but,

i thought Al DID invent the internet?

jeez, haven't I been misled.

:)

Kitso
KS 361 more dollars i'd spend on your ring than docet, beth, cuz i'm employed!

Well yes jobs are increasing, but people are being paid less and have less benefits then they did before they were laid off to begin with. So more people are part of "middle class" poverty, barely being able to support their families. Most of this "boom" reflects the richest people getting much richer. In fact what is happening now is that there is a much wider gap between the very rich and the very poor, while the middle class is disapearing.


WOW, isn't that great boys and girls? Now we get to work for less and have no benefits, while the boss buys another Lexus.

Your "economic boom" can kiss my ass.

Eh, the economy isn't out of the clear yet.

This isn't an attack so don't take it as such.

Productivity isn't really at an all time high. There have been far too many mass layoffs lately to warrant such a rise. There simply isn't enough manpower to create such a rise in productivity.

But, the stock market isn't really "kicking butt" it has been doing better but it's not up to radical greatness as of yet. There have been a few days of significant stock price increases but it can change with the drop of a hat.

Wages are at recent highs but the unemployment rate is barely dropping (if at all) but instead large corporate layoffs are slowing down. It's at something like 6% right now and companies need to start hiring people - lots of people and quit laying people off in order for that to start declining.

Consumer spending along with consumer confidence is up which is good but that's only part of the "bigger scheme of things."


Hold on tight kiddos, we still have a ways to go. But I do like the way things are looking as of right now.

Like I said, the numbers lie.

Ah, yet I didn't claime false on any numbers.

It's not a liberal view, a conservative view or even an indie view but simply the current situation of the economy.

I would not say that we are booming. I simple referred to current stats. Productivity IS at an all time high in the U.S. according to government figures. Average income is at an all time high dollar wise, perhaps not buying power, but dollar wise. Unemployment is at it's lowest point sine Jan 2002. The stock market is consistently up week after week. The economy took a hit and is now on the rebound. I'm not going to shout about it, but the numbers are positive. The economy could change in a heartbeat. Some would love to see the bottom drop out of the current rebound for partisan reasons.

Where did you get these figures and stats?

I'd like to see more tax cuts for people in my pay range. What they need to do is stop taking away my damn money and giving it to poor old people. They can send those bastards out to Alaska like Eskimos do with their weak people and see how long they survive.

-Rudey
--A frigging hell of a lot of money taken from my paycheck today grrr.

You can get the numbers from the U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics. This has all been in the news. Perhaps it depends of what network you watch. The Wall Street Journal has been reporting this for weeks.

You can get the numbers from their site. Of course, what would the Department of Labor know about the subject?

Verbatim email from my Political Science professor:

Here's a more detailed answer to the question about what Al Gore did.

In the 1980s he was chairman of the Senate subcommittee on Science, Technology, and Space. In this role, he is widely acknowledged to be one of the few American politicians who took the time to understand technology. He had been an enthusiastic supporter of the National Science Foundation's supercomputer centers, and in 1986 sponsored legislation asking the government to study the possibility of networking these centers with fiber optics. The report that came back was massively thick and involved many agencies. It advocated building more better faster bigger computers to facilitate advanced research and a national research and education computer network. Gore was distracted by the elections of 1988, but eventually held hearings and sponsored legislation to do more or less that. It took until 1991 for the computer part of the legislation to pass and 1993 for the network part of the legislation to be signed into law.

In 1994 Gore gave a speech about the 'Information Super Highway Summit' in which he was one of the first American politicians to publicly express appreciation that something important was happening with the development of the internet. You can read his remarks at: http://artcontext.com/cal/97/superhig.txt.

The statement for which he has been ridiculed was made in a 1999 interview with Wolf Blitzer. He said:

During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet. I took the initiative in moving forward a whole range of initiatives that have proven to be important to our country's economic growth and environmental protection, improvements in our educational system.

