Archive for the ‘Dow Jones’ Category
June 2nd, 2011 | 
Author: Community Organizer Obama on Republican Economic Theory: “It …
www.thegatewaypundit.com12/7/11
President Obama, in one of his most expansive speeches to date, declared on Tuesday that supply-side economics is a failure and called “gaping inequality” across the country a moral shortcoming that is distorting American …
Obama says economic 'inequality' hurts everyone – CNN Political …
politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com12/6/11
(CNN) — President Barack Obama said Tuesday that economic inequality in America is at "a level we haven't seen since the Great Depression" and "hurts us all.
Here are four recent headlines.
“U.S. Manufacturing Growth Slows Substantially!”.
“Housing Imperils Recovery!”.
“Private Sector Added Few Jobs in May!”.
“Moody’s!”.
And they are all very bad news for Obama’s reelection chances in 2012 !
Obama Now Owns The Economy
Jimmy Carter owned the 1980 election-year economy and George H.W. Bush owned the 1992 election-year economy and both were one-term presidents.
Barack Obama however, has seemingly taken ownership of the 2011 economy, a full year and half before he has to face the voters which is great news for the GOP!
Obama’s self-confidence is famously limitless, but is almost certainly founded on vanity and not on facts.
During his hyper-partisan deficit speech at George Washington University in April, Obama raised major expectations of economic seriousness and then somewhat unexpectedly, dropped them over a cliff.
The day before that speech, most of Washington expected Obama to make a major policy statement about the big deficit-reduction debate that was then unfolding, but the president sadly contributed nothing.
Instead he ridiculed and derided the Republican leadership seated before him and with that speech, Mr. Obama effectively kicked off his 2012 presidential campaign, and in so doing politicized the economy.
Whether you agree or disagree with it, Paul Ryan’s budget which was released just one week earlier, was all about policy, and the Republicans were actually offering to take part-ownership of the economy by spending the year in dense discussions about the deficit and spending.
Bad Timing For Obama
Obama’s timing was not good to say the least because Americans are starting to panic about the economy, the persistently high unemployment and persistently weak growth.
Private forecasters have reduced their estimates for economic growth the rest of the year well below the 3%-plus the Federal Reserve predicted in April and the Fed’s 2012 growth forecast runs as high as 4.2% meaning that they must be using high-powered binoculars or telescopes.
The Failed Stimulus Package
The policy most explicitly intended to reboot the economy was 2009′s $814 billion stimulus, plus successive budgets that raised federal spending to 25% of a $14 trillion economy.
But in this year’s first quarter, the economy grew at only1.8% !
And What’s Worse
The housing sector, which is a monumental and intractable mess is choking the economy; and how did the White House respond?
The president allowed (or told) his “adviser” Elizabeth Warren of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to involve banks and mortgage servicers in negotiations over a complex regulatory scheme whose goal is literally, “to fix their business model”.
And Worse
The White House now says the free trade agreements with Colombia, Panama and South Korea will be delayed absent payouts of more money for “trade adjustment assistance”, which means that unless the Republicans can force a change, that the last two years of uncertainty for trade commitments, will be extended 
Is It Fair To Blame Obama?
Yes it is!
Because the US president made conscious policy choices during a deep recession to vastly reorder vast swaths of American industry and economic growth, like a long gray day, sits still below 3% !!!
Posted in 
French Critical Of UK Economy, While IMF Warn Of “Gloomy” Global …
thewealthnews.com12/16/11
The French Finance Minister, Francois Baroin, has described the economic situation in the UK as being “very worrying”, while the IMF warn of a “gloomy” global outlook.
UK Economic Data Weakens, GBP to Follow « FXTimes – Forex …
www.fxtimes.com12/15/11
The economic data from the UK this week was a disappointment and may point to further GBP weakness in the coming months as the market fully prices in further quantitative easing from the Bank of England. We review the …
The Good News
The stock market has started the year strongly, and Sterling is up against the dollar and was even rising against against the Euro, until the Chinese bought huge quantities of euro debt
this week.
The Bad News
The threat of inflation is now blindingly apparent and the Bank of England would surely have liked to raise interest rates this week, but what that would that have done to a housing market that’s already heading south; or to those people with other, shorter-term debts, whose price would have become even more suffocating?
For many of them, the day of reckoning has been long postponed, but now it may be just weeks away
The French And Support For The Euro
François Fillon, the very polite, courteous and rather successful French prime minister, went to London this week and seemed to take for granted Great Britain’s continued support of the euro, arguing that its economic future depended upon it, too. He exaggerated of course, but he did so because of the great and in my opinion unjustified fear in France that the game is up for their currency.
"Unjustified"?
Yes, because it’ hard to see why there is this fear since if the euro went under, then the French could simply return to the franc and find themselves able to widen their export markets, because everything would be cheaper.
France’s financial sector, along with Britain’s, would come under heavy pressure because of their exposure to euro debt, but these were risks taken by banks, and they would just have to bear them.
The Banks
In the same way that a Government has no business telling banks what they can pay their staff, it has no business continually bailing them out either.
The UK Government
UK politicians have encouraged the thought over the past couple of months that while things are still very difficult, and hardships inevitable, that the worst is already over, but it’s likely that what they’re really saying is that no more pain will be inflicted in the near future.
Outside Factors
What’s not being mentioned however is that factors beyond their control will soon start to kick in such as;
An external blow to the economy, whether in the shape of the euro ceasing to defy gravity, or simply more bad news from America,
Taxes
UK taxes remain far too high, and are as serious obstacle to recovery and if a recovery has to start from an even lower base, then the obsession with not cutting taxes in case some "rich" person, possibly even an evil banker becomes richer will have to be jettisoned once and for all.
Bankruptcies, Business Failures And Unemployment
Even without external shocks, interest rates must rise, and they’ll cause personal bankruptcies and business failures to rise with them and unemployment will rise too.
House prices will fall, and most likely the stock market too, but the UK cannot postpone indefinitely the final acceptance that it must live within its means.
Growth
Growth is the only way out and it will require the Government stimulating demand and although it won’t be easy, some kind of action is necessary because paralysis is nearly always fatal.
