Free Republic

WASHINGTON — On Dec. 31, just hours before a New Year's Eve celebration, President Barack Obama signed the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012. Section 1245 of the law contains language providing authority to impose economic sanctions on Iran in order to deter the ayatollahs from acquiring nuclear weapons. White House efforts to have the sanctions provision stripped from the bill failed, and the measure became law with a quiet flourish of the presidential pen. Ever since, Washington and Tehran have been waging a war of words. None of this works to the advantage of the American...

We’ve been told that President Obama is a graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Law School, where he was the president of the Harvard Law Review. Anybody who gets into Columbia and Harvard has to have some smarts. Then please tell me why he often sounds so stupid.At a stop in Atkinson, Illinois, the President spoke about the need for education at an agricultural company named Wyffels Hybrids, Inc. He said that America is no longer a place where you can just “work hard” and thereby find a good job. Actually, just working hard has never been the ticket to...

Laboratory Corp. of America reportedly plans to lay off 169 Westboro workers at a Genzyme unit it bought last December, transferring the work to North Carolina. Genzyme Genetics, which LabCorp bought from Genzyme last December for $925 million, plans to cut 146 jobs on its reimbursement team and 23 on its information technology team between now and next February, according to a company memo obtained by The Worcester Business Journal.

Paul Hooper of Framingham found a good job at the Breyers factory on Old Connecticut Path 10 years ago, where he kept the ice cream production line supplied with fruit and nuts. Norfolk resident Tom Abdou brought his electrician skills to the plant, while Franklin's Marie Ouellette enjoyed her spot on the production line. All three became part of a large team of close-knit employees who churned out as many as 1 million gallons of ice cream a day. But workers had to say their goodbyes this week when the production plant, which opened as a Sealtest factory in 1964,...

Electric and natural gas utility National Grid is announcing a major reorganization of its U.S. operations that will cost 1,200 jobs, but which the company says will improve service and save $200 million.

State Street Corp.’s employees face an ugly holiday-season reality as the massive Boston money manager moves to slash 1,400 jobs by the end of the year to bolster its bottom line. Even though State Street was thought to be one of the stronger financial firms in the country, the custodial bank unexpectedly announced yesterday it was reducing its 29,000-strong global work force by about 5 percent. About 400 of the job cuts will be in Massachusetts, where it now employs about 12,600 workers - making it one of the top employers in the Bay State. The cuts will begin this...

The stimulus is frequently derided for not doing enough to fight unemployment, but one program that did nothing but create jobs is coming to an end. According to NYT, a subsidized jobs program is coming to an end. The program allowed employers at the government, non-profit, and small business levels to get direct help paying worker salaries. It was modeled after a New Deal jobs program, and even GOP Governor Haley Barbour supported it. But 26,000 jobs could be lost in Illinois alone. Another 12,000 will go in Philadelphia. The problem with stimulus was that unless it created an actual...

None of our political leaders are discussing these root causes to the problems of our economy: 1. The percent of people between 40 and 55 years old is decreasing. 2. The purchase of foreign oil is draining 5% of our economy each year. 3. Manufacturing is decreasing as a percent of GDP. The negative impact of each of these is documented in my book, Save America Now. Our politicians are not addressing these root causes to our economic problems. Instead, they are implementing programs that waste money with no results at creating jobs. ......Instead of tackling the problems of a...

Hoping to lift sagging confidence in President Barack Obama's economic leadership, the White House will make the case on Wednesday that his policies are creating jobs and spurring private investment. A report to be unveiled at 11 a.m. EDT will estimate that Obama's $862 billion economic stimulus package, which passed last year, has saved or created 3 million jobs and is on track to meet its goal of 3.5 million jobs by the end of this year. The analysis from the White House Council of Economic Advisers will say that government funding of clean energy, economic development, construction projects and...

As many as 698,000 jobs could be lost if the health care reform plan being pushed hard by liberal Democrats becomes law, according to a study released today.

Over 4.1 million Americans have lost their jobs during Obama's first year in office. The unemployment rate is over 10 percent or 17.3 percent if those who have given up on finding a job are counted.

