Not surprisingly, so too were Mr. Obama’s poll numbers!
At the end of October, the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) announced that third quarter GDP had grown at an annualized rate of 3.5%. Of course, the Obama administration hailed the news as a clear cut sign that the recession was over, and that happy days were here again. One month later, when the numbers were revised down to 2.8%, they still heralded the sign of prosperity to come, even in the face of criticisms over how they could possible have missed the mark so much. Today came the stunning news of another downward revision, based on a third pass of the data, to an annualized growth rate of 2.2%. The overall figure was driven lower in just about every sector analyzed, but was significantly effected by revision in business investment and inventory liquidation. Even the oracles at Goldman Sachs didn’t expect to see it revised this much lower.
Marla Singer and some of the other folks over at Zero Hedge, people that know infinitely more than any erstwhile financial geniuses in our audience,  point out that, on it’s face, revisions this large should remind us of 3 important things:
1.) The Bureau of Economic Analysis of the United States Department of Commerce has ceased to be (if it ever was) a reliable outlet for economic data. (Be this the result of misfeasance or malfeasance depends on the reader’s propensity to credit conspiracy theory).
2.) That what passes for the professional prognosticator class these days is pathologically incapable of realistic appraisal.
3.) That the largest single expression of a Keynesian “injection” in the history of Keynesians or injections (or the planet) struggled to create even the most anemic growth. Net the double counting of stimulus funds it seems difficult to imagine even a remotely encouraging (or positive) “growth” figure could be tortured out of the economic realities that would be so plain if one but looked out the window to forecast them.
If it isn’t clear to everyone by this time that the United States remains firmly in the grips of a massive “shadow recession,” then we can only credit this ignorance with some unshakable and deeply rooted form of denial or a seriously reckless case of willful blindness. Either way, we would like to commend the current powers that be for their tour de force performance in establishing themselves firmly both as the most masterful of bullshit artists to occupy the beltway (and that’s saying something) and simply the most economically inept (and expensive) team ever to hold national office. The risk adjusted returns on this particular ruling clique would make the pre-dollarization Zimbabwe carry trade look attractive.
[emphasis-ed.]
Wow. That’s pretty strong stuff, but justified I’d have to say. Cap’n Ed Morrisey over at Hot Air thinks that Congress should look into this:
The third-quarter growth looks a lot more anemic than advertised by the Obama administration, especially when one considers the gimmicks that temporarily boosted its performance. Most troubling is Commerce’s poor performance in analyzing economic conditions. If they’re so incompetent as to miss this figure by 37% (1.3 from 3.5 is slightly over 37%), then clearly they need some fresh talent. If they got pressured into stating overly cheerful numbers, it’s something else entirely. That would be something Congress should investigate … if we had an independent Congress at all.
Yeah, if they weren’t doing important stuff like…Investigating the BCS, or trying to ram Obamacare down the throats of a nation that clearly doesn’t want to take that medicine. Maybe they’re just intellectually incurious !
Originally, the cash-for-clunkers and first time homebuyers program was estimated to have counted for half of the GDP increase, around 1.75%.   Considering that the increases in consumer spending, a metric driven largely by the two government programs mentioned previously,  was only reduced by one-tenth of one percent, from 2.9 to 2.8 %, it is safe to accept the estimate that 1.5% of the GDP increase can be attributed to the two incentive programs. And, so it’s also probably safe to say that minus any government stimulus, the economy would be flat-at best. Wouldn’t it have been better then to not have saddled ourselves with the additional trillion dollars, principle and interest, that the stimulus cost? And isn’t it even more ridiculous then to be actually talking seriously about a second stimulus?
