Victor Davis Hanson and the non-existent ‘investors’ strike’
Victor Davis Hanson, writing in National Review, repeats a claim that has become all too familiar. According to Hansen, investors are so afraid of and offended by the Obama administration that they have refused to invest, in effect conducting a “sit-down strike … that has paralyzed the country and has been largely ignored by the media.”
Victor Davis Hanson
Well, let’s ignore it no longer. However, before we try to assess the validity of Hanson’s argument, we should test the assertion on which it is based. Has there in fact been a sit-down strike by capital “that has paralyzed the country and has been largely ignored by the media?”
Oddly, Hansen offers not a shred of evidence or data to support that contention. He simply assumes that it is true and assumes that his readers will assume that it’s true.
It is not true. In fact, it is demonstrably false.
This is not a new meme, of course. Conservatives have been making this identical claim from the very beginning of the Obama presidency. As far back as March 9, 2009, the Wall Street Journal editorial board was telling its readers that the stock market was faltering because of what it called “a declaration of hostility toward capitalists across the economy” by the Obama administration. (At that point, the administration had been in power for all of five weeks.)
Here’s what they wrote back then, under the headline “The Obama Economy: As the Dow keeps dropping, the president is running out of people to blame”:
“From punishing business to squandering scarce national public resources, Team Obama is creating more uncertainty and less confidence — and thus a longer period of recession or subpar growth….
“The powers in Congress — unrebuked by Mr. Obama — are ridiculing and punishing the very capitalists who are essential to a sustainable recovery. The result has been a capital strike, and the return of the fear from last year that we could face a far deeper downturn. This is no way to nurture a wounded economy back to health.”
Again, that was five weeks after Obama’s inauguration. Here’s what the stock market has done since then:
Dow Jones Industrial Average, Jan. 23, 2009 to present
That’s a 59.4 percent increase, representing one of the fastest rises in the history of the Dow Jones index. Since the Dow bottomed out on March 6, 2009 — three days before the WSJ editorial was published — the index has doubled.
Quite the “capital strike,” right? And yet the meme survives.
Now, let’s take a look at a less well-known but still critical measure of investment, Gross Private Domestic Investment:
The chart illustrates the fact that since the second quarter of 2009, gross private domestic investment has risen by $564 billion, an increase of 38 percent. For comparison’s sake, GPDI increased by 24 percent in the two and a half years after the economy bottomed out in the 2001 recession under George W. Bush. (See note below)
Hanson, in other words, has based his entire argument on a “fact” that is not a fact at all, but a fabrication. When conservatives started offering this critique barely a month into Obama’s presidency, it was absurdly premature but at least had some plausible foundation in the data. Today, the data tell us that the critique is utterly without foundation, yet still it is being offered.
Why? Because it conforms to the ideology, and in the minds of the modern conservative movement, conforming to the ideology is far more important than conforming to reality.
(NOTE: That raises an obvious question. If investment is indeed rebounding, why is the economy still so troubled? The answer is, because we have so much ground to make up. By the time Obama took office, private investment had fallen to levels not seen since 1997. The Great Recession had wiped out all of the gains of the 21st century and then some. During this recovery, we’ve clawed our way back to the investment levels of 2004.
– Jay Bookman
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368 comments Add your comment
stands for decibels
April 30th, 2012
1:09 pm
I got something Victor Davis Hanson can sit down on.
Normal Free, Plain and Simple
April 30th, 2012
1:12 pm
Victor Davis Hanson has just demonstrated that the First Amendment does let you make a fool of yourself…
stands for decibels
April 30th, 2012
1:14 pm
Oddly, Hansen offers not a shred of evidence or data to support that contention.
What’s that? A NatRev conservative just pulling stuff out of his ass and expecting us to believe him?
Next thing you’ll be telling us that they’re running a casino over at Rick’s.
josef
April 30th, 2012
1:16 pm
Color charts and graphs…why bother to read it…
ragnar danneskjold
April 30th, 2012
1:19 pm
Some of us, seeing the likely election of the Messiah 3.5 years ago, moved our money into foreign mutual funds. In my case, that was a great Canada fund run by Fidelity. If that is what VDH means by an “investor strike,” he is surely correct.
Really, why would anyone put any money into a company in a country threatening to raise taxes and increase corporate healthcare expenses. Dodd-Frank is only beginning to bite, and will do more damage than most of the other Federal agencies.
This topic gets back to our host’s essay on Atlas Shrugged the other day. Atlas resonates unlike the two other great dystopian tales of the same era. One reads “Brave New World” and says, “fantasy, has not happened.” One reads 1984 and says, “not here, maybe USSR was like that, but not the US.” One reads the first 600 pages of Atlas, and the reaction has to be, “that is what we are living through.”
Finn McCool (Class Warfare === Stopping Rich People from TAKING MORE of OUR MONEY)
April 30th, 2012
1:20 pm
LOL. CONS! Who needs an education, anyway?
Reminds me of the old “companies aren’t hiring cause business owners are worried about the President’s policies.”
Never mind the demand side of the equation. “Maybe if you made something people wanted to buy….”
josef
April 30th, 2012
1:22 pm
“… because we have so much ground to make up…we’ve clawed our way back to the investment levels of 2004.”
But…but…
barking frog
April 30th, 2012
1:22 pm
Obama is a capitalist pitbull.
ragnar danneskjold
April 30th, 2012
1:22 pm
Along the lines argued by VDH, the looming election of Mr. Romney is beginning to look like an investment opportunity, especially if we also get a fiscally-responsible Senate.
josef
April 30th, 2012
1:24 pm
ragnar
Atlas Shrugged…oh, come on, you just want us to think you’re butch enough to heft that toxic tome…
JamVet
April 30th, 2012
1:26 pm
Hanson, in other words, has based his entire argument on a “fact” that is not a fact at all, but a fabrication.
Oddly, Hansen offers not a shred of evidence or data to support that contention.
Oddly???
Given the massive inability of Republicans to demonstrate any basic respect for the truth – or as was noted yesterday, “unmoved by conventional understanding of facts, evidence and science” – I would say predictably.
And this next doozie merely highlights the ability of liars to persuade very willing fools:
Really, why would anyone put any money into a company in a country threatening to raise taxes and increase corporate healthcare expenses.
This after it was just unequivocally demonstrated that the very engine of putting money into a country – the equity markets on Wall Street – skyrocketed upwards in three years.
ragnar danneskjold
April 30th, 2012
1:26 pm
Equality and malaise are as inextricably intertwined as freedom and prosperity.
Finn McCool (Class Warfare === Stopping Rich People from TAKING MORE of OUR MONEY)
April 30th, 2012
1:27 pm
The Great Recession had wiped out all of the gains of the 21st century and then some.
I disagree with your wording there, Jay. The money didn’t disappear, the money was swept out of people’s 401ks and into the pockets of bankers. Our 401ks and mutual funds invested in worthless assets that banks sold as “AAA” quality. Those banks took insurance on those assets they sold.
After the smoke cleared, the investors were empty-handed, the insurance companies were worse than empty handed (they were bankrupt), and the bankers were lighting stogies with $100 bills.
ragnar danneskjold
April 30th, 2012
1:28 pm
VDH must have read Harrison Bergeron, and actually saw the truth within the short story.
Butch Cassidy
April 30th, 2012
1:28 pm
josef – “oh, come on, you just want us to think you’re butch”
Please refrain from using my handle and Ayn Rand in the same sentence.
JamVet
April 30th, 2012
1:29 pm
“Next thing you’ll be telling us that they’re running a casino over at Rick’s.”
“Reminds me of the old “companies aren’t hiring cause business owners are worried about the President’s policies.””
Thank gawd, we still have some rational people left in this country who can see through GOPBS…
Fly-on-the-Wall
April 30th, 2012
1:30 pm
Ragnar,
You just don’t understand the chart at all. Those show investment IN the U.S. not people who moved their money outside the country. Plus, if you are the patriot that you claim why did you invest/hide your money in a foreign country? Isn’t the ol’US of A good enough for you anymore or are you a traitor? Jerk.
Mighty Righty
April 30th, 2012
1:30 pm
I am glad to see Jay admit that the reason the economy has not grown is because “private investment” in the economy is down. Conservatives have been saying this for decades. It is “private investment” that is the engine of our economy. Now that Jay has recognized this “fact” maybe, just maybe, our C in C will recognize the same and quit putting up road blocks in the form of “executive order” regulations that only hinder business from leading us out of the recession. Come on Obama and join Jay in his conversion to belief in capiatalism.
UNCLE SAMANTHA
April 30th, 2012
1:31 pm
The Great Recession had wiped out all of the gains of the 21st century and then some.
you mean all the gains from a BUBBLE??????
then they weren’t real gains
maybe we are at a realistic level
TBone
April 30th, 2012
1:31 pm
You guys are way out of your league with VDH. Your name calling and otherwise personal attacks are juvenile and unproductive. Stick with your low level schtick.
Jay
April 30th, 2012
1:32 pm
“Some of us, seeing the likely election of the Messiah 3.5 years ago, moved our money into foreign mutual funds. In my case, that was a great Canada fund run by Fidelity. If that is what VDH means by an “investor strike,” he is surely correct.”
Well, given that the Dow has outperformed the Toronto Stock Exchange in the last 3.5 years, Rags, you cost yourself money by that decision.
But it’s nonetheless good to see your patriotism at work.
rightwing troll
April 30th, 2012
1:32 pm
“Oddly, Hansen offers not a shred of evidence or data to support that contention. He simply assumes that it is true and assumes that his readers will assume that it’s true.”
He must be one the wingnut regulars here… not a single detail or fact to support the oft repeated lies.
saywhat?
April 30th, 2012
1:32 pm
Don’t you see Jay? Don’t assail Hanson with your useless facts. His opinion was never intended to be a factual statement. Its simply his “opinion”. Reality never enters into it. Like some Bush administration members pointed out, they create their own reality. You can do that (just make crap up) if you are a Republican. Its not a glitch, its a feature!
rightwing troll
April 30th, 2012
1:33 pm
“Now that Jay has recognized this “fact” maybe, just maybe, our C in C will recognize the same and quit putting up road blocks in the form of “executive order” regulations that only hinder business from leading us out of the recession.”
Details please?
ByteMe - Political thug
April 30th, 2012
1:34 pm
If investment is indeed rebounding, why is the economy still so troubled?
Because a credit crisis-driven recession is a different animal from a business cycle-driven recession.
Romney is claiming that Obama’s policies have caused the recovery to go slower than it would otherwise have been. Obama’s team is now responding that Romney’s policies are the exact same ones that got us into the mess in the first place. It’s a good come-back line. Detail-free claims and delicious!
Normal Free, Plain and Simple
April 30th, 2012
1:34 pm
josef
April 30th, 2012
1:24 pm
…and why ain’t you in school?
josef
April 30th, 2012
1:35 pm
BUTCH
My apologies!
BTW, can you lift it…Atlas Shrugged, that is!
getalife
April 30th, 2012
1:35 pm
The nro is a joke.
Next.
saywhat?
April 30th, 2012
1:36 pm
Atlas Shrugged- my eight year olds favorite coloring book.
Jm
April 30th, 2012
1:36 pm
Math and logic were just clearly never jay’s thing
Jay go find a chart that shows the ratio of capital deployed to business versus cash under the mattress investments has increased and you begin to have an argument in your favor
Until then ta ta
josef
April 30th, 2012
1:36 pm
NORM
Comp time…
Mighty Righty
April 30th, 2012
1:37 pm
A quote from Gallup:
So what’s holding back 6 million tiny-, little-, medium-, and big-company CEOs from creating more customers? What’s the biggest problem we face? When Gallup posed this question to small business owners, the answers weren’t what you usually read on op-ed pages or hear from many politicians. The most cited problem wasn’t a lack of credit availability or slack consumer demand.
No, they told Gallup their biggest hurdle is “complying with government regulations.” So, I would argue that the single fastest way to get 6 million businesses sticking their necks out to create customers is to act on this very significant finding. If they want to help, Washington must stop creating new regulations. Stop sending out “new rules.” The more they lead with new rules and regulations, the worse they make things.
Finn McCool (Class Warfare === Stopping Rich People from TAKING MORE of OUR MONEY)
April 30th, 2012
1:38 pm
I see Mighty Righty, like VDH, is no stranger to MSU.
Making Sh$t Up.
josef
April 30th, 2012
1:40 pm
Mighty Righty
Isn’t government regulation and the bureaucratic world from the pages of Kafka EVERYBODY’s complaint? Why should businessmen be exempt?
UNCLE SAMANTHA
April 30th, 2012
1:40 pm
jay
nice bait and switch!
when no other economic indicators are favorable to your party……… go to the one that is and push it like its the only one important in our lives………….
Granny Godzilla - Union Thugette
April 30th, 2012
1:41 pm
RAgs
“Really, why would anyone put any money into a company in a country threatening to raise taxes and increase corporate healthcare expenses.”
Because you are an American?
Apparently not….Where’s your birth certificate?
DISGUSTING
Mr_B
April 30th, 2012
1:41 pm
“I am glad to see Jay admit that the reason the economy has not grown is because “private investment” in the economy is down.”
Except for the fact that Jay has very explicitly not done that.
But then, to realize that you would have had to read the post.
Sorry.
josef
April 30th, 2012
1:42 pm
IMAM
Before I forget, a tip of the mortar board to the AJC for the report on the blue ribbon schools and cheating…it ain’t just us, you know…good show
Jay
April 30th, 2012
1:42 pm
“Really, why would anyone put any money into a company in a country threatening to raise taxes and increase corporate healthcare expenses.”
The really funny part is that Rags instead invested in Canada, which already has a much more extensive public healthy care system. Just what John Galt would do, no doubt.
Finn McCool (Class Warfare === Stopping Rich People from TAKING MORE of OUR MONEY)
April 30th, 2012
1:45 pm
You think maybe ocean sailboat racing is a little bit dangerous? Twice in one month…
UNCLE SAMANTHA
April 30th, 2012
1:45 pm
aren’t we all glad that we are living high off the hog on our investment income??????
poor jay has to punch a time clock to earn a living while the rest of us rake in our capital gains at a lower tax rate…….
thanks both parties for improving my life and keeping the stock market growing
i don’t know how you did it but keep up the good work and don’t let that market thing or private sector get in the way of our gains
They BOTH suck
April 30th, 2012
1:45 pm
Mighty Righty
Are you implying that these companies have demand or projected demand that is outpacing current capacity, yet they are not investing in new employees and infrastructure?
