Deficit Jim: Your unemployment isn't real

In case there was any doubt, Jim Flaherty lets Canadians know that as far as he's concerned, the "real economy" doesn't include such trifling matters as whether workers can find jobs:

“We have to be patient,” Mr. Flaherty said. “Our expectation should be that we will have a persisting unemployment problem well into 2010. Our economy will be recovering. We will see some moderate growth in 2010 but the employment numbers will lag the recovery in the real economy.”

Now, it might well be accurate to say that employment numbers would be expected to lag compared to other variables such as nominal GDP numbers. But Flaherty's statement is telling in going far beyond a comparison between different economic indicators.

Rather than recognizing that the availability of employment is even a factor in Canada's economic well-being, Flaherty has let slip that he sees it as entirely disconnected from the health of the "real economy". Which should provide a strong hint as to how little prospect there is that Flaherty's policies will be focused on anything but finding new bubbles to inflate for the purpose of generating gaudy growth rates - no matter how little resemblance the results may bear to the realities facing large numbers of Canadians.