Remember when actual growth numbers under Boooooooooosh! were disparaged as a “jobless recovery”? Do you think there could be any more of a jobless recovery than we have now? Do you think that will get any better as the winter sets in? Or as the taxes associated with Obamacare commence (God forbid)? Now that he’s taken ownership of the economy, you’d think the President would be more concerned with employment rising than the sea levels rising…
And that brings us to the latest update from the department of hope-n-change. It seems that between the public percieving the administrations determination to ram Obamacare down their throats, regardless of their wishes, the astronomical increase in government spending, Obama’s recent and risible “I’m a defecit hawk, yo” pablum, and his foreign policy follies that his public approval ranking are also revising sharply downward. Rasmussen marks Obama’s Presidential approval rating at a staggering -21. And, perhaps more importantly, the same poll also provides the inconvenient truth that for the first time more Americans strongly disapprove of the Presidents performance than those who at least somewhat approve. As Ace snarks, this certainly must translate into a solid B+ …
Sounds to me like he’s on the next train to Boooooooosh!-ville. Or as the old blues singers exclaim, he’s “Goin’ down“.
Who knew that so many Americans could suddenly become such horrible RAAAAAAAAAACISTS!
(Image courtesy of olbroad.com )
Teh Jeeeenyus, Xenophobe Bob, is trying to make a point here.
When anyone figures out what his point is please post it in the comments section. Thx, Mgmt.
GDP numbers are always revised. Initial releases are always estimates. That you didn’t know that… hahahaha!
Poooor welfare baby, Momma Gubomit’s milk tastes so sweet. Feed him before he starts crying again.
Thor – pls take a time out from this post. go smoke a cig, relax, and then try to be a bit more charitable and considerate.
They are rarely revised downward twice, and not generally by such a breathtaking percentage. And I have no idea how the xenophobe slur fits in.
My point? Obama’s numbers have been revised down too, just like the GDP metrics.
More people strongly disapprove than somewhat approve. Headed for the Booooooosh!es
Headed for the current Republicans in Congress’s numbers? Ohnoes, because those are so laughably low they’re historic.
Yes, they’re generally revised twice, actually, more than twice sometimes. You don’t know what you’re talking about, simply put.
Hey check out this revision from the past:
Without citations it’s hard to see the proper “context” and “nuance”…It’s a shame you rarely provide any.
I never said “never”, just rarely. Seems like the zerohedge folks feel the same way. Are they h8ters and raaaaaacists! too?
Oh, and congressional Rethugs! may be bad off, but they’re doing better than Democrats
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/mood_of_america/generic_congressional_ballot
So, you know, there’s that…
Sounds to me like you shouldn’t be so dismissive so quick!
Sad old Banana Bob, you forgot I’ve watched the markets longer than your dizzy girl at Zero Hedge and can smack her wittle e-rhetoric down like an annoying mosquito.
At the heart of America’s economic failure is you, Bob, the ignorant enabler of American corporate corruption.
This country is as corrupt as many third-world shit tanks. Our politicians have to jam their thumbs into the eyes of corporate America until the corporations tap out. That’s why Obama’s poll numbers are going down, wittle chicken suit wearing chicken boy. He needs to deliver the same type of vicious blow to the face of corporate America that he busted wide your racist face with. And he pimp smacked you like a money-thieving street whore, didn’t he.
From top to bottom this country corporate model needs an overhaul, starting with shareholder governance.
You should sit back and drink your gubomint paid for firewater while the adults take care of business. It’s going to take awhile.
Still with the racist Obama as pimp trope? Sad…
Take up your difference with Ms. Singer, and her collegues, OK?
Free Markets, live ‘em, learn ‘em, love ‘em…
Remember what Putie-Poot said a few months ago. Be careful, because we were drifting towards marxism…
And he’s Russian.
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/michelle_bachman_welfare_queen_20091221/
You’re wasted welfare, Bob. That’s what you are and who you choose to be. This country would be financially better off if you quit breathing. It would. Simply fact. America impatiently waits for news of your passing! One less check to cut!
Typical liberal rag; tryinmg to paint Bachmann as a hypocrite welfare queen for recieving farm subsidies; that are continually renewed by congress.
McCain opposes farm subsidy bills on a regular basis. And did so during the election year as well…But Obama?
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2008-05-15-farmbill_N.htm
He was all for it; during the election, but, in fairness, wanted to cut 9 billion from it this past spring. But congress didn’t, and did he sign it? Hmmmmmm?
