It’s getting bad out there. Businesses are very fearful - which means they’ll start cutting back in some irrational ways:
U.S. employers added a scant 18,000 jobs in December and the national unemployment rate kicked up to five percent, its highest in more than two years, according to a government report on Friday that underlined the economy’s rapidly slowing momentum.
The Labor Department said December’s pace of job creation was the weakest since August 2003 when 42,000 jobs were cut. It was far below the median estimate of analysts surveyed by Reuters who had forecast that 70,000 non-farm jobs would be added last month.
Five percent unemployment!
WAY TO GO, BUSHIE!
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/04/business/04cnd-econ.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
It’s 1992 all over again. Even though we had 4.9% growth in GDP last quarter, and have had like 50 straight months of good growth, it’s time to talk the economy down. Gotta elect a demo.