Jobs, Economics, and the Crises Facing America

When only the spenders get to decide on funding, and the funders have no say on spending, then spending will never be curtailed, funding will grow unendingly, and government will continue to be a ravenous beast until freedom's crushed.

By Rich Kozlovich

Recently we've seen claims about how recently over 353,000 jobs were created in America, and in this Breitbart article by Rebecca Mansour, "Carney on ‘Kudlow’: The Jobs Numbers Are Real and Not Just Government Workers, they go over the stats saying:

The surprisingly strong January jobs report reflects real employment and productivity growth and not just growth in government or government-adjacent hiring, Breitbart Economics Editor John Carney explained during a Friday interview with Fox Business host Larry Kudlow..............These jobs numbers are not only “real” but also “picking up steam,” Kudlow observed.....

While that may be true you really should be asking:  So what, and is there more to this story?

Dan Mitchell who posts on his International Liberty web site published this piece, which he allowed me to publish, The Washington Post Grades Biden’s Economy on a Curve saying:

I rarely comment about media bias, but sometimes there is an example that demands attention.  For today’s column, I want to examine a four-question quiz on the Biden economy put together by the Washington Post. The first indication of bias is that every answer was the one that made Biden look good (or less bad). Sort of like a quiz asking if communists killed 1 billion people, 500 million people, or 100 million. The fact that the right answer is that they “only” killed 100 million is hardly a ringing endorsement of Marx’s evil ideology.  But another problem is that some of the questions also were steroid-fueled examples of grading on a curve. For instance, based on Question #1, we’re supposed to be impressed that the United States has grown faster than Europe’s decrepit welfare states...............Biden should have spectacular job numbers, if only because the pandemic meant there were still millions of missing jobs when he took office. p>

He went on to say:

The Post obviously wants readers to conclude that Biden deserves good marks for the economy. The fact that the paper had to engage in contortions tells you what you really need to know: 

Bidenomics is unpopular for the simple reason that prices have been rising faster than incomes have been rising. And when people are sinking – or even if they are treading water – that is a recipe for dissatisfaction. Yet people like Paul Krugman claim that there is a “Biden boom.”

Okay, so a lot of jobs were created, and America is ahead internationally of all these abject losers, and again I ask:  So what?  Especially since there really does seem to be more to this story that's not being addressed by Kudlow and company.  Why hasn't this boon impacted "one small upstate New York town that epitomizes that feeling is Fulton, N.Y.?  Over the years they lost jobs created by:

 

"companies such as Nestle, Miller brewery, Sealright packaging company, Birds Eye, Hunter Arms, and backbone industries of yesteryear like paper plants and woolen mills. Today, however, the city is a burnt-out shell of its former self."  

 

That's what's happening in America.  And all the policies being put in place are making this worse, not better.  So, going back to all these new jobs the administration touts:  Are these full-time jobs or part time jobs?  This article, Full-Time Work Is Being Replaced by Part-Time Jobs as Americans and Businesses Struggle, seems to indicate many of these jobs are not full time, but in reality part time saying:

 

Since June 2023, Americans have been increasingly employed in part-time positions, with a subsequent decline in full-time work, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The number of Americans working part-time in January grew by 96,000 compared to the previous month, while full-time employment sank by 63,000, according to the BLS.....The number of part-time positions has grown from 26,248,000 in June 2023 to 27,890,000.....Over that same time period, the number of workers employed full-time also dropped by over 1.6 million, from 134,787,000 to 133,133......Wherever possible, businesses are eliminating full-time jobs and replacing them with part-time jobs to reduce costs"...........

Like Dan Mitchell, there's a reality I find compelling.  I recently took my family out to dinner to a sushi joint, and we had a great meal, but it was just under $300 dollars, for six people. This wasn't high end dining, it was just a sushi joint.  A good one, but still a sushi joint, almost $300 dollars. Whether of not I can afford it is immaterial.  What we need to ask is this: Is that really good value?  

An Egg McMuffin meal at McDonalds in my town in Northern Ohio, with a cup of coffee and a hash brown is now $10.75, for one person.  For a family of six that would translate to just under $65 dollars. And in other areas it can be substantially higher, and based on the price of an Egg Muffing in a town in Connecticut, it could be a little over 25% higher, making it around $80 for a family of six, that makes my price a bargain by comparison.  But that's no bargain for a breakfast at McDonalds, or any other restaurant!  And that's not the most expensive McDonalds breakfast meal!  

I don't blame the restaurants for what they're charging, they're stuck between a rock and a hard place and have no choice, but we still need to recognize reality, value, and the see the long picture. 

Now, those prices are the reality people are concerned about, and these schemes to make it appear Joe Biden is just doing a bang up job for America is nothing but collusion between a corrupt and clueless media and the Biden administration creating an Alice in the looking glass world, attempting to cover over issues that impact the nation not only economically, but socially, and culturally.  At the national and international level.

We're watching unchecked mass illegal immigration and irrational geopolitical decisions impacting our economy and the very foundational Constitutional structures that created America. And the consequences of those actions are piling up explosively.

Here's reality:  We are in a depression and do not even know it.  The media talking heads, most of whom are dumb as dirt, along with the nutrolls in the Congress and administration keep trying to paper over that reality, but, we're dealing with massive national debt, unchecked spending, unchecked borrowing, and constant inflation, and any talk inflation is under control is a lie. 

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for 2023 was 3.4% year over year.  Not horrible.  But do not forget that 6.5% occurred in 2022, and 7% in 2021.  That is a total of 16.9% in three years.  You are paying at least 17% more than at the start of this decade.  Regardless of what the BLS would like you to believe, prior year inflation does not go back to zero with the beginning of each new year. BLS uses a sampling approach to determine the CPI.  This does not work well with large, infrequent purchases such as home mortgages.  You cannot replace these purchases any time you feel like it.  During the two years following 2020, interest on home mortgages doubled.  So if you are a first-time buyer in 2024, you will be paying 100% more in interest than your next-door neighbor, who purchased 20 months earlier.  So how does BLS determine the CPI for “long-term purchases”?

All of which has been caused by government policies and mandates, and once inflation hits a certain level, it takes years to overcome the impact of those high inflation years.  Spending and borrowing are out of control, and we're now the FED is printing money with no value behind it, which the government is spending faster than the FED can create it.  

The day is coming when all this will come to a head, a destructive head, and we won't have to worry about the cost of an Egg McMuffin, because there won't be any McDonalds left to sell them, as America turns into a third world hole.  Please don't tell me that can't happen in America.  It's already happening in each and every one of America's major cities.  

Now, please tell me which party do you think is in charge in these cities?  Please tell me why you have complete confidence they can fix it.  Please tell me you're not on drugs.   

Hello America, welcome to San Francisco!