As Unemployment Spikes, Obama's Got a Bigger Problem Than the Debt Ceiling - Jon Nichols/TheNation

[WillyT]

As Unemployment Spikes, Obama's Got a Bigger Problem Than the Debt Ceiling
John Nichols - TheNation
July 8, 2011

<snip>

The big story out of Washington -- and rightly so -- is the debt-ceiling fight that President Obama seems to be coming very close to losing. If the president abandons his 2008 campaigvn promise to be an absolute defender of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, he will have very little indeed to run on in 2012. But that won't be what beats him.

Because the biggest story in America is a different one from the biggest story in Washington. Americans are not that into the debt-ceiling debate. Polling has suggested that less than a quarter of Americans are "closely following" the fight. Those numbers will rise a bit as the deadline gets closer and as the media hypes the issue.

The issue that Americans have been following closely, and will continue to follow straight through the 2012 election cycle, the issue that tops the polls on the list of concerns, isthe jobs crisis. Americans are worried about unemployment and underemployment. And on Friday they got a lot more worried. The Los Angeles Times headline was stark: "Dismal Jobs Report Shows Unemployment Rising to 9.2%." The New York Times headline was, if anything, bleaker: "Job Growth Falters Badly, Clouding Hopes for Recovery."

The 9.2 percent official unemployment rate -- up from 9.0 percent two months ago and 9.1 percent a month ago -- is only a pale shadow of the real rate. Categorized in official terms as the "U6" unemployment, the real rate includes the offically unemployed as well as Americans who are underemployed and those who have given up on the search for work. It stands at more than 16 percent nationally. And in depressed states, such as Michigan (which Obama carried handily in 2008 but where is approval ratings are now troublingly low), it is well over 20 percent.

The offical and the real unemployment rates are devastating. These numbers are some of the worst since the Great Depression. But they are not getting the response that high unemployment rates got from Democrats in the Depression era of other periods of economic downtown in the years since. President Obama and his team have never focused on job issues with the intensity that is needed. And, now,they are simply being ridiculous.

<snip>

More: http://www.thenation.com/blog/161863/unemployment-spikes-obamas-got-bigger-problem-debt-ceiling

:kick:

[Hell Hath No Fury]

1. But but but...

Mr. Plouffe said Americans will not be worried about the unemployment numbers come elecion 2012. :shrug: :puke:

[WillyT]

3. Yeah... That Comes Later In The Article, And Was Also Reported Here:

Link: http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/170117-plouffe-americans-wont-vote-on-unemployment-rate

And of course, here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x1436776

:D

:hi:

[Skink]

2. Vote Romney

the only alternative.

[OHdem10]

9. Disillusioned Voters often just do nots vote.

[senseandsensibility]

4. and now they are simply being ridiculous

Yes, I agree. The administration is being ridiculous. But the results won't be funny.

[Renew Deal]

5. Going up a 10th of a percent is an "unemployment spike?"

[leveymg]

8. It was below 8 percent in January 2009. The problem is chronic, structural unemployment

and the increasing signs of a double-dip coming. The stim may have knocked one-percent or so off the rate, but the economy has not rebounded in any fundamental way. Here's the BLS graph since 01-09:


See: (h)ttp://tradingeconomics.com/charts/united-states-unemployment-rate.png

[daa]

13. You're kidding right?

Work week down, wages down, and this "The Labor Department’s survey of households showed that the so-called participation rate -- those who are working or looking for work -- fell back to 64.1% of the working-age population. That is the lowest since March 1984, and reflects in part the weak hiring but also despair among many workers that they’ll be able to gain meaningful productive employment."

Obama is saying is isn't bad and getting better and Boner is beating HIM up for the jobs. WTF are you and Obama thinking??

[Renew Deal]

14. What else happened in 1984?

:think:

[xchrom]

6. Recommend

[leveymg]

7. The Obama Admin.'s focus has not been jobs. They largely accept high structural unemployment.

Their real concern is bonds ratings and liquidity of markets. They're Wall Street quants and lawyers and are applying the same policy framework as IMF economists who have been restructuring indebted countries for decades: reduce public spending and employment, privatize services, boost foreign investment and exports.

To bring structural unemployment down, the USG would have to force the global banks and U.S.-based multinationals to repatriate capital and reinvest in employment-creating activities in the U.S. There is an unwillingness to carry out such a confrontation or to apply sufficient pressure.

The Administration isn't really that concerned about rising unemployment - to some, unemployment is a good thing, as it keeps domestic consumption, wages, and demand inflation down, which means that interest rates can stay so low that the Fed Reserve can continue subsidizing the banks and multinationals with negative-interest loans.

I would respect this Administration a lot more if they simply came out and admitted what they're real economic and trade priorities are, how they expect to achieve them, and what they think will be the outcome.

[RedCloud]

10. And our troops engage in bogus wars to keep those number from going even higher.

[Better Believe It]

11. K & R

[wiggs]

12. Jobs IS one of the ways to address the deficit, Medicare, SS. I don't know

why stagnant wages, declining middle class jobs, income inequality, and unemployment aren't discussed more as significant factors in deficit and funding problems.

Jobs issue is integral to our economic plight as a nation (not to mention the impact on individuals) yet the only tools that get discussed right now are spending cuts and tax increases. Job creation is a much more important tool. Yet...there are 500,000 fewer govt employees now than in 2009...so not only are we not creating large programs to create jobs and not only are we hamstringing efforts to help business (ie dilution of healthcare reform, looming trade treaties), but we are actively cutting jobs in the public sector to make things worse.