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So, do you want to see our "recovery" come to a screeching halt?
"U.S. crude futures hit an 18-month high on Monday, climbing toward $86 per barrel on expectations of faster-than-expected economic recovery and increasing demand for fuel.
Data on Friday showed U.S. employers created jobs in March at the fastest rate in three years. Non-farm payrolls rose 162,000, only the third increase since the U.S. economy fell into recession in late 2007 and the largest since March 2007.
U.S. manufacturing is also expanding at its fastest pace for more than five years, while Chinese manufacturing is picking up and Japanese business sentiment is also improving."
Reuters
"Rising factory output and a decline in the pace of layoffs are giving economists confidence that the recovery has staying power.
The government is expected to report Friday that the economy added jobs in March for only the second time since December 2007.
Still, job creation is likely to remain weak for years to come, in part because U.S. factories have become more efficient, producing more goods with fewer workers. On top of that, the sector's contribution to the overall economy has been shrinking for decades due to competition from China and other countries where factory workers are paid much less.
Another reason the job-growth engine is stuck in a low gear is that the building sector remains extremely weak in the aftermath of the housing bust.
Construction spending fell sharply in February to its lowest level in eight years, the Commerce Department said Thursday. Spending fell particularly hard in commercial ventures, such as hotels and office buildings."
Yahoo
So here's my question: if construction is in the toilet and we aren't building that many cars, what are all of these manufacturers making? I don't trust the numbers that the government is supplying because common sense tells me that the underlying economic activity that is needed to drive all of the stated activity just doesn't exist. And now, using numbers that I believe are falsified for political reasons, speculators are causing the price of crude to jump, thus insuring that those of us that can't find a decent job, and believe me that number is north of 20%, will be forced to pay higher costs for everything, further eroding our purchasing power and negatively impacting America's GDP which is based nearly completely on consumer activity.
How can demand for manufactured goods be rising in Asia when their primary market, the U.S., just isn't buying much? I know that their economies have grown and that some internal demand exists but, really, without the American consumer how large can the overall need for finished goods produced in Asia be?
I'm just a carpenter and as such I claim no expertise in matters economic. That being said, I follow the economy as a point if interest and read a lot of economic reports. Too many numbers say too many different things. It seems as though if the truth were being told by all parties involved there would be some sense of order; but there isn't, or at least I can't see it.
Manufacturing is supposed to be up while the two industries that support it most, houses and cars, are way down. More people are supposedly employed, yet the true unemployment number keeps creeping up. I read the want ads every week and the only area that I see consistently hiring is nursing. There are a few adds for truck driving schools and that's about it. I've been applying for jobs and finding that the few that are available pay minimum wage for part time work and the employer has more applications than they know what to do with.
What I think is happening is that we are seeing a minor surge in manufacturing to replenish inventory. This is temporary. If no one is buying the products once the inventory levels are back to where they need to be the surge in manufacturing will be over. That's why we don't see any hiring. The manufacturers are producing with as few people as they can get by with. They aren't going to hire people and spend the money to train them when they probably will have to be laid off in the near future. Layoffs are slowing down, but not stopping. We are seeing a small respite just to get us through this rebuilding of inventory.
Oil is being traded at an artificially high level which will drive up the cost of everything. As more and more people realize that the only job they can get, if they're lucky, will pay a fraction of the wage they have become accustomed too their spending levels will decrease, permanently. This is creating a situation where America is facing falling wages and much higher prices for consumer goods. How is that going to work? The value of our houses will continue to fall and many people, even those that have traditional loans and played by the rules will find themselves underwater. They won't be able to sell their homes for what they owe on them, if they can sell them at all, and because wages have fallen they won't be able to make the payments. How is that going to cause a recovery?
Taxes are going to rise sharply because politicians won't cut programs. As cities, counties and states have more costs imposed on them by the federal government they will go bankrupt. They can raise taxes all they want but if the people don't have the money they won't be able to collect. And then what? Does some guy from the government show up at your door, if you still have one, and demand payment, or else? What if you say no?
