Lies and the lying liars who tell them: Economic "confidence" edition
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Lies and the lying liars who tell them: Economic "confidence" edition
Ever hear people say that the only thing that's keeping businesses from adding workers is lack of confidence in President Obama, related (in part) to fear that he's imposing new regulations or new taxes?
WASHINGTON — Politicians and business groups often blame excessive regulation and fear of higher taxes for tepid hiring in the economy. However, little evidence of that emerged when McClatchy canvassed a random sample of small business owners across the nation.
"Government regulations are not 'choking' our business, the hospitality business," Bernard Wolfson, the president of Hospitality Operations in Miami, told The Miami Herald. "In order to do business in today's environment, government regulations are necessary and we must deal with them. The health and safety of our guests depend on regulations. It is the government regulations that help keep things in order."
Also:
None of the business owners complained about regulation in their particular industries, and most seemed to welcome it. Some pointed to the lack of regulation in mortgage lending as a principal cause of the financial crisis that brought about the Great Recession of 2007-09 and its grim aftermath.
Wolfson's firm is readying to open a Hampton Inn this year in Miami on land purchased from a condo developer during the housing downturn. His business could be in line for higher taxes if President Barack Obama allows the current, lower rates on the richest Americans to expire in 2012 and return to previous levels.
That didn't seem to bother Wolfson, who through his partnership declares profit and loss as a pass-through on his personal income taxes, as many small businesses do.
"Higher taxes are not good for business, but some of the loopholes and deductions should be looked at," he said.
The real whining over regulation comes from not from small business but from big business -- specifically the Chamber of Commerce -- over the kind of regulations needed to prevent mortgage scams and various other Wall Street crimes, or crimes against the environment. Had Wall Street been better regulated before 2008 we'd have more jobs, not fewer.
I know conservatives go crazy when these billionaires like Steve Wynn say -- without any proof -- that it's lack of confidence in Obama they're not hiring. The reason they say these things is a) they don't like Obama and b) a Republican in the White House surely would be "better" for a super rich guy like Steve Wynn -- just not for regular people like you or me. Kudos to the McClatchy News Service for doing some reporting and getting at the truth.
Comment removed.
No one has paid the bills for bogus health care for illegals yet.— crystalrainbowspirit1- Wow, those are really relevant comments...— will
- Let's be fair. People aren't hiring because big business has most of the capital already, and they can afford to wait it out as the field is already tilted in their direction. At this point, all of the financial sector is really just the same people passing money back and forth. Anyone who knows a business owner who doesn't get all of their information from Fox News knows that it's not taxes and regulations that are the problem.— HandNik
- Not to mention that economic confidence doesn't deal with real factors any more, it deals with stock indexes.— HandNik
- Comment removed.
- What do Blockbuster Video, the US Postal Service, Sam Goody, and Border's Books have in common? They're gone because of the internet and/or technology and never coming back. And the list is much longer than that. No politician can fix that.— bobbyd24
- Face it Will, journalists like you don't even know the difference between baloney and mortadella, let alone who is lying.— RufusG
- Because according to the right, only liberals lie and everything that proves the right is full of it has to be a big, elaborate conspiracy because when you just check if it's true, it always falls apart, so somehow people with less wealth and less power operate this great conspiracy to trick the right. Makes sense.— HandNik
- Do you righties even stop to think that your comments mean that even when the right wing is elected, they can't do anything to stop this super-conspiracy that proves them wrong again and again?— HandNik
- That's mortodella.— urizon
I am part of the management of a business that we think is over-regulated (Federal agency rules abetted by Congress), but that does not stop us from trying to increase income or hire people we think can help increase income--in fact, we continue to add staff in key areas and are benefitting from it. I think the fact that we pay 35% taxes and bigger companies pay little or nothing is a scandal--but it does not stop us from trying to maximize profit, even though it means we pay higher taxes (not a higher rate as we are already at the top). I agree with the businesspersons polled by McClatchy. In my view, the main obstacle to jobs is that middle-class pay is so low by historic standards, consumption is down. Pay people what they deserve and the economy will rebound.- If the right could figure a nice tidy way to blame the Obama administration for the debt crunch hoarding that households are deleveraging from they wouldn't have invented the notion that its regulation and policy causing the ongoing recession.— Murrayman
- ///However, little evidence of that emerged when McClatchy canvassed a random sample of small business owners across the nation.////
Oh, well, THAT'S scientific. Random small businesses say it's nothing to be concerned about. Nothing to see here.
— General Turgidson - Demand is the key to hiring. When I need more employees to fill my orders, I'll hire them. Nothing to do with the tax rate or regulation.— SteveMG
- Its more scientific than you could possibly understand, General. Tell us, what would be the error term here? Discuss for us the normal distribution and what the size of the sample size would need to be to approx. the population? You're an idiot.— Murrayman
- Right, I'm an "idiot" because I point out that a completely random survey of a limited portion of businesses ("small") is not scientific. That's rich.
Are insults the only thing you can produce? Are you still mad because I pointed out you were incorrect about the Chrysler bailout? - Right, exactly. You make up stuff like "limited portion of businesses" and completely misunderstand the definition of randomness as it relates to sampling. Tell us, oh wise one, what would be some characteristics of a good sample? I guess the survey is useless unless every single member of the population is surveyed? What's the error term definition? Unbelievable. You would think people that didn't know anything would think not to speak. Normal distribution -- what does it have to do with random sampling, Turgidson? Come on.. you can answer up.— Murrayman
- This country will shake itself out of this recession when and only when we get rid of this crazy Republican/teabaKKKer House. Their insane belief that cutting government jobs and spending will inspire the "confidence fairy" is just...well insane. The Republicans biggest policy issue with President Obama is his policy on being black. That is why they will take Americans to the carpet, anything to get him out of office. I know it. You know it. At least the teabaKKKers are honest about it.— Les Ismore
- "Bunch of B.S." There you go again: It's not Obama they don't like and I know your next sentence would have to do with race but face the facts, the effectivness of his policies or lack there of are what people are really concerned about. Just one example: The famous Auto "Bail Out"; Ford did almost as well as GM with NO money and their unions can strike while GMs can't, as counter-intuitive as that may sound!! Chrysler still owes taxpayers $1 billion +. That's not what most would call "good policy" The "Cash for Clunkers" wiped out a whole market of used cars that would still be bringing in money for dealers today!!! "Regular people" like you and me make money, have benefits because of working for corporations,even though Libs like you seem to refuse to believe that actual people do so....GET A LIFE!!!!— sarah89
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