This page is an extension of the catalog of Obama's lies, located on another page. It
can be (and it is) shown through anecdotal evidence that President Obama lies about everything, including socialized medicine, taxes, abortion,
energy production, and even his own biography. Perhaps even his Social Security
number * and things as basic as his name — which he may never have legally
changed from Barry Soetoro.* This page is specifically about
misleading unemployment numbers and statistics that are revised weeks after publication — month after month.
Related topic:
The Unexpected: Under Obama, bad economic news always came as a surprise,
at least to the economists quoted in the news media. With Trump in the White House, good economic news was always
unexpected. With Biden in the White House, bad news is unexpected again.
Yet
Another Biden-Harris Jobs Con — Hopefully Their Last. Biden continues to claim
that he "created" 16 million jobs. Not even close. As of October, there were
6.7 million more jobs than at the previous peak in March 2020 — which happened
before the COVID lockdowns. That's the proper way to measure how many jobs were
created. The 6.7 million figure is nothing to brag about, given that the working-age
population increased by 9.7 million since March 2020. And why aren't fact checkers
alerting readers to the fact that the 12,000 jobs created October was more likely job loss?
For the past 12 months, the Bureau of Labor Statistics has played this game where it announces
job gains one month, then quietly cuts the number after the fact. The initial number gets all
the press, the revised number gets buried. The Bureau of Labor Statistics has been playing this
game for two years now, revising the number down in all but four of the past 22 months.
The result is that the administration exaggerated job gains by a total of 684,000 since January 2023.
Excluding
Government, Year-Over-Year Employment Is Negative 9 Straight Months. Except where
noted, charts in this post are from the BLS Household Survey. The unemployment rate is from
the same survey. It's important to not mix the Establishment Survey (Nonfarm Payrolls) with
the Household Survey. Year-over-year comparisons are best done with Not Seasonally Adjusted
(NSA) numbers. For month-over month comparisons, it is mandatory to use Seasonally Adjusted
numbers. [Chart, not shown here.] I created the above chart by subtracting the
year-over-year change in government employment from the year-over-year change in employment.
For nine straight months, employment excluding government has been negative. For all of 2023
except December, year-over-year employment excluding government was +1.8 million on the low
end and +2.8 million on the high end. January of 2-24 was +330,000 followed by 9
straight months of negative numbers.
Massive
Jobs Numbers Fail On Eve of U.S. Election. Ahead of the 2024 presidential election,
the latest U.S. jobs report reveals a deteriorating economic situation. October's employment
gains were limited, with only 12,000 jobs added despite projections of an additional 112,000.
This is a sharp decline from September's increase of 223,000. A revision to August's numbers
shows only 78,000 jobs now having been added compared to the initial 142,000 reported.
Officials in the Biden-Harris government are trying to dismiss the dismal jobs report, blaming
hurricanes and a Boeing labor strike. Concerningly, 46,000 manufacturing jobs were lost last
month — suggesting a weakening in U.S. industrial sectors. If not for government
employment, October would have marked the first negative payroll numbers since December 2020.
Harvard
Kennedy School determines there's no negative impacts to California workers after minimum wage
hike — study does not measure small businesses. In a report from the
Harvard Kennedy School on California's minimum wage increase, authors Daniel Schneider, Kristen
Harknett and Kevin Bruey argue that there have been no adverse effects on hours, scheduling, or
benefits from legislation requiring $20 an hour wage for fast-food worker, but those workers are
all from large fast-food chains. The study only looked at large fast-food companies and did
not consider small businesses who would have much more difficulty in meeting the demands of the
minimum wage law. The report does not exhaustively list the fast-food outlets used as the
basis of the report, only noting that "front line workers at some of the nation's largest
firms — from McDonald's to Chipotle — contend with unstable schedules,
limited benefits, and chronically low wages." The authors laud California as being "at the
vanguard of progressive and innovative protections for fast food workers" and insists the state
raising the minimum wage by $4 on Apr. 1, 2024 to $20 was one of these progressive and
innovative protections" and constituted the largest such wage increase in US history.
Job
Creation Still Hasn't Recovered from the Useless Covid Lockdowns. "Dow closes at
record high after blow-out jobs report" proclaimed NBC News on Saturday. It is not surprising
the story would ignore all historical perspective, even history within the past few months.
Incumbent presidents routinely take credit for job creation during their administrations and the
gullible American public largely believes them. Perceived as prospectively continuing the
policies of the Biden administration, good news from the jobs report helps Kamala Harris's election
chances. It isn't just ignoring that only two months ago, the Bureau of Labor statistics
revised downward their previously reported number April 2023 — March 2024 by
over 800,000 jobs (around 27 percent)*. It's the surreal practice of even talking about
supposed job creation over the past four years as if most of it weren't just recovering jobs lost
during the 2020 Covid lockdowns. During March and April of 2020, the BLS reported net job
losses of almost 22 million. Of course, these were not the type of job losses sustained
during the 2008 financial crisis. These were people ordered to stay home by the government as
part of a suite of responses to Covid that did nothing but harm.
Hilarious
job numbers from the Bureau of Labor. As the media campaign so vigorously for
Democrats and cheer how great the Biden-Harris policies have been, suddenly, the Department of
Labor comes out with an unemployment report that blows away expectations. Biden and Harris
were out bragging as a significant number of people still can't pay their bills without running up
new debt or going delinquent on the debt they already had. Supposedly, 254,000 jobs were
created in September. Isn't that amazing, that this report came out one month before the
election? Of course, the media gave the headline number and never got into the details.
Here is one important detail: government jobs showed a gain of 785,000 because of the second
biggest seasonal adjustment on record. (It is easy to manipulate numbers when you have
"seasonal adjustments.") This would mean that private-sector employment declined 531,000 with
seasonal adjustments. I would say that is not too much to brag about. Somehow, the
voters don't get to see that number, but they know that the economy has sucked the past four years
because they can't pay their bills.
Surprise!
Huge job growth reported right before the election. People often ask if the Fed is
political, and therefore predisposed to lowering interest rates before the election. The
Labor Department and Bureau of Labor Statistics deserves equal questioning. Their job growth
statistics are untrustworthy, to put it politely. They are almost always revised downwards
after Biden had a chance to gloat. A Labor Department report encompassing annual benchmark
revisions to the nonfarm payroll numbers was released on August 8, 2024, covering the period
of April 2023 through March, 2024. It showed actual non-farm job growth was nearly 30% lower
than previously reported. On October 4, just an hour ago as I type, the Labor Department
issued its September jobs report. Surprise! They claim the U.S. economy added 254K jobs
for the month. That's dubiously robust; for context, it is the strongest report in six
months, and way above the average monthly gain for the prior 12 months. Is it
coincidence this report is so apparently favorable right before the election?
Behind
Today's Stunning Jobs Report: A Record Surge In Government Workers. At first
glance today's jobs report was indeed impressive: the surge in jobs according to both the
household and establishment surveys indicated a strong rebound from recent monthly weakness...
[Chart] ... which coupled with the drop in unemployment rate, and upward historical revisions
suggested that much of the recent labor market weakness may have been transitory. The one fly
in the ointment was the jump in wage growth which strongly hinted that inflation is also back, just
as we have been warning for months (especially now that oil is once again surging) and we will
cross that bridge eventually, but not yet. Instead for now let's focus on the parts of the
jobs report which the BLS has traditionally used to mask headline weakness, such as part-time
workers used to mask weakness in full-time jobs, or foreign-born workers surging at the expense of
native-born.
From
Iran To Illegal Immigration, Here Are Tim Walz's Biggest Lies From The Debate. [#6]
Job Growth Can Accompany Radical Climate Policies: Walz claimed radical climate policies do not
harm job creation. "Reducing our impact is absolutely critical. But this is not a false
choice. You can do that at the same time as you're creating the jobs," Walz said.
But Harris previously supported the socialist Green New Deal, which would kill 1.4 million
jobs. Both names on the ticket have backed radical climate policies, with Harris supporting
fracking bans and carbon taxes, and Walz pushing for 100% carbon-free energy in Minnesota by 2040.
Fed
chair Powell says illegals are why unemployment is rising. If you import
20 million people into an economy that doesn't have room for them, don't be surprised if
unemployment goes up. That's not Donald Trump speaking, it's what Federal Reserve Chairman
Jerome Powell, a guy who tends to side with Joe Biden, found when he cut interest rates 50 basis
points yesterday. It's also basic economics.
The Editor says...
Yep, the illegal immigrants must be the cause of rising unemployment. It couldn't be the excessively-high
minimum wage, or inflation, or big companies weeding out "quiet quitters." But if the problem really is
the illegal aliens, whose fault is that? Who has been the "Border Czar" for the last three years?
The
most important aspect of the Haitian scandal. [Thread reader] ... is how it
reveals the whole "they work/help the economy" stuff to be an absurd farce and a lie. The
reason Haitians "work" is because they get mountains of free stuff paid for by the taxpayers in
exchange. A company can employ Haitians at the absolute minimum wage because the Haitians get
free healthcare, free food, free housing, and even cash stipends which they refer to as "magic
money cards": because the cash never runs dry. This is all subsidized by taxpayers.
So most companies, "small" and "local" businesses included, would rather pay slave wages to
foreigners who are more than happy to show up to work because they know in exchange for doing so
they will receive mountains of rewards from NGOs, charities, and the government. Meanwhile
the American citizens are turned into wealth extraction machines. They pay all the taxes,
don't get these same benefits, and are still forced to work for cheap wages. They can barely
make ends meet. Inflation is killing them at the pump, at the grocery store and everywhere
else in their lives because they have no reprieve from its effects and no political recourse to
stop it. But the foreigner gets shielded from this. They don't care about their wage or
the cost of food, or rent prices, because it is all paid for by other people.
Debunking
Kamala's Biggest Lies That the ABC News Moderators Let Slide. Unemployment Under
Trump: "Donald Trump left us [with] the worst unemployment since the Great Depression."
FACT-CHECK: False. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, when Trump exited in
January 2021, the unemployment rate was 6.4 percent, not far from full employment figures
and lower than it was when President Barack Obama was in office[.] Pre-pandemic, in
February 2020, unemployment under Trump was at 3.5 percent, according to Federal Reserve
Bank records. Although that number had skyrocketed to a post-Great Depression record of
14.8 percent in April 2020, the highest rate seen since 1939, per BLS historical data,
that was when the COVID-19 shutdowns shuttered the U.S. economy. By the time Trump left
office, as America's beleaguered economy was beginning to bounce back, the unemployment rate had
declined significantly and was well below numerous other spikes documented during economic
recessions. For comparison, Trump's 6.4 percent unemployment rate was better than
Obama's 10 percent peak in October 2009.
Great
Replacement Job Shock: 1.3 Million Native-Born Americans Just Lost Their Jobs, Replaced By
635,000 Immigrants. At the start of the year, many months after we first pointed out
that the biggest untold story of the US labor market was the "great replacement" of native born
workers with foreign-born workers (most of whom we subsequently learned were illegal aliens), we
asked how is it, that the ongoing replacement (because that's what it is) of US workers is "not the
biggest political talking point right now" considering that "since October 2019, native-born
US workers have lost 1.4 million jobs; over the same period foreign-born workers have gained
3 million jobs[.]" [...] Which brings us to today's jobs report... where the native vs
foreign-born debate just exploded!
Fact
Check: Harris Misleadingly Claims Biden Added 800,000 Manufacturing Jobs.
Claim: Vice President Kamala Harris said that she and President Biden have created 800,000
manufacturing jobs. "We created over 800,000 new manufacturing jobs. I'll say that
that's good work," Harris said in her interview with CNN on Thursday. Verdict: Harris's
statement is misleading. U.S. manufacturers increased their payrolls by around 742,000
workers between January 2021 when Biden took office and October 2022 but most of those
were not "new" manufacturing jobs as Harris claimed. They were factories re-filling jobs that
had been created under President Trump.
A
Breakdown, by Sector, of the Negative 818,000 BLS Job Revisions. Yesterday morning, I
had difficulty finding the BLS job revisions. So did everyone else. Eventually the BLS
posted -818,000 but my unadjusted calc of -915,000 is accurate too. [...] My post of -915,000 is
the unadjusted number and -818,000 is the adjusted number. You need to go to two different
reports to find both sets of numbers and one was not there.
Banks
Obtained Crucial Jobs Data While Report Was Delayed. At least three banks managed to
obtain key payroll numbers Wednesday while the rest of Wall Street was kept waiting for a half-hour
by a government delay that whipsawed markets and sowed confusion on trading desks. After the
Bureau of Labor Statistics failed to post its revisions to the monthly payroll figures at
10 a.m. New York time, Mizuho Financial Group Inc. and BNP Paribas SA both called the
department and got the number directly. So did Nomura Holdings Inc.'s economic research team,
according to a person familiar with the situation.
Biden
Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo Has No Idea Labor Dept Revised Jobs Report to Remove 818,000
Jobs. Earlier today the Bureau of Labor and Statistics (BLS) revised the annual jobs
report to remove 818,000 previously recorded jobs. [...] When asked about the troubling indicator
of this revision, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo had no idea the BLS had made this
announcement. [Video clip]
Trump
Says That It Is A "Massive Scandal" That Democrats Got Credit For 818,000 "New Jobs" That Never
Actually Existed. Now they are telling us that 818,000 "jobs" that the U.S. economy
supposedly "created" never actually existed at all. As you will see below, Donald Trump is
calling this a "massive scandal" and he is right. Month after month, we are given employment
numbers that are grossly overstated and everyone knows it. The grossly overstated numbers
make the economy look far better than it actually is, and if Americans perceive that the economy is
doing well they will be more likely to vote for the party that is already controlling the White
House. Over the past few years, the difference between economic reality and what the
government is actually reporting to us has become absolutely enormous, and many believe that this
is being done for nefarious political reasons. We all knew that the revision that we were
going to get on Wednesday would be huge, but very few expected that it would be this huge.
Jobs
disappear under Democrats. While the Democrats were hooting and hollering and spewing
lies and hate both inside and outside the United Center in Chicago at their quadrennial clown show,
the more sober U.S. Department of Labor Statistics, Current Employment Statistics finally
admitted, "Whoops — we made a major mistake! A 30% mistake in counting.
There were actually 818,000 fewer jobs created in the past year than what we reported."
Oops:
Biden Admin Admits 800,000 Jobs It Took Credit For Don't Exist. The Biden-Harris
administration admitted on Wednesday that more than 800,000 of the jobs it claimed to have created
last year don't exist. An annual revision by the Bureau of Labor Statistics revealed that the
U.S. economy added 818,000 fewer jobs from March 2023 to March 2024 than originally
reported. According to CNBC, "the actual job growth was nearly 30% less than the initially
reported 2.9 million from April 2023 through March of this year." "The revision to
the total payrolls level of -0.5% is the largest since 2009," the report reads. This review
of Wednesday's figures found that "[a]t the sector level, the biggest downward revision" came in
"professional and business service," in which "job growth was 358,000 less than initially
reported." The manufacturing; trade (including retail positions), transportation and utilities;
and leisure and hospitality sectors also saw downward revisions.
Thirty
percent confidence in Labor Department figures. It's common knowledge that the Labor
Department's monthly jobs reports are constantly revised downwards. Their statistical
waywardness was just compounded. A Labor Department report encompassing annual benchmark
revisions to the nonfarm payroll numbers was released on August 8, 2024, covering the period
of April 2023 through March, 2024. The upshot of it all: actual non-farm job growth was nearly
30% lower than previously reported. Thirty percent! No wonder Kamala is running away
from Bidenomics. That's a huge discrepancy, perhaps prompting one to entertain notions of
other things that comprise thirty percent of something else — or not.
Biden
and Harris Were Cooking the Books the Whole Time! 1 Million Jobs Vanish in Downward
Revision. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris were cooking the books the whole time and lying
to the American people. The Bureau of Labor Statistics will downward revise jobs AGAIN on
Wednesday by up to 1 MILLION! [Tweet] According to Bloomberg, payrolls growth between
April 2023 to March 2024 was up to 1 million weaker than previously reported.
Young
Adults Up to Age 34 Were the Hardest Hit in Friday's Unemployment Report. Age group
25-35 was very hard hit in Friday's job report. Overall unemployment rose 0.2 percentage
points. For age group 25-34 unemployment jumped by 0.4 PP.
Harris
blames Trump for latest dreadful jobs report nearly a full term after he left office.
Vice President Kamala Harris' campaign is blaming former President Trump for the latest negative
jobs report — nearly a full term after he left office. [...] The Harris campaign's
comments come as U.S. job growth cooled sharply in July while the unemployment rate unexpectedly
rose to the highest level in nearly three years. The Labor Department on Friday reported that
employers added 114,000 jobs in July, missing the 175,000 gain forecast by LSEG economists.
The unemployment rate also unexpectedly inched higher to 4.3% against expectations that it would
hold steady at 4.1%.
The
Pattern of Revising Job Numbers Continues As May, June Were Just Lowered. We told you
earlier about how the July jobs report was sub-optimal for Biden and the Kamala Harris campaign.
And the hits keep coming. Not only was July not great, but May and June were revised down
again. Just like almost all the other jobs reports.
Stocks
plummet: Following California, US job report triggers recession indicator. The
United States triggered a highly accurate recession indicator as recession fears led to the largest
stock selloff since December 2022. California, the nation's largest economy, triggered the
same indicator in late 2023. On the morning of August 2, the United States published
unemployment data for July showing a sharp increase from 4.1% in June to 4.3% as hiring cooled
during the typically busy summer months. With July's data, the United States triggered the
Sahmn Recession Indicator, which identifies the start of a recession when the "three-month moving
average of the unemployment rate rises by 0.5 percentage points or more relative to its low
during the previous 12 months." The indicator has had "no false positives" and accurately
indicated the last six U.S. recessions.
The Editor says...
Perhaps "hiring cooled" because the minimum wage is too high.
Independent
report: As Newsom brags, all California job growth is in government. California
Governor Gavin Newsom touted the state's job growth in his State of the State Address last week,
but a new report from a state agency found the state's private sector employment has been declining
since 2022, with public sector hiring accounting for the entire state net increase in jobs.
California's state-funded, non-partisan Legislative Analyst's Office found the private sector lost
154,000 jobs and the public and public-supported sector has gained 361,000 jobs since the peak of
the state's labor market in September 2022. This means on net, the state's 207,000 job
increase in employment since September 2022 has been from growing government-related hiring.
How
Did 250,000 Jobs Suddenly Vanish This Year? Did the economy create 206,000 jobs last
month? That's what the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on Friday. But don't believe
it. Under President Joe Biden, the BLS has been consistently inflating monthly job growth
numbers. It makes great public relations, because the press reports only on the initial
estimate, and rarely follows up on the subsequent downgrades. But it does help explain why
nobody believes Biden's — and the mainstream media's — propaganda about how
great the labor market is doing. Last month, for example, BLS said that the economy created
272,000 jobs, which the media branded as "whopping," "robust," "vigorous," and a "blowout."
Economists had expected 190,000 new jobs in May.
Job openings rise to 8.1 million
despite higher interest rates. U.S. job openings rose slightly to 8.1 million in
May despite the impact of higher interest rates intended to cool the labor market. Vacancies
rose from a revised 7.9 million in April, the first reading below 8 million since
February 2021, the Labor Department reported Tuesday. April openings were marked down
from an originally reported 8.1 million.
They
Rarely Report the Revisions — Three Months of 2023 Job Gains Wiped Out After
Updates. One of the Bidenary impacts to economic analysis and/or economic outcome
review has been the inability of any government statistical data to make any sense. Quite
frankly, almost every financial pundit in mainstream media pretends the data from the Bureau of
Economic Analysis (BEA), the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) or the Dept of Commerce is
accurate. It's not, and we all know it. Just like every other institution in Washington
DC, the systems of economic tracking have lost all their credibility. That said, even with
all the pretending intended to prop-up the Biden administration, eventually the results on Main
Street are so obvious the data manipulators have to quietly attempt to smooth the disconnect.
Biden's
job-growth disappearing act. Throughout last year, countless polls showed widespread
disapproval of the state of the economy, especially regarding inflation. In response, the
Biden administration hung its hat on supposedly blockbuster monthly job gains. But new data
show those numbers grossly overestimated job growth by almost 800,000 in 2023. Each month,
the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reports how many nonfarm payrolls have been added across the
country. These figures come from a survey of 666,000 businesses and offer timely updates on
important economic data. Unfortunately, these monthly reports are subject to a variety of
statistical problems which can sometimes produce significant errors. One example seen
throughout 2023 was with preliminary data consistently being revised down in subsequent reports.
Dem
Gov Touted 10,000+ EV, Battery Jobs — $1 Billion And Years Later, She's Not
Close. Democratic Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's multi-billion dollar effort
to lure electric vehicle (EV)-related factories to the state has not produced the thousands of jobs
she promised, according to an analysis conducted by Bridge Michigan. Whitmer and the state
government have already spent $1 billion of the $2 billion pledged to five different
projects to build EV battery factories or expand EV production, but only about 200 jobs have been
created, a far cry from the 12,000 jobs Whitmer has stated the companies will ultimately provide
for Michiganders, according to Bridge Michigan, a Michigan-focused nonprofit publication of the
Center for Michigan. Two years after the subsidies were extended in 2022, only 2% of the jobs
promised have been delivered while the state-backed projects have downsized relative to original
plans or faced delays.
Have
*Any* Jobs Been Created Under Biden? President Joe Biden loves to brag about the
stellar job growth on his watch. He was at it again Friday after the government reported
272,000 jobs were created in May, beating economists' expectations by a wide margin. "The
great American comeback continues," Biden enthused. "On my watch, 15.6 million more
Americans have the dignity and respect that comes with a job." But this "great jobs news" is
entirely a fiction. The truth is that the job growth under Biden is much closer to zero than
it is to 15.6 million.
Full-Time
Jobs Disappear Under Biden, Americans Desperate to Take Any Part-Time Gig. The Bureau
of Labor Statistics data released on June 7, 2024, showed that many Americans took up
part-time jobs last month because full-time jobs disappeared because of destructive Joe Biden's
economy. The BLS revealed that around 133.3 million people in the United States had
full-time jobs in May, which was 625,000 less than the month before. However, the number of
people having part-time jobs surged by 286,000 to just over 28 million. As a result of
the loss of part-time jobs to 161 million, the total number of American workers collapsed by
408,000. In May, despite the total decline in employed people, 272,000 new nonfarm payroll jobs
were added while the unemployment rate ticked up to 4%, a separate court of the number of jobs in
the economy showed, the Daily Caller reported.
Unemployment
jumps to 4 percent with 408,000 fewer Americans reporting having jobs. 408,000
fewer Americans reported being employed as the U.S. unemployment rate rose to 4 percent in
May, according to the latest data compiled by the Bureau of Labor Statistics' household survey.
That accounts for 783,000 fewer Americans reporting they have jobs since Nov. 2023 when
employment peaked at 161.86 million. Now it's down to 161.08 million.
Wall
Street Admits The Biggest Economic Shocker: All Jobs In The Past Year Have Gone To Illegal
Aliens. For much of the past year we had been pounding the table on two very simple
facts: not only has the US labor market been appallingly weak, with most of the jobs "gained" in
2023 and meant to signal how strong the Biden "recovery" has been, about to be revised away (as
first the Philly Fed and now Bloomberg both admit), but more shockingly, all the job growth in the
past few years has gone to illegal aliens. We first pointed this out more than a year ago,
and since then we have routinely repeated — again, again, and again — yet even though we
made it abundantly clear what was happening... [Tweet]
Over
40 Democrat Mayors Demand Biden Give Illegal Aliens Jobs and Work Permits, Claim They Will Boost
Economy By $7 TRILLION! Over 40 Democratic mayors and county officials have
demanded that Joe Biden give jobs and work permits to migrants who have entered the U.S. illegally,
claiming that new arrivals will add a staggering $7 trillion to the economy over the next
decade. In a letter signed by the likes of New York City Mayor Eric Adams, Chicago Mayor
Brandon Johnson, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu and San Francisco Mayor London Breed, the Democrats plead
with Biden to force the Department of Homeland Security to "leverage its authority to grant parole
for longterm undocumented immigrants and our most recent arrivals to create a process for
streamlined work authorization." [...] Nearly all of those who have signed the letter represent
sanctuary cities, where Democratic officials protect illegal immigrants from deportation and often
pay for their housing, food and other living expenses.
Democrats
believe in miraculous money. The Golden Gate Bridge, the Hoover Dam, and the Empire
State Building were each built in about three years, start to finish, during the depths of the
Great Depression. Nowadays, government projects take seemingly forever and usually cost
multiples of their original cost estimates. Remember Obama's "shovel-ready jobs," which he
later confessed did not exist? That was a classic Democrat fabrication designed to hoodwink
taxpayers into supporting his 900-billion-dollar stimulus bill in 2009. Yes, it was a con job, but
who cares? Certainly not Democrats. Simply spending the money is all that matters to them.
Here's
What Biden Admin Apologists Aren't Telling You About Jobless Rate. Americans
consistently voice their disapproval on the state of the economy in recent polls, largely because
of the stratospheric cost of living. But apologists for the Biden administration point to the
low unemployment rate of 3.9% in April as proof of the economy's strength. Yet this is a
hollow talking point, since the real unemployment rate is likely between 6.5% and 7.7%. The
unemployment rate is the percentage of people in the labor force who don't have a job. That
means the unemployment rate can change if either the number of people unemployed or the total size
of the labor force changes. The shocking reality is that somewhere between 4.7 million
and 7 million people who aren't working today are not included when calculating the
unemployment rate. That artificially reduces the figure.
Weekly
Jobless Claims Spike in Latest Bidenomics Fail. Newly released data on American
jobless claims disturbed even leftist media and added yet another piece of evidence to undermine
Democrat happy talk about Joe Biden's disastrous economy. Just as the left doesn't want you
to know that their touted job gains are going to migrants (especially illegal migrants) and not
American citizens, so the Biden campaign would no doubt love for Americans to ignore the new
jobless claims statistics. [...] For context, as of February, those alleged wonderful job gains
were going to immigrants, with six out of ten of the 2.9 million additional employed migrants
at the time being non-citizens. That means that up to half of the migrants taking millions of
jobs were — and are — likely illegal aliens. At the same time,
U.S.-born men's labor force participation (for those without a college degree) has declined over
the last few years. It would seem illegal aliens are taking jobs that U.S. men could
have. This is the "robust labor market" CNBC wants you to celebrate.
Here's
What Biden Admin Apologists Aren't Telling You About the Unemployment Rate. Americans
consistently voice their disapproval on the state of the economy in recent polls, largely because
of the stratospheric cost of living. But apologists for the Biden administration point to the
low unemployment rate of 3.9% in April as proof of the economy's strength. Yet this is a
hollow talking point since the real unemployment rate is likely between 6.5 and 7.7%. The
unemployment rate is the percentage of people in the labor force who don't have a job. That
means the unemployment rate can change if either the number of people unemployed or the total size
of the labor force changes. The shocking reality is that somewhere between 4.7 million
and 7 million people who aren't working today are not included when calculating the
unemployment rate. That artificially reduces the figure.
The
jobs report is out and Joe Biden can't hide from 'dismal'. Joe Biden is out
gaslighting again and the room is starting to stink: [Tweet] Actually, the job figures from
the Labor Department's monthly employment are dismal, or as is said in the markets, well below
expectations. [...] That's a steep drop from the kinds of figures seen in recent months, which were
no great shakes anyway, given the outsized numbers of jobs that went to immigrant, including
illegal immigrant workers, and another large chunk going to government bureaucrat slots. The
preponderance of news from the private sector has been about mass layoffs, Amazon dropping this
many workers here, the Los Angeles Times dropping that many workers there, and businesses fleeing
places like California, or restaurants shutting down.
The
Jobless Numbers That The Government Gives Us Are So Fake. How it is possible that
initial claims for jobless benefits have been exactly the same for five of the past six
weeks? As Jim Blanco has pointed out, there is no way that this is statistically
possible. Honestly, I don't know any other way to explain this other than to say that the
numbers are being cooked. It appears that the bureaucrats in Washington have gotten so lazy
that they aren't even bothering to change the fake numbers that they are giving us. Even
though large companies are conducting mass layoffs all over America, week after week we are given
laughable numbers that indicate that everything is just fine. At this point, the charade has
become such a farce that even CNBC has published an article about this.
The
dirty little secret of Biden's economic resurgence. While headlines may herald job
creation and economic growth, a deeper analysis suggests that these gains are not uniformly felt
across the American populace. Instead, there is growing concern that policies purported to
stimulate the economy are disproportionately advantageous to foreign-born illegal aliens over
American citizens. At the heart of this issue is the contention that the influx of illegal
labor undermines the job market for American workers. This is not just a matter of numbers,
but a matter of the quality and stability of employment opportunities available to citizens.
