In the United States, “consumer confidence in March soared to the highest level in more than 16 years, according to data released Tuesday,” Steve Goldstein reports for MarketWatch. “The Conference Board said its consumer confidence index leapt to 125.6 in March from 116.1 in February, coming in well ahead of the MarketWatch-compiled consensus of 114.1. The reading gave a pop to U.S. stocks, which turned higher after the report.”
“Consumer confidence has taken off since the election of President Donald Trump, on the prospect of lower taxes and more infrastructure spending,” Goldstein reports. “The gains also cut across most regional and income groups. Perhaps not surprisingly, the higher the household income, the higher the consumer confidence reading. Only those with household income below $15,000 are less confident now than they were before the election.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Vroom, vroom, the engine is revving!
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Apple shares hit new all-time closing high – February 17, 2017
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Boosted by Trump rally and Apple, Wall Street parties like it’s 19,999 – January 6, 2017
Wall Street indexes hit record highs as Trump rally continues – December 8, 2016
Now that the AHCA debacle is over, I suspect that this is simply an emotional response to the promise of major tax cuts and tax reform. Nothing substantial in terms of legislation has actually happened since the election to change the economic conditions or job statistics in this country. The jobs report for February was right in line with the past couple of years, give or take a few thousand.
Although I might benefit from tax cuts, I am not pleased to hear that the GOP might be backing away from a “revenue neutral” approach. We already have large deficits (although much reduced from the Bush era), but Trump wants to spend an additional $50B+ on defense in 2018. That combined with tax cuts will raise the deficit, and economic growth will not make up for the lost revenue. When you owe $20T, you have to “think different.” How about a plan to actually reduce the deficit?
As of January 2009, the United States had accumulated $10.6 trillion in debt. That’s the net amount the country had borrowed from George to George – Washington to G.W. Bush.
After Obama, the gross national debt now stands at $19.7 trillion. That’s an increase of $9.1 trillion.
Under Obama, the U.S. took on nearly as much debt as the country did from the presidencies of George Washington through George W. Bush.
Man that’s brutal.
You offer data without distinction. There is good debt and bad debt. Debts necessary in wartime, and debts necessary to send GIs to college, and debts incurred to build major national infrastructure have all been hailed as great investments.
George W. Bush’s ~10 trillion credit card bill that he left Obama in the wake of bank fraud, foreign offensive wars, the biggest expansion in Medicare history, and a huge increase in underfunded veteran care all added to the national debt.
Sorry if Obama took steady pragmatic steps to dig the economy out of the biggest global recession in two generations instead of waving a magic wand, but debt accumulation is a direct effect of decades of congressional budgets. No one person or party is to blame. A new 3rd party with socially tolerant and fiscally responsible values needs to emerge.
I can’t wait to see what you have to say when the Trump debt bill comes. The guy promises sending military budgets through the roof, debt-creating tax breaks for his crony corporate buddies, and delivers nothing to incentivize any new business creation whatsoever for the small guys. Debt will accelerate under Trump.
That’s just a flat out lie by omission. You know damn well that obama in his first year issued an executive order that the entire Iraq/Afghanistan wars be moved ‘on budget’. That’s $2.7 TRILLION dollars that GW bush rang up in war spending on a credit card, but hid by constantly calling the entire expense ‘off budget’. Combined with the 500,000 per month losing their jobs, the massive collapse of the real estate economy, and the international near collapse that required immediate and massive spending to stop America returning to the Great Depression, llittle to none of that new debt was because of anything obama did. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/20/us/politics/20budget.html
Don’t piss on my leg and think I’ll look for rain.
And GW did that so the amount wouldn’t become become part of a permanent budget expense, unlike Obama who did it just to have more money to spend AFTER the war.
The Left is so FSCKING CLUELESS!!!!
Wow! 😭
You’re welcome.
Perhaps this is all about President Trump’s order dismantling the stupid Obama-era “global warming” policies, not to mention tax cuts and other massive and necessary deregulation, not about the inability to fix the Democrat Party’s statist health insurance market destruction before it fully explodes. Or maybe it’s about the Democratic National Committee demanding resignation letters from all current staffers. 🙂
I support U.S. Rep. Mo Brooks’ (R-Alabama) “Obamacare Repeal Act” which states, simply:
Effective as of Dec. 31, 2017, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is repealed, and the provisions of law amended or repealed by such Act are restored or revived as if such Act had not been enacted.
