Romney's promise of "creating" 12M new jobs? Economists say

Romney's economic plan offers absolutely nothing in addition to what will happen if he doesn't come in with his "fresh economic vision." Specifically, his plan does not include creating even one additional job over what are in the works now. See below.

ECONOMISTS: ROMNEY'S 12 MILLIONS JOBS REALISTIC, EVEN IF HE LOSES

Romney claims his leadership would greatly improve the nation's economy: "If we do those five things, our economy will come roaring back," Romney pledged at a rally in Iowa on Friday. "We will create 12 million new jobs in just four years."

It sounds like a very big number — 12 million jobs — especially coming out of a deep recession followed by three years of what many have described as lackluster job growth.

But it's not as ambitious as it sounds.

"The 12 million jobs has been my forecast for quite some time," says Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics.

Zandi is in the economic forecasting business, and he expects the economy to add an average of 3 million jobs a year over the next four years, which would total 12 million jobs.

"Cold hard facts. Politics completely aside. I'm just doing the numbers," says Zandi. "I feel confident that we're going to create 12 million jobs over the next four years and we're going to feel a lot better about this economy, regardless of who is president."

What makes him so confident? A lot of modeling and a deep dive into industry-level economic data. In particular, he expects the housing market to finally break out of the deep freeze it's been in since the financial crisis hit.

"The housing cycle's going to kick into gear. A lot more homes are going to be built, office buildings, retail space. House prices are going to rise," says Zandi. "That's going to lift consumer spending and retailing and leisure and hospitality, and this is going to create a lot of jobs."

Zandi isn't the only one predicting robust job growth. Joel Prakken, senior managing director of Macroeconomic Advisers, forecasts 11 million jobs added over the next president's term.

"That is not based on anyone's particular set of economic policies," Prakken adds.

When he first heard Romney's 12 million jobs claim, Prakken says he scurried to his calculator. And what he found was Romney's campaign promise fit well with broad economic trends.

(Note, shouldn't the challenger be promising a faster and larger recovery than the current president's policies will generate anyway? And why isn't he? Aren't jobs the #1 issue for ALL of us? Who is his "new economic direction" better for? Yes, I don't trust this guy.)