A failed presidency is a terrible thing to witness. A failed presidency with more than two years left to run is also dangerous for the country. So, even though it would be easy for The Weekly Standard to allow your administration to continue on its current path to perdition, thereby ensuring massive GOP gains this November and a likely victory in 2012, we offer, in a spirit of bipartisanship and patriotism, some advice.
Read more Farewell to Feingold? Businessman Ron Johnson aims for an upset. BY John McCormack August 9, 2010, Vol. 15, No. 44Lake Geneva, Wisconsin
Read more H is for Huuuuge Stephen F. Hayes's son says the darndest things BY Stephen F. Hayes August 9, 2010, Vol. 15, No. 44Not long ago, I took my three-year-old son to the doctor. I was reading to him in the waiting room when an old man and his wife sat on the couch directly opposite ours"”the only seats that weren't occupied on that busy morning. The man introduced himself, and we began chatting. As we spoke, I noticed Conner staring curiously at his wife, who was wearing a patch over her left eye.
Read more A Tale of Two Battles Macroeconomic data vs. earnings reports, and deficit-cutters vs. borrow-and-spend. BY Irwin M. Stelzer document.write(''); Will Obama bomb Iran? Baptists & Bootleggers: Liquor stores for liquor regulation Obama to Dems: Don't worry, I won't campaign for you Lawsuit ruling in Florida gubernatorial campaign undercuts public financing Greenspan: Recovery paused more Monday,August 2, 2010 Juan Williams Opposes Ground Zero Mosque BY John McCormack Mr. Pot Meet Mr. Kettle BY Gabriel Schoenfeld A Tale of Two Battles Macroeconomic data vs. earnings reports, and deficit-cutters vs. borrow-and-spend. BY Irwin M. Stelzer Happy Hour Links BY John McCormack Pentagon: WikiLeaks Founder Lied About Doc Review BY John Noonan Monday, August 2, 2010 A Tale of Two Battles Macroeconomic data vs. earnings reports, and deficit-cutters vs. borrow-and-spend. BY Irwin M. Stelzer July 31, 2010 12:00 AM $(document).ready(function() { fontResizer('14px','16px','18px'); }); SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: unescape(encodeURIComponent('A Tale of Two Battles')), url: unescape(encodeURIComponent('http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/tale-two-battles')) }, {button:true} );There are two battles going on that will influence how the economy performs for the rest of this year. The first is a battle for attention between the general economic news and the profits performance of America's leading companies. The second is a battle between austerity advocates and the more-stimulus-please-sir, crowd. In a sense, this latter war is between Europe and Britain, on the one side, and America on the other.
Start with the first battle. The news about the economy has diminished hope that the economic recovery will be rapid and robust. A slowdown in private-sector job creation is producing talk of a "jobless recovery" that, along with the persistent refusal of the housing market to recover, is damaging consumer confidence, which is why the latest GDP report shows that "consumption is sluggish," to borrow the description of Goldman Sachs's economists. Home sales are at near-record lows, and the supply of unsold homes, including foreclosed homes, is rising. Some 60 percent of housing analysts are expecting home prices to decline this year, despite a recent up-tick due to the now-lapsed availability of a buyers' tax credit. It is difficult for consumers to have a bounce in their step as they walk down a street with foreclosure signs, and fret that they might be next in the unemployment queue, perhaps unable to meet their mortgage payments.
document.write('');The Federal Reserve Board's survey of business conditions around the country is far from a tale of unremitting gloom. "Economic activity has continued to increase, on balance, since the previous survey"¦" But several areas of the country report only "modest" increases or a slowing of manufacturing activity, and the latest report of second quarter GDP growth -- +2.4 percent -- shows the economy to be moving forward, but at a slower rate than is needed if lots of new jobs are to be created. Somehow, a moderate recovery is not good enough to produce a "feel good factor" on the street that matters most to politicians facing an election fewer than 100 days from now -- Main Street. New hiring on Wall Street, which by and large is doing well, actually adds to the grumpiness of Main Street, which feels left behind by the various policies adopted by the government to get the economy moving. Bailouts for the big banks, nothing for small businesses being denied credit by those very banks -- that's a popular view.
