SHIT, YOU'RE STILL UNEMPLOYED

By JAMES TENAFLY

Last week, jobless claims in the US “unexpectedly rose,” which begs the question: what does expectation necessitate? In the last few months, every economic indicator has dipped, each time “unexpectedly.” At what point do you start expecting the shitty economy to keep being shitty?

Jobless applications bounced from 22,000 to 496,000, the highest in three months, last week. All this despite the fact that the economy grew 5.9% in the forth quarter. You needn’t be an economist to see an incongruity here. Sure, it takes a while for gross economic indicators like GDP to actually impact the average guy’s everyday life, but you probably wouldn’t expect jobless rates to reach an all time low after a successful quarter.

When no one trusts the market, neither consumers nor investors, the economy can’t recover. So much of the United States’ success’s been based on optimistic speculation. Bad news and negative Nellyism is anathema to the country’s recovery, but pessimism is self propagating. America’s having a nationwide major-depression and nothing’s cheering her up.

By JAMES TENAFLY 1 year ago

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