Unemployment, Retirement, Separation: Friday News in Brief
Three big headlines today, and I want to touch on all of them. However, I find myself without Internet at home until at least the middle of next week, which is making multiple posts quite the challenge... so I'm just going to put up three little briefs, tucked all together, waiting for any discussion, and then celebrate by going to an afternoon movie. I'll check in again this afternoon, with thanks to the people at AT&T for making their Starbucks wireless free. (If only the coffee was...)
First: Unemployment's Still Bad, But Getting Better. 
The New York Times:
The American economy shed 247,000 jobs last month, the smallest monthly toll since last August, the government reported on Friday. While businesses are expected to keep cutting positions through the rest of the year, the Labor Department’s latest figures offered hopeful signs for the American worker and a measure of relief to the Obama administration, which has faced rising criticism as unemployment blew past its earlier projections.
“The trend lines are positive,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Economy.com. “We are going from massive job losses to just big job losses on our way to a stable job market, I think by next spring.”The emphasis is mine, because that's what I call "cold comfort." Still, the improvement from nuclear holocaust to "we're just going to bomb the shit out of your city using conventional weapons" is still something, I guess. The number I watch most closely (perhaps because I'm now included in it), U-6, which figures in all unemployed workers plus everyone working less than they'd like, dropped from 16.5 percent to 16.3 -- down only .2 from last month, and still up nearly a full point since April. Which says to me, non-economist that I am, that perhaps U-3, the well-reported unemployment number of 9.8, isn't as rosy and reduced as we think. More people who want and need full-time positions are taking part-time jobs (Calculated Risk, from where the graph comes, notes that it's not quite a record number of people working part time, but boy does it look scary). Not so encouraging.
Second: Senator Mel Martinez to Resign Senate Seat Early.
Speaking of unemployment, Florida Senator Mel Martinez is going to retire a little early [LAT]. Like -- now. What is this, the Sarah Palin inspired lame-duck quitter marathon? Martinez, on the heels of being one of nine Republicans who voted to confirm Sonia Sotomayor, announced that in addition to retiring early, he's going to leave office early, putting Florida Governor Charlie Crist in the delicate position of having to appoint someone to replace him even though Crist is already campaigning for Martinez's seat for himself. Martinez will step down as soon as a successor is in place, according to a letter sent to friends [Miami Herald].
In that same letter, Martinez closed by thanking Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell "for his guidance and insight." Uh. Really? At least now we know who encouraged him to quit while the quitting's good -- but what benefit is there for the Senate Republicans in having someone new on the block? I'm very curious about this whole decision, and look forward to reading about Martinez's press conference, scheduled for 3 p.m. Eastern today.
Third: South Carolina Governor Stanford, Wife Splitting Up?
OK, this is mostly just gossipy interest, I guess -- but apparently Jenny Sanford and sons will be moving out of the governor's mansion [WaPo] and back to the Sanford house two hours away in Charleston. Though Mrs. Sanford didn't confirm an official separation, it's my experience that you don't pull your kids out of school unless you're pretty serious about wanting to start over far, far away from your hiking-to-my-soul-mate husband. What remains to be seen in this story is whether Mr. Sanford follows his heart to Argentina (and if he does, man oh man do I hope they make a musical of it) or whether he stays here, suffers through, and tries to re-emerge in political life at some point in the future. If Dick Morris is still allowed on TV, I can't imagine there's not a place for a former Southern governor to pull up a chair at the punditry table, or possibly at the Senatorial table, in the future. I have my fingers crossed for another press conference. Please, Mark Sanford? Do it for your country.
That's it; that's my Friday wrap. What's everybody else reading about today? H. Clinton in South Africa? Maloney won't challenge Gillibrand? So You Think You Can Dance: Animal Edition?
TIP:
Enter the amount, and click "Tip" to submit!
Redstocking Grandma
cmnaylor
Kathy Riordan
aging hippie chick
Poet of Logan Square
Just Cathy
Salon.com
Comments
I think he mischose his natural vocation.
I have been struck on how the GOP seems to have adopted a strategy of mob incitement. Well, not the "official" GOP, but its unofficial leadership -- Limbaugh, Hannity, Beck, et.al., and their corporate enablers. I guess they think mob action helped take care of the Florida recount in 2000, and added some enthusiasm to the McCain-Palin ticket, so why not use it again? It's a dangerous game they are playing, and one that could easily backfire.
Tai, I'm going to search right now for a transcript! Happy to do some mama news bird work for you, too. ;)
Existence, that is a video I really hope never to see!
Roger, I know, isn't it just shocking?
You've named one of my big fears of late, too, Procopius. This mob action bit with the town halls certainly bears watching.
If I could say one thing to everyone who's feeling traumatized by the job situatino, it would be that I know it's hard to go from working full time to not working, or working part time - I know this from very painful personal experience. However, once you trim away all the extraneous things you once thought you couldn't live without, and once you get past the point of being "taken down to zero", as my friends and I used to put it, it becomes easier.
After I learned what it was like to be truly poor, when things started to ease up and turn around, as they have lately for me, I discovered that I've developed a capacity for such gratitude... small things mean a lot. Little advantages, unexpected gifts, a little boost up out of misery - as it becomes a bit easier, then a bit easier again, and the vise grip of deprivation is no longer holding me so frozen in despair - it's like spring coming after a hard winter.
I have high hopes that everyone will muddle through somehow - I talk a lot in my blog about keeping a positive attitude, and things are really going well for me now, finally. Once we've made it through the worst of times, I hope we all are able to realize that it's okay to "get different", as my teacher puts it. Life will never be the same as it was even five years ago, and the good news is that we can all adapt and thrive and survive, if we stay calm and understand that everything will be all right, and everyone will be okay eventually.
Many of the people who lost their jobs in the last year are toast. They need to create their own businesses or find totally new careers.
This is worse than the Great Depression. At least then, people had an expectation things would go back to some semblance of the way they were. Now, in the Great Transition, we need to redefine our economy.
On the other hand, I am more than ready to write at least one song about Sanford, as well as songs regaling the positive aspects of walking away from one's elected position mid-term...