Morning Bell: Obama’s Jobless America

Mike Brownfield / June 07, 2011

The economic news keeps getting worse for America. Last month, the unemployment rate went up to 9.1 percent, the economy added only 54,000 jobs, and the average length of unemployment rose to more than nine months, the longest since the Labor Department started keeping track in 1948. But despite all the writing on the wall, President Barack Obama wants you and the 13.9 million unemployed Americans to hang on for the ride.

In his weekly address on Friday, President Obama played down May’s terrible unemployment numbers as mere “bumps on the road to recovery” and blamed America’s latest economic woes on high gas prices (which he can do something about, but hasn’t), the earthquake in Japan, and “unease about the European fiscal situation.” Meanwhile, his chief economic adviser, Austan Goolsbee, parroted his boss’s “bumps on the road” line and, on Sunday, told America not to worry about the jobs report, remarking, “Don’t bank too much of any one month’s jobs report. You want to look at a little bit of a trend to get a more accurate barometer.” Goolsbee announced his resignation yesterday.

No matter the barometer you look at, things aren’t looking good for the economy. On top of May’s jobs numbers, America’s economic growth is likewise depressing. The Wall Street Journal compares today’s measly 2 percent economic growth with that of the Reagan recovery following the 1981-82 recession, which saw a 7 percent growth rate and a plunging unemployment rate.

And it looks like even if Americans are hearing President Obama’s message, they’re not buying it. (more…)