As an addendum to Katie's earlier post with the unemployment numbers du jour, this visual from Zero Hedge (h/t to The Blaze) provides some perspective into the effects that such dismal unemployment rates have on our economic growth.
Following the most recent NFP disappointment, the simple math indicates that for the US to return to its December 2007 unemployment [4.8%], when factoring in the natural growth of the labor force of 90k people a month, the economy will need to add 250k jobs a month for the next 66 months or until the end of Obama's now very implausible second term.
(For a dose of expert insight, the WSJ put together a quick compilation of some economists' varying breakdowns of today's numbers.)
President Obama was at the Chrysler plant in Toledo, Ohio this afternoon, serving up another steaming plate of bromide about the success of his 'investments' (seriously, just say bailouts, come on!) and the jobs he bought at the expense of the American taxpayer.
Fiat SpA is offering to buy the government’s remaining six percent share in Chrysler for $500 million dollars, giving Fiat majority control of Chrysler. President Obama is advertising this as a corporate turnaround made possible by the $80 billion bailout given to Chrysler and General Motors in 2009, but he mysteriously failed to mention the $14 billion dollars in continuing costs that American taxpayers will never get back. And we cannot forget the continuous economic drain in the form of subsidies to Chrysler and other automakers for 'investments' like energy-efficient cars. At a time when the unemployment number is too terrible too ignore, President Obama is trying to create an opportune moment to legitimize his bailouts as brilliant economic policy. Basically: "See? Stick with me, I know what I'm doing."
In other news, the Ford Motor Company (which, you may remember, refused to take a government bailout) just had its best first quarter in thirteen years and is going strong, demonstrating that businesses can rely on their own ingenuity to survive and do not need the government to fix their boo-boos with billion-dollar band-aids.
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