By Alan
Caruba
It tells
you everything you need to know about the utter contempt those in the White
House and the circles of power that the announcement of 0.01% economic growth
thus far this year was blamed on—wait for it—the weather! Specifically, a cold
winter.
If you
have been paying any attention of late, the weather and the climate have become
the reason for everything in general
and for tornadoes, floods and forest fires, in particular. The fact that these
natural events have always been subject to whatever the weather is or the
larger climate trends seems to have escaped the notice of too many people. If
winter automatically drives down the economy to a point of invisibility, that
is news to me.
I’m
surprised some economist hasn’t blamed winter for the major decline in home
ownership. It has hit its lowest level since the mid-1990s according to the
Census Bureau. As the Wall Street Journal reported, “despite two years of
recovery in the housing market there are still fewer homeowners than there were
before the recession.” Oh? The recession
is over? You could have fooled me.
It is no
surprise, however, that China is poised to pass the United States as the
world’s leading economic power this year. The U.S. has been the global leader
since 1872 when it replaced the United Kingdom and now “most economists
previously thought China would pull ahead in 2019 according to the Financial
Times.
Bear in
mind that the U.S. has survived financial crises in the past, but the 2008 meltdown
has persisted since around January 20, 2009 when a new President was sworn into
office. It didn’t take him long to receive a Nobel Peace Prize that year and to
preside over the first reduction in the nation’s top ranked credit rating in
2011.
Could the
economic decline have something to do with the insane increase of federal
government regulation? As John Merline asked in Investor’s Business Daily,
“After years of rapid growth during the Obama administration, the cost of
federal regulations is now bigger than the entire economics of all but nine
countries in the world.” He was reporting on the annual report. “Ten Thousands
Commandments”, issued by the Competitive Enterprise Institute. Compiled by
Clyde Wayne Crews, this year’s report found that the “regulation tax” imposed
on the economy now tops $1.86 trillion. “By comparison, Canada’s entire GDP is
$1.82 trillion and India’s is $1.84 trillion.”
“The
problem, Crews notes, is that the combined cost of this ‘tax’ never shows up
anywhere in the federal budget—or any other official report—even though it is
now bigger than individual and corporate income taxes combined.” The CEI report
noted that federal regulatory costs average $14,974 per household “which is
more than the typical household spends on just about anything else.”
So you
don’t have to have an economics degree to figure out what is wrong. “Last
year,” Merline reported, “regulators issued 3,659 rules. That’s equal to one
new rule every 2 l/2 hours of every day7 or nearly two federal rules issued
every business hour.” Why is this happening? Because the 2013 Federal
Register contains 79,311 pages, the fourth highest ever and the top two
all-time totals were both under President Obama. Big government? No, TOO BIG
Big Government.
A new poll
surveying young Americans’ political attitudes was released at the end of April
by Harvard University’s Institute of Politics. As indoctrinated as those 18 to
29 have been in our public schools, they are not brain-dead. The survey found
that the millennials have less trust in government than ever before in the
President, Congress, the Supreme Court, the military, and federal government as
a whole. There is a comparable lack of confidence in Wall Street and the United
Nations. Unfortunately, less than one-in-four (25%) of Americans under 30 said
they would definitely vote in the forthcoming midterm elections, a decrease
since last autumn, though more Republican millennials will vote than Democrats.
It’s not
just the youth who are unhappy. A Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll taken in
late April revealed “a marked change from past decades” as “nearly half of
those surveyed wanted the U.S. to be less active on the global state, with
fewer than one-fifth call for more active engagement—and anti-interventionist
current that sweeps across party lines.”
This is hardly
a surprise as one looks back on the years since 9/11 in which engagement in
Afghanistan and Iraq turned out to be failures. In this regard Obama has his
finger on the pulse of Americans who are weary of military interventions, but
it is equally true he has used this to impose vast reductions on the U.S.
military. If they are needed, there will be far less of them and the arsenal
they will need.
The poll
showed that approval of Obama’s handling of foreign policy has sunk to the
lowest level of his presidency with 38% approval. His overall job performance
now pulls in 47% or so. Both are below half the population of likely voters.
The poll also demonstrated how disenchanted they are with the economy “that many
believe is stacked against them.” The views expressed correlated with income
and education, rather than party affiliation.
The state
of the economy reflects the factors noted; too much regulation, Obamacare’s
attack on one sixth of the economy, replete with dozens of taxes within it, as
well as the serious disruption of the healthcare system. What it has also done is cause many
businesses to put a cap on how many they employ, a dagger in the heart of those
coming out of college with few real prospects, those seeking employment after
having been laid off due to Obamacare and other factors—some 90 million still.
If the
nation does survive Obama, historians will express wonder that he was reelected
and that his approval ratings weren’t considerably lower. He is still being
defended by the mainstream media, so that might account for the latter, but
recent revelations about the Benghazi cover-up may have an impact.
The people
I talk with are “hanging on”, struggling to get by on what money comes in. They
are not happy and I suspect they reflect a general unhappiness from the
millennials to the senior set.
They are
observing the nation and the world from the bottom of the barrel.
We’re
Americans. We don’t like being number two.
© Alan
Caruba, 2014
Slow economic growth because of BAD WEATHER?
ReplyDeleteI do believe that was the same excuse always used by the old Soviet Union to explain away serious economic problems.
Obama is so Old School.
OLD COMMUNIST SCHOOL!
A great post as always, but that cartoon is *out of the park*...
ReplyDeleteObamas re-election was boosted by the fact that the other parties failed to get the public onboard with good alternatives.
ReplyDeleteOriginally hey wanted a change from GOP Government and they sure got it. What Clinton did in style Obama has done ineptly and now the contenders have every chance to remake themselves into something viable.
The Democrats?
Is Hilary magic or millstone?