You can read the transcript at: http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/stori...anscript.gore/

For what it is worth, Vint Cerf, who has been called 'the father of the Internet' for his role in creating the TCP/IP protocol said: "I think it is very fair to say that the Internet would not be where it is in the United States without the strong support given to it and related research areas by the vice president in his current role and in his earlier role as senator."

Enough.

Dr. McCormick

Actually, killa, unemployment stayed constant over the last month. As for average wages being at all-time highs, are those real or nominal wages? Bush also has nothing to do with interest rates, which are determined by the Federal Open Market Committee.

Here's some stats to ponder. They're real. I didn't make them up.

BY THE NUMBERS
Key economic indicators


Click an indicator name to learn more
Period Latest Prev.
• Consumer Confidence Oct.* 81.1 77.0
• Retail sales Sept* -0.2% 1.2%
• GDP Q2 3.3% 1.4%
• ISM Index Sept 53.7 54.7
• Factory Orders Aug* -0.8% 2.0%
• Unemployment Rate Sept 6.1% 6.1%
• Employment situation Sept* 57,000 -41,000
• Consumer inflation Sept 1.2% 1.3%
• Housing starts Sept* 1,888,000 1,826,000
• Home sales Sept* 7,835,000 7,607,000

I'm too lazy to format them, so go here to see them in a more readable format.

Actually, Killa, here are the unemployment numbers...


2003 Labor Force Employment Unemployment Unemp. Rate
January 17,578,500 16,415,400 1,163,100 6.6%
February 17,600,900 16,422,000 1,178,900 6.7%
March 17,627,900 16,448,600 1,179,400 6.7%
April 17,630,800 16,429,300 1,201,500 6.8%
May 17,578,300 16,394,700 1,183,600 6.7%
June 17,651,800 16,452,900 1,198,800 6.8%
July 17,661,100 16,471,800 1,189,500 6.7%
August 17,593,100 16,410,500 1,182,500 6.7%
September 17,568,600 16,449,700 1,118,800 6.4%
October
November
December


2002 Labor Force Employment Unemployment Unemp. Rate
January 17,313,700 16,198,600 1,115,200 6.4%
February 17,348,800 16,218,300 1,130,600 6.5%
March 17,357,400 16,211,200 1,146,200 6.6%
April 17,374,400 16,220,100 1,154,400 6.6%
May 17,363,000 16,222,700 1,140,300 6.6%
June 17,392,700 16,228,600 1,164,100 6.7%
July 17,415,700 16,243,000 1,172,700 6.7%
August 17,394,600 16,230,400 1,164,300 6.7%
September 17,422,300 16,246,800 1,175,500 6.7%
October 17,473,900 16,285,800 1,188,100 6.8%
November 17,503,000 16,305,900 1,197,100 6.8%
December 17,497,800 16,291,500 1,206,300 6.9%


Septmeber 2003 is at 6.4. Not great, but on the way down. October 2003 is not in yet.

According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis the Real GDP increased at an annual rate of 7.2 percent in Q3 2003, according to advance estimates. . Up, up, up... but the numbers lie.

Killa!

settle down there Hillary.

I was just joking, i've read before that Al never really said he created in the internet, (i think on snopes.com) i was just having fun.

but i am honored that you took the time to email your PoliSci prof to rebuke me.

Kitso
KS 361 times maybe i'll send a copy of decadence's posts to my history of western Rhetoric prof to see if he can decypher them

If he can do that, I will nominate him for Noble Prize for Literature

Unemployment has very little to do with GDP growth. GDP growth over time will trickle down and lead to more jobs. It will just take a little time for companies to gain confidance that consumer spending is still on the rise. Typically 60% of GDP is consumer spending. Once consumer confidance and investor confidance goes up, then they will add more jobs to further increase output.

GDP is obviously a great way to measure economic growth. But IMO the unemployment rate is the ultimate measure of the well-being of the economy. 7% growth in GDP is great but it only makes a difference in unemployment if it lasts for many many quarters. I doubt we will have 7% growth this quarter......