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The Obama economy is a river of crap that just keeps flowing Let me lay out some things you need if you want to see jobs created: It has to be in the employers’ best interests to hire more people. The cost of the labor has to line up with the benefit employers will receive from it. There has to be consumer demand to justify the increased investment in productivity. The economy has to be growing robustly enough to provide the capital to pay for the labor. There should not be regulatory disincentives to hiring more people. There should not...

President Barack Obama says shifting the U.S. away from imported oil and toward cleaner forms of energy will add momentum to a trend that has led to 1.8 million new jobs in the past 13 months. Obama used his weekly radio and Internet address Saturday to promote his ideas for bringing down gasoline prices by decreasing U.S. dependence on foreign oil. A blueprint he outlined in a recent speech calls for increasing domestic oil exploration and production, making cars and trucks more energy efficient and building vehicles that run on alternative fuels or electricity.

The number: Welll, that was solid, which might be a bit of a relief in light of the weather. Last month's huge number was revised down 50K to 247K. Jobs were created in every category. You can find the full report here. Background: Here's our little amuse-bouche to get you ready for Friday's big Non-Farm Payrolls report. Analysts are looking for 145K new private sector jobs from ADP. That's way down from 297K last month, but then again, last month was wildly off the mark compared to the BLS data, so it's not clear how much weight folks will put...

Gov. Steve Beshear has scheduled a press conference for Wednesday to unveil plans for a religious theme park in the northern Kentucky city of Williamstown. Beshear will be joined by representatives from Answers in Genesis, operators of the Creation Museum, at the 9:30 a.m. EST press conference in the Capitol to announce construction of the "Ark Encounter" theme park. The Cincinnati Enquirer and The Courier-Journal reported Tuesday that the proposal involves a full-scale wooden ark that would include associated museums, theaters, amenities, event venues and outdoor parking. Preliminary indications are that the attraction could draw as many as 1.6 million...

President Obama traveled to Columbus, Ohio, on Friday to hail the swearing-in of 25 new police officers who had been told after their training that the city did not have enough money to hire them. But the good news was overshadowed by the bad as the day brought word that another 651,000 jobs were lost last month and the unemployment rate jumped to 8.1 percent. That brings the total to 2.6 million jobs lost since Obama was elected and 4.4 million since the recession began. "I don't need to tell the people of this state what statistics like this mean,...

America is heading towards the path of inflation and under Obama's economic plan it may very well be one of the worst inflationary periods ever experienced.

Last year was a record for the nation's home building industry . The Commerce Department reported Thursday that construction of single-family homes and apartments totaled 2.065 million units last year. The increase of 5.6 percent over 2004 pushed overall residential construction to the second highest level on record, exceeded only by 2.357 million units built in 1972. Meanwhile, single-family home construction hit an all-time high for the third straight year, rising to 1.714 million units, up 6.4 percent from the previous record of 1.611 million homes built in 2004. The record-setting performance came despite the fact that housing activity dropped...

The Labor Department reported that its Producer Price Index, which measures price pressures before they reach the consumer, rose 0.9 percent in December, the biggest increase since a 1.7 percent jump in September. For all of 2005, wholesale prices rose by 5.4 percent. That was the biggest increase since a 5.7 percent increase in 1990... However, core inflation, excluding energy and food, was up a more moderate 1.7 percent in 2005... Retail sales posted a weaker-than-expected 0.7 percent increase in December, the Commerce Department reported, after rising by 0.8 percent in November. "Retailers continue to report good sales momentum in...

WASHINGTON - Consumers increased spending moderately in November even though the growth in their incomes slowed a bit, raising doubts about how strong the Christmas sales season will be. The Commerce Department said personal spending rose by 0.3 percent last month, slightly below the 0.4 percent gain that Wall Street had been expecting. Incomes rose by 0.3 percent last month, right in line with expectations. The holiday shopping season has turned in a mixed performance so far with the nation's retailers expected to increase discounting in the final days before Christmas in the hopes of making up for slower-than-expected sales...

Pelosi condemns "immoral" measure, but a few on her team see sense in it... President Bush and House GOP leaders scored a big victory last week as 225 Republicans and nine Democrats joined forces to pass a bill extending the 15 percent tax rate on capital gains and dividends that Congress enacted two years ago. Three Republicans voted against the bill, as did 193 Democrats. The nine Democrats who voted "yes," bucked House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, who denounced the bill as “immoral" because the “tax cuts” would go “mostly for America's wealthiest.” So why did the nine Democrats break...

