Posted by Tina
Reports for the last quarter came out today and the numbers create an ugly picture. The retail sector is in collapse marking the worst year since 2008. The Christmas season was less profitable for retailers than expected. Walmart announced it will be closing thousands of stores globally, and 269 stores in the U.S.
The DOW had fallen 450 points by midday, the S&P dropped to a fifteen month low, and oil dipped below $30.00 a barrel. Some investors believe we’re headed for a deep recession. One said the market could decline even more and noted that insiders, who often see these dips as buying opportunities, are being much more cautious this time around.
The Federal Reserve reported that U.S. industrial production dropped in December for the third month in a row. That sector includes manufacturing, mining and utilities. The President announced a three year freeze on coal mining leases. He’s looking for ways the government can “better manage” the coal industry. (That’s fascistic Dewey)
Side note: People in America spend more eating out than they do at grocery stores today but in general are not spending even with lower gas prices.
Hunker down, folks. Nobody is “peddling fiction”. The President is defending his poor economic performance in the usual manner…deny, deny, deny. The situation will get worse before it gets better. We need a president and administration with completely different policies for our economy.
1) “Less profitable” is not “collapse”.
2) It’s the price war between North American frackers and those diabolical Saudi’s that have deflated crude prices. Surely you don’t complain?
3) Coal burning kills people, not to mention the planet, and if we can slow it we will.
Libby must get her Kool-Aid from the same source as Obumble.
I just posted another one of your comments. You yammered on about the “bubble” you think I live in. What a snob you are.
It isn’t just oil sweetie. It’s seven years of quantitative easing by egg heads that live in your bubble…super snobs. They’ve backed the world into an economic corner. Cheap money creates a phony economy. It can’t stand up forever, and won’t.
Your green snobbery is equally dumb. Not one child will feel better or be saved because of the taxes and regulations you and your comrades and you cannot control the Chinese, or India, or Africa. But you progressives decide to sc*ew your fellow citizens anyway, putting people out of business and workers out of jobs…for a fractional difference. Power plants in America had already cleaned up and researchers were continuing to look for new innovations, but that wasn’t good enough. Your efforts won’t change a thing in terms of the environment but it will put a lot of people out of work, cause fuel prices to rise, and ensure that economies remain in the tank. Dumb, dumb, dumb.
The people in your bubble have serious issues. Arrogance and narcissism + distrust of your fellow man = a desperate need to control. Solution: Create a hoax and apply the oppressive controls that will kill investment and research into clean fuels and kill jobs.
Tina
You have finally lost it. Try having a discussion. You name call like you know it all and everyone else is stupid. You ignore facts.
What is your purpose? WHy are you so angry?
Coal? To export to China is your biggest concern? WHy are you so concerned about China’s need for coal and the profits of a few? Why do taxpayers have to pay for someone else’s profit We would not have so many problems if they were just mining coal for the US.
Why are we allowing coal ash to now be dumped into our rivers?
Clean waterways are almost extinct.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/duke-energy-pumped-coal-ash-into-nc-river-regulators-say/
http://content.sierraclub.org/coal/disposal-ash-waste
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Water_pollution_from_coal
http://www.salon.com/2014/03/20/company_caught_on_camera_dumping_a_steady_stream_of_coal_ash_into_the_ohio_river/
http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/3/17/hidden-camera-chronicleskentuckycoalashdumping.html
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2014/02/19/video-shows-toxic-waste-gushing-into-2nd-pipe-under-duke-coal-ash-dump-spilling.html
http://www.sfgate.com/business/energy/article/Coal-ash-water-discharges-in-2-Virginia-rivers-6757918.php
http://www.wral.com/residents-near-duke-ash-dumps-told-not-to-drink-well-water/14596368/
http://www.truth-out.org/speakout/item/32079-dumping-toxic-coal-ash-threatens-the-great-lakes
They are shipping the majority of Coal to China. We have very few clean waterways left. I’d rather have drinking water and clean rivers and lakes.
Screw China!
You should feel lucky you have clean water out here in the east ….Water is disgusting and unsafe!
Description is not name calling. Learn the language.
Climate change is a hoax and the power grabbers use it to force your hard earned money from you.
China is mining their own coal, their coal energy production is dirty, and they will not agree to regulations or taxes. that was my only point about China. Learn how to read.
