Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Obama Fails The Economy

Obama has been a failure all around. His foreign policy has been heavy on retreat and his domestic agenda sparked backlashes galore. But even worse has been his economic policies. His plan of high taxes, massive government spending, and corporate subsidies lengthened the recession and created a jobless recovery. Those “green jobs” he promised were all an illusion. And now it turns out, he’s made the biggest danger to the economy even worse.

Before we talk about how Obama “fixed” the “too big to fail” problem, you might be interested in a little data on those green jobs we’re all supposed to have now.

When Obama took office, he promised five million green jobs in the next ten years. He even spent $90 billion to make that happen. That works out to $18,000 per expected job. Of course, it’s actually higher because that $90 billion is just a baseline and will cause further federal spending, but still, that's not too bad.

So how has he done? According to the White House, rather than creating 5,000,000 jobs, this money now will create only “827,000 job years” over Obama’s four years in office. But a “job year” is not a job. It is instead the equivalent of one full-time position for one year. If we spread these job years out over the ten years Obama used for the five million claim, you come up with a total of 82,700 jobs. And that means the cost per job is $1.1 million. It also means, Obama still owes 4.9 million jobs.

And don’t forget that even beyond this, you have a variety of failures under the crony clean energy loan program out of the Department of Energy, such as Solyndra, Enerl, Beacon Power, Solar Trust for America, and others. Not to mention, the $2.4 billion flushed away on building fewer than 8,000 Chevy Volts no one wants.

Call me crazy, but Obama’s attempt to create a Mussolini-like industrial policy appears to have been a colossal failure.

Now we get word that Obama has made the “too big to fail” problem worse. Imagine that. When Obama came to power, he promised an end to “too big to fail” so that taxpayers would never again need to support failed banks. Then he signed the financial reform bill, Dodd-Frank, which supposedly did that. . . though Republicans claimed otherwise. Bloomberg News now reports that the five biggest banks, i.e. those that are too big to fail, increased their share of all banking assets from 43% in 2007 to 56% now. That’s right, those five banks absorbed an additional 13% of all the banking assets in the country under Obama. In total, these five banks (JPMorgan, Bank of America, Citicorp, Wells Fargo and Goldman Sachs) now control $8.5 trillion in assets. Moreover, the size of the banking sector compared to the rest of the economy has doubled in the past decade, making banks even more “too big to fail.” That means the problem is much, much worse than it was before the TARP bailouts.

Obama has flushed money down the toilet while squandering opportunity after opportunity to actually fix the economy and protect the country from another meltdown. His failure to act is shameful and dangerous. Let us hope the Republicans fix these problems when they finally gain control over the government.

As usual, don't forget it's Star Trek Tuesday at the film site!

83 comments:

AndrewPrice said...

Morning everyone. I'm sorry the article didn't publish. I'm not sure why not. It was scheduled correctly, but it just sat there?

Joel Farnham said...

Andrew,

I get the feeling that the original economic "crisis", the one that made Senator McCain look like a fool, and Senator Obama look like a savior was one huge scam. I thought it then and I think it now. Some one too big to hold accountable has fooled the politicians.

T-Rav said...

Get on the ball Andrew! I pulled up the site this morning and just a bunch of nothing, you slacker. ;-)

Yes, the "green jobs" program has had a rough start, but look on the bright side. At this rate, Obama can reach his 5 million mark with just $5 trillion more in spending. Which I'm sure we could easily obtain by enacting the Buffett Rule or something.

Patriot said...

More an more I am considering that this bozo has f'd up everything he's touched. Mind you he was the most leftist Democrat in the Congress, even more than Bernie Sanders, a Socialist! This gives even more proof to the idiots on the left that no matter if they have "the smartest President ever!" their policies and practices DO NOT WORK! I'm sure they will explain it away by saying "Of course they didn't work at half measures due to the recalcitrant Republicans who prevented us from really effecting the change we were hoping for. If it wasn't for (insert favorite hated enemy here) we would have accomplished all we set out to do and we would be living in a true workers paradise. But no, it's not our policies...it's THEM!

I am looking forward to a massive repudiation of Obama, the Leftists in this country and most Democrats in Congress come November. If not.......New Zealand

Joel Farnham said...

Patriot,

You might reconsider New Zealand. That is where James Cameron decided to move a couple of months ago.

BevfromNYC said...

This about sums it up for me...from Leno last night -

"President Obama released his tax returns. It turns out he made $900,000 less in 2011 than he did in 2010. You know what that means? Even Obama is doing worse under President Obama."

