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Showing posts with label commerce department. Show all posts

Friday, March 11, 2016

If Internet Control Goes International, Expect Your Rights To Be Effected.

Internet domain handoff takes major step forward

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By Mario Trujillo - 03/10/16 02:30 PM EST

A major step was taken Thursday in the U.S. government's plan to hand off oversight of the Internet domain name system.

A nonprofit international group approved a plan and forwarded it to the Obama administration Thursday for review and approval.

The group, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), has historically been contracted out to manage the behind-the-scenes workings of the Internet that pair up numerical IP addresses with their familiar Web addresses.

A few years ago, the group was tasked with transitioning fully from U.S. government oversight to an international multistakeholder model.

The Commerce Department will have to sign off on the transition plan before it is allowed to go forward. But the Obama administration and Congress have been "watching closely," said Steve Crocker, who leads ICANN's board of directors.

"This proposal does not come as a surprise that requires a fresh start or a cold start and we fully expect that this will be viewed as 100 percent consistent with the criteria that was set out in advance and that which has been tracked all the way throughout the process," Crocker said.

ICANN officials said Thursday the plan should meet the U.S. government's priorities to protect the open Internet and to prevent any other government from gaining control. It also includes security and accountability measures, they said, and if the plan is implemented, Internet users should see no real difference.

Some Republicans have remained wary of the transition and Congress has blocked government funds from being used to finish the handoff for the past several years. Last year's spending blocked the funds from being used until at least October.

In the past, the GOP expressed fear that the U.S. government's handoff could allow other nations — specifically those that have a poor track record on Internet freedom — to gain more leverage over the Internet.

Some of those worries have been allayed by a number of accountability measures implemented by the non-profit group handling the transition. And the Commerce Department has repeatedly said it would reject any proposal that does not maintain the open Internet or allows for other governments to gain control.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and some others have continued to resist the transition, however. He has said Congress should have to vote before the administration signs off, but he has not succeeded in requiring that. Recently, he has accused the outgoing president of ICANN of having conflicts of interest.

The control that is being handed off relates to some of the technical functions that help users seamlessly search the Internet.

The Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration has had oversight of the Internet’s domain name system, and it has historically contracted that role out to ICANN.

Friday, May 29, 2015

Economic Advisers Put "Some Lipstick" On GDP Report But It Still Stinks.

May 29, 2015, 10:43 am

White House shrugs off economic contraction

By Jordan Fabian

Greg Nash

The White House on Friday downplayed the economic contraction reported for 2015’s first quarter, saying other key indicators show the recovery is still on track.

Council of Economic Advisers Chairman Jason Furman noted that personal consumption and fixed investment have grown 3.4 percent over the past four quarters, brushing aside the weak gross domestic product (GDP) report.

“This solid long-term economic trend complements the robust pace of job growth and unemployment reduction over the last year,” Furman wrote in a blog post.

The Commerce Department on Friday projected the nation’s GDP shrank by 0.7 percent in the first three months of 2015, a significant slowdown from the last half of 2014. The agency’s initial estimate said the economy grew by 0.2 percent in the first quarter.

Furman wrote the revision was accounted for by low inventory investments and net exports, and he blamed the slowdown on “harsh winter weather, tepid foreign demand, and consumers saving the windfall from lower oil prices.”

Tepid growth shows the need for Congress to pass President Obama’s trade agenda, make new infrastructure investments, and lift federal spending caps put in place by sequestration, according to Furman.

Friday, April 24, 2015

Can The Economy Be Expanding When Job Claims Rise?

Jobless Claims Rise for Third Straight Week

Thursday, 23 Apr 2015 08:37 AM

The number of Americans filing new claims for jobless benefits rose last week for a third straight week, but the underlying trend continued to point to solid improvement in the labor market.

Although the economy is recovering from a soft patch at the start of the year, other data on Thursday showing weak new home sales and manufacturing activity suggested that the rebound could lack the vigor seen after last year's first-quarter weather-induced slump.

