Obama says Economy Better Today????

Signs of a Better Economy?

Is the glass half full or half empty? Or maybe that analogy doesn't work in this economy because people really just want to know if we've reached the bottom of this bitter drink of bad banks, busted housing markets and layoffs. The answer seems as hard to come by as a good analogy.

However, the current stock rally started with good banking news last month and that trend seems to be continuing. Wells Fargo & Co. said last week that it expects to post a record profit for the first quarter of 2009. This week will bring reports from other major banks like Citigroup Inc., Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Wells Fargo received $25 billion in government bailout funds, which is less than the other big banks. The bank credits its strong quarter to a roaring mortgage business. The Associated Press reported that "Wells Fargo received about $190 billion in mortgage applications, a 64 percent jump from the previous quarter. More than 40 percent of that volume came in March."

So this looks to be good news for both the banking and housing industry. Though most of the applications were for refinancing, 25 percent is reported to be from customers wanting to purchase new homes. Wells Fargo's CFO, Howard Atkins, told the AP that the government's efforts to lower interest rates and other programs aimed at the beleaguered housing industry has helped. Yet he was reluctant to sound too optimistic. "It's premature to conclude the economy has turned," said Atkins. "All I can tell you is we're seeing a lot of business."

There was mixed news in the job sector last week, with jobless claims falling more than expected, but there are still a record number of people receiving unemployment benefits. According to the AP, both economic analysts and the Federal Reserve expect this trend to continue into year as companies adjust to the changing economy.

Retail sales, on the other hand, showed some signs of stabilizing.
According to the AP, discount retailers, like Wal-Mart Stores Inc., continue to show a modest increase in profits. Although sales have fallen for other retailers, the decrease has been less than expected.
So is the bottom of the bitter drink in sight? "In hard economic times, Americans turn to numbers to see whether things are getting better. Gauging the mood of the republic is not as quantifiable," said AP National Writer Ted Anthony recently.

It's even harder to quantify when the numbers give different stories and no one seems to want to stick his neck out and be the one to announce the end of the recession. While Anthony conceded there are subtle signs that things are getting better, he was only willing to say things could be getting "less worse."

According to Anthony, "Numbers from Gallup's Consumer Mood Index were up 6 points for the week ending April 5, the fourth consecutive week they rose. The index is now as high as it's been in over a year -- buoyed, perhaps, by the upward-creeping stock market. And an AP-GfK poll showed the number of Americans who think the country is heading in the right direction more than doubled between October and February -- to 40 percent. Not that it's all good, mind you. Just, well, less worse."
 
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Nice Try, but it's getting worse. Note the losses below shall be bore ultimately by someone. It's called CHANGE! as more hard workers lose their real jobs.

July 24. 2009:
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. was appointed receiver of the banks: six bank subsidiaries of Security Bank Corp., based in Macon, Ga.; and Waterford Village Bank of Clarence, N.Y.

The six Security banks had total assets of $2.8 billion and deposits of $2.4 billion as of March 31. State Bank and Trust Co., based in Pinehurst, Ga., has agreed to assume all of the banks' deposits and $2.4 billion of the assets, the FDIC said. In addition, the FDIC and State Bank and Trust signed an agreement to share losses on around $1.7 billion of the six banks' assets.


Saturday July 25, 2009, 6:23 pm EDT

OSHKOSH, Wis. (AP) -- Nearly 100 workers at the GE Oil and Gas facility in Oshkosh will be laid off.

Note, these were real jobs, not the fake stimulus kind.
 
Nice Try, but it's getting worse. Note the losses below shall be bore ultimately by someone. It's called CHANGE! as more hard workers lose their real jobs.

July 24. 2009:
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. was appointed receiver of the banks: six bank subsidiaries of Security Bank Corp., based in Macon, Ga.; and Waterford Village Bank of Clarence, N.Y.

The six Security banks had total assets of $2.8 billion and deposits of $2.4 billion as of March 31. State Bank and Trust Co., based in Pinehurst, Ga., has agreed to assume all of the banks' deposits and $2.4 billion of the assets, the FDIC said. In addition, the FDIC and State Bank and Trust signed an agreement to share losses on around $1.7 billion of the six banks' assets.


