During an appearance on Morning Joe, Tuesday, Newsweek editor Tina Brown made an off-hand remark about Barack Obama, conceding that the politician "wasn't ready" to be President. Brown has previously attacked Rush Limbaugh and other conservatives for daring to oppose the Obama
While discussing whether New Jersey Governor Chris Christie will change his mind and run for President, the former New Yorker editor blurted, "ACTUALLY, I JUST HOPE HE DOESN'T, BECAUSE IN THE END, YOU KNOW, HIS TREMENDOUS MISGIVINGS, MAYBE HE IS RIGHT. I MEAN, WE HAD THIS WITH OBAMA. HE WASN'T READY, IT TURNS OUT, REALLY."
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/scott-whitlock/2011/09/27/tina-brown-obama-wasnt-ready-be-president#ixzz1ZCyiPyqz
While discussing whether New Jersey Governor Chris Christie will change his mind and run for President, the former New Yorker editor blurted, "ACTUALLY, I JUST HOPE HE DOESN'T, BECAUSE IN THE END, YOU KNOW, HIS TREMENDOUS MISGIVINGS, MAYBE HE IS RIGHT. I MEAN, WE HAD THIS WITH OBAMA. HE WASN'T READY, IT TURNS OUT, REALLY."
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/scott-whitlock/2011/09/27/tina-brown-obama-wasnt-ready-be-president#ixzz1ZCyiPyqz
Here’s the bad news for Democrats, he never will be ready. Obama has had the wrong kind of background to become a successful executive. He’s not known failure and has never had to take inventory of himself and grow. He constantly goes back to making speeches as that’s the only thing he has ever done and it’s worked for him in the past. Obama might be able to grow if he were in his thirties and had just failed as a first line supervisor.
Former American Express CEO: Grandson knows more about capitalism than Obama
Laura Ingraham spoke with former American Express CEO Harvey Golub today, and he had some harsh words for President Obama on his handling of the economy.
On President Obama’s understanding of business:
"HIS UNDERSTANDING OF CAPITALISM AND FREE MARKETS AND HOW FREE PEOPLE OPERATE IN FREE MARKETS IS LESS THAN MY OLDEST GRANDSON’S. IT IS EVIDENT IN ALMOST EVERYTHING HE DOES."
I think Bo probably knows more about capitalism than does Obama.
CEO of Coke: America has forgotten what really works
THE UNITED STATES IS BECOMING LESS BUSINESS-FRIENDLY THAN CHINA, Coca-Cola’s CEO said Tuesday, citing what he saw as political paralysis and a flawed tax structure.
Coke CEO Muhtar Kent told the Financial Times that U.S. states don’t fight one another for investment opportunities, while Chinese provinces clamor to compete for foreign investments. “IN THE WEST, WE’RE FORGETTING WHAT REALLY WORKED 20 YEARS AGO. IN CHINA AND OTHER MARKETS AROUND THE WORLD, YOU SEE THE KIND OF ATTENTION TO DETAIL ABOUT HOW BUSINESS WORKS AND HOW BUSINESS CREATES EMPLOYMENT,” he said….
This administration is clueless as to how the world really works. But they will find out how democracy works in about 13 months.
Wall Street switching support
President Obama's rhetorical war against Wall Street "fat cats" and his efforts to enact sweeping reforms of the financial sector haven't exactly endeared him to top financial industry executives.
Now it appears the WALL STREET DONORS WHO HELPED FUND OBAMA'S SUCCESSFUL 2008 BID ARE SHIFTING THEIR CAMPAIGN CASH ELSEWHERE.
Per Bloomberg’s Johathan Salant, at least 100 donors who previously supported Obama in 2008 haven't written a check to his re-election campaign and ARE INSTEAD SUPPORTING MITT ROMNEY'S 2012 BID. The shift has helped Romney raise more than twice as much from Wall Street as Obama has so far this election cycle….
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/obama-wall-street-donors-shift-support-romney-181657957.html
This is a blow to Obama’s goal of $1 billion campaign fund. I wouldn’t be surprised if Obama takes federal funding this time. I think his funding will be drying up as time goes on.
