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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWhen the U.S. economy is the envy of the world
Posted with permission.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/when-the-us-economy-the-envy-the-world
When the U.S. economy is the envy of the world
12/08/14 04:58 PM
By Steve Benen
Last week, before the new job numbers came out, Catherine Rampell made a very good point: Unhappy with the economic recovery in the United States? Could be worse. Specifically, we could be literally any other country in the world that also just went through a major financial crisis.
Right. In the public discourse, theres often a temptation to compare the current economic recovery to other recoveries that followed modern downturns. Theres one glaring problem with this: the global crash in 2008 was the worst crisis the world has seen since the Great Depression. Comparing it to more routine, cyclical downturns is like comparing a twisted ankle to getting hit by a bus they both hurt, but the scope and scale of the damage is qualitatively different.
Its smarter, then, to compare our economic recovery against other countries who dealt with similar circumstances. And on this front, as President Obama was eager to remind Americans in his weekly address, were the envy of the world:
That last point is no small detail. In the aftermath of the crash, advanced economies around the globe rushed to respond, with many adopting competing solutions. Many chose the kind of austerity measures Republicans hoped to impose on Americans.
Fortunately for those who want to see the U.S. succeed, Republicans werent in a position of power in 2009.
As a result, as Rachel noted on the show on Friday, American growth is outperforming other economies. Indeed, one of the more striking aspects of the recent upswing in the domestic economy is that the U.S. remains a standout as the rest of the world struggles.
After highlighting the latest jobs numbers late last week, I was surprised by the pushback from conservative readers eager to tell me there were hints of bad news, hiding amidst the good news, if one looks closely enough. It was, to be sure, odd to see quite so many people who seemed almost desperate to feel discouraged by the best American job market in 15 years. But more than that, their arguments were strikingly unpersuasive.
The results dont count, they said, because most of the jobs are part-time jobs. The problem with this argument is that its plainly wrong: {F}ewer people are getting stuck in part-time jobs. The number of people working part time because they cant find full-time work is at its lowest level since the recession (although it remains high by historical standards).
OK, they said, but maybe the results dont count because wages arent climbing. Wrong again: {C}rucially, employers are paying workers more: Average weekly earnings rose 2.4 percent from a year earlier, their fastest pace in a year.
For now, lets put aside the fact that its unseemly for Americans to be saddened by good news. Instead, I hope the political world will pause to realize that while our economic recovery hasnt been fast enough, and it would have been stronger had it not been for congressional Republicans taking capital out of the economy on purpose, were still leading the world, creating job growth unseen in the United States since the 1990s, and unseen among advanced economies internationally.
econoclast
(543 posts)"We are doing better than Greece and Portugal!"
Not much of a rallying cry.
And that glowing jobs report ...
Truth is We actually LOST 150,000 Full Time jobs last month.
Full-Time employment DECLINED by 150,000 in the most recent employment report.
Employed, Usually Work Full Time:
Oct - 119,632,000
Nov - 119,482,000
A decline of 150,000
Numbers come from the Household survey...the same data set that the Unemployment Rate comes from.
They are easily accessible via the St Loius Fed's website. Data is Series LNS12500000.
http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/LNS12500000
In fact, looking at this data series for Full Time employees we see that the high water mark for Full Time Employment was way back in November 2007 when Full Time Employment hit 121,876,000
We are STILL 2.3 MILLION Full Time Jobs short of that all time high set seven years ago. And we just lost 150,000 full time jobs last month.
So yeah, we are doing better than Greece and Portugal, but there is still lots of work to do.