AndrewPrice said...

Joel, I don't think it was a scam. I'm pretty sure the crisis was real. The problem was, it was manufactured in the sense that the banks knew the government would bail them out, so they took all these risks. And we ended up paying for it.

That's when everyone promised an end to too-big-to-fail, but they didn't really change anything. So the banks will do it all over again.

When someone covers your bets, you take more crazy chances.

AndrewPrice said...

Sorry, Mr. T-Rav. LOL!

Actually, I have no idea why it didn't publish. It's just one of those things. It had the right time and it just sat there. So I manually hit the button and off it went.

Honestly, I'm not sure $5 trillion would be enough the way this guy mis-spends it.

AndrewPrice said...

Patriot, They have indeed put their eggs in the basket of a fool. So far, Obama has failed to deliver most of what they wanted, even with a strongly leftist Congress with a veto-proof majority. And those things they have delivered have blown up in their faces.

This is what happens when you choose a leader because he looks good in a suit and knows how to read someone else's speeches. Style over substance.

Couldn't have happened to a nice group.

AndrewPrice said...

Joel, Isn't it funny that a leftist like Cameron would decide that now is the time to run to New Zealand when Obama is in power and when all the MSM claims he will win re-election? Perhaps living under his leftist-ness isn't as great as first imagined?

AndrewPrice said...

Bev, That is awesome! Someone should put that into a campaign ad! LOL!

T-Rav said...

I actually saw (or at least noticed) a Chevy Volt for the first time this weekend, as I was passing a car dealership in town. Surprisingly, it was not on fire.

AndrewPrice said...

T-Rav, They must have bought the "road-safe" option package! ;)

Looking at all the money blown on that car, it's amazing heads haven't rolled.

DUQ said...

This is so typical. Obama attacks the banks and then ends up helping the big banks get even larger and more important. Everything the left does ends up working backwards, doesn't it?

AndrewPrice said...

DUQ, Yep, that's true. Sometimes by design. Don't forget that they do their best to take in a ton of money from Wall Street banks. So Obama's attacks have all been more than a little disingenuous.

Tennessee Jed said...

my wife has been hosting some of her old friends this week in a quilting get together. In talking with one friend who is a life long Democrat, she actually believes we could fix the economy if we just got those dreaded billionaires and millionaires to pay their fair share. My jaw dropped a foot!

I guess what I am getting at is a reminder it is a fairly small portion of the electorate that a) pays attention and follows politics closely and b) knows how to separate fact from fiction, particularly when it comes to economic issues. I found this instructive since this is an educated woman. Many people fit this category. They vote the way their parents did or other family members. They see politics in very simplistic terms such as "Democrats are for the little guy against the rich and powerful."

No matter how much we can see how Obama's record is a failure, we cannot forget the election will be closer than it should be. People will vote what they perceive is in their own interest. They may make poor choices about that based on ill-placed trust in the media. That media will do their damnedest to re-elect. Often, the Republicans, like Charley Brown, fall for the same old traps. Witness the ability of Democrats to make it appear Republicans hold the country hostage every time they talk about not raising the debt ceiling yet again.

My hope is that come election time, our side remains more energized, and enough swing voters are smart enough to separate truth from fiction.

K said...

Yet, Obama still leads in terms of electoral votes. So, when it comes to appealing to the public he must be doing something right.

Just sayin.

Joel Farnham said...

K,

I didn't know the election is today. Is it November already?

tryanmax said...

May I propose a new term? "Crony Environmentalism" I think it could catch on.

Tennessee Jed said...

"K" - Obama certainly lies extremely well. He is great at trying to divide the people and stir up "victimhood" and "envy" and reverse racism. Still, I have to always give polls a sniff test. The media, by being overwhelmingly liberal tends to try and use polls as a p.r. tool. As such, they are huge on push polls. Remember how joyously stupid they were in the 2004 election in predicting a J. Effen' Kerry victory?

T-Rav said...

K, I was originally going to say that's because a lot of the public is stupid. But that's not true (well, actually it is, but not in this case). The truth is, they're smart enough to realize Obama will give them all the free stuff they want, and Romney won't. It's a selfish, short-sighted calculation, but there you go. That said, I think the polls are showing a momentum shift in Romney's direction, which hopefully will continue through November.

AndrewPrice said...

