Discussion: Economy Adds TKTKTK Jobs In June, Unemployment TK To TK Percent

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Discussion for article #240120

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And yet most of those jobs are part time, low paying jobs which people take because they’re desperate for work.

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Trump promises to get that back up to 10% in his first 100 days. “It’ll be Yuuuge!”

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And yet the methodology for determining the unemployment rate is exactly the same as it has been under GOP administrations. Funny how GOPers conveniently forget that. What’s different for them? Ah yes, the president is black.

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Two questions:

  1. What is considered “full employment”?
  2. When does Obama finally get the credit he deserves?*

*If he were a white president…

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At times it was pegged, variously, at somewhere between 2 - 4 percent. Nowadays something between 4 -5 UE is is considered full employment.

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Thanks, Randy, so it’s pretty likely, depending on world events of course, that by spring/early summer of next year we could be well within the margin of full employment? It will be very interesting if/when we get into the full swing of the general election to hear the spin Republicans will try to put on the economy/jobs.

Can you imagine what would happen if we’re below 4%? Even the MSM can’t ignore that.

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Yes, the trend lines seem to indicate the employment picture will continue to improve.

But to your question in the previous post, I wouldn’t venture a guess on when/if the media will ever credit President Obama.

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This is somewhat off-topic, but related to the economy:

We have been hearing a lot about slowing Chinese growth and their stock market slide, which has also rippled through our own economy.

A news report this week said Obama might be considering some economic sanctions in response to Chinese cyberhacking.

Treasury Secretary Jack Lew said China might be held accountable for the large currency devaluation they executed in response to their decline.

They say every crisis contains an opportunity, and I wonder if President Obama and his people aren’t pivoting toward some “patriotic” stimulus program.

There might be an opening here for Obama to convince Republican leaders to agree to some tax reform bill that will incentivize the return of foreign and expatriate American capital back here. The US is already the prime destination of foreign investment, and investor uncertainty over China could create political pressure to create additional incentives to park foreign money in the US.

And a stimulus program funded by this newly reshored capital could be presented as a patriotic nation-building program that does not rely on foreign interests, and might even be crucial to national security – buy US bonds and stick it to those commie Chinese!.

By now we know that Obama moves stealthily and doesn’t show his cards until the right time. I’m just wondering if our administration hasn’t been working on some response.

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Brilliant, I love it. I certainly wouldn’t bet against the Obama administration refusing to let this crisis go to waste.

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Yes, lame duck, indeed.

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