Tag Archive: economy


Why the Bain attacks will backfire

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May 25, 2012

Remember Solyndra? Just one of many of President Obama’s public equity “successes” (I sure hope you caught the sarcasm there).

President Obama has been extremely harsh on Mitt Romney regarding his tenure at Bain Capital, a private equity firm. He has attempted to portray Mitt Romney as a vulture capitalist who completely disregards the lives and jobs in order to secure his own personal profit. However, it seems that the president’s strategy is backfiring, as top Democrats continue to repudiate his push against private equity, which contributes greatly to a healthy business environment. But yesterday, an intriguing editorial by Marc Thiessen in the Washington Post revealed that there could be more serious repercussions for the president than just some defections, as Obama’s comments about Romney’s career in private equity opens himself to criticism about his abysmal and corrupt use of taxpayer dollars in government-funded public equity schemes.

I certainly hope that you all remember Solyndra, President Obama’s most publicized failure in public equity. After giving a half-billion dollar loan to the Obama donor-run solar energy company, Obama made a speech to the press about the “promise” and inevitable success of green energy. Well, things didn’t turn out that way, as Solyndra filed for bankruptcy and fired its workers, leaving the American taxpayer with a massive monetary loss. In his editorial, Mr. Thiessen discusses several other failures on the part of the Obama administration in public equity, including SunPower, Raser Technologies, and several other green energy flops.

However, it is not just the president’s loans themselves that upset taxpayers across the country, but also the blatant corruption that accompanies them. According to Hoover Institution scholar Peter Schweizer, a whopping 71% of President Obama’s green energy grants went to “individuals who were bundlers, members of Obama’s National Finance Committee, or large donors to the Democratic Party.” If giving a massive majority of supposedly merit-based loans to campaign donors doesn’t speak of massive corruption, I don’t know what does.

Essentially, President Obama has worked himself into a difficult position. By bringing up Mitt Romney’s mixed record at Bain Capital, our president has opened his own absolutely horrific record as the chief steward of taxpayer dollars to voracious and damaging attacks by the right. I am certain that President Obama will be quick to regret his line of attack on Bain Capital if such attacks begin to occur.

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Election 2012: Vote projections

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May 19, 2012

Even though President Obama’s reelection campaign has an uphill climb to victory in November, it is still a formidable force. Obama is desperate, and his plan to deface Romney’s character and public image will likely have a significant impact on voters this election season. However, I believe that Romney will be able to secure victory for one major reason: the economy.

If Romney can seal up economically troubled states, he will easily win the election.

Mitt Romney stands to benefit from the current economic downturn. Growth has slowed to a crawl across the country, and President Obama’s policies have seemingly done little to relieve the suffering of millions of Americans. This lack of relief, consequently, has fueled a rise in the anti-incumbent mentality among potential voters, as these voters see little improvement in their lives and view new leaders as the only solutions to their problems. Thus, President Obama will face some significant difficulties in November if the economy continues to be stagnate.

For example, take a look at the electoral map above, which I created with a useful tool on the New York Times website. (If you want to play around with this tool yourself, click here). In my electoral map, Romney barely defeats President Obama, gaining 279 electoral votes to clinch the presidency. However, take a look at the tossup states, shown in yellow, that Mitt Romney wins: Florida, Colorado, Wisconsin, Nevada, Iowa, and Virginia. In Florida, the economic downturn has been extremely damaging, causing record numbers of foreclosures and declining quality of life. Romney’s economy-centered message will resonate well there and will probably give him a victory, especially if he chooses well-liked Florida Sen. Marco Rubio to be his running mate. Colorado and Virginia have been reliably Republican in the past, and given the current economic position of the US, they will probably go to Romney in November. However, Nevada and Wisconsin are particularly intriguing. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Nevada has the highest unemployment rate in the nation at 11.7%. The economy in Nevada has been hammered by the recession, and because of this, voters there find President Obama’s economic record to be awful at best. Contrary to popular belief, I think Nevada will be an easy victory for Romney, or at least a Romney-leaning state, due to the severity of the recession there. And then, there is Wisconsin, a state where Republican Gov. Scott Walker has taken significant steps to reduce the bargaining rights of public employee unions to balance his state’s budget. As a result of Walker’s policies, Wisconsin’s economy has righted itself and is on the fast track to lasting success. However, Walker is hated by the Democrats in Wisconsin, who have put up a candidate to run against Walker in a recall election this June. A comfortable victory for Walker would reveal that Wisconsin voters believe that the policies of their governor, which run contrary to those of the president, are the best for their state. Consequently, such a result would show that Mitt Romney will likely scoop up Wisconsin as yet another easy victory.

