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New and Existing Home Sales, July 2011 from Calculated Risk
Sales of new U.S. homes declined more than projected in July to the lowest level in five months, indicating the industry is struggling to stabilize two years into the economic recovery.
Purchases fell 0.7 percent to a 298,000 annual pace after a 300,000 rate in June that was slower than previously estimated, figures from the Commerce Department showed today in Washington. The median projection in a Bloomberg News survey of economists called for a 310,000 rate in July.
More on housing sales from Calculated Risk.
By itself, a small drop in new home sales won’t be a big issue but it is one more piece in an overall pattern showing that our economy is stalling. The stock market is down significantly, individual’s economic confidence is at a new low and official unemployment remains stuck around 9 percent.
Given how heavily Obama’s job approval is tied to people’s economic experience, without strong economic growth he is going to have serious trouble winning re-election and almost all signs are pointing to strong growth being unlikely.
It is long past time for Obama to try some bold experimentation to get the economy moving, and in doing so, save his re-election campaign.
76 Comments
Any figures on the sales of mobile homes and tents?
good question, not sure where one would get that data
Obama can run but he can’t hide from this catastrophe. Put a fork in him, he’s done.
Jon: your ending here is unclear. What sort of “bold experimentation” can Obama be expected to do, given his statutory commitment, passed by Congress, to ten years of budget-cutting through the Super Congress and the automatic budget cutbacks?
Sadly we all know that opportunity was lost in two stages: 1.) for ignoring the real economy for the banks early in his administration, choosing to screw bankruptcy cramdown, inventing a predatory lending program called HAMP and then doing a small show stimulus, 2.) when he shifted to the deficit (and his plan to kneecap Social Security) in early 2010. By accepting Republican memes regarding the deficit, and not placing the problem squarely on the Bush tax cuts, the wars AND most importantly unemployment and stagnant wages, he helped lose the house, really lost the narrative, and killed any real impetus for both real correction in the housing market and job creation.
If one buys a moblie home, they still have to put it somewhere. Land is expensive. And, it’s even expensive to rent/lease a space to put one.
Tents are cheap, but again, where are you going to put it? Camping is not cheap any more and CA is closing down some of the campgrounds.
So the figures you are asking about don’t tell the whole story.
Nothing unless he ends both wars now. Sure he could borrow money to create jobs but that would mean he would have to fight the Tea Baggers and No drama Obama its always easier to surrender Obama won’t do that until he gets a Spine.
“…and in doing so, save his re-election campaign.”
How so? Obama is at 39% JAR, and at 26% approval on the economy. No one gets re-elected with those numbers. No one.
“Sure he could borrow money to create jobs…”
The government cannot “borrow money to create jobs.”
The private sector creates jobs.
Government can only make conditions right or wrong for the private sector to create jobs.
Unless there’s no one viable to oppose him.
Time to give the banks some more money? No thanks, I prefer Obama just hibernate for the next year.
I agree.
Here in Arizona, where the economy has only gotten worse under Obama, I speak to Democrats my age, and almost to a person they are of one of three minds: 1. Sorry they voted for him, or, 2. If its between him and Romney/Perry, they will vote GOP or stay home, or 3. They’ll vote again for him, but only if they hold their nose.
Of course, this is the heart of GOP territory (there is not one statewide office held by a Dem), but to hear old-line Democrats say this is pretty shocking.
you keep saying something like this in every one of your posts, as if that would be a good thing.
The Democrats said the same thing in 1980, and the Republicans said the same thing in 1992.
Remember what happened in those years? Crippled incumbents with bad economies tried to run against their opponent by demonizing them, or pointing out peccadilloes, and none of that worked.
When the economy is good, or moderately good, the incumbent usually wins. When the economy is bad, or, like this, in near-depression levels, the incumbent always loses. Ask Jimmy Carter and George H.W. Bush about their experiences with elections and see what I mean.
Another cut and paste? At least try varying the wording…
I am going to depress all of you and post this e-mail I got, circling around the internet. (Where it started, I have no idea.)
It is titled “A Letter from a Democrat.”
________________________________
Dear Friend,
I am writing to you while standing in the unemployment line. It is September 2011, and I have been out of work since the plant closed in May and took all our jobs to China.
