Posted on 09/02/2011 11:08:55 PM PDT by sickoflibs
This morning many on Wall Street were stunned by the big fat zero put up by the August jobs report, the worst showing in 11 months. The data convinced many previously optimistic economists that the United States will slip back into recession. I believe that we have been in one giant recession all along that was only temporarily interrupted by trillions of useless and destructive deficit and stimulus spending. Unfortunately, the August numbers will increase the talk of government efforts to stimulate the economy.
But while President Obama prepares to unveil a new plan for the Federal Government to create jobs, evidence is rapidly piling up on how his Administration is actively destroying jobs with stunning efficiency. Recent examples of this trend are enough to make anyone with even a casual respect for America's former economic prowess hang their head in disgust.
The assault on private sector employment began in April when the democrat controlled National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) issued a complaint seeking to force Boeing aircraft to move Boeing's newly opened non-union production facilities in South Carolina back to its union controlled plants in Washington State. Although Boeing simply says that it is looking to open a cost effective domestic manufacturing facility (an endangered species) to employ American workers, the NLRB alleges that the company was punishing union workers in Washington for past strikes. Despite a lack of any direct evidence that Boeing was being punitive, and the fact that the company was not laying off any union workers, the NLRB has not backed down. Against little public support and nearly universal revulsion among business leaders, the NLRB is continuing its campaign to keep Boeing from exercising its freedoms and to employ people in a manner that makes sense for its business.
The Boeing move served notice that the Obama's loyalties were firmly tied to the Union interests that were so critical to his election in 2008. This week, the anti-business tendencies of the administration came into even sharper focus.
In the telecommunications industry, service provider AT&T made the seemingly essential move in its attempt to acquire wireless specialist T-Mobile. But the Justice Department sued to block the $39 billion deal on antitrust grounds, saying that the merger between the second and fourth largest cell phone providers would unfairly restrict competition and raise prices.
In so doing, the DOJ seems to be operating under the assumption, without any direct evidence, that at least four companies are needed to provide healthy choice in the marketplace, and that three providers simply won't cut it. More broadly, competition may increasingly come from outside the telecommunications sector (in particular from cable and satellite industries). Plus, with the speed of technological change, who knows what types of competitors will arise in the years to come. The situation reminds me of the broken merger in 2004 and 2005 between Blockbuster Video and Hollywood Video. Based on antitrust concerns emanating from the Justice Department, Blockbuster backed off from the deal. Of course, just a few years later the whole sector was made obsolete by Netflix, and any advantage Blockbuster would have gained would have only been temporary.
In light of the current and future competition that is sure to change the way consumers talk with one another over great distances, AT&T and T-Mobile are much better positioned to survive as a combined entity. In any event if AT&T can't buy T-Mobile, someone else will. The company's parent, Deutsche Telecom, has stated its intention to divest itself of its American subsidiary.
So why not help American business survive in an increasingly competitive market?
Most likely antitrust lawyers at the DOJ have been otherwise bored with the lack of merger deals to scrutinize (another downside to a weak economy), and this transaction just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. But the legal activism will certainly cost jobs. Even the unions recognize this and have supported the merger.
But the absurdity of the current environment reached a peak when the DOJ, and agents from, get this, the U.S. Fish and Wild Life Service, raided the Nashville factory of the legendary Gibson Guitar company. The raid resulted in agents carting off more than a half million dollars of supplies and essentially shutting the company down. The take down of one of America's commercial icons apparently resulted from Gibson's purchase of partially finished ebony and rosewood guitar fingerboards (these endangered trees are carefully managed) from an Indian supplier.
Now here's the interesting part. The Indian government had issued no complaint about the transactions and there was no evidence that the company had violated U.S. law.
The DOJ acted simply on suspicion that Gibson had violated Indian law. Since when do U.S. companies have to make sure that they comply with laws of every country in the world before they produce a product?
I had the good fortune on interviewing Henry Juszkiewicz, the CEO of Gibson on my radio show this Thursday.
After speaking to him, I didn't know whether to laugh or cry at the stunning economic incompetence of our government officials, who in the cause of arbitrary regulatory nitpicking, seem willing to sacrifice the reputation and prospects of one of the few remaining American manufacturers. God help us all.
On the other side of the coin, the government's own efforts to create jobs in the private sector have met with little success. It was announced yesterday that Solyndra LLC of Fremont California, a manufacturer of solar panel has filed for bankruptcy protection and has laid off its remaining 1,100 workers. The development is notable because the company was a veritable poster child of the Obama Administration. The president himself visited their facilities in May of 2010 and touted the company as the template for America's "green technology" future. As a result of its politically advantageous profile the company was able to secure $535 million in loans guaranteed by the government.
