Posted on 04/29/2012 9:36:29 PM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
The slow start for the economy in 2012 — an annual rate of 2.2 percent in the first three months of the year — is evidence that the recovery is too weak to push joblessness much lower than its current 8.2 percent, and too fragile to withstand the kinds of budget cuts Congressional Republicans are proposing.
A stark divide is developing on the campaign trail. President Obama is centering his agenda on policies to address economic inequality — including more manufacturing jobs and educational opportunities. Mitt Romney is focused on tax cuts for the rich, budget cuts for the poor, and on blaming Mr. Obama for the economic shambles created in the Bush years.
For now, the default policy is to slog on until the end of the year, when lawmakers will be forced to confront the looming federal budget cuts and the simultaneous expiration of the Bush tax cuts, the temporary payroll tax cut and federal unemployment benefits.
The fledgling recovery, beset by lopsided growth, will not be helped by a continuation of high-end Bush tax cuts, nor can the weak economy withstand severe budget cutbacks. Meanwhile, the uncertainty over future policy is yet another harbinger of continued slow growth.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
“This is NOT the Obama Economy (wish I slap Hannity every time he spews that crap). We are in a long-wave contraction; four years into a decade of deleveraging and wealth elimination. This is global. It is going to get worse before it gets better.”
I agree with you and have said this before; Obama will suffer the fallout because 1) he acts like nothing is wrong, and 2) he has actively thwarted actions that might improve the lot of Americans.
“The only saving grace the US and Canada had were the influx of immigrants who had bulwarked the fertility rate. If the recent reports about more Mexicans leaving than coming continues as a long term trend, the US is looking at the same demographic inverted pyramid as Japan and Spain.”
At the same time we probably have more citizens than any other country that have made it clear they will never get a job or pay their way; the Hispanics were imported to replace them. Even if Mexicans did leave at a higher rate than they entered (which doesn’t ring true here in NJ), we still have millions of them here.
“Just this week Spain abruptly ended socialized health care benefits to illegal aliens, while Spain’s native population has the lowest fertility rate in Europe.”
Spain probably just connected the dots and realized the costs of illegals were part of the reason Spaniards had stopped breeding; how many children can young Americans have if they also get the bill for an illegal alien’s housing, school, food, etc.?
“The US and Spain have plenty of real estate bubble housing stock sitting vacant, and no young families to fill the homes.”
The US has plenty of people to fill the homes, they just don’t have enough that can afford them or want them. Every tenant is a potential homeowner, but the costs (especially here in NJ) deter many from buying a home and locking themselves into servitude to our government workers’ class. If people feel they can’t afford to have children, why should they lock themselves into arrangments where they cannot follow their jobs and they have to pay $6K+ annually for other children’s shooling?
Obozo has given 5 trilion chineese dollars to his supporters that we all are on the hook for and this quota boy is still blaming Bush all the worlds ills ?
Quota boy sure is a P.O.S.
You would never get banned on FR for saying such a thing. Your comments are spot on.
“downshift”
Downshifting doesn’t pertain to the power of the engine. We’re losing engine power.
It’s a nice euphemism, though, suggesting there’s a driver in control. Where is our economy’s transmission?
As far as I'm concerned, as long as "the poor" have enough disposable $$ to get their tattoos, weaves, acrylic nails, cell phones, big screen TVs etc., then there is still plenty of cutting we can do on our FedGov entitlement spending.
I don't have the disposable $$ to throw away on that stuff even if I wanted it, so "the poor" can tighten their belts a whole lot more before they come running to me and other taxpayers with their hands out for more of my hard earned dollars.
With virtually any other president in the past three years we would have seen quarters with 5-7% growth. Our economy was functioning fine five years ago. We saw a massive dip in late 2008, and would have a significant recovery had different politicies been enacted. The world economy would be much stronger if it’s largest player were not mired in a lengthy dip in GDP. This is 100% Obama and liberalism’s fault. We shifted to a european model. It was not born since Obamas inauguration, but large swaths of the socialist system have been put in place over that time.
Bush did little to nothing to build a socialist structure. Blaming him is absurd. He kept taxes low, believed in private sector and not centralized planning. His faults lie in not holding spending and not advancing he ball in reducing government. Blaming him for a failed socialist government is silly.
You are exactly right. We need to focus on electing TEA Party Representatives and Senators. Hatch and Lugar need to be just the tip of the iceberg. The GOP can only be rebuilt from the ground up.
There is a fertility gap in Europe of 1/2 a child - families want 2 kids but have 1.5. In the U.S., it’s a little less but still there.
If we lowered taxes on families, they’d have the money to have more kids.
“...and too fragile to withstand the kinds of budget cuts Congressional Republicans are proposing.”
“We’re so deep in debt that we cannot afford to spend less.”
Do you honestly believe we would have had that rate of growth with a President McCain?
—The Titanic’s ‘recovery’ has been slowed down by the gradual flooding of its forward compartments.—
^^^this.
I laughed at the “we’re in a recover” folks. We were like a family about to lose their home and dad found some $10 gift card when he opened his eyes, face down in the gutter. So there was a “growth” spurt. Big deal. The hundred bucks is gone and, uh, where were we. Oh yeah, watching and living the greatest socioeconomic crash in the history of mankind.
I bought my small farm in central KY two weeks before the election in 2008 because I didn’t care which side won. This is a hundred year storm (worse, actually) and I now have a strong belief that we are going headlong into Ezekiel 39.
I believe we are living in the prelude to biblical end times prophesy. So yes, It has to get worse before it gets better.
—The next President will inherit a financial graveyard. There isn’t a policy change on the planet that will fix this.—
Exactly how I see it. I’ve likened our situation, politically, to us being a bus going 70 mph and the driver FINALLY looks up and notices there is a concrete wall 50 feet in front of us. No matter who we “elect” as driver, we’re gonna hit the wall at full speed.
The time for judicious application of the brakes has long passed.
What happened in 2007 was the housing bubble burst. The housing bubble is what gave us those swell, but false, numbers.
Actually, once the housing bubble burst, our (the world’s) fate was cast in concrete. And the simple fact that the amount of austerity that would be required to get us out of this mess at all would be so devastating that it would lead to an economic death spiral and massive rioting. i.e. no politician could do it.
It will end in hyperinflation. It is the only think the politicians can do that will not, initially, hurt them politically. But the smart ones will be buying cabins in the woods and lots of long term food supplies.
—Here’s the way out of the graveyard:
http://www.fairtax.org/site/PageServer?pagename=about_faq—
That would have been a good idea a decade ago. It’s too late now. It is too late for ANY solution that is not dependent at it’s core on prayer. There is no human solution to this. We will fall all the way to the bottom. Only then will the phoenix rise.
“I will probably get banned from FR”
Only if you repeat yourself.
More leftist drivel from the home of that economic genius, Krugman
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