Category Archives: US economy

Washington Post misrepresents Labor Force Participation Rate, Unemployment rate blamed on Baby Boomers, Selective quoting, Post receives 4 Orwells

Posted on May 9, 2012 | 110 comments

Washington Post misrepresents Labor Force Participation Rate, Unemployment rate blamed on Baby Boomers, Selective quoting, Post receives 4 Orwells

“The United States economy has lost more jobs than it has added since the recovery began over a year ago.”…NY Times Sept. 20, 2010.

“the Times of the nineteenth of December had published the official forecasts of the output of various classes of consumption goods in the fourth quarter of 1983, which was also the sixth quarter of the Ninth Three-Year Plan. Today’s issue contained a statement of the actual output, from which it appeared that the forecasts were in every instance grossly wrong. Winston’s job was to rectify the original figures by making them agree with the later ones.”…George Orwell, “1984”

“And if all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed
–if all records told the same tale–then the lie passed into
history and became truth. “Who controls the past,” ran the
Party slogan, “controls the future: who controls the present
controls the past.”…George Orwell, “1984″

The Washington Post on May 4, 2012 posted a very misleading article titled “The incredible shrinking labor force.” Is this another example of sloppy or biased journalism or both?

First the graph they presented with a source given of Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The verbage in the top right corner looked suspicious, “As the most recent recession hits the workforce, larger numbers of baby boomers begin to retire.” Yesterday I called the Bureau of Labor Statistics and discovered that they had not placed those words there. It was the work of the Washington Post.

So why did the Post superimpose that wording about baby boomers on the graph?

From the article.

“In April, the U.S. economy added a mere 115,000 jobs, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data released Friday. In a normal month, that would not even be enough to keep up with new entrants into the labor market. But in this economy, it was enough to drive unemployment from 8.2 percent down to 8.1 percent, the lowest point since January 2009.

The explanation is a little-watched measure known as the “labor force participation rate.” That tracks the number of working-age Americans who are holding a job or looking for one. Between March and April, it dropped by 342,000. But because the official unemployment rate counts only those workers who are actively seeking work, that actually made the unemployment rate go down.

Critics of the Obama administration have been quick to seize on this as the real reason for the falling unemployment rate. In February, the Republican National Committee released a research note on “The Missing Worker,” arguing that “over 3 million unemployed workers have called it quits due to Obamanomics.”

Economists say the story is considerably more complicated. For one thing, the trend predates President Obama. And while part of the story is clearly that the labor force is shrinking because the bad economy is driving workers out, another significant factor is that baby boomers are beginning to retire early — a trend that has worrying implications for future growth.”
“But a number of economists are arguing that the recession is distracting people from the real story — long-run demographic trends that have nothing to do with the current economy. Baby boomers are starting to retire en masse, which means that there are fewer eligible American workers.”

“But since 2000, the labor force rate has been steadily declining as the baby-boom generation has been retiring. Because of this, the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago expects the labor force participation rate to be lower in 2020 than it is today, regardless of how well the economy does.”

“But the other 65 percent are people who have left the labor force and do not want a job. The biggest chunk of that group seems to be composed of baby boomers, those 55 and older, who have decided to retire early.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/the-incredible-shrinking-labor-force/2012/05/04/gIQANXAy1T_blog.html?hpid=z1

There are some truths, half truths and lies mixed together in this article. Apparently the government does expect the aging baby boomers to impact job numbers more by 2020.

However, the article was crafted to give the impression that baby boomers are a big reason for the declining Labor Force Participation Rate now.

Two government sources reveal that is false.

From the Congressional Budget Office January 2012.

“Participation in the Labor Force. The unemployment rate would be even higher than it is now had participation in the labor force not declined as much as it has over the past few years. The rate of participation in the labor force fell from 66 percent in 2007 to an average of 64 percent in the second half of 2011, an unusually large decline over so short a time. About a third of that decline reflects factors other than the downturn, such as the aging of the baby-boom generation. But even with those factors removed, the estimated decline in that rate during the past four years is larger than has been typical of past
downturns, even after accounting for the greater severity of this downturn. Had that portion of the decline in the labor force participation rate since 2007 that is attributable to neither the aging of the baby boomers nor the downturn in the business cycle (on the basis of the experience in previous downturns) not occurred, the unemployment rate in the fourth quarter of 2011 would have been about 1¼ percentage points higher than the actual rate of 8.7 percent.”

http://www.cbo.gov/sites/default/files/cbofiles/attachments/01-31-2012_Outlook.pdf

From the Bureau of Labor Statistics January 2012.

Monthly Labor Review, Employment Outlook 2012 – 2012.

“In contrast to the factors exerting downward pressure on labor force participation rates, at least two factors have been responsible for strengthening the rates, although not enough to offset the factors pulling them down:
•
The labor force participation rate of the 55-years-and-older age group has increased considerably since 1996. In 2000, the rate was 32.4 percent; a decade later, in 2010, it had risen significantly, to 40.2 percent. (See table 3.) BLS projects that the labor force participation rate of those 55 years and older will reach 43.0 percent in 2020. The continued gradual increase in the labor force participation rate of this age group, multiplied by the sheer number of baby boomers in the group, is expected to partially compensate for the multiple other factors pushing the rate to lower levels and is expected to keep it from declining even further in the future.”

http://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2012/01/mlr201201.pdf

For this sloppy and/or misleading article, the Washington Post receives 4 Orwells.

110 Comments

Posted in Barack Obama, Citizen News, Citizens for the truth about Obama, CitizenWells, Economy, Election 2012, Employment, Government, Jobs, Lies, News, Obama, Obama administration, Obama lies, Obama Nation, Obama records, Orwell, Orwellian, Presidential candidate, The Case Against Barack Obama, Unemployment, United States, US economy, Washington DC, white house

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Obama jobs added and unemployment rate truth, Labor force participation plummeted, Skews unemployement rate, Historic drop in labor force, Orwellian spin continues

Posted on May 4, 2012 | 91 comments

Obama jobs added and unemployment rate truth, Labor force participation plummeted, Skews unemployement rate, Historic drop in labor force, Orwellian spin continues

“The unemployment rate would be even higher than it is now had participation in the labor force not declined as much as it has over the past few years. The rate of participation in the labor force fell from 66 percent in 2007 to an average of 64 percent in the second half of 2011, an unusually large decline over so short a time. About a third of that decline reflects factors other than the downturn, such as the aging of the baby-boom generation.

