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Groovanauts.com > Everything Else > Politics / Economics > Barackalypse Now.

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domjuan
“Yes, we can!” has devolved into “Hey, we might.”

Registered: Jun 2006
Age: 35
Location: Gotham
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Barackalypse Now.

Barackalypse Now. Dear Leader speaks, the markets crash. Elections have consequences. But he'll use race and blame and dance on Ellen to dupe the useful idiots to the voting booth again.

Money Driven, Anal Lover, Yankee Fan, Cowboy up & I Ride w/ the Heat!! I'm a relentless & persistent animal my desire is to be the worlds greatest. - me

“Liberalism is a mental disorder" ~MIKE SAVAGE

“I'd like to thank the good Lord for making me a Yankee.”
Joe DiMaggio

Them that governs least, governs best- Thomas Jefferson

“The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.”
- Thomas Jefferson

Lead me, follow me, or get out of my way. - General George Patton Jr

I love my wife & my life.

"I am an Animal Rescuer. My work is never done, my home is never quiet, my wallet is always empty...but my heart is always full." Annette King-Tucker

"Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they made a difference in the world. But the U.S. ARMED FORCES don't have that problem."

Vic's daily to do list:

1- Hug a tree
2- 550 useless posts
3- Check in with Domjuan's secretary to see what hes up to for the day.
4- Tweet Obama 150 times
5- Master-bate to pics of Cindy Sheehan
6 - Spread innovative thinking that failed 25 years ago in Europe.
7- Burn an American flag
8- Spew out racist remarks to anybody that isn't a tree-huger like himself.

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08-09-2011 09:24 AM domjuan is offline

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domjuan
“Yes, we can!” has devolved into “Hey, we might.”

Obama looked at Michelle, chuckled and said, "You know, I could throw a $1,000 bill out of the window right now and make somebody very happy." Michelle shrugged her shoulders and replied, "I could throw ten $100 bills out of the window and make ten people very happy". Hearing their exchange, the… pilot of plane said to his co-pilot," Such big-shots back there. I could throw both of them out of the window and make 256 million people very happy."!! If you're one of 256 million

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08-09-2011 09:25 AM domjuan is offline

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domjuan
“Yes, we can!” has devolved into “Hey, we might.”

America's economy
Time for a double dip?
A lousy debt deal, rising fears of a recession, the danger of longer-term stagnation: America’s outlook is grim

Aug 6th 2011 | from the print edition

THIS ought to have been a good week for the American economy. The country’s leaders at last ended a ludicrously irresponsible bout of fiscal brinkmanship, removing the threat of global financial Armageddon by agreeing to raise the federal debt ceiling. Yet far from heaving a sigh of relief, investors are nervous. Stockmarkets around the world have tumbled (see article). On August 2nd, the day the debt deal was signed, the S&P 500 index saw its biggest one-day fall in over a year, and yields on ten-year Treasury bonds dropped to 2.6%, their lowest level in nine months, as investors sought safety.

It is not all to do with America: the euro zone is a mess (see article) and manufacturing everywhere seems to be slowing. But America’s prospects have suddenly darkened. Statistical revisions and some grim new figures have revealed a weaker-than-assumed recovery that has all but ground to a halt. Once stalled, an economy can easily tip back into recession, particularly if it is hit by a new shock—as America’s is about to be, thanks to a hefty dose of fiscal tightening made worse by the debt deal. The odds of a double dip over the coming year are uncomfortably high, perhaps as high as 50%.

America’s recovery from a balance-sheet recession was always bound to be sluggish and fragile. And its woes need not fell the world economy, thanks to the strength of emerging markets (see Economics focus). But the thoughtlessness of the debt deal—notably its failure to tackle any of the real sources of America’s fiscal problems, such as entitlement spending—raises a bigger worry. Can the country’s politicians, so starkly polarised and so willing to gamble with the economy, be trusted not to turn what was always an inevitable period of hardship into longer-term stagnation?

The fin rising to the surface

Begin with the state of the recovery. On July 29th America’s government statisticians published revisions to the past few years of GDP statistics. They showed that the 2008 recession was deeper than first thought, and the subsequent recovery flatter. Output has not yet regained its pre-recession peak. And the feeble recovery is petering out. Over the past year output has grown by a mere 1.6%, well below what most economists consider to be the economy’s underlying growth rate, and a pace that has in the past almost always been followed by recession. Over the past six months the United States has eked out annualised growth of merely 0.8%. Even observers who, like us, had expected America to bounce along near the bottom for a while had not expected growth to be this low.
Compare world debt levels over time with our updated interactive debt guide

Temporary factors have played some role in this. Soaring oil prices crimped consumer spending. The Japanese earthquake disturbed supply chains. In some industries, notably car production, a rebound is plainly under way. But the overall economy is now so weak that it would take a lot to get growth up to a reasonable rate. And there are some signs that the temporary shocks may have left a more lasting dent on the psyche of firms and shoppers. That is why the newest figures are so disconcerting. Consumer spending fell in June; consumer confidence slumped in July, as did manufacturers’ orders. Of course, these are early, incomplete, snapshots, but the chances of a double dip over the coming year, which seemed relatively small only a month ago, have risen alarmingly.

If that happens, then America’s politicians will bear much of the blame (see article). Their prescription for a weak economy is a large slug of austerity. Thanks to the expiry of a payroll-tax credit and extended jobless benefits in December, the United States is on course for a fiscal contraction of some 2% of GDP next year, the biggest of any large economy—and enough to drag a weak economy into recession.

The debt deal, which implies only modest new spending cuts in the short term, is not directly responsible for this. But Congress could, and should, have stopped this potentially ruinous trajectory. There was a deal to be had: keep up spending in the short term, with a stress on much-needed infrastructure investment, as well as extending the temporary tax cuts, in exchange for a big medium-term reduction in the deficit, centred on entitlements and tax reform. Congress did precisely the opposite, failing to support the economy now and failing to find enough cuts over the next decade to stabilise America’s debt. Any hard decisions have been given to a commission—a cop-out that condemns workers and firms to more crippling uncertainty about how the country’s fiscal mess will be tackled. Would you build a factory today if you knew that taxes had to rise eventually, but had no idea which ones?

Worse, the poisonous politics of the past few weeks have created new sorts of uncertainty. Now that the tea-partiers have used default successfully as a political weapon, it will surely be used again. The refusal to compromise, rapidly becoming a point of honour for both parties, is wreaking damage elsewhere, partially shutting down the Federal Aviation Administration (see article) and postponing trade bills. At best, the politicians will have slowed a sputtering expansion; at worst they will have killed off the recovery and inflicted lasting harm on the world’s most impressive prosperity machine.

