Boom Time In Obamerika

Just when you thought Red Barry's white-hot economy couldn't get any hotter, it has!  Oh, ye of little faith, why did you doubt?

***Wholesale sales fell 0.7% in July:

[T]he Commerce Department said June wholesale inventories rose slightly by 0.1% to $399.2 billion but sales dropped 0.7%. Inventory restocking has been a driver of the recovery from the worst recession in decades. But falling sales will do little to encourage stockpiling.

Why is this good news?  Because worker productivity has also started to slide:

Nonfarm business sector labor productivity decreased at a 0.9% annual rate during the second quarter of 2010, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today, with output and hours rising 2.6% and 3.6%, respectively. (All quarterly percent changes in this release are seasonally adjusted annual rates.) The decline in output per hour follows five quarters of strong productivity growth. The second-quarter gain in hours worked was the largest since the first quarter of 2006 when hours rose 4.1%. From the second quarter of 2009 to the second quarter of 2010, both productivity and output increased 3.9%; hours were unchanged (chart 1, tables A and 2).

If what's left of private industry has maxed out what it can get out of the shrunken workforce it has, the only other option would have been to hire more employees.  But thanks to the necrotizing "recovery," plummeting household incomes will kneecap demand, which will decline sales more than enough to relieve employers of the bother of having to hire to take up that new slack.  Isn't that wonderful?

***Second quarter GDP growth turns out to be half of what the regime claimed it was, which itself was "unexpectedly" far short of what they hyped.  But this is Barackzarro World, so the slower the economy expands until it can resume contracting again, the better!

***LESS!  LESS!  LESS!  LESS!:

The U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, through the Department of Commerce, announced today that total June exports of $150.5 billion and imports of $200.3 billion resulted in a goods and services deficit of $49.9 billion, up from $42.0 billion in May, revised. …

The May to June decrease in exports of goods reflected decreases in capital goods ($1.4 billion); industrial supplies and materials ($1.0 billion); and foods, feeds, and beverages ($0.3 billion). Increases occurred in automotive vehicles,parts, and engines ($0.2 billion); other goods ($0.2 billion); and consumer goods ($0.1 billion).

The May to June increase in imports of goods reflected increases in consumer goods ($3.1 billion); automotive vehicles, parts, and engines ($1.3 billion); other goods ($0.6 billion); and capital goods ($0.5 billion). A decrease occurred in industrial supplies and materials ($0.2 billion). Foods, feeds, and beverages were virtually unchanged.

This isn't a case of "We bought even more foreign goods and services than we produced"; rather, it's "We produced and sold even less than we imported.  Yay!

***Make that a two-thirds downward 2Q'10 GDP revision.  Yippie!

***Oh, boy!  We got rid of job openings in June, and not from job creation, neither!:

Company job openings fell for the second straight month in June, a sign that hiring isn’t likely to pick up in the coming months.

The data comes after a weak employment report Friday that showed businesses aren’t adding enough new workers to bring down the unemployment rate, currently 9.5%.

Wednesday’s report, known as the Job Openings and Labor Turnover survey, or JOLTS, suggests that won’t change anytime soon.

"JOLTS".  Like "Jolt!" cola, right?  And "Jolt!" cola is pumped full of caffeine, right?  And caffeine is a stimulant, right?  Stimulant?  Stimulus?  Huh?  Huh?  Are the feds clever or what?

***But I have to be honest with you, ladies and gentlemen.  It isn't ALL good news.  We do have to report some news that is depressing, even shocking: Not everybody is sharing and reveling in all this delightful economic misery:

With the passage of a $26 billion aid package Tuesday to help states pay for Medicaid and teacher salaries, most state budgets will get some help in paying for education programs, but states not facing massive teacher layoffs and cutbacks are also set to receive millions in federal money.

The federal government estimates that the bill will save 161,000 teaching jobs, but North Dakota, Tennessee, Arkansas, Alaska and a handful of other states have kept their educational pay rolls full despite the recession, which has drastically lowered government revenues around the country. Since the new bill provides funds based on state population and the number of children in school, these states will receive funds even if their budgets are in the black. This has some employees at state education departments wondering exactly how they will spend all the fresh cash.

Arkansas, for example, has a fully funded teaching staff for the coming year, but the state will still receive up to $91 million for teaching jobs. …

In Alaska for instance, school districts made hiring decisions for teachers last May, and apportioned the children in each class based upon those numbers. Although the teaching jobs are filled, the state will still receive $24 million under the bill, and a state official asserted that it probably would not go to adding new teachers.

Do not get angry, my friends; be sad.  Weep.  Wail.  Gnash your teeth.  Mourn these poor public sector souls, devastated by the tragic horror of drowning in another mountain of pilfered cash.  They will never know (at least not for another few months) the great and boundless joy that poverty and hunger and dependency and humiliation and emasculation bring.

But don't drive yourselves to vicarious despair.  Remember the silver lining:

[A] decreasing number of private-sector workers will have to pay for an increasing number of public-sector workers.

Whew.  Boy, I feel better now.  Don't you?

***See, this is what makes Recovery Summer so inspirational - wishing for something really does make it so:

Well, no, I guess it doesn't.  But the giant white rabbit standing next to Trumka TOLD him there was no deficit problem, and you know Harvey - if anybody doubts his existence, he has Trumka's goons beat you unconscious.  And that's no way to enjoy the boom times of Recovery Summer.