We learned last week that U.S. housing prices have fallen more than they did during the Great Depression. As the Wall Street Journal reported, home prices have dropped 33 percent since 2006, compared with a 31 percent decline in the 1930s. The values of bottom-tier homes have fallen a disastrous 63 percent.
Nationally, this means home prices have crashed to the levels they were at in mid-2002—nearly a decade ago—while homes in many American cities, including Atlanta, Detroit, and Las Vegas, are now selling below their price levels in January 2000. Last week’s report from Standard & Poor’s warned that there is “no relief in sight” for this free-fall in prices.
In the middle of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, Washington should have done everything possible to stabilize the housing market and the economy. Instead, President Obama and Democrats in Congress took the opportunity to pass the Dodd-Frank Act, sweeping regulation of one-sixth of the economy that promises to make the crash in home prices even worse.
Dodd-Frank gives the federal government the authority to deem certain institutions “systemically important” to the financial system, and thereby subject them to unique regulations at the arbitrary discretion of the Federal Reserve and executive branch. These institutions could include banks, insurance companies, and other large financial firms.
Although the Administration claimed that Dodd-Frank abolished “too big to fail,” it in effect will do the opposite, creating a class of financial institutions that have the government’s implicit backing and guarantee – potentially giving these firms an unfair advantage over competitors and even opening the possibility that the government could dictate decision-making at these firms.
The threat of arbitrary regulation becomes even more dangerous with the creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), which Dodd-Frank created as a virtual appendage of the Federal Reserve. In the mold of Obama’s “czars,” it will be headed by presidential appointees and draws its funding from the Federal Reserve, as opposed to appropriations from Congress. The CFPB will have wide-ranging authority to regulate financial institutions, yet remains essentially unaccountable to Congress.
The cost of compliance with the Dodd-Frank Act’s hundreds of pages of regulations, as well new ones from the CFPB, will weigh significantly on large institutions and disproportionately on small ones. The mandates the law contains pose an existential threat to community banks, which will struggle to comply with the requirement to hold more capital and the onslaught of additional rules. The law is already killing community banks and crippling loans to small businesses and homeowners.
Dodd-Frank is terrible for the housing market, which is dependent on the very lenders for whom Democrats have chosen to raise costs and uncertainty. The result is the worst drop in home values since the Great Depression.
This is a tragedy for the millions of Americans whose homes are now worth less than what they paid for them just a few years ago, and for the millions more whose houses make up a large portion of their net worth. Even the most responsible homeowners are seeing their money evaporate in a housing market distorted by bad government policy.
Job-Killing Policies Kill Jobs
Another indication that the economy is getting worse, not better, was the jobs report last Friday which showed that unemployment jumped to 9.1% in May, with the economy adding a paltry 54,000 jobs. (Morgan Stanley has estimated that up to half of these—as many as 25,000-30,000—could be new low-wage, temporary employees on the payroll of McDonald’s, added during a big hiring spree after the April jobs report.)
The May jobs numbers reached only a quarter of the 200,000 jobs per month economists estimate are needed to start cutting the unemployment rate, and was far lower than the Administration had expected.
It should not have been a surprise. Job-killing policies kill jobs.
This was the theme of my newsletter one year ago this week, in the wake of yet another disappointing jobs report and in the midst of unemployment over 9 percent. A year later, the Left still has not learned that big-government, bureaucratic policies kill jobs, repress economic growth, and postpone prosperity.
If the president and Democrats in Congress have not realized this, however, the average Americans who feel the pain of unemployment, housing and gas prices certainly have.
Goldman Sachs’ chief U.S. economist reported last week that Americans’ optimism about their future income is at its lowest point in 25 years. Less than 15 percent say they expect their family income to be higher a year from now than it is today. This pessimism is the prospect millions of Americans face if the destructive policies of the Left are not reversed.
Crippling American Energy is a Job-Killing Policy
When President Obama was inaugurated in January 2009, the average price for a gallon of gasoline was $1.84. Today, it is more than twice that at about $3.77 per gallon. During the time in between, the president imposed a lengthy moratorium on offshore oil drilling, fought for a cap-and-trade bill that would have wrecked the economy if it had passed, and gave the Environmental Protection Agency unprecedented bureaucratic authority to dictate energy policy nationwide. (See my newsletters about the EPA here and here for examples).
With gas prices climbing towards $4 per gallon, it is critical that we remove the obstacles to greater American oil production and end the ban on oil shale development.
Instead, the president is committed to crippling American energy production along with his host of other policies that increase scarcity and kill jobs.
Washington Must Act Now
The reports of the last few weeks all indicate the danger of the Obama recession turning into the Obama depression. A single external shock such as a Greek collapse, a natural disaster, or an interruption in oil supply could push this weak economy over the edge. Washington must act now to get America growing again.
Ronald Reagan took just 23 months to end the Carter recession. In terms of today’s economy the Reagan model created the equivalent of 25 million jobs over 7 years, increased per capita income by $8,800 per year, and raised government revenue without raising taxes.
