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  • 3 reasons to worry about July’s weak US jobs report — and 1 reason not to panic

    From cnn.com

    America’s robust post-pandemic job market is teetering on the brink after a lousy July hiring report in which the unemployment rate shot up to 4.3%, a three-year high. The Federal Reserve now has egg on its face after it kept interest rates near a quarter-century high earlier this week. And for the everyday US consumer, economic pain could be coming down the pike as hiring slows — but lower interest rates for homes and credit cards could be on their way in just a few months. The government’s latest jobs report on Friday fell way short of expectations: Employers added just 114,000 jobs in July, compared to the ... (full story)

Yada, yada, yada. Pundits will endlessly discuss the "approaching" recession, "faltering economy" and the hopes for a "soft landing" while the national economy has been roaring also thanks the President Biden's flooding it with borrowed and printed cash for excessive "investment" in "renewable energy" and infrastructure.

Even the political candidates do not know any better and instead of discussing the economic fundamentals such as the highly inflationary money supply (up the astronomical 40% in only 24 months from $15 trillion to $21 trillion) and the profligate spending by this Administration, they accuse each other of lying, of trying to "destroy the American democracy," the nonsense of leaving the national economy in shambles to his successor, or the latest fad - just being "weird off."

As a result, a friend - an economist - writes from Budapest that 53% of Hungarians believe that the American economy is in shambles and may soon collapse.

And in a largely socialist Europe (there is 150% sales tax on new car purchases in Denmark, recently lowered from 180%) it is believed that both the Democratic party and the Republican party are "extreme-right" parties writes confidently a nephew from Prague secure in his lack of knowledge.

It is farce that looks like a conspiracy of the incompetents. But it is in fact only a lack of knowledge, lack of experience and a lack of education.
Another garbage article written by some kid who was in diapers during the last financial crisis just regurgitating the same old nonsense.

"The FED has egg on its face"

No, CNN has egg on their face for being an embarrassment to the industry.
Pride always comes before destruction.... -Proverbs 16:18
Quoting Eurorally
Yada, yada, yada.........while the national economy has been roaring also thanks the President Biden's flooding it with borrowed and printed cash for excessive "investment" in "renewable energy" and infrastructure....
"Excessive" ??? ..well, hey, at least you didn't put "infrastructure" in quotes, so perhaps you still may believe that is a real thing.

The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) annually grades the state of US infrastructure, and I can't remember it ever receiving a grade better than C. Their assessment of the unfunded critical investment needs for US infrastructure is currently pushing $4 trillion, over the next 10 years. The "excessive" infrastructure investment realized by the Biden admin is just a drop in the bucket of what is needed.

A few examples: The US transportation system is in extreme disrepair. There are 45,000 active bridges that are in critical condition. About 20% of all roads in the country are in very poor condition. The USA has guess how many miles of high-speed rail? 375. Compare to China with >25,000, and growing. Compare to Spain, with 2,500.

The ASCE assessments do not track what is needed for the US electrical grid. Current estimates are there is a need for >$20 trillion, over the next 30 years, to maintain, upgrade, and build new electrical distribution infrastructure. That's not counting what will be needed in new generating capacity. These numbers just keep going up, as it becomes more obvious that the AI revolution is a power hog.

The fascist right wing oligarchs and their propaganda outlets really have only a few ideas that they keep pedaling. Foremost is "don't take our money!" They might sing a righteous song about "freedom", but the only freedom that they really care about is the freedom from paying taxes. Meanwhile, they don't mind using the publicly-funded transportation, electrical, and other infrastructure and turn a blind eye towards any needs for further investment in the same.
"If The Fool persists in his Folly he will become wise." - William Blake
Quoting The Fool
{quote}"Excessive" ??? ..well, hey, at least you didn't put "infrastructure" in quotes, so perhaps you still may believe that is a real thing. The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) annually grades the state of US infrastructure, and I can't remember it ever receiving a grade better than C. Their assessment of the unfunded critical investment needs for US infrastructure is currently pushing $4 trillion, over the next 10 years. The "excessive" infrastructure investment realized by the Biden admin is just a drop...
Agreed - American infrastructures have needed major repairs for a LONG TIME but that issue kept getting kicked down the road.
The solution is (x).
What is your problem? The "excessive" means that there had to be a balance between the means and the wants. When you want something and even if it is truly needed, it cannot be funded as a matter of policy just by borrowing and printing the money, don't you think?

