February 2013 Job Gains and Historical Perspectives

Despite constant budget fights in Washington, the U.S. economy managed one of the best months for job gains in the past year in February 2013, driving the unemployment rate to its lowest level in more than four years. The economy stunningly added 247,000 jobs.

However, historically, the jobs report sucks. During the four years when Jimmy Carter was president, the economy added 230,000 jobs per month over four years, when the population was two thirds the size of today, and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was 37 percent the size of today’s US economy. Give the disparity in population and GDP, the current economy would have to add 600,000+ private sector jobs per month to be as successful as the economic policies of the Carter administration.

There was a reason why the Carter economy was so much better than the Obama economy. The 99 percent took home about 92 percent of all the income produced in the US in 1980. That meant the demand for goods and services was much stronger then than now because the 99 percent now receive only about 68 percent of all the income produced in the USA. The US government has passed legislation upon legislation, such as free income redistribution trade treaties and privatization scams, that redistribute more and more income out of the pockets of the 99 percent and into the already bulging wallets of the 1 percent. The Obama administration, many of his Democratic allies such as Wall Street Senator Ron Wyden and the entire Republican continue to pursue these policies with the primary objective seeming to be to destroy the middle class and keep the Ponzi scheme known as Wall Street rising.

On the downside, Obama’s job market would be better, and the unemployment rate lower, had not the government spent most of the recovery cutting spending and jobs, unlike previous administrations. And though Wall Street may cheer February’s jobs report, the pain of government cutbacks looks to get worse as the year goes on.

U.S. employers added 236,000 jobs to non-farm payrolls in February, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on Friday, up from 119,000 in January. That was the best payroll growth since 247,000 jobs last November and the second-best month for job growth of the past 12 months.

The unemployment rate dropped to 7.7 percent from 7.9 percent in January, with 12 million people looking for work. That is the lowest unemployment rate since December 2008, when the rate was 7.3 percent.

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Former US President Carter: Venezuelan Electoral System “Best in the World”

Former US President Jimmy Carter said that Venezuela’s electoral system is the best in the world, regardless of how much the corrupt corporate US press and such propaganda machines as Fox News has claimed.

“‘Speaking at an annual event last week in Atlanta for his Carter Center foundation, the politician-turned philanthropist stated, “As a matter of fact, of the 92 elections that we’ve monitored, I would say the election process in Venezuela is the best in the world.’”

Carter also said the US has one of the most corrupt systems in the world, because “we have one of the worst election processes in the world, and it’s almost entirely because of the excessive influx of money.”

Click the link below for the complete story.

President Carter Says Venezuela’s election system is the best in the world

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Myths and Accomplishments of President Ronald Reagan

Perhaps the biggest myth concerning President Ronald Reagan is that he killed the Soviet Union. No, he did not. That’s just a lie put out by right-wingers. President Harry Truman destroyed the Soviet Union. As president, Truman initiated the Containment Policy, which had been proposed by George Kennan, US diplomat. This policy was for the US to do whatever it took to keep communism from spreading. Kennan felt that doing so would cause the Soviet Union to collapse upon itself within fifty years. It did and right on schedule.

That’s right. A Democratic president set out to kill the USSR and he did it. Here’s how.

In the ashes of World War II, with the establishment of the Containment Policy, President Truman helped to establish the European Union, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO), pushed the development of the nuclear bomb, stopped the communist advance in South Korea, established the perpetual war economy, ordered the Berlin Airlift, ordered the Marshall Plan which saved Western Europe from a communist takeover, established the Truman policy which saved Greece and Turkey from communist takeovers. The list goes on and on and on.

What did President Reagan do to bring down the Soviet Union? He ordered the continuation of a military buildup that had begun under President Jimmy Carter. Supposedly, according to right-wingers, trying to keep up with the buildup bankrupted the USSR. Doesn’t anybody think Carter should get credit for that? Or perhaps Al Queda should get credit because members of that group believe they broke the USSR by resisting the Soviet occupation of Afganistan. But the truth is that the Soviet Union was teetering thirty years earlier.

