Latest unemployment figures

[Sbane]

I can't believe some people are actually blaming Obama for this mess. Just look at the December and January job figures you numbnuts. Obama can't be expected to change everything in a month. He hasn't even had a chance to get anything passed and implemented. That will take months if not up to a year. If the economy is still sh**tty in 2011 then its a different story. If unemployement isn't below 8% by 2012 I think Obama has a hard time getting re-elected.

[Sbane]

I can't believe some people are actually blaming Obama for this mess. Just look at the December and January job figures you numbnuts. Obama can't be expected to change everything in a month. He hasn't even had a chance to get anything passed and implemented. That will take months if not up to a year. If the economy is still sh**tty in 2011 then its a different story. If unemployement isn't below 8% by 2012 I think Obama has a hard time getting re-elected.

One thing to keep in mind, is unemployment was barely down heading into the 84 election compared to where it was when Reagan took office (couple tenths).  Not comparing 2012 to 1984, but interesting to note nonetheless.

Yeah it depends but people certainly felt like it was "morning in America" back in 84. Obama has the skill to instill hope in people in trying times, but even he will have to show some results and the economy at least has to be on the upswing for him to win.

[Sbane]

I can't believe some people are actually blaming Obama for this mess. Just look at the December and January job figures you numbnuts. Obama can't be expected to change everything in a month.

Well, the mere fact that the economy has deteriorated under Obama certainly doesn't demonstrate that he's responsible for the deterioration. Rather, it's his illiberal and increasingly reckless policies that make him share in the blame.

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I expect him to be re-elected. Despite Obama's counterproductive measures (and destructive rhetoric), the economy will almost certainly recover by November of 2012. Obama will then be able to claim credit for the recovery that his policies hindered.

(Of course, the data that will be used to track economic performance—the unemployment rate, and particularly real GDP—are woefully inadequate. Even entirely wasteful government spending counts, for purposes of GDP, not as a transfer payment, but as "production." The predictable result is that as the government grows in size, the accuracy of real GDP and real GDP per capita, even as a crude approximation of living standards, becomes increasingly remote.)

You may think his policies are illiberal and reckless but I am saying that his policies haven't even had time to take effect, either in a good way or bad. I wish he would keep some of this high cost items like healthcare reform for later and just focus on the economy for now, but thats too much to ask. Hopefully the more fiscally responsible democrats will cut all of that out and we will only have items that create jobs. Also I hope they pass the housing bailout although I don't know the specifics of the plan. It just makes much more sense to help the people at the heart of the problem rather than just throwing money at the banks.

[Sbane]

Their mere enactment, the rhetoric with which he sells them, and the very real uncertainty about what move the government will make next, is more than enough to effect drastic damage. Who wants to invest, in a political environment like this?

This has everything to do with the economic environment and not much with the political. I don't get why spending hundreds of billions in Iraq is chill with these all knowing investors but spending on projects inside the nation is bad. These investors are irrational asshats who don't know what the f is going on with the economy. They fear Obama's plan because it isn't the same conservative BS we have been dealing with for the last 30 years. I also don't care where the DOW goes. I think consumer spending and unemployment are much more important. Obama has to find a way of stopping the rise in unemployment and the slide in consumer spending. On seeing these indices the market will again irrationally rebound. Our whole system is based on the presumption that people will act rationally, but that isn't the case now is it.