"Mitt Romney, President Obama spend big in Mass.; Campaigns add $45m to economy" by Callum Borchers | Globe Correspondent, June 13, 2012
The campaigns of Mitt Romney and Barack Obama have paid a combined $45 million to businesses and consultants from Massachusetts, making the Bay State the nation’s number one recipient of presidential campaign spending by a long shot.
If big-money politics is a bad thing - as three-quarters of Americans believe it is, according to a recent Reuters/Ipsos poll - this is its silver lining....
Some of the money spent here has ended up in other states. But....
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Related(?): Summer camps are ‘economic engine’ for Mass., Northeast
I'd rather not go to summer camp 'round h're, thanks. It brings up painful memories that I never thought twice about.
Massachusetts day care centers bounce back as parents return to work
Massachusetts jobless rate declines to 6% in May
Seriously, Boston Globe?
Must be the consultants because there are no jobs around here.
"In May, US grew gloomier about economy" by Mae Anderson | Associated Press, May 30, 2012
NEW YORK — Americans grew much gloomier about the economy in May, causing a critical measure of consumer confidence to suffer its biggest decline in eight months and ending a period of steady optimism.
Worries about jobs, housing, and the stock market rattled consumers, even though gas prices are falling. The latest figures suggest Americans will need to see more encouraging signs before their concerns start to dissipate....
Consumer confidence is widely watched because consumer spending accounts for 70 percent of economic activity. May’s figure is significantly below the 90 reading that indicates a healthy economy. The measure hasn’t been near that level since December 2007. But the latest reading is still well above the 40 figure in October and the record low of 25.3 in February 2009....
And we have been told three years of recover... oh, never f***ing mind, sigh.
Hiring picked up earlier in the year, but slowed in March and April, possibly indicating the economy’s momentum faded in early spring. Economists say a warm winter led employers to move up some hiring.
PFFFFFFFFTTTTTT!!!!
They think we will believe anything, or they just don't care about serving up shit lies.
A clearer picture of the jobs market will emerge Friday, when May employment figures are due. The US unemployment rate is expected to remain at 8.1 percent for May.
Adding to Americans’ job concerns, the stock market in May is on track for its worst month since September. But on Tuesday, Wall Street seemed to shrug off the report. The Dow Jones industrial average closed up 1 percent.
I don't judge the Dow as representative of the economy since it is the average of top 30 hand-picked firms.
That indicates investors may be more confident in the economic recovery than consumers, said John Lonski, chief economist of Moody’s.
Why not? They are the ones who made all the money.
Investors may have been paying closer attention to the much sunnier Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan index of consumer sentiment that came out Friday. That index jumped to 79.3 in May for its best reading since October 2007 — two months before the recession began.
My notes in the margin of the paper consist of one word: crap
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And that jobs report?
"Dismal jobs report stirs fears of slide; Markets dive, as global jitters keep growing" by Megan Woolhouse | Globe Staff, June 02, 2012
The weakest national job growth in a year sent stock prices tumbling Friday and raised concerns about a stalling US economy and a broader global slowdown.
After a strong start this year, the national economy has produced three months of anemic job growth. Employers added a meager 69,000 jobs in May, while the unemployment rate rose for the first time since last summer, to 8.2 percent from 8.1 percent in April.
“It’s disappointing,” said John Silvia, chief economist for Wells
Fargo Co. in Charlotte, N.C. “The expectation was we’d see more
sustained growth. There really aren’t any bright spots for
employment.”
Then there never was a recovery.
Investors, already skittish from a worsening financial crisis in Europe, also failed to see bright spots. The Dow Jones industrial average suffered its worst one-day loss of the year, dropping 274.88 points to close at 12,118.57. Stock markets in Europe and Asia also sustained steep losses.
Then there never was a recovery.
Investors, already skittish from a worsening financial crisis in Europe, also failed to see bright spots. The Dow Jones industrial average suffered its worst one-day loss of the year, dropping 274.88 points to close at 12,118.57. Stock markets in Europe and Asia also sustained steep losses.
The employment report was a setback not just to job seekers, but also to President Obama, whose reelection chances are widely viewed as tied to the economic recovery. Meanwhile, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, the presumptive Republican nominee, seized on the weakening labor market to blast Obama’s policies.
This is the third consecutive year that has started with strong job growth — the nation added more than 500,000 jobs in the first two months of 2012 — only to give way to a dispiriting slowdown. Economists said a warmer than usual winter may have prompted businesses to hire earlier than they usually do, and cut back in the spring, accounting for some of the slowdown.
What CRAP!!!!
But deep political uncertainty in the United States, where big tax increases and steep budget cuts are scheduled to take effect early next year, and the ongoing crisis in Europe have also weighed on the economy.
