Patterico's Pontifications

Almost everybody I know in my offline life is a Democrat. They all blame this current economy on Bush and the Republicans. They say the Bush damage was so deep and dire that they never expected BHO to be able to fix it. I’m dead serious: that’s what they say.

gp (5a38d9) — 4/5/2013 @ 8:53 am

Democrats also say that OJ didn’t it, that Slick Willie didn’t inhale, and that ObamaCare would reduce health costs.

With my apologies to the poet:

Write Democrats’ words in sand and running water.

ropelight (841170) — 4/5/2013 @ 8:58 am

But the unemployment rate dropped*, Patterico!

*Aided by a half-million people leaving the workforce and probably going on “disability”.

bridget (84c06f) — 4/5/2013 @ 9:00 am

Forward, over the cliff.

Kevin P. (1df29c) — 4/5/2013 @ 9:13 am

pivot pivot

happyfeet (c60db2) — 4/5/2013 @ 10:07 am

With the economy showing signs of slowing, naturally Dear Leader wants to increases taxes yet again. Fortunately, it appears that Boehner is unwilling to play that game this time around.

JVW (4826a9) — 4/5/2013 @ 10:33 am

I agree, gp, the liberals I know say that too. And they are livid with any facts to the contrary.

I gauge the economy by the parking lots in downtown L.A. Pre-recession, they were full, and valets were in the street directing traffic trying to get one more car in. Now? No valets. Half empty lots.

Patricia (be0117) — 4/5/2013 @ 10:45 am

I gauge the economy by the parking lots in downtown L.A. Pre-recession, they were full, and valets were in the street directing traffic trying to get one more car in. Now? No valets. Half empty lots.

You can do the same thing with the freeways. I was struck how in 2008 they suddenly were noticeably less congested.

JVW (4826a9) — 4/5/2013 @ 10:52 am

And I can gauge it by how many trains pass my plant on the adjacent tracks. I am seeing a lot more scrap metal pass by.

The Dana who runs a concrete plant (3e4784) — 4/5/2013 @ 12:29 pm

The damage from Bush was so bad
That we really ought to be glad
That we have BO
To make things go
So that we will no longer be sad!

The Limerick Avenger (3e4784) — 4/5/2013 @ 12:35 pm

For gp’s real-life friends:

We know that it’s all
Bush’s fault, so don’t blame O;
He will save us all!

The Senryu Avenger (3e4784) — 4/5/2013 @ 12:37 pm

For gp’s real-life friends:

There’s nothing Obama could do
To fix George Bush’s royal screw
It’s really a sin
To not worship him,
The man who’ll save me and you!

The Limerick Avenger (3e4784) — 4/5/2013 @ 12:40 pm

1. Yawn. Russia and China are doing better than we are, they have better Central Planners, better workforces?

Russia is arguably more capitalist to boot.

There has been no improvement, no recovery in any lasting facet. We are in decline as the rest of the world is in decline.

You saying Booosh could not have done better? What are you basing that sentiment on for the empiricist.

gary gulrud (dd7d4e) — 4/5/2013 @ 1:14 pm

Here are a couple of questions for any Obama supporters who want to tackle them:

No. 1 – What, specifically, is it in Obama’s background and/or experience that makes you think he is qualified to address an issue as complicated and as vast as the U.S. economy?

No. 2 – Has it EVER occurred to you – even for a SECOND – that this job MIGHT be beyond Obama’s capabilities?

Whitey Nisson (0a4839) — 4/5/2013 @ 2:04 pm

Americans are well aware that the economy is not doing nearly as well as we would like, but one month of downside data does not a trend make.

However, we are preparing to steepen this downturn by having the mindless sequester kick in, because our representatives in Congress could not get their respective acts in gear in order to intelligently manage our economy better during this continuing crisis.

To me managing our economy better means continuing to stimulate job growth, as President Obama tried to do in 2011 with the American Jobs Act, which was blocked by Republicans in the Senate.

The Republican solution is austerity, still, in spite of the record of austerity in the UK, which has made their economy worse, and is in fact in the process of producing a triple-dip recession.

Instead of the sequester, which can be cut anytime Congress decides to do so, we need to revive the idea of an American Jobs Act, in my view.

Perry (304b25) — 4/5/2013 @ 2:11 pm

Perry, one month of downside data?

You are clueless. We’ve had four years of bad employment data.

Even the Federal Reserve admits that the sequester is too small to be noticeable in GDP data. And Obama had the power to propose spending cuts to replace the sequester, and failed to do so. The failure of Obama’s trillion dollar “stimulus” already showed that Democrat pork barrel spending fails to drive job growth – especially since it probably cost more jobs than it “created or saved”.

You just keep repeating lies.

SPQR (768505) — 4/5/2013 @ 2:14 pm

Yep, what we need are more of Democrats’ job killing pork barrel spending programs.

After all, what’s another million jobs lost?

SPQR (768505) — 4/5/2013 @ 2:17 pm

On the other hand, approving the Keystone pipeline would be nice and would serve to immediately add some good jobs into the nation’s economy.

elissa (3e20bd) — 4/5/2013 @ 2:24 pm

Obama needs to pivot his laser-like focus back to jobs for the _th time!!!!!

daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 4/5/2013 @ 2:26 pm

Fisker’s done.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/afontevecchia/2013/04/05/with-frozen-doe-loan-payment-looming-electric-automaker-fisker-auto-lays-off-workforce-reports/

elissa (3e20bd) — 4/5/2013 @ 2:27 pm

Obama wants us to keep trading cows for magic beans to solve all our problems.

Damn beanstalks will have a giant and a golden-egg laying goose next time!