In the land of the blind the one-eyed Fed is king

Does it have to be this way? Not necessarily. Barack Obama or one of his Republican challengers may yet discover the courage to tell the truth about the American economy in next year’s presidential election. But given the politicians’ current uselessness, the only institution with the power to avert danger is the Federal Reserve. With interest rates so low, that means more quantitative easing. Printing more money is justifiable in the circumstances, but still a tool offering diminishing returns. Fiscal help would have been much better.

If America does manage to avoid recession and slowly begins to pull out of this mire, it will be testimony to its underlying strengths. It still has huge advantages over other rich countries: a younger, less-taxed population, a more innovative economy and, for now at least, the dollar as the global reserve currency. If only it had the political leaders to match, its chance of avoiding recession would be far better than one in two.

http://www.economist.com/node/21525405?fsrc=scn/tw/te/ar/timeforadoubledip

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08-09-2011 09:26 AM domjuan is offline

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domjuan
“Yes, we can!” has devolved into “Hey, we might.”

Is Obama Smart?
A case study in stupid is as stupid does.

By BRET STEPHENS

The aircraft was large, modern and considered among the world's safest. But that night it was flying straight into a huge thunderstorm. Turbulence was extreme, and airspeed indicators may not have been functioning properly. Worse, the pilots were incompetent. As the plane threatened to stall they panicked by pointing the nose up, losing speed when they ought to have done the opposite. It was all over in minutes.

Was this the fate of Flight 447, the Air France jet that plunged mysteriously into the Atlantic a couple of years ago? Could be. What I'm talking about here is the Obama presidency.

When it comes to piloting, Barack Obama seems to think he's the political equivalent of Charles Lindbergh, Chuck Yeager and—in a "Fly Me to the Moon" sort of way—Nat King Cole rolled into one. "I think I'm a better speech writer than my speech writers," he reportedly told an aide in 2008. "I know more about policies on any particular issue than my policy directors. And I'll tell you right now that I'm . . . a better political director than my political director."

On another occasion—at the 2004 Democratic convention—Mr. Obama explained to a Chicago Tribune reporter that "I'm LeBron, baby. I can play at this level. I got game."

Of course, it's tempting to be immodest when your admirers are so immodest about you. How many times have we heard it said that Mr. Obama is the smartest president ever? Even when he's criticized, his failures are usually chalked up to his supposed brilliance. Liberals say he's too cerebral for the Beltway rough-and-tumble; conservatives often seem to think his blunders, foreign and domestic, are all part of a cunning scheme to turn the U.S. into a combination of Finland, Cuba and Saudi Arabia.

I don't buy it. I just think the president isn't very bright.

Socrates taught that wisdom begins in the recognition of how little we know. Mr. Obama is perpetually intent on telling us how much he knows. Aristotle wrote that the type of intelligence most needed in politics is prudence, which in turn requires experience. Mr. Obama came to office with no experience. Plutarch warned that flattery "makes itself an obstacle and pestilence to great houses and great affairs." Today's White House, more so than any in memory, is stuffed with flatterers.

Much is made of the president's rhetorical gifts. This is the sort of thing that can be credited only by people who think that a command of English syntax is a mark of great intellectual distinction. Can anyone recall a memorable phrase from one of Mr. Obama's big speeches that didn't amount to cliché? As for the small speeches, such as the one we were kept waiting 50 minutes for yesterday, we get Triple-A bromides about America remaining a "Triple-A country." Which, when it comes to long-term sovereign debt, is precisely what we no longer are under Mr. Obama.

Then there is Mr. Obama as political tactician. He makes predictions that prove false. He makes promises he cannot honor. He raises expectations he cannot meet. He reneges on commitments made in private. He surrenders positions staked in public. He is absent from issues in which he has a duty to be involved. He is overbearing when he ought to be absent. At the height of the financial panic of 1907, Teddy Roosevelt, who had done much to bring the panic about by inveighing against big business, at least had the good sense to stick to his bear hunt and let J.P. Morgan sort things out. Not so this president, who puts a new twist on an old put-down: Every time he opens his mouth, he subtracts from the sum total of financial capital.

Then there's his habit of never trimming his sails, much less tacking to the prevailing wind. When Bill Clinton got hammered on health care, he reverted to centrist course and passed welfare reform. When it looked like the Iraq war was going to be lost, George Bush fired Don Rumsfeld and ordered the surge.

Mr. Obama, by contrast, appears to consider himself immune from error. Perhaps this explains why he has now doubled down on Heckuva Job Geithner. It also explains his insulting and politically inept habit of suggesting—whether the issue is health care, or Arab-Israeli peace, or change we can believe in at some point in God's good time—that the fault always lies in the failure of his audiences to listen attentively. It doesn't. In politics, a failure of communication is always the fault of the communicator.

Much of the media has spent the past decade obsessing about the malapropisms of George W. Bush, the ignorance of Sarah Palin, and perhaps soon the stupidity of Rick Perry. Nothing is so typical of middling minds than to harp on the intellectual deficiencies of the slightly less smart and considerably more successful.

But it takes actual smarts to understand that glibness and self-belief are not sufficient proof of genuine intelligence. Stupid is as stupid does, said the great philosopher Forrest Gump. The presidency of Barack Obama is a case study in stupid does.

Write to bstephens@wsj.com

wsj.com

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08-09-2011 09:28 AM domjuan is offline

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domjuan
“Yes, we can!” has devolved into “Hey, we might.”

Obama’s Downgrade May Last Until 2029

Posted on August 8, 2011 by Ben Johnson

by Ben Johnson, The White House Watch

Obama scored another historical first on Friday, becoming the first president to see the U.S. credit rating downgraded by Standard & Poor’s, from AAA to AA+. While we hope his presidential reign lasts no longer than January 2013, Americans may have to live with the consequences of Obamanomics for more than a decade to come. The chairman of Standard & Poor’s sovereign debt ratings, John Chambers, told ABC’s <="" em=""> program on Sunday the United States could be stuck with the lower credit rating between nine and 18 years. “We’ve had five governments that lost their AAA that got it back,” he said. “The amount of time that it took for those five range from 9 years to 18 years.” He forecast that digging America out of the debt ditch “could take awhile,” and that it would require two things: “a stabilization of the debt as a share of the economy and eventual decline” and “more ability to reach consensus in Washington than what we’re observing now.”

