Happy Friday! We have a lovely new issue out, with the cover story by former TWSer, current Free Beacon bigwig, and Weekly Substandard podcast co-host Sonny Bunch. It’s about the abundance of television #content available to people in the present day. Will any/much of this content endure, or is…
The Federal Reserve raised a key interest rate for only the second time since 2008 Wednesday, and left its economic projections mostly unchanged despite granting the uncertainty of how Donald Trump's economic policies could alter the economy and its future decision-making.
In the wake of the miserable May jobs report and the even more miserable first-quarter GDP numbers, Hillary Clinton revealed her long-awaited agenda to fix the economy: Raise the minimum wage; hike taxes on the rich; and spend a quarter-trillion dollars more on public works. Clinton is calling for…
Jeb Bush has said Donald Trump "should be treated like the frontrunner" for the Republican nomination. On Tuesday, the Bush campaign continues to do just that with a short web video aimed squarely at the leading GOP contender's past "liberal" views on taxes, health care, and abortion as well as…
The state of North Carolina is investigating a potential conflict of interest involving Democratic senator Kay Hagan. Fox 46 in Charlotte reports:
Rebecca Kaplan of CBS reports that the White House has an explanation for why Ron Klain was appointed "Ebola Czar.” It’s very simple. You see:
A new ad from Republican Senate candidate Thom Tillis of North Carolina targets his Democratic opponent, Kay Hagan, for voting for the federal stimulus bill that awarded a grant to a company owned by Hagan's husband. Watch the video below:
A company owned by the husband of Democratic senator Kay Hagan of North Carolina received taxpayer money for a green energy project through the federal stimulus of 2009, later revising down the project's estimated cost and keeping the difference.
In 2009, the Obama administration made news with an $18 million, five year contract to redesign Recovery.gov, the website the government set up to allow taxpayers to track the stimulus spending enacted by the president and Congress soon after President Obama took office. On Wednesday, notice of…
Tokyo
Spare a bit of sympathy for the Federal Reserve Board’s monetary policy gurus. They have said they will begin to “taper” their purchases of bonds and mortgages when the unemployment rate falls to 6.5 percent. So July’s dip from 7.5 to 7.4 percent, the lowest rate since December 2008, should edge…
Despite an admission by the Department of Transportation (DOT) that the Federal-aid Highway Programs under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) are "susceptible to significant improper payments," the DOT Inspector General (IG) has terminated an audit initiated in April "due to other…
Vice President Joe Biden says that of first term accomplishments, he's "proudest" of the stimulus. He made the comment in an interview to Rolling Stone magazine.
The details of a stimulus grant awarded to Indiana University to study condom use have now been released on a government website. The study, titled "Barriers to Correct Condom Use," is now completed, according to the website, and the university received $423,500 of stimulus funds to perform the…
Have you heard much about President Obama’s $787,000,000,000 economic “stimulus” (now estimated to cost $831,000,000,000) lately? In its last report, published in 2011, the president’s own Council of Economic Advisors released an estimate showing that, for every $317,000 in “stimulus” spending…
Bob Casey, the incumbent Democratic senator from Pennsylvania suddenly caught in a tough reelection fight, fought to secure $90 million in taxpayer funds for the Philadelphia Housing Authority as part of the 2009 stimulus law. But those funds Casey secured have come under increased scrutiny. C.J.…
The $831,000,000,000 economic “stimulus” that President Obama spearheaded and signed into law requires his administration to release quarterly reports on its effects. But “the most transparent administration in the history of our country” is now four reports behind schedule and has so far not…
The NBC affiliate in Grand Rapids filed this report on the stimulus-receiving battery company, LG Chem:
Here are five questions as we head into the first presidential debate of 2012:
In an interview at a CNBC conference, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner blamed Europe for America's economic slowdown.
Yesterday, Jay Cost discussed President Obama’s problem with independents, noting that Obama started to lose independents by the truckload when the debate over Obamacare heated up and “has never won [them] back.” Today, a new Quinnipiac poll further highlights the extent of the trouble that Obama…
Former White House economic adviser Jared Bernstein gave some advice on running "clean energy" firms in Las Vegas today and admitted that these sorts of ventures don't actually create many jobs.
Peter Suderman: "CBO on the Stimulus: 'A net negative effect on the growth of GDP over 10 years.'"
The Washington Post reports on newly released emails that reveal "the Obama administration urged officers of the struggling solar company Solyndra to postpone announcing planned layoffs until after the November 2010 midterm elections"
New York Times: "Pro-American Militia Members Die in Blast in Iraq"
Politico reports:
Thankfully, at least one man in the federal government has been awfully busy on behalf of the American taxpayer:
As President Obama travels around the country at taxpayer expense to peddle his newest stimulus proposal, his Council of Economic Advisors has yet to release its 8th Quarterly Report on Obama’s first stimulus — you know, the one that cost a cool $787,000,000,000.00. Perhaps this is just a…
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) will be moving forward this week on a piece of President Obama's failed jobs bill--a $35 billion provision of state aid for education and first responders. But Reid told reporters today that some of the education money may not go to actually saving the…
In Flint, Michigan, Vice President Joe Biden suggested that more rapes and murders could occur if President Barack Obama's jobs bill is not passed.