We have entered a dual feed back loop. One the one side we have the stock market, constantly moving upward on hopes and the taxpayers money. On the other side we have the real economy, contracting on the basis of the housing collapse, the jobs market and the rising cost of goods such as food and energy. Both loops are moving apart, causing destructive tension which will, I believe, cause an economic collapse unlike any we've seen before.
On one side we have the federal government and the bankers, printing money and investing, creating rights and Ponzi schemes, entitlements and investment scams like the credit card has absolutely no limit. On the other side we have the states and the citizens, caught in a never ending whirlpool of demands and obligations to the federal government and the bankers with our savings exhausted and our credit cards way past the limit and shut off.
Something has to give. It's sort of like that thing we talk about when we're kids; the immovable object being struck by the unstoppable force. As adults, we realize that there can only be one infinite thing and so this question establishes a false dichotomy. One of these two forces will overpower the other.
I think that a confrontation is inevitable and has already begun with the various lawsuits and legislation relating to the Tenth Amendment. I believe, hope and pray that the people and the states can overcome the federal government and it's printing presses. We'll see. I think that the federal government intends to use the power to tax to destroy the sovereign states and to force them to bow before Caesar. Will we stand up to it? Will we refuse to bend our knee but instead take up our arms?
I don't know the answer to any of this, I just see the confrontation on the horizon.
Prepare.
I watch the markets climb day after day along with the incessant happy talk from the traders about recovery and a return to the days before the depression began. But how does any of this translate to the average American? All of the money feeding on itself on Wall Street doesn't seem to be creating new jobs. Investing used to denote, for the most part, a commitment to an idea. The investor looked for the company or individual that had built the better mousetrap and gave him his money, in hopes of a return on investment after the mousetrap became profitable. Stocks were meant to raise capital to help in the development of companies which would create jobs, make profit and grow the economy.
Now the stock market has become a play ground for the gambler. It isn't about long term risk and reward but about short term gain. Some bet that the mousetrap will succeed, some that it will fail, but none are concerned about anything but themselves. The greater economy and the lives of the average American be damned.
And this is why our cities, counties, states and country are failing. We've built a system of taxation and the service it supports based on the idea that there would always be jobs and that those jobs would always grow in number and wages. Unions have built themselves and their power around the principle that the worker has a "right" to the wealth of others. Governments have stopped trying to even make the pretense that they were created by the people to serve the best interests of the people. They are fighting for their survival in the new reality of shrinking revenues and higher demands for services they've addicted their citizens to. Governments believe they have the "right" to the wealth of others, too.
Wall street, government and the unions are all linked in their avarice. Each works with the other in a circle of destructive greed aimed at amassing power through the bald faced theft of the peoples money and freedom. And most can't see it. The white collar worker is mad at the unions, the blue collar worker is mad at Wall Street and everybody is mad at the government while at the same time holding out their hand for the dole.
As our cities, counties, states and country collapse we will be rounded up into smaller and smaller areas because it's too inefficient to service a large urban area. The unions will refuse to give, keeping the cost of government supplied services high. Wall Street will invest in short term gain, not caring about the country, just their own wallets. Government will increase taxes to pay for the dwindling services we've come to rely on, taking more and more of the little wealth in the private economy. Eventually the only good jobs left will be government jobs. So the government employee will work for a wage which is handed back to the government so that the government can supply the services the free market used to supply.
Welcome to the "Brave New World", comrade.
"The superintendent calls it the "Right-Size" plan," but many Kansas City, Missouri, residents say it's plain wrong.
Superintendent John Covington called for the closing or consolidation of almost half of the city's public schools. A divided Kansas City school board voted Wednesday to approve the downsizing...
