When did American businesses face the least uncertainty?

[emacknight]

@xtisme

Seriously, I don’t know what you are getting at. Why do YOU think business isn’t hiring tons of people today?-XT

I think businesses aren’t hiring because of actual economic uncertainty, completely unrelated to what letter follows the president’s name–future taxes are the least of their concerns.

Since you used your company as an example, do they know what the price of oil will be next year? The value of the dollar relative to the Euro? Whether China’s growth will be 5% or 10%?

You also brought up the cost of a health care plan. 10 years ago, could your company have predicted what current health care costs will be. If Obamacare gets overturned, will they be able to predict the cost of health care 10 years from now? By chance, do they know when the next pandemic will be? Swine, bird, cow, snake? I bet it’s snake. Do they know what the cost of that pandemic will be?

@xtisme

@Chronos

Personally, I’d rather be uncertain about whether health care costs will be high or low than be certain that they’re going to stay high.

Sure, who wouldn’t. The point, however, is that if you are ‘certain’ they will do one thing or the other then you can make plans, predictions and forecasts of your costs. If you don’t know, then it’s harder to make plans. And if there are a lot of things changing, and you are uncertain (that word again) of how it may or may not impact your business and costs, then you are less likely to expand in that environment, and more likely to take a wait and see attitude.

Knowing is better than not knowing and trying to guess. Seems obvious to me.

Um, yes, that’s pretty obvious. If I knew who’d win the superbowl, or what the Dow was going to do on Monday, I’d be very rich. Hence, uncertainty.

Which is why I asked, when was there so much certainty? And more specifically, what did the [Republican] government do to make people feel all warm and cozy?

Why is that when discussing a liberal government, conservatives harp about “uncertainty” as if there had been so much before?

@xtisme

Seriously? Let’s see. By 2008 the Bush administration had run out of steam. There was a recession looming or already here, we had 2 seemingly failed foreign wars, and there was going to be a change in administration regardless, since Bush had already had his two terms (and even if he hadn’t, he was running at like 20% approval by then). Also, people (ordinary types) could see that there was a looming housing crisis soon to impact us.

You see, in the real world there are many factors that can account for a downturn in business, which leads to downturns in the economy and more specifically in the hiring/laying off cycle. The factors impacting us today are different than those impacting us during the end days of the Bush administration.

I noticed you listed a whole bunch of stuff that time, but failed to include future taxes.

So to be clear, my annoyance stems from the conservative insistence that Obama is causing uncertainty, and that some how that uncertainty out weighs all the other crap going on in the world today. And that if only we had a good old fashioned Republican government, all the uncertainty would melt away.

[JohnT]

nm

[Bryan_Ekers]

@JohnT

To answer the OP’s question… I would say sometime between 1949 and 1967. Um… June 1954, to put a month/year to the question.

Nah. December, 1956. Ike had just been re-elected and all was right with the world.

[XT]

@emacknight

So to be clear, my annoyance stems from the conservative insistence that Obama is causing uncertainty, and that some how that uncertainty out weighs all the other crap going on in the world today. And that if only we had a good old fashioned Republican government, all the uncertainty would melt away.

So, instead of acknowledging that Obama and the Dems factor in to the uncertainty mix in some way, you want to build strawman arguments that no one in this thread of the one you linked to were making about how getting a Republican in office would magically fix all the problems? I see…well, I figured that was what you were looking for.

I noticed you listed a whole bunch of stuff that time, but failed to include future taxes.

I mentioned taxes before and didn’t feel I needed to give an exhaustive list and repeat myself. I’ve said all along that there are MANY factors that contribute to ‘uncertainty’…and that only SOME of them have to do with taxes, health care and things of that nature. You seem incapable of grasping what I’m saying, and seem fixated on proving…well, gods know what you think you are proving in this thread.

Why is that when discussing a liberal government, conservatives harp about “uncertainty” as if there had been so much before?

Gods know…it’s your strawman. The quotes you linked to were specific assertions dealing with THIS situation we are in right now…not some strawman about how all liberals are teh evhil. Right now, today, companies aren’t hiring new employees and taking a wait and see approach for a variety of reasons…some of which are because they are worried about new taxes and the impact of the health care reforms on their loaded costs.

-XT

[qpw3141]

@xtisme

Right now, today, companies aren’t hiring new employees and taking a wait and see approach for a variety of reasons…some of which are because they are worried about new taxes and the impact of the health care reforms on their loaded costs.

Really?

You don’t think that the uncertainty is just the continuation of the after effects of the banking crisis and that companies are talking about taxes and health care because they’ll take any opportunity to knobble something with which they, personally, disagree?

If someone has laid off workers because demand is down they are just as likely to claim the reason is fear of some putative change that they don’t like.

[XT]

@qpw3141

Really?

Really really.

You don’t think that the uncertainty is just the continuation of the after effects of the banking crisis and that companies are talking about taxes and health care because they’ll take any opportunity to knobble something with which they, personally, disagree?

No, I think that the banking crisis is one factor, as is the downturn in the economy. And another factor is that they are unsure what the loaded costs for new employees might be, and what new taxes and other things might be on their cost models. It’s not just a talking point, even though I seem to be unable to convey that in this thread.

If someone has laid off workers because demand is down they are just as likely to claim the reason is fear of some putative change that they don’t like.

But do you have any evidence that companies laying off workers are using this as an excuse? If they are laying off workers because demand is down then they are going to cite that as one of the reasons they are doing it.

-XT