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(photo: Old Sarge)
There is some very good news today for President Obama from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. We saw some significant job growth in February, and official unemployment is below nine percent for the first time in months.
Nonfarm payroll employment increased by 192,000 in February, and the unemployment rate was little changed at 8.9 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Job gains occurred in manufacturing, construction, professional and business services, health care, and transportation and warehousing.
With incumbent election performance highly correlated with economic growth, and jobs being by far the most important issue for voters, the faster the unemployment rate drops, the tougher it will be for any Republican nominee to defeat Obama in 2012.
This could also have an effect on the GOP primary field. With many Republicans trying to now decide about whether or not to seek their party’s nomination, the prospect of facing a president who can campaign on an improving economy might make a run less appealing.
If this general trend continues–and isn’t seriously slowed by the large cuts in local government spending or Obama’s idiotic willingness to embrace House Republicans’ anti-growth, immediate austerity measures–Obama will be in good shape for re-election.
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Of course, the down side is, the public sector is still laying people off and that will get much worse with all the budget cuts being bandied about.
The ADP report from Wednesday had 217k jobs in the private sector so it looks like 20k jobs down in the public sector for last month
The only thing bad about this is that it lessens the chance of a primary challenge… from 0 to maybe minus 100%.
Two thoughts:
1. Of course the official unemployment rate is down. People who haven’t found jobs are being dropped from the count like they don’t exist anymore because they have been out of work for so long. Monthly job growth isn’t even keeping up with population, let alone rebuilding the employment base.
2. Who cares about his re-election chances? It’s not like the outcome makes any difference.
Agree on both counts. None of these stats actually mean much of anything bc of dropping the long-time unemployed off the numbers. Obama will not be primaried from within the so-called “Democratic” party.
Next!
Ditto your point 1.
As for point 2., Obama and key Administration officials so firmly wear the war criminal badge of infamy so why are we talking about Obama’s re-election possibilities when we should be talking about the procedure(s) to strip him and the other cooperators from diplomatic immunity so they all can stand trial for war crimes?
“Obama looking stronger for 2012″ y e a h /s
Any progressive that votes for Obama next year deserves to live in a country where torturing innocent people is okay (B. Manning), where balancing the budget is done on the backs of the poor so the rich can have their tax breaks, and where any protest they may make about it (though if they vote for that outcome IMO lose any right to protest it) may at any moment be deemed illegal in our new fascist state.
Vote for that all you want, and you get what you deserve. I won’t.
Re-election of O rewards and reinforces his shitty performance in office. It says to Democrats, Hey, go ahead and be corporate whores. We’re fine with it.
(Ah, question. What’s so hot about 8.95% unemployment?)
Kind of surprising that anybody believes the numbers given that they have been cooked and overcooked. “If you actually adjust for the fact that the labour force participation rate has plunged this cycle to a 27-year low the unemployment would be sitting at 12% today.”
Really, what is the story? Do we want to make America better? Or just get Obummmer re-elected?
That it is less than 9.4%
Behind this story is the fact that the number of jobs created will be revised downward next month or so but people will forget that. Also the GOP and BLue Dogs can point out that despite everyone attacking the idea that tax cuts create jobs, Obama’s bill that was passed in December contained more tax cuts and continued the Bush tax cuts for the rich, and, voila! Jobs out of thin air. This isn’t something to celebrate because I guarantee you most of the jobs aren’t unionized and they’re probably retail jobs at places like Wal-Mart.
Given the pending train wreck regarding state budgets, coupled with the mindless intransigence of the Congressional Wingnuts (you know who you are, shitheads), I’d say we’re being a bit premature here. I’m still 100% on board for a primary challenge. I already know everything I need to know about this administration. Further, I haven’t yet stanched the bleeding in my back from the multiple stab wounds.
True, but did unemployment actually drop or did the base number they use to calculate it drop due to more people falling entirely out of the labor force?