I know what I say all the time, what with politics and all, but let me tell you this: I sure to hell wish we had elected Barack Obama back in 2008. Just think of all the things that would have happened – and all the things that wouldn’t have – if we had just voted for Obama instead of McCain.
If we had elected Obama, we wouldn’t be looking at staying in Iraq even longer. Obama would have – at a minimum – gotten out of Iraq on the same schedule that the warmonger Bush had set up. Of course, there’s still the matter of Afghanistan. If we had elected Barack Obama, I can assure you that he would have set up a firm plan to begin a major draw-down of our forces by this year and gotten the rest out in short order. But not President McCain! Oh, no! We just found out this weekend that he’s close to signing an agreement to keep not only training details, but special forces and air power in country until… are you ready for this? Until 2024. And because of McCain nearly 1,000 more American soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since he took office in January 2009. It is a disgrace that we did not elect Obama so that that war would be ended by now as well.
And as far as the rest of the world goes, I still fondly recall candidate Obama’s spot-on criticism of the way President Bush launched wars in a willy-nilly fashion, how Bush ignored the War Powers Act, and how Bush ignored the powers of Congress, as well as the trampling on the wishes of the American people. Why couldn’t we have elected that guy? Instead, we watched as President McCain launched an attack on yet another nation – Libya – while sneering out of one side of his face that we would only be there for days. Right, Mr. President. It’s been nearly 200 of them so far. And when Democrats in Congress asked for an accounting on the war’s costs, President McCain brushes them off. What a nerve! Is he a President, or does he style himself a dictator? Didn’t we want this kind of presidency to end with Bush?
Meanwhile, the warmonger McCain is already looking at the possibility of even further commitment of American troops, in places ranging from Somalia to who-knows-where next! If we keep going at this rate we’re going to be in five or six wars by the time McCain is up for a second term. Are you going to stand for this? I know I’m not.
But wait! There’s more.
Didn’t Barack Obama say he would close Guantánamo Bay once in office? What did President McCain do? He kept the stinking place open. Obama would have closed it by now. Damn that McCain!
But I’m focusing too much on foreign policy – after all, Obama said he would end the Bush tax cuts and would create “millions of high-paying jobs.” What did President McCain do? What did he give us? Thanks to his wild spending of trillions in stimulus, and the ridiculous “Cash for Clunkers” and other wasteful projects he got the Congress to enact, we now have 9.1% unemployment, that’s what we have. (Actually, it is more like 16%, because they don’t count those who have given up looking for a job.) Obama promised us that he would turn this economy around. McCain has done nothing. All he has done is spend, spend, spend us into trillions in deficit spending each year since he took office, a total of over $16 trillion in debt, and all he does is make ridiculous speeches about what he is going to do to cut the deficit to create jobs. His speeches are awful, and every time he goes on tv the stock market drops another 500 points. He formed the Simpson-Bowles Commission to cut the deficit, but what did he do? McCain ignored their report and filed it away. Luckily because of McCain’s incompetence, in 2010 the Democrats took control of the US House of Representatives, and they are blocking McCain’s ridiculous spending proposals. So what does McCain do? He blames the Democrats for what he has done…Vice President Palin even called some of the Democrats “terrorists.” Republicans asks Democrats not to side with “party over country” – how effing unpatriotic! Sickening can only describe what President McCain has done to America in three short years in office.
Now we have a growing scandal: the ATF sold guns to Mexican drug dealers, and the Attorney General is actually stonewalling the congressional investigation. The RNC is actually putting out ads against the chairman of the House Oversight Committee because he deigns to ask questions of this administration, and he accuses the Attorney General of a cover-up. What is President McCain doing? Aiding the cover-up, that’s what. Didn’t these kind of shenanigans bring down Nixon in 1974? Doesn’t McCain care about an obstruction of justice crisis? Any more of this and this country is finished.
And just a few weeks ago McCain took a bus tour to “shore up his support” in some of the states he won in 2008 but seems destined to lose in 2012. He called it a “listening tour,” but again he just blamed Democrats for the country’s problems…the same Democrats who just took power in January, and are blocking his massive spending projects! Take some responsibility for what you’ve done, President McCain! And now he says he will have “ideas to fix the economy” in September. Where the hell has he been? Hell, he even went on vacation in the midst of a stock market meltdown and growing economic anxiety reverberating around the world…to Martha’s Vineyard! The nerve of that creep. I say it again: If only we had elected Barack Obama back in 2008…none of this would be happening. Damn.
