unemployment rate falls to 49 year low

So how did the chit show change the reality?

You left out the part about it adding only 134,000 jobs, falling well short of the expectations of 185,000 jobs. It's still not bad, but with things like this you have to look at trends. And job numbers are being added at a slower and slower rate than they were under Obama. The economy's still doing fine, but it's not doing as well as it did under Obama as far as the trends go.

It's easy to get to a 49-year-low when Obama nudged the whole thing almost to that point, and gave it all the trending momentum.

It's like Obama carried Trump all the way up the side of Mt. Everest, then left about fifteen feet from the top... and then all you hear Republicans saying is, "Trump climbed Everest!"

Republicans only want to look at milestones, not where the movement that got to the milestones came from, or how far Trump was away from those milestones. And you're buying into it... out of spite.

http://www.aei.org/publication/team-obama-sorry-america-the-new-normal-may-be-here-to-stay/

2014 Lew said, “many today wonder whether something that has always been true in our past will be true in our future.” (Indeed, the 2013 Obama budget declared, “In the 21st Century, real GDP growth in the United States is likely to be permanently slower than it was in earlier eras . . . .”)

zsomething wrote:You left out the part about it adding only 134,000 jobs, falling well short of the expectations of 185,000 jobs.   It's still not bad, but with things like this you have to look at trends.  And job numbers are being added at a slower and slower rate than they were under Obama.  The economy's still doing fine, but it's not doing as well as it did under Obama as far as the trends go.

It's easy to get to a 49-year-low when Obama nudged the whole thing almost to that point, and gave it all the trending momentum.  

It's like Obama carried Trump all the way up the side of Mt. Everest, then left about fifteen feet from the top... and then all you hear Republicans saying is, "Trump climbed Everest!"  

Republicans only want to look at milestones, not where the movement that got to the milestones came from, or how far Trump was away from those milestones.   And you're buying into it... out of spite.

Oh please. This just shows how LITTLE a President influences employment numbers. Obama had no more to do with the real economy and employment than Trumpet.

Oh please. This just shows how LITTLE a President influences employment numbers. Obama had no more to do with the real economy and employment than Trumpet.

Agree, but the idea that Trump is going to lose with the state of the economy is quite naive, unless there is a plan.......the chit show if planned was a failure.

gatorfan wrote:

Oh please. This just shows how LITTLE a President influences employment numbers. Obama had no more to do with the real economy and employment than Trumpet.

Because of direct actions Obama took, America's auto industry was rescued and we climbed out of a huge recession.

Because of things Trump has done (tariffs, more cuts for the rich, etc.) the economy (while still good) has been steadily slowing.

Presidents don't have a magic wand to make or break an economy, but they do have the power to steer trends... and Obama did that. And Trump's doing it, too, with weaker results -- although I will say he's a lot better at taking credit for things. Obama was far too self-effacing and didn't brag enough on what he was doing economically, while Trump's been in hyper-drive taking credit for anything good and denying responsibility for anything bad since before he was even sworn in.

Meanwhile, gasoline's at the highest rate in 'bout half a decade with no sign of slowing. FOX won't report on that, I'm bettin'.

President Obama and President Trump have the benefit of 10k retiring babyboomers which made the employment numbers look very good, but I was working the summer of 69 to save for college, and always could get a job. Hopefully, kids can get employment and depend less on student loans......it is the economy which in the end matters. Arbitrary perhaps.....but it has driven politics for a hundred years.

https://thehill.com/opinion/finance/409940-shrink-the-government-uphold-the-law-enjoy-the-economic-gains

2seaoat wrote:President Obama and President Trump have the benefit of 10k retiring babyboomers which made the employment numbers look very good, but I was working the summer of 69 to save for college, and always could get a job.  Hopefully, kids can get employment and depend less on student loans......it is the economy which in the end matters.  Arbitrary perhaps.....but it has driven politics for a hundred years.

I'm no Bernie-ite by a long shot, but I do think they're gonna end up having to look into making college free before long. They've run with it until the fees are ridiculous, and (this is me being a Luddite again, I know, but it's still true) in the future there are going to be a whole lot less jobs available for people, because everything's automated. Self-driving cars, factory automation, less physical goods needing to be produced/shipped/retailed, online legal advice, online libraries, hell, they even have code that can write code now so even programmers aren't going to be getting a lot of jobs out of technology the way it's going now.

So, one way to see that people can keep being educated when they're less likely to find work is making college free. Not entirely sure how that'd end up real-world financially feasible, but I do think they'll end up having to look into it. Same with health care. People aren't gonna want to go with a "guaranteed living allowance" thing any time soon, I don't think, so one way to offset that is making more things free.

But, I don't have a whole lot of opinions on how that could work. I recognize a need, yet remain a cynic. I listen more than I talk on those areas...

2seaoat wrote:President Obama and President Trump have the benefit of 10k retiring babyboomers which made the employment numbers look very good, but I was working the summer of 69 to save for college, and always could get a job.  Hopefully, kids can get employment and depend less on student loans......it is the economy which in the end matters.  Arbitrary perhaps.....but it has driven politics for a hundred years.

In politics, public perception is usually more important than objective facts.

In politics, public perception is usually more important than objective facts.