California: While Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger worries about rising seas, his state sinks below the waves. Don't mess with Texas, they say. But California and the nation could follow its lead. Last Wednesday, Gov. Schwarzenegger released a new report based on research compiled by the California Energy Commission claiming that by 2100 San Francisco Bay would be more bay than San Francisco, with Fisherman's Wharf and Treasure Island under the rising waters of climate change. His show-and-tell, which included a new Google Earth application the commission spent $150,000 to help develop, goes a long way toward explaining the once-Golden State's slide...

THE experts are very confident that Friday's report on the employment market for November will show the least number of job losses in quite a while, perhaps as few as 114,000. I hope that's true. But I don't think it will be. As you know, these monthly job figures are very important to traders on Wall Street who can make money when the financial markets are confronted with surprises. And with all that's going on in the world -- Dubai's problems, America's economic crisis and the US stock market's seeming indifference to both -- a bad report Friday will just...

WASHINGTON, Nov 6 (Reuters) - President Barack Obama said on Friday the jump in the unemployment rate to 10.2 percent in October was a "sobering" figure that underscored the economic challenges ahead. Obama, speaking after the U.S. jobless rate unexpectedly rose to a 26 1/2-year high, also said he had signed a bill that extended jobless benefits and homebuyer tax credits. "I just signed into law a bill that will help grow our economy, save and create new jobs and provide relief to struggling families and businesses," Obama said in a statement delivered in the White House Rose Garden. "The...

Whenever government throws billions of dollars at the economy, one would certainly expect to find some jobs at the end of those dollars. President Obama has worked hard to convince the nation that the mega fiscal stimulus he signed into law produced some 650,000 jobs. This PR blitz is amazing in the face of an economy that has shed 3.4 million jobs since Obama was sworn in, the unemployment rate is pressing toward 10 percent, and the Obama jobs gap – the gap between where he promised we would be and actual employment — rises monthly. Political chutzpah aside, the...

WASHINGTON (AFP) – US President Barack Obama on Friday said the latest grim government job loss figures were a "sobering" reminder of a difficult "grind" ahead towards economic recovery. "Today's jobs report is a sobering reminder that progress comes in fits and starts," Obama said after returning to Washington from Copenhagen, where he lobbied for Chicago's failed bid to land the 2016 Olympics. "We're going to need to grind out this recovery step by step." In a blow to hopes of imminent recovery, new Labor Department figures on Friday showed job losses accelerated to 263,000 in September, pushing the unemployment...

ISTANBUL (AFP) – The World Bank on Friday warned the global economy was on unsteady legs, saying that 2010 would be "a highly uncertain economic year" as other signals took the gloss off talk of a quick recovery. The warning came as stock markets tumbled around the world and the United States, the world's biggest economy, said job losses had accelerated to 263,000 in September and the unemployment rate rose to 9.8 percent. The International Monetary Fund raised its economic growth forecasts for next year for most major advanced and emerging economies on Thursday. But experts warn that unemployment will...

Environmentalism: Sen. Dianne Feinstein votes to deny water to California's drought-stricken San Joaquin Valley. Farmers, families and food are being held hostage to an endangered fish called the delta smelt. (snip) The Senate rejected the amendment by a largely party-line 61-36 margin, with Feinstein opposing the restoration of water deliveries to farmers. The California senator claimed she was blindsided by the amendment to the bill she was managing in the Senate, bizarrely comparing the move to a "Pearl Harbor." "No one from California has called, written or indicated they wanted this on the calendar," Feinstein protested.

Delta smelts: Preferred over humans. Environmentalism: Sen. Dianne Feinstein votes to deny water to California's drought-stricken San Joaquin Valley. Farmers, families and food are being held hostage to an endangered fish called the delta smelt.There was a time when the San Joaquin Valley was the most productive agricultural region in the world. It was a large part of what made the Golden State golden.Now it's a place where farmers no longer farm, but instead line up at food banks to feed the families of those who once fed the rest of the country and a good chunk of the...