And to top it off, the stock market is plunging as I write this, unemployment continues to balloon, and now the S&P downgraded American debt. Some of McCain’s cronies actually blamed the Democrats, who control only ½ of Congress, and only came into office this past January, for the rating. President McCain – you are responsible! Your party, which held complete control of Congress until this January, is responsible! Take the blame just as you would take the credit! Stop blaming others for your mistakes!
So, what can we do? McCain is spending all his time going to fundraisers rather than working to create jobs. All he wants to do is save HIS job. Meanwhile, reports from inside the “Re-Elect McCain 2012” campaign say that he will use his money to demolish any Democrat who runs for President and wins the nomination next year! He is going to label his opposition as “weird” or “far left.” Is that what we need right now – political warfare? More blame from a man who won’t take it himself for his failed policies? We need a President who cares about the American people, not his damn job. There are millions of Americans who are out of work, and this is what McCain wants to run on? Once again I say it: I wish we had elected Barack Obama in 2008.
And what does McCain’s team give us? The head of the RNC says that “President McCain has turned the economy around.” Are they effing kidding? Even David Gregory on “Meet the Press” almost laughed at that suggestion. It is ludicrous to say such a thing. Any party in power that says such a thing in the midst of such dire economic times should not be running for re-election. It is shameful.
I look back in horror at 2008 and realized that if we had only elected Barack Obama, instead of John McCain, none of this would be happening now. Obama promised change, and we could sure use it right now. I am frightened for the future – especially if McCain somehow wins a second term. God, how I wish we had elected Barack Obama in 2008. It is my greatest mistake that we voted for someone else instead.
Yours,
Danny
_________________
If someone repeats something, it doesn’t necessarily mean the outcome would be good. Jon is making a point of what he feels is an underlying motivation.
Bold experimentation = clap harder and punch more hippies? I don’t see any other plan on the horizon.
I don’t think he cares. History will record him as the first Black President with few accomplishments other than gutting Social Security and Medicade.
Him and his bud Jeb are down with that. How do you think he was elected on Rove/ bush voting machines.
There is a testicular fortitude deficit.
You might find this depressing. You’re not the only intelligent one at this site.
That is quite a letter. Thanks for posting it.
Economic development 101:
The U.S. economy will only improve if: 1) the U.S. sells goods or services that bring foreign currency into the U.S. and, 2) keeps U.S. currency from leaving the country.
Our current trade policies do neither.
The ONLY way our economy will improve is if we reverse our unsustainable trade deficit. Why then do we keep on talking about stimulus, infrastructure projects, tax cuts, training, and the like?
Namaste,
Antoine
I never said I was the “only” one.
Just one.
Big difference.
Use it at your leisure.
I read it and was stunned at how truthful it sounds. Imagine IF McCain were President instead of Obama, and the same things were happening, i.e., wars, the economy, S&P, the deficit, unemployment, etc.
McCain would be crucified, and rightly so.
I, for one, am thrilled that I sat out the 2008 election and didn’t vote for either Obama or McCain.
Forgot the “move to the right” part.
Sir, yes sir.
“The U.S. economy will only improve if”
If we have an administration that says, “No more regulation that strangles business. No more government spending on seeing how Mexican Pygmy monkeys smoke dope, or Chinese prostitutes make love in Hong Kong. No more stopping Boeing to open a plant in SC that creates thousands of jobs because Richard Trumka doesn’t like it. No more health care mandates that cause business to be afraid to expand. No more stimulus spending on ridiculous projects like railway lines between two small cities in California that will cost $10 billion.
Start there.
And keep working to find out what business needs to start hiring. Confidence in a leader is a good start, and they don’t have it in Obama.
What do you plan on trading?
And there are those who still say Obama is still playing 11th dimensional chess.
Obama has some of the worst political instincts I’ve ever seen. Every decision has been woefully inadequate or a disaster. Nothing’s going right for him or, more importantly, the country.
You’re right about the political instincts. Ham-fisted all the time. I watch in amazement as he fumbles his way around things that should be so simple and necessary. It really is quite stunning.