But even with those factors removed, the estimated decline in that rate during the past four years is larger than has been typical of past downturns, even after accounting for the greater severity of this downturn. Had that portion of the decline in the labor force participation rate since 2007 that is attributable to neither the aging of the baby boomers nor the downturn in the business cycle (on the basis of the experience in previous downturns) not occurred, the unemployment rate in the fourth quarter of 2011 would have been about 1¼ percentage points higher than the actual rate of 8.7 percent.”…Congressional Budget Office

“the Times of the nineteenth of December had published the official forecasts of the output of various classes of consumption goods in the fourth quarter of 1983, which was also the sixth quarter of the Ninth Three-Year Plan. Today’s issue contained a statement of the actual output, from which it appeared that the forecasts were in every instance grossly wrong. Winston’s job was to rectify the original figures by making them agree with the later ones.”…George Orwell, “1984″

“And if all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed
–if all records told the same tale–then the lie passed into
history and became truth. “Who controls the past,” ran the
Party slogan, “controls the future: who controls the present
controls the past.”…George Orwell, “1984″

With my math and computer science background and awareness of Orwellian wordsmithing by the Obama camp, I couldn’t help but notice what is going on with jobs and unemployment reporting. Another huge clue has been the emphasis from the mainstream media, i.e., “The lady doth protest too much me thinkst.”

Obama continues to tout the jobs being created without ackowledging the jobs lost. However, the biggest bit of Orwellian spin is referencing a drop in the unemployment rate and ignoring a historic drop in the labor force participation rate.

From the Bureau of Labor Statistics May 4, 2012.

“Both the number of unemployed persons (12.5 million) and the unemployment
rate (8.1 percent) changed little in April.”
“The civilian labor force participation rate declined in April to 63.6 percent,
while the employment-population ratio, at 58.4 percent, changed little.”

http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm

A labor force participation rate of 63.6 percent is significant.

Reported at Citizen Wells on April 26, 2012.

Labor force participation: The share of adults in the labor force — either looking or working — has dropped 3% — also highly unusual in a recovery. At 63.7%,
labor force participation is at a low not seen since the middle of the very deep 1981-82 recession, when fewer women were in the work force. A lower
participation rate makes the unemployment rate look better.

https://citizenwells.wordpress.com/2012/04/26/obama-and-democrats-created-high-unemployment-and-blame-bush-and-others-obama-inherited-2-years-of-a-democrat-controlled-congress-unemployemt-and-gas-prices-began-climb-in-jan-2007/

The labor force participation rate was 66 percent in 2007 when the Democrats took control of Congress.

From the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco November 2, 2007.

“the current consensus forecast among government agencies is that labor force participation will level off at around 66% and stay flat for the foreseeable future.”

http://www.frbsf.org/publications/economics/letter/2007/el2007-33.html

The labor force participation is 63.6 percent!

And jobs added, that is net jobs added.

Set your Orwell decoder ring to the proper settings.

From the Washington Post September 7, 2011.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/jobs-lost-jobs-gained/2011/09/07/gIQA1ZlYAK_graphic.html

 

91 Comments

Posted in 2009 Stimulus Bill, Barack Obama, Citizen News, Citizens for the truth about Obama, CitizenWells, Congress, Economy, Election 2012, Employment, Government, Jobs, media, News, Obama, Obama administration, Obama lies, Obama Nation, Obama records, Obama taxes, Orwellian, Presidential candidate, The Case Against Barack Obama, US economy, Washington DC, white house

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Obama lies work on UNC students?, UNC student health care increase, Tuition increase, High unemployment, Obama uses Orwellian language to sway students, Occupy White House?

Posted on May 2, 2012 | 141 comments

Obama lies work on UNC students?, UNC student health care increase, Tuition increase, High unemployment, Obama uses Orwellian language to sway students, Occupy White House?

“What do you think a stimulus is? It’s spending – that’s the whole point! Seriously.”…Barack Obama

“…and Socialist governments traditionally do make a financial mess. They [socialists] always run out of other people’s money. It’s quite a characteristic of them.”…Margaret Thatcher

“Guilford (Large NC County) appears on it’s way to a third consecutive year with annual jobless rates in double digits. Economists say that likely hasn’t happened since the Great Depression.”…Greensboro News Record December 2, 2011

God works in mysterious ways.

Obama and the Democrats will have their convention in Charlotte, NC.

Obama spoke recently at UNC, The University of NC, and presented more of his Orwellian lies about education costs and helping students.

Obama and the Democrats have a problem in NC.

UNC system schools recently announced tuition increases.

The unemployment rate in NC is among the highest in the nation. Those about to  graduate face bleak prospects.

And despite Obama’s lies about Obama Care reducing the cost of health care, UNC students just found out that their health care insurance is increasing significantly.

From the Charlotte Observer May 1, 2012.

“UNC system health insurance costs to rise for students

Students in the system’s plan may pay $500 to $700 more”

“The UNC system began requiring students to be covered by health insurance in the fall of 2010. Students must either prove that they have their own insurance or buy a plan offered by the UNC system. Before that, 11 campuses required insurance; rates and coverage varied significantly among the schools.

On top of rising tuition and fees, those UNC system students who buy the university-sponsored health insurance plan will face steep premium increases in the next academic year.

The cost of health insurance will climb from a range of $61 to $77 monthly to a range of $118 to $133 monthly, according to a memo sent from UNC President Tom Ross to the UNC Board of Governors. On an annual basis, most students will pay about $500 to $700 more in 2012-13, depending on the campus.

