Economic recovery and the myth of small business
Whether from candidates of every political stripe, every president from Ronald Reagan to Barack Obama, or your average talk show host, the prescription for economic recovery has been this: Small business, small business, small business.
So a paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research, written by economist John Haltiwanger and others, throwing cold water on this national assumption, is raising plenty of eyebrows around Washington.
Read the entire paper here, though it is rather thick. The primary theme: Small businesses as a whole don’t create an extraordinary amount of jobs. In fact, they’re responsible for destroying quite a few.
Young businesses do create jobs. It’s a subtle but important distinction. Even so, large firms are more reliable when it comes to job-creation. Some digestible excerpts:
…[O]nce we add controls for firm age, we find no systematic relationship between net growth rates and firm size. A key role for firm age is associated with firm births. We find that firm births contribute substantially to both gross and net job creation.
Importantly, because new firms tend to be small, the finding of a systematic inverse relationship between firm size and net growth rates in prior analyses is entirely attributable to most new firms being classified in small size classes.
Our findings emphasize the critical role played by startups in U.S. employment growth dynamics. We document a rich “up or out” dynamic of young firms in the U.S. That is, conditional on survival, young firms grow more rapidly than their more mature counterparts.
However, young firms have a much higher likelihood of exit so that the job destruction from exit is also disproportionately high among young firms. More generally, young firms are more volatile and exhibit higher rates of gross job creation and destruction…
And for you job-seekers:
…The basic insight is that the firms that have the most jobs create the most jobs – so if a worker is looking for the places where the most jobs are being created they should go where the jobs are – large and mature firms.
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45 comments Add your comment
Paddy O
September 7th, 2010
4:30 pm
No friggin kidding. Hope the stimulus did’nt pay for this manure.
Lone Star
September 7th, 2010
4:36 pm
I doubt that many employers started as large firms. You have to crawl before you walk.
Paddy O, ditto.
As If Politicians Needed Another Reason To Kiss Up To Big Business… — Peach Pundit
September 7th, 2010
4:47 pm
[...] new report says small businesses don’t create jobs, large ones do. Whether from candidates of every political stripe, every president from Ronald [...]
Will Jones - Atlanta Jeffersonian Exegesis
September 7th, 2010
5:01 pm
Check the connections of these “economists” with the CFR’s ruling false elite. They say what fascists want us to believe…as in “Citizens United.” A talented “economist” can spin it in whatever direction his or her paymaster indicates. Papist pap in support of fascist folly.
The economy is in the toilet because fascist plutocracy, profiting from generations of spiraling concentration of wealth, has its money overseas or off-the-table, to choke off the semblance of “revolt” manifest in Obama’s election.
WE have lost our way
September 7th, 2010
5:55 pm
Regardless if it small business or large corporations our economy is in one big mess. You can not spend your way out of this hole that we are in and large corporations are not spending capital on expansion or new hires.Look at the last two quarter profits of large corporations and see why they are setting on their money. Huge profits ,happy share holders and happy board of directors will keep our economy from growing. They are setting on the sidelines until spending picks up and inventories hit very low numbers. If one are two would start expanding and spending capital,others will follow. as of today the key word is CASH ON HAND.
Roy Barnes
September 7th, 2010
6:34 pm
Vote for me and I promise I will fix this also.
I will turn water into wine and make Georgia shine.
Lone Star
September 7th, 2010
6:35 pm
WE have lost our way:
” large corporations are not spending capital on expansion or new hires”, and they will not with the current climate as it relates to business. The attitude of the administration in Washington is decidedly anti-business. Adding a little to what you said, we can’t borrow our way out of debt and we can’t spend ourself rich. Until those two very basic truths are accepted, nothing will get better.
Rural Education
September 7th, 2010
7:00 pm
Lone Star: The current climate in Washington has little to do with the large corporations sitting on large piles of cash. The truth is they can make record profits under the current system so they are never going to hire large numbers of people again, at least domestically. The fact is that capitalism has winners and losers and America’s middle class got caught on the wrong side. Do you see the market rebound, are the executives not back to getting record bonuses? There won’t be a large scale recovery, I fear that 10% unemployment will become the norm.
WE have lost our way
September 7th, 2010
7:25 pm
Rural Education–Ditto,thanks for your viewpoint.
