Does pork create and or save jobs?

[Flopper]

Much of the liquidity being introduced is used by Big Banks to buy Treasuries.

It's a racket.

Treasuries are last place a bank wants to put it's money. Current treasury rates are running .21%. Banks try not to put any more into treasuries than required. At the current rates the return on treasuries is only a small fraction of the banks normal returns.

 

[rdean]

Does pork create and or save jobs?

Depends on how you define "pork".

If it's Sarah Palin's "bridge to nowhere", then yes, it's pork.

If it's Republican Senate Leader Mitch McConnell applying for Obama's stimulus money to rebuild a railroad that would connect several cities and bring in thousands of new jobs AFTER the railroad was complete, then no, it's not "pork". It's "rebuilding America's infrastructure to support the creation of jobs".

Did I explain it correctly?

Do I get a

 

[Flopper]

Annual federal government outlays (i.e, cash disbursed not the phony budgetary gimmicks) have increased $1T in three years. They were $2.7T in 2007; and projected to be $3.7 this year.

It would be very easy to roll back spending to the 2007 levels and hold it flat. The economy and inflation don't account for such a massive increase in spending - let the government tighten its belt, like the rest of us have done.

Yep congress should lay off 10% of its staff.

That would be a great start.

Are you kidding? The staff are the only people on Capitol Hill that really know what's going on.

Candidates tells us when they get to Washington, they're going to straighten out the whole mess. Once they get there they're meek as lambs for the first couple of terms taking their marching orders from the party leadership.

 

[Baruch Menachem]

The point of her screed was not the expense. Which is always there. most business lives real close to the cost margin. The problem is people do not understand the expenses incurred.

Wages make up less than 1/3 of employee expense in most large businesses. When a worker sees the product costs a bomb and his wages are tiny, he wants to know why. Her point is that she lets the worker know what the expenses are, and it is always a surprise to them how much it costs.

There are lots of employment taxes that regular employees never see, depending on jurisdiction. In Oregon Workers comp is half paid by the employee. In many other places I understand it is entirely the bosses' responsibility. Here in Portland and in Lane County there are Mass Transit Taxes on employee wages paid by the business. In addition there is unemployment insurance In Oregon, it is 4% of wages. Big businesses usually eat the lions share of health insurance. Smaller firms usually make their employees pay more. The bank I used to work at paid 3/4 of health insurance costs. About $550 per month.

So the boss is all bend out of shape because of wage costs and the employee just sees he is getting chicken feed and is wondering why the boss is all emo about it.

Umm, most workers understand about their paycheck deductions, and they know about the employers share of them. Your entire post, when not fictional (ex most big businesses don't pay the lions share of health insurance anymore) is exagerrated.

The big bank I worked for gave an annual report to the workers about how much of their compensation was split up how many ways.

Employees at Big Bank paid a little less tan 25% of the cost of insurance.

And while workers do see the check and the withholding, they don't see the wage cost. They don't see the employers half of FICA and Medicare, they don't see the employers half of Workers comp. They don't see the transit tax or the unemployment tax. They don't get the costs of the HR department and the huge paperwork costs involved. It has been a long time since I saw one of these reports from big bank, so I forget all the government mandated fees and charges involved in hiring someone. So the actual wages the worker gets after all that is a laughably small amount, and the marginal revenue of the next worker has to be pretty substantial to justify hiring him, given the marginal cost.

 

[boedicca]

Firing 10% of lobbyists would be an even better move.

Get rid of pork and reduce government spending, and there will be less lobbyists.

 

[boedicca]

Yep congress should lay off 10% of its staff.

That would be a great start.

Fair enough. Now that the Republicans hold the House and the new tea party members are there to keep them honest we'll see what happens.
Note that Obama has included very expensive items in the budget which Bush did not, so your figures may not be accurate.
Now, there are contracts in force which make reducing the salary of government employees difficult, and given the reaction of 'Wall Street' and its defenders when caping their salaries was suggested, I can't see government employees saying, sure, we'll do it.
Better to raise the income tax, reducing debt and making everyone suffer a bit. Of course that's impossible, no member of congress will ever put their seat at risk in doing the right thing.

I got my figures straight from the whitehouse.gov website.

Historical Tables | The White House

 

[Baruch Menachem]

Does pork create and or save jobs?

Depends on how you define "pork".

If it's Sarah Palin's "bridge to nowhere", then yes, it's pork.

If it's Republican Senate Leader Mitch McConnell applying for Obama's stimulus money to rebuild a railroad that would connect several cities and bring in thousands of new jobs AFTER the railroad was complete, then no, it's not "pork". It's "rebuilding America's infrastructure to support the creation of jobs".

Did I explain it correctly?

Do I get a

Day late and a Yuan short. I made that point on the first page.

 

[boedicca]

Much of the liquidity being introduced is used by Big Banks to buy Treasuries.

It's a racket.

