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President Barack Obama says he relies on his faith and values to guide his work on the nation's most urgent problems, including the economy. Obama says that as a Christian, he believes in the teaching that to whom much is given, much is required. He says that belief, and his reliance on economic good sense, is behind his policies — including his call for the wealthy to pay more taxes. Obama urges other leaders to not abandon their values or "the moral glue" that has guided the nation for centuries. ...

AUSTIN, Texas — The Texas comptroller said Monday that the economic recovery is taking hold, producing higher than expected tax revenues and possibly resulting in a budget surplus in 2013. In a letter to the Legislature, state Comptroller Susan Combs said tax collections were on pace to produce a $1.6 billion budget surplus for the fiscal biennium ending in 2013. That means the state could earn $82.7 billion over the next two years, while the 2012-2013 budget is only $81.1 billion. That represents an 8.2 percent increase in state revenues over the 2010-2011 budget cycle.

I spoke with Stephanie about how the economy is affecting young women. Beside dealing with long term unemployment, the "jobless" economy is affecting how young men and women perceive each other. Many are putting off marriage and reassessing relationships. Many young women are investing free time with giving emotional support to their friends and seeking stronger ties with their existing families.

Spanish voters on Sunday are expected to dismiss the Socialist government of Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero and usher in the conservative People's Party (PP) and its leader, Mariano Rajoy. Mr. Zapatero’s Socialist party (PSOE), which has been in power for eight years, has borne the brunt of public blame for Spain’s increasingly perilous economic situation, which has tainted the party’s leadership candidate, Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba. Meanwhile, Mr. Rajoy has been coasting toward an expected landslide victory without saying much about how he plans to reverse Spain’s economic course... The situation is bleak for the eurozone’s fourth-largest...

HITE BEAR LAKE - Big changes are coming worldwide as shifting demographics and economic conditions combine for a "New Normal." Whether Americans see those changes as debilitating or a huge opportunity will decide America's future. Those were among messages from State Economist Tom Stinson and State Demographer Tom Gillaspy as they made the presentation "The Boomer Tsunami" to a group of about 80 at Century College Oct. 5.

In an announcement that is likely to deepen concerns over the U.S. economic woes the Federal Reserve has slashed growth and employment projections for 2011 and 2012. Data projections released by the Fed suggested that it had revised a measure of the average, or “central tendency,” for the U.S. economy's 2011 gross domestic product growth rate from the 2.7-2.9 per cent range to the 1.6-1.7 per cent range. Similarly, the central bank cut its 2012 projection for growth from the 3.3-3.7 per cent range to the 2.5-2.9 per cent range. Unemployment which in June the Fed projected would hover between...

U.S. growth accelerated in the third quarter as consumers and businesses ramped up spending, a report that shows the economy remained resilient in the face of strong headwinds. Gross domestic product in the July-through-September period expanded at a 2.5% annual rate, the government said Thursday. That’s nearly double the 1.3% rate of growth in the second quarter and much faster than the first quarter’s tepid increase of 0.4%.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama is bombarding Americans with job initiatives that may lack economic heft but show him as an activist leader compared to a 'do-nothing' Congress as he campaigns for re-election in 2012. Obama will have rolled out three separate measures in three days when he wraps up a tour of electorally vital western states on Wednesday, and more moves are coming. White House Communications Director Dan Pfieffer said the Democratic president will use executive orders and other tools to deliver initiatives "on a consistent basis for months to come." "While the policy benefits of this new...

<p>“I think the downturn in the economy occurred in the year 2000,” Paul told CNN, adding that there have been no new jobs since then “and yet we’ve had a 30 million increase in population.”</p> <p>“Just go out and talk to the people – unemployment rate in the true numbers (is) over 20%, so there’s been a depression,” Paul said after an appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”</p>

Full Article Follows - less graphics The Secret to Herman Cain's 999 Plan Success The most recent Wall Street Journal Poll shows Cain leading the Republican Primary, 27% to Romney's 23%. At the most recent debate, the Cain 999 Plan dominated the debate and discussion. Though the plan was roundly attacked by the moderators and competitors, Cain's Economic Plan wasn't damaged. What is appealing about Herman Cain's 999 Plan? "Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius -- and a lot of courage -- to move in the opposite direction."...Albert...