This electoral map is by no means a concrete prediction, but it is what I think might happen in November from what is happening now. If my prediction changes dramatically, I will be sure to update all of you.

So, how do you think the election will turn out? Leave your thoughts below or on our Facebook page!

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The problem with the European Union

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May 14, 2012

To prevent a massive regional economic collapse, the European Union must either break apart or allow the EU’s leadership to have more jurisdiction over the Union’s economies. Pictured: the EU headquarters in Brussels, Belgium.

The European Union is experiencing some serious difficulties managing its finances. While some member countries like Germany have managed to keep their finances and their economies in decent shape, others like Greece have abused the financial support of their fellow members and have run their economies into near or total bankruptcy. Now, amid the election of anti-austerity leaders in the recent Greek and French elections, the European Union is faced with a precipice. Should Greece’s new leaders refuse to pay their debts to their fellow EU members, Greece may be removed from the Union entirely. What can be done?

To solve the debt crisis, the European Union has only two options. The first is to decentralize power, but this move would be extremely problematic as it would allow countries like Greece and Italy to continue to spend massively beyond their means. This would place even more pressure upon the better economies of the Union (namely Germany and France) to cough up the money needed to support their ailing neighbors. The interconnected nature of the European Union ensures that countries like Greece cannot be allowed to fail, as such an action would seriously damage the economies of the other states using the euro currency. Kicking out countries like Greece and Italy for failing to comply with austerity measures would be similarly damaging, as an entire sector of the interconnected European economy would completely disappear with the introduction of a new currency in Greece and/or Italy.

The second option is extremely unpalatable to many Europeans, but it seems to be the only option remaining to keep the benefits of the European Union from diminishing entirely and turning into drawbacks. Allowing the central leadership of the EU to retain more control over the fiscal matters of each EU country would allow economically productive countries such as Germany to force Greece and other delinquent nations to balance their budgets in exchange for debt payments from the rest of the EU’s members. However, as a consequence of this, the power of the individual nations of the EU would be severely limited, and this could cause some serious friction between members. Additionally, it is entirely possible that the push against fiscal austerity could be magnified on a regional scale, meaning that fiscally irresponsible leaders allow the EU to be driven into a ditch by out-of-control spending and massive debts.

The bottom line is that the European Union must begin to manage its fiscal problems the right way. Since the Union is so interconnected, it is an absolute necessity for the responsible members of the EU to enforce austerity measures on their fiscally wasteful companion states. Otherwise, the entirety of the Union will slip into a lasting and deeply damaging economic malaise.

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Acceptable? Obama paints targets on Romney donors

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May 12, 2012

Frank Vandersloot, pictured above, is just one of several private citizens that have been crucified by the Obama administration for their financial support of Mitt Romney.

Three weeks ago, the Obama campaign dove headlong into the very depths of dirty politics by publicly naming and libeling eight of Romney’s most prominent donors. The campaign even called these donors “wealthy individuals with less-than-reputable records,” with the campaign’s only real reasoning for this statement being that this assortment of people supported Mitt Romney.

This attack by the Obama administration was intended to discourage people from donating to Romney and to keep those on this short list of donors from speaking out. However, one of the donors on the list, Mr. Frank Vandersloot, has spoken out about the impact that President Obama’s defamation has had on his life. According to the Obama campaign, Mr. Vandersloot is “litigious, combative and a bitter foe of the gay rights movement.” According to Frank, however, this could not be further from the truth.

Mr. Vandersloot, the CEO of a health and wellness company called Melaleuca, said in an interview with the Weekly Standard that his company has lost “a couple hundred [memberships]” from customers. Frank bitterly resents the Obama campaign’s vicious portrayal of his character, and he is considering filing a lawsuit.

This entire story is deeply concerning to me. President Obama may be desperate to win reelection, but if he is willing to stoop so low as to directly target Mitt Romney’s donors to scare them out of giving money, that is a new (and quite frightening) level of desperation. If he is willing to target private citizens for public defamation, what else might he be willing to do to suppress Romney’s reelection chances?

Desperation can drive people to do extraordinary things. If President Obama becomes desperate enough, is it possible that he would take advantage of the powers of his office to suppress those that support Mr. Romney? This would be a frightening occurrence, and one that I hope will not present itself during this election cycle.

I have faith in America’s democracy, and I believe that President Obama will not abuse his power to further his reelection. However, I hope that the Obama campaign issues an apology for defaming these eight donors, because it is not democratic to threaten your opponent’s donors.

