Quote from Landis82:
Did you not read the part where the Fed upped its growth forecast looking for the Economy to only "shrink" between 1-1.5% as opposed to their previous forecast of 1.3-2.0%
Are you not aware that the unemployment rate lags an economic recovery?
Everyone knows that.
i don't agree with you. everything in that seems negative. just because they have raised their forecast does not mean their forecast is correct if they estimated things correctly we might not be in this mess.
in relation to unemployment i can understand the position that if it is high labour is cheaper and economic recovery is easier to achieve however the other necessities to get the economy recovering are not there. due to the interest rate being so low there is less investment from the private sector and banks as their agents. this means no new investment for businesses so no new start ups. also businesses are finding it harder to get short term credit to cover operating costs. unemployment will rise and there will not be a recovery soon as a result of this.
for economic recovery to occur investment has to be there that means either the government has to do it, fiscal stimulus (which it is but it is limited and as soon as it stops there is nothing to get people investing privately (low interest rate) again) or the private sector has to do it saving with interest rate as incentive low interest rate means low incentive meaning no long term investment into the market so although there might be a recovery in the near term through the fiscal stimulus it will not continue unless the interest rate rises.
the interest rate cannot rise sufficiently to provide incentive because it will cause businesses to collapse and people to lose their homes due to extra payments on the high level of debt. effectively until the debt gets paid off or another method of raising capital is introduced there will be no long term economic recovery.
also unemployment is hitting records which means the economy is in record bad shape.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8151017.stm
you also have to understand that for the labour force to enter the workforce it has to have the right skills. this means retraining or people doing jobs they are not trained in. i assume your position is based on the rational expectation concept of the long term labour market where it is assumed that people will instantly get new jobs that pay less if they are unemployed. although that is a noble idea the adaptive expectations theory that it takes time is more accurate and most economists now take that position.
also that counters the view of a fiscal stimulus which means that the government had to aid the labour market to get the economy running again.
in short your point contradicts your view of the business cycle.