Slashdot Mirror
Last Pre-Election Jobs Report Released
September's jobs report notes a gain of 96,000 jobs, and a downward revision for August from 144,000 to 128,000. The unemployment rate held steady at 5.4% (about even to Nixon's and Clinton's when they were reelected), while another 236,000 jobs were added in a periodic revision to the total, leaving Bush at a deficit of 585,000 jobs from where he started. If he averages 150,000 jobs for the last four months of his term, he will net positive job growth. The effects of the recent hurricanes were not possible to determine at this point, the report said. This will surely be featured prominently in tonight's second Presidential debate (starting at 9 p.m. Eastern).
The rest of us with jobs will just decide our canidate based upon other issues.
/. is a bunch of nerds at a million typewriters. It's not a political conspiracy determined to undermine your beliefs.
Uh, no. Since you need about 150,000 jobs added each month just to keep up with a growing population, if he averages 150,000 jobs for the last four months of his term he will merely tread water. At this point, there is absolutely no chance that Bush can avoid being the first president since Hoover in the Great Depression to have had fewer jobs at the end of his term than when he began. With a growing population, that ain't easy to do. Just keep up with the population growth and you will wind up with more jobs at the end of four years. Which is why through recession after recession over the last seventy years no other president has managed to pull off such a shoddy record on job growth.
Naturally whatever the number is, it gets trumpeted by the incumbent. "96,000 new jobs were added last month! That shows my economic policies are working!" Garbage. It shows that the job market is going backward, not even keeping up with equilibrium.
War is a good stimulant as it pulls more out of people for a brief time, and it jump starts the war-industry establishment. But, over a long period of time, like line after line of coke, it starts doing damage. There is nothing really profitably "produced" in war - it just lays the ground with destruction to start rebuilding.
Mr. Bush has accomplished the impossible. He has declared "endless" war, destroyed so much of the infrastructure that rather than being a stimulant for reconstruction, it is a depressant to see the needless devastation. Best of all, Mr. Bush has made so many "friends" that the next step where you profit from war is impossible in Iraq. And other than polarizing the country he has achieved nothing. It is fitting that he goes down in history as the mantle-bearer of Herbert Hoover.
It is not easy for a single peorson to gut the economy. But Mr. Bush with his neocon and tax-cut loving buddies has achieved the impossible. Here's cheers to the endless wars!
To see a world in a grain of sand, and then to step back and see the beach where the sand lies
I know, realistically they just are. People expect the President to "handle the economy".
But it's stupid. The President has no control over the unemployment rate. All he can do is ask Congress to lower taxes or let them raise taxes. Maybe he can give a speech.
The rest is cyclical. From where I'm sitting the economy is doing fine, even though the government still takes too much money out of it.
If I lost my job, I wouldn't blame the President, I'd blame the bum in the mirror.
sigs, as if you care.
The Dot-Com stuff hurt the stock market, but I think that the Y2K IT spending spree where most companies upgraded equipment a bit out of cycle and the subsequent drop in demand after January 1 started the recession. The attacks of 9/11 hurt the economy even more. It's amazing that those two events didn't spiral into a worldwide depression like what happened in the 1930's.
A fine is a tax you pay for doing wrong and a tax is a fine you pay for doing all right.
What about the devastating effect that the 9/11 attacks had on the Airlines and Travel industry (and thus related industries)?? Is that Bush's fault? The job numbers were certainly affected by that.
Also remember that it takes time to recover. For some irrational reason, people expect the economy to stabalize and grow overnight. It just doesn't happen that way. I'm certainly no economist, but to believe that our economy can be turned around in an instant in the wake of events like 9/11 and our current involvement in war, is simply wishful thinking. And let's not ignore that unemployment figures are at a 20-year low...
My mom always said, "Jim, you're 1 in a million." Given the current population, there are 7000 of me. God help us all!
Putting aside the useless comment. In a nation with a GDP of nearly 11 Trillion Dollars what exact impact do you thing 120 Billion would have?Seriously I have heard Kerry say he would use that money to provide health care, college education, more on homeland security (the name still gives me the willies). The fact is for all the Vietnam comparisions the amount of mony being spent on this war is *nothing*.
What about the immense budget deficit (spending what you don't have, essentially)? I suppose that has no effect on the economy too.
Hey who exactly spends the money again?? oh yea thats right congress... And how did the democrats vote on the tax cut? well it passed 92-3 in the senate.
Of defecit spending is on par with western nations in Europe. I agree is troublesome and I would love a balanced Budget amendment but neither party will let that happen..
But I asked what the President could do, not the government as a whole.
You're right, this situation is not just the president's fault.
Responsibility lies with the Republican-controlled Congress, the Republican-controlled Senate, and the president.
Remember to vote against all three.
If bush doesn't deserve to be bashed, why did you predict it yourself?
It's not really a prediction at this point...nearly any newspaper you pick up, or any Democrat you listen to, openly blames Bush for the economy and job loss. It's partisan rhetoric, since there's very little effect presidential actions have on the economy until at least half way through their term. Their economic policies and budgets don't go into affect until almost a year after they're elected.
That being said, this is the 13th consecutive month of net job gain.
--trb
I am hiring Bush for a job. He is going to go take care of the terrorist problem
so that I don't have to worry about that so much.
The President has had nearly a term in office since the Sept. 11th outrage.
If you think the degree to which he has removed the
terrorist problem is acceptable then you should vote
for him.
If, however, you believe that during his term he
should have been able to utterly destroy Al Quida
then I'd like to suggest an alternative
Al Quida is still in existence.
Q.E.D.