Free Republic

Yes, you read correctly. “Spread the jobs around.” You’re probably familiar with Barack Obama’s well documented intentions to “spread the wealth around.” In a discussion about his vision for economic recovery back during the campaign of 2008, he expressed that intention using those precise words (do a web search with the President’s name and the phrase, and see what pops up). Today, the President struggles with the political consequences brought about by the stifled economy, which has been brought about his own “wealth spreading” ways. Yet within the Obama worldview, it makes sense that a President who has displayed no...

The rising impatience with the leadership of President Obama was epitomized on Aug. 8 in the middle of one of the now-habitual Wall Street roller coasters. His speech on the economy was 53 minutes late. What showed on TV screens was an empty White House podium, an image suggestive of the absence of leadership. When the president did speak, the best he could come up with was "We've always been and always will be a triple-A country." The market's response was a Bronx cheer, a drop of another 300 points. Mr. Obama seems unable to get a firm grip on...

New applications for U.S. unemployment compensation rose 5,000 to 417,000 , the Labor Department said Thursday. Initial claims from two weeks ago were revised up to 412,000 from an original reading of 408,000... The average of new claims over the past four weeks, meanwhile, increased by 4,000 to 407,500...In addition, the Labor Department said the number of Americans who continue to receive state unemployment checks fell by 80,000 to 3.64 million in the week ended Aug 13. Continuing claims are reported with a one-week lag.

Deep prices waiting to pounceWe well remember candidate Barack Obama’s ’08 throngs laying in breathless wait for the “Lightworker” to appear and speak as “sort of like God” from his teleprompter on high. Now, with nearly everything this president has touched lying in shambles, a shrunken Obama whines from town to town, transported in a taxpayer-purchased bus that resembles a big, fat hearse — the perfect symbol for the harbinger of economic death that Obama’s presidency has become.It’s painfully apparent now that the American people were scammed in ’08 by Barack the Bamboozler in what will be known historically as...

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - Nearly one of every 10 midsized or big employers expects to stop offering health coverage to workers once federal insurance exchanges start in 2014, according to a new survey from a large benefits consultant. Towers Watson also found in a survey completed last month that an additional 20 percent of the companies are unsure about what they will do. Another big benefits consultant, Mercer, found in a June survey of large and smaller employers that 8 percent are either "likely" or "very likely" to end health benefits once the exchanges start. Employer-sponsored health insurance has long been...

Last Monday, President Obama made news by promising to give a speech in September detailing, "a very specific plan to boost the economy, to create jobs and to control our deficit." But has that "very specific plan" already been downgraded to an outline? That is, at least, the impression I got watching Obama advisors Robert Gibbs and David Axelrod on yesterday's Sunday morning shows. "The president is going to outline a short-term plan to accelerate the economy," Axelrod said on ABC's This Week, "in the face of the hits we've taken, because of the Arab Spring and oil prices, because...

Only 26 percent of the public approves of President Obama's handling of the economy in the latest Gallup poll, conducted Aug. 11-14, while a whopping 71 percent said they disapproved. That's down from Obama's previous low point of 35 percent on this top issue. The public's growing dissatisfaction shouldn't be surprising. Going back to 1890, reports the National Bureau of Economic Research, the only U.S. president with a worse record than Obama in job creation in his first two and a half years in office, measured in terms of percentage change, was Herbert Hoover, presiding over the emergence of the...

Despite a politically and economically tumultuous start to the month of August, CEO confidence stayed steadily pessimistic. Although the index did rise – for the first time in months and by only 0.4 percent—it still remains at a low 5.30 out of a possible 10. The Index, Chief Executive’s monthly gauge of CEOs’ perceptions of overall business conditions, has seen a 17 percent drop from February’s 2011 high of 6.39. Now, only 45.3 percent of CEOs expect business conditions to be at least ‘good’ in the next year, up from July’s 41 percent. Despite the debt ceiling drama and the...

They lined up dozens deep to tell of their economic struggles and to plead for help from the four Democrats lawmakers on the stage. A single mother laid off in 2009; an electrician who has worked only six of the past 24 months; a janitor locked out of her job over a medical-benefits dispute; and many more -- the frustration was palpable at the "Speak Out for Good Jobs Now!" town hall meeting that Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, hosted Tuesday night at Acts Full Gospel Church of God in Christ. Some of it was aimed squarely at House Minority Leader...

Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter needs to look at who really "damaged their own race." A week ago, in the midst of this, the summer of the flash mob — groups of mostly black teens who have attacked non-blacks at random in public places — Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter angrily lectured his city’s young black thugs: If you walk into somebody’s office with your hair uncombed and a pick in the back, and your shoes untied, and your pants half down, tattoos up and down your arms and on your neck, and you wonder why somebody won’t hire you? They don’t...

