Obama's Osama bounce goes bye-bye

Washington Post: The public opinion boost President Obama received after the killing of Osama bin Laden has dissipated, and Americans’ disapproval of how he is handling the nation’s economy and the deficit has reached new highs, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

The survey portrays a broadly pessimistic mood in the country this spring as higher gasoline prices, sliding home values and a disappointing employment picture have raised fresh concerns about the pace of the economic recovery.

By 2 to 1, Americans say the country is pretty seriously on the wrong track, and nine in 10 continue to rate the economy in negative terms. Nearly six in 10 say the economy has not started to recover, regardless of what official statistics may say, and most of those who say it has improved rate the recovery as weak. [MORE]

No one should be surprised by Obama losing his Osama bounce. No one can eat a dead Osama, no one can fill their tank with a dead Osama and no one can pay their bills with a dead Osama. It is all about the economy and this WaPo/ABC News poll shows Americans are not feeling Obama on all matters of the economy.

Overall, about six in 10 of those surveyed give Obama negative marks on the economy and the deficit. Significantly, nearly half strongly disapprove of his performance in these two crucial areas. Nearly two-thirds of political independents disapprove of the president’s handling of the economy, including — for the first time — a slim majority who do so strongly.

In another indicator of rapidly shifting views on economic issues, 45 percent trust congressional Republicans over the president when it comes to dealing with the economy, an 11-point improvement for the GOP since March. Still, nearly as many, 42 percent, side with Obama on this issue.

The president has sought to point to progress on the economy, particularly in the automobile industry, and to argue that the policies he put in place at the beginning of his term are working. But the combined effects of weak economic indicators and dissatisfaction among the public are adding to the political pressures on the White House as the president’s advisers look toward what could be a difficult 2012 reelection campaign.

Talked up individual economic indicators and talk about how much worse things might have been, won't save Obama from a reelection defeat if the public doesn't feel significant improvements in the economy. Obama has less than a year and a half to bring this economy back. Failure to do so will certainly spell the end of the Obama administration and usher in a Republican president.

That brings us to the second part of the WaPo/ABC News poll. The poll shows Mitt Romney taking a slight lead over Obama (49/46). All other GOP contenders are behind. This part of the poll, I pretty much dismiss. It is just too early to take these match up polls seriously. Case in point, Newt Gingrich does second best against Obama at 44% to Obama's 50%. Given Gingrich's early meltdown these numbers should be far worse. The reason they are not is because most Americans are not focused on 2012 yet. Once the primaries and debates start in earnest, I expect these numbers to change dramatically.

Via: Memeorandum
Via: Washington Post

Obama gives up on daily economic briefings

If you ever had the feeling that Obama isn't on the ball when it comes to the economy, this might just be the reason.

The Hill: At some point during the first two years of his administration, President Obama stopped receiving the daily economic briefing that he requested when he took office.

Former White House press secretary Robert Gibbs announced at his own first daily briefing reporters that Obama asked for the daily economic briefing, described then as comparable to the daily intelligence briefing the president gets every morning.

“The president asked that this be added every day to his schedule,” Gibbs said at the time. Gibbs added that Obama believed it is “important that each day he receive the most up to date information as it relates to the economy.”

But at some point, the daily economic briefings stopped showing up on Obama's daily schedule.

White House officials said the meetings slowly petered out, but Obama still receives a daily economic briefing on paper. [MORE]

I always had the impression that Obama was following a pre-made plan when guiding the nation. If you recall Obama's plans for America during the 2008 elections, you will find not much has changed since then. Never mind that the economy has gone through all sorts of contortions, Obama still had his plan for fixing healthcare, education and energy. These big bucks plans of Obama did not always jive with the economic realities at hand, but he followed them anyway.

Perhaps a master blueprint is the reason why he does not need daily economic briefings. It seems to me that any sane individual who is pushing top down control of the economy, would want to follow every subtle change. At any rate, Obama's handling of the economy has been an abysmal failure.

Via: The Hill

And they call this "economic recovery"?