I think TCU meant something like this – (read first paragraph, I think that was where I saw it)
http://fdlaction.firedoglake.com/2011/08/23/the-taking-care-of-our-shit-initiative/
Good question. Kind of knocked the wind out of my post. I don’t know. Maybe the best and brightest from Harvard have some ideas.
Namaste,
Antoine
He’s a political klutz/nincompoop (I’m being polite when I say that). He’s completely in over his head. He keeps trying to out Republican the Republicans (probably being one himself), and it just ends up alienating liberals, independents (who are supposed to be impressed with his dissing of liberals, but aren’t), and the Republicans just hate him even more.
antoine22 August 23rd, 2011 at 1:50 pm
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Good question. Kind of knocked the wind out of my post. I don’t know. Maybe the best and brightest from Harvard have some ideas.
Namaste,
Antoine
.
“Obama has some of the worst political instincts I’ve ever seen.”
What did you expect from a man elected to the US Senate in 2004, and by early 2005 was already running for President? A man who had not one singular accomplishment in the Senate. A man who never ran a business, never met a payroll, never served in an administrative office, never dealt with foreign affairs, never served in an office dealing with policy and/or domestic affairs.
In short, Obama was vastly underqualified to be President. Mind you, McCain is a dipshit too, so I am not defending him.
But I was asked a few years ago how I compared Obama to the business world. I said that it was as if the president of a major corporation stepped down, and those who ran the company looked far and wide for a replacement but couldn’t find someone willing to take the job. Finally, they looked in the mail room and found some skinny kid who said, “Sure – I’ll take the job.”
Now, in that situation, the kid works hard, and perhaps for a few months keeps his head above water. But eventually his gross inexperience takes over, and he finds himself so over his head that he eventually ruins the corporation with his lousy decision-making.
That was Obama. He was underqualified to be President, and he surrounded himself with policy wonks rather than true business and economic and foreign policy leaders who would try to steer him in the right direction.
I voted for him. I didn’t demand a miracle, but it never occurred to me that EVERYTHING he said during the campaign was a lie. Won’t make that mistake again.
When I hear this I envision people who say this would like to go on an ocean cruise but keep the cost down by cutting way back on the crew that keeps the ship running. Looking around on the cruise you could I.D. a lot of deadwood to be dumped at the next port, that would make your cruise cheaper allowing you to keep more of your money.
What happens when you cut past the bone ? Are the privileged going man the stations and run the ship ?
That’s like the Governor who cut the highway tax, then a bridge fell down and killed a few people to save another buck. Those who killed were poor and rich alike
Anecdotally,We’ve had a camper at Castle Rock Park about 25 miles North of Wisconsin Dells for the last few years. Last year, there were three families who had lost homes and/or businesses, and were living year round in the park. This year, it looks like at least twice that number. Our purchase of the camper was initially as a vacation get-away, but it is increasingly becoming “Plan B”, for when we can no longer keep the wolves from the door.
Okay, here’s my reply. I couldn’t get my reply matched to your post. Anyway, good question. I don’t know. Maybe the best and brightest at Harvard have some ideas.
Namaste,
Antoine
Regulation? Wish we had more regulation, the lack of which has created monstrously inefficient monopolies (airlines, telecom, banks).
Government studies? — talk to any researcher / scientist / research money has all but disappeared.
Jobs in North Carolina? Boeing is shifting jobs around, not creating new ones, engaging in the time honored corporate race to the bottom scheme.
Health care mandate? Hey, that’s a corporate health care mandate.
I still think we need to address the trade deficit. Sun 29 had a good point: what do we trade. Perhaps Joseph Stiglitz might have some insights on how to reverse our trade deficit.
Namaste,
Antoine
Maybe rates are high in California, but our 36 foot camper is parked at a county park in Wisconsin on the State’s 4th largest in-land lake about 25 miles North of Wisconsin Dells, and the rent there is about $250/month, and that includes water and electricity. The rent drops by about $100 in October when they shut off water service to the campers (there is still water service in the public buildings), and electric service continues, but at a daily rate of $4 or $80 per month, whichever is less. We often go up to the camper a few times during the winter, and pay the $8 for a weekend of electricty. I don’t see many apartments with a lake view for $250/month.
Maybe SB-1070 has contributed to the economic downturn in Arizona. Maybe Jan can get a bail-out from her friends in the private penitentiary business.
