A little bit of the harsh realities of economics – and actually being reported on in the MSM! Astounding! From Bloomberg:
Employers in the U.S. announced more job cuts in February than in the same month last year, led by a surge at government agencies.
Planned firings increased 20 percent to 50,702 last month from February 2010, the first year-over-year gain since May 2009, according to a report today from Chicago-based Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. Announcements at federal, state and local government offices almost tripled from last year…
…Dismissals of government workers may contribute to a slowdown in consumer spending, which accounts for 70 percent of the economy. Combined with the highest gasoline prices in two years, the threat of a pause in purchases may already be causing retailers, which had the second-biggest number of announcements last month, to pare payrolls, said Challenger.
“If gasoline tops $4 per gallon in the coming weeks, consumers may be forced to make significant changes to their spending habits,” said Challenger. “At this stage of the recovery, that could be an extremely damaging setback.”…
Who would have thought that massive, unsustainable levels of government spending for years would eventually have a negative impact? And, my goodness, how was anyone to know that things like revolution in the middle east could disrupt supplies and confidence? Geesh, its not like anyone has been out there demanding greater domestic oil production. I’m sure that Obama’s cracker-jack economic team is on this – and I wonder if a bit more spending and maybe some windmill subsidies will get us out of the mess.
This is what we get, boys and girls, for years of irresponsibility. Its going to get increasingly difficult to get out of the mess – the longer we put off the deep cuts in spending and the reforms necessary to encourage making, mining and growing things, the worse the crisis will get, and the longer it will take to get out of it.
UPDATE: Gallup poll has unemployment at 10.3%.
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