Note to Trump Supporters

All true. Facts.

But wait. There's more. Much more.

Mexico just closed their border with us, the US, in a case of deep, deep irony and the EU is opening its borders to many nations but THE US ISN'T ONE OF THEM. Also, we, the US, have the largest number of coronavirus cases--and deaths--in the entire world, China and India included. Etc.

Thanks, Republicans.

It's bad enough you were and are suckers. You didn't have to bring us, the nation, along with you all.

Who Are We, Really?

What We Need From This Congress

Indeed, what we need from this Congress and what we've needed for some years.

Quote of the Day -- Flashback

True then, 80 years ago, of the Republicans. Still true today.

Unemployment statistics in America and why we need a jobs bill from Congress

Youth Unemployment in the United States

The unemployment rate for those between the ages of 16-24 was 16.2% in April, more than double the national unemployment rate.

The unemployment rate for those between the ages of 16-19 was 24.2% in April.

More than 13 percent of borrowers have defaulted on their student loans, and another 26 percent are delinquent.

More than half of Americans ages 25–34 have saved less than $10,000 for retirement.

According to the White House Council on Community Solutions, the fiscal cost of the 6.7 million Americans ages 16–24 who are neither working nor attending school is $1.6 trillion over their lifetimes.

Congress has cut $1 billion from youth jobs programs over the past decade.

According to the Center for American Progress, nearly 1 million young Americans who have experienced long-term unemployment will lose a staggering $20 billion in earnings over the next decade.

Research shows that workers who are unemployed as young adults earn lower wages for many years following their period of unemployment due to forgone work experience and missed opportunities to develop skills.

Today the unemployment rate among teens is 24.2 percent, higher than it ever was prior to the Great Recession of 2007–2009.

The trends in unemployment indicate that young job seekers have suffered disproportionately in the recession compared to adult workers.

Over the past several decades, employment and labor-force participation among Americans ages 16–24 have declined, while the unemployment rate for this group has risen.

The biggest drop in labor-force participation has been for teenagers, who saw their numbers decline from a high of nearly 60 percent in 1978 to an all-time low of 33.5 percent in 2012.

Since the 1980s the employment-to-population ratio for teenagers and young adults has declined, with the steepest drops occurring in the past decade.

During that time employment among teenagers has dropped the most, falling from 50 percent in 1978 to just 25.8 percent today.

Employment among young adults peaked at 72.9 percent in 2000, falling to 60.8 percent today.

By contrast, employment among Americans of prime working age currently stands at 75.9 percent, about the same as it was in the mid-1980s.

While the overall unemployment rate for teenagers is 25.1 percent, the unemployment rate for black teens is 43.1 percent. And fully half of black males ages 16–19 are looking for work but unable to find a job.

Today Americans under the age of 40 have accumulated less wealth than their parents did at that age more than 25 years ago.

Source: Center for American Progress   So how about it, Congress?  Senators? Representatives? Could we have a jobs bill?   Please?

President Obama, America, the "Stimulus Package" and Jobs

So many people blame our current President for our poor jobs situation yet so many don't know or seem to care to know the facts about employment in the last several years.

Here, then, are some facts:

In the 12 months prior to President Obama taking office, we had lost 4.5 million jobs.
Over half of the 4.35 million jobs we lost while President Obama has been in office came within the first 3 months of his first term.

Let’s look at a 9 month span of job losses covering the 3 months prior to President Obama taking office and the 6 months after:

• Nov: 800,000
• Dec: 650,000
• Jan: 840,000 (Didn’t take office till end of Jan, these go to Bush)
• Feb: 725,000 (Stimulus signed)
• Mar: 787,000 (Announced assistance to the auto industry, aka the auto bailout)
• Apr: 802,000
• May: 312,000
• Jun: 426,000
• Jul: 296,000

In the 2 months following the signing of the 2009 stimulus, job losses went from monthly losses of 700-800K to 300-400K.  For the mathematically challenged, that’s over a 50% decrease in job losses just 2 months after the stimulus was signed.

In other words, over half of President Obama’s 4.5 million job losses happened his first 3 months in office—when none of his economic policies had enough time to make any kind of impact.
Now let’s fast forward to present day…

We’ve had private sector job growth, continuously, since March 2010.  That’s 37 consecutive months of private sector job growth—totaling over 6.5 million jobs.

Oh, and for the record, Obama has only been in office for 51 months.  That means about 73% of his time in the White House we’ve experienced job growth.

So, first and foremost, this President isn't killing jobs or job growth.

Second, the stimulus spending package worked.

Third, then, it seems clear here, too, that any austerity program now is not just irresponsible but flies in the face of everything that makes sense for jobs, for creating jobs and for the health of the nation's and people's economy.