SPQR (768505) — 4/5/2013 @ 2:32 pm

Perry is demonstrably stupid. And dishonest.

JD (925fd6) — 4/5/2013 @ 2:47 pm

SPQR@17:

A two year old report covering data up through 2010 hardly describes where the economy is today.

@16:

We’ve experienced steady job growth once the great recession Obama inherited bottomed out in 2009. However, it has not been enough.

It has not been enough because Republicans opposed continuing stimulus actions, but for the first one, which I believe has been a terrible mistake.

I hope we are not headed for a double-dip recession. Sequestration and austerity is not a current solution: See the UK.

I favor continued stimulation, like the AJA, followed by gradually increased austerity once more robust growth happens.

President Obama’s budget, to be announced soon, calls for another $1.8 trillion, when added to the $2.5 trillion already enacted into law, a total of $4.3 in the next ten years. He also wants $800 billion more in revenue, which is a ratio of 2.5 in cuts to 1.0 in revenue.

This is a centrist budget. What pray-tell is wrong with that?

If Republicans don’t move to the center, you folks might as well forget 2016, maybe even 2014 as well!

Perry (304b25) — 4/5/2013 @ 2:50 pm

Perry, you are an idiot. The report shows the failure utter failure of Democrat pork.

SPQR (2729d9) — 4/5/2013 @ 3:15 pm

Perry, you keep coming up with one knee-slapper after another.

Steve57 (be3310) — 4/5/2013 @ 3:19 pm

President Obama’s “budget” which supposedly includes chained CPI is already being attacked by many Dem and Prog politicians and pundits. For exmple:

Moveon.org’s executive director Anna Galland told the New York Times today, “President Obama’s plan to cut Social Security would harm seniors who worked hard all their lives,” lamenting that “the drive to cut Social Security is being led by President Obama and Democrats.”

Senate majority leader Harry Reid adamantly refused a White House proposal that included chained CPI during last year’s fiscal-cliff negotiations, according to the Washington Post:
“Aides said Reid actually tore up the proposal and threw it into the blazing fire in his ornate green marble fireplace. The paper burned. Reid said he didn’t want evidence that the idea had ever been considered.”

Blue on blue fight club. Oh my. It certainly appears all the political fractures are not in team R.

elissa (3e20bd) — 4/5/2013 @ 3:23 pm

Poor Evita…er, Michelle. I haz a sad!

Patricia (be0117) — 4/5/2013 @ 3:28 pm

More taxes is not centrist. Centrists want spending cuts.

SPQR (2729d9) — 4/5/2013 @ 3:30 pm

Has Periwinkle ever had an original thought,
or does he have to borrow The Stupid also?

askeptic (b8ab92) — 4/5/2013 @ 3:54 pm

I hope we are not headed for a double-dip recession…..
Difficult to do if one has not exited the first dip.

askeptic (b8ab92) — 4/5/2013 @ 3:56 pm

I’ve already in other threads noted concrete evidence that Obama’s policies have directly caused our failure to see significant economic recovery. Perry does not read them. Which surprised no one given how often we’ve found his own links discredit his talking points.

SPQR (768505) — 4/5/2013 @ 4:15 pm

If Obama was a physicist, he’d be spending all his time on perpetual-motion machines. His ideas are so impervious to results that it is a bit amazing, actually.

Kevin M (bf8ad7) — 4/5/2013 @ 4:24 pm

Kevin M., perpetual motion machines would do less damage to the US than Obama’s Magic Beans economic theories.

SPQR (768505) — 4/5/2013 @ 4:25 pm

We’ve experienced steady job growth once the great recession Obama inherited bottomed out in 2009. However, it has not been enough.

Perry’s “steady j*b growth” in two graphs

now pull the other one, it’s got bells on it, you liar.

redc1c4 (403dff) — 4/5/2013 @ 5:18 pm

i was at Home Despot today for some pool chemicals…

they had the display of grills for the summer rush out, but something was wrong with what i saw.

it took a moment, but then it dawned on me, it was a much smaller display than what i’ve seen other years, and every single choice was under $200.

Forward to Wreckcovery Summer 2013!

redc1c4 (403dff) — 4/5/2013 @ 5:21 pm

redc1c4, yep, the Democrats have celebrated “improvements” in unemployment rate that have largely come from people giving up finding work, or scamming their way onto the disability rolls.

Labor force participation rate never been this poor since 1979 … ie., Jimmy Carter Part II is now best case scenario for Obama’s tenure.

SPQR (768505) — 4/5/2013 @ 5:31 pm

“More taxes is not centrist. Centrists want spending cuts.”

– SPQR

More taxes alone is not centrist; nor is more spending cuts alone. Centrists want significant tax increases and significant spending cuts.

Leviticus (17b7a5) — 4/5/2013 @ 5:49 pm

Kevin M., perpetual motion machines would do less damage to the US than Obama’s Magic Beans economic theories.

Yes, but he’d subsidize their production and halt all other means of producing power, so in the end it would be the same.

Thank God for the 22nd Amendment

Kevin M (bf8ad7) — 4/5/2013 @ 5:50 pm

SPQR,

I do wish that someone would make Obama explain how one lifts up the middle class while bleeding the rich. Also, at what point have you been lifted up enough, and what ought to be done with those bitter clingers trying to lift themselves up.

Kevin M (bf8ad7) — 4/5/2013 @ 5:54 pm

Terry McAuiliffe, was involved with another one of these scams, a firm called GreenTech.

narciso (3fec35) — 4/5/2013 @ 5:54 pm

Centrists want significant tax increases and significant spending cuts.

Just usually taxes increased on other people, and spending increased on them.

