I use the term wingnut quite often. Usually in reference to idiotic statements that somehow get repeated over and over again or web sites that promote such foolishness. For instance, I might say, "The ridiculous idea that government never created a job is now a staple of wingnut arguments and is being prominently pushed on wingnut sites." There, I've now added 3 more "wingnuts" to the total. Oops, make it four "wingnuts." Dang it, that now makes five.
Even if underemployment was counted i'm not sure the discrepancy would be that wide. Some other tidbits if comparing this to the great depression: Foreclosure rates : 40% GDP Decline : 33% Versus right now we have a default rate of less than five percent and have lost about only few gdp percentage points.
Krugman is nothing more than a mouthpiece for the liberal agenda. Quoting him as a source is ridiculous.
A comparison between now and the height of the GD is not really a good one. A comparison between now and the first year of the GD would be interesting. (And for all those who read wingnut sites, the GD began years before FDR assumed the Presidency... a Republican by the name of Hoover was president at the time.)
OK then, let's have your figures. How many jobs, if any, will $100 million of Federal spending generate?
I think a fair amount of this is attributable to businesses being far more efficient as information is quicker than ever. It does not surprise me at all that companies would move quicker to let workers off today, no matter the degree of the economic downturn. I say that not at all to minimize how serious this current downturn is or how painful it is to those who've lost jobs.
Oh certainly - I don't think anyone believes we are in a state similar to the Great Depression. I think the concern was that if we didn't do anything, we may head in that direction. I think the TARP was actually the most crucial piece in that. Without TARP, Bank of America and Citigroup would be gone today and we'd be in a world of problems. The stimulus bill is probably more designed to avoid a regular depression.
I think stabilizing the banks was a major major major concern that had to be taken care of. I think most people don't think the banks are failing now. I don't think many are fearful of their deposits disappearing as of now. I'm getting to the point where I'm not nearly as convinced we need more stimulus. You can't push a string.
a huge amount of cash? how do you get that? you did see the s&p 500 will report its first negative quarter ever. http://online.barrons.com/article/preview.html
If we restricted the same percentage of the workforce to 30-hour work weeks that were restricted to 30-hour work weeks during the 1930s, we'd wipe unemployment out completely. (Using the admittedly ridiculous assumption that number of required manhours would remain constant.)
There is over a trillion dollars of cash on S&P 500 corporate balance sheets. Dividend cuts, layoffs and other measures will probably keep it constant as costs of capital rise. From a trading standpoint there is more money in money markets today than stock funds. I do agree that companies in dire straits can burn through that cash pretty rapidly and fear lack of liquidity from banks so will probably overreact.
How about compared to 1980? 2001 and 1990 were not very bad at all. No one thought we were going under or anything.
That would be interesting. So many people are contractors. I went out to lunch with a friend working at a high rise office building owned by an oil company. He is a landman who works on contracts. Thousands of people working there. He says most of the people working there are probably contractors. If they are "laid off" he doubts that they appear in any unemployment statistics.
A little misleading to use number of job losses instead of YoY change because the nation and workforce are much bigger today than they were 10-20 years ago.
Not even close to 1982 levels of unemployment. we made it through that. http://www.miseryindex.us/urbymonth.asp?StartYear=1976-12&EndYear=2008-12&submit1=Create+Report
Lehman Brothers, Bears Sterns, and AIG are pretty much gone. These companies had been around for a long time. These companies survived the great depression and they are gone. Toyota arguably the best car company in the world posted a loss. BAC which has been increasing its dividends forever is on the verge of being gone. This is pretty bad.
