As Americans, we’re accustomed to a certain standard of living. Nothing lavish, mind you. Most of us don’t have big, fancy houses or expensive cars. Most of us don’t have investment portfolios bursting at the seams. But we do have families and we do have responsibilities, and given that we pay our fair share into [...]

Jobs may not be coming back, but the GDP is. From Reuters: The first estimate put fourth-quarter gross domestic product growth at its fastest pace since the third quarter of 2003. The economy expanded at a 2.2 percent annual rate in the third quarter. Analysts polled by Reuters had forecast GDP, which measures total goods [...]

First, the relevant facts about the budget that’s set to be released on Feb 1… About $447 billion will be devoted to funding the government — the parts that aren’t mandated by law (the entitlements) or aren’t related to defense, intelligence, veterans or national security issues. Obama will promise to veto any budget that exceeds [...]

Yesterday, in a background briefing, the administration announced a three year spending freeze on portions of the budget. Since departments with the fastest growing government expenditures like Defense, VA, the State Department, and entitlements are excluded from the “freeze”, it will have a negligible effect on the ballooning deficit. One cannot help but wonder if the administration is trying to be all things to all people, and risks representing nothing to no one.

I wrote yesterday about the scant number of jobs created in the last 10 years, but when compared to the past six decades the news becomes that much bleaker. Wash Post illustrates… I’m not saying we should have guarantees our overall net worth should go up or that our economy has to add jobs, but [...]

A bit of good news to report today amid the preparations for New Year’s celebrations. Jobless claims fell more than expected last week. From WSJ: Initial claims for unemployment benefits fell by 22,000 to a seasonally adjusted 432,000 in the week ended Dec. 26, the lowest level since July 19, 2008. The four-week average of [...]

While Krugman is brimming with good tidings and bubbling over with holiday cheer, from the other side of the political spectrum Peter Schiff is offering a dour double dose of “Bah Humbug.”

Christmas is coming early this year for the Dems. With the news that Ben Nelson is falling in line so Dems can avoid a filibuster, the passage of this health care bill has become much more likely (almost a certainty?). Basically, Republicans can cry foul about socialism and fiscal irresponsibility all they want, but they [...]

Nobody’s signing “Happy Days Are Here Again,” but any significant downward movement in the unemployment rate is reason for some early holiday cheer. And there’s more good news beyond this. I’ll share a chart that shows this after the numbers. From WSJ: U.S. job losses in November posted the smallest drop since the start of [...]

In Feb 2009, the company reported this… Bank of America Corp. expects to pay back U.S. Treasury relief funds within the next three years, and “categorically” does not need further government funding, Chief Executive Ken Lewis told CNBC’s Maria Bartiromo in a televised interview Friday. Bank of America has received up to $45 billion in [...]

The administration that has initiated so much that is unprecedented in American politics, introduced an unprecedented new Thanksgiving tradition – carving up our currency for the holidays.

We all know we’re on an unsustainable course with all of this spending. And this is why I voted for this guy: he’s a realist. We needed a short term shot in the arm when he first got in here, but now we have to worry about the long term consequences. Politico has more: On [...]

The New York Times uncovers a rather disturbing oversight that economists are just now focusing on. Actually, disturbing isn’t the right word. Terrifying is much more of an accurate descriptor. In any event… The fundamental shortcoming is in the way imports are accounted for. A carburetor bought for $50 in China as a component of [...]

We’ve crossed the psychological barrier and this spells bad news for Dems unless they can turn it around in the next couple months. Because this is the highest rate since 1983 and you’ll be hearing that time and time again in the next month. Here’s more about those numbers: Among the major worker groups, the [...]

As I’ve said numerous times before, voters aren’t stupid. They know who piloted our economic collapse last year and it’s going to be extremely hard for Republicans to convince them otherwise. Still, it is kind of telling that Republicans blame Obama more for the economy than Bush, even though it’s by a very small 6 [...]

True, it might go right back down tomorrow, but I have to say that this is a nice little psychological boost. But it’s not just psychological. Look at the 52 week spread in that picture…at this time last year we were down to 6,469. That’s a pretty significant jump in just one year’s time. Not [...]

Yep. That’s right. A group of economic forecasters are projecting that we’ll see growth in the next quarter, so the recession is technically over. And hey, we can all be thankful for that. However, the pain will linger for years to come. The problem is that all of the lagging indicators of true economic health [...]

If you’re not familiar with the word rescission, this is the practice of canceling policies because people didn’t reveal a preexisting condition. And it’s one of the key reasons why the health insurance companies can claim that there’s $100 billion in health care fraud every year. Here’s one example of what they consider fraud… “They [...]

The rise in unemployment is slowing down and we’re pulling out of this recession sooner than expected. Why? The reason is clear to me: we stepped in, took action and did something instead of just allowing the markets determine our fate. WSJ explains… The U.S. economy is beginning to show signs of improvement, with many [...]