check your speed. see how fast your internet can be. switch now and add voice and tv for $34.90. comcast business built for business. according to the commerce department, the u.s. economy shrank this past quarter for the first time since 2011. joining me now to explain how this affects you, peter moresi former chief economist for the u.s. trade commission and professor of the smith school of business at the university of maryland. peter, thank for joining me today. it s a pleasure to have you with me. [ applause ] nice to be with you. there is a shocking new figure that came out this week that one in six men above the age of 35 are unemployed in america. that cannot sound at all like a recovering economy, so what s the real story? well, the real story is the u.s. economy through this recovery has not been growing as
but that would require wifi. switch to comcast business internet and get two wifi networks included. comcast business built for business. according to the commerce department the u.s. department shank for the first time since 2011. and joining how it affects you, peter, the former chief economist and professor of the smith school of business and the university of maryland. peter, it is it a pleasure to have you with me. and there is a shocking new figure that came out this week that one in six men above the age of 35 are unemployed in america. that can t sound like a recovering economy. and that is a real and the
clearly democrats did their own polling before they took on this message. look, the democrats would say, we ve been on your side, we ve been fighting for the little guy for a long time. it shows you the republicans do have a problem. you ask people who fights for the middle class, who s side are you on, the democrats certainly have a better image than the republicans. and the republicans acknowledge that s a problem for their brand. that s what the president s going to try to do the. the presidents and the democrats want to make this about, look, we have a recovering economy, who s here to help you get through these tough times. they will argue the republicans won t help you. that s what they want to talk about. part of it is the effort to change the subject from obamacare. that will be the tug of war of 2014. can the republicans keep it about obamacare or can the democrats make it about economic
let me start with jobless claims. they jumped to 368,000. that s the jobless claim increase. about 68,000 increase. that s how many people lined up for the first time for unemployment benefits in the last week. it s higher than you want to see, but government accountants and economists are saying it s likely because of the way the thanksgiving holiday fell. it dropped substantially last week, then they rose the next week, so that s what you re seeing there. the trend is still good there. if you ve been newly unemployed, you have a better chance of getting a job right now than you have in some time. the next number, retail sales. this is a story about cars, my friend. you saw good car sales in november. people came in for black friday. they came in to buy cars. good incentives, but also a recovering economy. more confidence. people were out there with discounts and auto deals and they were buying both cars and other merchandise as well. so you saw a 7% increase in all.
forces that are changing the economy. fred, when you look at 2014, i know that it s easy to say it s going to be a bad year for the democrats because of health care and the president s job rating. you have this recovering economy. i assume that benefits all incumbent governors first. does it help democrats? yes, i do. i think in terms you thank or know that? i think and hope. and then think. i think with the president, it s all with the fundamentals. will he perform? will the american public think he s done the job on the economy on health care and foreign policy? he needs that trifecta. we are getting it with the economy. the iran deal. i think the other thing is who 2014 benefits. i m not sure yet. when you listen to the focus group and others, parts and the