Not so fast with the optimism, buddy!
CAVEAT: I try to avoid political posts here at Ambiance. But today, as yesterday, there is some economic news worthy of note.
The new jobs report was released today. I have heard a few people make some optimistic noises about the fact that private sector jobs have matched the 2008 peak in terms of numbers. (See here, for example, though they do have the decency to caveat the hell out of the article.)
What I’m not hearing, and don’t expect to hear from the Administration, is a comment about full-time jobs. As of March 1 2014, the US economy had 3,872,000 FEWER full-time jobs than it did at its peak in November 2007. And that’s after almost five years of recovery.
http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/graph/fredgraph.png?g=vV4
And given that the working age population has grown considerably in the intervening years, the employment situation is actually even worse than it appears.
So don’t let the bastards tell you how goddamned good we’ve got it, and what a wonderful job they’ve done. Because it just ain’t so.
(Sorry, I’ve been trying to get the graph to embed, but wordpress isn’t accepting the FRED site’s code. I’ll see what I can do to fix it later.)
Ambiance 
Icepick said,
April 4, 2014 at 8:05 pm
Donna, was it you discussing a problem a nephew of yours was having with your father re:work?
amba12 said,
April 5, 2014 at 1:31 pm
Yes, that was Donna.
I’m sure you’re right. There’s a lot of cheerleading going on right now, as if they think they could brainwash us into starting to spend money we don’t have, again.
realpc920 said,
April 5, 2014 at 6:52 pm
The Democrats are hoping they can fool us into believing they have been fixing the economy. Which, of course, they want you to think was destroyed by the Republicans.
They have not been fixing anything. Did you notice Yellen’s wonderful speech about how much she loves unemployed people and is determined to help them find jobs, by keeping interest rates as low as possible forever?
Low interest rates don’t help the economy. So, if something does not work, just keep on doing it, and eventually it will work — right?
Low interest rates just punish everyone who was responsible and saved money, hoping they could retire some day.
Low interest rates don’t convince people to buy cars and houses they can’t afford.
The only political party in this country that is even worse than the Republicans is the Democrats. At least Republicans know they’re evil.
mockturtle said,
April 5, 2014 at 7:50 pm
I couldn’t agree more, PC.
karen said,
April 8, 2014 at 1:08 pm
“So don’t let the bastards tell you how goddamned good we’ve got it, and what a wonderful job they’ve done. Because it just ain’t so.”
… which we have known since Obama ran for Pres back in 2008.
Mendacity & Obama are oxymoronic kissing cousins.