Cash for clunkers worked for a while because people can always be counted on to move heaven and earth for “free money” from the government, but it ran out. The tax credits for first-time homebuyers is more free money and that’s going to run out. And eventually the free money people are getting for not working is going to run out too. You can’t keep extending benefits year after year. And when that happens, all those folks who have stopped looking for work will suddenly start looking for work again, because people like to eat and pay rent. Then the “official” unemployment will begin to track closer to “real” unemployment.

In Michigan, official unemployment is about 20%, but it’s really 30%. When the official number starts drifting up past the 25% of the 1930s, you’ll see a Republican governor. In Michigan.

In Oregon they just voted to soak the rich to keep the government gravy train rolling. Watch Nike and Intel start leaving for places like Alabama or South Carolina. Watch California become the first state to collapse in US history, followed by austerity measures imposed by the federal government in return for a bailout, as if California was Argentina.