To Oerdin or whatever the fuck his name is.... Idiot. Look at the Graph. You see the line starts a little bit before the 1/08. In other words it starts in November. You can also see that unemployment was trending upwards already right as the recession started. When a recession starts unemployment is not going to jump sky high on day one.
Can you show me some historical evidence, statistical or anecdotal, that shows a strong correlation between rising minimum wages and rising CPI's/unemployment? A trend that can't be explained away by other economic or political factors?
All political, economic and sociological trends can be "explained away." That's why differences of opinion exist. Such subjects are not an exact science. You have basically made it obvious, in the way you phrase your request, that you don't want an answer.
in the UK we have NEETs (Not in Education, Employment or Training), who are essentially young adults, 21 and under, who cannot find work as they haven't much experience and no company is willing to invest in them due to costs, including minimum wage, and red tape. In short, they're not going to risk £200+ a week on an unknown. It's also part of the reason why the majority of UK jobs created from 1999 have gone to economic migrants. Ironically enough, it was the 'left' who used to be against the minimum wage in the UK.
I believe we've had several anecdotal accounts presented here already. Take a look at this link: http://www.house.gov/jec/cost-gov/regs/minimum/against/against.htm You may dismiss it as partisan, but take a close look at the graph of teenage unemployment using the Bureau of Labor Statistics data. It isn't rocket science: when anything gets more expensive--and that includes unskilled labor--there is a tendency for the market to demand less of it. Supporters of the minimum wage like to pretend that $1 or $2 is really not so much...but few people have trouble envisioning the distortions if the increases were $5 or $10...
For a second, I was wondering 'who the fuck created this thread with my account?!'. Oy... this day sucks.
WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! $6.3 billion to purchase and improve the property, including a $4.4 billion loan, and now it's worth all of $2.13 billion. Yeah, this is housing, but it's rental housing purchased as an investment, with the kind of financing typical to other commercial real estate. We're gonna need a bigger boat . . .
I read somewhere today that if unemployment was calculated the same way it was during the Great Depression, we'd be at 20% by now.
There have been big changes in methodology for calculating unemployment, but there have also been changes at least as big in the nature of the workforce, particularly women joining the workforce. Comparisons are really tricky to draw at best. That said, it's pretty clear that the reduction in employment is the worst since the Great Depression. At this point we're 20 months from our previous jobs peak and the number of employed people is down 5% and dropping. Only one other post depression job slump hasn't been in recovery by this point, and no post-depression job slump has been more than 3% off peak by this point. And of course the current slump is coming right on the heals of the lengthy-but-shallow turn of the millennium slump, the "recovery" from which never created nearly enough jobs to match increased population.
We are going to see a upswing in unemployment starting in 2010. Commerical real estate is about to crash. And the big time bomb no one is paying attention too..... The Bush taxes cuts will have expired. EVERYONE'S taxes are going to go up. Also if this Health Care Bill passes not only will it kill many small businesses (which employ up to 70% of all Americans) but taxes will have to be raised on everyone to pay for it. It is impossible to just raise taxes on those making $250,000 or more. Not going to happen. Also the Democrats and unions are still working on Card Check, that evil bill being demanded by union thugs if passed will crush even more businesses. And finally of course taxes are being raised on business big and small. Hooraayyyy for Hope and Change!!!!
Oh I almost forgot!!!!! CAP AND TRADE!!! Watch as your electrical bill sky rockets. Watch as Obama devastates the coal industry!! You know those people who provide most of the electricity in the country!! Watch as brownouts start occurring everywhere!!! HOPE AND CHANGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
and how. Yeah I am indeed shitting my pants over this. I've been looking for side jobs and there aint any. Hell I dove at an advertised position for $14.00 and hour only to find I was like #537 to apply for the spot. Not that the commercial real estate sector is tired to Obama, but fuck everything else is going to fuck us.
I'm hip. It's pretty bad now, what scares me is the hit hasn't really hit yet and things are like they are. I've been watching jobs close here looking for well over three months in earnest since natural gas has fallen so far and have found little short of going to a temp service and getting sexually assaulted there. There was a couple of ceiling mechanic jobs that showed up but were gone almost immediately.
I hope all of you like working for the government. Because pretty soon that is the only employment you'll be able to find.
What's hilarious is watching Obama, Democrats and the media run around talking about how things are getting better and the recession is over. All that's happening is that the economy is leveling off before taking that final plunge. Who are they going to blame then?
ahhh but that can only work so long..... People see that the Democrats have the White House and Congress locked up. They have seen the promises unfulfilled. At some point no one will accept the Bush did it excuse.
So, based on the current situation continued decline in future years is expected. That's a fine belief to have. But, of course, if you have it then the blame also should be assigned primarily to the architects of the current situation. If the natural course of the recession is to continue and all the "green shoots" are illusory then the policies that brought on the recession are to blame.
Well they're not going to blame Greenspan or the Fed. And they're sure as fuck not going to blame Obama's policies for increasing the duration of the recession, so it's going to be Bush.