If you look at the number of jobs added since that 9.4%, do they even represent the amount of new people entering the workforce each month? It seems to me that number could be lowered many, many ways without actually adding more jobs than new potential employees each month merely by disposing of more folks on the back end.
Of course, the rate must be right, cause our government would never lie or fudge numbers to make a point. We ALL know that, right?
Not to mention the damage that $5.00 a gallon gas and double food prices are gonna have.
And I notice Krugman STILL misses this point this morning when he says this inflation has nothing to do with US policy and blames it on China and unrest in the Middle East.
Bullshit. You can’t throw trillions and trillions of dollars into the system like we did in ’08 and ’09 and NOT have inflation. The money HAS to go somewhere. It seems to have settled on commodity prices.
The enthusiasm displayed for this jobs report is unwarranted.
The latest BLS report has all the same indicators as last month, except the unemployment rate dropped 0.1%. Rounded off, all the other amounts and rates are the same. The Employed-population ratio is still 58.4, for example.
Looking at exact figures, the population rose from 238,704 to 238,851 = 147K and the number of employed rose from 139,363 to 139,573 = 210K. That indicates that, in effect, 63,000 people left the unemployed ranks for jobs, and that’s about 0.03 per cent of the work force. Really small potatoes.
The above headline: “Unemployment Drops to 8.9%; Obama Looking Stronger for 2012″ focuses on the weakest part of the BLS Report. We’ve discussed ad nauseum the weakness of unemployment statistics. The exact numbers of BLS’s “unemployed” dropped from 13,863 to 13,673 (thousands) or 190K, which is about 0.08 per cent of the population.
Big whoop.
Remember this?
“Spanish Judges Rule Case on US Torture Can Continue” (CCRJustice.org, Feb. 25, 2011)
Really, folks, given everything we know today, Obama and a bunch of others should be cowering in their gated communities because España has come to them.
Pretty much my sentiments exactly. I will not vote for Obama even if idiot Sarah is the nominee.
If we can’t have a non-corporatist candidate, I’d just as soon see a Republican in the White House as the country spirals into the abyss.
Unemployment drops to 8.9% ,well yeah and I can touch the moon from where
I am sitting.
Is it State propaganda or Corporate propaganda ?
The unemployment numbers show 300,000 less workers in the workforce since last Feb 2010? How does that work, that our labor force shrinks? Natural calamity? Alien abduction? Masses fleeing the country? The participation rate in Feb,2010 was 64.8 percent. The participation rate in Feb,2011 was 64.2 percent, in short, don’t play cards with these guys!
The unemployment numbers may be dropping, but what kind of jobs are the people getting? How much are they making at their new job versus what they got at their old one?
The reason I ask is the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP formerly know as food stamps) numbers came out the other day and there as an increase in the numbers. The increase in my state, MN was over 17% over last years number.
Link to SNAP report: http://www.fns.usda.gov/pd/29snapcurrpp.htm
Gallup calculates unemployment and underemployment differently, and
Gallup Finds U.S. Unemployment Hitting 10.3% in February
Gallup’s figures are based on direct polling; they don’t use the different seasonal and other adjustments that the BLS uses. I couldn’t say which is better in absolute terms, but it is quite interesting that Gallup does not see a comparative improvement within the terms of its results as does the BLS (at least until the BLS figures are “adjusted” in the future).
(Is it “Good News for Barack Obama” now, rather than “John McCain”?)
People give up looking for work and drop out of the work force. Others give up and go ahead and apply for early social security. That work force figure also may not include all the new “self employed” (contractor types)
I recently heard Amy Goodman say, “in the United States we don’t have state media, but how would it be different if we did?”
Appropriate methinks.
Even that was a manipulated number. Real unemployment is prolly in the high teens.
Obama is the black Ronald Reagan. He speaks well, cuts taxes on the rich, massively increases the military spending, blows up the budget/deficit, forms a commission that modifies social security, fails to enforce financial regulations, . . .