Treasuries are last place a bank wants to put it's money. Current treasury rates are running .21%. Banks try not to put any more into treasuries than required. At the current rates the return on treasuries is only a small fraction of the banks normal returns.

They are borrowing at 0% and can purchase longer term t-bonds that yield over 2.5% - 4%. It's a guaranteed, low risk return, and yes, they are buying treasuries instead of lending out the money.

U.S. Treasury - Daily Treasury Yield Curve

 

[sangha]

Record profits? Really? Then the recession is over?

Funny how they aren't hiring people. Actually - not funny at all.

And another economic moron sounds off. This wingnut doesn't realize that the recession is over, corporate profits are up, and that unemployment is not a measure of recession.

Different recession classes. The recession for the working class might be finally be nearing the bottom.
The finiancial class define the rules for declaring a recession. and they even fuss somewhat about the definition.

Nonsense. There is no such thing as a "recession for the working class". Either the economy is in a recession, or it is not.

Thanks to President Obama, the bush* recession is over. We are not now in a recession.

And you are flat out lying when you claim that the "financial class" is in a "fuss somewhat about the definition", so why don't you post a link that proves you're not lying?

 

[Care4all]

A better solution to printing money to pay back China with cheaper dollars (while destroying the value of the savings of prudent Americans) is to cut spending so we don't need to finance the federal deficit with Chinese Debt.

Great idea! Post where you'll cut, who it will hurt and the long term consequences of the cut.

When you respond with the usual non-answer, I'll share some ideas which may surprise you. But you offered the need to cut federal spending, so have at it.

Annual federal government outlays (i.e, cash disbursed not the phony budgetary gimmicks) have increased $1T in three years. They were $2.7T in 2007; and projected to be $3.7 this year.

It would be very easy to roll back spending to the 2007 levels and hold it flat. The economy and inflation don't account for such a massive increase in spending - let the government tighten its belt, like the rest of us have done.

We added $500 BILLION to our National Debt in fiscal 2007.....I don't think 2007 outlay levels is low enough to help us with our true deficits.

 

[boedicca]

Yep congress should lay off 10% of its staff.

That would be a great start.

Are you kidding? The staff are the only people on Capitol Hill that really know what's going on.

Candidates tells us when they get to Washington, they're going to straighten out the whole mess. Once they get there they're meek as lambs for the first couple of terms taking their marching orders from the party leadership.

All that much staff has enabled is the drafting of bills that are too big for anyone to read.

Getting rid of them is a Very Good Idea.

 

[sangha]

No economic genius here. Just a realist. Millions of people out of work; homes foreclosing; empty stores. My husband is in the construction biz. I'm sure there are some industries that fare well during a recession, but none around here. Even the bars. I won't consider the recession over until people are back to work despite what the Ivy Leaguers want us to think.

Not a realist. You're a moron who thinks words mean what you want them to mean.

If you and your husband can't make enough money, you have no one but yourself to blame. You and hubby should have picked a more secure career

 

[sangha]

your life is a fallacy.

What lie? When the govt prints money, it doesn't have to expropriate anything from anyone

You're just getting emotional because you're getting pwned

Hey moron,

What happens to the value of money in terms of purchasing power when government vastly increase the money supply by printing a bunch of currency?

What doesn't happen is "expropriation". You know that, which is why you don't dare challenge me on that point. So you're not a moron; You're just dishonest

 

[sangha]

Amazing non-response from the ladies of the conservative. It's so easy for them to post platitudes, not so easy to defend them or provide evidence to support the unproved axioms of the modern conservative.

The men lie and curse when caught. The wimmen keep mindlessly repeating their slogans. That one can't help but keep repeating the word "recession". It's what she memorized. It's all she knows

 

[sangha]

A better solution to printing money to pay back China with cheaper dollars (while destroying the value of the savings of prudent Americans) is to cut spending so we don't need to finance the federal deficit with Chinese Debt.

Great idea! Post where you'll cut, who it will hurt and the long term consequences of the cut.

When you respond with the usual non-answer, I'll share some ideas which may surprise you. But you offered the need to cut federal spending, so have at it.

Annual federal government outlays (i.e, cash disbursed not the phony budgetary gimmicks) have increased $1T in three years. They were $2.7T in 2007; and projected to be $3.7 this year.

It would be very easy to roll back spending to the 2007 levels and hold it flat. The economy and inflation don't account for such a massive increase in spending - let the government tighten its belt, like the rest of us have done.

WC predicted the "usual non-answer", and that's exactly what he got

Notice how the wingnut doesn't identify one program to cut. The idiot doesn't realize you can't "roll back" the money we spend on the interest on the $13.5 TRILLION in national debt that bush* and the republicans racked up.

 

[sangha]

The point of her screed was not the expense. Which is always there. most business lives real close to the cost margin. The problem is people do not understand the expenses incurred.