The way the Administration does that is to increase the national debt, which has exceeded $34 trillion, with impunity. Or, the president truly thought that his "inflation Reduction Act of 2022" would actually generate more money than was its cost. It has not worked that way and even the president now regrets the misnomer "Inflation Reduction."
Quoting Eurorally
What is your problem? The "excessive" means that there had to be a balance between the means and the wants. When you want something and even if it is truly needed, it cannot be funded as a matter of policy just by borrowing and printing the money, don't you think? The way the Administration does that is to increase the national debt, which has exceeded $34 trillion, with impunity. Or, the president truly thought that his "inflation Reduction Act of 2022" would actually generate more money that was its cost. It has not worked...
Ok when Trump was in office he added 8.4 trillion in debt with about 3.6 being CARES ACT & Covid related funding. The other 4.8T was non covid related. Currently Biden is at 4.3T with the America Rescue Plan + Non-Covid combined at this moment. Every administration has increased the debt so what are you trying to say?
The solution is (x).
Quoting Expo33
Another garbage article written by some kid who was in diapers during the last financial crisis just regurgitating the same old nonsense. "The FED has egg on its face" No, CNN has egg on their face for being an embarrassment to the industry.
You said it.
Quoting Momofrmnyc
{quote} Ok when Trump was in office he added 8.4 trillion in debt with about 3.6 being CARES ACT & Covid related funding. The other 4.8T was non covid related. Currently Biden is at 4.3T with the America Rescue Plan + Non-Covid combined at this moment. Every administration has increased the debt so what are you trying to say?
Not so - see the data from the FED: Trump added $7.3 trillion to the national debt in four years, Biden added $7.7 trillion to date in less than four years.
Quoting Eurorally
{quote} Not so - see the data from the FED: Trump added $7.3 trillion to the national debt in four years, Biden added $7.7 trillion to date in less than four years.
I would need a link to that data as I've never seen it and it's pretty hard to search for at the moment. Though the numbers I just stated actually come from the Committee of Responsible Federal Budget.

Let's go off percentage thus far as debt change under the last 4 presidents.

William J Clinton (8 yrs) - 31.64%
George H. W. Bush (8 yrs) - 105.08%
Barack Obama (8 yrs) - 69.98%
Donald J Trump (4 yrs) - 40.43%

The biggest factor for Trump is Covid era where no one could predict that and a lot of spending currently is still tied into that currently. If you could find the FED data I would love to go over it.
The solution is (x).
Committee of Responsible Federal Budget? Give me a break! Like any such group, they push their own politically biased agenda. How about the graph from the St. Louis FRED? It will change your percentages mightily!

Otherwise, I agree on Covid-19. BTW, Trump's stimulus of $4.5 trillion was excessive. Why? Because $1 trillion of it remains unspent! It also dwarfs the paltry $1 trillion stimulus during the Great Recession of 2008.

But of course, Biden, in order not to be undone, added additional $2 trillion to the amount of stimulus in addition to his other pet projects funded solely by borrowing and outright printing of money and going into trillions of dollars more, thus increasing both the national debt and, importantly, the money supply by astronomical 40% from $15 trillion to $21 trillion in only 24 months.

On inflation, see Milton Friedman: It demonstrates itself with a delay. As more money in circulation is servicing the same amount of production expressed as GDP (plus productivity increase and inflation), the value of the money must decline in order for the money to get into a new equilibrium with the amount of production - hence inflation. Velocity of the money is important here - namely, how many times a year a dollar turns over to service production.
Quoting The Fool
{quote}"Excessive" ??? ..well, hey, at least you didn't put "infrastructure" in quotes, so perhaps you still may believe that is a real thing. The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) annually grades the state of US infrastructure, etc..
Just a side comment not too important in the great scheme of thing:

Be aware the The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) is tooting its own horn in an effort to preserve and even generate more jobs for its members, which is OK with me.

But the economists will scale down these ideas and expenditures in short order.

Furthermore, the naive example of communist state capitalism of China is really not a good example to aspire to with China's ghost towns empty of renters and the rail lines leading nowhere and carrying no passengers.
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