Evidence of the failure of Obamanomics -- addressed today in my
special
report -- continues to accumulate daily, beginning with the
auto bailout:
The federal government is unlikely to recoup all of the
billions of dollars that it has invested in General Motors and
Chrysler, according to a new congressional oversight report
assessing the automakers' rescue.
The report said that a $5.4 billion portion of the $10.5
billion owed by Chrysler is "highly unlikely" to be repaid,
while full recovery of the $50 billion sunk into GM would
require the company's stock to reach unprecedented
heights.
"Although taxpayers may recover some portion of their
investment in Chrysler and GM, it is unlikely they will recover
the entire amount," according to the report . . .
Meanwhile, Andrew Coulson of the
Cato Institute reports that the stimulus spending
on public schools is actually likely to impede economic
growth:
The president has committed $100 billion in new money to the
nation’s public school systems, and required that states
accepting the funds promise not to reduce their own k-12
spending. The official argument for this measure is that higher
school spending will accelerate U.S. economic growth. But a July
2008 study in the Journal of Policy Sciences finds that, to the
authors’ own surprise, higher spending on public schooling is
associated with lower subsequent economic growth. Spending more
on public schools hurts the U.S. economy. . . .
The fact that more schooling without more learning is not a
recipe for economic growth is confirmed by the independent
empirical work of economists Eric Hanushek and Ludger Woessmann.
Their key finding is that academic achievement, not schooling per
se, is what matters to economic growth.
Based on this body of research, the president’s decision to pump
$100 billion into existing public school systems is likely
slowing the U.S. economic recovery.
And the price of both
gold and
oil are rising as the dollar declines, indicating
that the Obama administration has not neglected the crucial
inflation component of the Carter-era "stagflation"
formula.
