It's no coincidence that Christina Romer, chairwoman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, announced her retirement the day before Friday's brutal unemployment report. With 131,000 more jobs lost in July, and downward revisions of 97,000 for the previous two months, it's easy to see why she would start looking for the exits.
Romer is best known for drafting the February 2009 report "The Job Impact of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan," which the White House used as an ammunition belt in the fight to gain passage of its $862 billion economic stimulus bill (the actual cost of which exceeds $1 trillion when interest is included). Romer predicted that following passage of the stimulus bill, unemployment would plateau below 8 percent last fall and by this month register at 7 percent. That's not close enough for government work, as unemployment stands at 9.5 percent today. It would be higher except that hundreds of thousands of frustrated job seekers have given up looking for new jobs and dropped out of the labor force.
Predictably, the stimulus bill has proven to be an extraordinary waste of borrowed money that has failed to create jobs, generate economic growth or do much of anything other than line the pockets of White House political allies. That and give $308 million in subsidies to BP before the Gulf oil spill disaster, and subsidize a study on what happens when monkeys snort coke.
As Romer fades back to her teaching post at Berkeley, Obama is adding to the economic misery by creating an environment of regulatory uncertainty. The Wall Street reform law Obama recently signed potentially requires 533 new regulations, 60 studies and 93 reports, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Obama's Environmental Protection Agency has 29 active rulemakings, and there are 100 new rules on the Labor Department's agenda and 26 at the Transportation Department.
Add Obama's determination to raise everybody's taxes by allowing the Bush cuts from 2001 and 2003 to expire Jan. 1, 2011, and it's easy to why banks, businesses and consumers are hoarding trillions of dollars that could otherwise spur economic growth. And we haven't even addressed the destructive effect on economic growth of Obama's nationalization of major portions of the economy, including the banks, health care and the auto industry.
The economy is stalling, unemployment seems stuck at European levels of idleness, the federal deficit and the national debt are at historic highs, public confidence in Congress is at its lowest-ever level and big majorities of Mainstream Americans say Obama has the country on the wrong path. Obamanomics has failed miserably and it's time for everybody in this town to admit it so we can move on.
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/Time-to-admit-Obamanomics-has-failed-1008050-100154469.html#ixzz0w7y5q7d1">Read more at the Washington Examiner:
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So we've seen that the government throwing borrowed money at the economy only serves to make things worse. Can we try giving people more of the money they earn back now?
The Empire is collapsing and we're deep into the path of all the past Empire's that came before us. No one is willing to do what must be done because no one is willing to sacrifice what they have been accustomed to. We are no longer citizens we're consumers and this house of cards that it's built on is collapsing.
When I have a bit more time I'll of course go on one of my rants .......
It amazes me how things haven't changed. Everyone is looking to the federal government to save us from this mess. Their policies put us here, and their policies haven't changed. Even when a few people say things that make sense (like raising interest rates) they seem unwilling to execute their ideas. The only good nes I have heard is that people seem to be paying off revolving credit accounts and saving more cash. THAT has got to happen to change things, However the government seems hell bent to increase our debt to (even More) nuclear levels.
With the media's help I might add. Its well past the time to recognize and act on the economy.
It IS a mess.
We have people like Paul Krugman that are essentially paid political hacks that offer advise on the economy. Since he has a degree and basically supports their team's ideals, people believe him. I linked one of his latest articles.