Sources: S.A. On Banking Giant's Short List Washington Mutual Could Bring Thousands Of New Jobs POSTED: 6:36 am CST February 10, 2005 SAN ANTONIO -- San Antonio is on a short list of cities being considered by banking giant Washington Mutual for a huge expansion project, sources told KSAT 12 News. A source close to the negotiations told KSAT 12 News that the project would at first bring in as many as 3,500 jobs, with 1,500 more jobs possible in future years. Salaries are expected to be comparable as those being offered by Toyota. The announcement is expected to be...

Remember all that talk during the just concluded presidential campaign about this being the worst economy since the Great Depression? Or that President Bush's jobs performance is the poorest since Herbert Hoover was in office? Well, with the close of the 2004 calendar year comes the end of Mr. Bush's first term. Maybe without all the distractions and distortions that accompany a political campaign we can better determine what the real economic results are since our 43rd president was inaugurated. Let's begin with jobs. This past Friday's December employment report paints quite a different picture of the U.S. economy than...

For Immediate Release October 16, 2004 Radio Address of the President to the Nation      Audio THE PRESIDENT: Good morning. Over the past four years, I have brought a straightforward approach to the presidency. I tell you what I'm going to do, and I keep my word. When I came into office four years ago, the economy was sliding into recession. Then terrorist attacks cost our nation nearly a million jobs in three months. To help families and to get this economy growing again, I pledged to reduce taxes, and I kept my word.  Radio Address 2004200320022001  Radio Interviews 2004...

NEW YORK - President Bush (news - web sites) and Sen. John Kerry (news - web sites) clashed over figures showing modest monthly jobs growth Friday as they plunged into a nine-week post-convention sprint toward Election Day. Previous presidents "have faced wars and recessions, but not one of them has failed to create a single job," Kerry said. He said the most recent statistics made it inevitable that Bush's term would end with a net loss of employment. Not surprisingly, Bush offered a different interpretation. "Overall, we've added about 1.7 million jobs since August 2003. The unemployment rate is down...

DES MOINES, Iowa - Sen. John Edwards, campaigning for the Democratic nomination for president, said Monday his targeted tax-cut proposal would create 5 million new jobs in his first two years in office and end the "two Americas" that President Bush (news - web sites) has created. "One America does the work, while another America reaps the reward," Edwards said in a speech detailing his efforts to bolster quality of life for middle-class Americans. "One America pays the taxes, while another America gets the tax breaks." Much of the package Edwards spelled out Monday had been made public earlier, but...

The company that makes Purell hand sanitizer [has chosen] Laurinburg, NC for a manufacturing plant, a move that will create 250 jobs, Gov. Mike Easley said. GOJO Industries markets hand hygiene and skin care products, including Purell, its signature product. The North Carolina facility, which is expected to be fully functional by January 2005,.... The company will occupy an existing facility donated by Abbott Laboratories. GOJO Industries received $250,000 in One North Carolina money to be used for new equipment and building renovation.

Salmon targets female vote Jack Kurtz/The Arizona Republic Matt Salmon (right) and his wife Nancy (center) cheer after the Mesa Mountain View High School football team makes a first down in the first half of its homecoming game on Oct. 4. By Chip ScutariThe Arizona Republic Oct. 25, 2002 Matt Salmon served up a sermon on tax-cutting politics at a recent breakfast with 250 women - soccer mom types - that he desperately needs to vote his way on Nov. 5. The Republican candidate's pledge to cut taxes, even as the state faces a severe budget crisis, has become a...

For Immediate ReleaseOffice of the Press SecretaryOctober 12, 2002 Radio Address by the President to the Nation      Audio THE PRESIDENT: Good morning. This week, both the House and Senate passed strong bipartisan measures authorizing the use of force in Iraq if it becomes necessary. Our country and our Congress are now united in purpose. America is speaking with one voice: Iraq must disarm and comply with all existing U.N. resolutions, or it will be forced to comply. Confronting Iraq is an urgent matter of national security. America's economic security, especially the creation of good jobs is also an urgent matter,...