Posted on 01/14/2015 6:49:02 PM PST by Kaslin
RUSH: Breaking news. Do you remember, shortly after Obama got back from Hawaii last week he went on this brief public speaking tour and just raved about the economy. Remember that? We had the sound bite. I remember he roared on and on about all the jobs and all the activity and all the people that now have health care that didn't. I mean, he painted a picture of utopia. It just happened to be that every issue he had tackled had begun now to pay off and finally, after six hard years, it had all come together, and man, we're just swimming in it. Man, we are in fat city. I mean, we are up in there and it's just marvelous.
And then he goes away and we're faced with some real news, such as the Commerce Department reports retail sales saw a .9% decline in December. Now, December, for you atheists and all that, that happens to be Christmas. And, let's face it, the thing you atheists and others hate most about Christmas is that you think it's capitalism on display. It's massive sales. It's smiling people. It's people running around engaging in commerce, spending money that they have earned, in most cases. Buying things, buying people's family members presents and all kinds of things. It's capitalism on display, and manufacturers are trying to meet the demand, retail outlets are trying to meet the demand and increase the demand, and consumers are trying to get the best deals they can, and Obama told 'em, man, it was just zooming out.
And then we find out the Commerce Department says retail sales saw a .9% decline in December. And then you stop to realize that many retail businesses make at least half of their annual income during Christmas. Not all, but some do. And then we learn that this decline in retail sales in December was the biggest drop since January of 2014, and it was steeper than Wall Street expected.
"Excluding the volatile autos segment, sales fell 1%, its biggest drop since March 2009, while economists expected sales in this segment to hold steady." The experts, the economists, were wrong again. And then there's this from Breitbart News: "In a stunning Tuesday report, Gallup CEO and Chairman Jim Clifton revealed that 'for the first time in 35 years, American business deaths now outnumber business births.'" Jim Clifton, the chairman CEO of Gallup, says for the past six years since 2008 -- what happened in 2008? What happened the past six years?
In the past six years, "employer business startups have fallen below the business failure rate, spurring what he calls 'an underground earthquake' that only stands to worsen as lagging US Census data becomes available." Meaning, it's even worse than what we have now. Let me put this in real world terms. More American businesses are dying than are starting. Folks, that is so out of proportion. That's so out of scale to what normally happens.
He said, "Let's get one thing clear: This economy is never truly coming back unless we reverse the birth and death trends of American businesses." This is the CEO of Gallup, popular left-wing polling group. And here they are saying the economy is truly never coming back? Well, we were just told that it is back and we've been hearing that it's back for weeks now. In some cases we've been hearing the economy's been back for two years. The Drive-Bys, the Regime, they all keep talking about this recovery, and they've been talking about the recovery for the past two years.
Obama goes out last week and he sings this song. He sings this song about how things are smoking, man, it's just great. I remember the little sound bite that we played. And now Gallup says this economy's never truly coming back unless we reverse the birth and death trends. Now, you and I know, see, this is the thing, we know this is true. We may not know that specific fact, but we sense this. Ninety-three, 92.8 million Americans not working, labor force participation rate. Full time employees in many places being reduced to 30 hours a week so the businesses do not have to provide health care.
There is no evidence that we have a growing economy. One of the things that's helping in some segments, hurting others, is the falling oil price. It's great for consumers, but on the other hand, the theory behind this is that the Saudis are doing it. Not even OPEC, this is the Saudis. Saudis are trying to destroy the fracking industry. Saudis are threatened by the fracking, because of horizontal drilling. That's what fracking is, shale oil, horizontal drilling. Because of that, the US has more proven oil reserves than Saudi Arabia.
The problem is that 50 dollar-a-barrel oil will not support getting it. The costs of getting oil via horizontal drilling or fracking is a little bit more than the sale price, which is what the Saudis are trying to accomplish. The Saudis, we'll bite the bullet for a while. I mean, how many new airplanes do we need? How much more gold do we need? How many rooms in a palace do we need? How many more princelings do we need to underwrite? How much more luxury do we need? We got everything we want, a whole country, we're sitting in it, so we'll bite the dust for a while and maybe hurt some of our other competitors too and take them out.
