Not much fun for the weekend, but here at Doc40, we take a great deal of notice of the unemployment figures, if for no other reason that a lot of our friends are writers and precious few are working. (Thank heavens I have a book to do.) Thus the news evoked nothing but dismay. The unemployment rate has topped 10% -- the first time since 1983. Per the AP, "The Labor Department says the economy shed a net total of 190,000 jobs in October, less than the downwardly revised 219,000 lost in September." But the unemployment rate increased, from 9.8% in Sept. to 10.2% in Oct. (And that not counting those who can’t claim benefits.) I can only agree with Paul Krugman when he argues the White House hasn't been aggressive enough. "President Obama came into office with a strong mandate and proclaimed the need to take bold action on the economy. His actual actions, however, were cautious rather than bold. They were enough to pull the economy back from the brink, but not enough to bring unemployment down." The sun ain’t yellow, it’s chicken.
The secret word is Dole
The secret word is Dole
The Times says the reality is closer to 17.5%.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/07/business/economy/07econ.html?_r=1&scp=4&sq=unemployment&st=cse
O really should have spent this first year on jobs. We should have had FDR type work projects across the country and been writing checks to anyone that wanted to go to school or start a small business. Nope. Just spent his time continuing the policies of W. A real disappointment.
ReplyDeleteMaybe I'm just an uneducated fool, though, shouldn't we be trying to make a fuss about passing healthcare rather than bitching about not getting the new deal?
ReplyDeletePlease, let me know if this is totally out of line, though, it seems like everybody is jumping on the blame Obama bandwagon like they were at a fucking tea party rally. Should we really say "sure, you might have stopped a complete economic collapse, but you didn't do enough & now that I've had six or more months to think about it, I'm going to complain." instead of saying "he needs our support to pass health care in the senate if we don't want the unemployment problem to be even worse than it will otherwise."
I'm just saying... it seems like his opposition is doing wonders with turning crowds against him by antagonizing the problems they helped create on their way out of the seats of power. Not that I don't have my complaints or problems with the administration's lack of delivery on certain promises, my college education damn sure hasn't gotten any more affordable since he took office. Still, what the fuck? Aren't there other people far more responsible for this predicament than the president?
On the day after Obama was elected I wrote a long essay hoping Obama would emmulate FDR. So far his new deal had hardly done that. And what he had done is not really been seen to be being done. I still bascially think Obama means well, but he's a fucking politician and needs a whole lot of constant kicking from the left.
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