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Jobless rate tops 10 percent for first time since '83

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Bad News | 7:29 a.m. Nov. 6, 2009

And to think that this administration and congress want to raise our taxes when we can't even feed our kids just goes to show how uninformed they really are. The only solution is to lesson the role of government to let us get on our feet again.

Anonymous | 8:17 a.m. Nov. 6, 2009

Thank God for this Hope and Change from our very own Messiah courtesy of the demolitioncrats!!! Remember how awful things were with Bush? Remember when we had jobs? Those were bad times alright!!

Anonymous | 8:18 a.m. Nov. 6, 2009

Here's to the worst president in history!! BHO. This new years celebration will be the biggest and the best!! It's the year we can shut down these communists!!!

Comments continue below

Bravo | 8:37 a.m. Nov. 6, 2009

How's everyone liking the "hope 'n change" now?

Attention jobless Americans: | 8:54 a.m. Nov. 6, 2009

Unemployment is now 10.2%. But that's OK because the recession is over - Obama said so. Your problem is you just don't have enough hope and change in your life.

xscribe | 9:03 a.m. Nov. 6, 2009

I do remember the Bush years. That's when this snowball started rolling.

@Bad News: Who's taxes has this administration and congress said they are going to raise?

Earl | 9:11 a.m. Nov. 6, 2009

Just for the record, this isn't all Obama's fault. It was happening under Bush's watch as well. If you want to start shooting arrows, shoot them at the Federal Reserve and the dynamic duo of Greenspan and Bernanke. They caused the economic bubble that burst beginning in 2007. Bernanke is creating the mother of all bubbles now, so we may be looking forward to the Greatest Depression.

I was born brave. | 9:31 a.m. Nov. 6, 2009

I love both hope and change. You're daily cheap shots, which have been motivated by Fox News, has reinforced not a dislike of president Obama, but of the hateful conservative media that play on racism, ignorance and fear. I'm unemployed.

We saw republican government rejecting federal dollars to help their unemployed citizens. It would be much worst if conservatives were in power.

If we had done what the conservative wanted, unemployment would be at 17% and climbing.

I always let performance influence my views. Bush seemed like a nice guy, but he was a failure. Conservatives elected him after listening to the same media that attacks Obama for saluting the coffins of our returning dead. Have you ever heard the country song:"your walking on the fighting side of me?"

Conservatives caused this crash. I know, I researched it. Fox News was using the Community Reinvestment Act. They omitted this passed passed with a veto proof majority by republicans. The real killer was the Commodities Futures Modernization Act the Phil Gramm put slipped into another Bill in the last minutes before Christmas recess.

Honorable people blame only those who deserve it.

RedShirt | 9:35 a.m. Nov. 6, 2009

TO "xscribe | 9:03 a.m." Obama said that he was going to raise taxes only on the rich. However, since going into office, he has either supported or allowed taxes to be increased on products that poor people use more than rich people. He also has supported a climate bill, which, is just a tax increase but is called carbon credits.

Also, the Bush tax cuts benefitted all tax payers. Obama has no desire to maintain that tax cut. This, in effect is a tax increase without having to vote for a tax increase.

It appears that what Obama says, and what he does are opposite things.

The Audacity of HYPE | 9:41 a.m. Nov. 6, 2009

Yes sir, the best selling book "The Audacity of Hope" has a small correction in the title to "The Audacity of HYPE" thus more closely mirroring reality. The great teleprompter king Obama is now seen to truly have no clothes on and no amount of political cover will hide him. Our "Man-Child" green horn president has managed in 1 year to drive unemployment up from 5% to over 10% ...but wait...weren't we all promised that unemployment could reach 8% unless the stimulus bill was quickly passed (without even reading it)??? Gee, 8% sounds pretty darn good right now. Obama is most certainly the most unprepared, green horn, unfit to lead president ever to inhabit the white house and all you have to do is plug your nose and look at the sorry policy decisions he has made over the past year. The guy is in WAY OVER HIS HEAD but add to that a RADICAL LIBERAL SOCIALIST AGENDA complete with the most corrupt and unpatriotic CZAR's ever appointed by a president and you get the "Obama-nation" that we now have. Some mistakes just keep on giving.....

State of Denial | 9:42 a.m. Nov. 6, 2009

Who was driving this economy when it went drastically off the tracks? Looks like his condition has transferred to a few bloggers.

kw | 9:45 a.m. Nov. 6, 2009

Forgive me if I missed it, but there was a large protest in Wash DC that you guys havent even covered. Does that mean the media doesnt have responsibility to report things like that?