Read the previous sentence and then decide whom I am speaking of
Besides the 5,000,000 workers who have apparently been abducted by aliens, or who have otherwise dropped out of the labor force since late 2008, even the “official” BLS numbers give much room for pause.
Most economists and economic analysts agree that job growth rates must be above 200,000 workers in order to make a dent in unemployment. Since Nov. 2011, the u3 unemployment rate has almost fallen almost a full percentage point – from 9.8% to 8.9%
According to BLS stats there were 152,000 new jobs created in Dec. 2010; 63,000 new jobs created in Jan. 2011, and today’s preliminary Feb. report of 192,000 new jobs created. That is, with an average of only 136,000 new jobs created over the last three months by BLSs own stats, nevertheless there has been an almost 1% drop in unemployment.
What was it that Mark Twain said? Oh yeah, now I remember. “There are lies, damned lies, and statistics.”
Right on. We don’t have one Pravda, we’ve got the networks and cable news channels.
No.
Feb 2010/Feb 2011
labor force 153,194/153,246
employed 137,203/139,573
participation rate 64.6/64.2
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t01.htm
One can just look at the US Food Stamp program participation– a profit center for JP Morgan– if you’d like a low estimate of a meaningful unemployment/underemployment figure.
In case you haven’t seen it yet:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/03/03/952165/-Anonymous-Will-Avenge-Manning
Exactly!
My neighbor is having to use them. She said she is not allowed to buy toilet paper or soap! Only food products. No meds, no paper or soap products.
The UI rate is reported as lower because the labor force participation rate has also dropped.
Many have given up looking for work.
Meanwhile, food and energy costs are skyrocketing.
Buying a rotten tomato at a local grocery cost me $3.00 this week.
Coming stagflation is not good for Obama’s reelection, leaving aside that having him be reelected is bad in itself.
Well, it was designed for food only. There was a time many moons ago that food stamps rescued me from dumpster diving to eat.
Tomato season is pretty much over here but I had home grown all winter. The tomatoes at the store, unless I get organic from the natural foods store, are tasteless. I refuse to pay for those.
You sound like my father used to – he detested “hot house” tomaotes
and you will vote for??
Very true. I do my best to help her out with soap and paper. I am a 99er myself. Sorry for the delayed response as I’ve been trying to follow up on this:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/03/03/952165/-Anonymous-Will-Avenge-Manning
LOL. That’s what my folks called them too. I’ve had some pretty horrible hydroponic tomatoes too.
The problem with all the money that has gone into the “system”, is that it is staying in the banksters pockets. They run the stock market up, they run the price of oil up, and they run the price of food stuffs up.
I’ve lived through 3 bubbles, the late 80′s, the late 90′s and 2008. Up until now, they have been about 10 years apart, almost exactly what happened before Glass-Steagall. It looks like the banksters have learned to cut the every 10 years down to 3 or 4 years, as the uber wealthy gets to lock in their gains during a financial panic.
If all this money had actually gone to folks that would have spent it on goods and services, we would be humming along like there’s no tomorrow. But since there is no difference between Democrats and Republicans the wealthy and uber wealthy continue to rape and pillage our country.
This describes perectly what’s going on:
A unionized public employee, a member of the Tea Party, and a CEO are sitting at a table. In the middle of the table is a plate with a dozen cookies on it. The CEO reaches across and takes 11 cookies, looks at the tea partier and says, “Watch out for that union guy, he wants a piece of your cookie!”
State media is the same as Corprorate media. Wall Street owns the state!
krugman is correct – the increase in the money supply is offset by a decrease in the velocity of money – how many transactions it generates in a period. Seems all that new money supply is setting in bank reserves and not being loaned out.
Until it starts getting used in transactions, it may as well not exist in terms of effect on inflation.
There was a time the household survey – the source of the UE number – published the questions and the order in which they were asked – and stated when they last replaced 25% of the 60000 who were surveyed with new folks – indeed publishing how the new folks were selected. I am oldfatguy also – we should form a club – but I have not seen that discussion in any media – let alone main stream media – in decades.
