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Posts Tagged ‘Stagnation’

The New Normal of low expectations; Update: Obama calls to delay Sequestration

by Phantom Ace ( 167 Comments › )
Filed under Barack Obama, Economy, Progressives, unemployment at February 5th, 2013 - 11:00 am

As much as the media has tried to hype the Obama economy as the Obama Boom, the truth is that growth is anemic. The GDP contracted in the 4th quatrer, which is usually a recessionary sign. Unemployment went up and the economy is only adding 150,000-180,000 jobs a month, that is just treading water. Incomes have declined and thanks to Ben Bernanke’s money printing, the standard of living is crumbling. Yet somehow, Americans still love Obama and have accepted an anemic economy.

Nations probably never choose decline, at least not consciously. More likely they become victims of a creeping normalcy. Things once objectionable can become passively acceptable if they happen slowly, incrementally: the boiling-frog syndrome. Decline just sort of happens, year by year, decade by decade, one “meh” economic report at a time.

Last Thursday the U.S. Commerce Department reported that fourth-quarter GDP fell at a 0.1 percent annual rate. For the year, the U.S. economy grew a meager 2.2 percent. That’s a bit better than 2011, but about a percentage point less than what most economists think is the economy’s current potential. Even worse, the first few recovery years after deep downturn typically exhibit abnormally strong catch-up growth. But that’s not happening post–Great Recession. White House spokesman Jay Carney conceded the obvious, that the negative quarterly report was “not good news,” and then blamed congressional Republicans for creating a “headwind” of political uncertainty. The next day the Labor Department reported the unemployment rate ticking up to 7.9 percent in January as the economy added 157,000 net new jobs. At that rate of job creation, with all else equal, the economy wouldn’t return to 4.4 percent unemployment — the George W. Bush administration’s low point — for another eight years. Oh, and that’s assuming no recessions between now and 2021.

It must be terribly inconvenient for the Obama White House to be reminded every quarter and every month that the $800 billion stimulus — and subsequent mini-stimuli — failed to ignite the boom Obama economists repeatedly predicted through the first term.

It is sad that Americans are now accepting anemic growth and a lower standard of living. The Media-Entertainment Industrial Complex has convinced Americans this is the best we can do. Its sad that America which was a dynamic nation has low economic expectations.

Obama has robbed this nation of hope and left us with little change!

Update: Obama is calling to delay Sequestration

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama will ask Congress to come up with tens of billions of dollars in short-term spending cuts and tax revenue to put off the automatic across the board cuts that are scheduled to kick in March 1, White House officials said Tuesday.

Obama will make his request afternoon in a public statement at the White House.

The Republicans should hold firm and make Obama present a proposal.

 

The Obama Boom: 3rd quarter GDP grows at an anemic 2% due to government spending

by Phantom Ace ( 165 Comments › )
Filed under Business, Economy, unemployment at October 26th, 2012 - 10:30 am

The Obama lapdog media is already crowing about the latest GDP numbers and they are proclaiming that the economy is strong and we are living through an unprecedented boom.  The economy grew at a 2% for the 3rd quarter of 2012 which is a slight improvement from the 1.3% growth of the 2nd quarter. 2% no matter how you slice it is still an anemic figure and it is nothing to brag about and in this case its totally artificial since most of the growth came from a 9.6 % increase in government spending!

The U.S. economy expanded at a slightly faster 2 percent annual rate from July through September, buoyed by an uptick in consumer spending and a burst of government spending.

The Commerce Department said growth improved from the 1.3 percent rate in the April-June quarter.

The pickup in gross domestic product may help President Barack Obama’s message that the economy is improving.

Still, growth remains too weak to rapidly boost hiring. And the 1.74 percent rate for 2012 trails last year’s 1.8 percent growth, a point GOP nominee Mitt Romney will emphasize.

[….]

Government consumption and expenditures soared 9.6 percent after decreasing 0.2 percent in the second quarter.

Defense spending surged 13 percent after also decreasing 0.2 percent during the previous period.

This is a terrible number for the economy.  Two percent represents stagnation and is not enough to keep up with new workers trying to enter the workforce.  When George W. Bush was president, a growth of 2.5% to 3% was called anemic (or a jobless growth), but now that Obama is president, 1.5% to 2% is considered good economic news – that’s how much we have lowered our expectations for “the greatest economics president we ever had” (as Bob Beckel once pronounced him to be).  Keep in mind that when Poppy Bush lost in 1992, 3rd quarter GDP was 4%, therefore  Obama’s economy is worse than Bush’s 20 years ago.  Still the media in its quest to reelect the fraud, will push the 2% as “happy days are here again”.

