By Dominic Sandbrook
The dawn of a new year is usually a time of hope and ambition, of dreams for the future and thoughts of a better life. But it is a long time since many of us looked forward to the new year with such anxiety, even dread
Here in Britain, many economists believe that by the end of 2012 we could well have slipped into a second devastating recession. The Coalition remains delicately poised; it would take only one or two resignations to provoke a wider schism and a general election.
But the real dangers lie overseas. In the Middle East, the excitement of the Arab Spring has long since curdled into sectarian tension and fears of Islamic fundamentalism. And with so many of the world’s oil supplies concentrated in the Persian Gulf, British families will be keeping an anxious eye on events in the Arab world.
Read more at: Mail Online
Posts tonen met het label economy. Alle posts tonen
Posts tonen met het label economy. Alle posts tonen
zondag 1 januari 2012
vrijdag 22 juli 2011
Executive truth-tellers about Obama's disastrous policies
July 21, 2011
Thomas Lifson
Two billionaire magnates, the founds of huge successful enterprises, have dramatically spoken out against President Obama's management of the economy. They have been joined in criticizing the president by several CEOs of big companies. Normally, the heads of huge enterprises are cautious about offending presidents, but the magnitude of the disaster apparently has caused these men to speak truth to power.
Home Depot founder Bernie Marcus did not mince words speaking with Investor's Business Daily:
Thomas Lifson
Two billionaire magnates, the founds of huge successful enterprises, have dramatically spoken out against President Obama's management of the economy. They have been joined in criticizing the president by several CEOs of big companies. Normally, the heads of huge enterprises are cautious about offending presidents, but the magnitude of the disaster apparently has caused these men to speak truth to power.
Home Depot founder Bernie Marcus did not mince words speaking with Investor's Business Daily:
Having built a small business into a big one, I can tell you that today the impediments that the government imposes are impossible to deal with. Home Depot would never have succeeded if we'd tried to start it today. Every day you see rules and regulations from a group of Washington bureaucrats who know nothing about running a business. And I mean every day. It's become stifling.Read more at: American Thinker
If you're a small businessman, the only way to deal with it is to work harder, put in more hours, and let people go. When you consider that something like 70% of the American people work for small businesses, you are talking about a big economic impact.
zondag 10 juli 2011
The Sugar Daddy Has Run Out of Sugar; Now We Need New Leaders
by Sarah Palin on Saturday, July 9, 2011 at 3:22pm
Barack Obama’s big government policies continue to fail. He should put a link to the national debt clock on his BlackBerry. The gears on that clock have nearly exploded during his administration. Yesterday’s terrible job numbers should not be a surprise because it all goes back to our debt. Our dangerously unsustainable debt is wiping out our jobs, crippling our economic growth, and jeopardizing our position in the global economy as the leader of the free world.
As a governor, I had to deal with facts, even unpleasant ones. I dealt with the world as it is, not as I wished it to be. The “elite” political class in this country with their heads in the sand had better face some unpleasant facts about the world as it is. They’ve run out of money and no amount of accounting gimmicks or happy talk will change this reality. Those of us who live in the real world could see this day coming.
Back in January 2009, as governor of Alaska, I announced: “We also have to be mindful about the effect of the stimulus package on the national debt and the future economic health of the country. We won’t achieve long-term stability if we continue borrowing massive sums from foreign countries and remain dependent on foreign sources of oil and gas.” Then I urged President Obama to veto the stimulus bill because it was loaded with absolutely useless pork and unfunded mandates. Everyone knows my early and vocal opposition to that mother of all unfunded mandates known as Obamacare starting back in August 2009, and many recall my objections to the Federal Reserves’ inflationary games with our currency known as QE2 from November 2010. It’s a matter of public record that I did not go to Harvard Law School, but I can add.
Read more at: Facebook
Barack Obama’s big government policies continue to fail. He should put a link to the national debt clock on his BlackBerry. The gears on that clock have nearly exploded during his administration. Yesterday’s terrible job numbers should not be a surprise because it all goes back to our debt. Our dangerously unsustainable debt is wiping out our jobs, crippling our economic growth, and jeopardizing our position in the global economy as the leader of the free world.
