New business not creating jobs, and hasn’t for a long time

But when fundamental economic change is taking place, it usually swamps any influence that government might wield one way or the other.

It appears to be swamping the influence of not only government but that of businesses too. One thing that can be said about the economy is that we’re no longer in Kansas, and I don’t think any amount of ruby slippers will get us back there. The old US economy will only be found in history books now.

• Link
• Report this comment

In business now, it is do more with less, which is driven by investors desiring a greater return on investment. One point..
Another point is wages.. people are demanding higher and higher wages and benefits. And this is a cycle, because other sectors are increasing costs and to live, you need higher wages. Benefit cost are soaring, medical, time off, family leave, etc…. those are associated costs…
Our labor forces, in many cases are unqualified. We can’t find qualified candidates to fill the positions. Many, many job hoppers…
And we have exported jobs out of the country; we have lost our talent base….. Has been replaced with game players…
These are just a few issues. People to blame:, and in no order,,,, Businesses, consumers, investors, Wall Street, Government, or… “We the People”…. We let it happen….

• Link
• Report this comment

Definitely troubling numbers, Jay. Of course I think this probably shows a few things:

1) Less willingness to have risk by having a startup in the first place
2) Less return for startups
3) Maybe less capital? Could have something to do with the decline in small business loans?

In any case, it really is troubling and it can’t be explained by a single factor, but by a conglomeration that unfortunately all leads to the same place.

I also really don’t like the overall trend as it basically shows that establishment is winning versus new ideas and such. And that is going to lead to more bubbles like the one Wall Street just popped.

• Link
• Report this comment

This administration and its supporters are anti-business as is seen on a regular basis by the posters on this blog. And what a surprise that businesses are taking their jobs to countries that actually offer incentives for businesses to come there.

So would your suggestion for this administration include removing all regulations from businesses and allow citizens to be prostituted out for jobs at $2 an hour? That’s about the sum of the incentives that other countries are offering.

You also forget that the US government is just as complicit in companies taking jobs overseas by legislating and instituting free trade agreements. Do you honestly think companies would move operations overseas if they actually had to pay tarriffs on the crap they bring back?

• Link
• Report this comment

…it usually swamps any influence that government might wield one way or the other.

You can tell a “swampy” influence by the smell.

• Link
• Report this comment

larry: the private sector is a big place. What the chart says is that most of the 200,000 jobs came from established companies.

• Link
• Report this comment

ITS THE FAULT OF THE REPUBLICANS.

Just thought that too should get out of the way early.

• Link
• Report this comment

Brosephus

The damage was probably already done within the first few months of the Pelosi-Reid Congress when they raised the minimum wage to unsustainable levels, and then this abortion of a health bill which will require that all companies (except the ones that are being given waivers) provide all workers with expensive health insurance, pretty much made the coffin lid nailers have a nail gun.

Now the fed is trying to regulate where companies like Boeing are building plants and of course, trying to drive up energy costs for the sake of the Alaska caribou.

Our only hope is a complete reversal of most of the laws that have been passed since the San Francisco liberal took over the House and the community organizer took over the White House.

• Link
• Report this comment

“So would your suggestion for this administration include removing all regulations from businesses and allow citizens to be prostituted out for jobs at $2 an hour?”

I would recommend this Brosephus: Suspend all regulations for a period of 5 years, except for EPD and OSHA. Make any requirement to extend the suspension subject to a 2/3rds majority of both houses of Congress so that one party cannot ride roughshod over another. Let’s see what happens.

And btw, you won’t have a $2 per hour jobs out there. Only illegals work for those wages, if then.

• Link
• Report this comment

Business? Got a houseful of plumbers as we speak…couple of young fellers with them…Daddy’s boy’s one of them being trained to take over down the road and another is still in high school, doing this so he will be able to “make a good living” once he gets out…are either one of them getting school credit…nope…sort of ties in with downstairs…

• Link
• Report this comment

RE: “the number of jobs created by establishments less than 1 year old has decreased from 4.1 million in 1994, when this series began, to 2.5 million in 2010″

I don’t know the reason for this, but I have a theory. Outsourcing.

Some employers not only outsource to independent contractors who are truly self-employed, but many employers are illegally classifying their actual employees as independent contractors to shift the employer’s share of payroll taxes onto the employee and avoid having to provide benefits (I was victim of this scam).

The above adds insult to the injury of millions of employees, including office employees, who are already illegally classify as “exempt” by employers who don’t want to pay overtime wages that “non-exempt” workers are eligible for.

It doesn’t do any good to have laws if they’re not enforced, and the Bush administration went out of its way NOT to enforce laws to protect workers from unscrupulous employers. I believe that the Obama Administration is trying, but Republicans are fighting to cut funding for IRS agents who are responsible for investigating and enforcing these laws having to do with employment practices.

• Link
• Report this comment

“Dave R: If it were all about taxes, there would be some statistical correlation that could be drawn showing that a decline in taxes is leading to job creation, or that increases lead to less jobs, in a statistically significant way.”

First off, Adam, I am not automatically a fan of lowering taxes in expectation of creating jobs. Certainly, the data is contradictory enough on that. But the basis of the article cited was “taxes” but wasn’t clear on that. “Taxes” are the same as “regulatory costs” in this regard.

The cost of time and money businesses must expend in order to comply with all the regulations this government (and state and local governments as well) created is now higher than the effective income tax rate companies pay.

Not good for business.

• Link
• Report this comment

Good Article at the link…..

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/jun/17/tax-cuts-job-creation/

It makes sense…..

• Link
• Report this comment

Brosephus @ 11:51.

Agreed! Now you call your congressman and senators, and I’ll call mine and let’s get this idea rolling!

• Link
• Report this comment

Dave R: Suspend all regulations for a period of 5 years, except for EPD and OSHA.

This “one-size-fits-all” anti-regulation thing is not going to work. I am glad that the Obama admin is being responsible and having this looked at seriously rather than just haphazardly wiping out regulations.

At least you recognize the value of OSHA and EPD. I think perhaps you should learn a little more about some other regulations and you may find that some of them actually are good things.

• Link
• Report this comment

By the way, another reason that business isn’t hiring is because 14 million are out of work. That’s 14 million who aren’t spending. That’s a big hole in our economy.

If we didn’t have a media that had it backwards, we could focus on jobs instead of deficits. More jobs, more customers, more economic growth, more government revenues, lower deficits. Cutting spending isn’t the only way to reduce deficits. Growing the economy reduces deficits and we could and should do so with an aggressive New Deal-esque jobs program.

