Tag: economy

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Consumer confidence at four year high

A new report released Tuesday shows consumer confidence is at its highest level in four years.

“Experts predict that sales rising around 4 percent for the holidays. Consumer confidence is the result of how confident people feel about the income determines their spending and ultimately the overall shape of the economy.”

The Conference Board’s monthly confidence index rose for the third straight month with November’s peak being 73.7 percent — the highest its been since the 2008 recession began.

The Global Economic Intersection breaks down the numbers, showing consumer confidence was at an all-time low during the recent 18 month recession, averaging just 54 percent.

“If people don’t feel certain at least a little bit about their future, they’re not as likely to go out and buy that washing machine, that refrigerator, that small appliance and certainly not a car or even a home.”

A writer for The Hill’s Finance and Economy blog isn’t so confident the number will stand.
He writes, “If the fiscal cliff’s $600 billion in tax hikes and sudden spending austerity hits, consumer sentiment could rapidly evaporate.”

But BusinessWeek argues that sustained gains in consumer spending may help overcome concern about the fiscal cliff.

The report also shows Americans planning to buy a home rose to a record high.

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President Obama invites congressional leaders to White House to address “fiscal cliff”

CNN reports that President Obama has reached out to congressional leaders from both parties to meet at the White House next week to discuss reducing the deficit and avoiding the “fiscal cliff” facing the economy at the end of the year:

Obama, speaking at the White House on Friday afternoon, repeated his stance that he wants a plan that would allow the expiration of Bush-era tax cuts only for income over $250,000.

The president said he’s “not wedded to every detail of my plan,” and that he’s “open to compromise.” But he said he wouldn’t ask middle-class families to “pay down the entire deficit” while the wealthy “are not asked to pay a dime more in taxes.”

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Spend Local this holiday season

From my uber-smart friend Phil Attey: “Spend Local” means “Made in the USA” – and that means this Holiday Season, no shopping at Walmart or buying anything that says “Made in China” or any other foreign country.

If every American who complained in the election that too many companies were outsourcing jobs to China, made a pledge not to purchase any Holiday presents that weren’t made in the USA, Corporate CEOs would realize it’s not good business to screw over America.

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President Obama now “net positive” for job creation

According to new revisions released today by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the economy created 386,000 more jobs between March 2011 and March 2012 than shown by previous estimates.

As economist Justin Wolfers noted, this means that President Obama is now net positive for job creation over his term in office, even taking into account the massive losses in January 2009:

The Economist’s Greg Ip tweeted that the revisions mean that Obama’s net job creation number is now 125,000.

The new numbers — which are based off of unemployment insurance reports that employers submit to the federal government — show that 453,000 more private sector jobs were created than shown by previous estimates, meaning Obama’s net private sector job creation total is now 868,000. Government jobs, meanwhile, shrank by an additional 67,000.

Via ThinkProgress

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PA: City cuts police and firefighters pay to minimum wage

Ignoring a federal judge’s injunction, Scranton, Pennsylvania moved ahead with its plan to reduce the pay of city workers to the federal minimum wage starting Friday. Scranton Mayor Chris Doherty claims the city is broke and that the minimum wage payments are all it can possibly pay, the Scranton Times Tribune reports:

Amid Scranton’s ever-deepening financial crisis, Mayor Chris Doherty said his administration is going forward with a plan to unilaterally slash the pay of 398 workers to the federal minimum of $7.25 an hour with today’s payroll, insisting it is all the city can afford.

That will likely earn administration officials an appointment with Judge Michael Barrasse, who granted the city’s police, fire and public works unions a special injunction temporarily barring the administration from imposing the pay cuts after a brief hearing Thursday.

With local budgets slammed since the Great Recession. Congressional Republicans repeatedly blocked efforts to extend aid to the states that would have helped shore up their budgets and keep these workers on payroll. In the case of Scranton, such aid may have helped the city actually pay its workers a living wage instead of a federal minimum that hasn’t been raised since 2006 and has less buying power than it had in 1968.

Via ThinkProgress.

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Stock market surges to best day of 2012

Stocks jumped Wednesday, chalking up their strongest day of 2012, as signs of moves in Europe to rescue Spain’s troubled banks sparked a rebound from recent selling.

The Dow Jones industrial average closed with a gain of 287 points. The broader S&P 500 and the technology-focused Nasdaq composite index also rallied strongly.

A gloomy jobs report and signs of a global economic slowdown hammered Wall Street Friday, wiping out the stock market’s gains for 2012. However, Wednesday’s advance lifted stocks back into positive territory for 2012.

Signs of urgent moves in Europe also boosted stocks.

European sources said German and European Union officials sought solutions for Spain’s weakened banks, the latest worry in the fiscally troubled euro zone, although Madrid has not yet requested assistance and is resisting political conditions.

Adding to the slightly more upbeat news on the economy, the Federal Reserve said in its Beige Book summary that U.S. economic growth picked up over the two prior months and hiring showed signs of a modest increase.

Read more at MSNBC.com

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Graph: Income gap growing in US

Click pic for larger view

From Media Matters: This graph shows the Income Gains for all income brackets since 1979.

I have no problem with people getting wealthy.  I love it!  I want everyone to get wealthy. 

But here’s the issue – why has the top 1% grown so much and yet the middle class lags behind?  If you listen to conservatives, tax cuts for the “job creators” (top income folks) creates jobs and prosperity.  And yet, it’s not.

Here’s why – trickle down economics doesn’t work.  Give tax cuts to the wealthy and they aren’t creating jobs.  The Bush tax cuts (now the Obama tax cuts) have been in place for over ten years.  Where are the jobs? 

In the coming election, you’re going to hear over and over again how the GOP can create more jobs than President Obama and the Democrats.  However – Bloomberg studied the past 50 years of U.S. job creation, under Democratic and Republican presidents. The facts: For the near half-century following the Kennedy administration, Democrats created nearly twice as many private-sector jobs as Republicans. Even though Democrats held the presidency for only 23 years compared with 28 years of Republican rule.

Private-sector payrolls increased by 42 million jobs under Democratic administrations, and 24 million under Republican ones. That’s an average of 150,000 new paychecks a month under Democrats and 71,000 per month under Republicans.

And then there’s the fact that investments do better under Dems.  Bloomberg analyzed the data. Investing $1,000 in a hypothetical fund that tracks the Standard & Poor’s 500 index over the past 50 years would have returned $10,920 when Democrats held the White House. The return when Republicans were in power? $2,087.
 
So when you hear how Romney and the GOP are going to do “so much better” than President Obama, just remember: past is prologue.