Will Jones - Atlanta Jeffersonian Exegesis
September 7th, 2010
7:38 pm
The Middle Class/The People isn’t on the “wrong side” of Capitalism, it is Fascism which has garnered such unjust advantage for the “Fifth Column” of the Roman Anti-Christ. Were is not Fascism, the twin Fasces would have been removed from the front wall of the U.S. House, and Bush and Cheney would have already hanged for 9/11. Viz. “The New Pearl Harbor,” Griffin, Ph.D..
smart dawg
September 7th, 2010
8:09 pm
I have been a small business owner for 28 years. We are staying afloat, but revenue was bad last year, and this year is even worse. Our patrons, many of whom have lost their jobs, have been forced to curtail their use of our services. I understand their plight.
When small business is strangled by regulations and increased taxes, we simply can’t invest in growth endeavors when there is so much uncertainty in the air. The current administration, including the various czars, has set an all time record low of people with experience in the private sector.
Clueless Joe (with apologies to Shoeless Joe) has called this the summer of recovery. What a joke.
Things will improve if businesses are given assurance and incentive to expand via lower rather than higher tax burdens. Perhaps then we will see “Help Wanted” signs as opposed to “For Sale”, “For Lease”, and “Bank Forclosure” signs.
Get off of my back and out of my wallet!
Mel
September 7th, 2010
8:28 pm
Small businesses have to compete the old fashioned way, by offering a better product or service but big business competes by buying out the competition and firing half the people who worked there. Example: Most of the bailout money the banks got wasn’t used for loans. It was used to buy other banks.
Will Jones - Atlanta Jeffersonian Exegesis
September 7th, 2010
9:17 pm
Mel speaks truth. The “Bailout,” put in place by 9/11-committing, draft-dodging closet-queen Bush, was nothing but one more “Saddle the Taxpayer” “penny behind the fuse” shoring up the unconstitutional Federal Reserve scam JFK’s EO11,110 ended, before the fascist traitors behind it ended him with Bush1, Nixon, and the RC CIA. Fiat money fractional banking is unconstitutional. The beneficiaries of the “Bailout” were the private shareholders of the Federal Reserve Scam. Demublican and Republicrat constitute The Best Government Money Can Buy. Hang Bush and Cheney. Seal the Border. Expropriate fascist plutocracy. Repudiate the Debt. “Annuit Coeptis” shall then pertain once more.
Jenny Lee
September 7th, 2010
11:26 pm
never got a job from a homeless person. Wal-mart started as a 5 and dime store.
bigdawg88
September 7th, 2010
11:50 pm
Smartdawg,
You say patrons are not using your services, but you blame taxes for the reason you’re not expanding. So, which is it? Quit blaming the end of the tax cut giveaway. That only applies to people making more than $250K. If you will check I think Obama is trying to push through tax credits for capital spending. Is that what you’re looking for?
Look, no point blaming Obama for all of this, it’s part of the boom-bust business cycle. Thing is, Obama is getting the blame for the unemployment rate, but it will be years before it picks up, no matter what anyone does. Businesses will sit on their cash for a couple of years until they realize that money sitting in the bank doesn’t make much interest so they will finally start investing and hiring to expand. then with more people employed spending will increase and the economy will pick back up. Problem is, it takes time, which we do not like in the microwave age. We want everything now, right now!!
Actually, with the cost of credit so low it does make sense for the government to borrow money. This is the best time to borrow actually. Let’s just hope they slow it down when the economy picks back up. Unfortunately, Obama is going to be like Sr. Bush; he’s going to get the blame for an economic mess he didn’t create. I fear we’ll have a new president in 2013, who will then take credit for the economic recovery that inevitably takes place.
Alabama Communist
September 8th, 2010
12:17 am
so if a worker is looking for the places where the most jobs are being created they should go where the jobs are – large and mature firms.* Comment
Right! Like going to Obama Motors, AIG Insurance, Goldman Sachs and submitting a resume that you will work for any corrupt Fascist Corporation that both political parties love……
smart dawg
September 8th, 2010
12:40 am
bigdawg
I blame uncertainty for the lack of movement in the general economic “wheel”. Every business owner I have spoken with understands this, and everyone bemoans the slowness of their business.