And any compensation I recieve is for years of dedicated exemplary service to you and other Americans. Societies have traditionally rewarded their warriors with pensions. The Romans used to give lifers farms in the newly conquered provinces. You can rest assured that what I recieve was earned the hard way; by any time I spent in harms way, and preparing for the same, but in all of the other duties I executed over the years.
I earned it son, and I don’t partake of VA services, so I don’t cost that program any money. And I use my time to give in my local community…
And go figure, I didn’t need any professional community organizer, or official arm of your boy Obama, to tell how to meet people’s needs and to help out my neighbors. Funny how the old school ways work best.
Obama’s goin’ down muh man.
The way I see it is you’re an uneducated buttole who got marched off the plank and who now has to be bottle fed until he croaks.
The patriotic citizens of this great country hold nothing but contempt for the likes of you.
You have rotten fish floating in your head and if you get Ruby Ridged it would be the cause of great laughter among your capitalist peers. Stay in your herd circle of the dumb, unless, that is, you choose to educate yourself and become a contributing member of society.
It’s funny that you say that, because people generally express admiration for my Navy time, especially the years spent driving a Tomcat. You’re the only person that has ever asserted that I’m somehow getting a welfare-esque free ride. That’s called a statistical outlier, in case you’re curious; although I’m sure your familiar with the “liar” part of that construct.
As far as contributing to society? I do that every day in one capacity or another. I won’t use up the bandwidth reciting all of the community outreach and service oriented programs I play a leadership role in, or are otherwise involved…
What have you done for someone less fortunate today? Or this week? What have you done to contribute?
Insulting me doesn’t count, in case you were wondering.
I have an M.S. in aerospace engineering son, that’s rocket science. I’ve taught college courses, and tutored guys like you in calculus, statistics, and other analytic disciplines. How is that uneducated, barista poet?
Calculus is generally required of us lowly business majors, y = mx + b, the first and second derivative, etc.., how much fence would the rancher need to fence a …. You forget, butterfly boy, that I went to A&M back in the day when they didn’t know business so they simply taught math instead. Speaking of tutoring, my math prof friend thought I should help him tutor overflow clientèle of b-school kids after I showed him that from pure memory I could solve for p with pencil as well with a TI 84. $25 an hour! No thanks. Trivial shit from the memory hole. MACD is more that something you color up your software’s graphs with. Outside of Stat trivia it was our job to know indicators plus how to figure out the margin requirements for hedged short positions, etc.., on the trading desk. Though it’s all very basic stuff, I’m down with the basics, BS boi.
Ebol George Soros might easily punk you on a math quiz I’m afraid. You think Soros tosses billions at a trade without using pricing models? I don’t think so. And shouldn’t you be tutoring Trig if you’re the engineer you claim to be? Hahahaha, poor Bob, plotting functions on graph paper to keep his mind awake, hahaha. Good for you, old man, maybe try axiomatic theories and play with postulates like old Euclid.
Driving a Tomcat? Break a fingernail climbing the roll-away ladder, did ya? My brother-in-law was just on Skype over Thanksgiving telling me/us how it totally sucked to be him, maybe that’s because as a Major in the Army he sees real action. We think he’s on the Iraqi-Iranian border but he can’t say so we just speculate knowing that in his opinion the suckiest assignments are the most remote ones.
Did you ever figure out why your “Big Labor” was BS? Are you in need of a real world explanation, Bob? Let me know.
Uh, Trig is part and parcel of analysis, you must have forgotten that.
Maybe Soros can best me in business math, and maybe he uses computer models-whatever. If you look upthread you’ll see the evidence of the spendulus “Big Labor” payoff. It seems to me I was the one doing the explaining there.
My sincerest prayers and good wishes for your BIL, especially if he’s on the Afghan-Iranian border. I won’t get into any inter-service disparaging though, no matter how much you try and bait me. And I’m pretty sure if you asked him, you’d find that the Major is appreciative of the backup that air power affords infantry in the field. I know that the Marines were generally happy to have us flying CAP overhead.
An interestng post. It deserved better than Thor’s idiotic chest thumping and “Lookitmelookitmelookitme!” drivle in the comments.
I don’t know why the proprietors continue to let you practice your brand of aggressive jackassery on their soap box, but it adds nothing of value, and actually detracts what might lead to some worthwhile conversation.