• Link
• Report this comment

Gll

I honestly think the damage was done back in the 80’s and 90’s which would kinda correspond with a peak around 2000 as Jay’s chart shows. That’s when our government went gung ho on protecting the interests of campaign contributors before looking out for the general welfare of the country as a whole. I don’t see it as a liberal or conservative thing, but just Jackassery™ from the political class as a whole.

I was hoping that the change was coming with the Tea Party movement, but I don’t think that will be the case as long as monied interests are in the background pulling the strings. It will take a real uprising by the common folks to get this ship turned around. I just hope that the uprising and turn comes before we crash into iceberg island.

• Link
• Report this comment

“I think perhaps you should learn a little more about some other regulations and you may find that some of them actually are good things.”

Name one.

• Link
• Report this comment

I’ve said it before, any business person who complains about regulations is either totally out of ideas or just plain lazy. Every company he/she competes with has to follow the exact same set of regulations – this effectively levels the playing field.

Every good business person knows all the regulations that he or she is operating within and accounts for those in business planning and setting expectations. If you fins you have money invested with a company where it’s employees are constantly whining about regulations, move your money out of that stock as fast as you can.

• Link
• Report this comment

Brosephus

The peak of manufacturing was right after Clinton went conservative and pro-business, backed by a Republican group of lawmakers.

I think it is very much conservative versus liberal and if you don’t believe me, read the posts at 11:35, 11:41, 11:51, 11:55, 11:59, etc.

Put yourself in the role of a tycoon trying to decide where to build that new cell phone plant and read those posts. Where would you build?

• Link
• Report this comment

Is the current economic situation just another in a long cycle of booms and busts, growth periods and slowdowns, and thus something that will correct itself in time? Or does it reflect something more long-term, something more fundamental gone wrong in the economy?

No question about it, Jay. It is THE question facing us today.

Just consider one fact, which in and of itself is really quite stunning. We currently have a Democratic president during what has been the most severe economic downturn since the Great Depression. And yet, even with this president, who ran on a transformational agenda of fundamental change, yet who is derided by some cynical critics as a socialist intruder bent on eating the marrow of virtue from a pure, unsullied, organic American culture, the notion of a WPA type employment program has never so much as even been put on the table. In other words, this president is as far from socialist as it’s possible to imagine a Democratic president being.

But the fact is that the Keynesian consensus which was defeated in the 1970s and replaced with a “Washington Consensus” of market fundamentalism reached its conclusion in the crash of 2007-8 and should by all accounts be an utterly bankrupt and spent force. And yet, do we see the representatives of this failed ideology skulk away in shame? Far from it, of course. What we’re seeing is the exact opposite: they’re more emboldened than ever and are launching the most virulent and brazen attempt to re-engineer the society we’ve seen yet (in Wisconsin and Michigan and Florida, for ex.). Like so many pocket Pinochets.

The social ‘pact’ that was forged in the Depression and WWII years, and was marginalized starting in the ’70s, has now been finally wiped from the slate of the political discourse. The Pocket Pinochets want to take us back to an era preceding that whole era, to the 19th C really. And given that Obama and his party are either unaware of this or lack the will to fight it with a real alternative of their own (probably because they’re in the pay of those same forces themselves), we don’t even have a language to bring the issue to the public. So it leaves a dangerous vacuum. Krugman is right. The Washington ’serious people’ elite has no inkling of the monsters lurking in the swamp of hopelessness we’re creating with long-term unemployment of this type.

• Link
• Report this comment

CJ-”I don’t know the reason for this, but I have a theory. Outsourcing.” I agree. Too many are not being counted as employees simply because they are treated as independent contractors.

• Link
• Report this comment

One thing for sure, the GOP dang can’t fix anything, they make it a point to cause trouble if they aren’t in power…

• Link
• Report this comment

Sounds like it might be time to brush off the rule book for FDR’s Civilian Conservation Camps again, but don’t limit it to just unmarried men. Government jobs to make America beautiful again…and fix our sagging infrastructure…

• Link
• Report this comment

Normal

FDR’s civilian conservation camps?

Left wing management

WPA?

My God. We are so screwed.

• Link
• Report this comment

left wing

“…the notion of a WPA type employment program has never so much as even been put on the table. In other words, this president is as far from socialist as it’s possible to imagine a Democratic president being.”

Which is exactly why I tell those hurling that “socialist” canard…would that he were!

• Link
• Report this comment

Brosephus

The United States is a Representative Republic which relies on capitalism for an economic base. We don’t need more government workers. Look at the stats which relate this administration’s penchant for increasing the role of government and the overall economic condition of our country.

As a very wise person once said, the trouble with socialism is that you eventually run out of rich people. We still have plenty of rich people. they just don’t invest their money here and if you try to make them, they will just leave.

• Link
• Report this comment

It all started with school integration……….!!!!!!!!!!!

• Link
• Report this comment

Regulations are like easy street – regulations represent “knowns” that a company must deal with in order to operate and make a profit. Those are possibly the only actual “known” speed bumps to prosperity that any company will face in a given year. You can plan for this known, set aside adequate funding to cover the costs of some regulation, etc. It’s the “unknowns” that throw curveballs.

Seatbelts in cars – most of us moaned about that for years, then it became second nature – and we realize it’s meant to save lives. A little inconvenience for something that might save your life. Not letting photo processing shops at drugstores pour their chemicals down the drain or out in the gutter behind the store.

• Link
• Report this comment

GLL: “The WPA produced temporary jobs for infrastructure. We need careers.”

The WPA is just a lifeline for those in career free fall.

Do you realize, GLL, that the main reason people can’t get hired now is increasingly the simple fact of being unemployed? We’re approaching a point where joblessness is in and of itself a virtual career death sentence.

• Link
• Report this comment

“I’ve said it before, any business person who complains about regulations is either totally out of ideas or just plain lazy. Every company he/she competes with has to follow the exact same set of regulations – this effectively levels the playing field.”

And I’m constantly amazed at your ability to deflect or ignore a valid argument about government failure, Finn.

Businesses care about profit and customer satisfaction (which creates more profit). Period. The argument about too much regulation isn’t about leveling any playing field, it is about making profit more efficiently and producing more effectively. You don’t do that with higher costs. If you have to hire 5 people to comply with regulations, that’s probably 4 people you can’t afford to hire for production. Four people EVERY company of that size can’t hire to produce. Or lower advertising budgets to sell people on your products.

