Can you FEEL the stimulus?
Unemployment numbers are out this morning, and they aren’t pretty. The nation’s unemployment rate moves higher to 9.4%, the highest levels since 1983.
In terms of employment, how has the hastily-passed economic stimulus package helped the economy? Who knows for sure. But this chart isn’t too comforting:
That chart comes via Innocent Bystanders’ blog, along with this sobering commentary:
This trend is terrible – the unemployment rate change was 60% higher than what was predicted, and is a larger increase than from March to April.
So far, it looks like the $800 billion stimulus was a massive experiment in government fail.
What’s more, from the BLS report linked above, it noted that the economy lost 59,000 construction jobs in May. The spring and summer months usually mean construction projects, home-building, etc, usually start to ramp up. And where are all those ”shovel-ready” jobs that Obama and Biden were harping about earlier in the year?
The stimulus package totaled nearly $800 billion and so far, the American taxpayer appears to be getting shafted. Keynesian economics, government spending programs designed to spur economic growth, simply do not work. I’m willing to give the Administration some more leeway here in terms of time—perhaps, let’s see how the economic situation plays out over the summer. But it’s looking more and more like the stimulus was nothing more than a massive payment of tribute to Democrat party donors, Obama supporters and entitlement outlays.
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