Archive for the ‘Economy’ Category

Obamanomics: Over Half of Americans Struggling to Keep Their Homes; Teenage Unemployment Higher Than Natl Average in California

Wednesday, June 4th, 2014

Obama's America“How’s That Hopey, Changey Stuff Working Out for You? ” –Sarah Palin

(Market Watch) More than half of Americans (52%) have had to make at least one major sacrifice in order to cover their rent or mortgage over the last 3 years.

In related Obamanomics news, the Employment Policies Institute released a recent analysis of Census Bureau data that shows that many of America’s top U.S. metropolitan areas–including Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco have youth unemployment rates that average far higher than the national average of 21.6%

Four of the Top Five Worst Metro Areas are In My Beloved California:

  • No 1.  Riverside–San Bernardino 52.4%
  • No 3. Los Angeles–Long Beach–Santa Ana 39.0%
  • No 4. San Diego–Carlsbad–San Marcos 37.5%
  • No 5. San Francisco–Oakland 35.2%

More here ‘Summer Bummer for Teens in Country’s Largest Metro Areas’

Run by California Democrats, Audit of Books Finds Accounting Errors in Excess of $31 Billion

Sunday, June 1st, 2014

California Rainy Day FundGov Brown’s Rainy Day Fund –Cartoon: CalWatchdog

(Breitbart) California’s Democrat Majority in Sacramento have lots of issues, the latest according to CBS Sacramento an audit of state books revealed accounting irregularities in excess of $31 Billion

The Audit Revealed:

  • $7.7 Billion Understated federal trust fund revenues and expenditures;
  • $653 Million Overstated general fund assets and revenues;
  • $8 Billion Overstated California State University’s bond debt;
  • $9.1 Billion Reporting Errors that understated a public building construction fund;
  • Also there was a deferred tax revenue figure posted as $6.2 Billion that was actually $6.2 Million

When will Gov Brown and Democrats apologize for their malfeasance and accept responsibility for the mess they created ?

Crickets Chirping…

Obama to Unveil New ‘Cap & Tax’ Regulations on Monday, For the Children

Saturday, May 31st, 2014

Obama New RegsWannabe King Obama Will Bypass Congress (Again) to Implement
his Previously Failed ‘Cap and Tax’ Plan

(Bloomberg) President Obama said today that his administration’s plan to combat global warming, climate change climate disruptions will be unveiled next week is for the children.

In 2009 and with a Democrat controlled Congress, Obama’s “Cap & Tax” plan was met with resistance and was criticized by then West Virginia Democrat Robert Byrd and died in the Senate without further consideration.

Flashback: Remember in January, 2008 when Obama told the San Francisco Chronicle that under his plan energy costs will necessarily skyrocket.

Obama’s new environmental regulations all comes at a time when the nation’s economy stalled in the 1st Qtr with GDP falling to -1%, growing inflation fears with food prices up in 2014 by 19% and a shrinking workforce according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which reports the labor participation rate in April fell to 62.8% unseen since Jimmy Carter was president 35 years ago.

How long will it be before Obama shatters that dismal labor force participation record with his disastrous new regulations that already steals more than $1.8 Trillion from a struggling, anemic economy teetering on the brink of a triple dip recession?

Related: Cap and Trade: A Scam Based on a Scam –Canada Free Press

White House Turns Blind Eye on Democrats Who Oppose Climate Rules

California Senate OKs Persistently High Unemployment & Joblessness

Saturday, May 31st, 2014

McDonald's FranceRaising the California Minimum Wage to $13.00 an Hour Will Force Big Changes in Many Businesses –Image Courtesy: 960 The Patriot@Twitter 

(Asian Journal) On Thursday, the California State Senate voted 21-12 to raise the state’s minimum wage to at least $13.00 an hour by 2017 sending it to the Assembly.

Presently, California’s minimum wage stands at $8.00 an hour, pursuant to the Senate bill should it become law according to NBC Los Angeles the state’s minimum wage would rise to $11.00 an hour by 2015, $12.00 by 2016 and $13.00 in 2017–Tipped workers would also make $13.00 an hour.

