Quote of the Day
The hardest thing is to take less when you can get more.Kin Hubbard
Did Obama Reach an All-Time High of Employment With This Month's Figures?
From Reason:
All in all, more Americans went to work in May than ever before. An additional 217,000 payroll jobs pushes U.S. employment to 138.5 million—a record high. The Washington Examiner 's Joseph Lawler cautions.The column goes on to point out that BLS has layers of estimates whereas ADP tends to provide a more comprehensive snapshot, the implication being that we are likely to see the official numbers adjust downward over the weeks to come.
The U.S. remains 7.1 million short of the number of jobs it would have if employment kept up with population growth, according to the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute's analysis. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office's more conservative estimate places that number at 5.5-6 million.
Interestingly, the new BLS job numbers are at odds with labor statistics reported Wednesday by payroll company Automatic Data Processing (ADP). ADP publishes a monthly jobs snapshot based on actual transactional payroll data.According to ADP's figures, the private sector added only 179,000 jobs in May.
So the question is: does Obama deserve credit? First of all, let's point out that the declining official unemployment has more to do with frustrated jobless workers leaving the official labor force pool, and we still have near-decades low labor force participation rate. I see struggling households, Food Stamp Nation, pockets of sky-high unemployment particularly with some urban minority-group classes, a housing market which has shifted into a landlord's market, despite historically low mortgage rates, income levels barely keeping up with cost of living increases in food and energy... Despite unprecedented Fed Reserve intervention, many people are still underwater on their mortgages, and many middle-age couples find themselves drifting close to retirement with virtually no retirement savings, dependent on grossly underfunded social security and Medicare programs, which if run as much by the private sector, would have long ago been shut down as illegal, fraudulent Ponzi schemes.
I think the rub is in the details; I can only speak for myself, but I have found my own professional opportunities have been very limited under the Bush/Obama economic policies of easy credit, no budget discipline, uncompetitive business tax rates, mounting, costly, unsustainable regulatory regimes (particularly environmental, financial and healthcare), interventionist policies (e.g., stimulus and TARP) and morally hazardous domestic social welfare policies. I have had to move to find professional opportunities twice over the past decade (at my own expense), for lower-paid positions. I would like to see more longitudinal data about the nature of jobs (e.g., people settling for lower-paid opportunites simply because they have to pay their living expenses); I know of at least one household that had to give up their upper middle-class home for a small apartment: the breadwinner, who had been in middle-management, tried to start an Internet business (it didn't go into debt but failed to yield adequate income) and eventually settled for a part-time hourly job.
No, if the past 5.5 years prove anything, it's the fact that the resiliency of the US economy can withstand even a hopelessly economic illiterate, incompetent President ideologically fixated on a self-defeating Politics of Envy, environmental special-interest attacks on our natural resource sector, and a tax-regulatory regimen that impedes innovarion and capital formation.
What would a Guillemette Administration do?
- I would implement unilateral free trade and open borders
- I would radically flatten the tax code and eliminate special-interest exceptions, deductions, credits, and subsidies, shifting to a more economically-efficient tax system, e.g., supplier/consumption layered VAT, which favors savings and investment and is less vulnerable to accounting gimmicks
- I would shift domestic programs to the states in accordance with the principle of Subsidiarity
- I would shift healthcare policy towards reinsuring catastrophic coverage, including decentralization of any government programs to the state/local level, with the ultimate goal of privatization
- I would shift the social security/Medicare systems into more of a means-tested poverty supplemental assistance program with an emphasis on reinforcing traditional familial support mechanisms; transition to privitization of retirement planning
- I would ban public union activity, reform pensions into means-tested, capped supplemental income programs and transition into privatized 401K type arrangements, and radically streamline, flatten and/or outsource government agencies
- I would radically downsize/reform our military and foreign policy to eliminate morally hazardous obligations and promote regional stability
- I would streamline, downsize and decentralize the regulatory regime with a bias towards economic liberalization, sunsetting the regulatory/anti-competitive burden
- I would end the Fed, deposit insurance, etc., outlaw activist monetary policy and restore an asset-based currency
- I would demand an end to the war on victimless crimes and engage in federal sentencing reforms.
- I would require Constitutional reforms to pay down government debt, limit tax authority and constrain spending to a percentage of GDP, demand accounting reforms to reflect a measure of unfunded liabilities, require a super-majority vote to approve a material federal deficit or engage in sustained military operations not involving a direct, unprovoked military attack and explicit Congressional approval of any interim, undeclared military activities, and term limits for any public service employment, for any of the 3 branches of government, including single terms for President, and the ability of citizens to recall any elected or confirmed official after 2 years and/or to recall federal legislation. I also want to see explicit Constitutional protections for economic liberty and privacy along with reforms against eminent domain or asset forfeiture abuse, to eliminate anti-competitive/mercantilistic federal/state regulations impeding interstate competition or business formation.
Have I been specific enough? I don't pretend that this list is exhaustive but constitutes which I consider a good starting point.
