U.S. ECONOMY LIMPING ALONG IN 2015 …
|| By FITSNEWS || Ordinarily there’s nothing we love more than saying “told you so.” It feels good to be right … to have one’s opinion validated. Or at least it usually does. This is one of those times we honestly wish we’d been wrong, though.
As we noted back in January – when we rebuked the breathless economic optimism of the “rainbows and unicorns” crowd – the fundamentals of the American economy remain weak. Too many working age Americans are out of the workforce. Wage growth is nonexistent. And government continues to over-spend, over-tax and over-regulate.
“In lieu of a real jobs recovery – one in which the labor pool expands courtesy of better paying, full-time positions – we remain pessimistic about the promised consumer renaissance,” we wrote at the time.
Well guess what … in keeping with dismal retail data, the Atlanta Federal Reserve is now forecasting the U.S. economy to expand at a ridiculously weak 0.2 percent clip in the first quarter. Less than a month ago, that estimate stood at 1.2 percent.
Ouch, right?
Right …
And so much for those gasoline savings.
Look, we’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: Until leaders of both parties (at all levels of government) choose to rein in public sector spending and fully embrace the free market: Nothing is ever going to change.
Well … things will change … just not for the good.
Listen to us now, hear us later …
80 comments
One Fed Bank estimate is a story? Can we please wait for the 1st Quarter to end and actual numbers to be reported.
You like your myths, much better, don’t you? LMAO…
He asked for real numbers instead of estimates and you’re calling that a myth? Maybe you should move to Alderaan. I hear they are getting a new moon soon.
Thank you for your clarification – but you’re talking to a stone(d) wall.
You people just LIE…and I guess the people stupid enough to believe you…deserve what they get…
You’re mental. Period.
Not to worry. Gruberment will let us all know soon enough what to think.
In the mean time, I’m not hiring, yet.
oh my god! it was cool last night! global warming is a hoax! i left my car in neutral and it didn’t roll away! the world is flat!
Ah yes. I just bought beach front property in Darlington and planted cocoa, coffee and banana trees.
Rainbows and unicorns! Sign Curtis Loftis up! It exactly what he enjoys! He needs to come back to The Phoenix the next time he’s up in Manhattan, he’s been missed and I’ll buy the drinks this time.
You’ll always show us who you FEAR most…
I don’t blame you…
You can always go down to South Carolina and visit. I do that every now and again and when I get tired of it I just head back north. He’s got plenty of room just give Curt a call.
No, call Dan Brennan. Now that he has a Concerned Veterans of America credit card he can take you to every gay bar in the south east. He knows them all!
He’s not shy. Give him a holler and he’ll have you down to SC.
Brennan came out of the closet years ago, and now run a Koch Brothers operations. Those Koch brothers are open minded! Wonder if they are gay?
Wayne Bell prefers the Madison. A club of drag queens and afro-kings. A lot going on there!
Daniel Bresnan of the Concerned Veterans of Americas practically has a table there! So does Sam Griswold…so there will be lots of South Carolinians there!
Griswold? Is that the guy that used to piddle his daughter?
Daniel spends too much time on Grinder to go to clubs
That is spelled Brennan, I think. Look under “meat lover” at Grinder.
FITS said: “As we noted back in January”……
Where was your ignorant @$$ pre-election 2012????…You had your head stuck up Obama’s @$$…
Your warning is F*#king WORTHLESS, after that America-hating B@$t@rd got re-elected, while you were BASHING Romney 24/7….
Yeah and I voted for the weak ass Romney who can’t even fight for himself. How is he going to lead a country? He is a good man, I think a man of integrity, love his wife, great businessman as long as you don’t bend over.
He won’t even fight for himself, how is he going to fight for our country?
Yeah…and look who we got…A man who will fight AGAINST our country…you ignorant Dumb@$$…
Obama hates white people, who are not sycophants…and he has dumped us in the toilet…and you’re BASHING Romney…You idiot…
While I despise President Obama’s policies, I do respect him for fighting for what he believes in. The Republicans lost because they campaigned on same ole same ole – fear, anger, emotion. They will lose again if they don’t get their crap together.
Anger is a great motivator, but the Republican party has yet to put any teeth behind it.
