the 99ers that fell off in the last few months FAR outpace the amount of new unemployed. all you need to know is in the BLS's EUC stats. it's not even close. we do not have the engine necessary (as a country) to employ our population anymore. it's done. over. as RCG said, and i like his analogy, we have passed the event horizon.
i dont think obama is responsible for a lot of what is wrong with the economy. he certainly hasn't helped anything along - and has made some things worse. but i lay most of the blame at the foot of ben bernanke. the problem is that obama, claiming hope and change would come to the country, re-appointed the same idiot who directly contributed to the meltdown. i read a nice analogy of it, though i regret i cannot recall the source. it said "we are re-appointing the same person (ben bernanke) who knocked over the expensive vase (the economy) and smashed it to bits. and our only justification for doing so was because he did a nice job in sweeping up the pieces." (paraphrased)
Why is it that Ben Bernanke always gets nailed to the wall and not one word is ever said about the guy who actually contributed more to this problem than any other individual on the planet, Mr. Greenspan.
I disagree... we have the engine for employment... we just have to get the govt out of they way. right now it is too expensive for people on govt programs to work for 10 dollars an hour. It is too risky to hire a minority who might sue you if you have to fire them. It may be too risky to invest in things which will benefit from an economic recovery when the govt is so involved in the financial markets you really can't rely on typical market signals. Finally, there are tons of business opportunities for people who wish to provide services... We are going to have a whole segment of baby boomers downsizing. We have tons of people who are going to need to rent homes. We are going to experience water shortages. We are going to see more deaths and more people entering assisted care facilities. I suspect tons of people will be retiring soon. If the govt would stick to its job under the constitution.. providing security and keeping non citizens out... i suspect we could be a full employment with a labor shortage in the next 5 years.