The president’s commitment to deficit spending and unwillingness to make enforceable budget cuts leave a grim prognosis. But the outlook get worse. As this author noted Friday, there is a chance America will be downgraded yet again. Chambers placed the odds of a future downgrade at one-in-three. Scoring a AA rating would place the Land of the Free on equal terms with Spain and Qatar.

These realities had Obama in full Alinsky mode during his 1 p.m. speech (which took place at two o’clock this afternoon). He opened by saying, while Tea Party intransigence forced S&P to cut out debt rating, “The markets, on the other hand, continue to believe our credit status is AAA.” To bolster his case, he added, “Warren Buffett, who knows a thing or two about good investments, said, ‘If there were a quadruple-A rating, I’d give the United States that.’” Even as he spoke, the stock market was in free fall. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 634.76 points this afternoon. The slide capped off a string of losses so severe that CNBC reports that, on this eighth day of the month, “August is already on track to be the worst month for the S&P [500] and Nasdaq since Oct. 2008,” the first full month of the economic meltdown. And despite earning the Obama administration’s seal of approval, Standard & Poor’s marked down Buffett’s Birkshire Hathaway holding conglomerate from “stable” to “negative” today.

Obama’s Surrogates Savage the Savers

Democratic talking heads did their best to pin blame on their political opponents. This weekend, both David Axelrod and Sen. John Kerry repeated the phrase “Tea Party downgrade.”

Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner eschewed presidential responsibility, as well. “Congress ultimately owns the credit rating of the United States,” he said. This would be true in the sense that Obama offered absolutely no leadership during the debate and presented no plan of his own but would overlook the president’s addiction to deficit spending and hostility to fiscal (or political) responsibility. Geithner, suddenly discovering the Founding Fathers, noted Congress has “the power of the purse in the Constitution.” That fact did not keep Geithner from publicly musing about having Obama unilaterally raise the debt ceiling in late June, leading to a chorus of Democrats demanding the president invoke the 14th Amendment to claim the power of the purse as his own.

Not everyone is reading from the same script, though. As usual, Bill and Hillary Clinton have taken the crisis to spin things in their favor. The Hill newspaper a href=”http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/175777-ex-clinton-aides-obama-lacked-clear-message-in-debt-talks”>reports former Clinton administration appointees, who insisted on remaining anonymous, said Obama bungled communications during the debt ceiling debate. One of them crowed former president Bill “Clinton had a different approach on strategic messaging,” and if Obama had copied his approach it would have “worked better.” Such leaks undermine Obama, vindicate Bill Clinton, and give Hillary an undeserved reputation as a moderate if she wishes to launch a primary challenge against Obama in 2012 or a run in her own right four years later.

Chinese Blotter Torture

Obama’s intraparty nemeses are not the only ones taunting the president. As if to illustrate the Biblical maxim that “the borrower is servant to the lender,” the Chinese-controlled Xinhua news agency ran a scathing commentary on Saturday that stated, “The U.S. government has to come to terms with the painful fact that the good old days when it could just borrow its way out of messes of its own making are finally gone.” The downgrade, the agency lectured, gave China the right to set U.S. economic policy, or for the United States to give part of its economic sovereignty over to an unnamed international organization. “China, the largest creditor of the world’s sole superpower, has every right now to demand the United States address its structural debt problems and ensure the safety of China’s dollar assets,” it stated. “International supervision over the issue of U.S. dollars should be introduced and a new, stable and secured global reserve currency may also be an option to avert a catastrophe caused by any single country.”

The editorial did not specify precisely what kind of “international supervision” Beijing has in mind. But the Communist government, which has long clamored to replace the U.S. dollar as the world’s reserve currency, used the Obama downgrade to renew the call. Guan Jianzhong, chairman of China’s Dagong Global Credit Rating (and which, like all Chinese businesses, speaks at the prompting of the government) said the lowered credit rating has set into motion an “irreversible” trend that will lead to the U.S. dollar being “gradually discarded by the world” as its reserve currency.

This author wrote about the possibility, and its consequences, a year ago. Economists agree both that the United States is flirting with losing its status as the world’s currency of choice and that, if such a change comes about, it will set the American economy further back on its heels.

Dr. Barry Eichengreen summarized the likely impact of losing the reserve status in the Wall Street Journal in March:

My calculations suggest that the dollar will have to fall by roughly 20%. Because the prices of imported goods will rise in the U.S., living standards will be reduced by about 1.5% of GDP—$225 billion in today’s dollars. That is the equivalent to a half-year of normal economic growth.

The financial consequences would go far beyond the retirees who see their life savings reduced by one-fifth overnight. The change in the international currency markets will make doing business overseas more difficult for U.S. firms, slowing the pace of growth. It would also make it costlier to finance more borrowing for the national debt.

Meanwhile, the national debt could easily top 100 percent of GDP by 2021, with half of all tax revenues going to service the interest on the national debt alone.

The Obama downgrade hastens the day when China eclipses the United States as the world’s superpower. That would be yet another historic Obama first.

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08-09-2011 09:30 AM domjuan is offline

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domjuan
“Yes, we can!” has devolved into “Hey, we might.”

from the middle:

NYC Mayor Bloomberg Defends S&P's Downgrade Reasoning

Updated: Monday, 08 Aug 2011, 6:45 PM CDT
Published : Monday, 08 Aug 2011, 6:45 PM CDT

(Wall Street Journal) - NEW YORK -- New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Monday defended the reasoning behind Standard & Poor's decision to strip the US of its triple-A credit rating, which he termed a "damning indictment of how bad things really have gotten in Washington."

"Unfortunately, Standard and Poor's hit it on the nose when they said that the effectiveness, the stability and the predictability of American policy-making and political institutions has weakened at a time of ongoing fiscal and economic challenge," Bloomberg said at a news conference. "I think that is what they said, and that is exactly right."

The mayor sought to draw a distinction between the rating agency's downgrade of the US and its commentary on Washington's dysfunction. He declined to opine on the specific decision to lower the US credit rating, but said S&P's description of Washington as dysfunctional is accurate.

Bloomberg, who flirted with running for the White House in 2008, did not take a direct swipe at President Barack Obama, casting blame instead on the federal government as a whole.

"It's fair to say we have just gotten a two-month civics lesson on how to talk the economy down, how to undermine investor and consumer confidence, and how to destabilize the stock market. Washington couldn't have done any of those things better," Bloomberg said Monday. "They have done much more harm to the economy over the past few months -- two months -- than they've done to help it."

Late last week, for the first time in history, S&P downgraded the US credit rating to double A-plus from triple-A, prompting a strong rebuke from the Obama administration. On Sunday, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said the agency has "shown a stunning lack of knowledge about basic US fiscal budget math."