The way I see it is you’re an uneducated buttole who got marched off the plank and who now has to be bottle fed until he croaks.
And the way I see it, you are an unemployed malcontent who can only get people to pay attention to him by kicking them in the shins and spitting in their faces.
The way I see it, hock thwooop! You wear spit well.
Why not retreat back to your drivel-filled blog now, unless you want to pay further attention to me. Thx.
Thor’s mom doesn’t spit, she swallows.
I agree, Blackiswhite.
This is a fine post. And it is among, I would like to think, many fine posts (whether one agrees or disagrees with the substance) that Rocketman and Meep, and the rest of this motley band of contributors have made since POWIP’s creation.
Thankfully, Tohr seems to steer clear of trashing/hijacking/attempting to hijack/pissing all over/crapping in the corner on any of Dan’s posts.
But, what is one to do? Banning him seems not quite right to me. I mean, I absolutely dont mind people disagreeing with anything I write, or Rocketman, or any of our other fine contributors. And I know Dan feels the same. Lively debate is what I am after.
What really sucks is “shouting” – being disagreeable. And not even willing to have a vigorous debate on anything.
I cant remember who suggested it to me: but I just dont let myself be engaged when Tohr is at his worst. I dont ignore him, I just dont encourage him.
But I’d rater see him bring more value to be honest. I know, I know… dont hold my breath.
In fact, I think he has been asked to contribute as a contributor if he really has something he would like to have posted. But he avoids this.
I am running out of patience too. But, if I were a random visitor – and saw the back n forth with Das Tohr, I may really becomes a one-time visitor. Which is a shame, given what this place is on its best days and could become.
Maybe – and I am serious – putting him in time-outs (if he’d agree to sit out) would work.
I have also told Rocketman, whose posts I very much enjoy and who I consider a friend, not to feed the Tohr. Especially since Tohr seems to avoid Dan, and prob as an extension, me to some extent… but is hell-bent on being a douche to other contributors. And, worse, commenters who do find they would like to add their voice to the “discussions” here.
Enoch, I’ll include that in my new years resolutions; not to feed thor when he’s on a tear.
It’s just difficult to do so when he levels unseemly and ridiculous assertions. Sometimes I wonder if folks see that and think that thor’s trooooooof! has shut me down, or believe me to be the lying liar that he asserts. I almost feel that I have to answer him, to show how completely and utterly wrong he is. Not to mention that on the occasion I’ve not answered, he simply spams the thread with repeated taunts, asserting that he’s proved me wrong by the force of his intellect and invective.
For some reason he does seem to prey on authors other than you and Dan. Maybe it’s a jealousy thing; that he should be the one authoring here. And since we are soooooo far below his towering intellect, like a spurned suitor he instead must revile us, instead of join in honest discussions.
I’ve encouraged him to write posts for POWIP, doing what he has suggested; examining issues for solutions and resolutions instead of balkanized talking points recitations. But he won’t for some reason…
And I wonder, if I did, would he still put on his sir-spam-a-lot floor show, or come honestly to the debate.
It’s a tough question, bro…
Hock Thwooop! You want to debate! Reach for your debate pistol. I dare ya!
This here Rocketman-post is nothing but horseshit wrapped in hate boxed in lies.
He’s nothing but a pussy-ass coward for posting this horseshit. Pussies lie. Pussies are afraid of truth.
What does Scare Pee Bob’s wittle hate-spunking picture above his lie filled narrative have anything to do with the narrative? Nothing. It’s symbolic of his personal echo chamber of screaming lunatics that’s all.
I say Fuck Rocketman. I say Fuck most of the commentators here as well, they’re fuckin’ wretched scum.
Google GDP revisions and you’ll probably get the story of revisions done all at once to the entire GDP numbers from 2005 to 2007 (Teh BOOOOSH years!). That’s odd, that’ll create a small bit of commentary, and that’s because it ain’t one quarter revised down twice, which nary a word was uttered about on CNBC either Mon. or Tues. because it’s not newsworthy, and I’d know because that’s what I watch.
I called it out. And I called it right. Bob’s screed is yet in another long line of horsehit filled lie pies.
