Frugal Café Blog Zone

Posted By Vicki McClure Davidson on March 2, 2010

The worst winter snow in decades hit Britain and Europe in January 2010, but unemployment numbers there in January and February were better than in December 2009

New unemployment scapegoat for Team Obama: February’s inclement weather.

Figures.

Unemployment up in February in the United States? The White House spinmeisters have a quick and phony-baloney answer, deflecting scrutiny and all blame from Obama’s failed liberal economic policies, America’s growing lack of confidence in POTUS, and our nation’s ballooning debt, thanks to the Democrats in Congress. And POTUS.

Blame “distorted” US unemployment numbers instead on the cold, dreadful February weather that has hit many areas of the country… let me get this clear: place blame for the record cold on “global cooling,” not “global warming“? Or is it the other way around? Not a word about the record-breaking low temperatures and snowfall in January across the country, across Europe, across China, across other countries. China’s unemployment jumped in January to a 30-year-high… no desperate finger-pointing at their winter storms and record snowfall in January.

Only the US government is whining about the weather, creating a weak alibi, rather than acknowledging that the government’s meddling with the economy has made a bigger mess of things than if the free market had been permitted to correct itself WITHOUT both Obama’s thumbs in the economic pies.

From Reuters:

WASHINGTON, March 1 (Reuters) – White House economic adviser Larry Summers said on Monday winter blizzards were likely to distort U.S. February jobless figures, which are due to be released on Friday.

“The blizzards that affected much of the country during the last month are likely to distort the statistics. So it’s going to be very important … to look past whatever the next figures are to gauge the underlying trends,” Summers said in an interview with CNBC, according to a transcript.

Construction activity was hit particularly hard by the storms, but many restaurants and stores also had to close, putting the brakes on hiring plans and temporarily throwing some employees out of work.

Blizzards and record snow also hit the United Kingdom and much of Europe with a vengeance in February, disrupting commerce and day-to-day life, but unemployment figures in the UK remained unchanged from the January numbers… despite also having record winter cold during January: Bundle Up, Brits: Global Cooling, Brutal Snowfall in UK… Coldest, Worst Winter in Decades.

From Irish Times, Euro zone unemployment rate flat:

Euro zone unemployment remained at 9.9 per cent in January and the previous month’s jobless numbers were lower than previously thought, data showed, defying expectations of further labour market deterioration.

The European Union’s statistics agency said unemployment stayed unchanged from the downwardly revised December reading. It had previously estimated December unemployment at 10 per cent.

The jobless rate last reached 9.9 per cent in October 1998. Economists polled by Reuters had on average expected a 10.1 per cent rate for January.

The record-breaking cold and storms in February 2010 have most certainly taken their toll around the world. But the months of December 2009 and January 2010 had their share of unexpected cold and severe winter storms, and weren’t cited once, as far as I can find, as a reason for lack of US economic recovery.

Memory jostling… A few write-ups on the horrific weather in January 2010:

Frugal Café Blog Zone: Baby, It’s COLD Outside… Record Cold and Snow Across Globe

Gateway Pundit: AP: Don’t Let the -45 Degree Weather Fool You… Global Warming Is REAL

I’m not denying that horrible weather will adversely affect many things and many activities, but to have our government latch onto bad weather exclusively to “explain” (translation: make excuses) why unemployment isn’t improving (their buzzword is “distorted”), as Team Obama had promised it would, is thin. Kate-Moss-thin… a bogus snow job.

On a related note, talk radio host Rush Limbaugh made this quip Monday on his radio show:

“Did you guys hear what Obama said after the Chile earthquake? He said we can’t control Mother Nature. ‘Ah, things happen. We can’t control Mother Nature. Except when it comes to my global warming policies.’”

I’m a bit surprised that February’s weather hasn’t been blamed on George W. Bush by Team Obama… but perhaps I’m speaking in haste.

Additional reading:
Gateway Pundit: Radical Left Wants Sen. Bunning Ousted From Baseball Hall of Fame For Opposing Unemployment Benefits and Worst. Congress. Ever. Posts 10% Approval Rating and Glenn Beck Addresses CPAC 10 – Beats Up on GOP and Thanks Barack… Millions of Unemployed Face Years Without Jobs; 4 Million Lose Their Job Under Obama and Dick Cheney at CPAC: Obama Will Last One Termand Obama Lashes Out at GOP For Using Filibuster to Stall His Takeover of 1/6 of US Economy
Ace of Spades HQ: Chain of Fools: Larry Summers Preemptively Blames This Week’s Regularly-Scheduled “Unexpected” Bad Jobs Report on Winter Snow (Which, By the Way, Is Due to Global Warming)
GayPatriot: Call Me Cynical, But… and The Most Important Video I’ve Ever Posted. and Did Scott Brown Rescue New York City?
On My Watch – The Writings of SamHenry: Not Just Polls but Pressure on Select Dems Not to Run 2010
Michelle Malkin: Sen. Bunning and the unemployment benefits debate revisited and The trillion-dollar government pension bubble
Blue Crab Boulevard: Up Until Now…..
HillBuzz: A Queen Gone Insane and The 2010 Obama, the best Government Motors can do
Philip Klein, American Spectator, Zogby Poll Shows Americans Unwilling to Pay Higher Taxes to Insure Everybody
Patterico’s Pontifications: ObamaCare Revealed: Hey, How Does Spending Another Trillion Dollars Grab You? and Can the Democrats Push Through Health Care Using Reconciliation?
Another Black Conservative: Generation Zero the documentary
Frugal Café Blog Zone: Graffiti’s on the Wall: Consumer Confidence Drops to Lowest Since April 2009, Bill Clinton Sees Political Atmosphere Similarities for Dems between 2010 & 1994 and How Much Are Americans Willing to Pay to Insure Everyone on ObamaCare? Most Popular Poll Response: “ZERO” and Obama’s 2007 Fibs Exposed: Claimed JFK Brought His Father to US as Part of 1959 Kenyan Airlift… Not Remotely Possible and Obama’s Stimulus Plan Working? Suburban Homelessness Rises — in Detroit, Hopelessness Is Status Quo — So Much for the Era of “Hopenchange” (video) and Team Obama Oblivious: Unemployment Unexpectedly Jumps Again, More Jobs Lost… This Is an Improvement?
VotingFemale: Obama stimulated a single week loss of 31,000 more voters’ jobs; continues to spend like a mad man
Dancing Czars: This Is Your Country on Progressivism
Motor City Times: Why Is Detroit Broke? 48 Years Of Mismanagement and Detroit Mayor: “This city will not survive without federal support in a big way” and Obama ‘Plans To Spend’ Our Way Out Of Recession
Nice Deb: Random CPAC Pix and On Eve Of CPAC, Conservative Leaders Unite Around Principles And Objectives: The Mount Vernon Statement
The Lonely Conservative: It’s Thursday, time to report the ‘unexpected’ jobless claims

Categories: Business & Economy, Environment and Earth, Government, Social and Political Climate
Tags: Americans, Barack Obama, blizzard, China, Congress, Democrat, economic crisis, economic disaster, economic recession, financial crisis, free market, Larry Summers, liberal, politics, POTUS, Pres. Obama, radio talk show host, record cold, record low temperatures, Rush Limbaugh, talk radio, Team Obama, UK, unemployment, United Kingdom, White House, winter blizzard, winter storm, winter storms