The U.S. population rose by just 0.72% in 2013, the lowest growth rate in more than 70 years. Not only has the country become less-attractive to immigrants than in years past, with net immigration down from nearly 1.2 million as of 2001 to 843,145 last year, but also the U.S.'s domestic birth rate has dropped to a multi-decade low.Slow economic growth from the Welfare state has consequences.
While the population of most of the country's metro areas grew at a low pace in recent years, in a small number of metro areas the population actually shrank. Looking at the most recent years, the U.S. population rose by just 2.4% between April 2010 and July 2013, but in 30 metro areas the population shrank by at least 1%. The population in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, fell a nation-leading 4.4% in that time. Based on recently released U.S. Census Bureau estimates, 24/7 Wall St. examined the cities with shrinking populations.
Sunday, April 20, 2014
America's fastest shrinking cities
USA Today reports:
These 3 fails show U.S. is an awful boss
The New York Post reports:
Before taxpayers lost $529 million on solar energy company Solyndra and $10.5 billion on GM, the US government had a long history of backing the wrong horse.What government owned schools aren't going to teach you.
Many of the great industries in US history — from the fur trade to steamships, railroads, chemicals and airplanes — failed in the hands of government but succeeded thanks to private entrepreneurs.
A closer reading of American history may have avoided the colossal mistake of President Obama’s $700 billion stimulus bill.
The government has learned over and over again that when it comes to business, it’s a terrible boss. Here are a few examples to keep in mind the next time you hear about a government investment — and why you should quickly bet on the private competitor.
Everything We Are Told About Deflation Is A Lie: Deflation Is a Good Thing
Zerohedge reports:
In their research article ‘Deflation and Depression: Is There an Empirical Link?’ of January 2004, Federal Reserve economists Andrew Atkeson and Patrick Kehoe found that “..the only episode in which we find evidence of a link between deflation and depression is the Great Depression (1929-1934). We find virtually no evidence of such a link in any other period.. What is striking is that nearly 90% of the episodes with deflation did not have depression. In a broad historical context, beyond the Great Depression, the notion that deflation and depression are linked virtually disappears.”An article well worth your time.
For city managers, a slew of pay, perks
San Diego Union Tribune reports:
One city manager is guaranteed to earn 15 percent more than his second-highest paid employee. Another was granted up to $2,500 in public funds to pay for lawyers or other experts to advise him on his employment contract.The rent-seeking class cleans up.
San Diego County city manager salaries average more than $200,000, and on top of that, many of them get cars and personal computers paid for. They receive life insurance plans and extra money to pay housing, cellphone and professional membership bills.
Most top city administrators collect tens of thousands a year in retirement benefits above their base salaries and many accrue weeks of leave time that can be converted to more cash.
Obama: 'Political Spite' Motivating States to Refuse Medicaid Expansion
CNS News reports:
Republicans "still can't bring themselves to admit that the Affordable Care Act is working," President Obama told a news conference on Thursday. He also took aim at states that have not expanded their Medicaid programs:Strongman Obama can't get enough of an expanding welfare state.
"This does frustrate me -- states that have chosen not to expand Medicaid for no other reason than political spite. You got 5 million people who could be having health insurance right now at no cost to these states -- zero cost to these states -- other than ideological reasons they have chosen not to provide health insurance for their citizens."
Saturday, April 19, 2014
The Sad State of the Economics Profession
The Market Oracle reports:
When one attains a Ph.D. in physics or medicine, he does not spend time understanding theories from 200 years ago. The profession is always moving forward, right? In economics, we wrongly take the same attitude. Macroeconomics as a profession has not advanced but has regressed. We had a better understanding of macroeconomics 80 years ago. Politicians put Keynes on a pedestal because he gave them the theoretical foundation to justify policies that had been justifiably ridiculed in the past by the classical economists.The economist as apologist and rent-seeker.
