Historic Drop In Stock Market: OPEN THREAD

 

The US $ is dropping fast. I understand Obama is skidish about leading right now since he is way over his head and has scewed up everything he has touched. But he need to stop feeling sorry for himself and stop drownding himself in his re-election campaigning. Doing nothing is worse then leading to the left,right or middle. Our country is at one of it's weakest times and Obama is acting like an immature child.

Weather we like it or not we need a leader that at least apperse to be strong and in control. He is the only president we have right now. Hidding his head in the sand and leading from behind will only make us weak and varnerable to our enemies, whoever they may be. Obama must put forward plannes that are comprehensive and have been proven effective in the past. Now is not the time to be trying to prove some proffesor in the Ivy Leagues theories right or wrong. Doing more of the same only adds to our debt and will not work, nor has it ever worked.

 

Half Million More Jobs Lost

We have lost another half million jobs this month. This recession is not getting better like the Democrats promised. We paid a lot of money to end this recession and we are hemorrhaging jobs every month since the Stimulus and other jobs bills. We have yet to see a month were we have gained jobs. Even the worse recessions end at some point in time,usually in less then 18 months. When the Democrats let the tax cuts expire and we are all paying more in taxes do you think that will help or hurt the jobs market? If you think it will help then you need help. But what do you expect the employers to do when they are faced with the most anti-business and anti-employment administration in our lifetime? This admin. has made it hard for those "rich fat cat" employers to keep doing business in this country. And since this admin has taken office they have made everything but main street employment their focus. This admin has given added costs in health insurance that is being trickled down to the employee or consumer. But the left keep blaming Bush and the Republican Party even though Bush has been gone for almost  years now and Congress has been run by the Democratic Party for almost years now. When will enough be enough and when will this admin and the Democratic Party take responsibility for what they are doing to our economy? We told the left that this would happen. The left told us they would make things better. Who do you believe now? But the Democrats will offer more unemployment benefits to the unemployed while the Republican will offer a change in coarse so that the private sector can start to create jobs again without fear of reprisal from the government. At some point in time the unemployed will realize their is no such thing as free money for their vote. If you want a job then you need to vote against everyone that is in office now. Because that is the only way we will get the change we need to create jobs in this country again.

Where Are Those Jobs You Democrats Promised??????Didn't Obama Lie About 8% or Lower Unemployment?????? I Know It's Still Bush's Fault And The Republican Minority Running The Country.

In this photo taken on Wednesday, Dec. 30,2009, Nick Ayrom, from Glendale, Calif., a former high school teacher, looks for technology related jobs on a computer terminal at the Verdugo Job Center on Wednesday, Dec. 30, 2009. in Glendale, Calif. The number of newly laid-off workers filing claims for unemployment benefits dropped unexpectedly last week, a sign the job market is healing as the economy slowly recovers.(AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of newly-laid off workers seeking jobless benefits unexpectedly rose last week, as the economy recovers at a slow and uneven pace.

Layoffs have slowed and the economy began to grow in last year's third quarter, but companies are reluctant to hire new workers. The unemployment rate is 10 percent and many economists expect it to increase in the coming months.

The Labor Department said Thursday that initial claims for unemployment insurance rose by 36,000 to a seasonally adjusted 482,000. Wall Street economists expected a small drop, according to Thomson Reuters.

The four-week average, which smooths fluctuations, rose for the first time since August, to 448,250.

The weekly claims figure is volatile and it can take time for trends to emerge. A Labor Department analyst said that much of the increase last week was due to administrative backlogs leftover from the winter holidays in the state agencies that process the claims.

Claims have dropped steadily since last fall, as companies cut fewer jobs. That has caused some economists to hope that hiring may increase soon. Initial claims have dropped by 50,000, or almost 10 percent, since late October.

Still, the economy is not consistently generating net increases in jobs. The Labor Department said earlier this month that employers cut 85,000 jobs in December, after adding only 4,000 in November. November's increase was the first in nearly two years.

Many economists say the four week average of claims will need to fall to below 425,000 to signal that the economy is close to generating net job gains.

Meanwhile, the number of people continuing to claim regular benefits dropped slightly to just under 4.6 million. The continuing claims data lags initial claims by a week.

But the so-called continuing claims do not include millions of people who have used up the regular 26 weeks of benefits customarily provided by states and are now receiving extended benefits for up to 73 additional weeks, paid for by the federal government.

More than 5.9 million are receiving extended benefits in the week ending Jan. 2, the latest data available, an increase of more than 600,000 from the previous week. The data for emergency benefits lags initial claims by two weeks.

The increasing number of people claiming extended unemployment insurance indicates that even as layoffs are declining, hiring hasn't picked up. That leaves people out of work for longer and longer periods of time.

Among the states, California saw the largest increase in claims, with 16,160. Texas, Florida, Pennsylvania and Georgia saw the next largest increases. The state data lags the initial claims data by a week.

Oregon saw the biggest drop in claims, of 5,784, followed by Iowa, Kentucky, Michigan and Massachusetts.

Conservatives Said The Stimulus Bill Wouldn't Create Jobs And They Were Right

A former official with the White House Office of Management and Budget says the net number of jobs created by President Obama's "stimulus" program is zero or worse.

 The White House is boasting that 650,000 jobs have already been saved or created under President Obama's economic stimulus plan, and that the program is on track to reach the president's promise of 3.5 million jobs by the end of next year. White House economic adviser Jared Bernstein says when adding in jobs linked to $288 billion in tax cuts, the stimulus plan has created or saved more than one-million jobs.

However, J.D. Foster, an economist at The Heritage Foundation, says the White House is making brazen claims about job creation during a time of rising unemployment.  He believes their figures are "fraudulent and misleading."

"In saying that, I'm not criticizing the calculation of the number that they've put out, but rather the interpretation.  What they have referred to in effect is a 'gross jobs created' number, and they ignore the jobs that their program has destroyed," says Foster. "And so you end up with a positive.  But when you look at the jobs that are destroyed by this program, they're to a first-approximation equivalent to the jobs they say they've saved or created, and you end up with at best a net zero -- and in all likelihood a significant reduction in employment because of this program."

The economist notes that in putting its best face forward, the Obama administration is predicting that the unemployment rate will go through ten percent and stay there until at least the fall, but the reality is probably much worse because the programs President Obama is pursuing to help the economy are "utterly ineffective" and are only adding to the national debt.