Even as he touts his efforts to put more Americans to work, President Barack Obama faces a public increasingly skeptical of his ability to bring jobs back to Main Street.
During stops in Iowa, Illinois and Missouri, Obama will try to convince voters that his economic policies are working, despite an unemployment rate that’s expected to remain at painfully high levels for months if not years.
With high unemployment, Obama’s claims of recovery fall on deaf ears
Those voters – many of them crucial independents – will be key to Obama’s re-election prospects in 2012. And his fellow Democrats, facing a tough political climate in the November, need their support even sooner.
"The bottom line is that the Democrats are almost certain to be campaigning in economic circumstances that will not be politically favorable," said William Galston, a former domestic policy aide in Bill Clinton’s White House and now a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.
Read More: By JULIE PACE, Associated Press
Tags: Barack Obama, deaf ears, Economic Recovery, UnemploymentThe number of newly laid-off workers seeking unemployment benefits rose last week, a sign that jobs remain scarce even as the economy recovers.
The increase also may result from the difficulty the Labor Department has in seasonally adjusting the claims around the Easter holiday, which falls on different weeks each year.
so much for an economic recovery
"This is … a volatile time when the numbers move around quite a bit," a department analyst said.
The Labor Department said Thursday that first-time claims increased by 18,000 in the week ended April 3, to a seasonally adjusted 460,000. That’s worse than economists’ estimates of a drop to 435,000, according to a survey by Thomson Reuters.
California also closed its state offices for a holiday on March 31, which likely held down the claims figures. On an unadjusted basis, claims rose by 6,500 to nearly 415,000.
Initial claims have dropped four out of the past six weeks and many economists say they are likely to soon resume their decline.
Read More: AP
Tags: Barack Obama, Economic Recovery, increase, jobless claimsNouriel Roubini, the New York University professor who anticipated the financial crisis, said the U.S. growth outlook remains “very dismal” and White House economic adviser Lawrence Summers said the economy is still mired in a “human recession.”
The economic outlook is still “Very Dismal”
Speaking at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, after the U.S. reported the fastest growth in six years, their comments underscored concern that that emergency measures to rescue banks and fight the recession may be withdrawn too soon.
“The headline number will look large and big, but actually when you dissect it, it’s very dismal and poor,” Roubini said in a Jan. 30 Bloomberg Television interview following a U.S. Commerce Department report that showed economic expansion of 5.7 percent in the fourth quarter. “I think we are in trouble.”
Roubini said more than half of the growth was related to a replenishing of depleted inventories and that consumption was reliant on monetary and fiscal stimulus. As these forces ebb, the rate will slow to 1.5 percent in the second half of 2010.
Roubini, who chairs New York-based Roubini Global Economics LLC, has become famous for his pessimistic projections. In 2007, he correctly predicted a “hard landing” for the world economy. He said last year that the global recession would shrink through 2009, only for growth to resume in the middle of the year.
Read More: By Simon Kennedy and Erik Schatzker, Bloomberg
Tags: Barack Obama, Economic Recovery, Economic SituationA surprising jump in first-time claims for unemployment aid sent a painful reminder Thursday that jobs remain scarce six months into the economic recovery.
So much for a recovery…
The surge in last week’s claims deflated hopes among some analysts that the economy would produce a net gain in jobs in January and help fuel the recovery.
A Labor Department analyst said much of the increase was due to holiday-season-related administrative backlogs at the state agencies that process the claims. Still, economists noted that that would mean claims in previous weeks had been artificially low. Those earlier declines had sparked optimism that layoffs were tapering and that employers would add a modest number of jobs in January.
The January employment report will be issued Feb. 5. But the surveys used to compile that report were done last week, so economists are paying close attention to the jobless claims figures from that week.
"The trend in the data is still discouraging," Diane Swonk, chief economist for Mesirow Financial, wrote in a note to clients. "Hopes for a positive employment number in January … are rapidly dimming."
Read More: AP
Tags: Economic Recovery, More Jobless claims, UnemploymentBy C. Edmund Wright, American Thinker
Obama and his socialistic teleprompter are delaying our recovery
Shhh. Don’t let this get around, but Warren Buffet just let the cat out of the bag — no economic recovery in sight.
Well no kidding. I have long tired of the economists and investment gurus debating “when our economy recovers” and how to position your investments for “when America bounces back” and so on, as if it’s a foregone conclusion.
Haven’t they heard? The America that always recovers is not in anymore. Any assumption of a recovery fails to consider the idea that we now have a government run by people who ignore American history and who are hell bent on changing America’s future.
Obama has done more than apologize for America’s greatness and generosity while abroad. He is wreaking havoc on the economy that paid for that greatness and generosity at home. Don’t you remember? He is “the one” we’ve been waiting for to finally do something right around here.
Tags: Barack Obama, Big Government, Economic Recovery, Socialism, Warren Buffett
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