The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Unexpectedly! Unemployment Hits 9.1%

Posted on | June 3, 2011 | 11 Comments

“U.S. hiring slowed dramatically in May and the unemployment rate kept rising, adding to concerns the jobs market will take years to heal as the economy remains weak. . . . . The jobless rate . . . unexpectedly rose to 9.1% . . .”
— Wall Street Journal

“May’s job gain was about a third of what economists had been forecasting. . . . ‘The economy clearly just hit a brick wall,’ said Paul Ashworth, chief United States economist at Capital Economics. ‘It’s almost as if it came to a complete standstill.’”
— New York Times

Why is it that economists — at least the “expert” economists who do all this forecasting for the media — have been so reliably surprised by bad news the past couple of years? And where do the media find these idiotic financial journalists like the guy who, as The Lonely Conservative notes, tried to blame U.S. unemployement on the Japanese tsunami?

It’s almost enough to make you think that the people who run the media are unusually stupid.

More at Memeorandum.

UPDATE: Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain just issued a statement:

While this administration promised job creation and an unemployment rate under 8 percent with the passage of the stimulus spending packages, based upon today’s unemployment report, the unemployment rate still hovers around 9 percent. We have yet to see the positive results from the billions of taxpayer dollars spent in that process.
Wednesday’s jobs figure shows only 38,000 new private sector jobs were created, a number significantly less than the projected 177,000 in previous forecasts. Experience has taught me that government cannot create jobs. Instead, government is responsible for creating a favorable environment for businesses to thrive and succeed.
If we are to fix this problem,we must focus our efforts on increasing access to capital and availability of new markets, adjusting unfavorable regulations for corporations and, in many instances, retooling and retraining our workforce.
It’s time we have a discussion about real job creation and what must be done to raise consumer confidence and create stability in the marketplace. Real results are needed now.

Category: Economics, Herman Cain

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