The Coming Jobs War
In his new book, The Coming Jobs War, Gallup CEO James Clifton defines what he calls an “all-out global war for good jobs.” Clifton envisions A WORLD-WIDE STRUGGLE FOR NEW, STEADY EMPLOYMENT, WITH THE LOOMING THREAT OF “SUFFERING, INSTABILITY, CHAOS AND EVENTUALLY REVOLUTION” FOR THOSE WHO FAIL TO SECURE NEW ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES….
….Not surprisingly “recession-proof” fields such as health care and education expanded some 11% over the past five years. More inexplicably, given its role in detonating the Great Recession, the financial sector expanded some 10%.
But the BIGGEST GROWTH BY FAR HAS TAKEN PLACE IN THE MINING, OIL AND NATURAL GAS INDUSTRIES, where jobs expanded by 60%, creating a total of 500,000 new jobs. While that number is not as large as those generated by health care or education, the quality of these jobs are far higher. The average job in conventional energy pays about $100,000 annually — about $20,000 more than finance or professional services pay. The wages are more than twice as high as those in either health or education.
Nor is this expansion showing signs of slowing down. Contrary to expectations pushed by “peak oil” enthusiasts, overall U.S. OIL PRODUCTION HAS GROWN BY 10% since 2008; the IMPORT SHARE OF U.S. OIL CONSUMPTION HAS DROPPED TO 47% FROM 60% IN 2005. Over the next year, according to one recent industry funded study, OIL AND GAS COULD CREATE AN ADDITIONAL 1.5 MILLION NEW JOBS….
We need jobs. We need energy. I don’t think the left can add one plus one in this case.
Obama’s jobs plan: $447 billion for one decent month of employment growth
The headline is “Obama Jobs Plan May Prevent 2012 Recession.” But the story Bloomberg published, based on its survey of economists about the president’s $447 billion proposal, is best summarized by the second paragraph:
The legislation, submitted to Congress this month, WOULD INCREASE GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT BY 0.6 PERCENT NEXT YEAR AND ADD OR KEEP 275,000 WORKERS ON PAYROLLS, THE MEDIAN ESTIMATES IN THE SURVEY OF 34 ECONOMISTS SHOWED. The program would also lower the jobless rate by 0.2 percentage point in 2012, economists said.
For those keeping score at home, that’s a “jobs plan” THAT COSTS MORE THAN $1.6 MILLION PER JOB. If the president wants to spend taxpayer dollars to provoke demand-side job creation, he would be better off holding a lottery and giving $10,000 apiece to 45 million people.
Obama doesn’t have a clue on how to help the economy to create jobs. His solutions are overpriced, under achieving, and short lived. The best jobs bill would be for him to resign.
A serious plan to replace Obamacare
…THE BIG PROBLEM AFFLICTING OUR HEALTH CARE SYSTEM IS SKYROCKETING COSTS. The Kaiser Family Foundation reported this week that in 2011, premiums for employer-based health insurance shot up 8 percent for individuals and 9 percent for families over 2010. As Ryan noted in his speech, "IF YOU LOOK AT OUR DEBT-AND-DEFICITS PROBLEM, IT REALLY IS A HEALTH CARE SPENDING PROBLEM." Health care spending accounts for 25 percent of the U.S. budget (excluding interest payments), and within decades that number will grow to 45 percent.
OBAMACARE STANDS TO MAKE THINGS WORSE BY IMPOSING A NEW LAYER OF SUBSIDIES AND REGULATIONS ON TOP OF AN ALREADY BROKEN SYSTEM. Obama's solution to the problem of costs rests with 15 bureaucrats (his Independent Payment Advisory Board) charged with rationing care.
Ryan wants to change the government policies that insulate the health care consumer from nearly all costs, thus distorting incentives for doctors and patients alike. Price signals, a staple of any functioning free market, have been muffled in health care, where third parties (insurers and the government) PAY ROUGHLY 88 PERCENT OF HEALTH CARE COSTS, UP FROM 52 PERCENT IN 1960. Because patients don't pay the bills, most of them have no idea how much services cost, let alone what they are worth. This leaves doctors and hospitals in a competitive vacuum where price and value bear little relation to one another.