Have you ever run a manufacturing business, Finn? If so, have you ever looked at the cost of compliance with each and every regulatory agency the Feds, state and local governments have? Smart business people do, and they KNOW to the penny what the cost of compliance is. And the WSJ just said it’s higher than the income taxes companies pay right now. Not a surprise to me.

• Link
• Report this comment

LUNCH

• Link
• Report this comment

“This administration and its supporters are anti-business as is seen on a regular basis by the posters on this blog.”

Can you quantify your drivel please?

• Link
• Report this comment

Well, I don’t pretend to “know it all”, but this is a pretty clear picture of the inadequate private sector experience in the Obama Administration:

Obama administration has FEWEST Cabinet Appointments with Private Sector experience:
http://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/images/user10/imageroot/obamacabinet.jpg

Pretty Telling stuff!
Please, Don’t tell us this FACT has nothing to do with Comrade Obama’s Dismal record on the economy.

• Link
• Report this comment

Keep

Well, I did “manage” to get six tomato plants and five rows of seeds in the ground in the last couple of weeks.

• Link
• Report this comment

“New business not creating jobs, and hasn’t for a long time”–Jay Bookman

ANSWER:
http://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/images/user10/imageroot/obamacabinet.jpg

Next!

• Link
• Report this comment

“And btw, there is no “translation” for my 12:13 post. Read it and comprehend.”

Words of the NARROW-MINDED

• Link
• Report this comment

Jay I believe this is way beyond a government solution. We have been moving toward a global economy for decades. And with the advance of the PC and its children we have entered an environment where fewer people are needed to complete a task. This is just another piece of evidence that the old world is gone.

In 1969 I worked in an office of 41 people. Of the 41, 8 were secretaries, took dictation, typed letters, answered the phone, etc, etc. How many secretaries do you know today? I have not seen one in over 20 years. A skill no longer needed.

There was a day when the US produced 30% more jobs than it lost. Now that is gone. Today new jobs created equal jobs eliminated and we have zero job growth.

We have spent the last 30 years stuffing our individual pockets with money that once upon a time went to the Treasury. Now we put that money in our pocket. But, no one got around to cutting the amount of bills Treasury has to pay, in fact, they increased the amount Treasury’ has to pay. And now Treasury, if needs money they just borrow it or, worse, just print some more.

And so we have arrived at the place where we are.

• Link
• Report this comment

Finn
How important is quality of life when profits are at risk?

That of course is a vampire’s moral compass!!

• Link
• Report this comment

Dave

With the slate of natural disasters we’ve seen as of late, there are some WPA-type projects that could be done to aid cities that have been damaged/destroyed. It’s also one of those instances where some of the regulations could be suspended in order to allow people to rebuild without overburdening red tape. Granted, it wouldn’t be collossal programs like those of yester-year, but it could be something as simple as providing a city, such as Joplin, a chance to re-invent themselves to attract new business opportunities.

• Link
• Report this comment

Our entire tax structure needs to be be redone. It is broken. At this moment, the members of the S & P 500 are sitting on a record amount of cash- most of it held in offshore subsidiaries. The U.S. corporate tax rate, at 35%, is the 3rd or 4th highest in the world. In a global economy, the U.S. corporate tax rate needs to be lowered to reflect the competition. If corporations were allowed to repatriate that money at competitive rates, then the cash could either be distributed to shareholders in the form of dividends to be spent by the consumer, or used by the company for growth agendas. Another problem with the corporate tax code is that there are too many tax loopholes in the system. GE took TARP money, yet paid no taxes last year. The corporate tax structure needs to be simplified with lower rates and fewer deductions to compete globally. The individual code needs to be addressed as well. A WSJ editorial last week pointed out that Senate Democrats are considering a 3% millionaire surtax on income over $1mm. Combined with the Bush tax cut expiration and the Ga. state income tax, that would create a top tax rate on earnings of 64%. Not quite 70% like the Carter years, but close. Like the corporate tax structure, maybe this high rate is a strategy by Obama to solicit campaign contributions in exchange for government tax breaks while looking good to everyday workers. We would save a ridiculous amount of money if the tax system were simplified by lowering rates and reducing deductions just like we did in 1986 so people (and companies) would not spend so much time gaming the system trying to avoid paying taxes. The fatal flaw the Dems are making right now is that they fail to realize that small business like the ones you are describing are generally taxed at individual rates. So facing the prospect of taxes going from 35% to 64%, small business owners are hesitant to hire. As you point out, this has been going on for a long time and tax reform certainly won’t be accomplished by 2012 with the talking heads we have in Washington.

• Link
• Report this comment

Our problem with our economy has a lot to do with lack of demand, and the underlying reason for that lack of demand is that people don’t have sh*t to spend for the things they would demand if they had a job.

And sooner or later we reach the point where this cycle feeds on itself. Not to mention that thirty years of cheap money (low interest rates) fueled much of the three decades worth of demand.

• Link
• Report this comment

“But he emerged from the day’s solemnity to go golfing for the 12th time this year and the 70th time of his presidency”

we have gone from “shovel ready” to “groundskeeper ready” projects.

• Link
• Report this comment

According to a March report by the GAO, the federal government spent $1.9 billion on new vehicles in fiscal 2009, and burned through 963,000 gallons of fuel a day with its fleet of 600,00 vehicles. Now thats job creation!

• Link
• Report this comment

Cons hate to hear it, but it’s how things work in the real world. If the private sector doesn’t want the government to institute something like a WPA or CCC, then let them try sacrificing short-term profits for a while in order to invest in our economy and increase the chances of long-term profits in the future.

That would violate the 11th commandment: “Thou shall not forsaketh profits for any thing or man. Let thou who is down, pulleth thysef up by thy own bootstrap.”

• Link
• Report this comment

The cost of doing business in America. What goes up must come down.

‘Tis the gravity of our present day’s circumstance.

Who’s ready to withstand the descent?

• Link
• Report this comment

DAVE

That NRA WPA CCC infrastructure is crumbling, Brosephus’ disaster relief idea is sound and rational, there’s plenty of places in need of all those things we put in place back then…shoot, just cleaning up the garbage dumps would put a good number to work…and me? I’m for it as a means of implementing a two-year national service program to teach a little civic responsibility…

• Link
• Report this comment

Nice…

GRAPH: While Slashing Aid To Main Street, GOP Drops Tax Rate For Richest To Lowest In 80 Years

http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2011/05/31/231317/graph-gop-budget-tax/

• Link
• Report this comment

Brosephus

“That would violate the 11th commandment: “Thou shall not forsaketh profits for any thing or man. Let thou who is down, pulleth thysef up by thy own bootstrap.”

