Category Archives: Economy

Income Mobility

Posted on June 29, 2011 | Leave a comment

I’ve done some work on the Middle Class.  One of the things I’ve learned is that “The Middle Class” isn’t what people think it is.  Virtually everyone feels they are middle class.  Literally, virtually everyone thinks that.

How can that be?

I think it’s because we tend to think of the middle class as a state of mind rather than a set group of people.  A mindset rather than a demographic.

I think we see and think of the rich as those folks who are “stoopid rich”.  People that are able to afford jet planes and mansions.  People who have yachts and commercials and just have $MONEY$!

We see middle class as having the ability to continue to climb the income ladder.  Especially important in this classification is the ability to allow your children to have it better than you do.

So, if you’re not “stoopid rich” AND you continue to gather wealth, you are middle class.

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North Carolina’s Unemployment

Posted on June 27, 2011 | 5 comments

Unemployment across the State remained basically steady.  Officially the rate moved from 9.6% in April to 9.7% in May.

I suspect that this number not moving down causes great worry in the governor’s office.  And it should; she is contributing to the rate staying so high.

Consider:

A job at minimum wage over 40 hours is $7.25 x 40 = $290.00

Unemployment benefit c heck is $297.00.

The marginal benefit of working 40 hours is $7.00.

Do you think that pressure is going to add to unemployment or reduce it?

Governor Purdue, please remove your executive order restoring benefits with that Federal money.  You are making it harder to bring that number down.

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Posted in Economics, Economy, Government, Politics: North Carolina

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Unintended Consequences: California Style

Posted on June 17, 2011 | 5 comments

There are some good things in California.  For example, I can think of two:

1.  California Pizza Kitchen

2.  That little corner store on Inter-State 8 East just before you hit the Arizona line.  How can’t you like the last thing in California?

But seriously, California must be a nice place to live.  It HAS to be, or so many otherwise sensible people wouldn’t live there.

But that doesn’t mean business find it a nice place to live.

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Posted in Economics, Economy, Government, Politics: National, States Behaving Badly

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North Carolina Budget: Veto Override

Posted on June 15, 2011 | Leave a comment

For the first time since Ulysses S. Grant was President, the North Carolina budget has been proposed by a republican controlled body.

And the state governor, Beverly Perdue, didn’t like said budget.  So, she vetoed it.

The state senate has a veto proof majority; the house, not so much.

But tonight the governor was told that she must obey the will of the people.  Her veto was overruled in the house and will be sent to the senate.

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Posted in Economy, Government, Politics: North Carolina

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Governor Perdure Vetoes Budget

Posted on June 14, 2011 | 2 comments

Republicans hold both houses of congress here in North Carolina for the first time in about 140 years.  That’s a long time to wait.

For once, it’ll be a Republican lead agenda that shapes the fiscal direction in Raleigh.  Whatever bill ends up being passed into law will be one the Republicans drafted, and built and approved.  And it looks like Governor Purdue is making sure that the folks of North Carolina know that.

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Posted in Economy, Elections 2012, Politics: North Carolina

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Chance of Recession

Posted on June 14, 2011 | Leave a comment

I’ve been a reader of Mark Perry’s for years and years.  I love his stuff.  One of my favorite installments that he runs is the “Chance of Recession”.  Here, he highlights data delivered by the New York Federal Reserve bank.

The bank does a  neat analysis of some different values and comes up with the chance that the economy will be in recession in the next year.  The data isn’t perfect, but the rough strokes are enlightening.

Let’s look.

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Posted in Economy, Politics: National

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Federal Budget

Posted on June 13, 2011 | 2 comments

Care to guess when the last time a Federal Budget has been passed?

April 3, 2009

Why won’t the Democrats propose a budget?

Could it be:

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Posted in Economy, Elections 2012, Government

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Too Big To Fail

Posted on June 12, 2011 | Leave a comment

HBO has the documentary “Too Big To Fail” playing right now.  Ive watched it twice now and I have some thoughts.

  1. The whole “For profit” meme is prevalent.
  2. There is a massive lack of backdrop regarding market incentives.

First, the show is top notch.  The acting is A grade and the quality of the production is excellent.  This is a great movie.

I’m a big believer in incentives.  People tend to look out for their own self interests.  Always have, always will.  And this isn’t bad – wolves and cows and sparrows and gophers do the same thing.  But we NEED to acknowledge that fact.

“Too Big To Fail” does a remarkable job at showing the thinking going on at the time of the failures.  But I get the feeling that the message is wrong.  That the message is “Greed”.

There is certainly enough to go around.  However, I think the message of intervention and policy is underscored.  Not one time in the show is it mentioned WHY these institutions would make these loans.  For sure, there is talk about Fan and Fred being nationalized….but there isn’t a whiff about the impact they had on the market thinking.

The movie is worth watching.  However, understand, it’s got a Left leaning slant.

And does a good job making that case.

 

 

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Posted in Economics, Economy, Politics: National

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The Middle Class – Part II

Posted on June 6, 2011 | 4 comments

The middle class. The Great MC.

What is it, how is it defined? Is it growing? Shrinking? Is it, more importantly, being exploited by the rich and the powerful to enable their largess?

Is Obama right? Is it true, in fact, that the folks-the “Us”- are being used and manipulated in some grand game to keep the rich richer?

For me, the rhetoric needs substance; needs some form of validation. There has to be some means by which the idea has a backdrop to judge the truth. There has to be a definition of the middle class that we can use to see if, in fact, what is being said is true. Or not true. And for me, it comes down to two things:

  1. The earnings of the middle class.
  2. The life style, or things, that the middle class can buy.

So, let’s take a look:

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Posted in Economy, Liberty, Middle Class, Politics: National

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North Carolina Unemployment: May 27, 2011

Posted on May 27, 2011 | 5 comments

The counties of North Carolina continue to heal; we’re lowering our unemployment and getting folks back to work:

RALEIGH — Unemployment rates decreased in 73 of North Carolina’s 100 counties in April. Rates increased
in 10 counties and remained the same in 17.

The good news is that this decrease in the rate is being brought about by adding jobs, not simply reducing the unemployed:

The number of workers employed (not-seasonally adjusted) increased in April by 6,751 to 4,046,255. The number of people unemployed decreased by 10,036. The number of unemployed people in April was 424,502 workers, compared with 434,538 in March.

I hope that the North Carolina congress holds firm on with holding continued unemployment benefits to our state’s unemployed.  We have long since passed the appropriate amount of time that those assistance dollars are required to transition to a new job.  It’s been nearly two years; two years to find a job.

The weekly benefit of those checks is nearly $300.00 a week, certainly not very much.  However, workers have adjusted to that amount by this time and taking a job that pays even $10.00 represents a 33% raise in wages.  Not an insignificant amount.

I hope that North Carolina can continue to lower her tax rates, keep the sales tax at a reasonable rate and bring business into the state.  It’s a good thing to see our unemployment rate fall, but there is much work to be done.

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Posted in Economy, Politics: North Carolina

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