by dakine01
Wishful Thinking Is Not a Good Policy Foundation
11:51 am in Economy, Financial Crisis, Jobs, Unemployment by dakine01
Author’s Note: Please take a few minutes and Join the Firedoglake Membership Program today. FDL provides the tools that help me and others extend our reach with our rants so we need to support FDL when we can.
I had to laugh (albeit ruefully) when I saw this opening from Jon Walker at FDL Action this morning:
Almost any national health care debate in this country is almost entirely disconnected from real-world examples, which is tragic given that facts have a well-known liberal bias.
My bold. Why did I find this worth laughter? Because the bolded part is applicable to just about every policy issue written or talked about by the DeeCee Political crowds and their Beltway Village Idiots Courtiers in the TradMed. Pick the issue, any issue, and the discussion emanating from DeeCee sounds like it is coming straight out of an alternate universe.
By now, most folks reading me know that I write frequently about the (lack of) jobs and the problems facing folks looking for employment; whether they are like myself and among the long term un and underemployed or the folks just entering the workforce with newly minted college degrees.
Today, we have the Initial Unemployment Claims (via Bloomberg) report from last week, and guess what? The economists are once again “surprised.” From the Bloomberg article:
Jobless claims increased by 10,000 to 424,000 in the week ended May 21, Labor Department figures showed today in Washington. The median estimate of economists in a Bloomberg News survey called for a drop to 404,000. The economy grew less than forecast in the first quarter, a separate report showed.…snip…
Estimates in the Bloomberg survey of 47 economists ranged from 390,000 to 420,000. The Labor Department revised the prior week’s figure up to 414,000 from the 409,000 initially reported. There were no special factors behind last week’s increase, a Labor Department official said as the figures were released.
IMNSVHO (In my not so very humble opinion) I think the economists are making it all up as they go along. I’m not sure any group of people can be so consistently wrong on so many levels.
Read the rest of this entry →