There is no Obama Boom and hopefully on November 6th, Americans will reject this propaganda.

Obama doesn’t halt Middle Class decline

by Phantom Ace ( 145 Comments › )
Filed under Barack Obama, Economy, Misery Index, Progressives, unemployment at May 1st, 2012 - 2:00 pm

The US Middle class has had a terrible 12 years. Thanks to government policies (both parties) and globalization, companies have moved many of the jobs that enabled the middle class lifestyles offshore. This discontent as well as the collapse of 2008 enabled Obama to be elected the first American pharaoh. He promised his polices would lead to an unprecedented economic golden age that would make the seas recede and the sky cleaner. The media, who are his Theben Priests, have been claiming the economy is good and prosperity is all around us. Many Americans have fallen for this lie and adore Obama as the god-king of their lives. But others know its a lie.

Since 2009  the situation for America’s middle class has gotten worse. Incomes have declined since companies very rarely give raises now. Most jobs created are service jobs that pay minimum wage. Thanks to Ben Bernanke’s money printing the value of the dollar has declined, eroding the standard of living. The Pharaonic regime has increased the debt 5 Trillion dollars in 3 1/4 years. The reality is that this is not the golden age of the American Pharaoh that the media’s propaganda is peddling. The American middle class is suffering like never before.

Barack Obama campaigned four years ago assailing President George W. Bush for wage losses suffered by the middle class. More than three years into Obama’s own presidency, those declines have only deepened.

The rebound from the worst recession since the 1930s has generated relatively few of the moderately skilled jobs that once supported the middle class, tightening the financial squeeze on many Americans, even those who are employed.

“It started long before Obama, but he hasn’t done anything,” said John Forsyth, 58, a railroad-car inspector and political independent from Lebanon, Ohio. “He kept pushing this change, change, change, and he hasn’t done anything.”

Underlying the erosion of the middle class, defined by some economists as the middle 60 percent of income earners, are trends that stretch back decades, including competition from lower-wage workers overseas and technological advances that allow factories and offices to produce more with less labor.

As a candidate in 2008, Obama blamed the reversals largely on the policies of Bush and other Republicans. He cited census figures showing that median income for working-age households — those headed by someone younger than 65 — had dropped more than $2,000 after inflation during the first seven years of Bush’s time in office.

Yet real median household income in March was down $4,300 since Obama took office in January 2009 and down $2,900 since the June 2009 start of the economic recovery, according to an analysis of census data by Sentier Research, an economic- consulting firm in Annapolis, Maryland.

Obama is an empty suit and a symbol built up by the media. He has no answers for America’s problems. Instead he cracks jokes and sings. When 45-47% of the population views you as a divine being you can get away with these lies.

Unfortunately, the elites in our nation (both parties) don’t care about the decline of the American Middle Class. They are more concerned about serving the interest of the House of Saud or supporting the Muslim Brotherhood’s Arab Spring agenda than the plight of their fellow Americans. The only solution is for every American to acquire a marketable skill and prepare for constant retraining in their lives. The days of a comfortable middle class are over. There is no politician or political movement on the horizon with an agenda to solve the problem. Americans must take matters into their own hands and look out for themselves.

The American Pharaoh made a bad situation worse. Then again, as a 3rd World Liberation ideologue that was his plan all along.

The Obama Boom: Democrats fear the economy will not turn around

by Phantom Ace ( 4 Comments › )
Filed under Barack Obama, Business, Democratic Party, Economy, Headlines, unemployment at September 7th, 2011 - 4:37 pm

After their massive 2010 loss many Democrats consoled themselves that 2012 would be different. They assumed the economy would be roaring by then and Obama would be re-elected triumphantly. Well with 14 months to go, things are not looking that way. The media created Obama Boom is not materializing into reality. Instead the economy is on the verge of negative growth. This will means Obama faces a very tough re-election.

President Obama’s new effort to revive the ailing economy may be too little, too late, according to Democrats and liberal policy experts.

They contend that Obama missed his chance to turn the economy around by November 2012, but still want him to call on Congress to move an aggressive new jobs plan — even if it has little chance of passing. 

Obama should swing for the fences during his speech on Thursday, they say, claiming there is no need to be politically pragmatic with the House in GOP hands.

This explains why the Progressives are in full demagogue mood. Their policies have failed so all they have is fear left.