In his remarks Monday, Bloomberg said he has "no idea" what S&P's standards are to raise or lower ratings. "But what they described is, I thought, a very accurate description of the disaster that is taking place in Washington," he said.

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08-09-2011 09:32 AM domjuan is offline

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domjuan
“Yes, we can!” has devolved into “Hey, we might.”

From the biggest liberal in thw world sans vic

Downgrade Blues
By MAUREEN DOWD
Published: August 6, 2011

WASHINGTON
Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times

BARACK OBAMA must wonder sometimes if his luck has run out.

Maybe he used it all up in 2008.

“Yes, we can!” has devolved into “Hey, we might.”

“When I said, ‘Change we can believe in,’ I didn’t say, ‘Change we can believe in tomorrow,’ ” he told an audience at a Chicago fund-raiser on Wednesday. “Not, ‘Change we can believe in next week.’ We knew this was going to take time, because we’ve got this big, messy, tough democracy.”

True enough, but not F.D.R.-inspiring to a deflated and desperate nation that may face higher borrowing rates after the shock of the first credit downgrade in United States history.

Barack Obama blazed like Luke Skywalker in 2008, but he never learned to channel the Force. And now the Tea Party has run off with his light saber.

The dissonance of his promise and his reality is jarring.

When he had power, he didn’t use it. He wanted to be a “transformational” president like Ronald Reagan, but failed to understand that Reagan’s strategic shows of strength allowed him to keep the whip hand without raising his voice.

And now, just when the high school principal in the Oval has been browbeating Congress to help create jobs, he is once more distracted from that task as he tries to save his own.

He goes to fund-raisers to tell people to stick with him, but he seems to be trying to reassure himself.

“I have to admit,” the president said in Chicago, “I didn’t know how steep the climb was going to be.”

At the large fund-raiser in his hometown, he tried to reassure disillusioned liberals about “unfinished business” to help those in need. Later, at a smaller $35,800-a-head dinner, he defended the unpopular debt package like a proud fiscal conservative.

The president talks fondly of George Bush the elder, just as Bush the elder does of him. Obama thinks Bush is a poignant figure because he did the right thing, breaking his tax pledge to fix the deficit, even though he got punished for it with one term.

It is clear that the once cocky Obama is feeling that same poignancy about his own presidency. Left in a giant pickle by the hot-dogging Bush the younger, the president who gloriously made history is now stuck in Sisyphus mode.

He thinks he’s doing the right things to crawl out of W.’s mudslide, but he ends up being castigated by the right as a socialist, by the left as a conservative, and by the middle as wobbly.

The one clear-cut, chesty victory that Obama has had may have come too late for beleaguered Americans to much care.

When the president is asked what it felt like to kill Osama, he’s low-key and modest, even though he personally refocused the mission to capture the 9/11 architect after W. dropped the ball.

He has told people what a thrill it was to meet Seal Team 6 — and the dog Cairo — which pulled off the hit, noting that the men looked less young and fearsome than he expected, and more like guys working at Home Depot.

But while Obama takes the high road, his aides have made sure there are proxies to exuberantly brag on him.

The White House clearly blessed the dramatic reconstruction of the mission by Nicholas Schmidle in The New Yorker — so vividly descriptive of the Seals’ looks, quotes and thoughts that Schmidle had to clarify after the piece was published that he had not actually talked to any of them.

“I’ll just say that the 23 Seals on the mission that evening were not the only ones who were listening to their radio communications,” Schmidle said, answering readers’ questions in a live chat, after taking flak for leaving some with the impression that he had interviewed the heroes when he wrote in his account that it was based on “some of their recollections.”

The White House is also counting on the Kathryn Bigelow and Mark Boal big-screen version of the killing of Bin Laden to counter Obama’s growing reputation as ineffectual. The Sony film by the Oscar-winning pair who made “The Hurt Locker” will no doubt reflect the president’s cool, gutsy decision against shaky odds. Just as Obamaland was hoping, the movie is scheduled to open on Oct. 12, 2012 — perfectly timed to give a home-stretch boost to a campaign that has grown tougher.

The moviemakers are getting top-level access to the most classified mission in history from an administration that has tried to throw more people in jail for leaking classified information than the Bush administration.

It was clear that the White House had outsourced the job of manning up the president’s image to Hollywood when Boal got welcomed to the upper echelons of the White House and the Pentagon and showed up recently — to the surprise of some military officers — at a C.I.A. ceremony celebrating the hero Seals.

Just like W., Obama is going for that “Mission Accomplished” glow (without the suggestive harness). At least in this president’s case, though, something has been accomplished.

“Yes, we can!” has devolved into “Hey, we might.”

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08-09-2011 09:34 AM domjuan is offline

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domjuan
“Yes, we can!” has devolved into “Hey, we might.”

Dow drops 1147 points over three trading days

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08-09-2011 09:40 AM domjuan is offline

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domjuan
“Yes, we can!” has devolved into “Hey, we might.”

"It's all the fault of the white guy before me. Woooo, childs! People can't appreciate everything I've done for them.

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08-09-2011 09:56 AM domjuan is offline

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domjuan
“Yes, we can!” has devolved into “Hey, we might.”

It's always darkest just before it goes pitch black. - Mao Tse-tung.

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08-09-2011 10:10 AM domjuan is offline

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domjuan
“Yes, we can!” has devolved into “Hey, we might.”

They wanted to nail Bush to the cross for playing golf during the Iraq war. Nothing is ever good enough for the proletarians.

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08-09-2011 10:12 AM domjuan is offline

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domjuan
“Yes, we can!” has devolved into “Hey, we might.”

When did President Obama become such a lousy speech-maker? His remarks on Monday afternoon, aimed at calming the markets, were flat and uninspired — as they have consistently been throughout the debt ceiling crisis. “No matter what some agency may say,” he said, ”we’ve always been and always will be a triple-A country.” Is that really the best he could do? The markets, realizing he had little or nothing to offer, continued their swoon. What is particularly frustrating is that the president seems to have so little to say on the subject of job creation, which should be his most pressing concern. On Monday, Obama mentioned a payroll tax holiday and the extension of unemployment benefits. Both moves would help people in need; neither will do much to create new jobs. I know that there are limits to what any government can do to create jobs. But what one yearns for is a little imagination from this White House. Someone suggested to me recently that the government could create a $50 billion fund for small business, and use it to pay, say, 20 percent of the wages of new hires for two years — first come, first served. Why doesn’t Obama suggest something like that?

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08-09-2011 10:34 AM domjuan is offline

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domjuan
“Yes, we can!” has devolved into “Hey, we might.”