...Covington proposed the "Right-Size" plan arguing that the financial future of the entire school district was at stake. The plan shutters 28 of Kansas City's 61 public schools, cuts 700 jobs and saves $50 million to help reduce a burgeoning deficit."
CNN
"A while back, Tasha Kheiriddin wrote about the Detroit mayor's plan to forcibly relocate parts of the crumbling city's dwindling population, huddling them together in greater densities for the sake of efficiency. Why spend good money sending garbage trucks out to neighbourhoods that have been all but abandoned, after all?
"If we don't do it, you know this whole city is going to go down. I'm hopeful people will understand that," said Mayor Dave Bing. "If we can incentivize some of those folks that are in those desolate areas, they can get a better situation."
Fair enough. Efficiency is good, though herding people out of their homes and forcibly replanting them elsewhere has some disturbing historical connotations. But let's ignore that for the moment; it still leaves the question of what to do with all those newly-depopulated areas. What, exactly, did Mayor Bing have in mind?
Well, now we know. Amber waves of grain, or something close to it. According to this report from Associated Press:
Operating on a scale never before attempted in this country, the city would demolish houses in some of the most desolate sections of Detroit and move residents into stronger neighborhoods. Roughly a quarter of the 139-square-mile city could go from urban to semi-rural.
Near downtown, fruit trees and vegetable farms would replace neighborhoods that are an eerie landscape of empty buildings and vacant lots. Suburban commuters heading into the city center might pass through what looks like the countryside to get there. Surviving neighborhoods in the birthplace of the auto industry would become pockets in expanses of green."
National Post
"The city's major hospital network, which runs Miami's only round-the-clock trauma center and is a safety net for the poor and uninsured, is running out of money and could close, a predicament that illustrates the precarious financial state of many hospitals around the country.
The Jackson Health System will have little cash on hand by the end of March if it does not receive a $67 million advance from the county, said Marcos Lapciuc, treasurer of the Public Health Trust, the institution's governing board.
"We are very close, if not already in, a health care death spiral," Chief Operating Officer David Small said."
Yahoo
"If the Jackson Health System runs out of cash, the county would be responsible for paying Jackson's 10,500 union workers, but not necessarily the other 1,500 employees, according to a legal analysis by County Attorney R.A. Cuevas Jr.
It's unclear exactly how big a tab that might be, but it would be a huge chunk of the $86 million of salaries and benefits that the public hospital system spends each month. At present, Jackson is expected to run out of cash in May or June unless drastic cuts are made."
Miami Herald
"Township officials expressed frustration that several unions representing Moorestown government workers have not agreed to reopen contract negotiations.
Last month, township council asked the unions to consider making wage and health benefit concessions this year even though they have contracts that continue through 2012 and guarantee annual pay raises of 3.75 percent.
At Monday night's council meeting, Township Manager Christopher Schultz disclosed to the public the specifics of council proposals to the unions -- a wage freeze and a payroll contribution to health care benefits to help cut costs to the township.
As of Monday night's deadline to respond, township officials said none of the unions had agreed to reopen negotiations."
Courier Post
"Gov. Pat Quinn today called for a 33 percent increase in the state income tax rate to raise money for education and ease deep cuts he's proposed in his new budget plan.
In his short budget speech to the House and Senate, Quinn argued that an income tax "surcharge" would be enough to restore Illinois' education budget to current levels and allow the state to get caught up on some of the millions owed to public schools, community colleges and four-year universities.
Quinn wants to increase the personal income tax rate from 3 percent to 4 percent --- a 33 percent increase --- with the corporate tax rate rising from 4.8 percent to 5.8 percent. The tax hike would bring in $2.8 billion a year."
Chicago Tribune
"The recession and the ongoing jobless recovery devastated much of the private-sector work force last year, sending unemployment soaring, but government workers emerged essentially unscathed, according to data released Wednesday by the Labor Department.
Meanwhile, the compensation for state and local government employees continued to easily outdistance the wages and benefits for workers in private business, a separate Labor Department report showed."
