Are you better off than you were a year ago? 28 States Say No.
The WSJ Economics Blog, discussing June 2010 unemployment rates by state, uses the headline “Most Regions Show Improvement“*
I suppose we should be encouraged by the headline and not look at the text:
Washington, DC and 16 states recorded jobless rates in excess of 10%. North and South Dakota continued to have the lowest rates in the country, at 3.6% and 4.5%, respectively.
Despite the improvements in the jobless rates, 27 states posted a decline in payroll employment, while 21 notched increases. Montana and Alaska had the highest percentage increase from the previous month, while New Mexico and Nevada reported the largest percentage drops. [emphasis mine]
Less money is being paid in a majority of states. The clearest explanation, then, remains that the “decline” in U-3 reflects people dropping out of the work force, not being employed.
It gets more interesting if you look at the Year-on-Year Change. There, 28 of the 50 states show a U-3 unemployment rate that is higher than or equal to last year’s. (The District of Columbia’s U-3 rate declined by 0.1% over that time, so it is only 10.0% now.)
And the improvements are, lest we forget, from a high plateau. The 14 states with the greatest drop in their unemployment rate year-on-year have an average current rate of 8.4%—and a median rate of 8.95%, the average being skewed by the above-mentioned North Dakota, with it’s 9.3 people per square mile and total population under 650,000, 37% of which are not of working age.
Dropping North Dakota from the “biggest YoY winners” moves the median current unemployment rate to 10.0%, while the average is slightly above 8.75%.
If this is a recovery, then my December 2009 prediction that this will turn out to be a “cursive-zed” recession may turn out to be optimism.
*Also, “Jobless Rates Drop in Most States.”
So what is the USG’s policy for increasing the standard of living of its citizens? Supplying an increasing percentage of the population with food stamps or unemployment benefits is a safety net. What is the strategy to get people working and earning more?
Blurt,
There is no strategy. Why in the heck do you think the propoganda machine on the left is still blaming Bush and the Republicans?
Answer: It’s Simple…the people who support Obama and the Democratics are dumb enough to believe it!
jimi,
Today :7/20/10- Obama inauguration day: 1/20/09 = 18 months.
Reagan, too, don’t forget the monetarist voodoo economics has been going on since 1981.
How do you expect Obama to fix 29 years of abuse of the US economy in 18 months?
An answer or better how would McCain have fixed it?
Would the dims be filibustering all McCain’s extensions of unemployment?
Do Americans hate other Americans? Do Americans hate themselves?
What do you think most Americans are left with swirling around the back reaches of their brains when they try to process the Iraq War? Even the sanitized US news media dwelled upon the collapse of the Iraqi social structure and the total hell that was unleashed as a result.
And it is clear to even lizard brains that the US is responsible. What does psychology teach us about reality running up against strongly held beliefs or myths? Psychotic break? Disillusionment? The breaking of the spirit of the being? Submission.
Islm,
I’m not aking for miracles, but for Christ’s Sake, if everything you’ve done in 18 months, or had to offer doesn’t help or makes things worse how could you expect me to respect that leadership?
We were told that this team had the answers, and correct me if I’m wrong, but is it too much to ask to prove it?
And BTW….Republicans want to offer unemployment benefits, they just want them to be paid for….it is not alot to ask, and it makes sense…..stop the propoganda.
Blurt,
“Do Americans hate other Americans?”
Yes…It has been a constant theme coming from the left. Anything Conservative or Republican has been demonized with lies. A clear double standard has been established, and that can only be justified in the minds of the left by not respecting those who disagree with them.
It took Conservatives and Republicans to help hand over power to the Democratics and Obama. Have we seen this behavior represented in the Left or by Democrats?…………..Hell NO!…………..they stick with their own to the bitter end and morals or honesty be damned.
When we went to War in Iraq, the Democrats and the Media spewed venom from every angle, even if it meant our own troops got killed because of it, now Obama and the Democrats got control we don’t hear a peep…Pathetic!
The question isn’t “Do Americans Hate other Americans,” but “What is the end game?”, because I’ve been on defense for 20 years, and I’m thinking it’s about time for my team to start scoring some points.
