Why Is Unemployment So High This Labor Day?

By Dr. Gerard Lameiro

In a detailed op-ed piece in The Wall Street Journal this week, Robert Barro shows why he believes unemployment would be significantly lower if unemployment benefits had not been extended from the standard 26 weeks to 99 weeks. His calculations indicate that unemployment might be under 7% right now if only the unemployment benefits had not been extended to 99 weeks. Is he right? Why is unemployment so high this Labor Day? In economics, we know that when we tax something, we get less of it. We also know that when we subsidize something, we get more of it. It’s just common sense. Taxing something like cigarettes discourages smoking because the price goes up for smokers. Similarly, if we subsidize something, we encourage it because we create an economic incentive for that activity. Incidentally, that’s why we shouldn’t tax income, savings and investment because that is essentially taxing economic growth. We want more economic growth and prosperity, not less. [more...]

Half of Your Taxes Will Go for Interest Under Obama

By Ronald Kessler

Congressional Budget Office forecasts of government deficits and debt are supposed to be authoritative. But Congress forces the CBO to make unrealistic assumptions when issuing those estimates. The latest assumptions include that the alternative minimum tax will not be adjusted annually for inflation and that discretionary spending unrelated to war will increase no faster than inflation. Brian M. Riedl of the Heritage Foundation has stripped out these and other assumptions to come up with a more realistic look at the government’s spending and debt. Based on realistic assumptions... [more...]

A Small Businessman’s Urgent Plea to Obama: Please Play More Golf and Take More Vacations!

By Wayne Allyn Root

We are in midst of an economic Armageddon. For months I have described it as “The Great Depression II.” The politicians that run our country and economy are useless idiots - although some might find that comparison offensive to useless idiots. Each move they make, the economy gets worse. Each dollar they spend to “save the economy” results in more economic decline, fewer jobs, and lower tax revenues. No coincidence.

Speaking of useless idiots, enter Joe Biden. As job reports get bleaker and businesses fail by the thousands each month, Vice President Biden repeats endlessly, like a Stepford wife, that the stimulus is working just fine and has “saved” and created millions of jobs. Perhaps Biden believes if you repeat a lie enough times, it becomes the truth. Or at least you keep your job as Vice President.

Obama repeats endlessly that it’s Bush’s fault, even though we have lost millions of jobs, while adding over $4 trillion to the nation’s debt since Obama became CEO of the economy. Recently the nation’s debt increased by more in one day than the entire annual deficit in 2007. I am no fan of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but according to the Congressional Budget Office, Obama’s one-time stimulus program enacted during his first month of office cost $100 billion more than the entire 8-year Iraq war. [more...]

I Would Like 2 Scoops of B.S. With My Recovery, Please!

By Bill Glynn

Recovery? I am really perplexed by the inaction and incompetence in D.C. in even having the gall to claim anything about a recovery whatsoever. THIS IS NOT A RECOVERY! This is a crisis and the mess is far from being cleaned up. After almost $2 trillion has been borrowed, then loaned and spent, the economy is barely alive. The life support it needs isn’t reaching consumers, PERIOD! Mark my words: the economy will never recover unless people are shored up and able to buy again.

"Summer of Recovery?" NOT! "The economy was in a ditch and we are pushing it out." NOT! "The economy is headed in the right direction." NOT! "The Democrats will keep a majority in the House and Senate." NOT! Pile it on my plate and yours, too. Oh, and add some incompetence gravy and a side of housing mess and hopelessness. Tastes good, doesn’t it? "Choke on it!" That is what the chefs in the D.C. kitchen say. [more...]

But He Can't Fire Soros

By Joy Tiz

House minority leader, John Boehner called out the community-organizer-in-chief for his calamitous management of the nation’s economy: "I have had enough - and the American people have had enough - of Washington politicians talking about wanting to create jobs as a ploy to get themselves re-elected while doing everything possible to prevent jobs from being created." Not that the moribund media would tell you, but Boehner delivered his remarks at a speech before the City Club of Cleveland. Noting the current administration’s highly effective "war on jobs," Boehner reflected on Obama’s recent visit to Ohio while a few blocks away, Ohioans were standing in line at a job fair, waiting to be told that companies are not hiring. They’re frozen. Or, as the organizer of the job fair put it, employers are - and I’m quoting now - ‘scared to death.’ [more...]

