I want to recommend that you look at this post at Quartz consisting of ten great graphs. They illustrate what’s going on in the world today.
Now consider this: neither our foreign policy nor our domestic policies are prepared to deal with the realities they portray and none of the presidential candidates in either party are talking about them. Take this one, for example, of U. S. quits, hires, and job openings:
For the last six years relatively few people have been quitting, the rate at which people are being hired has been moderate and fairly constant, and the the rate at which new jobs have been opening up has been growing slowly. The rate of new job jobs opening has, for the first time, become larger than the rate at which people are being hired. The number of people still out of work who’ve been out of work since the last recession is still in the millions. What’s the correct policy?
Also, look at the export figures for China and Taiwan and China’s foreign reserves. Now look at Japan’s current account balance. What do you conclude?
This table from the BLS showing the actual numbers of hires, job openings, and quits might be handy, too.
I don’t know what you expect of presidential candidates. In 2008 neither of them had jack shit to say about the then current financial crisis, other than that they were the person to fix it. In 2012 all Obama wanted to talk about was how stupid Mormons are (as opposed to the brilliance of the Black Liberation Theology that he allegedly believes in) and “binders full of women”. To this day I’m not sure what Romney wanted to talk about.
At least with Trump he’s getting in shots about immigration, trade policy and occasionally taxes. Probably the next best candidates in terms of substance are Bernie Sanders, Jeb! and Cruz. Cruz is aping Trump right now, hoping that Trump fades and he can pick up Trump’s support*. El Jeffe Jeb! is campaigning to make America more like Mexico, and Bernie Sanders is campaigning for communism & gulags for all non-Democrats. (Which is to say, the usual Democratic platform – but usually they campaign on who’s the next Kennedy or who will chack off the appropriate affirmative action box for first [BLANK] to be President.) All & all, this is more substance than I expected. And it’s not like any of them believe a single goddamned thing they’re saying, or will even attempt any of it.
* Gotta say I find Cruz both creepy and too slick. From what I understand, he’s quite brilliant, and from the arc his career has taken I presume he believes in nothing other than that HE needs to have more power. I mean far more so than pretty much anyone else. His naked ambition seems less in check than with most of them. He may well be the scariest guy running.
Um, doesn’t the import/export chart show we’re in a recession? Even if oil is driving the import side, exports have cratered to previous recession levels.
Also, I think he/she/it is calling the break in Brazilian inflation awfully early. That’s a minor blip, the kind that often gets corrected in future months.
All in all I continue to believe that no one really knows what the Hell is going on with the US economy.
Lots of “job openings” but wages remain stagnant. Not sure how real those openings really are.
Steve
People postponing retirement, job offerings in the service sector starting @ $10-11 per hour. Private sector unions all but gone. Low pay also causing young people to delay, perhaps permanently, moving out on their own. These jobs aren’t incentivizing. They offer words instead of pay, (team member, associate, assistant manager).
And yes people would take them if they were hungry but they’re not,
Lots and lots of Hispanics filling these jobs, not sure how many are on the books or off the books and therefore off your chart.