Anonymous | 9:48 a.m. Nov. 6, 2009

Anonymous at 8:17 and 8:18 - I'm glad there are some sensible people left like you. I get sick to my stomach when I read some of these posts and become amazed that people are still stuck in this "hopey" "changey" hype. That's all it ever was: HYPE. After $787 Billion he's done what? Have unemployment RISE to 10%! BO needs to go!!!

Anonymous | 9:51 a.m. Nov. 6, 2009

How's all that hopey changey stuff working out for you now liberals?

nObama | 9:51 a.m. Nov. 6, 2009

Haven't we had enough of this obamanation. One year out and by far the worst president in my lifetime!!

Anonymous | 9:55 a.m. Nov. 6, 2009

I have always heard that when faced with economic difficulties we should cut unnecessary expenses and save. And to think all this time I was way off - we should be spending til there's no "change" left. BHO " I can fix this economy with only 3 easy payments of $300 Billion." Just a week after he bragged for "creating 650K jobs, I wonder if he'll claim this milestone of 10% unemployment too?

Anonymous | 9:59 a.m. Nov. 6, 2009

This shows how easily the uneducated are to control. Before conservatives ruined our economy, I knew that employment was a lagging economic indication because I took economics in college.

Thanks, Obama, you have done for for the unemployed than conservatives would have done to help us through these conservative created hard times.

Conservative media as to resort to the un-American practises of lying and censoring to attack Obama.:-) If you know, what I mean.

Fox News and conservative media rely on freedom of the press and of speech. They deny these basic treasured American rights to others. Person, I would have to quit any employed that violated these rights of others. I love my country too much to sell out its ideas for a few pieces of gold cast before me.

There as reason you don't know anyone named Judas.

KM | 10:04 a.m. Nov. 6, 2009

@xscribe: "whos taxes has this admin said they will raise?" Who cares what they said. What we need to look at is what they do, not what they say. They lie!
Oximoron for the day: Jobless recovery.
The politicians are bent on destroying our economy. With the hope and change they are giving us I fully expect to see unemployment go much higher.

Anonymous | 10:07 a.m. Nov. 6, 2009

Our Obama, who art in office,
hallowed be thy name.
Thy Presidency come,
thy will be done,
in the US as it is in the UN
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our mortgages,
as we mock those who would speak against us.
And lead us not into capitalism,
but deliver us from Bush.
For thine is the Presidency, the power and the glory, for ever and ever.
Amen

RedShirt | 10:25 a.m. Nov. 6, 2009

To "Earl | 9:11 a.m. " just for the record, Obama was a Senator from 2006 until he was sworn in as President. During that time he didn't speak out against the Greenspan, Bernake, or Bush policies that were creating the bubble.

If we hit a second Great Depression, it will not be just the policies of Bernake sending us there. You also have the boneheads in Congress, and the policies that Obama has set up taking us there.

Anonymous | 10:29 a.m. Nov. 6, 2009

Wait . . . Obama threatened that if he didn't sign the stimulus bill unemployment would rise above 8%. Maybe he was only referring to all his rich friends that he bailed out after they ran their companies into the ground. Obama = excuse maker, blame-mongerer

Lee | 10:30 a.m. Nov. 6, 2009

I can't believe the rate is at 10%!We were all told in Feb. of this year, that the Stimulus (so-called) bill would not let this happen.Remember?It would not reach 8% if the Stimulus bill passed.Do you think that we should have another Stimulus bill?That's OK,if cap & trade kicks in we will catch up with Spain and have 20% unemployed.

WOW | 10:47 a.m. Nov. 6, 2009

Blue Red Purple. There all the same Anonymous! At work the leave CNN on the big screen in the lunch room 24/7. CNN CNBC FOX ABC CBS BBC there all the same to.

Unemployment Rate | 10:58 a.m. Nov. 6, 2009

was lowest during BUSH years and the DOW was the highest. Obama year, highest debt, lowest DOW, highest unemployment. Judge by the numbers folks.

To Annonymous@9:59 | 11:02 a.m. Nov. 6, 2009

Your logic is truely incoherent. You might have taken econ. in college, but you didn't understand it. And you surely failed english, because that was painful reading. What about BO saying if the 3 quarter of a trillion dollars were authorized and they were, inflation would only go to 8.5%?

