Month: September 2021

That well known socialist rag, the Wall Street Journal, has done its own analysis of job growth in states that ended expanded UI benefits early:

Nonfarm payrolls rose 1.33% in July from April in the 25 states that ended the benefits and 1.37% in the other 25 states and the District of Columbia, the Journal analysis of Labor Department data showed. The payroll figures are taken from a government survey of employers. The analysis compared July totals with April, before governors in May started announcing plans to end or reduce the benefits during the summer.

I'll admit that this is a surprising result. I never expected the early end of UI benefits to have a huge effect, but it ought to have some effect on whether people start looking for jobs. So far, though, it sure seems like the effect is either zero or minuscule.

I've mentioned before that the labor market seems a little wonky in some way that I can't quite put my finger on, and this is yet another piece of evidence for that. I'm still not quite sure what's going on, though, or even what I really mean by "wonky." Something just seems a little off. Whatever it is, it's why I don't think we're truly missing 10 million jobs. I suspect that it's more 5-6 million, and that's all we're ever going to get before job growth returns to its normal growth rate. We'll see.

From Republican leader Kevin McCarthy, responding to potential Democratic subpoenas of phone records from January 6:

If these companies comply with the Democrat order to turn over private information, they are in violation of federal law and subject to losing their ability to operate in the United States. If companies still choose to violate federal law, a Republican majority will not forget and will stand with Americans to hold them fully accountable under the law.

The Washington Post notes dryly that "it is not clear" what law McCarthy is talking about, since warrants and subpoenas for phone records are issued tens of thousands of times every year. McCarthy himself, of course, remained silent on the matter since he knows perfectly well that he's just blowing smoke. This is why he resorted to simply telling telecom companies that if they obey lawful subpoenas Republicans will take revenge on them as soon as they can.

Republicans must truly be scared shitless of what we'll find if we investigate phone and text records of their communications during the insurrection of January 6. This is, once again, banana republic territory that Republicans are threatening to lead us into.