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Obama’s “Julia” reveals his vision for America

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May 8, 2012

Obama’s vision for America is one of slavery to government, not one of personal achievement.

From cradle to grave, the government will take care of you.

This is the message that lies behind a series of interactive slides on President Obama’s campaign website. And, quite honestly, this message is quite a frightening one, especially considering our nation’s founding. Every person, as enumerated in our Declaration of Independence, has the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And unless I’m crazy, being a slave to the federal government for every need and desire does not seem to provide for these unalienable, God-given rights in an ideal fashion.

But before I definitively gut the basis of President Obama’s argument, I will share with you the nature of the slides themselves. The interactive slideshow depicts the life of a fictitious woman named Julia and shows how the policies of the Obama administration help her from cradle to grave. For example, when Julia is three years old, she is enrolled in President Obama’s Head Start program (which, by the way, has proven to be an utter failure). Of course, the slideshow portends, Julia would not be able to attend school under Paul Ryan’s budget, which Mitt Romney supports. From cradle to grave, Julia is depicted in the context of government dependence. With Obamacare, Julia thankfully has access to health care and gets access to lifesaving surgery. Thanks to Obama, Julia has a right to the same pay as men in the workplace. Without Obama, Julia wouldn’t have made it through college, wouldn’t have gotten free birth control, wouldn’t have borne a healthy child, and wouldn’t have been able to start her own business. Of course, the evil Romney administration (sarcasm) would have ensured that Julia would fail at everything in her life.

The story of Julia is, quite frankly, downright creepy. Does President Obama really think that the American people are so incompetent and helpless that the government must step in on their behalf for every single one of their needs? Moreover, does he believe that government can fulfill the dreams and desires of millions of Americans? Both of these questions are largely rhetorical in nature, as we both know that President Obama believes firmly in the power of government to restore the lives of Americans. Obama has spent trillions in failed stimulus spending programs and has only managed to drive the American economy even deeper into the ditch. Now, as true recovery continues to elude the country and Americans drop like flies from the labor force, President Obama continues to promote the same government-oriented policies and regulations that caused the housing bubble and that have prolonged our recession. As evidenced by the story of Julia, Obama’s vision for America is one of slavery to government, not one of personal achievement and hard-earned success.

President Obama’s vision has been tried and tested all over the world, but has failed tremendously. Communism and socialism are both two examples of how the good intentions of government-centered reform can lead entire nations down a dark road paved with poverty, anguish, and the suppression of human rights. In China, millions still starve because their government is oppressive and stalls free-market reforms that could save their lives. In North Korea, people suffer and die in prison camps for speaking out against the ideas of the government elite. Although many socialist and communist regimes have operated with the good intention of helping their people, the programs that are needed to level society are painful and costly both monetarily and in a humanitarian sense. In Russia alone, millions have perished at the hands of communist leaders who have willingly sacrificed lives for the “common good” of the Russian population. The fact is that the best way to ensure maximum communal success is to adopt free market policies that reward innovators and job creators while providing working-class Americans with more opportunities than their ancestors.

Check out the creepy slideshow yourself here, and please share this article with your friends via Facebook, Twitter, or whatever else fits your fancy. By the way, just so you know, I will be taking two Advanced Placement exams and my school finals in the coming weeks, and I may get slightly behind on writing articles. However, you can rest assured that I will do my best to keep up.

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An inside look at North Korean prison camps

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April 30, 2012

Does this look delicious? Try it with cow dung, courtesy of the North Korean government.

Shin Dong-Huyk was born in a North Korean prison camp with no running water or furniture. Within the concrete walls of Camp 14, Shin was forced to subsist on corn kernels in cow dung and to participate in North Korean indoctrination programs. At the age of fourteen, he witnessed the violent deaths of his mother and his brother at the hands of North Korean authorities after Shin himself reported their talk of escape to a teacher at the prison camp. He watched as his fellow prisoners struggled to survive on rats and their own vomit.

After meeting a North Korean traveler who was placed into his camp, Shin was convinced to participate in a daring escape plan. His new companion died from electrocution on the way out, but Shin managed to reach China and eventually safety at the South Korean embassy there. His story, detailed in the book Escape from Camp 14, is riveting, and I highly recommend that all of my readers get the book because of its political importance. Unlike most novels about life under totalitarian regimes and oppressive governments, Shin’s book goes into great detail about life in the North Korean prison camps and takes the reader inside the cruel reality of totalitarianism. Far from being beneficial, totalitarian governments – as Escape from Camp 14 points out – terrorize their populations and presses upon their peoples a forced equality that brings every person down. Political enemies are thrown into prison to rot or are killed, and the impoverished are silenced through violence and fear. The result is a poor, underdeveloped society, the regime of which regularly suppresses the human rights of the millions within the society. This is real totalitarianism.

