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In this week's edition Dean Baker tells us about McCain's economic illiteracy:
What was Senator McCain thinking when he recently boasted about the "economic progress" that we have seen over the last seven years?It's not clear what "progress" Senator McCain had in mind, but it's hard to find data that would support his case. Start with the unemployment rate. It has risen from 4.2 percent when President Bush took office in 2001 to 5.1 percent and rising today. Even more striking, in 2001 64.4 percent of the population was employed, but, by March of this year, employment had fallen to 62.6 percent. Four million fewer people are employed today than in 2001.Bush's odd inability to recognize a recession:
President Bush says that the economy is not in a recession. He's wrong. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the economy has lost jobs for three consecutive months while the private sector has lost jobs for four consecutive months. This has never happened except in periods associated with recessions. The private sector has now lost 320,000 jobs since November.And a massive new foundation that will push conservative economic policies:
The budget wonks can, however, take heart now that Peter G. Peterson, investment banker and Commerce Secretary under President Nixon, has founded the Peter G. Peterson foundation which he promises to fund with $1 billion of his own money over the next several years. The foundation will, among other things, advocate for cuts in Social Security and Medicare.Read the rest and comment here. Subscribe to our RSS feed here to get all our articles as soon as they're published.--The Editors
