Once an Alleged Stimulus Success Story, Caterpillar Announces ‘Rolling Shutdowns’ of Factories

Last week I said that Joe Biden was a one-man economic wrecking crew, because anytime he appeared in a state to tout the success of the stimulus, the state’s unemployment rate jumped by the end of that month. (If Joe Biden is sighted in your state, seek economic shelter immediately.)

Earlier in the year, Obama touted construction-equipment manufacturer Caterpillar as one of the companies that would be helped by the stimulus, and said, “Yesterday, Jim, the head of Caterpillar, said that if Congress passes our plan, this company will be able to rehire some of the folks who were just laid off.“

And then Caterpillar executives came out and said, “Well, no, not really, we didn’t really say that.”

And now we see:

Caterpillar Inc (CAT.N) , a major economic bellwether, said it expected a “challenging” third quarter. The U.S. machinery maker also announced plans for a rolling shutdown of its factories during the period, tempering some of the optimism that followed its stronger-than-expected second quarter profit.

The July unemployment numbers should be coming out on August 7. I predict you will hear an awful lot about Rahm Emanuel’s “we rescued the economy” comments that day.