Jimi,
Your view of the world is at odds with reality. And you are caught up in the false Dem vs. Repub divide and conquer nonsensical dichotomy. Perhaps you can research how many Dems voted for the Iraq war. The majority did.
Why don’t you read how many children, women and the elderly were killed by the US military during the Iraq War II invasion. And as most were killed by US airpower, they were burned alive and blown to bits, Why do you support murdering children?
The historical definition of war crimes used to be unilateral aggression against a country that posed no threat. Sound familiar?
Your claim that the American media “spewed venom” does not reflect what really happened. Do you not recall how that bastion of liberal news, the NY Times, fabricated Iraq WMD stories, a la Judith Miller? I was in Montreal when the invasion was launched, and the Canadian news media did not flinch from showing blown up civilians on television, a sight you would not see in the US media’s sanitized version of the war.
And with regards to not respecting an opposing viewpoint, perhaps you may recall how war hawks questioned the patriotism of those who questioned the war. Or how the Bush adminstration would never utter the word “insurgent” instead labelling those who resisted the invasion of their country as “terrorists.”
Jimi, try to free yourself from the partisan blinders you are wearing.
the term you’re looking for is cognitive dissonance. Oh hi Jimi.
Blurt said: “Jimi, try to free yourself from the partisan blinders you are wearing.”
Blurt, take your own advice. We get it. You are anti-war. But you are animrod when it comes to war strategy. Nimrod = http://ask.yahoo.com/20040211.html
Guess which definition I am using.
Blurt said: “Jimi, try to free yourself from the partisan blinders you are wearing.”
Blurt, take your own advice. We get it. You are anti-war. But you are a nimrod when it comes to war strategy. Nimrod = http://ask.yahoo.com/20040211.html
Guess which definition I am using.
Why don’t the rethugs pay for the wars with taxes? Pay for the unemployment from the war machine. I would go on unemployment until I start SS.
I am taking care of myself.
Sabotage is one issue. 2.5 million unemployed have had no checks for 3 months due to the rethugs.
Yeah, Obama got a paltry rescue package about a third of the needed top line with too much of that wasted on tax cuts.
The loyal opposition has derailed the economy and now is attacking any fix.
I am too busy spending the perpetual militarism stimulus that is sacking the US.
CoRev,
“Don’t tell your neighbor to take the splinter out of his eye, until you remove the beam from your own”
The New Testament, the one not heard from the right wing evangelicists.
ILSM, stop the BS. You just confimed the worst description of why some believe UI is not good for us. You said: “I would go on unemployment until I start SS.” A misuse?????
And this comment is just breathtakingly ignorant. “Yeah, Obama got a paltry rescue package about a third of the needed top line with too much of that wasted on tax cuts.” The biggest rise in GDP to which the admin so often points was from those paltry tax cuts/rebates.
Blaming the Repubs for the failure of this administration’s economic policies is pure denial or cognitive dissonance.
That one’s worth a Sheesh!!!
CoRev,
Grow up. You have blood on your hands.
Blurt,
Get a grip. Your part of the ‘fringe’ that is no longer attached to mainstream politics in the US. The removal of the Saddam tyranny was official US policy since Clinton. His violations of the terms of the cease-fire in Gulf War I are well documented. The US went in with a rather large coalition and with lots of support from many countries who didn’t supply troops. The Democrats and Republicans in both the House and Senate overwhelmingly and bi-partisanly supported the war even to today. Obama to his credit, as acknowledged by Biden, has consolidated the US victory in Iraq. The Iraqi people have a chance to develop into a democratic free country for the first time in decades, if ever. I would think bringing freedom to 25+ million people would be a good thing? You obviously believe in leaving people in tyranny, I disagree but its a free country, unlike Saddam’s Iraq.
But then a lot on the fringe with you support people like Saddam – Mao, Stalin, and Castro come quickly to mind. Leftist support for mass murderers is legendary…and continues to this day.