Kevin M (bf8ad7) — 4/5/2013 @ 5:55 pm

More taxes alone is not centrist; nor is more spending cuts alone. Centrists want significant tax increases and significant spending cuts.

We already got the tax hikes on the evil rich. Perry wants waaaaaaaaaaay more, which is t even sniffing the center. Anyone that talks of austerity and deficit reduction by redcing the projected rates of growth out in the future is a liar. An an imbecile.

JD (925fd6) — 4/5/2013 @ 6:02 pm

Leviticus, we have had significant tax increases already in 2013.

SPQR (768505) — 4/5/2013 @ 6:06 pm

37. Tax receipts versus GDP:

http://www.heritage.org/federalbudget/current-tax-receipts

Caveats: A GDP that currently Encludes entitlements would seem to be double-counting some trillion-odd dollars.

Moreover, there are three methods of calculating GDP and I’d be willing to bet the government puts the best possible face on whatever it pubishes.

Nonetheless the upshot isn’t whether to increase taxes is shortsighted, the goal ought be to increase revenues.

And here we’ve a problem, money velocity is tanking while money supply has gone hyperbolic. Short term, without a fundamental rebalancing of our economy, increasing rates will not result in a corresponding increase in revenues.

One can expect Obmaneycare with its two dozen increases to actually constrict GDP and cause revenues to fall.

gary gulrud (dd7d4e) — 4/5/2013 @ 6:06 pm

includes

gary gulrud (dd7d4e) — 4/5/2013 @ 6:06 pm

Remember this is an administration that at best feigns economic ignorance;

http://thehill.com/blogs/on-the-money/domestic-taxes/292071-obama-budget-to-target-wealthy-iras

narciso (3fec35) — 4/5/2013 @ 6:08 pm

Another tax increase at this time would be a disaster.

Not like we’re not heading for a disaster already.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/small-businesses-reduce-hiring-plans-nfib-says-2013-04-03

http://dailycaller.com/2013/04/05/goolsbee-march-jobs-numbers-a-punch-in-the-gut/

Seven times as many Americans gave up looking for work as found new jobs in March, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Only 88,000 new jobs were created in March, while roughly 630,000 Americans gave up looking for jobs, leaving 11.7 million Americans waiting in unemployment lines.

“This is a punch to the gut,” said Austan Goolsbee, President Barack Obama’s former economic adviser. “This is not a good number,” he told a CNBC interviewer.

…GOP advocates say the slowdown is partly caused by Obama’s sprawling health-care law, which will require employers to provide expensive health-care benefits to workers starting January 2014.

The 2014 costs, however, are determined by companies’ 2013 payrolls.

http://dailycaller.com/?p=3652225

Small businesses are hiring now, but don’t expect the good times to last, says the National Federation of Independent Business.

While March posted the fourth straight month of net job growth, with small businesses adding an average of 0.19 jobs per firm, plans to continue hiring fell four points to zero, the group found.

This drop indicates “plans to create jobs took a dive,” William Dunkelberg, NFIB’s chief economist, said in a statement.

“Once again, our bifurcated economy may have large firms doing well but the Main Street owners not sharing in the gains and finding little reason to take on new employees,” Dunkelberg said. “Owners are still pessimistic and see little reason to hire.”

…The creation of new businesses has dropped dramatically since the financial crisis.

In 2006, there were more than 650,000 firms that had been opened less than a year. By 2010, the number had dropped 500,000 and new job creation dropped along with it, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Steve57 (be3310) — 4/5/2013 @ 6:11 pm

Centrists want significant tax increases and significant spending cuts.

That would be “centrists” in, say, San Francisco or the upper east side of Manhattan. Or people who actually are “latte liberals” but are too embarrassed to be even more leftwing than they already are. Or they’re centrists who suffer from shaky, wavering common sense, probably an ailment from the staunch liberalism of their teenage or college years.

Mark (e5fd6c) — 4/5/2013 @ 6:46 pm

How many new taxes were in ObamaCare, Perry?

JD (925fd6) — 4/5/2013 @ 6:47 pm

More lost jobs. (It’s like every business he touches goes awry) Remember the “Dinner With Barack” ads?

A restaurant where President Obama took winners of his 2012 campaign’s “Dinner with Barack” contest was forced to close this week because it was cited for failing to comply with Washington, D.C.’s health and sanitation regulations.

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/restaurant-dined-obama-closed-due-health-concerns_714609.html

elissa (3e20bd) — 4/5/2013 @ 6:50 pm

Perry is demonstrably stupid. And dishonest.

His ilk makes me think of the following article, in regards to either (or both) the main players in the story, or the fools in the electorate across the Atlantic who, in their infinite wisdom, voted a dyed-in-the-wool liberal (if not-ultra-liberal) into their presidency.

economist.com, April 6, 2013: …François Hollande campaigned as the Socialist candidate [of France] last year with the promise of creating an “exemplary republic”. After he won, his ministers were made to sign a charter of ethics. He cut their pay by 30%, and told them to swap their ministerial cars for the train.

This model of modest virtue has, however, been shattered by the confession of Jérôme Cahuzac, the former Socialist budget minister who was also in charge of a crackdown on tax evasion, that he had lied about a secret foreign bank account to the president, parliament and the country. His admission has rocked Mr Hollande’s presidency, and is threatening to undermine not only his government’s moral authority but also its ability to get things done.

[O]n April 2nd Mr Cahuzac confessed to a stunned political establishment that he had been lying all along. In fact, he admitted, for 20 years he had held a foreign bank account, now containing €600,000 ($770,000). He said he had been caught up in a “spiral of lies”, and he begged for forgiveness. Investigating judges have now laid preliminary charges against him for suspected laundering of the proceeds of tax evasion, which can carry a penalty of five years in jail and a €375,000 fine.

