Hopes rise as jobless claims fall, trade gap eases

Hopes rise as jobless claims fall, trade gap eases

WASHINGTON (AP) - The number of people signing up for unemployment benefits dropped to the lowest level in two months, an encouraging sign that companies aren’t resorting to deeper layoffs even as the economy has lost momentum.

The Labor Department reported Thursday that new claims for unemployment aid plunged last week by a seasonally adjusted 27,000 to 451,000. Economists had predicted a much smaller decline of just 2,000.

In a second hopeful sign, the government said the trade deficit narrowed significantly in July as exports climbed to the highest level in nearly two years. The narrower gap reflected big gains in exports of U.S.-made airplanes and other manufactured goods. Imports declined.

Together, the two reports eased fears that the economy might slide back into recession.

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Hopes rise as jobless claims fall, trade gap eases

The 1st thing that everyone needs to consider is this: who is writing these reports and reporting the numbers? The Labor Department. The Obama administration, that’s who!

These idiots are celebrating because the number of people signing up for unemployment benefits dropped to the lowest level in two months. The Obama administration is happy because new claims for unemployment aid plunged last week, NEW CLAIMS.

Don’t take me wrong, I really am happy there are fewer people applying for NEW claims of unemployment, that’s a good thing. What’s NOT addressed here is the number of people that are already ON unemployment. The numbers Americans need to see are the ones that tell us how many in this nation are now OFF of unemployment. Specifically, how many have been able to go back to work.

The exuberance shown by the government over fewer people filing 1st time claims is a smoke and mirrors ploy. It’s designed to make it look as if Obama and Company have turned things around.

They haven’t.

“At the moment, we can rule out a double-dip for the economy,” said Chris Rupkey, chief economist at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi. “The economy is not out of the woods with today’s data, but things look better than they have in several week, and there is no danger of a new downturn in activity.”

On Wall Street, the news lifted stocks. The Dow Jones industrial average was up around 60 points in morning trading.

And at the drop of a hat, any minor hiccup in ANY world market and BOOM, the Dow goes below 9,000 leaving Obama and his band of ne-er do wells standing there looking stupid. Again.

Concerns about a possible new recession had arisen after a batch of downbeat reports in August. For example, new applications for jobless benefits shot past the half-million mark in mid-August, the highest level since November. Since that spike, though, they have drifted lower. New filings for benefits are now at their lowest level since July 10.

And again I say, this is smoke and mirrors reporting. NEW filings being down IS good, but that doesn’t address the 9.6% that are currently unemployed, 9.6% being a rather conservative and hopeful estimate. Some sources have reported REAL numbers above 10%, possibly well above 10% if truth were told.

Still, near double-digit unemployment is a political headache for President Barack Obama and his Democrat party with the congressional midterm elections just months away.

Obama, in an interview with ABC News, conceded that if the midterm election turns out to be mostly a referendum on the economy, “we’re not going to do well.”

I’m a bit surprised that Obama didn’t fall back on his ‘Old Standby’, BLAME BUSH…

The fact of the matter is this, there are a great number of things that the Bush administration could have done differently. That was then, this is now, and NOW it’s the Obama regime that’s in charge.

Another little fact that Obama has conveniently overlook is this, the last 2 years of the Bush administration were plagued with a Democratic controlled House and Senate. For almost 2 years now we’ve had full Democratic control of the nation. Where has that taken us?

Under George W. Bush unemployment was lower, decidedly lower.

U.S. unemployment rates under President Bush have reached a 14-year high. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, unemployment climbed to 6.5 percent in October, as the country shed 240,000 jobs. SOURCE

What the left likes to gloss over is the fact that Bush had a Republican led Congress for the first 6 years of his administration. In 2006 that changed, the Dems took control of the House and Senate and that coincides with the decline that has become the downward spiral that is the Obama legacy of FAILURE.

I say FAILURE a lot lately, but I say it in ALL sincerity.

In the weeks just before President Obama took office, his economic advisers made a mistake. They got a little carried away with hope.

To make the case for a big stimulus package, they released their economic forecast for the next few years. Without the stimulus, they saw the unemployment rate — then 7.2 percent — rising above 8 percent in 2009 and peaking at 9 percent next year. With the stimulus, the advisers said, unemployment would probably peak at 8 percent late this year. SOURCE

With unemployment at an admitted 9.6%, I can only think of one thing to say: FAILURE.