You people are half-insane. That’s the problem here. And you feed your budding insanity watery lies and horseshit.
You want a fact-checker? I’m your MAN!
Death Panels? Awarded Lie of the Year!
Bring me your broken lies, your huddled horseshit, I am Liberty! HAhaha!
Lastly, FUCK YOU.
(\__/)
(=’.'=)
(”)_(”)
Some real spittle-filled bile from the resident troll. I notice he didn’t actually comment about the content of the post – only attacked the messenger. That has become the only option open to “Progressives”.
The Q3 numbers are interesting, but hard to use as a gauge because of the goverment incentive programs mentioned. Q4 has Christmas spending, so it always tough to judge. I think Q1 will be telling. The holiday spirit will have worn off and its bills will come due, people and businesses will be digesting how health care “reform” is going to cost them, and the election year cycle starts.
I agree AD. It’s important to remember that a considerable amount of stimulus money will be spent in 2010 also, by design of the original bill, and who knows if that will continue to muddy the waters-so to speak. And as I said, the fools on Capitol Hill are talking about even more stimulus!
It’s clear that if the Obamacare bill does pass, that the additional tax burden will not be helpful in an already struggling economic environment.
And you’re also correct in that thor couldn’t speak to any of the substantive points, so he resorted to insult, as usual…
Uh, wrong-o, Bobbo. I clarified the point Meep troll attempted to make and showed what a Econ illiterate you are by exposing the fact that you didn’t know GDP numbers are constantly revised.
Oh Bobbo, who would you describe teh GDP numbers in 2008 that I posted? Yes, Bobbo, they were down, waaaaaaaaay down, in a sharp decline, as they say.
Oh Bobbo, a flattening out of GDP is still an hella improvement over teh rethuglidum engineered GDP collapse, is it not? Mmm! That was the game plan.
But I do agree with you that we needn’t so many deficit creating tax cuts in that stimulus package. Tax cuts bad, Bobbo not right in head.
who = how
oops
I never said that GDP numbers were never revused; indeed they often are, But rarely do they miss the mark as bad as they have now. Also people who are not Rethugs! suspect that the numbers were intentionally cooked so the lord Obamus could be hailed as the savior of the economy and proclaim that happy days were here again.
And of course the 2008 GDP were bad overall. When the Democrat engineered, CRA created, housing bubble burst it was to be expected, no?
What’s needed are serious spending cuts, mostly on the income redistributing entitlements, as well as tax cuts to really get the economy going, supply side style. Cut the corporate tax rate-which is now the second highest on Earth. Cut the capital gains tax rate, to encourage investment and risk taking. And cut the income taxes on the lower end of the upper brackets, so that small businesses that file their taxes that way have more of their money to, you know, hire people and expand commerce…
But Bobbo, this whole charade of your journalizing your right-wing bloggo bellowings has an unintended consequence. New housing starts missed the mark by a unusually wide mark today; they were expecting 6% up and they were 11% down. Clownbo, your exaggerated claims of the unheralded nature of the downward revision to GDP are just that, a dumb lie repeated by a gullible shill given to wild exaggerations, that’d be you, Bob. You look and read like a fool’s fool.
The NYT will never hire you. You’d fail wildy at journalism. Yours is a display of a detached personality sans willpower of intellect.
One doesn’t have to join the union to earn union scale wages if one works on the stimulus funded projects. That union wage scale will be paid is not a big win for Big Labor, Bob. Big Labor wins when they collect Big Dues, duuuh. Your inability to connect logic dots like these is, well, not the Bob Reed-face you’d like the world to know you by, not your best feature, not what you’d like archived for its comedic quality.
My uncle on my Mom’s side retired from the Air Force, Bob. He became a test pilot after Nam. A string of strokes and heartattacks later changed him. He went crazy, basically. From a decent guy based in far flung corners of the world who called Hawaii his home to a dude in a wheel chair babbling conspiracy theories in a lonely room in Amarillo. Sad. Are you leaving the parking lot, Bob?
You might be a swell fellow but I think you need your head’s pulse taken, and I say that as someone who cares about ya, Bob.
