Fourth-quarter GDP 5.7%

“Wow, great number. It’s very solid and gives us a running start into the second half of the year when we can’t rely on government stimulus,” said Jack Ablin, chief investment officer at Harris Private Bank in Chicago.

Key phrase:
Can’t rely on “stimulus”

Reminds me of all the bragging about car sales during the “cash for clunkers” fiasco.

Massively increasing the National debt to “give” tax payer money to states and their business’s seems like more of an extremely expensive circle jerk than a sound economic plan.

Every business I know has had to cut major jobs,inventories,and thoughts of any expansion due to the bad economy and the policies being put forth by Mr. “only 8% unemployment if you give us a trillion dollars”.

My accounts pretty much say the same thing every week…
…”just trying to get by”….”We are able to keep the bills paid,that’s about it”……

….business’s are at bare bones now with profits way down.
…for many,the only movement can be up because they can’t go down any further without going out of business.

…..Car sales and Home sales have always been pretty good indicators of the economy….and they are dismal right now.

…for having such a low dollar..we don’t seem to be exporting all the goods that was bragged about by the the “stimulus” supporters.

I will believe we are making the moves in the right direction when I see an upturn in the overall economy,jobs,import/export of goods,home sales,and retail sales going up (70% of our economy is consumer based) without government funding or bailouts.

This is a good example of the smoke and mirrors the White House is feeding us on the economy:

(via Gateway pundit)

Crony Capitalism: Donate to Democratic Candidate- Win $100 Million in Stimulus Cash & Box Seats at SOTU
Thursday, January 28, 2010, 5:27 PM
Jim Hoft
http://gatewaypundit.firstthings.com/2010/01/crony-capitalism-obamas-example-of-stimulus-success-100-million-for-15-jobs-created-at-dem-donors-company/

It’s Called Crony Capitalism.
Obama mentioned a company last night that actually had created jobs thanks to the (failed) democratic Stimulus bill.

“The plan that has made all of this possible, from the tax cuts to the jobs, is the Recovery Act. That’s right – the Recovery Act, also known as the stimulus bill. Economists on the left and the right say that this bill has helped save jobs and avert disaster. But you don’t have to take their word for it. Talk to the small business in Phoenix that will triple its work force because of the Recovery Act.”

……what is the real story behind such fantastic success of Obama’s stimulus……

Easy enough. It’s called Ecotality, based out of Scottsdale, and it was the lead receiver of a $100 million grant from the Department of Energy through the stimulus bill. (Ecotality, which used to be called Alchemy Enterpreises, has MANY subsidiaries, so much of this money is actually going to those subsidiaries rather than directly to Ecotality. One such example is Electric Transportation Engineering Corp., a division of Ecotality, which will be putting in electric vehicle infrastructure as far away as Oregon).

President Honors ECOtality/eTec in State of the Union Address

Total jobs added? According to them, 15 in 2009 and 27 in 2010. For $100 million. Am I supposed to cheer for that?

42 jobs for 100 million dollars and liberals are bragging about this.

$2,380,952.38 cost per job!!!!!!

How progressive!!!!!!

Baxter Greene on January 29, 2010 at 10:43 AM

Good news for the USA = Bad news for the GOP.

Decider on January 29, 2010 at 10:20 AM

So we will now see democrats running to the news pundits,talk shows,and papers bragging about how successful all their policies have been……

……….please do that chump……….the GOP would like nothing more than liberals to start this year crowing and bragging about how “smart”(like they did 2009,how did that work out in NJ,VA,and MA.) they are and how great their policies are working with Americans scratching by for everything they have right now…..

decider here must not remember all the bragging about third quarter GDP being at 3.5% and how great things were turning around, only to have the reality of unemployment,massive mortgage default,tanking dollar,and massive debt,smack the reality of their failures right back in their faces.

…..so please….brag away….will make great footage to go with all of Obama’s lies and broken promises for 2010 and 2012.

Baxter Greene on January 29, 2010 at 10:52 AM

–What you’re not seeing in those numbers is increases in employment at the suppliers of the infrastructure. That company won’t be manufacturing or producing the infrastructure itself. It will have contracts with suppliers to make the infrastructure.

Jimbo3 on January 29, 2010 at 10:50 AM

Ahh….what you are not seeing is the loss of almost 4 million jobs and double digit unemployment after the signing of over a trillion dollar stimulus (with interest) that promised the “creation” of 3.5 million jobs and nothing above 8% unemployment.

The only thing democrats have to refute this failure is bogus proclamations of success based on math that cannot be verified.

From the AP:

In December, the administration reported that recipients of direct assistance from the government created or saved about 650,000 jobs. The number was based on self-reporting by recipients and some of the calculations were shown to be in error.

The Congressional Budget Office has been much more guarded than Obama in characterizing the success of the stimulus plan. In November, it reported that the stimulus increased the number of people employed by between 600,000 and 1.6 million “compared with what those values would have been otherwise.” It said the ranges “reflect the uncertainty of such estimates.” And it added, “It is impossible to determine how many of the reported jobs would have existed in the absence of the stimulus package.”

We have the White House making claims of job growth in districts that don’t even exist.

We have the White House claiming that even if a dollar goes to a company that pays it employees,it is considered a “job saved” whether it was saved or not.

…..is this your idea of success Jimbo…..

………..do you want to go on record here and claim how successful the stimulus has been considered what was promised by the White House.

…….if this is what you and your liberal friends consider success, then you have no business being around any financial decision making what-so-ever.

Baxter Greene on January 29, 2010 at 11:01 AM