Today, the Labor Department reported the economy lost 84,000 payroll jobs in August, after losing 60,000 jobs in July. This was much worse than was expected, as the full weight of banking crisis, rising oil prices and imports from China drive up unemployment.
 
Unemployment rose to 6.1 percent from 5.7 percent in July. Factoring in discouraged workers, unemployment is closer to 7.7 percent.