If it were just my business, then obviously the problem is mine. Everyone is slow, and the atmosphere created by the obama administration is not helping the situation. Those who have funds are reluctant to take chances. Thus, the economic “wheel” grinds to a halt.
Tax cut giveaway. Please. When 50% of the population pays zero federal taxes, the burden shifts to an increasingly smaller group of producers. When the producers are strangled, who will be left to pay? At what point do they say “Forget this, I will simply close the doors” (Reference the above post from Jenny Lee)
Obama said his increased cuts were for capital gains. Lot of good that does for the average small business owner. It applies to tax paid upon the profit of sale of assets.
Patrons of my business who are suffering financially are forced to make choices. Oddly enough, feeding the family rises to the top of their list. Everything else slides.
I hope the political climate changes in November (not that I drool over the GOP track record), but at least we can stem the uncontrolled spending of non-existent dollars.
Furthermore I hope and pray we have a new president in 2012.
So, bigdawg, are you self employed? i.e., a business owner?
If not, do you work in the private sector?
Reality
September 8th, 2010
4:11 am
The current administration is NOT anti-business at all. It is, however, about paying fair taxes – and that does include businesses.
In GA, the republicans have tried to ‘give away the farm’ in order to lure businesses here for jobs. What does this mean? Well, just look at the vacant GM plants here as an example. Sure, some manufacturing company will come to GA for State tax-free reasons. Sure, they may give a number of minimum wage jobs for a time. And, sure, this may lure people to the area for those pitiful jobs. But then, they pack up and leave as soon as any tax incentive is over. This leaves even more people out of work and a big empty space of a building.
Does this cycle make sense to anyone at all with any ounce of reason?
This paper does make sense. My brother-in-law owns a small business. It is not new – has been in the family for 3 generations. However, it is a small business and cannot grow. It employs about 15 to 20 people and that is all it will ever employ. He has no interest in expanding at all.
Why should the government use my tax dollars to give his business some additional breaks/benefits? Will someone please tell me? He already uses every advantage possible (both legal and illegal) as a small business owner.
A new business is different. A new owner usually has sights set on bigger and better things. A new owner may have the potential to increase employees.
There is a huge difference and if you cannot see it, then continue to vote republican and further drive this State and this Country into the ground giving the most wealthy tax cuts. Reagan already proved that the ‘trickle down’ theory does not work. How many years must this Country suffer until you people realize it?
earthling
September 8th, 2010
4:13 am
smart dawg:
you are a capitalist. quit whining. there is no more certainty for a business than there is for an individual. (except for that fact that a business always passes all of its burdens to the consumer.)
there is no whining in capitalism.
Winfield J. Abbe
September 8th, 2010
4:52 am
Government at every level has placed so many demands on all business it is amazing any of them are still operating. Local Robin Hood Communist governments like Athens Clarke County force them to pay inventory taxes, collect sales taxes for the city and state with inadequate compensation, property taxes which usually pay the education and other costs of irresponsible citizens who do not pay their fair share of government services to them. The federal and state governments demand more money and enormous accounting for all their demands and payments of workman’s compensation insurance and threats of fines and jail time if business does not comply as they approve and encourage more cheap goods and services be shiped from overseas thus placing your neighbors out of work. Liability laws are so bad you cannot even hire a kid to mow the lawn without threats of being sued by greedy lawyers and parents. Even furniture is now coming here from China. The lunatics in Congress passed NAFTA. Remember what Ross Perot, whom you wouldn’t elect predicted? What good is it to have a bunch of cheap goods if ;your neighbors are all out of jobs and the hood becomes a war zone of foreclosed homes because corrupt government made loans to liars and cheats who were not qualified for those loans? And most of this corruption was carried out by college graduates with “higher” education.
Soon everyone will be on the government payroll and the printing presses will run 24/7 to pay for it with printed money.
No wealth will be produced and it wll only be a matter of time until the end arrives. And our lunatics in Congress deserve special healh care programs and special retirement programs don’t they? Americans are the biggest most selfish fools on the planet. They never learn anything. They have been brainwashed by too much advertising. Government produces nothing. Wealth is produced by intelligent and responsible and hard working citizens, not government. Talk to anyone who owns a business of any size and discover how much hassle they must go through every day to comply with dictatorial government edicts, and thank your lucky stars any of them are still in business.
