If we used the same rules for determining unemployment that were used in the 1930s, the current rate would equally dismal. Real unemployment is probably twice the stated rate. This is the non-farm rate, and the fishing industry is counted under agriculture for some reason, so Gulf fishermen don’t show up in the figures.
PJ, Mr Duff is a conservative Briton, and retired. He hangs around and attempts to blame everything on “liberal” policies. Like most conservatives, he tends not to read the entire post he links to, when he links. He will see something that supports his view, and miss the context. Conservatives also tend to miss quotation marks and ellipsis [the … not the oval, which is ellipse] which indicates that things have been omitted.
Badtux and I try to show him the light, while Steve Bates gets upset with him.
]]>It’s true that quite a few people are paid for activities that are not productive in those terms, but it’s my opinion that the percentage of the unproductive or counter-productive is probably higher in business than in government. In any case, though, that argument is irrelevant to the question of whether civil servants should be counted as part of the “real” economy.
Understanding the vast structure of rules and prerogatives that we call “The Economy”? Complicated and difficult. Understanding basic economics? Not so much, as long as you base your reasoning on real-world observation rather than attractive axioms that fit the map but not the territory.
Is Mr. Duff listening, do you think, or is he one of those drive-by posters?
]]>– Badtux the Economics Penguin
]]>“By 1939 the U.S. unemployment rate was 17.2 percent, down somewhat from its 1933 peak of 24.9 percent but still remarkably high.”
In other words, during the six years of FDR meddling from 1933 to 1939, unemployment decreased almost 31% from it’s high point three years after the 1929 crash. Gee, I’m sure glad we’ve learned better than to put our trust in that failed New Deal stuff!
]]>“And incidentally, the only thing that pulled you out of the depression in the ’30s was the war in the ’40s. Virtually everything FDR did just dragged it out longer”
Yeah, right. And what happened after we got into the war that finally pulled us out of depression, tax cuts and deregulation? Sorry, no, the top marginal income tax was cranked up all the way to 94% (from 24% in 1929, 63% in 1932) while government control of the economy was vastly expanded by means of mandated rationing, direct price controls, centralized planning of manufactures and of course, massive spending.
Anyone with even minimal knowledge of the U.S. during WWII knows these things. Well, anyone who’s not either wearing their right-wing blinders or just plain lying.
]]>They must not teach about supply and demand in the MBA programs, nor in many economics courses apparently, because there are an awful lot of people who don’t understand the process. Business is now controlled by the underwear gnomes.
Mr. Duff, has obviously never been in business for himself, or he wouldn’t think that profitability is the main determinate in hiring. We have record profitability, but no hiring.
]]>There will be no hiring until there is sufficient demand that the current workforce can’t meet it. And there shall be no demand until there is sufficient hiring to put more money into circulation to buy stuff. Vicious circle here, and saying that one piece is in front of the other is hard to do — unless you say that, hold it, there is this other entity out here, in possession of a (money) printing press, called GOVERNMENT, that could, like, print up some money and hire a bunch of these unemployed people and create demand, which in turn would result in more hiring, and things could get back to normal again as government cut back and let private business take up the slack! Whoa, what a concept. Flew over Mr. Duff’s head, I’m sure, because it doesn’t require austerity and suffering (for other people, not for Mr. Duff… I mean, c’mon, a good tighty rightie must have his priorities straight, suffering is for the little people, not for good tighty righties!).
– Badtux the Snarky Penguin
]]>I’ll be posting later today an article on the over one trillion dollars in profits that business is holding in cash. They aren’t doing anything with the money because there is NO DEMAND. You don’t invest unless there is a demand. There are huge pools of money out there that are not circulating, and the US is facing deflation because there are no jobs to spur demand.
Incidentally, we were already on our way up when the war happened, and that is based on the testimony of people who lived through it. not people who looked at it afterwards. You might also consider that war is a huge government stimulus package. The government can do the same thing without getting anyone killed, and build useful infrastructure instead of blowing it up.
The only thing that FDR did wrong is when he decided to reduce the deficit in 1937 and cut back on spending. The economy slumped, That is exactly what the austerity moves that are now popular are going to do, cause a slump, if not a global depression.
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