http://donklephant.com/2009/04/01/742000-jobs-lost-in-march/ Big Teeth. Huge Ass. Surprisingly Reasonable. Tue, 14 Feb 2012 14:03:13 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 http://donklephant.com/2009/04/01/742000-jobs-lost-in-march/comment-page-1/#comment-441041 Jim S Thu, 02 Apr 2009 01:28:32 +0000 http://donklephant.com/?p=14262#comment-441041 One thing that occurs to me is the possibility that the old "lagging indicator" meme can break down if there is enough of a drop in employment in our current system where 70% of economic activity depends on consumer spending. If you have a large enough ongoing reduction in the number of working people (As shown not only by the monthly number of jobs lost but by how many are still unemployed, which is huge now.) then you reduce the ability of consumers to spend. A large enough number could readily lead to a hard to break downward spiral. One thing that occurs to me is the possibility that the old “lagging indicator” meme can break down if there is enough of a drop in employment in our current system where 70% of economic activity depends on consumer spending. If you have a large enough ongoing reduction in the number of working people (As shown not only by the monthly number of jobs lost but by how many are still unemployed, which is huge now.) then you reduce the ability of consumers to spend. A large enough number could readily lead to a hard to break downward spiral.

]]>