But apparently government blessing does not guarantee market success. Unfortunately, Solyndra could not sell its products profitably despite the government support and cheerleading. Instead $535 million in investment capital was diverted from potentially money making enterprises to a money losing enterprise. This is what happens when government calls the shots.
When it comes to the financial sector, the government can't seem to decide whether it wants to preserve jobs or destroy them. After bailing out the banks three years ago (and making some of them too big to fail), it was reported today that the government is preparing to launch a multi-billion dollar lawsuit to recoup losses that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac suffered on mortgage backed bonds (loans that the government itself encouraged the banks to make). If the government were to prevail, job losses would surely emerge in the sector, and the government may need to bail out the banks once again!
So as we wait with eager anticipation as to what the President may reveal in his jobs speech next week, you can be sure that it's not going to help America regain its competitive edge. The sooner we regard the government as a job killer rather than a job creator, the sooner we can all get back to work.
If you realize both parties in Washington think that our money is theirs and you trust them to do the wrong thing, this list is for you.
If you think there is a Santa Claus that has some magic easy cure for the economy; someone who is going to get elected in Washington and fix everything just by cutting your taxes, investing (more government spending) a few trillion more we don't have and will never have, and who will just command some countries to lower their prices and others to raise their prices all to suit your best interests, then this list is not for you.
You can read past posts by clicking on : schifflist , I try to tag all relevant threads with the keyword : schifflist.
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The Austrian Economics School’s Commandments plus :From : link
1) You cannot spend your way out of a recession
2) You cannot regulate the economy into oblivion and expect it to function
3) You cannot tax people and businesses to the point of near slavery and expect them to keep producing
4) You cannot create an abundance of money out of thin air without making all that paper worthless
5) The government cannot make up for rising unemployment by just hiring all the out of work people to be bureaucrats or send them unemployment checks forever
6) You cannot live beyond your means indefinitely
7) The economy must actually produce something others are willing to buy
8) Every government bureaucrat should keep the following motto in mind when attempting to influence the economy: “First, do no harm!”
9) Central bank-supported fractional reserve banking is an economically distorting, ethically questionable activity. In particular, no government should ever do anything to save any bank from the full consequences of a bank run, no matter what the short-term consequences.
10) Gold is God’s money.
Add mine:
1) Businesses don't hire workers just because of demand for products or services, they hire because it makes them money. Sorry to have to state the obvious.
2) Government spending without taxing is still redistribution
3) Taking one man's money and giving it to another is not a job.
4) Paul Krugman and Bernake have been wrong about everything, as well as the other best and brightest Keynesian's who have been fixing our economy for over a decade.
5) Republicans in the minority (esp out of the White House) act like Republicans, in the majority they act like Democrats .
Equity bubble rules:
1)If something goes up too fast, it is going down faster,
2) By the time it looks like everybody is getting rich, it’s too late, stay out!
3) To get rich you have to get in early start of recovery and get out at the first really 'bad' news, and ignore the experts that claim that they will stop the next crash(our buddy Bernake.).
4) Don't invest money you will probably need, or worse money you don't really have.
He nailed 30 months ago
In case I missed you ping!
daily dose of Peter Schiff radio in mp3 for free. Its amazing how many GOP economist are so clueless and wrong
Even now, there are still GOP economist who think government spending is what is needed to increase demand and boost the economy. Its not consumption/spending that grow the economy the production/saving/underconsumption. It like how an individual become rich, you produce more than you consume. The same principle apply to a country’s economy
Generally those in power #1 concern is short term to get elected and that means spend money NOW! They will grab any theory to support that, just as Dems are doing now.
Granted Bush deserves a measure of the blame, but Bush only lit the candle, and then Obama came in and threw gas on it.
With all evidence of Obama’s economic and domestic policy failures, I'm stunned that his approval is still so high.....what the Hell is wrong with folks?
“With all evidence of Obama’s economic and domestic policy failures, I’m stunned that his approval is still so high.....what the Hell is wrong with folks?”
Just guessing here... most people are morons and don’t have the slightest idea what econmics is much less means. If you are an elected official, common sense has passed you by and your constant, relentless lust for power blinded you to the realities of mathematics.
People won't work when you make not working worth the effort.
I think elected officials also fall victim to the arrogance that they can make better decisions because they are privy to 'special insights' that are not available to the commoner.
Yup, now Buckwheat and his bunch of rotten bananas want to push Gibson guitar’s wood manufacturing off-shore. How’s that for his BS on “job creation”?
