As politicians dithered for months and brought forth trillions more in debt, the nation’s so-called recovery weakened.
A telling sign emerged in today’s announcement that consumers, who fuel 70 percent of our economic activity, cut their spending last month for the first time in nearly two years, according to the Commerce Department.
Incomes grew by the smallest amount in nine months. Overall economic growth hovers around a measly 1 percent. Experts blame the shaky job market for declining consumer confidence.
This was the news that drove Wall Street this morning, not the debt deal’s passage. When the new consumer spending numbers came out the Dow plunged more than 100 points.
The massive distraction of a phony debt ceiling fight is over, and the reality of a lousy economy is still here. If new unemployment numbers coming out Friday are as weak as other factors, more economists will join those who are trimming their forecasts.
Jobs, a word that went missing in Washington these past months, will now make a comeback in talking points. But having locked themselves into an obsession with deficits it’s tough to see how President Obama and congressional leaders can do much more than talk about getting Americans back to work.
Our Sputtering Economy, By the Numbers
* Since January 2008, 8.7 million jobs have been lost while 1.8 were recovered;
* The unemployment rate has been around 9 percent for 28 months,
* 44.4% of unemployed Americans are long-term unemployed,
* There are 4.98 workers for every job opening available,
* Percentage of Americans’ total personal income that comes from federal funds: almost 20%,
* 3.8 million Americans are relying on federal unemployment benefits, with benefits lasting up to 99 weeks and federal aid funding up to 73 of those weeks,
* Length of time people will be able to receive unemployment benefits if they lose their job after July 1, 2011: 20-26 weeks,
* Amount of stimulus money left to be spent: $122.8 billion of the original $787 billion.
source: ProPublica
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39 Responses to Washington Fiddled as Recovery Flames Out
Now on The Trail
Whoo hoo, hoo me? what a hooooooot.!
Jobs, Jobs,…..thats the ticket out of this mess.!!
That kinda makes a body feel good.! First time I whoo-hooed….
Criag, I think that we are about to go 24/7 about who can provide the most jobs no? Obama and co. better get a start on em imo; just saying…
weren’t you listening, Obama was addressing jobs all along. More spending cuts means more jobs.
BTW, it would take a miracle for Obama win the next election under any normal circumstances. The only question is how badly do the Republicans shoot themselves in the foot. The unemployment rate is up to 9.2%, Manufacturing is down, GDP is down, the price of a loaf of bread is up and so on. The only question is , How many failed presidencies can we have before the Republic goes under.
Jack
Solar
IT is bizzaro world. Bankers don’t bank money any more they are fee collectors. The whole world is getting too strange.
Jack
Jack,
I didn’t mean to disagree with you…just did strike me as “bizzaro” and your 1:52 100% correct…some think that there is no place to go…but I was just typing this:
One more and I will leave you all alone for a while; and go back to lurking off and on:
Be it a man or a women that has somewhere to go to for work, a job….the bread winner sorta becomes the head of the house….hopefully with give and take..that evens it out…
In the absence of Obamas attention to this fact.. that he is the leader of this country, and that he should have created an atmosphere of Jobs creation….
But all he did was create an atmosphere that is for the large corps, the large Banks, The Pentagon, etc. and forgot about the rest of us…..and pay backs for people like that shit Ex-Senate leader Daschle and his wife.!!
Leave your dog that you have raised for the past 5yrs…a big 150lb German Sheppard …(the country) don’t feed him b/c you don’t have any food to give him……when he gets to the point of starving to death, or dying…you better watch out….
If we get anywhere near this point…and things are getting worse by the day.!! we will not have Obama for President…and if we do…then cannibalism won’t seem so bad……….
Im going to bring a post from the last thread:
solarcrete
I’m swamped with business right now and under normal conditions I would be hiring 2-3 middle managers to help cover things.
Instead I’m working 70-75 hours/week. Now that they have a new open line of credit I can’t wait to see what they will do next to stifle private sector growth….
I found it very interesting this morning watching C-Span on the debt ceiling vote and the next vote, which was to authorize spending for the FAA. Republicans filibustered the action. Consequence: 4,000 government employees laid off; $200 million a week in lost government income; 90,000 private contractors idled; and, more profits for the airlines (although Delta said they will give customers back the government fee). Where are the jobs, Mr. Boehner??
eprof2,
Only in DC would spending borrowed ever be considered “income”.
I also like it when they refer to spending borrowed money as making an investment…..
It sure explains how our social security trust fund ” lock box” came to be…..laughs
Jax,
The lock box guy wasn’t elected. By 5-4 the real electoral college appointed the guy who favored using Social Security as a fundraiser for off-budget wars, one of which was an elective. 10 years later, the Social Security Trust Fund remains a feeding trough for the neoconmen.
Jax
Sound like you are letting politics interfer with business. That is a sure fire way to miss out on money. You keep saying business is doing good and business is expanding? what is the problem?
Jack
The wife this morning reminded me of one good thing to come out of the housing crises and financial down turn.
I’m not out in this 106 degree heat sweating and pounding nails.
Jack
I repeat, if the debt gets too big, sell assets. Begin with the Alamo and Stone Mountain. I’ll bet that louis farakhan would would love to have his face immortalized on the birthplace of the ‘modern’ klan.
For a century, South Dakota has been the place Minnesota businesses have gone to die. Hardly anyone is using SD, and we dump tons of money into it, to keep it from blowing away. The idea is to get some cash and cut expenses. So, why not sell the dam’ place to some casino owner ?
“The only question is how badly do the Republicans shoot themselves in the foot.”
jack, the gopers’ll have to stand in line. dembats have the gun and are in the process of bringing down the only foot they got left.
