The Obama Administration is committed to protecting the rights of nearly 800,000 American workers in our $350 billion auto and auto parts manufacturing sector.
Export subsidies are prohibited under WTO rules because they are unfair and severely distort international trade. China expressly agreed to eliminate all export subsidies when it joined the WTO in 2001. China benefits from international trade rules and must in turn live up to its international obligations.
While this action is long overdue, the realty is this administration has been complicit with China, refusing to label them a currency manipulator. Additionally the Obama administration has passed even more bad trade deals and is working on a mega bad trade agreement, the TPP.
While Chinese auto part imports have surged 25% in the last two years, so has the overall manufacturing trade deficit. Below is the percent change from a year ago in the manufactured goods trade deficit. This trade deficit has increased 14% from one year ago and 26.3% from two years ago.
Most of America is poor, broke, and getting poorer. So shows new Census statistics for 2011. Real median income for households declined 1.5% to $50,054 and has declined for the second year in a row. The household median income is 8.1% lower than 2007 and 8.9% lower than 1999! The median belies the growing income inequality in the United States. Below is the Census graph of real household income by selected percentiles and illustrates our tragic unequal state. The top 5% increased their income by 66.2% while the the median income has only increased 19% since 1967. Real means inflation is removed.
Ah, we all know the claim offshore outsourcing is good for America. Seems offshore outsourcing is great for drug dealers and money launders too. Did you know offshore outsourcing enabled money laundering, flash crashes and failed projects?
The DFS probe found that SCB had assured the New York state in May 2010 that it would take immediate steps to comply with the US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctions. However, another regulatory examination in 2011 found continuing and significant Anti Money Laundering failures.
Among these, the bank was outsourcing its "entire OFAC compliance process for the New York branch to Chennai, India, with no evidence of any oversight or communication between the Chennai and the New York offices."
The January unemployment report created quite a stir. Many believed the BLS had simply dropped 1,252,000 people out of the labor force, discarded like trash. Is the BLS an evil doer as so many declare, or could the culprit possibly be the 2010 Census?
We already showed how comparisons between December and January cannot be done due to the incorporation of the 2010 Census data and the yearly population controls, benchmarks and seasonal adjustments incorporated into the January unemployment statistics.
While there is no mythical 1.252 million dropping out of the labor force, there are some highly unusual numbers in the BLS population controls.
The BLS starts the January month with revised population estimates, seasonal adjustments and benchmarks. This year the 2010 Census data was also incorporated into the BLS statistics. They do not go backwards in these revisions. The BLS does not backwards adjust December 2011. Here are the BLS population controls for 2012:
The December to January unemployment statistics are often reported wrong in the press. We're sorry, god love ya, but these articles are plain incorrect. People like to compare the month to month change in population, the number of people no longer considered part of the labor force and other data.
The state of Louisiana, in a broad new challenge to the role of undocumented immigrants in American society, asked the Supreme Court on Monday to rule that those who are in the country illegally should not be counted in the ten-year national census, at least for purposes of deciding how to divide up seats in the U.S. House of Representatives. In a lawsuit filed directly in the Court, without prior action in lower courts, the state contended that it has been denied one potential seat in the House because illegal immigrants are counted in census totals, putting Louisiana at a disadvantage in House apportionment. The first step in the case of Louisiana v. Bryson (140 Original) is for the Court to decide whether to allow the lawsuit to go forward in the Court, presumably after hearing from the federal government.
It seems the entire world has been confused by the Census and understandable so. This past week saw dueling quotes on the number of people in poverty in the press. There are actually two major measures of poverty for 2010 and the experimental, research measure was released this week. This supplemental poverty measure shows there are more people in poverty, 49.1 million, than the official tally, 46.2 million.
The Census Bureau has released their alternative measure for poverty research and boy it's a doozie. The official 2010 poverty measure results in 46.2 people, or 15.1% living in poverty in the United States. The alternative measure gives 49.1 million or 16% of all people living in the United States are in poverty. The population in 2010 was 306.1 million. The actual gross income threshold levels are still low.
Funny title for an article. Numbers, statistics, stats....those boring people with their spreadsheets, graphs, always showing you up at a party in a game of Trivial pursuit.
Facts! Who needs 'em! Uh, we do. A very obscure thing is happening in Washington D.C. All of those dusty agencies with their legions of geeks and geekettes, cranking through numbers and collecting data are under attack.
Here are some of the statistical and science programs cut....so far the BEA has not been cut, but the Census was, by -$6.2 billion. This is before the infamous super Congress was created to cut much more out of the budget.
As a result the Statistical Abstract is about to go bye-bye. People are speaking out trying to save this treasure trove of data. According to this op-ed requesting America save the statistical abstract:
The agency’s 2012 budget would eliminate the Statistical Compendia Branch, which compiles the Stat Abstract and other publications (example: the “County and City Data Book”). The cut: $2.9 million and 24 jobs. Both the book and online versions of the Stat Abstract would vanish. This is a mighty big loss for a mighty small saving.
Ah, we all know the claim offshore outsourcing is 
The January 
Judicial Watch, a notoriously conservative group, has filed a 
Funny title for an article. Numbers, statistics, stats....those boring people with their spreadsheets, graphs, always showing you up at a party in a game of Trivial pursuit.
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