The real truth must be that Gibson is a NON-UNION shop...and Buckwheat says, “Now, we can’t have that, can we?”
Good article. Thanks for posting. DEFUND socialist collectives, foreign and domestic.
BO also has his bureaucrats in the NLRB working their tails off to shut Boeing’s new SC plant down. They would be much happier if Boeing had built that plant in Chihuaha, MX.
You did a great job of stating what SHOULD be obvious but obviously isn’t obvious to many, even some on FR. I got into a cussfight with one poster on FR who insisted that consumers drive the economy! Having grown up poor and walked behind a mule until I turned eighteen I know that it wasn’t my two kid brothers who were too little to produce much who kept the family fed, it was the efforts of my parents, my older brother and myself, all far more devoted to production than consumption who kept us from sinking from working poor to worthless bums. There are a lot of people who need to go and live in a primitive environment for a week or so and then they would understand far more about economics than most can be taught in ten years of school.
Peter Schiff is NO ECONOMIC GENIUS as he claims, and many of his predictions are totally bogus!
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2009/01/peter-schiff-was-wrong.html ,
“ For one, Mike Shedlock of Mish’s Global Economic Trend Analysis gave an incredibly detailed review of Schiff’s track record in an article titled, “Peter Schiff was Wrong.” To get a little flavor of the piece, here is an excerpt:
12 Ways Schiff Was Wrong in 2008
•Wrong about hyperinflation
•Wrong about the dollar
•Wrong about commodities except for gold
•Wrong about foreign currencies except for the Yen
•Wrong about foreign equities
•Wrong in timing
•Wrong in risk management
•Wrong in buy and hold thesis
•Wrong on decoupling
•Wrong on China
•Wrong on US treasuries
•Wrong on interest rates, both foreign and domestic”
http://investingcaffeine.com/2009/09/07/the-emperor-schiff-has-no-clothes/
http://seekingalpha.com/article/106824-being-wrong-for-five-years-makes-peter-schiff-right-now
” Now, had you listened to Peter in 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 or even 3/4 of 2007, you lost your shirt. Had you placed bets based on Schiff’s market calls, you lost everything you wagered.
The S&P (.INX) went from 1054 in May of 2002 (the date of the interview) to 1561 in Oct. 2007, a 48% gain and the Dow (.DJI) rose 40%.
Banking stocks, the primary victim of the housing bust, went up (JP Morgan (JPM) 36%, Bank of America (BAC) 41%, Wells Fargo (WFC) 39% , Wachovia (WB) 31% and American Express (AXP) 51%) during that time frame (dividends excluded which would dramatically add to results). “”
ECON 101
When you invest in the firm that is the economic competitor to your own family, and your family does poorly, and their competitor does well, and you KEEP investing in your family’s competitor, YOU ARE PUTTING YOUR FAMILY OUT OF WORK!
Schiff doesn’t invest a SINGLE PENNY in AMERICA!!!
pro-immigration and said that there are too many jobs in the US we NEED to let in immigrants???
Peter Schiff admits on camera that he has ZERO money investigated in American corporations or industry. If Peter Schiff refuses to invest in American companies, how can Peter Schiff say he is helping Americans keep their jobs?
This is SCHIFF in his own words!
PETER SCHIFF IS ACTIVELY INVESTING IN FOREIGN COMPETITOR NATIONS THAT ARE PUTTING AMERICANS OUT OF WORK!!!
Here is a link to his investment company and their business dealings from Google
http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1T4RNTN_enUS381US381&q=Schiff+%2b+pacific
http://blogs.courant.com/rick_green/2009/10/peter-schiff-arrives-give-me-m.html
Why do the Ron Paul guys support gay marriage?
http://www.queerty.com/ron-paul-on-gay-marriage-20071210/
http://www.schiffforsenate.com/index.php?q=news/constitutional-candidates-congress
Schiff’s own website endorses Adam Kokesh
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDttx64zk4I
SCHIFF himself admits he believes the Iraq War is a QUAGMIRE in 2009!!
http://www.freespeechmonster.com/?p=103
Schiff has said this many times
http://peterschiffsays.com/defense.htm
Aug 7, 2009, Iraq is a quagmire
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9t741ewbGA
Schiff blamed Iraq on bankers? Not on Saddam?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zo81QDSuixk
What the Tea Parties are not telling you about Peter Schiff:
Libertarians need to infiltrate the GOP
VIDEO of Schiff saying just that!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ncLTFoTFa8
http://belowthebeltway.com/2009/06/02/peter-schiff-libertarians-need-to-infliltrate-the-gop/
http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=110955225375
http://www.campaignforliberty.com/blog.php?view=19285
http://www.godlikeproductions.com/forum1/message808505/pg1
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090707200009AAzSQfB
Peter Schiff admits on camera that he has ZERO money investigated in American corporations or industry. If Peter Schiff refuses to invest in American companies, how can Peter Schiff say he is helping Americans keep their jobs?
