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This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://talkingpointsmemo.com/?p=1330252
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://talkingpointsmemo.com/?p=1330252
Making America Great Again…
Not sure if this yet counts the thousands that have been RIF’d by Accenture and American Airlines - one typically can’t file right away, so those numbers will just increase by the September/October report.
I won’t be among them, either. Not filing, because I’ve started another low-paying replacement job today (less than 20% of my normal rate).
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It doesn’t. The sample was taken in early August.
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So - “Titanic’s rate of sinking has slowed” or “Access to lifeboats no longer restricted as last one is launched.” This is all good news right?
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Lies, damn lies, and statistics
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I’ll wait til Krugman and Dean Baker weigh in before I decide what to make of it.
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Let’s not pretend that this is good news because it’s a lower number than the figures of around one million jobless claims that have recently been filed.
Until this year, going back to 1948 when these reports first began to be issued, the highest number ever recorded was about 675,000 unemployment claims. In the 12 months before things fell apart in March of this year, the typical figure was around 275,000.
By historical standards, these latest figures remain catastrophically bad, and we shouldn’t let the shills in the Trump administration tell us anything different.
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Always remember and never forget - these numbers never include the under-employed - the people who either can’t or won’t file but are working at lower rates to keep food on the table, for a variety of reasons.
The rate, when including these folks, is (of course) much higher.
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After Labor Day, the traditional holiday hiring season begins. Not this year.
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Yesterday Krugman opined that recovery will be a slow slog and that:
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One interesting observation is that one thing holding recovery back is child care or rather the lack thereof 3/
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And screw the stock market.
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I am at a loss to understand the paradox here. The stock market measures the money going to corporations, which are overwhelmingly owned by rich people. Why are we surprised that people suffer when we transfer more money from everyone else to the rich? It is expected.
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Only in Trump’s America, 2020, could this be looked on as good news.
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Biden addressed that in yesterday’s presser - not just for the recovery but for dealing with schools for the kids. He said there should be funding out there to account for the needs of at-home schooling and day care and there just isn’t any being offered. Would be in his administration (and, of course, any normal one).
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The focus is on lay-offs at large employers for obvious reasons. Small businesses tend to die off at a pretty good pace, however. Most are gone or have ceased to be going concerns within five years of their creation. Many of their workers and the entrepreneur do not even qualify for unemployment insurance. Where we could see some real fireworks are in major corporate debt defaults. In the dot-com bubble, you had in short order the bankruptcies of Enron, Adelphia and Worldcom, all based on fraudulent misrepresentation. All this right after a soaring stock market in May 2001. And we have an integrated global economy. China is struggling with its own debt issues at the moment. Biden may find the early days of his presidency deciding who is too big to fail, and who isn’t.
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All this, while CV-19 confirmations are about to crest 6.3 million and deaths surpassed 190,000.
Joe is right - who in the right or left mind would believe we’re safer under Trump?
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“Give the money to the people” seems so outdated.
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My grandfather used to say “figures don’t lie, but liars figure.”
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Alright, folks, I’m outta here - off to a new adventure in retail (hopefully not for long, but one never knows, do one???)…
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And what little “wealth transfer” goes the other direction starts with taxes on the middle class and ends up in corporate coffers too.
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Interesting jobs added in August 2020
486,000 Jobs added
" 881,000 Jobless Claims Filed Last Week"
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