Conspiracy?

It is kind of interesting times we live in. 

Last year, as covid-19 hit, there were many who stated various so-called conspiracy theories: 

The virus was man made. 

Vaccine passports were going to be a thing. 

The stimulus checks and plus up of unemployment benefits were going to create a labor shortage once the economy started showing signs of recovery. 

US Wealth Drops

More bad news for the economy and our recovery. Household wealth has taken a very sharp drop.

Americans’ wealth last summer suffered its biggest quarterly loss in more than two years as stocks, pensions funds and home values lost value.

At the same time, corporations raised their cash stockpiles to record levels.

Household net worth fell 4 percent to $57.4 trillion in the July-September quarter, according to a Federal Reserve report released Thursday. It was the sharpest drop since the tumultuous period after the September 2008 bankruptcy of investment bank Lehman Brothers. And it was the second straight quarterly fall. (Source: Seattle Times)

We have entered the fourth (and hopefully, final) year of Barack Obama’s presidency. Over the course of that time, wealth in this nation has plummeted, jobless rate remains staggeringly high, and people, at home and abroad, have lost confidence in America. Please tell me again what makes this guy so wonderful.

One thing I would like you to notice is the second paragraph of the excerpt above. “…corporations raised their cash stockpiles to records levels.” Why is this? It shows me that there is money to be made out there, and that there is money to expand the economy. Yet why are corporations holding onto, and growing, funds? I really do think it can be all traced back to one man. Barack Obama. Business leaders from both sides of the political spectrum do not have confidence that he can lead us to a robust recovery. They are concerned how much Obama Care is going to cost them, they are concerned about new taxes to help feed the runaway deficit, and they are concerned about Obama’s ties to organized labor and his administrations attempts to appease labor.

If I had a fist full of money and was unsure how regulations were going to impact my invest of that money, I’d hang on to it like a baby does a rattle.

California Pensions and Worthless Recovery (UPDATE)

A couple of posts worth a read over at one of my bloggers-in-arms, Doug, at Director Blue.

The first one is school administrator pensions being paid by the state of California to public school administrators. See more information on the state of spending in California at "UPDATE" below.

When I first look at the post, my eyes went directly to the chart. The thing that stood out to me was there were several retirees who are actually earning more in retirement than they earned while actually on the job.  Come to find out, once I read the text, that this situation is not uncommon: one third of the retirees are earning more than while employed.

I just hope that when this all comes crashing down, we all aren’t going to be held responsible for bailing out these ridiculous pension plans.

Make sure you click through the link to the full story provided by Doug. I have to give props to the Sacramento Bee, a notoriously left leaning publication, for running this expose.

The second post is a great summation of just how wonderful of an economic president Obama has turned out to be. NOT!

Many links provided that show just how bad this guy has done leading us out of the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, and how his policies have actually stunted the recovery.

Quick look:

-Our debt will be 101% of GDP by 2021. This is Greece-like.

-By 2035 our interest payments will 9% of the entire economy, currently 1%. Where are the cuts or additional revenue going to come from? Talk about a killer to the economy.

-The glitch in Obama that adds 3 million middle class to the roles of Medicaid. I blogged about this the other day. I guess we have found out about the bill now that it is passed.

-The collapse of Medicare and Social Security. You know, a few years ago, President Bush looked at privatizing Social Security and was slammed by the liberal press and democrats. I wonder if people are starting to relook this. Yes, it is true that private investments are not a guarantee, but are you going to collect SS in 25 years if things don’t change?

-The continuing downturn in the housing market. The nest egg that people were counting on has nearly disappeared.

-Job creation has been pathetic. Here is a story from my local area. So many jobs have been lost since the start of this recession that it will take years to recover. Normal recoveries have a growth near 9%, we current stand a little less than 2%, which does not grow jobs.

I really hope the folks that vote this time around finally get their heads out of their rear ends and send this president packing. He is over his head and is not good for America, at least not a growing America.

UPDATE

Sister Toldjah has a great little post about how state employees continue to feed at the trough of taxpayer money despite the current financial crises besieging the state of California. Good video!