Democrats will tell you that Joe Biden was right.  The stimulus is working, things would be worse without it, we’ve hit bottom, and we’re on our way back.  Then, like clockwork, the numbers come out and spoil all their fun.

In June, the US lost another 467,000 jobs, far more than the projected 363,000.  The jobless rate is now at 9.5%, the highest since 1983.  Stimulus supporters tend not to put a lot of stock in this number.  They see it solely as a lagging indicator, so the job losses don’t really phase them. 

If it was the only bad news, they might be right.  Unforunately, hourly earnings stayed stagnant and employers have cut the average work week to 33 hours, the lowest level since 1964.  According to the median number given by economists surveyed, the unemployment rate is expected to top 10% by the end of the year.   The Dow Jones today dropped two percent on the bad news.  

A growing number of economists, including Obama supporter Warren Buffett, are also predicting more of the same for the rest of this year and the next.  Buffett forsees a continued increase in unemployment and massive inflation, saying  that “Every country that has denominated its debt in its own currency and has found itself with uncomfortable amounts of debt relative to the rest of the world, in the end they inflate.  That becomes a tax on everybody that has fixed dollar investments.”

Couple all of these numbers and predictions with Cap & Trade, likely tax increases, and a massive Health Care bill which, if it passes, will increase the deficit exponentially, and the outlook becomes grim indeed.

-Robert Laurie