Hope And Change: Jobless Rate Hits 8.1%, Highest Point Since 1983

650,000 jobs lost according to the latest report.

The nation’s unemployment rate rose to 8.1 percent in February, the Labor Department reported this morning, adding another grim indicator to an economic picture already darkened this week.
More than 650,000 people lost their jobs last month, pushing the unemployment rate up from 7.6 percent in January.
The jobless rate stood at its highest point since 1983.
The expectation of another reported increase in unemployment already was sending stock futures lower this morning in advance of trading on the final day of a week in which key indices had reached their lowest levels in more than a decade.

Ugly. And Obama’s fix? More of the same!

The government is seeking to resuscitate the nation’s crippled financial system by forging an alliance with the very outfits that most benefited from the bonanza preceding the collapse of the credit markets: hedge funds and private-equity firms.
The initiative to revive the consumer lending business, outlined by officials this week, offers these wealthy investors a new chance to make sizable profits — but, thanks to the government, without the risk of massive losses.
The idea is to entice them to put their huge cash piles to work to stimulate the financial system. They would be invited to buy up recently issued, highly rated securities. These securities finance consumer lending, such as credit cards and student and auto loans.
The program, which could involve the government lending nearly $1 trillion to these investors, exceeds the size of every other federal effort to address the crisis so far. The initiative’s approach could be the model for future federal efforts to aid the credit markets, sources familiar with government planning said. Officials call this strategy a “public-private partnership,” but in essence the government is offering good deals to private investors to draw them into its rescue efforts.

So the government is going to entice lenders into making more easy money available in the credit markets by giving them government backing to ensure that they won’t lose anything if they make bad loans. Doesn’t that sound awfully like the government enticing lenders to make subprime loans with the assurance that government sponsored entities Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would buy up the bad loans?
Something that had Fannie and Freddie owning or securing over 51% of the $12 trillion domestic mortgage market by the time of the housing collapse?
This isn’t a fix. This isn’t change. This is a re-institution of the status quo at a time when we should be letting the market run its course.
What’s sad is that Obama is doing this on purpose. More government-backed loans means more government control over our credit markets in general.