As a governor, I had to deal with facts, even unpleasant ones. I dealt with the world as it is, not as I wished it to be. The “elite” political class in this country with their heads in the sand had better face some unpleasant facts about the world as it is. They’ve run out of money and no amount of accounting gimmicks or happy talk will change this reality. Those of us who live in the real world could see this day coming.
Back in January 2009, as governor of Alaska, I announced: “We also have to be mindful about the effect of the stimulus package on the national debt and the future economic health of the country. We won’t achieve long-term stability if we continue borrowing massive sums from foreign countries and remain dependent on foreign sources of oil and gas.” Then I urged President Obama to veto the stimulus bill because it was loaded with absolutely useless pork and unfunded mandates. Everyone knows my early and vocal opposition to that mother of all unfunded mandates known as Obamacare starting back in August 2009, and many recall my objections to the Federal Reserves’ inflationary games with our currency known as QE2 from November 2010. It’s a matter of public record that I did not go to Harvard Law School, but I can add.
Read more at: Facebook
dinsdag 28 juni 2011
President Quixote's Legacy: Confused, Ill-Educated and Not Too Bright
By Monty Pelerin
The number of Obama supporters seems inversely related to his time in office. Many wonder what happened to "The One We Are Waiting For."
Obama assumed office in difficult economic times. After a couple of years of excuses -- which included "the problems were worse than we knew" and the generic, all-purpose "it's Bush's fault" -- Obama now owns the original problems and new ones of his own doing. An incomplete report card on his "accomplishments" would include the following:
•the economy worsened
•discretionary military efforts ("kinetic" if you prefer) increased
•an unpopular, flawed health care plan was forced on the public
•inflation increased, especially in critical goods like food and gasoline
•job prospects decreased
•the stimulus failed miserably
•"transparency in government" became a laugh-line for late night TV
•corruption in government accelerated to Chicago-style warp speed
•Housing worsened and shows no sign of bottoming soon
•Government debt and spending spun out of control
•Wall Street was bailed out and continues to enrich themselves
•Main Street was ignored and becomes poorer as bankruptcies and foreclosures mount
•race relations appear to have worsened
There are a plethora of other problems that could be attributed to Obama. In short, it is difficult to ascertain what, if anything, has improved other than the demise of Osama bin Laden.
Read more at: The American Thinker
The number of Obama supporters seems inversely related to his time in office. Many wonder what happened to "The One We Are Waiting For."
Obama assumed office in difficult economic times. After a couple of years of excuses -- which included "the problems were worse than we knew" and the generic, all-purpose "it's Bush's fault" -- Obama now owns the original problems and new ones of his own doing. An incomplete report card on his "accomplishments" would include the following:
•the economy worsened
•discretionary military efforts ("kinetic" if you prefer) increased
•an unpopular, flawed health care plan was forced on the public
•inflation increased, especially in critical goods like food and gasoline
•job prospects decreased
•the stimulus failed miserably
•"transparency in government" became a laugh-line for late night TV
•corruption in government accelerated to Chicago-style warp speed
•Housing worsened and shows no sign of bottoming soon
•Government debt and spending spun out of control
•Wall Street was bailed out and continues to enrich themselves
•Main Street was ignored and becomes poorer as bankruptcies and foreclosures mount
•race relations appear to have worsened
There are a plethora of other problems that could be attributed to Obama. In short, it is difficult to ascertain what, if anything, has improved other than the demise of Osama bin Laden.
Read more at: The American Thinker
dinsdag 24 augustus 2010
When you're holding a hammer, everything looks like a nail.
A Tennessee middle school football coach is looking to the future after his termination for alleged political incorrectness.
Twenty-six-year-old Bryan Glover is a Christian who co-wrote a song called “When You’re Holding a Hammer, Everything Looks Like a Nail,” which takes a dig at the current administration and what he believes to be the wrong moves for the U.S. He sent a link to his song to everyone in his personal e-mail inbox, which included parents from Grassland Middle School, where he coached football.
“An hour-and-a-half after sending out the e-mail, I got the phone call from the head coach saying that he had had complaints from parents; he was told to fire me,” the former coach accounts.
