Economy's modest gains met with irreverence

Washington Times ^ | 9/6/10 | Patrice Hill

[Nachum]

Call it the "Rodney Dangerfield Recovery." It gets no respect from any quarter. Republicans pound away at its weakness, Democrats lament it, the media chronicles its troubles, investors fret about it, and many average citizens question whether it even exists. Polls show many people believe the economy is still in recession or getting worse. (Snip) "The labor market does continue to improve, despite a national pessimism," said Ward McCarthy, an economist at Jefferies & Co. The problem is growth in jobs and the economy overall is so sluggish it is "trying the patience of policymakers and the millions of unemployed

[dfwgator]

What recovery?

[pnh102]

Call it the "Rodney Dangerfield Recovery." It gets no respect from any quarter.

This is an insult to Rodney Dangerfield. First, he's funny. Second, there is no recovery. And third, perhaps we should see what one his characters says about how to run a business.

[The Magical Mischief Tour]

and many average citizens question whether it even exists.

I wonder why....

[The Magical Mischief Tour]

The problem is growth in jobs and the economy overall is so sluggish it is "trying the patience of policymakers and the millions of unemployed people who are seeking unemployment."

So the question is, if job growth is so sluggish that no one is finding jobs, is it really job growth at all?

If the overall number of job losses combined with the number of jobs the economy must create just to keep up with population growth so go great is eclipses the number of jobs created, how is that growth at all?

[Skepolitic]

More importantly, the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) has not called the end of the recession that began in December 2007.

The NBER is the arbiter of the beginning and ending of American recessions regardless of what the pundits think.

Check it out at http://www.nber.org/

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

"Rodney Dangerfield Recovery."

Rodney Dangerfield is dead. Not the best analogy.

Or maybe it is.

[SampleMan]

Digging slower isn’t going to get you back to the surface, let alone up the hill.

All of these “happy, happy, joy, joy” ideas about improving job numbers completely glosss over the fact that this is not a static world.

If it takes 250,000 new jobs a months just to maintain the status quo, then 50,000 new jobs a month is still a net loss of 200,000. This gets very little reporting.

[Paradox]

I recall that during the GWB administration, the media was so effective at talking the economy down, that polls showed that a large minority, if not majority of Americans, thought the US was in a recession, back when it clearly wasn’t.