I resemble that! I also noticed that it seemed to occur every ten years. I’ve told both of my sons that during the good years, they may not feel that it is good but must by all means save every cent they can to carry thru for the next recession that is intentionally put in place.
It seems to me that in the good years when business are growing, expanding, technological advances, and other new inventions hit the markets things go well. Until, a government imposed recession hits then those businesses are forced out of operation or bought up by the huge conglomerates making them in control of more and more aspects of our economy in just a few hands.
Oh, all that was very bad form. Sorry, trying to multi-multi task.
food is up significantlty around the world and likely was at least part of the reason for the unrest in the middle east. The food spike hasn’t really hit the US yet and won’t if there is a good growing season. The problem around the world were crop failures all over, in Russia, China etc due to weather conditions. We should hope it does not happen again or food prices will go up even more. And so will unrest.
Oil has its own problem not least of which it is becoming scarcer in the face of global demand, read china. It’s not really ever going to get much better.
You can blame O for lots of things but I don’t know how he arranged for the weather and China to do those things.
And we’re supposed to be glad Obama is re-elected?
He’s a fraud.
He deserves scorn, unmitigated by the disastrous GOP move to absurdistan.
De-elect this horrible president. Do not reward such a liar, traitor and coward as Barack Obama.
Dunno yet, just know it won’t be Obama or any other Republican.
Maybe Nader, maybe Kucinich, maybe anybody at this point.
Why do you ask? Looking for an endorsement of someone from me? LOL
If you take out food and fuel (or even leave it in) inflation is not the problem. One day it could be with the debt. That is what is driving the right wing looney about it. But that has not happened yet and is unlikely with unemployment at 15.9% (the U 6 number). We should not let ourseleves be driven by the boogey man when the economy is still so fucked up.
The govt should be encouraging people to return to farming. Kill the subsidies to agribusiness and give them to family farmers. Break up the corporate farms and force the Fed to loan money, at the same 0 rates given to the banksters, to folks who want to buy the land and equipment.
Food prices have soared, gas prices are next.
Sorry, I disagree.
And when you purchase groceries over the next several months, I sincerely hope you’re the one that’s right and I’m the one that’s wrong.
Food and fuel are up but that is not about the money supply: try climate change and scarcity.
some in congress have tried that but that won’t erase the problem with the food supply if we have another growing season like last year.
OK, my bad.
Food and energy are left out of the official inflation figures because their prices are so volatile. That way we have low inflation figures for the banksters and govt to crow about. Bread is a dollar more than it was this time last year. The price of wheat and corn is driving food prices up, and that includes the price of high fructose corn syrup, an ingredient in all processed foods.
Why do they add sweeteners to peanut butter?
Ah, don’t get me started on the fuel prices! My Dad taught me a good lesson while he was alive. The sweet crude they say they have to use during the summer is an excuse to raise prices when the working man and his family go on vacations, the kids are out of school, and small farmers are working their fields!
I agree – but folks are trying to read the tea leaves. But as you note the data:
over 16 employment to population ratio
Year Feb
2001 64.3
2002 63.0
2003 62.5
2004 62.3
2005 62.4
2006 63.0
2007 63.3
2008 62.8
2009 60.3
2010 58.5
2011 58.4
does not show a lot of positive, even with 252000 jobs added to the total (192000 last month and the rest in “revisions”).
Clinton tried to enforce IRS Code 482 – the allocation of profit to outside of the US so as to get a deferred tax – and got 64.3 – we had stopped gutting our manufacturing and its support/retail economy.
I am amused that Obama killed Hillary by claiming the 64.3 number was an accident of the dot com boom – a bubble that burst 2 years earlier and which had not added much – wall street rarely does. And Clinton haters still will not bless relative peace and prosperity with a relatively good humane foreign and domestic policy – explains why Hillary will not run – and why no one else will jump into a primary where winning depends on a unified left.