If President Obama had followed the successful Reagan model of low taxes, deregulation, a stable dollar, and more American energy, America would now be on a path of strong and sustained economic growth.
It is not as though we don’t know how to solve the current economic mess. We have replaced the destructive policies of the Left before, and we can do it today.
As I said last week, there are at least nine steps we should take immediately following the Reagan model to get America working again:
1. Repeal Obama's scheduled 2013 tax increases for virtually every federal tax which threaten to turn the recession into a depression.
2. Cut the capital gains tax to zero to promote investment in the United States and job creation.
3. Cut the corporate tax rate from the highest in the world to match Ireland at 12.5 percent so that American companies can compete anywhere in the world.
4. Adopt 100 percent expensing so American companies can write off new equipment to make sure American workers are the most productive in the world.
5. End the death tax permanently so family businesses and farms can focus on job creation.
6. Repeal Sarbanes-Oxley to free up new businesses to grow.
7. Repeal the Dodd-Frank law which, as I wrote above, is killing small banks and crippling small businesses and homeowners.
8. Adopt an American energy program to keep the $500 billion we spend on foreign oil each year here in the U.S. putting Americans to work.
9. Repeal Obamacare to stop the destruction of small business jobs.
With 9.1 percent unemployment, housing prices in their worst decline since the Great Depression, and $4 per gallon gasoline, it is time to end the Obama recession by replacing the president’s job-killing policies with proven solutions for prosperity.
June Charity of the Month: Boy Scouts of America
By Newt and Callista Gingrich
This month, the Gingrich Foundation is proud to select the Boy Scouts of America as Charity of the Month for June in commemoration of President Woodrow Wilson’s signing into law a national charter for the Boy Scouts of America on June 15, 1916.
Originally incorporated in February 1910 by W. D. Boyce, 34 national representatives of boys’ work agencies met four months later to establish the Boy Scouts of America.
Since then, the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) has become one of the nation's largest and most prominent values-based youth development organizations. The BSA provides a program for young people that builds character, trains them in the responsibilities of participating citizenship, and develops personal fitness.
The mission of the Boy Scouts of America is to prepare young people to make ethical and moral choices over their lifetimes by instilling in them the values of the Scout Oath and Scout Law.
For nearly a century, the BSA has helped build the future leaders of America by combining educational activities and lifelong values with fun. The Boy Scouts of America believes that helping youth is a key to building a more conscientious, responsible, and productive society.
A former Boy Scout, Newt is an ardent believer in the mission of Boy Scouts of America to teach and support our youth to become productive, contributing and moral citizens for our country.
As of December 2010, Boy Scouts of America included 2.7 million youth members and over one million adult members and leaders across more than 100,000 Boy Scout units. Since its inception in 1910, the BSA has served a total of more than 114 million youth with the help of over 33 million adult volunteers.
Through various programs, including Tiger Cubs, Cub Scouts, Webelos Scouts, Boy Scouting, Varsity Scouting and Venturing, Boy Scouts of America offers opportunities for boys and young men to learn about leadership, community, character, and service.
In addition to supporting and teaching boys in the United States, Boy Scout councils also provide service to American citizens living abroad. The Boy Scouts of America – Transatlantic Council serves as the portal for the European chapters of BSA, the Boy Scouts of America – Far East Council is based in Japan, and Direct Service BSA is administered by the International Department of the Boy Scouts of America for children who live in other foreign countries.
Boy Scout Units utilize a variety of fund-raising methods within approved guidelines, including weekly or monthly dues paid by the member, unit product sales such as popcorn, chartered organization contributions, or other money-earning projects approved by the chartered organization. The funding is then used by the Boy Scouts to pay for unit activities such as camping; program supplies; equipment such as tents, camp stoves, and pinewood derby® tracks; advancements and awards such as rank emblems and merit badges; and Boys’ Life magazine subscriptions.
The Boy Scouts of America prepares young people for life by providing the nation’s foremost youth program of character development and values-based leadership training. Please help the Boy Scouts of America continue their mission to prepare young people to make ethical and moral choices over their lifetimes.
We encourage you to get involved in Scouting and to join us in supporting Scouting by becoming an alumnus of the Boy Scouts of America.
Your Friends,
Newt and Callista Gingrich
This Week in American Exceptionalism
June 6, 1944 – Allied Invasion of Normandy.
America is exceptional in its historic determination to confront threats to liberty with courage and resolve. On D-Day, June 6, 1944, over 160,000 American and Allied troops took the shores of Normandy, France under heavy German resistance. Under the command of General Dwight D. Eisenhower, the invasion consisted of over 5,000 naval vessels and hundreds of aircraft. The bravery Allied forces showed in opposition to fascism and defense of freedom is legendary, and over 10,000 were killed, wounded, or missing in battle. The words of Winston Churchill describing the British Royal Air Force are equally applicable to the Allied invasion on D-Day: “Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.” Join us in honoring the sacrifices of these exceptional Americans and Allied troops by recalling the D-Day prayer delivered by President Roosevelt 67 years ago this week. You can listen to the recording here.
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