Economic Recovery

Columnist Ron Smith states that our economic collapse is inevitable ("When will collapse come?" Sept. 16). As a tea party guy, I hold out hope that there will come a day when voters put enough pressure on our politicians that they see the light and we start paying down our debt to avoid that collapse. But seeing as how Senate Leader Harry Reid just inserted federal funding to create more bike paths into one of the bills going through Congress, I can see why Mr. Smith would conclude that our politicians don't get the gravity of the situation with regard to the debt.

The latest indicator that the U.S. economy is on the upswing can probably be found on the street where you live: It's the "sold" sign planted in the neighbor's yard. Perhaps you hadn't noticed, but the real estate industry is not the moribund mess you might remember from the crash. U.S. housing prices rose in March for the biggest gain in seven years and the fourth consecutive quarter of year-over-year improvement. Meanwhile, the consumer confidence level was reported at its highest point since February 2008, at 76.2 percent, according to The Conference Board.

My first foray into Christmas shopping this year couldn't have started on a more promising note. It wasn't at just any shopping center; I was at the Mall of America in suburban Minneapolis, only the Everest of its ilk, the largest collection in the country of stores and amusements. It was a couple of days before Thanksgiving, so I didn't even have Black Friday-addled crowds to fight. As a sales clerk at Club Monaco told me, "It's the calm before the storm. " The racks and shelves seemed freshly stocked rather than picked over.

President Barack Obama told several hundred people gathered at a Baltimore manufacturing plant on Friday that he would keep his administration focused on the economic recovery -- despite a series of political scandals that have rocked the administration in recent days. Obama spoke at Ellicott Dredges in broad terms about lifting the middle class by investing in infrastructure. He pressed lawmakers on Capitol Hill to work together despite partisan gridlock that has stymied progress on economic initiatives proposed by either party, but he offered little in the way of new ideas to address unemployment.  The president spoke to about 800 people at Ellicott Dredges at an event that drew most of the state's elected leaders, including Gov. Martin O'Malley, Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake and most of the state's congressional delegation.

About 900 Carroll County families are waiting for donations of toys, clothing and maybe a holiday dinner, but the county's social services will be able to fulfill the wishes of less than half of them. The deadline for donors to sign up came and went Thursday, leaving the county well short of its goal for seasonal giving. The Marine Corps' annual Toys for Tots drive is also lagging — it has collected about 16,000 items, but has more than 67,000 requests from individuals and organizations throughout the Baltimore area.

I know we have become a nation of such short attention spans and long-term addiction to instant gratification that asking viewers to spend even an hour with a documentary that could change the way they see the world is probably a fool's errand. But this fool is asking -- no begging -- you to see "Hard Times: Lost on Long Island," an HBO documentary premiering at 9 Monday night and repeating throughout the month on HBO and HBO2. I have not seen anything on-air, online or in print that so deftly nails one of the most important and least reported stories of our economic and political lives in this presidential election year.

THINK BACK to the mid-1970s. The U.S. economy was supposed to have been beaten into lasting submission by an oil shock that launched the Great Inflation.Then, in the early 1980s, sky-high interest rates created fear of a permanent era of darkness.In both recessions a crescendo of doom came almost precisely at the moment when revival was at hand.Forgotten in those deep moments of despair was the time-worn magic of the American business cycle.That same lapse of memory now seems to be afflicting President Bush and Congress as they seek remedies to heal the economy.

For the first time in three years, fall is not bringing a powerful burst of growth to the U.S. economy. It is a decisive sign, many economists, government officials and business executives say, that the strongest days of the recovery from the 1991 recession may be in the past."

WASHINGTON -- President Bush's chief economic adviser has officially declared that the recession has ended and the long-awaited economic recovery has begun.Michael Boskin, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, told reporters yesterday at the White House that the latest economic data shows that a wide range of sectors are now beginning an upturn."We do see over the last couple of months the first signals that the actual turnaround has begun," Boskin said. "This certainly looks like a recovery has begun."

Maryland's already-modest economic recovery will be even slower for the rest of this year and early 1996, but it will not stall out completely despite high interest rates and accelerating federal budget cuts, a team of University of Baltimore economists predicts.Employment growth, which regional economists use as their chief measure of the state's economic health, will fall off to 0.37 percent in the next three months, just over half as fast as that estimated for the quarter that ends today, the forecast says.