The displacement effect, where Americans are edged out of opportunities or find their wages
suppressed, is a real and palpable concern.
Behind
Today's Stellar Jobs Print: It Was Literally ALL Part-Time Jobs (And Illegals).
[Scroll down] Here is exhibit A: in March, the number of part-time jobs soared by 691K
to 28.632 million, up from 27.941 million while full-time jobs dropped by 6,000, to
132.940 million from 132.946 million. This number only gets scarier when we extend
the period to the past year: as shown in the next chart, since March 2023, the number of
full-time workers has collapsed by 1.347 million while the number of part-time workers exploded
by 1.888 million!
Under
The Hood, The Jobs Report Is Not Strong. Looking under the hood of today's jobs
report shows it isn't the home run that Democrats and the media claim. Approximately half of
the 303,000 jobs created last month came in the unproductive government or quasi-government
healthcare sectors. These are not the types of jobs that drive growth and improve Americans'
living standards. Looking at the broader Household Survey, which includes ordinary
self-employed workers, shows a far clearer picture than the Establishment Survey, which
double-counts multiple jobholders. For instance, it reveals full-time jobs actually declined
last month, while part-time jobs exploded. It shows there are 400,000 fewer Americans
employed than in November — the mirror image of the Establishment Survey's topline
number. Just as troubling, the jobs report shows average wages are growing slower than
inflation again, decreasing living standards. Needless to say, wages that can't keep up with
inflation are not a sign of a strong labor market. Don't expect to hear any of these hard
truths from the mainstream media, even though they are far more reflective of the actual state of
the jobs market and broader economy.
Biden's
cyber-mess flying under the radar. The [State of the Union] speech itself was a
clinic in Beltway gaslighting, with Biden making a number of questionable to outright dishonest
claims related to job growth, inflation, and so many other issues of concern to Americans. On
job growth, Biden's claim to have created "15 million new jobs" in three years fails to
acknowledge the fact that about 12 million of those jobs can and should be classified as
post-COVID "Return-to-Work" jobs that were actually created by his predecessor, President Donald
Trump. On the topic of inflation, Biden actually told the joint session of
Congress that the United States had achieved the "lowest in the world." But in reality, the
United States is experiencing higher inflation than a number of industrialized nations and new
reports show that the rate has actually ticked upward. Despite all the misleading
chest-pounding during the address, one major issue that President Biden mostly stayed away from was
America's crumbling cybersecurity infrastructure.
Biden
Calls US Economy 'Envy of the World' Hours After Announcement of 85K American Layoffs.
Had Joe Biden taken five minutes to watch the morning news before giving his State of the Union
address Thursday, he might not have made a boast out of an easily disprovable claim. In a
flaccid attempt to make himself look halfway competent, Biden boasted in his speech that the
American economy is the "envy of the world." As you can see in this clip of the speech shared
to the social media platform X, Biden was quite forceful in this declaration.
Unemployment
up 760,000 since Dec. 2022 as unemployment rate jumps to 3.9 percent. Don't
look now, but U.S. labor markets appear to be churning in the wrong direction, as the unemployment
rate jumped to 3.9 percent in February, and the unemployment level hit a new high for this
cycle at almost 6.5 million, up 760,000 from its low this cycle of 5.7 million in
Dec. 2022, according to the latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Looking at
the overall employment level, that peaked at 161.86 million in Nov. 2023 on a seasonally
adjusted basis. Now it's at 160.96 million in Feb. 2024. That's 898,000 jobs
lost in just three months.
Fact-Checking
the Fabulist in Chief's State of the Union. During Thursday's State of the Union
address, Biden fully displayed his fabulist tendencies. His assessment of the
administration's accomplishments and his impact was not anchored in reality. [...] The
administration is also fond of claiming it created 15 million jobs, a number Biden repeated
this evening. Recovering jobs lost to pandemic shutdowns is not job creation. Almost
22 million jobs were lost in April and May of 2020. Even CNN called foul on claims like
this, previously noting: ["]Biden is free to argue that his stimulus legislation and
other policies have helped the country gain jobs faster than it otherwise would have. (As
always, it's debatable precisely how much credit the president deserves for job-creation.)
Nonetheless, it is clear that there could only be such an extraordinary number of jobs added in
2021 and 2022 because there was such an extraordinary number of jobs lost in early 2020.["]
Biden took a recovering economy and intentionally wrecked it.
Biden
Falsely Says He Inherited An Economy on Brink of Collapse. Claim: Biden claimed
that the U.S. economy was on the brink of disaster when he took office. "I inherited an
economy that was on the brink. Now our economy is the envy of the world!" Biden said.
Verdict: False. President Biden inherited an economy that was strongly rebounding from
the pandemic. In the fourth quarter of 2020, the economy grew at an annual rate of
4.3 percent. In the prior quarter, it had grown at an annual rate of 33.1 percent,
as the economy whipsawed from lockdown to reopening. As Biden took office, in the first
quarter of 2021, the economy was growing at a 5.2 percent annual rate. (Until the
Department of Commerce revised its calculations last fall, this was reported as an annual rate of
6.3 percent.)
A complete inversion of the truth:
WaPo
Says Biden's Border Invasion Has the Economy 'Roaring'. [Scroll down] The
article focuses mostly on immigrants filling shortages in the labor market. Many in the
mainstream media bubble don't understand that that isn't always a positive thing in flyover
country. The preponderance of statistics and expert quotes are, in theory, there to bolster
the premise of the piece. The bigger purpose that they serve in this yeoman's effort of bias,
however, is to distract from what is not being mentioned, which is what is happening with the
border situation right now. The authors don't mention the inconvenient fact that record
numbers of people are crushing the border and have been for months. The numbers are so
overwhelming that the government is scrambling to keep tabs on as many as they can by putting them
up in hotels on the taxpayer's dime. This immigration isn't much of a boon to state and local
economies. We continually cover stories here about the financial strain that the "immigrants"
are placing on states and cities all over America, [...]
Biden
Makes Claims About Wages That Are Raising Eyebrows. One of the hallmarks of Joe
Biden's speeches is the constant misleading or outright false remarks about the economy. I
don't think the American people are buying it, given his approval on the economy is usually his
lowest number in the polls. Either that or the number of people who think he's mentally
capable. Those tend to be low in virtually every poll. But among his common claims are
that he created "15 million brand new jobs." That is nonsense, it's such a huge number because
it's people returning from the economy being locked down, not "brand new jobs." It has nothing at
all to do with Joe Biden or any "creation" of anything.
Gloomiest
Jobs Data For January in Decades. [Scroll down] Then the White House whizz
kids act as if the common folk, besides knowing exactly what they paid at the pump and grocery
store this year compared to three years ago, would never in their lives give a thought to the
endless reams of economic data the government itself puts out. It constantly surprises and
depresses them when they find that we do. For instance, the average person in America
generally has a little something tied up in stocks, be it their retirement, their 401K, they dabble
on the side, whatever — so many folks are aware in some capacity of what is happening
Wall Street-wise. The White House whizzes might just be shocked at how informed their normal
neighbor might turn out to be about trading. At how that person understands that an earnings
season like this is not a sign of a robust economy no matter how much smoke the WH blows [...]
Layoffs
surged 136% in January to second-highest level on record. The pace of job cuts by
U.S. employers accelerated at the start of 2024, a sign the labor market is starting to deteriorate
in the face of ongoing inflation and high interest rates. That is according to a new report
published by Challenger, Gray & Christmas, which found that companies planned 82,307 job cuts in
January, a substantial 136% increase from the previous month. However, that is down about 20%
from the same time one year ago. It marked the second-highest layoff total for the month of
January in data going back to 2009.
What
Do You Call It When The Number Of Layoffs In The U.S. Goes Up By 136 Percent In Just One
Month? Wow, our economic problems really are starting to accelerate at a shocking
pace. I know that I have been writing about layoffs a lot lately, but what is happening to
the employment market right now is definitely big news. Day after day, more large companies
are announcing mass layoffs. Why would all of these large companies be doing this if the
outlook for the U.S. economy is promising? That wouldn't make any sense at all. But
if these companies are convinced that the U.S. economy is heading into a recession (or worse), it
would make perfect sense to slash payrolls at this time.
Stand by for a downward revision in about two weeks.
ADP:
U.S. added 107,000 private jobs in January as hiring slows. Private payroll processor
ADP on Wednesday said job growth declined in January. ADP's monthly national employment report
showed the U.S. economy added 107,000 private sector jobs in January, down from the month prior.
Biden
hates working people. As our sanctuary-country sinks even further under the weight of
millions of illegal immigrants, the President and his fellow Democrats believe the solution is to
give them work permits so they can "support themselves." Where is their concern for the
citizens whose jobs these illegal immigrants will take? Have they never heard of the concept
of opportunity cost? Every job they take is a job that won't be available to legal
citizens. That's not a political philosophy but a cold hard fact. And this is in an
environment where Artificial Intelligence and robots/automation are forecast to slash the number of
jobs for average working folks. What is even worse is the fact that this army of illegal
immigrants is certain to depress working folk's hourly wages for generations to come.
You will often hear it said they are only taking jobs Americans won't do. That is a
lie. The truth is Americans won't do some of those jobs for the wages being offered.
So, rather than allowing the marketplace to raise the wages being offered, their revolting solution is
to import millions of low-skilled illegals in a planned strategy to keep working people's wages
low, forever.
Reporter
Gets Torn to Shreds for Claiming 'Learn to Code' Was Never a Thing. It's one of those
cases where you know they're wrong. You could probably ignore them, but it's the liberal
media, so you attack at them like a pod of orcas. Better yet, like orcas, play with your prey
before mutilating and devouring it. That's what's happening with some in the establishment
media trying to say that "learn to code" was never a thing and that Joe Biden never said it.
Like their allies in the Democratic Party and now the Department of Justice, these people just
lie. It's a phrase created by this insular circle aimed at working Americans whose jobs were
being unnecessarily targeted by Democrats, specifically Barack Obama, who declared war on coal
during his presidency. The PR pitch for destroying the livelihoods of these Americans was
that job retraining would be part of their transitioning process into what Democrats feel should be
our energy future. Even labor unions know those two words are snake oil, being sold to them
when NAFTA was passed to ease the growing concerns about that trade agreement.
Momentum
is destroying America, but that can be reversed with strategic leadership.
[Scroll down] If you wonder how this plays out over the long term, the household survey
reported a plunge in total US employment of approximately 680,000 jobs in 2023. Zero Hedge reports
that the US Government added approximately 672,000 jobs in the same year, meaning that the private
sector lost nearly 1.35 million jobs! Currently, any attempt to slow Big Government's
expansion usually occurs during the comedy skit known as the Congressional Budget. As most of
the budget already has growth codified by earlier legislative acts, thus confirming the benefits of
momentum, the background noise that occurs is usually described as a 'Hiroshima-like attack on
American values' and ends, as expected, with more money and bigger Government. This approach
is the football equivalent of placing all the defensive players on the line to sack the
quarterback, leaving all the receivers open!
Take
Your Government Job and Shove It. Under Joe Biden, the Labor Department's monthly
jobs report numbers keep trending downwards; the impactful reports reflect the health of our
economy, and hold great sway with the Fed, business community, and bond and stock markets.
Given their pervasive influence on economic sentiment and expectations, you'd think the data
collectors and compilers would bother to be somewhat punctilious. Instead, they overstated
job creation by a whopping 439,000 in 2023. That's abysmal accounting, but the faulty
computations get worse: the Bureau of Labor Statistics ignominiously revised ten of its last
eleven reports. They just can't get it right, or even approximate, the first time. No
wonder two of the most in-demand occupations for government recruiters are statisticians and data
scientists. [...] Not only are the employment numbers as inflated as Biden's budgets, but a
preponderance of new jobs in 2023 were created in non-productive government sectors. In
December, the government was the top job creator; in 2023, government jobs comprised about a
quarter of job creation.
The
December Jobs Report Is Mostly Bad News. According to a new report from the federal
government's Bureau of Labor Statistics last Friday, the US economy added 216,000 jobs for the
month while the unemployment rate held at 3.7%. NBC news was sure to tell us that this "beat
expectations." Market estimates suggested total jobs added at 170,000 with the unemployment
rate at 3.8%. The media's general consensus on the report is that the jobs economy is
"robust" and everything is heading on schedule toward a "soft landing" as predicted by Federal
Reserve economists. What are we to make of this report? Well, the jobs market looks
pretty good so long as one doesn't dig any deeper than the first paragraph of the press
release. But once we look more carefully as numerous indicators of employment as found in
part time jobs, inflation-adjusted wages, and more, we find that things aren't looking so good
after all. But first, let's ask ourselves if this government data is reliable at all.
Almost
A Quarter Of All Jobs 'Added' In 2023 Didn't Actually Exist. The original number of
jobs reported by the federal government in 2023 was revised down by a total of 749,000 jobs,
meaning nearly one-fourth of jobs thought to be created in the year were not actually there,
according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) analyzed by the Daily Caller News
Foundation. The sum of the initial estimate from each of the government's monthly job growth
reports in 2023 totaled 3,140,000 new jobs, with later reports revising down the number of jobs
added by a collective 443,000, according to the BLS. The BLS also announced in August a revision in
total employment for March, subtracting another 306,000 jobs. "By the time you include all the
monthly revisions and the annual benchmark revision, about one-quarter of all the jobs we thought
were added last year have been revised away," E.J. Antoni, a research fellow at the Heritage
Foundation's Grover M. Hermann Center for the Federal Budget, told the DCNF.
'True'
unemployment rate is double what gov't is telling us, economists say. A large section
of Americans left the workforce following the COVID-19 pandemic and have not returned, and if the
workforce returned to its previous size, the unemployment rate would be nearly double, according to
data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics analyzed by the Daily Caller News Foundation. The
official unemployment rate in December was 3.7%, accounting for around 6,268,000 Americans without
jobs who were still looking for work, with 100,540,000 jobless people being counted as not in the
labor force and therefore not being counted as unemployed despite not having a job, according to
data from the BLS. In comparison, the number of people counted as not in the labor force in
February 2020 was only 95 million, with around 5 million people permanently leaving
the workforce following the COVID-19 pandemic, which, when added to those counted as unemployed,
yields an unemployment rate of around 6.7%.
Biden
Takes Lying With Statistics To A Whole New Level. The headlines on Friday were that
the economy created 216,000 jobs, more than expected and a sign of continued strength in the
economy. "This morning's report confirms that 2023 was a great year for American workers,"
President Joe Biden said. Hurray! But wait a minute. The Bureau of Labor
Statistics (BLS) previously reported that there were 157,087,000 "non-farm payroll" jobs in
November. The number of these jobs in December, it now says, was 157,232,000. That's a
gain of only 145,000. So how did Biden manage to claim that the economy created 216,000 jobs in
December? Easy. All you have to do is cut the number of jobs in November by 71,000 and
then measure December's gain against that new, lower number.
Initial
US employment reports overstated by 439,000 jobs in 2023. There's something wrong
with previous U.S. jobs reports. The government quietly erased 439,000 jobs through
November 2023, a closer look at the numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows.
That means its initial jobs results were inflated by 439,000 positions, and the job market is not
as healthy as the government suggests. Since the government wiped out 439,000 jobs after the
fact, the total percentage of jobs created by the government last year is even higher.
Increased government hiring has been driving the jobs numbers higher.
Economic
Angst in the Heartland. Bidenomics is failing America, infecting the land with a
persistent and intensifying cynicism, despite attempts by the White House and a partisan press to
impose misleading narratives on the electorate. For example, the media rushed to heap praise
upon last week's modestly constructive jobs report. The actual numbers reveal a mixed
bag — not a terrible report, but certainly not a parade-worthy one, either. The
199,000 jobs added in November sits below the average for the year 2023, and far off the prior
levels of 2021 and 2022. Regarding jobs added since Biden took office, the easy part is over,
meaning the task of regaining the lost jobs resulting from the COVID panic is largely
complete — and now net new job creation languishes. Moreover, a sector analysis of
this latest jobs report shows that 70% of the jobs were in either healthcare or government
positions. More productive private sector jobs continue to lag, with manufacturing payrolls
still flat in 2023. In addition, even modestly positive economic data points cannot compensate
for the harm inflicted upon workers for most of Biden's tenure.
Who
is Pulling the Puppet Strings? [Scroll down] It's the lies that should
worry us the most. Bidenomics is eye candy designed to take in the gullible, the uninformed,
and those who believe in a better tomorrow based on loving Big Brother. The statistics, like
labor growth, are fundamentally deceiving. What's been consistently growing is the number of
people working for the government. The latest figures tell the truth: the government is the
leading growth sector in report after report. You have been lied to, not once, but
repeatedly, with millions lapping it up.
Joe
Biden Chose Billionaires and Green Radicals Over Auto Workers. "President Biden is
the most pro-union president in history" has become the White House's go-to response to the recent
strike that had upturned American auto manufacturing. [...] The White House took a victory lap for
"solving" a crisis that was Biden's own making. At a press conference Monday, the president
called the deal "yet another piece of good economic news showing something I've always believed."
But it was Biden's own policies, seeking to radically transform the American auto industry at the
behest of environmental activists and their corporate cronies, that spurred on the strike.
But Joe has never been one to let the facts get in the way of a good narrative. The strikes
backed Biden into a corner. On one side, you had the unholy alliance of auto executives and
green radicals, and on the other, the blue-collar voters Biden likely needs for reelection.
This was destined from the start to be a political mess, so the President dusted off his most
trusty tactic: Lying. Biden would claim that he was the savior of it all.
About
yesterday's job report 'exceeding expectations'. Friday's September 2023 job report
by the Bureau of Labor Statistics was a good news bad news report. [...] And yes, let's be thrilled
for the people who are working. But — yeah, there is a but. Several,
actually. Here is one: "the unemployment rate was unchanged at 3.8 percent." If all those
336,000 were added and filled, shouldn't the unemployment rate go down? Something doesn't add
up here. [...] A significant small chunk of that dramatic job increase was that "government
employment rose by 73,000 jobs" — i.e., public-sector jobs consume more and more of your
tax dollars. The private sector is not increasing as rapidly. Oh, and not so by the
way, the job report consists of those looking for work. "Duh," you might respond. But many
people have dropped out of the labor market. This report is based on people who are at least
looking for work, but only 63% of the civilian labor force is actually looking. Others have
dropped out for various reasons.
The
Thing about Multiple Jobholders. As you'd expect from an economy that is plugging
along just fine, the number of jobs created in the prior two months was revised up by 198,000, for
a change, after a long series of downward revisions. And in September 336,000 jobs were
created, per the survey of employers by the Bureau of Labor Statistics today. [...] The number of
multiple jobholders rose in September to 8.15 million. But the total number of workers has
grown over the months, years, and decades. For example, over the past four decades, the
number of workers has grown by about 40 million, along with the total population. And so the
number of multiple job holders as a percent of total jobholders was 5.0% in September and has been
around 5.0% all year, in the middle of the range before the pandemic. In September 2019,
before the pandemic, it was 5.3%. Those rates are historically relatively low. In the 1990s
it was over 6%, and has trended lower since then.
ADP:
Private sector added 89,000 jobs; slowest growth rate since 2021. Private sector
employment grew by 89,000 jobs, the slowest pace of job growth in more than two years as the
economy shows signs of pacing itself, according to the latest monthly ADP National Employment
Report released Wednesday.
Biden's
much-touted employment numbers could actually be a harbinger of economic disaster.
While President Joe Biden has often pointed to the persistently low unemployment rate to prove the
viability of his economic policies, the metric may actually be an indicator of future economic
turmoil as workers age out of the labor force, according to the Wall Street Journal. Changing
demographics following the aging of the baby boomer generation are pushing the labor force
participation rate down as an increasingly large portion of the population is retiring, leading to
a labor force shortage that could boil into a crisis as fewer workers support a greater number of
people, according to the WSJ. The unemployment rate has stayed consistently below 4% since February
2022 after coming down from a spike of 14.7% in April 2020, according to the Federal Reserve Bank
of St. Louis.
Bidenomics
Jobs Report: 1.2 Million Native-Born Workers Lost Their Jobs & Were Replaced With 668K Foreign-Born
Workers. Zero Hedge reports that 1.2 million American born workers have been replaced
by nearly 700k foreign born workers. Bidenomics: America last. As Biden continues
to tout his economy, the data says otherwise. The July jobs estimate was revised 30,000 lower
and the June total was revised a whopping 104,000 lower making it the worst month since December of
2020. The unemployment rate also jumped to 3.8% in August as tech companies begin layoffs.
Can
Biden's Jobs Number Be Trusted Any More? President Joe Biden has staked so much on
his claim that he's "created" 13.5 million jobs since taking office that it's worth asking if his
Labor Department is now goosing job growth figures to help him out. On Friday just before the
holiday weekend, Labor released its estimates for job growth in August — which it said
worked out to 187,000, beating economists' forecasts. But at the same time, the government
cut the job growth numbers for the previous two months by a total of 110,000. As a matter of
fact, Labor has quietly cut its initial job growth estimates for every month this year.
The
sad truth behind job growth in the American economy. According to Axios, a
left-leaning publication, the only thing keeping the American economy afloat is the blessed
presence of foreign-born workers... because those lazy Americans just won't work. However,
according to a study by Zero Hedge, Americans are losing their jobs like crazy, and only
foreign-born workers are getting those jobs. [...] Axios points to three factors behind the
data: First, huge numbers of legal immigrants are getting visas. As I see it, that
means the Biden administration is flooding the American economy with foreign-born workers.
Second, foreign-born workers are, in fact, working, with their participation rate at 67% compared
to actual Americans, who are at 62.2%. Third, baby boomers are retiring, and younger people are
more likely to be foreign-born.
Inside
Today's Disastrous Jobs Report: 670K Full-Time Jobs Lost In 2 Months Vs 1 Million Part-Time Surge;
Worst Unadjusted August Payrolls Since Great Recession. [A] closer look at the
details of today's jobs report reveals just how ugly the reality behind the the Budget-Busting
Bidenomics truly is. Let's start with revisions. Regular readers are aware that earlier
this year we spotted a peculiar trend when it comes to economic data releases by the Biden admin
which — without fail — had been revised lower... [Several tweets] ... and this month was no
different. In fact, as shown in the chart below, the jobs print from every single month has
been revised lower! Why? So that the White House can take credit for a strong number
(one which also sparks algorithmic buying in the market) only to quietly revise it lower one and
two months later when nobody is looking to ease the glide slope for the coming recession.
10
Signs That The Mainstream Media Is Not Telling You The Truth About The Economy. [#1]
When the economy is doing well, there is a tremendous demand for trucking. But when the
economy is tanking, trucking companies often get into serious trouble. So it is a very bad
sign that "one of the country's oldest and largest trucking businesses" is literally on the brink
of collapse. [...] [#6] Electric vehicles were supposed to be the wave of the future, but Ford is
going to lose 4.5 billion dollars on electric vehicles this year alone. [...] [#10] According to
Challenger, Gray & Christmas, the number of announced job cuts in the United States during the
first half of this year was 244 percent higher than the number of announced job cuts during the
first half of last year.
The
press just can't stop propping up Democrats. Here are a few examples of what the
media does as they campaign for Biden: They falsely repeat the claim that Biden inherited a
disastrous economy and that his excellent economic policies turned it around. The truth is
the economy collapsed for only two months, March and April 2020, due to a significant amount of
misinformation from Dr. Anthony Fauci and CDC which led to destructive government edicts.
By May, the economy, especially in red states, was coming back to life as states were getting rid
of lockdowns and were reopening rapidly. Job growth was coming back. In February of
2020 at the beginning of the COVID pandemic, which led to all the lockdowns, seasonally adjusted
nonfarm jobs were 152.4 million. By the end of April, they were down to 130.4 million
jobs, but by December, 2020 they were up 12 million jobs to 142.4 million or 1.5 million
jobs per month. Under Biden the lost jobs have come back, in addition to 3.8 million more
jobs. The economy was clearly expanding rapidly when Biden took office.
Joe
Biden claims credit for red-state job creation. [Scroll down] What he's
doing is claiming credit for jobs he didn't create, having no serious accomplishments on that front
to speak of, other than the vast expansion of government jobs. Why did that company choose to
locate its solar manufacturing operation in Dalton, Georgia instead of, say deep blue Ann Arbor,
Michigan, or New York City? Biden didn't say. But the hard fact is that even green
companies have to make business decisions about what location is most likely to maximize their
profits. Putting even a solar panel manufacturing operation in a blue zone is nothing but
taxes and regulations, and many such companies, particularly startups, would not be able to stay in
business at all. So, they opened their plant in Georgia, not deep-blue Connecticut, which is
credit and testimony to Republican pro-free market governance.
More
Than 105 Million Working Age Americans Do Not Have A Job Right Now. Jobless people
are classified into one of two categories by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) —
either unemployed or not in the labor force. To be classified as unemployed in the month they
are surveyed, people must be actively looking for work. If they are not actively looking,
they are classified as not in the labor force. Over time, the definition of "officially
unemployed" has gotten more restrictive, and today only 6.097 million working age Americans are
considered to be in that category. Meanwhile, a staggering 99.800 million working age
Americans are considered to be "not in the labor force". When you add both categories together,
you get a total of 105.897 million working age Americans that do not have a job right now.
Biden's
Boast About Jobs Is Coming Undone. Last week, Biden gave a speech claiming that
"Bidenomics is working," and tweeted out a chart showing average monthly job growth in each of the
past seven presidents, with a caption that reads: "My administration has created more jobs in two
years than any previous administration has created in the first four years. It's no
accident. It means our economic plan is working and this is only the beginning." This
is the dictionary definition of lying with statistics. Data from Biden's own Bureau of Labor
Statistics shows that 72% of the jobs the president brags about weren't "created," they were simply
reclaiming jobs lost during the pointless COVID lockdowns.
Bidenomics
Is a Big Bust. Word out of the White House is that President Joe Biden wants to tout
his economic successes. He's even embracing the slogan "Bidenomics" — which most
people think is a term of as a term of derision and policy flops. On the one hand, the
unemployment rate is low and millions of jobs have been created over the past two years.
Reality check: Virtually all of these jobs are simply the recovery of jobs that already existed in
the Trump years but were lost during the COVID lockdowns — mostly in blue states.
In fact, there are still five states where job totals are lower today than before the pandemic
hit. That's some recovery. If the economy is so strong, why aren't Americans feeling
the love? Tracking polls still show two-thirds of Americans believing the country/economy are
headed in "the wrong direction."
Biden's
Propaganda Job Creation Chart Was Fact-Checked, And Then the Note Disappeared. Joe
Biden's job creation chart was taken to the woodshed, rightfully being called out for being
egregiously misleading. The tweet earned a community note, but it's disappeared. The
Biden administration tried to sell the narrative that they "created more jobs in two years than any
previous administration has created in the first four years." Their propaganda chart shows that's
almost 500,000 jobs per month on average. The problem is that it's a lie if you peruse the
Bureau of Labor Statistics data included in the note. Yes, this post was fact-checked.
Ninety percent of Biden's jobs bump were folks returning to their previous job before the
pandemic. Post-pandemic job returns are not the same as creation. Joe Biden has
overseen 2 million jobs created over the past 38 months, which isn't anywhere close
to the mythical 500k figure.
The
4 Big Lies (And 1 Terrible Truth) In Biden's 'Bidenomics Is Working' Speech. In a
30-minute speech in Chicago this week, President Joe Biden declared that his economic
policies — which can charitably be summed up as "borrow and spend, tax and
regulate" — are doing wonders for the nation's economy. Never mind that just 38%
of Americans approve of the job Biden has been doing on the economy. [...] Truth is, the only way
Biden can make the case for "Bidenomics" is by lying. Examples: "U.S. has had the
highest economic growth rate, leading the world economies since the pandemic." Except it
didn't. The U.S. ranks 146th in real GDP growth in the world so far this year, came in 151st
place last year, and was 66th in 2021, according to the International Monetary Fund. "We
created 13.4 million new jobs." Also false. Because almost 10 million of those were
simply refilled jobs lost during the pointless COVID lockdown. Under Biden, the number of net
new jobs is less than 4 million — which is nothing to brag about, given that the
working-age population has grown by 6.8 million since Biden took office.
'That's
Not The Whole Story': Seemingly Rosy Jobs Report Reveals Worrying Workforce Trends, Economists
Say. The U.S. economy added significantly more jobs than anticipated in May, but key
data in the latest jobs report reveals cause for concern, economists told the Daily Caller News
Foundation. The country added 339,000 jobs in nonfarm payroll employment in the establishment
survey, which collects data from nonagricultural businesses, according to Bureau of Labor
Statistics (BLS) data published on Friday. The household survey, which collects data from
households, revealed some indications that the economy is headed in a worrisome direction,
according to experts who spoke to the DCNF. "While the headline jobs number blew away
expectations, that's not the whole story," E.J. Antoni, research fellow for Regional Economics at
the Heritage Foundation's Center for Data Analysis told the DCNF. "When the report is viewed
wholistically, [sic] as opposed to cherry picking a single datum point, it is further evidence that we
are headed toward recession."
