The rally on August 28 in Washington, D.C., was about many things"”some high, a few low (very few, as these events go), and many in-between, and is worth considering from various angles, from the political to the cultural to the sociological. We offer two excellent analyses in the following pages, by Harvey Mansfield and Lee Harris.
Read more Marching Off the Cliff The Obamacrats misunderstand the economy. BY Matthew Continetti September 13, 2010, Vol. 15, No. 48President Obama sure did cover a lot of ground last week in his address to the nation announcing the end of combat operations in Iraq. At times the speech resembled one of those late-night, beer-fueled freshman dorm bull sessions, where you start off discussing Led Zeppelin and end up ten hours later debating the ontological principle.
Read more Tax Cuts For All, Not Just For Some Why Obama should relinquish control and lower tax rates for all Americans. BY Fred Barnes Beyond the Tea Party The broadening of a movement. BY Lee Harris September 13, 2010, Vol. 15, No. 48Lively debate continues about just how many people showed up to attend Glenn Beck's rally at the Lincoln Memorial, but there has been less interest in exactly why they showed up.
Read more Young Guns II From The Scrapbook. BY The Scrapbook On the Economy, Obama's Shooting from the Hip Even a bad marksman can get lucky. BY Irwin M. Stelzer document.write(''); "?Beam me up, Mr. Speaker!' How Democratic Congress threw away advantage over GOP Morning Examiner: Meet the Tea Party Candidate who loves big government It's over in Alaska "” Miller wins Agenda watch: Republicans start embracing Paul Ryan's "Roadmap" more Tuesday,September 7, 2010 Iran Pays Bounties to Taliban for Dead Americans Taliban officials tell the Sunday Times that Iran pays for dead Americans. BY Thomas Joscelyn Will the Obama Administration Meet with the Junta? Embarrassment watch. BY Kelley Currie Morning Jay: Dem Triage, White House Partisanship, and more... BY Jay Cost Tax Cuts For All, Not Just For Some Why Obama should relinquish control and lower tax rates for all Americans. BY Fred Barnes On the Economy, Obama's Shooting from the Hip Even a bad marksman can get lucky. BY Irwin M. Stelzer Tuesday, September 7, 2010 On the Economy, Obama's Shooting from the Hip Even a bad marksman can get lucky. BY Irwin M. Stelzer September 4, 2010 12:00 AM $(document).ready(function() { fontResizer('14px','16px','18px'); }); SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: unescape(encodeURIComponent('On the Economy, Obama\'s Shooting from the Hip')), url: unescape(encodeURIComponent('http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/economy-obamas-shooting-hip')) }, {button:true} );Not many people can define GDP (the value of a nation's output). But everyone can define jobs. So the fact that the U.S. economy is growing and GDP is rising"”inching up might be a better description"”pales into insignificance compared to the fact that the job market remains in the doldrums. No use telling voters about positive revisions of earlier numbers, or the lay-offs of temporary census workers, or that the private sector added 67,000 jobs in August, the eighth consecutive month of private-sector job growth. That sort of information is of more immediate consequence to Wall Street, which cheered at the up-bump after the worst August since 2001, than to Main Street, which focused on the fact that a total of 54,000 jobs disappeared in August, and that the unemployment rate rose to 9.6 percent from 9.5 percent in July.
Also, remember: A Pew Research Center Surveys found that one out of every four employed workers"”some 35 million in all"”had at one point in the recession been out of work. Many are now in jobs they find less satisfying and/or lower paying. Add them and workers too discouraged to keep looking for jobs to the reserve army of the unemployed, and you have a large number of very unhappy campers.
The good news, as President Obama pointed out after the new data had been released, is that so far this year the private sector has added 763,000 jobs. All in all, this mixed report shows that the jobs market remains dreary, but that the economy is not about to descend into the double-dip predicted by the pessimists.
Although voters and therefore politicians are focused on jobs, economists are looking at some of the underlying conditions that will, in the long run, spur job growth.
document.write('');One such is corporate profits, which are up almost 40 percent over last year, and after six straight quarters of growth are close to their pre-recession level. Some analysts believe that part of this increase is due to corporations' rush to book profits this year, rather than in 2011, when taxes are expected to be higher if President Obama has his way. As well he might: For a few months Congress will be loaded with defeated but still-seated Democrats with nothing more to lose by raising taxes. (New members, with the exception of members elected through special elections, are not sworn in until after the New Year.)