Jed, That's all very true. This election will be close for precisely those reasons. Liberals are immune to facts. They have their beliefs and they simply will not give them up, no matter how wrong they are. And when it comes time to vote, many will simply vote reflexively for the Democrats, many will have bought the MSM's KoolAid, and many will do so out of self-interest because the Democrats are the most likely to keep the benefits flowing.

But I think there are enough people in the middle who will swing this election to the Republicans precisely because people are unhappy because of the effects of Obama's policies. In other words, they may not know what those policies are, but they are unhappy at having less money in their pockets, with higher gas prices, with their friends being out of work, etc.

AndrewPrice said...

K, I saw that analysis and it's wrong. All they've done is decide that the liberal states are sure things for Obama, a few of the most conservative states will go for Romney, and they are calling the rest a tossup. The reality is that most of the tossup states will go for Romney. This election will come down to 2-3 states because that's how our country breaks down demographically.

AndrewPrice said...

Joel, Don't say that. This year is already flying by and I'm not getting nearly enough stuff done! Arg.

AndrewPrice said...

tryanmax, Interesting term. I take it you mean the government championing various environmental causes?

Patriot said...

......the biggest payola in American history. If you go look where the "stimulus" money went, most of it went to states...and in those states it went to educational unions mainly. Like GM, that money (billions) then went to prop up the teachers unions pension / benefits programs. So once again, the taxpayer ends up paying for others profligacy.

"Why should we work harder so you can retire in comfort?"

Plus, there are billions unaccounted for. I'd bet there are a lot of leftist cronies that are set for life with offshore accounts and millions in the bank.

Doc Whoa said...

Unsafe at any speed is so true. This guy not only ruined the economy and the budget, he's left in place the one disaster-waiting-to-happen he was supposed to fix!

Patriot said...

"Guilty as hell and free as a bird" What a country!

Joel Farnham said...

K,

It doesn't matter how many people "analyze" this election. It is counting your new chickens this spring before they are a gleam in a roosters eye. It might be that way....

Joel Farnham said...

Jed,

I know you are a courtly gentleman when it comes to women, but I don't know how you couldn't laugh at her stupidity and asked her to prove it. I wouldn't even have been able to get enough wind to actually ask her to prove it. I would have been rolling on the floor and pointing at her.

AndrewPrice said...

Jed, The polls always follow the same pattern. The Democrat is way ahead for months and months, then the race tightens, but never gets closer than 3-5% difference. Then, magically, on election night, the Republican usually wins. It's always the same story because, as you note, the polls are meant to drive opinion, not report it.

tryanmax said...

Yes. Sort of a counterpoint to "crony capitalism"

AndrewPrice said...

T-Rav, That's why it's such a danger that so many people are getting hooked on government benefits, because it will be in their self-interest to keep voting for the party that promises to keep handing them benefits. That's why we need to start cutting people off.

AndrewPrice said...

Patriot, Absolutely correct. The whole stimulus was nothing more than grand theft treasury. Obama's cronies walked into the Treasury and walked right back out with nearly a trillion dollars in funds for their own private use... unions, companies on the take, organizations like ACORN and Planned Parenthood... they all got paid.

AndrewPrice said...

Doc, Well put. And this will come back to bite us all because the next time one of these banks fails, it will be even worse. And everyone will wonder how the banks got so big and so much more important. History is not without a sense of humor.

AndrewPrice said...

Patriot, That's the joys of cronyism, you never have to pay for the crimes you committed.

AndrewPrice said...

Joel, That's true. All we are doing now is reading tea leaves. November is all that matters and much can change between then and now.

T-Rav said...

Andrew, the worst I've seen recently are two separate polls from CNN and ABC/WaPo that had Obama up nine points over Romney. When you start breaking down the demographics, though, it turns out both are heavily weighted toward Democrats. If you look at the actual responses given, they show a virtual dead heat--and this is of registered, not likely voters. That's the sort of thing we can look forward to for the next six and a half months.

AndrewPrice said...

T-Rav, True. I saw those -- Democrat heavy and likely voters not registered voters. Gallup had a more fair poll and it showed a dead heat.

But again, don't forget, the national polls don't matter because so many Democratic votes get lost in California and New York. It's the state by state votes which matter.

Doc Whoa said...

Andrew, History does indeed have a sense of humor, and it's black humor. I wouldn't be surprised if there is another banking crisis soon which will cause a second crash just as the economy starts to heat up.

AndrewPrice said...

Doc, I wouldn't be surprised. But whenever it happens, you can bet that people will act surprised and wonder how it could have happened.

rlaWTX said...