In June 2012 CATO Institute published an article worth noting: The Negative Effects of Minimum Wage Laws pointing out the business reality that lawmakers choose to ignore:

“There is no ‘free lunch’ when the government mandates a minimum wage. If the government requires that certain workers be paid higher wages, then businesses make adjustments to pay for the added costs, such as reducing hiring, cutting employee work hours, reducing benefits and charging higher prices.

Some policymakers may believe that companies simply absorbs the costs of minimum wage increases through reduced profits but that is rarely the case. Instead, businesses rationally respond to such mandates by cutting employment and making other decisions to maintain their net earnings. These behavioral responses usually offset the positive labor market results that policymakers are hoping for.”

According to California Democrat State Senator Mark Leno’s bill SB 935 after 2017 the state minimum wage would be adjusted annually to keep pace with inflation, no matter what market forces (prices of goods and services, costs of transportation/delivery, recession, business closings, etc) otherwise dictates–the end result…

McDonald's WorkersMcDonald’s & Other Fast Food Workers Meet Your Replacement
Image: Krispy Momma@Twitter

Related: California is Worst State for Business in 2014 –Chief Exec.net

California Nations #1, #2, #3, #5 and #9 Highest State Income Tax Rates

Obamanomics: U.S. Economy Contracts in 1st Quarter GDP -1%

Thursday, May 29th, 2014

1st Qtr GDPObamanomics: U.S. Economy Stalls in 1st Qtr –Image: WSJ@Twitter

(FiveThirtyEight) We already know the economy stalled out at the start of 2014, turns out, it shifted into reverse–U.S. GDP fell at an annual rate of 1% in the first three months of 2014 the Bureau of Economic Analysis reported on Thursday.

This is just the 10th time since W.W. II that GDP growth has been negative outside a recession. Three of those negative quarters immediately preceded recessions.

Flashback: Remember when Obama signed into law his ‘Economic Stimulus’ plan and claimed,“I don’t want to pretend that this marks the end of our economic problems…Today does mark the beginning of the end.”

Riiight…

Related: ‘Consumer Comfort’ Index Collapses to 6 Mo Low –Zero Hedge

Longterm Jobless Still More Than 1/3 of Unemployed –MarketWatch

IRS Bruiser to Job Creators: Pay $100 Penalty Per Day $36,500 Year for Each Employee Dumped into ObamaCare Exchange

Tuesday, May 27th, 2014

ObamaCare IRS

(NY Times) Many employers (job creators) thought they may be able to hold on to employees by shifting the costs of health insurance premiums to them by providing their workers with a tax-free contribution so they could buy their own health insurance wherever they may please–what could be wrong with that?

Not so fast according to the Obama Administration which has nixed this plan in a new IRS ruling that forbids employers from dumping their employees into the ObamaCare exchanges by levying a $100 a day fine ($36,500 annually) for every employee that is provided money to purchase their own health insurance–thereby raising the costs on businesses to actually maintain employment levels.

“For decades, employers have been assisting employees by reimbursing them for their health insurance premiums and out-of-pocket costs,” said Andrew Biebl, a partner in CliftonLarsonAllen, LLPAccountants based in Milwaukee. “The new federal ruling eliminates many of these arrangements by imposing an unusual punitive penalty.”

Raising the costs and regulations on American businesses does not incentivize companies to add more jobs or increase wages, according to a recent Congressional Budget Office report on ObamaCare which confirmed what many of us had already believed, that the ACA is having a tremendously negative impact on economic growth.

Besides the latest IRS regulatory burden that ObamaCare will have on economic growth and opportunity, the Natl Federation of Independent Business Research Foundation estimates the ObamaCare ‘Health Ins Tax’ will result in a further reduction in private sector employment of 152,000 to 286,000 jobs, with California being hit the hardest and a loss of between $20 to $33 Billion of economic activity by 2022

ObamaCare Health Insurance TaxObamaCare ‘Health Ins Tax’ Could Cost Up to 286,000 Jobs

When even the Federal Reserve admits that ObamaCare is hurting the economy, its long past time that it must be repealed.

