Just wanted to go back to an earlier post from diamond that included, among Bush's accomplishments, lower interest rates and higher home ownership. These are not good things. Interest rates, and therefore mortgage rates, were waaaay low after the Fed dropped them to historic levels because the economy was so bad. The good news is that lower rates made it easier to own a house. The bad news is that if you weren't in the market before the recession, you couldn't afford to get a house at these rates. This is not a sign of a strong economy.
As for the 5.4% employment rate, as of yesterday, it has remained steady, not decreased, from Sept. 96,000 jobs were created last month, much lower than the 140,000 that economists were expecting. You need around 180,000 new jobs every month to keep up with the employment population increase. And the super duper tax cuts diamond mentioned, we did indeed receive -- Bush said we would be creating 600,000 new jobs a month with his tax cuts by this time. That's obvious not what's happening. If Bush wants to leave office with a net job increase, 850,000 new jobs need to be created between now and December. If that doesn't happen, which based on recent jobs data it won't, then Bush will be the first president since Hoover to have a net job loss. And don't give me any of that crap about 9/11. As much as that hurt our economy, a year after the attacks fewer jobs were lost due to terrorist attacks than due to corporate America including Bush's friend Ken Lay and his Enron going belly up and taking Arther Andersen with it and the corruption at WorldCom.
One of the few things that pisses me off about Kerry is that he hasn't nailed Bush with these numbers yet. I hope he does so at the next debate. They are pretty damning.
in this post. 
