One of the Blogs that I follow, http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/, that is fantastic by the way, just published a table of recent Employment Statistics. The table was a comparison from the month when this recession started, December 2007 and the latest month of data, May 2011. These numbers are staggering to say the least.
A few that popped out at me were that on population growth alone, we are down 6.157 million jobs. In December 2007 the unemployment rate was 5.00%. Today it is 9.1%. There are 6.2 million people unemployed for 27 weeks or more as of May 2011. This is in comparison to December 2007 when it was only 1.3 million. That's worth saying again. 6.2 million vs. 1.3 million!
The true unemployment rate is 15.8% today, which includes the Unemployed, the Part-Time for Economic Reasons, the Marginally Attached to the Labor Force and the Discouraged Workers. In December 2007, it was about half that number at 8.8%.
In order to get back to December 2007 levels, we need to add 6.94 million jobs. Not Part-Time for Economic Reasons, not Marginally Attached to the Labor Force, but Full-Time Jobs!
You would think with numbers like these, the Obama Administration and Congress would be burning the midnight oil trying to come up with some solutions. They seem to be squarely focused on kicking the can down the road and going on summer vacations.
The voters really have to clean house in the upcoming 2012 election and also for a long series of elections to come. We need some people who will put America first, rather than those who only care about their own self interests. The only kind of legislation that we are going to see from this group is ideologically correct legislation. In other words, the Democrats will only agree to things that benefit their electability and the same holds true for the Republicans.
No matter what. Get out and Vote!
Showing posts with label Obama Administration. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Obama Administration. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Friday, January 22, 2010
Same Old Song
The Democratic party received a stunning wake up call this week when Scott Brown won election to the U.S. Senate. However, I am dismayed that we are hearing the same old song. When Democrats do not like something, they vilify it. They disparage it. They throw insults. Those who do not follow their liberal agenda are attacked over and over again.
Today's speech by the President fit the Democratic playbook to a "T." He attacked the big banks as those who caused the problem. He is going after them to make sure that we will not have the "too big to fail" problem again. On the surface this sounds fair, but if you peel back the onion a little, then you will find that it is superficial.
What I mean is...if the government doesn't step in and prop up the banks the next time they do something "stupid," as the President put it, then market forces will solve the problem.
Do not get me wrong. I am not a big fan of Wall Street firms. However, there is plenty of blame to go around here. This is exactly what the Democrats like to do, play the blame game, instead of accept responsibility for their own actions. The Democrats are the ones who passed the legislation forcing banks to accept mortgages from people who could not afford them. Somehow, they have skirted responsibility for that major snafu.
I truly believe that the Democrats are now attacking the big banks, because it deflects criticism away from themselves. They know that most Americans do not have a very high opinion of Wall Street banks. Therefore, in their effort to try and shore up support for the Democratic Party, they trot out the same old song. Make someone or some group your enemy, then attack, vilify and disparage them.
If I could give some political advice to the people advising the Democrats, then I would simply say...
"It is jobs and the economy stupid."
Today's speech by the President fit the Democratic playbook to a "T." He attacked the big banks as those who caused the problem. He is going after them to make sure that we will not have the "too big to fail" problem again. On the surface this sounds fair, but if you peel back the onion a little, then you will find that it is superficial.
What I mean is...if the government doesn't step in and prop up the banks the next time they do something "stupid," as the President put it, then market forces will solve the problem.
Do not get me wrong. I am not a big fan of Wall Street firms. However, there is plenty of blame to go around here. This is exactly what the Democrats like to do, play the blame game, instead of accept responsibility for their own actions. The Democrats are the ones who passed the legislation forcing banks to accept mortgages from people who could not afford them. Somehow, they have skirted responsibility for that major snafu.
I truly believe that the Democrats are now attacking the big banks, because it deflects criticism away from themselves. They know that most Americans do not have a very high opinion of Wall Street banks. Therefore, in their effort to try and shore up support for the Democratic Party, they trot out the same old song. Make someone or some group your enemy, then attack, vilify and disparage them.
If I could give some political advice to the people advising the Democrats, then I would simply say...
"It is jobs and the economy stupid."
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