The Iraqi Army which fought the invasion of Iraq were treated as POWs when captured and released almost entirely shortly after the war. After the surrender the remaining Iraqi Army was disbanded. This was the legal resistance to our invasion – just like the German Army in WW II. Insurgents who actually played by Geneva convention rules of an insurgency were treated the same (usually handed over when captured to the legal Iraq government – overwhelmingly recognized by the UN and now with a seat there.)Iraq has a legal and democratically elected government. Any ‘resistance’ for the last few years would come under the heading of internal rebellion which has since basically melted away and being almost totally handled by Iraqi Government forces.
Bush’s description of people who drove cars into elementary schools and blew their own kids up as terrorists was right on the money. Or do you think people who target their own countries women and children instead of US/Coalition military and who’s goal is a religious tyranny can be termed “freedom” fighters? Terrorists may be too strong a word, how about common mass murderers?
And if you want to go see deathporn, may I suggest Google or Bing? I am sure you can get off on something pulled up in a few seconds.
As for blood on your hands comment, well I flew over Afghanistan after 9/11 and dropped a rather large number of bombs. I have a pretty good idea on how much damage my crew and I delivered directly. I also happened to be in charge of the bomber planning cell so planned a large percentage of all the strikes. Then add to the fact that a lot of the first day hits into Bagdad I also planned during my stay at the Pentagon, I can readily say I probably have more blood on my hands than any posting here.
But I console myself with the fact that 50 million human beings no longer live in tyranny and have a chance to breathe free in the future. Which separates me from the leftist fringe, that to this day believe and support tyranny at every turn. I sleep well. Hope you do the same out in the cold…
Islam will change
Well said, Buff!
Well said, Buff!
Blurt, how’s the air on the moral high ground? If you are American, the blood is also on your hands. If you are a citizen of one of the allies, then you still have the same level of blood on your hands. If you are neither, then you have the right to hold your outsider view, but it still remains just another personal opinion.
You really do have to answer Buff’s question re: who & why do you support such evil leaders?
Blurt,
“Why do you support murdering children?”
Childern that are killed on the battlefield are not murdered. Murder has a definition. And besides I don’t see you complaining about the 47 Million abortions in this country since the 1970’s.
“The historical definition of war crimes used to be unilateral aggression against a country that posed no threat”
No…We have made agreements across the world, for which we hold ourseleves to the most strict standards in how to fight “War.” By our own standards and by the standard for which the United States has agreed to fight “War,” nobody in the United States Executive Branch or in the Military is a War Criminal. Those who have deviated from the agreements that have been made, were processed through the proper channels of the Military Justice System.
Iraq broke every U.N. resolution, fired upon our planes in the no-fly zone, broke the oil for food agreement, and did not cooperate in the required U.N. weapons inspections. Just because the U.S. and U.K. and many othere, invaded without the final vote in the U.N. does not make anyone a War Criminal, we can go to war with any nation we feel necessary whether the U.N. likes it or not, the United States has made no agreement to ties it’s War Power Hands with U.N. Bureacracy.
I didn’t need to be lied to that they had a active W.M.D., I figured they didn’t, and they must have figured that the only way to appease to Utopian rubes like you, was to tell a lie that would take quite awhile to figure out that it was a lie, while the invasion happend. Bush could’ve said he wanted to do it for strict strategic reasons, and I would have still been in agreement…It was time for Saddam to go, and time for the United States to send a message to the Middle-East.
“Canadian news media did not flinch from showing blown up civilians on television, a sight you would not see in the US media’s sanitized version of the war.”
So What? Did they show all the ass kicking we did to a bunch of Zealots too? Did they show all the civilian deaths caused by Canadian Soldiers too?
Buffpilot,
Military action in Iraq did not defend America. It did not defend America’s freedom as was vapidly claimed by supporters of the miliary incursion. Civilians were killed and not in the defense of America. The invasion did enforce the will of the rulers of America at the time.
This misuse of a country’s military is not unique to GWB and the latest Iraq war invasion, History shows that it is all too common.
Nonetheless, the military kills unecessarily, innocent civilians are the victms, and the flag of patriotism is abused by those in power and the unwitting lackeys who carry out the killing and destruction.
An old story. In this time of no accountability, the guilty escape unpunished in this world.
Blurt,
And you are totally out of touch with the rest of the citizens of the US. How does it feel being out in the cold? How does it feel to stand side by side with tyrants and despots?
I’m glad you can live with yourself…
Islam will change