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Can We Grow At 4% Clip? Sure, With Right Policies
Investors Busniness Daily ^ | 09/03/2015 | ANDREW ATKESON, LEE E. OHANIAN AND WILLIAM E. SIMON JR.

Posted on 09/04/2015 4:09:47 AM PDT by expat_panama

It is no secret that the recovery from the recession that ended in June of 2009 has been virtually non-existent. More striking, however, is the impact that this recession and its aftermath have had on the conventional wisdom in Washington regarding America's long-term economic future.

This is clearly seen in current forecasts of America's future economic potential from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) which predict that a large portion of America's economic potential has been permanently lost.

We believe that this remarkably pessimistic forecast is wrong. An economic policy agenda aimed at...

[snip]

The CBO's June 2015 estimate of America's potential real GDP for this year is nearly 9% lower than the CBO forecast 2015 made in 2007. Our actual economic performance now is even worse — over 12% below the 2007 estimate of where we should be after a full recovery from this recession.

This gap exceeds $1.2 trillion, or over $6,600 for every American. And the CBO forecasts that this gap between America's current real GDP and its potential as of 2007 will never be closed.

Economic growth is the result of higher employment and higher worker productivity, and the CBO expects both to be much lower in future years than they did in their earlier forecast.

[snip]

Safety-net policies should not discourage work through high implicit tax rates resulting from means-tested programs. Regulatory policies should not erect barriers to competition and raise costs. Education policies should expand competition and reward the most successful teachers. Immigration policies should expand the number of skilled workers and immigrant entrepreneurs. And tax policies should simplify the tax code, reduce business and personal marginal income tax rates and broaden the tax base.

Getting people back to work and boosting productivity should lie at the heart of the next president's economic agenda.

(Excerpt) Read more at news.investors.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: economy; investing; policy
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To: taildragger
And that is for starters...

Yes to the concepts outlined in those items.

But for the FIRST starter, elect Trump or a similar politician not already corrupted by Washington DC.

Else nothing will change.

Nothing will change for the better, I mean. Electing the same type of politician like for the last 30-40 years (D or R makes no difference) will also bring change. Change similar to the destruction brought by the current regime.

21 posted on 09/04/2015 6:30:28 AM PDT by citizen (America is-or was-The Great Melting Pot. JEB won't even speak American in his own home. NO Bush!!)
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To: citizen

Here here! I concur. We need to take the fun out of the fun house known as Disney on the Potomac...


22 posted on 09/04/2015 6:44:47 AM PDT by taildragger (It's Cruz & Walker. Anything else is a Yugo with Racing Stripes....)
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To: Cringing Negativism Network

The article’s statement on having open doors to immigrant skilled workers.
With 90 million American CITIZENS not working, we don’t need any new skilled workers - we don’t have enough jobs for the people already here to work.
Closing the door to new immigrants for a decade will give us time to close the gap between labor supply and demand.
Constantly bringing in new people thrilled to have running water and food in the store hurts everyone else in the labor market.


23 posted on 09/04/2015 7:05:33 AM PDT by tbw2
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To: citizen
D or R makes no difference

A lot of folks say that, but somehow I find it hard to believe that all would have been the same now if  '06, '08, and '12 had gone the other way

24 posted on 09/04/2015 7:35:35 AM PDT by expat_panama
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To: expat_panama

Ok, change no difference to little difference, as far as budgets, domestic spending and social safety nets go.

They each loudly speak of their differing plans and approaches to this program or that problem but in the end they will get to pretty much the same place at about the same speed.

Similiarly, foreign policy will appear on a different path but regardless of who is in charge we still will have some form of interventions, appeasements, participation with or for the UN, foreign aids, trade pacts, etc., and agreements/disagreements of all sorts with everybody.

Nobody wants to break the mold, rock the boat, fight for the selfish changes necessary to get the USA ahead and F everybody else.

Any pol of the Boehner/McConnell mold> Congresscritter, president, governor - also media leaders - and it’s all “go along to get along” and doing that always favors the liberal viewpoint in most everything.

I feel a Trump and to some lesser extent, a Cruz or a Walker or a Carson, maybe a Fiorina will break molds and rock boats while jealously looking out for the interests this country as a priority.

The world needs a strong moral and fair country in the leading role. The USA has been weakening fast. We must take care of fixing our own ills first while also insisting the other hegemonic powers’ take care of their own spheres.


25 posted on 09/04/2015 9:00:00 AM PDT by citizen (America is-or was-The Great Melting Pot. JEB won't even speak American in his own home. NO Bush!!)
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To: citizen
I asked How many left the work force this month?? 500,000?

(CNSNews.com) - A record 94,031,000 Americans were not in the American labor force last month -- 261,000 more than July -- and the labor force participation rate stayed stuck at 62.6 percent, a 38-year low...

Record 94,031,000 Americans Not in Labor Force; Participation Rate Stuck at 38-Year Low for 3rd Straight Month

26 posted on 09/04/2015 9:07:18 AM PDT by citizen (America is-or was-The Great Melting Pot. JEB won't even speak American in his own home. NO Bush!!)
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To: expat_panama

One of the biggest problem is the governmental regulations which stifle small businesses. Eliminating excessive regulations & corporate taxes would create more businesses and lead to a real recovery for everyone. I believe we are in the mess we’re in today because the RINOS abandoned the principles of President Reagan as soon as he left office.


