Pretty pictures about an ugly Wisconsin economy

I'm gearing up for IU-UW hoops tonight, so no time to go into all the John Doe details at this time. Instead, I'll give you some pictures that illustrate that Scott Walker has cost this state more than just Wisconsin's previous reputation for realtively clean government.

The Philly Fed released it's 3-month coincident index today, reflecting each state's economy from the end of September to the end of December. You'll notice Wisconsin shining in bright red....and as usual, that's not a good thing. (click for bigger pictures)
We may have gone down further than last month, and we greatly lag a growing U.S. economy, but at least we aren't worst in the lower 48 anymore! We're all the way up to 46!

3-month coincident index, Philly Fed October- December 2011
-1.11% Alaska
-1.10% Rhode Island
-0.79% Minnesota
-0.66% Wisconsin
+0.77% U.S.

The next picture really puts the lie to Scott Walker's State of the State theme of "going in the right direction." In addition taking credit for the January job increases of 10,100 private sector jobs, (which is 2/3 of ALL job growth for 2011) and notm mentioning that the growth occurred before he "dropped the bomb," Walker tried to again compare Wisconsin favorably with our neighbors to the South, bragging about the lower unemployment rate and "lack of debt" that Wisconsin allegedly has over Illinois.

Uh Scotty, I wouldn't quite talk up how great our state is doing compared to our neighbors. Because in the Midwest, Illinois and 2 other states passed us since your budget took effect, as has the growth rate for the U.S. as a whole.


See how Wisconsin bends downward starting in June 2011? Minnesota was at least rising in Summer before it started dropping after September - not us. We're now the worst-recovering state in the Midwest since our recession ended in October 2009, and we were holding our own until this Summer. So Scott Walker's right, he's definitely changed the direction of this state economically. But it sure isn't in any kind of way that would help the average Wisconsinite.

I'm not sure who he thinks he can peddle these deceptions about a "growing, debtless" economy to, but it isn't to anyone that knows the facts, that's for sure.