Unemployment Crisis

Talk about a lame duck. George Bush can't wait for the next 60 days to come and go. He has seen his Administration suffer under what's admittedly the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. The unemployment rate has been climbing for months and now stands at 6.5%. October's drop in payroll employment followed declines of 127,000 in August and 284,000 in September. Employment has fallen by 1.2 million in the first 10 months of 2008; over half of the decrease has occurred in the past 3 months.

The loss of 1,000,000+ jobs this year portends serious problems for 2009 without GM going bankrupt.

Can Obama work a miracle? U.S. President-elect Barack Obama said on Saturday that he was crafting an aggressive, two-year stimulus plan to revive the troubled economy, warning that swift action was needed to prevent a deep slump and a spiral of falling prices. "If we don't act swiftly and boldly, most experts now believe that we could lose millions of jobs next year," Obama said in prepared remarks for the weekly Democratic radio and video address. "We now risk falling into a deflationary spiral that could increase our massive debt even further."

Risk? Risk you say!

The U.S. automobile industry could add another 1,000,000 lst jobs to that data if they don't gt some government help. Everyone knows that but how can we keep bailing people out? Who's gonna bail out the U.S. government? The unemployment rate in some rust belt states is now double digits. Can another stimulus bill help?

Congress will send President-elect Barack Obama an economic stimulus package the day he takes office Jan. 20, two Democratic lawmakers said today. Senator Charles Schumer of New York said on ABC’s “This Week” program that the package will be between $500 billion and $700 billion. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, of Maryland, said on “Fox News Sunday” that he believed the Inauguration Day goal would be met, but he declined to put a price tag on the bill.

How low can the economy go and how high can the unemplyment rate go?

Well, when you think 6.5% is bad, consider the following unemployment rates:

>South Africa-   23%
>Afghanistan-   30%
>Kenya-             40%
>Zambia-           50%
>Zimbabwe-     80%

And the worst is yet to come!

The IMF's chief economist has warned that the global financial crisis is set to worsen and that the situation will not improve until 2010, a report said Saturday. Olivier Blanchard also warned that the institution does not have the funds to solve every economic problem. "The worst is yet to come," Blanchard said in an interview with the Finanz und Wirtschaft newspaper, adding that "a lot of time is needed before the situation becomes normal."

Isn't there a pill we can take?  :-(