Well I appreciate the concern thor, but I assure you I feel OK.
And I just saw the new sales figure. I haven’t read all about it, so to speak, nor posted on it-yet, but it’s another sign that happy days aren’t exactly here, and maybe the first time homebuyers credit, as well as rising mortgage rates-especially for thise with less than stellar credit ratings and sizeable downpayments, have come together to earlier steal sales that may have otherwise happened last month.
But GDP estimates are not usually this far off, that’s the truth. And like Ms. Singer posits, there may have been some desire to gild the lily on the part of Commerce Department civil servants (read AFSCME-Democrats).
And read the executive order more closely. It’s not just about wages, but has as much to do with the-ahem-”structure” that the unions impose on the organizations they permeate, that is being used to justify essentially compelling federal agencies to favor union companies. Please do your homework onthis; at least read the links I provided upthread.
I mean, everyone knows that contractors on federal infrastructure projects have been compelled to pay union scale for years; a fact some of my entraprenuerial relatives bemoaned in DC. Didn’t you know that thor?
I never claimed to be a journalist, and probably wouldn’t want my name associated with the New York Times anyway. But at least I address issues rather than dodge, or attempt to deflect the discussion with ad hominem attacks.
So again, thanks for the concern; I worry about you too.
“And you’re also correct in that thor couldn’t speak to any of the substantive points, so he resorted to insult, as usual…”
And just to prove that point, here he comes and does just that. Oh well.
A second stimulus would be a self-inflicted wound for the Democrats. If it comes about, I’d be interested to find out if the Democrats did it because they were clueless that it wouldn’t help, or didn’t care what the people wanted but wanted to pay off their power brokers (some more).
Poor Bobbo, lost in a fog of lies and mysterious adult happenings in the big world of economics.
Where were you, Bobbo when Bush did all the things you describe in 2001? People invest when they think they’ll make money investing, same principle as when they’re apt to take risks, and neither has much to do with tax rates, Bobbo. Businesses hire people, for the most part, when they need to, when demand for their products calls for more labor to increase production, not taxes, Bobbo. And taxes are lower today than after Busheroooo’s 2001 tax cuts.
Pop, pop, pop go Bobbo’s balloons. You never took a class in Econ, much less taught one. Pop!
And you obviously never ran a small business. Big businesses “hire people, for the most part, when they need to, when demand for their products calls for more labor to increase production” – small businesses also need to take into account the real cost of labor (new employees). Most big businesses have other costs as their primary expenses – for small businesses it is labor. If you increase the business’s portion of the payroll tax, or health care, or FICA, or even corporate income tax, they can’t afford to hire another person. I run a small service business (retail goods is less than 3% of gross) – over 50% of our cost is labor. And we pay all our “employees” as contractors. If they were considered employees, it would raise their cost to over 75% of gross, and we’d have to let some go. I can’t imagine how more taxes on them would want to make me hire more of them. Just because you think you understand “business” doesn’t mean you actually know how to run one.
Bush never cut corporate tax rates.
thor, there’s a proven correlation between cutting tax rates and increases in the magnitude of taxes collected. You and Obama don’t want to do that though, because of the fairness; real world be damned…
More than 70% if the jobs, new and existing, in the nation are due to small businesses. Increasing their tax rates makes them choose between paying employees and paying their taxes; it most often results in reducing the number of employees. In unfavorable economic circumstances and an uncertain ta environment businesses that need to increase production will first ask their existing employees to work harder.
Face it thor, Obamacare will result in employers having to let some employees go in order to pay the additional tax burden they’ll have-or to choose from among the 4 government mandated plan “models”. Add to that the eventual tax increases to come, now that the phoney-in-chief has become “a deficit hawk, yo”; palaver he will repeat until the day he uses it as justification to raise taxes, because they certainly aren’t going to cut spending.
You’ve obviously never run a small business; I have many relatives that have, and am involved in one now. Labor compensation is the lions share of cost for most small businesses, and Obama and you want to make it cost even more. Just to expand the constituency of those who benefit by the redistribution of wealth, and cement a permanent indolent majority that will always approve of increasing the scope of government.
