White House sees unemployment staying high

[thundley4]

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- The number of jobless Americans is likely to remain "severely elevated" despite a predicted return to economic growth in the third quarter of the year, a top White House economic adviser told Congress on Thursday.

"With predicted growth right around two and a half percent for most of the next year and a half, movements in the unemployment rate either up or down are likely to be small," White House Council of Economic Advisers Chair Christina Romer told the Joint Economic Committee.

"As a result, unemployment is likely to remain at its severely elevated level," she said.

Romer also credited President Barack Obama's $787 billion fiscal stimulus package with helping the economy to recover. As of August, she said, the stimulus act had added between 600,000 to 1.5 million jobs to the economy.

  MarketWatch

This  is pulling numbers out of her ass.

[Chump]

  MarketWatch

This  is pulling numbers out of her ass.

To be fair, there's a precedent for that now...

Remember this?

[Alpha Mare]

October 23, 2009
Graph of the Day for October 23, 2009

"By any measure, my administration has inherited a fiscal disaster."

President Barack Obama. 
Hoven's Index for October 23, 2009



Selected statistics at the end of 2006 (last year Republicans controlled both houses of Congress):


Unemployment rate:  4.4%.


Previous year of GDP growth: +2.4%.


Previous year of job growth:  +1.6%.


S&P 500: 1418.



Same statistics, most recently (after almost 3 years of Democrats controlling both houses of Congress):


Unemployment rate:  9.8%.


Previous year of GDP growth: -3.8%.


Previous year of job growth:  -4.2%.


S&P 500: 1080.

Chart at:http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2009/10/graph_of_the_day_for_october_2_4.html

[Chump]

You know, it's almost like all this government spending and intrusion into the private sector has had the opposite effect than what was intended.  It's like it's displaced private spending itself, created even more uncertainty, crippled the credit markets, and rewarded zombie banks and corporations at the expense of healthy ones.

 

[bkg]

You know, it's almost like all this government spending and intrusion into the private sector has had the opposite effect than what was intended.  It's like it's displaced private spending itself, created even more uncertainty, crippled the credit markets, and rewarded zombie banks and corporations at the expense of healthy ones.

 

it's almost like we've done this before... as has the EU and Japan... with the exact same results as last time...