Monday, June 11, 2012

The Audacity of Hope In Action

With 8.2 percent unemployment, with GDP growth at less than two percent, one does not need more evidence that the private sector is not doing fine, contrary to what our President told us and wants us to believe.

Nonetheless, the evidence continues to mount … to Himalayan heights.

Here’s Reuters today:
U.S. companies are finding it more difficult to grow their revenue now than at just about any time since the financial crisis. Second-quarter revenue growth for companies in the Standard & Poor's 500 index .SPX is expected to be just 2.2 percent compared with an average 7.3 percent quarterly increase since the fourth quarter of 1998…Take out the supercharged sales of Apple Inc (AAPL.O) and the picture is even weaker - with growth of only 1.9 percent for the current period.
The implications of these struggles for the job market are clear, although perhaps they are not so clear to the occupant of the Oval Office. Companies, reports Reuters, “are less likely to hire and more likely to fire to curb costs so that they can reach their earnings targets.”

The President contends that the weaknesses in the economy are in the public sector, not the private sector. There is only conclusion one can draw from this flight into fancy: we are watching the audacity of hope in action.