Although Mr Hollande is doing his best to dissociate himself from his former minister, it is nonetheless his own presidency which is now being put to the test. As it is, his popularity has sunk to record lows under the Fifth Republic. The French economy has seized up, and joblessness stands at a 14-year high. Morale has collapsed. Despite piling on extra taxes last year, France failed to meet its budget-deficit target in 2012, and has given up on its promise to get the deficit below 3% of GDP in 2013.

Having made plenty of easy crowd-pleasing choices last year, Mr Hollande is now facing up to the hard part. The government has no alternative but to cut public spending, which is running at almost 57% of GDP, the highest ratio in the euro zone. It is toying, for example, with making reductions in family benefits for high earners and lengthening the number of compulsory years of pension contributions.

humanevents.com, January 2013: President Obama’s old Treasury Secretary was “Turbo Tax” Tim Geithner, one of the most celebrated tax cheats in America. Geithner comically claimed that his Turbo Tax software failed to ask him about the $42,000 dollars in self-employment taxes that he managed not to pay for four years running. The exact same defense has been rejected by the courts several times when other people tried to use it, but Geithner skated by. His boss, of course, is extremely determined to collect higher taxes from other people.

Geithner is riding off into his specially privileged ruling-class sunset, so it’s time for President Obama to name a replacement.

Let them eat cake.

Mark (e5fd6c) — 4/5/2013 @ 7:05 pm

How many new taxes were in ObamaCare, Perry?

they’re not taxes they are wealth participation surcharges, like when the restaurant prints a tip on the dinner bill

E.PWJ (bdd0a6) — 4/5/2013 @ 7:08 pm

exept these are on the grocery bill, the electric bill, the mortgage, the tuition, the care note.the….

E.PWJ (bdd0a6) — 4/5/2013 @ 7:10 pm

propaganda slut Morgan Korn at filthy obamawhore Melissa Mayer’s stupid yahoo has cherry-picked some cherry cherry thinkings to share with the class

happyfeet (8ce051) — 4/5/2013 @ 9:22 pm

i can’t link hardly anything this is getthing old

you can google it

happyfeet (8ce051) — 4/5/2013 @ 9:22 pm

*getting* old

happyfeet (8ce051) — 4/5/2013 @ 9:23 pm

Mark Zandi, chief economist for Moody Analytics, also sees the evil hand of Obamacare at work in the latest jobs report.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=C6T-HBWGEEo

Steve57 (be3310) — 4/5/2013 @ 10:26 pm

It’s all respective.

In New Zealand, this would be brilliant 😉

scrubone (5bfa77) — 4/6/2013 @ 12:44 am

Or in Canada,

http://www.statcan.gc.ca/daily-quotidien/130405/dq130405a-eng.htm

narciso (3fec35) — 4/6/2013 @ 5:41 am

Here’s another perspective on the suckiness:

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-04-05/97-february-consumer-credit-student-and-car-loans

Consumer is 70% of the economy and we are standing pat. We are using credit because we have to buy gas and groceries but when our refunds come we’ll pay the card off.

No vacations, no movies, no eating out, no charity, we’re just happy Nork grass is not on the menu.

Increase taxes and you’ll see lots of us going off the books altogether.

gary gulrud (dd7d4e) — 4/6/2013 @ 5:55 am

Contagion:

http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2013/04/canada-unexpectedly-sheds-54500-jobs-in.html

Europe is staring into the abyss, on the ledge, alone with no one to talk her down.

‘Cause Japan jumped. This is the way the world ends.

gary gulrud (dd7d4e) — 4/6/2013 @ 6:05 am

Or in Canada

The economic anomie that is evident in the US also has ties to what’s going on internationally, meaning it transcends the boundaries of this or any other specific nation, including what’s going on politically.

I nevertheless think that Obama is making a bad situation much worse. He’s defying the credo associated with those in the medical field of “do no harm.” But I notice that unlike some “progressives” I observed several years ago (pre-November-2008), I tend to refrain from bad mouthing Obama in mixed company. That’s not because I don’t think he’s the most disreputable character to ever occupy the White House, but because of my awareness of the idea that if one does not want to create ill will at, for example, family get-togethers, one should avoid talking about religion and politics. So I do restrain myself from slamming Obama in mixed company.

If many others on the right tend to behave in a similar way, that could be another difference between liberals (who have biases that are predominant in juveniles or young adults—and therefore probably react accordingly) and conservatives.

Increase taxes and you’ll see lots of us going off the books altogether.

If the underground economy is good enough for Mexico, it’s good enough for America.

Mark (e5fd6c) — 4/6/2013 @ 6:31 am

Detailing the reasons rebound will not occur begins with misreporting the rubble bounce.

2010 profits were those of survivors whose margins had increased. No such luck again.

gary gulrud (dd7d4e) — 4/6/2013 @ 6:44 am

‘Cause Japan jumped. This is the way the world ends.

Another reason why I tend to not overly politicize the current economic quagmire that we’re in is because of my awareness of what things were like back in the 1990s, when we in the US were experiencing the dot-com boom, and Europe was doing fairly well or okay, but Japan — which has never been a loony-left society — was witnessing its “lost decade.”

This should raise the eyebrow of anyone, regardless of his or her politics.

moneymorning.com, Keith Fitz-Gerald, December 2012:

It’s only been a little more than a week since [right-leaning] Shinzo Abe won election as Japan’s latest Prime Minister in a landslide-election victory and the pundits are already lining up telling investors to “buy Japan” because it’s “dirt cheap.” The hope is that Abe’s promises of fresh stimulus, unlimited spending and placing a priority on domestic infrastructure will be the elixir that restores Japan’s global muscle.

