This is a great blog post from last year. Not only can you learn how

[jtuck004]

to qualify as a political pundit, learn about bond yields, how Bill Clinton left us
an economy, what W took away, how increasing the deficit likely won't raise interest rates for some time,
how Obama's spending has not been responsible for much of our existing deficit at all (at the time, anyway),
but why we need to focus on jobs. Especially why we need to focus on jobs.

Some may have read this, but it takes on new meaning in the light of the new Catfood Commission just ordered, aka the Fiscal Responsibility Commission. It's just chock full of people with a history of wanting to cut benefits and social security. Some have suggested that if these people have their way we may have more people eating cat food. At least that is my take on the opinion here: http://fdlaction.firedoglake.com/2010/05/10/obama-packs-debt-committee-with-supportes-of-social-security-benefit-cuts-and-privatization/


The article follows here. Maybe it's worth a re-read?

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From: http://daggatt.blogspot.com/2009/11/deficit.html

Deficits vs Unemployment

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The first chart is the yield on the 30-year Treasury bond:

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Now for the second chart: The rate of job loss during the current Great Recession compared with the rate of loss in all previous post-WWII recessions: (Note: Lowest it's been in years, incredibly cheap money to run the government on)

The unemployment rate, at 10.2%, is the highest it has been since the Great Depression. By the broader measure that includes the underemployed and those who have dropped out of the labor force, it is 17.5%. And we continue to shed jobs. (Check out this fascinating time-lapse map showing the increase in unemployment by county by month since the Great Recession began two years ago.)

There you have it, aspiring pundits. Can you guess which is the alarming crisis: a/ the ability of the US government to finance its debt, or, b/ unemployment?

If you guessed, “a/ the ability of the US government to finance its debt,” congratulations! You, too, could be a political pundit for the New York Times, Wall Street Journal or any number of other publications or networks.

<snip>

Samuelson cites Japan as an example of government debt out of control, which actually disproves his alarmist rhetoric – Japan’s government debt has increased to over 200% of its GDP (about three times the US level) while the interest rate on its 10 year bonds has actually decreased from over 7% in 1990 to 2.1% now.

<snip>

To recap, the deficit came in $223 billion higher than projected, but spending was
$28 billion and revenues were $251 billion less than expected. Thus we can conclude that more than 100 percent of the increase in the deficit since January is accounted for by lower revenues. Not one penny is due to higher spending. (Note: under Obama)


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(Note: Below this is a chart of the shortfall in state budgets. It's already worse than what was predicted when he wrote this in November - the link will take you to an updated chart.)

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The article is long, but juicy, and includes links to several papers and posts worth reading.

Just remember as we are told that we have to cut the deficit there are (at least) 27 million people unemployed or underemployed, with indications that it is getting worse. Even if unemployment were cut off today and as many took jobs as they could, both full and part time, wages would decrease and only about 1 in every 8 would be employed. And only 211 shopping days left till Christmas.