Jerbs

[soliloquy76.livejournal.com]

So the big news yesterday was that the unemployment rate dropped from 8.6% to 8.3% in January, with 243,000 jobs being added. This news caused the DOW and Nasdaq to climb to 4-year and 11-year highs, respectively. This is the fifth straight month that the unemployment rate has dropped. Good news, right?

Not if you're playing the partisan politics game. Like clockwork, the right-wing blogosphere discredited the jobs report as they have every previous jobs report. This time, the big talking point is how 1.2 million people supposedly dropped out of the workforce. This was promptly debunked by economic journalists at the WSJ and Washington Post as a misinterpretation of the report due to adjustments from the 2010 census. Yet even after this was explained, they kept right on repeating the lie.

Given the ongoing economic turbulence for the last 4 years, and the situation in Europe that threatens to wreak havoc again around the world, why is the economy being used a political football to get some guy into the White House? Is it worth hurting the economy? Do the ends justify the means? Am I completely wrong about this? Bueller?

Comments

[telemann.livejournal.com]

How does TARP fit into *what*

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

The role of the President in forestalling the crisis by using Federal money in a stimulus package.

[telemann.livejournal.com]

TARP and the stimulus package were two different things, so your point or question isn't really clear to me.