Federal Deficit Tops $1 Trillion for 3rd Consecutive Year

Published August 10, 2011

| Associated Press

The United States' budget deficit has topped $1 trillion for a third straight year, adding pressure on Congress and the White House to make more progress on a long-term plan to shrink the growing imbalance.

The Treasury Department said Wednesday that the deficit through July totaled $1.1 trillion. Three years ago, that would have been a record high for the full year.

This year's deficit is on pace to exceed last year's imbalance of $1.29 trillion. But it is likely to fall short of the record $1.41 trillion set in 2009.

For the first 10 months of the budget year, spending has risen 2.4 percent while revenue has climbed 8 percent. That's a sign that more people are working and paying taxes, although unemployment remains high at 9.1 percent.

Record deficits have forced President Barack Obama and Congress to create a 12-member committee of lawmakers tasked with reducing the red ink over the next decade by $1.2 trillion. If the panel cannot agree on a plan by Thanksgiving, severe across-the-board spending cuts would go into effect automatically.

The committee was a key part of a two-stage deal forged last week that allowed the government to boost its borrowing limit. The first stage of the deal would cut spending by $917 billion over 10 years. The second stage would go into effect after Congress approved the committee's recommendations.

But the $2.1 trillion deal fell short of the $4 trillion in cuts that Standard & Poor's said was needed to achieve a credible deficit plan. As a result, S&P downgraded the U.S. government's credit rating from AAA to AA+.

A political backlash over the deficits allowed Republicans to gain control of the House in last year's elections. Both parties say they are committed to reducing the deficits. But Republicans oppose tax increases; Democrats object to making big cuts to entitlement programs, such as Social Security and Medicare.

Before 2009, the deficit had never come close to $1 trillion in a single year.

The government last recorded a budget surplus in 2001, when revenues were $127 billion greater than spending. The surpluses were expected to total $5.6 trillion over the next decade.

But the country was back in the red by 2002. The deficits grew after President George W. Bush won approval for broad tax cuts, pushed a major drug benefit program for seniors and launched the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan.

In 2008, Bush's last full year in office, the deficit reached $454.8 billion, a record at that time. And when the economy plunged into a deep recession, the yearly imbalance topped $1 trillion.

Higher spending on unemployment insurance and food stamps, and a sharp contraction in tax revenues, widened the deficit. And it grew even more after the Obama administration backed a $787 billion stimulus program to boost the economy.

The deficit also widened after Obama and congressional Republicans agreed to extend Bush's tax cuts for two more years and include a one-year cut in the Social Security payroll tax in an effort to give the sluggish economy a boost. Obama is seeking to extend the payroll tax cut for another year.

The fastest growing category of the budget is interest on the national debt, which totaled $213 billion through July. That's 15 percent higher than a year ago.

Congressional leaders over the past two days have named members to the 12-member deficit-cutting panel.

House Republicans appointed Rep. Jeb Hensarling of Texas to be the co-chair. They chose Reps. Dave Camp and Fred Upton, both of Michigan, to also serve on the committee.

Senate Republicans selected Sens. Jon Kyl of Arizona, Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania and Rob Portman of Ohio.

Senate Democrats chose Sens. Patty Murray of Washington to be the co-chair. They appointed Sens. John Kerry of Massachusetts and Max Baucus of Montana to serve with her on the committee.

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08-10-2011 05:49 PM domjuan is offline

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domjuan
“Yes, we can!” has devolved into “Hey, we might.”

China July Exports Top Forecast, Surplus Swells
Published: Wednesday, 10 Aug 2011 | 3:07 AM ET
Text Size
By: Reuters

China's exports were surprisingly buoyant in July as shipments to top trade partner Europe jumped by the most in at least a year, allaying concerns that debt problems abroad may hold back the world's No. 2 economy.

But analysts cautioned it was too soon to declare that Chinese exports can hold up in coming months as debt problems and sluggish consumer spending plague its two biggest markets, the United States and Europe.

"China's trade sector is still facing great uncertainties," said Nie Wen, an analyst at Hwabao Trust in Shanghai. "Developed countries are forced to take austerity measures, and emerging markets may tighten (policy) as well to tame inflation."

July exports rose 20.4 percent from a year ago, the strongest gain since April and surpassing economists' median forecast for a 17.4 percent rise, data on Wednesday showed.

Imports were roughly in line with expectations, rising 22.9 percent in July from a year earlier, the General Administration of Customs said. Economists had forecast growth of 22.3 percent.

"Both imports and exports are likely to grow at a slower pace in coming months," said Li Xunlei, an economist at Guotai Junan Securities in Shanghai.

"The global financial market turbulence may lead to a contraction in external demand."

Indeed, just hours earlier, the U.S. Federal Reserve took the unprecedented step of promising to leave interest rates near zero for at least two more years, painting a gloomy picture for the world's largest economy.

Noting that monetary policy risks are shifting to supporting growth from fighting inflation, China has signalled it may pause its 10-month policy tightening campaign for now.

Pressure on Yuan to Rise

Other data this week showed that China's inflation hit three-year highs in July, and some officials have said that it has likely peaked.

But underlining the fine balance that Beijing has to tread between managing growth and inflation, July's brisk export sales caused China's trade surplus to balloon to $31.5 billion, its widest since January 2009.

That could fuel price pressures at home and more criticism from its trade partners abroad that Beijing is keeping its yuan [CNY= 6.4172 -0.0132 (-0.21%) ]currency suppressed to sell more exports at their expense, allegations China has always denied.

As part of Beijing's policy to prevent the yuan from rising too quickly, it buys dollars earned from trade revenues. But Beijing injects more than 6 yuan into China's banking system for every dollar it buys, adding to a surfeit of cash that fans inflation.

So even if Beijing is reluctanat to tighten policy now, it may need to step aside nonetheless to let the yuan climb more briskly if it wants to keep a lid on pirces, analysts said.

"China's monetary policy has been kidnapped by foreign capital inflows," said Zhang Lei, an analyst at Minsheng Securities in Shanghai, referring to the widening trade surplus.

"Yuan appreciation is still one important option."

"China is OK"

To be sure, all signs suggest that China's economy has taken the steady policy tightening in the past year well in its stride, with its red-hot economic growth moderating only slightly so far.

Many economists agreed that the latest trade data showed China's growth engine is whirring along, keeping domestic demand solid.

That should comfort investors looking to China to pick up some slack in global demand should other major economies sputter.

And China's relatively low -- albeit rising -- production costs could keep its exports competitive when times are rough, analysts said.