Winfield J. Abbe
September 8th, 2010
5:13 am
During the last 2+ years, virtually all property values have plummeted by 50% or more. Some properties cannot even be given away. Yet local corrupt governments in Georgia have not lowered property values to reflect true values, thus are engaged in theft by deception and fraud against property owners. If any citizen or business engaged in these corrupt practices they would be placed in jail. I know a person who pays about $100,000 just in property tax to Athens
Clarke County. About 60 % goes to public schools or $60,000. It costs about $12,000 per year per child to pay the costs of education of a child in public schools. So this person is being forced to pay the costs of about 5 children they did not foster and his family grew up years ago. He cannot even vote! What happened to personal responsibility? What happened to the idea of the individuals who have those children resulting from fun in the bedroom paying the costs of the children they fostered? We can’t go on like this folks. You must take your heads out of the sand and demand some accountability from our non leaders. You cannot continue to take from the haves to pay the costs of the have nots. It won’t work. It wouldn’t work 200 years ago and it won’t work today. Our elected officials at every level obviously watched too many of those Errol Flynn movies from the perverts in Hollywood where Robin Hood was idolized and glorified. He was the mythical outlaw from Sherwood Forest who stole from the rich and gave to the poor. But what happens when the rich run out of money? What happens when the boat is overloaded? We cannot continue in this suicidal direction of self destruction. The haves have enough trouble seeking to provide for their own security and responsiblities, and their own children and grandchildren, let alone paying for others who do not and will not act responsibly and provide for their own needs as the Founders of America intended.
Remember who Karl Marx was? He was the father of Communism. He said “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.” But he didn’t say where the money would come from to provide for all these good for nothings who want and demand a free ride at other’s expense. We cannot continue in this suicidal directiion into the cesspool. Wake up Americans from the sports entertainment on the television set and fire your politically correct idiots running this country and bankrupting us all. This is not just a federal problem or just a state problem, but very much a local problem with tyrannical local government in Georgia also.
Will Jones - Atlanta Jeffersonian Exegesis
September 8th, 2010
5:39 am
So, have you joined Scholars for 9/11 Truth and Justice yet, Dr. Abbe? Here’s the link http://stj911.org/
Would you prefer to deny science and suggest there should be no diseconomies for a society willing to countenance such treason? The tax and business costs you bemoan are all rents extracted from those paying for the Police State their failure to exact Justice from Bush and Cheney endorses, whether through venality, stupidity or cowardice – none of which are American or Georgian traits.
The truth
September 8th, 2010
5:56 am
Is this waco day?
Us vs Us
September 8th, 2010
6:22 am
@The truth – Every day with Winfield J. Abbe is waco day! He did seem to bring some of his buds from the asylum though.
Road Scholar
September 8th, 2010
6:31 am
The truth: It appears so!
So what the bloggers above want is no laws, restrictions, accountability,taxes, etc. on business. How did this country rise to such power with all these “add ons” being the scourge of business? How about the risk small businesses agreed to shoulder when they decided to open?
So lets allow unaccountability, disrespect for the public and the laws, etc. so we can get our tainted products to the stores w/o any responsibility for the safety and well being of the user! Let’s whine , whine , whine until we ruin our business and society.
Wacko's rule
September 8th, 2010
6:33 am
By the looks of the typical comments here, our country is in big trouble. We’re not in trouble because current events have exposed the flaws of our economic system, we’re in trouble because of the response of the posters to this blog.
The posters here are either paranoid conspiracy nuts, ideologues, ignorant, or blind partisans. Please consider taking time to read reports like the one linked above or read the business section of the AJC.
Buzz G
September 8th, 2010
7:17 am
Any country which elected Barak Obama for President without knowing what he stands for and then passes the Obamacare legislation without knowing what was in it, deserves what it gets. Sadly, those who have been paying attention will be punished along with everyone else.
Truth Speaker
September 8th, 2010
8:13 am
I do not see what all the fuss is about. First to address one aspect of research that those of you that are not professional researchers certainly do not understand is the simple fact that we believe assumptions need to be challenged. Reagan and Obama and other presidents, congressmen, etc give their schpiel on small businesses the way they do because it sounds good and they need to get reelected…not because it is true. Secondly, there are certainly several other academic publications that test alternative hypotheses and come to different conclusions…fact is all of this we still do not know.