You forgot to mention all the times he voted “Present” during his time in the IL State Congress so he wouldn’t have to be on record as being for or against major issues. Also that he didn’t legitimately win an election until 2008. His first win for state office was because he used legal tricks to get his opponents off the ballot. Then in 2004 the GOP put up a sex addict married to an actress and rumor has it that Obama’s campaign leaked the info to reporters and the candidate had to bow out – so then the GOP put up Alan Keyes (carpetbagger from out of state!) against him for the Senate seat. And he promised over and over and over that he would not seek the Office of the President of the USA during his first term as our Senator.
Had enough? We did and tried so hard to tell everyone else in 2008 that he was not, and could never be, who they wanted since he wouldn’t do whatever he was promising (vague as it was). We were all laughed at at reviled on the blogs to the extent that many long-time posters were chased off of blogs they had posted to for years.
I am so sorry that so many people were blinded by him and are now regretting things. I honestly had hoped that he wasn’t as bad as we thought and would prove us wrong, but that sadly has not happened. Can he still change? Sure, but the better question is: Will he change?
“Maybe SB-1070 has contributed to the economic downturn in Arizona.”
First, the housing market hit here in 2007-08. SB-1070 wasn’t enacted until 2010.
Second, if things were so terrible with it, how come so many illegals left in its wake (before the courts struck it down) that the economy is improving here?
I heard on progressive radio news today that the current sale prices for new homes is lower than the construction costs.
You are spot-on. I agree.
Obama stunk, and McCain stunk. How’s that for a choice?
The funny thing is, if McCain had won and the economy was the same position now the media would be telling us that McCain was an old fart who was in over his head. They won’t dare say that Obama is book smart but not executive smart, or policy smart, who is in over his head.
But I can tell you this: be is Perry, or Romney, or whoever gets the GOP nod, in 2012 Obama will get 150-180 electoral votes and be landslided out of power.
He cannot change because he was raised as a Marxist (yes, that word again) who was taught by his father and step-father to hate American values. His worldly experiences have shaped him, and made him the dangerous failure that he is. Never before have we had a President whose father was involved in criminal matters while hiding out on an illegal visa in the US. Never before have we had a President raised in a madrassa in Indonesia. Never before have we had a President whose severe hatred of Jews and Israel was shaped by his friendships with Jeremiah Wright and Louis Farrakhan.
My Jewish relatives, who consistently vote (D), tell me that they shake and quiver over the thought of another four years of anti-Israeli fervor from Obama. I bet Obama loses 20-30% of the Jewish vote in Florida and New York, losing the former state but keeping the latter, although NY will be closer than people realize. Heck, right now it looks as if Anthony Weiner’s seat may go to Turner, the Republican, who is backed by Ed Koch, the former NYC mayor, because Koch says Obama is the most anti-Israeli President ever,
Being from Chicago, I remember all that quite well. I don’t know if the Obama camp leaked the stuff about Jack Ryan (the GOP candidate), but the local media was all over it. Ryan had to drop out (in his divorce petition, his wife, actress Jeri Ryan, stated that Jack wanted to take her to live sex clubs and she refused, so much for “family values”), and the GOP had to scramble for a candidate (former Bears coach Mike Ditka was even considered). So they get carpetbagger Keyes (who derided Hillary Clinton for being a carpetbagger in 2000) to take the job. So Obama had no real opponent in 2004, as Keyes is one of the craziest GOPers out there.
All those “present” votes, the significant lack of any real life experience in anything has led us to a man who is completely over his head at his new job, and too arrogant (or out of touch) to really admit it to himself.
“Regulation? Wish we had more regulation, the lack of which has created monstrously inefficient monopolies…”
That’s the spirit.
As the noose is tightening, and the patient says, “Loosen it! Loosen it, please!” you tighten it because you want more strangulation of the US economy by Obama and big government.
That’s why we have 16% unemployment – great thinking like that.
” I don’t know if the Obama camp leaked the stuff about Jack Ryan (the GOP candidate)…”
If memory serves me, Obama didn’t release it; Ryan’s ex-wife, Jeri Ryan, the actress (and man was she hot), spoke about her terrible divorce from him, and reporters sued to get the records.
Obama skated by because he has never been vetted by the media, in Chicago or nationally. They were all too blinded by the stars in their eyes of the thought of the first black President to care to look behind the curtain at who was controlling the Magical Wizard of O.