Maryland Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler and nine other attorneys general sent a letter Monday to President Obama and the U.S. Senate's leaders demanding new management at the government entity that oversees Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The housing finance firms, which have been controlled by the federal government since 2008, have become an “obstruction” to economic recovery, said the letter signed by Gansler and the attorneys general of...

Nothing short of a miracle - or a sudden onset of rational behavior inside the Capital Beltway - is going to prevent mandatory, across-the-board federal spending cuts from going in effect Friday. It's also clear the public sector workforce is going to bear a considerable burden from sequestration through furloughs and related actions. Estimates vary, but Maryland stands to lose about 12,600 jobs from the sequester cuts, a reflection of our proximity to the nation's capital and the fact that 5.6 percent of jobs in the state are tied to the federal government.

Why does the Republican Party think that blocking government from functioning is a good thing ("The GOP sequester," Feb. 22)? In terms of the "sequestration" issue, they refuse to consider more revenue while insisting on more cuts to spending. Yet, the Budget Control Act of 2011 reduced spending by $1.5 trillion while increasing revenue by only $600 billion. More cuts without additional revenue to sustain economic recovery is simply irresponsible. Don't let the Republican House push the country into recession!

Is this really the best anyone in Washington can do to avert sequestration? President Barack Obama's call for delaying the automatic spending cuts past the March 1 deadline would seem reasonable enough, except he hasn't really offered up a specific plan to do so. Instead, he's recommended that a few months of delay might be achieved through a "smaller package of spending cuts and tax reform. " Republicans are flatly rejecting any form of tax increase (and, apparently, ending a tax break on corporate jets is regarded as just that by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell)

How can Republicans believe it is legitimate to blackmail the country into accepting the same extreme agenda that the American people rejected at the ballot box in November? The Republican Party is threatening to shut down the federal government again over raising the debt ceiling in yet another game of "chicken. " This could seriously damage the economy. The last time they played this game, 2011, Republicans sabotaged confidence in the U.S. economy and were responsible for the downgrade in our credit rating, effectively strangling the economic recovery.

If four years ago they voted for historic change, on Tuesday, Maryland supporters of President Barack Obama cast their ballots for patience. "I figure that in four years, he couldn't have done everything to right the course after the previous administration," Kimberly Shorter, 39, of Woodlawn said after casting her vote for him. "Of course, there was some disappointment with the fact that he didn't do everything he set out to do, but he's human...

WASHINGTON -- The White House, showing signs of indecision over how to stimulate the economy, apparently is backing away from recommending new tax cuts and is raising the possibility that it may not propose any economic recovery plan.White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater indicated yesterday that President Bush wants to assess upcoming economic data before deciding on a course of action, despite increasing calls on Capitol Hill from Republicans and Democrats for immediate steps to jump-start the nation's economy.

Economists agreed yesterday that pressure continues to mount for a drop in interest rates, as new economic data suggest that the nation remains stuck in a weak economic recovery.Factory orders dropped for their second consecutive month, the Commerce Department reported yesterday, declining 1.7 percent in September. Analysts had expected a drop of 1.4 percent.The drop suggests wholesalers and retailers continue to maintain low inventory levels as they await a rebound in consumer confidence.

It is refreshing to see that The Sun editorial board hasn't strayed from the ultra-liberal progressive spin of the Democratic party in dismissing Mitt Romney's economic recovery tax plan as a big lie ("Big lies and Big Bird," Oct. 8). The is just another attempt to excuse the absolutely dismal debate performance of President Barack Obama that clearly showed he has no idea how to turn this economy around over the next four years. Your editorial suggests that "the nation is facing serious economic challenges, and it requires a serious debate over how best to spur growth but also reduce the deficit in the long term.

Things certainly seem to be breaking President Barack Obama's way of late. A slew of new polls last week showed gains for him in crucial battleground states, most notably Ohio, the one state no Republican has ever won the presidency without. Mr. Obama won't repeat his feat of taking Indiana, and North Carolina may be a stretch, but polls in Florida, Virginia, Nevada and elsewhere suggest the possibility that this election might not even be that close. But before Obama supporters start measuring the White House for second-term drapes, they may want to consider the strong possibility that the race is far from over.