Say it isn't so Barry! | 11:02 a.m. Nov. 6, 2009

But wait, Barry stated that unemployment wouldn't surpass 8% if his "stimulus" package was passed immediately. Wrong again? Say it isn't so Barry!

I guess his number scrubbers couldn't get to the stats or find some way to massage them before they were released like his fraudulent "saved" jobs propaganda. Obviously, enough organizations aren't using their "stimulus" dollars to give people raises and counting them as "saved" jobs.

The actual unemployment number is much worse. According to the Bureau of Labor Statisitics, it is 17.5%.

Considering the unemployment rate, what does the Deceiver in Chief want to do? He wants to pass the largest tax increase in history via the Cap and Trade (i.e. Tax and Scam) debacle, assault the profitable and ram socialized medicine (probably the most destructive piece of legislation in history) down the throats of Americans, despite their objection.

Change, because that is all Barry is going to leave you with. Thankfully, he will continue to borrow unlimited amounts of money from the Chinese, so we can continue extending unemployment benefits to everyone for an indefinte period of time. Wait a minute, there's a word for that...

RedShirt | 11:05 a.m. Nov. 6, 2009

To "I was born brave. | 9:31 a.m." and "Anonymous | 9:59 a.m." if you look at Bush's policies, he was a neoconservative, not a conservative.

A neoconservative is a liberal who likes the military.

Had Bush actually been a conservative, we would not have had the Medicare Prescription plans, TARP, the sub-prime mortgage bailouts, and his many other liberal policies. Also, you have the Washington Post, UPI, Associated Press, CBS, Cato Institute, Christian Science Monitor, and many other conservative and liberal news sources saying Bush's policies and legacy are filled with liberalism.

Jeapardy | 11:10 a.m. Nov. 6, 2009

Alex,
I'd like
"Presidents for $787 Billion"

A: The captain of Titanic America when he ordered the heading toward the economic icebrg and ordered full steam ahead before jumping ship?

beep,beep,beep...

Q: Who was President George W. Bush?

Ding! Ding! Ding!
-----

if you took a mortgage that ... | 11:13 a.m. Nov. 6, 2009

you couldnt handle, then you are partly to blame for this mess. if you cant afford it, dont buy it with money you dont or will never have. its not a republican or democratic issue, the issue is that the majority of americans are not smart and do very stupid things. it started with clinton allowing "anyone" to get a loan for a house, then bush burned through the surplus and spent our money in other countries, then americans hoped for change but they dont want to work for it and that is where obama comes in. if you give people things for nothing then the just become lazier. look at france or any other socialized country where you have people that get money and benefits no matter what. these people dont work and worst of all they never put any money back into the system. i cant wait to pay for lazy people to enjoy the lowly lives being a waste of time, money, and space.

Earl | 11:17 a.m. Nov. 6, 2009

@RedShirt: you're right. That's why I said it's not ALL Obama's fault. He's pouring gasoline on the fire, but he's not the fire-starter. The fire-starters are over at the Federal Reserve.

Watch for the Gadianton Robbers | 11:21 a.m. Nov. 6, 2009

The stimulus was given to Corporations,
Who PROMISED to hire employees.

If they took the money and ran,
blame the corporations for the lack of jobs -- not the governemnt.

Maybe the feds should have just hired people directly rather than trusting WallStreet to do the right thing.

Why don't we just put | 11:24 a.m. Nov. 6, 2009

everyone out of work on the dole? Pay their housing and give them all of the food stamps they need; plenty of money for their flicks every weekend; clunker funds; new TV funds, furniture and appliance funds.....shoot give them all the funds they need. With all the flakes out there...4%-5% is actually full employment by definition according to the statistians. With all the folks who have quit looking for work it is estimated that the actual total percentage of out of work people may exceed in the range of 15% to 20%. All these so-called stimulus handouts, including the $250 to seniors is a sham. It has been an effort to bail out states, who have for the most part bloated out of control budgets. The same holds true for most local communities. Why doesn't the media put the finger on the Barney Franks, Chris Dodds, et al democrats who actually caused the housing bust with the Fanny Mae and Freddy Mac debacles? It wasn't President Bush and his administration at all. TARP and all the other bailout efforts by the BHO administration needs to man up and take responsibility for this mess.

Why? | 11:41 a.m. Nov. 6, 2009

Why does everyone forget that the housing bubble began in Clinton's reign? He was the one who began pressuring lenders to lend to more people, regardless of whether they could pay their loans back or not. Bush inherited it, and didn't stop it, but he didn't start it, either.