Next, big business being the driver and engine of the economy makes more sense than small business. Sure, some estimates say that a majority of jobs belong in the realm of small business. Very near 100% of small businesses outsource services that make zero sense in hiring full time staff to do (ie accounting, legal work, IT, etc). Guess what, a good deal of those accounting and law firms and independent IT contracting firms are small businesses.
This is not a holistic view of the situation, I am just trying to paint part of a picture for the rest of you to fill in. Now, big business does not have the same low capital structure that small businesses do. After all, how many small businesses are traded on the NYSE? the London exchange? Hong Kong? 0 if your definition of small business is 49 employees or less.
As far as small businesses shedding jobs more that big business, that also makes more sense when you find out that 1 in every 10 new small businesses will bankrupt or simply go out of business within its first year of operation.
Fact is there is some American nostalgia in this conception that small business is the most vital aspect of the economy. This is fundamentally and objectively incorrect. Small business may be more important for the stability and promulgation of our democratic way of life, but democracy and capitalism are also in paradox with one another.
Sandra
September 8th, 2010
8:25 am
Buzz,
Just because you didn’t do your homework don’t assume that every one who voted for President Obama didn’t do so. Sadly, those of us in Georgia don’t get to actually have a chance to vote to punish our Congress for their actions. When you only have a single person to vote for as is the case in many of the races, how do you accomplish change? There is nothing that I would like better than to vote Tom Price and some others out of office simply because of what they have become. They may have started out o.k. but haven’t been that way in years. They are hypocrites of the worst order and obstructionists to everything. I don’t necessarily agree with everything the President has proposed but the pure politics of the Republican party with absolutely no consideration to the regular people of this country totally disgusts me. I have always voted based on the individual and not the party they belong to but voting for a republican these days is not in the cards for me. They offer nothing but stale ideas that didn’t work so well for us before. They are all power hungry in both parties without ANY thought to what is best for the country. The only thing Republicans are better at is spreading fear and smear. Thanks but no thanks!
Jimmie
September 8th, 2010
8:32 am
Whoa, at some point Microsoft and Apple were a couple of nerds in a garage screwing around with a rector set. They didn’t start out as global enterprises. Small businesses that are successful grow to larger businesses. They all are generated through the hard work, risk taking and capital investment, more often than not on a shoe string, of individuals. When taxes go up on individuals, fewer small businesses are started. It is like the tax equivalent of infanticide. If you want to create more big businesses that can grow and add thousands of jobs, you have to start with a small business and give it the opportunity to grow. One of the reasons small businesses have such a hard time is that the tax system is so draconian that no one is willing to take the risk. We also have less risk capital available to fund start ups because of stupid tax policies that favor consumption and debt over investment. Having a tax code that favored consumption and debt worked well when we were the sole economic superpower after WW II – we were the only nation in the world capable of significant amounts of production (or consumption for that matter) so we created a tax system to fit that world – we subsidized consumption because all of those dollars went largely to Amercian companies – we subsidized debt because all of the debt, private and government, was owned by Americans. That is not the case today – we have an antiquated, antibusiness tax system that has not evolved to deal with the reality of a multi-polar economic world where most of the production of consumables occurs off of American shores – meaning we are transferring massive amounts of wealth to foreign countries in the form of deficit spending (which is so large, that American investors can no longer absorb the treasury issuance) and export purchases. When what was good for GM was good for America, it didn’t matter. But that world is gone and our political class has no clue. This study is a further example of that. If we are to create jobs for the future, it is going to be driven by the next round of Gates, etc., who come along in a basement somewhere and will need a favorable business environment to grow their ideas from start up to multi national. Any life cycle starts with a baby – if you strangle the baby in the crib with high taxes, out of control lawsuits and a regulatory system that is overwhelming, you can kiss innovation, capital formation and new company creation good bye.