As a veteran global trader who actually lives in Japan part time each year, and who has for the last 20+ years, let me make a counterpoint with particular force – don’t fall for it. I’ve heard this mantra eight times since Japan’s market collapsed in 1990 – each time a new stimulus plan was launched – and six times since 2006 as each of the six former “newly elected” Prime Ministers came to power.

The bottom line: The Nikkei is still down 73.89% from its December 29, 1989 peak. That means it’s going to have to rebound a staggering 283% just to break even.

Now here’s the thing. What’s happening in Japan is not “someone else’s” problem. Nor is it something you should gloss over. In fact, the pain Japan continues to suffer should scare the hell out of you. And here’s why …

The so-called “Lost Decade” that’s now more than 20 years long in Japan is a portrait of precisely what’s to come for us here in the United States. Perhaps not for a few years yet, but it will happen just as we have already followed in Japan’s footsteps with a “lost decade” of our own.

The parallels are staggering. Were it not for the names – Abe, Ishihara, Noda – the headlines being played out in Japan could well be our own especially when it comes to campaign promises of unlimited stimulus, more infrastructure development and a busted economy… [Yet] Japan has just fallen into another recession. The data show that Japan’s GDP cratered -3.5% in the most recent quarter. Manufacturing is reeling and several iconic Japanese brands are poised for what will be very expensive and nationally traumatizing bankruptcies. The country is the most indebted of any nation in the world with the combined total of corporate, private and public debt over 500% of GDP, according to Goldman Sachs.

The demographics are working against the struggling island nation as well. This isn’t a policy debate. It’s not a partisan issue. It’s a numbers game and right now the numbers are getting smaller. There are a mere 2.8 workers supporting each retiree right now. …[S]everal surveys show that young Japanese simply aren’t interested in sex, so a rebuilding of the domestic workforce is quite literally not going to happen. You can attribute that to emancipated women, the cost of raising children, work pressures or other economics if you like, but that really doesn’t tell the entire story nor get at the root of the problem – a lack of desire.

One survey from O-Net, one of Japan’s largest online dating services, interviewed 800 young Japanese men and found that 83.7% didn’t have a girlfriend. The survey also showed that 49.3% had never had a girlfriend. Another survey from the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare showed that 36.3% of young men had no interest in finding one. The Wall Street Journal reported that 59% of Japanese females between the ages of 16-19 stated that they are totally uninterested in or completely averse to sex.

Married couples don’t appear to be any different. Other data suggest that 40.8% of all couples are not only childless, but sexless as defined by not having had sexual intercourse for more than a month. So called “kamen-fu,” or loveless marriages, are far more common than you would think.

^ Some analysts have said that, unlike Japan or Europe, we in the US have the advantage of being a nation that attracts a large pool of immigrants, so our population base — and its effect on the economy — at least won’t be shrinking. While true to a certain degree, what good is that if we in the long run end up similar to a non-shrunken Mexico? Or a nation in which recent reports indicate it’s becoming competitive again with PRC China, but only because Mexico’s populace is pricing itself back into the market—meaning that the average person in Mexico is commanding less in hourly wages than the average person in China.

Happy days are here again.

Mark (e5fd6c) — 4/6/2013 @ 7:04 am

Well that is the fundamental point, and the LDP is essentially corporatist, not free market, hence they wouldn’t have spent 20 years on useless infrastructure schemes.

narciso (3fec35) — 4/6/2013 @ 7:06 am

Links, Mark. Links.

Leviticus (17b7a5) — 4/6/2013 @ 8:26 am

Countries that really did adopt austerity measures have done better. Countries that whined and whined about how horrible the austerity measures they were taking were, but did not really cut spending at all, did not do better. And Krugman has dishonestly pointed to the latter as examples of austerity failing – because Krugman is not an honest commentator as has been often established.

SPQR (32a911) — 4/6/2013 @ 8:26 am

Mark, there is something bizarre about the Japanese stats you quoted on relationships, given how obsessed Japanese culture is with sex.

SPQR (32a911) — 4/6/2013 @ 8:31 am

Links, Mark. Links.

Leviticus, I often don’t bother inserting links because when it comes to other posters’ links, I admit to frequently being too lazy to click on them. That’s particularly the case if they’re non-labeled or don’t have enough of a description that piques my curiosity. However, I notice that quite a few of Gary Gulrud’s links — probably because they often go to pages that parallel my own interests — are much appreciated by me.

However, if you were referring to my mentioning the situation between Mexico and China, here’s not a link but the details I was relating to.

AP, April 6, 2013: Mexico is looking to penetrate the Chinese market after a new report suggested that Mexican labor costs have fallen below those of China. Just a decade ago, Mexico’s prospect of exporting much to China seemed distant. Mexican average labor costs were then almost double China’s. But a report by a chief economist for Bank of America Merrill Lynch this week estimated that Mexico’s labor costs are now 19.6 percent lower than China’s.

given how obsessed Japanese culture is with sex.

SPQR, not sure if that’s similar to equating the wares produced by America’s Hollywood or the junk pouring out of this country’s media — which is dominated by the left — as a reflection of the average American citizen (outside of places like San Francisco, etc). I would imagine that many people in Japan’s media, or who set cultural trends, probably also tilt to the left, so they too may be creating a skewed image of what’s going on with the typical resident of Japan. Plus, the article I snipped previously didn’t mention the emotional/physical/social effects caused by the huge Tohoku earthquake of 2011.

Mark (e5fd6c) — 4/6/2013 @ 9:13 am

Leviticus,

Here’s a link for Mark’s comment 64. It was easy to find.