Besides, why do BO lovers assume that anyone who dislikes him must have liked Bush?

Earl | 11:43 a.m. Nov. 6, 2009

The economic disaster we find ourselves in has been a bipartisan one. Republicans are not much better than Democrats when it comes to encouraging the Treasury, the Federal Reserve and the executive to inflate the money supply (which is the source of our problems). The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have contributed to our national bankruptcy, along with our generous social programs, bailouts and stimulus packages. The bickering between Democrats and Republicans is no more than arguing about how to arrange the deck chairs on the Titanic. They're both culpable for steering us into the iceberg.

Economic reality | 12:17 p.m. Nov. 6, 2009

The unemployment rate is still more than 10%, and 17% of workers who have given up looking or have taken part-time or temp work instead...and people are talking about economic recovery?

Ginormous banks might be recovering their profits; the stock market might be rising again; but they only matter to themselves, to economic bean-counters, and to the politicians they've bought. Let's put this in REAL terms.

If actual *people* can't get jobs, then the economic reality for this nation is that THERE IS NO RECOVERY.

Atlas | 12:41 p.m. Nov. 6, 2009

Cut taxes, not jobs. Can we get our change back?

It's bush's fault | 1:01 p.m. Nov. 6, 2009

Some how Obama will spin this and blame it on bush watch and see.

lost in DC | 1:03 p.m. Nov. 6, 2009

didn't BO say the porkulus would prevent the unemployment rate from going over 8%? BO LIED!

xscribe, if BO gets his cap and tax (aka cap and trade) passed, it will effectively raise taxed on EVERYONE in this country.

If BO gets Obamacare in place, it will raise taxes on EVERYONE in the country. If you believe him when he says it will raise taxes only on high income folk, please see his promise above concerning the porkulus

Anonymous | 1:35 p.m. Nov. 6, 2009

We've been told for 70+ years to get a year supply of food storage from the prophets of the Church of Jesus Christ. They haven't stopped telling everyone (that includes all non-members) to get food storage. "Food storage may be as important to our temporal salvation as was boarding the ark in the days of Noah" Ezra Taft Benson. "Prophecy is but history in reverse." I don't recall who said that. But I feel sick for anybody who didn't listen to these prophets.

xscribe & Earl... | 2:59 p.m. Nov. 6, 2009

Was it not Clinton that took credit for the booming economy that resulted from the Reagan years? The guy in the White House owns it as soon as he steps through the pearly gates from on high. No longer is a blame Bush era, it is the Obama economy that has 10%+ unemployment.

Likewise, Greenspan and Bernanke are not the owners. Obama owns it and should take all the heat over the mess he is creating by burrowing from the future of our children. It is indeed a time of bondage!

Don | 3:10 p.m. Nov. 6, 2009

10 Months ago President Obama assumed leadership that he swore he could handle! Blaming Bush a is so weak. Its like blaming your 8th grade math teacher when you fail your final at the end of 9th grade!

Buck up Mr. President and quit blaming everyone else but you! Its like blaming your little brother everytime your dad scolds you for something!

Fault goes all around, not just Republicans or Democrats.

Barney Frank(D) and Chris Dodd(D) are two big culprits.

President Carter to President Obama and ALL Presidents in between. Both Republican and Democrat Congresses continued to fail us with excessively loose housing policy and extremely poor Wall Street regulation!

The biggest problem we have is that the United States Treasury is controlled by Wall Street/Bankers/Goldman Sachs thieves!

Gee Wiz the last honest Treasury Secretary we had was probably David M Kennedy when he left the Nixon administration 40 years ago!

Lets end the blame game We the Citizens of the United States voted for these thieves and failed politicians! IT IS OUR FAULT AND UNTIL WE GET RID OF THESE LOSERS we will not fix this!

Mr. President THE BUCK STOPS HERE(TRUMAN)!

re: I was born brave | 3:14 p.m. Nov. 6, 2009

If ifs and buts were candy and nuts...

re: xscribe | 3:37 p.m. Nov. 6, 2009

"whose taxes have they said they were going to raise"?

The fact you don't know the answer just demonstrates the head-in-the-sand nobama kool-aid drinking clowns that most democrats are.

I will tell you who they have REPEATEDLY AND OPENLY VOWED to tax MASSIVELY!

That would be business owners who make "too much money" you know, the entrepeneurs that build businesses and HIRE PEOPLE THAT EXPAND our economy.

