US economy adds 528,000 jobs in July, blowing past expectations

Economists expected job growth to slow in July as the Fed raises interest rates

https://www.foxbusiness.com/economy/...t-expectations

U.S. job growth unexpectedly accelerated in July, defying fears of a slowdown in hiring even as the labor market confronts the twin threats of scorching-hot inflation and rising interest rates.

Employers added 528,000 jobs in July, the Labor Department said in its monthly payroll report released Friday, blowing past the 250,000 jobs forecast by Refinitiv economists. The unemployment rate, meanwhile, edged down to 3.5%, the lowest level since the COVID-19 pandemic began more than two years ago.

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Originally Posted by lost in melb.

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This can't be! Doesn't fit the preferred narrative here.

How about them gas prices?

And Trump kissing Saudi ass while doing his best Sally Struthers impersonation?

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Originally Posted by perrhaps

This can't be! Doesn't fit the preferred narrative here.

How about them gas prices?

And Trump kissing Saudi ass while doing his best Sally Struthers impersonation?

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Gas prices are still high compared to where they were a year ago, and people who weren't working are now running out of money and taking advantage of companies' crazy generous offers that are in desperate need of help.

So yeah...

Oh, and with respect to Trump... he wasn't the one begging the Saudis to produce more oil and getting denied like a bitch. Actually, we were energy independent under Trump. Didn't need to ask anybody for help in that respect. Also, our unemployment and gas prices were crazy low with Trump. Also, Russia wasn't invading anybody and China wasn't saber rattling when Trump was President either. So your point in bringing Trump up was what again?

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Originally Posted by perrhaps

This can't be! Doesn't fit the preferred narrative here.

How about them gas prices?

And Trump kissing Saudi ass while doing his best Sally Struthers impersonation?

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Well they did give that WAPO journalist the chop chop... Let's call it fond admiration.

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Originally Posted by DemonGeminiX

Gas prices are still high compared to where they were a year ago, and people who weren't working are now running out of money and taking advantage of companies' crazy generous offers that are in desperate need of help.

So yeah...

Oh, and with respect to Trump... he wasn't the one begging the Saudis to produce more oil and getting denied like a bitch. Actually, we were energy independent under Trump. Didn't need to ask anybody for help in that respect. Also, our unemployment and gas prices were crazy low with Trump. Also, Russia wasn't invading anybody and China wasn't saber rattling when Trump was President either. So your point in bringing Trump up was what again?

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When oil companies' profits are twice as much in the second quarter as they were in the first, I think that gives us a pretty good idea that the so-called supply crisis was just another bullshit justification jumped on by the oil companies to screw us all. To be fair no President except for Eisenhower during my lifetime has ever done anything but kiss Saudi ass. Trump outdid himself in taking Saudi blood money less than 50 miles from the WTC. To paraphrase a popular lament here, can you imagine if Hunter Biden had done something like this.

Oh, and unemployment is lower now than before the virus. And 2021 saw the first decrease in the National Debt since Slick Willie and the Congressional GOP worked together to achieve that. It's not nearly enough, but it beats the hell out of Trump's first three years, doesn't it?

Also love the recidivist history about people getting too much money causing our economic and unemployment problems. On March 16th, 2020 my part-time employer basically shut down. I'd never applied for U/C benefits in my life, but was told to by my bosses and owners, as employers weren't penalized due to the reason for the shutdown. So, I went to the online site, and submitted my application.

Several days later, PA told me that based upon my parttime average of $220.00/week, I was entitled to receive $100.00/week in benefits. Seemed fair. Then, about three days later I received an email from the Feds, signed electronically by the Fat Boy himself, telling me that because i was eligible to receive ANY amount from PA, the Federal Government, thanks almost solely to Trumpy, was going to pay me $700.00/ weekly benefits. Yessiree Bob, thanks to the largesse of the Trump Administration I received 363% weekly more than I was being paid before the shutdown.

In contrast, when PA shutdown again for a while in 2021, the Federal Benefits were slashed to $400.00/week. Still probably too much, but an improvement over Trump's time in office. So, if you want to claim that unemployment was high, because people still had too much pandemic money, please point the finger of blame where it belongs

So you're complaining that you got too much money during the shutdown? Ok, I see your point. But consider this: Congress controls the power of the purse. They write the laws where money is concerned. Which party was in control of Congress in 2020 again?

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Oh, and unemployment is lower now than before the virus.

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I'm apologizing ahead of time for this. I hold you in high respect but I absolutely have to: Bullshit. Prove it. And I'm not taking anything as proof from any bullshit liberal news agency or fact checking website. I'm not taking it from Lost either.

There has been no decrease in the national deficit since 2001. The national debt cannot go down without a national surplus. Sorry, but I don't know where you're getting the "And 2021 saw the first decrease in the National Debt since Slick Willie and the Congressional GOP worked together to achieve that." That can't happen without a surplus in budget. It didn't happen.

No disrespect taken. Civil discourse is a necessity in a civilized society.

Am I upset about receiving too much money? Are you kidding? In my mind I'm still entitled to reimbursement for a few million overpriced toilet seats and hammers, not to mention subsidizing Teddy Kennedy's alcoholism. I'm just providing you with an actual, personal example of how this went down. And while you're absolutely correct about Congress passing the bill for this extravagance Trump couldn't sign it fast enough and then tried to take most of the credit. The attempts to blame this on Democrats and/or Joe Biden are just plain false.

