BUSH'S BUBBLE ECONOMY IS COLLAPSING

For all the clapping half-wits like Hannity have been doing about the economy, just like they do about Iraq, the reality doesn't change: things haven't been going well and it looks like the situation will just get worse. For the first time in 4 years, the economy actually lost jobs this August:

Economy Loses Jobs, Raising Fears
Sep 7 03:18 PM US/Eastern
By JEANNINE AVERSA
AP Economics Writer

A report released Friday by the Labor Department showed the nation's payrolls shrank by 4,000 in August. It was the first decline in jobs since August 2003. Payrolls fell by 42,000 at that time as the job market was still struggling to recover from the 2001 recession.

Factories led the way in job cuts; they slashed 46,000 positions last month, the most since July 2003. Construction companies eliminated 22,000 jobs, the most in six months. The carnage could turn out to be even worse because the report—based on information as of mid-August—doesn't capture the full brunt of the credit crisis which intensified during the month.

Adding to the gloom: the economy produced 81,000 fewer jobs in June and July combined than the government previously thought.

The decline in construction jobs mirrors the problem in the housing industry. Countrywide is reducing payroll by as much as 20% and expects a 25% decline in the number of mortgages in 2008 compared to 2007. Locally, we've got some serious problems:

Record low unemployment poised to rise
DES predicts creation of positions will drop sharply through '08
By Howard Fischer
Capitol Media Services
Tucson, Arizona Published: 09.07.2007

The state Department of Economic Security predicted Thursday that Arizona will create just 66,600 new jobs this year. That's just half the nearly 135,000 jobs added in 2006 over the prior year.

And the long-term situation is even more dismal: Don Wehbey, the agency's economic analysis manager, said Arizona will create only 47,000 more jobs in 2008.

The prediction is far more pessimistic than the DES thought even six months ago. ... He said what changed that was the "meltdown" of the subprime-mortgage market.

...the state's housing market continued to weaken on its own, hitting the construction industry particularly hard. Wehbey predicted there actually will be close to 15,000 fewer people working in construction by the end of 2008 than there were at the beginning of this year.