Saturday July 25, 2009, 6:23 pm EDT

OSHKOSH, Wis. (AP) -- Nearly 100 workers at the GE Oil and Gas facility in Oshkosh will be laid off.

Note, these were real jobs, not the fake stimulus kind.

I love your signature
 
The First Lesson of 2008:

Don't believe anything Obama says -- never, ever -- not a single word. Obama knows he's a rock-star, and can't be held accountable for anything he says or does. He transcends personal accountability. Therefore, what he says means nothing.​
 
The First Lesson of 2008:

Don't believe anything Obama says -- never, ever -- not a single word. Obama knows he's a rock-star, and can't be held accountable for anything he says or does. He transcends personal accountability. Therefore, what he says means nothing.​

Coming off the wrost President since polling began you must be kidding!!!:rolleyes:


Physician heal they self!

 
Rob to me you are the most reasonable Conservative on this Board.

While we come at things from completely different angles you tend to come at things with thought out opinions and not spite. And that's worth listening to.

So now that I've throughly contaminated you with my respect;) let me say what I think the good signs in the economy shows.


And you of course are reasonable when you agree with my positions. ;)

A lot I my opinion has to do with consumer confidence and the overall feelings about good or bad in the relatively short term future (say during the next 5 years) by the leaders in the financial sector. Given the choice consumers would rather not be depressed and financial people want to get back into the game and make money.

We saw this with President Clinton. He inherited an abysmal economy for Bush #1 yet he was so upbeat and popular and gave the idea of real hope and change that the economy started getting better even before the so called "peace dividend" and many other things actually had time to happen.

I can agree that consumer confidence is important, but I simply cannot accept that an economic turnaround will be caused simply by wishing for it.

It's similar with President Obama. Not even getting into the blame game the economy was what it was and that was, was not good... when he took over. (Try using "was" in a sentence more than that :))

I believe that although much of the Stimulus isn't in circulation yet... people know it's arriving more every day.

I think people know there is a stimulus, but I highly doubt many of them could explain how much has been spent and what exactly it has been spent on.

Additionally, if the stimulus was intended simply to create confidence, why did it have to be so large?

When people see the light speed record quick in & out of bankruptcy by Chrysler & GM... people see the sky is not falling they will live to fight another day.

When the banks start making money again... people see that the previous bad situation has rectified.

Well, personally I think the government will never get out of the GM business sad to say. Aside from that however, coming out of bankruptcy should not be an indication that things have turned around, sales numbers and profit would be better indicators.

And, if only people would have invested all the way the down with the market instead of rushing to sell, they would be pretty happy with themselves right now.

When housing going up 3 months in a row first time since last January... people see that as the ending of the mortgage crisis.

And so on... and a more bullish feeling then tends to drive up the stock market.

So what I'm saying is a lot has to do with attitude and the attitude would not have changed with more Bush type policies. That being the case I firmly believe without the efforts of President Obama and the change in attitude that came with him we would not now be slowing this bad economic snowball from rolling down the mountain ever faster & faster and now be seeing signs of a reversal.

You may believe it's all just cyclical and the things President Obama has tried to do did nothing at all. But I can't & just don't subscribe to that myself. I sincerely think he's made a difference.

I do believe economic cycles are cyclical. I also believe that if the market is so reactionary to feelings and whatnot then some blame should be assigned to the press and even Obama himself during the campaign for pounding into the ground what a terrible situation we were in.
 
And you of course are reasonable when you agree with my positions. ;)

Well you've got me there my friend.:D

But in our private conversations you come off a lot to me like my younger brother who's in that 250-300K per year family bracket and a Republican. You both have reasons for your positions and you're not an uncaring people.


I can agree that consumer confidence is important, but I simply cannot accept that an economic turnaround will be caused simply by wishing for it.

That's reasonable to say. If I didn't say that I'd be going with Phil Graham and his "it's all in people's heads" statement. And you know I ain't going there.;)

I'm just saying that that contributes to helping a turnaround. The hope is that the combination of consumer and financhal sector confidence, stimulous money influx, and the cyclical nature of economies in general will continue to build. We'll just have to see. I've been predicting the economy to be markedly better by the end of 2010.


I think people know there is a stimulus, but I highly doubt many of them could explain how much has been spent and what exactly it has been spent on.