It’s official – China’s de facto monopoly on current rare earths production is a threat to the global economy. As least, that was the gist of hearings on 21 September by the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific. Center for a New American Security fellow Christine Parthemore ominously intoned, "Reliable access to critical minerals is a matter of both economic and geostrategic importance to the United States. Today, no minerals are more troubling to U.S. security and foreign policy than rare earth elements. Supplies are concentrated mostly in the hands of one...

"We know that the debt is now 100 percent -- approximately 100 percent of (gross domestic product)," said Allan Meltzer, a professor of political economy at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. "That doesn't include the unfunded liabilities. It doesn't include (mortgage lenders)Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. It doesn't include a number of other things." Chris Edwards, Director of Tax Policy Studies at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank in Washington, argues that U.S. debt is so far out of control that it must be contained soon. "We've had five trillion (in) deficit spending since 2008, the most enormous sort...

Germany—buoyed by its cadre of family-owned niche companies—appears to be weathering the global slowdown, countering fears that Europe's economic powerhouse faces a sharp downturn that could deepen the region's debt crisis. A pair of bullish reports, on German employment and manufacturing, were reassuring on Wednesday: Unemployment remained at its lowest level in nearly two decades last month, while July machine orders jumped 9% from a year earlier. The latest data suggest that Europe's largest economy, which is expected to grow 3% this year, remains resilient, even as evidence mounts that the U.S. and much of the rest of the world...

(CNSNews.com) - Speaking in Jackson Hole, Wyo., yesterday at an economic symposium sponsored by the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said that the economic recovery in the United States had proved to be “even weaker” than the Federal Open Market Committee had originally thought it was. Bernanke also reiterated that the committee had recently lowered its expectations for economic growth in the coming quarters. “[I]t is clear that the recovery from the crisis has been much less robust than we had hoped,” Bernanke said. “From the latest comprehensive revisions to the national accounts as...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Investors fled stocks on Thursday, putting the S&P 500 into correction territory, as worries about the U.S. economy and European debt escalated. All three indexes were down 2 percent, having fallen more than 3 percent each at one point. Decliners beat advancers on the New York Stock Exchange by 14 to 1. "People are throwing in the towel because they can't find relief on any front. There are a lot of worries about the economy," said Milton Ezrati, market strategist at Lord Abbett Co. in Jersey City, New Jersey, which manages $110 billion in assets. The...

[Snip] The smart money in Washington continues to be on some hybrid of the Boehner/Reid/McConnell plans. If I had to place a bet now, I’d say the final deal looks something like this: Cuts: $1.2 trillion in discretionary spending cuts, with somewhat more of the total falling on defense spending than in Boehner’s bill and somewhat less of the total falling on defense spending than in Reid’s bill. Committee: The bipartisan “Supercommittee” will be formed and charged with developing a plan that cuts the deficit by $1.8 trillion or more. Unlike in Boehner’s plan, future debt-ceiling increases will not require...

At some point during the first two years of his administration, President Obama stopped receiving the daily economic briefing that he requested when he took office. Former White House press secretary Robert Gibbs announced at this own first daily briefing reporters that Obama asked for the daily economic briefing, described then as comparable to the daily intelligence briefing the president gets every morning. “The president asked that this be added every day to his schedule,” Gibbs said at the time. Gibbs added that Obama believed it is “important that each day he receive the most up to date information as...

RUSH: Headline for the Associated Press: "Stocks, Bond Yields Sink After Gloomy US Reports -- Stocks are mostly lower and bond yields are at a new low for the year after two reports dimmed hopes for the job market and the U.S. economy. The government says more people applied for unemployment benefits last week, the first increase in three weeks." By the way, it was unexpected. Ahem. "A separate report says the economy grew at a sluggish 1.8 percent in the January-March quarter. Surging gasoline prices and cutbacks in government spending offset strong corporate earnings." Stocks "unexpectedly" tumble. Unemployment "unexpectedly"...

Key EXCERPT: If one believes as I do that QE II has been negative for the economy it is logical to now anticipate the opposite as we near the end of the program. Just as the effects of QE II were felt before its actual implementation, so too will the effects of its end be anticipated. That appears to be happening now. Commodity prices that started rising before the start of QE are now peaking before the end. Interest rates that rose with QE are now falling. For the economy, the end of QE should be positive as commodity prices...