Energy Policy: A new study shows that Waxman-Markey will increase prices at the pump, deepen our dependence on foreign oil and shred our ability to turn crude into gasoline. Even fuel-efficient cars will still need fuel.Oil may bubble up out of the ground, but gasoline does not. It's made in those ugly little NIMBY places called refineries we are loath to build anymore because we're too busy trying to save the Earth rather than our economy and American jobs. When Hurricane Katrina shut down 20% of our refining capacity in a single day and raised gas prices in a single...

Cap-And-Trade: The administration likes to defend bad policies with analogies to the post office. New studies from a business group and the administration itself confirm that cap-and-trade belongs in the dead-letter bin.Along with Energy Secretary Steven Chu, Rep. Ed Markey likens the cost of the Waxman-Markey cap-and trade bill to "about a postage stamp a day," based on estimates made by the Congressional Budget Office and the EPA. But as we and others have shown, they arrive at this magical number in part by ignoring the hit on gross domestic product and employment that will occur. As Garret Vaughan, economist...

Fiscal Policy: President Obama sends his emissaries to Congress to explain why an economy-killing tax on energy — a tax all Americans will pay in all aspects of their lives — is necessary to save the Earth....The problem is that capping emissions based on dubious climate science will also kill hopes for a rapid economic recovery. Any good that comes from the stimulus package will be wiped out by this energy tax that will be passed on to every consumer through everything we produce and consume. Money that could be spent on creating jobs will be wasted trying to save...

While all of the attention lately has been paid to Obamacare it is important to note that Cap and Trade is not dead, but of course it should be. Today The National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) and the American Council for Capital Formation (ACCF) unveiled a comprehensive study on the impact of The American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009, also known as the Waxman-Markey Bill (HR 2454) or Cap and Tax. As a reminder the bill passed the House of Representatives by a slim margin (219-212) earlier this summer without reading it. And the Senate is expected to...

Climate Change: Supporters of economy-killing cap-and-trade legislation not only misquote the Congressional Budget Office's report lowballing the costs. They ignore how CBO cooked the books to get its numbers.We have often cited the CBO in our editorials. It's a nonpartisan entity whose staffers normally do a decent job analyzing data and crunching numbers. But as regards the true cost of climate change legislation, they have fallen victim to the computer-age trap: garbage in, garbage out. In recent weeks, ABC's "This Week" host George Stephanopoulos twice misquoted a CBO analysis of the Waxman-Markey bill that claims that we can save the...

Climate Change: Channeling King Canute, G-8 leaders agree to wreck the world's economy, and ours, by pledging to prevent temperatures from rising more than 4 degrees by 2050. What if the Earth has other plans?Canute was the legendary king whose sycophantic followers praised his power and wisdom. He was The One of his time. He once stood on the shore and commanded the waves to halt. As the story goes, he was exercising his ego when in fact he was giving his followers a dose of reality — the power of man over nature is finite and inconsequential. We were...

Climate Change: A switch of four Republican votes would have defeated Waxman-Markey, the Democrats' global warming legislation. But like the Clinton Btu tax, the bill could die in the Senate and turn the House over to the GOP.What were these RINOs thinking? The GOP is supposed to be the party of low taxes and free markets. Rep. Mike Castle, one of the eight offered an explanation right off of President Obama's teleprompter. "Nations around the world are surging ahead with emission reductions and developing new energy technologies," Castle, Delaware's at-large congressman, posted on his House Web site. "The United States...

Climate Change: A switch of four Republican votes would have defeated Waxman-Markey, the Democrats' global warming legislation. But like the Clinton Btu tax, the bill could die in the Senate and turn the House over to the GOP. What were these RINOs thinking? The GOP is supposed to be the party of low taxes and free markets. Rep. Mike Castle, one of the eight offered an explanation right off of President Obama's teleprompter...Illinois Republican Mark Kirk, who has senatorial ambitions to replace the choice of impeached former Gov. Rod Blagojevich, Sen. Roland Burris, demonstrates why GOP fortunes in the Land...

Economy: More than 1.6 million jobs have disappeared since the stimulus package was signed in February. Government can't create jobs, only dependency. Make-work jobs will not turn the economy around. The Obama administration, totally unfamiliar with the first rule of holes, has announced it's about to really, really ramp up stimulus spending to create 600,000 jobs this summer. That's on top of the 150,000 jobs it has "saved," though there's no way to identify or measure such jobs. The unemployment rate, which was never supposed to rise above 8% because of the stimulus, is now approaching 10%. The excuse given...