Ferguson, stupid Cambridge police, “If I had a son”… “typical white woman” …”You didn’t build that” ….”I believe marriage is between one man and one woman,” ….”You can keep your doctor and it will cost less.”
You and Obama campaigned on HATE and lies. That’s what he FOUGHT for…and to tear us down…
And Obama has wrecked the economics of millions of families. 20 million MORE people are on food stamps under this clown. Unemployment payouts have been the LARGEST in the history of America under his economic direction…
You’re a F*#king idiot…
The GOP campaigned on PROSPERITY, freedom and pride….and the shining city on a hill that America once was and can be….
You really have a fact issue don’t you. The number of people on government assistance has fallen since 2012, not increased. And the increase of which you speak, oh liar of the highest order, begain in 2001 and steadily increased through 2012. Let’s see – 12 years, 8 of which were – according to you – boom years of Bush. You’re ability to actually see reality through your own bull shit is failing. You need to stop rubbing your crap in your eyes.
Myth Much…
There you go again!!!! Yeah, do the research. The stats don’t lie. I’m not going to do your research for you – I’ve got better things to do.
His fingers were crossed. But they weren’t crossed when Raygun announced his candidacy near Philadelphia MS and used the term “States Rights” in his speech. Dog Whistle politics from Day 1. The Long Con of Ronnie and the Right. And BTW, if it was true, which it isn’t, your comment should read, “20 million more people are poor”. The food stamps are not the problem; the poverty is.
50 million are on food stamps..Dumb@$$…20 million added under Obama…He is making more and more poor…
The rest of the Bull-$#!t you typed sound like a psycho…hope you’re not allowed to own a gun…
My friends call me Psycho. Call me Francis, I’ll kill you.
Bwahaha
Thanks for Represnt-in’ – Psych…LMAO…
Still waiting for Obama’s promised middle class tax break.
I hope you aren’t holding your breath. Naaaaaaw, you would surely be dead by now. I posted on another thread, but worth looking at: The High Burden of State and Federal Capital Gains Tax Rates in the United States
http://taxfoundation.org/article/high-burden-state-and-federal-capital-gains-tax-rates-united-states
I’m still waiting for either party to propose a tax break that doesn’t go predominantly to people who can fill a swimming pool with money and dive into it Scrooge McDuck style.
A tax break for the middle class? Abolish the IRS entirely. Then your paycheck will arrive with no withholdings. Take a look at it. Notice how much more you would take home without the FICA/Social “Security” etc. … probably enough to take the whole family out to dinner once a week and three extra bags of groceries every month!
Now, who is getting all of that extra money right now? Could it be the US Department of “Education”? FEMA buying more bullets? EPA filling up more “super funds”? … Non-military military spending? … Hillary’s friends at DHS? …
How much will the jobless old folks take home without that pesky payroll tax?
What else do you want?
I’d like it if invalid grandmas and hunch-backed grandpas didn’t have to choose between working a job they aren’t physically capable of working and being homeless.
OK. You got it.
Btw: there are more government employees working on homeless problems than there are homeless. … And if every one of those g’ment employees took just one homeless into their own home, there would not be enough homeless to go around.
The average fed, state, county employee who works with the homeless makes $49,700 per year. … There seems to be plenty of g’ment money for the homeless helpers. And The “poverty pimp” charities keep demanding more.
Please provide link to reputable source. I.e. More gubermint employees – preferably broken down by Fed, State, Local, Charitable.
Oh, yes! We forgot that Gruberment IS a charity.
According to Honolulu the reason the CA number is steady is you send the new ones to HI via free airfare knowing they’ll never make it back.
Delta and United therapy. Yeah, baby
Funny. … The number is, IMO, rather low considering SF is a beacon of hopefulness for homeless and the welfare sluts that they ride in on. 6500 is only about 1% of the total SF City and County population.
Hope about Sacramento. That hit me as a real homeless area. Ain’t that where they cut the checks?
Yeah, the state capital. Yes a hotbed of g’ment homeless workers, fur sure. Not many actual homeless over there unless you count the illegals pimping for handouts from Gruberment … or jobs (re)building the roads.
Here in Taxifornia, if you are looking for a Gruberment handout or g’ment job, an SEIU or United Farmworkers union membership card is more important than a social security card or a drivers license.