The crisis in Europe started with concerns over the mounting debt in some nations and has begun to spread to the banking system, raising fears of a global financial meltdown similar to the one that began on Wall Street in 2008.
So it has been FIVE YEARS and TRILLIONS SPENT and we are RIGHT BACK WHERE WE STARTED?
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh!!!
Sung Won Sohn, an economist at California State University, said the impact of the European crisis, which he said is “getting worse every day,” is particularly far-reaching. For example, China has been a locomotive of the global economy, but its top export destination is Europe, where demand has declined.
Weaker exports have led to slower manufacturing growth in China, which in turn has hurt economies in places such as Brazil and South Korea, which sell raw materials to China.
“The perception that the global economy is falling apart is affecting US business psychology negatively,” said Sohn. “Businesses are saying, ‘I better be cautious about hiring people because Europe is in bad shape, China is experiencing a slowdown, and Latin America can’t sell commodities. So let’s batten down the hatches.’ ”
That's one reason why globalization was a bad idea from the start.
Federal Reserve policy makers are expected to consider additional measures to stimulate the economy when they meet later this month. The Fed has held its key short-term interest rate near zero for more than three years and bought Treasuries and other bonds to help lower long-term rates, such as mortgages. Some analysts have suggested that the Fed might launch a new round of bond purchases to further lower rates to encourage consumers to spend, and businesses to expand and hire....
Yeah, let's return to the SAME FAILED POLICIES!!
Massachusetts weathered the recession better than the nation as a whole and has generally recovered faster. A forecast released this week by the New England Economic Partnership, a nonprofit group of economists, projected slow, but steady job growth for the state over the next few years.
I'm sorry, readers, but I'm SICK of the AGENDA-PUSHING LIES regarding the ECONOMY!
It has REACHED the POINT of CRIMINALITY!!!!
The state’s unemployment rate, 6.3 percent in April, remains well below the national rate. The state releases May employment figures in about two weeks.
The Massachusetts economy has added jobs in each of the past five months, but executives at local staffing firms said they see some areas of concern. Outside of hot industries such as technology, health care, and education, hiring has concentrated on filling vacant jobs, not adding new positions, said Aaron Green, president of Professional Staffing Group of Boston.
In addition, he said, businesses are moving cautiously in converting temporary workers to full-time employees.
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Also see:
US growth slower than thought
Retailers post better-than-expected sales
Nothing I like more than a pair of contradictory articles right next to each other.
Recession shrank family wealth in the US
Then there never was a recovery.
Cheaper gas yet to spark spending
That's because WE HAVE NO MONEY!!
Home construction nears 3-year high
Housing prices may soon start to increase
Then again they may not seeing as foreclosures rose to the "the highest level in nearly two years."
Updates: Massachusetts foreclosure activity rose in May
Mass. foreclosures up 32% in May
I hope you understand why I've stopped reading the Boston Globe's business section, readers.
Next Day Update:
"Job growth may sputter amid gains in worker productivity" by Alex Kowalski | Bloomberg News, June 21, 2012
WASHINGTON — Ellen Zentner, a senior economist at Nomura Securities International Inc., said, “As the rate of productivity normalizes, businesses won’t need to hire as many workers. The level of job growth we’ve been getting over the past few months is probably pretty normal.”
Welcome to the new economy, Americans, where mouthpiece media lies and excuses are the currency.
It's never getting better for you, folks. The Grand Depression -- as history will record it, for I am history's judge in real time -- is here to stay.
The Fed said it is expanding its Operation Twist program to replace short-term bonds with longer-term debt by $267 billion through the end of the year in a bid to reduce unemployment and protect the expansion....
You know, that didn't work five years ago, and putting taxpayers on the hook for more $$$ isn't going to help.
Btw, it's called Twist because they are twisting the knife they plunged into your bailout-broken back, Americans.
The slowdown in productivity and increase in expenses occurred as companies brought headcounts in line with demand, correcting over-aggressive firings during the 2007-2009 recession, said Robert Gordon, a professor at Northwestern University who has researched the ebb and flow of US productivity.
WTF is that guy smoking? Even the propaganda press admits the jobs never came back.
Productivity growth will return to a trend of 1.2 percent to 1.4 percent per year, which means job creation will be slower for any given pace of economic growth in the next year or two compared with 2010 or 2011, projected Gordon, also a member of the National Bureau of Economic Research committee that determines when recessions begin and end.
What job creation, I mean really!!?! This is REALLY GETTING TIRESOME and is ANGERING ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Related: "Corporate profits have risen 58 percent since mid-2009" and "corporate profits set a post World War II record last year."
Oh, yeah, did I mention big banks are booming and oil companies are doing just fine?
Btw, these the same guys that hid the beginning of the Grand Depression for months until just before the 2008 election? Yeah, just checking.
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You can't say I never gave them a second -- or third, or fourth, or fifth -- chance.
