Obama Administration Defines Cause and Effect
If you want to see the principle of cause and effect in action, look no further than Obamacare. We have a situation where Obamacare is causing employers to reduce their number of full-time employees to part-time to avoid having to provide government-approved health plans or be penalized. We are now seeing companies that have already converted full-time employees to part-time cutting healthcare benefits altogether and forcing them to buy health insurance through the Obamacare exchanges. It’s hard to escape the irony of this. The administration forces employers to buy government-approved health insurance policies, which causes them to reduce their workforce or work hours, which then creates more part-time workers who no longer are being given health benefits and must purchase... Read More
College Degree No Longer the Solution to Good Jobs
More than 40 percent of recent U.S. college graduates are unemployed, underemployed or need more training to get on a career track, according to a poll released last year by global management consulting firm Accenture. The online survey of 1,050 workers who finished school in the previous two years and 1,010 who received their degree in 2013 also found that many graduates, some heavily in debt because of the cost of their education, say they are in jobs that do not require a college degree. In fact, just 53 percent of the graduates found full-time jobs in their field of study. Based on this data, it’s hard to understand why President Obama keeps promoting the benefits of a college education. He recently unveiled a plan to rate colleges by the tuition they charge, and favor those... Read More
U.S. Oil Production Will Help Regain Prestige
President Obama has made it clear that he is no advocate of fossil fuels. He has gone to war against coal and refuses to allow drilling on most federal lands for oil. Despite this lack of support, the United States actually has a surplus of crude oil and natural gas. Domestic production is way up to the point where gas prices at the pump have started to come down. There’s even talk of exporting gas and oil, something that has been restricted since the 1973 OPEC embargo. The United States has a new energy story to tell that lets us operate on the world stage from a position of strength instead of dependence on the shifting prices of foreign oil. A Wall Street Journal story noted that last week, “A delegate to the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries said Saudi Arabia... Read More
Join the Movement to American-Made Products
I’m adamantly against profiling — except when it comes to profiling American-made goods. American consumers should do a better job “profiling” anything manufactured in this country and then purchase those goods. You may be surprised to know that when both foreign- and American-made products are offered, the Made in USA product is usually less expensive, and by a wide margin. Besides spending your money wisely, there is another important reason: It creates American jobs, which contributes to American prosperity. I recently visited the Made in America Movement website and came away with some persuasive reasons to buy products made here, especially around the holidays. Scott Paul, founding executive director of the Alliance for American Manufacturing, and Alex Bogusky,... Read More
Are Unions Part of the Jobs Problem?
Trade unions are always proclaiming their mission is to save and create U.S. jobs. But if you have been paying attention to their actions, you would be hard pressed to see this philosophy in action. Jobs aren’t being created by unions — the opposite is occurring. That may explain why union membership has dropped to 6.6 percent of all workers, down from 35 percent in the mid-1950s. Even as the United States engages in important negotiations involving the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit (APEC), which could create millions of good-paying American jobs, the left, in a further appeasement of union demands, is trying to derail the U.S. role in the agreement. As a reminder, according to data from APEC, its members — including the United States and China, Russia, Mexico,... Read More
Do Unions Really Care About Creating Jobs?
Trade unions are always proclaiming their mission is to save and create U.S. jobs. But if you have been paying attention to their actions, you would be hard pressed to see this philosophy in action. Jobs aren’t being created by unions — the opposite is occurring. That may explain why union membership has dropped to 6.6 percent of all workers, down from 35 percent in the mid-1950s. Even as the United States engages in important negotiations involving the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit (APEC), which could create millions of good-paying American jobs, the left, in a further appeasement of union demands, is trying to derail the U.S. role in the agreement. As a reminder, according to data from APEC, its members — including the United States and China, Russia, Mexico,... Read More
The Assault on CEO Compensation
Professional sports players are usually paid based on performance. The better they play, the more money they make. In the business world, CEOs are usually compensated based on the performance of their company. The better the company performs, the more they are paid in salary and stock options. One big difference is that professional sports teams work with a salary cap, which determines how much money they can spend on their players. In the business world, most CEOs don’t have a salary cap (although some publicly traded companies have limits of executive compensation), so their salary and benefits reflect the profitability of the company. They are paid for their contributions. The story that is seldom told is that before CEOs make a lot of money, they had to build their company.... Read More
Our Economic Security Depends on Job Creation
The impact of 26 million Americans who are unemployed or underemployed moves this nation further and further away from economic security. Then add in the millions of American who have been forced into part-time jobs (who are five times more likely to live in poverty) and we have an economic picture that would make our Founding Fathers weep. An underlying issue that receives little coverage is that when people don’t have jobs or economic security, they don’t make the long-term investments, which are the bedrock of our economy. There are fewer dollars that can be loaned to small business — our job creators — so the nation is caught in a downward spiral. Lance Roberts from SDT Wealth Management, appearing on the radio show Made in America, noted that the United States... Read More
Shutting Down Future US Jobs
As usual, President Obama fails to think about long-term solutions to our economy. His role in the shutdown is one example, but a far more dangerous decision was his willingness to cancel his trip to Indonesia for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit (APEC). The outcome of this decision could stop the creation of millions of good-paying American jobs. According to data from APEC, its members — including the United States and China, Russia, Mexico, Canada and 16 other countries — account for about 40 percent of the world’s population, 55 percent of global gross domestic product and about 44 percent of world trade. Trade within APEC has grown nearly sevenfold since 1989, topping $11 trillion in 2011. Opening up free trade to most of Asia would give the U.S. economy... Read More
Economic Pessimism Evokes Great Depression
A new story from The Associated Press stopped me in my tracks. The gap in employment rates between America’s highest- and lowest-income families has stretched to its widest levels since officials began tracking the data a decade ago. Rates of unemployment for the lowest-income families — those earning less than $20,000 — have topped 21 percent, nearly matching the rate for all workers during the Great Depression. U.S. households with income of more than $150,000 a year have an unemployment rate of 3.2 percent, a level traditionally defined as full employment. At the same time, middle-income workers are increasingly pushed into lower-wage jobs. Many of them in turn are displacing lower-skilled, low-income workers, who become unemployed or are forced to work fewer hours,... Read More