Uncertainity in the Economy

Speaker Boehner: Uncertainty

About Govt. Policy Is Crippling the Economy

By James B. Driscoll, Thursday, September 22, 2011

The debate over how to get this country's fiscal house in order rages on, as does the related debate over how to prop us the U.S. economy.

President Obama on Monday laid out his plan to save nearly $3 trillion over the next 10 years. His plan includes a mix of spending cuts and revenue increases.

But the increase in revenues has Congressional Republicans up in arms because the President's proposal would raise $1.5 trillion in taxes on the wealthiest Americans and corporations. Earlier this year House Republicans vowed not to support a budget deal or debt-ceiling deal that included takes hikes.

On Monday, President Obama drew his own proverbial line in the sand: "I will not support any [deficit] plan that puts all the burden on ordinary Americans," he said during his address at the White House Rose Garden. "We are not going to have a one-sided deal that hurts the folks who are most vulnerable."

Included in Obama's proposal is also a so-called Buffett rule, which is designed to make sure that those making $1 million a year or more pay the same percentage of their incomes in taxes as middle-class Americans.

Speaker of the House John Boehner, along with many fellow Republicans, chided the President for this proposal, calling it a form of "class warfare."

The Daily Ticker met up with Speaker Boehner at the Republican National Committee headquarters to get his reaction to the President's proposal and veto threat.

"I'm just concerned that raising taxes at this point in our economy — where it is so weak — is really the wrong prescription. America has a spending problem and what we need to do is attack the spending problem we have," he says in the accompanying video. "I think we will send a signal to employers and investors throughout the country and for that matter throughout the world that America is serious about dealing with its spending problem."

Boehner also commented on, and agreed with, President Bill Clinton's notion that in order to have a strong U.S. economy, you have to have a strong partnership between the public and private sector"I just think if you really want to have a strong economy that you have got to have business leaders and government leaders on the same page working together," says Boehner. "[But] I don't see that happening today and I certainly don't hear that from employers around the country."

Boehner points to the resulting government uncertainty as one big driver of slow economy growth.

"There is no question that the private sector in America right now sees all of this uncertainty coming out of Washington: new rules, new regulations and no idea what the tax rates are going to be at the end of next year," he says. "I was with a group of employers in my own district yesterday who are very concerned about investing more in their business at a time of great uncertainty and I think government needs to help bring some certainty."

"American Dream ~ Under Assualt."

President Bill Clinton: Yes,

The American Dream Is Under Assualt

The nation's official poverty rate was 15.1% last year, that equates to a record 46.2 million Americans living in poverty. With poverty levels rising for the past three years, average median U.S. income falling back to 1996 levels and income inequality at the highest levels since the Roaring 1920s, many Americans are starting to wonder: Is the American dream dying?


"The American Dream has been under assault for 30 years," says former President Bill Clinton.
I spoke with President Clinton on the eve of the Clinton Global Initiative's annual meeting in New York Monday, where "jobs jobs, jobs" is one of the main topics of the conference.

While the development of a global economy and the information technology revolution caused upheaval for many workers, Mister Clinton says these trends were accelerated by "the adoption of two bad ideas":
Turning Stakeholders into Shareholders: About 35 years ago, the notion of what a corporation is changed, Clinton notes. Previously, corporations were "more or less" equally responsible to shareholders, employees, customers and the communities where they operated. "Now, shareholders are up here and everybody else is way down there."

Government as the Enemy: Clinton cites a "30-year anti-government rant," which is a uniquely American phenomenon, as another root cause of joblessness. "Instead of figuring out how the government and the private sector can work together, saying that 'government is the source of all problems and if we just choked it off, never another regulation, never another tax, never had another program all will be well.' There is not a single, solitary example on the planet where that's worked, including in America."
As at past CGI annual meetings, Clinton is hopeful this year's event will generate specific programs aimed to tackle joblessness around the world.

In lesser-developed countries, just "modest investments" in agriculture can generate "enormous" income for citizens, and help very poor countries start feeding themselves again, he says.
In the developed world, Clinton says an "enormous numbers of jobs" can be created by renewed commitments to energy efficiency. "The U.S. is about twice as energy efficient as we were back in the first oil embargo in the 1970s but more than twice as inefficient as our largest competitors," he says.

"We could create 1 million jobs here if we had a systematic way to finance building retrofits everywhere."

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DOW drops 253.31 points over 3 months.

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“Bear Market returns – Hold on for a Huge Market Drop.” « jamesbdriscoll

“Bear Market returns –

What’s been happening in August

The recent events on the Global financial markets are enough to make anyone cautious, however with fear, for some there also comes excitement. I have to say I am excited about the opportunities it gives us as traders.

It is clear to see that there is more bad news than good news out there, but we can turn bad news into good news by using it as an opportunity to create profits. The writing is on the wall – at least you guys have been made aware of it ahead of time and can be prepared.

Europe’s manufacturing produced a reading below the boom/bust level of 50, it came in at 49.0 which shows a contraction in their manufacturing.
The U.S. manufacturing data came out too, it barely escaped running into negative territory with a reading of 50.6, which is lower than the last reading of 50.9.

Give it one or two more months and they will join Europe with their negative manufacturing readings. This is just one more sign that they are heading into a recession and that Europe is “leading the charge”.

When GDP is slowing down consistently and manufacturing is slowing down consistently, how can you get an outcome other than a shrinking job market? That’s exactly what was confirmed last Friday with zero job creation in August. Unemployment is at 9.1% but that’s about to change too.

It takes a good 150,000 to 200,000 jobs created each month to start to bring the unemployment rate down. Well, if they are not hiring people, it won’t take long for that to start skyrocketing up quite quickly. Now that more people are realizing that gold acts like a currency, as a true store of value, the uptrend in gold has accelerated since the financial crisis of 2008.

Gold is benefiting from the crisis in the two most important fiat currencies in the world: the dollar and the euro. There’s an ugly contest going on between those two major currencies, and nobody can tell which country’s problems are worse.

In Europe, the sovereign debt crisis is now spreading further, to countries such as Italy and Spain. Meanwhile, the U.S. seems to be heading to another recession, which will give the Federal Reserve reasons to do what they do best- print more money.

It is no surprise that gold keeps marching higher. Gold is the alternative currency that rises when the two most traded currencies in the world suffer.

The Euro and the US Dollar make up 87.3% of global Forex reserves, which means central banks around the globe hold most of their assets in those two currencies.

Check out what the chart is showing us. The long term trend on the Dow Jones has been broken at what is called the “Dead cross” where the 50 Day Moving Average has crossed below the 200 Day Moving Average.

Hold on for a Huge Market Drop.”