9% of U.S. coal is “exported to some 40 countries, including Canada, Japan, and Western European nations” and about “56 percent of the electricity used in this country is coal-generated electricity.”
Killing our coal industry will hurt consumers and jobs in various states. The Eastern states depend a lot on coal. Even those stupid electric cars get their power from coal generated electricity.
Coal companies have been working with the government to clean up production for decades.
The association with government was relatively friendly and reasonable prior to the Obama administration when seething anger and open hostility took hold.
Dewey you are a conspiracy nut and will believe anything you want. There’s no reason to have a conversation with you
I’m angry and rightfully so, because people like you are destroying our country and harming people with this hoax. Your “fixes” do nothing good for the environment…they just funnel our hard earned dollars into the hands of elitists and opportunists. You should be angry too. Instead you’re simply annoying.
Here’s a fact for you, Al Jazeera is about to go belly up.
“Climate change is a hoax”
“You are a conspiracy nut”
You are hilarious. The only response at this point is mockery.
Libby and Gore are two peas in the same pod.
Tina, do you still believe the unemployment rate could be bigger than or equal to the entire percentage of people not in the work force?
If so, what the hell are you doing lecturing others about the economy?
I don’t believe anything about the unemployment rate. I know what the unemployment rate, as posted by the government, is. I also know that the rate doesn’t reflect the entire picture on unemployment or the state of our economy. I also know that reaching 5% unemployment, after years of much higher unemployment ( a slow recovery), is nothing to brag about and the excuse that we are at least better off than other socialist failing economies is just pathetic. I attempted to have an honest discussion about the employment conditions in this economy and you refuse to have it. So I ask you, do you still think baiting me is an honorable or productive means of communicating?
We’ve been hearing about our “economic recovery” ad nauseum for the last 7+ years, but take-home pay is down and goofernment handouts are WAY up!
And until such time as our goofernment includes the number of people who have QUIT looking for work, the unemployment numbers issued by the Feds can be considered something from Fantasy Island.
J You’re right it’s obvious to anyone with good sense that it’s the President who is “peddling fiction.”
J, the government does count the number of people who have given up looking for work–it’s called the U-6. If you include those people among those who are unemployed and underemployed, the number is about 10%, far less than what Trump claimed, and below the high of 17% in 2010. This has dropped steadily over the past seven years–I’d call that a good recovery.
As I recall, Democrats have proposed a lot of measures to increase take-home pay. Republicans have opposed all of them.
You did not attempt to “have an honest conversation” about unemployment. You posted numbers that were mathematically impossible, defended those numbers many times after I explained how they were mathematically impossible, and now refuse to admit that they were mathematically impossible.
That’s not honest.
5% is “nothing to brag about?” You’re ridiculous.
Love Dr. Sowell. His intelligent level is high enough to figure out what is going on with Obama’s economy, his non recovery recovery and the real unemployment rate, which liberals on PS appear to be unable to grasp.
https://scontent.fsnc1-1.fna.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xla1/v/t1.0-9/12512698_1021712301221083_6487620819865592076_n.jpg?oh=2dde18daa12c6ac9d1dd6e71ed319c94&oe=570A1F48
I love Thomas Sowell too Peggy. The liked article is a history lesson on the follies of the new thinking that government must “doing something” when the economy falters:
Our leftists friends cling to their failed economic policies like barnacles on a wooden boat. The truth about what works is there for them to see under both Republican and Democrat administrations, and yet they resist. It’s got to be the most amazing case of the stubborn need to be right I’ve ever seen…it does so much harm!
Tina, I think it’s more than just a “stubborn need to be right,” it’s the need to grow government to preserve their jobs. Need all of them gov’t employees voting to keep their own jobs.
I was doing some reading on Sweden today and found these two interesting articles. One is about the high cost of a free education and the other from 2006 is about the country has so many gov’t employees they can’t vote the Democratic Socialist party out of office.
The High Price of a Free College Education in Sweden:
“Here’s why Swedish college students still graduate with a ton of debt.”
