The Obama Economy

Atlanta Fed Chief Dennis Lockhart says that if the national unemployment rate were figured by the old rules - including those who are underemployed and those who have stopped looking for work - that rather than the outrageous 9.4% rate touted by the Obama administration, the real rate of unemployment is approximately 16%.

Lockhart, whose knowledge of economics is more advanced than the guesswork indulged in by the Obama administration, says that public spending will not solve the unemployment problem. He additionally forecasts a protracted period of recession typified by perennial joblessness, and calls fears about excessive government spending leading to high deficits and inflation "warranted."

Economist John Williams of shadowstats.com estimates that, when all data is taken into consideration, the real unemployment rate is teetering on the brink of The Great Depression's 25%. In an article at U.S. News & World Report, Williams is quoted:

So if you care not just about people who meet the official definition of "unemployed" but also about people who are dropping out of the labor force, 2009 seems to be trailing 1982 in terms of the health of the labor market. Williams says that when he takes into consideration people who haven't looked for work in more than a year because they can't find jobs, the real unemployment rate today goes all the way up to 20.6 percent by his calculations. "It won't take much to get it to the worst since the Great Depression," he says.

Whether you go with the Atlanta Fed's number of 16% or John Williams' number approaching 21%, it is plain that Obama will indeed go down in history...

... with Hoover.

Obama Logic

The following is an outline of the development of the logic of the Obamazombies as it regards the economy. Something is missing that I can't quite figure out. Perhaps someone would be good enough to help explain it all to me?

1) Prior to the election: "The American economy is the Worst Since The Great Depression! Vote for me! I can fix it!"

2) Immediately after the election: "The American economy is the Worst Since The Great Depression - but we will halt its decline in its tracks! Thanks for voting for me! I am now going to fix it!"

3) Following the stimulus passage: "Yes, unemployment for Bush's last year was 4.60%, signifying the Worst Economy Since The Great Depression! Now the unemployment rate is 9.5%, signifying that the stimulus package is WORKING!"





[Free information - no additional charge: If the unemployment rate were figured today using the same methods as were used 50 years ago, the current unemployment rate is pressing 18%. You are welcome for this free information.]

3) As the economy has become progressively worse: "Nobody knew the economy was THIS bad! Why, it's the Worst Economy Since The Great Depression! It's not our fault we can't fix it!"

4) Joe (Silver Tongue) Biden: "So we guessed wrong.... Who woulda thunk that the economy was this bad? If we don't spend more money, we'll go bankrupt!"

I think that the technical term for the above is "having it every which way."

Medical doctors generally refer to such disordered thinking as "confusion," and send the patient off to be checked for a head injury.

My grandmother called it "lying."

CBO On Obama Recession: Years To Recovery

Today, the Director of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, Douglas Elmendorf, on the CBO Director's blog, summarized his most recent testimony before Congress.

* While a "recovery" (read: the end of "negative growth") is expected in the second half of this year, unemployment will continue to spike and will stabilize this year in excess of 10%.

* Unemployment's return to pre-Obama levels will likely take "several years" (read: when The Messiah is no longer in office).

* "Even if the economy returns to positive growth this year, the loss in output and income during this downturn will be huge" (note: even if - doesn't sound like we can expect a return to positive growth this year).

* The difference between "actual" and "potential" output of the economy (read: lost production) will exceed $1 trillion both this year and next, and "CBO’s forecast in August is likely to show even larger shortfalls in output over the next few years" (read: the brakes have effectively been put on the economy).

* "The current recession and its aftermath will be the most severe economic downturn of the postwar period."

* "Most experts also believe that persistent large deficits reduce capital accumulation and thereby slow the growth of output and incomes over time. Thus, the large deficits that CBO projects for the years after the economy has returned to full employment are more worrisome" (read: while the CBO is giving a grudging pass to the current $1.7 trillion deficit, it is sounding the alarm that the party can't go on forever, and Obama's spending is going to have to stop).

*"The sharp increase in debt this year and next raises the risk that investors might lose confidence in U.S. government debt as a safe haven" (read: hyperinflation has already started, and we can't trust the collective mainstream media of other countries to keep it a secret like our own home-grown fourth estate is pleased to do).

