Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Job Market Collapse Sparks Protests

The collapse of the job market is in progress, and there is increasing awareness of the issue. Even though we are yet to see a monthly job report that indicates that layoffs have resumed, layoffs continue to accelerate as more and more companies and businesses throw people out of work.

We are now seeing an outbreak of protests over the job market issue. A large number of protests have erupted in the last two weeks as outlined in the Daily Kos article on the many instances of constituents displaying their frustration at GOP town halls.

Here is a partial list of articles showing the large number of job market related protests that have erupted throughout the United States:

1 -- Ordinary Americans Continue to Deliver Progressive Messages at Republican Town Hall Meetings.

2 -- Members of Congress face job protests.

3 -- Invisible Town Hall Revolution Continues to Roll, with real impact on GOP.

4 -- Republicans at home face protests from liberal, labor groups.

5 -- Unemployed protest outside Fitzpatrick's office.

It isn't just Republicans that are getting the blame for the collapsing job market. People are blaming Obama as well, as evidenced by the latest gallop poll that indicates that Obama's approval rating on the economy dropped to a new low of 26%. Obama's overall approval rating is down to 39%, another new low. Even now, Obama is facing a great deal of criticism from unions and labor groups on the jobs issue as well as the debt ceiling deal.

It doesn't help that President Obama's proposals for creating jobs involves a substantial amount of magical thinking, as the proposal mostly revolves around creating more free trade agreements and extending tax credits to businesses and corporations.

The Obama Administration will attempt to pass a "jobs bill" after Labor Day. People in the mainstream media are optimistic that a jobs bill can be passed, but the optimism is mostly a product of optimistic social mood associated with a big wave 2 in a bear market. There is no chance of any type of jobs bill getting passed as polarization in politics will continue to increase with the GOP accelerating farther to the right over time, making compromise impossible.

As Primary wave [3] down (2011 - 2016) continues to unfold, expect protests to increase in size, extent, duration, and assertiveness. The protests at town halls are numbering from dozens to a few hundred now, but as social mood continues to become more and more bearish, the protests will increase in size, reaching 20,000 or more by early 2016 as more and more people take to the streets.


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