This is it. This is what Bush left Obama and us,,,,,

4 states see double-digit jobless rates in Jan.


WASHINGTON – Four states — California, South Carolina, Michigan and Rhode Island — registered unemployment rates above 10 percent in January, and the national rate is expected to hit double digits by year-end.

The U.S. Labor Department's report on state unemployment, released Wednesday, showed the increasing damage inflicted on workers and companies from a recession, now in its second year. Some economists now predict the U.S. unemployment rate will hit 10 percent by year-end, and peak at 11 percent or higher by the middle of 2010.

In December, only Michigan had a double-digit jobless rate. One month later, four states did and that doesn't count Puerto Rico, which saw its unemployment rate actually dip to 13 percent in January, from 13.5 percent in December.

California's unemployment rate jumped to 10.1 percent in January, from 8.7 percent in December, as jobs have disappeared in the construction, finance and retail industries.

Michigan's jobless rate jumped to 11.6 percent in January, the highest in the country. The second-highest jobless rate was South Carolina at 10.4 percent. Rhode Island was next at 10.3 percent, which marked an all-time high for the state in federal records dating to 1976. California rounded out the top four.

Forty-nine states and the District of Columbia registered unemployment rate increases. Louisiana was the only state to record a monthly drop. Its unemployment rate fell to 5.1 percent in January from 5.5 percent in December.

The U.S. unemployment rate, released last week, rose to 8.1 percent in February, the highest in more than 25 years.

Employers are laying off workers, holding hours down and freezing or cutting pay as the recession eats into sales and profits.

Disappearing jobs and evaporating wealth from tanking home values, 401(k)s and other investments have forced consumers to retrench, driving companies to shrink their work forces. It's a vicious cycle in which all the economy's problems feed on each other, worsening the downward spiral.

And more layoffs are on the way. National Semiconductor Corp. said Wednesday it will lay off 1,725 employees, more than one-quarter of its work force, after third-quarter profits fell 71 percent.

Industrial conglomerate United Technologies Corp., which makes Otis elevators and Sikorsky helicopters, said Tuesday it will lay off 11,600 workers, or 5 percent of its work force. Dow Chemical Co. on Monday said it would cut 3,500 jobs at chemical company Rohm & Haas Co. as part of its $15 billion buyout of the company.

President Barack Obama has urged Americans to be patient, saying it will take time for his economic revival and job-creation programs to bear fruit.

Obama is counting on a multipronged assault to lift the country out of recession: a $787 billion stimulus package of increased federal spending and tax cuts, a revamped bailout program for troubled banks and a $75 billion effort to stem home foreclosures.

Nationwide, the recession has claimed a net total of 4.4 million jobs since December 2007, and has left 12.5 million people searching for work — more than the population of Pennsylvania.

The state unemployment report also showed that North Carolina and Oregon — along with South Carolina — notched the biggest monthly gains of 1.6 percentage-points each.

North Carolina's rate soared to 9.7 percent in January, from 8.1 percent in December, while Oregon jumped to 9.9 percent, from 8.3 percent.

Meanwhile, Georgia's jobless rate climbed to 8.6 percent in January, an all-time high on federal records.

On a brighter note, Wyoming continued to register the lowest unemployment rate — 3.7 percent.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090311/ap_on_bi_go_ec_fi/state_unemployment_7


Thank you George Bush.
You nearly destroyed America!

damn fanta

well, the news tried to show people that every single business that bush tried to run, he ran straight into the ground. maybe those were just practice shots?

fanta....just wait until i'm sober...then watch out lol

4 states out of um.. uh.. ah.. wheres my teleprompter.. 57?..

how many job losses since the ascension of the messiah?

OMG............I DIDN'T VOTE FOR THE MAN AND I'M CHRISTIAN AND HE IS NOT THE ANTI CHRIST

He isn't the anti christ. He is just anti capitalism.

An da new boi gonna' finish da job.

Bush f*** up e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g... every f***ing thing. And I hate the way they try to blame Obama for it, and he just got into office.

Tell me about it. He's only been on the job for about 5 weeks.

I know, it is alot of sour grapes.

Where did all the Bushies go?

I noticed.

I guess its hard to spread the Rhetoric when the truth stares back at them!

Go Figure!

Try opening your eyes and understand the failure of Obama's first 100 days in office.