Doc, Sharpton's gonna get you for that comment! ;)

ellenB said...

Obama is easily the biggest failure ever as a president. I can't believe the Dems even want him back?

Doc Whoa said...

rlaWTX, Sharpton doesn't scare me. His hair scares me, but the man himself doesn't.

Al Sharpton said...

Scare we much....

BevfromNYC said...

Doc - There will be another banking crisis sometime around October. I would place a huge bet on it.

Doc Whoa said...

Bev, Yikes. That could well be, an October surprise.

AndrewPrice said...

Sorry I'm a little slow today, folks, but the day job is keeping me busy. Grrr.

AndrewPrice said...

rlaWTX and Doc, Sharpton scares no one anymore. At one point, he scared the Democrats because he turned off voters. But these days, he's just a caricature of himself. He's like the Clown Prince of Racial Idiocy.

AndrewPrice said...

ellen, That's the funny thing. He's a failure by any measure for both people on the left and right and those in the middle. And history will not look kindly upon him. BUT the Democrats will still turn out to vote for him because they can't think of anything else to do.

StanH said...

Barry's toast, we just need to get to 11/6/12, and we'll fix the mistake of '08.

AndrewPrice said...

Bev, I wouldn't not be surprised if we see some manufactured crisis in October. A banking crisis might help Obama too because they would whine how they are "Republican bankers."

AndrewPrice said...

Stan, I do think Obama's toast. We won't know until the election, but everything tells me he's in serious, serious trouble -- the kind of trouble which can't be fixed before the election.

StanH said...

New Gallup Poll Romney 48% Barry 43%, it really doesn't matter at this point, but.

AndrewPrice said...

Stan, True, it doesn't matter, but still -- an incumbent President at 43% this close to an election spells disaster.

T-Rav said...

Unfortunately for Obama, he can't wait until late October and then produce bin Laden's corpse. A year and a half too early, I'm afraid.

BevfromNYC said...

Though the polls are looking good right now, we cannot afford to think that this will last. We are just at the beginning of a very contention and long road to November. Obama & Co. will pull out all the stops to defeat Romney at any cost. It's no time to get cocky.

AndrewPrice said...

T-Rav, Yep. I see no foreign adventures which will help him unless he decides to invade Cuba or something?

I think he's going to try to make Romney seem evil.

AndrewPrice said...

Bev, Absolutely true. And I definitely do not feel cocky. I am however, growing increasingly confident that all the numbers which count are going against Obama. But I've watched this game for far too long not to know that the polls are typically meaningless and that this will be a tight election because that's the way the country is demographically at the moment.

Still, right now, everything points to a hole Obama simply can't dig himself out of. And I would predict he loses 54%-46%.

Patriot said...

The Dems have NOTHING to run on. Can't do the hope and change scam......that's so 2008. Can't do the "Are you better off now than 4 years ago?" as Romney and his gang have that down pat already. Can't do Bush did it anymore. Not even the useful idiots believe that at this point in the game.

So, what's left? Attack.....attack.....attack...!!! Get the Repubs to stay constantly off guard by tossing out ridiculous claims and have their lapdogs ask the them about it. Look at how Stephalloverus created the contraceptive brouhaha out of whole cloth. Even Gingrich stated at the time..."What the hell are you talking about?! No one has even talked about this!!"

The left is very good at this and they will manufacture one "crisis" after another....one story line after another that will keep the media from asking anything of substance of O and his gang.

Maybe Alaska then....not New Zealand

AndrewPrice said...

Patriot, I think that will be the plan exactly. In fact, I just read an interesting article in The Economist which I'm thinking of writing about, which outlines their plan. Basically, they plan to lie about Obama's record and attack Romney as if he's the cause of all the nation's problems. They even go so far as to "warn" us that Romney will be waging a "nasty" campaign... unlike poor Mr. Obama, who may be forced to respond to the evil Romney.

BevfromNYC said...

I am highly amused that David Axelrod is slamming Gallup for their "flawed methodology" over their latest poll results. Funny how accurate their "methodology" is when Obama is leading...

AndrewPrice said...

Bev, I hadn't heard that, but that is funny. It's amazing how great these pollsters are until the come up with the "wrong" result and how horrible they are after that.

And it's hilarious they would attack Gallup, which always leans left. But I guess we can now add them to the "Enemies of the One" list along with the evil liar Rasmussen.

As an aside, it's also interesting that they care. The only way to explain that is that they do indeed see polls as driving opinion rather than reporting it.

