Posted on 08/31/2010 6:20:51 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
At present there's quite a lot to criticize President Obama about when it comes to his administration's economic policies. But with regard to last Friday's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) revision which allegedly points to a weakening economy, the anger should center on what a worthless number GDP is, as opposed to Obama's admittedly limited worth as an economic strategist.
One editorial that decried the revised number and the President's surely unfortunate policies noted a big drop in new home sales and weak manufacturing data as symptoms of those policies. It went on to say that during economic recoveries numbers like GDP are supposed to go up. That, of course, would be true if we desired a weaker economy.
A struggling manufacturing sector was cited as evidence of a depressed situation, but in an evolving economy like ours, rational thinkers would be more concerned with rising, as opposed to falling manufacturing activity. The latter surely mattered in the early part of the 20th century when General Motors was the world's most prominent company, but in the 21st a great deal of growth in the factory sector would suggest a move toward falling profit margins and economic backwardness.
Politicians and economic commentators love to romanticize manufacturing, and their elevation of it is most likely evidence that they've never worked in a factory before. Sure enough, there's a reason that the parts of the country reliant on what made us prosperous in the past are the most depressed at present. What this signals is that the best and brightest from those areas long ago migrated to the parts of the U.S. where service economic models dominate relative to the backbreaking - and less profitable - sectors reliant on the production of goods that could easily be made for us overseas.
(Excerpt) Read more at realclearmarkets.com ...
The author also is not impressed with the concern that housing prices are still weak.
He agrees that the rate of home purchases may have compromised GDP growth.
However he believes an argument can be made that if the price of a less vibrant housing market results in a lower, artificially constructed GDP number, then lower prices today is a GOOD THING.
In the author’s opinion -— What would be more troublesome is if sales continued to increase on the way to a higher GDP calculation. We tried to make housing central to our economic health and energy very recently and our efforts ended in tears, along with the unfortunate bailout of the economic actors engaging in what was economy-sapping activity.
Made in America vs. Made in China. Which is the better product overall.
I choose America.
I wonder how much of that 1.6% growth came from truly private spending or investment.
The linked article is compleat economic gibberish.
Yeah, if we had humming factories, we'd be in bad shape. Thankfully, most of our manufacturing plants have been shuttered. Whoo-Hoo! [/s]
All throughout the Bush Administration, even through the heady growth years of the mid-2000s, libs insisted we were in a "recession" or teetering on one. Now that one of their own is in the WH, suddenly, 1.6% growth doesn't sound so bad.
How about 9.5% (17% actual) unemployment?
What about $13.2T in debt, building at a rate of $1.3T per year?
Sure no shortage of idiots, is there?
Anyone who can pen a 900-word article on the US economy and not once find a use for the word “debt” - is missing the proverbial 900 lb. gorilla in the room.
Auto sales are in the dumper. 28 year low...
http://www.streetinsider.com/Insiders+Blog/Auto+Sales+Expected+at+28+Year+Low/5933957.html
I agree that we can not fix the economy by returning it to the glory days of 20% annual housing value growth, that is just plan stupid. But on the other hand we have a dumb ruling class in Washington that has regulated the finance industry so that the a housing crash never happens again, yet whales when housing values don’t increase for the poor home owner who is underwater.
“Made in America vs. Made in China. Which is the better product overall.
I choose America.”
You are limiting yourself quite a bit.
This is not the 1950s.
For example, as of over probably ten years ago, there has not been a pair of Levis made in the USA.
The same is true of most everything you pick up.
counter-intuitive and also wrong.
It isn't that jobs are being shipped overseas ~ they are simply disappearing as robotics and automation move heavily into all American manufacturing processes (except surgery, but that's coming).
The main thesis is that the current economy is not unhealthy. Fact is it's as good as 2005's economy, and that wasn't all that bad. I do recall having to sell old clothes on the streets, but otherwise ~ I was surviving.
Except newspapers and magazines ~ they've all fallen in the toilet.
“Sure no shortage of idiots, is there?”
Liberals, as is characteristic of Narcissists, can’t admit when they’re wrong. They have constructed an internal image of themselves as educated, intellectual, all knowing, all caring, progressive citizens of the world, and they will not allow facts to alter their self concept.
This is why the ‘civil’ approach that Bush took with them just allowed them to drive his approval ratings into the dirt. You will never be able to reason with them and convince them on the basis of cogent argument and facts that their position is wrong, or that your argument has validity. They won’t allow it. When you believe your views are superior, and you label your opposition as neanderthal bigots, you just can’t admit you’re wrong.
I try to buy American, but am adamant at this point that I buy only non-union American products.
I thought it was fairly disingenuous to have government spending as a simple addition to the GDP calculation, a real-world calculation might take government spending and divide it by 10, the other 90% would be wasted as political pay-offs, corrupt pay outs, etc.
We tried to warn them that it has never worked, can never work and WILL never work. The reasons are so simple. So simple in fact, that they will never see it for what it truly is. That is because they are not capable of simple, honest and moral thought and they refuse to adjust their amoral ideology to match the unchangeable moral laws established throughout the Universe.
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