Obamacare Forces Employee Hours to Be Cut at Indiana Schools

Obamacare regulations are forcing employers to cut employee hours at Indiana schools, according to the Courier-Journal.

“Schools across Indiana are cutting back the hours of teacher assistants, bus drivers, cafeteria workers and other aides to avoid having to offer them health insurance under the federal health care employer mandate that begins next year,” reports the paper.

READ MORE:  http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/obamacare-forces-employee-hours-be-cut-indiana-schools_734139.html

Ron Johnson’s Transformative Proposal

At his March dinner at the Jefferson Hotel with a small group of Senate Republicans, President Obama made something of an admission.

“The problem you have reforming Medicare is that for every dollar Americans pay into the system, they’re going to get three dollars out in benefits. Americans don’t understand that,” Obama said, citing a study from the Urban Institute.

“You’re right about Medicare. We’ve been quoting that exact same study,” Senator Ron Johnson responded, according to attendees. “We’re pretty small little voices compared to your platform. It would be enormously helpful if you use that bully pulpit and start telling the American people the truth.”

READ MORE:  http://www.nationalreview.com/article/350983/ron-johnsons-transformative-proposal-jonathan-strong

Recruiter Sees Uptick in US Shale Play Hiring

Since hitting a 13-year low of $1.82 per thousand British thermal units on April 20, 2012, the benchmark Henry Hub natural gas futures contract price has steadily regained momentum. In fact, it has hovered above the $4- mark for much of the period since mid-March of this year. Like the Henry Hub price, hiring in the Marcellus and other shale gas plays appears to be on the rebound after a lull earlier this decade, a Houston-based oil and gas recruitment specialist told Rigzone at the recent American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG) Annual Convention and Exhibition 2013 in Pittsburgh.

"Everybody's recruiting," said James Bradley, permanent hire recruitment manager with NES Global Talent, at the sidelines of AAPG's annual meeting.

Demand is particularly keen for drilling and well completions engineers, subsurface geologists, geophysicists and geochemists, Bradley said, adding that there are not enough specialists with direct experience developing a shale gas play. As a result, operators are wooing candidates with conventional onshore oil and gas experience "who can jump right into shale work," he noted. He acknowledged this is often easier said than done.

READ MORE:  http://www.rigzone.com/news/oil_gas/a/126832/Recruiter_Sees_Uptick_in_US_Shale_Play_Hiring/?all=HG2

Record 23,116,441 households on food stamps

The number of American households on food stamps reached a new record high in March, according to new data released by the Agriculture Department.

The March numbers the USDA released Friday reveal 23,116,441 households enrolled in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), or food stamps, each receiving an average monthly benefit of $274.30.

The number of individuals on SNAP did not break any records but remained high, with 47,727,052 people enrolled in SNAP, receiving an average monthly benefit of $132.86.

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2013/06/09/record-23116441-households-on-food-stamps/#ixzz2X90f6PvN

Barack Obama's Texas Swing: 165 Miles From Job Creation

Last month, President Obama visited Austin, Texas to tout middle-class job creation.

He spoke at Applied Materials AMAT 0%, one of four companies receiving funds from a five-year, $120 million project headed up by the Department of Energy to advance “next generation battery and energy storage technologies for electric and hybrid cars.”

The same company also received a $3.9 million taxpayer grant for LED manufacturing in 2010.

Obama’s tour, as he explained, was part of a broad five-agency, $200-million White House plan to sponsor competition “to create three new manufacturing innovation institutes.” Despite a $16.8 trillion deficit, the White House wants to spend an additional $1 billion on such federal jobs initiatives.

READ MORE:   http://www.forbes.com/sites/robertbradley/2013/06/03/barack-obamas-texas-swing-165-miles-from-job-creation/

Shale Oil Boom Rattles OPEC

At a critical Friday meeting in Vienna, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) will set production policy. For the first time, they will be grappling with the challenges of shale oil, even none of the member states are major shale oil producers.

The shale boom began in the U.S. as a ripple in North Dakota and Texas. Some thought its impact would be limited and regional, not global. Now that uptick on our domestic production curve has triggered a tsunami with geopolitical implications.