DRJ (a83b8b) — 4/6/2013 @ 9:25 am

And here is the link for Mark’s comment 69. It was also easy to find but, in the future, I hope Mark will take the time to provide a link as well as a quote.

DRJ (a83b8b) — 4/6/2013 @ 9:27 am

And Krugman has dishonestly pointed to the latter as examples of austerity failing – because Krugman is not an honest commentator as has been often established.

Comment by SPQR (32a911) — 4/6/2013 @ 8:26 am

Whats facsinating is that the very country that awarded him a nobel prize (damn that was painful to type) in economics didnt take his advice and cut austerity to save themselves

just sayin….

Also off topic

EPWJ (f44e22) — 4/6/2013 @ 9:46 am

I guess there’s a point when “glass half full” people morph into “glass half empty” people.

I’ve been thinking about this– and its ramifications– a lot lately.

elissa (59a015) — 4/6/2013 @ 10:12 am

Enjoy your BBQ while you can, redc1c4. Enviros want to ban them too.

Patricia (be0117) — 4/6/2013 @ 10:55 am

“Here’s a link for Mark’s comment 64. It was easy to find.”

– DRJ

No, I meant like “enough with the copypasta already,” not “support your claims.”

Leviticus (17b7a5) — 4/6/2013 @ 11:17 am

No, I meant like “enough with the copypasta already,”

I’m sure if they were copypasta along the lines of…

Reuters [or AP, or nytimes.com, or science.com], April 6, 2013: Researchers today have concluded that liberalism is a wonderful thing and brings great beauty to a society. Data also indicate that liberal politicians often are brilliant and sensible… Careful laboratory testing has revealed that liberals and liberalism overall provide truly sincere sympathy, joy and wisdom to a nation.

…you’d say “thanks for taking text from online sources and condensing or encapsulating it!”

Mark (e5fd6c) — 4/6/2013 @ 11:30 am

SPQR, the Japanese are obsessed with sex.

Just not with their spouse.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2012/12/22/national/sexless-marriages-on-the-increase/#.UWBo5srGda4

More than 40 percent of married couples in Japan say they have sex less than once a month, with the figure rising in surveys since 2004, a doctor at a clinic belonging to the Japan Family Planning Association said.

It’s true that you can hardly walk out of a subway station in the Tokyo/Yokohama area and not see “soaplands” in any direction. It’s true that “health” services are just a legal form of prostitution. There are many sexual services your “health” provider can legally offer as the law theoretically banning prostitution is pretty specific about what is defined as prostitution.

And then there’s the ever popular enjo kosai; compensated dating. High school girls will go out with older men for money. Now it’s not just a Japanese phenomenon.

http://voices.yahoo.com/compensated-dating-asias-growing-acceptable-prostitution-4633871.html

But then it’s also true that men in Japan traditionally had sex outside of marriage. Frankly many of the women prefer it that way. From the Japan Times article.

Among women, the largest segment, at 23.5 percent, said they find sex “troublesome.”

Some of my Japanese friends were shocked when after having a baby their wife totally lost interest in sex. And would even suggest they get a girlfriend.

Of course, the men say they aren’t interested in sex because:

Among men, 28.2 percent said they were not interested in sex because they were “tired from work,” the survey said.

But then they have to go out partying with their boss and coworkers after work. They don’t get home until 11. If they were going to have sex, they’d have already had it before going home.

Steve57 (be3310) — 4/6/2013 @ 11:44 am

Leviticus,
While I agree with DRJ that it would be nice to see links included I am grateful for the pastes as I don’t need to jump into the link to see what is there, I can look at the source and scan the text to see if I want to read it in detail. I often will just not bother with a link without knowing what I am investing in. Just my thought.

Machinist (b6f7da) — 4/6/2013 @ 12:43 pm

Well… I’ll leave it alone, then. Fair enough.

Leviticus (17b7a5) — 4/6/2013 @ 12:45 pm

No, I meant like “enough with the copypasta already,” not “support your claims.”

Comment by Leviticus

The Scent of a Liberal.

Colonel Haiku (2d271c) — 4/6/2013 @ 12:45 pm

Strike that, poorly phrased… the Stink of a Liberal…

Colonel Haiku (2d271c) — 4/6/2013 @ 12:48 pm

I don’t really know much of blue collar culture in Japan but when I read about white collar professionals I tend to think of the means used by cults like the Moonies to control their members and keep them from thinking for themselves. I think these often resulted in loss of sexual interest and even a loss of natural body cycles. This was both nutrition, sleep deprivation, and physiological conditioning but they are brought to mind when I read about the corporate culture and social effects.

I don’t know enough to judge it properly but I would like to hear from those who do. There is much I like and admire in Japanese culture and heritage but there is a dark side I think gets overlooked by people impressed with the superficial characteristics, the trains run on time, so to speak.

Machinist (b6f7da) — 4/6/2013 @ 12:51 pm

Colonel Haiku,
That is uncalled for and inappropriate. I think his objections are reasonable and rational, even if I don’t completely agree.

Machinist (b6f7da) — 4/6/2013 @ 12:53 pm

I can see not good purpose to your personal smear.

Machinist (b6f7da) — 4/6/2013 @ 12:55 pm

i don’t think he’s ready for kamala’s jelly

happyfeet (8ce051) — 4/6/2013 @ 1:05 pm

All the guy has to do is ignore the post(s), Machinist. It’s that simple.

Colonel Haiku (2d271c) — 4/6/2013 @ 1:15 pm

It is hard to “ignore” a large block of text posted in the comments. His was not a personal smear on an intelligent and reasonable commenter as yours was.

Machinist (b6f7da) — 4/6/2013 @ 1:21 pm

If his comments reveal an intemperance or POV of youth, he is in fact young and I might add surprisingly reasonable for that. What is your excuse?

