The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is launching a $10 million campaign to support the re-election of 20 mostly Republican congressional candidates, a sign that it’s not only the presidential race that could see record spending this year.
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Chamber Starting Early Ad Blitz
I watched the president’s announcement. When he started touting the “billions” saved reforming the check mailing process I almost gagged. And I’m not the only one. See the Wall Street Journal , ” The Reorganization Man “: The Washington rap on President Obama is that he’s humorless, but that’s unfair. He may not be Jay Leno funny, but his bit Friday on reforming and reducing government was great. There he was in the East Room, explaining that “the government we have is not the government we need.” That’s for sure, and Mr. Obama even added the Gingrichian theme that “We live in a 21st-century economy, but we’ve still got a government organized for the 20th century. Our economy has fundamentally changed—as has the world—but our government, our agencies, has not.” Alas, the President wasn’t talking about modernizing Medicare or the entitlement state. He merely wants Congress to give him more power to reorganize the government. He says he wants his team to scrub down the executive branch looking for waste, duplication and bureaucratic complexity, and then to fast-track their proposals to Congress for an up-or-down vote within 90 days. Mr. Obama’s first targets for such “consolidation authority” are the six agencies related to business and the world economy, from the Commerce Department to the Export-Import Bank to the U.S. Trade Representative. Maybe the White House chose to start there because, with an eye on the GOP campaign, Rick Perry wants to eliminate Commerce and a few other cabinet departments he can’t remember. Another way of putting it is that this new emphasis on streamlining the bureaucracy is Mr. Obama’s version of the Texas Governor’s “Oops.” Having presided over the largest expansion of government since LBJ—health care, financial reregulation, spending 24% of GDP, the surge of industrial policy—Mr. Obama’s pollsters must be saying that voters have the jimmy-legs about bigger government and that he thus can’t run only as a Great Society man. But let’s go to the videotape… Yeah, go to the tape, at 7:00 minutes above, where Obama gushes about “rooting out waste” in the check delivery process. There’s got to be some deeper Freudian ironic significance in there somewhere. I mean, really: “rooting out waste” by sending checks to the right place? Maybe we could stop sending out so many checks in the first place, eh? Oh, well, perhaps not. That wouldn’t be funny.
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Obama Now Says He Wants to Reform Government
Markets closed mixed on Wall Street today: Dow +0.17 percent S&P +0.01 percent Nasdaq -0.01 percent Oil +0.44 percent Gold +0.80 percent On the commodities front: Oil ( NYSE:USO ) climbed to $103.41 a barrel Gold ( NYSE:GLD ) rose to $1,613.30 an ounce Silver ( NYSE:SLV ) fell 1.44 percent to settle at $29.16 (Related: EU Embargo Agreement on Iranian Imports Puts Pressure on Oil Prices ) Today’s markets were mixed because: 1) Europe: Early reports that Spain might seek rescue funding dampened sentiment, but a spokeswoman for the Spanish government told CNN such reports were “a complete lie” and “radically false.” But while a purchasing manager’s index showed Germany’s private sector to be recovering, demand for Italian debt declined and Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos warned that if his government is unable to secure an agreement with international creditors on a new economic plan, Greece could be forced into disorderly default as soon as March. 2) Factory Orders: Though new orders for factory goods rose in November, business spending on capital declined, the Commerce Department reported today. After two consecutive months of declines, orders for manufactured goods increased 1.8 percent in November, the most since July, on demand for transportation equipment. However, closely-tracked shipments for non-defense capital goods excluding aircraft, considered a measure of business confidence and spending plans, fell 0.8 percent in November following a 0.9 percent drop in October, indicating that businesses may be pulling back on capital spending. 3) Stocks: In a relatively thin day of trading, individual stocks became the center of attention as Yahoo! appointed a new chief executive officer and Eastman Kodak prepared to file for Chapter 11. Today, Honda reported a 19 percent decline in sales for December, while Boeing’s announcement that it would be shutting down plants and laying off thousands of workers demonstrated the economic reality of a shrinking defense budget. [ Editor’s note: the above is a cross post that originally appeared on Wall St. Cheat Sheet . ]
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Market Recap: Mixed Economic Data Makes for Quiet Trading Session
AP – Assuring military veterans that “America has your back,” first lady Michelle Obama announced commitments from companies Thursday to hire 100,000 veterans and military spouses by 2014.