And I’m not talking about those like me who have served their time, and enjoying the benefits of a contract made long ago; whose requirements I lived up to and the benefits of which I now recieve. Exchanging goods for servoces is called employment. Redistributing wealth for political support is better called bribery!
Yeah bullshit. You’re a clueless clucker of lies.
Expenses and deductions are not hard to adjust and there’s a thousand pages of corp tax loopholes, you phony baloney man of gubomint handouts. Everyone who is anyone knows how to play the corp tax game, it’s why they hardly pay any, Chief Tomcat.
Your supply-side BS is all lies, proven time again, and liars like you are usually the biggest benefactors of redistributed wealth.
That’s a pimped lie. A really stupid one.
Magnitude? Huh?
You fuckin’ liar, Bob, you’ve been lie-smacked repeatedly when you stuttered this same stupid lie. Fuck you, it means you’re a liar beyond cure. Optimal tax rates, LIAR, remember my post regarding optimal rates?
You claiming you know anything about math? I cry bullshit. Anyone who knows math – simple x y graph – can understand a efficiency curve, what’s the high point on the efficiency curve of tax rates, Liar BOB? The optimal tax rate! Hint, it won’t be 0%, LIAR BOB.
I’ve run several small businesses, puppy banger. If price elasticity allows it then increases of payroll taxes are passed into pricing. If one forecasts they can add to their bottom line with additional employees then one should find a way to to add employees or get out of business. Primary is the bottom line, rule numero uno, though I’m not saying there aren’t secondary concerns such as the rising costs of health care that our current President is trying to bring under control for the benefit of businesses big and small, but it’s the bottom line first and foremost.
Tell us what you’ve run, chief.
I’ve run everything from a small brokerage firm to a server company, chief.
What have you run, outside of your mouth, ahahhaha.
You mean like that server company in Canada I traced you to?
And, how did you have time for all that, considering you went to graduate school and sat at that bloomberg terminal for 15 years..?
I mean, you once told me you were too young to vote in the 80’s, or 1980 particularly I believe.
Just how did you find the time to do all that, as well as live in Moscow post-communism, and all of the other “anecdotes” you’ve related to us..?
I guess you were moving faster than the speed of light, and made good use of the time dilation; you know what that is, right?
Bobbo and his empty life. I was never involved with any server company in Canada, douchebag. Me and my buddy in Cali set up our own company that sold Tyan EOL server equipment, we did that for a little over a year, wowee. I was in grad school at the time. We did reboards and buildouts but mostly we bought server chasises and, get this, sold them for an amazing profit, mostly to European buyers.
Yeah, I lived in Moscow for almost three years. I’d tell you more, but, pssst, top secret! Hahaha.
And what if you don’t enjoy much “price elasticity”? What do you do when someone like Obama increases your tax burden? You have to cut back on expenses, or go out of business.
The primary expense of most small businesses is labor. Connect the dots…
Then your competitors who share the same payroll taxe rates have engaged in competitive pricing that you have no ability to compete against. You fail! Driven out by more efficient capitalists!
Haha.
You excuse-ridden fantasies go against Adam Smith’s self-interest theory.
When s-t cap gains were 40% under Clinton there was much higher s-t stock trading activity than there is today when the cap gains rate is 20%. It’s fact, when people think they can make a profit they’ll risk capital, taxes are not primary to the decision to act, they can help, but they’re not primary. Profit is primary.
That’s because of the dot-com bubble inflating. And more reputable business folks than an anonymous internet superman have taken the position that fear of taxation under Obama is what’s holding back the job market.
They have no idea how high “up” is.
Bobbo, the internet Tomcatter without a clue is here to tell us how it is, and it’s fear people, not a worldwide economic slowdown, but fear of the BLACK PRESIDENT – OHNOES!!!
Wonnie Reagan’s severed head in lying at the bottom pit of hell as I type! Fear that!
Addressing me with insults automatically invalidates any truthful or valid points you may have made. Incivility means you have no logic or truth to support your position.
Restate your comment in civil (or at least neutral) terms, or you are ignored.
Did you hear something, Bob?
Whatevers, puppy peddler.