"In the past couple of months, the U.S. economy has been turning down, but China's export growth has held out," said Ting Lu, an economist at Bank of America-Merrill Lynch. "This shows China's economy is okay."

Beijing, which has repeatedly voiced confidence in China's growth in the past year, reiterated the line this week.

Premier Wen Jiabao said on Tuesday that China's economy continues to show good growth momentum. But in a sign Beijing would rather err on the side of caution, he signalled China may soften its strike against inflation.

An official Chinese newspaper also said as much on Wednesday by declaring in a front-page editorial that Beijing would refrain from raising rates for now due to the rout in global markets.

However, China top economic planner said inflation dangers remained, including the possibility of a new round of monetary easing in the United States which could fuel fresh price pressures.

Meet the new boss

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08-10-2011 05:56 PM domjuan is offline

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domjuan
“Yes, we can!” has devolved into “Hey, we might.”

Ding ding ding ding ding. Dow finishes the day more than 520 points lower, losing 170 points in the last hour!!! Gains from fed extending low interest rates yesterday lost and some.

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08-10-2011 05:57 PM domjuan is offline

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albion
Happiness is a healthy body and a sick mind

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Age: 106
Location: a fuck of a long way outside the beltway
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did we ever get a tumbleweed smilie?

dom, really, do you think anyone's gonna read any of this garbage, it just makes you look like a racist nutjob

oh, wait, that's cuz...

I start things, but I never

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08-10-2011 06:23 PM albion is offline

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vicman
Commie Tax Hiker

Registered: Dec 2001
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Obama is responsible to France, Spain, & Italy's terrible economies that are affecting the stock market, and the US economy. If the Euro zone goes down in flames, its all Obama's fault as well - doesn't matter that the Euro zone was created in 1999 when Obama was an IL State Senator, it's his fault because...well because...because he's a Democrat! (and he's black)

vicman ~ fastest in all of mexico

NOW LISTENING TO:

Flight 643 (Oroginal Mix) - Tiesto ~~~ EPIC!!!

That Look - DeLacy (Tsettos & Santana mix) - Denny Tsettos ~~~ MASSIVE!!!

Let The Sun Shine (JP Remix) - Fifth Dimension ~~~ FIERCE!!!

Air For Life (System F redub) - Andy Moore and Above and Beyond ~~~ MAGICAL!!!

When Epicness is Missing From Your Life - EPICRX IS THERE FOR YOU. RECOMMENDED AND ENDORSED BY ANDY MOORE.

"I don't feel old. I don't feel anything till noon. That's when it's time for my nap." ~ Andy 'muthafokin' Moore

"When I need my weather, there is only one place I turn to: EPIC Weather. On the Weather Channel." ~ Andy 'muthafokin' Moore

Lets watch Dom promise joining the Armed Forces, then back out 5 minutes later.

DOM:
I would be willing to enlist, unlike you, point proven .I said it in 2001 and my stance hasn't changed, If somebody attacks American on our soil and gets on tv or net and says come get us you Yankee p*ssies. I would join the military in 2 seconds.

Al-Qaeda isnt a country moron. They are a global organizations of scumbags.

First of all bin ladon didn't take credit for attacks in 2001, he denied it until 2004. When was he elected president of Afghanistan?2000?If so hes had a great 11 run so far... Considering hes been rumored to be in Pakistan for years, he doesn't fit into either of my criteria's.

Dom's daily to do list:

1- Kiss his "wife" on his way out of his house
2- Blame everything on Obama
3- Give no credit to Obama, even when Bin Laden, al-Awlaki, and Gaddafi were taken care of
3- Dump all his work on his secretary
4- Twitter, facebook for 2 hours
5- Post on Yankee/Jets/Knicks blogs
6 - Read conservative blogs and watch Fox
7- Select items from said sources that he lift and pass on as his own
8- Get schooled on his ignorance everyday
9- Spray tan so he's ready to club 24/7/365 for the next epic party that he will attend

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08-11-2011 09:24 AM vicman is offline

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domjuan
“Yes, we can!” has devolved into “Hey, we might.”

Obama's No Good, Very Bad Week
There was opportunity in some of last week's bad news, but the president failed to seize it.

By Karl Rove

Following the passage of the unpopular debt-ceiling bill and a barrage of awful economic numbers, the Standard & Poor's downgrade of America's credit rating capped the worst week of Barack Obama's presidency.

Every president faces bad news. Not every one becomes smaller and weaker as he does. Character makes itself known in moments of hardship.

Americans respect presidents who are strong leaders, decisive and credible. In recent months, Mr. Obama hasn't shown strength.

Some of this comes from his compulsive need to blame others. For example, in response to the unprecedented downgrading, his administration lashed out at Standard & Poor's and the tea party movement. Implying—as he did in remarks to veterans at the Washington Navy Yard last week—that the economy's poor performance was related to the Arab Spring and the Japanese tsunami made him look foolish.

Then there was the president's Monday speech that, rather than calming fears, stirred them up. The stock market declined as he spoke.

What might he have done instead? First, he should have spoken over the weekend, so his words could sink in before markets opened. But after deciding to remain silent until Monday, he should have waited until U.S. markets closed. And instead of another robotic teleprompter speech, he might have brought in the press at the end of a lengthy meeting with business leaders for informal comments.

There, surrounded by Warren Buffett and other business allies, Mr. Obama could have signaled, without having to say so explicitly, that he had learned from his policies' shortcomings. After HillaryCare failed and the GOP took control of the House in November 1994, President Bill Clinton made clear he was pivoting to the center: no abject apology, but it worked.

Mr. Obama could have acknowledged the urgent need for more fiscal discipline and outlined how to get to the $4 trillion in deficit reduction required to put the debt on a downward path. And he could have brought up reforming entitlements, whose skyrocketing costs are increasingly the source of America's fiscal problems.

He might have started with proposals many Democrats as well as Republicans support. These include raising the age at which people are eligible for Medicare, modestly increasing deductibles and co-pays for wealthier seniors, and changing how benefit increases are calculated for inflation. Indeed, these were all proposals the Obama administration favored at one time or another.

Rather than holding out for a "grand bargain" on entitlements, Mr. Obama could have proposed passing reforms one or two at a time, building confidence inside Congress for even more difficult actions. As his own outgoing Council of Economic Advisers Chairman Austan Goolsbee said Sunday, "Can't we wait on the things that we're going to yell at each other about and start on the things that we agree on?"

The president could have pledged to reform the tax code to produce more robust growth that will create jobs and raise more revenue without hiking rates. Everyone knows Mr. Obama wants higher tax rates. Everyone knows the Republican House won't pass them. So why not focus on what is possible?