"Instead of top-down price controls imposed by 15 bureaucrats at IPAB," Ryan said, "let's try bottom-up competition driven by 300 million consumers." RYAN CALLS FOR A UNIFORM TAX CREDIT FOR EVERYONE TO PURCHASE HEALTH INSURANCE. THIS WOULD IMMEDIATELY END SEVERAL PROBLEMS CREATED BY THE PREVAILING EMPLOYER-BASED INSURANCE SYSTEM, which offers fewer options, traps many Americans in jobs they would rather leave and causes many to over-insure themselves. For government health care programs, Ryan expanded on the plan he outlined in his House-passed budget, which promotes greater freedom and flexibility than Medicare or Medicaid currently offer….
A serious conversation sans the political name calling is what we need now. Would it be possible for us to have this discussion? We have to.
Hugo Chavez: Mr. Goldfinger
Over the past decade, Hugo Chávez has radically altered Venezuela's economic landscape. Executing a pernicious, politically driven nationalization program, THE GOVERNMENT HAS SYSTEMATICALLY TAKEN OVER KEY SECTORS. In doing so, Chávez stripped private industry and its investors -- not to mention political opponents -- of infrastructure, private property, and profits. SINCE 2002, ALMOST A THOUSAND COMPANIES HAVE BEEN SEIZED. For socialists and statists the world over, this is something of a guide, a graduate seminar in confiscation and class warfare. But for the rest of us, it remains a lesson in economic decay and failed leadership.
The takeover of gold mining operations should surprise no one. With gold commanding upwards of $1,600 dollars an ounce, the industry is highly profitable. And it is the profit of private enterprise which Chávez endeavors to exploit for his ends. As the dictator himself once said, "WE CAN'T HAVE SOCIALISM IF THE STATE DOESN'T HAVE CONTROL OVER ITS RESOURCES!"…
….Under state control, oil activity is well off 1998 levels -- the year before Chávez took office. In 1998, oil output was 3.3 million barrels per day; now it is 2.25 million. As the Economist noted earlier this year, the dictator plundered PDVSA, "packed it with loyalists, starved it of investment, and used it for social spending." Under these corrupt conditions, further decline in the oil sector seems certain. In need of a new source of revenue, gold nationalization, then, is just another warped Marxist scheme to raise money. BUT STATE CONTROL OF MORE OF THE ECONOMY WILL MAKE MATTERS WORSE.
Venezuelans live under a socialist system that is, as Foreign Policy reminds us, "replete with widespread inefficiencies, declining production and rampant shortages." THE DISMANTLING OF PRIVATE ENTERPRISE AND A DECADE OF ANTI-BUSINESS POLICIES HAVE MADE FOR AN EVER-WEAKENING CORE AND DIMMING PROSPECTS. And more of the same will just bring more misery.
As usual, the people who suffer the most under socialism are the poor. They account for 60% of all Venezuelan households. For them, prospects are bleak. HOUSING AND FOOD SHORTAGES ARE EVER-PRESENT WHILE ELECTRICAL BLACKOUTS ARE ROUTINE. The minimum wage, in real terms, is falling also, at its lowest point under Chávez. It has declined more than 35% since 1980.
Worse still, INFLATION IS NEARLY 30% AND CLIMBING. The government's latest round of currency devaluation hasn't improved matters, either. The devaluation triggered immediate upward pressure on the cost of basic goods, placing further strain on the populace, but particularly on the 28% who currently live in poverty.
THIS IS A SAD STATE OF AFFAIRS FOR A COUNTRY AWASH IN OIL AND MINERAL WEALTH. But as long as confiscation, corruption, and class warfare continue under the banner of "permanent revolution," the condition of the poor will only deteriorate as corrosive policies drive out capital and destroy business.
Venezuela was once a prosperous and free country. Socialism came and now it isn’t anymore.
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