Get a job

The hits just keep on coming. Sure, the economy is super great, what with profits on the rise, GDP shrinkage stopped, and banks and financial institutions feeling free to return to deeply dangerous and arcane financial instruments that they don't understand and leverage them into economy killing ways in an attempt to gain short term profits again. But one tiny, niggling little indicator refuses to make any improvements, despite the economy being both being radical and tubular: the assholes in the economy. They're all still jobless.

The American economy lost 263,000 jobs in September — far more than expected — and the unemployment rate rose to 9.8 percent, the government reported on Friday, dimming prospects of any meaningful job growth by the end of the year.

The Labor Department’s monthly snapshot of unemployment dashed hopes that the pace of job losses would continue to slow as the economy clawed its way back from a deep recession. Economists had expected 175,000 monthly job losses.

“People have been celebrating that we’re through the financial crisis, but the underlying issues are all still there,” said Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research. “We’ve lost trillions of dollars in housing wealth, and consumption’s going to be weak. It’s not the ’30s, but there’s really nothing to boost the economy.”

What's that, the 900th straight month economists haven't predicted job losses/gains correctly? Don't make any trips to Vegas, fellas. But if that wasn't bad enough, it seems we're back to that problem we had earlier where America is trying to enjoy its lovely Victorian garden party and some asshole economists are trying to point out the corpse pile near the cucumber sandwiches. If Dean Baker's gainsaying wasn't bad enough, Paul Krugman's back at it again, wearing his Nobel around his neck and blabbing on an on about "don't get cocky kid", "mission not accomplished", "the wolves of complacency will feast on the guts of the lamb of recovery", and "isn't my beard so great." It is, but that's beside the point.

Their solution? More stimulus, because spending the money now will cost us less in the long run. Yeah, I'm sure the Congress that couldn't get it right the first time when things were worse will get around to forming a competent new stimulus plan any day now. Right. Besides, the first one took care of their corporate masters, why would they need to do one to shore up the job market? Everyone else just has to muddle through 10% unemployment, while pundits talk about no one having jobs as "the one black mark on an otherwise great recovery." Not even a black mark, light gray at worst.