Investors Business Daily

Economy: Now that the bad news of Chicago’s failure to land the 2016 Olympics is out, can we move on and do something about an economy that’s bleeding jobs?

Almost lost in the Olympic hoopla was news that the U.S. shed 263,000 jobs in September and that unemployment has reached a 26-year high of 9.8%. This is a serious problem, but it isn’t being addressed.

Here we’ve had a $787 billion stimulus package, $700 billion in TARP funds and a variety of Treasury and Fed initiatives that, according to Bloomberg News, add up to $11.6 trillion in taxpayer exposure — all as part of an effort to revive the economy. And what do we have to show for it?

At the start of the year, the White House forecast 4 million new jobs by the end of 2010. It took some uncharacteristic understatement from Vice President Joe Biden, as he met with his middle-class task force Friday, to put the jobs report in perspective: "We still have a whole lot more work to do."

No kidding. Since the start of the year, the U.S. has lost 4.1 million jobs — 7.2 million total since the recession began.

Americans were told early this year that passing the stimulus was vital, that it would put us back on the path to economic growth and that joblessness would top out at 8.5%. Now we’re looking at 10%.

Politicians may act surprised, but they shouldn’t be. They caused it. Policies based on massive government spending, higher taxes and costly regulation don’t work.

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Reuters

Obama’s policies are prolonging and worsening the depression

U.S. employers cut a deeper-than-expected 263,000 jobs in September, lifting the unemployment rate to 9.8 percent, according to a government report on Friday that fueled fears the weak labor market could undermine economic recovery.

The Labor Department said the unemployment rate was the highest since June 1983 and payrolls had now dropped for 21 consecutive months.

Analysts polled by Reuters had expected non-farm payrolls to drop 180,000 in September and the unemployment rate to rise to 9.8 percent from 9.7 percent the prior month. The poll was conducted before reports, including regional manufacturing surveys, showed some deterioration in employment measures.

The government revised job losses for July and August to show 13,000 more jobs lost than previously reported. Preliminary annual benchmark revisions, released together with September’s employment report showed that total non-farm payroll employment for March would have to be revised down about 824,000.

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By LAWRENCE KUDLOW, Investors Business Daily

There’s no question that current government policies for taxes, spending and regulation are causing the U.S. to lose competitiveness in the global race for capital, prosperity and growth.

Of course, China has been moving in the direction of free-market capitalism for years. To some extent, this shows the positive benefits of America’s free-trade policies and its open-mindedness in helping nurture not only China growth, but also middle-class prosperity worldwide.

But what’s particularly galling about Obamanomics is that we may well be losing our competitive edge with Europe. While Europe is ever so slightly moving toward Reagan and Thatcher, the U.S. is shifting toward an overtaxed and overregulated model that smacks of Francois Mitterrand. That’s something no one should want to tolerate.

Heavy government controls at home, along with an income-leveling social policy couched in economic-recovery terms, is no way to run a railroad.

At the simple stroke of a computer key, world investment flows to its most hospitable destination. That includes a reliable currency. But in President Bush’s last year and President Obama’s first, the U.S. has become a less-hospitable destination for global capital. That should worry everybody.

By Shobhana Chandra, Bloomberg

Obamanomics- real unemployment reaches 16.5%

Employers in the U.S. cut 467,000 jobs in June, the unemployment rate rose and hourly earnings stagnated, offering little evidence the Obama administration’s stimulus package is shoring up the labor market.

The payroll decline was more than forecast and followed a 322,000 drop in May, according to Labor Department figures released today in Washington. The jobless rate jumped to 9.5 percent, the highest since August 1983, from 9.4 percent.

Unemployment is projected to keep rising for the rest of the year just as the income boost from the stimulus package fades, undermining prospects for a sustained rebound in household purchases, analysts said. As companies from General Motors Corp. to Kimberly-Clark Corp. cut costs, the lack of jobs will restrain growth.

“This will be another jobless recovery,” said John Silvia, chief economist at Wachovia Corp. in Charlotte, North Carolina. “We may get positive economic growth driven largely by federal spending, but people on the street will say, ‘Where are the jobs?’”

By CHRISTOPHER S. RUGABER, Associated Press

Obamanomics is prolonging the recession

The number of people filing new jobless claims jumped unexpectedly last week, and the total unemployment benefit rolls rose to more than 6.7 million.

The Labor Department data released Thursday show jobs remain scarce even as the economy shows some signs of recovering from the longest recession since World War II.

The department said initial claims for jobless benefits rose last week by 15,000 to a seasonally adjusted 627,000. Economists expected a drop to 600,000, according to Thomson Reuters.

Several states reported more claims than expected from teachers, cafeteria workers and other school employees, a department analyst said.

The number of people continuing to receive unemployment insurance rose by 29,000 to 6.74 million, slightly above analysts’ estimates of 6.7 million.

The four-week average of claims, which smooths out fluctuations, was largely unchanged, at 616,750.

Economists expect the number of initial unemployment insurance claims, which reflects the level of layoffs, to slowly decline over the coming months as the economy bottoms out.

Still, claims remain far above levels associated with a healthy economy. A year ago they were 392,000.