RUSH: We start in Indianapolis. This is John. Great to have you, sir. You're up first. You set the tone for the day as far as callers are concerned. It's a very important role that has befallen you. CALLER: Hey, Rush. I know it's a heavy responsibility. Hey, the reason I'm calling is there's talk out there now about how the great Clinton tax increase of the early nineties spurred economic growth, and it's a lie that we have to keep combating. I know you do it but what people have to remember is that in the wake of that...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Americans are more pessimistic about the U.S. economic outlook than they have been since the start of the Obama administration and most believe the United States is on the wrong track, according to a New York Times/CBS News poll released on Thursday. The number of Americans who think the economy is getting worse jumped 13 percentage points in just one month, to 39 percent, the poll suggested. Just 23 percent said they thought the economy was improving, down 3 percentage points from the previous month. Seventy percent of respondents said the country was heading in the wrong...

HAVANA (Reuters) – Cuba's Communist Party approved landmark economic reforms on Monday and voted for new leaders in a key party congress to chart Cuba's future, state-run media reported. The Caribbean island's highest political body was to select new first and second secretaries, its Central Committee and powerful Political Bureau, .. results were not immediately disclosed. The reforms represent the biggest changes to Cuba's Soviet-style economy in decades and are aimed at securing the future of socialism in one of the world's last communist states. The congress' approval had been widely expected because some of the reforms are already in...

The laundry room of Tamara Huffman’s split-level here in the Shenandoah Valley is filling up with cheese powder and freeze-dried ham, at the ready should her husband, Brian, lose his job anytime in the next 25 years. She carves a little bit out of their already tight budget every month to buy some more. This sort of stockpiling was once the purview of survivalists preparing for Armageddon. But Huffman’s fear isn’t the end of the world so much as the $5 basket of grape tomatoes she bypassed the other day at her local supermarket.

While we learned yesterday that the U.S. is preparing its domestic response to a potential economic collapse, the bigger story might be that the U.S. has been playing such “war games” for almost two years. “The Pentagon sponsored a first-of-its-kind war game last month focused not on bullets and bombs — but on how hostile nations might seek to cripple the U.S. economy, a scenario made all the more real by the global financial crisis.” That’s how Politico reporter Eamon Javers (now with CNBC and who brought us Monday’s report) began an article dated April 9, 2009. In that article,...

Economic lunacy abounds, and often the most learned, including Nobel Laureates, are its primary victims. The most recent example of economic lunacy is found in a Huffington Post article titled "The Silver Lining of Japan's Quake" written by Nathan Gardels, editor of New Perspectives Quarterly, who has also written articles for The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, New York Times and Washington Post. Mr. Gardels says, "No one -- least of all someone like myself who has experienced the existential terror of California's regular tremors and knows the big one is coming here next -- would minimize the grief,...

March 22nd, 2011 (1 of 5)

Revealed The Left’s Economic Terrorism Playbook: The Chase Campaign for a Coalition of Unions, Community Groups, Lawmakers and Students to Take Down US Capitalism and Redistribute Wealth & Power

At the start of the 112th Congress, my fellow Republicans and I made a commitment to turn the country’s economy around and get Americans back to work. Over the past two years in the minority, we could do little as the Obama Administration’s and Nancy Pelosi’s reckless spending increased our already massive debt by $3.5 trillion and our unemployment rate surged to ten percent. Republicans hit the ground running in January, voting to cut spending by $2.6 trillion by repealing the onerous ObamaCare law. In February, while the Obama administration reported a record-breaking monthly deficit of $223 billion, we simultaneously...

 In Japan today the news is dire on every front. It is important to note that only 15% of Japan’s land is suitable for cultivation, meaning they have to import about 50% of their requirements for grain and fodder crops and rely on imports for most of their supply of meat. Japan is the world’s 2nd largest fishing nation having over 2,000 fishing ports and one of the most advanced aquaculture (sea farming) industries on the planet."For Japan, a nation that lives by the sea, food comes in by the sea, energy comes in by the sea and exports...

Everyone is talking about the Pentagon-sponsored study which concludes that the 2008 economic meltdown may have been deliberately triggered. Oh wait − not everyone is talking about it. In fact, few people have even heard of it. I didn’t learn of the study from ABC, CBS, NBC, MSNBC, CNN, or liberal newspapers. I learned of it only by surfing conservative websites that reference the Washington Times. The study was prepared in 2009, but it was just made public. The study does not say that the economic meltdown was the result of deliberate action − that is, economic terrorism − but...

