Unemployment rising?

Unemployment is going down – kind of.  “I want to do something I haven’t had a chance to do that often during my first year in office, and that is to share some modestly encouraging news on our economy.”  Obama announced at Lehigh Carbon Community College in Pennsylvania that the unemployment rate dropped from 10.2% to 10% in November.  Yup that is still horrible, but it is really the only good thing Obama has had to say about the economy in a very long time.  The latest job report is the best one since December 2007 and so obviously something must be happening.

I have to wonder though what would have happened if we did not bail out all of the large companies.  My economics professor ranted about how economies go in cycles of low and high and that we were messing with the cycle.  “These things tend to work themselves out,” she said.  But would any of us be willing to let our economy completely fail, creating a worse situation than now, just so that the “natural order” of things could be restored?  I probably wouldn’t.  I’m going to be a history teacher and it was going to be hard enough to find a job before the recession, but know it is almost going to be impossible.  I’m probably going to have to move to Alaska before I even get an offer.

The economy affects everyone and everything and it is going to be the thing that makes or breaks Obama (other than the health care bill).  At this point, people care about bringing troops home and ending the war, but they are mainly just wondering if they will be able to bring in a pay check and put food on the table.

This decrease in unemployment could definitely be attributed to the influx of hiring for the holiday season, but I hope that it is more than that.  Even if it is, at least it is something good to talk about for a couple of months.  At this point, Obama will take anything he can get.

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