Soviet GNP peaked in 1968. The Containment Policy was working. And Truman’s policy polished off the Soviet Union a few decades later.

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President Jimmy Carter is Beginning to Look Great: Only 181,00 jobs per month were created in 2012

Two million jobs were created last year.

The graph above says a ton.

1) 2.17 million jobs were created in 2012, which is the best annual amount since 2005, and is greater than seven of the eight years of the corrupt idiots Bush/Cheney.

2) “During the fourth quarter of last year, with the “fiscal cliff” looming, 201,000 jobs were created per month. “All these concerns that the fiscal uncertainty deterred businesses from hiring, they certainly haven’t materialized,” said UniCredit economist Harm Bandholz.”

3) “74,000 government jobs were lost last year. This includes 9,000 layoffs last month, 2,000 of which were in education. Since February 2010, the public sector has lost 600,000 jobs.”

4) “5.5 million lost jobs have been recovered. As Bloomberg News noted, ‘The economy has recovered 5.51 million of the 8.74 million jobs that were lost as a result of the last recession.’”

5) Roughly 100,000 construction jobs have been created since September 2012. The economy has added 296,000 construction jobs since January 2011, and a third of those gains occurred in the final four months of 2012. Still, construction employment is 2 million jobs below its 2006 peak.

Now here are some things the chart doesn’t tell you.

6) By 2012, a good three years after the end of the last recession, fully 49.1 percent of the US population received some form of government assistance compared to 30 percent in 1980.

7) Under President Jimmy Carter, during the period from June 1980 to June 1981, the economy created nearly three million jobs, more than 230,000 jobs per month, and in a nation that was more than 2/3s smaller in population and gross domestic product than the current economy. What happened to cause such giant differences between then and now? Here is the difference. The 1 percent have stolen ove 30 percent of the total income produced in the US every year, compared to 7 to 8 percent in 1980. The US government was taken over by the 1 percent years ago. The result has been a massive redistribution of income and wealth from the 99 to the 1 percent via free trade legislation, deregulation and privatization scams, as well as profitable wars for the 1 percent and stuff like that. That means the 99 percent have less money to spend, which creates a weaker economy, less jobs and fewer opportunities.

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This is Where the United States Government Is Today, as well as Ten, Twenty and Thirty Years Ago

Fascism began in America with the ascendency of President Ronald Reagan. A day after he was sworn into office, the Iranians released the embassy hostages, perhaps and or most likely because a deal had been made between the leaders of Iran and Republican officials to hold on to the hostages to ensure the defeat of President Jimmy Carter. This treason, if it occurred, was a massive move toward fascism. If it didn’t occur, it was a remarkable coincidence. On the other hand, congress made certain that any investigations into the arms for hostages crisis would not look into anything having to do with the case before 1983. That was another strange coincidence.

Reagan’s reign of error included his war against the middle class and the destruction of labor unions.

Fascism in the United States began with Reagan, but it wasn’t completely in charge of both major political parties until the second term, or maybe sometime during the first term, of President Bill Clinton.

One could argue that we do not have a fascist system of government, but then the only argument you could otherwise make is that we have a plutocracy, which is a government of the rich and for the rich. However, in the case of the United States, they’re one and the same. We have them both.

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Dumbed Down Mitt Romney Wouldn’t Know Why More and More People Are Receiving Government Handouts

By 2012, a good three years after the end of the last recession, fully 49.1 percent of the US population received some form of government assistance compared to 30 percent in 1980. The under President Jimmy Carter, the economy had just staggered out of a severe recession. During the period from June 1980 to June 1981, the economy created nearly three million jobs, in a nation that was more than 2/3s smaller in population and gross domestic product than the current economy. What happened to cause such giant differences between then and now?

