Quote:
Originally Posted by All American NYC
Unemployment Rises To 9.2% There is no "recovery." Period.
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Of course there is a recovery. You're confusing employment with economics.
There's no rule, law, economic theory, axiom or corollary that says everyone who wants a job
must have a job.
America's peak was what, 1956? If we go by your definition, the unemployment rate in the US was...
...43+%
If you talk to people who were there in 1956 (I wasn't) they'll tell you things were beautiful and peachy.
With 43+% unemployment?
Apparently so.
B-b-b-b-but the BLS says unemployment was only 4.1%. Yes, that's right, because it all comes down to how you define the labor pool. And if you define the labor pool in 1956 just as you define it now, your unemployment rate was 43+%.
In fact your unemployment rate was in the 40%-60% range for all of 1940, 1950, 1960 and most of 1970, if you define it as you do now.
How many people are employed or unemployed doesn't have that much bearing on how well an economy performs. A lot of countries had perennial 10+% unemployment but their GDP grew 4%-6% per year.
So what does that say?
It says employment/unemployment doesn't really have a bearing on the economy.
It can have a bearing if the government needlessly throws away money on people who aren't working and ought not to be working, just like Obama did.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Frank DeForrest
Too many government led schemes in the way for the economy to recover.
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That's an impediment and things like Obamacare create extreme uncertainty in business, which is always bad.
The Bush Tax Cuts are a great example of failed Obama leadership. Within 90 days of being sworn in, he should have taken a bold stance on the Tax Cuts. Understand the stance he took doesn't really make a difference, but stating unequivocally that he intended to let the Tax Cuts expire or that he intended to extend them would have made at least some difference because he would have removed the uncertainty surrounding that.
Once business and industry knew Obama's stance on the tax cuts, they could have gotten out their spread sheets, crunched the numbers and then adjusted their sales & marketing strategy, their production and purchasing schedules and such accordingly.
Instead, he left business and industry hanging in limbo for 2 years.
That wasn't too smart.
Quote:
Originally Posted by slimkay
You're really naive if you think "big government spending" is the root of all evil.
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Right. Congress arguing over whether or not to extend unemployment benefits is a blessed and holy thing.
The pseudo-federal government doesn't need to be in the unemployment business, and if the pseudo-federal government stopped collecting the tax that they should be collecting in the first place, then the States could collect those taxes instead, and each State and Commonwealth could tailor its unemployment benefits package to its workers with much better results than anything the "you-Harvards" in the pseudo-federal government could ever come up with.
Quote:
Originally Posted by slimkay
As I have pointed out in another thread, Corporate America has not been any kinder towards unemployed people and the American Economy as a whole.
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And why would they?
Perhaps you misunderstand the meaning of the word "
public corporation."
A
public corporation has one and only one function, and that is to make profits for share-holders. A
public corporation is ethically, morally and legally obligated to do that.
A
public corporation has no duty or obligation to hire employees.
In fact, if a
public corporation can make profits without having any employees at all, then that is exactly what a
public corporation should do.
On the other hand, a
private corporation, general partnership, limited partnership, limited liability partnership or limited liability company has no duty to share-holders, because they have no share-holders. They have only a duty and obligation to their investors, who are far fewer in number than a
public corporation.
Quote:
Originally Posted by VTHokieFan
I see a light. His name is Ron Paul. The tunnel is very long and dark, but the light is still there.
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That light is
Doctor Ron Paul lighting his farts.
Quote:
Originally Posted by wxjay
Last I checked, the President doesn't make laws him/herself. So unless Ron Paul is becoming a dictator with the power to make and pass laws alone, electing him will not change Congress' behavior and antics.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by slimkay
Of course not.... the same taxpayers, through their Government, giving those companies subsidies, tax breaks, taking care of unions for them and often bailing them out as we have seen in 2008-2009.
And let's not even talk about a lot of corporate profits being taken offshore to avoid US taxation.
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Subsidies and tax breaks are a way of equalizing the field so that US companies can compete in the Global Market against those companies that are SOEs (State-owned Enterprises).
For example, Statoil is the State-owned oil company for Norway. Does Statoil have "deep pockets?" Yes, they have the entire budget for the Norwegian government if necessary, plus they have the borrowing power of the Norwegian government.
I guess you never thought about that.
Quote:
Originally Posted by VTHokieFan
What are we doing to bring those profits back?
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You're doing it as best you can.
You cannot undo 100 years of very bad foreign policy overnight.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Motion
To those who say that the stimulus should have been larger exactly how large should it have been and how did you determine your stimulus amount? Wasn't this stimulus the largest in U.S history?
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No, because the stimulus was the first in US history.
Surely you're not attempting to compare the Stimulac with the WPA.
The money FDR spent went directly to the WPA, which was basically a government run temporary agency that hired employees directly.
The Stimulac was Obama's way of enriching his friends and friends of friends and friends of friends of friends for helping him get elected. He threw the money out there, and it went nowhere, except into the pockets of his friends and friends of friends and friends of friends of friends.