Larry Summers: If the next job numbers reek, blame the snow

posted at 8:53 pm on March 1, 2010 by Allahpundit

Good stuff via HuffPo, and doubtless a prelude to being told three months from now that lower-than-expected numbers over the summer are due to people staying home to avoid the heat. There will be a global warming tie-in here eventually, assuming there isn’t one already.

A hypothetical for you. Assume that Summers sincerely believes this. Is this nonetheless a case where it’d be smarter politically not to mention it? Remember, their credibility among the public on the stimulus is utterly shot. The only reason this clip is getting play tonight on blogs, in fact, is because it sounds so laughably lame. All that being true, what does he gain by tossing it out there? Better to take your lumps on Friday if the numbers are low, vow that the new jobs bill will help, and cut your losses.

Blowback

Note from Hot Air management: This section is for comments from Hot Air's community of registered readers. Please don't assume that Hot Air management agrees with or otherwise endorses any particular comment just because we let it stand. A reminder: Anyone who fails to comply with our terms of use may lose their posting privilege.

Trackbacks/Pings

Trackback URL

Comments

Comment pages: « Previous 1 2

Don’t blame it on sunshine,
Don’t blame it on moonlight,
Don’t blame it on Obama,
Blame it on the Blizzard.

Name that tune.

chrisknits on March 2, 2010 at 9:46 AM

Actually, the unemployment plays right into their hands.
The benefit payments barely cover subsistence; Extending benefits discourages job hunting; The bad weather and lack of money keep people from going to Washington for massive demonstrations against their illegal legislation maneuvers, and their media conveniently ignore any resemblance of protest from the citizenry.
And if this ain’t communism, it’s a pretty good attempt to duplicate it.

Cybergeezer on March 2, 2010 at 10:09 AM

They are trying to rickroll those who hate the administration, i.e., we wil lbe champing at the bit for bad numbers, but they will be steady..

ParisParamus on March 1, 2010 at 9:15 PM

That occurred to me too. There are two possibilities. Either they are trying to rickroll us or the numbers are going to be really bad.

Summer’s comments are incredibly stupid, and I’ll wager that he didn’t author them. BTW for those of you who haven’t been following it some have put our current unemployment numbers as high as 27%. A NY Post Article put it at 23%.

The BLS U6 number is at 18%, but they also admit they changed the method of accounting and have dropped a lot of folks off the roll.

Finally CNN Money reported that over a million new people were likely to become homeless at the end of last week.

dogsoldier on March 2, 2010 at 10:20 AM

More Hopey Karma

Who would have thunk? Certainly not the dems or ACORN or SEIU…

This I feel, Real change is a coming.

bluegrass on March 2, 2010 at 10:56 AM

When I am forced to live on a balanced check book, the states and municipalities on a balanced checkbooks, bankrupcies skyrocket in this collasped economy. Need help on figuring it out…… Its the shitheads in DC and the administration and their out of control pensions, benefits and run-a-way socialist spending. It is soon time for the youth of this country to demand responsibility from these crooks and put them in prison or a firing squad… thats the difference between the tea party movement and the pussy coffee movement. Why not just let the Chinese manage our economy, they would do a maauch better job. This problem is union made in the USA courtesy of the dems and the media.

bluegrass on March 2, 2010 at 11:03 AM