Employers added fewer jobs than forecast in November and the unemployment rate unexpectedly rose, underscoring the Federal Reserve’s decision to pump more money into the economy to spur growth.
Payrolls increased 39,000, less than the most pessimistic projection of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News, after a revised 172,000 increase the prior month, Labor Department figures showed today in Washington. The jobless rate rose to 9.8 percent, the highest since April, while hours worked and earnings stagnated.
Stocks declined and Treasury securities jumped as the report showed payrolls aren’t growing fast enough to reduce the jobless rate, one reason why Fed policy makers announced a new round of monetary stimulus. More jobs are needed to sustain the holiday-season gains in consumer spending, the biggest part of the economy, into the new year.
So. Unemployment is increasing. The Fed is printing money. And what is the Pelosi House doing? Passing tax increases on small business owners and the “rich” (families that make over $250k) — and then pledging to spend $4.5 BILLION on another layer of bureaucratic oversight added to school lunches at the behest of the First Lady, who it appears is now the unelected Czar of the country’s food policies.
Couple this with Obama’s recent reversal on offshore drilling — a move that will damage the economies of several states and serves as a boon to foreign competitors — and his backdoor affront on internet freedom, and there no two ways about this: we must conclude at this point that, as the markets brace for a potential crash, the “progressives” are intentionally out to sabotage the economy.
Mere stupidity no longer explains it.
What the immediate end-game is I can’t say for certain. But compromise ain’t part of it, that’s for sure.
They anticipate that taxing “the rich”–i.e. small entrepreneurs who characterize their business a certain way to keep their tax low–will cost another 3.5-4 million jobs. The amount of grief these stupid bastards are inflicting on us can never be avenged.
If they turn us into a banana republic, I hope they’re prepared for a banana republic type of response from the electorate.
Wow, a lot of people are on Santa’s shit list this year!
We need another stimulus. And tax increases. And more regulation. And more federal employees. And a bigger more burdensome bureaucracy. And government control of our healthcare. And more government intervention in our lives. That is the only cure.
The Deficit Commission does its formal vote thing today, which appears to be destined to fail owning to the lack of the required 14 ayes out of 18 members. Evenso, the Commission seems — against all expectations — to have actually accomplished something positive for the nation, to the extent the two chairmen had the gumption to lay out a serious plan tackling most of the major issues, though not all, necessary to begin to get the deficit under better control. Rep. Ryan has high praise for two Democrats, Erskine Bowles and Alice Rivlin, for their roles in the good start, and explicitly says he will use their efforts as he reshapes his proposals in the coming months.
Ryan won’t be voting for the Deficit Commission package though, because he disapproves of the handling of ObamaCare, arguing the Commission package makes the effects of ObamaCare worse vis a vis the deficit, rather than better. This, seizing entitlements and wrestling them to the ground, is where the action is, and where the nation will either sink to drown or swim to live. Most else is a mere sideshow.
safer – isn’t the commission’s report to include a series offending that basically outline the ridiculous claims of BarckyCare, and show quite clearly, how mendoucheous they were/are?
Well, the Democrats deciding to put the screws to the small business class isn’t much of a surprise.
The surprise will be when my company decides who to let go because they can’t afford to keep everyone, or they cut health insurance entirely. Stimulus!
Done and failed.
Yep. We had to pass it to find out what was in it, because it’s pointless to read the bill before you vote for it unless you have three days and three lawyers and then you still don’t know. But somehow, we do now.
11-7
Anybody know how long you can store Ramen noodles? And .308 ammunition? I’m thinkin we may run out of .308 though, before we run out of Ramen noodles.
I love the AP’s take on the 4.5 billion school lunch bill –
First line: “House Republicans have temporarily blocked legislation to feed school meals to thousands more hungry children.”
Fair and balanced.
The surprise will be when my company decides who to let go because they can’t afford to keep everyone, or they cut health insurance entirely. Stimulus!
I’ve been assured by liberals that small businesses do not make employment decisions based on the taxes they pay.
ASSURED.
they need a new guy? They hire them. Simple. As. that.
Top men Carin. Top. Men.
liblaw
I don’t get it, Michelle O! has been telling me that America’s kids are fat. So fat, in fact, parents shouldn’t be allowed to make food choices for ’em.
