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Unemployment up to 9.2 percent. Ugly economic news.

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by The Big Ragu, Jul 8, 2011.

  1. TigerVols

    TigerVols Well-Known Member

    Yeah, the stimulus was a disaster...

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/25/stimulus-spending-programs-reasonable_n_694755.html#s131196&title=Helping_Wounded_Warriors
     
  2. YankeeFan

    YankeeFan Well-Known Member

    Yeah, but I think it's proven out that the results of all that spending was not "stimulative".

    It was supposed to be a bridge until the economy improved. But, now the money has been spent, the economy is not better, those people are out of work, and the gun is empty.

    Many districts/cities/states didn't use the money to keep folks on the payroll for just this reason.
     
  3. doctorquant

    doctorquant Well-Known Member

    Gotcha ... so those on the other side of the trade were, in aggregate, expecting numbers south of 100,000-125,000 but not that far south. Hence the "unexpected" tag.
     
  4. The Big Ragu

    The Big Ragu Moderator Staff Member

    That is a very selective statement.

    The "aid" has been a huge part of our problem.

    We funneled money that the market would have allocated to potentially productive areas of the economy that could have stimulated a recovery to "hand-picked" areas that our politicians lorded over, and parceled inefficiently at best and corruptly at worst. Forget the teacher jobs. We spent trillions of dollars and most of it didn't go to teachers. And the reason any of that money funded teacher salaries in the first place is that most states had already mismanaged their finances with waste and poor fiscal management, that they were near bankrupt when they got their "aid," and used it as a windfall band aid.

    Secondly, what that "aid" gave us was an added $3 to $4 trillion of debt since Obama has been elected. At the same time, the Fed has embarked on a monetary policy that has amouned to devaluing our dollar.

    The promise of all of that was that it would temper unemployment (I can pull out all the promises and none of them predicted 9.2 percent unemployment 3 years later) and boost GDP.

    Instead, we have a huge debt problem, which will likely weigh on our economy for some time. Now is the day of reckoning. If they deal with our debt, we can maybe prevent the inflation headache, but expect unemployment to stay high for quite a while. If they do the predictable thing, and keep adding to our debt, when the house of cards collapses, it will be even worse than this.
     
  5. The Big Ragu

    The Big Ragu Moderator Staff Member

    There is missing expectations and there is this.

    I have read two research reports so far that said up front something to the effect, "We'll save you the time. There is nothing good buried in there."
     
  6. Michael_ Gee

    Michael_ Gee Well-Known Member

    Ragu, I give up. We are going to have, as I said in my previous post, a clinical trial of your preferred economic policy (to be fair, a limited trial, the government at all levels is too large, since we're a large country, to drastically change in one fell swoop). And instead of the current situation, where things are bad and not getting better, we will move ahead into bad and getting worse.
     
  7. YankeeFan

    YankeeFan Well-Known Member

    Yeah, I've seen the markets get whipsawed by a headline (or top number) that indicated one thing, but when folks dug into the report they found reasons to be optimistic (or pessimistic, as it were).

    This looks all bad.

    Hours worked were down for the first time since last October. (Which means current employees will work more before anyone new gets hired.)

    Average duration of unemployment is now 39.9 weeks. That's a record.

    President expected to speak any minute now.

    I imagine he'll try to use the numbers as a hammer to get Republicans to move on the debt ceiling. I'll be curious to see how the market reacts to whatever he says.
     
  8. The Big Ragu

    The Big Ragu Moderator Staff Member

    I don't think that is happening.

    But if it did, it would be VERY unfair to blame the lengthy headache we are in for on the hands off policy.

    You can't fuck things up this bad, then stop doing the things that fucked things up, and blame the ensuing mess on the fact that you are not fucking around any more. (sorry for all the cussing)
     
  9. TigerVols

    TigerVols Well-Known Member

    An estimated $1.9 TRILLION in cash being held in reserve by corporate America completely disproves your assertion.

    We've given companies tax breaks, financial aid, pro-business courts, lessened regulation, allowed them to bust unions...and yet, the companies have done nothing but ship jobs overseas.

    The only American companies who are doing their part are the car companies that Obama bailed out. Hmmmm.
     
  10. Michael_ Gee

    Michael_ Gee Well-Known Member

    PS: Today's fun fact: There are 500,000 fewer public employees at all levels of government than there were the day Obama was inaugurated.
     
  11. The Big Ragu

    The Big Ragu Moderator Staff Member

    This is the conspiracy theory I have heard from a few people this morning.

    No way that is the case, though.
     
  12. The Big Ragu

    The Big Ragu Moderator Staff Member

    I don't have an exact number, but I'd venture to guess that there are several million fewer TOTAL workers than the day Obama was inaugurated.

    Put your fun act into context and it seems about right.
     
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