Job Growth Surprisingly Slow in February

--current headline at nytimes.com

February Job Growth Surprisingly Weak

--current Reuters/Yahoo News headline

Surprising? To whom? Maybe to Beltway conventional wisdom-mongers, but not to any ordinary American.

*******

Meanwhile, The New York Times has this on the "Bush boom":

Nation's Debt Grew at Rapid Pace in 2003

...The Federal Reserve reported yesterday that the nation's debt, including both household and government borrowing, grew last year at a pace not seen since the late 1980's.

According to the quarterly federal funds report, the total national debt, excluding the obligations of banks and other financial institutions, grew 8.1 percent last year, its fastest pace since 1988.

Households threw caution to the wind, mortgaging and remortgaging their homes and expanding their debt by 10.4 percent, the biggest percentage gain since 1987. Federal government borrowing expanded by 10.9 percent, the fastest rate since 1992. Only businesses held back. Still hobbled by credit overhangs from the investment boom of the late 1990's, corporate borrowing inched ahead by 3 percent....

A deep recession provided a sour end to the 1980's credit bender, when huge federal deficits fueled double-digit annual growth in the federal debt....

"There's a time-bomb issue," said Allen Sinai of Decision Economics, a consulting firm. "There are potential adverse consequences, but we don't know when." ...