The Economic Numbers Game

Without presenting some of the information provided in an article from The Economist, to avoid having your eyes glaze over, the following excerpt may some it up.

Most troubling of all is the continued failure of economic growth to benefit the labour market. Employment fell by over 300,000 jobs during the last three months of 2009, despite strong expansion in GDP. The first quarter of 2010 is unlikely to show as big an output gain, suggesting that the pace of improvement in employment may be slowing, even as regular job growth has yet to return. And the situation may be more dire still; initial jobless claims have grown in recent weeks, indicating that what momentum there was in labour markets has been lost.

And leave it to one of Obama’s economic gurus, Larry Summers, to spin the situation in a liberal form. He says the American economy is experiencing “a statistical recovery and a human recession”.

That’s liberal-speak for we present numbers that minimize the problem and portray continued losses in employment as a ‘human recession.’ How comforting. The report indicates 41% of the unemployed have been so for 27 weeks. How does that translate into it ’s all Bush’s fault? Those losses came within Obama’s first year in office.

I can hear the liberal response already. However, libs should understand that regardless of the degree to which the previous administration or anyone else contributed to an economic downturn, then candidate Obama campaigned that his hope and change would fix what’s wrong. He knew then what he would face if elected. It is folly to now say that the failure of his agenda is someone else’s fault.

That is why the overwhelming demand from the public, aka voters, is to return to the basics. Stop spending. Stop borrowing. Live within our means and take common sense steps toward recovery. Enough with the political agenda that only serves the ambition of politicians.

Stanford Matthews
MoreWhat.com

Comments are closed.