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COFES Blog
Jun
8
Written by:
Russ Henke
6/8/2008 10:16 AM
Friday June 06, 2008 marked the latest low point in the steadily sinking US economy of Bush 43’s second recession, with a one-day triple dose of bad news.
Ongoing unregulated speculation and still more Middle East tensions (e.g. an Israeli official threatened military action against Iran's nuclear installations) drove the price of a barrel of crude oil to a record level above $138, up 13% in just two days. On June 06 alone, crude-oil prices spiked $10.75, the largest one-day gain ever recorded.
Regular gas, now at a record $4.00 per gallon average across the country, will surely and quickly follow the oil spike (CA regular is already at $4.40 per gallon). Ordinary US citizens are not the only ones being squeezed. Truckers and airlines are also suffering. Indeed, any businesses that use raw materials made from oil, like tires, toiletries, paper towels, bath tissues, plastic packaging, paint, mobile phones, light bulbs, cushions, mattresses, car seats, carpets, steering wheels, polyesters, computer screens, etc., are all watching their costs skyrocket, and they have or will find themselves forced into price increases.
And the June 06 US Labor Department report added to the gloom. The US jobless rate leaped to 5.5% in May from 5%, the largest one-month jump in 22 years. Payrolls outside the farm sector shrank by 49,000 in May, the fifth consecutive month of job losses. US Manufacturing continued its long string of losses, shedding another 26,000 jobs in May alone. The US economy has lost 324,000 jobs in just 5 months, according to the government's survey. Also, originally-reported job losses in March & April were revised still lower by another 15,000 people.
As Peter Goodman said in the New York Times, “For tens of millions of Americans struggling to pay bills, the jobs report added an official stamp of authority to a dispiriting reality they already know: A deteriorating labor market is eliminating paychecks just as they are needed to compensate for the soaring cost of food and fuel, and as the fall in house prices hacks away at household wealth and access to credit.”
Completing the triad of bad news, the sense of a downward spiral seized Wall Street on June 06. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 394.64 to 12,209.81, the index's biggest one-day point loss in 15 months.
Meanwhile, of course, Bush 43 remains in denial. "We’re beginning to see the signs that the stimulus may be working," he said in the face of the June 06 economic news.
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2 comment(s) so far...
Re: EEK !! – US Economic News keeps getting worse…
Our "new" premier Silvio Berlusconi, meeting Bush in Rome, said something as:"Bush is a great man, he is my friend, and I know him as one of the most sincere men I'd ever met!"
We've always considered Mr Berlusconi as a great manager, but also as one of the best liers in the world
By alagattolla on
6/15/2008 8:20 AM
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Re: EEK !! – US Economic News keeps getting worse…
Thanks for the comment. Maureen Dowd wrote the following in today's New York Times (June 15, 2008):
"In Old Europe, they’ve moved on, assuming that the American president has done all the damage that he can do. The blazing hostility toward W. has faded to indifference and a sort of fatigued perplexity about how les imbeciles de regime cowboy got into office, and how America could have put the world through all this craziness."
By Russ Henke on
6/15/2008 8:30 AM
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