Obamaconomy!!!

Consumer spending up, sign of decent recovery
3/29/2010, 5:55 a.m. EDT
JEANNINE AVERSA
The Associated Press

(AP) — WASHINGTON - Consumers spent modestly last month, a sign that the economic recovery is proceeding at a decent-but not spectacular-pace.

The Commerce Department reported Monday that consumers boosted their spending by 0.3 percent in February. That was a tad slower than the 0.4 percent increase registered in January and marked the smallest increase since September. Still, the increase in spending was considered a respectable showing, especially given the snowstorms that slammed the East Coast and kept some people away from the malls. It marked the fifth straight month that consumer spending rose.

Incomes were flat in February, following a solid 0.3 percent gain in January. It marked the weakest showing since July, when incomes actually shrank. Income growth is the fuel for future spending. February's flat-line reading suggests shoppers will be cautious in the months ahead.

Spending growth in February matched economists' expectations. The reading on income was a bit weaker than forecast.

Both the spending and income figures in Monday's report point to a modest economic recovery.

Many analysts predict the economy slowed in the first three months of this year after logging a big growth spurt at the end of 2009.

The economy will expand at a 2.5 percent to 3 percent pace in the first quarter of this year, analysts predict.
 
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As long as the govt sector grows faster than the private sector, and the avg government salary is at least 1/3 higher than the avg private sector salary, this country is sunk!

If you think the job situation is bad now, wait until all these companies affected by the new HC bill lays off people and has to raise their prices to compensate.

Medical device companies and Pharma will have to raise their prices which does nothing at all to bring down the cost of health care.
 
Lets see...we have to look forward to higher unemployment, crappy healthcare, higher prices for all goods and services, increased government spending, increased government hiring, increased government intrusion, and ultimately the destruction of the middle class.

America under BO could become just like all other socialist nations. A two class society. Rich elites who control everything and the rest of us poor dependent slobs making up the unwashed masses.

Except, most Americans won't accept this without a fight. Liberals will.
 
So... if incomes are flat but spending increases... doesn't that mean that prices of necessities are going up? Do you really consider that "economic growth"? Here, go read the real report:

http://www.bea.gov/newsreleases/national/pi/pinewsrelease.htm

Please note that goods-producing industries, manufacturing and and farming incomes dropped while service industries and government payrolls expanded. You call that a good trend? Green shoots?
 
Pidgey said:
So... if incomes are flat but spending increases... doesn't that mean that prices of necessities are going up? Do you really consider that "economic growth"? Here, go read the real report:

http://www.bea.gov/newsreleases/national/pi/pinewsrelease.htm

Please note that goods-producing industries, manufacturing and and farming incomes dropped while service industries and government payrolls expanded. You call that a good trend? Green shoots?
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Unfortunately you are talking facts here, so the left won't actually listen. They like those make beleive, magic jelly bean numbers they like to manufacture.
 
"Confidence among U.S. consumers climbed in March as Americans perceived employment was starting to improve.

The U.S. may have recorded its biggest month of job gains in three years in March. Economists expect the Labor Department to report on April 2 that 184,000 jobs were added this month, according to a survey median."
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Mr. Shaman said:
"Confidence among U.S. consumers climbed in March as Americans perceived employment was starting to improve.

The U.S. may have recorded its biggest month of job gains in three years in March. Economists expect the Labor Department to report on April 2 that 184,000 jobs were added this month, according to a survey median."
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Yeah, that should be about right for the TEMPORARY jobs added in order to take and process THE CENSUS!!!

244.gif
 
Pidgey,

On the jobs front.... is there stats or details on if jobs created are private or public.

Public sector jobs do absolutely nothing for the economy, since those jobs take tax payer money to fund.
 
AtheismIsReality said:
All jobs require money for funding.
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Well, you're actually proceeding from an incorrect assumption: money is nothing more than a medium of exchange--the true value of all goods, services and commodities is actually the energy contained therein. That's never more apparent than with food. If you don't take in enough calories, you'll essentially waste away and then die a diseased death as your immune system will shut down before allowing the brain and other core organs to go.

