From 37% to 57% in only six months. Here’s hoping that the trend continues, and that she keeps her job until November, 2012.
Category Archives: Political Commentary
Jobs, Jobs, Jobs and Jobs
Speaker Pelosi was right that that is what this is all about. And she and the Congress continue to destroy them and prevent their creation:
…millions of full-time workers are being downgraded to part-time, as businesses slash labor costs to remain above water. Because people are working less, wages have fallen by 0.3% this year. Factories are operating at only 65% capacity, while the overall jobless rate hit 9.5%. Throw in discouraged workers who want full-time work, and the labor underutilization rate climbed to 16.5%.
The news is even worse for young people, with nearly one in four teenagers unemployed. Congress has scheduled an increase in the minimum wage later this month, which will price even more of these unskilled youths out of a vital start on the career ladder. One useful policy response would be for Congress to rescind the wage hike to $7.25 an hour (from $6.55) that is scheduled for July 24. But the union economic model that now dominates Washington holds that wages only matter for those who already have jobs. The jobs that are never created don’t count.
This is right out of the New Deal play book. Price labor out of the market by government fiat. And keep kids (many of whom live with their parents) from climbing on to the first rung of the employment ladder. Teenage unemployment is 24%, and they raise the minimum wage. Brilliant.
And then there’s this (part of a huge grand indictment of Waxman-Markey):
Naturally, Big Labor gets its piece of the pie, too. Projects receiving grants and financing under Waxman-Markey provisions will be required to implement Davis-Bacon union-wage rules, making it hard for non-union firms to compete — and ensuring that these “investments” pay out inflated union wages. And it’s not just the big research-and-development contracts, since Waxman-Markey forces union-wage rules all the way down to the plumbing-repair and light-bulb-changing level.
Via Kaus, who also notes that if this insanity is extended to health care, you can kiss any hopes of cost savings goodbye. We’ve got to put the brakes on all this economic vandalism, somehow. I hope that we can finally stop it in the Senate.
[Update a few minutes later]
The dog will hunt, but it can’t find anything.
[Late morning update]
The worst job market for teens since 1965. But let’s be sure to raise that minimum wage.
How To Talk To Reporters
Good tips for tea partiers tomorrow. And if you don’t have a sign, don’t let it keep you home:
The most important thing you can do as a tea party demonstrator is show up. You will be absolutely astonished to find that the biggest benefit you will experience is how encouraging and inspiring it is to be among like-minded people demonstrating for a noble cause. The feelings of affirmation and connection will keep you going through all kinds of adversity in the fight to preserve the United States as a democratic republic powered by capitalism and individual liberty.
Ninety percent of life is just showing up.
[Update a few minutes later]
More advice from Jim Geraghty:
…try to walk away with something of a plan. As Glenn and I have noted, chanting and waving signs are great, but if you really want to influence the way government works, you have to put yourself in front of the folks who make the decisions. And those at the lowest levels — city and town councils, mayors, county boards, members of Congress — are rarely used to crowds of people passionately making the case for spending less money.
Yes, they’ll find it surprising.
Down The Rathole
Dick Shelby wins, our space future loses:
Shelby’s argument has been that the exploration funding in the bill was intended solely for reducing the Shuttle-Constellation gap, a spokesman for the Alabama Republican told the paper (although there is no specific language dictating that in the bill). And certainly Constellation can use every bit of additional funding it can get. However, would that $100 million have a greater effect towards reducing the gap in US human space access if it’s spent on Constellation (where it might accelerate schedules by on the order of a month), or on commercial efforts that might (but are certainly not guaranteed to) be operational years before Ares 1 and Orion?
It can’t use it in any way that’s beneficial to either the taxpayer, or a space enthusiast. I almost weep when I think of the useful things we could do with a mere hundred million dollars. Shelby is quickly making himself public enemy number one of anyone who wants a sane and cost-effective space program. More over at the Sentinel.
[Update on Saturday]
A lot more comments over at NASA Watch.
French Food
Some thoughts.
I have to confess that I’ve never eaten in France, though I have traveled through it on the train. I didn’t find this problem in Belgium or the Netherlands. But I do find European hours annoying, as well as the fact that I have to almost send out a search party for someone to get me a check when I’m done eating, and want to go. I don’t consider eating out a leisurely social event, to be stretched out as long as possible. That’s one of the many reasons I’m glad that my ancestors left Europe.
[Update late evening]
In response to a comment from Andrea Harris:
It’s not even about taking leisure over courses. Even after dessert, they won’t bring you a bill until you almost hold a gun to their head, because they think it impolite to do so any sooner. It drives me nuts.
I had an argument with a European (my sister, who has become a European, having lived there too long) about this.
“Look, it’s not about making someone leave. In America, bringing the bill isn’t a sign that they want you to leave. It’s a courtesy to allow you to leave if you wish.”
