Main Street

Bad News Upon Bad News

I’m sure it’s partly my mood, but wow is the news depressing this week. I’m just going to do some quick links until I can wrap my mind around all this, accept that it’s actually where we are right now, and come up with something to say.

• State and local budget cuts don’t “trim fat,” they slash needed services and increase the unemployment rate:

  In 2010, the Obama administration has estimated, school districts across the country might lay off as many as 300,000 employees, many of them teachers. That would be five times the number of layoffs in 2009, and ten times the number of layoffs in 2008.

  -snip-

  The teachers and other public-sector employees might be just the start. The CBPP has estimated that if states cut their spending from 2009 to 2010 the same level they did from 2008 to 2009, it might cost as many as 900,000 public- and private-sector jobs — swelling the ranks of the unemployed by five percent or more.

• And state and local budget cuts aren’t the only drag on the economy.
• This one deserves a deeper look, and we’ll get there, but right now the headline will suffice: Initial Jobless Claims Increase; Economists Fear for Tomorrow’s Jobs Report.
• Did you know the national debt would stabilize if Congress did nothing? Because nothing includes things like the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy expiring—and who thinks Congress will let that happen?
• And, of course, jobless workers around the country are still waiting for that unemployment extension we keep talking about. And they’re going to keep waiting. Thank you, Senate!

Tags: economy, state budgets, unemployment