Economy and Trade

Hidden in the 2,300 plus pages of the Dodd-Frank financial regulation bill is a provision that could give special interests increasing control of the management of our nation’s publicly traded corporations.  Under the false pretense of increasing shareholder input, via the proxy mechanism, Section 971 of the bill gives the Securities and Exchange Commission the power to require publicly traded companies to fund the campaign of outside nominees for the board of directors.  While that nominee would have to be proposed by a shareholder, the intent of “proxy access” is to allow unions

The headline blares “Obama endorses deficit commission plan”, but as Politico points out, “the endorsement comes so late that it risks being seen as just a ploy to win over swing Democratic senators whose votes the White House needs to lift the federal debt ceiling.”

Just released from the Congressional Budget Office:

"CBO's current estimate of ARRA's budgetary impact over the period 2009-2019 – a total increase of deficits of $862 billion – is about $75 billion greater than the agency originally estimated." (Source: Budget and Economic Outlook, 2010-2020, pg. 98)

Investor's Business Daily Editorial, January 22, 2010

For the past year, Democrats have used the "European model" as their template for change in the U.S. A new report on productivity shows why that might not be such a hot idea.

A mere eleven months ago when the Obama Administration was new and hype was the name of the game, Congress handed the new President a $787 billion blank check made out to “Stimulus”. Obama and his team of economic soothsayers said it would save America from economic catastrophe, and keep unemployment from rising beyond the unthinkably high level of 8.0 percent. Additionally, Obama introduced a new matrix in labor statistical analysis by promising that the legislation would “save-or-create” 3.5 million jobs.

"So one of the central goals of this administration is restoring fiscal responsibility....I'm still committed to halving the deficit we inherited by the end of my first term -- cutting it in half. "

Barack Obama, Brookings Institute, Dec. 8, 2009

From the Associated Press By MATT APUZZO and BRETT J. BLACKLEDGE WASHINGTON - Ten months into President Barack Obama's first economic stimulus plan, a surge in spending on roads and bridges has had no effect on local unemployment and only barely helped the beleaguered construction industry, an Associated Press analysis has found.

By Brian Anderson, Contributing Editor

Yesterday’s jobs report finally offered a little bit of good news. Now if Washington can resist “fixing it” any more. For your weekend reading we commend two on-point editorials. The first from the Wall Street Journal contains this sage piece of advice:

"We're not going to rest until we have seen not just a technical improvement in GDP, but until the American people's job prospects, their incomes have rebounded.”

Barack Obama, July 31, 2009