Deb
Haaland Says The Quiet Part Out Loud — The Biden Admin Doesn't Care About Creating
Jobs. Department of Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said the quiet part out loud last
week. As the executive of our public lands agency, she does not believe that Americans need
jobs because there are already so many jobs available. It's better to lock up land, and lock
down mining because who wants those jobs, when there are so many others? Before the U.S.
Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Haaland told Sen. Josh Hawley, "Senator, I know
that there's like 1.9 jobs for every American in the country right now. So, I know there's a
lot of jobs," which was her explanation for canceling cobalt mining permits for Twin Metals
Minnesota, an underground mine proposed for the northeastern part of the state. America won't
need those jobs, she was saying.
Americans
are not working, nor is their collapsing culture. The unemployment rate is very low,
but we have millions fewer people working in America than pre-pandemic. So what gives?
Here's what gives. It's because the unemployment rate does not measure the total number of
people who are unemployed. It instead measures the number of people who are unemployed but
looking for work. Many people who are unemployed today are simply not looking.
Work is not to their liking. Of those who do work, it appears that many are not working very
hard. For example, overtime hours are down. "Working" from home is still very
common. This was building for years (or perhaps I should say deteriorating for years) but
really took off in the pandemic. People were told it was permissible not to work. In
fact, for a while they were told it was not permissible to work; they were ordered to
stay at home. Most of them gladly did.
Janet
Yellen says the U.S. economy is 'obviously performing exceptionally well'. Inflation
is kicking back up. The dollar is falling. People are pulling money out of even big
banks now and buying gold. The dollar is losing its reserve status. Discouraged workers
are dropping out of the workforce. Layoffs are coming. And recession is "baked in the
cake." [Tweet] But don't tell Janet Yellen, Joe Biden's Treasury secretary. Out on
Planet Biden, the nutty professor is telling us the economy is in good shape.
Don't
Let Biden Gaslight You About The Jobs Situation. [T]he numbers getting bandied about
these days about job growth and unemployment are wildly misleading because they ignore important
bits of context. Such as:
[#1] The pace of job growth slowed considerably once Biden started "rescuing" the economy.
[#2] It took just nine months under President Donald Trump for the economy to regain 57% of
the 22 million jobs lost during the COVID lockdowns. It took 17 months under Biden to regain the other 43%.
[#3] The economy was adding jobs at an average of 1.3 million a month in Trump's last
nine months in office. In the first nine months of Biden's term, job growth averaged 620,000.
[#4] As a result, job growth is now behind the pace set by most recoveries since
1948, according to the Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank.
U.S.
Economy Still Hot with 311,000 Jobs Created in February. Today's jobs report from the
Bureau of Labor Statistics showed better-than-expected job creation for the month of
February. Nonfarm payrolls far surpassed expectations, rising by 311,000 in February.
The Dow Jones estimate prior to Friday's numbers was around 225,000.
The Editor says...
Please defer your excitement and wait to see how far down these numbers go when they are "revised" in a couple of weeks.
BLS
Cooks Books to Generate January Jobs Report That No One Believes, For Good Reason. There really isn't an
adequate way to encapsulate what the Bureau of Labor and Statistics has done with their reported January jobs result. [...]
In my lifetime of reviewing data and analytics, I have never reviewed a level of statistical manipulation that even comes
close to this. Well, at least not since the 1980's junk bond valuations used for corporate restructuring and asset
removal. What the BLS produced today [2/4/2022] will likely go down in the annals of actuarial history as one of the
most comprehensively fraudulent manipulations of labor and statistics in history.
BLS
Job Revisions Show Every Job Report in 2021 Was Total Garbage. [Scroll down] The first 5 months of 2021
were hugely understated, followed by 6 months of overstatements, then ending with a 211,000 understatement. Let that
sink in. The jobs market was weaker than reported every month between June and November. Add it all up and there
is only one proper conclusion: The monthly jobs reports are garbage but ending with a December and January surprise.
Fed's
Original Mouthpiece Shatters "Strong Labor Market" Propaganda, Casts Doubt On Job Openings.
Exactly one month ago, we extended our analysis of data fabrication (whether intentional or accidental)
at Biden's Department of Labor and Bureau of Labor Services, by looking at layoffs and job openings data,
finding that the former was far higher than officially reported when compared to accurate, state level
WARN notices... [Chart] ... while also finding that the officially reported number of Job
Openings per JOLTS was also incorrect and was exaggerated... [Chart] ... when compared to
numbers calculated by UBS using third-party data from Indeed and Opportunity Insights, with the latter now
showing that job openings were in fact below pre-pandemic levels, a huge gap compared to the near-record
openings number reported by JOLTS. [Chart]
Workarounds
to working. [Scroll down] Living off of family money, unemployment insurance, disability
insurance, government grants, friends, subsidized homelessness, becoming a perpetual student, and/or working off the
books all come together to allow an unprecedented number of people to fail to contribute to the continuing success and
financing of our country. There is a monthly government statistic called U-6 and another metric called Civilian
Labor Force Participation Rate. These two stats, added to the official Unemployment rate, reveal another estimated
12 million unemployed or underemployed individuals over and above the official stats. Another important
metric is people who could work but choose not to do so. Yes, the government keeps that number as well.
When you combine all these numbers, you approach 100 million people who don't work for a variety of reasons.
That number has risen by about 35 million in the last ten years.
Biden's
Labor Market: 1.9 Million Fewer Americans Working, 2 Million Foreign Workers Funneled into U.S. Jobs. At
the end of 2022, 1.9 million fewer Americans were working than in 2019 before the Chinese coronavirus pandemic while
President Joe Biden's administration has funneled two million additional foreign workers into United States jobs.
A new analysis from the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) shows that in the fourth quarter of 2022, close to two
million fewer native-born Americans were working in jobs compared to the same time in 2019 while two million
foreign-born workers have been added to the workforce compared to the same time period.
Don't
Fall For Joe Biden's Economic Fairy Tale. At the top of his State of the Union address, the president
boasted that he had "created more jobs in two years than any president created in four years." No
president — not Joe Biden nor Donald Trump — creates jobs. But Biden's contention was
exceptionally misleading, considering he inherited an economy that had been unplugged by an artificial, state-induced
shutdown. If the government compels businesses to shutter, it doesn't "create" jobs when allowing them to open.
[...] More than 30 million people lost their jobs to Covid lockdowns. Biden claims to have "created" 12 million
jobs during the past two years. The one big difference is that the labor participation rate still hasn't recovered to
pre-Covid numbers. It's great that people are working again. But millions fewer are in the market for jobs.
Biden also boasted that Americans were seeing "near" historic unemployment lows for black and Hispanic workers. These
historic lows were achieved before Covid lockdowns. So, if Biden deserves credit for this, doesn't Trump?
January's
'too good to be true' jobs report was based on 'adjustments'. Bloomberg, which exists to serve active
traders on Wall Street, is throwing shade on the January jobs report that "surprised" a lot of people with its
positive numbers. Before addressing the technical factors used to produce the rosy numbers, consider the buried
lede hundreds of words into the piece: Stripped of all the technical jargon is this stark reality:
["]On an unadjusted basis, payrolls actually fell by 2.5 million last month.["] Molly Smith
writes: ["]Employers added 517,000 jobs in January — nearly double the prior month's advance and
above all estimates in a Bloomberg survey. The unemployment rate also unexpectedly retreated to 3.4%, the lowest
since 1969, according to Labor Department data released Friday.["] Those are the numbers that grabbed
headlines and enabled Team Biden to claim credit for what they want to bamboozle the public into thinking we have a
great economy. But it turns out that there were changes in the way the data were gathered and reported that made
things look rosier: [...]
US
adds 517,000 jobs in January, but .... Before this morning, the analysts' consensus for new jobs gained in
January was 185,000. Today's report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics almost tripled that prediction. The
US economy added 517,000 jobs in January and pushed unemployment down to 3.4%, while the civilian labor force increased
by 866,000. Seem a little too good to be true? Perhaps, especially in the way that labor-force percentages
didn't budge at all. [...] How did we add 517K jobs and still leave all of these categories "little changed"? In
part, it's because of the massive add in labor-force numbers, but that would involve 866K workers just deciding to show
up in January. [...] It's as though over 1.2 million people just showed up out of nowhere in January and
nearly half of them had jobs, which suggests something may be off in methodology.
Job
Market's 2.6 Million Missing People Unnerves Star Harvard Economist. Behind the five-decade low US
unemployment rate of 3.5% lies a 2.6 million-person mystery. That's roughly how many more Americans should be
working or looking for jobs if the economy's labor force participation rate was the same as before the Covid-19
pandemic. But something's still off, leaving everyone from mom-and-pop businesses to Federal Reserve economists
scrambling to answer a crucial question: Where are these workers? Economist Raj Chetty and his big-data
experts at Harvard University's Opportunity Insights lab went looking for these missing people.
You
Must Assume That All Information Put Out By Our Government Is Corrupt. John Hinderaker at PowerLine
yesterday has yet another instance of blatant government manipulation of official statistics to support election of
Democrats, this one coming out of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In early July 2022 the BLS reported a big number
for job growth in the second quarter (April to June) of over 1 million jobs. That supposed job growth became
the centerpiece of President Biden's economic message for the midterms. The Hill quoted Biden on July 28 as
follows: ["]Our job market remains historically strong, with ... more than 1 million jobs created in
the second quarter alone.["] On December 13 the Research Department of the Philadelphia Federal
Reserve Bank came out with revised figures for second quarter job growth: ["]In the aggregate, 10,500 net
new jobs were added during the [March to June] period rather than the 1,121,500 jobs estimated by the sum of the states;
the U.S. CES [Current Employment Statistics, put out by BLS] estimated net growth of 1,047,000 jobs for the
period.["] Off by a factor of about 100. Oh well, it's now December, and we're well past the
election. Does any agency in the U.S. government put out honest information today? Maybe, but how would you
ever know? At this point you must assume that that absolutely everything is corrupted, in the particular direction
of supporting election of Democrats and further growth of the government.
Sorry About
Those Jobs. Joe Biden's Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that over a million jobs were created in the
second quarter, a heartening statistic that no doubt helped the Democrats in November. But now, the Philadelphia
Federal Reserve says that those million jobs were almost entirely fictitious: ["]The Biden administration
vastly overstated its estimate that employers created more than 1 million jobs in the second quarter of this year,
claiming historic job growth when in fact hiring had stalled, according to a new estimate. Job growth was
'essentially flat' in the second quarter with only 10,500 jobs added, the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia
said.["] Could the Bureau of Labor Statistics be a politicized agency, faking numbers to help the
Democratic Party?
Job
Gains This Year [were] Overstated by 1.1 Million, Philadelphia Fed Reveals. Labor data might have been
overcounted by as much as 1.1 million jobs earlier this year, the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia revealed in a
new quarterly report. According to the regional central bank's second-quarter "Early Benchmark Revisions of State
Payroll Employment" report, researchers' estimated employment changes that occurred between March and June were different
in 33 states and the District of Columbia compared to the data published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Biden
to Import 65K Foreign Workers for Blue-Collar Jobs as 11.6 Million Americans Are Jobless. President Joe
Biden is set to import nearly 65,000 H-2B foreign visa workers to take blue-collar American jobs as roughly 11.6 million
Americans remain jobless. This week, Biden's Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Labor Department announced
that the administration would be allowing businesses to import a few less than 65,000 H-2B foreign visa workers to take
nonagricultural jobs in construction, meatpacking, and landscaping, among other industries.
Joe Biden
Puts Humpty Dumpty To Shame. Biden has repeatedly boasted that he's created more jobs than any president
in history. Even the press hasn't been able to stomach that one. Almost the entirety of the job growth under
Biden has been making up jobs lost during the pointless COVID shutdown. And Biden has done far worse than Trump on
that score, as we've pointed out in this space. In the last nine months of Trump's presidency, the economy added
back 12.5 million of the 22 million jobs lost. In the 19 months since Biden took office, the economy
regained 9.7 million jobs.
Great
News! KJP Tells Us That Biden Has Created 'Ten Thousand Million Jobs' Since He Took Office. Maybe we've
gotten Biden all wrong. Maybe he's the best president since, since... maybe Barack Obama. Maybe we
underestimated his agenda and there is no recession, no inflation, and no problems at all. Maybe we should be
listening more to Karine Jean-Pierre. KJP was giving the White House a daily briefing when — we
hope — she uttered a gaffe about the number of jobs created since Biden took office. Fox News reports
that KJP said, "As you know, the good news is, in August the economy created 315,000 jobs, which is important. We
have created nearly ten thousand million jobs since President Biden took office, which is the fastest job growth in history."
The Editor says...
This means each of us has an average of 30 jobs. No wonder I'm so busy.
Biden's
Labor Chief Promotes Worker Replacement, Says Immigrants Are 'Only Way' to Fill Jobs.
The Democrat party's pick for Secretary of Labor says CEOs are being victimized by a shortage of
immigrant workers. Companies want to hire another 11 million people, Labor Secretary Marty
Walsh told Fox News on September 2, adding: ["]If those 11 million jobs had to be
filled tomorrow, we certainly don't have enough people in the United States to fill those jobs ... the
issue of workers has to be addressed and the only way you can do it is through immigration.["]
The Editor says...
With zero immigration, there should be enough native-born workers in the U.S. to fill all available jobs.
The reasons for the shortage of competent workers are entirely the fault of the socialist Democrats:
Those who don't work are all [#1] hooked on drugs, legalized or not, because of sporadic prosecution of drug laws, or
[#2] addicted to welfare, because the government pays people too much to sit at home and punishes employment,
or [#3] they're too poorly educated to hold down a job, because of the dumbed-down public schools.
Charles
Payne Points out Problem in Jobs Report, Peter Doocy Drives It Home to WH. The Biden team is trumpeting the new
jobs report that came out on Friday [8/5/2022] indicating that there were 528,000 new jobs, which was far more than expected.
[Tweet] Except not so much, as Fox's Charles Payne indicates. You can see here from the chart [not shown here] how the labor
force participation is continuing to go down from May. So what does this all mean? Payne notes that full-time jobs are down
by 71,000. What's up are part-time jobs by 384,000 and people holding multiple jobs, up by 92,000.
The
Biden jobs report is nothing to celebrate. First, the unemployment rate is measured by looking at the number of
people looking for jobs versus the number of people holding jobs. What's happened in the last year and a half is that,
since February 2020, 3.4 million people have dropped out of the workforce. If you have fewer people looking for jobs
versus the number of people holding jobs, it'll look like a lower unemployment rate, whether that first number dropped
because people got jobs or people gave up looking. Second, inflation is hugely outpacing wages. People may be
working, but they're failing to keep ahead in an inflationary economy.
Biden got
the recession he wanted. The American economy shrank in the first six months of this year. We are in a
recession. As RNC chairwoman Ronna McDaniel tweeted, "Biden inherited a recovery and created a recession." That
was the plan. Democrats believe economic ruin will help them in the long run. Losing Congress this year is a
small price to pay for a big FDR win in 2024. And the media and the rest happily provide cover for Democrats. The
official arbiter of recessions, the National Bureau of Economic Research, refuses to call this recession a recession.
Six months of economic shrinkage is a recession.
The Recession That Dare
Not Speak Its Name. Thursday morning [7/28/2022], the Commerce Department admitted what most Americans already
knew — the nation is in the midst of a recession. The economy has contracted for the second consecutive
quarter this year. During the first quarter, gross domestic product (GDP) shrank by 1.6 percent, and it shriveled
another 0.9 percent during the quarter that just ended. Thus, the Biden economy now meets the standard benchmark
economists have used for decades to define "recession." Inevitably, the White House, its accomplices in Congress, and
the corporate media are again trying to gaslight the voters. [...] But NBER [National Bureau of Economic Research] can take
as long as 12 months to officially declare a recession. As Gerard Baker writes in the Wall Street Journal, "This is
like being told by a doctor that you are officially sick a year after your funeral." Clearly, Biden and the Democrats
want to avoid the "r" word before the midterms.
Team
Biden's refusal to admit we're in a recession is just another reason Americans don't trust our institutions.
Why don't Americans trust the government and other institutions? Maybe it's because the government and other
institutions aren't trustworthy. There's certainly plenty of evidence for both the lack of trust and the lack of
trustworthiness. And if the trend continues, it bodes poorly for America. The news is bad on the lack of
trust. A recent University of Chicago Institute of Politics poll found that a majority of Americans think that the
government is "corrupt and rigged against people like me." Two-thirds of Republicans and independents felt that way, but
things weren't much better among liberals, 51% of whom agreed. So this isn't the usual sour grapes from the party out
of power — it's a general sentiment.
Defining
Recessions Down: Biden's Pollyanna Act Won't End Well. "For the first time in a decade, our economy is in
recession. It's not official yet — the group that dates recessions doesn't act until after the fact —
but there's little doubt that we're in the midst of a downturn." That was economist Jared Bernstein back in December 2001.
He went on: "The downturn is already taking a toll on those who traditionally bear the brunt of recessions, blue-collar
workers in manufacturing, minorities, and other less-advantaged workers." That year saw only two non-consecutive quarters
of GDP decline. The unemployment rate never got over 5.7%. And when the year was over, GDP had climbed 1%.
But it's still listed on the recession roster. Today Bernstein, who sits on President Joe Biden's Council of Economic
Advisers, is trying to argue that, despite two consecutive quarters of a shrinking economy, we aren't in a recession right now.
The
Democratic Party And How To Avoid A Recession: Why Didn't We Think Of This Before? There is a multitude
of remedies for digging an economy out of a recession or avoiding an economic recession altogether. There tends to be,
however, a common thread amongst each of these methods. Since conditions that drive a recession typically emerge over
long periods of time, it generally takes a comparable amount of time for our government officials and the Federal Reserve to
correct our collective course. [...] But thanks to the Biden Administration there is a new tactic to both avoid sinking into
a recession and digging ourselves out of one once we're in it, and it's one whose efficacy is immediately evident. And
the solution is so simple, it was there all along, and we non-Democrats were all just morons for not recognizing the fix from
the beginning. All we must do to avoid or emerge from a recession is this: Simply change the definition of what
it means to be in a recession. Boom, problem solved!
Republicans
Rip Biden White House for Redefining 'Recession' amid Economic Contraction. Republican officials in the House
and Senate ripped into the Biden administration after it attempted to redefine what constitutes a recession while concerns
mount about a significant decline in economic activity this year. On Thursday, ahead of a potentially negative GDP
report expected later this week — the annualized economic growth rate shrank by 1.6% in the first quarter of this
year and appears to have contracted even more in the second — a White House blog post attempted to redefine the
term "recession."
When
is a Recession not a Recession? When The Financial Media Need to Protect Joe Biden. The Bureau of
Economic Analysis (BEA) is scheduled to deliver their calculation for the second quarter (Apr, May, June) Gross Domestic
Product (GDP) on July 28, next week. [...] As with all other highly political institutions in U.S. government, the BEA is
driven by political ideology. With the Biden administration's Green New Deal energy policy driving the U.S. economy
into the ground; and with the BEA statisticians worshipping at the same governmental altar as all other climate change
ideologues; they will do everything in their power to defend what the people behind Joe Biden are doing. [...] Joe Biden is
an avatar; a political pawn; a cognitively declining guy who has no idea what is happening around him. The people
behind the Biden administration, those in real control of what this is about, have not hidden their goals and aspirations.
Biden's
Latest Goalpost Adjustment. Axios reported that White House economic advisors on Thursday moved the goalposts
on what a recession is. The traditional definition of a recession is two or more quarters of economic shrinkage, but
the Biden administration argues that "by most measures," according to Axios, "the world's largest economy remains comfortably
in expansion mode." That's why the White House "is seeking to preempt heightened recession chatter that would
accompany two quarters of shrinking GDP." By changing the accepted definition.
Inflation
at 9.1% now, and Democrats still can't pin that tail on the donkey. Inflation has hit 9.1% now, its highest
level since the post-Jimmy Carter hangover year of 1981, and there's no sign it's letting up. [...] Actually, the problem
comes from the Federal Reserve — and all of the central banks that printing out more money than an economy can
handle. Inflation, as the late Milton Friedman used to say, is "always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon" because
everything is priced in currencies. But Democrats in general don't seem to understand that it's their money-printing
spree, with largely wasted and stolen COVID funds, that created the problem. They prefer, like Joe, to say that
prosperity is just around the corner: [Tweet]
Look
Deeper, and the Jobs News Under Biden [is very bad]. The idea that Biden presided over the fastest job growth in
history is meaningless since he took office after the biggest decline in jobs in history. From February 2020 to April
2020, the economy shed a stunning 22 million jobs — thanks to COVID lockdowns we now know were completely
pointless. In the nine months following that trough, the economy added back 12.5 million of those jobs. Then
Biden took office. And in the 18 months since he's been calling the shots, the economy recovered only 9 million more
jobs, and even now hasn't surpassed the previous peak in employment. So how, exactly, does Biden come to the conclusion
that his $2 trillion "rescue" plan should get credit? If anything, it slowed down what had been a mad rush of people
returning to work.
Republican
John Thune Asks Biden for More Foreign Workers to Fill U.S. Jobs as Millions of Americans [are] Jobless. Senate
Minority Whip John Thune (R-SD) is joining Democrats, as well as the big business lobby, in asking President Joe Biden for
more legal immigration to the United States to fill American jobs. Even as the nation's foreign-born population has hit
record highs, Thune says the Biden administration is not importing enough H-2B foreign visa workers to fill blue-collar
seasonal jobs in the U.S.
Survey:
More Than 750,000 Dead, 30 Million Injured Because of Covid Vax. The United States federal bodies responsible
for the nation's healthcare policies keep turning a blind eye to the devastating number of deaths and injuries associated
with experimental gene therapeutics against Covid, aka Covid vaccines. All severe reactions to the shots are proclaimed
"rare." Steve Kirsch, California tech entrepreneur and founder of the Vaccine Safety Research Foundation (VSRF), has
estimated that the shots have left as many as five million Americans unable to work, 30 million injured, and more than 750,000
dead, as of June 24, 2022. According to the latest survey conducted by Pollfish on behalf of the VSRF, vaccines are
associated with a very high number of adverse reactions, including lethal and life-altering ones. That means that the
vaccinations should be halted immediately.
The Editor says...
If the so-called Covid vaccines "have left as many as five million Americans unable to work," that would make the
unemployment figures artificially low, would it not?
Atlanta
Fed Revises Second Quarter GDP Estimate to Negative 1 Percent. We can see no political scenario where the
Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) will report a negative second quarter GDP number, despite the reality of a contracted
economy. A negative second quarter GDP would mean the Joe Biden economic policies have resulted in a recession.
Yes, the economy is contracting; and yes, the economy is in an actual recession. However, it would be too politically
damaging for the federal bureaucrats to quantify it accurately. That being said, the Atlanta Fed is now calculating a
negative 1% second quarter GDP result.
Biden
Is the Economy's Supply Chain Problem. Joe Biden has become America's "it's not my fault" president.
Whether it's the inflation, the border, the crime, the gas prices, the Afghanistan exit fiasco or the stock market collapse,
Biden has become an expert at pointing the finger at someone else. [...] Why is it just now that we are confronted with the
goblins of supply chain disruptions? Biden says it is because we had the economy shut down, and then Trump left him
with an economy in miserable shape. According to this narrative, Biden had to "build back better" and solve bottlenecks
with cargo ships, airlines, warehouses and factories. But that's not even close to the truth. The economy soared
out of the COVID shutdowns that had paralyzed the economy in early 2020. In the second half of 2020, the economy snapped back
with a rapid rebound. These were the last six months of the Trump presidency. There were few shortages or delays
(except when companies couldn't get workers back because of sky-high welfare and unemployment benefits). Prices were stable
in the first six months of the COVID recovery. When Trump left office, inflation was 1.5%, even though the economy grew
by about 20% in the six months before Biden left office. But then, when Biden took over, right from the get-go, here,
there and everywhere "supply chain" problems emerged.
Joe
Biden Claims He's Led The 'Greatest Job Recovery In American History.' Economists Says That's False. President
Joe Biden has repeatedly touted the country's "job recovery" since he took office, even declaring earlier this week that his
administration's efforts "created the greatest job recovery in American history." Economists and fact checkers, however,
are unconvinced that Biden played much of a role in the numbers. The U.S. plummeted into a recession in March 2020 as a
result of the COVID-19 pandemic, with a swiftness not seen since the Great Depression, the Congressional Research Service
later found. Since then, restrictions imposed as a result of the pandemic have continued to loosen —
allowing Americans to head back to jobs they essentially already have. For the White House, this "job recovery" has
been a talking point, and an example of success.
Debunking
10 of Joe Biden's lies about the state of the US economy. CLAIM: Biden on Wednesday accused US oil companies of
making excessive profits. He ordered them to "take immediate actions to increase the supply" of gasoline and diesel
fuels. REALITY: Biden's own policies have disrupted energy markets. The American Petroleum Institute issued a
list of 10 steps Biden could take to reduce supply disruptions, including ending obstruction of permitting on natural gas
projects, lifting development restrictions on federal lands and waters and ending Trump-era steel tariffs. CLAIM: Biden
apparently thinks that public raving can restore confidence in his leadership. He literally screamed at the AFL-CIO
audience: "I don't want to hear any more of these lies about reckless spending. We're changing people's lives!"
REALITY: Federal Reserve analysts estimated that Biden's deluge of handouts added 3% to the inflation rate by late last
year. The Federal Reserve has boosted the money supply by 40% since the start of the pandemic, helping fuel price
surges across the board.
Bidenomics: The Left's Latest
Alibi. If you are among the 8 in 10 Americans who believe the economy is tanking, relax. Never mind that
the consumer-price index just hit 8.6 percent. Ignore skyrocketing gas prices. Forget that the gross domestic
product shrank at an annual rate of 1.5 percent in the first quarter of 2022 and is expected to shrink further.
Disregard the collapsing supply chain highlighted by empty shelves in the grocery store. Dismiss the dizzying descent
of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. According to the White House and the legacy media, none of these things
matter. The real problem bedeviling the economy is bad vibes.
Press
Sec Karine Jean-Pierre has entered the Twilight Zone. New Biden press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre yesterday
ignored the First Law of Holes and kept on digging. It's been a rough start for the Psaki successor, reading from notes
rather than spontaneously answering questions, and cutting off briefings and walking out as reporters continue to shout
questions. But yesterday, trying to defend the miserable mismanagement of the economy, she fully escaped the bounds of
reality and entered what must be the Twilight Zone. Precisely nobody will believe this: ["]What we're trying
to say, what I'm trying to say to you, is that the economy is in a better place than it has been historically.["]
Compared to 1929, maybe we're better off. So what? Let's compare today to 2019.
Biden
White House Deflects: 'The Economy Is in a Better Place than it Has Been Historically'. The Biden White House
is attempting to deflect from the dire state of affairs — rampant inflation and ever-rising gas
prices — as White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Tuesday claimed that the administration understands
but asserted that the economy is "in a better place than it has been historically." "We understand that people are
feeling — feeling this. They are feeling the increase of prices, which — with food, in
particular, right now, and gas. That is — that is something that we understand," Jean-Pierre said during
Tuesday's press conference.
Job
Openings Plunge By Most Since Covid Crash But Remain Stubbornly Elevated With Quits Near Record High. After
recent reports that the US labor market had suddenly hit a brick wall, with mass layoffs surging... [Illustration]
... and job openings according to third-party trackers such as Revello showing that total job postings plunged by 22.5%, the
biggest change on record[,] many were looking to see if these dismal trends would be confirmed by today's closely watched
JOLTs report, arguably the Fed's favorite indicator of labor market softness (or tightness as the case is right now). That
did not happen, and instead the two-month delayed JOLTS report showed that in April, job openings did plunge by a whopping
455K, the biggest one month drop since the covid crash, but the drop was from an upward revised, and even higher record
11.855 million in March, to 11.4 million, the third highest on record.
Inflation: The
Price You Pay for Biden's Delusions. When the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that inflation had risen at
an annual rate of 8.3 percent in April, the White House and many news outlets made much of the minuscule decrease from the
8.5 percent rate reported for March. President Biden issued a statement, for example, that called the infinitesimal
decline "heartening." CNN ran a story titled, "US inflation slowed last month for the first time since August."
This wasn't terribly comforting, however, considering that the inflation rate has nearly doubled since last April while real
wages declined by 2.6 percent. Nor is it "heartening" to see that Biden is still in denial about the role his
administration's spending has played in igniting inflation.
