most news, every town of any size had its Democrat paper, its Republican paper, its labor paper, its communist paper, its Jewish paper. Now there is usually only one and it owned by one of a handful of corporations that own the papers merely as a revenue source. The publisher of a newspaper today is just a corporate manager trying to hit his numbers and move up to a bigger market and as such is indistinguishable from the guy wearing the clip-on tie “manageing” a WalMart. Neither gives a damn about what they print or what they sell or what impact it has on that Podunk town they’re trying to get promoted out of. TV stations are no different. Radio is a little different simply because they’re a lot cheaper to own and operate and there are so many of them still. That’s also why the only place you’ll find a conservative voice is on radio. Even FOX is at best only not really leftist.
In any event, they are all private enterprises except PBS and neither we nor the government have any right to tell them they have to be fair and objective. Both we and the government do have a right to tell them they can’t claim to be fair and objective when clearly they’re not. PBS is the one that we REALLY have a right to object to; Hell I object to its very existence. The problem with television and newspaper news is that like so many things in modern America, there are too few players. Even in poverty-ridden rural Georgia in the ’50s, I could choose between the Democrat and liberal by Georgia standards Atlanta Constitution, the somewhat more conservative, maybe even Republican leaning Atlanta Journal or the openly Republican Savannah Morning News, or the Cracker Conservative voices of the Augusta Chronicle or the Macon Telegraph plus every county seat town had a local paper though most were weekly. Today, ALL of those papers are corporate, the Constitution and Journal have merged and speak with one very Atlanta, very liberal voice and the rest of them reflect the lefty ignorance of their young and poorly paid reporters and their corporate manager/publisher/editors. The venerable Augusta Chronicle, the oldest continuously published daily in the Country is owned by Morris Communication, which also owns the Juneau Empire. In fact, the editor of the Empire, who hired me for awhile and who gave me my first check for writing something, went from Juneau to Augusta; yeah, she had a lot of intimate knowlege of Augusta and The South.
“Neither gives a damn about what they print or what they sell or what impact it has on that Podunk town they’re trying to get promoted out of.”
Sure that newsie gives a damn. The best propagandist gets hired. Telling facts keeps one marginalized.
You give them far too much credit. The manager hires the applicant with the J-degree that will come to work in Podunk for Podunk wages. The J-school graduate doesn’t think s/he’s a propagandist, s/he just thinks s/he’s an educated person looking at things the way educated people look at them; the way everyone s/he knows looks at things. They don’t know they’re brainwashed and stupid.
Bye Bye USA it was nice knowing you. What a pity your ‘Military/Financial Empire’ , won by sitting on the sidelines in TWO World Wars and selling to BOTH side and thus becoming disgustingly rich, has proven to be one of the shortest living Empires the world has ever seen. It is now being destroyed from withing by Socialism, Green NAZISM, Black Racism and STUPIDITY.
Prior to WW1 the USA was a ‘third rate power militarily, financially and industrially’ of course that was before you became supplier to the whole worlds Armies as they fought each other. You only joined WW1 in 1917 and your troops only started to reach the European battlefields in 1918 when it was just about over. In WW2 you only joined in 1941 when Japan attacked YOU and you only joined the European war because Germany declared war on YOU in support of its Japanese ally.
A generation of Americans died to defend freedom in Europe (Twice) and the Far East. What Country and prideful history do You represent? We can compare current situations then.
We aren’t done fighting for America yet.
Your comment is disgusting on so many levels.
Praggie, Old Chap -
Stop sniffing Acetone — it dissolves your brain.
Before actually entering WW II, US was aiding the Allies:
Lend Lease — “loan” and “lease” of military equipment
50 WW I US destroyers transferred to the Royal Navy
Sale of fighters and bombers to France, England, and other Allied countries
Close relations between Churchill and Roosevelt.
Aggressive patrolling by US Navy against U-boats.
The USS Ruben James was sunk by a U-boat prior to our entry into WW II
Japan:
US cut off shipments of oil, steel to Japan to protest Nanking massacre
US Navy had plans for combat in the Pacific ONLY against Japan.
Japanese midget subs were depth charged and sunk outside Pearl Harbor.
This was just prior to the aerial attack.
Rush efforts to reinforce Pacific bases — Wake I., Midway, Philippines.
So, Praggie — you really need to look at reality …. facts and such.
is anyone really surprised?
And this information matters to the American people how? This stuff was said over and over again, even by Romney camp no matter what this article says. And yet, and yet . . . the Democrats still won the Presidency and added numbers to both sides of Congress. This election has proven to me that conservatives (both financial and social) are tipping at windmills with the belief that people are listening. Those who are well aware of where this nation is and will be heading are the only ones paying attention. News like this popped up all the time during the election and Obama and the Democrats still got boosts in popularity.
Its no longer about the economy stupid; its about free birth control and getting even with the rich for, well, having money (regardless of the irony that the rich are mostly Democrats for some reason).