RUSH: By the way, do you remember that big, big report, economic growth, fourth quarter of last year, 3.2%, remember that? What did we tell you? We told you to hang on, sit tight, be patient for the revised number. It won't be that good. And it wasn't. "The U.S. economy grew at a 2.8 percent annual rate in the fourth quarter, slower than previously calculated and less than forecast as state and local governments made deeper cuts in spending." Once again, economic growth revised downward, not 3.2%, but rather 2.8% in the fourth quarter. I'd like to hearken back...

Global Economy? 23 Facts Which Prove That Globalism Is Pushing The Standard Of Living Of The Middle Class Down To Third World Levels From now on, whenever you hear the term "the global economy" you should immediately equate it with the destruction of the U.S. middle class. Over the past several decades, the American economy has been slowly but surely merged into the emerging one world economic system. Unfortunately for the middle class, much of the rest of the world does not have the same minimum wage laws and worker protections that we do. Therefore, the massive global corporations that...

In 2006, I examined a series of surveys we conducted nationwide and then predicted a collapse of the housing market. Plenty others followed with similar forecasts and postmortems over the following months and years. But my column was among the first. I've made predictions about other slowdowns in the American economy. I've been mostly correct, although in 2010, I suggested that the stock market ultimately would plunge. Turned out that it climbed instead of descending. The fact is that it's easier to predict the weather next month than to get an accurate read on the future of the stock market....

The Mexican economy recovered from a sharp contraction in 2009 to grow by 5.5% last year, its fastest annual rate in 10 years, official figures show. The National Statistics Institute said that the agriculture, manufacturing and services sectors all made a strong improvement over the year. The manufacturing sector was one of the key drivers with a growth rate of 6.1% in 2010. "Growth is now more balanced," said Finance Minister Ernesto Cordero. "Manufacturing was stronger but most importantly the services sector grew significantly," said Gabriel Casillas at JP Morgan.

"Despite today's nearly double-digit unemployment rate, 4 in 10 unemployed Americans expect to get a job in the next four weeks and one in three underemployed have the same expectations with respect to obtaining a full-time job." That's the finding of a new Gallup poll released yesterday. I guess it's nice that so many Americans remain upbeat in the face of our economic challenges. But this goes beyond upbeat into pure delusion. As Mish points out, there are around 14.5 million unemployed people. In order to employ 40% of them, businesses would have to create 5.95 million jobs. In December...

Good current information for investors and Marc's take on Obama and the near future.

For years, Democrats and their media minions have maintained that the economic boom of the '90s was caused by the fiscal policies of President Bill Clinton, in particular his 1993 income tax hike. Appearing on ABC's "This Week" Sunday, New York Times columnist Paul Krugman shockingly said what conservatives have been claiming all along (video follows with transcript and commentary): PAUL KRUGMAN: I think the model is something like Clinton who, in fact, mostly was just riding on a successful economy that was successful mostly for reasons that had nothing much to do with him. But he was able to,...

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama wants to cast some light on economic success stories in the shadows of a slow recovery. And he is looking to find some more. On Friday, the president travels to Schenectady, N.Y., birthplace of the General Electric Co., to showcase a new GE deal with India and announce a restructured presidential advisory board to focus on increasing employment and competitiveness. Obama is naming GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt as the head of a Council on Jobs and Competitiveness. The panel replaces Obama's Economic Recovery Advisory Board, which had been chaired by former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul...

On Monday, the Obama administration announced it had hired an environmental economist from the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) to join the National Economic Council. Replacing member Joe Aldy, Nat Keohane, a long-time advocate of cap and trade, will now be advising President Obama on the economics of energy and environmental issues. With Keohane’s addition, it now looks like the Obama administration is preparing to go to battle against congressional Republicans who balk at the prospect of any environmental legislation. But Keohane’s hire also represents something else – the continuation of Obama placing global warming alarmists

Four Texas metropolitan areas — Austin, Dallas, San Antonio and Houston - dominate the top 15 U.S. cities in a global study to determine the level of cities' recovery from the recession. The Brookings Institution Metropolitan Policy Program report ranks 150 cities: 50 in the United States, 50 in Europe and 50 in the rest of the world. Austin was the highest-ranked U.S. city and No. 26 in the world. Dallas ranks as the No. 4 U.S. city and No. 39 in the world. San Antonio ranks No. 11 in the U.S. and No. 51 in the world. Houston is

Is this the last gasp from America’s liberal elites before the November mid-terms on Tuesday? This is what economist Paul Krugman has to say in The New York Times today, predicting “political chaos”, with the hysterical warning – “if the elections go as expected next week, here’s my advice: Be afraid. Be very afraid.” This is going to be terrible. In fact, future historians will probably look back at the 2010 election as a catastrophe for America, one that condemned the nation to years of political chaos and economic weakness. Krugman then goes on to blame George W. Bush for...

