Umm... five months ago consumer confidence was at 54.3. June... of this year... 54.3... and it's now at 54.1. As the article states oh so elegantly:
It takes a level of 90 to indicate a healthy economy, which hasn't been approached since the recession began in December 2007.
Could it be that, even though the administration tried to make hay out of so-called rosy job-creation numbers for last month (it was the typical seasonal temp hiring), the truth is that the unemployment rate jumped to 9.8%.
In addition to that is the fact that 2 million more people have now run out of unemployment benefits... just before Christmas. These are benefits that were extended and extended to a full 99 weeks (normally, it lasts only 26 weeks). And these people are not included in the official 9.8% statistics.
Employers added a net total of only 39,000 jobs last month, a sharp decline from the 172,000 created in October, the Labor Department said Friday. The weakness was widespread. Retailers, factories, construction companies, financial firms and the government all cut jobs.
The disappointing figures caught economists off guard. They had predicted the addition of 150,000 jobs, based on a raft of positive reports that showed busier factories, rising auto sales and a good start to the holiday shopping season in November. Yet all that failed to translate into mass hiring.
One of the big surprises was the loss of 28,100 retail jobs last month despite signs of a busy holiday shopping season.
Manufacturing and durable goods are down, too. As HotAir states:
These numbers show an economy in stagnation, with no real momentum in any direction.
Stagnant economy... higher inflation... stag-flation... like Jimmy Carter in the late-70s. Why, it's Carter 2.0. Hmm... who could've predicted this? Way back in March of 2009. Even further back in November of 2008.
1 comment:
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