The US government was taken over by the 1 percent. The result has been a massive redistribution of income and wealth from the 99 to the 1 percent via free trade legislation, deregulation and privatization scams, as well as profitable wars for the 1 percent and stuff like that. The result is that the rich have stolen via legislation about 30 percent of all US income, whereas they received 7-8 percent in 1980.

That means the 99 percent only receive 70 percent of the total US income, and the result is they have less money to spend. More of them need government assistance to get by, and that’s why the economy is so weak, as well as why more and more people receive some form of government assistance.

By the way, the 1 percent are stealing 93 percent of all income growth in the US, at least since 2008. That means more people are going to be on government assistance in the coming years; the demand for goods and services by the 99 percent will diminish. This will weaken the economy more and result in an epic economic disaster. This process continues under President Wall Street Barack Obama. Most likely this disaster will begin in the next few years, but it could be ten years away. In reality, the economy is teetering on the edge of disaster as I write this, and we are most likely in the midst of a slow motion collapse.

One more point needs to be made, most of the rich are rich because of the ability to control government legislation. They can purchase the votes of politicians like Wall Street Senator Ron Wyden. The ability to buy the votes of politicians like one could purchase the services of whores on the streets is the biggest government welfare program of them all.

By the way, since the ascendency of Richard Nixon as president in 1969, Jimmy Carter is looking like a hell of president compared to either the elder or the younger and dumber Bush’s, and compared to Obama. Let’s get something straight, next to Reagan and Clinton, by any measurement, Carter is probably the third best president since 1969. He might even be number one.

Related stories.

Eight Key Charts About the Growing Income Inequality in the USA–JohnHively.wordpress.com

The Ponzi Scam Called Wall Street: Why it matters that the US Added only 96,000 jobs in August 2012–Johnhively.wordpress.com

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The US Economic Crisis: How we got here.

“Apparently unbeknownst to many, the working class in America has been living with austerity economics for forty years now. Since the 1970s the proportion of what American labor is paid relative to what it produces has been declining, as have the effective tax rates on corporations and the wealthy. With corporations and the rich who own them receiving a larger proportion of what labor produces and paying less in taxes, there is now little left to pay for necessary social programs such as schools, health care and pensions. But this shortfall is no accident. It is the intended result of four decades of policies specifically designed to enrich the ruling class at the expense of labor, the middle class and the poor.”

The paragraph above is heisted from the story that is linked below. It’s highly accurate point-of-view as to what is happening to the US economy and how the 99 percent are getting screwed over by the 1 percent via their control of the federal government and their lapdogs in politics like Wall Street Fetchboy Senator Ron “Total Sleezebag” Wyden.

The Economic Crisis: Say Goodbye to Social Security? Counterpunch.com

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Former US President Jimmy Carter Tells the Truth About Obama Administration’s Massive Human Rights Violations

Let’s get this straight. When those folks kill, maim, torture and blast our folks we call it terrorism. When we kill, maim, torture and blast their folks into pieces, we call it a “war on terror.” Sounds like perpetual war for perpetual peace. But the phrase should more realistically be like, “Sounds like perpetual war for perpetually and massively high profits going into the already fat wallets of the 1 percent and, oh yeah, perpetual peace for the 99 percent, too!

Click the link below for former US President Jimmy Carter’s take on the Obama Administration’s war on terror.

Former US President Jimmy Carter Accuses Obama Administration of Massive Human Rights Abuses.

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Free Trade Agreements Redistributing Income and Wealth from the 99 to the One Percent

(Reuters) – “The number of Americans claiming unemployment benefits for the first time fell only slightly last week, suggesting that job growth in April will not improve much after March’s disappointing performance.”

The economy is weak because demand is weak and that is due to the massive redistribution of income and wealth the federal government has undertaken under sneaky, lying Democrats and their sneaky, lying Republican co-conspirators. The government has redistributed income from working people to the rich for the last thirty years, but nobody wants to talk about how the one percent now steal about 25 percent of total national income compared to about 7 percent under President Jimmy Carter; 12 million jobs were created under Carter’s watch, with real rising wages during his four years in office. No matter what you can say about Jimmy Carter as president, we got to say, “Those were the good old days.” Unfortunately, they were and we didn’t think that back then.

