It's bad enough that companies are shedding jobs in this crisis. But what is really driving the unemployment rate up is the lack of new jobs being created:

But the real problem in the U.S. labor market today isn’t layoffs. It’s a hiring freeze that is gripping most work places - and has not gotten nearly as much attention as the job cuts.

“The hiring rate has caved. That’s why the job market is as bad as it is,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist with Moody’s Economy.com. “Given this low hiring rate, unemployment would still rise even if layoffs were falling.” …

During the last recession in 2001, there was not nearly as sharp a drop in hiring and job openings. In fact, the hiring and job opening rates, which compare new hires and openings to the overall number of workers, are both at their lowest level on record.

And economists say that even if the number of layoffs peaks soon, the pace of hiring and job openings may remain soft for months to come. (Hat Tip: Hot Air )

"Fear is running the show" says one economist. It may be heretical to say it but perhaps if the government didn't speak constantly of "catastrophe" if the bail out bill isn't passed with every dollar in there, "fear" wouldn't be playing such a big role in the job market.

Yes, things are bad. But the genius of an FDR or Reagan was their ability to rally the country in bad economic times by telling the truth about conditions but making the people feel confident that they could overcome the problems facing them and succeed.

No one has any confidence in this crew in the White House because they have been badmouthing the economy for 2 years, trying to scare people first, to vote for them, and now, to pass a pork laden stimulus package. In essence, Obama is the anti-FDR who instead of saying "All we have to fear is fear itself" tells us, as Ed Morrissey so succintly puts it "The sky is falling! The sky is falling!"

Obama doesn't want us to believe in ourselves. He wants us to believe in him. This is the way of the autocrat not a great president.