Unemployment Figures Improving?
By5.8.09
The unemployment numbers came out:
They appear to be (those famous words) “better than expected.” The number was 539,000 new jobless claims. However, the past two months were revised downward both times by about 30,000 and the government hired 71,000. Now, add the 30,000 to 539,000 and the 71,000 people that are certainly wasting more than the money the president will save by axing that literacy program, and we have real job losses in my back of the envelope calculation of 640,000.
And the stock market, which is much stupider than the bond market (meaning those that buy stocks and analysts in charge of stock research are not as diligent as bond researchers in my opinion) pops on this news while bonds rise too (bonds would fall if bond analysts felt these were good numbers because of possible inflation that accompanies an economic rebound – I am writing this Friday AM premarket).
If you count part timers and those who gave up looking (what the heck kind of figure is this? Is there a government “job” available for these guys?), the unemployment rate is almost 16%!!! With all said and done, government deficits will rise as fewer tax revenues come in and we spend more on increased government workers.
Of course, to fix this, we can do as England did – raise taxes to 50% on the highest income earners- genius! No they won’t leave the country they’ll stay right there to help fund important government programs such as eyebrow clipping services for Alistair Darling.
Chris Grande