So, to our representatives in Congress, both houses, I say, I ask, once again, would you please, please create a jobs/projects/infrastructure/construction bill?

Please?

Link to original post: Fun Facts Republicans Don't Want You to Know About Obama's ...

America: Can we get back to more making a true living wage?

America's real problems

It's the jobs, stupid

"What always interests me about the Sunday talk shows is the big topic they don't cover, the unmentionable large issue of the week. This time it was the nation's continuing job crisis, as reported last Friday by the BLS. Instead, the discussion was all about the fiscal cliff and upcoming debt ceiling -- in other words, the deficit. Yet the deficit isn't the crisis. It's actually dropping as a percentage of the economy. And America can now borrow at the lowest rates in memory. Our crisis is jobs -- and also our crumbling infrastructure and our schools in which 30 or more kids are crowded into classrooms. America should be borrowing more now to put more people to work rebuilding our infrastructure and hiring more teachers and teachers' aides. That we are obsessing about the deficit instead shows how much of the public agenda has been captured by the deficit hawks and shrink-the-government goons."

--Robert Reich, American political economist, professor, author, and political commentator. He served in the administrations of Presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter and was Secretary of Labor under President Bill Clinton from 1993 to 1997.

Links:

Robert Reich | Facebook

Robert Reich - Wikipedia

The Road to More Jobs (guest post)

From a New York Times op/ed piece today:

"How different would conditions be today economically and politically if unemployment were 7 percent instead of its current 8.2 percent? For one thing, some two million unemployed workers would have jobs, and the rate of economic growth would be comfortably above 2 percent, instead of below that pace. This scenario could have been possible if federal aid to states had been bolstered, saving hundreds of thousands of public-sector jobs.

Mr. Obama can make a convincing case that his policies — especially the stimulus and auto industry rescue — helped cushioned the effects of the recession he inherited, which pushed the jobless rate from an already elevated 7.8 percent in January 2009 to 10 percent by October 2009. It has come down, more or less, steadily since then. But it is still higher than when he took office — a point that Mitt Romney and Congressional Republicans have seized upon as evidence of failed policies.

Actually, it was the Republicans’ relentless opposition to constructive policies that has kept unemployment high, from their resistance to the 2009 stimulus to their blockage of Mr. Obama’s proposed $450 billion jobs bill in late 2011. Federal aid to states was a mainstay of both of those efforts. As the stimulus ended and further aid was delayed and denied, the effect on state budgets — and on jobs — has been catastrophic.

A recent analysis by the Economic Policy Institute shows that the loss of public-sector jobs, largely because of state budget cuts, has been the biggest hit to job growth over the past three years.

The direct jobs lost — 627,000 since June 2009 — understates the drag because population growth alone suggests that the public sector should have added nearly 500,000 jobs over that time simply to restore government employment to its norm of the last 20 years. In all, the public sector is coming up short by 1.1 million jobs, including positions for teachers, social workers, public health officials and other professions that would have been filled by many of today’s unemployed college graduates.

Worse, the public-sector gap of 1.1 million jobs has translated into some 750,000 lost jobs in the private sector, the result of contractors losing government business and less spending by laid-off government workers. In addition, another 400,000 or so jobs have been lost because of cutbacks in state aid to the poor and unemployed, which reduce consumer spending.

The effects from an ailing public sector are profound because state and local spending on employees, contractors and beneficiaries reverberates swiftly through the economy. When that spending is depressed, the entire economy suffers.

The bottom line of the institute’s report is that if it weren’t for state and local budget austerity, the economy would have 2.3 million more jobs today, and the unemployment rate would be around 7 percent, not 8 percent. The lesson is that the best and easiest way to reverse job losses would be for Congress to provide fiscal aid to states. Thwarting such aid, as Republicans have done, is a way to keep unemployment elevated and their hopes to win the White House alive. Jobless Americans, struggling businesses and hard-pressed communities are hostages in the fray."

Link to original post: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/12/opinion/the-road-to-more-jobs.html?_r=1&smid=fb-share

Celebrate Small Business Week

America's coup de' tat (guest post)

"I’m not a conspiracy theorist (you can’t have served in Washington and seriously believe more than two people can hold on to a big story without it leaking), but I fear that at least since 2010 we’ve been witnessing a quiet, slow-motion coup d’etat whose purpose is to repeal every bit of progressive legislation since the New Deal and entrench the privileged positions of the wealthy and powerful — who haven’t been as wealthy or as powerful since the Gilded Age of the late 19th century.

Its techique is to inundate America with a few big lies, told over and over (the debt is Obama’s fault and it’s out of control; corporations and the very rich are the “job creators” that need tax cuts; government is the enemy, and its regulations are strangling the private sector; unions are bad; and so on), and tell them so often they’re taken as fact.