Where
is the Disinformation Governance Board when you need it? Biden's lackeys love to brag about how quickly incomes
are rising, but that is an intensely misleading claim. They advertise a 5.5% raise in income, but that is before it is
subject to the never-ending litany of taxes. When you factor in payroll taxes, federal income taxes, and state income
taxes, it is safe to say you reduce that number by 30% (conservatively speaking). This amounts to a net raise in income of
around 4%, which is less than half the current inflation rate of 8.3% — a significantly understated figure,
especially for lower and middle class individuals and families. Also, this "5.5% increase" is not universal —
for people who rely on fixed incomes like social security, they are essentially a year behind as it takes awhile for an
increase to reflect in their payments. The next component to consider is the rapid rise in the price of utilities,
energy, and food. [...]
Americans
Aren't Buying Biden's Tale Of Economic Recovery. The latest Gallup poll released Wednesday revealed that only
2% of Americans think economic conditions are "excellent," while 42% think conditions are "poor." More than
three-quarters of Americans feel that the economy is getting worse, according to polling data. Four in five adults rate
the country as "only fair" (38%) or "poor" (42%). Seventy-six percent of respondents believe the economy is getting worse,
with 20% saying it is improving, and only three percent feeling that it's staying the same.
Really? They criticized Donald Trump from day one.
Welcome To Stagflation.
When it comes to the economy, Democrats like to say it's unfair to judge a president by his first year in office. Very
well. President Biden is now in his second year and now we have the statistical verdict of his economic stewardship
rendered by the first-quarter drop in GDP. Stagflation, anyone? It may well be that the first quarter's annual GDP
growth of -1.4% marks not just the beginning of a period of low or no growth accompanied by inflation, but also the return to
the stagflation that ruined the decade of the 1970s and helped destroy the presidency of Jimmy Carter. And no, you
can't blame Donald Trump anymore for things that go wrong. The economic disasters piling up are now on the progressive
Democrats' tab. They broke it, they bought it. Biden immediately spun the bad GDP news as due to "technical
factors," including a slowdown in government spending and a decline in net exports, which both contributed to the GDP drop.
Media
to Americans — The Economy Is Awesome, You Dolts!. When things go bad for Democrat presidents, the
corporate media generally circle the wagons in two ways. We are either told no president could solve these problems, so
don't blame the Democrat, or we're told things are double-plus good, and we're just too stupid to see it. Well, the
truth — and we all know it — is that things are strikingly awful with His Fraudulency Joe Biden at the
helm, so the media's gaslighting campaigns are in full bloom.
Biden
'Not Concerned about Recession,' Touts 'Enormous Growth' after Economy Shrinks in First Quarter. President
Biden attempted to allay concerns about the performance of the U.S. economy on Thursday after the Commerce Department
announced that the economy shrank over the first quarter of 2022. "I'm not concerned about a recession," Biden told
reporters at a press conference at the White House. "I mean, you're always concerned about a recession, but the GDP,
you know, fell to 1.4 percent," Biden added. "But here's the deal: we also had last quarter consumer spending and
business investment and residential investment increase at significant rates," and "unemployment's the lowest rate since
1970." Biden said that the U.S. was seeing "enormous" economic growth alongside Covid disruptions.
The
New Greenwashing — False Advertising about Green Energy Jobs. In the private sector, false
advertising can get you into legal trouble. In the public sector, it's often good politics. Supporters of
renewable energy want you to believe that green jobs at union wages are a benefit of the Climate Leadership and Community
Protection Act (CLCPA). For example, NYSERDA CEO Doreen Harris recently boasted that for every job lost because of the
green-energy transition, ten will be created. And Governor Hochul pledged last week to prioritize union labor in the
green-energy transition, and the CLCPA mandates the application of New York's prevailing wage law, which essentially requires
union-standard wages and benefits be paid to workers on public construction projects, even when they far exceed market
rates. But Harris and Hochul are wrong — these jobs are a cost of the public policy, not a benefit.
And expensive prevailing wage jobs only increase the cost.
Democrats
Live In A Different World. Joe Biden didn't create a single job, he just happened to be in office when the jobs
Democrats shut down were allowed to return. New companies were not formed, nor have they expanded — people
laid off were called back to work. No matter how many times that lie is repeated, it will never ring true to the
public. We know. Along those lines, the economy being allowed to reopen leads to increased economic activity,
which leads to increased revenue to the government. That is not "cutting the deficit," especially when your spending is
loaded up in the future, an accounting gimmick if there ever was one.
Does
Anyone Believe Biden's 'Rescue' Plan Worked — Besides Biden? "Few pieces of legislation have done
more in a critical moment in our history to lift us out of a crisis." That was how President Joe Biden, early in his
State of the Union address, described the $2 trillion "American Rescue Plan." It's hard to know where to begin in
unpacking why this is so incredibly wrong. [...] First, the country wasn't in an economic crisis. Not by a long
shot. When Biden signed his deficit-financed spending spree into law, he did so more than a year after the recession
had ended, and almost at the exact moment that GDP had regained all the ground it lost during the pointless COVID
lockdowns. Unemployment was plunging — much faster than expected — and prices were steady.
And even some prominent liberals warned at the time that dumping $2 trillion in borrowed cash onto a fast-growing economy
would spark a surge in inflation. What's more, the economy has been underperforming ever since Biden enacted his
"rescue," as each month brings another "unexpected" miss.
Biden's
economic truths are real...real whoppers! Let's look at how Biden's economy has helped American workers,
according to him. In that same White House release, he made this flat unqualified statement, "Today, Americans are
finding better jobs with better pay and better benefits." [...] Workers aren't better off; they're worse off! Biden's
own government agency, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in its most recent news release, just stated, "From January 2021 to
January 2022, real average hourly earnings decreased 1.7 percent, seasonally adjusted." Where are Facebook and
Twitter with the fact-checks and content warnings on Joe?
Biden
Commerce Secretary Claims Joe's 'Leadership' Has Led to 'Greatest Resurgence in an Economy' Ever. If you think
the economy is in terrible shape, energy prices are through the ceiling, the supply chain crisis continues in some areas or
for some products, and millions of workers walked away from their jobs in 2021, it's not your fault, America. And it's
not Joe Biden's fault, either. The real culprit? COVID-19. That's right, gang — according
to Biden Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, who suggests the perception that the economy is struggling and the reason
why people aren't feeling this "very strong" economy right now is all because of the pandemic, as reported by The Right Scoop.
Is
COVID Jobs Recession About To Get Worse? Hand it to President Joe Biden: He sticks to his story no matter
what. In this week's press conference, he again tooted his own horn when it comes to job creation. "We created 6
million new jobs, more jobs in one year than any time before," Biden said. True enough, but as even the Associated
Press noted: "The economy added 6.4 million jobs in 2021, the most on government records dating back to 1939, but part
of that is just a natural rebound from what had been the steepest job loss on record in 2020, when 9.4 million jobs were
cut." In fact, the U.S. remains in a serious jobs recession, one that's more different than any in modern history.
After nearly two years under government imposed restraints to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic, we still remain below the
pre-pandemic job levels.
Spin
City! White House Says Joe Biden Is The Best Job-Creator "Ever". Due to their blatant anti-worker
policies, Democrats are very, very bad at creating jobs. After all, the party's entire modus operandi is to make people
dependent on the government. [Numerous tweets] Democrats like Joe Biden and Kamala Harris don't want to see American
citizens working. They want to see American citizens relying on the government for absolutely everything, like always.
The
Infrastructure Bill Is Joe Biden's 'Shovel-Ready Jobs' Moment. President Joe Biden's former boss,
then-president-elect Barack Obama, appeared on Meet The Press and declared that his goal was an infrastructure
overhaul that would create "shovel-ready jobs" amid the recession America faced. As the Washington Post pointed
out later, the phrase appeared to be pretty much new (they discovered its origin might have been based on Hillary Clinton's
previous statements regarding "shovel-ready jobs" for upstate New York), but it took off. Everyone was saying it and
praising Obama for such a brilliant messaging move. The media didn't just discuss the talking point, they celebrated
it. One year and an $800 billion dollar infrastructure plan later, those shovel-ready jobs never happened.
Asked about it by the New York Times, Obama admitted he now understood there's really no such thing.
The
Biden Regime Wants to 'Liberate' People From Caring for Their Children. Democrats have long wanted the government to parent or
co-parent your children, so it shouldn't surprise anyone that President Joe Biden said the quiet part out loud Monday night. [...] Is the
administration upset that you might be spending too much time with your family? The statement is also rather vague. The "nearly
2 million" number, I assume, represents the 1.8 million-woman reduction in our labor force during the COVID-19 pandemic. But
it's untrue to claim this loss is only due to women leaving work to care for a family member. There are myriad reasons why the pandemic
and government-induced shutdowns could have diminished the female workforce.
Democrats
Rush to Take Credit for Something They Opposed Because Nothing Matters. Weekly jobless claims fell to their
lowest point in over 50 years, and the Democrats and their mainstream media allies want you to know about it. MSNBC's
resident terrorist sympathizer and Qatari mouthpiece, Mehdi Hasan, shared the news with glee, chastising those that would
dare not champion the development in comparison to the record-high inflation the country is experiencing. [Tweet] But
like all things in politics and statistics, context is everything. This number represents a single week, the very definition
of a cherry-picked stat, but more importantly this was expected and not at all the result of Democrat policies. Why do I
say that? Because it was the Democrats, including the Joe Biden administration, that had previously fought to extend enhanced
unemployment benefits. It was Republicans that insisted on letting them lapse with the idea being that people would then be
more likely to look for work.
White
House Occupant Claims U.S. Wages are Growing Faster Than Inflation. The gibbering and cognitively disconnected
teleprompter reader who currently occupies the White House reads from a script today prepared for him by people who know he
is disposable. That is the most logical reason why Joe Biden could brazenly attempt to claim today that "wages have
gone up faster than inflation." [Video clip]
US economy ground to a halt
in 3d quarter. Net of inventory accumulation, real GDP for the third quarter was slightly negative, US
government data released Thursday morning show. Real GDP grew at an annual rate of 2%, below the forecasters' consensus
of 2.6%, the Commerce Department reported. But a jump in inventories added 2.07 percentage points annualized to GDP.
That's more than the reported growth. That's a very odd number, considering that the inventory-to-sales ratio of US
business stands at the lowest level on record, due to supply-chain constraints that prevent businesses from restocking.
It's likely that the inventory number was exaggerated. If that's true, the US economy shrank during the third quarter.
Biden
insists the worst jobs report of his presidency is a 'significant improvement'. President Joe Biden on Friday
tried to put a positive spin on the worst jobs report of his presidency, urging Americans to look at the bigger picture and
pushing his infrastructure bill and his trillion-dollar package of social programs. 'If you take a look at the trend
itself, on average 600,000 new jobs created every month since I took office,' Biden said. 'In total, job creation in the
first eight months of my administration is nearly 5 million jobs.' 'Now that's progress,' he added.
Biden
Fails to Mention Labor Shortage in Remarks on Disappointing Jobs Report. President Biden did not mention a
labor shortage in remarks following the release of a disappointing jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics on Friday
[10/8/2021]. Biden blamed lower-than-expected hiring levels on the spread of the Delta variant of coronavirus. The
Bureau's report found that the U.S. added just 194,000 jobs in September, compared with the 500,000 expected by
economists. "Remember, today's report is based on a survey that was taken during the week of September 13... when COVID
cases were averaging more than 150,000 per day," Biden said. "Since then, we've seen the daily cases fall by more than
one-third, and they're continuing to trend down."
Bureau
of Labor Statistics on Friday: Wages Drop 1.2 Percent; Biden Administration on Monday: "Wages are
Up". Consider this actual example of the White House fraud using the wage rate data. On Friday
[7/16/2021] the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) said: "Median weekly earnings of the nation's 113.6 million full-time
wage and salary workers were $990 in the second quarter of 2021 (not seasonally adjusted), the U.S. Bureau of Labor
Statistics reported today. This was 1.2 percent lower than a year earlier." On Monday the White House says:
"Wages are up." [Video clip]
Biden
Brags About 'His' Economic Recovery, But Has To Lie To Do It. As TV screens showed the Dow Jones tumbling on
inflation and renewed COVID fears, President Joe Biden took to the podium Monday [7/19/2021] to brag about how great the
economy is doing and why he deserves all the credit. It was a remarkable act of prestidigitation for such an old
man. Biden said that "it's true that the economy was sputtering before I got here." That's provably false.
He said that: "We've gone from 60,000 jobs per month to ... more than 600,000 jobs per month since I took
office." That's grossly misleading. He went on to boast that: "Look, we've brought this economy back from
the brink." That is a bald-faced lie. Biden's intent with his remarks is to argue that his $1.9 trillion
"rescue" bill saved the economy, and the even bigger spending bills he wants Congress to pass will keep it going.
No one should believe a word of it.
The
Three-Way Squeeze. Here is why the "Joe Biden" regime only has a few months to live: it is caught in a
squeeze between some of the greatest lies in world history, and they're all unraveling now. [...] The third "Big Lie" is that
the US economy is "recovering" from the Covid-19 disruptions. The US economy has been a Potemkin village since 2008,
held together with the baling wire and duct tape of Federal Reserve money games and, more so lately, US government fiscal
recklessness — i.e., spending vast amounts of borrowed money on direct payments to broke citizens, broke
businesses, and, apparently an equal number of outright crooks who just gamed the various bailout categories. [...] And some
businesses, such as restaurants, say they are offering much higher wages than they used to in a desperate effort to keep
operating. Okay, but consider how long you can run a restaurant paying dishwashers $25-an-hour, for example, especially
considering how much of the population is too broke now to eat in restaurants that charge a third-again as much for dinner as
they did before Covid-19. What you're actually looking at is a broken business model for much of the service
industry. Sometime this summer, that pretty big problem will be acknowledged, and the nation will see that we are not
in a recovery at all, but rather a permanent contraction that will be labeled "a depression."
Friday's
Jobs Report May Blow Up Biden's Presidency. Friday [6/4/2021], the Bureau of Labor Statistics will release
May's jobs report and it's expected to be "unexpectedly" bad. Employers are still desperate for workers but workers are
taking their own sweet time getting back to work. The rate of people leaving unemployment is falling and a top Fed
official is warning that the job numbers may look "odd." Lingering restrictions on some businesses in some
states — bars and restaurants, especially — are putting the brakes on the economic recovery. It's
like putting the gas pedal to the floor while engaging the emergency brake. And some economists expect it to show up
in Friday's report. Where are all the jobs, Joe? Whatever happened to "Build Back Better"?
Faster
than expected inflation 'is actually a good sign,' White House official says. On Thursday [5/27/2021],
President Joe Biden traveled to Ohio to make the case that the economy is headed in the right direction. "We've turned
the tide," he told the crowd in Cleveland. Shortly afterward, during an appearance on Yahoo Finance Live, one of his
top economic advisers acknowledged that in areas like inflation and in the labor market, "there's going to be some bumps in
the road" as the economy continues to right itself following the pandemic. However, National Economic Council Deputy
Director Bharat Ramamurti also told Yahoo Finance that the recent inflation jump is actually a positive sign. "The
faster than expected increase in some of those prices is actually a good sign in the sense that it's a sign that the economy
is recovering faster than a lot of people expected," he said.
Labor
Shortage Caused by Government. America has a record 8.1 million job openings. The media call it a "labor
shortage." But it's not a labor shortage; it's an incentive shortage. "No one wants to work," says a sign on a
restaurant drive-thru speaker in Albuquerque, New Mexico. "Please be patient with the staff that did show up." I
never wanted to work. I got a job because I had to support myself. That was good for me. It forced me out
of my comfort zone. It made me a better person. Had government offered me almost equal money not to work, I never
would have applied. Today, government takes away that incentive. The American Rescue Plan, passed in March,
increased unemployment payments by hundreds of dollars and extended them for up to 73 weeks. Given the cost of
commuting, etc., many people find they are better off financially not working.
Media in Full Spin Mode to Cover
for Biden's Failures. Joe Biden's presidency is spiraling out of control. By any reasonable metric he has
failed as a commander in chief. He has failed on immigration, he has failed on the economy, he has failed to create
jobs, he has failed on foreign policy, he has failed on handling the pandemic, he has failed to unite the country, and he has
failed as a leader. But that's not what the mainstream media would have us believe. [...] [A]lthough there are
currently 8.1 million job openings in the U.S., we somehow only managed to add 266,000 jobs in April, or nearly
three-quarters of a million less than the one million that Wall Street economists were projecting. This after the March
job numbers were already revised down another 140,000. Might it have something to do with Biden's insistence that
Americans receive a $300 weekly bonus check to stay home? Even those making $32,000 a year would see a raise by going
on unemployment.
Liberals
Should Learn From Weak Jobs Report That Incentives Matter. "Experts" predicted 1 million jobs would be created
in April. The actual number fell far short, at 266,000. Republicans warned that overly generous COVID-19 relief
benefits create a disincentive to work. [...] When the numbers came in, Biden administration officials lacked no shortage of
excuses. Some potential workers, they argued, feared going back to work because of COVID-19; many schools had still yet
to resume in-school learning, particularly burdensome for single parents; we're still early in the bounce back from the
COVID-19-stricken economy; one month's worth of numbers does not a story tell; and employers just need to raise wages.
Labor Secretary Marty Walsh urged perspective: "Well, you know, under normal circumstances, and certainly we're not
living in normal circumstances, the 266,000 job gain a month is a good number. Unfortunately, we're still in the midst
of a pandemic."
Biden
Economic Adviser's Excuse for Bad April Jobs Report Is One for the Books. [Scroll down] White House
economic adviser Cecilia Rouse was still trying to spin the April report and explain why it wasn't as bad as it was.
She actually blamed it in part on the fact that Easter was in March this year. "Easter happened in March this year, the
seasonal adjustments were a little funny within the BLS report," Rouse told reporters. [Video clip] First,
not sure why when Easter is would make any difference on the report. Will the phases of the moon also make a
difference? But second and more importantly, Easter was in April. April 4, to be exact. What
the heck is she saying? The "seasonal adjustments" aren't the only things "a little funny" here.
White
House econ advisor publicly humiliates herself making excuses for the horrible April jobs report. If you are
going to make up silly excuses for Biden's economic disaster, it's better to have them consistent with the realities of the
calendar. The jobs report for April was a disaster — for America, of course, but for the Biden
administration in particular. Instead of a million or more new jobs, barely a quarter of that number of jobs were
created, despite relaxation of shutdowns and mask mandates. [...] So desperate are Biden's handlers to deflect blame for the
looming Jimmy Carter-like economic disaster (remember "stagflation"? If not, you will soon be reminded), that the White
House economic advisor Cecilia Rouse made an absolutely pathetic, humiliatingly obviously false excuse: it was because
Easter fell in March. She got all wonky and explained that this affected the seasonal adjustments. Except that
Easter was April 4 this year.
White
House Occupant Reads Teleprompter, Desperately Attempting to Spin Horrific Policy Outcomes. [Scroll down]
The COVID bailout has created massive incentives for people not to return to work. It is only not a laziness and
comfortable dependency issue, it is also an economic decision. Low wage workers can make more sitting at home getting
unemployment to combine with their COVID bailout money than they can returning to work. The political risk is again
obvious. As overall policy destroys the middle class in favor of Wall Street, multinational corporations and the
investment class, it doesn't take an economist to see the dependency model creates a disincentive. The Chicago crew is
concerned about the backlash from obvious economics. [Biden's] teleprompter is loaded with obtuse talking points that
deflect and deny this reality. Additionally, the teleprompter message to blue states lets them know more money is
coming into their coffers; so hold the line.
Biden
Says Terrible Job Numbers 'Evidence' US Moving in 'Right Direction'. President Biden doubled-down on his
radical, far-left economic agenda Friday, saying April's terrible jobs report is actually "evidence" the United States is
moving in the "right direction" under the Democratic Party. "We knew this wouldn't be a sprint — it would be
a marathon," said Biden after the release.
9
Things You Need to Know About Biden's 'Infrastructure' Spending Plan. [#3] Big spending won't deliver promised
job creation. While the Biden administration is claiming that the plan would create millions of jobs, infrastructure
spending has a poor track record of increasing employment. Federally funded projects are slowed by red tape and often
serve to divert skilled workers from private sector construction work. When coupled with a tax increase on businesses
to pay for additional spending, the net effect would be destroying jobs rather than creating them. In addition, the
economy is in the process of reopening in most of the country and unemployment is falling rapidly, meaning there is no
rationale for "stimulus" projects.
White
House walks back 19 million-jobs claim, says Biden plan will create 2.7 million jobs. The White House clarified
Tuesday that one study projects that President Biden's $2.25 trillion infrastructure package will create roughly 2.7 million
jobs — not the 19 million jobs administration officials had touted over the weekend. White House press
secretary Jen Psaki cited a study from Moody's that projects the U.S. economy will add 19 million jobs over the next decade
if Congress passes Mr. Biden's plan and about 16.3 million jobs if Congress doesn't pass it. "So that is what the
impact would be of the American Jobs Plan — 2.7 million, to be totally clear," Ms. Psaki said. "It is
important to be clear and to be specific about jobs numbers — to provide clarity to the American people."
The Editor says...
If the primary benefit of the "infrastructure package" is job creation, do the math and see that $2.25 trillion to create
2.7 million jobs is $833,000 per job. And what percentage of the jobs will go to non-citizens who recently
arrived in this country?
Biden Lifts the Curtain.
President Biden finally held a formal press conference on Thursday, and the answers pulled back the curtain on how he and
White House chief of staff Ron Klain plan to govern. The biggest if unsurprising news is that they are in sync with
Democrats on Capitol Hill in pushing an agenda that has elated Bernie Sanders. One takeaway is that Mr. Biden has
nothing on Donald Trump in claiming credit for the sun rising in the east. The President boasted about achieving 100
million Covid vaccinations after 58 days, instead of his announced goal of 100 days. Anyone paying attention
knew that production and distribution were on pace to meet that goal even when Mr. Trump was President. On Thursday
Mr. Biden set a new goal of 200 million doses by 100 days, which should be a layup. Mr. Biden also
gave himself and his $1.9 trillion spending bill credit for growing economic optimism. But the 6% GDP growth estimate
for 2021 that he touted was already the consensus weeks ago as vaccinations spread and state lockdowns eased. A booming
recovery and rapid job growth were teed up if Democrats did nothing. The spending bill's welfare incentives to stay
home and not work may, if anything, slow the jobs recovery.
Green
Jobs Are A Myth: A Myth Intended to Distract Attention. During the 2020 election campaign, Joe Biden
asserted that more than 3 million Americans are already "employed in the clean energy economy." He then boasted that, "if
executed strategically, our response to climate change can create more than 10 million well-paying jobs in the United States
that will grow a stronger, more inclusive middle class ... and not just in cities along the coasts." That would make Joe
twice as boastful as his former boss, who promised the 2009 $787 billion stimulus package would create "over five million"
green jobs. Four years later, the Brookings Institution reported that, "of the nearly 2.7 million 'green jobs' [the
Obama-Biden Administration] identifies, most were bus drivers, sewage workers and other types of work that don't fit the
'green jobs of the future'" description.
Green
Jobs Collapse in Germany and Go to China Instead. What a Surprise!. 'Green jobs' in the German renewables
sector have collapsed by 50 per cent in less than a decade. No prizes for guessing where they've gone instead —
but here's a clue: it begins with 'C' and ends with '-hina'. [...] There are two key points to be made here. First, China
is not remotely interested in green issues — or 'clean' energy — except insofar as it enables it to gain a
competitive advantage over the West while it continues full steam ahead with its fossil fuel-powered industries. Second,
the 'green jobs' promised by everyone from President Joe Biden to UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson as one of the benefits of
their proposed Net Zero revolutions are a myth. Or, if you prefer, a blatant lie.
Biden
Invents An Economic Crisis To Justify His Reckless $1.9 Trillion COVID 'Relief'. President Joe Biden used Friday's [2/5/2021]
jobs report as another justification for his massive $1.9 trillion stimulus bill. "A once-in-a-century virus has decimated our
economy, and it's still wreaking havoc on our economy today," he said. Funny, because that's not what the data show. Some
Democrats are already coming to realize that piling another $1.9 trillion in deficit spending on top of the more than $3 trillion
already targeting COVID relief is an enormous mistake.
The Editor says...
Covid-19 was not and is not a "once-in-a-century virus." Something similar comes along every couple of
years — usually in election years.
WaPo:
Two Pinocchios For Kerry's Wind-And-Solar Jobs Claims. If you missed John Kerry's remarks on the
job-destruction impact from Joe Biden's executive orders on climate change, let's refresh memories first. Reporters
asked Kerry how the new administration would explain to hundreds of thousands of energy workers about the necessity of making
them unemployed, Kerry suggested that they could "make better choices," and told reporters that they should learn to build
solar panels instead. [...] Obama, Kerry, and Biden had eight years to prove the assertion that massive government subsidies
in renewable energy would pay off with "millions" of green-tech jobs. Remind us again how many wind and solar installer
jobs America currently has 12 years after the massive Porkulus bill? The most significant lie here isn't Kerry's
statistical claims. It's that this administration cares one whit about energy-sector jobs while they take every step
they can to destroy them without viable employment or energy options.
Sanders:
We Will Use Reconciliation 'to Pass Legislation Desperately Needed' with 51 Votes. Senator Bernie Sanders
(I-VT) declared Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union" that the Democrats will use the reconciliation process to pass bills
with a simple 51 majority in the Senate to forward major legislation. Sanders said, "What we have got to do is
recognize right now we are living in an unprecedented moment in American history with the pandemic, economic collapse,
climate change, crumbling infrastructure. We have millions of people working for starvation wages. [...]"
Biden's
COVID-19 'Rescue' Plan Is Based On 5 Big Lies. Joe Biden went on prime time this week to promote his COVID-19
plans. For a guy who promises to be honest with the public, he's off to a terrible start. Since mainstream media
fact-checkers are now on their four-year vacation, we'll set the record straight on several key claims he made. [#1] "You
will see it very clearly if you examine what the twin crises of pandemic and this sinking economy have laid bare." Sinking
economy? Where has Biden been for the past six months? As the Bureau of Economic Analysis has already reported, the
economy grew at a stunning 33.4% in the third quarter of this year — well above anyone's expectations. The
Atlanta Fed's GDPNow pegs growth in the fourth quarter at a very strong 7.4%.
Justice
Department Debunks Silicon Valley's 'Worker Shortage' Claim. The Justice Department's discrimination lawsuit
against Facebook debunks the Fortune 500's fraudulent claim that a shortage of American workers forces managers to hire
foreign workers, U.S. immigration experts say. The federal lawsuit says Facebook hid more than 1,000 job advertisements
from eager American graduates so U.S.-based managers could pretend the only qualified candidates for the jobs were the
company's temporary foreign workers. The pretense allowed the company to request permanent green cards for the
temporary workers.
Setting the Stage
for Revolution. [Scroll down] It's not just political actors flooding us with falsehoods. Boring
government statistics, like unemployment numbers, can no longer be trusted. For example, according to the U.S.
Government Accountability Office, the unemployment data is inaccurate and no one knows why. More accurately, no one
cares why it is inaccurate. They post the numbers they want to post for internal political reasons. The result of
all of this is a system in which not only is peaceful revolution impossible, but minor reform is no longer possible.
5
Other Things We'll Learn About Biden After The Election. [#3] The economy has been doing much better than the
public had been led to believe. Back in 1996, when George H.W. Bush was running for reelection, the press treated
the economy as though it were in another depression, which just so happened to coincide with Bill Clinton's campaign
messaging. As soon as the election was over, coverage of the economy suddenly became more upbeat, and the public
learned that the very mild recession had ended way back in March 1991.
No,
Joe, there was no economic boom under Obama. The great Jackie Gleason once said, "The past remembers better
than it lived." And so it is, apparently, with the Obama years. There was no economic "boom" as Joe Biden and Kamala
Harris are misremembering. This was an economy that skidded into a financial ditch and seemingly never pulled out of it
and got back on the prosperity hot lanes until Donald Trump won the election in November 2016. You can mark the real
recovery — an economic inflection point almost the day after that surprise election outcome. Every liberal
forecaster and most academic economists had guaranteed America that, if Trump were elected, the stock market would crash;
workers would be flattened; and, as New York Times economist Paul Krugman famously predicted, the economy would "never"
recover. Instead, the Dow Jones Industrial Average soared by 257 points the morning after the election (that's
some crash), and it rose for the next three years, as it has again over the last several months.
No
Joe, You Didn't Hand Trump A Booming Economy. Joe Biden — along with his amen chorus in the
press — keeps insisting that he and President Barack Obama handed Donald Trump a booming economy when they left
office in 2016. "We left a booming economy," Biden said during the first presidential debate, "and he caused the
recession." Debate moderator Chris Wallace jumped in to help Biden, adding that job growth was faster in the last three years
of Obama's term than the first three of Trump's. One is a flat out lie, the other a clever deception. After
presiding over the worst economic recovery since the Great Depression, Obama and Biden left office with the economy stalling
out, leading experts to warn that the nation was facing "secular stagnation."
