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« Reply #1 on: January 09, 2019, 10:28:06 AM » |
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The Patriot Post Digest 1-8-2019
From The Federalist Patriot
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FEATURED ANALYSIS
The Economy’s Roaring, Stupid43
Lewis Morris
Leftists will tell you that 2018 was the worst year ever if for no other reason than Donald Trump is still president. They will also tell you that the economy is tanking because of a bad December in the stock market. Some media voices reported, with a bit of schadenfreude no doubt, that it was the worst year for stocks in a decade, and the worst December for the market since the Great Depression.
If that sounds dramatic and a bit of a stretch, it’s supposed to. To Democrats, any sign of a troubled economy is one more negative thing that can be pinned to Trump. So, when the markets hiccuped last month, we were treated to a deluge of doom and gloom.
There were some notable points missing in all this reporting and the endless speculation in which TV economists and pundits love to engage.
One reason the markets may have dropped is investor fear of Democrats taking over Congress. Democrats in power means reckless spending (though, unfortunately, Republicans weren’t enough different in that regard), burdensome regulations, and policies that stifle innovation and crush small-business investment and growth. Investors know this to be the case, and not because they are Republicans. When it comes to money, a good investor is dispassionate about politics. He calls it as he sees it, and many seasoned investors see a shaky economy when Democrats are in charge.
Thankfully, Dems only took control of the House, but they can still do plenty of damage. That is one reason why we witnessed a stock market course correction in December, some sell-offs and repositioning to prepare for what lies ahead.
Has the market hit bottom yet? It depends on who you listen to. Democrats certainly hope not44. They’ll have a much stronger case against Trump in 2020 if the economy tanks. But there is more to the economy than just the stock market. After all, Barack Obama loved to tout the roaring markets during his second term, but working people everywhere knew that those gains weren’t making one wit of difference in their wallets and weren’t creating jobs.
A big indicator of a healthy economy is jobs and wages. The country added 312,000 jobs in December45, far more than expected. November and October’s jobs numbers were amended to show greater gains as well. And 2018 as a whole turned out to be strong year with 2.6 million jobs added.
There is more good news to be found by diving deeper into the jobs data. The labor participation rate was at 63.1% for December. This means that people who had left the job market during the Great Recession and the Obama “recovery” are getting back in the game. So, remember, if unemployment rises in the near term, it’s most likely because of the greater number of workers in the market for a job, not because companies are laying off workers.
Job gains46 were particularly strong last year among small businesses, according to a recent survey by the National Federation of Independent Business. And virtually every sector of the economy gained jobs, including health care, construction, manufacturing, retail, and professional services.
Wages were also strong in 2018. Average hourly earnings grew by 3.2%, the fastest growth since 2008. This is a trend that may continue for the time being since there are still more jobs than workers, which gives workers leverage in negotiating salaries.
We should hold the applause, though, and temper expectations. Reduced taxes and deregulation under Trump have given this country the robust economic rebound we’ve needed for years. Fortunately, Republicans still hold the Senate, but the incoming Democrat House majority will be pushing an agenda that could send the economy into a tailspin. Get ready for “Medicare for All20,” the “Green New Deal17,” “free” college, “living” wages, and all sorts of snake oil that leftists try to sell.
Minimum-wage hikes are also a favorite for leftists on the state and municipal level, with scores of states and cities raising — in some cases doubling — their minimum wage. This will not put more money in workers’ pockets, but it will put more low-income people out of work as businesses can’t afford to hire as many people or even shutter entirely47.
The full impact of the trade war with China has also yet to reach its conclusion. While it seems that Trump currently has the edge in this fight, the cost to American business is real. No one ever really wins a trade war; they just lose less than their opponent.
The economy is subject to a variety of factors, some of which are beyond our control or ability to predict. Right now, the generally pro-business, pro-worker policies of the Trump administration are paying off. It will be important to make sure we stay the course. There are those who would like to see America fail, and unfortunately, many of them are inside our own country. Let’s disappoint them in 2019.
https://patriotpost.us/articles/60397-the-economys-roaring-stupid
OPINION IN BRIEF
Stephen Moore: “If it ever came to this, I suspect that conservatives would not have a big problem with blue states legally separating from red states. Liberals would greatly resist red states from separating from blue states. That is true because a) liberals believe in big centralized government having authority over the citizenry (they are more elitist and authoritarian), and b) they know that the low-tax, less-regulation, right-to-work, economic-freedom model of the red states would economically crush a nation with socialist impulses ruled by Bernie Sanders or another Barack Obama.”
SHORT CUTS
Facts are stubborn things: “I think that there’s a lot of people more concerned about being precisely, factually, and semantically correct than about being morally right.” —Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (Or, as The Babylon Bee put it48, “‘It Is More Important To Be Morally Right Than Factually Correct,’ Says Woman Who Is Neither.”)
Good advice: “Sit still for a minute and learn the job … before you start pooping on people.” —Whoopi Goldberg to fellow socialist Ocasio-Cortez
Non Compos Mentis: “Now that we’re all on the same page that capitalism is designed to emotionally destroy us with burnout — let’s all take heart that capitalism is also incompatible with a living planet. The problem has been capitalism all along. A better world is possible. We need a Green New Deal.” —Eric Holthaus
The BIG Lie: “I think people now are looking to blame somebody because of the terrible things that happened, but [the killing of Cpl. Ronil Singh49] had nothing to do with the law of California.” —former California Gov. Jerry Brown
Braying Jenny: “The impression you get from the president is that he would like to … abolish Congress, so the only voice that mattered was his own.” —Nancy Pelosi, who never seemed to mind when the president was Barack Obama
Belly laugh of the year: “Democrats will restore budget rules to ensure that Congress returns to fiscal sanity.” —Pelosi and Jim McGovern in a joint op-ed
Non sequitur: “We want the symbol of America to stay as the Statue of Liberty, not a big concrete wall.” —Chuck Schumer (Last we checked, the Statue of Liberty was a symbol for legal immigration.)
Delusions of grandeur: “A wall is a colossal waste of money for a crisis that doesn’t exist.” —Rep. Adam Smith
And last… “The debate over the ‘wall’ shows how the immigration debate has moved to the left, not the right. More physical structure at the border used to be what both parties agreed on while pushing ‘comprehensive immigration reform’ bills.” —Rich Lowry
https://patriotpost.us/articles/60396-tuesday-short-cuts
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Semper Vigilans Fortis Paratus et Fidelis
Nate Jackson, Managing Editor
Mark Alexander, Publisher |
