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David Warren reminds us of some Mid-East truths.
… If an identifiable Jew from Israel wanders, unguarded, into any part of the Palestinian territories, he is a dead man. This is a fact of life, and everyone knows it. Leftist and Islamist rhetoric about Israeli “apartheid” masks a very big truth: that more than a million Muslim Arabs live, work, and move freely around Israel, with full citizenship and protection under Israel’s laws (enforced by very liberal courts). Whereas, the number of Jews enjoying this status under the Palestinian Authority is zero.
The western position has been, settle a boundary, let Israel live in peace within it, let Palestinians live in peace on the other side. Let all past claims be resolved by direct negotiations, under international supervision. This is called “the two state solution.”
It sounds plausible, but only so long as we avert our eyes from the reality.
The UN will be granting Palestinian statehood without a resolution of anything. It will be a reward for consistent Palestinian refusal to negotiate in good faith, or to deliver on any significant undertakings made under the various Madrid, Oslo, and other “peace agreements” reached in the past.
Israel was told to exchange Gaza for peace. All the Jewish settlements in Gaza were uprooted. All the Israeli troops were withdrawn. Observe what happened.
Using the examples of Boeing, ATT/T Mobile, and Gibson Guitars, Peter Schiff calls the president, “Job Killer in Chief.”
Friday morning, many on Wall Street were stunned by the big fat zero put up by the August jobs report, the worst showing in 11 months. The data convinced many previously optimistic economists that the United States will slip back into recession.
I believe that we have been in one giant recession all along that was only temporarily interrupted by trillions of useless and destructive deficit and stimulus spending. Unfortunately, the August numbers will increase the talk of government efforts to stimulate the economy.
As President Obama prepares to unveil a new plan for the Federal Government to create jobs, evidence is rapidly piling up on how his administration is actively destroying jobs with stunning efficiency. Recent examples of this trend are enough to make anyone with even a casual respect for America’s former economic prowess hang their head in disgust. …
Toby Harnden says the man who ran on hope and change, will run this time on fear.
So how much trouble is Barack Obama in? Well, it doesn’t get much worse.
His approval rating is hovering just above 40 per cent. Unemployment is stuck at 9.1 per cent; the White House forecast that it would be about 6.5 per cent by now if its economic stimulus plan was passed. Essentially, the American economy is grinding to a halt.
More importantly, what is Obama going to do about it? In terms of policy, the White House has run out of whatever ideas it ever had.
Obama, who declined even to comment on the latest jobless figures on Friday, is like a rabbit caught in the headlights.
Having squandered the first two years of his presidency ramming through a healthcare reform that could not win the support of a single Republican on Capitol Hill and is now mired in the courts, he finds himself confronting a divided Congress.
So the only thing that matters to the people around Obama, who are eager for another four years of employment, is his re-election. I’ve long thought that Obama himself is lukewarm about continuing in a job where the adulation he is used to is in short supply. For Democratic powerbrokers, however, maintaining their grasp of the White House is everything. …
OC Register editors say we should remember the background of Alan Krueger, new head of the White House Council of Economic Advisers. Thus equipped we can expect more failure.
… Mr. Krueger worked on Mr. Obama’s “cash for clunkers” program. That didn’t work. Its main effect was to remove old, cheap vehicles from sales lots, making it difficult for poor people to buy cars. According to the NADA Used Car Guide, the average price of a used car two to five years old soared to $16,765 in April 2011 from $10,000 in January 2009.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Mr. Krueger maintains “that increases in the minimum wage don’t depress employment.” This defies basic economics, in which higher prices reduce demand (in this case, demand for workers).
“Krueger is a champion of the minimum wage – that is, outlawing some jobs – as good for the economy,” Lew Rockwell told us; he’s chairman of the free-market Mises Institute. “But if orders from D.C. to pay everyone more are a good idea, why not $10,000 an hour? Maybe because there would be 100 percent unemployment. Krueger is the worst sort of authoritarian Keynesian.”
Believers in Keynesian economics, named after British economist John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946), believe that government can stimulate economic growth through minimum-wage increases, more government spending, inflation and artificially low interest rates. As during the 1970s “malaise” economy, it is just these policies that have been tried under Mr. Obama, and have failed. …
Legal Insurrection blog says workers who have no hope are keeping Obama’s re-election hope alive. If discouraged job seekers were in the work force, the unemployment rate would be 11.4%.
James Delingpole has fun with green jobs.
The Global Warming Policy Foundation has published a report into the future of “Green Jobs” in Britain. It is damning indeed. Though it doesn’t actually say as much – the GWPF is too austere and restrained for such flippancies – this Government’s green policies are the equivalent of trying to pay off the national debt by breeding unicorns to sell to Chinese millionaires.
Among the conclusions of The Myth of Green Jobs by Gordon Hughes, Professor of Economics at Edinburgh University, are:
1. “Green jobs” are a chimera. Though diverting taxpayers money into the renewable energy sector may indeed “create” jobs in the renewable energy sector, it will cost many more jobs in the broader economy.
2. Policies to promote renewable energy will add 0.6 to 0.7 per cent per annum to core inflation from now till 2020. This is equivalent to a rise in the same period of the Consumer Price Index by 6.5 per cent. if the Government sticks to its inflation targets and applies restrictions on speed of growth through higher interest rates, then the “sacrifice cost” – ie what the economy could have made, but was prevented from doing so by monetary policy – is £250 billion. …
The “Waffle House Index” is written up in the WSJ.
When a hurricane makes landfall, the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency relies on a couple of metrics to assess its destructive power.
First, there is the well-known Saffir-Simpson Wind Scale. Then there is what he calls the “Waffle House Index.”
Green means the restaurant is serving a full menu, a signal that damage in an area is limited and the lights are on. Yellow means a limited menu, indicating power from a generator, at best, and low food supplies. Red means the restaurant is closed, a sign of severe damage in the area or unsafe conditions.
“If you get there and the Waffle House is closed?” FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate has said. “That’s really bad. That’s where you go to work.” …
Turns out the president no longer approves of us. That was the story from Barton Hinkle of Richmond’s Times-Dispatch. Reason Magazine had the reprint.
… The administration strongly approves of only 9 percent of Americans, while 47 percent are strongly disapproved of. Another 28 percent are somewhat disapproved of, and the White House somewhat approves of the remaining 16 percent.
“What these numbers show, I think, is that the president has become increasingly disillusioned with the American public,” said Trevor Gopnik, a professor of political science at Georgetown University.
“He’s completely disgusted,” said White House press secretary Jay Carney. “Which shouldn’t be all that surprising, given the state of the economy, the high unemployment rate, and the fact that most Americans are, let’s face it, fat lazy slobs. Go to a mall and look around if you don’t believe me,” said Carney.
The summer’s debt-ceiling stalemate has contributed to the president’s sour mood, observers say, as did the decision to cut short his vacation a day early even though many Americans are still enjoying theirs. …