Congratulations Barack Obama! Your vaunted “Stimulus Program” has done an extraordinary amount to help one particular American city, according to Mallory Factor, a well-known merchant banker who speaks and writes frequently on economic and fiscal topics for news stations, leading newspapers and other print and online publications.
Which city? Obama has claimed that his stimulus program has “saved or created” two million jobs. While this claim is widely mocked among economists and is generally regarded as a bald-faced lie by the millions of people who are suffering from the current 10%+ rate of unemployment, it’s hard to deny that there has been an incredibly positive effect from the stimulus program in one specific city…
…and Mallory Factor tell us that in this city – unlike the rest of the country – commercial office space is being offered at higher rates than anywhere else in the USA..
…and Mr. Factor continues that in this city – unlike the rest of the country – hotels are doing well, with relatively high rates of occupancy and high nightly rates.
What is that city?
Did the stimulus do anything to help Detroit – the hub of the U.S. auto manufacturing industry? Nope. Detroit has one of the worst real estate markets nationwide (the Pontiac Silverdome – Detroit’s 80,000+ seat stadium – recently sold for barely more than $500K). And of the 3 major US auto makers, two of the three of them (General Motors and Chrysler) are now under government control. Interestingly, the only auto maker that’s profitable and gaining substantial value in the market is Ford, which is not owned or controlled by the Obama administration.
Nope. Stimulus did nothing to help Detroit – it’s a ghost town where nobody wants to buy real estate, be employed or even be near.
Did stimulus help Las Vegas? It doesn’t appear that it has. Obama personally and directly discouraged companies from planning events in Las Vegas, directly costing that city millions of dollars in revenue. I’ve been to Vegas several times in the past year, and hotel rates – even at really great properties – are frequently below $50/night and good, clean and decent hotels are available below $30/night.) Several hotels (most recently the Sahara) have closed down most or all of their hotel operations and are trying to survive on casino revenues alone. And Las Vegas’ residential real estate market is still in the dumps.
So what city was it that the stimulus has undeniably benefited more than any other city in the country – and where have most of the jobs that the stimulus has “created” been focused?
No surprise here: Washington DC, the seat of the federal government. You can count on it – anytime the U.S. government tries to “stimulate” the economy by spending more money, the primary beneficiary will not be your local city. It will not be small businesses that are the engine of the U.S. economy…
…the primary beneficiary of U.S. government “stimulus” spending will always be the U.S. government itself. The people represented by the U.S. government get the shaft again. Thanks, B.O.
The only sector that has experienced significant job growth is government/public sector. And any stimulus that is based around the idea of taking money (taxing) from the citizenry and redistributing that money according to the “wisdom” of the federal government will have similar results: Direct expansion of the size and scope of government with only surface-level benefits to the people who make our country work. The net effect: Good people like you and me who work every day to produce things of value are de-emphasized and more importantly punished (through higher taxes, lower buying power and increased regulation) by the federal government.
The real estate market is still in the tank most everywhere throughout this country. There are fewer than 20 markets across the U.S.A. that appear poised for decent appreciation. The commercial market meltdown is far from its peak, and residential foreclosures are still increasing.
Obama is currently pushing yet another round of “stimulus” proposals. But be aware – he’s not going to call it a “stimulus” because everybody outside of Washington DC knows that his first stimulus is a dismal failure. Instead, he’ll refer to it as something like “a targeted job growth bill” or an “employment expansion initiative”. But if he’s allowed to pass more of his toxic legislation, the net effect will be the same: growth for Washington DC and the bureaucrats that live there, and little or nothing for the rest of the country. Do yourself – and the rest of the country – a favor by pushing back against this type of action.
The economy was pretty weak when George Bush got done with it. Obama has had to work really hard to make it worse, and he’s succeeded: Obama has made a bad economy far worse, and has done lasting damage by spending trillions of dollars that we just don’t have. This can’t continue.
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