The government says new claims for unemployment benefits reached their highest level in 26 years last week, as companies cut workers at a rapid pace.
The Labor Department says initial applications for jobless benefits rose to a seasonally adjusted 573,000, from an upwardly revised figure of 515,000 in the previous week. That was far more than the 525,000 claims Wall Street economists expected.
A Labor Department analyst says the jump is partly due to a rebound in claims from the Thanksgiving holiday week when government offices were open for fewer days.
(Source: Fox News)
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3 Responses
Poor Bush. Clinton timed it just right so that this would fall into his lap during his eighth year in office. It still counts, though, on Bush’s candidacy as worst president ever.
No need to panic until they start saying “worst in 75 years” or “worst on record”.
to #1 above: Bush gets a pass on the initial recession which overlapped 9-11. The housing and credit bubbles, and subsequent collapses, were on his shift. With the benefit of hindsight, he should have raised taxes to reduce bubbles (by removing excess cash that was available for speculation), and relied on the war to stimulate a not especially slow economy.
akuperma – you are obviously on the right side of the fence if you are giving blame to the Bush administration – but I think that your analysis falls short of the eggregiousness of their mistakes.
Raise taxes? They just kept trying to cut them! How many failed stimulus plans does it take before a person realizes his economics grade of C- was well deserved? (Answer: 4 and still counting)
They actually created cash in huge amounts through the Fed by intentionally increasing the money supply. Have a look at the M3 money supply numbers during the Bush years if you dare.
Interest rates plummeted (that didn’t benefit anyone in the end did it?), inflation was rampant (and now that we are deflating a bit no one can afford the now cheaper items anymore) but cash was available. And it’s cash that you need to fund a war (or in this case, several). Well, you weren’t willing to pay for the Iraq war with Iraqi oil so now you’re paying for it with a Depression. How does it feel now to be so selfless to the Iraqis?