Now that is pure nonsense. He almost kisses Bibi’s ring when they meet. Give me a break.
“I voted for him. I didn’t demand a miracle, but it never occurred to me that EVERYTHING he said during the campaign was a lie. Won’t make that mistake again.”
He’s a politician. Politicians lie. I got used to that a long time ago.
Obama’s got a special problem, though. He says he will do A, does B, and then when people complain that he didn’t do A he says he DID do A, and when people don’t like B he blames others that he couldn’t get A passed.
That’s a special kind of horseshititis I haven’t seen before.
“Now that is pure nonsense. He almost kisses Bibi’s ring when they meet.”
Are you a Jew? Ask a moderate Jew – a pro-Israeli American Jew, a pro-settlement Jew, an anti-Pally state Jew, the following question:
Has Obama been tougher on Israel than any previous President in your memory?
Watch as they say yes by 80-20.
Ed Koch is a true liberal. A liberal’s liberal. And he says Obama hates Israel; so much so, that Koch is campaigning for the Republican candidate, Turner, to win Anthony Weiner’s US House seat.
Is Ed Koch crazy? Are the Jews in NY, or California, or Florida all crazy?
Want me to prove you wrong? One of Rick Perry’s top fundraisers is a moderate Jew, a former Democrat named Alan Lerner. He is so fed up with Obama that he is bundling Jewish money for Rick Perry, who is about as far as Judaism as you can get. But I bet Rick Perry would be a better friend of Israel than Obama has ever been or will be.
I am not Jewish but please, what has Obama done that is anti-Israel? Stopped the money? Stopped the arms?
Condemned Israel for it tactics toward the Palestinians?
Not stood with Israel in the United Nations? WHAT?
“I am not Jewish but please, what has Obama done that is anti-Israel?”
He is dismissive of Israel’s security claims. He tried to force Israel to apologize for the Gaza ship incursion from Turkey. He treated Netanyahu not as a worid leader or even an ally but as some schmo waiting to speak to the President. Further, he tried to force the 1967 borders on Israel, when Obama knows (or should know) that Israel will never return to the 1967 borders unless they want war from the Pallies.
That’s what he’s done in a nutshell.
Here is the problem with Obama, as I outlined above: he says he will do A, does B, gets mad when people accuse him of not doing A, and then says he would have done B but he had to make sacrifices to do C:
“The president is going to outline a short-term plan to accelerate the economy,” Axelrod said on ABC’s This Week, “in the face of the hits we’ve taken, because of the Arab Spring and oil prices, because of the Japanese earthquake, because of Europe that have slowed down economic growth.”
On Meet the Press, Gibbs used similar language, “The president is going to outline some ideas, the president has outlined ideas every day he’s been in the White House.”
http://campaign2012.washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/obamas-specific-plan-now-just-outline
I could have sworn that Obama said he would have a “detailed plan” to “get the economy moving again.” Now all he has is an outline?
Obama’s toast. Mourn that if you must but then look ahead. Cause that’s what everyone else is doing.
And we will be extremely lucky if we get even that. If I have to listen to David “Why do I have to walk around looking so much like Hitler” Axelrod one more time, I think I’m going to croak
And your proof that the economy in Arizona has improved due to undocumented immigrants leaving is what?
The NY Times, in a shocker editorial, says that it doesn’t like tar-sand petroleum extraction. Why? Carbon dioxide, “The Invisible Killer.” It could contribute to “climate change.”
Well, Canada doesn’t care about Kyoto or the NYT and they’re not going to stop producing valuable oil over this Chicken Little nonsense.
The Times’ carefully-crafted response? Block the pipeline into the US, and force those Snowbillies to sell their tar sand petroleum to China:
Canada’s government is committed to the tar sands business. (Alberta’s energy minister, Ronald Liepert, has declared, “I’m not interested in Kyoto-style policies.”) The United States can’t do much about that, but it can stop the Keystone XL pipeline.
http://www.chamberpost.com/2011/08/the-new-york-times-keystone-xl-illogic/
A blogger asks:
What would stopping the Keystone XL pipeline accomplish? Do they not want the ten of thousands of jobs directly and indirectly created from the pipeline? Would they rather have the U.S. be less energy secure? Do they want to be on the side of anti-growth, anti-energy protesters?