ABC News reports that during an interview with David Muir yesterday concerning President Obama’s $447 billion jobs bill, “Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner didn’t dispute a Harvard economist’s estimate that each job in the White House’s jobs plan would cost $200,000, but said” — mysteriously…
The Washington Post reports that the stimulus-backed Department of Energy loan guarantee program, which financed green energy companies like the failed solar energy start-up Solyndra and three projects for the Abengoa corporation, has created far fewer jobs than the Obama administration projected:
Even as problems grow for Solyndra, the solar energy manufacturing firm that got a hefty stimulus-backed loan before going bankrupt earlier this month, the Department of Energy continues to issue large loans to companies. The Los Angeles Times reports on a newly approved loan of $1.2 billion to the…
Two big stories are out tonight on the blossoming scandal involving failed solar panel company and stimulus funds recipient Solyndra. First, the Washington Post reports that the White House pressured the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to speed up the approval process for Solyndra's $535…
First, we had the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, or ARRA. Now, we have the American Jobs Act, or AJA.
On CNBC this morning, Paul Ryan discussed President Obama's stimulus speech and explained the problem with most of Obama's proposed tax cuts: They're temporary.
In a speech to a joint session of Congress this evening, President Obama introduced a $450 billion stimulus proposal plan he claimed would get Americans back to work. "There should be nothing controversial about this piece of legislation. Everything in here is the kind of proposal that’s been…
If the president’s Labor Day speech at a General Motors plant in Detroit is any indication, Barack Obama may be hoping to use his administration’s cozy relationship with Big Auto as a boon to his reelection campaign, especially since his efforts to boost the economy and cut unemployment have fallen…
Wall Street Journal: Latest Fast and Furious development -- did ATF sanction dealing grenades to Mexican cartels?
Solyndra, the stimulus-backed green energy firm filing for bankruptcy, had a fairly cozy relationship with the Obama administration. The company's Fremont, California plant was the setting for a May 2010 speech by President Obama, where he touted the stimulus and its development of green…
At his jobs address to a joint session of Congress next Thursday, President Barack Obama might want to skip any mention of his green jobs initiative. The Bay Area's NBC affiliate reports that a high-profile green start-up called Solyndra, which benefited from federal loans from the stimulus…
The Mercatus Center at George Mason University has just released an important new study on the hiring practices of firms that used stimulus funds. It's fairly comprehensive, based on over 1,300 surveys of managers and employees. There's been very little good empirical data on the stimulus thus far,…
On MSNBC's Morning Joe today, economist Jeffrey Sachs, a self-professed supporter of Barack Obama in 2008, said the president has no plan to save the economy and that "there's never been a plan."
Last month, I wrote that President Obama’s own handpicked Council of Economic Advisors had released an estimate that the president’s economic “stimulus” had added or saved just one job for every $278,000 of taxpayer money spent. Obama’s economists said the “stimulus” had cost $666 billion to date…
None. That’s the total of on-the-other-hand good news I have to report this week. Lest you think I am overlooking the debt deal cut in Washington last week, consider this:
Bill Kristol, with John Podesta, Liz Cheney and Juan Williams, yesterday on Fox News:
"Shovel-ready was not as shovel-ready as we expected," President Obama joked earlier this month at a Jobs and Competitiveness Council in North Carolina. The joke was in reference to a key element of the president's failed stimulus plan, which was meant to provide cash for quick projects that in…
"A bill to require California public schools to teach the historical accomplishments of gay men and lesbians passed the state Legislature on Tuesday in what supporters call a first for the nation."
Earlier today, James Pethokoukis noted THE WEEKLY STANDARD is hardly alone in pronouncing the stimulus a failure:
On Sunday, I noted that an estimate from President Obama’s own economists shows that the economic “stimulus” has cost taxpayers $278,000 per job and that, without the “stimulus,” 288,000 additional jobs would have been added or saved over the past six months. Yesterday, the White House fired back.…
When the Obama administration releases a report on the Friday before a long weekend, it’s clearly not trying to draw attention to the report’s contents. Sure enough, the “Seventh Quarterly Report” on the economic impact of the “stimulus,” released on Friday, July 1, provides further evidence that…
"Obama campaign to go on the offensive against conservative critics of Israel stance"
"Is Hugo Chavez Dying?"
It’s easy to get caught up in the details of the political battle of the day over the nation’s economic and fiscal health—after all, that’s what we do in Washington. Unfortunately, many of our decision-makers and opinion leaders possess the skills required for political infighting in greater…
Senator Jeff Sessions, arguing against what is now a meme on the left (that the stimulus didn't work because it was too small):
Because it worked so well last time around:
The Washington Post is up and running with this story on a report about GOP budget cuts, which lost me in paragraph three:
Many lament the poor state of our economy. But those poor souls, oh how they miss the good in the bad recession:
Earlier this week, President Obama proposed another round of stimulus spending, aiming to boost the sagging economy and—he vainly hopes—his party’s slumping political fortunes.
How unpopular has Obama's economic agenda become? Democratic Senate candidate Dick Blumenthal--in deep blue Connecticut--says he would have opposed the stimulus. Via The Hotline's Josh Kraushaar, the Connecticut Mirror reports:
Andrew Ross Sorkin has a very interesting column this week examining the signal sent by GM’s purchase of AmeriCredit. The short answer: GM looks like it’s trying to revive the old patterns of demand before the recession. It’s doing so by following some of the same business practices that led to…
There is a very good reason why the White House – even with a generally complicit media – is having trouble persuading Americans that the stimulus spending is creating jobs: There seems to be an enormous disconnect between local economic development and creating net new jobs on a national basis.