Home > Economy
Today's Government: Eclipsing FDR and the 1930s?
The jobless report
During the Great Depression, President Franklin Roosevelt created so many new Federal agencies that the jumble of acronyms for them (WPA, REA, CCC, etc.) became known as the "Alphabet Soup." The vast majority of these were of course jobs programs, and sundry attempts at economic stimulus.
Today the Federal government seems determined not only to outspend Roosevelt, but to out-abbreviate him as well: Case in point, ABCPMMMFLF. And note well, dear reader, whereas the WPA program assisted the jobless, the ABCPMMMFLF program is intended to assist...
...money funds. At least FDR never promised "transparency."
As for WPA-style jobs programs, I wonder if today's news has shifted the question from "if" to "when" for our economy. The Labor Department announced the worst one-month jobs report in my adult lifetime, and I am not a young man. The Wall Street Journal assembled several economists' opinions, which included:
- "This is almost indescribably terrible. In the past six months the U.S. has lost 1.55 million jobs, almost as many as were lost in the whole 2001 recession, which included 9/11 and the two months after."
- "A shockingly weak report that suggests the fourth quarter could see a drop in real GDP of 5% or more at an annual rate."
- "This was much worse than was expected and represents wholesale capitulation. The threat of a widespread depression is now real and present."
Yes, the Wall Street Journal quoted a big-name economist saying, "The threat of a widespread depression is real..."
The grim jobs report dominated today's headlines and will probably do so through the weekend. And that's understandable because everyone understands what job losses mean. But other stories that are just as grim for the financial environment go overlooked, such as Bloomberg's news that "Money-market mutual funds that buy mostly U.S. Treasuries are starting to turn away new investors as the lowest yields on government debt in 50 years pull down returns for shareholders and squeeze managers’ fees."
There's more, unfortunately, but I want to conclude on a positive note: The December issue of The Elliott Wave Financial Forecast just published online. The news you're reading today is only now catching up with what this publication was forecasting many months and even years ago.
Our analysts are working just as hard now as they were then to help subscribers be prepared for tomorrow. To learn more about becoming a subscriber (and to have our forecasts on your screen in moments),
click here.