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| Economy |
| Staggering unemployment figures cannot be sugar-coated |
| 2009-11-09 |
| There are those who say the economy is starting to recover from the worst recession since the Great Depression, and they take heart even from the miserable state of the American job market. To this way of thinking, things are getting brighter because the country is losing fewer jobs every month than were lost at the peak of the bloodbath. Which is like telling a terminal patient that things are looking up because he's dying a little slower. The concept is meaningless garbage and will remain so until unemployment and underemployment recede from astronomical levels. At 10.2%, the jobless rate is higher than it has been in more than a quarter-century, and at 17.5%, the rate of people who are working below their capacity is at a record high. That is the kind of statistical carnage inflicted by the loss of 7.3 million jobs, and counting, in just less than two years. Virtually every industry - manufacturing, retail, financial - is feeling severe pain. The scope is astonishing. As but one telling measure, the Obama administration projects, in a best-case scenario, that the government's $787 billion stimulus package saved or created 640,000 jobs, a number that is less than one-tenth of the positions that have evaporated. True recovery is going to be dreadfully slow, with the government hard pressed to do extensive additional stimulating, given the oceans of red ink that are already swamping Washington. As long as jobs are hard to come by, if not nonexistent, working- and middle-class America will suffer from downward pressure on wages. And as long as there is downward pressure on wages, the engine of consumer spending will remain stalled. And as long as consumption stays tanked, the economy will continue to decline. As the old saying goes, hope for the best but plan for the worst. Grasp not for straws of hope, because the real danger that Washington must confront is that down and down we go. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #13 Yup, and the small-medium banks who do run a good ship and can loan to business have to pony up for the FDIC, eliminating what free capital there was left. Every time someone gets taxed, for anything, gum or gas, it is less money available to purchase what I do - every tax paid during payroll is less money that person can spend in the community. Want to redestribute the wealth, for real? Cut taxes, let people keep their money. Stop rewarding failure and punishing success. We will find that by rewarding success people will want to be..duh duh dunnn..successful. |
| Posted by: swksvolFF 2009-11-09 21:59 |
| #12 I can create a job. Changineering. There are currently 5 million available positions - they just have to be defined, interviewed for, and payscale set. Saving jobs is rather abstract isn't it? I mean, I don't save a utility payment by using a credit card to pay my electricity. Jobs are made. They are the end result of the implimentation idea, organization, accurate bean counting, and demand for said good or service expected to be greater than the working ability of people currently engaged is idea. Overtax businesses, overtax successful people, and government meddling are a sure way to stifle innovation or even bread and butter business. The fat man sitting in the cave didn't invent the wheel, the guy hauling the firewood did. |
| Posted by: swksvolFF 2009-11-09 21:53 |
| #11 Right now LOTP if you owned a small or medium business you could not expand even if you wanted. The banks that normally lend operating capitol have restructured their models and there is now NO money for small or mid sized business. You observation is also correct that small and mid businesses are the engine that drives growth. As of yet with all the billions of bailout dollars there was not one red cent pushed to small businesses. The money was given to folks like goldman sachs and they took the interest free money and invested ALL OF IT into treasury bills that payed 3%, They then leveraged it 15 times and howdy doody they have their best year in history netting a 45% margin for the year. All at our taxpayer expence! Until the flow of operating cash loans get to small and mid sized businesses we will continue to slide as a nation.... |
| Posted by: 49 Pan 2009-11-09 21:37 |
| #10 The most frightening thing about the numbers is that almost no jobs are being created This administration and Congress are the most hostile to small business - the engine of job creation - that I've seen in 27 years in the workforce. I have experience in startups and rapidly growing smaller businesses. No way would I consider starting or expanding a company right now. |
| Posted by: lotp 2009-11-09 19:35 |
| #9 Nor just corporations, but small business and individuals too. Next year taxes will go up by 1/3 for small businesses due to expiration of the Bush tax cuts and national health insurance mandates. That means a lot fewer employees. The Bush tax cuts also expire for individuals and new taxes are placed on the $250K (yeah right) "rich". So I'm buying little but the essentials, minimizing tax exposure and can outlast this cabal of Marxists who have managed to hoodwink the nation into power. |
| Posted by: ed 2009-11-09 19:35 |
| #8 Corporations are saying: we have no confidence in the Federal administration. |
| Posted by: Elmoluque McCoy1514 2009-11-09 17:56 |
| #7 Al, that's why its a depression. |
| Posted by: 3dc 2009-11-09 17:29 |
| #6 The most frightening thing about the numbers is that almost no jobs are being created. Normally jobs are both being created and disappearing. for example during the 1982 recession, alot of (factory) jobs were lost, but alot of new jobs were being created as well. Now if you lose your job, you're going to find it real hard to find ANY job at all. |
| Posted by: Frozen Al 2009-11-09 15:17 |
| #5 Buy hey - Obama did save 8 Billion Jobs..... |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2009-11-09 14:26 |
| #4 Staggering unemployment figures cannot be sugar-coated Yes We Can |
| Posted by: lord garth 2009-11-09 14:07 |
| #3 Staggering unemployment figures cannot be sugar-coated Of course they can, Democrats are blinded By THE ONE'S BRILLIANCE and will swallow whatever lie he says. Tht's a proven FACT. |
| Posted by: Redneck Jim 2009-11-09 13:12 |
| #2 QE is holding a magnet near The Titanic's compass and claiming you're steering around problems. |
| Posted by: Bright Pebbles 2009-11-09 07:28 |
| #1 It's not a recession. It's a depression. |
| Posted by: 3dc 2009-11-09 00:39 |