Guest post by Peter Morici.
Only 39,000 new jobs created is awful.
After we back out health care and social services, which are largely gov’t funded, the private sector is not creating permanent jobs.
None, zero, nada.
After health care, social services and temp services are backed out, the private sector ACTUALLY LOST lost 24,000 jobs
Ugh! (SpeakingofPrecision asks-IS THAT A TECHNICAL TERM?)
So much for the gradual recovery.
Meanwhile Congress and President negotiate extending the tax cuts–which everyone knows will end in a compromise in the range of $500,000 to $1,000,000 for the cutoff or a temporary extension or both, and extending unemployment benefits, again.
Rearranging the chairs on the deck of the Titanic!
The economy must add 13 million private sector jobs by the end of 2013 to bring unemployment down to 6 percent.
President Obama’s policies are not creating conditions for businesses to hire those 350,000 workers each month, net of layoffs.
Peter Morici
703 618 4338
Peter Morici is a professor at the Smith School of Business, University of Maryland School, and former Chief Economist at the U.S. International Trade Commission.
Photo credit.
Actual photo of Titanic Deck Chairs
Tag: Where’s the Beef?
So much for Change…
The Associated Press reports that “the Obama administration on Thursday declined to name China as a country that is manipulating its currency to gain unfair trade advantages.”
“The Treasury Department did say it has “serious concerns” about a lack of flexibility in the value of China’s currency against other currencies, and the country’s rapid accumulation of foreign exchange reserves including U.S. dollars.”
“The administration’s decision came in a report the Treasury is required to submit to Congress twice a year. Based on a 1988 law, the administration must designate countries judged to be manipulating their currencies to boost their exports to the United States or make U.S. products more expensive in overseas markets.”
Hmmmm…
Obama promised to take a tougher stance against China on trade issues
during his campaign for the White House last year. He pledged to take a tougher approach to China than the Bush administration did. He said the failure by Bush and Paulson to label China a currency manipulator was “unacceptable,” and he endorsed legislation to let US companies seek import duties to compensate for the advantage an undervalued currency gives their Chinese competitors.
But in both the April and the current October report, the administration declined to name China a currency manipulator.
Here’s the story from the AP: http://tinyurl.com/ygw5afp