By Mike Whitney
That's the only way to describe Friday's job's report. The whole thing stunk. And, on top of that, the unemployment rate has been heading higher for the last 3 months. It's now at 9.2 percent a full two years into the recovery. That's unprecedented. Where are the jobs, that's what everyone wants to know.
This is beyond disappointing. The stock market has regained most of the ground it lost since it touched bottom in March 2009, but the real economy is still stuck in the mud. Just look at the data. Here's a clip from economist Tim Duy who sums it up perfectly:
"...the labor force fell, the participation rate fell, the employment to population ratio fell, the number of employed plummeted, and the number of unemployed climbed. Private nonfarm payrolls gains a paltry 57k, and the drag from government cutbacks pulled the overall jobs gain to just 18k. Far short of the numbers needed to even hold unemployment steady." ("Grim", Tim Duy, Fed Watch)
Get the picture? It's all bad. And guess what? Those "18,000 new jobs" falls within the Labor Depts margin for error, so there could actually be "no new jobs". Will that wake up Obama? Probably not.
How do you light a fire under Washington, that's the question? Is Congress even aware that we're undergoing a major jobs crisis or are they too busy bickering over tax cuts for fatcats or how much money they can divert from Social Security to Wall Street?
Look; unemployment is over 9% and rising. The states are firing tens of thousands of teachers and public employees every month because they need to balance their budgets and they're not taking in enough revenue. The stimulus is dwindling (which means that fiscal policy is actually contractionary in real terms) And the 10-year Treasury has dipped below 3 percent (as of Monday morning.) In other words, the bond market is signalling "recession", even while the dope in the White House is doing his utmost to slice $4 trillion off the deficits.
Does that make any sense?
Maybe if you're Herbert Hoover, it does. But it makes no sense at all if you were elected with a mandate to "change" the way Washington operates and put the country back to work. Obama is just making a bad situation worse by gadding about in his golf togs blabbering about belt tightening. It's enough to make you sick.
Get with the program, Barry, or resign. That would be even better. Then maybe we can find someone who's serious about running the country.
That's the only way to describe Friday's job's report. The whole thing stunk. And, on top of that, the unemployment rate has been heading higher for the last 3 months. It's now at 9.2 percent a full two years into the recovery. That's unprecedented. Where are the jobs, that's what everyone wants to know.
This is beyond disappointing. The stock market has regained most of the ground it lost since it touched bottom in March 2009, but the real economy is still stuck in the mud. Just look at the data. Here's a clip from economist Tim Duy who sums it up perfectly:
"...the labor force fell, the participation rate fell, the employment to population ratio fell, the number of employed plummeted, and the number of unemployed climbed. Private nonfarm payrolls gains a paltry 57k, and the drag from government cutbacks pulled the overall jobs gain to just 18k. Far short of the numbers needed to even hold unemployment steady." ("Grim", Tim Duy, Fed Watch)
Get the picture? It's all bad. And guess what? Those "18,000 new jobs" falls within the Labor Depts margin for error, so there could actually be "no new jobs". Will that wake up Obama? Probably not.
How do you light a fire under Washington, that's the question? Is Congress even aware that we're undergoing a major jobs crisis or are they too busy bickering over tax cuts for fatcats or how much money they can divert from Social Security to Wall Street?
Look; unemployment is over 9% and rising. The states are firing tens of thousands of teachers and public employees every month because they need to balance their budgets and they're not taking in enough revenue. The stimulus is dwindling (which means that fiscal policy is actually contractionary in real terms) And the 10-year Treasury has dipped below 3 percent (as of Monday morning.) In other words, the bond market is signalling "recession", even while the dope in the White House is doing his utmost to slice $4 trillion off the deficits.
Does that make any sense?
Maybe if you're Herbert Hoover, it does. But it makes no sense at all if you were elected with a mandate to "change" the way Washington operates and put the country back to work. Obama is just making a bad situation worse by gadding about in his golf togs blabbering about belt tightening. It's enough to make you sick.
Get with the program, Barry, or resign. That would be even better. Then maybe we can find someone who's serious about running the country.
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