About a week ago, Econompic posted some nice charts about recent shrinkage in the labor force. As they noted, without labor force shrinkage, the unemployment situation would look a lot more dire, rising above 10% for the nation as a whole.
In the period between March and August of this year, 837,200 persons left the labor force. This has had the ironic effect of driving down the unemployment rate in many states. Basically, unemployment is still up, but not up as much as it would be if people hadn't exited the labor force. The "economic recovery" at hand is thus largely a function of people who have lost all hope and stopped even looking for work.
A lot can happen in two weeks. Normally the foreign exchange market for developed nations move like glaciers. But in these days of global warming even glaciers are breaking speed limits.
Less than two weeks ago the World Bank President had some interesting things to say regarding the dollar.
"The United States would be mistaken to take for granted the dollar's place as the world's predominant reserve currency," Mr. Zoellick told the School of Advanced International Studies of Johns Hopkins University.
In his strongest comments yet in the debate over the dollar's reserve-currency status, Mr. Zoellick said that, "looking forward, there will increasingly be other options to the dollar."
For 65 years the American dollar has been the world's reserve currency. Practically as good as gold. So Mr. Zoellick's words might be considered controversial.
Hundreds of years ago the Incas would sacrifice virgins to appease their Volcano God.
The Gods and methods of sacrifice may have changed, but the tradition remains.
Like the Incas of old, we find ourselves helpless against forces we do not understand. The foundations of our economy shake and falter in terrifying ways.
In our desperation for answers we turn to High Priests of Economics who tell us these evils have befallen us because of our sins. We must sacrifice the innocent to the Volcano God or it will destroy us all.
The High Priests of Economics never explain exactly how these sacrifices will fix the economy, nor do they mention that the sins in question might be their own. Yet we still rush to offer up our children's futures through unpayable debts while never considering that there might be better alternatives.
A very nasty small business job creation graph by the Atlanta Fed caught my eye. Below are the number of jobs lost by small businesses. The blue is small businesses less than 50 employees. Now look at the job creation and destruction for this recession, 45%.
Brought to you by the Mythical Jobs Saved by the Stimulus - So what we spent $800 billion dollars to have 10% unemployment. Our press releases look good!
Good Morning! Rise and Shine! Get that Cup O' Joe...
break out the O.J....hang out with the pooch...time to check out the Funnies!
It's Friday Night! Party Time! Time to relax, put your feet up on the couch, lay back, and watch some detailed videos on economic policy!
New America Foundation, Policy Director of the Economic Growth Program, Michael Lind is on a roll. He's pulling in a host of economists and policy formulators who really are speaking truth, interviewing them an' putting 'em on the Internets. You're going to love these interviews with Thomas Palley, Ralph Gomory, Pat Choate and Peter Morici.
This proposal is nothing new "new" but borrowed from Denmark.
Our mortgage finance system is broken. It needs some serious restructuring or a complete overhaul. We can learn a lot about a new structure from the Danes. The Danish mortgage system is one of the oldest and most sophisticated housing finance markets in the world.
On The Economic Populist you might have noticed the middle column. We try to list other sites and blogs who have exceptional insight and writing on what is happening in the U.S. economy.
Sometimes though, one cannot say it better but miss those who did.
The NAHB has also been arguing to expand the tax credit from $8,000 to $15,000. But using $8,000 per home buyer - and estimating 5 million home sales over the next year - the total cost of the tax credit would be $40 billion.
According to the NAHB this would result in 383,000 additional home sales. Dividing $40 billion by 383 thousand gives $104,400 per additional home sold!
The new SIGTARP report is out and it's not the bombshell last month's report was.
Below is an interview with SIGTARP inspector general Neil M. Barofsky that's just dynamite. MSNBC anchor Dylan Ratigan has coined a new phrase, Corporate Communism to describe how taxpayers are getting the shaft while a select group of financial institutions can do no wrong.
An earlier post gave a preview of this report. The claim some healthy banks were receiving TARP funds was fiction and done simply to boost investor confidence.
On The Economic Populist you might have noticed the middle column. We try to list other sites and blogs who have exceptional insight and writing on what is happening in the U.S. economy.
Sometimes though, one cannot say it better but miss those who did.
Must Read #1
Chris Whalen says Q4, 2009 will be a bloodbath for banks. It's a long video interview talking about how the original bank problems have been simply put off but have not gone away. This is completely contrary to Goldman Sachs upgrades on TARP banking companies recently. He also says the real U.S. economy is dying.
This is a major h/t from Naked Capitalism who expands on the prediction. This quote:
It's Friday Night! Party Time! Time to relax, put your feet up on the couch, lay back, and watch some detailed videos on economic policy!
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