Off-camera, Mr. Obama could have taken two other important steps. First, stop teeing off on congressional Republicans whose help he needs to accomplish anything this year. And second, attend far fewer fundraisers until Congress goes out in December. He must rescue his presidency by spending more time on his job, not his politics. These steps, however, are probably beyond the president. This West Wing is almost completely focused on the president's re-election, not on policy.

Because they cannot defend his record, Team Obama will attempt to "kill" their political opponents, as one Democratic strategist told Politico.com this week. These are difficult days for our president. Buffeted by events, he looks weak, dazed and over his head. And in 15 months, unless he finds some way to turn things around, he will be voted out of office.

Mr. Rove, the former senior adviser and deputy chief of staff to President George W. Bush, is the author of "Courage and Consequence" (Threshold Editions, 2010).
PD0810

Some of this comes from his compulsive need to blame others. For example, in response to the unprecedented downgrading, his administration lashed out at Standard & Poor's and the tea party movement. Implying—as he did in remarks to veterans at the Washington Navy Yard last week—that the economy's poor performance was related to the Arab Spring and the Japanese tsunami made him look foolish.

Then there was the president's Monday speech that, rather than calming fears, stirred them up. The stock market declined as he spoke.

What might he have done instead? First, he should have spoken over the weekend, so his words could sink in before markets opened. But after deciding to remain silent until Monday, he should have waited until U.S. markets closed. And instead of another robotic teleprompter speech, he might have brought in the press at the end of a lengthy meeting with business leaders for informal comments.

There, surrounded by Warren Buffett and other business allies, Mr. Obama could have signaled, without having to say so explicitly, that he had learned from his policies' shortcomings. After HillaryCare failed and the GOP took control of the House in November 1994, President Bill Clinton made clear he was pivoting to the center: no abject apology, but it worked.

Mr. Obama could have acknowledged the urgent need for more fiscal discipline and outlined how to get to the $4 trillion in deficit reduction required to put the debt on a downward path. And he could have brought up reforming entitlements, whose skyrocketing costs are increasingly the source of America's fiscal problems.

He might have started with proposals many Democrats as well as Republicans support. These include raising the age at which people are eligible for Medicare, modestly increasing deductibles and co-pays for wealthier seniors, and changing how benefit increases are calculated for inflation. Indeed, these were all proposals the Obama administration favored at one time or another.
About Karl Rove

Karl Rove served as Senior Advisor to President George W. Bush from 2000–2007 and Deputy Chief of Staff from 2004–2007. At the White House he oversaw the Offices of Strategic Initiatives, Political Affairs, Public Liaison, and Intergovernmental Affairs and was Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy, coordinating the White House policy-making process.

Before Karl became known as "The Architect" of President Bush's 2000 and 2004 campaigns, he was president of Karl Rove + Company, an Austin-based public affairs firm that worked for Republican candidates, nonpartisan causes, and nonprofit groups. His clients included over 75 Republican U.S. Senate, Congressional and gubernatorial candidates in 24 states, as well as the Moderate Party of Sweden.

Karl writes a weekly op-ed for the Wall Street Journal, is a Fox News contributor and is the author of the book "Courage and Consequence" (Threshold Editions).

Email the author atKarl@Rove.comor visit him on the web atRove.com. Or, you can send a Tweet to @karlrove.

Click here to order his new book,Courage and Consequence.

Rather than holding out for a "grand bargain" on entitlements, Mr. Obama could have proposed passing reforms one or two at a time, building confidence inside Congress for even more difficult actions. As his own outgoing Council of Economic Advisers Chairman Austan Goolsbee said Sunday, "Can't we wait on the things that we're going to yell at each other about and start on the things that we agree on?"

The president could have pledged to reform the tax code to produce more robust growth that will create jobs and raise more revenue without hiking rates. Everyone knows Mr. Obama wants higher tax rates. Everyone knows the Republican House won't pass them. So why not focus on what is possible?

Off-camera, Mr. Obama could have taken two other important steps. First, stop teeing off on congressional Republicans whose help he needs to accomplish anything this year. And second, attend far fewer fundraisers until Congress goes out in December. He must rescue his presidency by spending more time on his job, not his politics. These steps, however, are probably beyond the president. This West Wing is almost completely focused on the president's re-election, not on policy.

Because they cannot defend his record, Team Obama will attempt to "kill" their political opponents, as one Democratic strategist told Politico.com this week. These are difficult days for our president. Buffeted by events, he looks weak, dazed and over his head. And in 15 months, unless he finds some way to turn things around, he will be voted out of office.

Mr. Rove, the former senior adviser and deputy chief of staff to President George W. Bush, is the author of "Courage and Consequence" (Threshold Editions, 2010).

wsj

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08-11-2011 09:51 AM domjuan is offline

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vicman
Commie Tax Hiker

why would i give any credence to anything written by karl rove? he had a chance to influence policy for who knows how many years and failed miserably.

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08-11-2011 11:55 AM vicman is offline

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albion
Happiness is a healthy body and a sick mind

Registered: Feb 2005
Age: 106
Location: a fuck of a long way outside the beltway
Posts: 7274

Top 10 List: < click >

is it just me, or does anyone else find Dom's evident glee in the crashing of the stockmarket, the wiping out of thousands, if not millions, or people's investments, very disturbing?

Dom, you sound just a little too happy at the misfortune of others to really be taken seriously

I start things, but I never

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08-11-2011 01:01 PM albion is offline

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vicman
Commie Tax Hiker

he really doesn't care unless it affects him or his family directly, thats what i've pretty much deduced.

he's for conservative values, but also liberal ones if they benefit him.

i'd say that dom is trying to become a younger version of Mitt Romney, flip-flopping all over the place depending on what benefits him (and family) directly.

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08-11-2011 02:30 PM vicman is offline

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domjuan
“Yes, we can!” has devolved into “Hey, we might.”

Obama Criticizes Congress in Speech to Auto Workers
By HELENE COOPER
Published: August 11, 2011

HOLLAND, Mich. — President Obama, seeking to jump-start public enthusiasm for his handling of the sputtering economy, delivered an angry speech on Thursday before auto industry workers in which he sharply criticized Congress for the political divide that he said had worsened the country’s economic crisis.

“There’s nothing wrong with our country,” Mr. Obama said, speaking to Johnson Controls, a maker of battery systems. “There’s something wrong with our politics.”

Mr. Obama characterized the last few months in Washington as the “worst kind of partisanship, the worst kind of gridlock,” which he said had “made things worse instead of better.”