Instead though, our genius community organizer is now going to take their wealth from them and instead of having people earn it through JOBS, he will give to them in the form of government handouts, "assistance", extended unemployment benefits, and tax rebates (you know--for those people who didn't/couldn't get a tax break BECAUSE THEY DON'T PAY ANY TAXES TO BEGIN WITH!!!

I know all this makes perfect sense to you socialists.

"who has he said he was going to tax"?

You must be joking!

Bushs Fault? | 3:44 p.m. Nov. 6, 2009

None of it is bushes fault.

The financial collapse of our system was due to Clinton and his plans that included things like "the community reinvestment act" which FORCED banking/lending institutions to give money to ACORN to loan it to people who could not repay their loans.

DUH!

That is what caused the collapse. Ridiculous lending practices that were forced by the Federal Government so that as Clinton said "everyone can have a piece of the American dream and own a home".

Well how has that worked out?

10+% unemployment and record foreclosures.

Thanks alot DEMOCRATS (Chris Dodd and Barney Frank--in charge of the banking/finance committees overseeing Fannie/Freddie and lending).

Now everyone who actually could afford a home just lost 30% of their value due to the fact that all these other people could never afford them to begin with and now they are all losing their homes anyway.

Just sit back this holiday season and enjoy the DEMOCRAT CHEER their FAILED policies have left us with!

Conservative | 3:44 p.m. Nov. 6, 2009

What the republicans did for the past 8 years was not conservatism. I didn't like it then and I don't like what the democrats are doing now. The government just needs to decrease in size and stick to protecting the borders.

Earl | 3:50 p.m. Nov. 6, 2009

I'll grant you this: the chairman of the Federal Reserve is nominally "independent" of political influences. That was the whole point of setting up the Federal Reserve in the first place. But in practice, the chairman relies upon the president for his job. Is he more likely to do whatever pleases the president if he's looking to be reappointed? Absolutely! But if a Fed chairman were doing his duty, he'd do what was right regardless of what the president wanted. It just so happens that the current president and Fed chairman are in total agreement regarding the economic crisis. So I'm perfectly willing to blame both for the debacle, just as I was when Greenspan and Bush seemed to be in agreement.

Anonymous | 3:50 p.m. Nov. 6, 2009

While the policies of the Federal Reserve (under both democratic and republican administrations) have a little bit to do with the housing bubble, and while the federal government (under both democratic and republican administrations) has had an effect, the biggest culprits to the mess were the free-market wheeling and dealing of the investment bankers and their financial instrument innovations.

The free-market endeavors of investment bankers came up with fancy models that “proved” that derivatives caused risk to magically disappear. Investors believed them and wanted to invest in derivatives that were ultimately backed by sub-prime mortgages. This demand for sub-prime loans caused mortgage companies to offer them, and stupid people took out loans they couldn’t afford. People in all income brackets got loans they couldn’t afford to pay back, investors in mortgage-backed securities got shafted on loans they thought were safe, and investment bankers made billions by brokering the deal.

It took us years to get into this mess, and it will take years to pay the piper and get back to equilibrium. The whole thing has very little to do with President Obama.

Earl | 4:08 p.m. Nov. 6, 2009

@2:59 p.m.: I sense that you're trying to pin most of the blame on Democrats. My point is that the source of our problems is our inflationary policy of printing paper money without any kind of backing. Both major parties LOVE paper money! You may think that's an insignificant point, but in reality it's everything. Can you imagine any of these problems happening if, for instance, currency were redeemable from the banks for gold or silver? No way! Even presidents would be restrained to the point they couldn't get us into the kind of jam we're in today (please don't bring up the phoney gold standard we had ealier in the 20th century; it was a faux gold standard).

Congressmen, presidents, cabinet members and lobbyists all want paper money. They can't stand the idea of a redeemable currency because it restricts their ambitions, which is exactly what we need!

To your point, presidents do get credit or blame for the economy, but why? Most of the time, they're clueless about economics. They're at the mercy of the Fed. That's why I put more blame on them.

I love it! | 4:15 p.m. Nov. 6, 2009

So what happened to all that respect the president, you should love it or leave it attitude of a couple years back? Can't be consistant in the ideology?

Earl | 4:33 p.m. Nov. 6, 2009

@Anonymous 3:50: the Fed had "a little" to do with the economic mess? Seriously? Wow, your vision of the forest is blocked by the trees. None of those exotic financial instruments and regulations would have been possible without the Fed's practice of printing funny money. Eliminate the funny money and it all goes away.

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