I was chatting with a Liberal friend recently who chuckled and reminded me how the stock market was “roaring” under Obama, at which point I promptly schooled him on what that really meant. Unfortunately, I couldn’t just stop at unsustainably low fed rates, grossly overvalued paper without tangible collateral/capital to back it up, and a propped up housing market. So I quickly moved on to the true measure of any economic recovery, jobs…
Context: If we assume a labor participation rate of about 67.5 percent (It’s actually more like 63.4 percent, but those figures aren’t official yet.), the American economy needs to create around 125,000 jobs per month simply to keep up with population growth. The Obama economy created approximately 162,000 jobs last month. This is anemic at best. Now let’s have a look at those jobs. As a result of new taxes, regulations, the uncertainty of Obamacare, and massive federal debt, nearly 60 percent of those jobs were part-time. Additionally, the civilian labor force declined by 37,000 while 240,000 joined the ranks of those “not in the labor force” collective, a number now just shy of 90 million. How may we ever expect a better future for our children when our economy is generating third world numbers like these. Could this be the new norm? Will this President’s legacy be to accomplish by way of economic ruination, what history’s most diabolical tyrants were unable to accomplish by force?
During the Reagan recovery, the country saw job creation reaching 340,000 per month at one point, and all on the foundation of a (growing not declining labor participation rate). This meant that companies had the confidence to expand operations and hire full-time workers who in turn fed the tax rolls accordingly. Reagan made mistakes as any president does, but he understood and applied free market economic principles to get the country moving in the right direction. Moreover, he brought us together in that effort and made Americans proud again.
Anyway, I asked my Liberal friend if this is the United States he wants for his little girl. He shrugged off my question and launched into yet another one of his tirades about how, “if it weren’t for Bush”…… Sigh…… Maybe next time….
http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2013/08/04/part-time-low-wage-jobs/2613483/
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