Monthly Archives: September 2010

The Way Forward is Looking Better

Fact one, small to medium sized firms are the drivers of job growth in the United States. Fact two, the government needs to engage in policies to assist these firms that create conditions that encourage risk taking and reward that comes from that risk taking. Fact three, the government needs to reduce burdens on these firms that discourage investment or increase their costs of doing business. To create employment, we hold the above to be self-evident and to be true.

If we review the last two years, we see variations of assistance provided by the government that not only miss … …READ MORE

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A Step in the Right Direction

Also, up on CNBC: http://www.cnbc.com/id/39038675

Over the weekend, President Obama unleashed a fusillade of economic proposals meant to not only raise the nation’s hopes of economic recovery (just around the corner), but also to raise the flagging poll numbers of the Democratic party.

Here are the kenspeckel polling numbers that give Democrats a queasy feeling. According to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll, 40 percent of registered voters say they have more confidence in Democrats and 38 percent say they have more trust in Republicans.

Sounds okay, right? The problem is three months ago, Democrats had a 12-point advantage. The … …READ MORE

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Another Day, another Govt Distorted Data Set:

Yesterday, the auto industry released their August sales numbers and they were ugly. Compared to 2009, August 2010 sales plummeted 21% with General Motors Co., Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co. all reporting declines of 25% or more. Ford Motor Co. was the tallest pygmy in the group as its sales only dropped 11%. Why such large year-over-year drops?

Cash-for-clunkers, of course! In 2009, this was a stimulus program that thought it was a good idea to take perfectly functional cars and destroy them for a subsidy between $3,500 and $4,500. As the data shows, the program was wildly … …READ MORE

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An End to the Housing Crisis

Last week, we had disastrous reports on the housing market that were precipitated by the $8,000 first time home buyers credit. US existing home sales fell 27.2% and US new home sales fell 12.4% as buyers had moved forward their purchases. RealtyTrac reported that home foreclosures rose 4% in July to 325,229. Housing prices appear to have stabilized as the S&P CaseShiller index rose for June, but that was still under the influence of the tax credit. July/August could be ugly. We are not sure to what level housing sales will eventually gravitate towards, but the adjustment process is stomach … …READ MORE

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