Gregg Levine has a great Party Line up above today.
It is probably true that the huge debt will one day result in inflation and is unsustainable. But you can worry about getting old one day too and it won’t change anything. We are foolish about cutting the deficit now for things we really need like the social programs, even Obamacare. Unemployment is, to me anyway, still number one. There has been some modest improvment the last six months or so but it is too weak. My vote will go to the person who trys to help the average citizen and not the fucking Koch brothers. Right now, there is not one single rethug who does not kiss the ring of those asshols.
Exactly, more smoke and mirrors from the government.
Jon, why are you advancing the fantasy that is the government’s employment numbers? If you look at the Dept. of Labor’s own web page the numbers are right there. 180,000 jobs created, 368,000 INITIAL unemployment claims and yet somehow the unemployment rate goes down? BS
If not for the fact they no longer count people who have used up their UC benefits, we would see unemployment continue to rise.
I forget what they are but even with those numbers in there it is still just around 2%. (the BLS has them if you care to take a look.) We have so far escaped the problems of the world with food and fuel, but our day of rekoning is coming.
US post Greenspan understates inflation so as to show larger GDP growth. Japan grows twice as fast as the US but doing opposite of Greenspan hides the growth by overstating inflation.
But post Greenspan we are stuck with large reductions to inflation because this years Macbook base model has 20% more hard drive space than last year for the same price, and because of the substitution idea the increase in the price of steak means a reduction in inflation in the hamburger you replace it with is less costly after a minor “quality” adjustment.
Makes Carter’s 3% average growth not so shabby next to Reagan’s 3.3 and Bill’s 3.6% (from memory but the numbers are close).
Home Depot has said thay will be adding 400,000 part time jobs this year.Don’t have to pay unemployment to part time workers.
Obama is not and will not be stronger in my book, and, 2012 may not fit into presidential election trends of the past.
Given that these are abnormal times and given that Obama is unlike any other President, I don’t think a better economic picture alone is enough to save him, especially from the damage he’s done not just to ‘the Left’ but to the some of the core principles defining democracy itself.
I’ll let this quote from an article by Paul Campos about one of our key democracy killers, Justice Clarence Thomas, say everything about why I’ll never again vote for Obama or any other forked tongued Democrat:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/dailybeast/12731_clarencethomascriminalbehavioronfinancialdisclosure;_ylt=AnsFnPBtKtiDEwRFdQTcEf_9xg8F;_ylu=X3oDMTRsY3B0MHFzBGFzc2V0A2RhaWx5YmVhc3QvMjAxMTAzMDQvMTI3MzFfY2xhcmVuY2V0aG9tYXNjcmltaW5hbGJlaGF2aW9yb25maW5hbmNpYWxkaXNjbG9zdXJlBGNjb2RlA21wX2VjXzhfMTAEY3BvcwM1BHBvcwM1BHNlYwN5bl90b3Bfc3RvcmllcwRzbGsDYW5hbHlzaXN0aHJv
I forgot the dropping from the CPI “market” those things that are “too volatile” (price going up too fast).
John Williams, author of the Shadow Government Statistics website, calculates that if the BLS used the same methodologies for compiling the CPI today that it employed in 1990, the government’s number would be 4.5%. If the BLS used the same methodologies as in 1980, the official CPI would be 8.5%.
I think he overstates the case – but he sees the problem we all see.
But all that matters is that the screwing of Americans goes on without a revolution occurring, and that those in power get good media and thus get re-elected.
What Recovery? The USA is in a Depression
Fact
“According to newly released numbers, over 44 million Americans are now on food stamps. That is a new all-time record and that number is 13.1% higher than it was just one year ago. So how many Americans have to go on food stamps before we can all finally agree that the U.S. economy is dying? 50 million? 60 million?”
the circus act in the WH is playing with the numbers, but the facts on main street USA are not under debate, the USA is in a Depression!
more facts
1 Some recent statistics actually indicate that the number of unemployed Americans is still going up. According to Gallup, unemployment in the United States rose to 10.3% at the end of February. That is the highest number Gallup has reported since early last year.
