Dec 5

Written by: Russ Henke
12/5/2008 7:11 AM 

In previous blog entries in this space, we’ve talked multiple times about the building evidence of Bush 43’s second recession. For example, the 240,000 jobs lost in the US in October, the tenth consecutive month of job losses, brought the total job losses for 2008 to 1.2 million.

But the news released today is ridiculous and unforgivable! The Labor Department just announced that US employers slashed 533,000 jobs in November alone! This is the worst monthly number in 34 years!

The unemployment rate would be even higher if not for the exodus in November of 422,000 more frustrated people from the work force.

Job losses in November were widespread, hitting factories, construction companies, financial firms, retailers, leisure and hospitality, and others industries. The few places where gains were logged --- you guessed it -- the government and health services.

As if we needed confirmation, the “news” emerged on December 1, 2008 from the National Bureau of Economic Research, (despite repeated denials throughout 2008 from Bush 43) that the United States economy officially sank into a recession last December (2007), which means that the downturn is already longer than the average for all recessions since World War II, according to the committee of economists responsible for dating the nation's business cycles. Moreover, private forecasters warn that the current painful downturn is likely to set a new postwar record for length.

Meanwhile, the Bush administration's financial bailout packages and radical actions seem unable to break though a dangerous credit clog, restore stability to financial markets and help the sinking US economy. And the critical US auto industry is begging for its life, while tons of money are ineffectively lavished on Wall Street.