Cratering

Obama's poll numbers are cratering.

Gallup buries the lede in its latest polling on health care, the Browning of Massachusetts, and Barack Obama’s performance in the first year. They headline the fact that 55% of Americans want Congress to suspend work on ObamaCare while only 39% want Congress to continue. That’s not exactly news; it’s about the same split in support Rasmussen has seen among likely voters for weeks now, and Gallup just confirms that ObamaCare has the same level of support in the general adult population.

In fact, the biggest news is that 57% of adults — adults, not registered or likely voters — give Obama poor marks for his first year in office...

Well OK. Things could be worse. And by golly they are. Obama's proposed new rules for banks have cratered banking stocks.

NEW YORK (AP) - Stocks are set to extend their slide Friday, following the worst two-day stretch the market has seen since June.

Stock futures fell as better than expected earnings from General Electric and Google failed to inspire traders.

President Barack Obama spooked the market Thursday, after asking Congress for limits on how large big banks can be and to end some of the risky trading large financial companies have used in recent quarters to boost profits.

The market could be re-entering a period of uncertainty that defined the financial crisis and sent it cratering nearly a year ago before its 10-month rally.

Overseas, Asian markets overnight followed the U.S. sharply lower. European markets are also falling.

There is that word cratering. And not only has he cratered the American markets. He has cratered the Asian and European markets as well. The man is a genius. The Smartest President Ever™

Well on to more of the same. Employment is cratering according to a Progressive site.

The latest US nonfarm payroll report provides more confirmation. Although the headline number was a modestly anemic -85,000, Rosenberg called it "horrible" because its details showed consistent weakness. As a result, he estimates a more accurate "465,000" December decline, based on what's occurring at the small company level "where the trend in orders, output, sales and employment" has been dismal.

Importantly, economic sectors sensitive to the business cycle actually "cratered" in December, "which flies in the face of the overwhelming view that this recession has fully run its course." Also disturbing was that while "temp help" gained 47,000 jobs, its fifth straight increase, full-time employment "plunged" 647,000 last month, a clear sign that no one is hiring, especially small businesses that do most of it.

The reason headline U-3 unemployment held steady at 10% was because the labor force plunged by 661,000, the sharpest (discouraged worker) decline in nearly 15 years. The broader U-6 unemployment is 17.3%, and economist John Williams (shadowstats.com) calculates it more accurately at 21.9% by excluding manipulated changes for more valid figures. He estimates about 500,000 December job losses, not the sanitized U-3 number. He also says that a "major double-dip downturn should be obvious by mid-year."

Oh. Yeah. Let me give you the title of that progressive piece.

The Recession is Over, the Depression Just Beginning
Cheery news that. Well it is only January, 2010. Two Years 11 months 4 weeks and 0 days to go. I can hardly wait.

But back to happier days and the words of FDR's Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau:

"We have tried spending money. We are spending more than we have ever spent before and it does not work. And I have just one interest, and now if I am wrong somebody else can have my job. I want to see this country prosper. I want to see people get a job. I want to see people get enough to eat. We have never made good on our promises. I say after eight years of this administration, we have just as much unemployment as when we started. And enormous debt to boot."

Well there is one good thing. I don't believe Obama has eight years. And with the way he is going he will be lucky to get his almost three more.

Cross Posted at Classical Values