Anyhow, the core of any economy is based on manufacturing, farming or harvesting resources that others want or need. The US is currently importing roughly 2/3rds of its liquid fuels (crude oil and the like). Oil, gas and coal are the true workhorses of all of today's economies and historically the more we've drilled or mined, the more energy we've had to get even more, thus increasing our available energy capacity exponentially. That is, right up until recently. For awhile now, the EROEI (Energy Return On Energy Investment) has been decreasing even as the consumer base has been exponentially INcreasing (and on a worldwide basis, too).

We've been working hard these last few decades on increasing efficiencies, but there eventually comes a limit that makes it uneconomic to pursue efficiency further in any such endeavor. Oh, yes, we keep hearing about fantastic new energy devices and such, many of which keep getting posted on here. The bulk of them are well and truly "pie-in-the-sky" kinds of things, though. That is, their economics don't pan out nearly as well as oil, coal and gas did--that IS the problem.

We're "going green" whether we like it or not, but the most likely scenario of all this "going green" is that an awful lot of folks are going to be going back to The Little House on the Prairie kicking and screaming. Me, I don't mind, I'm okay with it--I don't much have a need of all this crap anymore, never did. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate it and am a pretty decent innovator within my technical fields. I LIKE cooking and heating with gas. I LIKE electric lights. But I HAVE milked the ol' cow every morning and bucked hay in my youth (a LOT of hay). When I look around at a lot of the agriculturally-challenged city folk today, I can well and truly imagine how bad the descent into the Olduvai Gorge is going to be.

Anyhow, as Peak Oil approaches (we've ALREADY passed the peak of production for RCO, or "Regular Conventional Oil") for All Liquids, it's going to get downright ugly. What you will find is that "money" will begin to revalue on an exponential. That's essentially what happened right up to the peak in price back in July of '08--none of the oil producers could squeeze out another drop fast enough. I know, I know... "d@mn speculators!". Oil's sold essentially in a kind of auction--if there's more demand than supply, the cost IS going to go up. H3LL... the price STAYING up as high as it has been through the last year is almost as bad as that year if you integrate it. Longer term crude futures contracts are already selling for enough to knock your socks off, just wait until that time comes--it's going to continue doing damage.

Once upon a time... you actually used your own muscle powered by the food you ate to get stuff done. Now, you're using an immense amount of power from industrial sources with very little of your own calories by comparison. I suppose you could say the real problem is the amount of debt that a diminishing energy supply is juxtaposed against.
 
Pidgey said:
Well, you're actually proceeding from an incorrect assumption: money is nothing more than a medium of exchange--the true value of all goods, services and commodities is actually the energy contained therein.
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We're talking about deploying capital here, and the unfounded assumption that a government is incapable of doing so in a productive manner.

However, your point is well taken. Anyone with a brain should figure out that consumer capitalism has doomed us as a species. There are too many people in the world as is to be supported by existing resources as that population develops. That doesn't even count growth.
 
AtheismIsReality said:
We're talking about deploying capital here, and the unfounded assumption that a government is incapable of doing so in a productive manner.

However, your point is well taken. Anyone with a brain should figure out that consumer capitalism has doomed us as a species. There are too many people in the world as is to be supported by existing resources as that population develops. That doesn't even count growth.
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You might try researching the "10% fractional reserve banking system" and find out how that affects fungibility, especially in lieu of the recent (last two decades) habit of not actually matching valuations proportionately to reserve capital. For a primer, read this webpage:

http://market-ticker.org/archives/1487-Sound-Banking-A-Capitalist-Imperative.html
 
Pidgey said:
You might try researching the "10% fractional reserve banking system" and find out how that affects fungibility, especially in lieu of the recent (last two decades) habit of not actually matching valuations proportionately to reserve capital. For a primer, read this webpage:

http://market-ticker.org/archives/1487-Sound-Banking-A-Capitalist-Imperative.html
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I'm already aware of the fractional reserve banking system. It serves as a brilliant club with which to beat Cons about the head when discussing who needs to be responsible when it comes to the loaning of money.

Again, I'm interested in sticking to the main point of discussion - deploying capital for production. Let's save discussion on resources, banking, and credit for another time. Thanks.
 
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