That’s because the U.S. does not need 100% energy independence to get OPEC’s attention. Due to production but also conservation and a protracted recession, our need for imported oil has contracted from 60-70% of consumption to about 40%, headed south. As the world’s largest crude oil market, changes in our domestic supply picture must necessarily reshuffle the import mix. Remember how skeptics argued that the shale boom is “a mirage“? I have often maintained that domestic supply increments of 500,000 barrels per day can be significant in a worldwide 90 million bpd marketplace. We’re starting to see that play out, albeit in some surprising ways.

READ MORE:  http://www.redstate.com/2013/05/31/shale-oil-boom-rattles-opec/

Watch Live Obama at Brandenburg Gate on Cutting Nuclear Arms Surprise Factory Downturn Holds Back U.S. Growth: Economy

Manufacturing (NAPMPMI) in the U.S. unexpectedly shrank in May at the fastest pace in four years, showing slowdowns in business and government spending are holding back the world’s largest economy.

The Institute for Supply Management’s factory index fell to 49, the lowest reading since June 2009, from the prior month’s 50.7, the Tempe, Arizona-based group’s report showed today. Fifty is the dividing line between growth and contraction. The median forecast of 81 economists surveyed by Bloomberg was 51.

Across-the-board federal budget cuts and overseas markets that are struggling to rebound will probably continue to curb manufacturing, which accounts for about 12 percent of the economy. At the same time, demand for automobiles, gains in residential construction and lean inventories may spark a pickup in orders and production in the second half of the year. 

READ MORE:   http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-06-03/may-ism-manufacturing-index-decreased-to-49-from-50-7-in-april.html

Harris Poll: Only a third of U.S. adults qualify as very happy

ROCHESTER, N.Y., June 1 (UPI) --

Only a third of U.S. adults say they are very happy -- minorities show particularly pronounced declines in the past two years, a U.S. survey indicates.


A Harris Poll of 2,345 U.S. adults surveyed online April 10-15 by Harris Interactive found certain groups, such as minorities, recent graduates and the disabled, trended downward in the last couple of years.


"Our happiness index offers insight into what's on the minds of Americans today and is a reflection of the state of affairs in our country," Regina Corso, senior vice president of the Harris Poll, said in a statement. "While the attitudes on the economy may be improving, we're seeing that this is not translating into an improvement in overall happiness."

READ MORE:  http://www.breitbart.com/system/wire/upiUPI-20130531-235931-8939

U.S. Payroll to Population and Unemployment Worsen in May

But self-employment remains strong in 2013

by Jenny Marlar

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The U.S. Payroll to Population employment rate (P2P), as measured by Gallup, worsened in May, dropping to 43.9%, from 44.5% in April. P2P is also down from May 2012, when it was 44.4%

Year-over-year comparisons are helpful in determining the degree to which monthly changes are the result of growth in permanent full-time positions rather than temporary seasonal hiring. The decline in P2P versus 2012 indicates that fewer people worked full-time for an employer this May compared with a year ago. The 43.9% found this May is similar to the 43.7% recorded in 2011 and 44.0% in 2010.

Gallup's P2P metric is an estimate of the percentage of the U.S. adult population aged 18 and older who are employed full time by an employer for at least 30 hours per week. P2P is not seasonally adjusted.

READ MORE:   http://www.gallup.com/poll/162923/payroll-population-unemployment-worsen-may.aspx?utm_source=tagrss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=syndication

Wealth of most Americans

(MoneyWatch) Increasing housing prices and the stock market''s posting all-time highs haven't helped the plight most Americans. The average U.S. household has recovered only 45 percent of the wealth they lost during the recession, according to a report released yesterday from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.

This finding is a very different picture than one painted in a report earlier this year by the Fed that calculated Americans as a whole had regained 91 percent of their losses. The writers of the report released yesterday point out that the earlier number is based on aggregate household-net-worth data. However, this isn't adjusted for inflation, population growth or the nature of the wealth. Further, they say much of recovery in net worth is because of the stock market, which means most of the improvement has been a boon only to wealthy families.

READ MORE:  http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505123_162-57587033/wealth-of-most-americans-down-55-since-recession/

Low Corporation Tax 'Crucial Profit Driver'

Falling corporation tax has been a crucial driver of profitability over the last two decades, increasing pressure on CEOs to reduce their company's tax bill, Will Duff-Gordon, research director at financial information provider Markit, told CNBC on Tuesday.

