corrente

The state of the economy is exactly the way Bush wants it. They changed the rules, as with everything else.

For two years now, productivity growth, a measure of how much workers produce per hour, has been at historic highs as companies rely on squeezing their existing employees to meet demand, rather than hiring more workers.

Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan has been expecting productivity growth to slow, but the latest payrolls report implied that may not be happening yet.

"Obviously, the relationship between economic growth and employment has broken down", said Sung Won Sohn, chief economist at Wells Fargo.

He noted that economic growth comes from only two sources: employment and productivity gains.

"Businesses are under intense margin pressure, forcing them to rely on productivity gains," Sohn said. As a result, the risk of an economic slowdown later this year has increased.

A more typical pace of hiring this far into an economic recovery is at least 200,000 new jobs a month.

High productivity has been a boon for corporate profits, but companies are spending this bonanza on efficiency-enhancing equipment like software instead of on workers.
(via Reuters)

So, that's an explanation why the numbers look so good to the Bushogarchy, and look so bad to America. None of the gains are going to us.

Ask yourself why companies feel they can "squeeze" their workers. The answer—as with everything the Bushogarchy does— is fear:

• Fear of losing your job, because Bush trashed unemployment protection (remember when they didn't renew unemployment compensation at Christmas?)


• Fear of losing your job, and losing your insurance, because there's no universal health care in this country (man, those Canadians are dropping like flies, aren't they?)


• Fear of losing your job, because the house, the car, the credit cards are all to be paid for, and now the hole looks even deeper because Bush is going to take away your overtime.

That's America. It isn't the America that Bush lives in, or his friends, or the people who have handed him money after every one of his businesses failed, or his theocratic billionaire funders, or the millionaire pundits who shill and whore for him in the rigged game to keep the Bushogarchy in power.

Ask yourself why Bush never tells America "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself"? It's obvious: It is in his interest to keep America fearful.

And since we already know that the Bushogarchy will do anything to hold onto what they have, we can expect a lot more fear-mongering in 2004.