The Detroit News reports:

On Friday, the U.S. Department of Labor reported that the economy added 155,000 jobs in December — substantially less than is needed to pull unemployment down to acceptable levels.

The tax and spending package passed by the Senate and House provides little prospect of improvement, as the U.S. economy continues to suffer from insufficient demand and will continue growing at a subpar 2 percent a year.

Factors contributing to weak demand and slow jobs creation are the huge trade deficits with China and other Asian exporters, as well as on oil.