Then having convinced enough Americans that these lies are true, take over the White House, Congress, and remaining states that haven’t yet succumbed to the regressive right (witness Tuesday’s recall election in Wisconsin).

I desperately hope I’m wrong, but all there’s growing evidence I may be right."

--Robert Reich, Chancellor’s Professor of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley, was Secretary of Labor in the Clinton administration, author, commentator, columnist for The New York Times, etc.

Note: You may want to read the article, too, as it is yet another excellent one from Mr. Reich, no surprise.

Link to original post: http://robertreich.org/post/24472398883

Kansas "boomtown" in the news

It seems Kansas' own Harper County is on the internets today, going from CNN Money to Yahoo! News:

In Kansas boomtown, trailers renting for $2,000 a month



From the article:

"In the oil boomtowns of southern Kansas, enterprising residents are turning into real estate moguls, renting out everything from double-wide trailers to rooms in an old bank for as much as $2,000 a month.

Workers flocking to the area seeking high-paying jobs in nearby oil fields and windfarms have created a housing shortage in these small farming towns, causing the rents to skyrocket."

Who knew?

What's especially interesting to me about the video clip, above, is that they do point out some positive but also some negative aspects of the boom.

Anyway, if you're needing work, maybe you know now where to point the car, eh?

Have a great weekend, y'all.

Links: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/kansas-boomtown-trailers-renting-2-105500380.html; http://money.cnn.com/video/news/2012/05/30/n-kansas-harper-oil-boomtown.cnnmoney/

Good for the country--Republicans won't like it

Great employment news from March. It seems the country added some 200,000 new jobs to the employment rolls last month. Great for the country. Great for the people. Important to the ones who got hired. Bad for someone? The Republican Party. Instead of wanting what's good for the country, for the nation and for the people of the country, they want bad things so this president isn't successful. Pretty terrific, huh? Just so they can be successful come this November with the elections. It's sick. Link: http://www.latimes.com/business/money/la-fi-mo-adp-employment-20120404,0,1103843.story

Age discrimination and this economy: most under-reported stories?

A friend of mine, across the country from us, wrote this, today, on his FB wall page: "CAUCASIAN + MALE + NON-VETERAN + 60 YEARS OLD = JOB DISCRIMINATION." And while I'm not sure about the Caucasian or male part but just the age factor, I think it could be argued that age discrimination and this tough economy might well be one of the most under-reported stories since the 2008 national and international economic downturn. With all these people unemployed and under-employed, I think any people potentially hiring assume, for whatever reason, that anyone 55, at least, if not 50, and older either may or will have just far too many issues going against them. The Deseret News, out of Utah, had this to say: Age discrimination a growing issue in a difficult economy Very unfortunate. Seems like, potentially, a big waste of a lot of talent and experience. Link: http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865551785/Age-discrimination-a-growing-issue-in-a-difficult-economy.html

Quote of the day

“The only trouble with capitalism is capitalists—they are too damn greedy.” --Herbert Hoover, 31st president (1874-1964) (With thanks and a hat tip to Veracity Stew).

Don't think "the stimulus" of the economy worked?

Take a moment and watch this. It lasts 4 minutes.

Good economic news

Good--to great--economic news and on two fronts. First, it was announced yesterday that the jobless rate fell to 8.5 percent. That's the lowest rate in 3 years. Second, announced today, "The United States added 200,000 new jobs last month, the Labor Department said Friday, a robust number that came on the heels of a flurry of heartening economic news. Consumer confidence lifted, factories stepped up production and small businesses showed signs of life... It was the sixth consecutive month that the economy showed a net gain of more than 100,000 jobs." All this good economic, business and jobs news for the nation must be killing Mitch McConnell. Links: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/06/business/us-manufacturing-is-a-bright-spot-for-the-economy.html?_r=1; http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/01/06/jobless-rate-falls-to-85-percent-lowest-in-nearly-three-years/; http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/07/business/economy/us-adds-200000-jobs-unemployment-rate-at-8-5.html

Bill Clinton on the Occupy movement

"Occupy Wall Street has done more in the short time they’ve been out there than I’ve been able to do in more than the last eleven years trying to draw attention to some of the same problems we have to address." --Former President Bill Clinton Link to original article: http://www.forbes.com/sites/shahgilani/2011/12/06/the-rumors-about-bill-clinton-are-true/

An anniversary today

"Today marks the 1-year anniversary of the Republicans taking control of the House. After promising to deliver jobs for the American people they've instead delivered 2 near government shutdowns, 14 votes to repeal patient health care protections, 4 votes to restrict women's access to health care, 3 votes to end medicare, 1 vote to raise taxes on middle class workers, and 0 votes on a comprehensive jobs bill." --Niki Tsongas, from her Facebook page. Politician from Lowell, Massachussetts. Link: https://www.facebook.com/nikitsongas