“Oh, yes! We forgot that Gruberment IS a charity.” Thanks for reminding our people in uniform what you really think of them, as well as the civilians who are breaking butts to try to take care of those Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, and Marines and their families. We’ll keep that in mind. Helps is feel better about what we do, for sure
Gruberment is a term that indicates all of “progressive” Fascist government that has and continues to lie to us. Gruberment always reverts to the argument that They know how to give away my money better than I do.
You know, the Gruberment and its many, many employees always tries to intimidate anyone who questions those lies with this same argument: “Don’t you care about our service men and women?”
In my case I have great respect for our service men and women. Too bad they are encumbered with a politically manipulative “progressive” Fascist oligarchy. Oh Bummer.
And you have a whole lot of hair suggesting that you have any rights to question me about my intentions … I’m a taxpayer and I out rank you. Back in the closet, gonzo, before I turn the Big Bohica back on you.
This is an open forum forum. I have EVERY right to question you about your intentions. The fact that your ego and arrogance prevent you from recognizing is a bit scary. What’s also scary is that I think I hear the voice of a couple of other “contributors” in your postings. How many IDs are your signing in under, anyway?
OK, fine. What are your intentions?
OK, fine. My ego is large. How about your’s? It would appear that you are soliciting some kind of sympathy for the entire military. Your ego may be a bit out of whack and a bit scary as well.
As for my non-deplumb, I only sign in here under one. You?
I’m a tax-paying public employee, so I outrank YOU, Eddy-boy. And the next time you’re in a burning car (because you ignored the speed limit and crashed), let me know it’s you…. and I won’t offend your sensibilities or dirty your sleeve by pulling you out.
“… It’s the Labour Government that have brought us record peace-time taxation. They’ve got the usual Socialist disease – they’ve run out of other people’s money.” – Margaret Thatcher
Now I just offered to rescue you from that sinking ship. I applaud your efforts in the fire fighting arena, but I was wondering: Who exactly would you say out ranks you? Is it possibly any of the property taxpayers in your area?
Don’t get your point about the IRA. That was the rule from Day 1.
THe military paying soldiers. The Navy replacing aged ships. The Israeli’s getting their annual $3 billion pension fund payment. Raytheon? Boeing? NSA protecting us from terrorists? I bet that money goes to many places you want to keep getting it.
Who cares if necessary government programs turn to dust, I get to go to Olive Garden!
And get Soup and Salad.
That FEMA-bullet stuff is a bunch of horseshit – Even the NRA acknowledged that
Get back to wearing your tin foil hat and touching yourself while listening to rightwing nut talk radio
Yeap: double taxation fur sure = Ur IRA will disappear completely soon, as a bad investment, considering inflation and capital gains and the tax add-ons in most states.
No wonder no one is saving for the future. They will just see their savings eaten up by Gruberment … Oh, Bummer.
Well, you ain’t likely to get that tax break from a bunch of RINOs like Behner & Graham that cave into Obama on amnesty for illegals!
Off Topic, but worth a look: The High Burden of State and Federal Capital Gains Tax Rates in the United States
http://taxfoundation.org/article/high-burden-state-and-federal-capital-gains-tax-rates-united-states
It’s all skittles and starburst – the stuff young kids eat.
Why? Why? Why won’t FITS report on South Carolina economic news. FITS has not reported on South Carolina’s unemployment or personal income since early December. Just today ( actually yesterday, March 25 ) the US Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis released preliminary state and regional personal Income growth and per capita income. The bad news is that SC ranks 48th in per capita income. The average South Carolinian earns $ 80 for $ 100 that the average American earns. The good news is that SC was
Very nicely done. Supported by empiracal facts and figures. Now, expect Grand Tango to turn on you my conservative furry bunny friend. And yes, nationally and at the state level, good news.
Good news = few clicks
Whatever good news there is about the South Carolina economy it is due to pimping the state out.
If it wern’t for the SC coast (i.e.:tourism and port of Charleston) and the upstate whoring itself for every piece of dirt it can pimp, South Carolina wouldn’t be jack shit as far as states go.