This posts illustrates why we need regime change. This demonizing of profits by your political leaning is the complete problem. Profits feed kids, make jobs and build manufacturing facilities. In spite of what the activist in the White House preaches: profits are not the problem.

LACK OF PROFITS. That’s the problem.

• Link
• Report this comment

DAVE
Joplin and all those towns gone with the wind across ZamVet’s much beloved “Deep” South.need schools, hospitals, parks, bridges, streets, sidewalks, new trees, post offices, police stations, and on and on and on….a lot of which is not covered by the same insurance that some of the private homes and businesses have…not to mention such things as “falling water” versus “rising water” etc., etc.

• Link
• Report this comment

“LACK OF PROFITS. That’s the problem”

Of course it is, no argument there. When exployment is up, profits go down. When employment is down, profits go up. The more people there are with money to spend, the more profits there are to be made.

But when the economy is bad, then businesses have two choices: hunker down and tolerate fewer customers and lower profits…or voluntarily take temporary lower profits to keep people working so they have money to spend, which ultimately leads to higher profits.

Or, they can do like Wendy’s and Arbies did – raise their prices…and lose even more customers, like me. Their prices went up…I stopped eating there.

• Link
• Report this comment

“we would return tax rates to the Clinton Era; and tax companies that pay none, it would help the economy and the work force. Not just the rich and corporations.”

Agreed- let’s also remember the vast majority of income taxes are from individuals and that more than 40% of folks don’t pay individual income tax.

Hey- why not lay out the full problem

• Link
• Report this comment

Obama wants a detente with business leaders
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/39603656/ns/today-today_news/t/obama-wants-detente-business-leaders/

Why does Comrade Obama need Detente with business leaders???

Obama has ostracized the Private Sector.

• Link
• Report this comment

oops! doing too many things at once: This “When exployment is up, profits go down” – should say “when UNEMPLOYEMENT is up, profits go down”

• Link
• Report this comment

Read an article this past weekend in which an economist talked about how the U.S. economy has returned to roughly where it was before the last recession but with 7 million fewer workers. Technology of course is one of the reasons, companies able to produce as much with fewer employees.

Which begs the question, do we now have too many people? What, in the long run, do we do with millions of people for whom there is no work? One of the solutions we’re likely to hear in the not too distant future is ZPG, a la China.

• Link
• Report this comment

Brosephus

Capitalism is based on profits and yes, greed. It isn’t feel good. It isn’t about kissing babies. It’s about competition and making money for the investors. That’s what has built our country, not politicians and not the government. The government, up to lately, has allowed that greed and profit making to drive our economy. And pal, it has ben the greatest economy the world has ever seen.

So take a look around at how your feel good, demonize wealth and profit and lets all have more government intervention is working.

The rest of the world had figured out the greed thing and we are having a big old group hug. A big old unemployed group hug.

Look around and see the number of people suffering because this is a result of what you support.

• Link
• Report this comment

Finn,

I agree with your statement – absolutely true.

• Link
• Report this comment

Good little liberal: “The United States is a Representative Republic which relies on capitalism for an economic base. We don’t need more government workers. ”

You remind me of how the old guard conservatives in the old Roman Republic fiercely fought change in ancient times and constantly appealed to the old ways of virtue, the mos maiorum that the forefathers adhered to. Your position reminds me of that, especially since you stress the word “Republic”. But as with ancient Rome, after awhile it’s necessary for the system as a whole to evolve and be re-invented. The fact that people like you are stressing so forcefully on the roots of capitalistic private virtue of the Republic’s founding suggests that on some level, you yourself sense that there’s a big problem, one for which there is no easy answer. And however much you may resist it, there’s no going back.

• Link
• Report this comment

josef, ALL those things are covered by private insurance. Schools, hospitals police stations, etc. Tornadoes don’t dig up roads, sidewalks or bridges. They just have to be cleared.

And to Brosephus’ earlier point about Katrina, many didn’t buy flood insurance (their fault living in a city below sea level). Otherwise, if the insurance companies didn’t come through that’s what courts are there for, not government.

• Link
• Report this comment

Doggone, save your sophistry for the dumb-masses.

• Link
• Report this comment

Capitalism is based on profits and yes, greed.

Greed has nothing to do with capitalism whatsoever. It’s views and outlooks like yours that allows greed to propogate in our society with little to no punishment whatsoever. I can’t understand how in one minute, we’re supposed to be a Christian nation, and in another one, we allow one of the seven deadly sins as a way of life. I don’t think a circus contortionist could fix themselves in a position quite as well as that one.

• Link
• Report this comment

“…Which is why we want to see to it that it is SHARED…”

-said best by a true Marxist

• Link
• Report this comment

“I can’t understand how in one minute, we’re supposed to be a Christian nation,”

We’re not, despite what anybody says.

“and in another one, we allow one of the seven deadly sins as a way of life.”

Because without greed, capitalism doesn’t work very well. You and Doggone are wrong on that count, Brosephus. Usual for her, not so much for you.

• Link
• Report this comment

Food Stamps are up 39% since Obama took office:
http://blogs.abcnews.com/thenote/2011/05/congress-mulls-cuts-to-food-stamps-program-amid-record-number-of-recipients.html

• Link
• Report this comment

Jay,

Government spending can only go so far in creating jobs. The pain of that spending is just pushed down the road. The root cost of the economic collapse was decades of cheap credit (Greenspan). Unfortunately the Fed is faced with 2 ugly scenarios: inflation and deflation. Neither is good, but inflation MAY be the better of the two with regard to jobs. IMO deflation might very well lead to another depression…prolonged economic miasma with an accompanying loss of hope.

The Fed will need to act on this cheap credit. By raising rates, expansion/recovery becomes more difficult but inflation may be controlled. However if the cost of government borrowing increases, the economy will experience a double whammy and budget cuts don’t affect interest costs.

Woe is us…..

• Link
• Report this comment

“You realize your error there, don’t you Dave R?”

Now, now LWM – be careful, or he’ll call you a sophist too!

• Link
• Report this comment

Consumer confidence falls unexpectedly in May:

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Consumer-Confidence-falls-apf-1525822108.html?x=0&sec=topStories&pos=main&asset=&ccode=

Pro-Obama media always shocked by bad economic news:

http://washingtonexaminer.com/politics/2011/05/pro-obama-media-always-shocked-bad-economic-news

• Link
• Report this comment

Dave R.: “Otherwise, if the insurance companies didn’t come through that’s what courts are there for, not government.”

Woah was that a howler.

You realize your error there, don’t you Dave R?

What do you think led to you making that error, do you think?

