U.S. employers cut payrolls for a second straight month during February, slashing 63,000 jobs for the biggest monthly decline in nearly five years as the nation’s labor markets weakened steadily, a government report on Friday showed.
The Labor Department said last month’s cut followed an upwardly revised loss of 22,000 jobs in January rather than the 17,000 reported a month ago. It also said only 41,000 jobs were
created in December, half the 82,000 originally reported. CNBC
While people like the President remain in denial about the state of our economy, we are in fact in the midst of a recession. It’s time our leaders acknowledge that instead of trying to run out the clock.
I’m sure certain right-wing media figureheads in Wisconsin will use this as further proof that the Bush tax cuts for America’s wealthiest people are working as planned and despite what the “MSM!” is telling you, the economy is actually doing just great.
…for them at least.
I live in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Milwaukee, WI with my wife Jen, our daughter Emerson, and son Carter.
I don’t know about you, but I like tax cuts, in fact I don’t think there are enough of them. I was directly affected by all of the Bush tax cuts in a very favorable fashion. I like the fact that the grossly bloated, inefficient federal government, with the help of conservatives, propose, push through and enact tax breaks, period. The more money that I get, or better yet, that I EARN and don’t have to “donate” to the government, the better off I am (as is everyone else, rich or poor).
Trust me, I’m not rich. I live in a 900 sq ft upper in a duplex, and can use every dollar President Bush or any other president wants to give (give being a relative word, considering it’s my money to begin with) me. To suggest raising taxes will get us out of this economic malaise (and that’s all it is… The word recession is used as freely as the Democrats liberal use of the word TAX) is laughable. I know several “rich” (however that is defined) people that have worked EXTREMELY hard for their millions and quite frankly deserve a tax break if no other reason that they are the people that drive this economy. Tax THOSE people? Fine, give the go-getters and the entrepreneurs little to no motivation to expand their wealth, a reason to stop hiring people, stop trying to grow and motivate others to do great things, and to pull money away from worthy charitable organizations. I’m sure that’s exactly what this economy needs. Remember people, it’s ok for individuals, AND companies to make A LOT of money, and in the same vain not have to give a larger percentage of their income to the government, compared to everyone else. They should give the same percentage (which they don’t, it’s usually more.) that you and I do.
As for the economy, using the word recession is inflammatory and untrue. Is there a downturn in the economy? YES, but it is to be expected. Our economy, whether we like it or not, is cyclical, and that fact is inevitable. The last thing we need to do is 1) panic, 2) stop spending money and 3) allowing the government to make things worse by taking more of our disposable income away by taxing me, or taking away existing tax cuts. The spending of money is what drives this economy. If the government takes more away from those of us that have it, the closer we will get to an actual recession!
Reading what Sean just wrote makes me want to stand up, walk over to the wall and just start banging my head against it.
Bush did not cut your taxes. He raised the taxes of our children by spending oodles of money we don’t have. We have to pay that money back with interest.
We are headed into a recession. You can disagree with this based on some anti-information bias, but there are heaps of economic data that illustrate this.
I’m gathering you banged your head against a wall before I posted my comment. You’d have to, to come up with your logic, so I’ll take it for what’s it’s worth.
A recession is a six-month decline in the value of a particular country’s goods and services — better known as its gross domestic product. Looking at this further (with my anti-information bias) the majority of NABE (National Association of Business Economists) members are predicting a slow down, not a recession, for the first 6 months of 2008, with a significant pickup in the 2nd half of the year. With a 2.9% increase throughout 2009. This analysis, along with other experts, give me the confidence to confidently say that we are NOT in a recession, and more than likely will not slip into one, but if certain groups want to pretend to be Chicken Little and scream “the sky is falling”, be my guest.
I saw a headline today claiming the US has been in a recession since December 2007. Assuming that’s correct, we really were in a recession when this article was posted.