US economy's latest output: better jobs

Parent Cafe
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<p>Just in case you didn’t notice the good news in the deafening main stream media silence:</p>

<p>

<a href=“http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0411/p01s02-usec.html[/url]”>http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0411/p01s02-usec.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Note that’s not FOXNews, either. Even manufacturing jobs are up over the last year despite some recent heavy layoffs. And that’s on top of that extremely positive report on new college grad hiring a couple of weeks ago.</p>

<p>Don’t even get me started on the stock market, though I will add my kid’s modest college fund is doing quite nicely, too, thanks.</p>

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<p>But we still have poor people. Things MUST be bad.</p>

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<p>I think hillel said something about how the poor will be with us always.</p>

<p>Oh, wait, that was the other thread, sorry. :D</p>

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<p>With unemployment at 4.7 percent, the economy is rocking. Yes, President Bush should get the credit for this, but he won’t because gasoline prices are so high and people think we are in a depression. President Bush has no control over oil prices. We have hit Hubbert’s peak with oil. That mean’s we can drill and drill but won’t find a sufficient amount to keep up with increasing demand. The media and American people will blame President Bush for the high price of oil (over which he has no control) but won’t give him credit for the booming economy (which he initiated through tax policy, etc.) Life ain’t fair.</p>

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<p>Perhaps the something of the disquiet about the economy has to do with the fact that wages have stagnated, that income for all but the Barrons coupon-clipping class is lagging (adjusted for inflation), the savings rate has cratered, and that the unemployment number doesn’t count either those who have gotten discouraged or have never found a job in the first place. Oh, and bankruptcies and late mortgage payments are both edging upwards.</p>

<p>I realize that within the boundaries of Bushworld, all is sunny and fine.</p>

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<p>“He won’t because gasoline prices are so high and people think we are in a depression.” </p>

<p>Retail Gasoline Prices<br>
U.S. Dollars per Gallon Including Taxes</p>

<p>-Date- -US- -BE- -FR- -DE- -IT- -NL- -UK-
1/1996 1.27 3.95 3.93 4.07 3.89 4.32 3.20
1/1997 1.41 4.21 4.01 3.83 4.18 4.29 3.74
1/1998 1.29 3.47 3.51 3.30 3.57 3.59 3.78
1/1999 1.13 3.52 3.58 3.34 3.63 3.77 3.83
1/2000 1.46 3.34 3.57 3.52 3.54 3.78 4.17
1/2001 1.61 3.47 3.58 3.55 3.74 4.02 4.42
1/2002 1.29 3.13 3.23 3.21 3.35 3.67 3.78
1/2003 1.64 3.90 4.15 4.40 4.25 4.64 4.57
1/2004 1.70 4.77 4.73 5.05 4.98 5.59 5.17
1/2005 1.99 5.00 5.09 5.37 5.39 6.03 5.67
1/2006 2.53 5.82 5.53 5.62 5.74 6.28 5.93</p>

<p>2/2006 2.55 5.72 5.55 5.85 5.70 6.24 5.95
3/2006 2.52 5.61 5.48 5.62 5.71 6.26 5.93
4/2006 2.79 6.04 5.77 6.00 5.91 6.48 6.05</p>

<p>NB: Article is from 2005</p>

<p>$7 a gallon? That’s what drivers in Amsterdam pay. But Europeans have long adapted to high prices.</p>

<p>When Guy Colombier pulls his economy car up to a Paris pump, he allows himself just 15 Euros ($18) worth of gas - barely enough for three gallons. Since prices started rising rapidly earlier this year, says Mr. Colombier, a printing press worker, “I drive a lot more slowly … and I’m looking for a place to live closer to where I work.” </p>

<p>Colombier’s pain is shared by drivers all over Europe, where fuel prices are the highest in the world: a gallon of gas in Amsterdam now costs $7.13, compared with just $2.61 in America. The contrast in prices and environmental policies - and the dramatically different behaviors they inspire - signals a widening transatlantic energy gap. And it raises the question: Does Europe offer America a glimpse of its future?</p>

<p>“The single most effective measure” that has brought down motorists’ fuel use in Europe, however, is taxation, says Dings.</p>

<p>On average, 60 percent of the price European drivers pay at the pump goes to their governments in taxes.</p>

