In perusing CBO's latest budget forecast, I am once again taken by the magnitude of the 2001-2003 tax cuts (AKA the Bush tax cuts).

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has released its update to the Budget and Economic Outlook for Fiscal Years 2008 to 2018. The report anticipates that at the end of the current fiscal year (Sept. 30), the federal deficit for FY 2008 will be $409 (about 3 percent of GDP), $51 billion more than it predicted in March.

This morning's release of jobs and unemployment data continue the streak of unhappy economic data. In August, the unemployment rate jumped to 6.1 percent from July's 5.7 percent. The jobless rate has not been this high since Sept. 2003. Employers surveyed by the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that they had cut 84,000 jobs since July. However, the 17,000 jobs added governments hides the 101,000 job losses in the private job market. Since January, private employers have reduced payrolls by over 750,000 jobs.

The Economic Policy Institute has released the advanced version of The State of Working America, 2008/2009; full version will be available Jan. 2009. Described as the "most comprehensive independent analysis of the U.S. labor market" by the Financial Times, the 11th edition shows that the business cycle that started in 2001 will be one for the record books....Prepared biennially since 1988, The State of Working America scrutinizes family incomes, jobs, wages, unemployment, wealth, poverty, and health care coverage, describing the economy's effect on our nation's standard of living.