We are being cheerfully told by the media that the “green shoots” of an economic recovery are just, well, everywhere. (Pay no attention to the 800 pound gorilla in the room.) Everything is right on track for a recovery. Banks are reporting mega-profits. (Pay no attention to the rule change that let them inflate worthless “assets” and suddenly stage a miracle, leaping up from their graves.) Yep, the banks are doing great right now! (Pay no attention to the brutal tactics the banks are using on good customers to extract extra income from those customers ahead of the new “protection” law passed by Congress.)
(Wonder how the banks staged such a turnaround when just a couple of months ago they were on life support? Not paying attention, are you.)
No matter what, pay no attention to the reality of the unemployment numbers.
Michigan became the first state in 25 years to suffer an unemployment rate exceeding 15%, according to a report released Friday by the Labor Department.
The state’s unemployment rate rose to 15.2% in June. It was the highest of any state since March 1984, when West Virginia’s unemployment rate exceeded 15%.
Michigan, which has been battered by the collapse of the auto industry and the housing crisis, has had the highest unemployment rate in the nation for 12 months in a row.
Rhode Island had the second highest unemployment rate at 12.4%, followed by Oregon at 12.2%.
A total of 15 states and the District of Columbia had unemployment rates of at least 10%.
Friday’s report from the U.S. Labor Department also showed that six states recorded record-high unemployment rates in June.
Over the month, jobless rates increased in 38 states and the District of Columbia. Michigan’s 1.1 percentage point increase from May to June was the highest in the nation, followed by Wyoming’s 0.9 point increase.
On an annual basis, jobless rates where higher in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Michigan also recorded the highest yearly increase at 7.1 percentage points. Oregon came in second with a year-over-year increase of 6.3 percentage points in its unemployment rate.
The nation is at an official 9.5% unemployment rate. If you factor in those who have stopped looking at all and those who are woefully underemployed, stuck in part time jobs well below where they should be, the number is more like 16% or even higher.
I lived through the Carter years and the first years of the Reagan presidency when we were climbing out from the Carter Crater and it was not this bad this fast. This is not inherited economic crisis, this is a direct result of the policies of the past six months. This is one mammoth bad policy decision dwarfed by the next. This is a government stealing private companies, stiffing private investors to give the goods away to union buddies. This is one ill-conceived spend and tax policy after another. This is frightening investors to the point that they pull out and take their capital with them.
This is madness writ very, very large.
Into this staggering mess, the Obamacrats inject massive energy taxes in the form of crap and tax legislation and a health care “reform” that will kill the economy outright.
I fear for my children right now.
Give Carter credit, he appointed Volcker to head the Fed. He was also more fiscally conservative than Reagan, Reagan was a spendthrift. I remember how disappointed I was that Reagan wouldn’t tackle entitlements. Meanwhile, George Will kept telling us how the budget would be balanced real soon now because, count on it, the economy was going to grow at 7 percent over the next year. I haven’t taken Will seriously anytime since.
“I fear for my children right now.”
I fear for my children and their children and their children. I fear for at least the next 4 generations. If the Obamessiah and his disciples aren’t stopped this country won’t even be at third world level in twenty years. The Obamacrats simply don’t care about the results of their policies. They are deliberately blind to consequences. All they can see is that they have managed to elect ‘a sort of God’ and that all of their liberal dreams are now possible. Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!