Updated June 10, 2019 –
Economic hope is one reason why the economy, stock market and consumer confidence have soared since the election of Donald Trump.
America’s precarious position has almost been forgotten — after two terms of the Obama Administration — there was the possibility of a double-dip recession.
Fourteen million Americans were unable to find a family wage job. For many available jobs, Americans lacked education and skills to meet the specific needs of employers. Some 43 million Americans have been receiving food stamps.
Until President Trump enacted his economic policies of deregulation of onerous policies and tax reform, many big businesses were slow to hire. They had healthy balance sheets after paying down debt so they were hoarding cash.
Most small businesses didn’t have adequate credit and couldn’t expand.
Polls by the National Federation of Independent Business and other organizations showed small business owners have been angry about ObamaCare, which has threatened their ability to stay in business.
Consumers have been stunned by high food prices. Mortgage debt stressed many homeowners.
And they were angry because of gluttonous Wall Street chicanery, and the so-called leadership in Washington hadn’t balanced the budget since the Clinton years.
Voters want lawmakers to tackle urgent economic problems. Instead, only a minority of federal policymakers has an adequate understanding of economic-growth principles, and they have the image of acting like a ruling class at the public trough.
The Obama Administration never produced any sound economic solutions.
Did I leave anything out?
Morale-busting headline
Consumers and small business owners were angered by a Bloomberg headline: “CEOs Earned More Than U.S. Companies’ Tax Bills, Study Finds.” Incredibly, the Institute for Policy Studies issued a report divulging that 25 chief executives were paid more in 2010 than their companies actually paid in federal taxes.
The report showed such companies averaged $1.9 billion in global profits. They included Boeing, Ebay, Cablevision Systems, and Verizon. What’s worse, while their CEOs were paid in the seven figures, some companies received government tax refunds.
The Institute for Policy Studies’ examples:
- Cablevision CEO James Dolan was paid $13.2 million, but the company had a $3 million corporate income tax benefit.
- eBay CEO John J. Donahoe received $12.4 million while his firm got $131 million in tax write-offs.
- Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg was compensated $18.1 million and his company netted $705 million in tax benefits.
The Bloomberg article also reported a study by another nonprofit group, Citizens for Tax Justice. It claimed 11 companies received $62 billion in domestic profits, but only paid a “negative 3.6 percent tax rate in 2010.”
True, the U.S. has had a high corporate tax rate, but it was negated by countless loopholes.
Job stimulus is anything but
Another disturbing headline: “Study: Half of Hired Stimulus Workers Were Already Employed.”
The Obama federal-jobs stimulus was not well-designed because the stimulus only resulted in job shifting. But that’s what happened, according to the study by George Mason University.
Even though workers had jobs, they were hired by other firms – with the help of stimulus funds. The government led us to believe new jobs were being created, but 47.3 percent of the workers already had jobs.
How could new consumers’ money enter and circulate in the economy, if we’re merely moving workers around?
Clearly, what has been needed is widespread economic patriotism:
- Public policy has to become productive – money for jobs and has to be invested for economic development, not wasted.
- Voters have to elect representatives who understand basic economics and who will work for the common welfare of this great nation.
- Parents should encourage their children to take advantage of educational or training opportunities.
- Workers should understand inertia doesn’t work – they need to adapt so that their skills match employers’ needs, especially in artificial intelligence.
When progress is made in these areas, instead of Millennial interest in socialism, higher confidence in the free-enterprise economy will return.
From the Coach’s Corner, here’s more:
Artificial Intelligence: U.S. Lags Behind in Educating Students – Study — America’s educators rank just ninth among all nations in terms of preparing students for the real world of automation, according to a study released by a research group associated with The Economist magazine. Here are some solutions.
Both Democrats and Republicans Endanger U.S. Economy — Have we not learned any lessons from the horrors of the Great Recession from a decade ago? Apparently not.
“You can always count on Americans to do the right thing — after they’ve tried everything else.”
– Winston Churchill
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