[Posted by Karl]

ABC News Political Director Amy Walter and ABC pollster Gary Langer, shaking the pom-poms: (more…)

[Posted by Karl]

Ed Morrissey performs the traditional mocking of Reuters and its clueless macroeconomists, so let me merely hypothesize why further unemployment is not “unexpected”:

Companies are laying off employees at a level not seen in nearly a year, hobbling the job market and intensifying fears about the pace of the economic recovery.

Cisco Systems Inc., Lockheed Martin Corp. and troubled bookstore chain Borders Group Inc. are among those that have recently announced hefty cuts, while recent government numbers underscore how companies have shifted toward cutting jobs.

The increase in layoffs is a key reason why the U.S. recorded an average of only 21,500 new jobs over the past two months, far below the level needed to bring down unemployment, which now stands at 9.2%.

Note the inclusion of Cisco and Lockheed; at MarketWatch, Jeff Reeves argues that layoffs in tech, aerospace and financial services point to “significantly higher unemployment in the near future, possibly over the 10% mark.”

Pres. Obama, the “greatest wet blanket to business and progress and job creation” in a lifetime, having rammed through a government takeover of the healthcare industry larded with disincentives to hire, does not help.

–Karl