America's economic outlook is looking extra bleak these days. This week we have seen some disappointing and in some cases quite alarming news. Let's run down the list, shall we?

In addition to rising gas and food prices, we can now add the following:

• Unemployment back up to 9.1%.

• An anemic 54,000 jobs created last month.

• Moody's again looking at downgrading out credit rating.

• China divest 97% of its holdings of US Treasury bills.

• The Feds are actually contemplating QE3.

To make matters worse, we have a president who is in love with stale old leftist polices from the 1970's who sees all this economic turmoil as a mere "bump in the road" to recovery. In short, we are screwed.

As far as the 2012 elections go, Obama's reelection does not hinge on who the Republicans field. Rather his reelection hinges on a game of beat the clock. Economic poop is about to hit the proverbial fan. The question for Obama is will it happen before November 2012?

God help us!

Via: The Washington Times
Via: Reuters
Via: Associated Press
Via: CNSNews
Via: The Guardian
Via: The Telegraph

The Real Story of the Day: Ben Bernanke - Slower growth, more inflation

Being the cynic that I am, I think Obama finally caved on the birth certificate issue to cover up this major piece of bad news.

CNBC: In his first regular news conference, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said the central bank was continuing its stimulus policy because it was projecting slower growth in the economy with only a modest uptick in inflation.

The Fed cut its growth estimate for 2011 to between 3.1 percent and 3.3 percent from a January forecast of 3.4 percent to 3.9 percent.

The Fed also raised its estimate of inflation this year to a range of 2.1 percent to 2.8 percent, taking into account a recent surge in oil prices. However, it bumped its core inflation forecasts only marginally to a 1.3 percent to 1.6 percent range.

As for unemployment, it lowered its forecast but said it would stay elevated over its three-year forecast period. For 2011, the Fed said it expects the unemployment rate to land in a 8.4-8.7 percent range, better than a range of 8.8-9.0 percent forecast in January. [MORE]

So basically we can look forward to unemployment staying at these level and finally the Fed admits to what we have long known, inflation is here. Bernanke did not take responsibility for fueling inflation with Quantitative Easing (Q.E. 1 & 2).

Bernanke said the Fed would continue with bond buying (buying our own debt).

The statement marked the conclusion — at least for now — of the massive expansion of the Fed's balance sheet that helped pull the economy out of its deep recession.

"On policy, the statement confirms that (the bond buying) is over but otherwise leaves everything on the table subject to regular review 'in light of incoming information,'" said Stephen Stanley, chief economist at Pierpont Securities.

Still, the central bank said it would continue to reinvest proceeds from maturing securities it holds to keep its economic support in place, ensuring it would remain a big buyer in debt markets.

Search across the net and you will have to do some digging to find any real discussion on this matter, even though Bernanke's first press conference was getting a lot of attention days before. You can thanks the birthers and Trump for moving this story to the back pages. Too bad, because this is the real type of issue that will defeat Obama in 2012.

Below are videos from Bernanke's Q and A.

Via: The Blaze
Via: CNBC

Welfare Nation: One third of US wages comes from Uncle Sam

CNBC: Government payouts—including Social Security, Medicare and unemployment insurance—make up more than a third of total wages and salaries of the U.S. population, a record figure that will only increase if action isn’t taken before the majority of Baby Boomers enter retirement.

Even as the economy has recovered, social welfare benefits make up 35 percent of wages and salaries this year, up from 21 percent in 2000 and 10 percent in 1960, according to TrimTabs Investment Research using Bureau of Economic Analysis data.

“The U.S. economy has become alarmingly dependent on government stimulus,” said Madeline Schnapp, director of Macroeconomic Research at TrimTabs, in a note to clients. “Consumption supported by wages and salaries is a much stronger foundation for economic growth than consumption based on social welfare benefits.”[MORE]

There was a time in America when being on the public dole was a bad thing, today it is rapidly becoming a way of life. Getting this number back down to size is not going to be pain free.


The economist gives the country two stark choices. In order to get welfare back to its pre-recession ratio of 26 percent of pay, “either wages and salaries would have to increase $2.3 trillion, or 35 percent, to $8.8 trillion, or social welfare benefits would have to decline $500 billion, or 23 percent, to $1.7 trillion,” she said.


