Unemployment Surges to 10.2 Percent, CNN Asks About Second Stimulus

Photo of Julia A. Seymour.
  • Bookmark and Share

President Obama lobbied for government stimulus almost as soon as he took office. In order to gain passage of that $787 billion spending spree, Obama warned of economic "catastrophe" including double-digit unemployment.

Roughly 9 months later, we now have proof that those billions of taxpayer dollars spent didn't stop the unemployment rate from soaring to 10.2 percent. Still, that failure didn't prevent one CNN anchor from asking if a second stimulus might be needed.

CNN business correspondent Christine Romans announced the latest jobs numbers on Nov. 6 during "American Morning. She said, "The unemployment rate is 10.2 percent. It is worse than economists had been expecting - 10.2 percent - we have hit double-digits on the unemployment rate now and this is the highest since the early 1980s. The number of jobs lost: 190,000 jobs lost in the month. That is a little worse than we had thought."

Following Romans' report, CNN anchors John Roberts and Kiran Chetry consulted author William Cohan, a contributor to The DailyBeast.com and Bloomberg, and Diane Brady, senior editor of BusinessWeek magazine. Both guests were concerned about the rising rate of unemployment and Cohan said he didn't see "anything optimistic about these numbers."

Obama administration officials said that with a stimulus package unemployment wouldn't rise above 8 percent, but neither anchor pointed out that failure of the massive spending package.

Story Continues Below Ad ↓

Instead Roberts asked, "So I guess Bill, the question many people are asking this morning is ‘Wow. How long do we have to live in fear? How long until things really start to turn around? And what about this idea of a second stimulus, purely to create jobs?'"

Cohan replied, "Well I think the administration may have to come to terms with that very shortly. I know there's been a lot of talk about it - the question is can we afford that as a country vs. can we afford not to do it. I mean, we have huge budget deficits. We have a huge $12 trillion that the Fed and the Treasury has pumped into the economy already. Uh, you know this is not an easy problem."

The Associated Press and other outlets have reported that a "second stimulus" is likely on the way, but will be done in "stealth" mode. Time magazine predicted "More stimulus is coming, but it just won't be called stimulus," because public opinion has turned against it.

The last time unemployment was at 10.2 percent was in 1983 under President Ronald Reagan.

The Business & Media Institute recently released a Special Report about network coverage of unemployment in 2009 under Obama and 1982 under Reagan. BMI found reporters desperately looking for silver linings in 2009, but consistently showing the "worst of times" in 1982 with people living out of trucks under bridges or collecting free food at a food bank. Networks reports were 13 times more negative in their treatment of Reagan compared to Obama.

—Julia A. Seymour is an assistant editor for the Business & Media Institute.


Comments Policy

All comments are owned by whoever posted them and are subject to our terms of use. They should not be assumed to represent the views of NewsBusters.

Viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.

Unemployment won't go over 25% did not sound as good

How did I know that Obama would start out his speech today about the unemployment numbers by saying "When we took over...." translated "It's all  Bush's fault!!"  You would think this guy who is SO 'brillant' and "cerebral" not to mention so darn good looking without a shirt would have had some damned idea of what things were like when he was running for the job and telling us how he could handle it. 

And the left wonders why we don't love and trust this guy when NOTHING he says or promises comes to pass.  That's one thing when you are campaigning, quite another when you hold the job. Don't stand in front of us and tell us how this bill or that bill will save the world only to watch more taxpayers money spent on 'paying off' your campaign supporters.

 

 

Stay Free!!!

"we now have proof that

"we now have proof that those billions of taxpayer dollars spent didn't stop the unemployment rate from soaring to 10.2 percent. "

Nor was it ever designed to. It was designed to reward supporters and expand government.

The "Mainstream" Media: By liberals. For liberals.

1st Stimulus is <25% spent!

I don't get it.  The 1st so-called stimulus was a shotgun of spending on a bunch of garbage and only 25% of it has been spent in nearly a year...so we're going to do stimulus 2.0?  Honestly, if that happens, I will go to the White House myself and hold up a sign saying GMAFB....figure it out.  How about letting all American spend our own dang money!  A payroll tax freeze for 6 mos to a year, that'd be truly immediate stimulus of 20%+ in your  next paycheck!  But no, the gov't can spend our money more effectively....yeah right.

Now wait just a minute

Have you run out of your $13.00 per week already?

The one bit of truth

There's a kernel of truth that Master Barry Soetoro told everyone that if the stimulus wasn't passed, unemployment would be at 8 percent.  So it was passed and it was higher than 8 percent.

Thank you, Barry!  Such a wonderful gift!

-Jon

These pundits on TV would

These pundits on TV would have done better to take a MacroEconomics course in college instead of basket-weaving. Their ignorance is glaring.

Wait....I thought the first

Wait....I thought the first stimulus package was working better than they ever imagined?

It is. The point of the

It is. The point of the "stimulus" was to destroy as many private sector jobs as possible, and to increase the number of people working for the guv'mint. It's working great.

No citizen's right to life, liberty, pursuit of happiness, or property is safe as long as Obama is President of the United States.

The sad thing is that

The sad thing is that they're serious.

Incredible.

One of the 34% who thinks George W. Bush was a great President. One of the 86% who wants to bring back the stock and pillory.

WORSE BEFORE GETS BETTER

 As an Economist, I can guarantee you real unemployment is near 20%.  Even here in Maryland, which is supported by Federal Government jobs, stores are closing all over the place. It seems as though every other building has "for lease", "going out of business",  "relocating", etc.  This depression is real and is just getting going.  The only reason the stock market appears to be doing well is that there is no other place you can come ahead with your money.  By the way, I think Gold is a bubble.  Obozo is in over his head and he has no clue on how to run anything but his purple lipped mouth.

 

The Government is the Enemy 

THE MOST BUSTED NAME IN NEWS...

 There really needs to be a surge of unemployment at CNN. They are in dire need of viewers, & so much of it is due to the piss poor presentation of the days events. Not to mention the commentary is less then great as well. They need to purge CNN Center & rebuild.

 

"...How blind can you be, don't you see...

...that the gambler lost all he does not have..."  

Nightwish

Lamestream media

10.2% unemployment means the economy is improving sharpley

 

Muslim kills 13 and prove they are a peacefull religion

Snow in October means we have proof of global warming

 

Flooding in Georgia recently proved the planet is entering a dangerous hot drought cycle

 

 

Viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.