The Grim Reality That The Democrats Cannot Explain Away: Labor Force Participation Rate Since January 2009

Bureau of Labor Statistics

Data extracted on: September 3, 2012 (7:39:11 PM)

Labor Force Statistics from the Current Population Survey

(Click to enlarge...)

 The link is here.

You can plug in dates for yourself, and see the results. It's interactive, it's fascinating, it tells the story of a massive failure, a slow-motion train wreck.

As you do, remember that Himself campaigned on the promise that he would reverse this trend, that He would bring the economy back.

He didn't. A few firms, such as GM and Chrysler (with heavy union presence) were salvaged. The destruction of wealth that occurred during that process is never mentioned. 

Hundreds of billions of dollars borrowed and spent, and this is the result.

This is a picture of failure.

One Way Or Another, The Free Money Is Going Away

Even the Yew Nork Times, who never saw a wealth 'redistribution' it didn't approve of, is admitting it:

Close to $2 of every $10 that went into Americans’ wallets last year were payments like jobless benefits, food stamps, Social Security and disability, according to an analysis by Moody’s Analytics. In states hit hard by the downturn, like Arizona, Florida, Michigan and Ohio, residents derived even more of their income from the government.

By the end of this year, however, many of those dollars are going to disappear, with the expiration of extended benefits intended to help people cope with the lingering effects of the recession. Moody’s Analytics estimates $37 billion will be drained from the nation’s pocketbooks this year.

Allllll that economic growth we were promised by The Stimulus, The Bailouts, The Deficits, and both Summers Of Recovery....well, somehow it didn't arrive on time.

Some other states will also feel a disproportionate loss of income unless hiring revives. In Florida, where nearly 476,000 people are collecting unemployment benefits, employers have added only 11,200 jobs in the last year. In Michigan, employers have added about 40,000 jobs since May 2010, but about 267,000 people are claiming jobless benefits.

Greg Mankiw Calls It a 'Disappointing Recovery'

Really, that's what he said. He has the economics degrees and teaches at Harvard, so he knows some things, and this is not an effort to ridicule the gentleman.

But, then again, OS looks at the chart Dr. Mankiw published, shared below, and asks:

What recovery? What would a non-recovery look like on the chart? This looks like the behavior of a semi-deflated basketball, dropped on the gym floor from the balcony.

At what point do even the folks who live in the Harvard bubble look at reality and decide they've had enough of Obama, Pelosi and Reid? What level of suffering, in what proximity to Cambridge, Massachusetts will be required? What will the tipping point be?
(And, for all you tin-foil-hat types out there, just to be certain, this is not OS's oblique call for some nutter to do violent things to Harvard. No, no, no, no, no.)

USD 111 Million Spent, 55 Jobs 'Saved Or Created' In Los Angeles

HT Fox News:

This, in a word, is unsustainable.

More than a year after Congress approved $800 billion in stimulus funds, the Los Angeles city controller has released a 40-page report on how the city spent its share, and the results are not living up to expectations.

"I'm disappointed that we've only created or retained 55 jobs after receiving $111 million," said Wendy Greuel, the city's controller. "With our local unemployment rate over 12 percent we need to do a better job cutting red tape and putting Angelenos back to work."

According to the audit, the Los Angeles Department of Public Works spent $70 million in stimulus funds -- in return, it created seven private sector jobs and saved seven workers from layoffs. Taxpayer cost per job: $1.5 million.