corrente

(Portland, Oregon) WWeek:

Put down the Visa card, Mr. President. Back away slowly. "The budget deficit! Goddamn it, it's the most important story there is!"

It's not often that economists launch into breathless tirades. But that's what happened when WW asked Portland econ Joe Cortright about the Bush administration's effect on Portland pocketbooks. Cortright says almost nobody's paying attention to the massive swing--from a $236 billion budget surplus four years ago to the $444 billion deficit--on Bush's watch.

In practical terms, that swing has put an invisible monkey on our backs. The federal gub'mint ran up $1,289 in debt for every person in the city in 2003. In 2004, W's killer combo of falling revenues (thanks to a lousy economy and massive tax cuts) and rising costs (Iraq) will put $1,513 on each Portlander's unseen Visa bill.

And Cortright says the most insidious effect is that the pain won't come until long after November.

"It's as if somebody gave you $500 in cash today," Cortright says of Bush's tax rollback, "and then ran up thousands in debt on your credit card, and then arranged so you won't get a bill until after the election."

When there's a deficit, the government borrows money to pay for it. That money must be paid back someday--unless we plan to pull an Argentina by defaulting and ruining our national credit forever. The local implications? Cortright says--and other economists agree--that as the bills pile up, services vanish.

So when we talk about Head Start, transportation, crime-fighting and the unfunded gorilla that is No Child Left Behind, remember the deficit.

"What Bush has done," Cortright says, "is essentially mortgaged our future."

Merry Christmas:

Friday's jobs report won't be as strong as economists would like at this point in the recovery from the 2001 recession. Economists want to see 250,000 new jobs or more per month. But payrolls have lagged far below that.

Some economists don't expect an improvement any time soon. The period from September to December "historically has seen the heaviest job cutting," said John Challenger, chief executive of Challenger, Gray and Christmas, a job placement and research firm.

Planned job cuts tracked by the firm shot to an eight-month high of 107,863 in September, 41 percent more than a year ago. - AP.

WASHINGTON (Reuters):

U.S. businesses added 96,000 jobs to payrolls in September, the government reported on Friday, a weaker-than-expected total... Business - Reuters

Its been a while, but I feel a bombastic rant coming on.

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