2 The housing industry is still a complete and total disaster. In fact, new home sales in the U.S. in January were 11.2% lower than they were in December. Not only that, the number of new home sales in January was 18.6% lower than the number of new home sales in January 2010. That is not a sign of improvement.
Obama and his WH of horror, better deal with reality.
Part-time is actually the worse option for the states economy.
Part-time workers get no insurance and such little monthly pay they’ll likely fall below the poverty levels which qualifies them for welfare – free insurance, some money and food stamps
Yup.
$1 USD in the US gets you Street Roots and the perspective of a vendor. Or, you can read one of its sister papers in the world. This week’s front page article in Street Roots is “One Nation, under lock and key” and features an interview with lawyer and author Michelle Alexander.
So we have a few new jobs doing concrete pouring, plumbing, painting, electrical work and in factories making wood products, fabricated metals, machinery, computers (we still assemble high value parts made in Asia) and peripheral equipment, transportation equipment and food products and in trucking and wholesale services that supply supermarkets, department stores, gas stations, universities and government agencies, with more good news in firms that design or service computer systems, and in architectural and engineering companies, with ambulatory care services and home health care services, as well as nursing and residential care facilities hiring.
But given our “Bring US jobs home trade policy” and “invest in American Technology and industry program”, that do not exist, we got the expected increase in jobs in the waste services sector and in Employment services as folks look for work – albeit the jobs are temporary as the cites and town prepare to layoff waste collection workers.
But there is always the good news of more hiring in Leisure and hospitality – now that we are a 3rd world country we are getting a lot of visitors so new workers were needed by hotels, restaurants and bars.
And if played correctly in the media – this type of news will indeed get Obama re-elected.
Looking at the headline, that a one-tenth of one percent down-tick in the bogus unemployment rate would affect an election a year from November, I checked the calendar to make sure I wasn’t in a time warp and that it wasn’t April 1st — 2012.
Agree on point 1.
As for point 2, I don’t agree. There is a difference. If Obama gets re-elected then I expect more of the same slow-boil of the frogs in the pot. If some Repug gets elected then I expect the fast boil. With the fast boil, the frogs might just jump out and save themselves, like what is happening in Wisconson. The important point here is to get a real assclown right winger elected so they are batshit in their policies, like Scott Walker is in Wisconson. The smarter wignuts might learn a lesson from Wisconsin and turn the heat down for the long game. You can be sure their masters are learning
good that the rate is dropping, but were these $8/hr burger flipping jobs with minimal benefits? or real jobs?
good news of more hiring in Leisure and hospitality usually means more fry cooks and barmen. Folks may not be waiting for 6 pm to start drinking.
That’s an interesting argument. By that logic the Obama legislation for health insurance restructuring (the word “reform” seems inappropriate) is positive—if you ignore the mandate, the entrenchment of middlemen, the pharma deal, and so on—because a win, whatever its content, is clearly better than a loss. Here, 8.9% looks better than 9.4%—if you ignore the labor force participation rate, part-time employment taken because full-time jobs aren’t available, workers who’ve given up looking for jobs entirely—because a lower number is better than a higher one.
Obama will be in good shape for reelection if the bright, shiny object—ooh, unemployment is 8.9%!—leads to hopey-changey, neo-Reaganesque, morning-in-America optimism among voters. Which could happen. People in a propaganda-induced trance believe the darndest things. In that sense, yes, true enough, it’s good news for Obama. But there’s some small chance that the reality—actual, not statistical, unemployment, for instance—will reach up out of the crapper and bite this CYA administration in its ample behind.