If that is the case, outside of a contract or some sort of proprietary issue, how are these companies keeping clients that are requiring capacity over and above ability to meet demand?
I find it hard to fathom that there is all this demand backlog at various companies and they are unwilling to hire to due regulations…….
Some company will take on the work
getalife
April 30th, 2012
1:45 pm
The economic numbers are heading in the right direction proving willard lies about this President failing.
Stay the course with no change in leadership.
JamVet
April 30th, 2012
1:46 pm
UNCLE, what part of Hanson – and by proxy the National Review – being a flat out, bald-face, ridiculously absurd liar eluded you?
josef
April 30th, 2012
1:46 pm
Jay wants us to think he can pick it up, too…him and Rags in a thumb wrestling contest…I got ten on the Bruin…
Finn McCool (Class Warfare === Stopping Rich People from TAKING MORE of OUR MONEY)
April 30th, 2012
1:47 pm
Uncle Samantha, think of us next time you discard a half-used tin of caviar.
saywhat?
April 30th, 2012
1:47 pm
“The really funny part is that Rags instead invested in Canada, which already has a much more extensive public healthy care system. Just what John Galt would do, no doubt.”
__________________________________________________________________________
Given he bases his online persona on a fictional character, it make sense that most everything he posts is fictional as well. When its all made up anyway, do the inane inconsistencies really matter?
mona Lawrence
April 30th, 2012
1:47 pm
The market ALWAYS does better during democratic administrations. I don’t see that this wingnut has at thing to whine about. The problem is not about regs or tax it is about demand. STUPID!!!!
Mr_B
April 30th, 2012
1:48 pm
“when no other economic indicators are favorable to your party”
Stock market up …check
Consumer confidence up….. check
Unemployment declining…… check
Real estate market recovering ….. check
Manufacturing activity up….. check
If this is what failure looks like, bring it on.
Mr_B
April 30th, 2012
1:49 pm
Slogan from the Great Depression, but still true:
“If you want to live like a Republican, vote Democratic.”
getalife
April 30th, 2012
1:50 pm
Mr. B.
Gas is dropping too.
Stay the course.
UNCLE SAMANTHA
April 30th, 2012
1:51 pm
champange wishes and caviar dreams for all
Jay
April 30th, 2012
1:51 pm
Or as Paul Ryan would put it, “Who is John Galt? No, seriously. Who is he? “
UNCLE SAMANTHA
April 30th, 2012
1:53 pm
MR B
you should run the democratic campaign
your slogan
“things could be worse”
or as the captain of Titanic would say
“stay the course”
Mr_B
April 30th, 2012
1:54 pm
Gas is dropping too.
Not Obama’s doing. Speculators just stole all they thought they could get away with for now.
GT
April 30th, 2012
1:54 pm
A writer that cheats on his readers will eventually run out of pavement. Look at Murdock, absolutely no respect for his readers in Europe, and now the wheels are coming off. Just as Conrad Black is getting released this weekend Murdock may be going in. Just because your readers are stupid enough to pay for this trash doesn’t liberate you to write obvious lies. It is like the drug dealer and the drug user, the readers are just the mules that carry the stupidity, the writer is the dealer.
josef
April 30th, 2012
1:55 pm
Mr B
“If you want to live like a Republican, vote Democratic.”
Shalom. I guess I won’t be voting Democrat, then, because if that means I have to live like the Republicans posting hereabouts, I don’t care to be humorless and miserable, not to mention the precipitous drop in my standard of living that would entail…
JOE COOL~DoWnToWn THUG
April 30th, 2012
1:56 pm
Thats funny…..i guess Republicans like Romney nor the Kock brothers made ANY money over the last 3.5 years off investments since Prez O has been in office….snark
Mr_B
April 30th, 2012
1:56 pm
Sam: As opposed to the Republican slogan: “Things are really awful, you just don’t understand how bad they are.”
josef
April 30th, 2012
1:56 pm
“Or as Paul Ryan would put it, “Who is John Galt? No, seriously. Who is he? “
St Augustine’s copy writer?
getalife
April 30th, 2012
1:56 pm
“(Reuters) – Coca-Cola Co is in talks to buy energy drink maker Monster Beverage Corp , the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday, sending Monster’s shares up 17 percent.
An acquisition of Monster, which had a market capitalization of more than $11 billion, would be the largest brand acquisition for Coca-Cola, according to the paper, and would give the world’s biggest soft-drink maker greater exposure to the growing energy drink market.”
Investor strike?
Yeah, you might want to take a peak at the green energy sector.
UNCLE SAMANTHA
April 30th, 2012
1:57 pm
dirty little secret for all
both parties have been in power for over 150 years
they both get credit for good things that have happened in that time
and they both get credit for the bad thing that have happened
both parties are the party of the RICH
they both protect their interests over the expense of the middle class
but they both proclaim to be the champion of the middle class
until its time to legislate, then they protect the plutocracy
TaxPayer
April 30th, 2012
1:57 pm
The economy is still in trouble because some people just are not doing their part. Our tax cuts have helped to free up capital and dividends so they can be re-invested over and over thus creating jobs out the wazoo but the job takers are clearly sitting on the rear ends at home refusing to take the created jobs because they have a life of luxury with their refrigerators and cell phones and food stamps.
It’s no wonder that the Republicans think that the only option remaining is to hand out more tax cuts to those of us that can afford to re-invest that money. That way, the market will just be flooded with so many jobs, folks will have to take notice. And if that doesn’t work, I fear that the only other choice will be to just get rid of that Medicare and Social Security and force those bums to get up and keep working until they drop. It’s the only way because it’s the free market way, dontcha know.
JamVet
April 30th, 2012
1:57 pm
“A quote from Gallup…”
Why no link to that information?
And still no luck in finding that data about 9/11 having a bigger negative impact on the American/world economy than the fiscal hydrogen bombs that the banksters and casino capitalists set off in September 2008?
Let the free markets police themselves, suckers…
Mr_B
April 30th, 2012
1:58 pm
Shalom, josef. THAT hadn’t occurred to me. Ouch!
josef
April 30th, 2012
1:59 pm
Taxi
Don’t forget the prom dresses.
AT
April 30th, 2012
2:00 pm
Here’s an article on where some of the “sitting” is occurring:
http://blogs.barrons.com/incomeinvesting/2012/03/14/u-s-companies-sitting-on-1-24-trillion-cash-hoard/
Maybe “strike” is not the best word to describe it, but apparently these corporations see a larger benefit outside of the US economy for now.
getalife
April 30th, 2012
2:00 pm
The gop slogan is lets go back to a depression.
When the gop wins, something collapses and need socialism to save them.
The bushes are socialists.
Shantel
April 30th, 2012
2:00 pm
I’m not at all convinced that U.S. stock market performance has that much to do with who’s President at the moment. I’ve been an investor for a long, long time and I pay very little heed to abstractions like who is residing in the White House. What I do pay attention to are real things like inflation, interest rates, GDP, recessionary cycles etc. Hanson is a smart guy however I believe he’s wrong about this.
Jay
April 30th, 2012
2:01 pm
A writer that cheats on his readers will eventually run out of pavement.
Not necessarily, GT. Readers who go to National Review are looking for affirmation, not information. And that’s exactly what they get.
TaxPayer
April 30th, 2012
2:01 pm
Dang it, I did forget about the prom dresses and I believe it’s that time of year too.
josef
April 30th, 2012
2:02 pm
SHANTEL
“I’m not at all convinced that U.S. stock market performance has that much to do with who’s President at the moment”
Yep.
UNCLE SAMANTHA
April 30th, 2012
2:05 pm
the great recession main causes: mortgage backed securities and credit default swaps
yet both parties have got all of you distracted fighting over silly nonsense while we have an anemic recovery……….. and no one is asking what happened to all those MBS and CDW’s………….
the recovery will pick up steam when we make banks write off or sell them & we PROCESS all the foreclosures that are NECESSARY to move past a HOUSING BUBBLE……. there is no painless recession……………
the US allowing pain to happen has enable us to keep growing over the past 100 years when other nations try to micromanage the pain and suffer long slow growth
Jay
April 30th, 2012
2:05 pm
From AT’s link:
“The top five “cash kings” Moody’s cites are Apple Inc. (AAPL), Microsoft Corp. (MSFT), Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO), Google Inc. (GOOG) and Pfizer Inc. (PFE), which together hold $276 billion, or 22%, of the total non-financial corporate cash balances.”
Another way to put it is that these companies are literally making more money than they know what to do with. The fact that they’re doing it under the reign of a capitalism-hating Marxist dictator makes it all the more amazing.
Jay
April 30th, 2012
2:06 pm
“I’m not at all convinced that U.S. stock market performance has that much to do with who’s President at the moment”
I agree as well.
TaxPayer
April 30th, 2012
2:06 pm
Further, if Republicans really care about creating the most jobs possible then they will also get busy on legislation that allows our job creating money to flow tax free all around the globe. Job creators should not be penalized with taxation just because they take a little money out of the US to enjoy abroad. After all, every job that the job creators create elsewhere is one less job that would be lost in the US to someone else looking to import something for somewhere else and that’s a fact.
265 more days
April 30th, 2012
2:07 pm
“Oddly, Hansen offers not a shred of evidence or data to support that contention. He simply assumes that it is true and assumes that his readers will assume that it’s true.”
Kinda like what the rats on this blog do every day
JamVet
April 30th, 2012
2:07 pm
The good American people have no choice but to pick up the pieces and try to soldier on after the widespread devastation unleashed by the Masters of the Fiscal Universe.
And rest assured that this attempted corporate destruction of capitalism is not done. Not by a long stretch.
NOT ONE SINGLE PERSON went to prison for the legalized criminal malfeasance and negligence of 2008 and the rapacious plundering of trillions of dollars of other people’s money.
NOT ONE.
Exactly the way you pro-crime Republicans wanted it.
So get ready, suckers. Especially you younger folks and imbecilic new young Reaganites.
You wanted trickle down poverty so damn bad? Here it comes…
Granny Godzilla - Union Thugette
April 30th, 2012
2:07 pm
US Corporations hoarding cash.
“Coporations are people my friends”
Some just happen to be un-American.
Anti-American perhaps…
JamVet
April 30th, 2012
2:09 pm
“Kinda like what the rats on this blog do every day.”
Must have been written while holding up a mirror…
getalife
April 30th, 2012
2:12 pm
In our President’s second term, we will get peace and prosperity.
President Clinton’s fourth term if you will.
josef
April 30th, 2012
2:12 pm
ZamVet
You’re sure in a foul ass mood today…who put thumbtacks in you Post Toasties…?
rightwing troll
April 30th, 2012
2:12 pm
“No, they told Gallup their biggest hurdle is “complying with government regulations.””
Example please?
Illegal Alien
April 30th, 2012
2:12 pm
Is Romney better off now than in 2008?
josef
April 30th, 2012
2:13 pm
getalife
Saw a good program on the Chitimacha on PBS last p.m. “Native Waters…”
TaxPayer
April 30th, 2012
2:13 pm
What I pay attention to when I invest is plain and simple — taxes. Taxes make all the difference in how much money I have to invest. The higher taxes are, the less investment money I have and therefore the less money going into creating jobs for Republicans. Republicans need to work toward eliminating all taxes on job creators and put that burden off on the job takers to make up for whatever difference they need to make up for. Just double or triple the payroll taxes and tax people that fail to make at least one million dollars more than the truly successful ones that make the billions. It’s obvious to anyone with two eyes that this will solve everything.
josef
April 30th, 2012
2:14 pm
illegal alien
“Is Romney better off now than in 2008?”
Good question.
Matti
April 30th, 2012
2:14 pm
“I like that about the Republicans; the evidence does not faze them, they are not bothered at all by the facts.” — Bill Clinton
Kamchak ~ Thug from the Steppes
April 30th, 2012
2:14 pm
So what’s holding back 6 million tiny-, little-, medium-, and big-company CEOs from creating more customers? What’s the biggest problem we face?
Awwwwww, isn’t that just precious, quoting wittle Jimmy “The Crybaby” Clifton.
Since wittle Jimmy isn’t here and you’re so intent on carrying his water like a dutiful little tool, what onerous regulations does wittle Jimmy face in his so valuable polling organization?
getalife
April 30th, 2012
2:15 pm
josef,
Did they show the new school and casino?
(ir)Rational
April 30th, 2012
2:16 pm
Can someone please explain to me the correlation between investing your money wherever it will earn you the biggest gains, whether that be here or abroad, and being Anti-American/unpatriotic as is claimed here on a fairly regular basis?
JohnnyReb
April 30th, 2012
2:17 pm
Jay, I’m beginning to think there is not an anti-Obama story you can’t find a way to spin to his favor. Just don’t go on the O’Rielly Factor, he would not be as gentle as Maddow.
When the stock market was low, the White House was quick to point out Obama had no control. It rebounds from the recession and the Obamaities want to heap the praises on him.
On this very blog, time and time again to the point of ad nauseum the Moonbats have complained of all the capital setting on the sidelines that should be invested to produce jobs. Now you post a graph showing it just not so.
I know the Left is having a hard time defending Barry, but please.
getalife
April 30th, 2012
2:17 pm
ir,
Got a link?
getalife
April 30th, 2012
2:18 pm
“I know the Left is having a hard time defending Barry, but please.”
No, we just show the fact that the numbers are in the right direction.
Easy.
Mick
April 30th, 2012
2:20 pm
The propaganda of the right has been catapaulted quite nicely about the kenyan born socialist communist obama. Really, they’ve done a hell of job, so much so that they now are all starting to believe it as truth!!!
Quite pathetic and shameful…
265 more days
April 30th, 2012
2:20 pm
Jelly,
Nice to see within all that hate you have in you, that you have a small sense of humor, keep it up
Jay
April 30th, 2012
2:20 pm
JohnnyReb, if you take issue with either the facts that I’ve presented or the way I’ve interpreted them, just say so. Otherwise, I don’t know how to respond to what you’ve posted.
