A jobless recovery can't go on for long

[Pale Blue Dot]

http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/P58078.asp

When it comes to job losses, Main Street sees a glass half empty, Wall Street a glass half full.

Initial claims for unemployment, one indicator of how many people are working and how many are looking for work, rose to 413,000 for the week that ended Aug. 30, the U.S. Department of Labor said last week. That was 15,000 higher than the week before and a solid 20,000 above Wall Street expectations. And, thanks to the increase, the less volatile four-week moving average climbed back above 400,000 for the first time in five weeks. Many economists believe that initial claims must drop below 400,000 for the economy to be adding jobs.

How did the markets react to these dismal numbers? With a shrug. For now, anyway.

<snip>

But there are trends working their way through the economy that aren’t cyclical. Some -- and no one knows exactly how many -- of the jobs lost in the recent economic downturn won’t be coming back. They’re gone for good, exported to low-wage countries such as China. That’s especially the case in the manufacturing sector.

[nedlogg]

1. A jobless recovery . . .

is no recovery at all.

[rapier]

2. foreget about the losers

A jobless recovery can go on a long long long time. While the jobless disappear from the economic landscape, gross income continues to rise. (Well if one beleives the numbers) More importanly is that those still working are bowwowing and spending at a breakneck pace. Consumer borrowing this year will be a trillion in mortgages and a trillion in consumer debt. As long as they keep up the payments all is well. Sue, occasionally one of those borrowing mad workers loses his or her job and stops making the payments but that is easiy masked if total borrowing continues to grow.

Poverty and joblessness and homelessness isn't much of a problem if nobody cares. Rates of all are rising and look at the news; except for the weekly wringing of hands about job losses, nobody cares.

The 'recovery' such as it is, is a financial event. With the world of finance being largely seperate from the real world main street economy. Massive credit expansion and the resultant flood of money continues to flow into the financial markets and those markets seeing rising prices, ie. homes, insurance, health care, commodities and the like. THe 'recovery is sadly imbalanced but when added up it looks like growth. And the losers, forget about em.

[whathappened]

3. so true

as long as the people get there quarterly check from there investments they see no need to worry about what jobs have left , only when it is there job that is gone they seem to care , like ross said in his bid for the presadant job , if nafta went thru you would hear the sucking of jobs leaveing america , should we have heard what he said , i heard him , but most just smiled and said he is nuts