LAR: Does the weak dollar reduce the trade deficit?Inbox x
2:52 PM (13 minutes ago)  | | |||
 |
Feb. 27, 2012
Does the weak dollar reduce the trade deficit? Despite a weak dollar certainly leading to more exports, higher energy prices as a result of inflation offset those gains, exacerbating the trade deficit.
Video: Jobs From Algae, Proof Obama Is Out Of Ideas You can't make this stuff up.
Opt out rule means entire law should be opted out Obama is walking in quicksand by his decision to confront religion head-on, a decision that could cost him politically.
Malkin: The $4 Billion Obamacare Slush Fund for Progressives "Cronies reap. Taxpayers weep." Does the weak dollar reduce the trade deficit?
According to conventional wisdom, one of the benefits of a weak dollar is that it boosts exports, thereby reducing the trade deficit. But is that true?
Since the weak dollar — the world's reserve currency — also has an inflationary effect all over the world, particularly in commodities, Americans also wind up paying more for energy. So, being a net importer of oil, wouldn't the increased cost at the pump offset gains made in exports?
Yes, it does. Despite a weak dollar certainly leading to more exports (they increased in 2008, 2010, and 2011), higher energy prices as a result of inflation apparently offset those gains, exacerbating the trade deficit. Read it and weep, in the following table, courtesy of data from the U.S. Census Bureau and Energy Information Agency.
Get full story here. Jobs From Algae, Proof Obama Is Out Of Ideas
Video by Frank McCaffrey
Get permalink here. Opt out rule means entire law should be opted out
By Albert Maslar
Obamacare is laden with anomalies that are arbitrarily mishandled by HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, who is the designated implementer of what is to be and how, in Obama's "Affordable" HealthCare law that is primed to devastate the underpinnings of the economy and related jobs potential besides further dividing the country on social issues.
Controversy is boiling over Obama's mandate requiring religious-based employers to purchase insurance plans that pay for contraception services that are contrary to their religious beliefs; contraception, sterilization and abortifacients, substances that induce abortion; so-called Plan B abortion drugs.
Critics of the contraception mandate argue that it forces religious-based organizations to purchase health insurance plans that violate their conscience. No problem; Obama solves the problem by passing the cost to insurance companies, mandating them to offer contraception coverage at no cost.
Even if that were true — there will in fact be a cost, but let's leave that aside for a moment — this ignores the unconstitutionality of forcing insurance companies to offer a product for free, at no cost.
In the Washington Post, Charles Krauthammer points out that the supposed "solution — forcing insurance companies to provide contraception for free — is an unprecedented "assault on free enterprise," because it would allow the government, without any statutory authority, to force private companies to hand out goods and services for free.
Get full story here.  ALG Editor's Note: In the following featured column from Michelle Malkin, the case is made against the $4 billion Obamacare slush fund for radical causes like the Saul Alinsky affiliate Common Ground and the so-called Freelancers Union. Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson is quoted saying, "These grants/loans reek of political payola." The $4 Billion Obamacare Slush Fund for Progressives
By Michelle Malkin If you like how the Obama administration's multibillion-dollar "investments" in bankrupt solar companies have turned out, you'll love the latest federal loan program to nowhere. It's the Obamacare loyalty rewards program for progressives.
To appease liberal Democrats pushing for the so-called "public option" (the full frontal government takeover of our health care system), the White House settled for the creation of a $6 billion network of nonprofit "CO-OPs" that will "compete" with private insurers. It's socialized medicine through the side door. House Republicans sliced about $2 billion from the slush fund in last spring's budget deal and proclaimed the program dead. Hardly.
On Wednesday, the White House trumpeted the release of nearly $700 million in taxpayer-funded low-interest loans for seven CO-OPs in eight states. Administered by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the fund will pour more money into CO-OP plans nationwide throughout the next year. In 2014, according to Washington bureaucrats, the plans will be offered on the federally approved and federally monitored state health exchange "marketplace."
Some marketplace. Given how Team Obama has dispensed special Obamacare waivers to scores of campaign donors, it's a sure bet the CO-OP/exchange mechanism will be brazenly rigged against non-subsidized, for-profit insurers. And against taxpayers. Obama health officials assure us that there will be an "early warning system" in place before loan recipients get into financial trouble. But we know from the half-billion-dollar Solyndra scam that when this administration sees red flags, it's full speed ahead.
In fact, the Obamacare CO-OP overseers already predict a nearly 40 percent default rate for the loans, according to Kaiser Health. Welcome to the Chicago-on-the-Potomac reverse rule of holes: When you're in one,keep digging.
Get full story here. |
No comments:
Post a Comment