Al Fin

Jobless Claims Fall to the Lowest Level in 34 Weeks

Right. Jobless claims are more famous for what they don't tell you, than what they do tell you. Much better to report actual employment figures plus the numbers for those who have dropped out of the employment picture altogether -- alongside the jobless claims.

Even that approach leaves a lot of crucial information unreported, but at least it fills in a few empty spaces.

Why U.S. Economic Growth Will Remain Sluggish for Years to Come

Yes, you nailed it. Low employment, low tax receipts, a continued contraction of the private sector . . . . while government spending and government employment ties up precious resources the private sector needs to launch new enterprises.

An Obama government might have worked during an expansive decade like the 1990s. New technologies were hitting the markets one after the other. The 1990s US Congress was more responsible fiscally than the recent US Congresses have been, and led world investors to expect the US to get its fiscal house in order.

Unfortunately, a big spending president plus a big spending Congress combined with several big-spending chickens coming home to roost from the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s all add up to big trouble for the private, productive sector.

Nine Roadblocks to a Bull Rally

Important points to ponder, to be sure. But something much worse is lurking in the background, causing consumers and investors to hold back. The problem is the rapid top-down rearrangement of economic incentives away from an opportunity society to a "connected society," such as one finds in the third world.

There is only one way to reverse the collapse of the US economy, and that is from the ground up -- via economic opportunity for individuals, small investors, small businesses and startups, and communities.

Instead the power establishment is attempting to re-inflate pre-existing bubbles while destroying growth opportunities for the middle class. Opportunity is shifting toward large labor unions, trial lawyers, and politically connected speculators -- and away from ordinary people. All of the current government's policies contributed to this rot of opportunity.

Obama's Economic Failure

Normally when a person goes from a flaming Columbia radical to President of the United States, a certain maturing process of accepting responsibility will set in. In Obama's case, we may have to wait the entire 8 years for the POTUS to stop apologising for past presidents, stop paying off political cronies, and start governing intelligently.

He is a green avocado that may never ripen. If not, the country will be out a few dozen trillion more before it is all over.

Who Is Really to Blame for the Deficit?

Wrong on all counts.
What is called "Bush Policies" are in reality the accelerating expansion of programs in place since the 1960s. Social Security, Medicare, social services, entitlements, etc etc. A big balloon on a programmed trajectory.

Obama is taking that programmed debt expansion and exploding it in unprecedented ways. This is a gotterdammerung of debt, and trying to excuse Obama for his mass destruction of the economy is counterproductive. It just gives him more time to administer the killing blow.