Recovery Summer? Where?

I don't know about you, but I don't think that this has been the recovery summer we were promised by our political elite in Washington...as a matter of fact, things have gotten worse.   More and more people have stopped looking for work (though I've never been able to figure out when the "guv'ment" knows) because there's none to be had.  Unemployment has increased from 9.5% to 9.6%. 

For one thing, the so-called underemployment rate, which includes workers who are working part-time but who want full-time work, increased from 16.5 percent to 16.7 percent. During our supposed “Recovery Summer,” we have lost 283,000 jobs (54,000 in June, 171,000 in July, and 54,000 in August). And for August, the employment-population ratio — the percentage of Americans with jobs — was 58.5 percent. We haven’t seen figures this low in nearly three decades. As Henry Olson of the American Enterprise Institute points out, “Since the start of this summer, nearly 400,000 Americans have entered the labor force, but only 130,000 have found jobs. … America’s adult population has risen by 2 million people since [August 2009], but the number of adults with jobs has dropped by 180,000. The unemployment rate declined slightly despite these numbers, from 9.7 percent to 9.6 percent, because over 2.3 million people have left the labor force entirely, so discouraged they are no longer even looking for work. ”

So, not only has the economy lost jobs, but a couple of million more people have entered the adult work force...some recovery. 

“The jobs lost in the 2000-2001 recession don’t seem to have ever come back. The percentage of people in the workforce stabilized, but never recovered. This time, it looks like the re-employment picture will be even worse. . . . The Boomers are not retiring. Their workforce participation rate is well above forecast. Have you looked at your 401(k)?” Understandable, but of course that means fewer new jobs will open up.

Even Christina Romer admitted that the stimulus package that was supposed to keep unemployment below 8%...has failed miserably. 

She had no idea how bad the economic collapse would be. She still doesn't understand exactly why it was so bad. The response to the collapse was inadequate. And she doesn't have much of an idea about how to fix things.


What she did have was a binder full of scary descriptions and warnings, offered with a perma-smile and singsong delivery: "Terrible recession. . . . Incredibly searing. . . . Dramatically below trend. . . . Suffering terribly. . . . Risk of making high unemployment permanent. . . . Economic nightmare."
...
Romer had predicted that Obama's stimulus package would keep the unemployment rate at 8 percent or less; it is now 9.5 percent. One of her bosses, Vice President Biden, told Democrats in January that "you're going to see, come the spring, net increase in jobs every month." The economy lost 350,000 jobs in June and July.

 Thus...the Obama Administration really has no clue on what to do...except spend ever more money we don't have...I have a novel idea:  STOP SPENDING MONEY WE DON'T HAVE!  Balance the budget.  Reduce the size and scope of government and end the over regulation of our economy.  Top down economies inevitably fail...even the Chinese have stopped doing that, but your home-grown socialist just don't understand that.