“No, no, that’s so rude. They’re just trying to clear the tables when they are in such a rush to bring the bill.”
Well, that may be true in some cases — they do, after all, and unlike the Europeans, want to make money. But as I told her, my way, and the dreaded American way, I can leave as soon as I want, if I want, and if I don’t want, I don’t have to until they actually are rude, and come over to ask us to leave. The European way, I’m a hostage to the wait staff (or, “the state”) until they deign to provide me with the bill (as an aside, I’ve never understood why it’s called a “check”).
I know which one I like. And it seems like a microcosm of the difference between the US and Europe.
For now, at least.
The Democrats Own The Jobs Numbers
Why America isn’t hiring:
America isn’t hiring precisely because of government policy. Small business owners, who are usually the first into and the first out of the job pool, are standing by the fence and watching. They are paralyzed by regulatory uncertainty. If they hire someone who ends up doing poorly, will they be able to fire that person? Will they have to pay their health care bills after they’ve been terminated? If so, for how long? Who will pay for all these stimulus checks? If it will turn out to be small business, why would they hire instead of keeping costs low to prepare for the big tax bill? Where will the market move? Are you in the right business or are your clients in a politically disfavored industry? Are your clients in health care (being nationalized), autos (already nationalized), banking (somewhat nationalized) or any energy production process which uses carbon (pulverized)? Until you know, you don’t grow, and until you grow your market, you don’t grow your payroll.
Jobs aren’t languishing despite the government’s best efforts. They’re languishing because of them.
They’re actually languishing because of the government’s worst efforts. Investors (and small business owners are investors) hate uncertainty, and will sit on the sidelines until it disappears. Right now, small business is going Galt. And I sure don’t blame them.
Unfortunately, it actually plays into the fascists’ strategy of moving more economic activity out of the private, and into the public sector.
Obama Versus Obama
I know this is old-story politics, but two things are different. One, never has the gap between pre-presidential and in-office behavior been so wide (heaven and earth really are quite distant), and, two, the past promises of utopia have so conditioned a mesmerized media that they don’t realize their own complacency in allowing an administration to use whatever means they chose for professedly exalted ends.
This is a strange time, when we are borrowing into oblivion, redefining 60 years of bilateral foreign policy, embarking on unproven — but costly — environmentalism, nationalizing industry and health care, and gleefully establishing a veritable state-sanctioned, pro-government media on the lines Americans used to be terrified about.In response, as I read between the lines, conservatives are told by the Obamans something to the effect, “Forget our prior demagoguery, aren’t you at least happy we backtracked and are now adopting some of your war-on-terror positions we used to trash?”, while liberals are supposed to be happy with something like, “Just forget all that stuff about ethics, transparency, and anti-lobbying/influence; we’re in power now and will do anything necessary to fulfill your agenda.”
I hope that he’s right, and that all of this two-faced behavior will come back to haunt them in the polling booths.
Electric Cars
…are not a moon shot:
“What people overlook is that accomplishing ‘big picture’ programs like Apollo require accepting the concept of unlimited spending to achieve the mission,” says Ron Cogan, editor and publisher of the industry authority Green Car Journal and editor of GreenCar.com. “Current levels of unprecedented federal spending notwithstanding, electric cars are not an exclusive answer to future transportation challenges and consumers will not be willing to buy them at all costs.”
As I pointed out at the last Apollo anniversary, it’s time to stop using this economically ignorant analogy. And that means you, Mr. President. The only time that he ever talks about space is when he can use it as an excuse for one of his non-space economically nutty programs.
The Decline Of Entrepreneurship
Only an academic could come up with the idiotic notion that it’s Walmart’s fault. It is fascist, corporatist federal policies. And not just SOX, but a lot of general business regulation that makes the paperwork and legal liabilities too daunting for a small business.
Cash, Or Credit?
Who gets cash and who gets IOUs in California. I’m shocked, shocked. I’m glad the state doesn’t owe me any money. I wonder how much the IOUs will be discounted for people who need the liquidity now?
[Update a few minutes later]
If they’re going to do this, instead of making some people more equal than others, wouldn’t the fair thing be to issue everyone a mix of cash and IOU in proportion to the amount that they’re short?
[Late morning update]
B of A says that it will accept the IOUs as warrants:
“To support our customers, while giving the state legislature additional time to pass a budget, we will accept California state-registered warrants — or IOUs — from existing customers and clients,” Charlotte-based BofA (NYSE:BAC) says in a written statement.
OK, so what are these things? What happens if the legislature doesn’t get its act together (and based on history, that’s the way to bet). Do they have an associated interest rate, or maturity date? What would a secondary market in them look like, and how would they be discounted? Suppose California just reneges on redeeming them? Does B of A (and Wells Fargo, and whoever else follows suit) then get made whole by TARP, thus bailing out the state of California via the US taxpayer through the back door (in more ways than one)?
What a mess.