Obama backtracks on comments that private sector is doing "fine"
Source: CBS
Just hours after President Obama said the "the private sector is doing fine" and Republican challenger Mitt Romney criticized him for being "out of touch," the president insisted that more work needs to be done to jump-start the economy.
"It's is absolutely clear that the economy is not doing fine, that's the reason I had the press conference," the president said Friday afternoon in response to a reporter's question.
During a news conference about the economy Friday morning, the president sought to explain how the European economic problems could impact the American recovery and pushed Congress to pass parts of his "to-do" list aimed to stimulate economic growth. But during a question and answer session, the president said the private sector is "doing fine," pointing to 27 months of job creation.
But the Romney campaign and other Republicans pounced, taking to Twitter to highlight the president's remark. And Romney told reporters in Council Bluffs, Iowa on Friday that "he's defining what it means to be detached and out of touch with the American people."
Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-57449822-503544/obama-backtracks-on-comments-that-private-sector-is-doing-fine/
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DallasNE
(7,392 posts)I translated it to mean that corporate profits, overall, are high so corporate America is doing fine.
dkf
(37,305 posts)I think he has exposed the problem with his economic emphasis...he cannot see small businesses who are the real job creators.
thesquanderer
(11,953 posts)Until we are buying/consuming enough that businesses (big and small) need more employees, there won't be more jobs. That's why government spending is so important in lean times, it primes the pump, to break the chicken-and-egg cycle between consumers and businesses.
dkf
(37,305 posts)The trick of wealthy nations is to export, not necessarily consume. There is a growing middle class in China and India that can easily dwarf the US population.
thesquanderer
(11,953 posts)And U.S. products tend to be too expensive for typical Chinese and Indian consumers.
Regardless, what U.S. companies require in order to create more jobs is more demand. As long as they have enough employees to fill current demand, they have no need to hire more.
dkf
(37,305 posts)BEIJING Chinas auto market revved to life in May despite the weakening economy, with vehicle sales jumping nearly 16 percent from a year earlier to 1.61 million units, industry figures showed Saturday.
But the auto sales data showed no strong improvement in sales of domestic brand vehicles, with most of the gains going to foreign automakers.
General Motors Co. and its joint ventures sold 231,183 vehicles in China in May, up 21 percent from the same month in 2011 and a slight improvement from April.
More than half were minivans sold by its SAIC-GM-Wuling joint venture, which saw sales soar 36 percent to 127,749 vehicles in May.
Ford Motor Co. reported its passenger vehicle sales climbed 23 percent from a year earlier to 34,550 units. Sales of both passenger and commercial Ford-brand vehicles rose 8 percent to 48,608, it reported earlier.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/chinas-auto-sales-grew-by-16-percent-in-may-showing-signs-of-stabilization/2012/06/09/gJQAOu7wPV_story.html
thesquanderer
(11,953 posts)First, car companies are not small businesses. Your argument seems to keep shifting!
Second, much of the car companies' success in these countries is from "joint ventures" -- i.e. products produced locally in those countries, with their cheap labor. So it's not like all those jobs from those auto sales are U.S. jobs, either.
(Also, I never said we don't sell anything to those countries, so I'm not sure what your point was in showing that American companies do sell things there. Okay, so I guess that was three things. )
NorthCarolina
(11,197 posts)that doesn't jive with American politics....either party.
coalition_unwilling
(14,180 posts)channeling your inner Richard Pryor
NorthCarolina
(11,197 posts)jive talk'in
progressivebydesign
(19,458 posts)And many of my neighbors, too. My realtor can't even get 8 hours of sleep lately, as she's been selling homes every day with multiple offers and bidding wars. My husband's company has added 15 NEW positions in the past two years, and their sales are on trac to break records this year. People I know have bought second homes, giant tvs, taken trips to Fiji. My neighbors have been remodeling their homes.
Trying to figure out exactly why no one else sees that recovery that I see every single day. When I was looking for a job in 2007/2008 there were literally 12 jobs a day on Craigslist in my rather large community.. now there are hundreds. No, the recovery is not complete because of the scumbags in Congress that refuse to finish the job stimulus, but I cannot fathom how reasonably intelligent people can expect someone to fix eight years of disaster (here and globally,) in four years, with a hostile Congress and Supreme Court. Boggles the damn mind.
Igel
(35,191 posts)On the way to church, just a few miles away, I pass help-wanted signs for decent jobs. CNC machinist, welder, that sort of thing. Unemployment rate for skilled or white collar workers is very low where I live.
Hop over a city or two and the situation's completely different.
BadtotheboneBob
(413 posts)... I became one (CNC Machinist) in the early-90's when it was just ramping up and worked at it steady until I had to medically retire in '98. It's a great job. Highly technical and precise. Not what people would think of a 'shop job'. Programming and setting up $500k+ machining centers. Our company made very precise profile rail bearings that were used on the Hubble space telescope to move the cameras. Also huge ball-screws for the aircraft industry for flaps and landing gear. No widgets for us!
dkf
(37,305 posts)Coyote_Bandit
(6,783 posts)I know several highly skilled, experienced and well educated folks who have been looking for employment for years. The folks I know who feel fairly secure in their jobs are pinching their pennies and living frugally. Government services are still being reduced here because of revenue shortfalls.
That stimulus package didn't do much to improve our economy here. True, there was a lot of roadwork done here that was financed with those stimulus funds. But the crews that were contracted to do that work were all from surrounding states. Most of those workers had a 1 to 2 hour commute and largely took those stimulus funds home to their families, their community and their state.
coalition_unwilling
(14,180 posts)there are, of course, those us found guilty of being over 50 in an under-50 work zone.
progressivebydesign
(19,458 posts).. what exactly is the problem here??? Oh I know, the media is incapable of actually looking things up for themselves, instead they need to feed the manufactured outrages of the fuckheads that sent the jobs overseas, and continue bleeding the States and local municipalities dry.. so that Mittens can have that car garage.
So is it official? Did we finally hit the Idiocracy stage? Anyone with even an 8th grade education KNOWS what he meant.
coalition_unwilling
(14,180 posts)country seems to be flourishing.
But the private sector has not added enough jobs to keep up with natural growth of the work force, at least not last month, when only 69,000 jobs were added but 150,000 were required just to keep even with natural growth of the work force.
I'm speaking nationally, of course, and not about your region.
My region, California, is in a dead-cat-bounce oscillation pattern right now.
unkachuck
(6,295 posts)....c'mon, Team Obama, stop playing games and start kicking puke ass....
....propose a simple, direct, job creating package of legislation aimed at the middle-class that the pukes will reject....then blame slick-willard for 'being out of touch' and the pukes for destroying jobs and the rising unemployment....quit letting the pukes have their way and allowing them to define the debate....
....even a dumb-fuck like me understands you can't win playing on their turf....or maybe you're satisfied with being a one-term president?
may3rd
(593 posts)sound bytes are always twisted for political gain.
the true message is ignored for a campaign slogan that appeals to the party donors .
I do believe with half the US population drawing some type of state benefit, the US economy has reached a tipping point that doesn't favor the shrinking working class taxpayer.
But, politicians will continue to fiddle...
BlueIris
(29,135 posts)may3rd
(593 posts)Blue_Tires
(55,445 posts)Asia and India can't build stuff fast enough to keep up with U.S. demand for outsourcing...
And what about the Dow Jones?? All the talking heads were apocalyptic back when it was under 8,000 but Wall Street still cries poverty when it's over 11,000?