The percentage increases aren’t yet known for all campuses, because some have not chosen the level of coverage they will offer, said Bruce Mallette, UNC vice president for academic and student affairs. The annual student cost will climb 66 percent at N.C. Central University and 60 percent at UNC-Chapel Hill; the cost at N.C. State has not been finalized, Mallette said.

Notification of the rate increases will go out this week, just as students finish exams and leave campus for the summer. The news will sting.

“A lot of students are going to be very surprised by this and at a loss for what to do, especially on such short notice for the next semester,” said Kate Davis Jones, a UNC-CH junior from Raleigh who is still on her parents’ insurance. “I think it’s going to cause a lot of students to be boxed out of their education if they’re not able to afford the mandated health insurance.”

Jones said plenty of her classmates will feel blindsided, months after the UNC board set tuition and fee rates for next year, with average price increases of 8.8 percent for in-state undergraduates across the UNC system. The tuition and fee hikes are 8.5 percent at NCCU, 9.8 percent at NCSU and 9.9 percent at UNC-CH for the coming academic year.

Claims drive up costs

Mallette said the insurance increases are due to the health care usage of UNC system students during the past couple of years, plus federal regulations on preventive care and pharmacy services issued in March. The process is complicated, he said, by the new provisions of the Affordable Care Act.”

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2012/05/01/3210536/unc-health-insurance-costs-to.html

Oh, and their beloved Apple Computer Company has just been outed for avoiding paying taxes.

Not a good year for UNC students, NC and the country.

There should be a Occupy White House movement.

141 Comments

Posted in Barack Obama, Citizen News, Citizens for the truth about Obama, CitizenWells, Employment, Health Insurance, Healthcare bill, Lies, NC, News, North Carolina, Obama, Obama lies, Obama Nation, Obama records, Orwellian, Presidential candidate, The Case Against Barack Obama, Unemployment, US economy, Washington DC, white house

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Apple avoids taxes with 29.66 percent profit margin, Oil companies pay high taxes on small profit margin, Obama and left demonize oil companies

Posted on April 30, 2012 | 8 comments

Apple avoids taxes with 29.66 percent profit margin, Oil companies pay high taxes on small profit margin, Obama and left demonize oil companies

“But in among all this terrible poverty there were just a few great big beautiful houses that were lived in by rich men who had as many as thirty servants to look after them. These rich men were called capitalists. They were fat, ugly men with wicked faces, like the one in the picture on the opposite page. You can see that he is dressed in a long black coat which was called a frock coat, and a queer, shiny hat shaped like a stovepipe, which was called a top hat. This was the uniform of the capitalists, and no one else was allowed to wear it. The capitalists owned everything in the world, and everyone else was their slave. They owned all the land, all the houses, all the factories, and all the money. If anyone disobeyed them they could throw them into prison, or they could take his job away and starve him to death. When any ordinary person spoke to a capitalist he had to cringe and bow to him, and take off his cap and address him as ‘Sir’.” …George Orwell, “1984″

“And if all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed
–if all records told the same tale–then the lie passed into
history and became truth. “Who controls the past,” ran the
Party slogan, “controls the future: who controls the present
controls the past.”…George Orwell, “1984″

Obama and the left continue to demonize oil companies, foster class warfare with lies of taxing the rich and destroy the US economy with their socialist anti business agenda.

From Citizen Wells April 3, 2012.

“Obama Says Oil Profits Justify Ending U.S. Tax Breaks”

“President Barack Obama said oil company profits justify abolishing $4 billion in annual oil and natural gas subsidies and shifting those savings to research on clean-energy fuels.”

“Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, in an e-mailed statement, said Obama’s proposal is a political gambit in an election year and called the plan a “tax hike on American energy manufacturers” that he’d oppose.

Brendan Buck, a spokesman for House Republican Speaker John Boehner, said today in an e-mail that the president is giving a speech “with gas prices at $3.92 per gallon, calling for policy that would make gas more expensive and increase foreign dependence on oil. You wouldn’t believe it, right? Yet this is happening.”

“And how big are the oil company profits?

Net profit margins:

Oil & Gas Refining & Marketing 3.00 %

Oil & Gas Pipelines 6.00 %

Compare these profit margins to other industries.

http://biz.yahoo.com/p/sum_qpmd.html

”

“Companies (corporations, LLC’s, partnerships, sole proprietors) do not paytaxes!

Consumers pay for the tax increases.

Taxes are part of the cost of doing business.

A tax increase to a company results in some combination of the following:

Product and service price increases.

Employee and hours cutbacks.

Reduced hiring.”

https://citizenwells.wordpress.com/2012/04/03/obama-lies-on-oil-companies-taxes-profits-and-impact-on-consumers-obama-energy-policy-based-on-chicago-pay-to-play-politics-truth-team-notification/

Has Obama and the left been questioning Apple?

Apple’s profit margin is 29.66 percent with net profits of $24.7 billion on revenues of $85.5 billion in the first half of the fiscal year.

http://ycharts.com/companies/AAPL/profit_margin

Is Apple paying it’s fair share of taxes?

From the NY Times April 28, 2012.

“How Apple Sidesteps Billions in Taxes”

“Apple, the world’s most profitable technology company, doesn’t design iPhones here. It doesn’t run AppleCare customer service from this city. And it doesn’t manufacture MacBooks or iPads anywhere nearby.

Yet, with a handful of employees in a small office here in Reno, Apple has done something central to its corporate strategy: it has avoided millions of dollars in taxes in California and 20 other states.

Apple’s headquarters are in Cupertino, Calif. By putting an office in Reno, just 200 miles away, to collect and invest the company’s profits, Apple sidesteps state income taxes on some of those gains.

California’s corporate tax rate is 8.84 percent. Nevada’s? Zero.

Setting up an office in Reno is just one of many legal methods Apple uses to reduce its worldwide tax bill by billions of dollars each year. As it has in Nevada, Apple has created subsidiaries in low-tax places like Ireland, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and the British Virgin Islands — some little more than a letterbox or an anonymous office — that help cut the taxes it pays around the world.”

