Quote of the Week

From Insty:

Of course, if Congress and the Administration knew they had to boost the economy or face hanging in a year they’d be cutting regulations and taxes like mad. That they aren’t doing so suggests that growth isn’t really their top priority.

Whatever logo the Tea Party eventually comes up with, I'm voting for one that includes a crossed pitchfork and torch, to start with. Including a noose might be just a bit over the top, but just a bit.

Maybe a teacup full of hot tar and a bag of feathers.

Insty cites Tigerhawk who has a chart up from a JP Morgan presentation suggesting how much annual real growth in GDP will be required to get the unemployment rate back down to 6% in the immediate future.

The last reported unemployment rate was 9.4%. It takes about 150,000 new jobs a month to make the rate hold even, no up, no decline. The curve looks to be increasing slightly faster than linearly, but we'll stick to linear. I predict 9.8% unemployment by the end of June, said figure will be released around the 7-10th of July.

As a friend of mine is fond of remarking: "Where are we going, and why are we in this handbasket?"