Burnt Orange Report

Drudge headlines yesterday:

"Stocks Jump; S&P 500 Hits 18-Month High "

"Factories Hum, Construction Booms"

"Manufacturers hit 20-year record pace"

More evidence of Dubya's legacy of BS

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/03/national/03HOUS.html?hp

Oh the rich are getting richer no suprise there under Americas Ceo in chief.While waiting in the doctors office i read an old newsweak mag saying that something like only two thirds the amount of high school students have jobs this summer as opposed to last year because the amount of adults who have them now thanks to layoffs.
I have a neighbor who is like an assitant manager or something at target and said that their business has been improving since the economy has been going bad because people are shopping at target and walmart instead of pricey-er department stores.I also would immangine that alot of the things that are keeping middle class america afloat are credit card debt second morgatages and low or no interest rates.

We're seeing a bump in production with the top 5% spending some of Bush's payoff to them and from all the borrowing we're doing to finance the the war. Building boom = building things that go "BOOM!"

Bush's incompetence is most apparent in his economic approach. Trickle down economics and de-regulation didn't work under Reagan and it's not working for Bush. We're in our 21st or 22nd month of "recovery" now, with no increase in jobs.

You'd have to go back to Hoover's administration to find as great a loss of jobs as during Bush's term. Something's seriously out of whack and Bush has failed miserably. Again.

We're in our 21st or 22nd month of "recovery" now, with no increase in jobs.

You need to expand your reading beyond Atrios propaganda.

Economists expect the Labor Department's nonfarm payrolls report, due at 8:30 a.m. EST on Friday, to show the U.S. economy created 150,000 new jobs -- up from a previous estimate of 135,000 -- in November, after an unexpectedly healthy 126,000 rise in October.

You'd have to go back to Hoover's administration to find as great a loss of jobs as during Bush's term.

That tiresome, unfounded talking point (without regard to the relative size of the economy in 1929 and 2003) will soon be irrelevant in any case.

Exactly what makes the remark about job loss unfounded? If anything, unemployment is worse than reported because not only do the unemployment figures not include those whose unemployment benefits end without their having jobs but the unemployment numbers are also shaved by projecting unreported job openings.

I work in telecom (our customers are telecom companies), and I am glad to hear the improved numbers in some areas of our economy. But, frankly, they don't mean a whole lot. True, there's now talk about purchases and business investments. But it ain't really happening. And no one's seeing any sign of that supposed 2003-2004 recovery, either, in telecom.

I don't have to look at the suspect statistics. I see what's happening to people. And it's hardly good. Our engineering group was cut to 1/4 of what it was 3 years ago (even moreso for the rest of the company). Since we hired people that we know, it's easy to keep in touch: Only 3 of some 30 engineers and techs have comparable jobs. The others are either still unemployed or are making little of what they had before. Many ran through much of what remained of their 401k's.

The job gains that you mentioned are themselves suspect because many are government related jobs and others are not permanent. And as a recovery goes, these are very weak employment numbers. They will hardly any criticisms irrelevant any time soon.

Of course, I don't expect someone as honest and diligent as Drudge to note the declining value of the U.S. dollar, the budget deficits, and the growing trade deficits. How about the concerns of overseas investment in U.S. bonds to help finance that deficit?

The talk about outsourcing IT and engineering to outside the U.S. isn't just a bugaboo. When IBM talks about accelerating outsourcing, I think there's good reason to suspect that many people are not going to recover their former incomes, in much the same way that many industrial workers from the 80s never recovered theirs.

These are certainly good numbers (that I read and heard about before the Drudge reference), but anyone who starts calling this a "robust" recovery is foolish, as the chief economist at Morgan Stanley points for good reasons to suspect the good numbers. We have seen better than average GDP gains since Dec 1999 that failed to be the start of a trend.

This president has shown little interest in creating jobs. At least be honest about that.

Who-trios?

That tiresome, unfounded talking-point is all over the web including this National Review article.

If job growth continues at the same rate as the past two months, Bush'll still be in hole in providing jobs come election day 2004.

And let's not forget that bankruptcy filings were up and that personal debt is nearly three times what it was in the 90s.

my neighbor who works at target also told me that alot of their new employers are laidoff people. Gee you go from making alot of money working with computers and getting respect to wearing a name tag and being bossed around by teenagers and twentysomethings

Mark --

(1) DId I say that there weren't jobs being created? No, I said the jobs being created were lower-paying and not as satisfying.

(2) 150,000 new jobs is barely enough to keep up with the expansion of the workforce. It isn't going to make a serious dent in the actual rate of unemployment. A bigger numerator doesn't mean much if the denominator is getting bigger too.

(3) 150,000 jobs created versus nearly 3 million lost? Hmm...

(4) One quarter of good economic news does not a good economy make. Frankly, I think the signs are pretty clear that the growth in Q3 was caused by inflationary fiscal and monetary policy that cannot be sustained given the federal budget deficit, the zero-percent Fed interest rates, and rumors about the Euro being devalued and/or Euro currency controls. The thing about our current policies (easy credit, deficit spending, weak dollars, tariffs tariffs tariffs) is that its like fuel that gets increasingly volatile the more it gets used. And eventually we're either going to have to cut off the supply or its going to explode in our face.

Let's not forget that there were quarters during the Great Depression where you'd get great economic numbers like this, only to see them wiped out a quarter or a year later.

I'm rather bearish about the macro-economy in the medium to long term, because I strongly believe that the wrong choices are being made in the short-term. Maybe I'm wrong, and when the time comes, we'll see.

i read that onion piece i know it is supposed to be fake but you know what even the bush 04 campaign is stealing jobs from americans the republican party is using telemarketers in India to fundraise

The BBC on the recently released unemployment statistics...

US jobs growth remains sluggish

The US economy added a lower than expected 57,000 new jobs during November, official figures have shown.
Analysts had been hoping for a higher figure after recent data indicated the economy was gaining strength.
The US unemployment rate fell to 5.9% last month - the lowest rate for eight months - from 6% in October.
The weak jobs figure helped the euro to reach another all-time high against the dollar of $1.2169, before the currency fell back to $1.2166.

Something seldom talked about here is the administration's "weak dollar" policy, the lame tactic it's using to boost trade.
Unfortunately, making the dollar weaker makes it less attractive to foreign investors whose euros, pounds, yen, and francs are needed to finance the soaring deficits caused by GOP tax giveaways to Americans making more than $200,000 a year. If some unexpected event spooks the world financial markets, there could be a run on the dollar which only a large and sudden boost in interest rates would halt. Such an abrupt rise in rates would trigger a major recession or even a depression.

It's a good thing the Flightsuit-in-Chief got some practice serving turkey over Thanksgiving. That will make it easier for him to get one of those low wage, dead end jobs in the food service industry when he's looking for work on January 21, 2005!