He notes that he was surprised by the allegations against him.
“When the coach first called me, he said his phone was blown up with parents saying that I was being politically incorrect — quote, unquote — if you will, and that some of them were even reading into racial overtones in the song,” Glover explains.
But he points out that the lyrics make no direct or indirect reference to race.
New Tea Party theme song?
dinsdag 27 juli 2010
donderdag 29 oktober 2009
All Falling Down . . .
by Victor Davis Hanson
Money
Obama’s mega-borrowing is predicated on a rather thin margin of safety. We can service nearly $2 trillion in additional debt this year—on top of the existing $11 trillion—only because interest rates are so low.
But as a veteran of the near usury of the 1970s and early 1980s, I see no reason why interest rates won’t shoot up to 10% once the economy recovers and the U.S. has to convince lenders to buy our paper in an inflationary spiral. In other words, we could fork out each year about $150-200 billion in interest costs on our annual red ink, in addition to paying annually another trillion dollars to service the existing debt. (We forget that many of us young people in the 1970s and 1980s simply never bought anything new due to high interest: my first new car was not purchased until 1989 when interest was only 7.2% on it; my parents bought a small condo in 1980 for the unbelievably low rate of 8.8%, due only to redevelopment incentives in a bad neighborhood of Fresno. Inflation will be back, even in this quite different age of globalized competition and low wages.)
Works and Days
Money
Obama’s mega-borrowing is predicated on a rather thin margin of safety. We can service nearly $2 trillion in additional debt this year—on top of the existing $11 trillion—only because interest rates are so low.
But as a veteran of the near usury of the 1970s and early 1980s, I see no reason why interest rates won’t shoot up to 10% once the economy recovers and the U.S. has to convince lenders to buy our paper in an inflationary spiral. In other words, we could fork out each year about $150-200 billion in interest costs on our annual red ink, in addition to paying annually another trillion dollars to service the existing debt. (We forget that many of us young people in the 1970s and 1980s simply never bought anything new due to high interest: my first new car was not purchased until 1989 when interest was only 7.2% on it; my parents bought a small condo in 1980 for the unbelievably low rate of 8.8%, due only to redevelopment incentives in a bad neighborhood of Fresno. Inflation will be back, even in this quite different age of globalized competition and low wages.)
Works and Days
zaterdag 23 mei 2009
woensdag 1 april 2009
President Obama’s First 70 Days
It really does all make sense.
By Victor Davis Hanson
In just the first 70 days of the new administration, a number of Obama supporters have expressed some dismay at their new president. Some find his ethically challenged appointments at odds with his soaring moral rhetoric.
Others lament his apparent inability to stir up supporters in impromptu speeches, at least in the manner he did with set oratory on the campaign trail. And they worry about his occasionally insensitive remark.
Many cannot quite figure out why, after lambasting George W. Bush for running a $500-billion deficit, Obama has outlined eight years of budgetary red ink that would nearly match the debt run up by all previous U.S. presidents combined.
But such disappointments should be tempered. Not only is Obama simply drawing on his past 30 years of education, writing, work, and associations, but he is also properly reflecting the worldview of many of those working for him.
What, then, is the mindset behind America’s new approach to domestic policy and foreign affairs?
National Review Online
By Victor Davis Hanson
In just the first 70 days of the new administration, a number of Obama supporters have expressed some dismay at their new president. Some find his ethically challenged appointments at odds with his soaring moral rhetoric.
Others lament his apparent inability to stir up supporters in impromptu speeches, at least in the manner he did with set oratory on the campaign trail. And they worry about his occasionally insensitive remark.
Many cannot quite figure out why, after lambasting George W. Bush for running a $500-billion deficit, Obama has outlined eight years of budgetary red ink that would nearly match the debt run up by all previous U.S. presidents combined.
But such disappointments should be tempered. Not only is Obama simply drawing on his past 30 years of education, writing, work, and associations, but he is also properly reflecting the worldview of many of those working for him.
What, then, is the mindset behind America’s new approach to domestic policy and foreign affairs?
National Review Online
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