Redstate

Posted at 11:52am on Jul. 3, 2008 Ah, bias

By Neil Stevens

The AP today starts a report today beating the drums of doom:

Employers cut payrolls by 62,000 in June, the sixth straight month of nationwide job losses, underscoring the economy's fragile state. The unemployment rate held steady at 5.5 percent.

Do you think that under a Democrat, the reporting would have been the other way around, perhaps going like so?

The unemployment rate held steady in June, remaining at 5.5 percent, underscoring the economy's resilience against reports that employers cut payrolls by 62,000, marking the sixth straight month of recorded losses.

Maybe.

Posted at 8:02am on Jul. 3, 2008 Have You Been Wondering Why High Commodity Prices Haven’t Created a Wage-Price Spiral?

Dow Chemical: A Canary in the Coal Mine?

By blackhedd

I’ve been writing here about high inflation for nearly a year and a half. I think the Federal Reserve has been running an extremely accommodative monetary policy for quite a long time, much longer than the mainstream press has been screaming about high food and oil prices.

But why we aren’t seeing the classic sign of hyper-inflation, a wage-price spiral? Wage increases are the channel through which inflationary pressure metastasizes to the point that it can destroy an economy.

That isn’t happening this time, for a lot of reasons, all of which are interesting. But there is one in particular that is worth calling out because it illuminates a key aspect of tax policy.

In short, businesses are unable to pass increased factor costs on to consumers.

Keep reading…

Posted in Dow Chemical | Economy | federal reserve | inflation | wage-price spiral — Comments (14)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 10:07pm on Jun. 30, 2008 More Evidence That Protectionists Are All Wet

By Pejman Yousefzadeh

Think that the current economic conditions are bad? Just remember that they could have been worse and that there are plenty of people who appear to be bound and determined to make them worse.

In other words, read this and note the following passage:

. . . Over the past two quarters, the US has recorded positive growth at an annual rate of 0.8 per cent (in spite of the pronouncements of many observers that recession had already set in). Its "net exports of goods and services", the gross domestic product equivalent of the current account balance, have strengthened at an annual rate of almost 1 per cent of GDP during that period. Hence the totality of recent US expansion has been provided by the strengthening of its trade balance. Domestic demand has been falling but the US has been saved from recession by the rest of the world.

And despite this, there are people who have no problem making noises about wanting to curtail free trade. One of them happens to be running for President of the United States.

Posted in Economic Ignorance | Economy | Free Trade | Protectionism — Comments (1)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 10:00pm on Jun. 30, 2008 Of Speculation And Onions

By Pejman Yousefzadeh

Good point. Let's see if anyone in Congress takes note of this fact the next time we have demagoguery about speculation and speculators.

Posted at 11:45am on Jun. 30, 2008 Unions Says Public Has No Right to Know About State Payments to Unions

By Warner Todd Huston

What happened when the Evergreen Freedom Foundation decided to request the public government records of the negotiations between unions and government in Washington State? All hell broke loose, that's what.

The bloated public employee unions banded together to stop the public from finding out what went on between the government and the unions during the negotiations of state contracts -- that is contracts FUNDED by tax money, by the way -- for employee benefits and rules. They filed suit saying that the public had no right to know how their own tax money was to be spent.

Posted in Economy — Comments (7) / Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 10:56am on Jun. 30, 2008 What We Are Up Against: Economic Illiteracy Destroys Democracy

By TheSophist

Recently, a number of conversations I've had with colleagues, neighbors, and friends had me extremely concerned that Americans simply do not know the most basic facts about economics. Conversations about rent control, about "windfall profits tax", about supply and demand, about incentives, about topics that an adult simply must understand in order to participate meaningfully in a modern democracy all led to my wondering just how the Republic is to survive.

Posted in Economy — Comments (80) / Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 11:07pm on Jun. 28, 2008 Income Redistribution: Not A Fan Favorite

By Pejman Yousefzadeh

The McCain campaign could potentially find gold in these numbers.

Posted at 5:57pm on Jun. 28, 2008 Was Greenland Named After Mr. Green?

