Trump done a good thing

I find it pretty amazing that Carrier has their new plant pretty much built in Mexico and our new President-Elect still was able to convince them to stay. Imagine how much easier it would have been to convince them 9 - 12 months ago.....too bad there wasn't the willing leadership to do so. They must have been too busy with companies like Solendra that never produced the jobs they promised.

[L=obama-green-tech-programobama-green-tech-program-that-backed-solyndra-struggles-to-create-jobs

A $38.6 billion loan guarantee program that the Obama administration promised would create or save 65,000 jobs has created just a few thousand jobs two years after it began, government records show.

The program — designed to jump-start the nation’s clean technology industry by giving energy companies access to low-cost, government-backed loans — has directly created 3,545 new, permanent jobs after giving out almost half the allocated amount, according to Energy Department tallies.


So let me check my math:
Obama - $38.6B for 3,545 jobs = $10,098,791 per job
Trump - $7m for 1,110 jobs = $6,364 per job

So Trump was 1,587 times more effective than the Obama and he is not even President yet!

Obama sponcered lots of government intervention into the economy and jobs: auto bailouts, stimulus packages, green tech investment....all met with lots of kicking and screaming from his opponents who used all kinds of Marxist hyperbole to make their point.

But the results are in. As of today unemployment sits at 4.7% (down from the 11% his predecessor handed him). And a net 15 million new jobs have been created. And record sales of Preperation H !

Mr Trump has his work cut out for him if he wishes to achieve a similar result. I wish him good luck. AND I'm thrilled to see his voting block of Obama critics have a new found love of Marxism.

billryan raises an excellent point.*

In a truly-free economy the decisions as to the Government exercising its power to grant favors to "chosen" businesses and withhold support from others should be forbidden. Unfortunately that ship sailed many, many years ago.

So, f'rinstance, among the 50 States there is competition to retain/create "good jobs" for their citizens and Governments from City to County to State participate in the effort. Some States have natural advantages to attracting employers/employees and other States recognize they must "do something" to be competitive.
In a perfect world this wouldn't be necessary and DonDiego would oppose it strenuously.
(Technically in a perfect world DonDiego would not oppose anything by definition, but he takes license to make the point.)

When it comes to international competition for employers, likewise some Countries have similar advantages to attracting businesses. The advantage of a Country to pay significantly lower wages is pr'bly the greatest. And so the Government with higher wages can do nothing and lose some economic prosperity, or the Government can provide incentives to attract/retain productive enterprises.

As a practical matter it comes down to benefits vs costs.

So, on principle "picking winners and losers" IS a bad thing. And it is especially bad when THE GOVERNMENT does it. But the reason no one else can do it is that it is the already existent Government policies that determine many corporate decisions to begin with.

And if altering a Government policy to retain productive enterprises needs to be done, there is no better way than to lower taxes.
(In a perfect world, lower taxes would lead to less Government - A GOOD THING in itself. So this solution would i. retain prosperous companies and employees and ii. reduce Government.
in the real world this is unlikely, but it might reduce the growth a mite. Hey, that's something !)

*DonDiego finds the term "right-thinking people" of questionable value, . . . unless one is just looking to pick a fight. There's all sorts of thinking about all sorts of topics. That some of these opinions are based upon rational thought and others upon wishful thinking and still others on intentionally unpleasant motives doesn't make a person more or less "right-thinking".
As DonDiego's uncle used to remark: "What if everybody was a trombone player?" What kind of music would that be?

One sure way to reduce unemployment is to reduce the number of people looking for jobs - this is measured by the labor Force Participation Rate. How is that lookin'?


Labor Force Participation Rate



Is it possible "hope and change" is not a reality for many, many, Americans?

How many of those not participating are discouraged vs. disabled vs retired?

Jeez, that graph looks like a downward spiral after Obama took office. How can that be? All I hear about from his press secretary et al, is about all the jobs "he" created for us. Maybe they should talk about all the jobs "he" lost?

More fake facts from oj - obama starts his job creation from the low point of the recession, which was several months after the start of his term

Also a person is considered employed if that person works 1 hour per month. That is why one should look at the u6 rate, which takes into account underemployed people. That rate has stayed near 10% or above for the last 8 years.

When one factors in the decline in the labor participation rate (several million no longer even looking for work), the true unemployment rate is over 10%.

If unemployment was truly under 5%, we would have wage inflation & there would be no need to protest the $15 minimum wage.

How many Baby Boomers leave the workforce everyday compared to Millenials entering it?
Demographics have been clear that the number of people collecting social security will continue to grow while those paying in will shrink.
Blame your Mommy. Turns out she had too many kids.

DD did a chart on this a while back. Labor force participation has been increasing among boomers & decreasing for millenials.

Amazing how one has to keep repeating the same info.

Want to see a great magic trick ? Well, you'll need a little time. In 6 months all of the FOX News invented statistics to measure the economy in the Obama years will magically disapppear. Hoops and friends won't be talking about food stamps and labor participation rates anymore.

And just like they've now embraced government kickbacks in the economy, they will also embrace other policies they've spent 8 years crying about: government spending on shovel ready projects, increased government employment (someone's gotta guard that wall), raising the debt ceiling, and the most egregious policy of all.....the president playing golf on his day off.

It's a great trick and worth the wait to watch. See you in June!