0 thoughts on “Consumer Confidence Down Sharply in February”

1. The companies in the private sector need to want to add jobs. The large companies want to do more with fewer employees, they don’t want to add jobs. I know that Large companies, particularly in the insurance industry, have consolidated field offices into large offices in a few large hubs across the country, costing many in small towns jobs. Now look at a large company like United Technologies and their division of Pratt and Whitney – they claim their orders are down and want to layoff hundreds, and to further reduce costs, move work overseas as well ! Long time, blue collar and talented machinists will be out of work, or forced to move and many won’t. Cities are devoid of any real jobs, long gone are the manufacturers to give people without college degrees jobs, and the cities are a mess with low education and crime. It is very scary out there in the real world. 1 last, here in CT, teachers are getting layed off because some towns’ budgets are broke. That is really bad. Obama won’t do this, but I think he should take a page from Reagan. Massive defense spending. It will create many jobs for the large manufacturers and small companies that are in the chain of distribution.

2. the problem is that government CANNOT put people back to work — all it can do, if it would, is to get off the backs of innovators, producers, capitalists and others and help THEM create real jobs.

3. …a change in direction; new focus; defined goal of the United States realizing a true Laissez Faire marketplace with immediate moves to enable the individual man and woman to labor independently in the marketplace to enrich him and herself, family, colleagues, community, and nation.

   …abandon the automobile as it currently exists within our culture.

   …move back into the cities.

   …task every level of government with the construction and world-class operation of electric, public transportation systems in every major metro area.

   …stop buying gas except for your Ferrari, SLS AMG, Porsce, Karmann Ghia, or weedwacker.

   …legalize Marijuana unconditionally immediately. This afternoon, right after lunch, open the jail and prison cells of every man and woman held captive for solely possession of marijuana.

   …patent protection for ANY medication of any kind goes away.

   …have babies.

   …buy bycyles.

   …less cops. Not more cops.

   …Close the factories of GM and FORD. Tear them down. Plant azalea bushes. Turn the land on which they currently sit into botanical gardens.

   …call your mother.

   …cure AIDS; we owe the rest of the world.

   …sing.

   …dance.

   …put our families back together.

   …eliminate the “credit rating” system as it currently exists imediatly.

   …close the public schools. let the children out.

   …de-specialization of labor.

   …the non-mobility of the workforce.

   …hunt.

   …gather.

   …turn around.

   …no money for the banks. de-securitize the mortgage industry. That was done with auspices to make home ownership readily available to minority and low income Americans was it not. Is that not why we created the secondary mortgage market? Whatever was done. It failed miserably.
   The market was prohibited from correcting (wherein real estate market value shifts downward drastically) because incompetent analyst gave triple A ratings to publicly traded mortgage backed securities leading incompetent fund managers to invest heavily in high-risk debt; including IRA, money market, annuities, pensions, and private investors; just to name a few.
   Real Estate is still significantly over priced. We are still in the bubble because the market was kept from correcting. Rents are too high. Young America and the youth of America; the Engine of the World. is not making it. We are all going down hard.

   …good thing is; we are the ultimate consumers. The economy gonna be just fine. Nevah was any big deal on the street. All we know how to do is spend money kids. It’s the layers within the onion where all of this came about. the US citizen has been going strong throughout. The youth of America has been taken advantage of across the board and on all fronts.

   …Hope.

   …Change.

   …Fearless.

   …Love.

   …Take Control.

   “I’ve been called a dreamer, but then I’ve been called so many things.” – Jerry Garcia ;-D

   Jeff Lee
   CEO Narrashare Inc.

4. Ted, what you say is true, but you fall into the same trap as everybody else — repeating the mantra “it’s all about jobs” without addressing what it takes.

   Nobody talks about what the Government needs to do to get a new jobs growth machine going, because nobody knows what to do. With strong wage competition from overseas, overcapacity in many industries Worldwide, the demand of social justice for free trade, the continuous substitution of technology for human labor, etc., where do the opportunities lie for new businesses to form or existing businesses to expand their work forces. Suggestions such as “tax cuts for business” are fine, but that tinkers on the margins at best. Taxes on profits are only one cost of doing business, and presupposes a profitable business! Government stimulus programs go no further than the end of their projects – they are only band-aids, intended to fill a gap in employment opportunity until private ventures can regain their footing.

   Nobody will address the elephant in the room. The U.S. throughout the ages has preached the virtues of private enterprise based on free markets. Well, in the last part of the 20th century, all of a sudden developing countries all over the world, most notably China and India, said “sounds good to us” and guided their economies toward our system, bringing massive production capability to bear while allowing pittance wages that did not grow Worldwide demand for products and services at the same rate as production was growing. So our export markets are stagnant at best, imports crowd our shelves, and our peoples’ wages are a casualty of the ever-increasing competition.

   How can the World get out of this box (I say the World because the US is far from the only country with workforce and economic problems)? The only way I see is to have wages in other parts of the World ramped up relatively rapidly so that those people have enough income to drive increased demand. And if the US is going to continue to evolve toward a service economy, those jobs are going to have to pay better if we are to maintain our standard of living. Otherwise, there is no discernible path for this country other than an ongoing reduced standard of living.

   Of course, increased demand for products and services Worldwide has its own implications for resource use/management and environmental change, but that’s just the next issue with which we will have to deal.

   Be careful what you pray for (other nations adopting our economic model). You may get it.

5. The companies in the private sector need to want to add jobs. The large companies want to do more with fewer employees, they don’t want to add jobs. I know that Large companies, particularly in the insurance industry, have consolidated field offices into large offices in a few large hubs across the country, costing many in small towns jobs. Now look at a large company like United Technologies and their division of Pratt and Whitney – they claim their orders are down and want to layoff hundreds, and to further reduce costs, move work overseas as well ! Long time, blue collar and talented machinists will be out of work, or forced to move and many won’t. Cities are devoid of any real jobs, long gone are the manufacturers to give people without college degrees jobs, and the cities are a mess with low education and crime. It is very scary out there in the real world. 1 last, here in CT, teachers are getting layed off because some towns’ budgets are broke. That is really bad. Obama won’t do this, but I think he should take a page from Reagan. Massive defense spending. It will create many jobs for the large manufacturers and small companies that are in the chain of distribution.