Fiscal Policy: The House of Representatives is preparing to vote on an anti-stimulus package that in the name of saving the earth will destroy the American economy. Smoot-Hawley will seem like a speed bump.Not since a misguided piece of legislation imposed tariffs that turned a recession into a depression has there been a piece of legislation as bad as Waxman-Markey.The 1,000-plus-page American Clean Energy and Security Act (H.R. 2454) is being rushed to a vote by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi before anyone can seriously object to this economic suicide pact.

Fiscal Policy: The House of Representatives is preparing to vote on an anti-stimulus package that in the name of saving the earth will destroy the American economy. Smoot-Hawley will seem like a speed bump. Not since a misguided piece of legislation imposed tariffs that turned a recession into a depression has there been a piece of legislation as bad as Waxman-Markey. The 1,000-plus-page American Clean Energy and Security Act (H.R. 2454) is being rushed to a vote by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi before anyone can seriously object to this economic suicide pact. It's what Janet Napolitano, secretary of Homeland Security,...

Fiscal Policy: The House of Representatives is preparing to vote on an anti-stimulus package that in the name of saving the earth will destroy the American economy. Smoot-Hawley will seem like a speed bump...As we've said before, capping emissions is capping economic growth. An analysis of Waxman-Markey by the Heritage Foundation projects that by 2035 it would reduce aggregate gross domestic product by $7.4 trillion. In an average year, 844,000 jobs would be destroyed, with peak years seeing unemployment rise by almost 2 million. Consumers would pay through the nose as electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket, as President Obama once...

Sales have been hurt by the spread of indoor smoking bans, which have forced people to go outside to smoke. Tampa will lose part of its cigar heritage in August when Hav-A-Tampa shuts its factory near Seffner and lays off about 495 employees, closing a factory that has been operating since 1902. The company announced the closing today. Many employees there make Hav-A-Tampa's iconic Jewels, inexpensive machine-made cigars known for their birchwood tips. Some workers have labored there for two decades or longer, including one who's been there for 50 years, said Richard McKenzie, a senior vice president of human...

It's a "he-cession" out there and, man, it's brutal. Today's government employment report is expected to bring bad news about job losses in a tough economy. The pain will be worse, however, for one gender more than the other. To a much greater extent than in past recessions, men are bearing the brunt. In December 2007, when the economy started tanking, unemployment ran nearly even at 4.4% for men and 4.3% for women. In February, that tally had shot up to 8.8% for men and 7.3% for women, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The 1.5-point spread is historic...

When the jobs report for November came out last week, many so-called "experts" were shocked at the massive loss of an estimated 533 thousand jobs. Even a Time /CNN organization called "The Curious Capitalists" were at a loss to explain it. Let me attempt to help out these "curious capitalists" (though I am still skeptical that anyone working for CNN or Time is either curious or a capitalist). I caused part of this job loss and I know precisely why; the election. The results portend big trouble for small business. The job destruction process has started. We are about 20%...

Britain is on the verge of a recession and the number of permanent job vacancies is falling, two reports warn today. The British Chambers of Commerce describes the outlook as 'grim' and warns that a recession could start within months. It says it has uncovered evidence of a 'menacing deterioration' in the economic outlook. Another report, from the accountants KPMG, shows that the number of permanent job vacancies fell in June for the first time in five years.

Countering the rancour in the West against outsourcing of jobs, the chairman of IT major Wipro [Get Quote] has said India was not stealing their jobs and its businesses were moving into developed countries, which did not have enough skilled graduates to compete in the global economy. "What is of concern is how serious a shortage of technical talent is building up in the western world. Global companies are going to where not enough young boys and girls are getting into math, science and engineering. That trend is not being reversed," Azim Premji said. Premji said that as Wipro expands...

You're a liberal. You've identified a problem -- the massive loss of manufacturing jobs in the United States; a net loss of 4.6 million jobs over the last 20 years. You've even done a decent job of identifying the causes of the problem: "Companies lose market share to foreign low-cost producers . . . or move their operations overseas in search of lower wages . . . or apply production techniques that require fewer workers." So, what's your solution? Measures like reducing taxes and regulation to make U.S. manufacturers more competitive, perhaps? Of course not! Remember, you're a liberal. No,...

