That’s a clunky title for this post, but I couldn’t think of any other way of expressing the potential political impact of a very muddled employment situation.
Let’s start with the obvious. The White House is very happy about the recent numbers showing that the unemployment rate has dropped to 7.8 percent. And since I predicted a long time ago that Obama would win reelection if the joblessness rate dropped under 8 percent, I can understand their relief.
But in this CNN interview, I point out that we still have a big problem with labor force participation and I explain that Obama is way behind Reagan in terms of job creation (as shown in this remarkable info-graphic).
I also make the point that the unemployment rate is far higher than Obama promised when we enacted the so-called stimulus.
But most importantly, I cite the Minneapolis Fed to show that Obama has the worst performance – whether looking at GDP growth or job creation – of any post-World War II president.
