Stimulated…

3 comments

And no, I’m not talking about the OT game with Mississippi State last night…which probably shortened my life expectancy by a year or two.

Nope, I’m talking about the economy and the economic stimulus enacted by President Obama.  People like to see results, and a picture is worth a thousand words, so…here’s my 2,000 word report.

Road to Recovery

Nice smile

And a bit more, with a link to the NYT story…

Click this one to see a larger version

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  • New Independent

    Here’s another chart to chew on.

    In the fall of 2008, the unemployment rate was somewhere between 6.2 % and 6.9%. After that, it has jumped rather dramatically and according to the EPI.ORG (in the link below)

    “This recession has become the longest and deepest economic downturn since the Great Depression.”

    http://www.tradingeconomics.com/Economics/Unemployment-rate.aspx?Symbol=USD

    http://www.epi.org/publications/entry/the_steep_rise_in_unemployment_continues/

    I wonder what might have happened in the fall of 2008 that could have had such a dampening effect on the economy?

    And I don’t thing a “decrease” in job “loss” is something worth celebrating; rather like the first mate telling the Captain the “good news” that the ship isn’t taking on water quite as fast when it’s already filled.

  • admin

    Well, I see what you are trying to imply, but this rate of unemployment was predicted before the votes had been counted We were headed down, and there really was no way it could have been avoided.

    So, unlike you, I DO find a ray of light in decreasing job loss…I’m not putting on a party hat and whacking a pinata or anything, but look…find good news where you can…look at the positive side of it. A lot of these problems are made worse, I feel, by the fear that the media induces in the public about how bad it is and how bad it is going to get.

    It isn’t like money just dried up and went away. Absolutely it hit folks hard when the stock market started to tank, but how many middle-class families are very heavily invested in the stock market? Maybe a part of our retirement is in there, and no doubt that took a hit, but the market recovers…it always does, and it wasn’t like we had access to spend that money anyway.

    No, the people with a lot of money, of course LOST the most money, which meant they did in fact start to spend less. But seeing people lose money is scary, and the media makes sure you know just how scary it is, every day and night. So, we all saw it, and we all stopped spending as freely as we once did, partially out of worry. So it feeds itself and feeds itself, and boom…recession.

    I understand the worry over a growing budget deficit, but had the government NOT acted and provided a stimulus, what shape do you think the economy would be in now? Sometimes the best solution isn’t always a great one, but the alternative, I think, would have been disastrous.

    So where’s the harm in taking whatever glimmer of hope we’re given and giving it a little boost? Instead of talking to your friends about how “decreasing job loss” is BS and we’re headed for total doom thanks to Obama, you say, hey…I heard that job loss is decreasing….I know it isn’t much, but maybe it is a good sign? Then you make your friend feel a little better, and maybe he or she goes out and shares what they feel like is a little good news that gave them some hope…and those people feel better, and so on, and so on…

    Really…what does it hurt to have a little hope instead of trying to just stamp it out? I say it is worth a shot…

  • admin

    Also…I’m pretty sure the whole housing crisis started quite a ways before Fall 2008, and that, in no small way, has caused a lot of this mess.