The Nightmare Continues: Unemployment at 9.5%

It was a disastrous day for the economy; the nation lost 467,000 jobs in June and the signs going forward are not promising despite what the Obama administration says or the rosy picture they are trying to paint:

The payroll decline was more than forecast and followed a 322,000 drop in May, according to Labor Department figures released today in Washington. The jobless rate jumped to 9.5 percent, the highest since August 1983, from 9.4 percent.

Unemployment is projected to keep rising for the rest of the year just as the income boost from the stimulus package fades, undermining prospects for a sustained rebound in household purchases, analysts said. As companies from General Motors Corp. to Kimberly-Clark Corp. cut costs, the lack of jobs will restrain growth.

“This will be another jobless recovery,” said John Silvia, chief economist at Wachovia Corp. in Charlotte, North Carolina. “We may get positive economic growth driven largely by federal spending, but people on the street will say, ‘Where are the jobs?’”

And that will translate to continuing lower approval numbers for The One.

This is a bad recession and one we will not easily find our way out of. When Bush faced the recession in 2000, he cut taxes and Americans continued to spend. That's not happening now as people are downright scared. Bush didn't use scare tactics but reassured us to spend away and we'll be okay. The promises that came with the stimulus bill as laid out by the administration have not come to fruition and probably won't for another 8-12 months.

It's a meltdown of the likes we haven't seen since the depression and he's following FDR's plan to the letter even though it made things worse.

Looking on the bright side since I'm an optimist; this should prove once and for all that spending never, ever gets a nation out of economic turmoil.