We Dodged the Bullet, Barely

Well, we dodged the bullet. Nonfarm payrolls were down overall, but private sector hires were positive, although not quite as many as hoped. Due to the perversity of the calculations, unemployment is down .2%, to 9.5%; almost certainly (I haven't seen the detailed report; likely won't) due to folks getting tossed off the rolls. It is true that once tossed off, one can continue to report and continue to be counted; few do. It will be interesting to see what the "real" unemployment rates did. My supposition is that they're still going up.

And the Right Wingnuts want the unemployed to starve; yeah, that'll get the economy moving again. Obama was/is stupid. There are just two choices: either prod an economy to do more of what it isn't doing, but did do up to the crash; or steer the economy to do other things and employ folks doing those things. In the case of The Great Recession, we can create more jobs for Banksters and Redneck Nail Hammerers all over again, or we can create other work for the math inclined and muscle inclined which are actually socially useful. I know, the S word. But it is one society, and we either treat it as such, or we adopt the P word: PoliceState. Take your pick.