How did Sherlock Holmes put it? “When you have eliminated the impossible…”
No. Obama made a tactical error by not asking for a $1.5 trillion stimulus package, which is 3/4 of what the situation called for, though he didn’t know it at the time. In the end, Olympia Snowe (R) cut $100 billion from aid to states and localities, which were some of the most efficient forms of stimulus proposed (highest multipliers). So we got only ~800 billion, less than half of what we needed.
Obama also should have proposed better people for the Federal Reserve. When we faced depression, it was a crisis. But 8% unemployment isn’t considered a big deal, which is an outrage.
I agree. Saint Cad has been hit hard with a 2x4, but I doubt whether he will consider supporting textbook economics. So fuck him. It’s not karma though, it’s just the Republican Party.
Fact: the economy has improved, and not in a merely marginal way. It is also, however, still awful in a postwar sense.
But just because you lost your job now, doesn’t mean the economy isn’t expanding.
Here are some good charts of the existing situation. See especially the last one to get a sense of the horror. Look at the first one to see the immediate beneficial effects of the stimulus package. Calculated Risk: March Employment Report: 120,000 Jobs, 8.2% Unemployment Rate The hole Obama inherited was exceptionally deep. Unfortunately, he also inherited an exceptionally viciously partisan Republican Party. You can see that in the record number of cloture votes they supported, in addition to the way they blocked executive appointments --without ideological objection-- even to the US treasury during the worst financial crisis in post war history. Chart here: Pushback on False Equivalence and the Filibuster - The Atlantic
Props for teaching math though.
I’m really fucking sick of this pseudo-gotcha “I read half a magazine article” analysis of the unemployment rate. It’s stupid, and you’re stupid. You’re not breaking new ground, you’re not telling anyone with half a brain something they don’t already know, and your tax lady’s anecdotes aren’t fucking data.
They already measure what you’re thinking about, discouraged workers, marginal workers, underemployed workers, in addition to the traditional unemployed. Look it up, and quit being a fucking moron.
Here’s a handy dandy website that has all the various unemployment rates, right up to the March figures, so you can see their historical averages, the run up to the Great Recession during Bush’s presidency, and where it’s going right now (hint… it’s down).
False. The unemployment statistics are derived from a monthly telephone survey. Whoever told you this is a bad source of information. Or maybe you just jumped to a conclusion.
I blame chowderheads who think that their folksy economics has anything to do with reality. Hey, I don’t pontificate about chemistry and I wade into physics threads with great hesitancy.
Put in another way: what do you want Obama to do? Balance the budget? We tried that approach in the mid 1930s and the economy had a seizure. It is the exact opposite of what is required during recession, at least according to college level textbook economics.
No, what they cling to is folk economics, which is to say crackpot stuff.
Heh. That’s what Tim Geitner thought in 2008 – then Lehman collapsed and took the economy with it. The investment bank oligarchy has the rest of us by the balls: if you want to change that situation, it must be via boring reform and not during a crisis. As it is, the Republicans fought the very watered down Graham/Dodd with tooth, nail, ax and club.
ETA: What Cheesesteak said. Oh, and every critique of the unemployment rate, uses the statistics of these guys anyway.
Damn, Stink Fish Pot, but I just did not realize how ignorant you are. Bummer. I do have hope you might educate yourself, but if you have not yet done so, why would anything change.
The one hope I do have is that this is a very empirical matter. You can look for yourself. The data is readily available. Some of the stuff, like why the stimulus was not bigger, is a matter of some debate, but otherwise…
This is word for word what I should have written were it not in the Pit.
Congratulation on being work-free. Work sucks. Take the time off to enjoy life until you have to enter the rat race again.
Nothing that stonger unions, 299 weeks of unemployment, and the new “un-earned no-income credit” won’t fix. Keep voting Democrat baby!
These two statements are not mutually exclusive.
House burned, fire’s smoldering… time for another splash of Raging Elephant® brand gasoline!
The Earned Income Tax Credit was enacted under Gerald Ford (R) with bipartisan support, and expanded under Ronald Reagan (R), with bipartisan support. I know the concept of bipartisanship is foreign to you, but there was a time, a long time ago, when Republicans based their policies on what was good for the country as a whole, instead of what was good for the special interests to whom they owed fealty.
I will always love you.
This thread is so multi-faceted. We’ve got Cad biting the hand that feeds him, Magellan screaming at clouds and taking liberal dictionaries to task, and SFP stumbling in and incoherently shitting all over himself.
Cad, I hope you see your way through this. Although, it would be nice if you learned that the people you vote for caused it. And because of the misinformation you believe is true, you have been thanking them for it.
Mostly the OP and the talking heads at Fox News and talk radio and thier followers, who all believe in the God-like powers of Obama to personally affect everthing in the country.
Note to OP: the next time you community wants to reaise property taxes, vote “YES”. That was what was paying your salary.
My favorite part of the OP is where he offered alternative policies to the ones Obama enacted.
A search for posts where Saint Cad uses the term “Norquist” reveals no posts.
A similar search of his posts using the word “Obama” makes it clear that he never wanted President Obama in the office, and suggests that in his opinion every economic policy action President Obama ever took was wrong.
P.S. Good luck with your upcoming job search, Saint Cad.
Isn’t it ironic that someone who names himself Saint would complain about messianic reverence for Obama? Or is that just jealousy?
standing ovation
I’m pretty sure the below would qualify one as an “economic douche.”
[QUOTE=Saint Cad]
Despite what Obamaites think, Keynesian economics is far from a proven economic theory so I’ll see your spending during a recession and raise you the supply-side economics that got us out of the stagflation of the 1970’s and early 80’s recession.
Also, one argument against social welfare programs is that it does nothing to promote revenue-generating infrastructure. The Republicans would argue that giving $10,000 to a business in tax break generates jobs and capital improvements while giving it to single mothers generates income for Colombian drug-lords as they buy crack with their welfare checks.
It may be the case that borrowing money is needed as an occassional stop-gap measure like paying for a war or a stimulus package but borrowing continually to make up a deficit as a normal course of business is a recipe for eventual disaster.
[/QUOTE]