There Has Been No Economic Recovery In California

12-18-2010 • BusinessInsider.com/

In November, 15.97 million people were employed in the Golden State. This number is now flat-lining, at a dead-calm over the past few months. And yes, the look of dismay you see on the face of incoming Governor Jerry Brown is the realization that California is trying to service obligations and a population in fiscal year 2011, with a workforce last seen in the year 2000. That is grim. Here at www.gregor.us and also in recent issues of StockTwits Macro Weekly, I’ve discussed both the recovery in global resource demand and also the very notable recovery taking place in US based export industries from capital goods to agriculture and coal. There is no question that the weak dollar, combined with Non-OECD industrial growth is giving a huge boost to the US railroad industry and all the goods that are pumped through it from our ports. However, this uptick in economic flow is not enough to move the trailing dead-weight of US unemployment–which is now becoming structural. Finally, for anyone who would like to challenge the notion and assert that “California is not the US economy” I would say this: Sorry, but California is indeed the US economy.