While North Korea continues to expand its prison camps to demolish the rights and dignity of thousands more of its impoverished people, Mr. Dong-Huyk is driven an intense desire to destroy the North Korean prison camps and to save the people inside. In an interview with the London Evening Standard, Shin proclaimed this desire in a very forceful manner: “I want the camps eradicated — that’s my driving force. I urge people to sign petitions and write to MPs [members of Parliament], and keep raising the human rights issue. Holding talks and events will put pressure on the North Korean government.”

I agree wholeheartedly with Shin. The camps must indeed be eradicated, lest they become the noted human rights disaster of the 21st century. But we must always remember that the hundreds of thousands of people imprisoned in North Korea’s brutal prison camps are not simply victims of cruelty. They are victims of a robotically-crafted system of oppression and destruction known as communism, and without the outright elimination of this cruel governmental system, the North Korean people will never be truly free.

Mr. Huyk today. He is currently visiting Britain to urge action on North Korea in front of Parliament at the House of Commons. Photo credit: Daniel Hambury

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President Obama struggling with blue collar Democrats

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April 27, 2012

Obama's constant vacationing during our economic meltdown has left many Democrats wondering where their president's heart truly is.

Out of touch.

These are the words that blue collar Democrat voters are using to describe President Obama, and these are the words that will spell doom for the president come November. Thanks to his “do as I say, not as I do” mentality about taxpayer dollars, President Obama is falling far short with blue collar voters.

These voters are very resentful of Mr. Obama because he is so disconnected from their respective plights. Long, costly vacations to Spain, Hawaii, and Martha’s Vineyard on the taxpayer dime have certainly raised eyebrows in this crucial voting block, as most blue collar workers are not in a financial position to take long vacations or even to enjoy some time off from work. As Obama vacations, many of these voters reason, the rest of the country suffers, and this disconnect is deeply unsettling.

President Obama is facing some serious difficulties with his image. Republicans have successfully portrayed him as an obstruction to economic improvement, and anemic economic growth has continued to back this portrayal. However, Obama’s greatest strength has always been his personal image, not his political one. During the 2008 election, Mr. Obama was warm, charismatic, forceful, and articulate. Today, with an election looming, the president will need to at least maintain this image if he is to have any hopes of being competitive in November. Unfortunately for the president, however, his vacations and other forms of extravagance during an economic downturn will do little to preserve his image, as they will work against it. Extravagance in the face of catastrophe is viewed by the American people as cold, hypocritical, and just plainly insensitive. Such a mentality about President Obama, especially when held by members of his base, will be lethal for President Obama’s reelection chances.

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Are you better off?

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April 24, 2012

Romney will need to remind Americans of the problems that President Obama has created and/or has failed to solve. Pictured: Romney speaking to a crowd.

In recent weeks, Mitt Romney has emerged as the Republican candidate to take on President Obama in November. Tonight, Romney will be giving a speech to debut his official general election message, and based on some early excerpts of the speech released by the Romney campaign, it seems that Romney is framing the next election perfectly.

Mitt Romney has been running with several general themes throughout the primary season. He has talked about the need to roll back regulation, simplify the American tax code, and to grow the American economy. However, Romney spent little time on semantics and delivery of his message during the primary season, and thus, the kind of striking slogans and mottoes that characterized Barack Obama’s successful run back in 2008 have largely eluded Mr. Romney…until now. Romney plans to focus voters’ attention upon one crucial question: are you better off than you were four years ago?

The wave of enthusiasm that propelled President Obama into the White House has since vanished, and Obama is floundering in his attempts to convince voters that he has bettered their lives. Unemployment has refused to duck below pre-recession levels, even with massive numbers of Americans leaving the labor force and artificially lowering the unemployment rate. Companies are moving jobs overseas as fast as they can, domestic energy costs have skyrocketed, and the national debt has ballooned to near-catastrophic levels. Amid all these problems, Obama is still claiming success with every piece of good economic news, and of course, taking no credit for economic failures.

Romney posing this profound question to voters is an extremely intelligent move on his part. When voters go to the polls this coming November, they will not listen to either Mitt Romney or his opponent to determine whether or not President Obama deserves another four years in office. Instead, a voter will look back and think about how the incumbent has improved or decreased his quality of life. And based on our current economic situation, with new doomsday news emerging everyday, it seems fairly obvious to me that the vast majority of voters will find President Obama’s work over the past few years to be utterly unsatisfactory.