Peter Schiff repeating talking points of the lunatic left, listen yourself. He says in 2009 that Iraq is a QUAGMIRE when we already won!! He blames the war on bankers and whoever, and not a word about blaming it on terrorists! listen yourself, Schiff repeats left wing talking points to his radio audience about the Iraq war!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zo81QDSuixk
Peter Schiff has made open statements that are quite like the statements of the anti-war leftists, to include the OTHER Ron Paul endorsed candidates Rand Paul and Adam Kokesh
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&source=hp&q=schiff+%2B+isolationist&aq=f&aqi=g10&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=
Peter Schiff is pro-choice on abortion
SCHIFF’S OWN WEBSITE CONTAINS AN ENDORSEMENT FOR KOKESH WHERE KOKESH IS NAMED AS AN ANTI-WAR PROTESTER
http://schiffforsenate.com/index.php?q=news/constitutional-candidates-congress
Adam Kokesh
Adam Kokesh is best known as an Iraq War veteran who returned opposed to the war and was a keynote speaker at Ron Paul’s “Rally for the Republic” that competed with the Republican National Convention in the summer of 2008.
Peter Schiff is pro-choice on abortion
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDttx64zk4I
with respect to his personal feelings, he would not make it illegal, women have a right to abort, he is against 3rd trimester,
BUT FIRST TRIMESTR OR SECOND ONE ITS OKAY
Hear it in his own words
pro-immigration and said that there are too many jobs in the US we NEED to let in immigrants???
Peter Schiff admits on camera that he has ZERO money investigated in American corporations or industry. If Peter Schiff refuses to invest in American companies, how can Peter Schiff say he is helping Americans keep their jobs?
This is SCHIFF in his own words!
video of Peter Schiff saying that LIBERTARIANS must infiltrate the Republican Party
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ncLTFoTFa8&playnext_from=TL&videos=gKm7t4j9Wgc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ncLTFoTFa8
http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/1583738
This second link is the full 2 hours. You cant download it directly, I tried, but hey, you can record it! :)
Peter Schiff appears at a Rand Paul/Adam Kokesh/Peter Schiff fundraiser
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYwb_P-ssK0
Rand Paul, Adam Kokesh, Peter Schiff, and others holding a fundraiser at Webster Hall in New York.
http://www.randpaul2010.com/2009/08/rand-paul-at-webster-hall/
http://www.wallstreetstocks.net/rand-paul-adam-kokesh-peter-schiff-fundraiser
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYwb_P-ssK0&feature=player_embedded
http://www.randpaul2010.com
http://www.schiffforsenate.com
http://www.kokeshforcongress.com
Read it for yourself, folks, all three of these candidates are the type of people that this organization supports and even wants to send money to!
http://www.google.com/search?q=schiff+kokesh+site:http://www.stormfront.org&hl=en&lr=&filter=0
The RAND Paul Money Bomb! Help Elect Rand Paul to U.S.
http://www.stormfront.org/forum/showthread.php?t=624677
Stormfront!!!!
Peter Schiff for Senate Video Blog July 14 2009
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlXqlz31SXk
Ron Paul, Adam Kokesh at Freedom Fest in Las Vegas July 2009
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9oiTQD7Cms
Schiff attended this same conference hosted by Ron Paul and is in this video in the early part
Rand Paul amp Adam Kokesh Take Over The Interwebs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PE9gVeykPAU
GOE Site for Adam Kokesh
http://americanpatriotsagainstkokesh.ning.com/
Adam Kokesh for Congress
http://www.kokeshforcongress.com/posts/whisper-campaigns
Ron Paul Supports Adam Kokesh
http://www.campaignforliberty.com/blog.php?view=20098
This Aint Hell..re Oathkeepers..Adam Kokesh.
Note the connection between Oathkeepers & Ron Paul.
http://thisainthell.us/blog/?p=14586
Great essay by Schiff.
all these dollars goin up in smoke and mirrors...
reminds me of 'Goodfellas' where the boss gives protection to a shop long enuff to run up its bills, selling everything off below board...once the credit line is maxed, 'you strike a match' and double dip on the insurance [taxpayer]...
this sh!t aint even politics anymore, its wholesale robbery, has been for years...
Thanks sickoflibs.
Yeah, NLRB...another socialist collective. Thanks for the post/info, Race.
Bump.
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