“Without such tactics, Apple’s federal tax bill in the United States most likely would have been $2.4 billion higher last year, according to a recent study by a former Treasury Department economist, Martin A. Sullivan. As it stands, the company paid cash taxes of $3.3 billion around the world on its reported profits of $34.2 billion last year, a tax rate of 9.8 percent. (Apple does not disclose what portion of those payments was in the United States, or what portion is assigned to previous or future years.)

By comparison, Wal-Mart last year paid worldwide cash taxes of $5.9 billion on its booked profits of $24.4 billion, a tax rate of 24 percent, which is about average for non-tech companies.”

“Such lost revenue is one reason California now faces a budget crisis, with a shortfall of more than $9.2 billion in the coming fiscal year alone. The state has cut some health care programs, significantly raised tuition at state universities, cut services to the disabled and proposed a $4.8 billion reduction in spending on kindergarten and other grades.”

“Indeed, Apple’s decisions have yielded benefits. After announcing one of the best quarters in its history last week, the company said it had net profits of $24.7 billion on revenues of $85.5 billion in the first half of the fiscal year, and more than $110 billion in the bank, according to company filings.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/29/business/apples-tax-strategy-aims-at-low-tax-states-and-nations.html?pagewanted=all

8 Comments

Posted in Barack Obama, Citizen News, Citizens for the truth about Obama, CitizenWells, Economy, Election 2012, Jobs, Leftist, Lies, News, Obama, Obama administration, Obama lies, Obama Nation, Obama records, Obama thugs, Presidential candidate, The Case Against Barack Obama, Unemployment, US economy, Washington DC, white house

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Obama News April 30, 2012, Economics 101 companies do not pay taxes, Consumers pay in higher prices job cuts and reduced pay, US economy slowdown caused by Obama taxes and policies

Posted on April 29, 2012 | 38 comments

Obama News April 30, 2012, Economics 101 companies do not pay taxes, Consumers pay in higher prices job cuts and reduced pay, US economy slowdown caused by Obama taxes and policies

“What do you think a stimulus is? It’s spending – that’s the whole point! Seriously.”…Barack Obama

“…and Socialist governments traditionally do make a financial mess. They [socialists] always run out of other people’s money. It’s quite a characteristic of them.”…Margaret Thatcher

“And if all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed
–if all records told the same tale–then the lie passed into
history and became truth. “Who controls the past,” ran the
Party slogan, “controls the future: who controls the present
controls the past.”…George Orwell, “1984″

Citizen Wells has been writing for some time about the impact of high gas prices and taxation on the economy. One of the most important ideas presented here is the fact that companies do not pay taxes, consumers do.

From Citizen Wells April 3, 2012.

“First, the corporate tax rate in the US is near or at the top in the world.

US oil companies pay enormous amounts of taxes. How does this compare to one of Obama’s pay to play buddies GE? Check this out for yourself.

Here is the really important point about raising taxes on oil companies and other companies.

Companies (corporations, LLC’s, partnerships, sole proprietors) do not pay taxes!

Consumers pay for the tax increases.

Taxes are part of the cost of doing business.

A tax increase to a company results in some combination of the following:

Product and service price increases.

Employee and hours cutbacks.

Reduced hiring.

Does any of this sound familiar?”

https://citizenwells.wordpress.com/2012/04/03/obama-lies-on-oil-companies-taxes-profits-and-impact-on-consumers-obama-energy-policy-based-on-chicago-pay-to-play-politics-truth-team-notification/

Here is another example.

From McClatchy News April 27, 2012.

“Weak growth of U.S. economy in first quarter renews fears of stalled recovery”

“The U.S. economy’s weaker-than-expected growth in the first three months of this year renewed concerns Friday that the nation’s fragile recovery might stall. ”
“The real disappointment in Friday’s report was a drop in business fixed investment of 2.1 percent and in spending on business structures of a whopping 12 percent. Spending on equipment was up by only a weak 1.7 percent, which partly reflects the end of a tax break for business investment last year.”

““I think what it says is consumers are coming back a bit, but firms are still holding back. They don’t feel confident enough in the recovery to start adding to capacity” and expanding, said Bill Craighead, an economics professor at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Conn. Consumers appear to be making up for cautious spending in recent years, more confident that the worst is over, he suggested.

The same can’t be said for American businesses.

“Given corporate profits, you might have hoped for more investment growth,” Craighead said. The economy continues to “hit the snooze button. … It’s acceptable growth in the normal economy, but given how many people are unemployed it is disappointing.””

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/04/27/146970/us-economy-slows-to-22-percent.html

From McClatchy News April 23, 2012.

“U.S. economy faces likely slowdown, big year-end decisions”

“The U.S. economy is expected to slow later this year, dragged down by slowing global growth, rising anxiety about the elections and the specter of gridlock in Washington over urgent tax, spending and debt deadlines. The Bush-era tax cuts of 2001 and 2003 and the payroll tax cut of the past two years expire at year’s end, when last year’s debt deal also will force across-the-board cuts in federal spending unless Congress and the president strike new deals, but there’s no consensus on that.

A spate of recent indicators punctuated fears that the economy is stalling. March delivered only 120,000 new jobs, and the latest manufacturing and real estate data softened. Some economists say the economy’s strong six-month run through March might not be sustainable.

“If we’re right and growth was overstated in the first quarter and we see payback in the second and third quarters of this year, then it’s going to raise a lot of questions of just how much progress we’ve made over the past few years,” said Mark Vitner, a senior economist at Wells Fargo Securities in Charlotte, N.C.”

“Recent U.S. data have been discouraging for what remains the world’s largest economy.

In the two weeks after the April 6 release of the weak March employment numbers, first-time jobless claims rose. The Labor Department said last Thursday that the four-week average for unemployment claims stood at 374,750 _ the highest since January.

Additionally, the job placement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas reported earlier this month that employers announced 9.4 percent more layoffs in the first three months of this year than the same period last year. Last year’s numbers, however, were the smallest number of layoffs since 1995.

It all points to slower hiring.

“Were we on the verge of a breakout? I think the answer is no,” said Kevin Logan, the chief U.S. economist for the global bank HSBC.

