As Robert Reich points out here, under-employment is yet more yucky icing on a very nasty cake of unemployment figures. (Okay, Reich is far more eloquent and would never likely come up with such a pathetic analogy.) But still–yikes. From Bloomberg:
More Americans than ever worked only partial days in November as the deepening recession prompted companies to cut full-time employment.
The number of Americans saying they worked part-time last month due to economic reasons — either because their hours were cut or they couldn’t find full-time jobs — surged to 7.32 million, the most since records began in 1955, from 6.7 million in October, the Labor Department reported today.
The increase in part-time workers helped prevent the jobless rate — which rose to 6.7 percent last month from 6.5 percent in October — from climbing even more. Counting part- timers who would prefer full-time work, as well as discouraged workers who are no longer looking for jobs, the jobless rate would have jumped to 12.5 percent from 11.8 percent in October.
And to answer the question Reich asks in the title of his post, um yeah, it’s a Depression. I know it’s a matter of semantics, but since Karl Rove and Karen Hughes are busily trying to re-write history even as it happens, I think it’s only fair we get Bush’s name attached to this last bitter pill.
I propose we call it the “Bush Financial Depression,” at least for now. Hopefully it will not become Great Depression II. If things get that bad nothing can save one shred of the Bush-Cheney legacy.
At this point it’s not about blame. It’s about not listening in the future to people who have been clearly and repeatedly wrong about every last damn thing, military, economic and diplomatic. Basically, when a Republican opens their mouth, a traditional journalist should have a mental checklist about how many times that person has been utterly and completely wrong. Eight long years of right wing fantasy have led us to this point, and fantasy is something we can no longer afford.
And every time a Democrat opens their mouth, I want to hear a journalist question why did they support liar loans, subprime, Alt-A so everyone could “own a home”. Of course that question can’t be asked, as it defeats the “Republicans are the ones to blame” narrative.
And of course, it also defies reality.
Neoconservatives own this depression. And the Republican party is to blame for not kicking these shinola selling bastards out of their party.
Sorry “crusader” but revisionist history will not gain traction. Americans are pissed off, and the Republicans are going to pay for their greedy ineptitude.
Crusader. Are you on the newly formed Bush Legacy Team?
We just named the economic slowdown today.
It’s called the Bush Depression.
How ya gonna blame dems for Bush’s Depression?
By lying. Duh!
Unemployment here hit as high as 20% a few months back.
OUCH. With more layoffs on the way, and two pages worth of businesses closing through the holiday season, all I can say is OUCH.
I’m glad we barter :P
Government unemployment figures are bullshit because they don’t count the unemployed who have exhausted their unemployment benefits without finding another job.
Also, official employment rates don’t reflect people who have become reemployed at lower compensation.
All of this, however, will show up at retail cash registers in the months and years ahead. For years now, I’ve tried to warn stupid GOPers that when they kill workers’ incomes, they kill their own incomes. But would they listen? Hell no.
The cheap labor conservatives finally shot their own balls off.
Gee haven’t the Democrats had 2 years to shore up Fannie Mae, and what the F have they done but jack up everyones hard earned money and shovel it into their purses.
How about the citizens bailout, send each one of us a free hybrid and you would fix the car companies, the Polution problem and Ho Ho Ho.
No body can afford a new hybrid or any the damn car anyway in this economy.
(Keynes famously said, “Capitalism is the astounding believe that the most wickedest of men will do the most wickedest of things for the greater good of everyone.”)
Can anyone channel this dude?
You say ‘it’s not about blame’ then you say “every time a Republican”…But this present crisis is caused by the folly of deregulation that was supported by both Democrats and Republicans. The outsourcing of jobs from the US, that was done under Clinton. Patty Murray supported the repeal of Glass-Steagall also passed under Clinton. Bush is a war criminal and has plenty of blame, but to pretend everything was great under Clinton or that this present crisis just started in the last 8 years is crazy.
It appears Pelosi has caved in to Bush (Again! Why doesn’t the bitch just make it official and change parties?) and agreed to support a plan to “bail out Detroit” by taking the money appropriated to support development of better hybrid and electric cars, and just giving it to the Big Three so they can keep on building gas-guzzling dinosaurs for another year or so.
It remains unclear what means are going to be employed to persuade the public to buy them.
Bush = Hoover
Under employed describes my situation completely and many other people I know.
I have never taken unemployment in my life. Not even sure I would qualify or how to go about it. I am not part of a union. I do contract work when I can that doesn’t quite pay the bills. I don’t get any benefits because of the hours I work is not complete work week. I am sure that there many people in a very similar situation. The economic situation is far worse than many in this society will admit.
ok look, you guys are pretty bright, so i think you all will get this you just needed someone to point it out. i’m a comservative republican and was a bush supporter and despised the msm (still do) for always vilifying bush. i’ve now changed my tune but not for the reasons you might expect. bush has bankrupt the country and socialized its industries, sounds like a liberal i know, but its true. but the real point is, under obama not a damn thing will change because this is all controlled above bush and obama. do you really think obama is looking desocialize what bush has socialized? do you really think barney frank was trying to help the little people get mortgages. let me tell you what barney frank was thinking. at his level, he was part of a scheme that because of untold numbers of low income people that were going to be eligible for mortgages, 100’s of millions of dollars were going to be made by brokers and bankers. its still amazing to me he gets a pass in that nobody wants to ask what freinds of his made millions and that he is not thrown out on his butt by almost single handedly sinking the economy. the level above him are the super rich and powerful international bankers who knew how this would play, like lack of credit being the straw that broke the camels back of gm and chrysler. i know the real liberals among you dont believe a word of this, i dont care. for the rest of you, think about a person born into a family of super rich. with billions at there disposal, ownership in central banks, what motivation do they have to get up in the morning? more money? no, they are looking for control, people like the russian oligarchs (as an example) who live say in spain, its much easier for them to pay off polititicains and police in european countries than the realtively less corrupt us (relatively). they want to debase the us to the level of say brazil. corruption, drug wars in the streets, gangs. they will sit at the top of the hill in there fotresses, police and politicians paid off, not luxury beyond their grasp. this is what they want. this collpase is ochestrated with the help of frank and bush as willing patseys. it will be worse under obama. as a matter of fact, i think he was their choice.
by the way, the msm is totally complicit in this scheme because they are controlled by the super rich (again, not for you liberals who dont believe any of this anyway). now, one way you can figure things out is look in a different direction. so to test the msm’s credibility, look at todays airing of the terrorists’ bill ayers comments. they are now calling it “extreme vandalism”. so, anyone who would call blowing up buildings extreme vandalism has absolutely zero claim to any credibility.