Growth braked sharply early this year as the economy was slammed by harsh winter weather, weak global demand and a now-settled labor dispute at West Coast ports. Activity also was constrained by a strong dollar as well as lower energy prices, which have hurt profits for some companies.

Initial claims for state unemployment benefits increased 1,000 to a seasonally adjusted 295,000 for the week ended April 18, the Labor Department said.

Despite the increase, claims remained for a seventh consecutive week below the 300,000 threshold, a level associated with a strengthening labor market.

"Whatever hiccup that may have occurred in the labor market in late February, the claims data suggest it has passed and claims have reverted to showing a very low level of layoffs," said John Ryding, chief economist at RDQ Economics in New York.

U.S. stocks were trading marginally lower after the data, while prices for U.S. government debt also fell. The dollar dipped against a basket of currencies.

Last week's claims covered the period during which the government canvassed employers for April's nonfarm payrolls report. The four-week moving average of claims, considered a better measure of labor market trends as it irons out week-to-week volatility, increased 1,750 last week to 284,500.

The four-week average of claims fell 20,750 between the March and April survey periods, suggesting an acceleration in job growth.

Thursday, June 26, 2014

Economy Not Growing Like Obama Administration Wants To Believe.First Quarter Growth And Exports Was Downgraded Significantly!

Economy Collapses in First Quarter, But Growing Again

Wednesday, 25 Jun 2014 01:10 PM

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The U.S. economy contracted at a much steeper pace in the first quarter than previously estimated, turning in one of its worst-ever non-recession performances, but growth already appears to have rebounded strongly.

The Commerce Department said on Wednesday gross domestic product fell at a 2.9 percent annual rate, the sharpest decline in five years, instead of the 1.0 percent pace it had reported last month.

"It's a scary report. It sounds worrisome, but keep in mind job growth is running 200,000 each of the last four months, so we aren't just whistling in the dark in our optimism over the outlook," said Chris Rupkey, chief financial economist at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ in New York.

The economy was held back by an unusually cold winter, the expiration of long-term unemployment benefits and cuts to food stamps, which curbed consumer spending. It was also weighed down by a slowdown in the pace of restocking by businesses.

All these temporary factors have since faded, lifting growth early in the second quarter.

The government's gauge of first-quarter growth has been lowered by 3.0 percentage points since the first estimate in April showed the economy expanded at a 0.1 percent rate, and revision between the May and June release was the largest on records going back to 1976.

Economists had expected the revision to show the economy shrinking at a rate of only 1.7 percent. Given the sharp downgrade, growth this year could struggle to reach 2 percent.

Investors shrugged off the weak data and bought U.S. stocks. Prices for U.S. Treasury debt were up at mid-day, while the dollar was marginally weaker against a basket of currencies.

The latest GDP revision reflected a weaker pace of healthcare spending than previously assumed, which led to a cut in the figure for consumer spending to show the slowest rise since the fourth quarter of 2009. Trade was also a bigger drag on the economy than previously thought.

ACTIVITY PICKING UP

The economy grew at a 2.6 percent pace in the final three months of 2013, and second-quarter growth estimates range as high as a 4.0 percent rate. The lofty growth expectations were supported by other data on Wednesday showing activity in the services sector hitting a 4-1/2 year high in June.

While a decline in bookings for defense capital goods and civilian aircraft sank orders for long-lasting U.S. manufactured goods in May, according to a third report, businesses spending plans rebounded from April's slump. That suggested a steady pick-up in business investment, a crucial ingredient for sustained economic growth.

There were also increases in order backlogs and inventories.

"Outside the defense realm, orders are moving up, shipments are moving up, and inventory gains are returning. That is the precise recipe for production and job gains," said Michael Montgomery, a U.S. economist at IHS Global Insight in Lexington, Massachusetts.