By phred

The US Supreme Court heard arguments on whether the US Environmental Protection Agency has the authority to regulate CO2 as a pollutant. Environmentalists argued that the byproduct of heat and energy production, and by extrapolation, the exhalant of life itself is poisoning our atmosphere. Imagine if you can, that we are witnessing what may be the beginning of US criminalization of capitalism and every mechanism of its employ as well as the life-sustaining function of breathing itself. All this, while a UN-published study states that cattle farming’s output of CO2 and methane far outpaces that of the contribution of all the world’s transportation sector. I find the lack of a consensus very troubling, particularly as the media is pressing an urgent call to action against a “man-made” global climate emergency.

Posted in Economy — Comments (28) / Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 10:23am on Jun. 28, 2008 Fearing the End of High Oil Prices

Bubbles Always Burst

By blackhedd

One of this week’s big themes has been the role of speculators in the crude oil market. I’ve certainly played my role in the mini-flap. It’s absolutely true that buying pressure from non-traditional players has been supporting the price of crude oil, but the real picture is considerably more complicated than the one Barack Obama and the MSM have been retailing.

In short, there are a great many professional investors out there who now think of industrial commodities as an asset class, to be given its proper allocated weight in managed portfolios. This is where much of the structural price support for crude oil has been coming from.

And this has been giving me some very spooky thoughts.

Commodities prices are undoubtedly in a momentum-driven bubble. Months ago, I predicted in this space that crude oil would hit $150 or $180 a barrel during the summer.

Hold onto your hat and keep reading…

Posted in Dodd-Frank | Economy | institutional investors | oil pirces | speculators — Comments (20)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 7:56pm on Jun. 27, 2008 The Politics Of Rising Gas Prices: Do You Really Want To Lower The Price Of Gas?

By ICRJCalvin

Now that gas is priced at more than $4 a gallon, it is beginning to cause wallet pain in many areas other than the gas pump. Many businesses are also raising the prices of their various services and products because of rising fuel costs. The entire transportation and airline industry are being impacted. It is really no wonder that many people are complaining about the oil companies, especially when they hear reports of oil and gas companies making profits of $86.5 billion last year.

Posted in Economy — Comments (3) / Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 11:41am on Jun. 27, 2008 Union Basically Proposes Gov't Run Grocery/Drug Stores?

By Warner Todd Huston

It sure seems as if a union head has basically proposed that the government take over grocery and drug stores in New York. John R. Durso, president of Local 338 of the Retail Worker Department Store/United Food and Commercial Workers union, wrote in a recent public statement that the people cannot expect stores to serve the public and that government should step in with more legislation.

Posted in Economy — Comments (3) / Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 12:30am on Jun. 27, 2008 On The American Manufacturing Sector

By Pejman Yousefzadeh

It's still doing fine, thanks--independent of any exercise whatsoever of the President's bully pulpit.

Posted at 12:28am on Jun. 27, 2008 All Hail Free Trade

By Pejman Yousefzadeh

It appears to be working to keep us from a recession. I have to wonder anew why some politicians want to put the brakes on it.

Posted at 6:09pm on Jun. 26, 2008 As Glenn Reynolds Would/Eventually Will Put It . . .

By Pejman Yousefzadeh

"Dude, where's my recession?"

The economy turned in a better -- but still subpar -- performance in the first three months of this year, mostly spurred by stronger sales of U.S. products overseas.

The 1 percent annualized increase in gross domestic product, announced by the Commerce Department on Thursday, marked a slight improvement from the government's previous estimate of 0.9 percent growth for the January-to-March quarter. And, it showed the economy logging stronger growth than the feeble 0.6 percent pace registered in the final three months of last year.

Still, the first quarter's performance pointed to a fragile economy, shaken by housing, credit and financial debacles. That has made people and businesses more cautious in their spending and investment, restraining overall economic activity. More normal growth would be along the lines of a 2.5 percent to 3 percent pace, analysts said.

Obviously, no one thinks that this is ideal. But a recession it ain't so perhaps we can stop with the talk that this is the worst economic crisis since the days of Herbert Hoover. That kind of melodrama won't solve any problems for us.

Posted in Economic Growth | Economy — Comments (1)/ Email this page » / Read More »