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2013/05/the-high-price-of-a-free-college-education-in-sweden/276428/
Admire the best, forget the rest:
“A visit to the capital, Stockholm, confirms that life for most Swedes is pretty good. Yet there is disgruntlement in the air, and it is causing nervousness among the Social Democrats, who have ruled Sweden alone or with other parties for 65 of the past 74 years, and must on September 17th again face the voters in a general election. Sweden’s Social Democrats are always difficult to defeat: they are well entrenched, well financed and their leader, Goran Persson, who has been prime minister for a decade, is tried and tested. But three years ago Mr Persson lost a referendum on joining the euro and, though the polls show a narrowing gap, most now favour the centre-right opposition, a four-party alliance under Fredrik Reinfeldt, leader of the Moderate Party.
Given Sweden’s economic performance, this may seem like rank ingratitude. Many say that it reflects merely the passage of time. Jan Eliasson, Sweden’s impressive foreign minister, notes that “We have been in power a long time. Democratic societies are affected by a desire for change.” But critics of the government point to other factors. One is a string of scandals, including several cases of nepotism, that have made the Social Democrats seem a party that has grown arrogant and too accustomed to the perks of government. Another is incompetence, notably the government’s slow response to the Asian tsunami of December 2004, in which 543 Swedes died.
But the biggest beef is, perhaps surprisingly, the economy. The opposition maintains that Sweden’s economic record is nothing like as good as its fans believe. If so, that has implications for other Nordic economies—and raises doubts about whether other European countries are wise to look northwards for a model.”
Long article full of interesting information.
http://www.economist.com/node/7880173
This is a spot on meme I had to share. Wish every voter had to pass a basic bookkeeping and critical thinking class before voting.
https://scontent.fsnc1-1.fna.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xal1/v/t1.0-9/1916774_946970335338339_6267848525235895514_n.jpg?oh=44328bbbd2aa3a122d6b69292d47f1a3&oe=5737F24A
Can we hope that individual freedom/responsibility and limited government are poking through the fog? Once people have been made comfy in that pot of warm water their brains get a bit fuzzy and lethargic…but the urge to create, and the longing to be free, are strong in people.
The people seem to be slowly wrenching the education of our children from the hands of our big expensive, bloated, union driven government. It will lead to lower costs and a better educated population.
Peggy I just saw a book review you might want to read, find it here.
It’s about a man, who after years as a non-profit executive, decided he wanted to do something positive for his cities neediest children. He became a teacher in a NYC high school and his experience resulted in the book, ““The Battle for Room 314: My Year of Hope and Despair in a New York City High School” (Grand Central Publishing) .
This isn’t school. It’s a holding terminal that satisfies the bureaucratic mandates for education and accomplishes nothing. A complete waste of money, time and teachers.
The answer isn’t more of the same. These kids need to be helped long before High School.
Chris if you are reading this, education is one area in which I think Obama has made some excellent comments.
I don’t know that he’s done anything positive to transform the situation but I do know it would take an Herculean effort in the poor communities involving local leaders, families, churches and community groups. They could sure use a community organizer to get it rolling. In my opinion it shouldn’t involve government help. It should be something the community takes on as a point of pride and accomplishment.
Thanks for the book reference. It does look interesting. It reminds me of a program my boss, the VP of Student Services and Counseling, had me coordinate for bright and bored high school students back in the 90s.
We brought two high schools teachers from one of our local k-12 school districts and qualified 25 juniors and 25 seniors who had to pass our English and math placement test after being recommended by their hs teacher and approved by their principle. Their English score had to be either college level or one level below. My job was to test them, council them to find out what their interest was.
These kids were very bright, mature but had been turned off to school and were failing all or most of their hs classes. My job was to get them into classes that would turn them back on to learning. If they said they liked writing I got them into a journalism class and on the school newspaper. Interested in music, music classes, etc.
It was rewarding and heartbreaking to work with these kids and I did it for four years. One beautiful young lady had shot off half of her face with a shotgun. Not all of them succeeded, but many more did. They earned hs and college credit for their college classes to make up for the units the failed at their hs. They attended college courses in the morning and their hs classes in the afternoon in rooms on our campus.
The program was so successful we were invited to do a presentation at Stanford University to other educators. Our program was based on another one that had been around for decades before at Syracuse U. Not all of our students were university bound. Our goal was to find out what they were interested in and to tap into that and to set a path for them to follow and succeed. They weren’t into the hs football games and dances and this program was an educational program that met their needs.