Vote to Balance the Budget

By Tim Connolly

When will we take the hard steps necessary to stop bankrupting the USA? We have blindly increased our budgets over the years since the last surplus during the Clinton administration. This dubious accomplishment was done with the full participation of BOTH the Democrat and Republican parties, and must be brought to a halt sooner rather than later. My friends and associates know I am an independent fiscal conservative, and believe that we must balance our nation’s budget in order to rebuild America and assure our future prosperity. (Go to the "Freeze the Budget Now" link at www.winningstrategies.net for more complete info on this). A typical example of the insanity we are now engaged in was e-mailed to me this morning from a Florida emergency room physician - see his on-the-ground insights here and then make sure you vote in November for candidates who VOW TO BALANCE THE BUDGET, regardless of party affiliation! [more...]

Finally a Financial Heavyweight Understands My AMERICAN REFINANCE PROGRAM

By Bill Glynn

Everyone reading this knows I have been promoting a massive two-step program to refinance ALL Americans' debt if they choose to opt into the program I am suggesting. Note: this does not cost the government a dime. Here are the facts: the government is on the hook with a $5 trillion guarantee to Freddie and Fannie. The government is on the hook with TARP. This is a fact! Consumers, vital to our recovery, are in debt already. This is a fact - credit addicted or not! Interest rates are at an all-time low, but 46 million consumers have credit scores under 600, and 70 million with credit scores under 650. They are credit unworthy today and financial reform will make that worse. Therefore, they have little chance to get those great rates, refinance or borrow.

So we are here with massive spending and guarantees by the government and Main Street twisting in the wind. Well, there will be no sustainable recovery until we attack the root of the problem. PEOPLE CAN’T AFFORD TO PAY THEIR BILLS! The plan is so simple it makes me wonder why it has taken so long for the “big dogs” to step it up a notch, and thank God they are. I'm suggesting that we redirect up to half of the government's $5 trillion guarantee to support the program. Not a dime of money needs to be spent and they are already on the hook, as I said before, so it is just taking the same guarantee and splitting it up. [more...]

'Generation Z' - for Zero

By Bill Glynn

If you are 18-50, you fall into what I call "Generation Z" - for zero - a generation that will soon be known as "less than zero." Our social fabric and the American flag have become a tattered piece of burlap. Our judicial elections are bought off with hundreds of millions. The laws of the land bend to the billions spent to influence the outcome of those laws. Elections and power are definitely for sale. We've got a multi-hundred-billion-dollar pornography industry, deficits, debt, a floundering education system, bankruptcy, out of control spending - and these are just a few of the reasons our society is bankrupt. Where there is big government, there are big problems! [more...]

"Summer of Recovery" is more like a Cold Winter

By Bill Glynn

The much-touted "Summer of Recovery" is turning out to be just the opposite. It is clear that our most conservative monetary body is bracing us for more - and continued bad news. When the Fed speaks, the world listens; but when the Fed speaks with a shaky voice, then we had better pay attention. The simple fact that the Fed has to “stand ready” to step into the markets again should be a telling sign that we are still teetering on a cliff.

Congress is calling its members into an emergency session to borrow and spend $26 billion, tax foreign companies, and pay off the teachers unions... oh, and toss in a few billion for Nancy Pelosi’s state of California. News coverage yesterday was focused on some key elections but investors and economists focused on what signals the Federal Reserve was sending.

It is very important to understand that the Federal Reserve is limited in its ability to play a dramatic role in pumping blood into our economy. They can buy treasuries to keep interest rates at an all-time low, but their balance sheet is already bloated. They are privy to information and a view of the economy that we are not. One moment they say we are experiencing a “modest” recovery and then they turn and say the recovery is not all it's cracked up to be. Their solution? They point to Washington to step in again and implement more failed programs. But the government is just like a deer in the headlights.

I am hopeful someone will listen to the 2-step program I have come up with to solve this issue once and for all. Read more about Bill Glynn's solutions in his new book, "The United States of Bankruptcy." [more...]

Unemployment Will Go Up and Taxes Will Too

By Bill Glynn

Did I hear right? Timothy Geithner just said that unemployment is going to go up and the Bush tax cut will stay for 95%. I don’t even need to write one more sentence. This is financial discrimination and a death knell for recovery! It couldn’t come at a worse time for the “shaky” economy. This is pandering for political gain. They are playing Russian roulette with the economy and how many bullets can you dodge?

The Bush tax cuts are the news of the day, but taxes in so many forms are coming. 50 to 60% of your hard earned income will go to pay for everyone else in America if you are part of the 5% that have been categorized as a separate class - treated differently, discriminated against, and the critical component to the recovery. Career politicians, academics, socialists and Marxists are busy plotting how to redistribute your wealth, how to use class warfare to maintain power through elections, and how to stomp out the capitalist heart and soul of our country. [more...]