President Nicolas Sarkozy of France plans to propose a new security and economic relationship between Europe and Russia when he meets with President Dmitri A. Medvedev of Russia and Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany this month in Deauville, senior French officials said Friday.

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard the head economic poncho at the Telegraph now nearly 2 years from starting his mantra of deficit spending stimulus to prevent a debt deleveraging deflationary depression turns around and says that he has been wrong all along, that central banks such as the US Fed are focused on creating inflation rather than preventing deflation..."I apologise to readers around the world for having defended the emergency stimulus policies of the US Federal Reserve, and for arguing like an imbecile naif that the Fed would not succumb to drug addiction, political abuse, and mad intoxicated debauchery, once it began taking...

Liberals Spinning Economic Uncertainty The American Prospect has partisanship down to a science with Mark Schmitt's new article, Uncertainly Wrong. We have heard a lot in the past 18 months about uncertainty and its affects on the economy but only now did we realize that...it's all Bush's fault. In his own words, “Today's uncertainty was baked in nine years ago, by the same people who are now capitalizing on it.” Schmitt is speaking about the sunset clause on the tax cuts that cause them to expire at the end of the year. This doesn't represent George Bush not shoving policy...

Gold Speculation During The Great Correction By Bill Bonner 09/02/10 Paris, France – Yesterday was a good day for stock market investors. Prices went up. The Dow rose 254 points, leaving us uncertain about its near-term intentions. Of course, we’re always uncertain. But sometimes we’re more uncertain than others. What seems certain to us is that stocks are a bad bet. You might find this interesting, dear reader: Guess who was better off at this stage following the beginning of the crisis. The investor in the Great Depression? Or, the investor today? Well, we haven’t done the calculation ourselves, but...

THE American economy is once again tilting toward danger. Despite an aggressive regimen of treatments from the conventional to the exotic — more than $800 billion in federal spending, and trillions of dollars worth of credit from the Federal Reserve — fears of a second recession are growing, along with worries that the country may face several more years of lean prospects.

Congressional Democrats and the White House will continue their attempts to enact policies they believe will boost the economy—and which are also aimed at persuading voters they are working to make things better. ...And while the economic situation remained dire when President Barack Obama took office in January 2009, most Democrats assumed that the economy would rebound by the time they stood for office this year. A series of disappointing economic reports has made clear that won't be the case. The most recent one came Friday, when the government reported that the economy grew at a much slower pace in...

With the economy rapidly weakening, some senior Democrats are having second thoughts about raising taxes on the nation's wealthiest families and are pressing party leaders to consider extending the full array of Bush administration tax cuts, at least through next year. This rethinking comes barely a month after Democrats trumpeted plans to stage a high-stakes battle over taxes in the final weeks before the November congressional elections.

In June of this year, a little known organization called the American Economic Review published a 39 page research article, titled “The Macroeconomic Effects of Tax Changes: Estimates Based on a New Measure of Fiscal Shocks.” I have quoted from the publication here: This paper investigates the causes and consequences of changes in the level of taxation in the postwar United States. Our results indicate that tax changes have very large effects on output. Our baseline specification implies that an exogenous tax increase of one percent of GDP lowers real GDP by almost three percent… and that [capital] investment falls...

The coalition, named BBA Now, as in Balance Budget Amendment Now, plans to officially unveil its three-year plan in September, director of coalitions Kellen Giuda said in an interview. Part of the campaign includes petitioning 2010 congressional candidates, as well as presidential candidates in 2012, to sign a pledge in support of the effort . . . The amendment envisioned by the coalition includes three pillars: ending the annual deficit by requiring a balanced budget, limiting federal spending to no more than 20 percent of the country’s GDP and requiring a two-thirds supermajority vote in Congress to raise taxes ....