It's so pathetically sad that neither Congress nor the Trump Administration couldn't have capped the pandemic stimulus checks at each recipient's total prior gross income. (By the way, it's duly noted that Democrats controlled Congress in 2020, but the overwhelming majority of Republicans in Congress voted for this as well.)

I noticed that you don't seem to take issue with my belief that the oil companies manufactured a so-called shortage to boost their profits. When the price of gasoline went up, a natural consequence is that the prices of everything shipped by common carriers also went up.

The CBO states the deficit was reduced by $300 billion last year. You may remember that I've repeatedly confessed both here and earlier on AS that I have the computer skills of a toddler or probably more accurately a somewhat intelligent dog.

Take care.

Maybe we should call for an amendment to the Constitution that caps the things government is allowed to spend money on, and how much they can spend, and pass a line item amendment as well to prevent these omnibus bill monstrosities. If one item can't stand on it's own feet in its own one-page bill then it shouldn't be lumped in with 20,000 other items in one humungous 1000-page bill.

The deficit was reduced $300 billion in 2021 compared to fiscal year 2020, but the 2021 fiscal year budget deficit still ran at $2.8 trillion, adding to the National Debt. That's not a surplus and yep we're adding to the Debt by the trillions now. It's beyond time to take the credit card away from the teenagers. I sincerely doubt we'll see a budget surplus until we cut the size of government down, get rid of the horseshit social programs, and bring manufacturing back onto American soil from overseas and start exporting goods out to other countries instead of importing in cheap shit from China. Kill two birds with one stone there: put us back on top, start cutting down the debt, and decimate China's economy so bad that they won't be able to invade anyone. They'll have to go back to using rickshaws.

I'm not quite sure what to think of the oil situation. I'm pro-Capitalism, but not pro mega-corporations (despite me being an Amazon prime member). I'm ready to blame everybody for the price of gas, put them in a terrordome, and see who comes out alive. It's true that companies will fight to take as much profit as they legally can until the backlash starts, and then take a little more while apologizing with their fingers crossed behind their backs, but it's also true that the Democrats are making it harder on everybody by bowing down to the progressive left and trying to force people to buy electric vehicles when the technology isn't ready to take over for oil and gas yet. The green new deal crap they're passing in the so-called "Inflation Reduction Act" ( that doesn't reduce anything at all) today is going to make it even harder. We keep getting shit on when it comes to the environment, yet the worst polluters in the world (China) keep pulling out of their agreements to help curb greenhouse gas emissions. It feels like we're the only ones that are trying and we're suffering for it and the rest of the world is enjoying watching us destroy ourselves over it.

Are oil companies still making a profit? Sure, they're not suffering any. Are they solely responsible for the price of gas being higher? Maybe they have a hand in it, but they're not the only ones to blame. I'm blaming Biden and his wanting to hurt the oil and gas industies. Maybe if he and the Democrats weren't so gung-ho on putting them out of business (he ran on it), then maybe the companies wouldn't be so rabid about making as much money as they can in so little time. There's a lot of moving parts to the issue.

And for the record, do you really believe it would have been any different if any other President was in office in 2019-2020? What would have happened if Trump hadn't passed it? We were stuck between a rock and a hard place with all the lockdowns. Nobody was making money. Food and necessities cost money. So what would have happened? This was a game of politics in a time of crisis. There's people like you that are blaming him for passing it. But if he hadn't passed it, the Democrats would have been all over the media calling him a heartless bastard that wants to see Americans starve to death. What choice did he have?

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Originally Posted by DemonGeminiX

And for the record, do you really believe it would have been any different if any other President was in office in 2019-2020? What would have happened if Trump hadn't passed it? We were stuck between a rock and a hard place with all the lockdowns. Nobody was making money. Food and necessities cost money. So what would have happened? This was a game of politics in a time of crisis. There's people like you that are blaming him for passing it. But if he hadn't passed it, the Democrats would have been all over the media calling him a heartless bastard that wants to see Americans starve to death. What choice did he have?

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Interesting idea about a Constitutional Amendment, but it will never get out of Congress.

Yes, people needed money to buy things during the pandemic, but they didn't need more than they made before. Trump could have forced the issue by vetoing the bill and clearly stating to the American public the need not to make the pandemic a windfall. This clusterfuck was clearly a team effort across the aisle. I haven't solely blamed Trump for it. Instead, I'm pointing out why he deserves his share of the blame, which his loyalists won't even consider acknowledging.

Also, kindly remember that just before the 2020 election, Trump wanted Congress to "Go Bigger" and pass an even larger stimulus bill.

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Originally Posted by perrhaps

Interesting idea about a Constitutional Amendment, but it will never get out of Congress.

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You don't need Congress to ratify a Constitutional Amendment. In fact, Congress cannot ratify a Constitutional Amendment at all, only a supermajority (3/4) of state legislatures can (or convention of the states). Congress can propose an Amendment, by a 2/3 majority of both the House and Senate, but only the state legislatures or the convention of states can ratify it. Further, you don't need Congress to propose an amendment either. A 2/3s majority of the states can propose an amendment.

That's in Article 5 of the Constitution.