• Link
• Report this comment

Was it so long ago that the were 100’s of thousands of: valet parking attendents, limousine drivers, personal trainers, gardeners, party/wedding planners, etc.?

People bought into all that crap…every tween has a cell phone…3-4 TV’s per household…cable in most homes. What happened to living within one’s means?

• Link
• Report this comment

Corporations pay taxes on their profits. They can afford to do that. In addition, corporations must be regulated or, as we know too well, they’d screw over everybody. Who’s going to regulate corporations? Government, that’s who. It costs money to regulate. Corporations should pay their fair share. And it ain’t zero.”

• Link
• Report this comment

N-GA,

“What happened to living within one’s means?”

That cheap credit you mentioned earlier. Our consumer driven economy wouldn’t last a week if everyone actually did live within their means.

• Link
• Report this comment

“Really? Proof?”

Bernie Madoff

• Link
• Report this comment

Greed has nothing to do with capitalism whatsoever

I don’t know. This is a harder one than appears at first sight. For capitalism to triumph, it of course first had to break the back of the old Christian principles that banned usury. Because capitalism raises usury to the ultimate principle and enshrines it as the central motor driving human affairs. So the whole gamble really is whether ancient Christianity or capitalism is right about that point. But one thing that can NOT be argued, in my opinion, is that capitalism is Christian, as the ignoramuses from the sticks like Paul Broun and his ilk want to believe. Because, quite clearly, from a Christian perspective capitalism is unquestionably the very incarnation of the beast.

Me personally I favor a 3rd way, one that accepts the fact that capitalism breaks the back of Christianity in one of its primary tenets but who favors carrying that radicalism of capitalism on through to its completion in a brotherhood of the proletariat. A new ‘dictatorship’ if you will. One that I think Paul of Tarsus would have probably gotten on board with too.

• Link
• Report this comment

USMC – “Food Stamps are up 39% since Obama took office”

Take a look at how JP Morgan-Chase benefits from this.

• Link
• Report this comment

Josef Nix,

And people don’t exaggerate or flat out lie to insurance companies about their actual losses or on their health questions on health or life insurance policies either do they?

• Link
• Report this comment

“Thou shalt not shtup a shiksa.”

josef,

One of my favorite movies is “My Favorite Year” with Peter O’Toole. When his character Alan Swann visits the Brooklyn digs of his escort’s family, the first thing his uncle wants to know is if he “shtuped” a certain actress.

• Link
• Report this comment

sorry – Yay Capitalism

• Link
• Report this comment

Capitalism can only succeed in a moral, just society. Anyone think we are as moral a nation as we used to be? Take a look at all the small riots and public disturbances at various beaches, parties, and celebrations over the memorial day weekend and get back to me on that. And how many of them kids doing all sorts of bad stuff even know what memorial day honors? And for those of you reading code I’m talking about white kids and white people getting out of control all weekend- not just black people.

• Link
• Report this comment

left wing et al- a WPA type employment program has never so much as even been put on the table

We already did that. It was called a $1 trillion stimulous package. (remember “shovel ready”jobs?). Didn’t do squat. Wasting more money is not the solution and only creates more problems in the long run.

You know how to turn a depression into a Great Depression? Government spending and things like the WPA.

• Link
• Report this comment

Josef Nix,

Corporate thiefs and scoundrels need to start going to jail a little more often. Those penny ante individual cheats and scoundrels collectively add up to quite a bit of cheating themselves.

• Link
• Report this comment

DAVE

Yes, it can…not the most common ocurrence to be sure, but it can…I’ve seen it happen…and yes, local level, provided there’s any local left! There’s a difference between a little pop up twister and something F-5 and a mile wide on the ground for a couple of hundred miles…and a Katrina which laid waste to the infrastructure over how wide an area?

• Link
• Report this comment

Thulsa

Thieves and scoundrels abound in a culture that encourages such…and are we less moral today than in your longed for days gone by? I think not…about the same, imho….

• Link
• Report this comment

@ Dave R, Eisenhower was president in 1955.

• Link
• Report this comment

Sarah Palin is on her bus riling up the libs again. She just drives them nuts. Do they hate that woman or what? But ya know what? I think she wants them to hate her.

• Link
• Report this comment

I remember when computer automation came into being. The opinion was that it would destroy jobs. Yes, there is no longer a need for file clerks and secretaries. However, take a look at the demand for software developers and IT specialists. Unfortunately, these jobs have been going overseas or to immigrants because we Americans wanted to major in English and Art and Philosophy and Social Studies. It’s not too late to get the skills that are needed to compete for jobs in the 21st century. Wake up, people.

• Link
• Report this comment

Doom,

Sarah who?

• Link
• Report this comment

That cheap credit you mentioned earlier. Our consumer driven economy wouldn’t last a week if everyone actually did live within their means.

Must be why the Democrats promote wealth envy. They’ve got folks jonesing on the Joneses.

• Link
• Report this comment

“@ Dave R, Eisenhower was president in 1955.”

And CONGRESS, which really runs things, was Democrat for 6 of his 8 years, Mitchum.

• Link
• Report this comment

“And CONGRESS, which really runs things”

Last time I checked, Congress couldn’t actually sign bills into law.

• Link
• Report this comment

And CONGRESS, which really runs things, was Democrat for 6 of his 8 years, Mitchum.

And as we all know, Democrat always = liberal.

• Link
• Report this comment

New & young businesses, more than anything, need ZBAs and
LOCs from banksters. They’re not getting them from the banksters.
The End.
That was OUR money Bush & Paulson loaned Mama Bush
(JP Morgan) and the banksters. We could have regulated
that money so that it would be spent on small business
creation and operation. But noooo.

Guess who stood in the way of that regulation.
Thanks again, cons. Y’all would %^& up a hammer.

• Link
• Report this comment

It is simple productivity has increased in the private sector. If you look at the same chart for the public sector the opposite is happening. If government decreases productivity then it increases jobs, sounds like a good new program.

• Link
• Report this comment

DAVE

Now you’re just trying to stir me up, ain’t you?

And where do you expect them to move? That city is a world treasure and heart and soul of a culture you seem not to hold in very high regard. So, maybe resettle them, oh, along the San Andreas or the Cascade faults? Or maybe up in the Midwest where they keep rebuilding after a gust of wind blows them (again) into Kingdom Come. Or maybe that lovely little corner of the empire up in New England we keep digging out from under a few feet of snow? Oh, I know, let’s ship ‘em all back to France and Africa where they came from, eh Helen?

