The corporate media tore itself away from its fascination with Sarah Palin’s bus and Anthony’s wiener long enough to gleefully declare that Obama’s economic recovery has stalled because he only created 54,000 jobs last month. First of all, that is 54,000 more jobs than Bush created in an average month. Incredibly the Republican talking point is still that Bush created 5 million jobs when the net number of jobs he created was actually zero.
Secondly there is the 30,000 teachers that Republican governors fired last month so they could cut taxes on rich people. That would boost the jobs number to 84,000. There was also weakness in manufacturing due to shortages of vital parts from Japan. These job numbers will in fact start to increase as Japan will need to import goods to help with their rebuilding.
Retailers laid off heavily as sales slumped due to high gas prices but that is starting to ease. There also was a large amount of outsourced jobs in the paper and printing business do to Republican policies that are still in effect.
Normally at this point in a recovery there would be a big upturn in housing starts that would create a lot of jobs this time of year but we still have that foreclosure mess left over from the Bush housing bubble and credit scandal. And of course if you want to create or expand business, credit is almost impossible to get.
Flooding on the Mississippi has slowed exports from New Orleans to less than half of normal also costing jobs. Once the rebuilding from record storm damage in the South and Midwest begins this will also be a boost to jobs as Obama’s FEMA doesn’t just funnel the money to no bid/no work crony contractors.
Temp hiring was way down which should indicate the kind of real growth that makes for increased wages and in fact there has been a report indicating the wages could be going up. Rising wages would be a boon for the economy as it increases demand for goods and services.
Slumping retail sales also has America’s largest retailer taking decisive action with Walmart dipping into petty cash to buy back $15 billion of its own stock to boost the price per share. You don’t have cash flow problems when you dodge Federal taxes by off shoring your supply chain and use your overwhelming economic clout to avoid local taxes. It doesn’t hurt if you can pay less for help than the cost of keeping slaves. Slaves would need healthcare and enough to eat as you need to buy new slaves if they die. Walmart gets their serfs from the local countryside for less than it costs the serfs to live and there is an unlimited supply. Oh look a cricket! www.prairie2.com