As the politicians in Washington DC take time off for their summer vacations, many of us on Left and Right like believe that it's pretty hard to make their look recent handiwork look like much of an achievement.
Not only did the stock market continue its miserable performance today, but we learned that the official US unemployment rate for July 2011, as reported today, .
Indeed, the 117,000 net new jobs recorded last month lagged way behind the 200,000-or-so per month baseline that we need just to keep pace with normal US population and labor force growth.
Furthermore, the only reason the official US unemployment rate didn't soar was that 156,000 adult Americans simply gave up looking for work entirely last month.
Overall, the ratio of employed people to the overall civilian non-institutional population -- apart from hard-working "undocumented workers," who don't show up in these figures -- is back to low levels not scene since "the Gipper."
All told, the official US unemployment rate -- which is hardly a complete indicator of "joblessness" -- has now been at or above 8 percent for -- mos
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