In the first quarter, growth in consumer spending, which accounts for more than two-thirds of U.S. economic activity, was lowered to a 1.0 percent rate from a 3.1 percent pace.

Exports fell at an 8.9 percent rate, the biggest drop in five years, instead of a 6.0 percent pace. That resulted in a trade deficit that sliced off 1.53 percentage points from GDP growth.

Other drags to first-quarter growth included a slow pace of inventory accumulation, a sharp drop in investment in non-residential structures such as gas drilling, and weak government spending on defense.

Businesses accumulated $45.9 billion worth of inventories, a bit less than the $49.0 billion estimated last month and well below the fourth quarter pace. Inventories subtracted 1.70 percentage points from first-quarter growth, but should be a boost to second-quarter growth

A measure of domestic demand that strips out exports and inventories expanded at a 0.3 percent rate, the weakest pace in three years, rather than 1.6 percent as reported a month ago.

© 2014 Thomson/Reuters. All rights reserved.

New Spin On Economic Downturn--ObamaCrapCare's Reduced Premiums And Not Going To The ER, Made The Economy Drop! Makes NO Sense To Us!

By Daniel Gross14 hours agoThe Daily Beast

How Obamacare Helped Crash the Economy

Obamacare did help crash the economy. Only not in the way its critics thought it would.

The Commerce Department on Wednesday revised the growth figures for the first quarter of 2014, and concluded that the economy shrunk at a 2.9 percent annual rate. This comes a month after the government slashed its initial estimate from an annual growth rate of .1 percent to a decline of 1.0 percent. At the time, I called it a hiccup rather than a heart attack.

That was some hiccup.

At first blush, the substantial downward revision is something of a mystery. The U.S. economy didn’t suffer from any major shocks. There was no threat of default, government shutdown, huge cuts in government spending, or sharp tax increases. No major financial institution failed.

Throughout the winter and spring, companies warned that the brutal weather—the disruptive snowstorms, the arctic cold—would have a dampening effect on economic activity. And the weather definitely played a role in stalling the main engine of the U.S. economy—the American consumer.

The BEA breaks down sectors by their contribution to GDP. Personal consumption expenditures—people buying stuff—grew at a meager one percent rate in the first quarter. And that had a significant impact on businesses. When companies add to inventories—i.e. they sell stuff and then order more stuff in anticipation of higher sales down the rate—at a strong rate, it adds to GDP. When they don’t restock depleted inventories, it detracts from growth. And in the first quarter, it turns out that companies didn’t restock aggressively — either because traffic was slow due to the weather, or because they had ordered too much stuff the last time. Private inventories fell by a stunning 70 percent in the first quarter of 2014 from the fourth quarter of 2013. Inventories alone knocked down the rate of growth by 1.7 percent.

But the biggest surprise came in health care. Declining health care spending accounted for a big chunk of the decline. In the quarter, health care spending actually fell $6.4 billion from the fourth quarter of 2013. That’s not much of a decline. But it represented a very substantial revision from what the government had originally reported. A month ago, the BEA thought health care spending rose at a 9.1 percent annual rate in the first quarter. After all, health care spending almost always rises—and quite rapidly. But today, upon further reflection and numbers-crunching, it concluded that health care spending actually fell at a 1.4 percent annual rate. So instead of adding 1.01 percentage points to the GDP growth rate, as the government thought last month, health care wound up sandbagging growth by .16 percent. That differential accounted for about 60 percent of the downward revision.

Why did this happen? It could be that people were hording medicines and avoiding going to the doctor during the cold weather. Or it could be that many newly insured people delayed going to see the doctor, buying medicine, or having procedures done in January, February ,or March until their health care premiums were fully processed by the state and federal exchanges in April. (Remember, April 1 was the deadline for signups under the Affordable Care Act). It could be that doctors are rationing health care—refusing to schedule appointments. Or it could be that many people are actually paying less for health care because they have insurance—i.e. seeing doctors with a $25 co-pay instead of going to the emergency room.

