President Bush claimed today that the 4.4% unemployment rate proved that his tax cuts were working.
I immediately snapped my fingers to keep the tigers away; in other words there may be no causal relation between unemployment and tax cuts. It is rather simple-minded to claim one action was responsible for a given effect in a complex economy.
My wife said all the soldiers in Iraq was also a part. There are only 140,000 troops in Iraq but that is only part of the armed forces. I also thought that the war economy was also creating jobs to satisfy the need for ammunition, weapons, food, and other supplies.
Higher oil prices could lead to more exploration; the need for more computer power could lead to more support; students returning to school creates jobs in education and a need for non-students to fill some of the jobs the students held, more baby boomers are retiring and need to be replaced. It really is very hard to say what cause really stands out above all others for reduced employment.