September
jobs report: US economy gains 661,000 payrolls, unemployment rate ticks down to 7.9%. The US economy saw
another 661,000 jobs added back in September and a modest improvement in the unemployment rate, as the recovery in the labor
market continues as a stagnating rate.
The Editor says...
Bias alert: Adding 661,000 jobs doesn't sound like stagnation.
Unpacking
Joe Biden's lies about the Trump job-creation miracle. Try as they might, Democrats, the media and the
blue-check Twitterati can't wish away President Trump's enormously successful stewardship of the US economy. "You talk
about the economy booming," moderator Chris Wallace told Trump at this week's presidential debate. But "in Obama's
final three years as president, more jobs were created, a million and a half more jobs, than in the first three years of your
presidency." Wallace was echoing one of the Biden campaign's favorite talking points. But here's the thing:
That talking point depends on misleading and cherry-picked data.
Trump
Inherited a Meek Economy and Made It Roar. Once again, Democrats are trying to attribute President Trump's economic success to President
Obama — and their claims are no truer than they've ever been. Joe Biden's running mate, Kamala Harris, claimed last month that Trump
"inherited the longest economic expansion in history from Barack Obama and Joe Biden" and "ran it straight into the ground." The media parrot
these claims. NBC ran an article in support of Harris's claim entitled "Data show Trump didn't build a great economy. He inherited it."
The article notes that new jobs averaged 215,000 per month over Obama's last four years but only 182,000 per month over Trump's first three. This
comparison is misleading, however, and ignores factors including job openings and a worker shortage. The National Federation of Independent
Businesses conducts a monthly survey asking business owners, "What's the most important problem facing your business today?" Under Obama, they
cited taxes and regulation as numbers one and two. After Trump cut taxes and slashed regulations, business owners cited finding qualified
workers as their number one problem.
Delusional
Democrats' lies and misleading claims take center stage on second night of convention. On the night the
Democratic Party officially nominated Joe Biden to be its 2020 presidential nominee, Democrats proved beyond a shadow of a
doubt that they can't win with a substantive debate about policy, resorting instead to presenting Americans with a two-hour
marathon of misleading claims, outright lies and hypocrisy. For example, Rep. Conor Lamb, D-Penn. and Florida
Democratic Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried credited Biden with the incredible job growth experienced under the first
three years of the Trump administration, prior to the coronavirus pandemic. "When our economy was on the brink, Joe led
the recovery effort that created millions of jobs, including here in western Pennsylvania," Lamb said. "Under his
leadership, America bounced back with the longest economic expansion in history." "You know, the one Trump brags about
creating," Fried quickly added. Of course, what they seemed to have forgotten is that Barack Obama was president prior
to Donald Trump, not Joe Biden. And even more importantly, the Obama-Biden economic recovery was the slowest since the
Great Depression.
Joe and Kamala, the Demagogic
Duo. [Scroll down] The interest of Biden and Harris in economic growth is nil. Biden has said that
the "very first thing" he will do is eliminate Trump's tax cuts. He will restore all of the irrational regulations
constraining business Trump has wiped out. And his "Green New Deal" will crush America's energy sector. With a
straight face, Biden said that his environmentalism will be a boon for "jobs." This is the same candidate who cavalierly told
soon-to-be-out-of-work coal miners that they should learn "how to code." In the name of "climate change," a Biden-Harris
administration would throw tens of thousands of people out of work and drive up energy prices for all Americans. They
subscribe to a left-wing ideology that sees a receding economy as a goal, not a problem. Woe to Americans if they
believe the lies of Biden and Harris. They are two lightweights who will crash America's economy, decimate her culture,
and embolden the mob.
MSNBC
Hopes for 'Global Financial Crisis' Helping Dems in 2020. On Friday, MSNBC anchor Stephanie Ruhle talked to
CNBC contributor Dan Nathan about how the booming economy may factor into the 2020 presidential race. Without any
substantiation, Nathan wildly speculated that there could be another "global financial crisis" which would provide something
"Dems can run on" in the fall. Nathan, a longtime Democratic Party donor and principal at the investment consulting
group RiskReversal Advisors, began by arguing that the nation's historically low unemployment was actually a bad thing:
"...the labor market is really tight, and economically, in an election year, that could pose a really big problem when you
think about it here because we're just not seeing the sort of economic growth that you might expect at this stage of the
recovery over the last ten years."
MSNBC's
Scarborough Distorts Axios Report on Trump Economy. Joe Scarborough of MSNBC's Morning Joe distorted an
Axios report on President Donald Trump's economy to credit former president Barack Obama. The show ran a segment
defending Obama's tweet congratulating himself for today's booming economy. Scarborough cited an Axios report on
Trump's economy to assert Feb. 18 that "[if] you look at the last ten presidents and their GDP growth throughout their
administrations, six in ten of those presidents — according to Axios yesterday, and well just according to
government statistics — actually had stronger economies than Donald Trump." But that's not what Axios' piece was
about. First, the Axios piece never mentioned ten presidents. The outlet's chart only measured six presidents'
average annualized GDP growth by presidential term (Trump included). Only five of the presidential terms shown in Axios'
chart are higher than Trump's first term. Second, the Axios story was that "Average economic growth under President
Trump has outpaced the growth under Barack Obama."
Fact
Check: Bernie Sanders Falsely Says Green New Deal Will Create 20 Million Jobs. Although Sanders has been
touting this 20 million figure for months, there is no evidence that the vast changes to the American economy his plan
entails would actually add more jobs than it would subtract. While some new jobs would be created to shift America's
economy toward renewable energy, many jobs would also be eliminated.
Obama to Trump: You
Didn't Build That Economy. Arguing that the Obama recovery was weak and protracted because he took office after
a steep downturn betrays remarkable economic illiteracy. Dramatic economic contractions are typically followed by
strong recoveries. When Obama took office, he had nowhere to go but up. The long, feeble recovery over which he
presided was caused by his administration's meddling — a combination of ARRA and the Dodd-Frank Act. The
claim that Trump's superior performance was about inheriting a better labor market is exactly backwards. Moving
unemployment from 4.7 percent (considered full employment by most economists) to 3.6 percent was a far heavier lift for
Trump than Obama faced in 2009. Moreover, none of Obama's balderdash about ARRA explains the growth in manufacturing jobs
over which Trump has presided. During the Obama years, 300,000 manufacturing jobs disappeared. When Trump pledged
to bring them back, Obama claimed that he would need a magic wand to accomplish this — yet somehow nearly 500,000
such jobs have been added to the economy since Trump took office.
Tom
Steyer: Trump's Economy Is Not That Great, No Matter That Numerous Polls Say Otherwise. President Trump's
resiliency in the face of being impeached and amid the constant barrage of attacks against him since day one has been a
source of immense frustration for Democrats in 2020, especially in the aftermath of his unapologetic State of the Union
address and his acquittal after the Senate's impeachment trial. Adding an extra layer of frustration for Democrats are
several recent polls on the economy, in which Trump has received record-high numbers and where a clear majority of the
American people have expressed that they are better of now than they were in 2016.
Trump
fires back after Obama claims credit for economic boom: 'Con job'. President Trump fired back Monday after
former President Barack Obama, in a subtle swipe at the commander in chief, claimed credit for the economic gains in both
their terms. Obama tweeted Monday morning [2/17/2020] to note the anniversary of his signing the 2009 economic stimulus
package. "Eleven years ago today, near the bottom of the worst recession in generations, I signed the Recovery Act,
paving the way for more than a decade of economic growth and the longest streak of job creation in American history," Obama
tweeted, alongside a photo of his signature on the bill.
The Editor says...
Here's a short synopsis of the back story: The U.S. economy tanked in 2008, at the moment when it appeared that Barack H. Obama
was likely to win the presidential election. The economy stayed in its pitiful shape until Obama left office; whereupon, the economy
roared back to life under Trump. Obama did everything he could to destroy this country, while blaming George W. Bush for all his
troubles, with the eager assistance of the dishonest news media: Under Obama, bad economic news was always "unexpected." Under
Trump, good economic news is always "unexpected." The news media is still dishonest, and Obama is still a liar.
Next Time You Hear the Media try to Credit Obama for
Trumps Economy, Watch This. This wonderful orator and his crystal ball couldn't have been more wrong. I
guess it's easy to tell people their jobs are gone and they will need to be retrained, much harder to fix the problem.
I'll take the guy who just finished up three new trade deals and is working on the fourth bringing those same jobs back to
America that Obama said were gone. [Video clip]
The
Facts About Trump That Are Deadly For Democrats. [Scroll down] The Democrats' political future depends on
keeping voters as far away from facts as possible. When not waging personal attacks, the Democrats have tried to
convince voters that the economy is shambles, and that as the rich grow richer, the suffering of the poor increases.
But just as the facts reveal Trump to be much less than a demon, the data show them to be liars. Earnings of the bottom
10 percent have grown 4.9% under Trump while they rose a mere 1.9% during the Obama presidency. Under this "racist" president,
black Americans have thrived, their earnings up 3.8%, a stark contrast to the 1.8% growth under President Barack Obama.
Private
payrolls soar in January, the best monthly gain in nearly 5 years. The jobs market kicked off 2020 in grand
fashion, adding 291,000 in private payrolls for the best monthly gain since May 2015, according to a report Wednesday from
ADP and Moody's Analytics. That was well above the 150,000 estimate from economists surveyed by Dow Jones and more
evidence that the U.S. still is a good distance from full employment even with the jobless rate at its lowest point in more
than 50 years.
The Editor says...
Outside of communist countries, "full employment" does not happen. When a news site says, "the U.S. still is a good
distance from full employment," that is propaganda.
ADP
Says 291,000 New Jobs in January; It's More Like 336,000. The jobs report from ADP on Wednesday [2/5/2020]
understated job growth in January. Based on its own payrolls, the growth of private employment in the United States
wasn't 291,000. It was actually 336,100 when new jobs created by franchises were included. The new jobs appeared
in every sector of the economy, from small businesses to large and from goods-producing to service-providing. Small
businesses added 94,000 new jobs; medium sized companies added 128,000 while large companies (500 employees and up) added
69,000. Those running franchise operations hired 45,100 new people in January. Construction and manufacturing added
55,000 jobs, while professional and business services hired 49,000. Education added 70,000, while the leisure and
hospitality sector brought on 96,000 new people.
225,000
Jobs Added in January, and Still No Media-Predicted Recession. The latest Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)
report found that the Trump economy is continuing to pump jobs into the market. And yet, still no evidence of the
recession the liberal media have been howling about. The most recent jobs report found that the U.S. economy added
225,000 nonfarm payroll jobs for the month of January, destroying economists' expectations of 158,000 jobs. Predictions
were off by roughly 67,000 jobs. Notable job gains occurred in construction (+44,000), in health care (+36,000) and
transportation and warehousing (+28,000). Average hourly earnings on private nonfarm payrolls also rose by seven cents to
$28.44, an increase of 0.2 percent, "slightly less than estimated but an acceleration from the December reading," according
to Yahoo! Finance's Feb. 7 analysis of the new numbers.
Democrats doing
their best to scare Americans but our economy is robust, there's room for growth. For those of you
looking — praying — for a break from the Democrats impeachment farce, there's new and very positive
polling from Fox News and Gallup on the economy. The results were very encouraging for Americans in general —
and for Republicans in particular. For the Democrats, arguing against this vibrant economy is becoming more difficult
every month. According to a new Fox News poll released on Sunday, 55 percent of Americans rate the economy as
"excellent" or "good," the highest percentage since January 2001. A record-high 20 percent say the economy is
"excellent" up from 3 percent in December 2016 — the Obama administration's final month.
The
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez School of Economics. On Monday, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, (D-N.Y.), sat for
a discussion with author Ta-Nehisi Coates. She dropped a number of shocking statements — statements that
elicited nothing but murmurs of agreement from Coates. AOC claimed: "No one ever makes a billion dollars.
You take a billion dollars." How, pray tell, are American billionaires responsible for such massive theft? According to
AOC, the very mechanisms of capitalism mandate such theft. In her view, successful businesspeople simply exploit their
workers while maximizing their profits. Hypothetically speaking about billionaires making widgets, she said: "You
didn't make those widgets! You sat on a couch while thousands of people were paid modern-day slave wages and, in some
cases, real modern-day slavery...You made that money off the backs of undocumented people." This, of course, is
nonsense. Voluntary exchange of labor for wages is, as stated, voluntary, and the fact that there are many
people willing and able to labor in the manufacture of widgets is presumably responsible for lower wages.
Booker
Downplays Trump Economy — Americans Don't Measure Their 'Well-Being' Based on GDP, Stock Market.
During Friday's "New Day" on CNN, 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) discussed a new CNN
poll that shows the United States economy's highest rating in almost 20 years. Booker said the economy is "overall
good" but Americans are "not measuring their well-being" based on the GDP or stock market.
2020
Democrats: Prosperous America Is A Dark Place. What the Democrats who gathered in Los Angeles Thursday
night [12/19/2019] for the PBS/Politico debate are offering the country as an alternative to President Donald Trump was
encapsulated by Sen. Elizabeth Warren in her closing statement. "This is a dark moment in America," the radical
from Massachusetts said, before launching into an anecdote of a woman at a town hall who told her of having to choose between
getting a prescription filled and buying toilet paper. On what planet, exactly, are Warren and the others living?
Bloomberg
is confused as to which president works for the people and which party wants a powerful government. For three
years, the media and other Democrats have been seeking impeachment with constantly changing made up causes and stories.
For three years, the media, including Bloomberg News, have been intentionally misleading the public into believing that Trump
policies will soon cause an economic recession or collapse as they campaign to put Democrats back in power. They need a
weak economy to win and they would rather have a weak economy than giving people the opportunity to move up the economic ladder.
Trump
economy surges and Biden and Obama hog the credit. This is the continuing history rewrite of the left to
explain the booming economy in the third year of Mr. Trump's presidency. Today we are at or below record levels of
unemployment, inflation and interest rates in half-a-century. Wages and salaries are rising at their fastest clip in at
least two decades. There are an all-time high 7 million unfilled jobs in the United States. The Washington Post
is freaking out about the continued good news on the economy — and especially the latest data — that I
reported on these pages two weeks ago that median household income is up by $5,003 since Mr. Trump became
president. This was based on Census data, but The Post ranted last week that Donald Trump continues to "inflate his own
numbers." Nearly every assertion in the article was wrong or twisted — and Mr. Trump was right.
My Pillow CEO slams
recession 'false narrative': 'They're going to destroy one of the best economies'. [Scroll down]
Recently, Nobel-prize winning economist Robert Shiller agreed with that sentiment, saying that a recession may be years away
due to the effect that the Trump administration has had on the behavior of U.S. consumers. "They're going to destroy
one of the best economies I've ever had in my lifetime," said [Mike] Lindell, a self-made millionaire, who operates a
pillow-manufacturing company in Shakopee, Minn. "I see consumer confidence at an all-time high... Even my own employees
and companies around me know that wages are going up and they feel safe. So now they can go out and invent products and
do service businesses and go out and they're taking chances like never before."
Trump's
Economy: 1.6 Million More Jobs Than The 'Experts' Predicted. The economy created 136,000 jobs in September,
according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics survey of businesses. The separate household survey, which is used to track
unemployment, showed that the number of unemployed dropped by 275,000. Not only did the job market pull 275,000 off the
unemployment line last month, it pulled more than 100,000 who had dropped out of the labor force back into the job market.
This is good news, but it continues to confound mainstream economists, who solemnly predicted at the start of Trump's
administration that we faced a "secular stagnation." Any talk of strong economic growth was a fantasy. When the economy
started to outperform expectations, liberals shrugged it off by claiming that the upturn in growth was all baked in the cake
when President Obama was president. That is false.
Elizabeth
Warren: Amnesty for All Illegal Aliens Is 'Good' for American Workers. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA),
a top candidate for the 2020 Democrat presidential nomination, says amnesty for every illegal alien living in the United
States is "good for" American workers who will be forced to compete against newly legalized low-skilled foreign workers.
During a town hall with the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) union in Madison Heights, Michigan, Warren said she will
give amnesty to all 12 to 22 million illegal aliens living in the country, a move that would immediately drive up
foreign competition in the labor market for America's working and blue-collar class.
Here's
how to keep the Trump economy growing (and prove liberal elites wrong). Now the establishment state media's
campaign to talk America into a recession seems to be working — at least among the elite. Last week, we saw
the biggest drop in economic confidence among CEOs in seven years. Oh, there's only one problem — nobody
told the American people.
Biden
promises more jobs for women than there are U.S. citizens. The more candidate Joe Biden hits the stump, the
more President Donald Trump hopes he prevails. Fresh off the bizarre tale of a young Biden facing down a gang leader
named "Corn Pop," besting the thug's switchblade with a 6-foot length of chain, the Democratic front-runner spoke about
putting American women back to work. To be exact, 720 million women. The problem is, that figure is about
400 million more than the entire population of the United States.
Pelosi:
'August Jobs Report Offers Little Comfort in an Economy Faltering'. The U.S. economy is "faltering," House
Speaker Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) declared Friday [9/6/2019] in response to the U.S. Labor Department's August report
revealing that a record number of people were employed last month, while the unemployment rate held at 3.7% and fell to
record lows for blacks and Hispanics. "The August jobs report offers little comfort in an economy faltering under the
Trump Administration's reckless agenda," Speaker Pelosi says in a statement posted on her website.
The Editor says...
[#1] The economy was "faltering" for the entire eight years of the incompetent Barack H. Obama regime, and no Democrat
would admit it. Nor was any criticism permitted. [#2] The leader of the Impeachment Party has no room to
talk about a "reckless agenda."
It
becomes clearer every day that most journalists would rather have Democrats in power than a good economy. Like
everything else, whether it is fictitious Russian collusion, claiming Trump is mentally incompetent, claiming everyone hates
us overseas, and playing the race card, the media is essentially campaigning for Democrats instead of doing their job of
reporting the truth. The strategy appears to be working somewhat because, despite record job openings, wages rising
faster than any time while Obama was in office, and record low unemployment, especially for minorities and the less-educated,
tax cuts that benefitted almost everyone, stock markets near record highs, many people have been indoctrinated to believe the
economy is collapsing.
The Only Reason For Recession?
The Prospect Of Trump Ever Leaving Office. If wishing for a recession could make it so, then the economy would
be headed over a steep cliff. The hate-Trump left's drumbeat for a hoped-for R word has been growing louder and more
persistent with every passing day. They point to polls of economists predicting a 2020 recession and never mind that
this is the same crowd of academics who told us that Trump election would cause a "global economic calamity." These are
the people who said the economy was overdue for a recession three years ago. These are the very same prophets who said
the Trump tax cut wouldn't work to create jobs and higher wages. These were the academic whiz kids who said the economy
couldn't grow faster than 2 percent ("the new normal") and who said that manufacturing and mining jobs weren't coming back.
Despite
Media's Recession Chatter, US Economic Confidence Soars to 19-Year High. Over the last few weeks, we've been
exploring the competing narratives about the US economy — with the White House insisting that all is well, as many
in the media hype up the possibility of a coming recession. My general conclusion at this point has been that while
there are some soft spots and genuine warning signs, the economy's fundamentals remain quite strong. Unemployment has
been quite low, the job market has been quite robust, and wage growth has broken free from years of frustrating stagnation.
We also recently received positive news on other indicators, including productivity, retail sales, and overall consumer spending.
Recession? Headlines
in Search of a Story. On August 19, the Washington Post's first sentence summed up their one-dimensional
angle on the National Association for Business Economics' August survey: "Most economists believe the United States
will tip into recession by 2021, a new survey shows, despite White House insistence the economy is sound." So it went, with
most establishment news outlets bent on finding the gray cloud around today's current sterling economy. Negative news
sells. Perhaps it has always been thus, though it certainly seems most prevalent when it is adverse to this administration.
Blaming
Every Bad Economic Indicator On The Trade War Just Proves You Don't Know What You're Talking About. [Scroll
down] Generally, these pundits have no idea what they are talking about. Another measure of the yield curve, the
three month-10 year Treasury spread — which is more predictive than the two year-10 year Treasury
spread — has been negative for months. You didn't see a bunch of punditry about that when it first went
negative in March. That's because everyone is being political. The left wants a recession because they hate
President Trump, and they are economically illiterate to boot. Hillary Clinton once said the Bush tax cuts caused the
2008 financial crisis, which is ridiculous. And today's Democrat policies would make any recession we did have far
worse, via the government increasing taxes and further cannibalizing the private sector. Yet there are elements of the
establishment GOP, including Never-Trumpers, who hate Trump almost as much as the left does.
Joe
Biden Claims The Economy Is Collapsing Because Of The Trump Presidency. Sometimes Joe Biden says things that
are in not grounded in reality in any way. Now is one of those times. While speaking to some reporters this week,
Biden said that the economy is collapsing because of Trump's presidency. That's ridiculous and completely untrue.
Even the most left wing people who work at MSNBC know this isn't true.
Why Do Democrats
Hate Jobs So Much? House Democrats, resistant to reason, continue to press for a minimum-wage hike even though
a government report says it could cost as many as 3.7 million jobs. [...] Rep. Bobby Scott, Virginia Democrat, has
dismissed the job losses and is instead focusing on the CBO's estimate that the hike would increase wages for 17 million
workers (which is plausible) and move 1.3 million families out of poverty. (Which seems unlikely, since only about
half of minimum-wage workers are not yet 25 years old, a quarter are teens, 64% work part time, only 221,000 are older
than 25, and the never-married outnumber the married about 4-to-1, which means most aren't providing the primary income for
a family.)
Jobs,
growth, and higher wages leave Democratic contenders searching for excuses. Friday's [7/5/2019] June jobs
report, with its expectations-shattering gain of 224,000 net jobs (including 17,000 manufacturing jobs) and its 4%
unemployment rate (effectively full employment), reinforces what was already popularly understood about the Trump-era
economy. Unemployment is historically low. Job creation is historically strong. Wages continue rising under
Trump after a long period of stagnation under predecessors of both parties.
Gov't
Dependency Plunges Under Trump — Why Aren't We Celebrating? Friday's [7/5/2019] jobs report showed
that the economy created 224,000 new jobs, yet the unemployment rate edged up to 3.7%. Both are welcome news. The
unemployment rate went up because 158,000 rejoined the labor market. These are people who previously didn't have a job
and weren't looking for one. The labor market is tight enough that people who'd given up on work are getting lured back
into the job market. And they're finding work. As of June, there were 5.6 million more people with jobs than
when President Trump took office — despite claims by prominent economists that the economy was already at full
employment when he was sworn in. The healthy labor market has resulted in something even more important yet little
noticed: A sharp trend away from dependency on federal welfare and other benefits.
Democrats
try to talk down a solid blue-collar economy. If the premise of an argument is false, what does that tell you
about its conclusions? This is the problem facing Elizabeth Warren and other leading Democrats after the first
presidential primary debate [6/26/2019]. Warren, Cory Booker, Beto O'Rourke, and other candidates all apparently
believed that in order to sell their socialism, they needed to establish the premise that the Trump-era economy simply isn't
working for anyone besides the filthy rich. Warren says that the U.S. economy is "doing great, for a thinner and
thinner slice at the top." O'Rourke and Booker made a similar claim: that the wealthy are pulling away and
leaving behind the working class in today's economy. But this premise is false.
The Blue-Collar
Jobs Boom Nobody Seems To Notice (Because It's Happening Under Trump). Joe Biden, who is currently leading in
the polls against the horde of other Democratic presidential hopefuls, believes he can win back the working-class voters who
defected to Donald Trump last election and thereby win the presidency. So Biden is trying to convince these voters that
Trump was making a lot of empty promises. "The stock market is roaring. But you don't feel it," he said at a
rally. "There are — $2 trillion tax cut last year. Did you feel it? Did you get anything from
it? Of course not. Of course not." Actually, they did get something out of it. A lot, as it turns
out. Not that you'd know it from the way the economy has been covered — or, more appropriately, covered
up — by the mainstream press during the Trump administration. They take their cues from Democrats like Biden
or Bernie Sanders, who say Trump's promise to the working class as "a fraud."
Don't
listen to the naysayers. Trump's economy is booming. It's very strange how politically bent "economists"
can look at President Trump's raw economic data and question his success. Last week's strong GDP report of 2.9 percent
growth for 2018 was the latest surprise upside of the Trump economy, much to the disappointment of the many naysayers.
The 2.9 percent is up from the 2.2 percent in 2017, which included President Obama's 1.8 percent for the first
quarter. Trump's two-year average is 2.6 percent GDP growth.
Political
Incompetence and Questionable Science. How do we relate to the statement by Rep. Ocasio-Cortez that "The
world is gonna end in 12 years if we don't address climate change," while the Green New Deal program is designed for ten
years? We were repeatedly told that Trump's tax cut would lead to the bankruptcy of the federal government. It
did not happen. We were warned that Trump's tariff wars with China and the European Union would lead to mass
unemployment. That did not happen either — on the contrary, the number of vacant jobs in America exceeds
the number of unemployed. So, what has played such a cruel joke on the Democrats?
Dems
Deny Economic Boom. Democrats, now the majority in the House of Representatives, are trying to turn that body
into the House of Resistance. They vowed to use the State of the Union to voice their claims that the nation is in bad
shape, rigged to benefit only the rich. But facts are stubborn things. Fact No. 1: An amazing 304,000 jobs
were created in January, according to Labor Department data, up from an average monthly gain of 223,000 in 2018 and 182,000 in
2017. A steady upward march. Too bad President Donald Trump couldn't invite all the new hires to attend his speech to
show off the impact of Trumponomics on real people who have to put food on the table and make mortgage payments. Fact
No. 2: Even those who had given up hope of finding a job are re-entering the labor force.
Pelosi
on Jobs Report: 'GOP Attitude Disrespects Workers, Dishonors Our Values and Damages Our Economy'. House Speaker
Nancy Pelosi responded to a January employment report that showed "nonfarm payroll employment increased by 304,000" during
the month by issuing a statement attacking congressional Republicans for embracing an attitude that "disrespects workers[.]"
Pelosi also lamented the situation of federal workers, who, even if they were furloughed during the partial shutdown that ended
on January 25 were paid for the time they did not work. Also, the jobs report showed that the federal government
added 1,000 workers during the month.
The Editor says...
If Ms. Pelosi thinks the Republicans' attitude
is damaging the economy, and all the stuff Obama
did was helping the economy, she has lost her mind.
When
media are quiet about financial news, you know the economy's strong. We were told the market was going down
because of Trump's trade policies, because he was chewing out the Fed for raising rates too rapidly, and because of the
government shutdown. I am having trouble finding where the media and other Democrats are giving Trump credit for the
market rising around 10% since December 24. Why has the market reversed itself for now? Here are a few hints:
sales during the Christmas season were up over 5%, over 300,000 jobs were created in December, and job gains were revised upward in
both October and November. Wages went up 3.2% year over year, the fastest growth in a long time, and gains are especially
being helped on the lower end of the scale. There continue to be more job openings than job-seekers. It is obvious
that a strong economy does not fit the Democrat agenda, so it is downplayed.
Democrats
Try to Spin Massive Jobs Number as Bad News. Democrats struggled to spin Friday's [1/4/2019] massive job growth
number as bad news for the economy, in what has become a monthly routine under President Donald Trump. The U.S. Bureau
of Labor Statistics reported that the economy added 312,000 new jobs in December — nearly twice what Wall Street
analysts had expected. In response, Democratic National Committee chair Tom Perez blasted Trump for increasing economic
"volatility."
Let's
look past the liberal media gloom factory and celebrate the good news this Christmas. Notwithstanding the gloom
factory that is the liberal media, the country remains upbeat. The University of Michigan reported just recently that
consumer sentiment rose in December, defying expectations. The report notes that "over the past half century, sentiment
was higher in only two other time periods: 1964-65 and 1997-2000." Only 12 percent of respondents said they were
concerned about the stock market. Americans are feeling good partly because the jobs market remains red hot.
Unemployment, currently at 3.7 percent, is the lowest ever for blacks, Hispanics, Asians, teens, and women. Jobs are
plentiful and not just entry-level jobs; manufacturing employment is up by 288,000 over the past year. Moreover,
opportunities abound. At last count there were 7.1 million jobs available, and only 6 million Americans
unemployed. Five years ago, the picture was bleaker, as there were only 3.9 million jobs available, and
11.3 million Americans out of work.
Obama Is 'Making
Stuff Up' About The Trump Economic Boom. Economists expect the third-quarter GDP number — to be
released this Friday — to be a strong one, in the range of 3.4%. Maybe that's why Barack Obama is running around
this week trying to take credit for the economic boom. And he says President Trump has trouble with facts?