27 posted on 09/04/2015 9:10:24 AM PDT by Smittie (Just like an alien, I'm a stranger in a strange land)
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To: citizen
What-if's are impossible to prove but track records are what they are. While we like Cruz & Trump we still need to remember that Trump says Pesozi is "the greatest" and Cruz voted in favor of the Corker amendment that mane the Iran treaty law.

We can work with this, all is not lost. We just have our work cut out for us and there are no easy answers.

28 posted on 09/04/2015 9:53:20 AM PDT by expat_panama
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To: citizen
94,031,000 Americans were not in the American labor force

This is why the official 'unemployment' level has lost it's meaning, it's just laborforce minus employed.   imho we can see things a lot better by subtracting employed from the population:


29 posted on 09/04/2015 9:59:47 AM PDT by expat_panama
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To: expat_panama
Well there we have it, as I read that chart. Very interesting but very un-good.

It clearly shows the lowering of the unemployment rate is due to reducing the total number of eligible workers, "those in the workforce." Millions have retired, they are legitimately out of the workforce. But millions more that are unemployed and want a job are simply ignored. They are eligible workers that want to work. They have no current job and they are arbitrarily not counted.

Per the chart, the Total Non-farm Payroll has been holding at approx. 109 million since 2010 even though they say the workforce grows by 1.5 to 2 million each year with the influx of high school, trade school and college graduates, those of working age with no degrees and eligible immigrants. I don't know if that increase is the gross or net number of new eligible workers.

So they are removing more people from the workforce each month than are entering and that's a lot of people going uncounted!

But it's Friday afternoon b4 a holiday weekend so who cares about any of this anyway??

I'm thinking those with no job or no full-time job care. I think they feel they matter and they deserve to be counted.

30 posted on 09/04/2015 11:19:30 AM PDT by citizen (America is-or was-The Great Melting Pot. JEB won't even speak American in his own home. NO Bush!!)
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To: tbw2

What the economy needs is a Fed RATE INCREASE! /sarc

Richmond Fed’s Lacker: Case For Rate Increase Strong

http://www.foxbusiness.com/economy-policy/2015/09/04/richmond-fed-lacker-case-for-rate-increase-strong/?intcmp=bigtopmarketfeatures


31 posted on 09/04/2015 11:25:22 AM PDT by citizen (America is-or was-The Great Melting Pot. JEB won't even speak American in his own home. NO Bush!!)
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To: expat_panama
Good afternoon. I liked your list...and add one:

You cannot produce a growing economy by limiting the freedom of the producers.

5.56mm

32 posted on 09/04/2015 11:57:46 AM PDT by M Kehoe
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To: Cringing Negativism Network

How? You never say.


33 posted on 09/04/2015 2:23:19 PM PDT by 1010RD (First, Do No Harm)
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To: expat_panama
They get the definition of growth wrong.

Economic growth is the result of higher employment and higher worker productivity...

Economic growth is the outward shift of the production possibility boundary. You don't need higher employment or higher worker productivity to get there. What you do need is a free market system.

Total cost of federal regulations in 2012 was $2.028 trillion (in 2014 dollars). It's likely higher and note that's just federal regs and doesn't count state, county or local drags on growth. Get government back to pre-FDR levels and the US economy can grow faster than a 4% real growth rate.

34 posted on 09/04/2015 2:29:10 PM PDT by 1010RD (First, Do No Harm)
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To: wastoute

Who cares? They’re both government cesspools.


35 posted on 09/04/2015 2:29:48 PM PDT by 1010RD (First, Do No Harm)
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To: expat_panama; Cringing Negativism Network

Spot on comments EP. CNN, Trump will be a disaster for the country’s economy. He’ll be as bad as Obama. All his solutions call for more government regulation of the American economy. He’s also pro-union which means government unions will get a pass or potentially be strengthened in a Trump administration.

Take a gander at the costs of all this regulation: http://www.nam.org/Data-and-Reports/Cost-of-Federal-Regulations/Federal-Regulation-Executive-Summary.pdf

Ping me when you guys are ready to talk about why “US jobs” go overseas.


36 posted on 09/04/2015 2:33:23 PM PDT by 1010RD (First, Do No Harm)
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To: expat_panama

Wait until a Republican is in the WH, then it’ll be Not In Labor Force all day, every day.


37 posted on 09/04/2015 2:34:31 PM PDT by 1010RD (First, Do No Harm)
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To: taildragger; citizen

That’s why I believe Walker will do so well. He’s used to dealing with rabid Dems. Give him a GOP controlled Congress and he’ll play off of guys like Lee, Sessions and Cruz. A POTUS who gets it is a force multiplier for these guys.

The big invisible gorilla in government is the public unions, AFSCME and federal. If Walker breaks them like he did in WI, it shifts the entire landscape back into free market favor. He also knows the RGA and will work with the 50% of America that is under GOP controlled Govs/Statehouses. Imagine that half of America gets a free market system while the other half gets to enjoy socialism. Who will win that real life fight?


38 posted on 09/04/2015 2:39:27 PM PDT by 1010RD (First, Do No Harm)
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To: Smittie

You’re spot on and here’s some more ammo:

http://www.nam.org/Data-and-Reports/Reports/Cost-of-Federal-Regulations/The-Cost-of-Federal-Regulation/

Spread it around we’ve got to kill a lot of red tape and the above just covers federal, not state, county and local.


39 posted on 09/04/2015 2:41:34 PM PDT by 1010RD (First, Do No Harm)
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To: expat_panama

Grand slam graph. Needs its own thread. Ping me to it.


40 posted on 09/04/2015 2:42:19 PM PDT by 1010RD (First, Do No Harm)
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