I do too. I agree with you.

Additionally, if the stimulus was intended simply to create confidence, why did it have to be so large?

Well I don't know that it was intended for that I think that was just a side benefit. According to the Fed & Treasury this was needed to slow and eventually reverse a growing downward spiral that could have possibly moved us into depression.

And the size was an issue to me as well. I can see these are big numbers and I'm from the old Clinton camp seeing the benefit of reducing deficits not growing them. But the experts even under Bush said this was an especially bad problem that needed addressed.

I do like seeing the banks paying back multi-billions early.


Well, personally I think the government will never get out of the GM business sad to say. Aside from that however, coming out of bankruptcy should not be an indication that things have turned around, sales numbers and profit would be better indicators.

Well it was just announced today... or at least I heard about it on the radio today the government is about to start a big push to try and sell off it's interests in GM to try an quickly recoup much of that money. So we'll see.

And, if only people would have invested all the way the down with the market instead of rushing to sell, they would be pretty happy with themselves right now.

Totally agree again. My brother for instance slowed down but certainly didn't sell off. You get poor selling when the markets down and you get rich buying when the markets down. That's an old Warren Buffet line.

I do believe economic cycles are cyclical. I also believe that if the market is so reactionary to feelings and whatnot then some blame should be assigned to the press and even Obama himself during the campaign for pounding into the ground what a terrible situation we were in.

Probably so. But you know yourself in campaign times the old saying is... We can't do anything good if we can't get elected.

Appreciate you view of things.
 
More Obama Magic?

Verizon Reports Profit Decline, Layoffs
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on 27 July 2009, 12:37
by Lalee Sadighi

Verizon on Monday reported a 7.2 percent plummet in profit, citing a spending slowdown from its business customers.

New York City-based Verizon also announced plans to cut 8,000 jobs in its landline business, which is struggling against the more popular wireless and data services.

“We need to more significantly reduce the wireline cost structure over the next 12 to 18 months,” CFO John Killian said in a conference call with analysts, adding that “[Verizon] plans to do more than 8,000 in force and contractor reduction in the second half of this year.”

Obama is the best at making real jobs disappear.
It's called CHANGE!
 
Yet more political definitions from my dictionary acquired by reading posts:

Economic pessimist: Any Republican whenever there is a Democrat in the White House.

2. Any Democrat when there is a Republican in the White House.

Economic optimist: Any Democrat whenever there is a Democrat in the White House.

2. Any Republican whenever there is a Republican in the White House.

Why do people seem to think that the president has so much influence over the economy?
 
Yet more political definitions from my dictionary acquired by reading posts:

Economic pessimist: Any Republican whenever there is a Democrat in the White House.

2. Any Democrat when there is a Republican in the White House.

Economic optimist: Any Democrat whenever there is a Democrat in the White House.

2. Any Republican whenever there is a Republican in the White House.

Why do people seem to think that the president has so much influence over the economy?
Good question--Congress, the Treasury and The Fed have a lot more power over the economy than the president does.
 
Lol, Mr. Obama, things are getting worse.

REALLY?????????????

My income has increased, I found a job 2 weeks ago, my investments have gone from 8% annual to 11.3% returns, I'm about to purchase a new automobile at $8000 less than it would have cost me last year.......I guess its only worse if you are rooting against the common man........go figure.....
 
REALLY?????????????

My income has increased, I found a job 2 weeks ago, my investments have gone from 8% annual to 11.3% returns, I'm about to purchase a new automobile at $8000 less than it would have cost me last year.......I guess its only worse if you are rooting against the common man........go figure.....

Wow that is great for you.

We had to take a 5 percent pay cut and over a dozen people lost their job all together. Also I lost 3500.00 on my retirement plan, that really sucked!

I am glad things are doing better for you. We need at least a few people who have things working out for them to hold the tide back for the rest of us.
 
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Here's some more good news:

Home sales rise as housing market tries a comeback

WASHINGTON – New home sales rose last month at the fastest clip in more than eight years as buyers eagerly took advantage of bargain prices — a clear sign, economists said, that the real estate market may finally be bouncing back.

Be afraid, Republicans, be very afraid. If the economy really is starting to turn around, just forget about a comeback in 2012.
 
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