Kudlow Hits
Back At Obama Claiming Credit For 'Economic Miracle'. National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow fired
back at former President Barack Obama's claim of credit for the robust state of the U.S. economy, in a Tuesday morning
[10/23/2018] appearance on Fox and Friends. [Video clip]
Obama
tells voters to 'remember who started' economic recovery at Nevada rally. Former President Barack Obama
defended his record at a Las Vegas election rally Monday [10/22/2018], telling Nevada Democrats to "remember who started" the
country's economic recovery after the Great Recession and accusing President Trump of practicing "corrupt politics."
Obama came to Nevada to galvanize support for Rep. Jacky Rosen, who is locked in a tight race for the Senate against
incumbent Dean Heller. The former president was also joined on stage by Democratic gubernatorial candidate Steve Sisolak,
who is running against Republican state attorney general Adam Laxalt to replace term-limited GOP Gov. Brian Sandoval.
The Editor says...
On election day, we won't forget who started the economic recovery — and it wasn't Barack H. Obama.
Washington
Post swings at Trump — smacks Obama. "The bottom 90 percent are still poorer than they were in 2007"
the headline screamed over Ace Reporter Matt O'Brien's big scoop for the Washington Post. However, the headline was factually
flawed. The data covered only 2007 through 2016.
Obama
knows he deserves no credit. As he campaigns for 81 of the thousands of Democrats seeking state and federal
office in November, President Obama is taking a selfie with the post-Obama economic recovery. Obama told hundreds of
supporters in his home state, "The actions we took during that crisis returned the economy to healthy growth and initiated
the longest streak of job creation on record." But six months before the 2016 presidential election, Obama was less
boastful in an interview with a New York Times staffer.
You didn't build that, Barry.
Bruce
on Obama Taking Credit for Economy: He 'Didn't Understand How' Trump's Policies Would Work. Conservative
commentator Tammy Bruce took issue with former President Obama taking credit for the burgeoning economy over the several
months. "We worked hard to turn this economy around. The actions that we took during the economic crisis" added
to the economic growth, Obama said at a rally for Ohio Democratic gubernatorial candidate Richard Cordray. Bruce said
Obama is speaking out and patting himself on the back because "he's worried about his own legacy... about how he's viewed."
"Trump ran on doing the opposite of what Obama is doing," she said. "Trump has done the reverse of everything he's done."
Sorry Obama,
But It's Trump's Economic Boom, Not Yours. Barack Obama is on the road attempting to claim credit for the
booming economy under President Trump. But the only thing Obama deserves credit for is making it easy for Trump to undo
Obama's anti-growth policies.
The Left: they never
cease to accuse you of the thing they are doing. Judge Kavanagh will almost certainly be confirmed to the
Supreme Court; and the August jobs report states that 201,000 jobs were created, wages grew by 2.9 percent from last year,
and unemployment remains at the historically low level of 3.9 percent. The certainty of Kavanagh being confirmed
explains the Senate Democrats obnoxious theatrics, notably Booker's inept attempt to violate the body's rules and rendering
himself into a modern day "Sharticus." The August jobs report compels the Left to attack President Trump, because attacking
his policies is increasingly difficult; and, worse, they are devoid of any alternative policies — unless, one
considers "socialism" and its "equality of misery" a substitute for the prosperity that Americans demand. Ergo, it is
the Left that is under increasing pressure and losing its mind.
Why
Obama deserves a little credit for the Trump Boom, and why the Democrats will never admit it. It is actually
pathetic that Barack Obama is trying to claim credit for the Trump Boom that began with the stock market jumping the moment
Trump's election was clear, and which has continued to generate jobs — especially the manufacturing jobs that
Obama told us were not coming back. He is following the Big Lie approach, thinking that repetition of this baseless
claim would eventually get people to believe it.
But
Hillary said unemployment would hit 6.8%. "The unemployment rate held near a generational low of 3.9 percent,"
CNBC reported today [9/7/2018]. Wait. That cannot be. That was not what Hillary said would happen, and as
everyone knows, she is the Smartest Woman in the World. She is never wrong. "Hillary Clinton says Trump's economic
policies will trigger another recession," The Guardian reported on June 17, 2016. The experts had told her so.
Barack
Obama Trashes Trump [and] Tries to Take Credit For Trump's Booming Economy. Barack Obama crawled out of his
hole Friday and trashed President Trump — calling him out by name, then took credit for the booming economy.
Obama gave a speech at the University of Illinois Friday and arrogantly took credit for Trump's booming economy. Barack
Obama couldn't even run a lemonade stand; he is the only president in history to never see a single year of 3.0% GDP growth
yet here he is with a smug look on his face giving himself credit for Trump's accomplishments.
Media
Rewrite History To Credit Obama Instead Of Trump. The stronger the economy gets under President Trump, the more
desperate his critics are to hand credit over to Obama. Even if that entails changing the past.
Americans
Live In A World Of Lies. The US government and the presstitutes that serve it continue to lie to us about
everything. Today the Bureau of Labor Statistics told us that the unemployment rate was 3.9%. How can this be when the
BLS also reports that the labor force participation rate has declined for a decade throughout the length of the alleged economic
recovery and there is no upward pressure on wages from full employment. When jobs are plentiful, people enter the labor
force to take advantage of the work opportunities. This raises the labor force participation rate. When employment
is full — which is what a 3.9% unempoyment rate means — wages are bid up as employers compete for scarce
labor. Full employment with no wage pressure and no rise in the labor force participation rate is impossible. The
3.9% unemployment rate is not due to employment. It results from not counting discouraged workers who have ceased to
search for jobs because there are no jobs to be had. If an unemployed person is not actively searching for a job,
he is not counted as being in the labor force. The way the unemployment rate is measured makes it a hoax.
Are
Liberals and Progressives Sabotaging the Economy? [Scroll down] Meanwhile, in the real world, these same
minorities, black and Latino, are doing better than they have in years, possibly ever. What a nightmare for the
left. Some are already changing their votes. Next thing you know — no more identity politics.
Then what's left of the left? So they pray to God for a depression, or at least a recession. Only they don't
believe in God. So what do they do? They sabotage the economy by jawing it down, by making it sound worse than it
is. This is a clever strategy because the condition of the economy, to a great extent, is what you say it is or, more
importantly, feel it is or can convince others that it is. It's wide open to legerdemain.
Democrats:
Slowing Job Growth Means Workers [are] 'Losing Their Jobs'. Hiring slowed in July as unemployment fell even
farther, according to Labor Department numbers released Friday [8/3/2018]. The U.S. economy added 157,000 jobs last month,
falling short of the expected 190,000. Unemployment ticked down to 3.9 percent from 4 percent, and there have been
more job openings than workers to fill them since April. But Democrats claimed the slower job growth meant people are "losing
their jobs," with Democratic National Committee chairman Tom Perez saying that President Trump's "reckless policies continue to
hurt millions of hardworking families."
The Editor says...
Yes, but in the same report, the numbers from previous months were revised upward, so that makes up the difference.
Good News,
Comrades: There's Bad News Coming! To working Americans, national prosperity is a positive development;
consequently, they welcome it. Not so the Left, when the prosperity is the result of a Republican administration.
Why? Because as noted in previous columns, the Democrats' hoped for a midterm election "blue wave" won't trump the
"green wave" of economic prosperity. Why return to power a party that, the last time they were in power, told you the
"new normal" is your jobs are gone and economic growth will forever be weak?
Stupendously
Annoying Hack Juan Williams Credits Obama with the Economy. Juan Williams is so far-left and such a hack that
he cannot give the President any credit for the economic growth. He credited [the unspectacular performance by] Barack
Obama with the economic growth. Williams is holding on to the now-old saw that the recession under Obama was the worst
recession since the Great Depression. It never was but even if it were, why couldn't Obama get to 3 percent GDP,
unlike every other modern day President who also suffered through recessions? We know why — his regulations,
taxes, and no-growth policies.
The Top 50 Liberal
Media Bias Examples. [#35] MSNBC: (2004) — Natural Disasters Create Jobs, (2011) —
Natural Disasters Wipe Out Jobs: This one is sort of a "process" story. It shows the way the media characterizes
the same news as bad for Republicans but good for Democrats. In this case the media showed that natural disasters
created jobs for Bush in 2004. This was presented as a false job creation to prove that Bush's good economic news was really
a sham. But in 2011 the same thing, natural disasters, was presented as evidence of why Obama's down economy was not
really his fault. This sort of spin is a typical example of the Old Media's efforts to make Republicans look bad and
Democrats look good quite despite the facts.
MoveOn
declares low wages 'violence'. In their campaign for a $15 job-killing minimum wage, the leftwingers at
MoveOn.org have declared low wages "violence." [...] Because it shows how unserious they are, and it also shows that by
negating the meaning of words, they can justify real violence as their result. If the minimum wage as it is is
'violence,' well then what is to stop a bloody uprising in response? They characterize everything except real violence
as "violence" these days, as Instapundit's Glenn Reynolds has noted. It goes to show that the left really has a
hostility to the idea of words having meaning. This fuels their extremism, as ever crazier things ever more divorced
from reality are said, as words are completely drained of meaning.
Boston
University's Fake-O-Nomics Darling. [Scroll down] But when the time came to put her BU economics
education to work, [Alexandria] Ocasio-Cortez flunked. On PBS last week, she asserted that "unemployment is low because
everyone has two jobs." Moreover, the erudite B.A. holder in economics posited, "unemployment is low because people are
working 60, 70, 80 hours a week and can barely feed their kids." [...] The unemployment rate, which stands at a historically
low 4 percent, is calculated by extrapolating and dividing the number of people out of work by the total number of individuals
in the American work force. If you have one job, two jobs, three jobs or more, you don't count as unemployed. Whether
you are working 40 hours or 80 hours or 120 hours a week, if you're working, that has no effect on the unemployment rate,
either. The number of workers moonlighting and the number of hours they moonlight have zero, zip and nada effect on the
unemployment rate. Ocasio-Cortez's claim that "everyone has two jobs" is more fake-o-nomics. The Bureau of Labor
Statistics reports that the number of Americans holding down multiple jobs is less than 5 percent and has been declining
for nearly 30 years.
Dems
blast booming jobs report, Trump worker agenda, 'reckless'. Democrats saw nothing positive in the new June jobs
report that highlighted 213,000 new jobs added. Instead, the Democratic Party issued a statement criticizing President
Trump's jobs agenda as "reckless."
Democrats want
unemployment. The number of Americans holding jobs are [sic] at a record of 155,576,000. "U.S. employers kept up
a brisk hiring pace in June by adding 213,000 jobs in a sign of confidence despite the start of a potentially punishing trade war with
China," the Associated Press reported this morning. Democrats denounced this because they need financial misery to attain
power. "June jobs numbers show what is at stake from the brewing storm of rising health costs, spiraling trade uncertainty
and an economy being hollowed out to enrich big corporations and the wealthiest 1 percent," Nancy Pelosi said.
The Editor says...
The number of Americans holding jobs is at a record level.
June
jobs growth jumps with 213K jobs added while unemployment rises. The U.S. economy added a higher-than-expected
number of jobs in June, with 213,000 positions created versus analysts' expectations for 195,000. The unemployment rate moved
higher, off an 18-year low, to 4% from May's 3.8%. Economists say the slight move higher is a positive as it reflects more workers
entering the workforce after sitting on the sidelines, drawn by the plethora of jobs. In June, 601,000 Americans entered the
labor force, and not all found jobs.
The Editor says...
This is because so many people abandoned the prospect of finding a job while Obama was president, and the workforce participation
rate dropped like a stone. Now that some of those workers are re-entering the job market, it's inevitable that some won't be
able to find a job immediately.
7
Truths Liberals Will Never Acknowledge About Illegal Immigration. [#5] There are no jobs "Americans won't do."
This is easy to prove because there isn't a single field where illegal immigrants make up the majority of the workers. So there
are more Americans doing all those jobs we supposedly need illegals to do. If every illegal disappeared tomorrow, within a year
or two, wages would rise enough in those professions so that American workers would fill those jobs or alternately, automation would
be used to replace the workers. There may be rich business owners who benefit from having cheap illegal labor, but we don't
"need" illegals for anything.
35,000
more jobs. Obama hardest hit. Obama lied when he said you can keep your doctor. But on the other
hand, Obama also lied when he said those jobs aren't coming back.
Medicaid and the Democratic
War on Work. And yet there can be little doubt that the Democratic Party has somehow morphed into the
anti-employment party. The evidence for this is pretty difficult to miss. The Obama era, despite a deluge of
disingenuous media reports about the allegedly heroic role our erstwhile president played in "saving" the economy, was
characterized by countless initiatives clearly meant to reduce employment growth to the anemic level that Obama himself
called the "new normal." A clear sign that he intended to take every action possible to render this sluggish job growth
permanent was his disembowelment of Clinton-era work requirements for welfare recipients. And, in keeping with their
war on work, the Democrats and the media produced the usual claims of racism and cruelty when President Trump reversed his
predecessor's anti-employment and illegal changes to the 1996 welfare reform law.
Valerie
Jarrett: We should also give Obama credit for low unemployment. Former President Barack Obama's top
adviser Valerie Jarrett dodged on giving President Trump credit for the lowest unemployment rate in almost two decades.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics announced Friday that the U.S. economy added 164,000 jobs in April, pushing the unemployment
rate down to 3.9 percent, the lowest since 2000. When asked on CNN's "New Day" if Jarrett gives Trump credit
for that, she deferred to giving Obama credit for starting the trend.
Valerie
Jarrett: We should also give Obama credit for low unemployment. Former President Barack Obama's top adviser Valerie
Jarrett dodged on giving President Trump credit for the lowest unemployment rate in almost two decades. The Bureau of Labor Statistics
announced Friday [5/4/2018] that the U.S. economy added 164,000 jobs in April, pushing the unemployment rate down to 3.9 percent, the
lowest since 2000.
Happy
Equal Pay Day: The (other) holiday based on a lie. It's the latest fake corporate-progressive virtue
signalling excuse to increase everyone's sense of victimhood — and it's based on the complete lie known as the
"gender pay gap."
The January Jobs Jump.
Thirteen months ago, before Donald Trump had taken office, we issued a caveat about headline unemployment: It would be
pretty tough for Trump to do better than 4.7% unemployment, which is generally considered to be "full employment." Over
the course of 2017, however, the economy did improve, in large measure due to Trump administration policies. And
the job growth trend continued in the first month of 2018. Beating expectations, January saw 200,000 jobs created, while the
headline unemployment rate sits at 4.1%, the lowest since December 2000. The Wall Street Journal reports, "A broader measure
of unemployment and underemployment, which includes people working part-time jobs because they can't find full-time employment,
ticked up to 8.2% in January." That's exactly what we warned would happen 13 months ago — as more
people entered the job market because they were encouraged by the economy, that top-level unemployment number would paradoxically
increase. The headline rate doesn't include those looking for work; the so-called U-6 rate does.
The
Shabby, Sophomoric Behavior of Democrats at the SOTU. The Democrats loathe the tax reform that has kick-started the American economy.
They abhor the return of American manufacturing and the bonuses so many companies have doled out to their employees. It was not so long ago that
Obama essentially swore that "those jobs are never coming back." "Crumbs," billionaire Pelosi called their bonuses. The left today hates
our military. They hate the notion of national security. Like Obama, they cannot abide the unfair advantage, as they see it, of American
might, American success, and American freedom which they are always trying to impede, to restrict, to regulate and tax. The left has been doing
its best to turn the United States into Venezuela for two generations. Progressivism is socialism. Venezuela is how it ends.
Schumer:
Trump should thank Obama for economy. Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said on Tuesday [1/30/2018] that
President Trump should thank former President Obama for the country's economic growth during his first State of the Union speech.
"If you're going to pat yourself on the back, give a shoutout to Barack Obama because he did even better than you in job creation," he
said. Schumer added that Trump was handed an "already healthy economy," but "two words we won't hear President Trump say tonight
about the economy: 'Thanks, Obama.'"
Did
Bureau of Economic Analysis Sandbag Report on 4th Qtr U.S. GDP? U.S. GDP is what we produce, minus what we
import. That's important to understand. The BEA is essentially saying there were massive amounts of imports in
the fourth quarter, but they are unable to determine exactly how much that was. That makes sense because all records
for American on-line sales were broken; and a lot of those purchases were probably Chinese (and Asian, or EU) sellers,
selling clothes and stuff into the U.S. as you purchased Christmas presents etc. The BEA has no way of knowing from
top-line sales (financial data) how much of the small stuff (clothes, gadgets, etc.) came from outside the U.S. to your
doorstep. Well, not yet. Additionally, all the inventories of similar stuff, from U.S. manufacturers and retail
sellers, is now wiped out (ie. "low inventory"), and as such — the value of that inventory is gone. It is
now in the bank. There is no way of knowing how much that domestic inventory was, as part of the overall
record-breaking fourth quarter sales.
Labor
Department's December jobs report highly misleading. The comments about the December jobs report were not the
only thing misleading — the report was, too. The Labor Department reported that only 148,000 jobs were
created last month — considerably fewer than the 195,000 or so jobs that the "experts" were expecting.
But the number was kept artificially low by a seasonal adjustment that wasn't comparable to the one done a year earlier, in
December 2016. And it's unusual for one December's adjustment to be so different from the previous December.
Obama
tries to claim credit for Trump economic boom, finally gets smacked down. One of the more obvious things about
the Trump economy is how much better it is than the Obama economy. Yet incredibly, President Obama, as if jealously
looking on at this night-and-day difference, is trying to claim credit for it.
Sarah
Sanders: Can't Make It Up, Obama Wants Credit for Booming Trump Economy. White House Press Secretary
Sarah Sanders was vocal on Twitter Sunday, issuing biting criticism of former President Barack Obama. In Sanders'
typically blunt vernacular, she claimed that President Obama did not deserve any credit for the apparent improvement in the
economy. However, while the economy is doing well and Trump largely deserves praise, Americans would be wise to pay
attention the labor force participation rate.
CNN: False
Reporting is the New Normal. Remember when, under the presidency of Barack Obama, we were told that high
unemployment rates and sluggish growth of the economy was the new normal? We were told that there was nothing that
could be done about it. Two terms of the brilliant blind lashing out against the problems we faced as a nation by the
messiah, Obama, could not fix it, so it could not be fixed. Get used to it, misery is now life as we know it. In
less than a year under the Donald J. Trump administration's efforts, the current 4.1% unemployment rate is the lowest we've
seen in 17 years. Unemployment claims have fallen to the lowest level in 43 years. The economy has been
improving at a rate greater than what was accomplished during any of the years Obama was president, and with tax cuts on the
horizon, a sudden boost to the economy is ready to roar. Meanwhile, in mainstream-media-land, there have been none of
these reports.
OBAMA: "Those Jobs
Aren't Coming Back." TRUMP: "Hold My Beer." Toward the final months of his presidency Barack Obama infamously
said the following regarding jobs that had left America — including millions during his eights years as President:
"...some of those jobs of the past are just not going to come back." And when commenting on then-candidate Donald Trump's
promise to bring jobs back, Mr. Obama said this: "...Well, how exactly are you going to negotiate that? What magic
wand do you have?" No magic want was needed by POTUS Trump. Just some common sense, a basic understanding of economics
(remember, Barack Obama never created a private sector job in his life and is the son of a devoted communist) and the determination
to believe America can be better and stronger than ever — all of which has led to THIS: [...]
The Editor says...
I'm the last person in the world who will ever defend anything Barack H. Obama says about anything; however, when Mr. Obama
made the assertion that "some of those jobs of the past are just not going to come back," he probably thought Hillary Clinton was going to be
the next President, in which case his prediction would have been plausible. Additionally, if Mr. Obama had served another ten terms
as President, those jobs would never have come back, because Mr. Obama is
an incompetent dolt who
hates America and has never created a job in his life, nor has he ever worked
for a profit-making business.
'Thanks,
Obama!' Former president credits himself for strong economy. Former President Barack Obama is taking credit for
the robust economic growth that is taking place under President Trump. At a conference of mayors in Chicago,
Mr. Obama congratulated himself Tuesday for strong employment numbers in the U.S. this year, saying his climate-change
policies have contributed to growth. "As we took these actions, we saw the U.S. economy grow consistently,"
Mr. Obama said. "We saw the longest streak of job creation in American history by far, a streak that still
continues by the way." He added wryly, "Thanks, Obama."
Obama
Congratulates Himself on Trump Economic Growth. This is to be filed under Obama's Greatest Whoppers, right
under "If you like your plan, you can keep your plan."
Actual
WaPo fact check: Pence jobs claim correct, so only 3 Pinocchios for him. There's so much spin in this
"fact check" it may well have been written in of a centrifuge, so it might be a good idea to mainline Dramamine before trying
to get through it all without getting dizzy.
Why
the Left Has Been So Wrong About the Trump Boom. Are the editors at Time and the Times so ideologically blinded
that they are incapable of connecting the dots? The U.S. economic revival of 3 percent growth has already defied the
predictions of almost every Donald Trump critic. I vividly remember debating Hillary Clinton's economic gurus during
the campaign: They accused Trump and advisers such as myself of "lying" when we said that pro-growth policies would
speed up economic growth to 3 to 4 percent. Jason Furman, who chaired the Council of Economic Advisers under
President Barack Obama, told reporters earlier this year that the chances of reaching 3 percent growth over a decade were
about 1 in 25 — which is what many political experts said was Trump's chance of winning the election.
Another Obama economist, Alan Krueger, called the 3 percent growth forecast "extremely rosy."
And that's
why Trump won. [Scroll down] Trump won, not because the country was racist or sexist, or because most in
the country enjoyed his coarse language. He won because he was the only one who realized the problem existed.
Trump was elected by people who didn't much like him — 19 percent of his voters thought him unqualified —
and by Obama voters in the upper Midwest whose communities had been devastated by job losses. The irony was that Bush, Flake,
and Obama, while deploring Trump's sins, still listed free trade as one of their paramount values, even though the evidence since
has been more than abundant that embracing free trade beyond the limits of prudence was their founding and critical sin. On
Oct. 10, 2000, on the advice of the experts, Bill Clinton signed a now-infamous trade deal with China, calling it a 'win-win'
solution for both of the countries that would create hundreds of thousands of jobs. It turned out the experts were wrong.
It created job losses that were worse than expected. Workers didn't 'bounce back,' as experts predicted, but remained unemployed.
Coffee Shop to
Hire Only Refugees — What About Out-Of-Work Americans? What is it with coffee shops and their desire
to selectively hire a certain class of people? [...] These are refugees who are mostly Muslim. These are not illegals.
Think about the illegals that came to San Diego in 2016! So there are two NEEDY groups coming to America in droves that
need jobs. This is unsustainable! First a Starbucks' hiring event in San Diego, now a little start-up coffee shop
plans to open in Louisiana and hire refugees and political asylees. What? No needy americans looking for jobs in
Baton Rouge?
Lies, Lies &
More Lies. Every month the government apparatchiks at the Bureau of Lies and Scams (BLS) dutifully announces
inflation is still running below 2%. Janet Yellen then gives a speech where she notes her concern inflation is too low and
she needs to keep interest rates near zero to save humanity from the scourge of too low inflation. I don't know how I
could survive without 2% inflation reducing my purchasing power. This week they reported year over year inflation of
1.9%. Just right to keep Janet from raising rates and keeping the stock market on track for new record highs.
According to our beloved bureaucrats, after they have sliced, diced, massaged and manipulated the data, you've experienced
annual inflation of 2.1% since 2000. [...] Ignore that silly Shiller PE ratio far surpassing 1929 and 2007 levels.
Ignore every historically accurate valuation method showing the stock market 70% to 129% overvalued.
Harvey
Will Boost GDP? Then Why Don't We Schedule Disasters? Even before Harvey finishes wreaking havoc on Texas and
now Louisiana, economists are trying to guess at its impact on GDP. Oddly, many think it could boost growth overall.
Unexpectedly!
2nd
Quarter GDP Growth Revised Upward to 3%. Despite the good news, the insufferable MSM are still trying to bury
the cause and effect. In an effort to give a more precise picture I'm going to use a Reuters summary, and shift their
text location to highlight what they bury and emphasize what they avoid: [...]
America's
Jobs Engine Keeps Defying Forecasts for 2017 Slowdown. In an economy growing at a moderate pace at best, the
U.S. job market keeps on shining. Payroll gains topped forecasts in five of the past seven months, putting the 2017
average increase of 184,000 almost on par with last year's 187,000 and above levels typical for the eight-year expansion.
Analysts expect barely any falloff from that pace in August figures due Friday, amounting to job growth about double what's
needed to keep the unemployment rate steady in the longer run. Sustained demand for workers — highlighted
by record vacancies — is pushing down unemployment and even attracting Americans who weren't actively looking for
a job. What's more, the strong run of hiring challenges a widespread assumption in forecasts late last year: that
the economy would run low on workers as it approached so-called full employment, causing payrolls to downshift.
Here's
How Many Americans Are Living Paycheck To Paycheck. According to a new poll conducted by Harris Poll on behalf
of CareerBuilder, over three-quarters of American households are forced to live paycheck to paycheck to make ends meet. [...]
The scariest part of the poll, as CBS points out, is that the number of people living paycheck to paycheck is actually
growing despite the fact that the Fed and our politicians continue to brag about near 'full employment.'
Fake News
A US Media Speciality. We cannot even get a truthful jobs report. Yesterday (Aug. 4) the Bureau of Labor
Statistics (BLS) reported 205,000 new private sector jobs in July and a drop in the unemployment rate to 4.3%. [...] Of
course, the 4.3% unemployment rate is fake news. It does not include millions of discouraged workers. When these
workers who have not looked for jobs within the last four weeks are included, the unemployment rate jumps to 22-23%.
Now consider the alleged 205,000 July new jobs. Probably about half of these jobs are due to the add-ons from the
birth-death model, and the other half from manipulations of seasonal adjustments.
The
left's misleading green jobs claims. In absolute numbers, the U.S. Department of Energy reports solar power
employed 43 percent of the electric power generation sector's workforce in 2016, employing more than 374,000 workers who
construct, assemble, sell or install solar panels. Fossil fuels combined accounted for just 22 percent (187,000) of the
jobs directly tied to generating electric power. Although there are a significant number of solar-related jobs, the
often-repeated figures above are very misleading for numerous reasons, of which I'll name a few.
U.S.
Labor Market Roars Back, Adding 222,000 Jobs in June.
• 222,000 jobs were added last
month. Wall Street economists had expected employment gains of 175,000.
• The unemployment rate
was 4.4 percent. May's jobless rate was 4.3 percent.
• The average hourly wage grew by
2.5 percent from a year earlier.
• The labor-force participation rate inched up to 62.8 percent,
from 62.7 percent.
The Editor says...
Under Trump, unexpectedly good news comes out on the first Friday of every month. Under Obama, the unemployment numbers
were always unexpectedly bad.
World
View: Fed Reserve Chairman Janet Yellen Says [There Will Be] 'No Financial Crisis in Our Lifetimes'.
Janet Yellen, the Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, the successor to Ben Bernanke and Alan Greenspan, held a press
conference on Tuesday of last week, during which she said that she believes that there will be no new financial crisis "in
our lifetimes": [...] This is such a bizarre, naïve statement, that it is hard to know what to make of it. Yellen
is expressing precisely the attitude that is always been prevalent prior to every financial crisis in world history.
Politicians say "This time it's different," and "We've learned our lessons," and "It can't happen this time." And it does
not happen this time until it does. Actually, the lessons from the last financial crisis have not been learned at all.
Economists
Hilariously Over-Predicted Economic Growth Under Obama. White house economists overestimated annual economic
growth by about 80 percent on average for a six year stretch during Barack Obama's presidency, according to Freedom Works
economic consultant Stephen Moore. Economists predicted growth between 3.2 to 4.6 percent for the years 2010 through
2015. Actual economic growth never hit above 2.6 percent. "Why does anyone bother to listen to economists anymore?"
Moore writes in The Washington Times.
Jamie
Dimon on America's big problem: Millions of men missing from labor market. Don't tell J.P. Morgan Chase
CEO Jamie Dimon the U.S. lacks enough people to fill open jobs and get the U.S. economy moving faster in the long run.
The banking VIP and current chairman of the Business Roundtable told reporters this week that America has a big problem:
millions of prime-aged men have dropped out of the labor force. Dimon pointed out the share of men ages 25 to 54 who
are considered part of the labor force has declined to around 88% from as high as 97% a half-century ago. In effect,
about 10 million men have gone missing.
The Editor says...
Those men may be missing from the homes of their illegitimate children, and they may not be employed,
but there's no mystery about where they are, as long as they cash their monthly welfare checks.
To say they have "gone missing" is a canard. They are sitting at home watching television, and
if they have an income to supplement government handouts, it is probably from something illegal.
