Crisis continues un-abated despite rosy predictions by economists

The numbers released this morning by the Labor Department are sobering: September saw the U.S. economy shed 263,000 more jobs, 53,000 of them in government. (Loss of government jobs in times like these is very bad because governments should by all rights be adding jobs to make up for the bleeding in the private sector.) Over 15 million people are now officially unemployed. The (grossly underestimated) unemployment rate now stands at 9.8 percent.

In related news, the Business Roundtable conducted a survey of CEOs collectively employing about ten million people. Only 13 percent of them expect to do any net hiring in the next 12 months. The news is bad, and the prognosis might be worse.

Economists continue to show their cluelessness. Every time I turn around, I hear one of them talking about a recovery that exists only in their own Milton Friedman-addled little heads.A recent Dow Jones Newswires survey of economists had them expecting this morning's report to show a gain of 175,000 jobs in September. They were only off by 438,000 jobs. It's not like these guys get paid extremely well to have a handle on these things or anything. What do you expect? With few exceptions (Roubini), economists have been dead wrong about everything from deregulation to NAFTA for the past 20 years. Thanks, Chicago School!

In related news, markets will tank today, not that anyone cares anymore.