Wages make up less than 1/3 of employee expense in most large businesses. When a worker sees the product costs a bomb and his wages are tiny, he wants to know why. Her point is that she lets the worker know what the expenses are, and it is always a surprise to them how much it costs.

There are lots of employment taxes that regular employees never see, depending on jurisdiction. In Oregon Workers comp is half paid by the employee. In many other places I understand it is entirely the bosses' responsibility. Here in Portland and in Lane County there are Mass Transit Taxes on employee wages paid by the business. In addition there is unemployment insurance In Oregon, it is 4% of wages. Big businesses usually eat the lions share of health insurance. Smaller firms usually make their employees pay more. The bank I used to work at paid 3/4 of health insurance costs. About $550 per month.

So the boss is all bend out of shape because of wage costs and the employee just sees he is getting chicken feed and is wondering why the boss is all emo about it.

Umm, most workers understand about their paycheck deductions, and they know about the employers share of them. Your entire post, when not fictional (ex most big businesses don't pay the lions share of health insurance anymore) is exagerrated.

The big bank I worked for gave an annual report to the workers about how much of their compensation was split up how many ways.

Employees at Big Bank paid a little less tan 25% of the cost of insurance.

And while workers do see the check and the withholding, they don't see the wage cost. They don't see the employers half of FICA and Medicare, they don't see the employers half of Workers comp. They don't see the transit tax or the unemployment tax. They don't get the costs of the HR department and the huge paperwork costs involved. It has been a long time since I saw one of these reports from big bank, so I forget all the government mandated fees and charges involved in hiring someone. So the actual wages the worker gets after all that is a laughably small amount, and the marginal revenue of the next worker has to be pretty substantial to justify hiring him, given the marginal cost.

This thread proves that the only morons who don't know about FICA, Medicare, unemployment taxes, etc are the rightwingers.

Not surprising. WIngnuts are pretty dumb, and economic matters are particularly impossible for a wingnut to understand. Take this wingnut who thinks small business spend a lot of money on the HR depts. Truth is, most small businesses have NO HR dept.

And I've never had to pay any "govt mandated fees and charges" in order to hire someone.

If wingnuts didn't lie, they'd have nothing to say

 

[boedicca]

What lie? When the govt prints money, it doesn't have to expropriate anything from anyone

You're just getting emotional because you're getting pwned

Hey moron,

What happens to the value of money in terms of purchasing power when government vastly increase the money supply by printing a bunch of currency?

What doesn't happen is "expropriation". You know that, which is why you don't dare challenge me on that point. So you're not a moron; You're just dishonest

As if.

Please explain what happens to economies when the government prints tons-o-money.

You claim it doesn't expropriate anything, so prove it. Prove that it doesn't damage assets or earning power.

 

[sangha]

Great idea! Post where you'll cut, who it will hurt and the long term consequences of the cut.

When you respond with the usual non-answer, I'll share some ideas which may surprise you. But you offered the need to cut federal spending, so have at it.

Annual federal government outlays (i.e, cash disbursed not the phony budgetary gimmicks) have increased $1T in three years. They were $2.7T in 2007; and projected to be $3.7 this year.

It would be very easy to roll back spending to the 2007 levels and hold it flat. The economy and inflation don't account for such a massive increase in spending - let the government tighten its belt, like the rest of us have done.

We added $500 BILLION to our National Debt in fiscal 2007.....I don't think 2007 outlay levels is low enough to help us with our true deficits.

I present the same challenge to you that WC presented to the last wingnut who couldn't name what he would cut and by how much

Post where you'll cut, who it will hurt and the long term consequences of the cut.

When you respond with the usual non-answer, I'll share some ideas which may surprise you. But you offered the need to cut federal spending, so have at it.

And make sure your #'s add up to reduce the spending to pre-2007 levels

 

[sangha]

Hey moron,

What happens to the value of money in terms of purchasing power when government vastly increase the money supply by printing a bunch of currency?

What doesn't happen is "expropriation". You know that, which is why you don't dare challenge me on that point. So you're not a moron; You're just dishonest

As if.

Please explain what happens to economies when the government prints tons-o-money.

You claim it doesn't expropriate anything, so prove it. Prove that it doesn't damage assets or earning power.

"As if"????

Is that your response? IS that the best you can do?

I see you can't (or won't) even challenge me. Instead, you want to distract with nonsense about damaging assets or earning power, which have absolutely nothing to do with "expropriation"

You sound just like the idiot wingnut who thinks the economy is in a "recession". WIngnuts think it's OK to use any derogatory word to describe something they don't like.

1) The economy is bad
2) Recession is bad
#)Therefore, the economy is in recession

and

1) Exproriation is bad
2) Spending is bad
3) Spending is expropriation

http://www-personal.umich.edu/~bnyhan/nyhan-reifler.pdf

 

[boedicca]

The economy is in stagnation, which isn't much improvement over an actual recession. It is not creating enough jobs to keep up with population growth, you sad little idiot.