But they're trying to destroy the US with this. Our friends the Saudis. Truth be known, Saudi Arabia is the center of the birth of all of this militant jihad, Wahhabism. It's all there. The 9/11 hijackers were, for the most part, Saudi. Our friends the Saudis. The Saudis know this. The king of Saudi Arabia funds and has funded many presidential libraries over the years. Not fully, but significantly. No doubt.
Anyway, the price of oil means the price of gasoline's coming down, and that's a huge benefit for disposable income for the American people. But it's putting pressure on domestic oil interests, always does. Good economic news is bad for somebody, and that's always the case, challenges everywhere. But on the consumer side it's great. I have full sympathy with consumers on this.
I remember when I was just 18 or 19, maybe 16, forget when it was, the first gas line. When I grew up, gasoline was 28 cents a gallon and they had wars. Gas wars, you could find gas for 25, 24. Gas stations on the corner opposite, same block, would have gas wars, and 28 cents. It was nothing, five bucks to fill up a tank. And I remember the first so-called shortage. There never was a shortage. There was just an import blockade, or a contrived -- There was never a shortage of oil in the world market. There was never a shortage of gasoline. There was just a shortage made available.
But the shock of gasoline overnight from 28, 29 cents to 50 cents, that percentage increase, that changed people's disposable incomes dramatically overnight. The same thing is happening on the way down. You've been paying three, $3.50, and all of a sudden it's two? It's a huge difference. But it's hard on the domestic producers. They need a certain price for it to be profitable to go get it. We've shut I don't know how many wells. We literally, back in the seventies, we clogged 'em and shut 'em down in Texas and Louisiana. Shut 'em down forever. The domestic industry took a big hit. The ebb and flow of the market.
The thing is, the market's always right. The market always works. But now there's all kinds of external pressure like the Saudis trying to destroy fracking. Now, oil prices today, they're down dramatically, but they are what they were in 2006. So the thing is, fracking has already had an impact. I mean, the gasoline price isn't all that low; it's just much lower than it has been. It's about what it was in 2006. Once again, you can track the rising oil price with the arrival of Obama. You can track the rising cost of living with the arrival of Obama.
But isn't it interesting to note that food prices and other products' prices are not coming down commensurate with the oil price? I mean, we hear when the oil price goes up, gasoline price goes up, diesel, ah, wait 'til you see what a head of lettuce is gonna cost you, 'cause it takes gasoline, Rush, takes diesel, to get that head of lettuce into the store. Nothing we can do about it. Somehow when the oil price goes down, the gasoline price goes down, the head of lettuce price doesn't. Interesting how that works. That's 'cause there's this guy behind a curtain that's determining these prices. Fox News is on the case on that.
I think they are really trying to destroy Iran and Russia. Our domestic production isn't their biggest worry.
unexpected
How’s that Obama Economy?
It’s crappy but it’s much better than he’d like it to be.
Man, Rush is late to the table, I have been saying this since August. The price of oil is going down, why hasn’t other costs gone down. People told me it will, it always does. Not in this case there are always exceptions that changes the overall perception just as people are people and always will be.
Ask people who are paying more for everything when they haven’t had a pay raise since 2008. No one is paying more for their work or time, because this economy isn’t growing, at least not so it counts with people who struggle to pay bills.
“Ask people who are paying more for everything “
OK, so I shopped at our coop PCC (hippy) food mart yesterday. A dozen organic, pasture raised eggs: $7.50.
Deb Shops closing all stores in Michigan, nationwide
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/3247004/posts
Sears’ Collapse Is Now ‘Inevitable’
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3233811/posts
Jacksonville-based Body Central closing all of its 265 stores; 2,500 out of work
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3246953/posts
Office Depot to close 165 stores this year; settles lawsuit for $80 million
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/3196431/posts
Progressives are brilliant, Progressives are brilliant, Progressives are brilliant.......repeat as necessary.
(Heil Heir Goebbles)
IMHO
Heil Erbe Geobbles?
“Heil Erbe Geobbles?”
Correction: Herr Goebbles, as in Joseph,
German Propaganda Minister.
IMHO
I can forgive those who voted for that arrogant pos the first time, but I will never forgive those who voted to reelect him.
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