I meant to post on this yesterday, but EPI is really stepping up their graph game. They've published an economic snapshot detailing the worsening employment situation: In July, there were 8.8 million unemployed workers actively seeking work, but only 3.4 million job openings. In other words, 2.6 job seekers for every available job. Two years ago, there were just 1.6 job seekers for every job opening. In some ways, the game is still the same, but it's grown more fierce. Check it out:
As a general point, this really demonstrates why "the fundamentals of our economy are sound" is such an epic fail of a comment. It's not that it's wrong, though the finance sector is pretty fundamental and it's about as unsound as you could imagine. It's more just supremely out of touch -- even if you buy McCain's explanation that he was talking about micro indicators like workers rather than macro indicators like gross domestic product. The economy is a fractured phenomenon. For the folks waiting on the unemployment line, the fundamentals are not only unsound, they're getting unsounder. If your car is hurtling off a cliff and all the passengers are screaming, it's true that someone could pipe up to say that the fundamentals of the automobile are still sound, but it's a bit beside the point: It's not looking like they're going to stay that way for very long.
As a general point, this really demonstrates why "the fundamentals of our economy are sound" is such an epic fail of a comment. It's not that it's wrong, though the finance sector is pretty fundamental and it's about as unsound as you could imagine. It's more just supremely out of touch -- even if you buy McCain's explanation that he was talking about micro indicators like workers rather than macro indicators like gross domestic product. The economy is a fractured phenomenon. For the folks waiting on the unemployment line, the fundamentals are not only unsound, they're getting unsounder. If your car is hurtling off a cliff and all the passengers are screaming, it's true that someone could pipe up to say that the fundamentals of the automobile are still sound, but it's a bit beside the point: It's not looking like they're going to stay that way for very long. 