Duff-Gordon said effective corporation tax levels were as low as 13 percent in Ireland and as high as 32 percent in the U.S., providing "massive" arbitrage opportunities.


His comments come as Apple CEO Tim Cook prepares to defend his company's tax affairs before Congress.


The Senate has accused the tech giant of using an elaborate off-shore system to avoid paying tax on billions of dollars of profits.

READ MORE:  http://www.cnbc.com/id/100753261

For Small Business, Learning Obamacare Math

Even as you finish with this year's taxes, if you're a small-business owner experts say it's time to look ahead to 2014, when the tax implications of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) begin to kick in.

"Just now, things are really sinking in that there is this employer responsibility," said Amanda Austin, of the National Federation of Independent Business.

Under ACA, often called Obamacare, employers with 50 or more full-time workers face a mandate to provide insurance. It's known formally as shared responsibility.

READ MORE:  http://www.cnbc.com/id/100641995

Judge sides with bankrupt Patriot in company’s push to cut worker health care, pension

ST. LOUIS — A bankrupt coal producer got a judge’s go-ahead Wednesday to significantly cut health care and pension benefits to thousands of workers and retirees, claiming victory over a miners’ union that swiftly condemned the ruling it pledges to appeal.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Kathy Surratt-States’ 102-page ruling favoring St. Louis-based Patriot Coal dashed the nation’s biggest coal miners’ union’s hopes of scuttling the company’s quest to impose wage and benefit cuts by walking away from its collective-bargaining agreements.

Surratt-States ultimately concluded the cost-cutting proposals were legal, perhaps unavoidable, for Patriot, which sought Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last summer to address labor obligations it insisted have grown unsustainable.

READ MORE:  http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/judge-sides-with-bankrupt-patriot-in-companys-push-to-cut-worker-health-care-pension/2013/05/29/3f8e7962-c89a-11e2-9cd9-3b9a22a4000a_story.html

Mortgage Rates Surge as Fed Tapering Fears Mount

Worries the Federal Reserve may begin to slow its stimulus efforts sent mortgage rates last week to their highest level in a year, drying up demand for home refinancings, data from an industry group showed on Wednesday.


The Mortgage Bankers Association said interest rates on fixed 30-year mortgage rates surged 12 basis points to average 3.9 percent in the week ended May 24. It was the highest level since May 2012 and the biggest jump in 14 months.

The rise sent the seasonally adjusted index of mortgage application activity down 8.8 percent as refinancing applications tumbled 12.3 percent. It was the biggest drop in refinance applications this year as demand fell to the lowest level since December.

READ MORE:  http://www.cnbc.com/id/100772027

Volcker Weighs In on Limits of Fed's Easy Money Policies

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker on Wednesday waded into the debate over when to reduce today's ultra-easy U.S. monetary policies, contending that the benefits of bond buying are "limited and diminishing" and warning that central banks are too often late in removing stimulus.

Volcker, who led the U.S. central bank's aggressive battle against inflation in the 1970s, said the decision to adjust policy will come down to good judgment, leadership and "institutional backbone" in the face of political pressure.

"Here and elsewhere, the temptation has been strong to wait and see before acting to remove stimulus and then moving toward restraint," Volcker, 85, told the Economic Club of New York.

READ MORE:  http://www.cnbc.com/id/100773995

Housing Starts -- CNBC Explains

The housing market is one of the pillars of the U.S. economy, and there may be no better indication of how the market is doing than a statistic called housing starts. This information is tracked by the government and issued to the public, usually through the business news media.

What are housing starts?
 
It's the construction of new buildings and structures intended for residential living across the country. In other words, it's the scheduled construction of a new house or apartment building. The start of the construction is defined as the beginning of excavation for the structure.

READ MORE:  http://www.cnbc.com/id/100475026

Rising Mortgage Rates, Home Prices a Lethal Brew

A sharp rise in mortgage rates over the last few weeks means it may already be too late for many homeowners to benefit from a refinance.

This just as thousands were gaining equity in their homes and finally becoming eligible.
At the same time, it is pushing some renters off the fence, fearing they too will miss the boat on the best conditions for home buying.

Refinances dropped 12 percent last week, while mortgage applications to purchase a home rose 3 percent and are now up 14 percent from a year ago, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. 

READ MORE:  http://www.cnbc.com/id/100772471http://www.cnbc.com/id/100772471