UNCLE SAMANTHA
April 30th, 2012
2:21 pm
Jay
April 30th, 2012
2:06 pm
“I’m not at all convinced that U.S. stock market performance has that much to do with who’s President at the moment”
I agree as well.
then can we agree that BOTH PARTIES are responsible for $15+ trillion in debt?
(ir)Rational
April 30th, 2012
2:22 pm
getalife – How do I link to certain comments? But going backwards, from this afternoon there is GG @ 2:07 & 1:41, Jay @ 1:32, Fly-on-the-Wall @ 1:30.
josef
April 30th, 2012
2:22 pm
getalife
No. It was more or less a nature show relative to the Atchafalaya and the connection between environment and culture. It was told by the last Chief’s son, a journalist and (non commercial) fisherman talking about living between the two worlds and the balancing act. What I liked about it was that what he was saying was just as applicable to anyone, anywhere caught between the urban, generic culture and the world of nature…
JohnnyReb
April 30th, 2012
2:23 pm
“….we just show the fact that the numbers are in the right direction.”
Yep, they are going up, just not fast enough for anyone to receive praise.
I remember
April 30th, 2012
2:23 pm
As Bookman well knows and is too dishonest to say.. the Obama recovery has been the weakest recovery following a serious recession…ever. All across America, business peope, small and large are deciding how much risk to run. In his clall warfare dominated world view in which the productive are the enemy OF COURSE they choose less risk and less investment!
getalife
April 30th, 2012
2:23 pm
ir,
Clink on the link under the comment.
Scooter
April 30th, 2012
2:23 pm
Jay makes sophisticated economic indicators and analysis seem sooooooo simple with his graphs and simplistic explanations. Well, its like he’s preserving his own ideology with confirmation bias – everyone is prone to do it. But that’s what he gets paid for.
(ir)Rational
April 30th, 2012
2:23 pm
To be fair, GG’s post at 1:41 wasn’t claiming it was un-American to not invest solely in American companies, she was just suggesting that you should invest in companies that you didn’t feel comfortable with simply because they were American. But the parallel is there.
AT
April 30th, 2012
2:24 pm
The topic was about investors staying out of the US market and I, or Moody’s more specifically, just demonstrated one area where that is happening.
Corporations “know what to do with their money”. And for a whole host of reasons (that VDH explains), it seems that putting that money back into the US economy is not in their best interest…or they would be doing so. Come up with whatever reason you want, highest corporate taxes in the world, regulation, the decline of the dollar, but they aren’t investing those trillions here.
getalife
April 30th, 2012
2:24 pm
“Yep, they are going up, just not fast enough for anyone to receive praise.”
It will never be good enough for you cons.
(ir)Rational
April 30th, 2012
2:24 pm
getalife – Yeah, that makes too much sense for me.
cloudodust
April 30th, 2012
2:25 pm
So, what do Facts and Statistics have in common..? The ability to convert starch to sugar would make a good analogy. It all depends rather one takes theirs with one lump or two…
getalife
April 30th, 2012
2:25 pm
Scooter,
Just the facts without bias.
Casual Observer
April 30th, 2012
2:26 pm
All this Obama love, but the poor sap is up by a few points in some polls, and down in others against Romney. With all the positives about Obama that you rats keep copying and pasting, you would think he would be up by 10+ points. Just think, the campaign hasn’t even started yet for Romney, but Obama has been campaigning for 3+ years.
getalife
April 30th, 2012
2:26 pm
ir,
Well, you do believe the gop lie that this President is failing so don’t be embarrassed.
cons have no shame.
(ir)Rational
April 30th, 2012
2:27 pm
getalife – Thanks for telling me what I believe? I form my own opinions, but thanks anyway. Still doesn’t answer my question from before though.
GT
April 30th, 2012
2:27 pm
This capital boycott would assume the markets are all controlled by one director, not competitors but all on the same team. It reminds me of that Seinfeld episode where all the characters swore off masturbation, even placed bets they could out last the others in not doing it. Kramer wanders into Jerry’s apartment one day, where all the characters were watching a woman taking her clothes off next door, unaware she was being watched. Curious what was going on, Kramer stares out Jerry’s window, sees the flesh, immediately starts shaking, and as he turns and dashes to the door, tells the other contestants they can keep his money they win. With that the door slams and he is no longer in the room with them looking at the naked woman next door. No self disciple on earth can control a free market.
Jym Allyn
April 30th, 2012
2:27 pm
The engine for our country’s financial growth is not investment but consumerism. The “capitalist legalized thievery”by the banks and hedge-funds was more akin to a Ponzi scheme than an economic benefit to our country.
The recovery has come because consumers have been allowed to spend money and buy stuff and NOT because of the investments by the banks and major industries.
Hopefully it will be decided in court that Lehman Brothers and Bear Sterns were criminal enterprises that were able to do their crimes because of the incompetence of the SEC and the bribes to Congress and the Senate.
getalife
April 30th, 2012
2:28 pm
ir,
So, you don’t believe the gop lie that our President is failing?
Do tell ir.
mm
April 30th, 2012
2:29 pm
“especially if we also get a fiscally-responsible Senate.”
Since when have the cons been fiscally responsible? Certainly not when they are in power.
UNCLE SAMANTHA
April 30th, 2012
2:29 pm
“You’re so concerned with squabbling for the scraps from Longshank’s table that you’ve missed your God given right to something better.”
get a grip people
you are being hoodwinked by both parties
JamVet
April 30th, 2012
2:30 pm
Matti, word.
And they act like that is how it has always been done.
Don’t like the truth? Do like Mr. Hanson and just make up your own new one!
No worries, dated meat. I just laugh at how you consider your opinions to be immutable facts.
And the first time you post some verifiable fact, figure, link, quote, piece of data or evidence, it will be the first time ever.
“It’s not worth moving heaven and earth, spending billions of dollars just trying to catch one person [Osama bin Laden].” ~Flip (Flop) Romney, 2007.
Your soft on national security weenie is unelectable…
0311/8541/5811/1811/1801
April 30th, 2012
2:30 pm
I don’t care if Obama gets me an interest rate of 10% !
He has to go for many other policies which are detremental to this Republic.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZ-4gnNz0vc
Jay
April 30th, 2012
2:30 pm
Come up with whatever reason you want, highest corporate taxes in the world, regulation, the decline of the dollar, but they aren’t investing those trillions here.
They aren’t investing those trillions ANYwhere, AT.
If the problem was Obama’s economic policy, as you allege, then they’d be investing those dollars in other countries with other policies. But they’re not, because the problem is a lack of consumer demand worldwide AND, again, corporate profits that are so high they literally don’t have a good place to put all the money they’re making.
James Thomas
April 30th, 2012
2:31 pm
I don’t know if what this Hanson guy says is true of false but I have learned one thing; When Jay breaks out the graphs, it’s usually in an effort to hide something.
getalife
April 30th, 2012
2:31 pm
“He has to go for many other policies which are detremental to this Republic.”
Which policies?
(ir)Rational
April 30th, 2012
2:31 pm
getalife – I don’t believe anything, just because someone tells it to me. I check the facts out, as much as I can, and form my own opinions. Whether I believe he was a poor choice as president or not, has nothing to do with what others are saying about him. Capisce?
0311/8541/5811/1811/1801
April 30th, 2012
2:31 pm
P.S.
I bought a Treasury Bill when Carter was President I believe at a rate of 16 or 18% but look what a debacle he was !!!
Jay
April 30th, 2012
2:32 pm
Scooter, all you need to do is explain how I’m wrong. The floor is yours ….
James Thomas
April 30th, 2012
2:32 pm
I don’t think there is such a thing a a fiscally responsible politician. Period.
rightwing troll
April 30th, 2012
2:32 pm
Cons have no shame, no morals, no credibility, no facts, no details… Just shrill lies and hyperbole that is spoonfed to them and they are none the wiser for it…
Sad, pathetic, and scary… all at the same time
Paul
April 30th, 2012
2:33 pm
“Hansen offers not a shred of evidence or data to support that contention. He simply assumes that it is true and assumes that his readers will assume that it’s true.”
Judging by the comments I’ve read thus far, Hansen made a correct assumption about his readers.
JamVet
April 30th, 2012
2:33 pm
“following a serious recession”
WOO HOO!!!
It has now been elevated to the level of a SERIOUS recession!!
What next, acknowledging what the rest of humanity did four years ago and referring to it as the GREAT RECESSION?
Aka, the second greatest economic cataclysm in our nation’s long history.
Nah….
(Reagan had it worse. Or was it GeeDub?)
getalife
April 30th, 2012
2:33 pm
James,
What is Jay hiding?
The fact that the economic numbers are in the right direction?
Do tell.
rightwing troll
April 30th, 2012
2:33 pm
“He has to go for many other policies which are detremental to this Republic.”
Examples, or details please?
0311/8541/5811/1811/1801
April 30th, 2012
2:34 pm
Obama: “If I don’t have this done in three years, then there’s going to be a ONE-TERM (emphasis added) proposition.” 2/2/09
UNCLE SAMANTHA
April 30th, 2012
2:34 pm
jay says
They aren’t investing those trillions ANYwhere, AT.
If the problem was Obama’s economic policy, as you allege, then they’d be investing those dollars in other countries with other policies. But they’re not, because the problem is a lack of consumer demand worldwide AND, again, corporate profits that are so high they literally don’t have a good place to put all the money they’re making.
bingo
and because both parties refuse to take the painful but neccessary steps we are sliding into a lost decade………
let the banks take the hits they must
let the foreclosures roll
once those painful steps are taken
then we start growing
getalife
April 30th, 2012
2:35 pm
Paul,
“He simply assumes that it is true and assumes that his readers will assume that it’s true.”
You know I call this living in la la land.
Reality and cons parted ways when they lost.
josef
April 30th, 2012
2:36 pm
James Thomas
April 30th, 2012
2:32 pm
I don’t think there is such a thing a a fiscally responsible politician. Period.
**********
AMEN!
(ir)Rational
April 30th, 2012
2:37 pm
So, I guess no one wants to answer my original question? Why does investing my money somewhere outside the US make me Anti-American/Un-American/un-patriotic?
Mighty Righty
April 30th, 2012
2:37 pm
NEWS FLASH-Wind Farms Increase Global Warming
New research finds that wind farms actually warm up the surface of the land underneath them during the night, a phenomena that could put a damper on efforts to expand wind energy as a green energy solution.
Researchers used satellite data from 2003 to 2011 to examine surface temperatures across as wide swath of west Texas, which has built four of the world’s largest wind farms. The data showed a direct correlation between night-time temperatures increases of 0.72 degrees C (1.3 degrees F) and the placement of the farms.
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2012/04/30/wind-farms-are-warming-earth-researchers-say/#ixzz1tYAZR3Tq
JamVet
April 30th, 2012
2:37 pm
“The engine for our country’s financial growth is not investment but consumerism.”
That is a critical point, Jym Allyn.
And beginning with Reagan the emphasis in Washington changed so as to reward investments and punish labor/consumption.
Trickle down…
0311/8541/5811/1811/1801
April 30th, 2012
2:37 pm
http://www.gop.com/index.php/briefing/comments/the_big_fail_-_top_5_failed_obama_policies
Thulsa Doom
April 30th, 2012
2:38 pm
I wish the liberals would make up their minds on this. Sheesh. On the one hand I’ld be wealthy if I had a nickel for every time a lib has stated on here that corporate America is not hiring and not investing and creating jobs. That they are not doing their part.
And now Jay is saying that private investment is just booming under O. And if that is true as Jay purports then it sure as hell isn’t showing up in terms of economic expansion now is it?
I told you guys earlier this year when ya’ll were ecstatic over 3.3% economic growth for the last qtr of 2011 not to get too excited- that things would slow down in 2012. So what happened? Yep. We just had a revision downward of economic growth to around 2%. As Charles Barkley would say “turrible, just turrible.”
So go ahead Jay and fool your minions with another misleading graph.Because the reality is that we are still experiencing horribly anemic growth despite whatever investment graph you put up. And that is a
F
A
C
T
!
0311/8541/5811/1811/1801
April 30th, 2012
2:38 pm
Second verse same as the first:
Obama: “If I don’t have this done in three years, then there’s going to be a ONE-TERM (emphasis added) proposition.”2/2/09
Jay
April 30th, 2012
2:39 pm
So, I guess no one wants to answer my original question? Why does investing my money somewhere outside the US make me Anti-American/Un-American/un-patriotic?
Well, investing outside your country, where you get lower returns than you would at home, makes it seem as though you have problems with your country.
Kamchak ~ Thug from the Steppes
April 30th, 2012
2:40 pm
Blah, blah, blah Jimmy Carter blah, blah blah.
Posting like a con in three easy lessons. — $19.95, but wait! Act now, and I’ll double the offer.*
*(Just pay separate processing and handling)
(ir)Rational
April 30th, 2012
2:40 pm
James Thomas/josef – I would think that would be something everybody can agree on. I think the best method for getting things done is having the executive branch controlled by one party and the legislative branch controlled by the other, therefore forcing them to meet somewhere close to the middle and work things out. For an example, see the time period between 1994 and 2000. There were some hiccups, but I feel like for the most part, stuff got done well.
getalife
April 30th, 2012
2:40 pm
President Obama: “Not only saving this country from a great depression, not only saving the auto industry, but putting in place a system in which we’re going to start lowering health care costs and you’re never going to go bankrupt because you get sick or somebody in your family gets sick.” (CBS’ “60 Minutes,” 12/11/11)
Good stuff scout.
Thanks.
(ir)Rational
April 30th, 2012
2:41 pm
Jay – Or, it makes me a bad investor/someone who listens to bad advice. I don’t see the correlation between investing my money as I see fit, and having a problem with my country.
UNCLE SAMANTHA
April 30th, 2012
2:41 pm
jay you said
Well, investing outside your country, where you get lower returns than you would at home, makes it seem as though you have problems with your country.
what about people that buy products not made in the US? does that apply to all the apple cultists?
Illegal Alien
April 30th, 2012
2:42 pm
Is Romney better off now than in 2008?
