No virtual front page today, because there’s not much I’d willingly put on a front page. The biggest story of the day by far is the softer-than-expected jobs numbers — which, combined with bad news out of Spain, has sent global markets plunging.
(The only thing competing for the front with that is Hillary Clinton talking tough to China and Russia about Syria. I might do a separate post about that.)
The BBC does the basic overview:
US shares have fallen after official data showed firms had created only 80,000 new jobs in June, leaving the jobless rate unchanged at 8.2%.
Job creation remains below the 100,000 judged necessary by the Federal Reserve for a stable job market, according to the US Labor Department.
Shares slipped after the news, with the opening Dow Jones index falling 1%.
President Barack Obama said the rise in employment was “a step in the right direction”.
Campaigning in the swing state of Ohio on Friday, President Obama acknowledged that “it’s still tough out there” for ordinary Americans…
Republican White House candidate Mitt Romney said from Wolfeboro, New Hampshire, that the jobs data underlined the need for a new president, adding “this kick in the gut has got to end”…
Other angles include:
- String of Weak Jobs Reports Likely to Set Tone for Voters (NYT)
- Obama Promotes a Long View on Jobs (NYT)
- Jobs Report And Politics: The Monthly Spin Cycle (NPR)
- Jobs report makes it tougher for Obama to tout progress (WashPost)
As you can see, the political angle is getting heavy play. Although the Post did manage to show some concern for the actual economy in its lede headline: Weak jobs report adds to worry of faltering recovery.
The European problems feeding into the drop in markets is at least briefly discussed in this WSJ story. Here’s some more, courtesy of The Guardian.
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Economic Policy Institute (http://www.epi.org)has a study showing public employment aka public spending creates private sector jobs at a rate of 1 public job = .67 private job
Public austerity means reduced private sector jobs. This really isn’t rocket science. GOPPERS just don’t want Americans working.
Yep Lynn, us GOPPERS are just trying to keep you DEMOCERS down. We’ll keep our billions in the bank becasue we’d rather make 0.05% in savings account interest than make 5-10% in profit on that same money by investing in business opportunities.
85000 people applied for Social security disability in June. Think about how many workers we need to support one disabled person. Ten? Twenty? The math won’t work as baby boomers retire and there aren’t enough workers to pay for them and all the disabled people. Time to decide if we want the largest military in the world or take care of our own.
“EPI presents a liberal viewpoint on economic issues.” So, there is no bias in their study? Really expect that one to fly?
Need more?
“EPI analyses are a trusted resource for policy makers, those in the media, “national progressive advocacy organizations” and state research organizations.”
Well, I guess all this time I didn’t understand the way an economy works. If the public sector spends money, they create jobs for the private sector who in turn pay taxes to support the public sector who in turn spends more of the private sector money and create more jobs. But I do have one simple question. W
“EPI presents a liberal viewpoint on economic issues.” So, there is no bias in their study? Really expect that one to fly?
Need more?
“EPI analyses are a trusted resource for policy makers, those in the media, “national progressive advocacy organizations” and state research organizations.” If for one moment you expect any thinking person to buy into the fact that any of the three mentioned are anything but liberal, John Jennerette still has some underwater lots for sale on the coast.
Well, I guess all this time I didn’t understand the way an economy works. If the public sector spends money, they create jobs for the private sector who in turn pay taxes to support the public sector who in turn spends more of the private sector money and create more jobs. But I do have one simple question. Where the hell does the public sector get the money to “create” the jobs for the private sector?
It must be time to rewrite the history books and teach our children and grandchildren that all good things come from the government and all bad things from the capitalist economic system.
It looks like we now have about 10,798,686 on federal disability. That’s up about 1.3M since Barack Obama took office.
The government sector continues to be a drag on the employment picture. The private sector increased employment by 84k. Government lost 4k. Overall a pretty lackluster showing for the job market. The fix is pretty easy, governments at all levels need to add jobs. With plenty of infrastructure needs along with a severe shortage of teachers, cops and firefighters the solution is painfully obvious but politically impossible. What a shame.
@ bud – Columbia is adding cops as fast as they can hire/train qualified candidates, but they still are having trouble getting to and maintaining a full strength force. A lot of local cops/firefighters/gov’t workers may be retiring in order to beat the state pension reform deadlines, but that’s just an SC thing.
Not sure that there’s actually a “severe shortage of teachers” around here, either. Maybe somewhere else, though.
bud – Who’s going to pay for it? You can’t just create jobs without being able to pay salaries.
Silence – Plus Columbia is just a training ground for policemen and fire fighters. Firefighters can make 33% more just by moving to Charlotte. Policemen are probably in the same boat.
It costs more to live in CLT too, but I think their police force might be better run, and less like the Keystone Cops.
Well, the cost of living is a lot higher in Charlotte, so that isn’t a great move. What they can do, sometimes, is just work for another municipality in the Midlands. This is changing, though,
@Kathryn – Not 33% higher, Columbia has already lost a few firefighters to Charlotte because of the salary difference from my source (a Columbia firefighter).
Not everyone thinks the sweat box of the South, Columbia, SC is the place to be like you do. I can think of at least a dozen other cities/areas I’d rather live in if I weren’t as close to state retirement as I am. Columbia wasn’t bad 20 years ago when I moved here, but now it’s not much better than living in say Augusta, GA.
Columbia could certainly do better. Why don’t we use Carolina Stadium during the summer to host a minor league baseball team? It makes no sense to let it sit idle. Then there’s my pet peeve, the railroad tracks. I waited 10 minutes at the Taylor Street crossing on the Fourth. No sense in that. Then there’s the poor bus system and extremely high taxes for meals. I’m still waiting on the new State Museum Planitarium to replace the Gibbs Planitarium, a city treasure lost to progress.
On the other hand we have the river system which serves the area well. And there’s the lake and the Congaree National Park. The Art Museum is very nice. And it appears the Assembly Street re-do is finally going to happen.
All in all SD II has a point, but perhaps there is potential in the Famously Hot City but we’re far too slow to exploit it.
@bud – “Famously Hot” to non-natives is almost as appealing as Chicago’s “Come and get shot” slogan.