The government has no business meddling in and screwing up 1/5th of the U.S. economy and getting between patients and their doctors.
U.S. Rep. Mo Brooks’ bill will at least show American voters who really wants to repeal Obamacare and who merely acts that way during election time.
No no…it’s because the republicans have now removed restrictions on shooting bears and wolves in Alaskan wildlife refuges. They can now be shot in their dens. They can now be shot from helicopters. Disabled by drugged bait, netted and shot at close range. Even the cubs.
Such glorious legislation is truly behind public confidence and total inhuman and inhumane eradication of helpless animals is a masterful stroke in political agenda.
Eradication?
OfFuckingLiberalCourse you would say that.
It’s like the Left can’t stop getting dumber in their bid to retake power.
They won’t even remember toilet etiquette by the time THAT could happen!!!
Confirmed…mini Trumpsters have no sense of humour.
While I am concerned with the animals, I am rather more concerned with human beings in Africa. Several million people (1000 times as many as the casualties on 9/11/2001) have died in the DR Congo and neighboring countries in conflicts financed with conflict minerals. That had improved recently with tight U.S. documentation requirements. The Trump Administration repealed those requirements yesterday because saving American companies extra paperwork was seen as more important than saving countless human lives. Apple is on the right side on this issue, but they can’t fight genocide alone.
What about the Alaskan natives whose villages are quite literally melting under their feet? How about Americans living on islands that may disappear (along with entire island nations) over the next few decades? Again, their lives are apparently less important than reducing paperwork for giant energy corporations.
The Trump EO today didn’t just order the defunding of government efforts to avoid harm to the environment. Deciding to trade jobs for environmental chaos is at least consistent with his campaign promises. However, it also defunded government planning on how to deal with the consequences of climate change due to the global warming that will clearly be worsened (if not entirely caused) by rising CO2 levels. If we don’t believe in it, it won’t happen. That is magical thinking.
There are 70,000 Americans employed in the coal industry, and 160,000 employed in the wind, solar, and biofuel industries. The difference is that the renewable energy folks mostly have college educations and live in blue states, so they aren’t likely Trump voters.
The Trump Energy Policy is about making a meaningless political statement while pleasing Trump’s largest contributors. One of the largest, a coal CEO, admits that even if the EPA were entirely abolished, the coal jobs lost to natural gas and automation are never coming back. The only thing that will change is that the coal companies will make more money because they no longer have to worry about cleaning up after themselves.
Another Trump action this week suspends the so-called “waters of the United States” rule that would limit the pollution of small water bodies, including some on golf courses. The golf industry has been in the forefront of opposing the rule. Wonder who owns a lot of golf courses and doesn’t see a conflict of interest?
Thanks for proving my previous post’s point.
My God, what a small world your brain wanders around in.
No, he’s right and you’re the mindless moron without a moral compass, social conscience or it seems, a scintilla of common sense.
It’s called Sociopathy.
As usual you have no clue what you are talking about.
I do so enjoy upsetting ReTardlicans, as you’re justifiably insulted at this time.
And as usual, I’ll blow your tiny little mind by pointing out that I have no respect for the DemoCraps either.
Give me sanity. Neither party offers it.
Social conscious?
after what Obama did to this nation you bring up social conscious?
Un-be-lievable!
I’m not quite sure why you posted this video. I had to stop it about four minutes into an extended apology for Miklos Horthy, labeled as a “Hungarian nationalist.”
For those of you doomed to repeat history because you do not know it, Admiral Horthy established an authoritarian regime in Hungary following World War I (with himself as unelected Regent and de facto King). He kept the country ground under his iron boot for the next 24 years. Horthy’s refusal to allow the development of genuinely democratic institutions in Hungary set the stage for the 44 years of Communist dictatorship and the current slide into authoritarianism.
In the 1930s, Horthy formed an alliance with Nazi Germany. Hungary annexed parts of southeastern Czechoslovakia in 1938, and additional Slovak territory in 1939. In 1940, Horthy forcibly annexed northern Transylvania from Romania, and the next year he invaded and annexed parts of Yugoslavia.
His forces supported the German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, and on December 11, he declared war on the United States.
