Black Unemployment — Who Gets The Credit?

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Today, we talk black unemployment and who gets the credit for its current lower level?

Big Red Car here on a lovely bright Austin By God Texas day. The kind of day that makes you want to move to Austin, but, then, I live here, don’t I?

So, we are hearing a lot about black unemployment and how it has plunged. President Donald J Trump has mentioned it a few times.

Some folks have attributed the current status — 6.8% in Dec 2017 v a high of 16.5% in April 2011 — to President Obama. Still, way too high when national unemployment is 4.1% from a high of 10% in October 2009.

[Please note that President Obama, himself, is a currently an unemployed black man, no?]Image result for black unemployment graphIt is clearly true that President Trump has continued the downward trend, some say he has accelerated it. However, the trend was already headed in that direction before he arrived in office.

Thanks, Obama.

But, hey, what the Hell do I really know anyway? I’m just a Big Red Car. Thanks, Obama.

 

7 thoughts on “Black Unemployment — Who Gets The Credit?”

  1. To be fair, JLM, analysing the graph, it appears that it was distinctly in 2012 when the downtrend began, so I would extrapolate here that is was the Obama Administration that was responsible for the downtrend in employment. All effects of the Trump Administration would be seen beginning in 2020 as many policies in effect wouldn’t take place until after a President has been in office for a couple of years.

    In addition, former President Obama is co-founder of the Obama Foundation, so he’s not “unemployed” lol.

    • So following that logic, the Recovery from the “great Recession” in 09-10 is directly the credit of GW Bush!

      • No because the Great Recession began recovery in early 2010, and President Obama had already been in office for a couple of years. However, the Great Recession began as a direct correlation of the Iraq War, so that was an effect of the Bush II administration.

  2. How have the stats on labor force participation changed under Trump?

    Surely that’s the stat that really counts rather than unemployment?

  3. It took us 12 years from the start to the end of the Great Depression. In the US there was massive unemployment, loan defaults, deaths, family destruction, psychological and social harm, loss of psychological capital, lost productivity — no doubt the usual crime, domestic violence, alcohol dependence, divorce, harm to children, etc. So, the usual results.

    So, what’d we do? We just sat there and let people suffer, all for no good reason. Even a Betty Boop cartoon had it right on what to do, but we didn’t do it.

    Well, the disaster spread to all the more industrialized countries. So, too soon we got a dictatorship in Germany. Right away he kept his promise — get the German economy going again. But then he also wanted the low countries, much of the Balkans, Poland, Norway, the oil fields of Arabia, most of Russia west of a line from Stalingrad to Moscow to Leningrad, maybe England, about half of France, a buddy in Spain, the Baltics, IIRC Greece, etc.

    Soon Germany, Italy, and Japan started shooting at us.

    Then we got out of the Great Depression in 90 days flat at which time everyone had about two jobs and three offers.

    But we had 12 destructive years, all because we insisted on being dumber even than Betty Boop.

    Then in 2008 we had another financial bubble burst. Then, as in the graph, this time it took us not 12 years to get out of the Great Recession but only 10 years.

    Are we learning yet? Not really.

    • Neither. It took us 10 years. We could have done it in 90 days. With any sense at all, we would not have had the housing bubble. For that, blame W and Fannie Mae Chair F. Raines.

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