Noting that the economy is adding jobs in a monthly range of 100,000 to 200,000, Logan expects hiring to bump along the bottom. “The next few months, we’ll fall back into this slower pattern,” he said, adding that several drivers of the U.S. economy remain impaired.

Chief among them is the moribund housing market, which remains mired in a foreclosure crisis. What little housing is moving in many major U.S. cities is foreclosure sales and short-sales, dragging down home prices and erasing the potential wealth of neighbors.”

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/04/23/v-print/146393/us-economy-faces-likely-slowdown.html

 

38 Comments

Posted in 2009 Stimulus Bill, Barack Obama, Citizen News, Citizens for the truth about Obama, CitizenWells, Deficit, Economy, Election 2012, Employment, News, Obama, Obama administration, Obama lies, Obama Nation, Obama records, Obama taxes, Presidential candidate, The Case Against Barack Obama, Unemployment, US economy, Washington DC, white house

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NC unemployment initial claims up 1923, Fifth highest in nation, US initial claims 388000, 4 week moving average up 6250, Obama stimulus in action

Posted on April 26, 2012 | 33 comments

NC unemployment initial claims up 1923, Fifth highest in nation, US initial claims 388000, 4 week moving average up 6250, Obama stimulus in action

“Guilford (Large NC County) appears on it’s way to a third consecutive year with annual jobless rates in double digits. Economists say that likely hasn’t happened since the Great Depression.”…Greensboro News Record December 2, 2011

“New, more-accurate estimates show North Carolina’s unemployment rate stayed above 10 percent throughout 2011, falling to 10.2 percent in January in a key election battleground state, the state Commerce Department reported today.”…Greensboro News Record March 14, 2012

“And if all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed
–if all records told the same tale–then the lie passed into
history and became truth. “Who controls the past,” ran the
Party slogan, “controls the future: who controls the present
controls the past.”…George Orwell, “1984″

Unemployment initial claims were up by 1, 923 last week in NC, the fifth highest in the nation. The Obama stimulus plan reminds me of the old adage. Obama’s cronies got the gold ore and we got the shaft.

From the US Labor Department April 26, 2012.

“UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE WEEKLY CLAIMS REPORT
SEASONALLY ADJUSTED DATA

In the week ending April 21, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 388,000, a decrease of 1,000 from the previous week’s revised figure of 389,000. The 4-week moving average was 381,750, an increase of 6,250 from the previous week’s revised average of 375,500.”

“The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending April 14 were in New York (+3,352), California (+3,060), Georgia (+2,179), Florida (+2,048), and North Carolina (+1,923)”

http://www.dol.gov/opa/media/press/eta/ui/current.htm

In the prior article at Citizen Wells it was pointed out that Obama inherited high unemployment not from George Bush, but from a Democrat controlled congress beginning in January of 2007. The same scenario has impacted NC, only more devastatingly.

NC unemployment from Jan. 2007 to Jan. 2012.

More details here.

http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LASST37000003

33 Comments

Posted in 2009 Stimulus Bill, Barack Obama, Citizen News, Citizens for the truth about Obama, CitizenWells, Congress, Democrats, Economy, Jobs, NC, News, North Carolina, Obama, Obama administration, Obama lies, Obama Nation, Obama records, The Case Against Barack Obama, Unemployment, US economy, Washington DC, white house

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Obama and Democrats created high unemployment and blame Bush and others, Obama inherited 2 years of a Democrat controlled Congress, Unemployment and gas prices began climb in Jan 2007

Posted on April 26, 2012 | 56 comments

Obama and Democrats created high unemployment and blame Bush and others, Obama inherited 2 years of a Democrat controlled Congress, Unemployment and gas prices began climb in Jan 2007

“What do you think a stimulus is? It’s spending – that’s the whole point! Seriously.”…Barack Obama

“The fact that we are here today to debate raising America’s debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better. I, therefore, intend to oppose the effort to increase America’s debt.”…Barack Obama

“And if all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed
–if all records told the same tale–then the lie passed into
history and became truth. “Who controls the past,” ran the
Party slogan, “controls the future: who controls the present
controls the past.”…George Orwell, “1984″

The catalyst for this article came several days ago after a brief conversation with a young college student. It is my understanding that this young man is not a Obama supporter. However he believed that unemployment had gone down since Obama took office. I enlightened him.

Citizen Wells began quoting George Orwell early in 2008 for a reason. Obama, in concert with the mainstream media, has been telling non stop lies. One of the constant themes of lies has to do with the Obama stimulus bill and job creation and unemployment.

There has been much debate about whether or not Obama promised that the stimulus bill would keep unemployment at a maximum of 8 percent or not. It does not matter. Obama stated that the stimulus would save and create jobs and the following graph from a report prepared by Christina Romer and Jared Bernstein shows unemployment staying below 8 percent with the implementation of Obama’s stimulus bill.

The Washington Post has more on this.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/business/unemployment-predictions/

From Investors Business Daily February 17, 2012.

“Obama Stimulus Turns Three: What Has It Achieved?”

“Without any fanfare whatsoever from the White House, February 17 marks the three-year anniversary of the day President Obama signed the much ballyhooed stimulus into law.

At the time, Obama claimed that it would “create or save” up to 3.5 million jobs, and that “a new wave of innovation, activity and construction will be unleashed across America.” The stimulus, would, he promised””ignite spending by businesses and consumers” and bring “real and lasting change for generations to come.”

So three years later, how do the stimulus results stack up? Here’s where various indicators stood in or around February 2009, and where they stand today.

Unemployment rate: The jobless rate is unchanged from February 2009 to January 2012, the latest month for which we have data. Both stood at 8.3%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Obama’s economists had initially predicted that with the stimulus, unemployment would stay below 8%.

Number of long-term unemployed: The number of workers who have been unable to find a job in 27 months or more has shot up 83%, with their ranks now at 5.5 million.

Civilian labor force: It has shrunk by 126,000. In past recoveries, the labor force climbed an average of more than 3 million over comparable time periods.