Will Jones - Atlanta Jeffersonian Exegesis
September 8th, 2010
8:36 am
Not-Truth Speaker – Democratic republicanism in America was born of Adam Smith capitalism. It is democracy and fascism – our present economy – which are mutually exclusive…hence Diebold, ‘Bush v. Gore,’ and conformed government sinecures’, confirmed philistines’, and witting false-elite traitors’ unwillingness to simply read “The New Pearl Harbor,” Griffin, Ph.D., as we approach September 11th, to know before G-d 9/11 was traitors Bush’s and Cheney’s “Reichstag Fire Redux.” Here’s a free copy, patriotically donated by the author and publisher http://bibliotecapleyades.net/archivos_pdf/new_pearlharbor.pdf
Those who aren’t comfortable discussing the fact of Bush’s and Cheney’s having committed 9/11 should really spend time outside the executive suite or country club locker room. Talk to a cop or a cashier, an HVAC tech or a garbageman. The Working People of America all know they did it. Read the book offered, for free, and you, too, can begin to share knowledge and a Kindred Spirit with patriot, G-d-fearing Americans.
America suffers because we have failed to pursue Justice and abolish Evil. When we do G-d will look kindly upon us again.
Death for Treason
lmno
September 8th, 2010
8:45 am
This information is true. I know a lot of small business owners and I can tell you that they aren’t creating jobs.
Go ask an insurance agent who has been in business for 20 years about the number of employees he/she has. In most cases, they have about the same number working for them now, as they did 15 years ago. When you start out, you have to hire a group of folks, but after a while, you hire one when you lose one. So thats not growth.
but remember
Growth for the sake of growth is the ideaology of the cancer cell.
Tired of BS
September 8th, 2010
8:59 am
blah blah blah. Nothing new from the left. All businesses start small. With the president we currently have, everyone but minorities who claim victim status suffers.
Real Athens
September 8th, 2010
9:05 am
Rural Education @ 7 PM is spot on. The facts are:
Real GDP has risen for 4 consecutive quarters. Last spring the economy was shrinking at an annual rate of 6%. In the first half of this year it grew by 3% – one of the largest turnarounds in 50 years.
According to the Federal Reserve “U.S. non-financial comapnies have stockpiled a record $1.8 trillion in cash and liquid assests — 14.6 % of their net worth, the highest percentage since 1952.
The S & P 500’s average Price-to-earnings ratio is 12 — one of lowest levels since the 1980’s.
The truth is “Trickle-Down Economics” is a fallacy.
Will Jones - Atlanta Jeffersonian Exegesis
September 8th, 2010
9:21 am
The cash stockpiling is false-elite manipulation – with no connection to the sovereign People (hence ‘Citizens United’ by SCOTUS’ papist majority) – in case Obama grows a pair and moves to do what’s right: expropriate fascist plutocracy, which has purchased The Best Government Money Can Buy, and hang their front”men” Bush and Cheney for 9/11.
Jeff
September 8th, 2010
10:23 am
Regardless, the simple fact is, no jobs will be created by anyone until people start spending again.
Any company, large or small, can hire all the people it wants to build thousands of widgets;
if no one is buying widgets, they will eventually go under or they will have to “lighten the load” and let those employees go.
Jeff
September 8th, 2010
10:36 am
So, who creates more jobs… the self motivated, self employed create jobs for themselves, then others as they grow….
those EVIL, EVIL “rich” people
http://www.census.gov/epcd/www/smallbus.html
n
September 8th, 2010
11:14 am
Our major industry is war. A trillion dollars or more to invade Iraq and Afganistan and stay there for seven years. That’s one of the major reasons we are drowning in debt in the U.S. Then there was the $800,000,000,000 handout by the Bush Administration as a final parting gift to his buddies on Wall Street. And the Republican propaganda machine never stops blaming Obama for the deficit. The economy isn’t coming back. All our jobs have been sent to China, India, Mexico, Malyasia, Taiwan, Honduras, Haiti, etc. etc. No one has any money because we have made a point to divest America of meaningful productive labor that sustained our parents and grand-parents and generations of Americans. And the wingnuts want to prevent us from developing the energy efficient technologies for production and transportation that the rest of the world is rushing to perfect, which would create millions of productive jobs while insuring the future for coming generations. The Republicans (and many Democrats) want us to continue sending most of our national wealth to the oil-producing states and to the oil, natural gas and coal companies, because those companies line the pockets of most of the Washington.insiders.
