The economy continues to reel from the effects of Obamanomics. The Wall Street Journal just reported that US manufacturing plunged in June as demand crashed. Of course, this news was unexpected for economists.
The U.S. manufacturing sector contracted in June for the first time since July 2009 as new demand crashed, according to data released Monday by the Institute for Supply Management.
The ISM’s manufacturing purchasing managers’ index plunged to 49.7 last month from 53.5 in May. A reading above 50 indicates expanding activity.
Economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires had expected the June PMI to slip only to 52.0.
“Comments from the panel range from continued optimism to concern that demand may be softening due to uncertainties in the economies in Europe and China,” the ISM report said. (Read More)
Yesterday Bloomberg reported that consumer confidence also has fallen.
U.S. consumer confidence fell in the second quarter of 2012 on concern for the economy and job security, according to a survey by Nielsen Holdings NV. (NLSN)
Nielsen, a global information and measurement company, said its index of U.S. consumer confidence fell five points in the period to 87. Its lowest point on record was 80 points in the first half of 2009. The company surveyed 500 people in the U.S. online from May 4 to May 21.
The top concern for U.S. consumers was the economy, with 42 percent citing it as their main worry. Concern for job security also increased from 18 to 22 percent. Concerns for debt, rising fuel and food prices decreased, the survey said. (Read More)
No wonder President Obama has been so nervous and furiously trying to raise campaign funds. Team O is even trying to rake in cash off of the heat wave.
speaking of Wall St and whatnot. I saw Gretchen Morgenson on Q&A (cspan) last nite, being interviewed by Brian Lamb, and took 7 pages of notes. She wrote “Reckless Endangerment”. It should be a podcast at booktv.org soon. Anyway – definitely worth watching – to see how we got into this mess. She says the mess is still with us and nothing has been done to fix it or prevent another mess.
I should rush out and get the book, but the water heater and roof have sprung leaks, so I haven’t seen it yet.
Anyway – this ‘public-private’ baloney resulted in about 1/3 of the subsidy to Fannie Mae from congress went into their pockets – fancy HQ and offices around the country – which hired relatives of congress critters, funding papers by academics, and spending oodles on lobbying congress. This ain’t the old Fannie. And you can’t get any information out of these slobs, like how much the CEO makes. And they have an Amen Chorus in Congress. Naturally the SEC was useless. One congressman was asking why it took so long to even recognize that they had an 18 percent rate of defaults. So these ‘executives’ – mostly political hacks – were getting what – 10 million a year ? We are on the hook for 151 BILLION ! When a bunch at the CBO did an analysis, Fannie execs sent some folks around – the researchers said it was like a visit from the Mafia.
Hot debate. What do you think?
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Mark Levin often says “everything that the federal gov’t touches turns to crap!” in regards to everything with the exception of the military. HUD, FHA, FHFA, Fannie, Freddie Mac, Ginnie Mae, etc, etc are no exception. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac dominated the secondary mortgage market. If you create a gov’t entity, or quasi-gov’t entity, to buy ANYTHING in the secondary mortgage market; it will most assuredly 1) artificially inflate values 2) incorrectly increase the demand, and 3) always result in a disastrous fallout. Also, Fannie Mae has long had a “direct line of credit” to the U.S. Treasury (an explicit bailout, if/when needed… and they obviously needed it).
Everything Congress touches turns to crap.
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It all hinges around two undisputable facts:
-1)That the federal government – acting under the direction of the two Bushes, Clinton, Obama and a treacherous Congress – transferred our manufacturing base to foreign nations, literally giving away our hi-tech edge and our secrets to the Asian nations and:
-2) then allowed at least 10 million illegal aliens free access into America to dominate the labor force.
As for (1), we will not recover until we rebuild our manfuacturing base. That will take years and trillions. We will have to rebuild our factories and re-train the American labor force to successfully compete in an increasingly hi-tech world.
As for (2), we are told there are 40 million Mexicans in the United States.
It’s been suggested that at least half of them – 20 million – are Mexican Nationals that do not want to be Americans, do not want to learn or speak English, do not want to adopt our culture. What they do want is our money and our land. They are not educated people that will be successfully trained for tomorrow’s extremely hi-tech jobs.
We need to do three things:
-1) Change the Socialist one-world culture that is gripping the Washington power elite. We do that by changing the people in Washington.
-2) Eliminate every law and regulation that has been designed to suppress the American spirit of free enterprise and let loose our citizens to rebuild this country.
-3) Send the illegals packing. They don’t belong here. If there are actually 20 million illegals working here today, that simply means there are 20 million Americans whose job – perhaps even their identity – has been stolen by these uncaring invaders.
But, in order to do these things, we first need to completely clean out the smelly stable we call Washington. Since we don’t have Hercules to do that for us, it’s all up to us.
Good luck.
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Also, we shouldn’t forget the contribution that Congress made in Fannie and Freddie to help destroy they economy. Unforeseen consequence? Whoever believes that is a good prospect for ocean front property in Kansas.
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There’s such a disconnect between this economic news and the “fact” that Obama’s poll numbers are on the rise. I attribute it to a country that is made up more of people who want something for nothing. Someone ought to throw this generation back 112 years to when many of our ancestors came through Ellis Island with nothing but a dream.
My grandparents came to America with nothing in 1900. No one gave them a handout. No one spoke Italian to them at school (my grandmother never had the luxury of being educated, she was put to work at age 8 at a hat factory in Brooklyn and married my grandfather at age 16). They worked 24/7 and even after my grandfather became successful, they lived modestly. They were so proud to be Americans and would never ever dream of being on the dole. It wasn’t who they were. Today, it’s far easier to say hey, my government owes me. How sad.
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informative article. I work for McGladrey and there’s a annual report on the State of Manufacturing on the website ” http://bit.ly/IzVhuU “, with related information you may find useful.
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Interesting article, but it’s long on assumptions and very short on facts and figures.
“Accoprding to the survey”. Who participated in this survey? What were the questions asked? Who are these “optimistic executives”, and what types of companies do they represent? Are they manufacturing companies, or service companies? How many employees do they have?
Remember Ben Franklin’s comment about believing nothing you read? He could have added “without checking the sources”.
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