The one percent stole 93 percent of total national income growth from 2009 to 2010, and it’s likely they did pretty much the same from 2010 to 2011, although those statistics are not available, as of yet. The worse thing is that “Wall Street Obama” has knowingly continued to use the federal government to redistribute income and wealth to the rich, and expect even more money to be shoveled toward the rich should “Wall Street Romney” become president. Think in terms of the South Korea, Panama and Colombia free trade agreements. Once jobs are shipped to those nations, or created there because of those agreements, the difference between the old wages here and the new lower wages there go into the pockets of the one percent via rising corporate profits, enhanced dividends and soaring share prices. God forbid!

Actually, God help the American people because with these choices for president we’re racing toward economic disaster, and we’re going to need all the help we can get has we barrel our way toward third world status.

Related Story

Why Are Teacher Cut Backs Coming? Blame Free Trade Agreements

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Why Are Teacher Cut Backs Coming? Blame Free Trade Agreements

The Oregonian writer Steve Duin wrote a nice piece about teacher cutbacks at Franklin High School coming in the next few months. He only told the effects, and I asked him to write about what has caused these cutbacks. Below is a link to his well written column, and below that is my response.

At Portland's Franklin High School, the Bell Tolls for…Them

Dear Steve Duin,
I appreciate your nice, but short-sighted, story titled, “At Franklin, the bell tolls for…them.” You quote teacher Portia Hall as saying, “’I’ve been teaching for fifteen years, and I’ve never had a year when we didn’t cut. Even when times were good.’”

Why don’t you tell the whole story about school funding and teacher cut backs? Why don’t you write about how free trade treaties have shipped jobs and much of the tax base overseas? Why don’t you write about how those treaties make it more profitable for American businesses to create jobs in other nations rather than here? Why don’t you write about how the difference between the old higher wages in the US and the new lower wages over there go into the pockets of Wall Street fat cats and other rich people via higher corporate profits, enhanced dividends and rising share prices? The people that lose those jobs wind up searching for work. That’s not a very good trade. This leads to a good question.

What are the federal government and the American economy for? Is it to redistribute more income to the already rich at the expense of working people? That’s been happening for the last thirty years.

These agreements are the primary reason why the rich are getting richer. They’re why the one percent received 93 percent of total US income growth from 2009 to 2010.

Why is the tax base crumbling? Why are teachers being laid off three years after the official end of the recession? Why can’t the economy create over 12 million jobs with rising real wages nowadays, like it did when Jimmy Carter was president and the economy and the population were only about 60 percent the size of what they are now? Why have only 4 million jobs with declining real wages and salaries been created in the twelve years since George W. Bush took office? Why is the economy so weak?

Free trade “income redistribution” agreements are the greatest reasons the one percent receive nearly 25 percent of the total US income nowadays compared with about 8 percent under Carter. The result has been devastating to the 99 percent in lost jobs, declining real income, demand too weak to create jobs in the US at previous levels, evaporating tax bases, teachers voting to strike in Gresham-Barlow and the Parkrose districts. These agreements are also the primary reasons why Portia Hall has never seen “a year we didn’t cut.”

Just open your eyes and look at those free trade treaties and ask yourself what the upcoming Trans Pacific Free Trade Agreement is going to do to 99 percent of Americans. If it’s implemented, the agreement is going to redistribute even more income to the one percent from the 99 percent, leading to more jobs shipped overseas, jobs created in other nations rather than here, shrinking tax bases, cutbacks in education, police, firefighters and all kinds of government positions and programs that the 99 percent rely upon. Are these the results we want from our federal government and our economy? I don’t think so, but that’s what we’ve got.

So I ask you again, Why don’t you write about the causes, as well as the effects? Why don’t you tell the whole story?

Warmest Regards,

John Hively

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