Economy & Budget

I must admit that I am having a difficult time feeling a turnaround in this economy. None of the news about the economy would be considered good news in a normal recovery.

News that normally worries commentators on the economy is viewed through rose-colored lenses as good news. When unemployment does not improve from 8.2 percent, certain commentators consider it good news. When the economy is growing at less than 2 percent, these same pundits consider that good news. When the federal budget deficit narrows to $1 trillion, liberal commentators also consider this good news.

In my last column, “France to the rescue,” I praised new French President Francois Hollande for an enlightened perspective that brings progress to a Europe dominated by conservative governments with backward economic policies. Since that column Hollande has succeeded in nudging European leaders toward economic growth at their summit in Brussels, while a number of European banks face investigations about fixing interest rates in a scandal that brings further discredit to those who masquerade their tolerance for greed and corruption in the costumes of Ayn Rand and Austrian economics.

The Great Recession has increased the wealth gap between the races, but the racial wealth divide is nothing new.

Hispanics and blacks have historically had lower income rates, less education and higher unemployment rates.

In 2005, whites had 12 times more wealth than blacks and eight times more than Hispanics.

While I could make the argument that the article is racially biased, the numbers are hard to refute.

Most of the media have missed it, but Ron Paul's bill to audit the Fed has moved forward in the House Oversight Committee with the support of many liberals and Democrats, as well as Republicans and conservatives. Check out the recent story in The Hill that is ahead of the political market about this.

I have not always agreed with Ron Paul about economic policy, but I agree with him about this and urge members of both parties to support his bill.

Unemployment hovers at 8.2 percent, and Gallup says that 18 percent of the U.S. workforce is underemployed.
 
Yet apparently life locked out from their jobs is going well for the union workers of the American Crystal Sugar Co., whose workers rejected the company’s contract proposal for a third time, continuing an 11-month dispute.
 
The union was locked out by the company initially to protect its seasonal business from being affected at a critical time during the processing cycle.

The state of California is contemplating a bullet train between San Francisco and Los Angeles. The cost is $100 billion. The U.S. government is subsidizing a substantial portion of that.

Under the most optimistic scenario, this train will never come close to being cash-flow positive. This train will be forever subsidized by California taxpayers. Nevertheless, Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown and the Democratic Legislature insists on moving forward with the project. For the first leg of the project, California must raise (borrow) tens of billions of dollars for funding. This is in addition to a huge debt that California must raise to pay its growing government budget deficit. 

Now we know more. The Washington Post has exposed even more details about how Mitt Romney's personal wealth reached such great heights in significant measure by making money by destroying American jobs through investments in firms that specialize in these attacks against American jobs. If there is one politician who embodies the destructive values I harshly criticized in my last column, titled "Dictatorship of dollars," it is Mitt Romney.

Mitt Romney's "jobs experience" was not only one of the worst records of any governor in America, Democrat or Republican, creating jobs during the time he served as governor (a record Romney runs and hides from today). Now we learn even more about how Mitt Romney pioneered, and immensely profited from, the exporting of American jobs and the destruction of the American middle class when he was leading Bain Capital.

Congress will soon be celebrating July 4. The Bureau of Labor Statistics will release its next monthly jobs report on July 6. Based on economic data for the last month, the July 6 report will be negative. It will either be a continuation of the depressing status quo of recent jobs reports, or there is a real chance of a negative report that shows a net loss that would set off a political firestorm.

First, in terms of political impact, do not believe anyone who tells you that the political impact will help or hurt either party in general. If the employment news remains negative, it will hurt the incumbents of both parties and help the challengers of both.

The recent cover of Time magazine depicts multiple ethnic identities under the title "We are Americans, just not legal."

It is not surprising to see the liberal media join the Obama administration in an attempt to demonize those who would question the legality of any potential voter. Make no mistake, this is all about voting in the November 2012 presidential election. It is more than complementary to the efforts of the Justice Department to do away with any requirements for voter identification.

It's encouraging to see that the citizens of Greece have a modicum of common sense and voted to remain within a system that imposes financial restraint and austerity. Even some of the most hardcore socialists are coming to understand that you can't continue spending what you don't have without severe financial consequences.

The real question is, will we in America learn any lessons from the Greek or European financial collapse or will we inexorably continue down a similar path expecting a different result?