Maybe we ought to close the second largest port in the empire while we’re at it, shut down the Mississippi to navigation, turn off the oil pipes?

• Link
• Report this comment

Maybe if small businesses didn’t have to pay their employees a living wage to yell “Whaddayahave”.

But seriously, I wonder what the impact of increased minimage wage is on these numbers. Teen employment is was down 13% in 2008 from 2000. Total employment of teens is about 32%

The summer jobs have disappeared due to the high minimum wages.

• Link
• Report this comment

Dave R.,

Have patience Dave. Its only been almost 6 years since Katrina. Ya gotta give them at least another decade or 2 before they can be reasonably expected to stand on their own again.

• Link
• Report this comment

Well, I say let’s get rid of all regulation on businesses for 5 yrs. and see what happens. Sort of like you take your pants off and bend over for five years and if nothing happens you can put them back on.

That’s my opinion and it’s very true. Have a good p.m. everybody.

• Link
• Report this comment

Brosephus- What about those inland areas of Mississippi that are above sea level?

Those aren’t the people sitting around with their hands out, waiting for the government to “rescue” them 6 years after the fact.

• Link
• Report this comment

JKL

We had a little town….

New Orleans is a major city…

• Link
• Report this comment

Because so many doctors are no longer in business for themselves, many of the issues that were once priorities for doctors’ groups, like insurance reimbursement, have been displaced by public health and safety concerns, including mandatory seat belt use and chemicals in baby products.

As it should be.

• Link
• Report this comment

JKL2: I’m tired of bailing out a city that continues to rebuild from floods when that city is built below sea level

Hey. Don’t be a d*ck.

Anyway, the city wasn’t BUILT below sea level, it SANK. Plus, much of the major areas aren’t actually below sea level. Just very very close.

• Link
• Report this comment

josef nix- New Orleans is a major city…

uhhhh, thanks Joe. I don’t know what I would do without you…..

• Link
• Report this comment

JKL2: Those aren’t the people sitting around with their hands out, waiting for the government to “rescue” them 6 years after the fact.

Never said they were, but my original premise still applies. Those people in Mississippi bought and paid for insurance from private sector companies. After Katrina, those same companies gave Mississippians the finger left and right. When the private sector does not step up to own their responsibilities, there’s nobody else except the government left to provide those “private sector” services. The easiest way to get the government out of “private sector” business is for private sector companies to do what they’re supposed to do and quit abdicating their duties and powers to act.

• Link
• Report this comment

http://www.elementalescapes.com/images/big_business.gif

http://www.elementalescapes.com/images/s45_fancomic.png

• Link
• Report this comment

JohnnyReb: Wow. A lot of talking points rolled into one there. I give you points for not being a parrot and creatively splicing together the ingredients.

Looks kinda like a peanut butter, jelly, cheese, banana, apple, tomato, lettuce, and mayo sandwich. Not at all appetizing, probably not healthy, but all those ingredients sound good and so if you put them together surely it will be awesome!

• Link
• Report this comment

Thulsa @ 2:30: I like Lawrence O’Donnell’s take on it. “It’s day X of the ‘Sarah Palin is running for president’ mirage.”

• Link
• Report this comment

Bosch,

Sarah Palin is irrelevant except for the fact that she just drives you guys nuts. Come on now. You can admit it.

• Link
• Report this comment

josef: Do Aetna ring a bell?

That ringing sound is just your ears ringing after the crackle of that whip.

Kam: Private sector companies are doing exactly what they’re supposed to do.

I think that you are forgetting the first rule of business — profits before all else.

That’s just the modern viewpoint. Some won’t see the end coming until it hits them in the wallet. History has a way of repeating itself, and the US is not immune to not heeding the wisdom of history. We’re walking the same path that the Romans took. Once we get to the point where we’re totally dependent on the outside world to provide us with our basic necessities, we’re fu*ked. We’re pretty close, and those who think otherwise are simply fooling themselves.

If we had to mobilize our manufacturing base like we did for WWII, could we actually do it? I honestly don’t think we could. It would take us precious time to build up the manufacturing capacity to deal with something major like that.

• Link
• Report this comment

Doom,

Who is Sarah Palin?

• Link
• Report this comment

Brosephus

Imam the Patteroller’s gonna get you!

• Link
• Report this comment

josef:

1) like I said, not BUILT below sea level. And a good portion of it isn’t actually below sea level
2) The feds DID fix up the levees, well, they are still working on it. The ACOE has been at it for a while but it’s starting to shape up. The unfortunate problem is there is very little help for other significant problems, such as abandoned blighted properties and other projects that require government money to fix.

I do always find it funny that New Orleans and similar areas are full of anti-federal government nuts, and then when the feds don’t help to their satisfaction when a natural disaster occurs, they get pissy.

You would think they would realize that all those tax cuts they fought for and love so much meant they wouldn’t get the same quality of help….

• Link
• Report this comment

Hillbilly D

The solution is obvious. Shoot the bosses.

• Link
• Report this comment

deegee

May 31st, 2011
2:33 pm
“For those of you that want to blame Obama and the unions, please note that the decline started in the year 2000.”
You are correct about the union decline, but it started in 1945. Most workers understand the unions are just another big business out to get their money.

• Link
• Report this comment

And get by Scot (or is that Ibou) free?

And you know this!!! I think the timing thing is just indicative of great minds thinking alike.

• Link
• Report this comment

JB,

Government regulations are clearly part of the problem. We’re making it harder to start and operate a business by the day.

The Small Business Administration periodically authorizes a study that estimates the federal regulatory costs per employee by business size. As of 2008, regulatory compliance costs for firms with less than 20 employees was $10,585. That number is up significantly from 2004, when it was $7,647. The comparable number for firms with between 24 and 500 employees was $7,454 in 2008 and $5,411 in 2004.

Keep in mind that these costs and their associated red tape are always there, whether a company makes a profit or not. Also keep in mind that the SBA estimates do not include state and local regulatory costs. Those are extra.

Use this link to see the SBA report (Table 1):

http://archive.sba.gov/advo/research/rs371tot.pdf

When faced with high and growing regulatory costs per employee, it’s not surprising that young companies would do more with fewer workers. Technology, outsourcing, and highly integrated supply chains make this easier than it was years ago. .

There are other factors that would tend to depress hiring by young firms, but a $10,585 regulatory burden per employee sure doesn’t help!

• Link
• Report this comment

josef: Sure it doesn’t meet what is needed for a MASSIVE storm like Katrina, under certain conditions. But remember, the levees weren’t up to code when Katrina went through and the levees ALMOST survived. I say almost because we all know how bad things got, but ultimately what has been fixed up is more up to code than is needed for the exact same disaster happening twice. I’ll take it, even if I think more should be done.

