It is indeed ironic to hear Republicans cry out — Where are the jobs?  Didn’t the stimulus bill create jobs?  — they will ask.  They overlook there was no job creation in the 10 years prior to Obama taking office.   Where were the jobs then?  — particularly, in an era when Republican policies were in full control.

Jobs are being destroyed much faster than they can be created.  The only people creating jobs right now is the government and they are having problems as well.  There are five states which have massive budget shortfalls and will likely go to extraordinary measures starting today: Indiana, Arizona, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, and California.  It is interesting to see those bright red states of Arizona and Mississippi in the list.  Don’t those states have the secret recipe of free enterprise, American capitalism?  I guess not.

It is funny to hear people quote the Dow Jones average as some sign of the economy.  If the Dow goes up for a few days or even a quarter, people declare the end of the recession.  They fail to recognize that the stock market has no problem discounting and eliminating companies from their analysis.  For example, General Motors went bankrupt — no problem, just dump it from the Dow.   Then the Dow no longer has to ever worry about General Motors recovering.  It is off the radar.  Likewise, hundreds of companies have been decimated in the financial collapse.  Many of these companies are literally gone, along with all the jobs.  The stock market resets to a smaller list of companies and keeps plotting those silly graphs.  Eventually, things will improve, although briefly, as failing companies are weeded out.  The spiraling down will pick up as more job losses lead to less spending in the economy — another round of previous solid companies will have to be eliminated.

Likewise, look at those pesky unemployment statistics.  The government likes to track how many people are out of work and produces the monthly unemployment figure. This is such a silly statistic.   Once a person stops receiving employment benefits after 26 or 39 weeks, the government gives up on them getting a job again — thus they are no longer unemployed — they are not employed either.  The government delete people unable to find new employment from the unemployment numbers.  Eventually, enough people will disappear that the unemployment figures will stabilize and even improve.  But has employment really improved?  Not Necessarily.

Tracking the economy based on the stock market or government statistics which are designed to artificially improve is just plain silly.  There are other much better ways of tracking how the economy is really doing.  Track total employment — the number of people actually employed — full time and part time — people the IRS are getting payroll information about — even the total number of hours worked.   Also, track the amount of income tax revenue received.   These types of metrics are cumulative and can only rise when things improve.  Both of these metrics have not bottomed.  Both federal and state tax receipts are dismal which is the reason so many states are having big problems balancing their budgets.  No doubt some of these states will adopt irrational faux solutions to their budget woes, much like the federal government spends the social security trust fund to lower yearly deficits.

America is in very big trouble and as each day passes it is easier for the observant to see.  However, Republicans will blame it on Obama and the Democrats, while telling America that if they only cut taxes things would improve.  The only thing that improves when you cut taxes is to give more income to the rich.  The Republicans rely on people forgetting about the last decade.  They rely on people becoming so desperate that they will give the Republicans another chance.

The Democrats are not without quilt of their own.  Obama clearly believes in capitalism — just look at the financial people around him.  People like Geithner is so up the ass of the Wall Street that he hasn’t had an independent thought in decades.  Just like Greenspan and Bernanke believe, nobody can fight Wall Street and keep those jobs — at least not yet.

There will be no major recovery.  America will not get back to the employment numbers of just 6 months ago for a long time.  This says nothing about the growth needed in jobs to accommodate increased population.  Jobs will continue to be destroyed and there is no free enterprise solution.  In fact, this is a snowball that continues to roll downhill and get bigger and bigger.  Eventually, people will understand that Americans, all Americans, have to cooperate in order to survive long term.  They have to enact universal health care for all.  They have to redistribute the wealth and provide food and housing to all.  There is no other solution.  Jobs will continue to be destroyed and the free enterprise system does an excellent job at destroying them as they seek the lowest labor costs in the world.  Keep sending those jobs overseas and keep wondering why there is no income in America to buy your products.

America is doomed.