These economists such as Smith, Say, Ricardo, and Mill fought hard to dispel the popular misconception that the problem was overproduction and a lack of money. Today, the leading economists are telling us everything will be fine if we can boost demand (hence, too much production) or have more money through quantitative easing. These are the same popular misconceptions promulgated by mercantilists 250 years ago. The difference, today, is that economists are the mercantilists’s ally instead of their enemies.
The role of the economist should be to explain not only the direct effects, but also the indirect effects of economic policies. The economists should not only tell us what is seen, but what is not seen, and more importantly what should be foreseen. Economists in unison should have informed the public that the massive government spending after the crash of 2008 would have created more growth and employment if the money had been left in private hands. To fund “cash for clunkers,” the government borrowed money that would normally have been used to build plants and equipment or capital goods, the real source of growth in an economy. As Murray Rothbard eloquently said, this is a transfer of “resources from the productive [private sector] to the parasitic, counterproductive public sector.”
Trouble for Democrats: More Senate seats are at risk
McClatchy reports:
Democrats are finding that their path to keeping control of the U.S. Senate this year is getting bumpier.The struggle in Blue America.
At least four states where Democrats hold Senate seats that once were seen as fairly safe are now considered in play: Michigan, Iowa, Colorado and New Hampshire.
They join seven states with Democratic incumbents where analysts see decent bets for Republican pickups: Alaska, Arkansas, Louisiana, Montana, North Carolina, South Dakota and West Virginia. Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney carried all seven in 2012.
Obama signs Ted Cruz bill into law, but says he won't enforce it
The Washington Examiner reports:
President Obama on Friday signed into law a bill authored by Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz that would bar an Iranian diplomat from entering the United States, but immediately issued a statement saying he won't enforce it.It would be too bad if a future President didn't enforce ObamaCare or the federal income tax.
Obama decided to treat the law as mere advice. "Acts of espionage and terrorism against the United States and our allies are unquestionably problems of the utmost gravity, and I share the Congress's concern that individuals who have engaged in such activity may use the cover of diplomacy to gain access to our Nation," Obama said in his signing statement.
Census: People are leaving all six Chicago-area counties
Crain's Chicago Business reports:
Each of the six counties in the Chicago area experienced a net loss in migration from 2010 to 2013, as modest gains in international migration failed to compensate for larger domestic departures. Adding births and deaths to the combination of people moving in and out produces an anemic growth figure of 73,076 people over that same period.The great moments of Barack Obama's Illinois.
Admission rates fall at UC campuses as international presence grows
The Sacramento Bee reports:
Even as the University of California accepted a record number of freshman for fall 2014, admission rates at its most selective campuses reached new lows. Huge increases in the number of applicants, changing admissions processes and a growing emphasis on out-of-state and international students are driving them down.
Preliminary UC admission data released Friday morning showed a record 86,865 freshmen accepted this year, an increase of 4.8 percent from 2013. The overall admission rate dropped slightly, but rates plunged at the Berkeley and Los Angeles campuses, long the system’s most selective, dipping below 20 percent for the first time.
Illinois schools get waiver from No Child Left Behind progress mandate
The Chicago Sun-Times reports:
Illinois joined the long list of states that have received a waiver from the federal No Child Left Behind law, the U.S. Department of Education announced Friday, which means its school districts won’t be punished financially or labeled as failures if all students don’t score well on standardized tests.Barack Obama and the amazing "waivers" from the law. It might be too bad if a future President "waived" ObamaCare.
The waiver comes just in time to dodge the No Child law’s mandate that by the end of the 2013-14 school year, 100 percent of students must show proficiency in reading and math on state tests. In Illinois in 2012, only 32 percent of public schools and 17.6 percent of districts made the “adequate yearly progress” required by the federal law.
Can You Spot The Racist, Homophobic Anti-Semites In This Special 10 Item Quiz?
John Hawkins has a pop quiz for those concerned with racism:
As we all know, racism, homophobia and anti-Semitism are very bad and should be condemned. Not only do I condemn all of those things, I'd encourage you to share this quiz to all of your liberal friends so they can wag their fingers right in the faces of the awful people who said all of these terrible things.You'll want to take the quiz.
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