Labor force participation: The share of adults in the labor force — either looking or working — has dropped 3% — also highly unusual in a recovery. At 63.7%, labor force participation is at a low not seen since the middle of the very deep 1981-82 recession, when fewer women were in the work force. A lower participation rate makes the unemployment rate look better.

Household income: Median annual household income is about 7% below where it was in February 2009, according to the Sentier Research Household Income Index.

National debt: Up $4.5 trillion, or 41%, according to the Treasury Department’s monthly reports. The latest Treasury figures put the national debt at $15.4 trillion, larger than the entire U.S. economy.

Deficits: The deficit for fiscal year 2009 totaled $1.4 trillion. The Obama administration’s proposed deficit for 2012 is $1.3 trillion, which would mark the fourth year of deficits topping $1 trillion.

Gross Domestic Product: Real GDP has climbed just 6% between Q1 2009 and Q4 2011, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis.

Spending by consumers and businesses: Personal consumption has managed to climb 10% in the past three years, according to the BEA, but companies continue to hoard cash, with cash on hand up 27% since Q1 2009, according to the Federal Reserve Bank.

Stimulus price tag: The original estimate for the cost of the stimulus was $787 billion. Now the Congressional Budget Office says that, when all is said and done, it will have cost$825 billion .

Perhaps the best measure of the success or failure of the stimulus, however, is the fact that President Obama in his latest budget plan has called for still another round of stimulus spending, this time totaling $350 billion over the next four years, for what is labeled “short-term measures for jobs growth.””

http://news.investors.com/article/601526/201202171525/obama-economic-stimulus-turns-three.htm

The Democrats took control of Congress in January 2007. Obviously Obama inherited the damage they inflicted on the economy and made it worse.

US unemployment data, from the federal government, Jan. 2007 to Jan. 2012.

More details here.

http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS14000000

56 Comments

Posted in 2009 Stimulus Bill, Barack Obama, Citizen News, Citizens for the truth about Obama, CitizenWells, Economy, Employment, Government, Jobs, Labor Department, News, Obama, Obama administration, Obama lies, Obama Nation, Obama records, The Case Against Barack Obama, Unemployment, US economy, Washington DC, white house

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NC unemployment rate 9.7%, Near highest, Washington DC California Nevada worse hmmm, Dare county 19.1%, Obama and Democrats warm reception in NC?

Posted on April 23, 2012 | 147 comments

NC unemployment rate 9.7%, Near highest, Washington DC California Nevada worse hmmm, Dare county 19.1%, Obama and Democrats warm reception in NC?

“Guilford (Large NC County) appears on it’s way to a third consecutive year with annual jobless rates in double digits. Economists say that likely hasn’t happened since the Great Depression.”…Greensboro News Record December 2, 2011

“New, more-accurate estimates show North Carolina’s unemployment rate stayed above 10 percent throughout 2011, falling to 10.2 percent in January in a key election battleground state, the state Commerce Department reported today.”…Greensboro News Record March 14, 2012

“And if all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed
–if all records told the same tale–then the lie passed into
history and became truth. “Who controls the past,” ran the
Party slogan, “controls the future: who controls the present
controls the past.”…George Orwell, “1984″

Pretend you are listening to Sheriff Andy Taylor of the Andy Griffith Show.

You know Barn, I was ponderin sumpin over the weekend. How come it seems like every time I turn around people is hootin and hollerin and carryin on sumpin fierce. Well I just got a hold of the Mayberry Gazette and would you know, them government fellas has come out with a new report and in that new report it mentions the fact that the unemployment rate in NC has plummeted to 9.7%. Land sakes! No wonder them folks has been celebratin. And Barn, wait til Barack Obama and the Democrats come to Charlotte for their convention. Why I bet the folks down there will give them a homecoming they’ll never forget. Accordin to the Gazette, folks around Charlotte should be rejoicin with these unemployment rates:

Mecklenburg 10%
Gaston 11.2%
Cleveland 11.1%
Scotland 17.5%

Why, it’s no small wonder people are grinnin like a possum.

I know we are mighty happy to have a 10.9% unemployment rate here.

And barn, would you look at this. Dare county, 19.1 %. Them folks have gotta be mighty proud (don’t tell nobody I own a ranch there).

End of show….or is it?

From the Jefferson Post April 23, 2012.

“N.C. unemployment improves to 9.7 percent in March”

“Despite Ashe County’s early year jobs slide, the unemployment numbers across the rest of the state improved between February and March according to seasonally adjusted data released by the N.C. Department of Commerce last week.

N.C.’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate fell by .2 percentage points to 9.7 percent from February’s revised rate of 9.9 percent. The number of unemployed also decreased over-the-month, falling by 12,092 to 451,657.

“Since the start of the year, the rate has dropped three consecutive months,” said N.C. Department of Commerce Deputy Secretary Dale Carroll. “Over the year figures continue to show improving numbers with the private sector gaining more than 37,000 jobs. Finding North Carolinians work through our programs and services available at our local offices remains our priority.”

The number of people employed, seasonally adjusted, increased by more than 4,000 to 4,228,180 between February and March, and by 63,805 since March 2011. Year-over-year, the NC unemployment rate fell by .7 percent, from 10.4 percent in March 2011.

Over the month, the number of persons unemployed declined by 12,092, or 2.6 percent. The civilian labor force was relatively unchanged at 4,679,837.

Nationally, March’s unemployment rate decreased by .1 percent from February to 8.2 percent. The number of persons unemployed fell by 133,000, or 1 percent, while the civilian labor force declined by 164,000, or .1 percent.”

http://www.jeffersonpost.com/view/full_story/18325408/article-N-C–unemployment-improves-to-9-7-percent-in-March?instance=popular

NC has one of the worst unemployment rates in the nation. Below are the states with the highest unemployment rates. It is important to note that Illinois, Washington DC, California and Nevada are on the list.

