When can we start the recall?
Reporting from Sacramento -- California's unemployment rate jumped to 9.3% in December -- the highest in 15 years -- and with more layoffs expected, economists predicted even higher numbers for the rest of the year.
The state Employment Development Department today reported that the December jobless rate was up almost a full percentage point from 8.4% in November. It stood at 5.9% a year earlier.
The rate for Los Angeles County, which like the state number is seasonally adjusted, was 9.9% for December, up from a revised 8.9% for November.
"It's an ugly report," said Howard Roth, chief economist for the state Department of Finance. "We're in the grips of a formidable recession," with the highest unemployment since January 1994.
The new data reflected lackluster holiday sales, continued home value declines and a heightened tempo of layoffs at companies across all sectors of the economy.
Arnold has thoroughly screwed this state up entirely. I propose he makes a couple of Terminator movies and donates all the proceeds to the State of California. That's the least he can do.
UPDATE: You want more of Arnuld's incompetence?
Let's start with Arnold, shall we? He's currently facing a $40 billion budget shortfall in California, the state he allegedly governs. The whole reason he's governor is because the Republicans had Gray Davis recalled over a $38 billion budget shortfall -- and guess what? As both Davis and Paul Krugman pointed out at the time (h/t to The Daily Howler), that budget shortfall had already been whittled down to $8 billion for the coming fiscal year, and would likely have been eliminated the year after that, had his policies been left untouched by Schwarzenegger.
But of course, the problem is that they weren't. Among the first things Arnold did was to repeal the state tax on cars. As Schwarzenegger himself stated earlier this year, that "gave $20 billion back" to Californians -- or rather, took away $20 billion in revenues over the years (at least $4 billion to start, plus another $4 billion for each year afterward), or half the amount of the current deficit, from the state. (He would later impose a regressive car tax, in the form of new drivers' fees, when it became apparent that the state couldn't be run on hot air and deficit spending.)
