CHESSNOID

We are now in July 2009 and the recession that started in officially in December 2007 is still here despite many economists, financial experts and analysts, and the federal government agencies stating it would end soon for the last 18 months.  What’s funny is that most of these people prior to December 2007 did not even see the recession coming.

Now that Obama has been in office for 6 months, reality is setting in that he did not have the plan to make things better.  Forget about all those polls who still think he is doing a great job for the level of experience he has.  Those polls are useless and the sampling too small.  Read the headlines to determine where the economy is, talk to your family and relatives and see if they are worried about their jobs, and watch as many states struggle to balance their budget without success.

According to this Yahoo AP article:

However, the rise in the unemployment rate from 9.4 percent in May wasn’t as sharp as the expected 9.6 percent. Still, many economists predict the jobless rate will hit 10 percent this year, and keep rising into next year, before falling back.

All told, 14.7 million people were unemployed in June.

If laid-off workers who have given up looking for new jobs or have settled for part-time work are included, the unemployment rate would have been 16.5 percent in June, the highest on records dating to 1994.

14 million people unemployed in the month of June is a number that the media and government seem to ignore, but that number is real. I wish hope would be enough to bring the economy out of the recession, but success would come easier if they put a plan in that would work. President Obama is a more eloquent speaking Democrat version of President Bush. No one can demonstrate that the US is in a better situation now after Bush left.

Even the media have started to do their jobs and begin to examine what is and isn’t working under the administration.

NY Times:

In the weeks just before President Obama took office, his economic advisers made a mistake. They got a little carried away with hope.

To make the case for a big stimulus package, they released their economic forecast for the next few years. Without the stimulus, they saw the unemployment rate — then 7.2 percent — rising above 8 percent in 2009 and peaking at 9 percent next year. With the stimulus, the advisers said, unemployment would probably peak at 8 percent late this year.

We now know that this forecast was terribly optimistic. The jobless rate has already reached 9.4 percent. On Thursday, the Labor Department will announce the latest number, for June, and forecasters are expecting it to rise further. In concrete terms, the difference between the situation that the Obama advisers predicted and the one that has come to pass is about 2.5 million jobs. It’s as if every worker in the city of Los Angeles received an unexpected layoff notice.

There are two possible explanations that the administration was so wrong. And sorting through them matters a great deal, because they point in opposite policy directions.

The first explanation is that the economy has deteriorated because the stimulus package failed. Some critics say that stimulus just doesn’t work, while others argue that this particular package was too small or too badly constructed to make a difference.

The second answer is that the economy has deteriorated in spite of the stimulus. In other words, the patient is not as sick as he would have been without the medicine he received. But he is a lot sicker than doctors realized when they prescribed it.

To me, the evidence is fairly compelling that the second answer is the right one. The stimulus package does seem to have helped. But its impact has been minor — so far — compared with the harshness of the Great Recession.

The bailouts have not worked unless you are the CEO of one the companies. Cha Ching! The stimulus packages haven’t worked. The extreme deficit spending to continue funding the wars is not working. At this point, all the Obama administration or Congress has to do is say NO to wasteful bailouts, NO to wasteful stimulus packages, and bring the troops home. We don’t have to police the world especially when our own house is not in order. All these actions will help contribute to balance the budget. Yes, these are all Ron Paul ideas.