41 ILLINOIS 8.8
42 SOUTH CAROLINA 8.9
43 FLORIDA 9.0
43 GEORGIA 9.0
43 MISSISSIPPI 9.0
43 NEW JERSEY 9.0
47 NORTH CAROLINA 9.7
48 Washington, DC 9.8
49 CALIFORNIA 11.0
50 RHODE ISLAND 11.1
51 NEVADA 12.0

http://www.bls.gov/web/laus/laumstrk.htm

Unemployment rates by NC county subject to revision in a few days.

http://www.wral.com/news/state/page/4879060/

 

147 Comments

Posted in Barack Obama, Charlotte, Citizen News, Citizens for the truth about Obama, CitizenWells, democratic convention, Democrats, Economy, Election 2012, Employment, Jobs, NC, News, North Carolina, Obama, Obama administration, Obama lies, Obama Nation, Obama records, Presidential candidate, The Case Against Barack Obama, Unemployment, US economy, Washington DC, white house

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Elon poll reveals NC residents blame oil companies, OPEC for gas prices, Obama orwellian lies working?, Obama and Democrats more blame than Republicans

Posted on April 4, 2012 | 40 comments

Elon poll reveals NC residents blame oil companies, OPEC for gas prices, Obama orwellian lies working?, Obama and Democrats more blame than Republicans

“Guilford (Large NC County) appears on it’s way to a third consecutive year with annual jobless rates in double digits. Economists say that likely hasn’t happened since the Great Depression.”…Greensboro News Record December 2, 2011

“The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command. His heart sank as he thought of the enormous power arrayed against him, the ease with which any Party intellectual would overthrow him in debate, the subtle arguments which he would not be able to understand, much less answer. And yet he was in the right! They were wrong and he was right. The obvious, the silly, and the true had got to be defended. Truisms are true, hold on to that! The solid world exists, its laws do not change. Stones are hard, water is wet, objects unsupported fall towards the earth’s centre. “…George Orwell, “1984″

“And if all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed
–if all records told the same tale–then the lie passed into
history and became truth. “Who controls the past,” ran the
Party slogan, “controls the future: who controls the present
controls the past.”…George Orwell, “1984″

I posted the article yesterday about Obama lying about Oil Company profits and taxes after listening to his unceasing lies and knowing that the mainstream media      feeds them to the public Orwellian style. Right on cue a Elon University poll indicates that the NC public places more blame on the oil companies.

This is a teachable moment. Once again I refer to the concept of 6 degrees of separation. Our sphere of influence is powerful. Inform all of your friends and acquaintances and urge then to do the same. If they have questions I will be glad  to answer them.

From WRAL April 3, 2012.

“Poll: NC residents blame oil companies, OPEC for gas prices”

“Although Republican presidential candidates are blaming President Barack Obama for gas prices hovering around $4 a gallon, a poll released Tuesday shows most North Carolina residents point the finger at oil companies and foreign countries.

The Elon University Poll surveyed 534 residents statewide last week and also found that people were evenly split on a controversial method of natural gas drilling being considered by North Carolina lawmakers. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.24 percentage points.

Nearly three-quarters of those polled blamed oil companies for high gas prices, while foreign countries that produce oil were blamed by 58 percent of respondents.

The poll asked people to rank how much blame to assign to each group on a scale of 1 to 5, and the percentages reflect the number who assigned a 4 or 5 to each.

Obama’s administration was cited by 42 percent, Democrats in Congress by 41 percent and Republicans in Congress by 35 percent. Forty percent said American driving habits were to blame, while 34 percent blamed environmental regulations.

Most respondents said the U.S. needs to rely more on solar and wind power for its energy needs. Eighty-five percent supported more solar power, and 80 percent supported more wind power.

Meanwhile, 72 percent said the country needs to be less reliant on oil, and 63 percent said coal use needs to decline. Respondents were split on nuclear energy, with 42 percent calling for expansion and 50 percent saying less nuclear power should be used.

Seventy percent of those polled said natural gas needs to play a larger role in the nation’s energy mix, but a majority say they don’t know enough about a drilling process known as hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” to determine if it’s good for North Carolina.

Fracking involves drilling horizontally into underground deposits of shale and then pumping a high-pressure mix of water and chemicals into a well to break apart the rock and release natural gas.

Opponents of the process say it would damage water resources and contaminate the environment, while supporters say it would provide an economic boon to central North Carolina.

The state Department of Environment and Natural Resources has said fracking could be done safely in North Carolina if the proper safeguards were put in place first. The agency is expected to deliver its findings to lawmakers next month.

Twenty-two percent of Elon poll respondents say they oppose fracking in North Carolina, while 21 percent say they support it.”

http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/10939859/

From Citizen Wells April 3, 2012.

“And how big are the oil company profits?

Net profit margins:

Oil & Gas Refining & Marketing 3.00 %

Oil & Gas Pipelines 6.00 %

Compare these profit margins to other industries.

http://biz.yahoo.com/p/sum_qpmd.html

What about taxes?

First, the corporate tax rate in the US is near or at the top in the world.

US oil companies pay enormous amounts of taxes. How does this compare to one of Obama’s pay to play buddies GE? Check this out for yourself.

Here is the really important point about raising taxes on oil companies and other companies.

Companies (corporations, LLC’s, partnerships, sole proprietors) do not paytaxes!

Consumers pay for the tax increases.

Taxes are part of the cost of doing business.

A tax increase to a company results in some combination of the following:

Product and service price increases.

Employee and hours cutbacks.

Reduced hiring.

Does any of this sound familiar?

The Obama administration has been responsible for rising gas prices and they are now trying to raise them more.

Of course this has impacted food prices and jobs.

Sound familiar?”

https://citizenwells.wordpress.com/2012/04/03/obama-lies-on-oil-companies-taxes-profits-and-impact-on-consumers-obama-energy-policy-based-on-chicago-pay-to-play-politics-truth-team-notification/

What have been the 2 largest impacts on gasoline prices over the past 3 years?

Obama’s pay to play energy policy (Solyndra, et al) and the devaluation of the the dollar.

The Obama Administration has been directly responsible for the rising gas prices and subsequent crisis economy.

Obama has rewarded his cronies with unchecked corporate schemes and blocked efforts to increase oil production in this country. His record deficit spending has greatly devalued the dollar causing oil to cost more in US dollars.

