The Week Just Past: Few Jobs in a “Tepid” Economy

Weakest Recovery Since WWII

“The Economy Stole my Retirement”

“The ‘Who Cares’ War”

 

The Week Just Past: Few Jobs in a “Tepid” Economy

“As families across New Jersey prepared to mark the end of the summer of 2012 this Labor Day weekend, they received another bit of bad economic news.

“This week the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) released its updated estimates for the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) which showed that the U.S. economy grew by an anemic 1.7 percent in the second quarter of this year. 

“This news is hardly surprising, because in the first quarter of the year growth was only 1.5 percent, but it is still very disappointing.

“Why? Because, as the Washington Post reported on Tuesday, ‘Growth at or below 2 percent is not enough to lower the unemployment rate, which was 8.3 percent in July. Most expect the unemployment rate to stay above 8 percent for the rest of this year.’

“And then, as if to add salt to the wound, this news of feeble economic growth comes just a week after the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released its own report saying that pending year-end tax increases and arbitrary spending cuts would send the U.S. economy into another economic recession and drive the unemployment rate above 9 percent by the end of 2013.

“That’s unacceptable. And unnecessary. And it mirrors fiscal problems facing Greece, Spain and Italy.

“I have outlined an ‘Action Plan for Jobs and the Economy’ that provides a great foundation for this debate. (You can read it here) We should have this debate now and not wait until 2013!

“I have spent most of the month of August listening to residents and small businessmen and women in Morris, Sussex, Essex and Passaic counties.  They agree by an overwhelming margin: let’s get on with it!”

Rodney Frelinghuysen

Recommended Reading:The Washington Post published an Associated Press story about the nation’s “tepid” economic growth.  Read “US economy grew at 1.7 percent rate in April-June quarter, slightly faster than first estimate” here.

Weakest Recovery Since WWII

The Associated Press also reported this week that this economic recovery is the weakest since World War II.Paul Wiseman of the AP wrote: “The recession that ended three years ago this summer has been followed by the feeblest economic recovery since the Great Depression. Since World War II, 10 U.S. recessions have been followed by a recovery that lasted at least three years.

“An Associated Press analysis shows that by just about any measure, the one that began in June 2009 is the weakest. The ugliness goes well beyond unemployment, which at 8.3 percent is the highest this long after a recession ended. Economic growth has never been weaker in a postwar recovery. Consumer spending has never been so slack.”

Read the full story here.

Recommended Reading: Sarah Needleman and Emily Maltby, writing in the Wednesday Wall Street Journal, “The Economy Stole My Retirement.”

Recommended Reading:  Max Boot, writing in the Wednesday Wall Street Journal,“Afghanistan—the 'Who Cares?' War. Public apathy isn't necessarily fatal for the war effort. It could even provide the opportunity to finally get it 'right.'”  Read it here.