Odd that the mainstream media hasn't really made any of these points since the Director's testimony was just yesterday. Perhaps CBS and CNN and MSNBC do not know that the CBO director has a blog...?

Obama Budget Revealed: "Long Way To Go"

"Obviously, the bottom line is frightening," said Rudolph Penner, a senior fellow at the Urban Institute and a former director of the Congressional Budget Office. "They have a long way to go to show fiscal restraint."




The Obama administration unveiled its FY 2010 budget today, a $3.4 trillion, 1500 page monstrosity.

He followed the release up with a statement that "We can no longer afford to spend as if deficits do not matter and waste is not a problem." Do tell!

John McCain, on Twitter, quickly criticized the budget's proposed cuts of $17 billion as being only 1/2% of the total budget.

The total budget works out to spending an amount equal to approximately $11,000 per person in America for the fiscal year.

Here's an idea. Take out all the money needed to maintain the military and its operations at home and abroad - estimated at about $700 billion - and simply give the American people what is left as a block grant. So figure that every American man, woman, and child gets 80% of $11,000, or $8,800, and the government gets a year-long vacation.

My prediction: With $8,800 returned to every PERSON in America, there would be no more economic meltdown.

My second prediction: Since Obama cares about expanding a Fascist regulatory regime, and not curing the economic problems of the country, it couldn't possibly be on the radar.

But it does make one think. If government simply getting out of the way would solve the economic woes of the nation, why, exactly, are we expanding the role of government right now?

Barack Obama at Office Depot

"Petty thieves, we hang; great ones, we elect to office."

- Aesop

The current estimated future obligations for the United States in regards to Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security are $1.25 quadrillion.

The Obama presidency, in less than 100 days, has already spent or proposed in the neighborhood of $10 trillion. Yes, that is $10 thousand billion.

The federal deficit amassed in over 200 years from the American War for Independence in 1776 to the administration of George W. Bush in 2008 was roughly $11 trillion.

The total interest on the U.S. debt is $1.2 billion per day.

Today, Barack Hussein Muhammad bin Obama demanded that his cabinet find a way to save $100 million.

Department of Homeland Security chief Janet Napolitano today indicated that her executive department can save millions of dollars each year by purchasing office supplies in bulk.

"According to [Napolitano], millions of dollars can be saved by making changes in such things as how the department orders office supplies, gets computer software and uses energy."

So the answer for Barack Hussein Muhammad bin Obama's DOUBLING of the federal debt in less than 100 days is to, in the future, purchase paper clips from Sam's Club and Office Depot?

The AP (apparently now fully recovered from campaign-season orgasms) even reports the cuts as making hardly a "dime's worth of difference."

"Cut a latte or two out of your annual budget and you've just done as much belt-tightening as President Barack Obama asked of his Cabinet on Monday.

The thrifty measures Obama ordered for federal agencies are the equivalent of asking a family that spends $60,000 in a year to save $6."

The ship is sinking. Find a lifeboat and stand by it. You won't be waiting long....

Hooray! The Bailout Worked!

"Wealth gotten by vanity shall be diminished, but he that gathereth by labor shall increase" (Proverbs 13:11, King James Version).

"Wealth from get-rich-quick schemes quickly disappears; wealth from hard work grows over time" (Proverbs 13:11, New Living Translation).


Yet more evidence that welfare, corporate or otherwise, is a great idea that has a positive economic impact:

From CNBC reports by journalist David Faber --

American Insurance Group, the insurance giant that is 80-percent owned by the US government, is in discussions with the government to secure additional funds so it can keep operating after next Monday, when it will report the largest loss in U.S. corporate history, CNBC has learned.

Sources close to the company said the loss will be near $60 billion due to writedowns on a variety of assets including commercial real estate.

That massive loss is likely to spur downgrades in its insurance and credit ratings that will force AIG to raise collateral that it doesn't have.

In addition, if AIG's book value falls below a certain level, as it seems certain to do, it will trigger default in certain of its debt instruments, say people familiar with the situation.

All of this adds up to a huge headache for the Federal Reserve and Treasury, which have already provided over $150 billion of assistance to AIG.

Full article at http://www.cnbc.com/id/29353282 .

David Faber has been on CNBC asking: "Where did we go wrong? Should we just have done nothing and accepted the pain rather than throwing good money after bad?"

Good question. Or maybe he was making a point. Good point.