Saturday, December 22, 2007

Kudlow has a long way to go to beat Powerline


Lawrence Kudlow really should find another use for his banana peels. We can only assume he's smoking them after his latest offering at Townhall.
Against all odds, and despite the usual drumbeat of criticism, President George W. Bush has had a very good year.
Stop laughing. Stop laughing. There's more. It gets even better.
The troop surge in Iraq is succeeding.
Oh really?! Until they leave and then what happens? But don't worry, as opposed to the concept of peace breaking out all over Iraq, some new and interesting twists are being added. I don't think Bush has the mental capacity to gather in this little episode and the impact it's going to have on Iraq's future.
America remains safe from terrorist attacks.
I could get into a long harangue about how Bush and his "policies" had absolutely nothing to do with that, but suffice to say that those same policies have also managed to prevent an infestation of Unicorns in Nebraska. That's right - Nebraska. If you go there you will not find a single Unicorn. All thanks to George.
And the Goldilocks economy is outperforming all expectations.
Oh yeah... it's doing swell! And Kudlow doesn't just leave us hanging. He actually provides some figures.
... nearly 3 percent growth in consumer spending
That's because consumer spending in the United States is all done on credit cards. They don't actually have the money. Given that 70 percent of the US economy is based on consumer spending, if Americans start to default on the enormous credit card debt, that "Goldilocks" economy is going to crash... and it's going to leave something a lot bigger than a smoking hole in the ground.
... and over 3 percent growth in after-tax inflation-adjusted incomes.
Hmmm. Let's see now. Over the past 25 years the median US income has risen 18 percent. But for the top 1 percent of earners (say corporate CEO really, really fast) income has increased 0ver 200 percent. In California incomes for lower class families have fallen by four percent since 1969. For upper class families they have risen 41 percent. Any questions?
Jobs are rising over 100,000 per month ...
Ahem! No. They're not. There is a difference in statistical representation here. Wherever Kudlow got his figure it matches nothing available anywhere. In fact, ADP Inc. maintains one of the most accurate statistics on job growth in the US and they tell a whole different story. Further, the type of job makes a considerable difference to the overall picture.
Service-sector firms added about 106,000 jobs, while the goods-producing industries cut 42,000, including 20,000 in manufacturing. Goods-producing industries include manufacturing, mining and construction.
The 22,000 jobs lost in goods-producing industries excluding manufacturing (mostly construction) are the largest since November 2001.Not to mention 45,000 construction jobs lost in a three month period which the Labor Department didn't report until much, much later. In short, the jobs Kudlow is gushing over are McJobs - low pay and bad hours. Oh look! Wal-Mart opened 35 new stores in the first quarter of 2007.
And while President Bush has been doing the Lord’s work with his newfound veto pen ...
OK. That explains it.

We're done here. Just another conservative lie from the christofascist brigade.

Dedicated to the bleeding eyes over at CCHQ


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