<p>In Britain, the government takes 75 percent, and raises taxes by 5 percent above inflation every year (though it has forgone this year’s rise in view of rocketing oil prices, and the French government has promised tax rebates this year to taxi drivers, truckers, fishermen, and others who depend heavily on gasoline.) On August 8, for example, the price of gas in the US, without taxes, would be $2.17, instead of $2.56; in Britain, it would be $1.97, instead of $6.06.</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0826/p01s03-woeu.html[/url]”>http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0826/p01s03-woeu.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>Heh Dad, I’m at work every day and most weekends. I have no coupons to clip although my wife likes to clip some out of the paper. Everything we earn we have worked for. No money from the parents or anyone else.
Our firm is so busy we just hired six new guys to train. They should be making six figures in a few years–right out of college.</p>

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<p>But Xiggi… Detroit says that Americans want bigger and more powerful cars, not more environmentally friendly ones.</p>

<p>I eagerly await the day that Americans voluntarily convert, en masse, to cars that get at least 50 mpg and ditch the SUVs.</p>

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To the extent your statement is true, it was true for Clinton as well. Yet, Bush is beating the pants off of your hero, who rarely seemed to wear pants. </p>

<p>Xiggi, Do your stats accounts for the fact that a British gallon is larger than an American gallon? (If you thought things were big in Texas, they are really big in Britain.)</p>

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<p>“Xiggi, Do your stats accounts for the fact that a British gallon is larger than an American gallon? (If you thought things were big in Texas, they are really big in Britain.)”</p>

<p>I think that the good people at the Energy Directorate of the European Commission are kind enough to deliver their numbers in Euro per 1000 liters. This way the poor folks who are hopelessly separated by a common language and still suffer from the heresy of a moronic impeiral and non-metric system do have a fighting chance to convert the units properly. </p>

<p>PS The only problem with gallons in Texas is that our ten-gallon hat barely fits the size of our head. The Jumbo 40 Gallon Hat is usually needed. </p>

<p><a href=“http://www.costumesbypattijo.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=CBPJOM&Product_Code=GC45-MOR&Category_Code=Hats[/url]”>http://www.costumesbypattijo.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=CBPJOM&Product_Code=GC45-MOR&Category_Code=Hats&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>“I eagerly await the day that Americans voluntarily convert, en masse, to cars that get at least 50 mpg and ditch the SUVs.”</p>

<p>I eagerly await the day we add $3.00 per gallon in special assessments and spend every nickel of it supporting the commercialization of clean energy. all the while leaving the government unable to use a single cent of it for general purposes. </p>

<p>What do they say about penny wise and pound foolish?</p>

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<p>Xiggi:

</p>

<p>Ah, a kindred spirit! It never ceases to amaze me how we in the USA are the last nation in the world (OK, except British Columbia or some such) who still cling stubbornly to fps units. I remember being in India when we went metric, over a weekend - the illiterate vegetable sellers on the sidewalk calmly exchanged their measuring weights for metric ones, and were crying out prices in Rs/kilo with zero trauma. </p>

<p>And how do American companies handle it? Well, take Ford (please). In their infinite wisdom, they decided to transition to metric bolts/nuts gradually. Engine blocks would contain a MIX of metric / imperial sized bolts and nuts, with the metric % increasing gradually over the years. Oh, and the metric nuts would be painted blue, to make it ‘easy’ to identify them. Makes you wonder - when was the last time one of these boyos went out and <em>looked</em> at an engine after, oh, 25000 miles or so. Did they truly expect people to be able to distinguish colors on a used engine???</p>

<p>(Rant over, wipes froth off mouth…)</p>

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<p>Actually, TheDad, the article above contradicts you wages issue, though to be fair, given that wages are inelastic downward and they were inflated outrageously during the Dot.com bubble, I wouldn’t be surprised if they haven’t gone up a lot. </p>

<p>As for the savings rate, there’s a dirty little secret there: that statistic excludes investments. You know like the money I put in my 401K or a mutual fund? That’s not “savings”. The real amount that people are putting back including investments is hardly negative.</p>

<p>And you’re wrong. The last I looked the Department of Commerce numbers don’t exclude people who’ve given up looking even if you believe the current empolyment numbers, which are near full employment short of the normal turnover from people changing jobs, held some secret stash of people who can’t find jobs even in good times.</p>

<p>The last I heard bankrupcies were up temporarily because the new, more restrictive law encouraged people to get out early while they could and interest rates are only a fraction of what they were even in the early 90s. </p>

<p>I realize that the masters of misery don’t want things to be better, but they very clearly are. Sorry about bringing up the facts and spoiling the fun again. </p>

<p>BTW, my degree Economics isn’t worth much and it’s a bit rusty, but I do know how to read the report AND their footnotes.</p>