Now you own it , Mr. President

By David Harsanyi
Posted: 03/11/2009 12:30:00 AM MDT

There are few things more satisfying than unloading your righteous rage on one of those insatiably greedy Wall Street bankers.

We have Gordon Gekko to blame. Barack Obama has George W. Bush. So while the president is busy radically centralizing the nation's economy, he, in a superbly eloquent and inspirational pitch, always reminds us that nothing is his fault.

If Washington had a buck to spare, it still wouldn't stop at the top. But for the sake of argument, let's concede that presidents trigger recessions. Then we must also concede that nearly every initiative enacted in the first 50 days of the Obama administration has exacerbated what Bush started.

Isn't it too early to judge? It would be if Obama hadn't accelerated the timeline with his "ambitious" agenda items, including the partisan, trillion-dollar project masquerading as a stimulus bill or the deficit-busting budget. It would be if Obama had not worked early to support agenda- driven omnibus pork bills, job- killing cap-and-trade schemes or union assaults on workers' rights, to name just a few of his priorities.

Obama can do anything, apparently, except properly staff the Treasury Department. Aren't those guys supposed to be "fixing" the economy or something?

Then again, it should also be noted that if Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner — whose gibberish-infused explanation of the administration's bank-bailout non-plan knocked the Dow Jones down 4 percent in one day — is indicative of "staff," maybe Obama is doing us all a favor.

The Dow Jones industrial average actually has reacted to Obama by plunging nearly 20 percent since he became president. That's an obliteration of wealth that no stimulus bill will recoup. Since Election Day, the market has lost nearly 30 percent of its value — trillions of dollars, not from CEO bonuses, as you may have hoped, but from your 401(k) and the private sector.

"The stock market is sort of like a tracking poll in politics. It bobs up and down day to day, and if you spend all your time worrying about that, then you're probably going to get the long-term strategy wrong," Obama recently explained.

You know, Mr. President, not everything is like politics. The market is a forward-looking entity, indeed, but it is driven by the decentralized actions of millions of investors every second. It's the opposite of politics. And this set-up surely offends the sensibilities of the statist planners occupying Washington. Unlike politicians, markets don't lie. And this market has been in freefall for a year.

So, what to do? Obama, who promised not to raise taxes during a recession, now plans to raise nearly $1 trillion in new taxes directly from the investor class. He plans to raise capital gains (a disincentive to investment), corporate taxes (for you, the consumer, to ultimately pay) and on the "rich" (which the non-partisan Tax Foundation estimates will affect 1.3 million small-business owners).

This recession already has passed the 15-month threshold, the historical average for downturns. Most presidents helped ease us out of these tough spots by easing the burden on Americans. Obama has engaged in the opposite. That's his gamble.

And most polls show the president's approval rating around 60 percent — similar to other modern presidents at this point. But now that Obama has used his political capital to further ideology rather than economic growth, one thing is clear: He owns this mess.

=======================

Wall Street is a good barometer of not only job growth but also job loss and of the change in policies of a new administration. Since Jan 20 Wall Street has fallen more to date than any other administration and so has job loss. Obama still doesn't get the connection between job loss and financial stability or Wall Street. If he did the Treasury Department would not be in such a shambles. There still is only a ghostly staff at the Treasury department and no deputy treasury secretary yet. Same old problem for OBAMA - chosen nominees withdrawing. Even Obama's comments about Wall Street show his lack of understanding of the American economy.

Now throw in Obama's proposal for a carbon tax and check the withdrawal of capital from utilities. Investors no longer think utilities will be profitable under an Obama administration. Remember, the ability to raise capital creates jobs. Look what has happened to the stock price of Duke Energy, First Energy, or Consolidated Edison. Then, listen to Obama's proposals on health care and check how much capital investors have taken out of Pfizer, Bristol Meyers, or Merck. Yes, change is desperately needed in many areas but you can't run investors away. Right now, the financial system repair should be priority one, two, three, .......For only then will people get back to work.

i think that the people who keep saying to give him a chance are the ones that haven't kept up with what he is doing. this isn't a hollow argument. this isn't about "let's see what he's gonna do" he's already doing stupid things. if he continues in the direction that he's going, he will really mess us up. i hear you say that you don't like the things that bush did, well obama is doing the same things bush did. if bush did the wrong things, how can you expect them to be right when obama does them?