Still waiting.
josef
April 30th, 2012
2:42 pm
irRational
“So, I guess no one wants to answer my original question? Why does investing my money somewhere outside the US make me Anti-American/Un-American/un-patriotic?”
It doesn’t make you any of the things you listed, but it does run counter to taking care of your own, imauo
mm
April 30th, 2012
2:42 pm
“When Jay breaks out the graphs, it’s usually in an effort to hide something.”
Ah, rightwing logic. Facts bad, lies good.
And mighty righty, what do you expect from Fox News? If you expect someone to click on your links, you might want to hide the rightwing url’s in your links.
getalife
April 30th, 2012
2:43 pm
ir,
Shutting down government was not a hiccup.
It was a newt disaster for your party.
I can’t believe your party still listens to the newt and used his unpatriotic agenda.
Paul
April 30th, 2012
2:43 pm
MIghty Righty 2:37
Why do climate change skeptics ridicule data when it shows evidence of man’s impact on climate, but if it’s something dealing with renewable energy they accept the data as written on stone tablets and delivered from Mount Sinai?
(ir)Rational
April 30th, 2012
2:43 pm
josef – You’re not one of them, but several people here, including Jay, have made those claims today. I’m trying to ask them to defend that, or explain their rationale.
Jay
April 30th, 2012
2:44 pm
yeah, mm, that one in particular cracked me up.
(ir)Rational
April 30th, 2012
2:46 pm
getalife – I never listened to Newt for anything. I was too young to care then, and old enough to know he is a fool now. I had honestly forgotten about that, but I’m looking at it from a different perspective. If you think about it, we ended Clinton’s presidency with a projected surplus. That didn’t come about because of one party’s contributions, it came about because Clinton was able to successfully (for the most part) work with Congress and get things done. From my point of view.
josef
April 30th, 2012
2:46 pm
irRational
I want a viable third, if not even viable fourth and fifth, parties. Cutting mutually advantageous deals at the expense of the citizenry would be a lot less easy….
Thulsa Doom
April 30th, 2012
2:46 pm
“But they’re not, because the problem is a lack of consumer demand worldwide”- Jay
Yes. Of course. Consumer demand is weak in China, India, Singapore, Hong Kong,etc.
getalife
April 30th, 2012
2:47 pm
ir,
Lets end the willard lie that this President economic policies have failed.
Kamchak ~ Thug from the Steppes
April 30th, 2012
2:47 pm
Chelsea — 6
QPR ——- 1
Arsenal —— 1
Stoke City —1
Just sayin’.
Finn McCool (Class Warfare === Stopping Rich People from TAKING MORE of OUR MONEY)
April 30th, 2012
2:48 pm
In his clall warfare dominated world view in which the productive are the enemy OF COURSE they choose less risk and less investment!
I remember, didn’t read the piece, did you? That’s exactly what the charts are not showing.
getalife
April 30th, 2012
2:48 pm
ir,
Yes, we have balanced our budget and had a surplus.
Then what happened?
0311/8541/5811/1811/1801
April 30th, 2012
2:49 pm
Yep …………. he’s sure working hard at “being” President !
Headline: “Obama Has Already Held More Fundraisers Than the Last Five Presidents Combined”
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/297293/obama-has-already-held-more-fundraisers-last-five-presidents-combined-charles-c-w-cook
(ir)Rational
April 30th, 2012
2:49 pm
josef – I would love to see that type of expansion, and hope to in my life time, but I suspect it will be towards the end of my life before anything like that truly happens.
jewcowboy
April 30th, 2012
2:50 pm
Will Victor Davis Hanson have 6′ tall $ topiary’s at his funeral? Will ragnar danneskjold have C$ topiary at his?
getalife
April 30th, 2012
2:51 pm
scout,
So?
Jay
April 30th, 2012
2:51 pm
Gee, Thulsa. Step up your game.
With GDP per capita of $5,200 in China and $1,500 in India, consumer demand IS very weak in those countries. Pretty elementary, really.
And Singapore (pop. 5 million) and Hong Kong are too small to affect global economies.
Mighty Righty
April 30th, 2012
2:51 pm
Paul-One is an eight year study of a measurable change in the environment. The other is sepeculation based on reading tea leaves.
kayaker 71
April 30th, 2012
2:52 pm
“If I have not turned this economy around during my first term, I don’t deserve to be re-elected.”
Bozo
“When you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing; when you see that money is flowing to those who deal not in goods but in favors; when you see that men get rich more easily by graft than by work and your laws no longer protect you against them, but protect them against you, you may know that your society is doomed”
Ayn Rand
mm
April 30th, 2012
2:52 pm
Jay,
I see this in all righties, not just on this blog. They are now living in some bizarro world where facts are lies and lies are facts. There’s something missing in them. Maybe a functioning brain.
From the backyards of America, to the steaming cesspools that are the Sunday morning talk shows, they spout their lies. Our media has totally failed us in an attempt to try to make this election close.
(ir)Rational
April 30th, 2012
2:53 pm
Kam – Chelsea 1 Stoke City 0 (at Stamford Bridge and with Stoke City down to 10) just sayin. Also, isn’t QPR just 5 points in the goal differential away from relegation?
Finn McCool (Class Warfare === Stopping Rich People from TAKING MORE of OUR MONEY)
April 30th, 2012
2:54 pm
Some of you can’t seem to tell the difference between private investment in stock market stocks and corporate investment in people, machinery, etc.
Investing in the stock market doesn’t necessarily correlate to increased output, hiring, etc. Investing in machinery, employees, etc, usually does correlate to that.
(ir)Rational
April 30th, 2012
2:54 pm
getalife – Well, for one thing the .com bubble burst, then we got attacked. But I suspect you’re looking for something along the lines of, “well, we, ah, elected Bush.” But that kinda just makes my point for me.
Pass the Cheesy Grits Please
April 30th, 2012
2:55 pm
Toss Up
Arizona (11)
Colorado (9)
Florida (29)
Iowa (6)
Missouri (10)
Nevada (6)
New Hampshire (4)
North Carolina (15)
Ohio (18)
Pennsylvania (20)
Virginia (13)
Those are your toss up states this next election. Cheesy Grits has to win almost all of them to win.
Obama just needs to pick off one or two.
Pass the Cheesy Grits Please
April 30th, 2012
2:56 pm
then we got attacked.
Who did we get attacked by ?
Hint : It wasn’t Saddam .
(ir)Rational
April 30th, 2012
2:56 pm
Pass the Cheesy Grits – No sh*t Sherlock.
kayaker 71
April 30th, 2012
2:56 pm
mm,
Looks like you have become the latest Bookman sycophant. You remind me of one of those plastic birds in the back windows of cars. And your drama?…… off the charts. You might land a job on the Today Show just any time now.
Kamchak ~ Thug from the Steppes
April 30th, 2012
2:57 pm
Chelsea 1 Stoke City 0 (at Stamford Bridge and with Stoke City down to 10) just sayin.
Yep. That’s also the game that got JT in hot water and he is facing charges of saying poopie headed things about someone else’s race. It’s the game that set the tone for our season, and I wish RA had fired A V-B on the spot immediately afterward.
Granny Godzilla - Union Thugette
April 30th, 2012
2:57 pm
Ir
let me help you…..
I said corporations, not YOU.
I think about investors and what cowards some of them can be.
The buy into corporations and then sell off and scatter like cockroaches if the CEO farts.
What’s your priority? Yourself? Or All of us?
AT
April 30th, 2012
2:58 pm
Jay:”corporate profits that are so high they literally don’t have a good place to put all the money they’re making”
So given the choice, they are putting it off shore, instead of the US economy. Why exactly would they do that? Sound’s like a sit-out to me.
Finn McCool (Class Warfare === Stopping Rich People from TAKING MORE of OUR MONEY)
April 30th, 2012
2:58 pm
Don’t you cons have some women’s issues to go beat up on?
0311/8541/5811/1811/1801
April 30th, 2012
2:58 pm
Don’t Mess With Marines “Punks” !!!
http://www2.wnct.com/news/2012/apr/15/51/police-two-intruders-shot-and-killed-burglary-atte-ar-2165808/
Paul
April 30th, 2012
2:58 pm
Mighty Righty
“Paul-One is an eight year study of a measurable change in the environment. The other is sepeculation based on reading tea leaves.”
Stone tablets vs tea leaves.
That explains it -
(ir)Rational
April 30th, 2012
2:59 pm
Kam – Well, that answers my question from the other day about why JT was in trouble. I would assume you’re watching the Manchester Derby currently? How do you decide which version of evil to root for in that match? Oh, and if you’re watching, keep me updated.
Thulsa Doom
April 30th, 2012
2:59 pm
Gee, Thulsa. Step up your game.
With per capita income of $5,200 in China and $1,500 in India, consumer demand IS very weak in those countries. Pretty elementary, really.
Jay,
Well with that kind of weak arse logic now I have to shred your ridiculously weak argument. Per capita income may be low in China and India but when you factor in population and hence overall consumer demand due to enormous populations and enormous economies(China’s economy is now larger than Europe’s largest economy Germany) then you realize just how absurd your argument is. Gawd that was easy.
Others can’t see through just how weak your use of statistics to make an argument is. But Doomy can and just blew that one out of the water.
JamVet
April 30th, 2012
3:00 pm
“One is an eight year study of a measurable change in the environment. The other is sepeculation based on reading tea leaves.”
This is the kind of post that would not pass muster in the ninth grade…
Casual Observer
April 30th, 2012
3:00 pm
DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz was on Fox News last night, and Brett Baier asked her about the Dem-controlled Senate’s failure to pass a budget for a thousand days plus three months. The short answer from Wasserman Schultz was “because the Romney-Ryan budget is so horrifying we’re incapable of moving”
Was Mitt elected President or to Congress and I missed it?
More excuses from the left.
0311/8541/5811/1811/1801
April 30th, 2012
3:00 pm
Third time is a charm !!!
“Obama: “If I don’t have this done in three years, then there’s going to be a ONE-TERM (emphasis added) proposition.” 2/2/09″
Moderate Line
April 30th, 2012
3:02 pm
The chart illustrates the fact that since the second quarter of 2009, gross private domestic investment has risen by $564 billion, an increase of 38 percent. For comparison’s sake, GPDI increased by 24 percent in the two and a half years after the economy bottomed out in the 2001 recession under George W. Bush.
A little misleading since under Bush the low GDI was in 2001 4th quarter. We were already at a new peak in 8 quarters. The recent recession we are sill 12% below the previous peak 19 quarters later. Also the total drop in investmet was 12% in the 2001 recession whereas the recent recession was 36.4%.
Now I don’t really buy the Republican arguement but I don’t believe Jay’s argument is much better. I believe the economy is not growing as it should because demand is low from decrease wealth and less borrowing ie. demand. However, investment is at the same level as 2004. Under Bush we had 16 quarters of investment over the present level.
In otherwords showing the increase in investment during Obama is misleading people to think investment is good when in reality it is still very bad.
jewcowboy
April 30th, 2012
3:02 pm
“When you see that in order to produce…blah blah blah”
I was tempted to post all 70 pages of John Galt’s mind numbingly torturous and pretentious screed from Atlas to show how affected it truly is…but I’m not that much an a-hole.
Instead I’ll just leave you with the only quote from Rand worth posting: “Mister, there’s nothing I’ve got to do except die”
Jay
April 30th, 2012
3:02 pm
So given the choice, they are putting it off shore, instead of the US economy. Why exactly would they do that? Sound’s like a sit-out to me.
No AT, your point and your argument was that they’re NOT putting it offshore or anywhere else for that fact. They’re keeping it in-house. If you are now changing the game, you should say so.
And as the charts above demonstrate, investment has risen sharply here in the United States. In fact, I would bet that those numbers are higher than in any other industrial economy in the world for the period in question.
Paul
April 30th, 2012
3:03 pm
Scout
That reporter sure has a crush on Marines.
Never heard a reporter say “the teacher then shot…” or “the program manager then shot” or “the truck driver then shot…”
Moderate Line
April 30th, 2012
3:04 pm
Link to data.
http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/GPDI
(ir)Rational
April 30th, 2012
3:04 pm
GG – Well, for starters, you did make the correlation @ 1:41 when you were talking to Rags. Second, my personal priorities are to myself and my wife first. With her coming first over myself. I don’t care what anyone thinks of me because of that, I would be willing to bet, no matter what you say here, that with very few exceptions, all of you (and in fact pretty much everyone in the world) is like that to some degree or another. In the pursuit of my interests, I may end up helping someone/a lot of someones out, but I’m taking care of myself first, and others later.
Jay
April 30th, 2012
3:05 pm
A little misleading since under Bush the low GDI was in 2001 4th quarter.
And that’s the point at which I began counting, Moderate, just so it would NOT be misleading.
Common Sense
April 30th, 2012
3:05 pm
Using this sort of faulty logic, you can also conclude we have a home buyer’s strike, and a worker’s strike, since home prices are down, and more people have dropped out of the work force.
Thanks for making it such a simple conclusion, Jay.
Kamchak ~ Thug from the Steppes
April 30th, 2012
3:05 pm
Well, that answers my question from the other day about why JT was in trouble.
No, JT got red-carded against Barca for kneeing someone in the back (What a wanker)
And I was wrong — it was our first game against QPR that JT said some racist things.
I would assume you’re watching the Manchester Derby currently?
Just turned it on ’cause I didn’t know about it, thanks.
How do you decide which version of evil to root for in that match?
0-0 draw with 22 red cards equally distributed against both teams.
Oh, and if you’re watching, keep me updated.
0-0 in the 6th minute.
Jay
April 30th, 2012
3:06 pm
“The recent recession we are sill 12% below the previous peak 19 quarters later. Also the total drop in investmet was 12% in the 2001 recession whereas the recent recession was 36.4%.”
Which is exactly the point I made in the footnote.
Finn McCool (Class Warfare === Stopping Rich People from TAKING MORE of OUR MONEY)
April 30th, 2012
3:06 pm
but I’m taking care of myself first, and others later.
That’s obvious.