Out of Touch: USDA Warns of Sticker Shock at the Grocery This Memorial Day

Friday, May 23rd, 2014

Food PricesThe Real Inflation Fear–Food Prices Up 19% in 2014 –Zero Hedge

(Yahoo News) Obama Administration’s USDA has warned Consumers of sticker shock at the grocery store facing Americans this Memorial Day.

What parallel universe do they live if they are just figuring that out now?

U.S. 9th Circuit Court Favors the 3″ Long Delta Smelt Over People

Thursday, May 22nd, 2014

California Hunger Games

No Water for Irrigation + No Farming Jobs = Higher Food Costs and Hunger –Cartoon Image: Michael Mikolajczak@Twitter

(Enviro.BLR) California Environmentalists are praising a unanimous decision from the 9th U.S. Circuit Ct (the nations most overturned Appellate Court) in the matter under the caption of NRDC -v- Jewell, Case No. 09-17661 favoring the 3″ long Delta Smelt over people.

In 2009 The Wall Street Journal reported thanks to draconian water rules, the Obama Administration’s EPA regulations to save the Delta Smelt, together with Gov Jerry Brown’s disastrous environmental law suits one of America’s premier agricultural regions is suffering from a drought made worse by government–the recent 9th U.S. Circuit decision isn’t going to improve things anytime soon.

Feds to Tap Friant Dam First Time in Decades to Help California Central Valley Farmers

Thursday, May 15th, 2014

California Drought

(NBC Los Angeles) Water stored from behind Friant Dam north of Fresno will be tapped for the first time in decades today according to a U.S. Bureau of Reclamation official to help Central Valley farmers.

Despite Central Valley farmers desperate need for water to irrigate their fields, man-made wetlands have been used to provide temporary resting places for migrating birds while farmers go without much needed water for crops.

On the 29 January, I wrote here that California’s man-made drought problem were made worse in 2009 in large measure, thanks to then California Atty General, now Gov Jerry Brown’s disastrous environmental law suits to save the mountain yellow legged frog to increasing regulations and prohibitive costs on big construction projects, that had over the years been a driving factor that created new job opportunities, wealth and prosperity for millions of California residents.

If not for California’s wacky environmentalist policies and want for more crippling regulations that are now driving away business investment, legislators in Sacramento could have helped out everyone had they invested in the future years ago by constructing life saving desalination plants along the coastline such as Israel’s Sorek Desalination Plant that provides 26,000 cubic meters or 7 million gallons of clean portable water every hour to over 1.5 million people.

So Sad! My Beloved State of California Ranks as Worst State for Business in 2014

Tuesday, May 13th, 2014

Texas Best State for BusinessTexas Continues its 10 Year Historical Position as the Best State
Overall for Business in 2014

Florida Second Best State for BusinessFlorida Ranks #2 is Edging Up and Even Overtaking Texas in its
Quality of Living Environment

California Worst State for BusinessCalifornia Ranks Dead Last as the Worst State for Business in 2014

(Chief Executive.net) In the 10th annual survey of CEO’s concerning their views  of the best and worst states for business, over 500 CEO’s across the United States responded, grading states which they were familiar on measures including taxes and regulatory regime, the quality of the workforce and the quality of the living environment.

California, New York and Illinois continue to rank among the worst three states for business with virtually no change from 2013

What CEO’s are saying about California:

  • California goes out of its way to be anti-business and particularly where one might put manufacturing and/or distribution operations;
  • California continues to lead in disincentives for growth businesses to stay;
  • California’s attitude toward business makes you question why anyone would build a business there;
  • We relocated our corporate office from Los Angeles to Atlanta in 2006 largely because of the regulatory and unfriendly tax environment in the State of California. We considered Dallas but settled on Atlanta for customer-related and other secondary or marginal reasons. Would make the same decision if I had to do it all over again;
  • California could hardly do more to discourage business if that was the goal. The regulatory, tax and political environment are crushing. The only saving grace is that there are still a lot of affluent areas that drive local economic zones but the trend line on these is not good for the mid to longterm.

Read full report here from Chief Executive.net