Horthy wrote in 1940: “As regards the Jewish problem, I have been an anti-Semite throughout my life.” His regime passed its first Anti-Jewish laws as early as 1938, and it got worse as time went on. In 1943, Horthy sent 40,000 Jews and political prisoners to Stalingrad where they “cleared the minefields” for the Axis forces. Before the end of the war, some 565,000 Jews had been either killed or deported to the Nazi death camps. One out of every three people killed at Auschwitz was Hungarian.
Horthy would have been hanged as a war criminal—as he richly deserved—if the U.S. had not seen keeping him alive as a counter-balance to the Hungarian Communist Party. Instead, he enjoyed years of comfortable retirement in the Portuguese resort of Estoril before dying in 1955.
His reputation has enjoyed some recovery among the authoritarian nationalists now running Hungary. As the video points out, even people on the Trump transition team felt comfortable wearing Horthy insignia.
If opposing people like that is “Leftist,” I expect that everyone in America who isn’t an active member of the white-supremacist alt-right is a Leftist. I really can’t imagine that even Donald Trump sees Admiral Horthy as a role model.
Well played sir!
Tx, I usually agree with your posts but must differ sharply here. I have a host of issues with Trump but this is NOT one of them and I fully support his actions.
If your are implying that sea level rise is due to carbon emissions, it is not, regardless of what is widely reported in the press who are not in the habit of fact checking when it comes to the technical issues of science and fall back on regurgitating previously written articles by the press. We all read about certain pacific islands sinking (but not others) but when scientists were scheduled to present evidence to the contrary they were prevented from doing so publicly (hey, I can’t blame the islanders who know a good thing when they see it in terms of generous handouts). If you look at satellite data the sea level rise us oddly not uniform. Land subsidence due to growth of urban areas near the ocean is the number one contributor.
Sea level rise is another one of those widely believed “alternative facts” with no legs when it comes to actual data. Everyone should read up on land subsidence, why it happens, and on how pacific islands evolve over time before claiming that carbon emissions are to blame.
Of course water levels are not rising uniformly along every coast. No responsible person has ever suggested that they are, so there is nothing odd about it. Not only is there subsidence in some places, there is also rebound from the last glaciation in others, the impact of currents, the earth’s non-uniform density, and some other factors.
That does not alter the overwhelming bulk of data showing that the global mean sea level rose about 8.3 inches between 1880 and 2009, after remaining almost steady for the preceding 3000 years. Currently, sea level is rising by 3.2mm/year, more or less, with the rate apparently accelerating.
I have no doubt that you can find somebody somewhere who has disputed those numbers, but that is a broad consensus of the scientific community based on multiple independent data sets.
What would be odd would be for global temperatures not to rise with rising CO2 levels, for the oceans not to expand as they grow warmer, or for ice and snowpack not to melt. That would not just be odd, but miraculous.
By not planning for the consequences of the observed warming, the Trump Administration is betting on a miracle. That is not good public policy.
Well, I’m certainly not going to argue that Trump has a handle on the science of … anything. Nevertheless, the crux of the argument is that a single point adjustment was made to a single (that means ONLY one) physical measurement of sea level. Computer models were updated with this adjustment, and lo and behold, they indicate a significant sea level rise over the past 50 years and predict a continued sharp rise over the next century. As far as I can tell the evidence that has been regurgitated over and over again stems from the computer model results and NOT from actual physical measurements. And most of the actual physical measurements can be explained by subsidence.
It is insane to continue to set public policies that can have material impact on businesses of all sizes and the livelihoods of so many based upon computer models without real world evidence to corroborate what the models are saying.
Here’s one link. If you search diligently more can be found.
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2014/06/01/making-sense-of-senseless-sea-level-scares-in-norfolk-virginia-60-of-the-rise-is-from-subsidence/
JWSC,
A wonderful story… if only it were true. As it happens, every seaport in the world has a harbormaster. One of his duties is to record the time and height of the tides every day. There is thus almost an embarrassment of physical measurements that are used as input to the models you mention.
For example, the data for New York Harbor shows a mean sea level trend of 2.84mm/year with a 95% confidence interval of +/- 0.09 based on monthly sea level data from 1856 to 2015, which is equivalent to a change of 0.93 feet in 100 years.
The data for San Francisco Harbor shows a mean sea level trend of 1.94mm/year with a 95% confidence interval of +/- 0.19 based on monthly sea level data from 1897 to 2015, which is equivalent to a change of 0.64 feet in 100 years (note, this series was slightly affected by a rise in land levels due to the 1907 earthquake).