Jimmie
September 8th, 2010
11:43 am
Lest we forget, the deficit was less than $400 billion when Bush left office (including costs of Iraq and Afghanistan) and had been trending down after the 2001 recession until the Dems took control of Congress in 2006 (these are the facts, go look them up). Also, lest we forget, all of the TARP money has been paid back with interest from the banks, so the taxpayer actually made money on that deal. And, lastly, lest we forget, under the Obama administration, the deficit has gone from $400 billion when Bush left office to over $1.3 trillion, and that is before any costs from ObamaCare are factored into the equation. With ObamaCare, we have created another monstrous entitlement that will create structural deficits forever. I thought Bush could have been more thrifty, no question, but Obama and the Dem. Congress are an absolute fiscal disaster. So don’t buy the fantasy that the deficit is Bush’s issue entirely – he was an underachiever compared to the current crowd. As for “wingnuts” wishing to prevent these new technologies for energy, please go look at the experience that Spain and Germany have had with subsidized wind and solar energy. Their governments have realized that their efforts were economically suicidal and have backed off. Studies from both governments show that subsidizing these renewable projects were as effective as putting money in a hole in the ground, pouring gas on the dollars and lighting a match. It cost thousands of jobs and was a total misallocation of taxpayer resources. Also, we have enough domestic natural gas and coal to basically fuel our energy needs (not to mention a tremendous amount of untapped oil). We are totally resource rich, we have just made stupid decisions to keep much of our natural resource base off limits in the name of enviromental enlightenment. Therefore, we outsource our energy requirements (out of sight, out of mind) to areas of production with much less environmental controls or sensitivity. It is a bad two-fer, we send the revenue overseas and underwrite more enviromental degradation in the process by pushing more production to countries that care much less for the enviroment, all in the name of saving the environment. At some point, the American people are going to get wise to this and demand a more rational energy policy – I hope it is in my lifetime.
n
September 8th, 2010
12:46 pm
Code Orange in Atlanta the past few days. If you have old folks or children, they will not do well outdoors breathing fossil fuel particulates and exhaust. Ditto coal power plants, particulates, mercury pollution, etc. etc.. The Stone Age didn’t end for lack of stone. It ended because human beings used their frontal lobes to develop better technology. It doesn’t matter how much coal, oil and gas we have available here or from other countries. There are better energy alternatives soon within our grasp–if we use our God-given intellect and quit rewarding polluters and their inefficient technologies.
Real Athens
September 8th, 2010
12:52 pm
Where do these revisionists come from:
The gross Federal debt as a percentage of gross domestic product increased by 7.1% during the first Bush term and 20% during the second term to the tune of $2.63 Trillion. Your claims of trending down are just lies.
Will Jones - Atlanta Jeffersonian Exegesis
September 8th, 2010
3:14 pm
Just like L’il Bushie’s JFK-killing father said: “This is the New World Order,”…the Old Sectarian Order of king and pope reborn. National Debt to put the People in Debt Bondage by the pope’s bankers of the unconstitutional Federal Reserve JFK got rid of. Time to hang tories again.
Jimmie
September 8th, 2010
8:16 pm
Real Athens, I got my figures from the Washington Post – they had a very informative graph recently that showed the Bush deficits vs. the Obama deficits. Bush deficits had been cut to around $200 billion in 2007, moved up to about $400 billion in 2008. Obama’s first year deficit is scored by CBO at over $1.85 trillion (I mispoke, giving Obama a $500 billion credit he didn’t deserve – my bad – interestingly, my error in his favor was larger than Bush’s entire 2008 budget deficit). So, those are the facts, not revisionism, and the Bush deficits were trending down in his second term. That is the truth, whether you like it or not.
Real Athens
September 8th, 2010
9:35 pm
James how in your logic (and inaccurate understanding of what gross federal deficits are) can you say
“Bush deficits had been cut to around $200 billion in 2007, moved up to about $400 billion in 2008″
is trending down? 2008 was the last year of his term.
News Flash: Because you write (or believe) something does not make it true.
http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/federal_deficit_chart.html
Avery
September 8th, 2010
11:24 pm
It is sad that almost none of the comments address the original article. My guess is that politicians will give it a similar reaction.
If I recall, small businesses are something like 80% of companies but less than 20% of GDP. That, accompanied with this study, would suggest that policies tilted toward small business are “socialist”, because it it benefits the masses (small businesses) at the expense of the successful few companies (who empirically seem to be driving job growth).
For the record, I have no problem with policies supporting small businesses, but GOP supporters shrieking about socialism have a slight logic problem on their hands. I doubt it will bother them.