• Link
• Report this comment

Okay…let’s open this up just a little.

Look at a simple plastic ruler or protractor. If you walk into any store you will NOT find one of these made in America! These things are made of plastic, a petroleum product that cost the same in most countries. The manufacturing process use plastic injection molds. The process requires virtually no labor…the main costs are materials and the capital cost of equipment!

So why are they all imported? Because some American “businessman” can literally start a company in the US, then contact a Chinese engineer to draw the product specifications. He then negotiates a contract with a Chinese company to manufacture the products, has them shipped here and sells them to Walmart and other retailers. Small wonder.

Now here is something even more “in your face”. More Americans are opting to be cremated. You just have to laugh at the irony of American veterans being cremated only to have their ashes placed in an urn manufactured in China, Korea, Thailand, Malaysia, or Taiwan (pick one). The urn might even have an emblem noting USA, USN, USAF or USMC on the lid! Yes, there are some urns made in the USA, but most of the urns offered by funeral directors are made in Asia….you know they need to maximize their profits, too!

• Link
• Report this comment

Mighty Righty, I am referring to the decline in the chart above. That decline started in 2000, not 1945. I am not defending everything that goes on with unions. I do appreciate the fact that they exist. I wouldn’t want to see them disappear.

Can someone please explain to me why there are hundreds of job listings for web developers, SAP experts, sharepoint developers, VoIP and voice application experts, systems analysts, and IT project managers, yet we are all worked up over the minimum wage? What is wrong with people in this country today? Are we so lame that we think that we can’t learn how to write software applications or configure complex network infrastructure?

• Link
• Report this comment

DeeGee, the union membership has been declining for over 15 years and it’s still declining, please get your facts straight.

• Link
• Report this comment

N-GA

May 31st, 2011
2:59 pm
“Okay…let’s open this up just a little.”

True, true. Before you could make those little plastic rulers in this country, you probably would have to get an EPA approval and the hazardous waste disposal would cost more than the entire cost of having them made overseas. Most business’ in this country could expand starting tommorrow if we closed the E.P.A.

• Link
• Report this comment

“Well, we are in week ten now!”

And how many troops have died? And how much money have we borrowed from China? And whose in control?

• Link
• Report this comment

ADAM

I maintain that it’s a lot of quick fix at work. I am more in favor of a major regional “upgrade” along the lines of the plans offered by the Dutch following the disaster…and such a project WOULD put a lot of people to work…there just doesn’t seem to be any long-range planning ahead at work here…

• Link
• Report this comment

Most business’ in this country could expand starting tommorrow if we closed the E.P.A.

And we could probably decrease our usage of lights at night once the water, the ground, and/or we start glowing too.

• Link
• Report this comment

josef: I agree, that would be a better solution. I think the sticking point is probably “who pays for that?”

• Link
• Report this comment

Bosch

May 31st, 2011
3:08 pm
“Well, we are in week ten now!”

And how many troops have died? And how much money have we borrowed from China? And whose in control?g

Actual cost is now something in excess of two billion dollars and climbing. No casualties so far but it is hard to tell since we, credit all deaths in Afghanistan to NATO troops. So who really knows.

• Link
• Report this comment

ADAM

Who pays? The feds…pay up on some of those 1803 promises!

• Link
• Report this comment

“Oh me, Oh my, the sky is falling.”

Says the guy getting all aswoon over Libya….

• Link
• Report this comment

I don’t see how unions could have anything to do with this trend. I’d think the number of startup businesses that are union shops, would be mighty small.

• Link
• Report this comment

Brosephus

May 31st, 2011
3:11 pm

“And we could probably decrease our usage of lights at night once the water, the ground, and/or we start glowing too.”

Oh me, Oh my, the sky is falling.

• Link
• Report this comment

Let’s do the time warp again………

• Link
• Report this comment

Brosephus…

That thing about government regulation and the right…I always thought that this WAS the right’s bailiwick and that liberalism was opposed to such government restrictions…wasn’t it King Richard the Not-a-Crook who gave us the EPA to begin with?

• Link
• Report this comment

I hope the EPA and OSHA are watching these guys closely……………..wouldn’t want anyone to get hurt.

L-3 Interstate Electronics Corp. in Anaheim, technicians work in secure rooms developing a GPS guidance system for a 13-pound “smart bomb” that would be attached to small, low-flying drone.

Engineers in Simi Valley at AeroVironment Inc. are developing a mini-cruise missile designed to fit into a soldier’s rucksack, be fired from a mortar and scour the battlefield for enemy targets.

And in suburban Portland, Ore. Voxtel Inc. is concocting an invisible mist to be sprayed on enemy fighters and make them shine brightly in night-vision goggles.

These miniature weapons have one thing in common: They all are lauched from tiny drones.
The United States of Drones.

• Link
• Report this comment

Brosephus: As innocent and sensible as your “get rid of the EPA” may sound

That never sounded innocent or sensible to me. It sounds like “KILL THEM ALL” or perhaps a more muted “I want to get rid of everything that has any small amount of waste, real or perceived”

• Link
• Report this comment

Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute…..so….the grandma bandit was a dude???

Dude, you’re late!!!!!

Adam

Hence the qualifier “May”. I don’t care for regulations, but I know they are an evil burden to bear. I think there are those who would look out for everyone’s best interest without regulations, but I know there’s another group who would say F’ the world, and do whatever it took to maximize profits, even if it meant killing a few customers in the process. Only in some utopia, complete with skittle-pooping unicorns, would we be able to live regulation-free lives.

• Link
• Report this comment

Hillbilly D, in the mind of the conservative right, entrepreneurs will keep hiring to a minimum because they fear that their employees might gang up on them and start a union. It’s the same argument they make about government regulation. The right wing will claim that entrepreneurs will purposely keep their head count low so that they can avoid regulation. I suppose that there are some business owners who might think that way. I can’t imagine how successful they can be. A successful entrepreneur is focused on growing their business by offering their customer a good product at a competitive price. They don’t sit around wringing their hands over the prospect of having to hire someone else because business is so good that they need more help.

• Link
• Report this comment

deegee: They don’t sit around wringing their hands over the prospect of having to hire someone else because business is so good that they need more help.

BINGO

• Link
• Report this comment

A little sidelight here…just checked downstairs and there was a post by a WOW…but just one…could it be, nyanh..surely not…

• Link
• Report this comment

Today’s final lesson for the politically challenged.