For Mr. Obama, Thursday’s trip, coming at perhaps the lowest point in his presidency, was a chance to try to regain his footing and present himself as an assured leader with programs and proposals that will not only help put the American economy back on track, but will also boost competitiveness.

But in large part because most of his proposals have been knocked down by Republicans in Congress, Mr. Obama spent most of his remarks denouncing lawmakers back in Washington — who he said he was not going to call back from recess because he thinks their time would be better spent hearing from voters out in the country about how dreadfully they had performed.

He did take a moment to praise the workers at Johnson for making high-tech batteries, which he said would help make the country more competitive. “What also made this possible are the actions that we took together, as a nation, through our government,” he said, citing the use of energy research money from the economic stimulus program that has gone to hiring workers on specialized battery production lines to supply more fuel-efficient vehicles, helping to satisfy new federal standards in the next few years.

As has been so often the case, Republicans were quick to differ. The office of the House majority leader, Representative Eric Cantor of Virginia, put out a statement taking Mr. Obama to task for pushing for higher fuel-efficiency standards in the first place.

“While the goal of promoting more fuel-efficient vehicles is laudable, such costly new regulations will only create more obstacles to growth and make it harder for working families and small businesses,” Mr. Cantor said. “With 10.5 percent unemployment in the Great Lakes State, the president should explain to people of Michigan how his calls for tax increases and new regulations will create jobs or spur economic growth.”

After the Michigan stop, Mr. Obama was heading to New York to attend two Democratic fund-raisers, as part of his increasingly difficult effort to raise $1 billion for the 2012 election.

His fund-raising is coinciding with the Republican presidential debate on Thursday night in Iowa, where G.O.P. contenders are expected to pull out all the stops in criticizing Mr. Obama’s handling of the economy.

Jay Carney, the White House press secretary, speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One en route to Michigan, said he was curious “whether anyone participating in the debate tonight will have any concrete proposals.”

More blame.

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08-11-2011 05:09 PM domjuan is offline

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domjuan
“Yes, we can!” has devolved into “Hey, we might.”

Originally posted by albion
is it just me, or does anyone else find Dom's evident glee in the crashing of the stockmarket, the wiping out of thousands, if not millions, or people's investments, very disturbing?

Dom, you sound just a little too happy at the misfortune of others to really be taken seriously

Obama had a horrible week. Perhaps the most damaging thing is that he doesn't realize how unpresidential he looks when he doesn't explicitly take responsibility for anything. Politics of Blame, baby. That's Obama's true style and approach. And, for all the hope and change stuff, this is going to be a constant throughout the balance of his term and the prevailing theme of his re-election campaign.

I hate losing money, why would I be happy?

Money Driven, Anal Lover, Yankee Fan, Cowboy up & I Ride w/ the Heat!! I'm a relentless & persistent animal my desire is to be the worlds greatest. - me

“Liberalism is a mental disorder" ~MIKE SAVAGE

“I'd like to thank the good Lord for making me a Yankee.”
Joe DiMaggio

Them that governs least, governs best- Thomas Jefferson

“The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.”
- Thomas Jefferson

Lead me, follow me, or get out of my way. - General George Patton Jr

I love my wife & my life.

"I am an Animal Rescuer. My work is never done, my home is never quiet, my wallet is always empty...but my heart is always full." Annette King-Tucker

"Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they made a difference in the world. But the U.S. ARMED FORCES don't have that problem."

Vic's daily to do list:

1- Hug a tree
2- 550 useless posts
3- Check in with Domjuan's secretary to see what hes up to for the day.
4- Tweet Obama 150 times
5- Master-bate to pics of Cindy Sheehan
6 - Spread innovative thinking that failed 25 years ago in Europe.
7- Burn an American flag
8- Spew out racist remarks to anybody that isn't a tree-huger like himself.

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08-11-2011 05:11 PM domjuan is offline

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domjuan
“Yes, we can!” has devolved into “Hey, we might.”

U.S. Trade Deficit Widens To $53.1 Billion, Highest Level Since 2008
Us Trade Deficit

By MARTIN CRUTSINGER 08/11/11 09:05 AM ET AP

WASHINGTON -- American producers sold fewer industrial engines, electric generators and farm products to the rest of the world in June, pushing the trade deficit to the highest level since 2008 and dealing another blow to an already struggling economy.

The deficit rose 4.4 percent to $53.1 billion in June, the largest imbalance since October 2008, the Commerce Department reported Thursday. Imports fell 0.8 percent to $223.9 billion as crude oil prices fell for the first time in nine months. Exports dropped 2.3 percent to $170.9 billion, the biggest decline in more than two years.

The drop in exports, the second in a row, was a blow to hopes that rising overseas demand will boost the fortunes of American manufacturers in the face of a slump in spending by U.S. consumers. The concern now is that a global slowdown will hobble a U.S. economy that is in danger of stalling out.

The deficit through June is running at an annual rate of $576.6 billion, 15.3 percent higher than the 2010 imbalance. A higher trade deficit subtracts from overall economic growth because it means consumers are purchasing more foreign-made goods and fewer products made by U.S. workers.

The big rise in June's deficit came as a surprise to economists who had been forecasting an improved deficit based on their belief that oil prices would fall, lowering imports, while exports would recover from a May decline which had been the first setback after 10 monthly gains.

Instead, exports tumbled by the largest amount since a 5.1 percent plunge in January 2009 as the global economy was in the grips of a deep recession.

The weak June trade report was the latest in a string of disappointing economic statistics raising concerns that the U.S. economy could be in danger of toppling into another recession. The economy slowed to an annual rate of just 0.8 percent in the first six months of the year, the slowest period of growth since the recession officially ended two years ago. In June, consumers cut spending for the first time in 20 months and saved more while wages were barely growing and unemployment remained above 9 percent.

The deficit with China shot up by 6.8 percent $26.7 billion in June, the highest since September 2010. The deficit with the European Union rose 12.2 percent to $9.8 billion, the worst imbalance since July 2008. The deficit with Japan climbed 53 percent to $4 billion. Imports with Japan had been reduced in previous months following the March natural disasters which disrupted production at Japanese auto plants and other factories. As Japanese factories have resumed more normal operations, shipments to the United States have been rebounding.

Oil imports fell 4.3 percent in June to $38.2 billion as the average price of a barrel of crude oil fell to $106, down from $108.70 in May. It marked the first decline in crude prices in nine months.

huffpost

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08-11-2011 05:20 PM domjuan is offline

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Keep in mind that the recent market fluctuation had more to do with what's going on in Europe than anything that Obama could do after the debt ceiling debacle.

"Tresor never sleeps"

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