zogger's Journal: "Jobless recovery"

Much hoopla around the latest apparent "by the numbers" stock market gains. Well that's nice...but they keep calling it proof of a "jobless recovery", which is supposedly "good". I am not really sure how this is suppposed to be good for everyone, but "they" claim it means "the economy is getting better!". Anyway, perhaps with a question mark, maybe this is an explanation how this came about.

This would also square nicely (along with some other reasons) with helicopter ben and pals really not wanting any auditing of the fed and why it was so hard and took so long to even get it out of committee.

Unemployment numbers are staggering

[damn_registrars]

I traveled to see family and friends over the holidays, and found:

• Nobody I knew who was without a job Christmas 2008 has one yet
• Several people I know who had jobs as of Christmas 2008 are now jobless
• Unemployed people I know cover many different parts of the educational spectrum:
  • High school education only
  • Associate's degree
  • Undergrad dropout
  • Undergrad complete
  • PhD

The situation is so dire I almost feel bad that I might receive a 3% raise this year (thanks to the union); however I make so little that 3% of my salary isn't even enough to cover a month's mortgage. That said if the choice was take a raise and risk losing my job, or forgo the raise in the name of job security, I would pick the latter in a heartbeat.

"Jobless recovery" is an oxymoron

[mcgrew]

But it's proof that the rich who run things don't give a rat's ass about you, me, or their country. The stock market going up doesn't affect you or me at all.

The 1930s humorist Will Rogers said "the difference between a recession and a depression is, a recession is when your neighbor is out of work. A depression is when you're out of work".

Since 5% of the population owns 95% of the wealth, I'd say it's only a "recovery" for 5% of the population. How is that a recovery?