Those big bad American corporations moved jobs overseas for one reason – to maintain profit margins. Without profits, the company goes under and no one will have a job. Corporate tax rates in America are high compared to the rest of the world. Unions, with help from the political left, have pushed wages/benfits in America to levels not competitive with the rest of the world. And last but certainly not least, government agencies such as the EPA and OSHA have tied the hands of corporate America making it almost impossible to compete with the rest of the world. But don’t worrry, as you starve to death the water will be clean and clear, and the air free of hydro carbons.

• Link
• Report this comment

hillbilly

Same here. Wonder if this is somebody new who doesn’t know?

And, hey, y’all I gotta go upstairs…fun, fun, fun…

• Link
• Report this comment

deegee

May 31st, 2011
3:21 pm
I give up, Adam. It’s like talking to my 85 year old mother that keeps Fox News on all day and night because she wants them to have good ratings, and electricity is included in her rent at the retirement home. She told me again yesterday that Barney Frank and his boyfriend caused the recession. Why bother.

DeeGee, maybe you should have listened to her.

• Link
• Report this comment

Last I heard, Walmart was doing fairly well in the profit department. Maybe selling baked goods in Chicago will break them?

• Link
• Report this comment

Bosch

It’s me!!! I figured my 3:28 post should have given me away. I think that one would have earned me hero status for the day.

I actually passed by the crash scene not too long after the chase had ended. I didn’t know what the hell was going on until another officer pulled up the news on her phone. Later on that day, I heard Wendy’s employees on the news saying that she looked like a man. I don’t think it was discussed too much on the board.

• Link
• Report this comment

What happens when nobody has a job because all the jobs are shipped overseas?

We can all sell each other fast food.

• Link
• Report this comment

“I think that one would have earned me hero status for the day”

Brosephus,

All your posts today have been spot on!

• Link
• Report this comment

Consumer confidence at a 6 month low as consumers concern grows over inflation fears. Food prices up 3.9% from April of 2010 to April of 2011 and gas up 33% over the same time frame. Double dip recession? Let’s hope not.

• Link
• Report this comment

Hillbilly D

May 31st, 2011
4:03 pm

What happens when nobody has a job because all the jobs are shipped overseas?

We can all sell each other fast food. – Hillbilly D.

I would prefer that we sell each other beer.

• Link
• Report this comment

Interesting point, N-GA. I recently saw a show on one of the business channels concerning China and environmental regulations. Apparently they are beginning to think about the toxicity of their environment. The Chinese are now evaluating the cost of clean water and air. They showcased a chip plant that used recycled water from its own water treatment plant.

• Link
• Report this comment

“I don’t know how to explain it, and without an explanation it’s impossible to recommend ways to reverse it.”

Likely due in large part to our declining manufacturing base, certainly in relative terms, and likely in absolute terms. As we continue to progress as a service economy, technological advances will allow most services — particularly value-added, higher-wage professional services — to be provided by fewer and fewer employees.

Jay, you should read-up on the history of Henry Ford’s wage policy when he was ramping up production of the Model T. At a critical point, he literally doubled the wages of all his factory workers, even as he dramatically slashed the car’s price. Partly as a preemptive move in a very competitive labor market. But mainly because he believed that the combination of raising working class wages while reducing the price would result in an immediate “mass” market for the automobile. He was right, and it kicked off a virtuous cycle that soon spread to other parts of our manufacturing base.

I use the above anecdotal example to explain our continued transformation from the “Auto Nation” into the “WalMart Nation” — where we’ll all eventually be shopping at WalMart, because we’ll all be working for WalMart Wages.

• Link
• Report this comment

Thulsa Doom – Don’t even think about lecturing me on economics. My knowledge of economics is substantially beyond “cursory”. You saying something doesn’t make it so! Almost every country on the planet imposes tariffs. Our “trading partner”, Turkey imposes a 100% import duty.

Everything I suggested would work just fine. And I have lived for years in other countries and know from firsthand experience what it is like doing business in 3rd world countries as well as more enlightened countries. You should become more knowledgeable before you start talking down to people.

• Link
• Report this comment

LWM: Greed is the root of all evil. Not money. Money is a tangible form of an intangible and exists-only-when-perceived force that has replaced the exchange of goods or precious metals.

• Link
• Report this comment

N-GA,

Almost every country imposes some sort of tariffs. The point is that if nobody imposed any tariffs except to protect new, nascent industries for a predetermined number of years such as 10 years we would all be better off. Introducing tariffs doesn’t work and if you truly had knowledge of basic economics you would know this.

I’ve also lived in other countries- Europe and central America. Having lived there and done business there doesn’t mean anything in regards to the long held economic law that less tariffs, less protectionism makes everyone better off overall. Just because other countries do it doesn’t make it right.

Outside Observer,

Perhaps you missed Jay’s economics test from a few weeks ago. Because you clearly missed no. 7 as did N-GA.

7. Free trade leads to unemployment.- False. Free trade meaning less tariffs leads to more employment and more prosperity overall. You both get an economics FAIL.

Let me give you another of his economics questions which is closely related which you both FAIL.
14. By participating in the marketplace in the United States, immigrants reduce the economic well-being of American citizens.- Disagree

By participating through treaties such as NAFTA we are all better off. What you are saying is that the average American worker is worse off because NAFTA for example is just another way of immigrants participating in the U.S. economy. You just violated yet another economics law.

Economics? You both FAIL.

• Link
• Report this comment

Thulsa – You amuse me. Just because there is a truism that free trade DOES NOT lead to unemployment does not mean that the converse is true (That free trade leads to increased employment).

My MBA would suggest that I have a lot of coursework in macro and micro economics, and I learned my lessons well. There are many reasons for tariffs, some good and some bad. The idea that there should be no tariffs also suggests that there should be no farm subsidies. A completely FREE market where supply and demand are the only factors that matter. None of that works the way you say it does because the playing field is not level. The most obvious example is S. Korea. The import duties on american cars are prohibitive. Why does our government continue to allow Korean vehicle imports without requiring the same treatment on the other end. You seem to prefer putting American countries at a disadvantage. I am not surprised!

• Link
• Report this comment

What was the average hourly compensation paid to workers hired by new firms in 2010?
What was the average hourly compensation paid to workers hired by existing firms in 2010?
What was the average hourly compensation paid to workers laid-off/fired in 2010?
What percentage of the jobs created in 2010 required academic and vocational skills which their applicants lacked?
What is the unemployment rate among GA high school graduates in the 18-24 y.o. cohort?

• Link
• Report this comment