(ir)Rational
April 30th, 2012
3:08 pm
Kam – 0-0 draw with 22 red cards…that would possibly be the most epic game in history. And JT is most definitely a wanker, and that is about the nicest thing I find myself capable of saying about him. Thanks for the update, and you’re welcome for reminding you about the game.
JamVet
April 30th, 2012
3:09 pm
Casual,
Don’t you more properly mean the “vile, unprofessional ,despicable,” “a coward,” “characterless,” and “not a Lady,” Ms. Wasserman Schultz?
And like that disgraced and disgraceful ex-Army officer, shouldn’t you be wondering when she will “shut the heck up.”?
(ir)Rational
April 30th, 2012
3:09 pm
Finn – And that is a problem?
Common Sense
April 30th, 2012
3:10 pm
And why aren’t you including the trillions in “investment” that government has made? Or is that just politically inconvenient at this time?
The largest GDP in US history. Sure doesn’t feel like it does it?
Granny Godzilla - Union Thugette
April 30th, 2012
3:10 pm
ir
hope you and your interests have a full life….
hey as long as you got yours big fella.
kayaker 71
April 30th, 2012
3:11 pm
Then there’s that evil corporate giant, Apple Computer. At last count before they posted a dividend on their stock, they had in excess of 1B dollars in cash, according to their CEO and CFO. That ain’t chump change, Bookman. I don’t see Apple opening any domestic factories as long as they can have the Chi Coms turn out what they sell. That liberal visionary, although deceased, Steve Jobs…..selling more I-Pads than the Chinese can produce. I am not sure why Hanson did not point out each individual corporation and how much cash it is sitting on….. perhaps he thought that he would leave that up to the reader to look up the separate balance sheets which are available to anyone with a computer. But liberals seem to need that served to them in a certain way or they just don’t get it.
jewcowboy
April 30th, 2012
3:12 pm
WWARD?
Tell those less fortunate to f*** off and die.
mm
April 30th, 2012
3:12 pm
I always thought it was most racism that was causing the righties to treat Obama so badly. But if you think about, they treated Clinton and Carter the same way
Clinton was the best republican president we ever had .
Obama is the second best.
carlosgvv
April 30th, 2012
3:12 pm
At the start of this recession, Big Business did what it does best, downsizing. Corporations begin massive layoffs, cut out any overtime, cut salaries and piled more work on their remaining employees. They are still doing this, though not quite as much as in years past. Only those companies who have realized they must start hiring to improve profits have done anything to improve the economy. Naturally, Big Business will deny any responsibility and have their lackeys blame the Obama Administration for all our countries’ troubles. Guess which parties’ electorate will believe every word of it?
Casual Observer
April 30th, 2012
3:13 pm
The economy may still be in the tank, gas prices remain high, housing market not expected to improve for a decade, and folks still losing jobs….but look at the bright side, you still have Joe.
“I guess what I’m trying to say without boring you too long at breakfast – and you all look dull as hell, I might add. The dullest audience I have ever spoken to. Just sitting there, staring at me. Pretend you like me!” – Joe Biden
(ir)Rational
April 30th, 2012
3:13 pm
GG – Am I really supposed to worry about feeding the guy living under the bridge next to my office before I worry about feeding my wife? What about if we had children, would that change anything? I don’t understand the rationale that says I have to take care of others, or I’m living for others, instead of taking care of myself, and living for myself.
GT
April 30th, 2012
3:13 pm
I have friends of mine that will not buy foreign made cars, is that American in spirit?
Casual Observer
April 30th, 2012
3:14 pm
JamVet,
Yeah…her.
GT
April 30th, 2012
3:14 pm
It is coming up to the anniversary of Osama bin Laden’s death.
cloudodust
April 30th, 2012
3:14 pm
As a taxpayer, I wasn’t thrilled with being forced to invest in GM, an outfit with global implications and employees around the globe but we did…Seems my return on that investment was to secure existing union contracts…
TaxPayer
April 30th, 2012
3:15 pm
Per capita income may be low in China and India but when you factor in population
Would that make it per capita squared!
Kamchak ~ Thug from the Steppes
April 30th, 2012
3:15 pm
(ir)Rational
The commentators just announced that the city of Manchester has a city wide ban on alcohol today ahead of today’s match.
That’s harsh.
kayaker 71
April 30th, 2012
3:16 pm
cloudodust, 3:14,
And they still owe the American taxpayer close to 30B dollars.
JamVet
April 30th, 2012
3:16 pm
So, Brother Kam and others, give me a quick synopsis of ManC and ManU…
rightwing troll
April 30th, 2012
3:17 pm
Not a single example or detail shared… why would I expect anything less?
EJ Moosa
April 30th, 2012
3:17 pm
“Only those companies who have realized they must start hiring to improve profits have done anything to improve the economy.”
Care to tell us how this improves profits in a slowing economy?
(ir)Rational
April 30th, 2012
3:18 pm
Kam – Yeah, that is harsh. One side is REALLY going to need it at the end of the match. The other, is going to need it a few hours later to put up with all the drunk losers.
Finn McCool (Class Warfare === Stopping Rich People from TAKING MORE of OUR MONEY)
April 30th, 2012
3:18 pm
And they still owe the American taxpayer close to 30B dollars
And how much do the bankers W bailed out owe us? Not a dime? Never see that again? You bet…
GT
April 30th, 2012
3:19 pm
(ir)Rational odds are good that you do not have a wife and if you do it is temporary, the man under the bridge is always there. I bet the odds are somewhere that says a man that feeds a homeless man under a bridge is more likely to be married longer than a selfish jerk.
(ir)Rational
April 30th, 2012
3:20 pm
JamVet – Well, ManU is the incarnation of pure evil and wears Red. ManC is pretty much the same, but they wear light blue.
Seriously though, this match (assuming they both win out the rest of the season) determines who wins the ECL. Which makes it something of a big deal. It would be like GT and UGA playing in the National Championship Game. Oh, and having that game played in Atlanta.
AT
April 30th, 2012
3:20 pm
Jay,
“your point and your argument was that they’re NOT putting it offshore”
Did I mis-type? That they are keeping it offshore was exactly my point. You only copy/pasted part of the Moody’s article, not this part:
“This amount reflects the strength of most emerging-market economies over the last few years, the negative tax consequences of repatriating cash to the US and the disproportionate use of cash for US dividends, share buybacks and acquisitions. Without permanent reform that lowers the tax on overseas profits, Moody’s expects the absolute and proportionate amount of cash held overseas will continue to rise.”
Granny Godzilla - Union Thugette
April 30th, 2012
3:20 pm
Ir
Living for yourself.
Who is John Galt?
You, it seems.
Finn McCool (Class Warfare === Stopping Rich People from TAKING MORE of OUR MONEY)
April 30th, 2012
3:21 pm
Care to tell us how this improves profits in a slowing economy?
A slowing economy doesn’t mean all businesses in that economy are seeing slowing demand. How has Apple performed the last 5 years, eh?
You hire based on demand. A current level of employees can meet a certain level of demand. If demand continues to rise you need to add more workers.
Jay
April 30th, 2012
3:22 pm
Per capita income may be low in China and India but when you factor in population and hence overall consumer demand due to enormous populations and enormous economies(China’s economy is now larger than Europe’s largest economy Germany) then you realize just how absurd your argument is. Gawd that was easy.
Hah! So out of a million poor Chinese, how many are able to afford a plasma TV? The answer is zero.
(ir)Rational
April 30th, 2012
3:22 pm
GT – Thanks, I’ll be sure and tell my wife that some nameless person (I’m assuming) on a random blog told me that we wouldn’t be married much longer. I guess we should just go ahead and get a divorce, I mean, what’s the point of going through the pain of not liking each other if we already know it isn’t going to work out, we may as well just break if off now while we stand a chance of still being friends.
Seriously, wanting to make sure I have food on my table, clothes on my back, and a roof over that table now makes me a “selfish jerk?” You just can’t make that sh*t up.
Steve - USA (I support "None Of The Above")
April 30th, 2012
3:23 pm
April jobs numbers on Friday. Let’s hope it is good news.
Kamchak ~ Thug from the Steppes
April 30th, 2012
3:23 pm
Brother AmVet
Man U. is like the Dallas Cowboys, you either love ‘em, or you love to hate ‘em.
Man City was just recently purchase by a group out of UAE and they’ve been pouring in petro dollars to buy the best team and they’ve actually done a pretty god job of that in the past couple of years.
Pass the Cheesy Grits Please
April 30th, 2012
3:24 pm
Saw this on another board and had to share. Sums it up pretty well.
Mitt Romney criticized Barack Obama for vowing to strike al-Qaeda targets inside Pakistan if necessary.”
That was then. A few shakes of the etch-a-sketch later…
Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney says “of course” he would have ordered Osama bin Laden killed.
Flip. Flop.
Thulsa Doom
April 30th, 2012
3:25 pm
Criminy. I still can’t get a lib to answer the question. If investment is so great then why is the economy backsliding with recently downgraded economic growth expectations of a paltry 2% for this year which is nothing short of turrible, just turrible. Can any of them take a stab at that without saying its W’s fault in O’s 4th year in office?
Doomy waiting…
Jay
April 30th, 2012
3:25 pm
Moody’s expects the absolute and proportionate amount of cash held overseas will continue to rise.”
Read your own citation, AT. The “amount of cash held overseas”.
It is not being invested elsewhere, because there are no better investments elsewhere. It is CASH (or its electronic equivalent).
And again, as the charts above demonstrate, investment is increasing at a pretty quick pace here in the United States.
Poor Boy from Alabama
April 30th, 2012
3:25 pm
JB,
You charts are incomplete in that they don’t compare the way Corporate America operated before the Great Recession to how they operate after the Great Recession. Things look very different if you extend your chart to say 2007.
Corporate America is in fact sitting on a lot of cash. I suggest you look at a couple of sources:
Federal Reserve Flow of Funds report, Table L.101. Here are a couple of comparisons:
2007 / 2009 / Q4 2011 in $billions (Not seasonally adjusted)
Checkable deposits and currency: $552.9 / $705.8 / $1,195.8
Time and savings deposits: $800.7 / $842.1 / $940.8
Total Financial Assets: $17,358.0 / $16,933.5 / $18,654.6
You’ll get a similar set of figures if you go to Georgia Tech’s Financial Analysis Lab web site and download their Q3 2011 report for all industries. The spreadsheet shows that cash as a percentage of revenues is way above pre-recession levels. It averaged about 10% of revenues prior to the recession, peaked at about 16% in March of 2010 and is still about 14% today. Capital Expenditures, as a percentage of revenue are in fact below historical levels. They were around 4.2% as of the end of 2006, bottomed at 2.6% in March of 2010 and are at 3.3% as of September 2011.
A reasonable question is “Why?”. Here’s what CFO Magazine says about Mid-market firms:
http://www3.cfo.com/article/2012/4/growth-strategies_middle-market-revenue-growth-hiring-higher-healthcare-costs-ge-capital
“Middle-market companies expect revenue growth to moderate in the next 12 months, reflecting their lack of confidence in the U.S. and global economies and worries over higher health-care costs and new government regulations. All that is creating an uncertain financial picture for the firms, making them more likely to hoard cash than deploy it in hiring and capital expenditures.”
They drew this conclusion based upon a survey done by GE Capital and Ohio State University’s Fisher College of Business.
I’m not here to defend Victor Hansen Davis, but it’s pretty clear that Corporate America has concerns about the US economy, health care costs, and our regulatory environment. In response, they’re sitting on very high levels of cash.
kayaker 71
April 30th, 2012
3:25 pm
Wall Street Journal, Sept 17,2011,
“Corporations have more cash in their balance sheets than at any time in nearly one half a century. Non financial companies held more than 2T dollars in cash and other liquid assets at the end of June, the Federal Reserve reported Friday. That represents an increase of more than 88 B dollars since the end of March”.
Perhaps Mr. Hanson did his homework, after all.
cloudodust
April 30th, 2012
3:26 pm
“Hah! So out of a million poor Chinese, how many are able to afford a plasma TV? The answer is zero.”… Too bad they aren’t poor and living in America. Shoot, they’d be living like royality in comparison.
EJ Moosa
April 30th, 2012
3:26 pm
Good try Finn, but his example was for companies that need to improve profits. Apple does not fit that description does it?
But the newspaper industry certain does. Their earnings have dropped sharply for their most recent quarter. The way to higher profits then would be to start hiring more people in the newspaper industry, right?
Finn McCool (Class Warfare === Stopping Rich People from TAKING MORE of OUR MONEY)
April 30th, 2012
3:26 pm
iRational,
You could have a party and hook up tin cans to your bumper with a big sign that reads: “Just Divorced”
You have to plan ahead.
Finn McCool (Class Warfare === Stopping Rich People from TAKING MORE of OUR MONEY)
April 30th, 2012
3:28 pm
The way to higher profits then would be to start hiring more people in the newspaper industry, right?
What? Hiring workers doesn’t increase profits without demand. Profits don’t increase unless demand increases.
Kamchak ~ Thug from the Steppes
April 30th, 2012
3:28 pm
Criminy. I still can’t get a lib to answer the question. If investment is so great then why is the economy backsliding…
Had you actually read the posts on the first page, you would’ve discovered that ByteMe addressed that at 1:34.
Geez….
EJ Moosa
April 30th, 2012
3:29 pm
Did you actually read the first quarter GDP report?
“The deceleration in real GDP in the first quarter primarily reflected a deceleration in private
inventory investment and a downturn in nonresidential fixed investment that were partly offset by
accelerations in PCE and in exports.”
Does that sound like investment is increasing?
josef
April 30th, 2012
3:29 pm
irRational
The knee-jerkers are not following what you are saying…just like I said before on the investment at home versus abroad. You take care of your own first. That does not make you a bad person. However, you don’t stop there. There is no reason you (we) can’t take care of ourselves AND the man under the bridge…
And, just a guess, but I have my doubts those jumping your case here have had the homeless feller over for c*ctails and hors d’oeuvres lately…or a bowl of mush out the backdoor for that matter…
EJ Moosa
April 30th, 2012
3:29 pm
Hey, Finn, that’s your logic, not mine.
