American Unemployment Rate Approaches 10%

[Faeelin]

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Jobless-rate-hits-94-percent-apf-15452726.html?sec=topStories&pos=1&asset=&ccode=

I just thought this was interesting, given the enormous piles of money we shovelled at the conomy to avoid this, and given that the stress tests for the banks envisioned this as the worst case scenario.

[Berkut]

However, the pace of job loss is slowing and was much lower than expected. Which I think is a lot more interesting.

[Faeelin]

However, the pace of job loss is slowing and was much lower than expected. Which I think is a lot more interesting.

Why so?

[Berkut]

However, the pace of job loss is slowing and was much lower than expected. Which I think is a lot more interesting.

Why so?

Beacuse it means we are bottoming out. Hopefully.

[Darth Wagtaros]

Indeed.  I wonder if things will just kinda drift and stabilize at current levels.  Was the past 12 years a bubble? Were the last 30 years? I know there were some severe recessions in there, but has all that deficit spending at personal and national levels led us to a rather bleak, if stable, economic life?

[DGuller]

Indeed.  I wonder if things will just kinda drift and stabilize at current levels.  Was the past 12 years a bubble? Were the last 30 years? I know there were some severe recessions in there, but has all that deficit spending at personal and national levels led us to a rather bleak, if stable, economic life?

I've been thinking about that as well.  I definitely think that since Reagan's financial deregulation (and all subsequent movement in that direction), a lot of our gains have really been on the backs of one bubble after another after another.  What we thought was increasing efficiency and flexibility turned out to be just a way to ignore the risks we've taken. 

However, in other ways, we did leap far ahead in the last 30 years.  For one, we didn't even have a useable personal computer 30 years ago, and now we can't imagine our society without it.

[Hansmeister]

When Obama was arguing in favor of the stimulus he claimed that without the stimulus the unemployment rate would rise to 8.9 percent by this summer and with it it would top out at 7.9%.

Would be nice if we actually had a news media in this country pointing out the utter failure of the plan.  Alas, we merely have a cheerleading section.

[Berkut]

Why are you babbling about Obama?

DG just proved that the entire economy's fall is because of Reagan.

[Faeelin]

When Obama was arguing in favor of the stimulus he claimed that without the stimulus the unemployment rate would rise to 8.9 percent by this summer and with it it would top out at 7.9%.

Would be nice if we actually had a news media in this country pointing out the utter failure of the plan.  Alas, we merely have a cheerleading section.

This was sort of one of my points, but I'm not sure what you're saying.

"Obama was wrong! Recession was worse than people thought it would be at the time!"

[Hansmeister]

Why are you babbling about Obama?

DG just proved that the entire economy's fall is because of Reagan.

oh yeah, I forgot.  Fannie mae and Freddy Mac are the type of institutions supported by Reagan. And so are laws like the Community Reinvestment Act that force lending to unqualified people. 

[Richard Hakluyt]

There have certainly been a lot of long-term gains in the past 30 years. Cars are more reliable, travel is more affordable, food is better, there is the whole computer and internet thing. It seems to me that the definite gains are due to technological improvements and innovation; even something as apparently basic as better food depends on improved transportation and storage techs.

[Hansmeister]

When Obama was arguing in favor of the stimulus he claimed that without the stimulus the unemployment rate would rise to 8.9 percent by this summer and with it it would top out at 7.9%.

Would be nice if we actually had a news media in this country pointing out the utter failure of the plan.  Alas, we merely have a cheerleading section.

This was sort of one of my points, but I'm not sure what you're saying.

"Obama was wrong! Recession was worse than people thought it would be at the time!"

that Obama's stimulus bill was a fraud.  It did nothing to stimulate the economy, indeed, that was never the purpose of the bill.  It was a vehicle to expand the reach of the state.

[Faeelin]

that Obama's stimulus bill was a fraud.  It did nothing to stimulate the economy, indeed, that was never the purpose of the bill.  It was a vehicle to expand the reach of the state.

[Iormlund]

Beacuse it means we are bottoming out. Hopefully.

What about summer employment distortion? I'm sure it is not as noticeable over there, but in Spain tourism drives up employment during the summer significantly.

[DGuller]

oh yeah, I forgot.  Fannie mae and Freddy Mac are the type of institutions supported by Reagan. And so are laws like the Community Reinvestment Act that force lending to unqualified people. 

As usual, good job on pounding on the factors that are least responsible for the current meltdown.  Fannie and Freddy were an abomination, but they were much more of a victim of the meltdown rather than the root cause.  CRA was also ill-conceived in theory, but in practice greedy lenders issued far more garbage loans than CRA required.

Also, CRA does have a good function.  The moment someone mentions CRA as the reason for the meltdown, you can safely assume that they're blowhards with no critical thinking or interesting insights on the matter.