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First lady announces plans to hire vets, families
(AP)
U.S. consumers stepped up their spending on retail goods in September, a hopeful sign for the sluggish economy. They spent more on autos, clothing and furniture last month to boost retail sales 1.1 percent, the Commerce Department said Friday, making it the largest gain in seven months. Domestic automakers had a strong month. Chrysler Group led the pack with U.S. sales up 27 percent from a year earlier. GM sales rose 20 percent and Ford Motor Co. increased 9 percent, according to the Los Angeles Times . Auto sales rose 3.6 percent to drive the overall increase. Still, excluding that category, sales increased 0.6 percent (a small but welcomed increase). Stronger consumer spending could help alleviate concerns that the economy is at risk of a continued recession. Consumer spending is closely watched because it accounts for 70 percent of economic activity. After the new figures were released, some life was breathed into the markets. Stocks rose after the release of the report. “Reports of the consumer’s demise have been greatly exaggerated,” said Stephen Stanley, chief economist at Pierpont Securities in Stamford, Conn in a recent Reuters article. Another hopeful economic indicator is found in a separate Commerce report that shows that businesses added to their stockpiles for a 20th consecutive month in August while sales rose for a third straight month. The increase suggests businesses are a little more confident about the economy to keep stocking their shelves. “It looks like third-quarter GDP is going to be better than the first and second quarter combined,” said John Canally, an investment strategist and economist for LPL Financial in Boston told Reuters . The increase “shows that households are not completely down and out,” said Paul Dales, senior U.S. economists for Capital Economics. Dales said the data correspond with an annual growth rate of 2 percent for consumer spending growth in the July-September quarter. “Obviously consumers are still willing to go out and shop,” said Gary Thayer, a strategist at Wells Fargo Advisors in St. Louis, Missouri. “If the economy takes a clear turn for the worse we would expect sales to suffer, but at least this time the shock to confidence has not derailed consumer spending.” However, Dales cautioned that weak hiring will likely prevent consumers from spending at this rate on a month-to-month basis. “Sales growth is unlikely to remain this strong,” he said. “So although a recession has become less likely, households still can’t be relied on to drag the US economy out of its continued malaise.” Chris G. Christopher Jr., senior economist at IHS Global Insight, said the increase in spending was an improvement from the first half of the year. Still, he said overall growth was not enough to generate significant hiring gains. “Do not break out the champagne. Things seem better on the consumer and retail fronts, but consumers still have many problems,” he said. The September gains were broad-based: Department stores sales increased 1.1 percent, a big turnaround from August when sales had fallen 0.5 percent. The drop was blamed in part on Hurricane Irene disrupting shopping along the East Coast. A larger category of general merchandise stores, which includes big-chain retailers including Wal-Mart and Target, showed a 0.7 percent rise last month after no gain in August. Specialty clothing stores sales rose 1.3 percent, after a 0.4 percent August drop. Sales were up 1.1 percent at furniture stores but edged down a slight 0.1 percent at hardware stores. That surprised economists, who expected more traffic from people seeking to repair damage from the hurricane. Gas station sales rose 1.2 percent. The overall economy grew at an annual rate of 0.9 percent in the first six months of the year. High unemployment and steep gasoline prices forced many consumers to cut back on spending this spring. Without more jobs or higher pay increases, they are likely to keep spending cautiously. However, some are maintain a more optimistic attitude in lieu of the September report. “The American consumer and the retail industry continue to lead this recovery, and strong September retail sales are just what the economy needs right now,” Matthew Shay, NRF president and CEO, said in a recent Forbes article. “The unexpectedly strong sales increase in September may work to dampen fears of a double-dip recession and could indicate an economic and employment rebound,” he said. See the full report here. The Associated Press contributed to this story.
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Some Good News: September Retail Sales Rose On Autos
At first, I thought this might have been a campaign by Cincinnati’s Chamber of Commerce, or perhaps something to get people to attend Bengels’ games, alas, no, it’s just another unhinged attempt at giving liberals another avenue for airing their same old grievances, which typically devolve to ” hey, gimme, I’m entitled” (Cincinnati.com) Occupy Cincinnati will
AP – Bills necessary to avoid shutdowns of federal transportation and aviation programs are high on Congress’ to-do list when it returns to work next week.
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Shutdown of transportation programs possible
(AP)
AP – The 2012 Republican presidential contenders have roundly criticized President Barack Obama for economic policies they contend helped drive the downgrade of U.S. credit by a major ratings agency.
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GOP candidates slam Obama on US credit downgrade
(AP)