To get an idea of how damaging Mr. Romney’s speech tonight will be for the Obama campaign, only take a look at the media coverage it is (or rather, isn’t) receiving. NBC News and CBS are refusing to interrupt their normal broadcasting to cover Mr. Romney’s speech, and according to BuzzFeed, ABC News has not yet commented but – in my view – is unlikely to cover Mr. Romney either. Try to catch Romney’s speech on Fox News or CNN tonight, and comment on this article or on our Facebook page to tell me what you think about it! Is it effective?

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French elections show what’s to come in November

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April 22, 2012

By simply being in power during the Euro debt crisis and during the global economic downturn, Sarkozy is experiencing great difficulty selling his ideas to French voters, who don't see beyond France's current economic woes.

High unemployment. Illegal immigration. Jobs moving overseas. Sound familiar?

These are just a few of the main problems that the US is currently experiencing as a part of its deep economic downturn. Many political pundits have predicted that these problems will have a major impact upon the presidential race here in November, and looking to France, I think these pundits are dead right.

France is currently holding elections, and incumbent president Nicholas Sarkozy has been in power throughout both the global recession and the Euro debt crisis. France’s economy is beleaguered, with businesses fleeing the country in droves and illegal immigrants flooding into the already fragile job market. Tied to failing European countries such as Greece and Italy by the euro currency, France is in serious trouble. Dealing with the debt of other nations is quite exasperating for the French, who have been fairly responsible with their cash, and thus a debate has emerged over whether or not France should drop out of the euro or mitigate its losses through the creation of a more tightly centralized regional governing body to force Greece and other indebted nations to become fiscally responsible. Clearly, serious issues are in play in France.

But how will this affect the election? Mr. Sarkozy, the incumbent, pulled a tight second in the first round of voting. Although this second-place finish allows Sarkozy to move on to the second round to compete against the first-round victor (as the first round is a runoff round), such a finish does not bode well for Sarkozy, who – barring a last-minute surge – will not be able to retain his hold on the presidency.

French voters are skeptical about Sarkozy for the same reason that American voters are skeptical about Obama here in the US. Sarkozy has been at the helm during a deep economic recession, and his mere presence has convinced voters that the economic woes experienced by their country are his responsibility. Even if Sarkozy is a good steward of the French economy as he proclaims, he will not be able to win over the French people without producing definable facts detailing his success. Similarly, President Obama will suffer in the election this November if he is unable to produce a viable record of success that can survive the harsh inspection of the American voter.

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More sad stories of dependency

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April 19, 2012

Obama's expansion of government was supposed to get people back on their feet and back to work. In reality, however, it has caused people to become dependent upon government for money, food, and more.

Presidential contender Newt Gingrich was right when he called President Obama the “food stamp president.” As of last year, food stamp rolls have skyrocketed a whopping seventy percent higher since 2007.

Amid the passage of rapid, poorly devised stimulus spending programs and new entitlements such as Obamacare, America is beginning to look like a government-dependent nation. With over 40 million people on the food stamp rolls and millions more on unemployment benefits, the strain upon our government to protect and provide for everyone is growing to dangerous proportions. Furthermore, the conditioning of the American people to immediately turn to government for assistance is demolishing the work ethic and desire for personal success that propelled America to superpower status back in the 20th century.

The food stamp program is certainly not the worst entitlement program out there, but it serves as an excellent indicator of how government as a whole is influencing the people it governs. Smaller food stamp rolls indicate a government that is cutting spending and encouraging job growth with smart tax policies and deregulation. Large rolls show that the government is doing the exact opposite, increasing spending as well as hitting businesses with tough tax policy and intrusive regulations. Clearly, a 70% increase in food stamp rolls is certainly not a step in the right direction for America’s struggling economy. Below is a graph of the number of people in the food stamp program over the past two decades, and to show the aforementioned trends, I have provided some color-coded annotations! Read the graph carefully.

The beautiful graph itself, annotated by yours truly!

Another sad story of dependency comes out of the payroll tax cut package that President Obama and the Republicans hastily threw together back in February. Unbeknownst to myself and probably to many Republicans, this bill included a provision to give states the option of accepting government money in order to make a certain change to their unemployment programs. This change is the expansion of unemployment benefits to those who have been able to find temporary jobs. So essentially, unemployment is not just for the unemployed anymore, and even though I am all for reforming unemployment benefits, this kind of option encourages and allows people to simply look for temporary jobs constantly in order to continue receiving unemployment benefits from the government. Exploitation of entitlements is a major problem, and this policy simply adds to the already difficult situation regarding fraud and manipulation of the system.

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