Sorry,
But Calling Weak Q1 GDP a 'Report Card' On Trump Is Absurd. The economy's weak 0.7% growth in the first quarter was disappointing, to
say the least, the worst gain in three years. But to the Trump-despising big media, it seems, it's really a sign of his failure.
A
Look at the Weak March Job Numbers. Don't get bent out of shape by weak payroll growth in March. Although
payrolls grew only 98,000, well below consensus expectations and below even the most pessimistic forecast by any economics
group, this is not the start of a new weaker trend.
Trump's budget director claims
Obama was 'manipulating' jobs data. Mick Mulvaney told CNN's Jake Tapper on Sunday [3/12/2017] that he has long thought the
previous administration framed data to make the unemployment rate "look smaller than it actually was." "What you should really look at
is the number of jobs created," Mulvaney said on "State of the Union." "We've thought for a long time, I did, that the Obama
administration was manipulating the numbers, in terms of the number of people in the workforce, to make the unemployment rate —
that percentage rate — look smaller than it actually was." Trump repeatedly railed on the unemployment rate during Obama's
time in office as a "hoax." Trump once claimed that he had "heard" the rate could be as high as 42% — even though at the
time it was about 5%.
The
Trump Economy Keeps 'Unexpectedly' Topping Forecasts. Orders for capital goods were higher in December than
forecast. There were supposed to be 5.55 million existing-home sales in January. The actual number was close to
5.7 million — which was the highest level since 2007. Retail sales in January climbed 0.4%, where economists
had predicted they'd advance only 0.1%. At the same time, the Commerce Department revised the December sales increase upward
to 1%. Now, obviously we can't draw any broad conclusions from a few unexpectedly good economic results. But it's
worth pointing out that this is a dramatic change from the Obama years, when about the only thing that you could predict with
any degree of accuracy was that the economy would underperform economists' predictions. Month after month, sales figures,
job creation, and a variety of other indicators would come in below forecast.
It
Should Come As No Surprise The DNC Picked This Guy. The Democrat National Committee has elected to head their
little Party of resistance and mouth breathing leftist by choosing Thomas Perez, former Obama Administration Secretary of
Labor. Yeah, the same Labor Dept. that gave us phony job numbers before the 2012 election, and almost unbelievable
fairytale numbers just in time for the 2014 mid-terms.
The
Mainstream Media Have Forfeited All Respect. Since the end of 2008, the working age population has increased by
over 20 million. However, the number of those employed has increased just 8.9 million. Meanwhile the number of
those unemployed and no longer in the work force has jumped to a staggering total of 102 million — or 41.2% of the
working age population. This percentage rate has been essentially unchanged since January of 2009, a timeframe and rate
approaching the tragic years of the 1930's. The American public was deliberately kept in the dark about the extent of
the real unemployment situation as the media chose to ignore the negative data and instead focused on whatever positive news,
real or imagined, they could find to protect Barack Obama and blame others for his failed policies. Nonetheless, the
people knew the rest of the story — because they were living it.
62.9%:
Labor Force Participation Rate Improves in January; Those Not in Labor Force Declines by 736,000. The Labor
Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics on Friday released its first look at employment since Donald Trump became president,
and although that report does not reflect actual Trump policy changes, it does include the period just before Trump became
president and was tweeting about jobs saved. According to BLS, the labor force participation rate improved in January,
increasing two-tenths of a point to 62.9 percent, its best showing in four months.
U.S.
Gained 5,000 Manufacturing Jobs in January, Lost 10,000 Government Jobs. The United States gained 5,000 jobs in
manufacturing in January while losing 10,000 in government, according to numbers released today by the Bureau of Labor
Statistics. In December, jobs in government in the United States outnumbered jobs in manufacturing by 9,950,000. In
January, the margin dropped to 9,935,000.
Trump
mulls changing official unemployment rate. President Trump is considering a move that would increase the
official unemployment rate by a full point, and it's an idea that many liberals would be OK with. That's because it
wouldn't involve any workers losing their jobs. Rather, the new administration is considering switching the calculation
the Labor Department uses as the official unemployment rate in place of a broader definition of what constitutes
unemployment.
The Editor says...
The President should make this retroactive to 2008 or earlier, to show an accurate picture of unemployment numbers and to highlight the improvement he makes, if any.
Obama's Final
Jobs Report is A DUD. Obama has been bragging about creating jobs and improving the economy for years.
The media has played right along, repeating Obama's claims as true and wonderful. The American people know a different
reality. That's one of the biggest reasons Trump won the election. Now Obama's final jobs report is out and
you'll be shocked to learn it's another dud.
The Obama Presidency —
By the Numbers. The government calculates unemployment as a percentage of the labor force without jobs. The labor force
consists of everyone who has a job or is actively looking for one. But it does not count people who are not looking. The percentage
of adults — those 16 and older — who are employed or looking for work has declined steadily. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics,
the labor force participation rate was 65.7 percent when Obama took office in January 2009, the depths of the Recession triggered by the
financial meltdown in 2008. Last month, after a long economic recovery, the rate was 62.7 percent, down 3 full percentage points
and near an all-time low.
Before
and After Obama: 10 Signs of a Diminished America. [T]here's no denying the U.S. workforce contracted significantly under Obama, and
that is not good. Dips in the headline unemployment rate, while huge numbers of Americans departed the workforce for good and
dropped off the government's reports, were a staple of the Obama era. Most "improvements" in the unemployment rate during his re-election
campaign were a result of people giving up on looking for work, which made them invisible to the Bureau of Labor Statistics within a few months.
A Factual Look at Obama's
Presidency. In the closing weeks of his presidency, Barack Obama instructed the members of his cabinet to "prepare
a detailed report on the progress we've made" since he became president. He then summarized these reports in a cover letter
that paints a bleak picture of the U.S. before he entered the Oval Office and suggests that the nation turned around during his
tenure. Obama then repeated many points from this letter in his January 10th farewell address to the nation, where he
declared that "by almost every measure, America is a better, stronger place than it was when we started." However, the
claims in his letter and farewell address are based on a series of artful statistics that do more to mislead than inform.
Record
95,102,000 Americans Not in Labor Force; Number Grew 18% Since Obama Took Office in 2009. Barack Obama's
presidency began with a record number of Americans not in the labor force, and it's ending the same way. The final jobs
report of the Obama presidency, released Friday, shows that the number of Americans not in the labor force has increased by
14,573,000 (18.09 percent) since January 2009, when Obama took office, continuing a long-term trend that began well before
Obama was sworn in. In December, according to the Labor Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics, a record 95,102,000
Americans were not in the labor force, 47,000 more than in November; and the labor force participation rate was 62.7 percent,
a tenth of a point higher than in November.
In
Obama's Final Jobs report, A Record 95.1 Million People Were Not In The Labor Force. Putting the exclamation
point on a trend that has marked Obama's entire presidency, in the final Obama jobs report, the BLS announced that the total
number of people not in the labor force grew once more, rising by 18,000 in December, and a whopping 841,000 in the past
three months, to a new all time high of 95.102 million Americans no longer in the workforce.
Employers
Added 156,000 Jobs in December. U.S. employment increased less than expected in December but a rebound in wages
pointed to sustained labor market momentum that sets up the economy for stronger growth and further interest rate increases
from the Federal Reserve this year. Nonfarm payrolls increased by 156,000 jobs last month, the Labor Department said on
Friday. The gains, however, still remain above a level that is considered sufficient to absorb new entrants into the
labor market.
Obama's Failed
Presidency. I'm a former lifelong Democrat, stating here a clear and incontestable fact: Barack Obama is a failed
President. It's true not just because of the sad realities such as that "Top Ex-White House Economist Admits 94% Of All New
Jobs Under Obama Were Part-Time" — or, as the economists Alan Krueger and Lawrence Katz wrote in the original of that study:
"94 percent of the net employment growth in the U.S. economy from 2005 to 2015 appears to have occurred in alternative work
arrangements". ("Alternative work arrangements" referred there to Americans who were involuntarily working only part-time
jobs — they simply couldn't find full-time, though that's what they wanted.) In other words: Obama's failure isn't
just because of America's increasingly sales-clerk, and burger-flipping, workforce.
Something
Wicked This Way Comes. The false narrative propagated by the captured mainstream media propagandists has been
the labor force participation rate falling is strictly due to Boomers retiring. Despite data proving the median Boomer
household has less than $20,000 saved for retirement, the talking heads and brainless bimbos on CNBC and other corporate
media outlets continue to purposely mislead the public with misinformation about Boomers retiring to live lives of luxury and
endless vacations. Meanwhile, the only demographic showing dramatic increases in labor participation are the old fogies
who forgot to save. How do the pundit propagandists explain the decline in participation by 25 to 54 year olds in
their prime working years? Are they busy finding themselves? Did they hit the lottery? [...] Obama hoots about all the
jobs added during his reign of error, but fails to mention that 94% of all jobs added since 2004 were either temporary or independent
contractor jobs. Low wage, part-time, no benefits, Obama jobs don't pay the bills. That's why a record number of
Americans have to work multiple jobs to survive. The narrative about an improving economy, thriving jobs market, and
glorious future is [nonsense]. I know it. You know it. And your establishment puppeteers know it.
But only "fake news" sites would dare reveal these inconvenient truths.
Media
says we're in a jobs boom — we're not. We keep reading in the media that the job market is on fire,
that we're near full employment. But it's a sad truth that the monthly jobs report doesn't really reflect what's going
on in our hobbled economy. As everyone knows by now, the jobs data for November show a decline from 4.9% to a 4.6%
unemployment rate, as businesses created 178,000 new payroll jobs. What could be better? While we applaud these
improvements, they mask deeper problems with the U.S. job market. As American Enterprise Institute resident scholar
Aparna Mathur notes, "You have to look beyond the headline numbers to understand the situation of the American workforce."
Indeed, troubling signs lurk beyond the "headline numbers."
Don't
buy the lie that Obama's leaving behind a healthy economy. After eight years of blaming America's problems on
George W. Bush, the press that got the election wrong is rolling out a new line — that President Obama is handing
President-elect Donald Trump a booming economy. That takes some brass. The jobless rate is down to 4.6 percent,
and the growth rate is up above 2 percent or even 3 percent, with housing prices getting back to pre-recession levels.
Stocks are soaring. So the idea seems to be that Obama has solved the problem in the nick of time. "Obama's gift to
Trump" is the headline on CNN. "Trump inherits healthy economy" is the way the Financial Times is headlining the yarn.
Politico reckons that Trump is being handed an "Obama boom."
New
Record: Americans Not in Labor Force Breaks 95 Million for First Time. The labor force participation rate, which is
the percentage of the population that has a job or actively looked for one in the past month, declined from 62.8 percent in October
to 62.7 percent in November. The unemployment rate for all Americans declined from 4.9 percent in October to 4.6 percent
in November. This measure does not account for those individuals who have dropped out of the labor force and simply measures the
percent of those who did not have a job but actively sought one over the month. While the unemployment rate declined this month,
the number of Americans joining the labor force declined by 226,000 individuals. The "real" unemployment rate, otherwise known
as the U-6 measure, was 9.3 percent in November, which declined from 9.5 percent in the previous month.
The
Obama Economy And The Myth Of "Full" Employment. [Scroll down] There's another way to calculate the
unemployment rate that is closer to the truth. Add together the number who say they have stopped looking for work with
those seeking a full-time job but who have settled for part-time work. According to the Labor Department, stands at
9.3 percent, about double the "official" unemployment rate, and well above the pre-recession level, too. Others place
the U-6 rate even higher — at 11%. And there's another critical issue to consider: the quality, not just the
quantity, of any new jobs. Through 2014, the economy suffered a net loss of 1 million higher paying jobs, in sectors
like accounting and legal work, but experienced a net increase of almost 2 million low-wage jobs in industries like fast
food. With lower-wage jobs increasing relative to higher-wage jobs, is it any wonder that real wages are continuing to decline?
The Big Lie:
5.6% Unemployment. The official unemployment rate, as reported by the U.S. Department of Labor, is extremely
misleading. Right now, we're hearing much celebrating from the media, the White House and Wall Street about how
unemployment is "down" to 5.6%. The cheerleading for this number is deafening. The media loves a comeback story,
the White House wants to score political points and Wall Street would like you to stay in the market. None of them will
tell you this: If you, a family member or anyone is unemployed and has subsequently given up on finding a job —
if you are so hopelessly out of work that you've stopped looking over the past four weeks — the Department of Labor
doesn't count you as unemployed. That's right. While you are as unemployed as one can possibly be, and tragically
may never find work again, you are not counted in the figure we see relentlessly in the news — currently 5.6%.
Right now, as many as 30 million Americans are either out of work or severely underemployed. Trust me, the vast majority
of them aren't throwing parties to toast "falling" unemployment.
Americans
Not In The Labor Force Soar To Record 95.1 Million: Jump By 446,000 In One Month. So much for that much
anticipated rebound in the participation rate. After it had managed to post a modest increase in the early part of the
year, hitting the highest level in one year in March at 63%, the disenchantment with working has returned, and the labor
force participation rate had flatlined for the next few month, ultimately dropping in November to 62.7%, just shy of its 35 year
low of 62.4% hit last October. This can be seen in the surge of Americans who are no longer in the labor force, who spiked by
446,000 in November, hitting an all time high of 95.1 million.
The
jobs report is a perfect example of fake news. On Friday [12/2/2016], we learned the US economy added 178,000 jobs
in November and the unemployment rate fell to 4.6%, while over 95 million Americans were not in the labor force. Each of
these numbers — which come from a 39-page report filled with numbers — is true. But each of these numbers
can be framed in various ways to tell wildly different stories. One person can say the unemployment rate is 4.6%. Another
person can look at the same report and say the unemployment rate is 40.3%.
Press
Lets Earnest Claim 805,000 Manufacturing Jobs Gained Under Obama; 303,000 Jobs Have Been Lost. At Wednesday's
White House press briefing, Obama administration Press Secretary Josh Earnest, in a fit of completely unsupported arrogance,
claimed that 805,000 jobs have been created "while President Obama was in office," and that "President Obama has set a high
standard" in that regard. The lazy stenographers posing as journalists present at the briefing, along with other
reporters covering Carrier Corp.'s decision not to move its Indianapolis manufacturing jobs to Mexico, have failed to
recognize what anyone whose job it has been to follow the economy during the Obama administration should know, namely that the
economy, through October 2016, has fewer manufacturing jobs now than it did when President Obama took office in January 2009.
U.S.
economy added 178,000 jobs in November; unemployment rate dropped to 4.6 percent. The U.S. economy added
178,000 jobs in November, while the unemployment rate fell to 4.6 percent, a level not seen since August 2007, according to
government data released Friday morning. The first employment report since voters went to the polls last month shows an
economy in strong shape as President-elect Donald Trump prepares to take office. "It looks like firms are pretty
bullish about what they're going to see in 2017 and are continuing their strong hiring of the past few years," said Steve
Rick, chief economist at insurance company CUNA Mutual Group. "This is a good tailwind for the new administration."
Record
Number Employed: 152,085,000; But Record 95,055,000 Not in Labor Force. In the first jobs report since the
election, the Labor Department says a record number of people — 152,085,000 — were employed in November in the United States,
but a record 95,055,000 Americans were not in the labor force — 446,000 more than October. The employment growth pushed
the unemployment rate down from 4.9 percent in October to 4.6 percent in November. The number of unemployed Americans
dropped in November to 7,400,000, the lowest of the Obama presidency. But the labor force participation rate also dropped a
tenth of a point to 62.7 percent in November.
Sarah
Silverman Admits She Made Up a Wage-Gap Story, Then Calls Critics 'Maniacs'. Comedian Sarah Silverman admitted
that a story she told about wage discrimination (in which she even went so far as to call out a specific employer by name)
was a lie — and then said people who might consider her lie a reason to question the movement she was supporting
were "maniacs." In an April 6 wage-discrimination-activism video for Levo League, Silverman accused New York Comedy
Club owner Al Martin of having paid her less than a male comic for doing the same work: [...] Just one problem: That didn't
actually happen.
Obama's Disconnects
and Delusions. No American politician — and certainly no president — in my lifetime has caused such destruction
and suffered so little personal accountability for it. [...] He talks about the unemployment rate's going down, but this obscures the reality that
tens of millions have opted out of the workforce in despair. The media know that the unemployment figure is meaningless when factoring in the
labor participation rate.
Now They Tell
Us: Trump's Economic Plan Will Boost Growth. [Scroll down] Still, why weren't these "experts" proclaiming the overall virtues
of Trump's economic policies before the election? Why weren't they telling the public that meager 2% growth wasn't something we had to live
with? That the economy could grow faster if Washington would adopt actual pro-growth policies? Had these experts done so, Trump's
margin of victory probably would have been larger than it was, and he'd be entering the White House with a broader mandate to enact his economic
agenda. We can only speculate, but our guess is that none of these experts wanted to be seen as helping Trump win, so kept their optimistic
appraisals to themselves until the election was over.
11
Economic Realities That Donald Trump Will Inherit From Barack Obama. It would be a grave mistake to understate
the amount of damage that has been done to the U.S. economy over the past eight years. In this article, I am going to
share some economic numbers with you that are extremely sobering. Anyone that takes a cold, hard, honest look at the
numbers should be able to see that our economy is in terrible shape.
The
Real Reason the Media Got This Election All Wrong. For years, we have been pointing out in this space that the
economic recovery has been the worst on record. We've noted how it has vastly underperformed every recovery since World
War II, and how if it had been merely average, the country would be $2 trillion richer and millions more people would have
jobs. We pointed out how Obama's endless bragging about 15 million new jobs was misleading, given that job growth
hadn't even kept pace with population growth since 2010. How the number of people who'd dropped out of the labor force had
grown at a faster rate than jobs, and the explosive growth in food stamps and disability rolls. We noted that economic
stagnation has been particularly punishing to lower-income families, who saw their household incomes decline, even as those
at the top saw gains.
Government
Workers Now Outnumber Manufacturing Workers by 9,977,000. The United States lost 9,000 manufacturing jobs in
October while gaining 19,000 jobs in government, according to data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Government employment grew from 22,216,000 in September to 22,235,000 in October, according to BLS, while manufacturing jobs
dropped from 12,267,000 to 12,258,000. The 22,235,000 employed by government in the United States now outnumber the
12,258,000 employed in manufacturing by 9,977,000.
Latest Jobs
Report Masks Continuing Weakness. A hard look behind the headline numbers — 161,000 new jobs created in October and
the unemployment rate at 4.9 percent — reveals a weak economy falling behind the numbers posted last year. First of all,
that 161,000 number was below the 173,000 jobs estimated and predicted by Wall Street observers. Second, it was far below September's
jobs growth of 191,000. Third, it brought the average monthly job growth for the year to just 181,000, compared to 229,000 per month
for all of 2015. Additional data points proved the point: Big-picture numbers showed that the number of long-term employed
(those jobless for 27 weeks of more) remained unchanged at two million, while the number of people employed part time for economic
reasons (which the BLS calls "involuntary part-time workers") was also unchanged. And so was the labor force participation rate,
which remains stuck at 63 percent. In other words, of those available for work, 37 percent aren't working.
Real
Unemployment Rate: 9.5%. Although much of the major media are reporting the national unemployment rate for
October as 4.9%, the "real unemployment rate," as determined by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and which includes
part-time workers and those marginally attached to the work force, is 9.5%. In other words, the real unemployment rate in
the United States for October is nearly double the 4.5% rate reported by most media. The "total unemployed" rate, or U6
number, is defined by the BLS as, "total unemployed, plus all marginally attached workers plus total employed part time for
economic reasons, as a percent of all civilian labor force plus all marginally attached workers," seasonally adjusted,
workers 16 years old and over.
94.6
Million People Out of Labor Force in October. In the final jobs report before election day, October's national
unemployment rate fell to 4.9 percent. The United States economy added 161,000 jobs, according to statistics released
by the Labor Department.
Jobless
Claims in U.S. Rise to Highest in Almost Three Months. Filings for U.S. unemployment benefits unexpectedly rose
to the highest level in almost three months, extending increases from a four-decade low. Jobless claims increased by 7,000
to 265,000 in the week ended Oct. 29, a Labor Department report showed Thursday [11/3/2016] in Washington. The median
forecast in a Bloomberg survey called for a drop to 256,000. Continuing claims dropped to the lowest since June 2000.
Job
Growth Cools as Goods-Producers Lag. American employers tacked on only 147,000 new positions in October,
according to the latest ADP National Employment Report out Wednesday. But companies in September are now believed to
have tacked on 202,000 new jobs — up from first reports of 154,000. The services sector generated an impressive
165,000 positions, but American goods-producing professions saw payrolls drop by 18,000 jobs.
Obama
Oversells U.S. Economy. In a recent speech, President Obama criticized Republicans for making claims about the
economy and health care that are "not supported by the facts." But Obama resorted to some spin of his own. Obama
said "America's economy is not just better than it was eight years ago — it is the strongest, most durable economy
in the world." Actually, China's economy grew by an estimated 6.9 percent in 2015 — more than double the U.S.
rate. Obama also claimed that "we've seen the first sustained manufacturing growth since the 1990s." But manufacturing
employment has declined by 35,000 in 2016, and it's still down 2.2 percent from when Obama took office.
Goodbye
Middle Class: 51 Percent of All American Workers Make Less than 30,000 Dollars a Year. We just got more
evidence that the middle class in America is dying. According to brand new numbers that were just released by the
Social Security Administration, 51 percent of all workers in the United States make less than $30,000 a year. Let that
number sink in for a moment. You can't support a middle class family in America today on just $2,500 a month —
especially after taxes are taken out. And yet more than half of all workers in this country make less than that each
month. [...] 38 percent of all American workers made less than $20,000 last year. 51 percent of all American
workers made less than $30,000 last year. [...] The federal poverty level for a family of five is $28,410, and yet almost
40 percent of all American workers do not even bring in $20,000 a year.
America's
quiet catastrophe: The collapse of work for men. From one perspective, things are looking pretty good in
America today. The stock market — and U.S. personal wealth holdings — are at or near their
all-time highs, and unemployment rates are back down to 5% or less — well below the postwar average, and
purportedly even near "full employment," according to widely received wisdom. But a closer look reveals something
else entirely. These optimistic indicators mask a quiet catastrophe hiding in our shadows.
Census
Bureau: Americans' Incomes Have Dropped in 2016. President Obama got a fair amount of good press a few
weeks ago when it was reported that Americans' incomes had risen. But that was from 2014 to 2015. During 2016,
Americans' incomes have dropped. New figures from the U.S. Census Bureau's Current Population Survey, compiled by
Sentier Research, reveal that the typical American household's real (inflation-adjusted) income has taken a turn for the
worse during this election year. In December 2015, the real median household income was $57,701 (in seasonally
adjusted, August 2016 dollars). Eight months later, in August 2016 (the most recent tally available), that figure
has dropped to $57,380. That's a decline of $321 across eight months.
Disappointing
156,000 jobs added in September. Payroll growth was disappointing for a second straight month in September as
employers added 156,000 jobs, which raised questions about the health of an economy that was expected to perk up from a
prolonged slump in the second half of the year. The unemployment rate rose to 5% from 4.9%, the Labor Department said
Friday [10/7/2016], as a rise in employment was more than offset by a sharp increase in the labor force, or the number of
Americans working and looking for jobs. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg had forecast 172,000 payroll gains.
Unemployment
Rises To 5 Percent In September; 94,184,000 Out of Labor Force. The national unemployment rate in September
rose to five percent, as the United States economy added only about 156,000 jobs, according to statistics released by the Labor
Department on Friday [10/7/2016]. That number is lower than analyst expectations, who predicted a 175,000 boost in jobs.
Green
Pixie Dust Energy Policies. "There's been a record six straight years of job growth, and new Census numbers
show incomes have increased at a record rate after years of stagnation," NBC Nightly News anchor Lester Holt misinformed
Americans, as he launched the first Trump-Clinton presidential debate September 26. In reality, Obama era economic growth
has been an anemic 1-2% annually. More than 93 million working-age Americans are still not working, and over 6 million
are working part-time, because their hours have been cut back or they cannot find full-time positions. We're creating jobs by
turning four high-pay full-time jobs with good benefits into six lower-pay part-time positions with few or no benefits.
Obama's
First Economic Chief Says One-Third Of Men Will Be Jobless. President Barack Obama's first economics deputy
says current U.S. economic policies would leave one-third of working-age men unemployed in 2051. [...] Currently, four million
Americans turn 18 each year, and the federal government imports 2 million permanent or temporary foreign workers each year,
including a few hundred thousand illegals.
No, Unions Don't Increase
Everyone's Wages. 2016's edition of Labor Day followed a well-established tradition — unions
claiming credit for every worker gain. Among their most common assertions, often incorporated in attributing negative
wage trends to eroding union power, was that unions raise all workers' wages. Unfortunately, unions retard rather than
raise others' real earning power. Unions leverage special government-granted powers (e.g., unique exemptions from
antitrust laws) allowing current employees to prevent competition from others willing to do the same work for less.
This is a form of collusion that, done by any business, would be legally prosecuted. The higher union wages that result
are then credited for raising all workers' wages because they supposedly force up other employers' wages to keep their
workers from leaving for those better-paying alternatives. However, their claim cannot be true without violating the
law of demand.
Incomes
Under Obama Are Nothing to Brag About. On Wednesday, the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and
Washington Post all ran above-the-fold, page-1 headlines touting recent gains in income for the typical American
household. President Obama appeared at a political rally in Philadelphia and, after citing these gains and the existence of
lower gas prices, proclaimed, "Thanks, Obama." (He really said this.) And, indeed, the top-line claim that real median
household income rose 5.2 percent from one year to the next — "the first [statistically significant] annual increase
in median household income" of the Obama presidency — is true. But the overall impression given by the press
corps — that happy days are here again — is false.
Labor Day when there is no work.
The prospects of finding a job, especially a full time highly paid position are becoming a rarity for more employment seekers
with each passing year. What is going on to the engine of prosperity? Some forecasters paint a bleak portrait for
adjusting to the development of technological reshaping of society.
The government says you are not unemployed if you work at least
one hour a week and make at least $20.
Real
Unemployment 9.7%. According to Gallup, relying on data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the real
unemployment rate on July 1 was 9.7%, which was up from 9.6% on June 1. That is nearly double the often cited
unemployment rate, which was "officially" 4.9% in July. "Widely reported unemployment metrics in the U.S. do not
accurately represent the reality of joblessness in America," said Gallup on its website. "For example, the U.S. Bureau
of Labor Statistics (BLS) does not count a person who desires work as unemployed if he or she is not working and has stopped
looking for work over the past four weeks," said Gallup. "Similarly, the BLS does not count someone as unemployed if he
or she is, for instance, an out-of-work engineer, construction worker or retail manager who performs a minimum of one hour of
work a week and receives at least $20 in compensation."
Hillary
Clinton, You're No John F. Kennedy. The unexpectedly soft U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics August job report
will lend a little political advantage to Trump. In general, jobs came in 30,000 to 40,000 below expectations.
Manufacturing and goods-producing jobs decreased, wages were nearly flat and retreated to 2.4 percent year on year,
the private and manufacturing workweeks fell, and overall hours dropped.
Clinton,
Trump and Obama aren't telling American workers the truth. Here it is. There is no question that a
portion of the jobs many of us perform today will be lost to robotics, automation, and the rise of artificial intelligence
in the next few decades. A recent study by AppliedTechonomics, for instance, found that we currently have the
technological capacity to automate 52 percent of the activities performed by workers in the manufacturing sectors.
Moreover, the study found that manufacturing is the second most automatable sector in the global economy, just behind the
services industry. Given this reality it is bordering on malpractice that our current candidates and public officials
have not done more to help prepare us all for a future in which accelerated technological change has a major impact on our
labor force.
Government
Workers Now Outnumber Manufacturing Workers by 9,932,000. Government employees in the United States outnumber
manufacturing employees by 9,932,000, according to data released today by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Federal,
state and local government employed 22,213,000 people in August, while the manufacturing sector employed 12,281,000. The
BLS has published seasonally-adjusted month-by-month employment data for both government and manufacturing going back to 1939.
For half a century — from January 1939 through July 1989 — manufacturing employment always exceeded government
employment in the United States, according to these numbers.
94,391,000
Americans Out of the Labor Force in August. The United States labor force participation rate rose by 58,000 in
August, according to statistics released by the Labor Department on Friday [9/2/2016]. That leaves a total of 94,391,000
Americans not in the work force, unchanged from July's 62.8 percent.
Caution: Men (Not)
At Work. Nicholas Eberstadt, a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, argues in a new book called "Men
Without Work," due out next week, that we're suffering not from full employment, but massive underemployment — in
particular, nearly one out of six working-age men have no job and are no longer looking for one. A release for his book
calls this "a hidden time bomb with far-reaching economic, social and political consequences." With 10 million fewer
male workers in the labor force than we should have, it's hard to disagree.