The Democrats think that perception only goes one way.....the same hubris which lost the 2016 election. The Democrats could have manipulated this nomination process by taking the high road......but now you have tens of millions of white males seeing shrill women blaming all men for ignoring alleged sexual assaults.......when common sense and common decency leave the building with Andy, do not be surprised to be surrounded by barnies who are having hissy fits.

2seaoat wrote:In politics, public perception is usually more important than objective facts.



The Democrats think that perception only goes one way.....the same hubris which lost the 2016 election.  The Democrats could have manipulated this nomination process by taking the high road......but now you have tens of millions of white males seeing shrill women blaming all men for ignoring alleged sexual assaults.......when common sense and common decency leave the building with Andy, do not be surprised to be surrounded by barnies who are having hissy fits.

Shit is shit to everyone expect for those who pretend the shit everyone is smelling is really perfume.

Telstar wrote:

Shit is shit to everyone expect for those who pretend the shit everyone is smelling is really perfume.

Is that you, Mr Lahey?

EmeraldGhost wrote:

Telstar wrote:

Shit is shit to everyone expect for those who pretend the shit everyone is smelling is really perfume.

Is that you, Mr Lahey?  

Take another toke on Gary's Johnson

On October 24, (2017) Vice President Mike Pence joined 50 Senate Republicans and cast the tie-breaking vote to give Wall Street its biggest legislative victory in years. Together, they repealed a set of rules by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) that allowed consumers to sue their banks and credit-card companies instead of being required to go into arbitration. The financial industry desperately wanted this protection overturned, because it would again give banks control over handling complaints about their own impropriety.

Many people wondered if Donald Trump’s surprise win in 2016 might lead Republicans to overhaul their approach to economic issues. Trump sold voters on his promises to invest in massive public-infrastructure projects, take on bad trade deals, and generally fight for workers against the global elites. But what we see in his agenda isn’t blue-collar nationalism; it’s the beginning of a grifter economy. The administration’s economic plans are filled with low-grade, penny-ante efforts to allow the scheming and powerful to swindle ordinary people.

It’s not just the banks. Under the Obama administration, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services barred nursing homes that receive federal funding—which is almost all of them—from including mandatory-arbitration clauses in their contracts. By using its large budget and footprint, the government set standards that spread throughout the industry. This is an excellent example of how public programs can help. People in long-term care, especially the elderly, are particularly vulnerable to fraud. The Trump administration is now in the process of revoking this rule.

Or take student loans: Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has ended reforms, put in place by President Obama, designed to protect borrowers from the student-loan servicing industry. Devos is also rescinding debt forgiveness for students defrauded by for-profit colleges. Worse, she has hinted that she will no longer cooperate with the CFPB to investigate wrongdoing in the student-loan industry. In the past, the CFPB has policed these markets, fining companies that were trying to improperly collect on debts. DeVos may be able to eliminate this crucial function of the CFPB.

RELATED ARTICLE
The Nation
THE FINANCIAL INDUSTRY IS ITS OWN BEST ENEMY
Mike Konczal

Thus far, President Trump hasn’t initiated any large-scale projects to rebuild America. But the reconstruction efforts on recently destroyed infrastructure have a distinct grifter quality to them. Whitefish Energy—until last month, a two-man company—was awarded a $300 million contract to repair Puerto Rico’s electric grid in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria. This move was likely part of an effort by the board overseeing Puerto Rico’s troubled finances to privatize the island’s energy sector. The terms of the no-bid contract were extraordinarily generous, including limitations on who could audit the company’s profits and costs. The White House has denied any involvement with Whitefish Energy, though the company hails from the same town as Ryan Zinke, Trump’s secretary of the interior. This is a move straight out of the grifter’s playbook: capitalizing on a natural disaster, in this case by turning it into the opportunity to sell public resources to private, well-connected agents. (Under pressure, Puerto Rico’s electric company has since said it will cancel the deal.)

These policies are nothing short of a public disaster. Trump’s tax plan is the libertarian dream of letting the owners of capital pay nothing while putting the costs of government on the backs of the people. Even the GOP’s final attempted repeal of the Affordable Care Act had a grifter component: The Republicans wanted to send health-care dollars to the states, but the way their plan was structured, it encouraged the states to use those dollars for other purposes, like building stadiums or cutting corporate taxes.

Trump campaigned on “draining the swamp” in Washington, but he’s only adding to the muck. His administration’s policies have the reek of everyday scammers, swindlers, and con artists, presided over by the grifter in chief. And all of us citizens are the marks.

https://www.thenation.com/article/trump-is-creating-a-grifter-economy/

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Remember the Lehman Brothers crisis. We need Wall Street rules, not Trump's deregulation

Morris Pearl, Opinion contributor Published 7:00 a.m. ET Sept. 14, 2018 | Updated 8:12 a.m. ET Sept. 14, 2018

Wall Street firms reward people for risky behavior. I know because I was there. We need rules, not the deregulation pushed by Trump and Republicans.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/voices/2018/09/14/trump-republicans-inviting-new-wall-street-crash-lehman-anniversary-column/1292862002/

Trump spent all weekend bragging......and for the first time, he may actually have some credit due.