In fact, if the administration waits long enough, until everyone out of a job gives up, it can reach zero unemployment while pleasing its corporate sponsors with a job market slack enough to destroy all labor bargaining power. That’s the best of all possible worlds. Might even bring the Koch brothers around to the virtues of a stalking-horse Democrat rather than an openly Foxist Republican in the presidency …
PS: Jon has been brilliant on health-insurance restructuring, and as a (stalking) horse-race handicapper of the ’12 election he may be on the right track. Point is, the wild card here isn’t the U3 rate but U6: the unemployed, the underemployed, and the dropouts. U6 gets less play, but it’s much higher than the headline U3 the media inexplicably relies on. It’s not employment that’s improving but, for purely technical reasons, U3. Remember, the map is not the territory: U3 is the former; U6 more closely resembles the latter. Headlines notwithstanding, that is an iceberg that could sink an Obama campaign.
“…Obama will be in good shape for re-election.” And, where’s the GOOD news? Unfortunately, a small (significant?) change in these numbers makes a Democratic challenger less likely also. Black Thunder has successfully become Chocolate Blunder. Four more years? Not with my help or vote, ever! But I’m not burdened with buyers remorse/denial; I voted for Nadar.
The only thing that the 8.9% reflects are those persons still on unemployment roles. It does not take into account those who have used up all their unemployment benefits and have fallen off the roles, stopped looking all-together, are under-employed, or are working at a job that pays them far less than their “old” job.
It does not take into account the steady increase in cost of living, housing, food, and energy costs.
Just because you are employeed, doesn’t mean you aren’t up to your eyeballs in debt, in foreclosure, and having your car repossessed.
Just wait, and see if some candidate pulls a Reagan and asks the American public during the 2012 campaign: “are you better off now than you were 4 years ago?” For someone like Obama, the faux-liberal who loves to tout up Reagan at any and all turns, it would serve him right to get bitten in the proverbial ass by that little ditty.
as we all know 8.9 % does not reflect the true level of unemployment or underemployment..I am not going to vote for Obama or any GOP candidate. As long as the Dems are the junior wing of the repub party I have no use for them…interesting you hear Scott Walker use the term Shared Sacrifice a lot but listen to any Dem and they say the samething…sorry MSNBC/Newsweek Obama is NOT a progressive, And Fox here is a secret..he is closer to you than us!
Why would anyone want Obama to be re-elected?
Ah, you’re kidding, right? The improvement in unemployment is largely due to people maxing out their benefits–since they won’t be earning any money to replace their benefits, their spending is lost to the economy. How is this an improvement? And our President will continue to do what he does best–bend to the prevailing winds, in this case blowing austerity and “shared sacrifice” the way of the middle class.
I can’t wait to cast my vote for Reagan redux.
Agriculture in the US is very chemical and energy dependent.
If the cost of oil stays high it will spike food prices in the US too, no mater what kind of growing season we have.
Yeah, that’s what I’ve read too.
I don’t believe that the public sector losses are factored in yet.
You saying so, does not make it so. I say speculators, (i.e. all that idle money) are driving food prices up in the commodities market.
re: Obama…I said it before and I’ll say it again. Reward him with a republican senate and house. They will impeach him for war crimes immediately after the statute of limitations expires on the BFEE.
Me…500 cans of tuna and counting. hehehe
Before election, “Government reports unemployment rate now 3%!” Small print: “Unemployment does not include anyone who has lost their job more than 1 week after the report was conducted. Also, people who never had a job and cannot find one are not included.”
Jon, go peddle this left-right paradigm BS to dailykos; it doesn’t fly here.
Obummer is a fascist pig, straight up. If you can’t see that, you obviously are not looking at his performance; you are looking at the “D” after his name.
You all know the song: `For it`s a long long time, between May and December.` Nobody in economics has ever doubted that the so-called `stimulus` package passed after the last election would stimulate the economy. But nobody who knows real economics thinks that this will last past next fall or at best early winter 2012. Pump-priming doesn`t work, just like HOPE is not a substitute for hard economic analysis. Of course, the `Confidence fairy`could always sprinkle a bit of her pixie dust, and then it will be pie in the sky til we die.
Give me a fucking break.