Time to Panic (II)

[girl gone mad]

Time to Panic (II)
By Marshall Auerback

http://neweconomicperspectives.blogspot.com/2011/07/time-to-panic-ii.html

Today’s unemployment data suggests that we are experiencing something far worse than a mere “bump in the road”, as our President described it last month. In fact, if last month was the time to panic, as Stephanie Kelton argued http://neweconomicperspectives.blogspot.com/2011/06/time-to-panic-you-betcha.html">here, then today’s data should create real palpitations in the White House. This isn’t just a “bump,” but a fully-fledged New York City style pot hole.

First the headline number everyone looks at: non-farm payrolls. Up 18,000 in June, the increase was 100,000 less than expectations. In addition the prior two month payroll increases were revised down by -44,000 overall. That’s weak – but not terrible.

Dig a bit deeper into the data and it looks absolutely awful: The household measure of employment fell by -445,000. Okay, it’s a noisy number. But, as Frank Veneroso has pointed out to me in an email correspondence, this measure of employment which is never revised now shows no employment growth over the last five months and very negative employment growth over the last three.

But it gets worse: The work week was down one tenth. Overtime was down one tenth. The labor participation rate at 64.1% was the lowest since 1984. The broad U6 unemployment rate rose from 15.8% to 16.2%. In other words, as Frank suggested to me this morning, “many other employment indicators in this report confirm the deep disappointment in the payroll series and the much more negative message of the household series.”

http://neweconomicperspectives.blogspot.com/2011/07/time-to-panic-ii.html">more...

[ixion]

1. k/r

despite the 'stay on message' crew's best efforts to distract people from the truth.

[gateley]

2. And Boehner has the audacity to give a statement about

"where are the jobs" -- HOW many bills have the Dems introduced that were discarded by the Republicans?

They are truly vile human beings. I've no doubt the more jobs that are lost, the more we hurt, the more gleeful those jackals will be.

[mzmolly]

6. I'd continue the statement made by Boehner "where are the jobs the Bush tax cuts were supposed to

create?"

[RKP5637]

3. Our notion of how an economy should work is obsolete and we are

using corrective action tools that are inappropriate for the 21st century. The whole concept to what jobs are, how an economy works needs to be retooled for the 21st century, but there is so much greed and corruption in the US I have no idea how anything will get accomplished. As usual, it will probably take a total financial disaster before anything is accomplished.

[girl gone mad]

10. Unfortunately, our current administration is married to outmoded ways.

It's ironic just how resistant they are to change.

Congress is little better. I am guessing there are only a handful of representatives who truly understand matters of finance and economics.

[SlipperySlope]

4. Too much MOPE and not enough fixing the problem

MOPE = Management of Perception Economics

[RaleighNCDUer]

5. The double-dip gains momentum? nt

[OhioChick]

7. Bookmarked for later.

Thanks for posting.
:kick:

[hootinholler]

8. Panic is generally counterproductive

But good information nonetheless.

Thanks for posting.

-Hoot

[defendandprotect]

9. It was a depression at the start, it was a depression last August -- it's a depression now--!!

And I have to say, as long as we let Congress get away with this BS of letting

the FED make the decisions on the economy -- on unemployment -- on who to bail out

-- then I think we're going to get what we deserve!!

WTF is a private bank doing deciding on how high our unemployment should be?

Or whether or not we should have more stimulus?

Or anything else --

Our Congress should be making these decisions -- people we elect and who we can unelect!!