Friday, August 7, 2009

Bad news is good news again

get a job

Alright, take a breath and relax a little. Instead of last month when bad job news was bad news, we're back to the situation we were in two months ago when bad job news was good news. Excitement! So feel less depressed while you're standing in a soup kitchen line. At this rate, things will be back to normal in about five years. So I'm going to need you to imagine a picture of a cute cat hanging on to a branch with the words "Hang in there baby" superimposed.
The unemployment rate fell to 9.4 percent as the U.S. economy shed 247,000 jobs in July, the government announced on Friday morning. The drop -- the first in 15 months -- comes as a surprise; economists had expected the rate to rise to as high as 9.7 percent.

By a broader measure that includes people who've given up looking for work or who can't find full-time jobs, the unemployment rate fell to 16.3 percent, down from 16.5 percent in June.

The number of long-term unemployed -- people who've gone without a job for 27 weeks or longer -- rose by 584,000 to 5 million, from 4.4 million in June.
For those of you keeping track this is also the 100th consecutive month that "economists" have gotten their prediction wrong. They're like the Joe DiMaggio of bad predictions. Every month is either below or above their predictions.But aside from that: what is being blamed for all this 'less bad' that we've been blessed with? Socialism. Good old fashioned stimulating socialism. Just take a bog whiff of the aroma coming off these numbers. You smell that? It's Scandinavia.

But all is not 'bad but good', somethings are just bad. The way things are going over 1.5 million Americans will have exhausted their unemployment benefits by the end of the year. What is the plan after that? Well some professional numbers boys have called for another stimulus. And after laughter subsided over the thought of Congress being able to actually address the problems facing this country in a timely and adult manner, they assured everyone that they were in fact serious. Sorry Krugman, America's elected betters have focused on our path with laser focus. It's called Japan's Lost Decade, you might want to read up on it.

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