What You Won't Hear in Harry Reid's Unethical Attacks on the Koch Brothers
This interview, among other things, points out that there are 4 brothers, not just Charles and David, and the current business conglomerate of Koch Industries was not an inherited empire but relentlessly expanded in its own right by talented sibling businessmen. The Mother Jones' (left-wing) author points out that the Koch brothers, far from being crony capitalists, strenuously oppose government subsidies, including corporate welfare, in principle, and far from being socially conservative warhawks often associated with the GOP, actually favor "gay marriage" and are anti-war; they were libertarian long before Ron Paul's 2008 and 2012 Presidential campaigns caught fire with young voters.
The Movies Meet the Tragedy of the Commons
How Do Fed Money Printers Fool Entrepreneurs?
Facebook Corner
(Cato Institute). Jefferson’s words point to a fundamental truth, which has been demonstrated in Afghanistan, says Prof. Steve Hanke: http://bit.ly/1usZdpu
The Afghan war was just in that the goal was to destroy Al Queda. However, it's clear that the U.S. cannot do nation-building in Muslim areas. Therefore, we simply have to strike terrorist bases, anywhere, at random times to keep them off balance, and not worry about the idiotic foreign governments.
No. Al Qaeda was a stateless group that operated across the region, and we have no moral authority to attack another country without a declaration of war. As far as Afghanistan, the Taliban were not responsible for the 9/11 attacks; moreover, the Northern Alliance swept the Taliban out of power and the remnants of Al Qaeda were on the run--there was no rationale for our occupying the country.
(Cato Institute). "In 2013 just 9,244 workers out of a civilian federal workforce of 1.87 million were fired for poor performance or misconduct,...That is a rate of just 0.49 percent, or 1 in 200 a year."
From a 2011 USA Today article:
"The 1,800-employee Federal Communications Commission and the 1,200-employee Federal Trade Commission didn't lay off or fire a single employee last year. The SBA had no layoffs, six firings and 17 deaths in its 4,000-employee workforce." [Note: 3 times more likely to die than to be fired...]
"Research shows that the private sector fires about 3% of workers annually for poor performance, says John Palguta"
"San Francisco State University management professor John Sullivan, an expert on employee turnover, says the low departure rates show a failure to release poor performers and those with obsolete skills. "Rather than indicating something positive, rates below 1% in the firing and layoff components would indicate a serious management problem," he says."
(Cato Institute). "Washington DC has proposed an anti-auto transportation plan that is ironically called 'MoveDC' when its real goal is to reduce the mobility of DC residents."
Heaven forbid that spontaneous order, congestion-based tolling, or worker flextime and telecommunication policies should preempt a centrally planned solution in search of a poorly defined problem. Let me guess their projected cost will quadruple over current projections...
(Drudge Report). FEDS SHIP HUNDREDS MORE ILLEGALS TO AZ
The story doesn't point out that around 2000 children are also being housed at military facilities in Texas and California; hundreds are also living with sponsors or relatives. We need to address the core issues, including a dysfunctional War on Drugs exacerbating violence in the region, a family reunification immigration policy and liberalized trade throughout Central America. In the meanwhile, we need to approach a humanitarian crisis in a manner that reflects the best of the American character and the compassion and understanding of our fellow citizens.
(in response to a naturalized citizen whom points out he was once an illegal but now a productive member of American society) But unlike you the majority of illegals stay illegal, live in poverty and as most are Catholic, they refrain from using birth control (fir themselves or their dogs)and tend have more kids than they can afford to feed, which means we, the tax paying public , end up paying for them... We won't even get into the identity theft issue
Oh my God, this reply is so anti-Catholic and bigoted that someone from the Know Nothing Party could have written it. Shameful! "The minors flooding over the border are often teenagers leaving behind poverty or violence in Mexico and other parts of Central America such as Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala. They are sometimes seeking to reunite with a parent who is already in the United States, also without documentation. " What we need is a federal policy that addresses the core problems, not the symptoms. This is a humanitarian problem which tests the character of our country and fellow citizens. And quite frankly, I wish we would deport most of the people writing on this topic and keep the kids instead.
The Finale (For Now) of the Proposal Series
I'm sure there are proposals I haven't seen (e.g., military), but I'm finding that Youtube-recommended videos are repeats of videos I've already presented. I've been quietly reinforcing my support of the traditional institutions of marriage and family, which have recently been challenged by Statist politically correct interventions against state/local community standards. I have a more nuanced, authentic libertarian approach to issues like "gay marriage"; I believe in "live and let live" gay communities, their right to celebrate their own customs, religions and institutions; I think documented personal associations, inheritances, etc. should be respected by hospitals, etc as a reflection of individual rights. However, I do not agree with State intervention on behalf of politically favored special interest groups against the norms of the greater community.
This has to be the most traumatic proposal ever....
Political Cartoon
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| Courtesy of Michael Ramirez via Townhall |
The Four Tops, "Indestructible"
