Archive for January, 2017

America First, America Last and America Only

Monday, January 30th, 2017

“From this day forward, it’s going to be only America first … ”

                                                           President Trump

When you hear the term “America First,” do you think of patriotic intentions and restoring America’s role as a world leader? Or do you think of anti-Semitism and isolationism?

For the liberal media, President Trump’s use of the “America First” theme during his campaign and his inaugural address is further proof that the president is a racist, jingoist barbarian.

Yes, there was something called the America First Committee, which had some members were were reputed to be anti-Semitic and pro-Nazi. It was also the world’s largest peace movement, with about 900,000 members, including prominent people such as Walt Disney, architect Frank Lloyd Wright, author Gore Vidal and poet e.e. cummings. Politically, members ranged from future President Gerald Ford to Socialist Party leader Norman Thomas.

An America First Committee meeting.

An America First Committee meeting.

It’s most outspoken member, aviator Charles Lindbergh, blamed Britain, Jews and the Roosevelt administration for pushing America toward World War II, so the group’s name became somewhat tarnished.

While the America First Committee dissolved shortly after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, some are criticizing the use of the slogan by President Trump because of the committee’s checkered reputation.

“It’s a rotten term that evokes the naive idiots, defeatists and pro-Nazis who wanted to appease Hitler and make friends with him before World War II,” author Susan Dunn told USA Today. (more…)

Tags:, , , ,
Posted in America First, America First Committee, Donald Trump, Trade, Trans-Pacific Partnership | Comments Closed

Good News: Fed Predicts Slow Economic Growth

Monday, January 23rd, 2017

We can now be assured of improved economic growth in the years to come.

Why?  Because the Federal Reserve Board is predicting slow growth.  And the Fed is always wrong.

That may seem harsh, but throughout the Obama administration, the Fed predicted stronger economic growth than the U.S. ultimately experienced.united-states-gdp-growth-forecast@2x

Consider the Fed’s record for the past five years. The Fed projected growth of 3.0% to 3.6% for 2011; actual growth turned out to be half that–just 1.6%. For 2012, the Fed projected growth of 2.5% to 2.9%; the actual rate was 2.3%. For 2013, the Fed projected 2.3% to 3% growth, but actual growth was 2.2%. For 2014, the Fed projected 2.8% to 3.2% growth, and the actual rate was 2.4%. Finally, for 2015, the Fed projected 2.6% to 3.0% growth and the actual rate was 2.4% again.

Are you seeing a pattern here? Five years of predictions, five years of overly optimistic projections. The Fed has been almost as incompetent about predicting growth as it’s been at producing growth.

Fed Goes Conservative

Now we have a new Republican administration, but it’s the Fed that’s gone conservative. The allegedly nonpartisan Fed is predicting that the economy will grow by just 1.9% in 2016, 2.1% in 2017, 2.0% in 2018 and 1.9% in 2019. Longer term, the growth rate is projected to be just 1.8%. (more…)

Tags:, , , ,
Posted in Economic Growth, Economy, Federal Reserve Board, Keynesian Economics, Regulation | Comments Closed

You’re Breaking the Law

Monday, January 16th, 2017

How many laws have you broken today?

It’s impossible to know for sure, given that regulations now affect just about every facet of our lives. That’s doubly true for businesses, which were not exactly coddled by the Obama Administration (although exceptions were made for generous Democratic donors, such as Goldman Sachs and Tom Steyer).Productivity

The federal tax code alone is now 74,608 pages long, or 187 times longer than it was a century ago. Depending on what you include and how you count the pages, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) has produced anywhere from 10,000 to 20,000 pages of new regulations, while the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, developed to increase oversight of the financial industry and reduce risk, has produced more than 22,000 pages of regulations.

The regulatory state was taken to a new level by President Obama, who didn’t even bother getting support from Congress during his second term. He and the bureaucratic brethren (and sistren) he appointed to regulate worked overtime and broke all records for creating new laws to restrict our freedom, stifle economic growth, concentrate power in Washington and prevent the new Republican administration from doing its job.

That making America great again isn’t the goal of the Obama Administration is made clear by the volume of new regulations being approved. In August, we reported that he set a record by becoming the first president to approve 600 major rules (e.g., rules that each impose a cost of more $100 million). While George W. Bush was no slouch, having approved 496 major rules during his two terms as president, Obama blew past him and just kept going. (more…)

Tags:, , , ,
Posted in Donald Trump, Economic Growth, President Obama, Productivity, Regulation | Comments Closed

New Year’s Resolutions for Others to Break

Monday, January 9th, 2017

We all make New Year’s resolutions and typically break them by the time the ball drops on Times Square.

With the same good intentions and low expectations of success, this year we’ve decided to suggest New Year’s resolutions we want others to follow. Some of our suggestions below may be carried out by the stated parties, but others have no chance of even being considered. They should be though, and that’s why we’ve included them. 2017

President Obama: Resolve to golf daily. It seemed as though President Obama was always golfing when there was work to be done. Now, when he should be out golfing, he’s busy working on his legacy.

And what a legacy it will be! The economy failed to achieve 3% growth during any year in which he was president, which is a first. The federal debt doubled, Russia and China have filled the void left by leading from behind, and Iran and North Korea have moved closer to becoming nuclear powers.

He’s ignored Congress, using executive orders to break all records for new regulations. But he hasn’t ignored the world’s dictators, having lifted sanctions on Cuba and Iran, two of the world’s most repressive regimes.

And now, post-election, he’s shown his disdain for Israel by abstaining from a United Nations vote and “allowing a nasty and harmful anti-Israel resolution to pass the United Nations Security Council,” The Weekly Standard reported. The resolution says Israeli settlements in occupied territory have no legal validity and are a violation of international law. (more…)

Tags:, , , , , ,
Posted in 2017, Democratic Party, Donald Trump, Federal Reserve Board, Media Bias, President Obama, Socialism | Comments Closed

Obama Sets Economic Record–For Failure

Tuesday, January 3rd, 2017

So did President Obama save us from the financial crisis and rebuild America’s economic strength?

Most media would have us believe that’s the case. As we previously noted, CNBC’s John W. Schoen reported that, “Obama’s biggest parting gift to Trump may be the economy,” since the unemployment rate has dropped to a nine-year low of 4.6%. AP’s Josh Boak repeated the statistic in an article, “Obama leaving behind much stronger economy.” And there are many, many other examples.gdp

Washington Post columnist Catherine Rampell wrote recently that the president-elect will be taking office with “among the most favorable economic conditions … imaginable.” She clearly does not have a very vivid imagination.

Yet other statistics bear out that Obamanomics has been an economic bust, not a boom. Consider the lack of economic growth. In the 85 years for which the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis has calculated the annual change in real gross domestic product (GDP), the period from 2006 through 2015 is the only 10-year period during which annual growth never reached 3%. Before now, the longest period during which the economy failed to grow by at least 3% was the four-year period from 1930 to 1933. That is, during the Great Depression. (more…)

Tags:, , , , ,
Posted in Economic Growth, Economy, Federal Debt, Income Inequality, President Obama, U-6 Unemployment Rate, Uncategorized | Comments Closed