Jack,
I’ve got to go with my gut and so far that has meant for me to just keep doing more personally instead of risking on alot of new hires. Especially management.
I’m approaching the burn-out stage now and I have to decide soon to either continue to grow or to pull back and wait it out.
You’re right though about politics, I need to stop engaging and just run as if they don’t exist. If I grow fast enough maybe I can stay ahead of the jackals…..
solar, congratulations on your maiden woohoo. they’re addictive,the high never goes away and you never feel sorry the next morning.
Guantanamo Bay. There is a worthless sandbox on which we lavish enormous amounts of money, and it is as useful as a freezer at the South Pole. The Castro Dynasty can always use a new place to torture people and we’ve given Gitmo a successful test drive in that field.
Speaking of the South Pole, we claim a chunk of Antarctica that Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, or the Gulf States would love to mine for it’s one natural resource. Of course, as soon as a Muslim sets foot in Antarctica, the salafists will claim it in the name of their conjectural Caliph’s someday empire.
We own literally hundreds of military and naval bases around Europe. These bases are expensive to maintain, and they mostly just serve as deterrants to the russians. Now that the russians are ‘good’ people, we could sell them these expensive resorts. By pitting the Western Euros against the putinescos in an auction, we might even be able to break even.
Who needs Wyoming anyway ?
Give Jace a good deal on it, just to get it off the books.
The owner of the owner of faux news will build the tallest building in Saudi Arabia, with the help of the bin Laden clan :
“Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal signed a $1.23 billion contract with Bin Laden Group for the proposed tower, which will take just over five years to complete. The building is the centerpiece of the planned Kingdom City development being built outside Jeddah by Prince Alwaleed’s Kingdom Holding.”
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43988244/ns/world_news-mideast_n_africa/
xrep
I do, No wyoming no coal , no coal no electricty, no electricity no AC and did I mention it is 108 here today?
August on the great plains , ya gotta love it.
Jack
The Tea Party people are being hailed heroes for acting like
childish as—-
Clearly, the easiest and cheapest way for us to have destroyed bin ladin and al qaeda would have been to attack and conquer Saudi Arabia and newsCrap, cutting the flow of oil dollars to the terrorists, and depriving them of their principle vehicle for dis-information and disruption of the West. .
Jack, with the money we will save by selling WY to Jace, we will be able to send you to cool comfy Iceland every summer.
Iceland : Sprats for breakfast, salmon salad for lunch, halibut for dinner, and caviar torts for dessert. & plenty of Akavit to wash it down.
Sounds good, X--long as that fermented shark stuff’s not on the menu. When both Tony Bourdain and Andrew Zimmern call something inedible, it’s bad.
My sister is here, and says the South is cool compared to Kansas,,,,
I don’t eat the shark either.
You never know who it’s been eating.
Western Kansas has been getting hammered for a while. This was our worst day so far.
The heat has put a stop to the squash and cucumbers, they had been really producing up till the last 2 weeks but they can’t handle the heat.Poor things wilt out in the sun no matter how much you water them.
but the okra and sweet potatoes are loving it as are the tomatoes.
Jack
The Final Splash After the ‘Dive’
by Taylor Marsh
Although “Progressive” is a term deeply rooted in our early 20th century history, today I see it as a symbol of weakness.
I am a liberal Democrat. My heroes are FDR, Hubert Humphrey, Senator Wayne Morse (OR), among others.
So-called liberals weren’t even willing to fight for the term.
Even Hillary Clinton, someone I greatly admire, said when asked if she were a liberal…that she preferred progressive.
Many “Progressives” don’t have the guts to fight the good fight.
Those who didn’t vote in 2010 because they were disillusioned with the annointed one , need to step up and fight the good fight each day, week, month, and year.
Oregon “Liberal” Democrat
p.s. Tony, thanks again for the excellent posts/links
The hay to be made is not political. It’s the high paying lobbying job that follows in the sweet by and by. To borrow an ancient American agricultural phrase, “That ain’t hay.”
I was a ‘liberal’ and a ‘libertarian’ back when I was a puguglican sucker.
With the wisdom bestowed by age, I’m just a radical leveler and yellow dog Dem.
Jack,
Jax is getting more work than he can physically handle at a 30-pct higher rate from two customers backed directly by the full faith and credit of the United States.
In other words, the risks he faces are the normal (high) risks faced by mariners that are largely insurable.
Thanks to his inherent talents and the naval education he received from the people of the United States, he is well qualified to run his business, He understands the paperwork involved and handles it intuitively while others struggle with it.
His marketing strengths fit him squarely in the US government market.
And he sees contracting for our government as being risky?
Unions: The great equalizers?
A major study directly links the decline of unions to rises in wage inequality
BY NATASHA LENNARD
OD,
Your welcome! Love to read and sharing what i read is now even easier thanks to Craig and the new sight!
Thomas Ferguson on Debt Deal: Deflationary Impact Starts in October
By: Jane Hamsher VIDEO
Obama Gives It All Away
It’s hard to overstate the extent of the president’s capitulation to the right. Conservatism will be the driving force in U.S. politics for years to come, argues Michael Tomasky.
Good Piece, like Eleanor!
Pelosi’s Two-Step on Debt Deal
The sidelined ex-speaker is disgusted by what she sees as an Obama sellout—but knows her best bet is to dutifully vote yes and plot her return to power.
Eleanor Clift
Flatus,
Gov’t cargo has never made up more than 5% of my overall yearly gross. This year it is 0%. Even though I’m a veteran owned small business and qualify fairly high on the contract pecking order I still refuse to go down that road.
I don’t bid on any gov’t work. I consider it the sole domain of those who can’t compete for real business.
Most of my work in the past was DOD and USAID direct individual requests when they were in a bind.
NEW THREAD