Clearly, the implementation of Obamacare is disrupting and disturbing the way that health care services are being priced and consumed. In the first quarter, that led to lower spending—either through lower utilization, or lower prices, or some combination thereof.

So, are we in a recession? Popular definition holds that it is two consecutive quarters of negative growth. The reality is that it’s kind of like pornography—the National Bureau of Economic Research knows one when it sees one. It decides if a peak has been reached and there’s a persistent decline.

But the reality is that we don’t seem to be there. In fact, much of the data—especially the data related to consumers—shows that the spring is more than making up for the slack winter. New car sales in May were 1.61 million, the highest rate in years. New homes sales, reported Monday, soared 18.6 percent from April, and were at the highest annual rate since 2008. Consumer confidence bumped up in May to its highest level since January 2008.

The two indicators you’d want to watch the most—if you’re worried about a recession are jobs and consumer spending. It’s hard to have economic growth without both moving in the same direction, and hard to have a recession if both are in negative territory. Retail sales so far this year are up 3.4 percent from 2013.

Meanwhile, the jobs front is actually looking pretty good. This was the worst quarterly economic performance since the first quarter of 2009. In that quarter, after having been in recession for a year and losing 3.6 million jobs, the free-falling economy shed 2.3 million positions. By contrast, in the first quarter of 2014, after the economy had added jobs for 46 straight months, it added another 569,000.

So, yeah, it was a very big hiccup—one sufficiently large to jolt the heart from its regular beat. But it seems to be back on pace. Fortunately, the American economy has some health insurance.

Tuesday, May 13, 2014

Economy Cannot Grow Due To The Heavy Weight Put On It By Government Regulations. Stats Show Stall!

The Obama Recovery: U.S. Economy May HaveShrunk In First Quarter Of 2014

May 13, 2014 by Ben Bullard

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It will be May 29 before the U.S. Department of Commerce updates its estimate of how the Nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) performed during the first fiscal quarter of 2014, but it’s looking more and more likely that the worth of what the U.S. is producing has declined for the first time since the middle of 2009.

The Wall Street Journal reported today that fresh data from the Commerce Department on retail sales and business inventories, the latter of which grew slugglishly in March. That information, combined with an earlier Commerce GDP report of anemic 1^st-quarter growth, set off a series of negative estimates from five major fund management firms, all of which anticipate an imminent announcement that the economy has, in fact, contracted.

“A couple weeks ago, the Commerce Department said U.S. economic output expanded at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 0.1% in the first three months of the year. A near-stall for the economy, for sure, but at least it wasn’t worse,” WSJ observed, before offering this:

Based on more up-to-date figures, including the March trade data released last week, private forecasters now expect gross domestic product contracted in the first quarter for the first time in three years.

The latest evidence came Tuesday, when the Commerce Department released reports on retail sales and business inventories. Retail sales in February and March were revised up, but business inventories grew less in March than the agency had assumed in its GDP calculations.

Incorporating the new data, J.P. Morgan Chase on Tuesday estimated GDP contracted at a 0.8% rate in the first quarter. Macroeconomic Advisers put the contraction at 0.7%. Barclays Capital predicted a 0.6% decline. Pierpont Securities estimated output fell at a 0.4% rate. Action Economics estimated a 0.2% decline.

Any of those estimates, if correct, will mark the first time the U.S. economy has contracted since President Obama’s first year in office.

The GDP shrank by 2.8 percent in 2009, and has “recovered” marginally since, with annual growth margins of 2.5 percent (2010), 1.8 percent (2011), 2.8 percent (2012) and 1.9 percent (2013). Under President Clinton in the 1990s, the GDP routinely saw annual gains in excess of four percent, followed by a roller coaster ride for eight years under President Bush, whose best year came in 2004, when the GDP grew by 3.8 percent.