Moderate Line
April 30th, 2012
3:31 pm
Jay
April 30th, 2012
3:06 pm
“The recent recession we are sill 12% below the previous peak 19 quarters later. Also the total drop in investmet was 12% in the 2001 recession whereas the recent recession was 36.4%.”
Which is exactly the point I made in the footnote.
++++
The first thing you tried to show is that investment was not suffering as the Republicans showed. I dispute the notion since investment is suffering. However, I don’t agree with the Republicans on the point of people being afraid to invest because of Obama. Also, I don’t buy the argument by Republicans that to much regualtion cause the recession but your premise that the numbers prove the Republicans are wrong is incorrect.
scott
April 30th, 2012
3:31 pm
“Victor Davis Hanson has just demonstrated that the First Amendment does let you make a fool of yourself…
”
Something you libs do each and every day!!!
Normal Free, Plain and Simple
April 30th, 2012
3:31 pm
Off topic, but interesting reading for those of you who are afraid of Gays….
http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2012/04/homophobic_maybe_you_re_gay_the_new_york_times_on_a_new_study_of_secret_sexuality_.html
EJ Moosa
April 30th, 2012
3:31 pm
Sorry Finn, my original comment which you responded to about Apple was a reference to a comment that companies that needed to improve profits would be hiring.
I am unsure why you brought Apple into the picture since they did not fit that description.
I realize that was not your logic.
Forgive me.
Finn McCool (Class Warfare === Stopping Rich People from TAKING MORE of OUR MONEY)
April 30th, 2012
3:32 pm
Doomy, try this:
Investment is commonly people’s savings. If you are saving your money, then you aren’t spending that money. If you aren’t spending that money then companies aren’t seeing any demand from you. If companies don’t have demand, they don’t grow, don’t hire, don’t produce.
Does it make sense now?
Paul
April 30th, 2012
3:32 pm
GT
“I have friends of mine that will not buy foreign made cars, is that American in spirit?”
It may make them feel patriotic or whatever, but good luck in finding any car brand that’s entirely made in a foreign country.
Thulsa Doom
April 30th, 2012
3:33 pm
Jay,
Do you have any idea just how silly you sound. Aggregate demand which includes consumer demand is huge in China. Maybe many Chinese can’t afford a plasma tv but collectively as a nation they are importing high technology, heavy machinery, etc. And they can still afford to by many American products such as cokes, fast food places like kfc popping up there. And their rising middle class is in fact starting to buy more luxury type items. Your example of plasma tvs is laughable. Aggreggate demand in China is huge. Face it Jay. You got nailed to the wall on this demand issue. Demand is much more than just plasma tvs.
Steve - USA (I support "None Of The Above")
April 30th, 2012
3:34 pm
Normal@3:31
So if you are afraid of Conservatives does that mean you really are a Conservative.
kayaker 71
April 30th, 2012
3:34 pm
Victor Davis Hanson is probably one of the most informed, intelligent and cogent journalists out there. If he was a liberal, Bookman would call him a genius. Same with Karl Rove. If he could get Bozo re-elected, and if he was a liberal, he would be lauded as a man for all seasons. Just depends on what side of the fence you are straddling as to your credibility.
Mighty Righty
April 30th, 2012
3:34 pm
Paul-try to engage your gray matter. The Texas study was done by professor Liman Zhou of City University of New York from 2003 through 2011. (Noye the recency) The study concluded that the temperatire on the ground increased over the area used by the wind mills and would have major effects if windmills were used in quantites projected.. That is a recent study. Compare to Golbal Warming, excuse me Climate Change (Note: the change in terms becuase even the proponents know Gloabal Warming is no longer proveable) advocates who try to tell us the climate has changed. Wow, that is a startling revealation! Climate changes! For real! How many billions of dollars have been wasted to arrive at this unique insight? From the people who can’t accurately forecast next months climate we are to believe they can not only forecast one hundred years from now, they can tell us what happened three million years ago! I mentioned the last because I recently read a study by a group of “climatologists” who said they had discovered there was an unusual high level of CO 2 three million years ago. THREE MILLION YEARS AGO! I’ll tell you what. Give me a government grant for a few hundred thousand dollars and I too will swear there is global warming, freezing, floods, earth quakes, locusts, famines, plague or even that Obama believes in Democracy. What ever the government wants, I’ll swear to it.
Pass the Cheesy Grits Please
April 30th, 2012
3:34 pm
One thing you can count on with Thulsa
When she is in a hole she keeps right on digging.
Paul
April 30th, 2012
3:35 pm
afternoon, (ir)Rational
“I’ll be sure and tell my wife that some nameless person (I’m assuming) on a random blog told me that we wouldn’t be married much longer. ”
Setting up such a train of cause and effect all makes sense if you’re an ad writer.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7udQSHWpL88
jewcowboy
April 30th, 2012
3:36 pm
“homeless feller over for c*ctails and hors d’oeuvres lately”
I would if they would provide me with a home address in which to send the engraved invitations.
JKL2
April 30th, 2012
3:36 pm
-(At that point, the administration had been in power for all of five weeks.)
And already had a Nobel Peace Prize to show for their great accomplishments…
Finn McCool (Class Warfare === Stopping Rich People from TAKING MORE of OUR MONEY)
April 30th, 2012
3:36 pm
Do you folks understand that private investment is 401ks, mutual funds, stock market activity? It’s not corporate investment in machinery and it’s not government investment in anything.
Casual Observer
April 30th, 2012
3:37 pm
But with all this positive economic news and charts, you would think Obama would have a 10+ point lead, seeing as to how he has brought us back from the brink of an economic apocalypse.
http://www.gallup.com/poll/150743/Obama-Romney.aspx
Normal Free, Plain and Simple
April 30th, 2012
3:37 pm
Steve – USA (I support “None Of The Above”)
April 30th, 2012
3:34 pm
Could be, but I just think Conservatives are funny…
jewcowboy
April 30th, 2012
3:37 pm
“or a bowl of mush out the backdoor for that matter…”
I learned my lesson about putting food out for strays a long time ago.
Jay
April 30th, 2012
3:38 pm
Poor Boy, I agree with much of your post.
I agree, for example, that corporations are holding a lot of cash because they can’t find profitable ways to invest it. However, that doesn’t mean that investment overall is down, because it simply isn’t. Investment is up. The numbers don’t lie.
I’ve looked at the numbers back to 2007 and earlier, and no, they don’t describe anything different than what I’ve described here. As I noted, investment collapsed during the recession, back to the levels of ‘97, and so far has only recovered to the levels of 2004 or so.
Corporate profits have been the highest in history in recent years, giving them more money than they know what to do with in an economy in which consumer demand is weak.
Pass the Cheesy Grits Please
April 30th, 2012
3:38 pm
From the people who can’t accurately forecast next months climate we are to believe they can not only forecast one hundred years from now, they can tell us what happened three million years ago
But they can tell you what was happening on Earth three million years ago.
Its called Science.
Anyone who with a straight face could deny that all the crap we are pumping and have pumped into our environment the last 400 years or so has had no effect whatsoever on our climate.
Well it become tough to have a conversation after that.
Pass the Cheesy Grits Please
April 30th, 2012
3:41 pm
“Thanks to President Obama, bin Laden is dead and General Motors is alive,” Vice President Joe Biden said Thursday in a campaign speech. “You have to ask yourself, if Gov. Romney had been president, could he have used the same slogan – in reverse? “
Well put.
josef
April 30th, 2012
3:41 pm
jewcowboy
jewcowboy
April 30th, 2012
3:42 pm
Mighty Righty,
“(Note: the change in terms becuase even the proponents know Gloabal Warming is no longer proveable)”
Not exactly: “A new study has shown that words matter, with more Americans saying they believe in the phenomenon when it’s referred to as climate change.The effect is particularly pronounced in Republicans.”
http://www.tgdaily.com/sustainability-features/54539-global-warming-vs-climate-change-terminology-matters
TaxPayer
April 30th, 2012
3:42 pm
Well Apple and Cisco figured out what to do with that extra cash. They’re giving it back to the job creators.
Paul
April 30th, 2012
3:43 pm
kayaker71
“Victor Davis Hanson is probably one of the most informed, intelligent and cogent journalists out there. If he was a liberal, Bookman would call him a genius.
I’m betting if Hanson were a liberal and wrote a piece like that without one shred of evidence to substantiate his conclusions, Jay would also label him a hack.
Mighty Righty
“Paul-try to engage your gray matter. ”
Oooh, sounds like I hit a nerve!
But before we go any further on this momentous point, can we clarify one itty bitty fact?
When you wrote that windmills cause climate change,I take it you do, and maybe even the folks at Fox, as well as their listeners,
now accept that man’s actions cause global climate change?
AT
April 30th, 2012
3:43 pm
Jay,
If you want to make the argument that the future of the US economy is in such great shape that corporations are holding trillions in cash…go ahead.
In view of the trillions in new debt that the US has pumped into the economy, bragging about the rise in the stock market is sort of like pointing to rising home prices about 5 years ago. There’s a big bubble a-blowin’…
Casual Observer
April 30th, 2012
3:43 pm
Pass the Cheesy Grits Please
April 30th, 2012
3:41 pm
According to a recently released memo, it appears that bin Laden is dead in spite of Obama, not because of Obama.
Steve - USA (I support "None Of The Above")
April 30th, 2012
3:44 pm
“Do you folks understand that private investment is 401ks, mutual funds, stock market activity? It’s not corporate investment in machinery and it’s not government investment in anything.”
Sorry. It does include Corporate Investment.
Kamchak ~ Thug from the Steppes
April 30th, 2012
3:44 pm
And, just a guess, but I have my doubts those jumping your case here have had the homeless feller over for c*ctails and hors d’oeuvres lately…or a bowl of mush out the backdoor for that matter…
Let them eat béchamel.
(ir)Rational
April 30th, 2012
3:45 pm
josef – Yeah, I don’t see any reason not to share with the guy living under the bridge, if I can. And when I can, I most likely will. That’s the difference between you and others here, you actually read and understand, while many of the rest, as you pointed out, simply knee-jerk out a reaction.
jewcowboy – You can send me the invitations, and I’ll drop them off under the bridge.
Paul – I actually like those commercials. I find them amusing. Their final conclusions are always priceless.
Paul
April 30th, 2012
3:46 pm
Mighty Righty
“The Texas study was done by professor Liman Zhou of City University of New York from 2003 through 2011. ”
Texas is an oil state and Big Oil underwrites all studies to discredit renewable energy. Zhou’s obviously a ChiCom who wants America to continue to rely on a-rabs for oil so we will be weak. And City University’s in New York City, so it’s a socialist-lib propaganda mill.
There. in the best tradition of climate change deniers and following the templte, I just debunked your claim that mankind causes global warming by operating windmills.
Kamchak ~ Thug from the Steppes
April 30th, 2012
3:46 pm
Man. City scores on a headed corner in the 45th minute.
Jay
April 30th, 2012
3:47 pm
Mighty, your interpretation of the study is absolutely bogus, as the Christian Science Monitor tells us:
If it were true that the spinning blades of wind turbines increased the overall temperature of the planet, as opposed to simply redistributing thermal energy, we would have to rewrite some basic laws of physics, particularly the 2nd law of thermodynamics. This is an important distinction from the burning of fossil fuels, which produces gas that increases how much of the sun’s energy the Earth retains. In this respect, this process contributes to a globally warming climate because the source of energy (the sun) is apart from the system that is warmed (the Earth.)
Rather than inform the public’s perception on climate change, exaggerated coverage of this study has merely justified the common distrust scientists have for journalists.
Wind turbines don’t warm anything. There is no conceivable means by which they could. They apparently do redistribute heat a bit, pulling existing heat down to ground level.
http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2012/0430/Don-t-believe-the-headlines.-Wind-farms-do-not-cause-global-warming
JamVet
April 30th, 2012
3:48 pm
What an end to that first half.
Great stuff…
(ir)Rational
April 30th, 2012
3:48 pm
Kam – So your hopes for an enjoyable game haven’t panned out. Dag-nab-it.
GT
April 30th, 2012
3:48 pm
I hear ya Paul.
Paul
April 30th, 2012
3:51 pm
Mighty Righty
Here’s your postNEWS FLASH-Wind Farms Increase Global Warming
New research finds that wind farms actually warm up the surface of the land underneath them during the night, a phenomena that could put a damper on efforts to expand wind energy as a green energy solution.
Researchers used satellite data from 2003 to 2011 to examine surface temperatures across as wide swath of west Texas, which has built four of the world’s largest wind farms. The data showed a direct correlation between night-time temperatures increases of 0.72 degrees C (1.3 degrees F) and the placement of the farms.
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2012/04/30/wind-farms-are-warming-earth-researchers-say/#ixzz1tYAZR3Tq“:
Sure sounds like you guys say man’s activities can markedly affect the earth’s climate.
All kidding aside, I’m really trying to get this straight. Is that now the position of Fox News and the Right?
Kamchak ~ Thug from the Steppes
April 30th, 2012
3:51 pm
(ir)Rational
If I had my ‘druthers, I’d want City to win this game.
JamVet
April 30th, 2012
3:51 pm
(ir)Rational and kam, thanks for the updates. I knew some of that but not many details.
One of my few complaints with the game is the number of “dives”. I’d like to see them do what the NHL did a few years back, i.e., Rooney gets a yellow card too…
getalife
April 30th, 2012
3:53 pm
“As far as my personal role and what other folks would do, I just recommend that everybody take a look at people’s previous statements in terms of whether they thought it was appropriate to go into Pakistan and take out bin Laden,” Obama said. “I assume that people meant what they said when they said it. That’s been at least my practice. I said we would go after bin Laden if we had a clear shot at him. And I did. If there are others who have said one thing and now suggest they would do something else, then I would go ahead and let them explain it.”
Down goes willard.
One, two, three…….
(ir)Rational
April 30th, 2012
3:53 pm
Kam – Rooney (yeah, it hurts to say this) is around my second favorite player in any league.
Jay
April 30th, 2012
3:54 pm
““Wind power is going to be a part of the solution to the climate change, air pollution and energy security problem,” said Liming Zhou, at the University of Albany in New York. “But understanding the impacts of wind farms is critical for developing management strategies to ensure the long-term sustainability of wind power.”
