You said it. I saw that statistic and said, oh fug here comes a douple dip recession. I hope not for many reasons, more than just I need a job in my field that pays better. Never like to see large layoffs that affect more than just those who've lost jobs. I ain't no federal banking guru but we gotta do something to stimulae things economocially. And no I don't consider Bush's tax cut plan to be a stimulator.
You guys....a bunch of excitable Cassandras. Once again, you see a bad number and gleefully jump up and down as if what is happening is all George Bush's fault...and it will all come home to roost... Did you read the REST of the article?? You know, the text that actually EXPLAINS what's going on? How this number was affected by --national guard call ups --impact on construction jobs due to severe weather in the Northeast Moreover, did you read to the END of the article and note that the jobless rate has fluctuated between a narrow range of 5.6 to 6% range since NOVEMBER of 2001. This is not a great report, but it's not as as awful as you make it out. The other thing the article didn't mention was the lastest report on the increase in worker productivity, which also has an effect on payroll jobs and unemployement. Anyway, bottom line, things are not great (we could use more capital spending for example), but they are not in the toilet as some would have us think...or as some, partisanly, would hope.
Everything is FINE. This is just a TEMPORARY problem. The economic problems will be solved by spending 40 BILLION dollars in a war against IRAQ followed by HUGE tax cuts. Everyone KNOWS that TRILLION dollar deficits are the best way to CORRECT a flagging ECONOMY. I'm going to BUY another HOUSE to increase my own DEBT, er I mean DEFICIT.
If the national guard callups aren't Bush's fault, whose are they???? Good memory, Mike, and oh-so-subtle.
Congratulations...don't get too sore now RIDING and RE-RIDING THAT worn hobby horse. The fact is while I am not perfect, and make mistakes... --I know more than you --I have more experience than you --I am way smarter than you --I will ALWAYS be more of the three above than you ever will be...
Every economic downturn -- assuming we even HAVE a downturn now, which is questionable -- are a temporary problem. The real issue is how LONG we remain in this temporary state. Look, things aren't great now, but neither are they THAT horrible. Let me tell you, we've had worse...LOTS worse. What really frosts me about so many on these boards is that they take a snippet of information, glom onto it, and then believe that it completely represents reality, largely because their particular, and often unjustifiably negative, interpretation of this slice of info conforms to their partisan vision. So they read this article, harp on the fact that unemployment has "risen" (even though it hasn't really fluctuated ALL that much over the last 15 months), despite some other mitigating factors that would give a more rounded, complete, and nuanced interpretation of the facts. But noooooooooooo. As for deficits, they aren't, in and of themselves, necessarily bad. They have to be understood, like so much else about the markets and the economy, in a context. Right now, we have two threats to the economy. The first is deflation. We are hovering at the teeniest levels of real interest rates we've seen for a number of years. Our pal Alan Greenspan needs to start re-inflating the economy,and we should probably have over the long run about a 3% to 4% inflation rate. This will give businesses some pricing power, and allow capital expanision to occur more readily. The second is insufficient capital spending -- which is a corollary to the first threat. The most recent good economic news was the increase in worker productivity. This gives businesses more margin to work with, and could lead to increased capital spending in a lag effect. We'll see how things shake out. Right now, I'd say on balance the economy is slow to stalled. It's hard to know if we will slip into a full fledged recession over the next few quarters. We just might. My guess is we'll continue to kinda stumble along, with a mixture of ups and downs on economic statistics front.
Karl, it wasn't so much that you didn't know the difference between debt and deficit (which is pretty egregious in and of itself.) It's that it took like 5 posts to get you to understand that you were wrong. George Bush's foreign policy, and George Bush's domestic policy. Will no-one rid me of this president?
Not so bad for the Clintons Chelsea Clinton nabs six-figure job I wonder how you were doing at 23 years of age.
This country's economy will remain s**tty until Bush leaves office. Voters, you don't want another four year of recession and unemployment right?