WASHINGTON - Faced with a $2.5 billion budget shortfall, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is eliminating hundreds of jobs, cutting back programs and leaving more than 200 national wildlife refuges unstaffed. In all, the agency is planning to cut 565 jobs from wildlife refuges by 2009 — a 20 percent reduction. The national refuge system encompasses 547 wildlife refuges and more than 96 million acres in all 50 states, attracting more than 40 million visitors a year. Environmentalists say the staffing cuts — which follow two years of reductions — will leave an already lean work force depleted and...

MONTERREY, Mexico (Reuters) - The Bush administration will not renegotiate a controversial free-trade pact with Central America despite strong opposition from labor groups and the sugar industry, U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez said on Friday. As President Bush stepped up his bid this week for congressional approval of the U.S.-Central America Free Trade Agreement, or CAFTA, Gutierrez told Reuters the plan would not go back to the drawing board even though lawmakers are skeptical of its ability to pass. "It's a treaty that has already been negotiated and even approved by the congresses in three Central American countries," Gutierrez said...

In a recent letter to the editor of the Greenville News, the writer blamed Americans for the reason textile jobs are disappearing over here. He failed to blame the real reason. Unions. Here is the letter. Selfish consumers are killing textiles. I am sick and tired of people blaming the senators, congressmen and the president for losing our txtile jobs! The blame lies squarely on Americans. They are too selfish to buy products made by their friends and neighbots who have a decent lifestyle, with insurance and other benefits. They had rather buy something made in some foreight country by...

Delta Air Lines, detailing cost cuts as it tries to reverse three years of massive losses, said it would eliminate up to 2,000 aircraft-maintenance jobs and up to 3,100 customer-service jobs over the next several months. Suffering from near-record oil prices and continuing fare wars, the airline industry is mounting another round of cost-cutting. Earlier this week, AMR Corp.'s American Airlines, the biggest U.S. airline, announced it may have to make more job cuts, and UAL Corp.'s United Airlines, the second biggest, on Thursday said it wanted to make another round of wage cuts and dump its pension plans to...

My Wife Has Been Laid Off By BofA My wife got notice on Tuesday, that after 31.5 years with Bank of America, the department she is head of for the past 15 years is being shut down here in Seattle. Like offices in Los Angeles (where her boss is), Chicago, Atlanta, and Jacksonville, Florida are also being closed. They were told in an email from a higher up on Tuesday that between 4,500 and 5,000 employees nation wide would lose their positions. This has been coming for the past couple of years. My wife used to supervise 13 people, supporting...

Mount outlines her views Candidate decries jobs taken overseas By PATRICK COURREGES pcourreges@theadvocate.com Acadiana bureau LAFAYETTE -- State Sen. Willie Mount, D-Lake Charles and a candidate in the 7th District congressional race, said Tuesday she wants to target the tax benefits of companies that send their jobs or money overseas. Mount rolled out her economic plan at a pair of stops in the population centers of the district -- Lafayette and Lake Charles. She said at a news conference at the Lafayette Museum of Natural History that she wants to study the tax structure to to find ways to cut...

For several years, I have been tracking U.S. job losses and seeking to understand the causes. I have written enough columns about this subject to have caused angst among some inside-the-Beltway think-tankers. Two critics, Bruce Bartlett and Daniel T. Griswold, have yet to comprehend the argument that they dispute. This is puzzling. Whereas international trade theory is very complex, my statement of the job-loss problem -- or more accurately, my posing of the question -- is very simple. Are the job losses that are everywhere in the news and the decline in U.S. manufacturing the result of competition in the...

