Unemployment To Remain Unacceptably High For Years

As any decent economist will tell you, a jobless recover from an economic slump isn’t a true recovery. Because unless the private sector begins expanding and hiring people to help them do it, private-sector growth is extremely limited.

With that in mind, we discover that the President’s chief economic advisor is saying that the unemployment rate will likely stay “unacceptably high” for years to come.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0909/27052.html

The president’s chief economic adviser warned Friday that the nation’s unemployment rate could stay “unacceptably high” for years to come — a situation that would seriously complicate Barack Obama’s ability to convince Americans that he’s beating back the recession.

“The level of unemployment is unacceptably high,” National Economic Council Director Larry Summers said Friday. “And will, by all forecasts, remain unacceptably high for a number of years.”

So we’re going to have problems with job growth in the coming years, eh? I wonder if this could have anything to do with it?
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125268390913603465.html

As the recession and bailout have pushed this year's federal budget deficit to an unheard-of $1.6 trillion, an unpleasant reality has dawned: Taxes are going up. The only questions are when, how much, and for whom?

The answers depend on the shifting sands of wealth politics and the scope of health-care revision. "But everybody thinks that by 2011 tax rates will be higher, at least for those with higher incomes," says Thomas Ochsenschlager, a tax official at the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.

This certainty turns traditional tax-planning logic upside-down. Taxpayers have long been advised to defer taxes as long as possible, especially by making contributions to tax-sheltered IRAs and 401(k)s or holding assets for years in order to postpone realizing gains.

Now taxpayers should reconsider this rule.

Increased taxes are such a certainty that tax preparers are starting to develop strategies to help you survive them. And we all know that increased taxes slow economic growth, and since many of the proposed taxes would impact that sector of our economy that creates the most jobs (small business owners)… that means job creation will take an even bigger hit.

Tax increases are coming, and our unemployment rate is going to remain high for years. It’s amazing that the supposedly intelligent people in DC can’t put these two together worth a darn.