But these same parents are sending their kids to school without a lunch??
liblaw —
Infuriating, isn’t it? If we don’t turn over the regulation of vending machines to a federal bureaucracy, we want to starve the childrens.
Our media is a joke — and it is complicit in the destruction of our country and our liberties. Which is why we’ll soon have the Fairness Act pushed on us.
Because we’re insane.
QE mania reaches Europe. From Zerohedge.
…the unemployment rate unexpectedly rose…
This is one time when that “unexpectedly” modifier actually fits. I never expected the current regime to allow that statistic to rise. I figured accounting tricks or threats of retribution against the census-takers would come into play.
Oh, well. I guess there’s still time for all that.
Jeff, I am starting to come around to your view that “Mere stupidity no longer explains it.”
While a bit cynical, I am generally upbeat about my nation – I start to get more worried when I see this kind of straight on attack on the productive part of the nation. We have much work still to do the next 2, 4, 6 8 years…
In regards to liblaw’s comment, I have been told countless times that conservatives/libertarians are not capable of reading/understanding nuance. I don’t think the propaganda arm of the proggs and the proggs front line disciples are on the same page. I’m thinking there’s an awful lot of nuance missing from that first line.
[…] “Unemployment Rises to 9.8% as US Adds Just 39,000 Jobs” – protein wisdom […]
I’d argue that it’s never been mere stupidity. Congress raised stupidity to an art form a long while ago and our bureaucrats at all levels continue to outdo themselves. But this* takes the cake:
Yes, they’re already using grass-fed beef to make hamburger for the pasta sauce, but they need another $4.5 billion, not so they can continue to supply lunches, but so they can “buy more local (food) and be more creative”. And they’re billed by the Denver Post as “anti-hunger advocates”. I suppose they will have finally conquered hunger when they’re making the chili mac with wagyu beef and flying in Yellowfin tuna live for the Friday sushi bar? ….
No, no, on further reflection I’m pretty sure there’s no amount of money and no extravagance that could satisfy these folks. If they were serving the kids off Staffordshire china with sterling flatware they’d complain about the quality of the Irish linens. After all they’re not paying for it.
*And now the link, because the preview didn’t seem to work if I inserted it up above.
I don’t know about the Ramen noodles, but I know when I was in the service in the ’70s and ’80s we were still shooting up Korean war-vintage .50 cal ammo and it worked just fine. ‘Cause I don’t intend to run out ever, I’ve got 1200 rounds of NATO circle/cross 7.62×51 with ’79 headstamps that’s still shooting just fine. Just keep it in the proverbial cool dry place along with 100# of pinto beans. (I get no remuneration for pushing pinto beans, except all the beans we can
bear toeat. So please, help me out here, it’s becoming socially embarrassing. :) )Only 1200 rounds? Piker.
Seriously, keep it in any reasonable environment (with a pack of dessicant in the container) and modern ammo will last longer than you and maybe your kids will.
1200 rounds?
I’ve got a note with my local fire department that my ammo is stored in secure DOT approved containers outside my house, just in case they show up at my door to put out a fire and the helpful neighbor kid says, “Oh, he RELOADS his own bullets”…
I plink with ComBloc ammo with headstamps from as far back as the fifties. The worst of that is pretty awful… but that’s just for plinking. Anything loaded in Czechoslovakia or Poland after the seventies seems to work okay. Eighties and later Tula (Factory 189, I believe) light ball, brass or copper washed steel case, is fine.
A hundred rounds per weapon, minimum. I never did like minimum.
A good knife, a .22 rifle, pistol of your choice in any caliber other than .22, and a pump 12 gage shotgun. Those are your tools for reestablishing civilization.
“How Things Work” and a copy of the “Federalist Papers” wouldn’t hurt, either.
If you ever find yourself in Utah, look me up. I’m up for debate or a range day. Or both.
The way things are going, I am about ready to stop worrying about the collapse. If the shit doesn’t hit the fan in the next couple of months I’m just going to keep the radio on classic rock HD2 and leave the computer turned off.
Last summer I had a wonderful visit with my uncle Jack, hadn’t seen him in about 20 years. He fought on Guadalcanal and a few other Pacific Islands during WWII. During lunch he made a jaw-dropping statement that I haven’t been able to shake from my memory. He said the country that we were trying to build here after WWII is gone. Not weakening, not adrift, not in trouble. Gone.