Against all of this are reports that corporate earnings are up over 20 percent in the second quarter and headed for even larger gains in the current quarter. FedEx and UPS, which can't make money unless they are moving goods, are reporting healthy increases in profits, due in important part to shipments of electronic goods from Asia, not exactly a U.S.-jobs-creator. Ford, which mortgaged all of its assets four years ago and eschewed government (i.e. taxpayer) help, reported its most profitable half in more than a decade. General Electric, which participates in almost every sector of the U.S. economy, announced a 20 percent increase in its dividend. Verizon, a good indicator of the health of the wireless business reported gains that exceeded expectations, as did AT&T. Apple reported a 90 percent increase in earnings to the highest non-holiday quarter ever. And Intel says that the second quarter was the best in its 42-year history as large companies began replacing the computers that became a bit obsolete during the virtual freeze of replacement buying during the depths of the recession.
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Lake Geneva, Wisconsin
Not long ago, I took my three-year-old son to the doctor. I was reading to him in the waiting room when an old man and his wife sat on the couch directly opposite ours"”the only seats that weren't occupied on that busy morning. The man introduced himself, and we began chatting. As we spoke, I noticed Conner staring curiously at his wife, who was wearing a patch over her left eye.
There are two battles going on that will influence how the economy performs for the rest of this year. The first is a battle for attention between the general economic news and the profits performance of America's leading companies. The second is a battle between austerity advocates and the more-stimulus-please-sir, crowd. In a sense, this latter war is between Europe and Britain, on the one side, and America on the other.
Start with the first battle. The news about the economy has diminished hope that the economic recovery will be rapid and robust. A slowdown in private-sector job creation is producing talk of a "jobless recovery" that, along with the persistent refusal of the housing market to recover, is damaging consumer confidence, which is why the latest GDP report shows that "consumption is sluggish," to borrow the description of Goldman Sachs's economists. Home sales are at near-record lows, and the supply of unsold homes, including foreclosed homes, is rising. Some 60 percent of housing analysts are expecting home prices to decline this year, despite a recent up-tick due to the now-lapsed availability of a buyers' tax credit. It is difficult for consumers to have a bounce in their step as they walk down a street with foreclosure signs, and fret that they might be next in the unemployment queue, perhaps unable to meet their mortgage payments.
The Federal Reserve Board's survey of business conditions around the country is far from a tale of unremitting gloom. "Economic activity has continued to increase, on balance, since the previous survey"¦" But several areas of the country report only "modest" increases or a slowing of manufacturing activity, and the latest report of second quarter GDP growth -- +2.4 percent -- shows the economy to be moving forward, but at a slower rate than is needed if lots of new jobs are to be created. Somehow, a moderate recovery is not good enough to produce a "feel good factor" on the street that matters most to politicians facing an election fewer than 100 days from now -- Main Street. New hiring on Wall Street, which by and large is doing well, actually adds to the grumpiness of Main Street, which feels left behind by the various policies adopted by the government to get the economy moving. Bailouts for the big banks, nothing for small businesses being denied credit by those very banks -- that's a popular view.
Against all of this are reports that corporate earnings are up over 20 percent in the second quarter and headed for even larger gains in the current quarter. FedEx and UPS, which can't make money unless they are moving goods, are reporting healthy increases in profits, due in important part to shipments of electronic goods from Asia, not exactly a U.S.-jobs-creator. Ford, which mortgaged all of its assets four years ago and eschewed government (i.e. taxpayer) help, reported its most profitable half in more than a decade. General Electric, which participates in almost every sector of the U.S. economy, announced a 20 percent increase in its dividend. Verizon, a good indicator of the health of the wireless business reported gains that exceeded expectations, as did AT&T. Apple reported a 90 percent increase in earnings to the highest non-holiday quarter ever. And Intel says that the second quarter was the best in its 42-year history as large companies began replacing the computers that became a bit obsolete during the virtual freeze of replacement buying during the depths of the recession.
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