Monday, August 9, 2010

The unemployment number...

...was released on Friday and the rate remained stubbornly high at 9.5%. From a piece in the Times yesterday, "Jobless and Staying That Way" (my emphasis):

...the Obama administration predicts that unemployment will drop to 8.7 percent by the end of next year, and eventually sink to 6.8 percent by the end of 2013.

To reach that level, the economy would have to add nearly 300,000 workers a month over the next three years, according to Peter Morici, a business professor at the University of Maryland. Even in the first half of the year, when the economy grew at a healthy 3 percent, it added fewer than 100,000 jobs a month.

Also from the same piece:

[Bill Gross, who runs the world’s largest bond fund, Pimco] and also a free-market advocate, believes that it’s time for the government to spend tens of billions on new infrastructure projects to put people to work and stimulate demand.
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Despite his long-held belief in free markets, smaller government and lower taxes, Mr. Gross said politicians must recognize that this time, “government is part of the solution.”

I guess that's one less atheist in a foxhole.

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