(ir)Rational
April 30th, 2012
3:54 pm
So, that means, I guess I would have to hope ManU wins. (That might have been the hardest thing I’ve ever typed.)
JamVet
April 30th, 2012
3:54 pm
“Victor Davis Hanson is probably one of the most informed, intelligent and cogent journalists out there.”
And in this instance a liar.
But when did that really matter to cons if it is a con that is lying?
Pass the Cheesy Grits Please
April 30th, 2012
3:55 pm
According to a recently released memo, it appears that bin Laden is dead in spite of Obama, not because of Obama.
Ummm wrong. The Admiral was just following the orders of the Commander in Chief Barrack Obama.
TaxPayer
April 30th, 2012
3:55 pm
Republicans would not question how fans work if they actually had stayed awake in science class. The teacher should have shut off the heat pump and made the room a little more uncomfortable in order to keep their attention. If a Republican read a Koch-funded article that concluded that ice melts as it gets colder, they’d believe that too.
Mighty Righty
April 30th, 2012
3:56 pm
General Motors paid zero taxes on more than 7 billion dollars in profit. Their “fair share” is zero. They are also are now building their popular 1500 pick up in Mexico and they are building a plant in China. Obamanomics includes no “trickle down.” Obamanomics includes no benefit to our economy. When the administration counts new jobs created by his administration, does he include all of the over seas jobs. We know that most of the so called green jobs went over seas. Now the bamster will meet next week with China. Wonder what he will agree to after the microphone is tuened off. Folks, keep your eyes on the left hand.
Thomas Heyward jr
April 30th, 2012
3:56 pm
What Would Krugman Do? (obviously, that is rhetorical). Supreme Keynesian Voodoo acolyte Paul Krugman and Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul go head to head on fixing the U.S. economy at 4pm ET today on Bloomberg Television’s “Street Smart.”
.
Reality versus Fantasy.
.
Run for the hills.
Kamchak ~ Thug from the Steppes
April 30th, 2012
3:57 pm
Rooney?
Mr. Potato-head no-neck.
Fell out of the ugly tree, and hit every branch on the way down
JamVet
April 30th, 2012
3:58 pm
Compare to Golbal Warming, excuse me Climate Change (Note: the change in terms becuase even the proponents know Gloabal Warming is no longer proveable)
Fifth grade rubbish, long ago repudiated in a 2006 National Geographic.
And just for you, Righty, though this is only the forty seventh time that I’ve posted this:
Scientists often use the term “climate change” instead of global warming. This is because as the Earth’s average temperature climbs, winds and ocean currents move heat around the globe in ways that can cool some areas, warm others, and change the amount of rain and snow falling. As a result, the climate changes differently in different areas.
kayaker 71
April 30th, 2012
3:58 pm
Paul, 3:43,
“Without a shred of evidence????? What in the hell are you talking about? I’ll repeat it for you slowly. In September, 2011, the WSJ reported that the Federal Reserve stated that there was in excess of 2T dollars laying around in the non-financial corporation balance sheets all over the US. This was not R&D money, inventory, capital assets, no none of that. Only Cash and Liquid Assets. The Federal Reserve is pretty reliable Paul, wouldn’t you say. Perhaps that’s where Mr. Hanson got some of his data. But no, that’s too easy. Liberals have to make a problem out of it. Lots of Charts, Diagrams, Pie Charts and all of that BS to demonstrate that yet another conservative journalist doesn’t really know his ass from third base. You are beginning to look silly, Paul,
(ir)Rational
April 30th, 2012
4:01 pm
Kam – I don’t like him because of how he looks. I like him because of how he plays. I’ll admit, a large portion of that comes from me being in Europe during EuroCup 2004 when he burst onto the scene as a star for England, and (since I only speak English fluently) everybody I spoke to about the games was raving about him, it kinda stuck. So, I liked him before he played for ManU, and I still like him in spite of the fact that he does now. Now, Lionel Messi, I like him because he is pretty and because he is awesome. Okay, maybe just because he is awesome. And once again, I discovered him while watching him play for Argentina in the World Cup, the fact that he plays for Barca is just an added bonus.
JamVet
April 30th, 2012
4:03 pm
The best name in today’s game?
Yaya Touré.
Finn McCool (Class Warfare === Stopping Rich People from TAKING MORE of OUR MONEY)
April 30th, 2012
4:04 pm
Fans???
Reminds me of a story. A good-ole boy was over visiting his family members who happened to have an attic fan in their house. The good-ole boy was enthralled. the next time the family was at the good ole boy’s house he just had to show them his new attic fan. They looked up to see a square hole cut in the ceiling with a box fan laid across it.
True story from Gaffney , SC.
getalife
April 30th, 2012
4:05 pm
” Romney said, of then-alive terrorist leader Osama bin Laden, ““It’s not worth moving heaven and earth spending billions of dollars just trying to catch one person.”
Flip flop.
larry
April 30th, 2012
4:06 pm
The Hanson brothers probably know more about the economy than this Hanson does.
(ir)Rational
April 30th, 2012
4:07 pm
Finn – Attic fans are one of the greatest inventions ever put into a house. I really don’t understand why people don’t use them more today. We wouldn’t have to turn the A/C on in my parents house until it got to be about 95 or so outside as long as we opened the windows and turned on the attic fan. Ah, good times.
Paul
April 30th, 2012
4:08 pm
Jay 3:54
Just as is true with the thread’s topic, it would appear that not only does a certain political segment accept what they read from trusted sources, they quote those sources and can’t imagine that anyone would read them, let alone arrive at a conclusion actually based on the data -
Paul
April 30th, 2012
4:11 pm
kayaker 71
““Without a shred of evidence????? What in the hell are you talking about?”
Don’t you even read the thread kickoff posted by Jay before you post?
“Oddly, Hansen offers not a shred of evidence or data to support that contention. He simply assumes that it is true and assumes that his readers will assume that it’s true.
It is not true. In fact, it is demonstrably false.”
As far as the rest of your post, I think if you read the comments before you came in you’ll find your answer -
kayaker 71
April 30th, 2012
4:12 pm
It never ceases to amaze how many of you liberal posters have your nose up Bookman’s posterior. Anything he says seems to be written on some granite tablet and he is carrying it down from the mountain to tell all you liberals how to think, what to believe and most all, how not to think for yourselves. He has been proven wrong…. dead wrong…. and he has demeaned a well meaning, intelligent journalist…… but you continue to cling on to his shirt tails decrying that all “wing nuts” have only one synapse short of a green onion. I’m out of here….. enough of this.
real john
April 30th, 2012
4:13 pm
Interesting Article. However, I tend to think that the Wall Street Journals opinion on March 9, 2009 was actually pretty accurate..
“From punishing business to squandering scarce national public resources, Team Obama is creating more uncertainty and less confidence — and thus a longer period of recession or subpar growth….”
I would argue that Obama and his own economic teams forecasts would even agre that the recession was longer and we have been in subpar growth if you go back and look at their own economic forecast back in March 2009. Obama’s own forecast (and most of the economists he loves to cite) have been a bit optimistic vs the actual growth the last three years or so.
getalife
April 30th, 2012
4:14 pm
willard gets back up and said it was a” cheap political ploy.”
First flip flop of the 12 Presidential election.
Finn McCool (Class Warfare === Stopping Rich People from TAKING MORE of OUR MONEY)
April 30th, 2012
4:15 pm
Kayaker, we prefer the term “not the sharpest tool in the shed”
getalife
April 30th, 2012
4:16 pm
“I’m out of here….. enough of this.”
Oh, the drama.
Thomas Heyward jr
April 30th, 2012
4:17 pm
Krugman’s balls must be shrinking because his voice keeps getting higher and higher. Shifty, nervous little worm. Looks like Bernanke’s brother too.
.
Undoubtably, Krugman would want some Government stimulas on his Depends.
Kamchak ~ Thug from the Steppes
April 30th, 2012
4:17 pm
The best name in today’s game?
Yaya Touré.
Brother AmVet
He’s got a brother named Kolo, currently serving a ban for testing positive for a failed drug test.
JamVet
April 30th, 2012
4:19 pm
71: “…and he has demeaned a well meaning, intelligent journalist…”
Riiiiiiight.
Hanson believes that the Iraq War is a good and worthwhile undertaking and that it has been, on the whole, a laudable success.
That was easy.
getalife
April 30th, 2012
4:21 pm
The cons have lost it.
Mighty Righty
April 30th, 2012
4:21 pm
Jam, you are brilliant. I had no idea that there were temperature variables across the globe. Imagine my surprise to find out ocean currents and wind effects temperature. Who would have thought? Thanks for setting me straight. Here is a little experiment for you to try. On a hot day, go out to your front lawn, if you have one. If not, borrow one. Take your shoes off while standing on the grass. Then walk barefooted on the pavement or better yet asphalt. You will personaly experience “climate change.” It is up to you to find the greenhouse gas that caused the temperature change. Also, here is a little history lesson. Weather stations are located at airports because weather is a very important factor in flying. As few a a hundred years ago, runways were grass or dirt. Today they are concrete or asphalt. Might that change effect temperature?
josef
April 30th, 2012
4:22 pm
kayaker
Just curious, but has Jay ever said ANYthing you approved of?
*****
Attic fans…love ‘em
Krugman…can’t abide him
Tundra Dude
April 30th, 2012
4:26 pm
Victor Davis Hanson and the non-existent ‘investors’ strike’
Consider the source. This came from an employee of a non-existent “think tank”.
Their main chores are to fetch water and wave pom-poms for their corporate sponsors. He’s probably good buddies with (uncle) Tommy Sowell,
“We don’t need no stinkin’ charts” ~ Victor Davis Hanson
Obama is over
April 30th, 2012
4:29 pm
Gene Epstein in Barron’s this weekend pointed out that the fall in state and local GDP has been the greatest since WWII, with the investment portion also shrinking. It is ironic that you use the chart on Gross PRIVATE domestic investment. Last Friday’s GDP number came in at an annual rate of 2.2%. If you strip out the decline in the Government sector from last Friday’s number, private sector GDP rose at 2.8%. Thus, all of this Government stimulus has had a negligible effect on GDP. The fact that GDP is growing at 2.2% after 3 years of a ZERO% Fed funds target is pretty embarrassing for Obama. The uncertain business environment you refer to is a result of the regulations being created in Washington. And it is not just taxes. The Durbin amendment to Dodd Frank was designed to help consumers by lowering the transaction fees charged by retailers on debit cards. The theory by the Obama administration was that retailers would pass on all these savings to consumers. Yeh right. The oil companies pocketed an additional $1 billion last year from reduced transaction fees for debit cards at the pump. Like most of the failed Obama policies, Dodd-Frank was designed to help Americans by creating more government regulations and involvement. The reality is that we got another 2000 page complex set of rules and regulations raising the cost of all financial services in the U.S. that does not provide any protection from another systematic banking failure. The only people truly benefiting from the economic policies of the Obama administration are folks getting paid back for campaign support (special interest lobbyists, organized labor) and lawyers/accountants who are getting paid to decipher all of this foolishness for people trying to figure out how to do business in the U.S. It is like the ParkAtlanta controversy. The City wants to encourage people to come to Atlanta for conventions and spend money, yet at the same time wants to create rules to jack up parking fees to gouge them while they are here. It makes it hard to compete with other cities who are actually trying to become friendly destinations.
Casual Observer
April 30th, 2012
4:30 pm
Lets see…..VDH is a military historian, columnist, political essayist and former classics professor, a scholar of ancient warfare. He has been a commentator on modern warfare and contemporary politics for National Review and other media outlets. He was for many years a professor of classics at California State University, Fresno, and is currently the Martin and Illie Anderson Senior Fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution.
Hanson was awarded the National Humanities Medal in 2007,[1] the Claremont Institute’s Statesmanship Award at its annual Churchill Dinner, and the $250,000 Bradley prize from the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation in 2008.[2]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_Davis_Hanson
Jay Bookman writes opinion pieces for the AJC.
So, when it comes to the state of the economy, or any other topic, who would you trust has a clue about what he is writing about?
Maybe Jay can call Mr. Hanson and give him his opinion of what he thinks of Mr. Hanson’s column.
josef
April 30th, 2012
4:33 pm
curious
Okay, taking that resume…how does that qualify him as an expert on economics?
Hmmmmmmmm
April 30th, 2012
4:35 pm
@saywhat?
Well, the old saying works for you…. The acorn doesn’t fall very far from the tree… I guess you are coloring withing the lines….
Mighty Righty
April 30th, 2012
4:35 pm
Now it seems Obama’s buddies at Solyndra after taking their unearned bonuses have left a toxic mess for the City of Milpitas to clean up. Go green and donate to Obama. Nothing else matters.
http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2012/04/28/solyndra-not-dealing-with-toxic-waste-at-milpitas-facility/
TaxPayer
April 30th, 2012
4:35 pm
VDH is a military historian, columnist, political essayist and former classics professor, a scholar of ancient warfare. He has been a commentator on modern warfare and contemporary politics for National Review and other media outlets.
And if that doesn’t qualify him to write authoritatively about economics, what does!
JamVet
April 30th, 2012
4:35 pm
Thanks for setting me straight.
Just quit puking up long ago repudiated con talking points about the experts changing the name to fit your goofy conspiracy theories.
Besides, I take no credit. Thank the awesome network of scientists around the globe and other people at the hundred plus year old, ultra-prestigious National Geographic.
What a hoot that you don’t have one single, solitary, worldwide respected organization like that one on your anti-science side of the debate ledger, huh?
(ir)Rational
April 30th, 2012
4:35 pm
josef – I was actually wondering that myself. Easy to see how he could fancy himself to be an expert on war and ancient history, but economics doesn’t really seem to fit in with that resume.
Casual Observer
April 30th, 2012
4:36 pm
josef
April 30th, 2012
4:33 pm
Maybe you should ask Jay that question.
Kamchak ~ Thug from the Steppes
April 30th, 2012
4:39 pm
Still 1-0 with 5 yellow cards handed out so far. 81st minute.
Soothsayer
April 30th, 2012
4:39 pm
THIS JUST IN! Former President Bill Clinton will be/as campaigning for President Obama’s re-election campaign.