The White House announced that President Obama will deliver a major address on job creation early in September. Mr. Obama could address proposed Labor Department regulations that would hobble employers with paperwork, reducing hiring. These regulations include affirmative action rules for minorities and women at on-site construction jobs for federally-funded projects; requirements for federal contractors to keep records of the race, sex, and earnings of employees; rules governing dust levels in coal mines; and rules to expand preferences for veterans in the workplace. Such regulations are even more extraordinary in light of Mr. Obama's avowed pursuit of regulatory simplicity and...

President Obama is promising a post-Labor Day "jobs push" and will be addressing the nation on jobs at that time. My biggest question is, who cares? “Right after Labor Day, President Obama will speak to the nation about the labor situation, a senior administration official told CNN on Wednesday. The president plans to deliver a speech about a package of new initiatives designed to grow the economy and create jobs, then he'll spend the fall pushing Congress to pass those measures, the official said. The Obama administration has not finalized that package, but it's likely to include some tax cuts,...

PRINCETON, NJ -- Americans' satisfaction with the way things are going in the United States has fallen back to 11%, the lowest level since December 2008 and just four percentage points above the all-time low recorded in October 2008. The Aug. 11-14 Gallup poll finds satisfaction down five points from July (16%) and nine points since June (20%). The dip is likely a response to the recent negotiations to raise the federal debt ceiling and continued concern about the national economy amid a volatile stock market. The recent downing of a U.S. military helicopter in Afghanistan resulting in the deaths...

New U.S. claims for unemployment benefits rose more than expected last week, according to a government report on Thursday that suggested hiring in August was steady but not robust. Meanwhile, the Labor Department says the Consumer Price Index rose 0.5 percent in July, following a drop of 0.2 percent in June. Gas prices accounted for much of the swing. Prices increased by a seasonally adjusted 4.7 percent, after falling sharply in June. The core index, which excludes volatile food and energy, rose 0.2 percent. That's below the 0.3 percent rise in each of the previous two months. Prices are 3.6...

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Factory activity in the Philadelphia region weakened sharply in August to the lowest level seen in more than two years, the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia said Thursday, adding to fears that the economy has ground to a halt. The Philly Fed’s business outlook survey fell to negative 30.7 in August from 3.2 in July. This is the lowest reading since March 2009. Readings below zero indicate contraction in the region’s factories. The size of the decline in the index stunned analysts — economists had expected a reading of 0.5 in August...

With the United States and European economies having slowed markedly according to the latest data, and with global growth continuing to disappoint, a reasonable question increasingly arises: Are we in another Great Depression? The easy answer is "no" - the main features of the Great Depression have not yet manifested themselves and still seem unlikely. But it is increasingly likely that we will find ourselves in the midst of something nearly as traumatic, a long slump of the kind seen with some regularity in the 19th century, particularly if presidential election-year politics continue to head in a dangerous direction. The...

NEW YORK -- Turmoil returned to U.S. stock markets at Thursday's open as renewed concerns about the global economy sent major indexes plunging and pushed gold to a new record high. Investors were working through bad news on various fronts, including a dismal forecast from Morgan Stanley for global economic growth, and two U.S. government-issued reports on inflation and the job market.

A day after clashing with a tea party activist, President Obama Tuesday told crowds here that it was “a faction in Congress” that was to blame for blocking economic progress. At a rural jobs forum, Mr. Obama ticked off a list of pending bills that he said would create jobs. “The only thing that’s preventing us from passing the bills I just mentioned is the refusal of a faction in Congress to put country ahead of party,” the president said in a thinly veiled reference to House Republicans backed by the tea party. “That has to stop.” ... Mr. Obama...

Washington just added another $2.4 trillion to an already exploding debt of $14 trillion. The accumulated obligations of the U.S. now exceed 100% of America’s Gross Domestic Product. We’ve reached that point at which we are trapped in an economic catch-22. Over the last 150 years or so, the average interest rate paid on cost of capital has been 4%. But these days, interest rates on the federal debt run just 1.25%. That’s mostly due to a lack of demand by private companies for borrowing and the fact that the Fed is pumping money into the bond markets to keep...

OK - I may not be the brightest bulb in the room...[Snip], but how can you call something a deficit reduction committee if you are going to spend more taxpayer dollars to stimulate the economy? Isn't that sort of counterintuitive? Welcome to Obama's Fantasyland: President Barack Obama is considering recommending that lawmakers on a deficit committee back new measures to stimulate the lagging economy, people familiar with White House discussions said Tuesday. The plan Mr. Obama is considering also would recommend the congressional committee come up with a package that reduces the federal budget deficit by much more that its...