By Thom Hartmann A...
- The economy, unemployment, stimulus package.
- Are smelling salts available and how do we get them to Harry Reid?
- Do you want the government limiting your family to 2 children? Population.
- Guest: Larry Scott, founder and Editor of VA Watch Dog. "The American Veteran's On-Line News Magazine". Veterans' issues.
Topics, guests, upcoming events, quotes, links to articles, audio clips, books & bumper music.
Wednesday 04 February '09 show
- Ammonium carbonate. Smelling salts. You can make your own or buy them online. Harry Reid could use some.
- Things appear to be a lot worse than the Bush administration let on.
- Job layoffs echo down.
- In 1929 there were over a million people out of work, 3.14%, the last year of the bubble economy, after Republican presidents Harding, Coolidge and Hoover cut taxes dramatically and did nothing about the bubble. See table. FDR became president in March 1933. Today there are 11.1 million unemployed. If unemployment was measured now the way it was then, it is about 14%. In 1938 FDR went along with the Republicans and cut back on some of the "socialist" programs, and unemployment jumped.
Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, Historical Statistics of the United States, Colonial Times to 1957 (Washington, D.C., 1960), p.70.
Republican Great Depression Era Unemployment Statistics
Year
Population
Labor
Force
Force
Unemployed
Percentage of
Labor Force
Labor Force
1929
88,010,000
49,440,000
1,550,000
3.14
1930
89,550,000
50,080,000
4,340,000
8.67
1931
90,710,000
50,680,000
8,020,000
15.82
1932
91,810,000
51,250,000
12,060,000
23.53
1933
92,950,000
51,840,000
12,830,000
24.75
1934
94,190,000
52,490,000
11,340,000
21.60
1935
95,460,000
53,140,000
10,610,000
19.97
1936
96,700,000
53,740,000
9,030,000
16.80
1937
97,870,000
54,320,000
7,700,000
14.18
1938
99,120,000
54,950,000
10,390,000
18.91
1939
100,360,000
55,600,000
9,480,000
17.05
1940
101,560,000
56,180,000
8,120,000
14.45
1941
102,700,000
57,530,000
5,560,000
9.66
"U.S. Senator Patty Murray, Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation and Housing and Senator Dianne Feinstein, Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior and the Environment, today offered details of their amendment to the Senate version of the economic recovery package. The Murray/Feinstein amendment directs $25 billion to immediately support nearly 700,000 American jobs through highway, mass transit and water infrastructure investments.
