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Weekly Wrap: Jobs and Europe
The Wall Street sign near the front of the New York Stock Exchange August 5, 2011.
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Kai Ryssdal talks to Leigh Gallagher from
Fortune Magazine and Felix Salmon from Reuters.
On convincing people that 9 percent is the new normal for the unemployment rate:
Felix Salmon: That's what it is, they don't even need convincing. Politically, the big question is if the electorate is going to blame Barack Obama for extremely gruesome state of affairs. But there's no way that he's going to get 4 or 5 percent under his presidency, even if he does get re-elected.
And more on the jobs report:
Leigh Gallagher: The report today wasn't bad, there were revisions upward, which was good. But the Fed a couple days ago revised growth downward, and that's really where the mood strikes. Because basically we're kind of settling in, preparing for -- as you said -- kind of sustained, higher-based level. I think the Fed was predicting by 2014 we're going to be looking at somewhere between roughly 7 and 8 percent -- but that's 2014.
For more analysis, listen to the audio above.
"
9 percent is the new normal for the unemployment rate:
Felix Salmon: That's what it is, they don't even need convincing. Politically
"
Could our workplace be more efficient without the deadwood? Perhaps, but what worries me is, "Was the deadwood laid off, or did simplistic 'last in first out' supervene by default? Something equally meaningless? Something counterproductive?". Will historians someday review what has occurred? Will that be too late for us?
The evil of unemployment is the loss of labour-division. Division-of-labour provides a much higher performance from all of us, but an unemployed worker becomes a cross-trained-jack-of-all-trades clone of each other unemployed misfit. We need to reclaim our labour-division efficiency-advantage. We need this for our National-Competitiveness. What happens to us when we go to war with Iran without our competitive edge? Is that what happened to us during Vie^t Nam Conflict? Who knows? One thing for sure -- Congress should now put aside the squabbling and infighting long enough to cut taxes on our working poor long enough to regain our National-Competitiveness through full employment. We should have personal exemption of 44,000.00 for every swinging soul in this country. You think that much personal exemption may cause inflation? Have you seen how low long treasury yields have dropped? You call that "inflation"? You looking at something upside down? Man, you gotta be kidding. Maintain our combat ready position Congress Guys!
Be all that you can be,
America
!
I've appreciated that Marketplace in the past did not buy the hype that we were in a permanent economic boom and that housing would always go up. Instead, your show provided level headed analysis of both the strengths and weaknesses facing the economy. However, recently Marketplace seems to have taken the opposite attitude. There have been frequent assertions that unemployment cannot possibly improve for a very long time and in fact may never improve. I am sure many people felt that same way during the deeps of the Great Depression. When things are very bad, it can be all too easy to pessimistically assume it is the new normal and will not change. I think many people will be surprised at how quickly unemployment comes down over the next 2 years. Keep ignoring the hype, but don't fall for the doom and gloom either.