Oh boy. Another Ultrasolution from Sic! Solves the problems and guarantees failure. Reduce public sector spending which in turn reduces demand which in turn reduces the number of jobs and amount of expansion which will result in more calls from the Right to reduce spending–and away we go! Just like Britain. Before someone tell us that the UK is doing better now, I agree. It’s happened after they quietly began abandoning their austerity policies. Please stop with the alarms and alerts about public sector and entitlement spending. it’s just a distraction and deception from the real agenda, reducing government because of ideology–ideology which cares nothing about the American people.
They do not care about the american people. They promote austerity because it lets them kill any part of government that does not make their donors happy. The best way to do this is to take advantage of every recession as a reason to cut every program you don’t like, meanwhile all the ones you do like keep expanding. Every recession becomes a hammer striking a chisel, breaking apart bits of government that actually help people and molding it into a completely different form. All you have to do is look at who is holding the chisel to know what we are being shaped into, be careful if you look, it is scary scary stuff, just pick up a history book. I think someone brought up government troops shooting strikers on behalf of mills yesterday, we will soon live those days again at this rate, history repeats
Hammer and chisel or hammer and cycle or hammer and chicken?
Can we stop with the “g’ment is the answer” crapola?
Two comments about fiscal policy and you’re down the rabbit hole of Communists and Nazis. Congrats. Keep working at it. Beck would be proud of your ability to get to Nazi so quickly and effortlessly. Talk about reduction to absurdity!
If the market were allowed to run free we’d be subject to the full fury of the business cycle. The Great Recession would look like a cake walk.
If the gov’t didn’t step in to soften the blow, they’d blame it on, you guessed it, the gov’t
Spoken like a true believer. So, which g’ment agency is promising that they can “soften the blow”?
This is not a rhetorical question.
Does any fed g’ment agency ever soften any “blow”? Have you ever been helped by a g’ment agency? … Any loans or grants? … And how did that eventually work out? … For you? For your neighbors?
Real interest rates in the market, in October 2008, were extremely high. Not Fed rates, mortgage rates, but interbank lending and corporate bonds. For example, in October 2008 – you can go look at any of the major index quotes at the time – for GM to borrow at 30-day cash bond (which is how many large manufacturing companies fund monthly expenses) – were running aroud 168% annual rate. Not 5.6%, not 10%, not 20%. 168%. So by stepping in to recapitalize the financial markets, the government did “soften the blow” as lender of last resort. Had Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae been allowed to fail, there would currently be no access to lower interest rate loans (average right now is 4.25%, without them it would be around 7.25%) – and house values would be back to 1998 values. Again, stepping in Gubermint helped “soften the blow.” So yes, government does help soften the blow. If it didn’t why would George W Bush have pushed so hard and worked with a Democratic Presidential Candidate to get it passed. Last example – Hugo! Need I say more?
Actually, the Wall Street Bankers are running free right now, today, this morning. They have bought off the democrats and republicrats in DC and pretty much don’t have to pay their full tax load.
Including Cruz’s wife.
Excellent point sir!!!!!
This is the way it’s gonna be for the next 25 years (maybe longer) no matter what person or what party is in charge.
The heyday of good jobs like back in the 1950’s and 1960’s are OVER and there ain’t a damn thing anybody on this blog (myself included – or ANY “peon” oriented blog for that matter) can do about it so get over it.
The US economy MIGHT be improved a few points here or there by tax overhaul but even then a BIG shift of improvement = AIN’T gonna happen
When it comes to this topic, FITS is just whining to be whining.
“Oh, if people would just wake up and see that the way of unfettered free market is the path to Nirvana and will cure all the world’s financial ills”
Lets just see how many votes the Libertarian prez candidate gets in 2016 (of which I have voted for libertarian prez in past elections just out of protest because both the Republicans & Dems had sorry candidates)
Here’s a suggestion: There’s no doubt that Sic Willie knows the in and outs of South Carolina politics – I think HE should run for political office as a state legislature instead of being the libertarian 21st centuary version of Paul Revere and see how far he gets.
if that fails he could move to some place in the world and start his libertarian version of utopia and see how that works out
Good luck with that.
What’s this? The recovery that started in June 2009 is a bunch of BS? Well, so much from the hope & change from the W crowd.
Imagine my surprise. I came here expecting to see actually unicorn and real sweet sticky rainbows.