Bleak jobs data keep economy at center stage
Jobless rate spikes to 6.1%, pressuring candidates to address economy
By John W. Schoen
Senior producer
MSNBC
updated 8:53 a.m. PT, Fri., Sept. 5, 2008
A sharp and surprising jump in the unemployment rate reported Friday makes it likely the economy will remain front and center in a hotly contested presidential campaign just entering its final stage.
The unemployment rate in August jumped to 6.1 percent, the highest level in five years, from 5.7 percent in July, the government reported. Businesses cut 84,000 jobs — the eighth month in a row of shrinking payrolls.
The economy already was the No. 1 issue for voters, but the increase in the psychologically important jobless rate ensures both Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama will have to continue to address the nation’s economic troubles as they stump for votes over the next two months…
The end of the American dream?
Analysis
By Steve Schifferes
Economics reporter, BBC News websiteLast Updated: Monday, 4 September 2006, 08:02 GMT 09:02 UK
The US economy has been generating strong economic growth over the past few years as it has come out of recession.
After growing at more than 3% a year in 2004 and 2005, the pace picked up to a blistering 5.6% annual rate in the first quarter of this year – although the pace has since then slipped back to 2.9%.
So far, though, little of that growth has translated into the hands of the average worker, according to new research from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI)…
Note how wages grew with productivity before the neocon era. But after the neocons became entrenched, productivity continued to grow while wages did not. Wage “growth” was flat.
USA TODAY
Washington/Politics
By David Kiley, USA TODAY
Posted 6/10/2004 5:56 PM Updated 6/10/2004 11:05 PM
Fired air-traffic controller still feels the sting decades later
Reagan fired more than 11,000 air-traffic controllers in 1981 for staging an illegal strike. The move was a major blow to the power of labor unions.
Ron Taylor was fired by President Reagan 23 years ago. He’s still trying to get his job back.
Taylor, 57, of Stuart, Fla., was one of more than 11,000 air-traffic controllers fired by Reagan after they went on strike for higher wages and fewer hours on the stress-filled job. In 1993, President Clinton ended the “ban for life” Reagan had imposed on former members of the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Association, but Taylor and thousands of others weren’t rehired…
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2004-06-10-taylor-vignette_x.htm
The neocons don’t do “economies”. They do “wars”. But they don’t do anything to the level of “Hey ma, look what I can do!” Their speciality, cold wars, haven’t worked entirely right yet. In the 50’s, their arms race with the Soviet Union was only supposed to hurt the Soviet Union’s economy – but as neocon’s luck would have it, America’s economy was also hurt.
And today, neocons have found an American President who seems to take to wars as well as they do. America has had nuclear weapons for a long time, but it is unlikely that more than ONE American President has threatened WWIII.
America may need a “bean counter” to track the HOT and COLD wars in progress. And America’s economy today? It is a worse wreck than in the 50’s.
The neocons don’t do “economies” AND they don’t do “wars” too good either. And American labor?
America’s workers have known the wrath of the neocons.
Tags: 1981, air-traffic controller, American Dream, ban for life, barack obama, economy, fired, jobs data, john mccain, labor unions, president clinton, President Reagan, Productivity, ron taylor, unemployment, Wages, worker, WWIII
September 5, 2008 at 9:23 pm |
I hope we seriously hang someone for this.