As the Obama Administration struggles to come to terms with Tuesday’s election of Republican Scott Brown to the US Senate seat formerly held by Ted Kennedy, Americans are seeing another rise in jobless claims. The Department of Labor’s weekly jobless number rose by 36,000 in the report released this morning.
Initial claims for jobless benefits rose by 36,000 to 482,000 in the week ended Jan. 16, according to the Labor Department’s weekly report Thursday. The previous week’s level was revised upward to 446,000 from 444,000.
Economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires expected a decrease of 4,000 initial claims.
The four-week moving average, which aims to smooth volatility in the data, also increased as well last week. The Labor Department said the four-week moving average increased by 7,000 to 448,250 from the previous week’s revised average of 441,250.
Labor officials indicate this is more of an administrative problem than an economic one – because some states had a backlog of clams they just processed. However, the new numbers reinforce the central concern of voters and help explain the backlash Democrats felt on Tuesday evening.
Does that mean Team Obama will learn the lesson? Not if you listen to their spin doctors. The line coming out of the White House is the American people are simply unhappy with the pace of change. Apparently we want radical restructuring of our nation crammed down our throats even faster.
Obama’s closest advisers refused to express panic about the issue and vowed to find a way to proceed with some version of health-care reform… Asked whether Obama was having a bad day, [Former White House advisor Anita] Dunn laughed and asked: “Why? Because he’s only got 59 votes in the Senate? Can we get a little perspective here, people?”
Not everyone is whistling past the graveyard, however. Roll Call reports the Democrats on the Hill are wrestling with what to do in light of their less than filibuster proof Senate. However, Roll Cal notes that they still haven’t learned the lesson of the week.
[S]enior Democratic Senate sources made clear Wednesday that the leadership’s intention is to complete health care reform before shifting attention to the economy and pushing for a jobs bill — even though there was anything but clarity on what to do next.
Without a clear vision of how to complete the task, the Senate remains steadfastly committed to not addressing jobs until they figure out a way to salvage further defeat from defeat.
In the meantime, in an indication of Obama’s urge to shift toward populist economic measures, the Wall Street Journal hosts two pieces on the administration’s new bank tax and new regulations.
Goldman chief Lloyd Blankfein … could have, but for an exquisite sense of decorum, also pointed out that one of the things hampering recovery is Washington’s own record of double-dealing with respect to bank investors.
Hark back a few months to the shadow play of the Obama bank stress tests. Crediting themselves with mending the crisis, President Obama and U.S. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner ruled that banks were on a solid footing because private investors would provide fresh capital and banks would be free to book profits and earn their way out of trouble.
That was then. Today it’s politically convenient to bash banks for the very same profits, and to punish the very same investors with a new Obama bank tax. First, the government coaxes banks into buying back the government’s TARP stake (and therefore government’s share of future earnings). Then it turns around and helps itself to a chunk of those earnings anyway.
