US Recession: What’s Really Behind the Economic Data
You just can’t keep a good economy down. At least, that’s what you think upon reading the headlines this weekend.
“Fears of double-dip recession recede,” was the headline in The Financial Times.
Why the receding fear?
The private sector created 235,000 new jobs in the past three months, the paper explained.
And here’s the “good news” report from Bloomberg:
Companies in the US added more jobs than forecast in August, easing concern the world’s largest economy is sliding back into a recession.
As private payrolls that exclude government agencies climbed 67,000, after a revised 107,000 increase in July that was more than initially estimated, Labor Department figures showed today. Overall employment fell 54,000 for a second month and the unemployment rate rose to 9.6 percent as more people entered the labor force. The median estimate of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News called for a gain of 40,000.
Wait a minute. The economy needs 120,000 jobs per month just to keep up with population growth.
Okay…okay… Let’s not quibble about that. The census workers got dumped back onto the unemployment rolls, “causing overall payrolls to fall by 54,000” and the unemployment rate to jump from 9.5% to 9.6%.
Hmmm… Let’s get this straight. Unemployment went up, right? Right.
There are fewer people working now than there were three months ago, right? Right.
And the number of jobless people is still growing too, right? Right.
All of which prompted Mr. Obama, in a moment of candor, to admit that “there’s no quick fix…”
He should have said there’s no fix at all coming from the feds. The economy has to fix itself. But nobody seems ready for that level of candor. Transparency, yes. But still, draw the curtain behind the actors… Let voters see the farce…not the dirty dealings and incompetence backstage.
And now… the rest of the story. …..
Harold