My son was a high school English teacher at one of the different school districts close to our college campus. I was also the matriculation intake coordinator for new students. During our summer session hs students who had failed their classes would be in my orientation sessions to make up for
their failed credits. I got a kick out of giving the ones who’d failed my son’s class a bad time by teasing them. “So, who was your English teacher?”…… “Well, I’m his mom. Since you didn’t listen to him are you going to listen to me?”
This is a great program and I recommend it to all schools and colleges if they don’t already have one.
Project Advance: Syracuse University
“Syracuse University Project Advance (SUPA) is an educational program that provides high school students with the opportunity to take Syracuse University courses in their own schools during the regularly scheduled school day. After successful completion of the course(s) they can request to transfer the credits they earn into the colleges/universities they attend after high school.[1] This is an example of a Concurrent Enrollment Program or Partnership (CEP).[2]”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Advance
In Texas those communities create fiction in their textbooks. I do not want my child being taught what a community dictates these days. No thank you I want them to learn math and science and become their own person. Educated on reality not some conservative agenda.
Retailers who knocked out all small business for world domination over expanded. Also the Boycott on Walmart has had some effect as well.
Low wages mean Americans do not have money to spend. Over 1/2 of working Americans are living paycheck to paycheck while CEO pay and bonuses continue to be millions a year.
Eddie lambert the hedgefund manager is destroying Kmart and sears. he sold all their property to a REIT. He says he is leveraging the stores for his new online dream. In reality he is turning it into an insurance company selling financial documents.
The new business model is not about products it is about making money off debt.
We became a credit economy. Wages go down and debt goes up. It will crash and is crashing. people have no money to spend.
There is not enough liquid money in circulation. It is all debt on paper and can not sustain itself.
You can not blame this on the President this is the Austerity the GOP has pushed on us and it does not work.
Walmart can bite me. Raise the minimum wage to a living wage and people will buy again.
Congress is responsible for this economy. Funny how you love to blame PBO but stand there and whine every time they try to do something.
Look At Michigan, Kansas, and Wisconsin… those are Tea party Model states. They are in shambles. Now we have people being poisoned by drinking water! Kansas budget is in shambles.
Conservative policies are the reason for this economy. The banks are too big to fail and they are going to crash the world again. You want no regulation? You want low under $10 wages?
Then
Own it!
The economy is exactly what you want!
“Over 1/2 of working Americans are living paycheck to paycheck while CEO pay and bonuses continue to be millions a year. ”
How can this still be going on after seven years under Obama?
“this is the Austerity the GOP has pushed on us ”
Austerity? What austarity? In 2008 the federal budget was $2901.86 billion. By 2012 it had risen to $3246.31 billion. Last year’s budget was $3900.99 billion. Defense spending has remained flat at 23%, I can’t imagine you would be unhappy about that. Healthcare spending went from 22% of the budget in 2009 to 26% in 2014. Spending on government worker pensions increased to 26% from 21% and interest on our debt rose from 5% to 7%. I’ll ask again…what austerity.
TOO MUCH SPENDING IS THE PROBLEM
Our governments continue to spend more than they take in and more than their budgets dictate. They spend regardless of the state of the economy, the amount of pork and waste that is uncovered, and the amount that cannot be accounted for in audits. No amount of pointing out these failings results in improvement. Why should we give more of our hard earned money to a body that manages what we give them so poorly!
Any family that ran it’s household in this manner would soon be out in the street and up to their ears in debt they couldn’t pay. Liberals never want to cut spending, hence they are the enablers of broken government.
Conservative states are doing a he77 of a lot better than those run by democrats…and the cities…give me a break.
New York state wanted to attract business. So what did they do? They offered businesses that relocated there ten tax free years. Liberals know what works they just won;t admit it. they get too much mileage out of blaming corporations and the rich (While they gladly take contributions and make deals with them).
Dewey you have cause and effect backwards in most cases. Given the tangle in your mind, your hysteria about the state of things is understandable.
Off topic.
This is a very interesting report on rising cost of a college education.
The Real Reason College Tuition Costs So Much:
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/05/opinion/sunday/the-real-reason-college-tuition-costs-so-much.html?WT.mc_id=2016-KWP-AUD_DEV&WT.mc_ev=click&ad-keywords=AUDDEVREMARK&kwp_0=87106&kwp_4=453362&kwp_1=254857&_r=0