Reality 2, Bush 0

By Lee Russ

Friday, October 06, 2006 at 06:37 PM

Never let it be said that reality stood in the way of George W. Bush....

Bush Emphasizes Economy as Security Message Weakens
...
President George W. Bush is intensifying his bid to win his party credit for an improving economy, a move given new urgency by Republicans' difficulty in making moral values and the war on terror central issues in the mid-term elections.

"Our economy is strong," Bush told workers at a FedEx Corp. facility in the Washington today. "Wages are going up. Energy prices are falling, which means people are going to have more money in their pockets to save, invest and spend."

Reality:

a. According to today's employment release from the Bureau of Labor Statistics:

Nonfarm payroll employment held steady (+51,000), and the unemployment rate (4.6 percent) was essentially unchanged in September, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today.  Job growth continued in health care and financial activities, while employment declined in manufacturing.  Employment was little changed in other major industry sectors.

51,000 new jobs won't come close to soaking up the new entrants into the labor market, of course.  Not to mention that there were essentially no new jobs in most industries, a decline in jobs in manufacturing, and a notable gain only in two industries, one of which is running out of control (health care) and the other of which is hiring only because of the need to count and invest the incredible profits being earned by the rich (financial services).

b. According to The Economist:

...workers' share of the cake is now the smallest it has been for at least three decades...In many countries, real wages are flat or even falling.

Meanwhile, capitalists have rarely had it so good.  In America, Japan, and the euro area, profits as a share of GDP are at or near all-time highs...Corporate America has increased its share of national income from 7% in mid-2001 to 13% this year.

My scorecard for this game in the series shows Reality 2, Bush 0.