Gosh! I wonder if King Dumbass the First will be campaigning with Mitt Romney?
TaxPayer
April 30th, 2012
4:40 pm
Does Hanson do global warming too.
Casual Observer
April 30th, 2012
4:41 pm
Maybe you didn’t see this then;
Jay Bookman writes opinion pieces for the AJC.
Doesn’t look like economics fits his resume either.
Pass the Cheesy Grits Please
April 30th, 2012
4:42 pm
Weather stations are located at airports because weather is a very important factor in flying. As few a a hundred years ago, runways were grass or dirt. Today they are concrete or asphalt. Might that change effect temperature?
How do you argue with the level of stupidity above ?
Simply mind boggling.
getalife
April 30th, 2012
4:42 pm
President Obama and President Clinton make a pretty good team.
Might as well make President Clinton VP.
josef
April 30th, 2012
4:42 pm
curious
Just being EOI here but the Imam does have some credentials in the study of economics…of course I’d be just as impressed by his credentials as a witch doctor or tarot reader for all the faith I put in what that “discipline” has to offer…
Casual Observer
April 30th, 2012
4:43 pm
I wonder if Clinton will be bringing Lewinski along to show Obama his famous ‘hide the cigar’ act?
josef
April 30th, 2012
4:44 pm
getalife
Just a question, but if he’s prohibited from a third term as President, does that preclude him being vice-President?
josef
April 30th, 2012
4:44 pm
getalife
Just a question, but if he’s prohibited from a third term as President, does that preclude him being vice-President?
ragnar danneskjold
April 30th, 2012
4:45 pm
Dear Jay @ 1:42 and various other times, are you attempting to argue that US has an investment climate as good as during those four Bush years when Republicans controlled the Congress? I think any dispassionate reviewer would note that the US is adding regulations and taxes, and the growth areas in the world are not. A rational investor looks for the best potential return, and that does not exist under the Obama administration.
Current employment in the private sector is 132,821,000, below the Obama first day total of 133,561,00, and well below the total when democrats took control of the Congress in Jan 2007, 137,118,000. Our overlords have regulated-away 4 million jobs; thanks democrats.
The Dow today is around the same place it was in December 2007, one year after democrats took control of Congress; thanks, democrats, for the past 4.5 years. Leftists are people who believe they can regulate an entity without adversely affecting its performance, as if the regulations have no effect. Those of you who think the world is operating well under Obamanomics need to vote for the Messiah again in 2012; the rational among us will vote otherwise.
Paul
April 30th, 2012
4:46 pm
Casual Observer
I was going to write “rather makes one wonder how a person with his credentials and background could write a piece so devoid of citations and supporting facts, doesn’t it?”
Then I remembered his target audience -
Kamchak ~ Thug from the Steppes
April 30th, 2012
4:48 pm
5 minutes added for stoppage time.
Steve - USA (I support "None Of The Above")
April 30th, 2012
4:49 pm
“Jay Bookman writes opinion pieces for the AJC.”
I hate to defend Jay and I have to do it again.
They guy does write an opinion blog but when he states an opinion he does reference the source of the facts that he uses to arrive at those opinions. You may not agree on how he uses his sources but he is not pulling theories out of his back side.
TaxPayer
April 30th, 2012
4:49 pm
I think any dispassionate reviewer would note that the US is adding regulations and taxes…
Really! Where?
Paul
April 30th, 2012
4:49 pm
Oh, and Casual
If it had been a piece the Right had been critical of, we’d see the inevitable posts of “oh yeah? Ptui on all that ivory tower education. Did he ever serve in a line unit in the Marines, huh? Or the Army? Did he ever serve at al????????!!!!!”
But I do note that not once did the Left levy that ’stop-em in their track’ rejoinder.
Soothsayer
April 30th, 2012
4:49 pm
Mighty Dumb: “Might that change effect temperature?”
Might that change affect temperature?
getalife
April 30th, 2012
4:49 pm
“does that preclude him being vice-President?”
I don’t know.
larry
April 30th, 2012
4:49 pm
I wonder if Romney will be bringing Bush along so Bush can show Romney the famous ” hide the WMD” act ?
(ir)Rational
April 30th, 2012
4:50 pm
Casual Observer – As you pointed out, he writes opinion pieces. The above piece that we’re all (or started off anyway) discussing is just that, an opinion.
getalife
April 30th, 2012
4:52 pm
josef,
One of their donors talked about getting two Presidents for the price of one.
(ir)Rational
April 30th, 2012
4:52 pm
josef – I would say it does, simply because the VP must be eligible to be president. Obviously, he could be president for 2 more years, but what happens if he needed to step in with more than 2 years left in the term? He would be ineligible.
Paul
April 30th, 2012
4:53 pm
josef
“Just a question, but if he’s prohibited from a third term as President, does that preclude him being vice-President?”
I’d say yes, ’cause even if Clinton took the VP slot and was ineligible to serve as president if the need should arise, succession would have that fall to Spkr Boehner.
And that’s why it ain’t gonna happen -
Matti
April 30th, 2012
4:53 pm
ragnar the rand cultist,
You could invest here if you wanted to. You could be a “job creator.” Blah blah blah, personal responsibility and all that. You CHOOSE to ignore what’s best for this nation in favor of what’s best for you. Free country (for some); your choice.
Why not just admit you’re rather earn an extra tenth of a percentage point on your investments that to be a part of pulling the United States of America out of this recession? Or… don’t admit it. I don’t care, but let’s not pretend that this is about anything else than what you want for YOU. Your faux patriotism is rancid. Time to toss it.
Soothsayer
April 30th, 2012
4:53 pm
Fresh sheets
larry
April 30th, 2012
4:54 pm
Leftists are people who believe they can regulate an entity without adversely affecting its performance, as if the regulations have no effect.
Gee. all those regulations……………I wonder who signed them into law ?
ragnar danneskjold
April 30th, 2012
4:55 pm
Just so you will be aware, the same “incompetent” Bush, with a comparatively conservative Congress from Jan 2003 – Jan 2007, saw private sector employment rise from 130,270,000 to 137,118,000, when the democrats took Congress.
Side note, the Dow, on Jan 1 2003, stood at 10,453.92, and on Jan 2007, when the democrats retook Congress, the Dow stood at 12,463.15. Don’t think the performance under the democrats was so robust, and I attribute that to the regulatory mentality democrats bring to government.
josef
April 30th, 2012
4:57 pm
Thanks for the input…I’ve wondered about that…
getalife
Get upstairs…Jay’s got a post for YOU!
Casual Observer
April 30th, 2012
4:58 pm
Here is some more of that article the was left out;
Most economists since 2009 have been completely wrong in their forecasts, reminding us that their supposedly data-driven discipline is more an art than a science. After all, a great deal of money is invested and spent — or not — based largely on perceptions, hunches, and emotions rather than a 100 percent certainty of profit or loss. And the message Americans are getting is that the Obama administration is hostile to investment and business, and thus should be waited out.
Barack Obama’s original economic team — Austan Goolsbee, Christina Romer, Larry Summers, Peter Orszag — have long fled the administration, and have proved mostly wrong in all their therapies and prognostications of 2009. Despite the stimulus of borrowing over $5 trillion in less than four years, near-zero interest rates, and chronic deficits, the U.S. economy is in the weakest recovery since the Great Depression and mired in the longest streak of continuous unemployment of 8 percent or higher — 38 months — since the 1930s. The Mexican economy is growing more rapidly than is ours. Why did not massive annual $1 trillion–plus deficits spark a recovery, as government claimed an ever larger percentage of GDP, and new public-works projects were heralded by the administration? – VDH
Of course, all this is wrong also, right Jay?
Paul
April 30th, 2012
4:59 pm
larry
I believe the correct question is, ‘who voted for and passed the laws upon which the regulations are based and designed to implement?”
USMC
April 30th, 2012
5:00 pm
“But it’s nonetheless good to see your patriotism at work.”–Jay
I guess Jay forgot that he drove a TOYOTA for years… Patriotic???
As Bookman pushes/espouses for the FUNDAMENTAL CHANGE of America, he at the same time questions one’s patriotism..
What a joke; definitely a lack of common sense on Jay’s part- so what else is new.
At least the Inman Park Arts Festival was fun!
ragnar danneskjold
April 30th, 2012
5:02 pm
Jay’s final italicized note merits discussion, as it goes to the heart of what caused the “bubble” to form and what caused it to collapse. I have written my arguments on the various government elements that caused the bubble to form, primarily (1) the Basel accords, (2) Fed easy money, (3) taxpayer subsidy in the form of FNMA/FHLMC, and (4) CRA. The first pushed banks away from commercial credit and into mortgages by regulatory fiat. The second deprived the investment community of real returns on sounder investments by inflation (which also masks internal problems of individual investments. The third created a taxpayer-guaranteed market for the lousy product urged by the fourth factor.
In contrast the leftists proffer that the cause was a vague, unprecedented “greed.” Glad we have a specific cause to treat, there.
265 more days
April 30th, 2012
5:06 pm
Soothsayer
April 30th, 2012
4:39 pm
THIS JUST IN! Former President Bill Clinton will be/as campaigning for President Obama’s re-election campaign.
Gosh! I wonder if King Dumbass the First will be campaigning with Mitt Romney?
So the Former POTUS is campaigning for O’Bama, I wonder why Gore and Kerry didn’t want to get that close to him.
They BOTH suck
April 30th, 2012
5:06 pm
Rags
Why no mention of the housing / construction bubble and the the time frame you are referencing?
The same direct and indirect short term benefits that were realized by the impacted industries were also felt in a negative way by a high percentage in those same industries…
Surely you are taking that into account, right?
That bubble didn’t start in Jan 07……. It had been building for several years and there is evidence to show that it was already cracking in 06………
Jay
April 30th, 2012
5:07 pm
I think any dispassionate reviewer would note that the US is adding regulations and taxes, and the growth areas in the world are not.
Then you think incorrectly, Ragnar. The US has been CUTTING taxes throughout the Obama presidency. But the fact that you do not know or will not acknowledge that basic fact says an awful awful lot.
A rational investor looks for the best potential return, and that does not exist under the Obama administration.
And yet the Dow has doubled, and investment has increased at a faster rate under Obama than it did under Bush, which again completely refutes your claim. Where is this universe in which these things that you claim are true? It sure isn’t THIS universe.
Fly-on-the-Wall
April 30th, 2012
5:15 pm
Jay points out that some of the top earning US companies are sitting on so much cash they don’t know what to do with it. My personal, totally biased response to that is that corporate America has decided not to invest in the US any longer. That isn’t for all the usual reasons that the right says, it simply has to do with economics and these same corporations see more profit in doing business overseas – they’ve given up on the US people and economy because they can do everything at slave labor wages overseas and get away with it so….they do!
They figure that either way Americas will still buy what they can but the real money is overseas because a) labor is dirt cheap b) there are more people over there, almost 2 billion versus the 300 million here in the US c) little or no environmental enforcement in those countries.
Now I’m sure the Righty-Tighies will get their undies all in a bunch saying that if we did the same then we could compete. Hogwash and you know it. Can you live on a few dollars a day? Try it and then tell me that the US population would be better off if we just cut our wages to match the lowest in the world so we could keep manufacturing here. It has nothing to do with union or tree huggers because without them this country would be nothing – literally.
I’ll step down from my soap box.
USMC
April 30th, 2012
5:21 pm
Jay Bookman has joined Comrade Obama’s WAR ON SUCCESS!
Jay and Dear Leader want to ruin the greatest country in the world by CHANGING it through Socialist reforms and government take-over.
Incredible… or at least that is what Rush Limbaugh told us today on the radio.
Michael
April 30th, 2012
5:42 pm
I have invested and made good money, but USMC has his head up his———-.
Vast Right Wing Conspiracy
April 30th, 2012
6:52 pm
Once again, Jay, you have left out a few salient facts. Check the outflows from equity funds to fixed-income funds (or into gold or the mattress) over the past three years or so. Significant. Retail has sat this one out, because they know it has been created by a combination of large institutional program trading (from the Corzine types hoping to get retail back in, so they can get out), and the Fed’s constant, significant devaluation of the dollar to pay for the Manchurian Candidate’s multi-trillion dollar pipe dreams. If you are paying your debts on contrived below-market rates, with dollars that are worth significantly less, and will be into the foreseeable future, the value of your company has to increase. That is also the sole reason investment is up – you have to take what the Marxist will give you.
0311/8541/5811/1811/1801
April 30th, 2012
9:01 pm
Headline: “US not reporting all Afghan troop attacks on American soldiers”
“The U.S.-led coalition routinely reports each time an American or foreign solider is killed by an Afghan in uniform. But The Associated Press has learned it does not report insider attacks in which the Afghan wounds — or misses — his U.S. or allied target. It also does not report the wounding of troops who were attacked alongside those who were killed.”
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/04/30/us-not-reporting-all-afghan-troop-attacks-on-american-soldiers/
The above is very similar to what Jay does when he writes an anti-gun editorial.
He compares the number of people killed accidentally by guns vs. the number of “justifiable homicides” with guns but fails to include:
The number of perpetrators wounded by gun toters.
The number of perpetrators scared off by a miss.
The number of perpetrators scared off because they saw a gun.
The number of perpetrators scared off because they thought their proposed victim might have a gun.
Kamchak ~ Thug from the Steppes
April 30th, 2012
10:06 pm
Headline: “Jay Bookman’s blog is being spammed by rabbit holes”
SSDD
Rockwell
April 30th, 2012
11:13 pm
Barack Obama campaigned four years ago assailing President George W. Bush for wage losses suffered by the middle class. More than three years into Obama’s own presidency, those declines have only deepened.
The rebound from the worst recession since the 1930s has generated relatively few of the moderately skilled jobs that once supported the middle class, tightening the financial squeeze on many Americans, even those who are employed.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-01/obama-fails-to-stem-middle-class-slide-he-blamed-on-bush.html
lovelyliz
May 1st, 2012
9:07 am
People who don’t believe in facts, science, history and math are rarely bothered by economic reality
Victor Davis Hanson: “All Fall Down” « CITIZEN.BLOGGER.1984+ GUNNY.G BLOG.EMAIL
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10:56 pm
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