A new WPA program to help restore America and put us back to work? Maybe so.

Here is an interesting post from SIOA. FDR and WPA program had many good things in it. Many of those are still with us today. The last thing our country needs is another stimulus program like the first one. While the WPA was far from perfect(what program is?) it may be a better idea, retooled for the current current times that we live in. Our enemies feed of our own weakness. Islam thrives on the bodies of the weak.

Just thinking out loud a bit. What is said about our education system is true. When nations ignore their own history, and history in  general, they fall.

WPA poster

____________________________________________________________________________

Revisiting the WPA. Time to consider an updated version?

Applying the Lessons of History: A New WPA

D.L. Adams

SIOA


During times of national crisis leaders are called upon to lead; they are expected to lead. We now enter the second year of the administration of “hope and change” but there appears to be a deep disconnect between the governed and the governing.

It was with growing dismay and disillusion that all politics at the nation’s capital were subsumed by the failed “Health Care Insurance Reform” thrust upon the country by the ruling party. Even now as the stock market teeters just above 10,000 on bad news and more to come, and the recent election of Scott Brown to represent that formerly all “blue state” of Massachusetts in the Senate signaled the rejection of the Health Care Reform and of the tunnel vision and denial coming from Washington, the message from the White House and the Congress is not one of recovery but more of the same.

“Health Care Reform” appears to be dead to the entirety of the country but for the executive branch at Washington and their supporters in the Congress. This is a dangerous disconnect and leaves more critical and pressing matters unaddressed and unresolved.

The unemployment situation and the economic decline of our country (but for some bailed-out incompetent institutions on Wall Street) are signals to the president that drastic action must be taken (and rapidly) to alleviate the suffering of the people. Instead we continue to hear the president talking again about “health care reform”; this is sham leadership. This failure on the part of the administration to effectively lead the country out of these crises will likely have devastating consequences.

Leadership has always been about character, not academic experience or accolades (be they earned or not). The foundation of American leadership has always been based on the ability to listen, to weigh alternatives, and guide the nation on the most effective course – characteristics now shown to be absent in the present administration. In times past our leaders guided the nation through worse crises than the ones we currently face – a seemingly perfect storm of difficulties and disappointments, dangers and deceits. We should look to our past once again for guidance.

The staggering inability of the Obama administration only one year into its rule to deal with these numerous crises, even with control of both houses of Congress, may say more about our higher education system than anything else but that lesson has yet to be verified.

What is sure is that our executive branch leaders and their sycophants in Congress, most with expensive and formerly impressive academic degrees from once respectable institutions whose import and effectiveness are now all in doubt, have failed in the fundamental concern of education itself. The academic credentials of the present administration are most impressive, yet the holders of these degrees fail to impress with resolutions and resolute leading-by-example. There is no “follow me!” rhetoric of leadership to victory, only the dull thuds of “obey”, and “well, you folks don’t know what is good for you, but I sure do!” Continue reading

Hat tip: SIOA

http://sioanetwork.com/?p=665

Unemployment tops 10%. Way to go, Obama and democrats!

The number is actually over 17% when
the people who have QUIT looking
for work is factored in. The Obama
economic engine is hard at work,
stuck in reverse. Put the health
care debacle and cap and Trade
(TAX AND GOUGE) on top of the
unemployment situation, yes the
recession cretainly is "over."


http://hotair.com/archives/2009/11/06/unemployment-hits-10-2/
From Hot Air.

Unemployment hit double digits for the first time in 26 years as more than 558,000 lost jobs in October. The jobless rate went from 9.8% to 10.2%, a leap that quadruples the increase from August to September and indicates a rapidly-worsening situation for American workers:


The unemployment rate rose from 9.8 to 10.2 percent in October, and nonfarm payroll employment continued to decline (-190,000), the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. The largest job losses over the month were in construction, manufacturing, and retail trade.

In October, the number of unemployed persons increased by 558,000 to 15.7 million. The unemployment rate rose by 0.4 percentage point to 10.2 percent, the highest rate since April 1983. Since the start of the recession in December 2007, the number of unemployed persons has risen by 8.2 million, and the unemployment rate has grown by 5.3 percentage points. (See table A-1.)

Among the major worker groups, the unemployment rates for adult men (10.7 percent) and whites (9.5 percent) rose in October. The jobless rates for adult women (8.1 percent), teenagers (27.6 percent), blacks (15.7 percent), and Hispanics (13.1 percent) were little changed over the month. The unemployment rate for Asians was 7.5 percent, not seasonally adjusted. (See tables A-1, A-2, and A-3.)

The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks and over) was little changed over the month at 5.6 million. In October, 35.6 percent of unemployed persons were jobless for 27 weeks or more. (See table A-9.)

The civilian labor force participation rate was little changed over the month at 65.1 percent. The employment-population ratio continued to decline in October, falling to 58.5 percent. (See table A-1.)

The job losses accelerated in manufacturing. The average losses in the previous four months was 51,000 per month, but October beat that by 10,000, coming in at 61,000 jobs lost. Construction lost 62,000 in October, down slightly from the 4-month average of 67,000. Retail lost 40,000 jobs — and that may be a very bad portent for the Christmas season, which usually accounts for about 30% of all retail sales.

Yesterday’s productivity numbers foreshadowed this result. Productivity hit decade-long highs last quarter, and I asked King Banaian what that meant:

UPDATE: Ed Morrissey asks via email whether this has any portent for unemployment? I think it does. The investment in equipment and software may be either of a deepening or broadening variety. If you are dumping many workers you can also cut your capital budget. But if that category turns around while you are still cutting workers — the ADP projection for private sector payrolls is a loss of 203,000 jobs, above the consensus forecast of -175,000 overall jobs — that would suggest capital deepening. I think this is what’s driving increased productivity. This also means each new worker now comes with a higher “capital budget requirement”, and between that and the payroll taxes contemplated under Pelosicare you probably have a greater drag on employment than otherwise contemplated.

While these data are for the third and tomorrow’s report is for the first month of Q4, I am inclined to think we will see both a number closer to 200k for jobs lost. That might make the unemployment rate 10%.

The breaking of the psychological barrier of double-digit unemployment is a watershed moment for the Obama administration. It has continued to claim success in its Porkulus effort with shell-game “saved or created” metrics for jobs while unemployment rises unabated. Meanwhile, Obama pushed Congress to spend trillions of dollars we don’t have on efforts that have nothing to do with employment or revitalizing the economy. Even the latest CNN poll shows a 17-point swing to the worse for Obama on economics.

This is now Obama’s economy. He owns the double-digit unemployment level, having bought it with the $787 billion stimulus plan that he promised would keep unemployment no higher than 8%.

Update: From the AP:

But the loss of jobs last month exceeded economists’ estimates. It’s the 22nd straight month the U.S. economy has shed jobs, the longest on records dating back 70 years.

Counting those who have settled for part-time jobs or stopped looking for work, the unemployment rate would be 17.5 percent, the highest on records dating from 1994.

Update II: Mark Tapscott calls this “a leading indicator Obama policies must change.”

Update III: Innocent Bystanders updates the Romer graph once again:


http://hotair.com/archives/2009/11/06/unemployment-hits-10-2/

"The stimulus is what's toxic -- we're poisoning ourselves and the global economy with it."

Dollar loses reserve status to yen & euro
From the New York Post.

The results of the stimulus package, flooding the
globe with tons of dollars is backfiring as many
economists predicted. Bernake is in a corner and
there is really no good way out. Remember they
told us just last week the 'great recession' is over.