Geithner, You Magnificent Bastard!

Waaaaaaaayyyyy back on March 16, 2010, Tim Geithner, Peter Orszag, and Christina Romer released a joint statement to Congress on the health of the economy. They gave an unemployment projection that proved to be eerily accurate:

As the pace of job creation picks up in 2011 and 2012, there is likely to be greater progress in reducing unemployment. Nonetheless, because of the severe toll the recession has taken on the labor market, the unemployment rate is likely to remain elevated for an extended period. The forecast projects that in the fourth quarter of 2011, the unemployment rate will be 8.9 percent, and that by the fourth quarter of 2012, it will be 7.9 percent.

At the time (and ever since) I was (have been) outraged – how could the economic leadership of the country sit back and tell us to suck up 8%+ unemployment for almost another 3 years? How could the President let them keep their jobs? 7.9 percent by the end of 2012 indeed.

So the Bureau of Labor statistics released the unemployment data for July this morning. And here’s how it looks on The Chart:

It is stunning how well Geithner and his cronies predicted our situation today (they’re the green dots on the chart). They knew more than 2 years ago where we’d be today. The awful unemployment rates we’ve been experience aren’t a surprise – they were foreseen long ago by this administration.

So when the President tells you “…we tried our plan, and it worked,” now you know what he means.