January 7, 2014

Inexplicable Republican Opposition To Extending Unemployment Benefits

Okay, I did say it’s inexplicable, but let me take a stab at it anyway. Republicans are opposed to extending unemployment insurance because it does not solve the problem of joblessness. Fair enough, I can agree unemployment benefits do not lead directly to job creation, but that itself is not a reason to deny people those benefits. It’s not like jobs aren’t being created because unemployment insurance is a thing.

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September 28, 2013

CHART: Minimum Wage vs. Unemployment Rate, 1948 – 2012

Most Americans believe the minimum wage should be increased. It would make good economic sense, and it would help pull people out of poverty. But many Republicans in Washington say this is a non-starter because raising the minimum wage would be a job killer. But how do we know this is true? Should we just take their word for it? And come to think of it, calling something a job killer seems to be the boilerplate Republican response to just about anything these days, including Obamacare and raising taxes. Republicans aren’t lying to us, are they?

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October 5, 2012

Jack Welch And The ‘Unemployment Truthers’

Jack WelchAfter the Labor Department released the September job numbers, revealing the unemployment rate dropped to 7.8% (below 8% for the first time during Obama’s presidency), the right-wing lunatic asylum kicked into full-bore conspiracy mode. First we had “9/11 truthers, ” then we had “birth certificate truthers (birthers),” then just last week we had “poll truthers,” and now this week we have “unemployment truthers,” led by former GE CEO Jack Welch.

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September 10, 2012

Fox News Narrative: President Obama Made The Economy Worse

Is that true, or did you hear it on Fox News? - image by Occupy PostersI’m not interested in fulfilling a narrative, I want to gets facts correct, but I will admit that I have biases like anyone else. However, I don’t consider politics to be a game like some do. Maybe I could be blamed for taking things too seriously but this country faces challenging issues and hard facts matter. The truth matters.

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August 4, 2012

If government was willing, the unemployment rate could be as low as 5%

Another month end, another jobs report. On Friday we received the numbers for August and it was both good news and bad news for President Obama. The good news is that the economy added 163,000 jobs in July which was well above analyst expectations. The bad news is that the unemployment rate ticked up from 8.2% to 8.3%. That small of a change in the unemployment rate (in either direction) isn’t really significant, but the unemployment rate could be several whole points lower by now if government did what it always does in a bad economy: spend money.

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April 6, 2012

‘Only’ 120,000 Jobs Added In March, But Public Sector Job Losses Continue To Shrink

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that 120,000 jobs were added to the U.S. economy in March. This is the 15th straight month of job gains when combining public and private sector. It is the 25th straight month of private sector job growth. The unemployment rate dropped from 8.3% to 8.2% but this was largely due to people dropping out of the labor market. The breakdown for March is 121,000 private sector jobs added and 1000 public sector jobs lost.

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