Another month of anemic job growth as the weakest post-recession job market ever recorded grinds on. Employers added 157,000 jobs in January, fewer than needed to keep up with growth in the working age population and replace the jobs lost during the recession.   The unemployment rate ticked up from 7.8% to 7.9% and has hovered [...]

On January 4, 2012 President Obama appointed three strongly pro-union members to the five member National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).  The Board functions like a court, arbitrating disputes between unions and employers. One of the disputes Obama’s Board members considered in 2012 was Noel Canning, a Pepsi-Cola bottler Vs the Teamsters union.   As the President [...]

The straw man is a logical fallacy, an attempt to appear to have won an argument by misrepresenting the opposing argument, or by knocking down an argument the opposition did not make.  President Obama is a devoted fan of straw men, having stood up and then batted down hundreds during his speeches and his recent [...]

In a Wall Street Journal interview about fiscal cliff negotiations House Speaker John Boehner quotes President Obama: “We don’t have a spending problem.” While the President often says the word “cuts” at his campaign style media events, his next words usually are “so we can make investments in…”  It’s hard to avoid the conclusion that [...]

President Obama decided that New Years Eve, as the Senate was considering the fiscal cliff bill, would be a good time to mock Republican voters and the Representatives they elected.  So he organized a campaign style rally complete with a cheering audience of White House staffers.  He claimed the purpose of this media event was [...]

A casual consumer of “news” might perceive the so-called fiscal cliff as nothing more than a debate about whether or not “millionaires and billionaires” (defined as annual income of $250,000 or more) will be “asked to pay a little more.” The “news” rarely provides background to to answer the question, why are we on the [...]

Much of the political-media establishment’s “information” about massive government deficits and fiscal cliff negotiations is deception made possible by the arcane budgeting process in Congress.  President Obama didn’t invent the process.  But he’s an enthusiastic practitioner of the deception. [continued below the chart]While most of the “news” bout fiscal cliff negotiations has been about tax [...]

During weeks of post-election campaigning and economic debate in Washington the political-media establishment has simply ignored the the real cause of the government’s monstrous deficits and rapidly growing debt. After years of refusing to deal with relentless growth in federal spending Congress and the President have dragged us to the Fiscal Cliff, a nickname for [...]

At his news conference Wednesday President Obama insisted on tax increases for “the wealthy” a strategy that directly targets small and medium sized businesses that are most likely to create jobs.  He was reminded by a reporter that he had agreed in 2010 to give up fighting for tax hikes and keep all the Bush [...]

Measured by President Obama’s own criteria, his economic initiatives failed.  The November jobs report was released Friday.  The unemployment rate ticked up slightly to 7.9%.  Compared with the President’s predictions and promises this number represents massive failure. As Barack Obama assumed office in January 2009 America was suffering from a severe recession.  Rahm Emanuel, his [...]