Washington Times
As the average American starts to think like their grandparents the old do it yourself mentality will take hold. Why pay someone else to do what you can do yourself?
What affect will this have on the "service" economy. With so many earning a living by doing the simple jobs people used to do themselves the return of frugality will drive the depression even deeper.
I'm listening to the news this morning and all of the Republicans are just besides themselves with excitement. I guess, if you are a Republican this may feel like some sort of victory. But, if you're a libertarian like me, you might be feeling more like maybe you've won an opening skirmish in a much larger war that is not in anyway decisive.
It looks like the election of Brown to the Senate seat from Massachusetts may slow down the freight train of socialism but it wasn't stopped, much less reversed. Government will continue to grow in size and power. Brown can't stop it and furthermore I've not heard him say anything that would lead me to believe he intends to. Sure, he's mouthed the expected Republican Reaganisms of lower taxes and more opportunity. So what?
Reagan did reduce taxes and that reduction did spur economic growth. I'm not going to argue that point. But, because Reagan didn't shrink the size and power of the government the gains made economically in the end meant nothing. What does money mean without freedom? And because those economic gains were the end result of government manipulation of the markets through the tax code only the connected benefitted. The middle class in America has seen a collapse of earning power that has been unabated since the early 70's. The Republicans, even St. Ronald, have done nothing to reduce the size of government. It has grown under them just as it has under the Democrats. And our freedom has been steadily diminished under both parties.
The election of Brown may serve the immediate purpose of slowing the rush to socialist slavery but it has not really changed anything of substance. Both parties will continue to drag power to the central government in complete disregard for the Constitution and the wishes of the majority of the people.
From the battle at the Concord Bridge to last nights election Massachusetts has been the starting point for long and costly wars. The question is, do we have the courage and the resolve of our Revolutionary forefathers? Only time will tell.
So, I'm listening to Fox and Friends this morning and they have Jonah Goldberg on. He's the editor of National Review online and author of "Liberal Fascism". He's also a frequent guest on Glenn Beck's show where he talks about the evils of Progressivism and government coercion of our lives. He is a Republican. You'd think he would get "it".
But, like most members of the Grand Old Party he has shown himself to be a clueless member of the Progressive Lite brigade. They're talking on the show this morning about Dominoes Pizza and how this company has admitted that their product sucks and they are going to make the changes necessary to bring their customers back. So the host asks Goldberg what changes the GOP needs to make to bring back its voters. Goldberg answers that the GOP needs to support changes to the tax code that will make it easier and less costly to have kids.
Really? What the GOP should do to attract conservatives is gerrymander the tax code to influence Americans to act a certain way? WTF!!??? I thought the party of personal freedom and smaller government would be opposed to any sort of government interference in our lives. I thought that it would work to reduce the taxes and the size of the federal Government. Instead, it would use the power of government to coerce. If that isn't the definition of Socialism I don't know what is.
This is why I will never vote Republican again. I don't care how good the candidate sounds. If elected inside the party structure this sort of backdoor Progressivism is what will be expected of him and forced upon his constituents through Republican party politics. The Republicans and Democrats have both forgotten to read the Constitution and don't have a clue how to reduce government in our lives. Both intend to use government to control us and increase their own power. A POX ON BOTH THEIR HOUSES!!!
Americans need to realize that if we want our country back we have to break the backs of the parties. The only way to do this is to refuse to give them power. Vote third party! Don't listen to the same tired reasons why this is dangerous to the country. It cannot possibly cause more damage than the current parties have!
We will either destroy this Leviathan with the ballot box or the gun. We must make a real effort to do it peacefully. To make the gun legitimate we have to exhaust every other possibility. We don't want to use our guns. Nothing good will come from it. But, our government needs to understand the possibility exists and that we have recourse to it. We need to make it afraid to gain control. It needs to fear the ballot box, knowing the gun rests behind it.
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