Another cheering sign is the strength of the manufacturing sector. The data are ambiguous: In August manufacturing lost 27,000 jobs, but the Institute of Supply Management (ISM) reported that its index of manufacturing activity rose from 55.5 to 56.3"”anything over 50 indicates that the sector is expanding. If seasonal factors are distorting the manufacturing jobs figure, the ISM index will prove to be the more accurate indicator of future trends.
Then, too, consumers are showing some signs of an increased willingness to spend. Not wildly, but at a rate some 2 percent higher than last year. This might reflect the rise in consumer confidence in August: The Conference Board reports that its index rose from 51 to 53.5. Indeed, last month parents sent their kids back to school better clad and equipped than analysts had predicted. Back-to-school spending rose an estimated 3.3 percent in August. Rampant discounting will dilute the effect of the sales increase on profits, but retailers are in no mood to quibble with good news.
Consumers have also been restoring their recession-riddled balance sheets. At the start of the recession the saving rate was 2.7 percent; it is now closer to 6 percent. As consumers stabilize rather than increase their saving rate, spending should rise at a somewhat more rapid rate. If that happens"”in economists' terms, if final demand for goods and services picks up"”manufacturing activity will accelerate, and with it job creation.
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/* */President Obama sure did cover a lot of ground last week in his address to the nation announcing the end of combat operations in Iraq. At times the speech resembled one of those late-night, beer-fueled freshman dorm bull sessions, where you start off discussing Led Zeppelin and end up ten hours later debating the ontological principle.
Lively debate continues about just how many people showed up to attend Glenn Beck's rally at the Lincoln Memorial, but there has been less interest in exactly why they showed up.
Not many people can define GDP (the value of a nation's output). But everyone can define jobs. So the fact that the U.S. economy is growing and GDP is rising"”inching up might be a better description"”pales into insignificance compared to the fact that the job market remains in the doldrums. No use telling voters about positive revisions of earlier numbers, or the lay-offs of temporary census workers, or that the private sector added 67,000 jobs in August, the eighth consecutive month of private-sector job growth. That sort of information is of more immediate consequence to Wall Street, which cheered at the up-bump after the worst August since 2001, than to Main Street, which focused on the fact that a total of 54,000 jobs disappeared in August, and that the unemployment rate rose to 9.6 percent from 9.5 percent in July.
Also, remember: A Pew Research Center Surveys found that one out of every four employed workers"”some 35 million in all"”had at one point in the recession been out of work. Many are now in jobs they find less satisfying and/or lower paying. Add them and workers too discouraged to keep looking for jobs to the reserve army of the unemployed, and you have a large number of very unhappy campers.
The good news, as President Obama pointed out after the new data had been released, is that so far this year the private sector has added 763,000 jobs. All in all, this mixed report shows that the jobs market remains dreary, but that the economy is not about to descend into the double-dip predicted by the pessimists.
Although voters and therefore politicians are focused on jobs, economists are looking at some of the underlying conditions that will, in the long run, spur job growth.
One such is corporate profits, which are up almost 40 percent over last year, and after six straight quarters of growth are close to their pre-recession level. Some analysts believe that part of this increase is due to corporations' rush to book profits this year, rather than in 2011, when taxes are expected to be higher if President Obama has his way. As well he might: For a few months Congress will be loaded with defeated but still-seated Democrats with nothing more to lose by raising taxes. (New members, with the exception of members elected through special elections, are not sworn in until after the New Year.)
Another cheering sign is the strength of the manufacturing sector. The data are ambiguous: In August manufacturing lost 27,000 jobs, but the Institute of Supply Management (ISM) reported that its index of manufacturing activity rose from 55.5 to 56.3"”anything over 50 indicates that the sector is expanding. If seasonal factors are distorting the manufacturing jobs figure, the ISM index will prove to be the more accurate indicator of future trends.
Then, too, consumers are showing some signs of an increased willingness to spend. Not wildly, but at a rate some 2 percent higher than last year. This might reflect the rise in consumer confidence in August: The Conference Board reports that its index rose from 51 to 53.5. Indeed, last month parents sent their kids back to school better clad and equipped than analysts had predicted. Back-to-school spending rose an estimated 3.3 percent in August. Rampant discounting will dilute the effect of the sales increase on profits, but retailers are in no mood to quibble with good news.
Consumers have also been restoring their recession-riddled balance sheets. At the start of the recession the saving rate was 2.7 percent; it is now closer to 6 percent. As consumers stabilize rather than increase their saving rate, spending should rise at a somewhat more rapid rate. If that happens"”in economists' terms, if final demand for goods and services picks up"”manufacturing activity will accelerate, and with it job creation.
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