The Bush economy

The Gadflyer points out Bush's job creation numbers aren't that strong after all.

Because population growth requires the economy to produce about 150,000 jobs per month – a point Kerry adviser Tad Devine tried to explain to Judy Woodruff on CNN today – that means that the Administration must create more than 150,000 jobs each month outpace the expanding size of the employable national workforce, thereby creating net new jobs and lowering the unemployment rates.

Those rates are holding steady, which should raise flags in the media. For the innumerate scribes out there, the math is so simple you can do it without removing your shoes:

Because 9 x 150,000 is 1.35 million, and because subtracting this figure from 1.4 million yields the miniscule total of 50,000 jobs, the president’s policies during the past three quarters have created an average of fewer than 6,000 net new jobs per month during the past nine months above and beyond the jobs needed to meet an expanding employable population.

For a larger collection of stories on the Bush economy, head to The Talent Show.