Obama’s Economy: The Excuses Begin

[Geee]

PJMedia:

Just days after the November presidential and congressional elections which gave President Barack Obama a non-mandate of 50.6% of the popular vote and the demonstrated supported of less than 27% of all U.S. adults, NBC’s Brian Williams actually told viewers:

With the election now over, it is once again safe to talk about the economy and jobs. Now that it is not a campaign issue, it’s back to reality.

 

Still in Democrat-supportive campaign mode, Williams then introduced a report by correspondent Harry Smith about how “the idea that manufacturing in America is dead … is an outright falsehood.” Mary Andringa, president and CEO of Iowa manufacturer Vermeer Corporation and then-board chair at the National Association of Manufacturers, told Smith:

What’s really outstanding is the fact that in 2010, the U.S. had an output of $4.8 trillion of manufactured goods. That was up from $4.1 (trillion) in 2000 — and we’ve been through two recessions in the past decade.

That is undoubtedly an impressive achievement which should not be discounted. But then Smith delivered the kicker:

Five million manufacturing jobs were lost in the U.S. in the last decade. But new jobs have been created too, and believe it or not, many manufacturers in the U.S. are looking for help.

This highlights two problems. The first, which is that our educational system and culture are not preparing enough people for the jobs which need to be filled, is self-evident to anyone with open eyes.

The second, despite the unfilled positions just noted, is even more important: unlike what occurred after every other post-World War II downturn, not enough new jobs are currently being created to make up for the ones being lost. The new companies and entire industries which have always emerged and generated enough new jobs to replace those lost as a result of increased productivity in existing industries aren’t appearing at a rate necessary to reduce unemployment to an acceptable level.

[Draggingtree]

Shock Commerce Department report: the economy contracted in the fourth quarter

By: John Hayward

1/30/2013 09:19 AM

I headline this as a “shock” report with some irony, because that’s how the media is reporting it (“But… but… the President said we’re on the right track to a strong recovery!”) In fact, most serious economists were predicting a very weak fourth quarter. It’s just that nobody in the media wanted to relay their warnings during the election.

According to the Commerce Department, the U.S. economy actually contracted in the fourth quarter of 2012, slipping by 0.1 percent. Very few analysts were predicting negative growth; most of them thought it would slow to about 1 percent.

Joe Weisenthal at Business Insider tried to paint a little happy face at the bottom of this grim report by noting that a great deal of the collapse was due to “a stunning fall in government spending.” True, but the better-than-expected third quarter numbers were due to a stunning rise in government spending.

http://www.humanevents.com/2013/01/30/shock-commerce-department-report-the-economy-contracted-in-the-fourth-quarter/