For methodology and other harbors, see
https://tideandcurrents.noaa.gove
I do not dispute the measurements you cite, but to say again that they are driven primarily by subsidence, or in the case of your earthquake example, a slight rise in land. None of that invalidates the fact that the main arguments for carbon emissions caps are being based upon computer models and not real world data.
I’m obviously not going to convince you here. But I know you are open minded enough to always want to seek out the truth. My views on this subject are not political or ideological. It’s just that I have read enough to make me skeptical and to want to ask more questions. And a healthy dose of skepticism is never a bad thing.
Keep on smoking that crap and parroting the globalist meme. Soros will have your check in the mail before 5:00 pm.
Most of the respondents are from the Dumb and Dumber 30.
30% of the population believe the earth is flat.
The market went up about 3000 points since Trump was elected. Never mind the poor holiday sales. Never mind all the store closings. Never mind Sears announcing they may not survive. Never mind home ownership is at a over 50 year low and getting worse. Never mind rents are taking 50% and more of their income.
So just ignore all that Obama accomplished?
That’s the media job!!!
Meanwhile:
Trump’s approval ratings have dropped to new low—like WAY low
36% 📉
Presidential Approval Ratings — Donald Trump @Gallup.com
Donald Trump’s Presidential Job Approval Ratings — Historical Comparisons
Average for U.S. presidents 53 1938-2017
Average for elected presidents’ 1st quarter 63 various
Other presidents in March of first year
Barack Obama 62 Mar 2009
George W. Bush 58 Mar 2001
Bill Clinton 53 Mar 1993
George H.W. Bush 60 Mar 1989
Ronald Reagan 60 Mar 1981
Jimmy Carter 72 Mar 1977
Richard Nixon 64 Mar 1969
John Kennedy 73 Mar 1961
Dwight Eisenhower 74 Mar 1953
Please note that the above The Trump approval rating is as of March 26, 2017.
Please note that Gallup also forecast on Election Day that Donald Trump would lose.
Lose the popular vote? That’s what they measure. He DID lose the popular vote. So…
so…they predicted The Clot would win, she did not.
What an endearment. The Clown won the Electoral College. The Clot won the popular vote, by a very high number!
So enjoy hiding from facts with your fellow ReTardlican inepts. Every day brings a whole new clown show, another opportunity to point and laugh. Four years of cynical, dark humor for me. Four years of heated embarrassment for you.
Would it have been better if ‘The Clot’ won? Probably not. It would have been a different show with different clowns.
I am so pleased you are amused regarding the future of our country, Vacillating Weasel.
Is The Bot actually a Bot?
I’m convinced someone winds him up every day then feeds him the latest propaganda and insult talking points.
Hmm. I wonder if all of the poliTards around here are Bots. Another reason to laugh, point and move along to more intelligent conversations. 😀
You’re listening to The Voices again, Vacillating Weasel.
The still small voice I hear is commonly considered to be the human conscience.
Ever heard it yourself? I sorta doubt it, considering your support of the usual Randian mantra of Kill The Poor; Feed The Rich.
You’re not actually human, are you. What did you do with the real botvinnik? Dastardly.
The impending psychotic break I feared has occurred, you’re no longer vacillating between rationality and weaseldom…you’ve gone full-blown libtard.
My condolences.
You will have to please excuse us now, my date, Ayn Rand, and I must spend the day feeding the Tim Cooks of the world and robbing the Julian Assanges.
You’ve lost it, son.
Your date, Ayn Rand.
Bow wow.
:-Q*****
Howling At The Moon Sociopath
A loon only Paul Ryan and botvinnik could love.
You’re vacillating again, I am no RINO or Republican as you well know…but nice try, I guess.
Actually, Gallup predicted on Election Day that Mr. Trump would lose the national popular vote by about 3%. He did.
The state-by-state polls were not conducted by Gallup and were inherently much less reliable due to inexperienced pollsters and small sample size. In some states, there were no scientific polls at all.
The meme that the 2016 election polls were horribly wrong is simply incorrect.
Ah, thank you. Better stated than my retort to the bot.
Now, how do we erase the Electoral College nonsense?
Oh and no folks. I have zero love for The Hilary either. Does that frighten you? Never heard of that before? 3D thinking? Seriously?