It sure looks that way to me.
The pipeline goes to the Texas Gulf Coast. I assume that is because the slurry produced by the process requires additional refinement, and so, they send it to Texas.
Why stop Texans and Louisians from working, if the work is just going to be done elsewhere?
Wait…wouldn’t this create thousands of jobs? High-paying jobs, like the ones Obama desperately needs to show the economy is creating? Jobs will created to build the pipeline, and to maintain it, and to refine the oil, which will bring more money into the American economy, more jobs, and less money to Middle East and other countries. Canada is our friend and neighbor, right?
But there lies the problem, says the Left. They speak of being pro-science, and yet they are ignorant Luddites. They speak about creating jobs, but when jobs can be created, they block them. They want more energy production in America, but they block energy production in America.
Whose side are these people on?
“And your proof that the economy in Arizona has improved due to undocumented immigrants leaving is what?”
A lower unemployment rate. Businesses coming from California, and Washington, and Oregon, here, where state taxes are low and this is a right-to-work state.
And we have a Governor who is not afraid to tell Obama, or any other politician, where to shove it when she is p.o.’ed.
Obama and big government? What big government? Noose tightening? Hell, Obama can’t even get Elizabeth Warren appointed to watch the banksters. Perhaps you should post on Town Hall.
Namaste,
Antoine
I don’t have figures on either, but I have friends who’ve had a LOT of difficulty selling mobile homes in CA recently. The various friends who were selling in different parts of CA had to lower their prices down to almost a give-away in order to get rid of the mobile home. All claimed the homes were nice, large and in good condition. I didn’t see them, so I don’t know.
My *guess* (based only on anecdotal observation) is that smaller single family homes have come down so far in price that they give mobile homes more competition. Depending on where you’re located, some pretty decent houses in good neighborhoods are now going for well under $100k. Why buy a mobile home when you can buy a detached house in a good neighborhood??
Yes but Warren’s appointment wouldn’t pass congress, How is that Obama’s fault?
That’s demand. We don’t need to “keep working to find out what business needs” Demand caused by wages. Wages paid by jobs. Jobs make by government spending.
Mobil homes are hard to sell. The ground rent kills the deal, becuase the mobile home park owners are greedy. It’s cheaper to buy a home.
Okay, bad example. That’s what happens when I shoot from the hip.
Namaste,
Antoine
A pipline to the texas gulf coast is stupid. Just refine the crude in ALberta.
And you are 100% wrong that the canadians do not care about tar sands and the environment.
Installing wind and solar would produce the same jobs, with the same prices for energy, and be much less harsh on the environment.
Finally I don’t believe you intelligent or independant.
Isreal is the cuase of most of our security issues with Muslims. When will you become sensitive to our security needs?
Especially those that do not involve wasting Trillions of $ in Iraq, Afghanistan and other places?
Either yes, or they are wilfully blind to the truth.
We KNOW what business needs to start hiring, consumers to by the good and services they produce. People with jobs consume more than the unemployed.
We need jobs. Not tax cuts for billionaires; not a continued gutting of the regulations that protected us from this sort of mess since the New Deal. Jobs.
I’m sure you’re right. In days of yore, it was somewhat cheaper to buy a mobile home & then pay the rent to stay in the park. These days, I think it’s mostly the reverse, esp with some lower cost housing coming onto the market at reasonable costs. If you have enough money to buy a mobile home (and pay related rental/land lease fees), you probably have enough to just buy a cheaper house in many cases.
Agree. And when will such folks becomes sensitive to the fact that the USA donates something like $5billion per year to Isreal, whose citizens enjoy govt subsidized health care, while USA citizens are ripped off for our health care… if we’re even lucky enough to be able to afford to get it.
This is just one tiny example of yet another issue with Israel. I’m not anti-semitic in the slightest, but Zionism without any brakes on is not doing any of us any good… and is costing US citizens a huge fortune. The benefits of our tax dollars inure only to the very rich and powerful, as usual.
Israeli’s and Jews are NOT afraid of Obama in the slightest. That’s completely bogus. As another posted earlier, Obama pretty much bows down and kisses Bibi’s ring. Gimme a break.
So abrupt climate change will result in massive famine after changing weather patterns result in massive crop failure. Big deal. We need good jobs now.