Machinist (b6f7da) — 4/6/2013 @ 1:25 pm

maybe he just like talkin smack

happyfeet (8ce051) — 4/6/2013 @ 1:31 pm

I dated a Japanese lady from Kobe a little maybe 20 years ago. So I picked up a phrase book.

Rather odd, when in casual conversation do you use “Pardon me, I am an idiot”? Ok, I am an idiot, but so’s the next dweeb.

Is that what all the bowing is about?

gary gulrud (dd7d4e) — 4/6/2013 @ 1:31 pm

I’ve said my piece. You disagree. I can live with that.

Colonel Haiku (2d271c) — 4/6/2013 @ 1:32 pm

pop a top and drop a tailgate Mr. colonel what go round come round and um

i think we’s got some marshmallers back in the aljo yonder

i’m a go check

happyfeet (8ce051) — 4/6/2013 @ 1:38 pm

I reserve the right to be intolerant, belligerent and malodorous when the mood suits me.

gary gulrud (dd7d4e) — 4/6/2013 @ 1:39 pm

Machinist! Good to see you, sir.

As I hope you know, I have the utmost respect for you and your contributions to this site, and I appreciate your defense. You have always made a point to refrain from rudeness, even in contention, and have every right to object to it as a result.

I, however, have not always refrained from rudeness – including rudeness toward the Colonel. I try, but sometimes I fail. So I do not have the same good-faith right to be offended by it. I’ve earned most of the rudeness that comes my way – unlike you, or DRJ, or aphrael, who are unfailingly well-mannered.

Leviticus (17b7a5) — 4/6/2013 @ 1:39 pm

nope no marshamallers

kamala must’ve gotten into em last night

baby like herself a lil sumpin sweet ‘for beddy bye

happyfeet (8ce051) — 4/6/2013 @ 1:47 pm

Thank you Leviticus. You demonstrate my point about reasonableness by your comment. I will point out that I might have reason to expect more from the Colonel, as I mentioned.

In any case I think civility, like charity and courtesy, should be given for it’s own sake or the sake of the giver and therefore is not dependent on the conduct of the person I am addressing. I confess I sometimes fail to live up to that as I am uncouth and uneducated, but I do try to remember. It has always served me well when I did and I can think of no occasion when I regretted it.

Machinist (b6f7da) — 4/6/2013 @ 1:48 pm

And in hindsight, “scent” would have worked just dandy.

Colonel Haiku (2d271c) — 4/6/2013 @ 1:49 pm

I mention this because I don’t think I belong in the company you mention.

Machinist (b6f7da) — 4/6/2013 @ 1:49 pm

Besides… it’s illegal to “stink” in New Mexico.

Colonel Haiku (2d271c) — 4/6/2013 @ 1:50 pm

You do.

Leviticus (17b7a5) — 4/6/2013 @ 1:51 pm

That is, Machinist, you absolutely do belong in the company I mention.

Leviticus (17b7a5) — 4/6/2013 @ 1:51 pm

This is off-topic but I have a friend whose daughter and son-in-law (who is a pilot in the military) will be living in Japan. They are newlyweds and it will be their first overseas deployment. Anyone know what it’s like to live in Japan, and do you have any advice for them?

DRJ (a83b8b) — 4/6/2013 @ 3:28 pm

I mention it because people have been talking about Japan, but I admit it’s really really off-topic.

DRJ (a83b8b) — 4/6/2013 @ 3:29 pm

DRJ, what service and what part of Japan? It will be a very different experience if they will be assigned to Misawa Air Base in northern Japan, the Atsugi/Yokota bases in the Tokyo area, or Kadena on Okinawa.

In general wherever they’re stationed most people prefer to live on base if they can get housing. It can be difficult to live off base if you don’t read or speak Japanese. You can’t even read your electric bill. Plus the houses and apartments often aren’t centrally heated and usually not well insulated. People use space heaters and a device called a kotatsu. It’s a table with a heating element under the top and a quilt or blanket that attached to the edge and goes all around. It does keep you nice and warm.

Driving can be dangerous. The streets are usually very narrow and within the city you can’t see around corners. They can also be very congested. If you get into an accident it will undoubtedly be your fault. We had a chief who was making a perfectly legal turn to go through the gate. A young man illegally riding his motor scooter on the sidewalk slammed into the side of his van. The Japanese authorities deemed it the chief’s fault because he was the American.

The kid died. When you injure or kill a Japanese national in an accident that’s your fault you must pay compensation money and apologize. If you do so to the families satisfaction the authorities may not press charges, but if they do your “sincere remorse” will make them go easier on you. The chief was lucky not to be prosecuted. We dealt with other situations where it was the Japanese national who killed the Americans; it was always the Americans fault.

For a technologically advanced country businesses and government offices still do a lot of things on paper. When I would pay my road tax and register my car I didn’t see a computer in most of the various offices that I had to visit to accomplish that.

I did notice many more signs in English on the subways and on the roads (at least in the Tokyo area) during my second tour 10 years ago then existed during my first 20 years ago. That made getting around much easier. Maybe they’ve made improvements in some of the other areas I’ve mentioned as well.

I don’t want to discourage anyone, though. It’s a beautiful country and the people were very friendly. Especially when they figured out I wasn’t going to “run out” of Japanese and put them in the awkward position of having to speak English to me. It’s just very different and not as tourist friendly as Europe, for instance.

Steve57 (be3310) — 4/6/2013 @ 6:14 pm

Steve57.

I think they will be in Okinawa. Thank you for sharing your thoughts. It’s very helpful to get your perspective.

