Read more about the article Job Stimulus? Recession Over? Hornswoggle!

Job Stimulus? Recession Over? Hornswoggle!

finance-forecastingThe reports are continuing on the woeful effects of the Obama job stimulus program, heralded as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The $789 Billion package was to create or “save” 3 million jobs but here’s the thing.

You know how your spouse says she or he just “saved money” when they bought something on sale … but you can never really find or see those “savings”? That’s the same logic the Administration uses to claim it’s “saved jobs” as they seek to defend the success of the stimulus package.

Not only is job creation meager, but the costs are staggering. The White House’s Recovery Act site – shows, for example, that $660 million has been awarded to Bay Area transportation projects to create 997 jobs, which amounts to a staggering $661,986 per job. Last week, the site showed that California Congressional Districts 00 and 99 received millions of dollars in stimulus funding even though neither district exists. (more…)

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Small business still swimming upstream

Like big bears hovering over the waterline picking off salmon swimming upstream, the economy is not  much of a friend to small business. As you probably realize, small businesses generated 65% of the job growth between 1993 and 2008, and represent about half of the private-sector employment in the U.S., according to the Small Business Administration. “Smaller firms, with fewer than 20 employees, account for 25% of all jobs, but they generated 40% of the [job] growth in the last expansion in 2001,” says Joseph Brusuelas, a director and senior economist at Moody’s Economy.com.

Nouriel Roubini, the NYU economist,  writes in a column published in BusinessWeek that the small business economy, is still mired in an “deep and persistent recession”. In fact, a Goldman Sachs analyst recently explained that small business sentiment is out of line with other measures of the economy, like GDP.

What’s the answer? A recent meeting of chief executives concluded that efforts need to center on getting more credit to small and mid-market businesses. The CEOs argued that the main impediment to a faster economic recovery was the high level of unemployment and called for ensuring that credit was available to jump-start hiring, with an emphasis on smaller businesses. I seriously doubt that’s the holdup and am inclined to agree more with the NFIB Chief Economist. (more…)

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Read more about the article Buried in a 2,000 page bill …
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Buried in a 2,000 page bill …

Climbing a Pile of FilesLike I’ve said, I certainly didn’t intend to wade into this health care reform quicksand but just the thought of a 2,000 page bill that legislators haven’t read conjures a paperwork morass that, like a stealth bomber, sneaks in under the radar and does incredible damage before you wake up in the morning …

… not to mention how much stuff is buried in there we haven’t heard about yet or the laughable observations that it won’t cost anything. Where to start? How about David Broder’s observaations about its failure to deliver on cost controls, he being the former of Chief of Staff for Prez Clinton.

How about the Wall St. Journal report that the promised tort reform – sounds good – is coupled with a provision that provides incentive payments to states that adopt a “alternative medical liability law” … but ONLY IF it does not limit attorney’s fees or impose caps on damages”? Huh? Isn’t that at the core of tort reform in the first place?

How about the concept that none of this will cost anything  because the savings will offset the cost? Gee, we’ve never heard that one before. (more…)

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