With more and more jobs fleeing America due to high corporate taxes, lavish union salaries/ benefits and a poorly educated workforce, the chances of increasing salaries and wages looks very grim.  That leaves cutting the welfare state down to size.  Make no mistake this option will be painful.  Recipients of government payments will not give up their benefits no matter how much it hurts the country.  Even when they do, the economy must take a hit as recipients transit from social welfare to real jobs.


To prevent ourselves from getting back into this jam, we must scrap the progressive tax system.  So long as there are those who do not pay taxes and vote, they will continue to vote for more "free government money".  A flat tax system where everyone pays, no exemptions and no deductions, would insure that the welfare state could only grow at the most modest levels.


Via: Memeorandum
Via: CNBC

America's debt problem at a glance

Click to enlarge

Business Insider: This is the "income statement" of the United States in 2010.  "Revenue" is on the left.  "Expenses" are on the right.

Note a few things...

First, "Revenue" is tiny relative to "Expenses."

Second, most of the expense is entitlement programs, not defense, education, or any of the other line items that most budget crusaders normally howl about.

Third, as horrifying as these charts are, they don't even show the trends of these two pies: The "expense" pie is growing like gangbusters, driven by the explosive growth of the entitlement programs that no one in government even has the balls to talk about. "Revenue" is barely growing at all.

This is the sad state of America;s economic affairs.  I am sure our friends on the left will look at this chart and say we can easily balance the equation by raising taxes, especially corporate taxes which only account for 9% of the government's revenue.  But here is the rub, when it come to raising taxes the law of physics apply; for every action there is an equal yet opposite reaction. Raise the corporate tax rate and corporations will do one of two things a) pass on the tax to consumers with higher prices or b) flee to countries with lower tax rates (and take their jobs with them). Try raising personal income tax and you end up with less revenue in other areas (e.g. cigarette and gas taxes) because individuals have less money to spend.  Therefore, cutting spending becomes the logical thing to do.

From the chart on the right it is clear that entitlements is where the real money is.  Defense spending at 20% is nothing when compared to the combined 58% of entitlements.  Add to the fact that entitlement are growing at a much more rapid rate than defense, entitlements becomes the focal point for spending cuts.  The problem is that politicians have made entitlements into a sacred cow.  The other problem is that too many politicians (both right and left) have used growing entitlements as an election tool. By promising all sorts of "free" goodies, like "free" healthcare for kids or "free" prescription drugs for seniors, politicians have been exasperating the problem.

What is needed starting 2012 and forward, are politicians who have the guts to tell Americans that the "free" ride is over.  We need politicians who are adult enough to lay before us the stark choices to bring our financial house in order and that means a) start taxing more people (bye-bye progressive tax, hello flat tax), b) cut entitlements (good bye free rides) or c). a combination of both.

I invite you to see where Business Insider got the chart from it is Mary Meeker's presentation of America's financial statements called USA, Inc.

Via: Memeorandum

Via: Business Insider

Via: BusinessWeek

VIDEO: Spooky Dude George Soros - "Obama has lost control of the agenda"

The Blaze: In a pre-recorded interview with CNN’s Fareed Zakaria set to air Sunday morning, investment billionaire George Soros accuses President Barack Obama of having “lost control” of the national economy and criticizes the Democratic president for allowing Republicans to set the national agenda.

Furthermore, Soros goes on to predict that Obama‘s policy shortcomings will have a negative impact on the nation’s economic recovery and accuses the GOP of mixing economic and ideological priorities at the expense of the American worker.

Sorry Spooky Dude, but I ain't buying it.  I think what Soros is doing here is getting Obama off the hook for the mess that the Democrats made of the economy.  Without control of the Senate and the White House, there is little the Republicans can do between now and 2012 to really turn things around. At best all they can do is stop the bleeding.  However, Soros and other lefties will continue to blame Republicans as the economy tank as though the Republicans were in full control.

Via: The Blaze