DRJ (a83b8b) — 4/6/2013 @ 6:26 pm

http://www.kadena.af.mil/newcomersinformation/index.asp

That’s the Kadena AB link. You might find it useful, DRJ. They’ve got information about housing, driving, tourist attractions, etc.

Steve57 (be3310) — 4/6/2013 @ 6:48 pm

DRJ, I don’t have first hand experience but I’ve a lot of friends who’ve spent varying amounts of time in Japan.

Japan is a foreign country where there are almost no common referents. They need to figure out how to deal with the near constant estrangement from a culture they will have nothing in common with. Its more than just not having the language (assuming they have no Japanese).

SPQR (768505) — 4/6/2013 @ 6:50 pm

104. It pays to make friends, as far as is possible, with the locals.

Worked a couple of times for CANTV in Venezuela when one of the US Telcos had a large portion.

On a trip to Merida the contractors in rented car hit a local boy on bike and they were mobbed. But the countryman they toured with argued that if they were going to pay the penalty they wanted the boy’s leg, the damaged merchandise.

Escaped with a pittance as ‘The boy will be no good without his leg’.

gary gulrud (dd7d4e) — 4/7/2013 @ 6:58 am

OT sortof:

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-04-06/these-charts-better-not-represent-true-state-us-economy

We’ve been over gasoline usage before but the link double checks assumptions, like changes in fuel efficiency.

Dontcha wish trolls double checked assumptions?

gary gulrud (dd7d4e) — 4/7/2013 @ 7:00 am

Recovery employment, among other bellwhethers, has peaked and we are looking at more character building.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-04-06/guest-post-economy-pictures-have-we-seen-peak

How come the trolls don’t do analysis, just parroting the Party Line?

gary gulrud (dd7d4e) — 4/7/2013 @ 7:08 am

Anyone know what it’s like to live in Japan, and do you have any advice for them?

This is the elephant standing in the corner of the room.

rt.com, February 2013: Almost two years after a natural disaster ravaged a Japanese nuclear plant, Bluefin tuna that test positive for radiation poisoning continue to be caught off the coast of California. Twenty-three months after a tsunami took the Fukushima power plant offline and triggered an international emergency, the effects of the disaster are still being felt thousands of miles apart. This week writer Monte Burke of Forbes draws attention to a new study that shows the lingering damages caused nearly two years ago.

Burke says that a new study from Daniel J. Madigan of Stanford University’s Hopkins Marine Station suggests that even waters in the East Pacific aren’t safe from the radiation. Bluefin off the coast of Japan are still showing signs of contamination almost two years after the incident, and migration patterns suggest that fish floundering near the other side of the ocean will continue to show evidence of radiation.

This isn’t likely to be ending anytime soon, either: Burke acknowledges that the plant is still leaking radiation into the ocean, which doesn’t necessarily just disappear. Just last month, a murasoi fish was caught in the vicinity of the Fukushima plant that tested to have around 2,540 times Japan’s legal limit for radiation in seafood.

[T]he results of a study late last year…found that contamination levels of fish weren’t diminishing down as drastically as scientists hoped. “The numbers aren’t going down. Oceans usually cause the concentrations to decrease if the spigot is turned off,” Buesseler told the Associated Press in an interview in October. “There has to be somewhere they’re picking up the cesium.”

Mark (e5fd6c) — 4/7/2013 @ 8:24 am

Fukushima me!
Charlie think he’s hip now he’s
Atomic Tuna

Colonel Haiku (35c596) — 4/7/2013 @ 8:30 am

Mark, there is no evidence that any of these radiation issues actually pose any health problems. Indeed, the evacuation of residents around Fukishima will have caused more death from stress than any radiation exposure could have.

SPQR (6b2dff) — 4/7/2013 @ 12:33 pm

Democrat policy failures continue to devastate US employment.

SPQR (768505) — 4/7/2013 @ 3:02 pm

3. Comment by bridget (84c06f) — 4/5/2013 @ 9:00 am

But the unemployment rate dropped*, Patterico!

*Aided by a half-million people leaving the workforce and probably going on “disability”.

Although that – and baby boomers retiring – could explain why the employment rate is lower than it was several years ago, it can’t explain a month to month drop.

The explanation I read was the payroll tax increase. The reasoning would be this didn’t cause a slowdown in spending right away, in January or February, becauise people spend according to their perceptions of their general income (the “permanent income hypothesis” of Milton Friedman)

http://ingrimayne.com/econ/FiscalDead/PermIncome.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permanent_income_hypothesis

The reasoning would go, since there was no big announcement, it took time for people to notice that their pay checks were 2% smaller, and for this to filter down into spending. Maybe at first they just borrowed more. And then it would take even longer to cause a cutback in hiring.

But this is probably wrong. It takes longer for people to adjust and this is a permanent income hypothesis. This is like a lot of stock market mnovement explanations.

So I would attribute this either to

A) Seasonal adjustment that is wrong.

B) Extended unemployment compensation coming to an end maybe in some places. I don’t know what changes took place. But I think as long as people were taking unemployment compensation, they would say they were looking for work, no matter how little they did, and if it ended, and they didn’t find work, they would stop saying that pretty soon – thus, the end of extended unemployment compensation would explain people suddenly dropping out of the labor force.

I don’t know that much has been ended. Here’s a website that describes the situation:

http://www.mass.gov/lwd/unemployment-insur/filing-a-claim/federal-extension-programs/overview-of-latest-extension-benefits.html
HE END OF EXTENDED UNEMPLOYMENT COMPEN

or at least it took until marrch till

Sammy Finkelman (d22d64) — 4/9/2013 @ 10:53 am

4/5/2013

Jobs Report Awful

115 Responses to “Jobs Report Awful”

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