<p>BATON ROUGE - State Treasurer John Kennedy already has plans to introduce four pieces of legislation if he is elected to the U.S. Senate this November.</p> <p>Kennedy, one of three announced contenders to replace Sen. John Breaux, who has announced his retirement, told the Baton Rouge Press Club on Monday that he's running because "Louisiana needs an aggressive voice in Congress."</p>

U.S. jobless claims fell in latest week Thursday January 29, 8:29 am ET WASHINGTON, Jan 29 (Reuters) - U.S. Labor Department report of initial state jobless benefit claims, seasonally adjusted. Week Ended Initial Claims 4-Week Avg. Continued Claims 01/24/04 342,000 346,000 Unavailable 01/17/04 343,000-r 345,250-r 3,131,000 01/10/04 343,000-r 348,000-r 3,120,000-r 01/03/04 356,000 351,000 3,127,000-r r-revised REVISIONS: INITIAL CLAIMS: Jan 17 from 341,000; Jan 10 from 342,000 4-WK AVERAGE: Jan 17 from 344,500; Jan 10 from 347,750 CONTINUED CLAIMS: Jan 10 from 3,143,000; Jan 3 from 3,126,000 STATES WITH DECREASE IN CLAIMS OF MORE THAN 1,000: There were 34 states that...

U.S. jobless claims fell in latest week Thursday January 22, 8:30 am ET WASHINGTON, Jan 22 (Reuters) - U.S. Labor Department report of initial state jobless benefit claims, seasonally adjusted. Week Ended Initial Claims 4-Week Avg. Continued Claims 01/17/04 341,000 344,500 Unavailable 01/10/04 342,000-r 347,750-r 3,143,000 01/03/04 356,000-r 351,000-r 3,126,000-r 12/27/03 339,000 355,750 3,278,000-r r-revised REVISIONS: INITIAL CLAIMS; Jan 10 from 343,000; Jan 3 from 354,000 4-WK AVERAGE: Jan 10 from 347,500; Jan 3 from 350,500 CONTINUED CLAIMS: Jan 3 from 3,139,000; Dec 27 from 3,267,000 STATES WITH DECREASE IN CLAIMS OF MORE THAN 1,000: There were four states that...

U.S. jobless claims fell in latest week Thursday January 15, 8:30 am ET WASHINGTON, Jan 15 (Reuters) - U.S. Labor Department report of initial state jobless benefit claims, seasonally adjusted. Week Ended Initial Claims 4-Week Avg. Continued Claims 01/10/04 343,000 347,500 Unavailable 01/03/04 354,000-r 350,500-r 3,139,000 12/27/03 339,000 355,750 3,267,000-r 12/20/03 354,000 362,250 3,294,000-r r-revised REVISIONS: INITIAL CLAIMS; Jan 3 from 353,000 4-WK AVERAGE: Jan 3 from 350,250 CONTINUED CLAIMS; Dec 27 from 3,273,000; Dec 20 from 3,285,000 STATES WITH DECREASE IN CLAIMS OF MORE THAN 1,000: Fifteen states reported a decrease in claims of more than 1,000 in the...

Mexamerica, here we come Posted: January 14, 2004 1:00 a.m. Eastern © 2004 Creators Syndicate, Inc. Have Americans, one wonders, fully reflected on what the Bush amnesty portends for the country their children will grow up in? Consider what Bush is saying with this amnesty for 8 million to 12 million illegal aliens and his "guest workers" program to allow employers to go overseas and hire people anywhere in the world for jobs Americans will not, or cannot take at the wages offered. He is saying: I cannot defend our border. I will not enforce the laws. I will not...

U.S. Dec nonfarm payrolls rose 1,000 Friday January 9, 8:31 am ET WASHINGTON, Jan 9 (Reuters) - U.S. Labor Department seasonally adjusted jobs data. In 1,000s, Change Dec Nov (Prev) Oct (Prev) in Nonfarm Payrolls 1 43 57 100 137 Jobless Rate (Pct) 5.7 5.9 5.9 6.0 6.0 Earnings, Hours of Private, Non-Farm Production workers: . Dec Nov (Prev) Oct (Prev) Avg Weekly Hours 33.7 33.9 33.9 33.8 33.8 Manufacturing Hours 40.7 40.8 40.8 40.6 40.6 Overtime Hours 4.6 4.5 4.4 4.3 4.3 Earnings/Hour (dlrs) 15.50 15.47 15.46 15.46 15.45 . Pct change 0.2 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 Non-Farm Month-On-Month...