CrisD said...

Julia Louis-dreyfus would beg to differ! hhahaha

Great Post! Obama-the-wrecking-ball

AndrewPrice said...

Thanks Cris! What did she say? I missed that.

Yeah, Obama-the-wrecking-ball is a great way to put it! He's done so much damage during his term and much of it won't be felt for years yet.

K said...

Thanks for all the responses about Obama's popularity - some good answers. I assume you don't want this forum to be an echo chamber.

Yes, Obama promises free stuff and also lies. But he isn't a particularly good liar. You don't have to be when the MSM is shilling for you.

As to the free stuff, that's just part of the culture change that has occurred in the last 20 years. Today government free stuff is good. Now being a government ward is okay.

If those suppositions are correct, then arguing about how much Obama has screwed up becomes irrelevant. And what looms large is the questions, how do you fix the academy? - which in tern feeds the culture - which in turn sets the ethics of the country.

AndrewPrice said...

K, Nope, we don't want an echo chamber.

I think those suppositions are correct, but I don't think it's irrelevant at all to argue about how much Obama has screwed up for two simple reasons.

1. The good guy base needs to be reminded of the dangers Obama poses.

2. Modern elections are decided by the 6% in the middle. They need to be told over and over and as loudly as possible what Obama has done.

Moreover, in this case, I don't think the MSM can cover for Obama. They will try, but I don't think it will matter. The statistics that I use to judge elections are economic statistics which tell you how the world is affecting people personally, e.g. take home pay, inflation, etc. All of those point toward a huge defeat. It is only the geographical distribution of liberals/conservatives which will keep this election close -- and why only a handful of states matter.

In terms of fixing the problem long term, the answer is that we need to start cutting people off. We need to turn of the spigots and make people depend upon themselves again so they lose the incentive to vote for more goodies from the government.

CrisD said...

"Elaine" from Jerry Seinfeld said she was excited about voting for Obama again! She is a great brain trust, huh? ha!

AndrewPrice said...

Cris, Ah. I missed that. Yeah, she's none to smart. I thought you might be referring to something else. I keep seeing ads for some show called VEEP where she plays some idiotic politician. I thought it might be related to that.

AndrewPrice said...

What do you think folks, should we delete the troll or leave his idiocy as a monument to leftist stupidity? Nothing he's said is true.

DUQ said...

I say delete it. It doesn't say anything worth reading.

CrisD said...

second that thought!

AndrewPrice said...

The crowd has spoken. Goodbye leftist mouthpiece....

Jen said...

Oh, darn it! I was reading the troll's garbage (and talking on the phone to my sister), and told her about it. I refreshed the page (sorry, the only way I have right now), and said to her "IT'S GONE!!!" LOL! She was laughing too, and said "Goodbye, Lalalalalala, liberal loser!"

My sister came up with an idea. Maybe we should all pool our money together to buy a deserted, barren island, and offer free plane tickets to liberals (because we all know how they like freebies)--ship them there, and then they can fight it out on their own "Gilligan's Island". Good luck making a radio out of a coconut, liberal losers.

AndrewPrice said...

Jen, LOL! Sorry. I'm actually going to discuss some of those points on Thursday because those are the new Democratic talking points.

I LOVE the deserted island idea! If we promised enough free stuff, they would go. And since they don't have the skills to make it back, everything would turn out well! Excellent thinking! :)

Jen said...

Okay, can't wait for Thursday's episode!!!

AndrewPrice said...

Glad to hear it! I think it will be informative because I've seen it in several places now, exactly how Obama plans to wage his campaign. Our troll friend here literally could have been reading from one of those other sources.

CrisD said...

Andrew, maybe it was Bob Bechel :D

Anonymous said...

It has taken Obama almost four years to shovel this country into the toilet, and he wants another four years to flush it.

AndrewPrice said...

Cris, LOL! I'm not sure he knows how to cut and paste? ;)

Actually, what's interesting is that I saw this almost identical list at various Democratic sites the same day The Economist included a slimmed down version. I very much suspect they are all repeating something Obama sent out.

AndrewPrice said...

Anon, Obama's not used to manual labor... never touched a shovel in his life. That's why he needs four more years to get it all done.

Fortunately, I don't see him getting the chance.

rlaWTX said...

I missed the troll fun again!!! apparently they come out in the evenings... sigh.

AndrewPrice said...

rlaWTX, They're afraid of sunlight. :)

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