The following graph, presented at Citizen Wells multiple times, says it all.

40 Comments

Posted in 1984, Barack Obama, Citizen News, Citizens for the truth about Obama, CitizenWells, Congress, Democrats, Economy, Election 2012, Jobs, NC, News, North Carolina, Obama, Obama administration, Obama lies, Obama Nation, Obama records, Obama taxes, Orwellian, Pay to play politics, Presidential candidate, republicans, The Case Against Barack Obama, Unemployment, US economy, Washington DC, white house

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Obama lies on Oil Companies Taxes Profits and impact on consumers, Obama energy policy based on Chicago pay to play politics, Truth Team notification

Posted on April 3, 2012 | 57 comments

Obama lies on Oil Companies Taxes Profits and impact on consumers, Obama energy policy based on Chicago pay to play politics, Truth Team notification

“The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command. His heart sank as he thought of the enormous power arrayed against him, the ease with which any Party intellectual would overthrow him in debate, the subtle arguments which he would not be able to understand, much less answer. And yet he was in the right! They were wrong and he was right. The obvious, the silly, and the true had got to be defended. Truisms are true, hold on to that! The solid world exists, its laws do not change. Stones are hard, water is wet, objects unsupported fall towards the earth’s centre. With the feeling that he was speaking to O’Brien, and also that he was setting forth an important axiom, he wrote:

Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.”…George Orwell, “1984”

“And if all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed
–if all records told the same tale–then the lie passed into
history and became truth. “Who controls the past,” ran the
Party slogan, “controls the future: who controls the present
controls the past.”…George Orwell, “1984″

The Truth team was created to keep the candidates honest. Once again I am here to help the Truth Team in their efforts. One of the candidates, Barack Hussein Obama has been spreading lies about oil companies and where the blame should be put for high gas prices.

From Business Week March 29, 2012.

“Obama Says Oil Profits Justify Ending U.S. Tax Breaks”

“President Barack Obama said oil company profits justify abolishing $4 billion in annual oil and natural gas subsidies and shifting those savings to research on clean-energy fuels.

With the Senate scheduled to vote on the matter later today, Obama again urged Congress to repeal the tax breaks. The measure is opposed by Republicans, who have the votes to block the legislation.

“It’s not like these are companies that can’t stand on their own,” Obama said in prepared remarks delivered in the White House Rose Garden. Last year, the three biggest U.S. oil companies took home more than $80 billion in profit, with Exxon Mobil Corp. collecting almost $4.7 million each hour, he said.

“And when the price of oil goes up, prices at the pump go up, and so do these companies’ profits,” he said. “Meanwhile, these companies pay a lower tax rate than most other companies on their investments — partly because we’re giving them billions in tax giveaways every year.”

Energy company subsidies are a staple of Obama’s re- election campaign rhetoric, meant to highlight the differences between himself and Republican presidential candidates and cast them as defenders of such spending as they propose cuts in health and other social programs to reduce a deficit forecast at $1.3 trillion this year.

In his Feb. 13 budget, Obama said existing tax “loopholes and expenditures” for the oil and natural gas companies amount to an unwarranted “preference” of these industries over others.

Criticism of Republicans
At Ohio State University March 22, Obama ridiculed Republican presidential candidates as the “flat Earth crowd,” who’d “rather give $4 billion in taxpayer subsidies to oil companies this year than to invest in clean energy.”

“We have been subsidizing oil companies for a century. That’s long enough,” he said.

Republicans today cited a March 3 Congressional Research Service report that found repealing $22.8 billion in tax breaks over five years would reduce the tax breaks for independent companies and, on a small scale, “would make oil and natural gas more expensive for U.S. consumers and likely increase foreign dependence.”

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, in an e-mailed statement, said Obama’s proposal is a political gambit in an election year and called the plan a “tax hike on American energy manufacturers” that he’d oppose.

Brendan Buck, a spokesman for House Republican Speaker John Boehner, said today in an e-mail that the president is giving a speech “with gas prices at $3.92 per gallon, calling for policy that would make gas more expensive and increase foreign dependence on oil. You wouldn’t believe it, right? Yet this is happening.”

Ending such breaks would reduce the deficit by $41 billion over a decade, according to Obama’s budget for fiscal 2013.

Subsidies were worth $24 billion for the five largest oil companies operating in the U.S., including Irving, Texas’s Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) (XOM) and Chevron Corp. in San Ramon, California, Senate Democrats said.”

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-03-29/obama-says-oil-company-profits-justify-ending-u-dot-s-dot-tax-br

Let’s begin with profits.

Combined, US oil companies are huge and employ millions of employees. Of course their profits will be large numbers.

Also, we want them to make a profit so that they can keep the gasoline and other petroleum products flowing and people working. If they fail, so does our economy.

And how big are the oil company profits?

Net profit margins:

Oil & Gas Refining & Marketing 3.00 %

Oil & Gas Pipelines 6.00 %

Compare these profit margins to other industries.

http://biz.yahoo.com/p/sum_qpmd.html

What about taxes?

First, the corporate tax rate in the US is near or at the top in the world.

US oil companies pay enormous amounts of taxes. How does this compare to one of Obama’s pay to play buddies GE? Check this out for yourself.

Here is the really important point about raising taxes on oil companies and other companies.

Companies (corporations, LLC’s, partnerships, sole proprietors) do not pay taxes!

Consumers pay for the tax increases.

Taxes are part of the cost of doing business.

A tax increase to a company results in some combination of the following:

Product and service price increases.

Employee and hours cutbacks.

Reduced hiring.

Does any of this sound familiar?

The Obama administration has been responsible for rising gas prices and they are now trying to raise them more.

Of course this has impacted food prices and jobs.

Sound familiar?

57 Comments

Posted in Barack Obama, Citizen News, Citizens for the truth about Obama, CitizenWells, Economy, Election 2012, Employment, Jobs, Lies, News, Obama, Obama administration, Obama lies, Obama Nation, Obama records, Obama taxes, Offshore Drilling, Pay to play politics, The Case Against Barack Obama, United States, US economy, Washington DC, white house

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