Thursday - August 11, 2011

The Real Catchword

Some presidencies are indelibly associated with certain words or phrases. We all figured that the Obama one (and it had better be just one!) would be hooked up with Hope an Change. And while it looked that way on the campaign trail, the real catchword is “unexpected”. That shows you how cynical a people we have become, and it shows you just how in the tank the media is for this buffoon. Every last bit of bad news that bubbles up because yet another of his plans isn’t working is “unexpected”, even when it continues to happen month after month after month. Funny how some folks can’t spot a trend even when it slaps them in the face with a cold mackerel. Yet these are the same people who decided, “scientifically”, that a few years of hot summers and mild winters was indicative of a half-an-eon trend in climate change.  Gosh. Cynical me, I don’t find these levels of stupid to be unexpected at all. Here’s today’s unexpected news.

The U.S. trade gap widened in June to its largest since October 2008, as both U.S. imports and exports declined in a sign of slowing global demand, a government report showed on Thursday.

The June trade deficit leapt to $53.1 billion, surprising analysts who expected it to narrow to $48 billion from an upwardly revised estimate of $50.8 billion in May.

Overall U.S. imports fell by close to 1 percent, despite a rise in the value of crude oil imports to the highest since August 2008. Higher volume pushed the oil import bill higher, as the average price for imported oil fell to $106 per barrel after rising in each of the eight prior months.

Industrial supplies and materials led the overall import decline, despite the higher value of crude oil imports. June imports of foods, feeds and beverages increased slightly to $9.2 billion, a new record. Imports from China also rose nearly 5 percent to $34.4 billion, pushing the closely-watched trade gap with that country to $26.7 billion, the highest in 10 months. U.S. exports fell for a second consecutive month to $170.9 billion, as shipments to Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Central America, France, China and Japan all declined. However, exports to the entire 27-member European Union rose fractionally higher to $22.7 billion, despite the debt crisis troubling the continent.

President Barack Obama has set a goal of doubling U.S. exports by end of 2014 to help pull the U.S. economy out of its slump and generate new jobs.

Mwaahahahaahahaa!!! Oh stop it, you’re killing me!!! The only way he can do that is to get our economy moving strongly forward, and as the lead sentence in this article shows, his leadership hasn’t helped things one damn little bit for the whole 2 1/2 years he’s been in power. We’re in just as bad shape as we were the month before he was elected. I guess that utterly non-existent level of Change is entirely unexpected.

Unemployment Applications Fall to 395K

The number of people who filed for U.S. unemployment benefits fell 7,000 to 395,000 in the week ended Aug. 6, the Labor Department said Thursday. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch had expected jobless claims to increase to 410,000 from an initially reported 400,000 in the prior week. Applications had been above 400,000 for the previous 17 weeks.
...
The economy expanded at an annual rate of just 0.8 percent in the first six months of the year, the slowest growth in the two years since the recession officially ended. It’s not likely to get much better in the second half of the year. The Federal Reserve on Tuesday said it expects growth will stay weak for two more years.

Odd though that this story, which actually was unexpected news, isn’t really being reported that way. Maybe it’s because 7,000 fewer lost jobs is merely a tick; a drop in the bucket compared to the more than 6.8 million folks who have lost their paychecks in the past 4 months. Oh, and economy “growing” at 0.8 percent is actually shrinking when the population is growing at a rate higher than that.

Good of the Fed to admit that things are going to stay flatlined for the next several years ... so I guess Fearless Reader’s plan to double exports is going to have to be wrapped in plain brown paper and thrown under the bus. It ain’t never gonna happen.

Oh, and don’t you love the “since the recession officially ended” part? What, did King Canute Lord Obama wave his mighty scepter and make the tides recede? Who’s fooling who here?

Strong performance by networking-giant Cisco and better-than-expected jobs data ignited a broad rally, but trading remained choppy amid heightened concerns over European banks and the global economy.

As of 10:25 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 219 points, or 2.1%, to 10,949, the S&P 500 jumped 27 points, or 2.4%, to 1,148 and Nasdaq Composite rose 64.3 points, or 2.7%, to 2,445.

Weekly jobless claims fell to 395,000 from 402,000 in the prior week, slightly better than expectations of 400,000.  The U.S. trade deficit hit $53.1 billion in June, wider than the $48 billion economists forecast.  The bigger the trade gap, the more it shaves from broader measures of economic output, meaning a wider deficit could be a hindrance on growth.

In other words, the newspaper reporter doesn’t know either, but he’s got to write something. My expectation is that gold will hit $1750 today. I haven’t checked; maybe it’s there already. Gold and silver seem to be the only reliable indicators, and they just continue to inflate. Which means we’re still falling down the poop chute. Wonderful.

Posted by Drew458     on 08/11/2011 at 09:30 AM   
Filed Under: • Economics • News-Briefs •  
• Comments (7) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

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