Every
Job Obama Has Created Cost $2,720,677 On Average to Produce. You see, Hillary is running on the false narrative
that we're living in Obama's recovery, but if that was true, then there would be no need for the Fed to take corrective
action of any kind. With that said, the economy is limping along and gasping for breath at under 1% growth, so
Democrats and the Fed are being forced to walk a fine line. Hillary and the Democrats are banking on their voters never
being any the wiser regarding the whole situation, and with our dishonest media, that's a safe bet.
Economic
Growth Stalls At Wrong Time For Hillary. "The truth is, those looking overseas for growth opportunities are the
smart ones, because if we have another four years like President Barack Obama's past eight, you'd have to be an idiot to
invest in America with this assault on growth by Washington, D.C." That was Americans for Limited Government President
Rick Manning's shooting-from-the-hip response to the latest revision to the gross domestic product by the Bureau of Economic
Analysis in the second quarter. The number was revised downward from a tepid, inflation-adjusted 1.2% annualized to 1.1%.
The
new GDP numbers are terrible. No wonder Hillary won't talk about the economy. We got revised GDP numbers
from the Commerce Department on Friday [8/26/2016] and the economy actually did slightly WORSE than originally estimated. Growth
was 1.1 percent in the second quarter of this year and less than 1 percent for the first six months of 2016. The business
sector of the economy has sunk recession territory. Profits are srinking (down 2.4 percent last quarter) so how long can the
stock market rise? The consumer is keeping the economy out of negative territory, but that's only because we are spending more than
we are earning. How long can that go on? About as long as the housing bubble could inflate without bursting.
Obama
lied, real wages died. Negative 4.6 percent! That is the difference between the 4.2 percent real hourly
wage increase that the Obama administration's Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) claimed American workers enjoyed at the end of
the first quarter of 2016, and the revised reality of a 0.4 percent drop in wages reported for that same period in the report
released in August, as Breitbart noted. It is almost as if 1960s television sitcom spy Maxwell Smart is the commissioner
of the statistically challenged BLS in this "missed it by thaaat much" report.
It's
Time To Dump The Unemployment Rate. An unemployment rate below 5% is a relatively rare thing. Only twice
before in the past 40 years has it dropped that low — once in the late 1990s during that economic boom, and again
briefly in 2006-2007. Yet unlike before, there is little joy in Mudville today. Instead of confidence and optimism,
there is only malaise.
Record
25,984,000 Immigrants Employed in the United States in July. The number of immigrants employed in the United
States reached another monthly record high in July, according data released Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The BLS reports that 25,984,000 foreign-born people had a job in the U.S. last month, up 133,000 compared to the previous
record set in June. The Labor Department defines the "foreign-born" as "those residing in the United States who were
not U.S. citizens at birth."
Are You Better Off Than You
Were 7 Years Ago? The question isn't whether the country is better off than it was when Obama took office — when it was still in a
recession — it's whether the country is better off than it was when the recovery started almost exactly seven years ago. Using that as the
gauge, many Americans — by several measures — are actually worse off after seven years of Obama's "recovery" than they were just
as the recession was ending.
Here's
why Biden's middle-class savior shtick is [nonsense]. The Fed's analysis concludes that most middle-income occupations were paying between
$13.83 and $21.13 per hour. Yet, those jobs haven't been recovered, as perhaps Biden thinks may happen under Clinton. They've been replaced
by low-wage occupations that pay less than $13.83 per hour, which made up most of the job gains from 2010-2013. This is the America that Obama has
handed us. Americans today are saddled with as much credit card debt as they were prior to the financial crisis. And as early as mid 2014,
1 in 3 Americans, or 77 million, adults had their debts put into "collection." Middle-income wages are shrinking; wealth is
deteriorating — and a larger portion of this middle-income demographic is simply leaving the "middle-class" and joining the ranks of the poor.
Obama's
Economic Growth Gap Now Tops $2.2 Trillion. Economists were surprised Friday when the Commerce Department reported that
growth in the second quarter of this year was a mere 1.2%. But the real surprise is that anyone is surprised when the economy
underperforms, since that's what it has been doing for the past seven years. There has not been a single year in the past seven
when the economy did better than President Obama promised, or that most economists expected. Indeed, the real problem isn't the
tepid growth in the second quarter, after an equally tepid first quarter. The real problem is that under President Obama's economic
stewardship, the economy has grown far more slowly than it did in any of the previous 10 economic recoveries since World War II.
What this means in terms of wealth and prosperity can easily be seen when you compare the actual results under Obama to the average
results of those previous recoveries.
Obama:
'Our Country is Stronger and More Prosperous Than It Was When We Started'. President Barack Obama said in a
speech to the Democratic National Convention on Wednesday night that "our country is stronger and more prosperous that it was
when we started." "I stand before you again tonight, after almost two terms as your president, to tell you I am more
optimistic about the future of America than ever before," Obama said in his speech. "How could I not be —
after all that we've achieved together?"
Former Pennsylvania governor insists companies have no choice but to import STEM workers:
Clinton Surrogate Stokes
Foreign Worker Myth. The former governor of Pennsylvania on Sunday repeated an oft-made claim about high-skilled, foreign guest
workers — that they are needed to fill jobs Americans can't do. Ed Rendell, who is also one of Democratic presidential
candidate Hillary Clinton's biggest boosters, made his comments on C-SPAN in response to a caller's question about foreign workers.
Rendell said underperforming schools do not produce enough people qualified for science, technology, engineering, and math jobs. So
companies have to turn to the H-1B visa, which allows foreigners to come to the United States for up to six years, he said.
Labor
Force Participation Rate Dropped to 62.8% In April: 94,044,000 Out. The number of Americans not in the labor
force last month totaled 94,044,000, 562,000 more than in March — and the labor force participation rate dropped
to 62.8 percent (near a 38-year low), following four straight months of slight improvement. When President Obama took
office in Janaury 2009, the labor force partipation rate was 65.7 percent, after hovering in the 66-67 percent range for
much of the George W. Bush presidency. The recession inherited by the Obama administration officially ended in June 2009,
but the labor force participation rate continued to drop during Obama's two terms, hitting 62.4 percent in September 2015, its
lowest point in 38 years.
The Noise Behind
the New Jobs Report. The number of unemployed Americans fell 484,000 in May and the unemployment rate dropped
0.3 percentage points, mostly driven by Americans leaving the job market and no longer looking for work. Unemployment
increased by 347,000 workers in June and the unemployment rate increased 0.2 percentage points, mostly driven by Americans
returning to the labor force and looking for work. Statistical noise almost certainly explains these swings.
Nearly
half of U.S. workers consider themselves underemployed, report says. If you majored in physical education and
find yourself working as a dog groomer, consider yourself a poster child of the underemployed. Nearly half of U.S.
workers consider themselves underemployed, according to a survey of more than 960,000 people by PayScale, an online provider
of salary information. Three-quarters of those who label themselves as such say they're not working in a job that uses
their education and training. One quarter say they are working part time but want full-time work.
Hillary's 'economy'
attack is hopeless. Hillary Clinton is known for her shameless hypocrisy, but her broadside Tuesday [6/21/2016]
against Donald Trump was over the top — even for her. Start with the fact that, while her whole point was to
slam Trump's economic plans, she kicked it off by lauding — yes, lauding — President Obama's economic
record. This, when Obama's the first president in history never to see 3 percent growth or more in a single year of
his watch. When record numbers of workers have given up on finding jobs and dropped out of the labor market. When
the Federal Reserve predicts sluggish (at best) growth for the next few years. Yet Clinton claims this is her role model
for boosting the economy.
America In Free Fall.
President Obama, in response to attacks on his record by Trump-and by Bill Clinton, who has spoken of "the awful legacy of
the last eight years"-is entering the campaign to brag about the current economy. But to do so, President Obama must
ignore a number of liabilities that are soon coming due. Under his tenure, he did not address the unsustainable
actuarial realities of Social Security and Medicare. The federal debt doubled in a manner never seen prior and can be
now serviced only through de facto zero-interest rates, which in turn ossify economic growth. Due to tax hikes, new
financial and business regulations, and the socialization of the health care system, per annum GDP growth under the
President's tenure will go down in history as the worst since the Great Depression. He ignored the Clinton-Gingrich
compromise formula of a quarter-century ago of balancing budgets by cutting defense, capping spending, and raising
taxes. Instead, Obama slashed defense spending and hiked a number of taxes, but ignored entitlements, ensuring
$500 billion annual deficits-deemed successful because they were less than his first-term normal of $1 trillion annual
shortfalls. The President points to the 5 percent unemployment as proof of his success, but that figure reflects
Obama-era methodologies of not counting all those who have given up looking for jobs. In May 2016, a record 94,708,000
Americans were no longer in the labor force-the highest percentage of non-working Americans since the Great Depression.
3
Economic Facts That Counter Obama's Recovery Narrative. A quick look at the facts will show that Obama's
economic performance has been weak — even by his own standards. In its budget for the fiscal year 2010, the
Obama administration estimated that real gross domestic product would decline in 2009 by 2.8 percent that year and then
increase by 2 percent in 2010. Furthermore, the White House forecast that by 2011 its massive stimulus program would
start paying off, with growth accelerating to 3.8 percent that year and then soaring above 4 percent from 2012 to 2014.
15
Facts About The Imploding U.S. Economy That The Mainstream Media Doesn't Want You To See. The following are 15
facts about the imploding U.S. economy that the mainstream media doesn't want you to see:
[#1] Industrial
production has now declined for nine months in a row. We have never seen this happen outside of a recession in all of
U.S. history.
[#2] U.S. commercial bankruptcies have risen on a year over year basis for seven months in a row and
are now up 51 percent since September.
[#3] The delinquency rate on commercial and industrial loans has been
rising since January 2015.
[#4] Total business sales in the United States have been steadily dropping since the
middle of 2014. No, I did not say 2015. Total business sales have been in decline for nearly two years now, and we just
found out that they dropped again.
[#5] U.S. factory orders have been dropping for 18 months in a row.
[#6] The Cass Shipping Index has been falling on a year over year basis for 14 consecutive months.
[#7] U.S.
coal production has dropped to the lowest level in 35 years.
[...]
The Obama
Economy and the Fed's New Pessimism. The Fed made clear this week that it understands that the Obama economy is
not going anywhere and, therefore, neither are rates. President Obama actually thinks he's doing a great job with the
economy. The Federal Reserve knows better. Scary. Because one of the least-remarked features of the barely
growing economy is that it is occurring in an environment of basically zero interest rates. Investors have nearly free
money, and Obama still can't make the economy work. The Fed is being as stimulative as it can without actually paying
people to take money. And if the ISIS terrorists Obama has permitted to spawn inflict an economically disastrous strike
or something else spurs an economic meltdown, there are very few tools left to deal with it.
Is it Friday night already?
Obama
Administration to Revise Total GDP Growth Down 2%. The Commerce Department is set this July to publish a
stunning 2 percent downward revision of gross domestic product (GDP) during the Obama Administration term in office.
The Department's Bureau of Economic Statistics (BEA) regularly makes small revisions to its published statistics as more information
becomes available over time. But in a massively large adjustment, the BEA just revised downward — by
$346 billion — the real (after-inflation) GDP for 50 states and the District of Columbia, covering
the 11-year period from 2005 through the end of 2015.
Inflation,
Lies and the Big Mac Index (BMI). While inflation is bad enough when it's out in the open, the ill effects of
inflation are even worse when they are covered up and lied about by public officials. Prices rise, wages stay flat.
Taxes originally intended for the ultra-rich fall on wage-earners. Stock portfolios balloon, but their buying power deflates.
Lies and Bureau of
Labor Statistics. ["]Employers only added 38,000 jobs last month, while March and April numbers were
revised down by a total of 59,000 jobs.["] They always are "revised down," each and every month, and they have been
for a long time. [...] We're not going to be "entering" any new recession, because we never left the old one. Instead, it
worsened to a depression, which is what we're fully and firmly mired in now, try as the government liars might to obscure it.
Anybody who's out there looking for a decent job, or sweating holding onto one they already have, knows it all too well already.
How
Obama Has Made It Harder for Companies to Hire. Government data released on Wednesday [6/8/2016] shows the number of
private-sector job openings was at an all-time high in April. Companies, however, hired the fewest number of people on
a seasonally adjusted basis in nine months. Why the disparity? The JOLTS (Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey)
data the government released show there were 5,289,000 private-sector job openings in April — 114,000 more than in
March. The government report also shows that private-sector hires declined by 169,000 compared to March. With
private companies advertising so many job openings, why are they not filling them?
Average
Man With Full-Time Job in U.S. Earned Less in 2014 than 1973. The average man with a full-time job in 2014
earned less than the average man in 1973, according to the Brookings Institution. The think tank's economy-focused
Twitter account revived a striking statistic over the weekend, shedding additional light on the perceived economic stagnation
and frustration among middle-income Americans in recent years.
It's
Time To Blame Obamacare For Losing So Many Full-Time Jobs. Last Friday [6/3/2016], the Bureau of Labor
Statistics (BLS) released the worst jobs report in almost six years. The US economy only added 38,000 jobs, less than a
tenth of the estimated 458,000 Americans who left the workforce. In fact, thanks to revisions made to the March and
April reports, that exceeds the number of jobs created in the past three months (348,000) by more than 100,000.
The workforce participation rate dropped back to 62.6 percent, near a 40-year low, and more than three full points below
its level at the start of the recovery in June 2009 (65.7 percent). To call this a wide miss is an
understatement. Economists had predicted a moderate jobs gain, with Reuters forecast. The unemployment rate
dropped to 4.7 percent, but analysts widely noted that this was a result of the large exodus from the workforce. That
included an increase of 130,000 among those who have left the workforce but still desire employment, outnumbering the jobs
added in May.
A Builder or a Blabber
in the White House. On Monday [6/6/2016], Federal Reserve Chairman Janet Yellen gave a somber assessment of the
current jobs market, throwing cold water on President Obama's election-year messaging. President Obama has been
bragging that America has "the strongest" economy in the world. Right, and pigs can fly. GDP growth under Obama
has averaged a stagnant 1.7 percent a year. Meanwhile, Ireland is growing at nearly 8 percent, and India at
7 percent. And the Obama economy isn't only a loser when compared with other countries. Compared with what
Americans enjoyed for decades, this is "the worst economic-growth record of any president" since the Great Depression, says
Stanford economist Michael Boskin.
'Frightening'
Number of Unemployed Have Given Up on Looking: Survey. Nearly half of unemployed Americans have quit
looking for work, and the numbers are even worse for the long-term jobless, according to a poll released Wednesday that
paints a grim picture of the labor market. Some 59 percent of those who have been out of work for two years or more say
they have stopped looking, the Harris Poll of unemployed Americans showed. Overall, 43 percent of the jobless said they
have given up, according to the poll released in conjunction with Express Employment Professionals, a job placement service.
The
Great CEO-Worker 'Pay Gap' Is Nothing But A Union-Built Myth. [The AFL-CIO] reports this year that the typical
CEO running an S&P 500 firm received total compensation of $12.4 million in 2015 while the average rank-and-file worker was
paid just $36,875 — a pay gap of 335-to-1. But the AFL-CIO can only get such an inflated pay ratio by applying a
series of statistical sleights of hand that result in an invalid apples-to-oranges comparison of the total compensation for CEOs to
the cash wages of mostly part-time workers. To start, the AFL-CIO only considers a very small sample of S&P 500 CEOs to
get its 335-to-1 ratio. Using a larger, more representative sample of CEOs produces a much smaller pay gap.
More
than 100 million working-age Americans do not have jobs. This is exactly what we have been expecting to happen.
On Friday [6/3/2016], the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced that the U.S. economy only added 38,000 jobs in May.
This was way below the 158,000 jobs that analysts were projecting, and it is also way below what is needed just to keep up
with population growth. In addition, the number of jobs created in April was revised down by 37,000 and the number of
jobs created in March was revised down by 22,000. This was the worst jobs report in almost six years, and the consensus
on Wall Street is that it was an unmitigated disaster.
If
you want economic growth, pick the candidate who's actually created jobs. Obama's been bragging that America has "the
strongest" economy in the world. And pigs can fly. Growth under Obama has averaged a stagnant 1.7 percent
a year. Meanwhile, Ireland is growing at nearly 8 percent, India at 7 percent, Sweden at 4 percent. The
Obama economy is embarrassing compared to those countries — and compared to what Americans enjoyed for decades.
It's "the worst economic-growth record of any president" since the Great Depression, says Stanford economist Michael Boskin.
In
Interview With Fox's Bret Baier, Clinton Delivers Rambling Non-Answer on Economy. In an interview segment aired
Wednesday evening, Fox's Bret Baier asked Hillary Clinton how her economic policy would differ from President Obama's.
Clinton delivered a monologue, that despite its length and breadth of talking points, failed to actually answer the question.
"You have said that President Obama got the country out of an economic ditch. If you look at the polls, the average of recent
polls, the right direction/wrong direction, 65% of Americans say the country is headed in the wrong direction. So what
specifically would you do differently with the economy than President Obama has done?" "Well, I think that 76 months
of job creation is a good start," Clinton said haltingly.
Goldman
Sachs: Obamacare forcing hundreds of thousands into part-time work. Obamacare is forcing hundreds of
thousands of people into part-time work, according to a new analysis from the bank Goldman Sachs. In a research note
sent out Wednesday, bank economist Alec Phillips concluded that "the evidence suggests that the [Affordable Care Act] has at
least modestly elevated involuntary part-time employment." He wrote that a "few hundred thousand" workers may have had
their hours cut or been forced to take part-time jobs because of the law.
Why
you should never blindly trust the official unemployment rate. Friday's job report was a study in
whiplash. The unemployment rate dropped a remarkable 0.3 percentage points: It was 5 percent in April, and fell
to 4.7 percent in May. Which sounds great! But only 38,000 jobs were created last month. That's absolutely
abysmal. It's likely the Verizon strike temporarily eliminated 35,000 to 40,000 jobs in May, which will return now that
the strike is over. But even that would've only brought May's count to just under 80,000 new jobs. By comparison,
2015 averaged 221,000 jobs per month, and 2014 averaged 260,000 per month. On top of that, job creation numbers for
both March and April were revised down for a total loss of 59,000. Which is not good at all.
Dismal
jobs report blamed on weather, Trump, etc. In a flash, the U.S. labor market appeared to morph Friday [6/3/2016] from a reliable race car
into a creaky bicycle. Not only did the economy create just 38,000 new jobs in May, its weakest showing since 2010, but the Labor Department revised
down employment gains for the previous two months by 59,000. That cut average monthly gains in 2016 to about 150,000 from 209,000 last year.
Why have employers suddenly throttled back hiring?
Lousy
jobs report tells the truth about the Obama economy (and it ain't pretty). The economy added a paltry 38,000
new positions in May. The liberal media will apologize that the Verizon strike likely cut 35,000 jobs from the report
but monthly job gains have been trending down since 2014 and 2015. That's frustrating a stronger recovery in wages,
especially for minorities. Ronald Reagan accomplished about twice the jobs and GDP growth during his recovery by
cutting taxes, tearing down regulations and negotiating a deal with Asia exporters to stop pushing down values of their
currencies. Consumers are spending and second quarter GDP growth appears to be strong, but businesses have good reason
to make do with the workers they have. Liberal meddling makes hiring and investing in America too tough.
Employers
Added 38,000 Jobs in May. The U.S. economy created the fewest number of jobs in more than five years in May,
hurt by a strike by Verizon workers and a fall in goods producing employment, pointing to labor market weakness that could
make it difficult for the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates. Nonfarm payrolls increased by only 38,000 jobs last
month, the smallest gain since September 2010, the Labor Department said on Friday [6/3/2016].
Perhaps
This Was a Bad Week to Chastise People for Doubting the Economy. The economy added only 38,000 jobs in May and
the workforce shed almost half a million people. To summarize the sentiments of most analysts, not great.
Funniest Labor
Report Ever. [Scroll down] The corporate MSM will roll out the usual "experts" to blather about the
retirement of Baby Boomers as the false narrative to deflect blame from Obama and his minions. The absolute absurdity
of the data heaped upon the ignorant masses is clearly evident in the data over the last three months. Here is
government idiocracy at its finest:
Number of working age Americans added since March —
406,000
Number of employed Americans since March — NEGATIVE 290,000
Number of Americans who
have supposedly voluntarily left the workforce — 1,226,000
Unemployment rate — FELL from
5.0% to 4.7%
Talk about perpetrating the BIG LIE. Goebbels and Bernays are smiling up from the fires of hell as their
acolytes of propaganda have kicked it into hyper-drive. We only need the other 7.4 million "officially" unemployed
Americans to leave the work force and we'll have 0% unemployment. At the current pace we should be there by election
time. I wonder if Cramer, Liesman, or any of the other CNBC mouthpieces for the establishment will point out that not one
single full-time job has been added in 2016. There were 6,000 less full-time jobs in May than in January, while there are
572,000 more low paying, no benefits, part-time Obama service jobs. Sounds like a recovery to me. It gets even
better. [...]
Obama
Credits Self for Economic Recovery — 'Smart Decisions Early in My Presidency'. In his weekly address
released Saturday morning, President Barack Obama credited himself for the economic recovery throughout the country and
specifically pointed to Elkhart, IN, where he gave a speech about the economy earlier in the week as an example.
The
US may have actually lost jobs in May, economist says. As if the May jobs picture wasn't bad enough already,
one economist said it was even worse. Nonfarm payrolls actually declined 4,000 during the month, according to Jonathan
Wright, a Johns Hopkins economic professor who wrote an analysis Friday [6/3/2016] for the Brookings Institution, a generally
left-leaning think tank. That number compares to the already-dismal 38,000 count released Friday morning from the Labor
Department. The report triggered a decline in the stock market and, perhaps more importantly, a sharp drop in expectations
for interest rate hikes this year.
Shock
Report on Jobs Signals Obama Economy Is on Brink of Recession. The May jobs report is a shocker, with nonfarm
payrolls up only 38,000 and private jobs up a mere 25,000. Investors and economists are making the case that this was a
weird, one-off, statistical glitch and that stronger employment is on the way. They might well be wrong. If you
smooth out the numbers with a three-month moving average, job increases have been slowing for five months. The
three-month pace in December was 281,000 jobs. In the May report, the pace nosedived to 107,000. The unemployment rate
fell to 4.7%, largely because 458,000 people left the labor force. This spells trouble for the economy. And if
you step back and look at the whole business sector, a case can be made that the United States has been in a mild business
recession for as much as a year, if not longer.
Job
growth in May worst in 5 years. The unemployment report for May is an absolute disaster. "Unexpectedly,"
after economists predicted that 164,000 new jobs would be created, only 38,000 nrew jobs were counted. While the
"official" unemployment rate dropped to 4.7%, the reason for the drop was familiar: more people became discouraged about
looking for work and dropped out of the labor force entirely. In fact, that broader measure of joblessness was more
than twice the "official" rate: 9.7%.
Fewer jobs, more death —
Obama's America. The latest numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show workforce participation is at an
all-time low. Some 94,708,000 Americans are out of work or have given up looking. It's no wonder they gave
up. Fifteen thousand construction jobs disappeared in May, along with 10,000 manufacturing jobs and 11,000 more in
logging, mining and the oil and gas sector. Even the much-vaunted information sector — "the new
economy" — shed 34,000 jobs. While the economy supposedly added only 38,000 jobs in May, that's fewer than
1,000 per each of our 50 states, it's worse when you look at what kind of jobs they were. More than half of the new
jobs, some 22,000, were in bars and restaurants. Bartenders, waitresses and busboys have a hard time paying back their
student loans let alone starting or supporting a family.
Obama
To Middle America: The Economy Is Doing Great, And If You Don't Think So, You're Dumb. [Scroll
down] "People are anxious and uncertain about the economy," Obama said in the opening of his speech, to which his basic
message was, "How dare they?" Don't people know about how Obama saved the country from the second Great Depression, or
how he single-handedly saved the auto industry, or how his "investments" in clean energy and roads created so many
jobs? "By almost every economic measure," he declared, "America is better off than when I came here at the beginning
of my presidency."
The
Key Economic Facts Obama's Recovery Narrative Ignores. President Barack Obama took an economic victory lap in
Elkhart, Indiana, on Wednesday [6/1/2016]. In a major speech he argued his policies have brought the economy
back. He blamed remaining economic weaknesses on trends preceding his administration. This analysis has the
economic facts precisely backwards: Economic growth benefitted Americans up and down the income distribution until the
Great Recession. Since then, Americans have struggled considerably.
Record
94,708,000 Americans Not in Labor Force; Participation Rate Drops in May. A record 94,708,000 Americans were
not in the labor force in May — 664,000 more than in April — and the labor force participation rate
dropped two-tenths of a point to 62.6 percent, near its 38-year low, the Labor Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics
reported on Friday [6/3/2016]. When President Obama took office in January 2009, 80,529,000 Americans were not
participating in the labor force; since then, 14,179,000 Americans have left the workforce — some of them retiring
and some just quitting because they can't find work. "By almost every economic measure, America is better off than when
I came here at the beginning of my presidency," President Obama told the people of Elkhart, Indiana three days ago. "We
cut unemployment in half, years before a lot of economists thought we would."
Elitist Arrogance.
White teenage unemployment is about 14 percent. That for black teenagers is about 30 percent. The labor force
participation rate for white teens is 37 percent, and that for black teens is 25 percent. Many years ago, in 1948,
the figures were exactly the opposite. The unemployment rate of black 16-year-old and 17-year-old males was 9.4 percent,
while that of whites was 10.2 percent. Up until the late 1950s, black teens, as well as black adults, were more active
in the labor market than their white counterparts.
Obama
Blames 'Right-Wing' Media for Angering 'White People'. President Barack Obama accused "right wing" talk radio
and cable channels like Fox News of angering white people in America about the economy, arguing that it was actually doing
really well under his administration. During his speech, Obama decried Republicans who campaigned on stopping "welfare
queens" complaining about "makers and takers" and even referred to Mitt Romney's 47 percent comment. "Their basic
message is anti-government, anti-immigrant, anti-trade, and let's face it — it's anti-change," Obama said, accusing
them of lying just to oppose him.
Our
part-time jobs president. Although a sitting president can exercise a great deal of influence in trying to
shape his "legacy," in the end it is always history that makes the final call. From a job creation perspective, it is
highly likely that President Barack Obama will be remembered as the "part-time jobs president." Despite campaign and
media claims of helping the "low-income working people," probably no other president in history has directed federal agencies
under the control of the executive branch to pursue economic and fiscal policies that have created a boom in part-time, low
paying jobs. The creation of these is mostly at the expense of full-time, better paying jobs.
Hillary
Clinton Says She'll Put A Tax-Cutting Deregulator In Charge Of Economic Policy. Hillary Clinton made a big
announcement Sunday [5/15/2016], saying she'd put her husband "in charge of economic revitalization." Only problem is that
she's already forsworn all the policies Bill enacted while he was in office that led to the 1990s boom. "My husband,
who I'm going to put in charge of revitalizing the economy, 'cause you know he knows how to do it," Hillary Clinton said at a
rally. "And especially in places like coal country and inner cities and other parts of our country that have really
been left out."
The Editor says...
"Coal country" wasn't left out, it was cut out by left-wing politicians like Clinton and Obama, and earth-worshiping tree-hugging Democrat environmentalists.
Obama's
Pretty Words Cannot Beautify His Ugly Economy. While Obama can talk the bark off a banyan tree, he cannot make
Americans hallucinate prosperity. Here is the sad picture they actually see: [#1] The unemployment rate has improved
significantly, from 7.8 percent at Obama's January 20, 2009, inauguration to 5.0 percent in April.
[#2] However, as more and more Americans stop looking for work, the Labor Force Participation Rate on Obama's watch has fallen
from 65.7 percent to 62.8 percent, a level last measured before Obama in March 1978. Since Obama took office, this
metric has slid 4.1 percent. Last month saw the creation of 160,000 jobs, a widely panned number, and much below the
200,000-plus jobs generated in five of the last six months. Nothing about the latest employment report spells "boom."
President
Obama's Magical Misery Tour. As we have cited, the labor participation rate is currently under 63 percent —
the same as it was in the 1970s. A low unemployment rate means little if Americans are no longer searching for work in the first
place. And that is the main factor driving the unemployment rate down. The rate of unemployment alone does not tell the true
story. Not even close. As an example, last Friday [5/6/2016] the Bureau of Labor Statistics issued their monthly numbers, and
said that 1.7 million people "wanted and were available for work, and had looked for a job sometime in the prior 12 months.
They were not counted as unemployed because they had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey." The same press
release said that there were six million people working as "involuntary part-time workers" because they couldn't find full time jobs.
Yet the administration, and its friends in the media, want you to look at that five percent unemployment figure and assume that the economy
is doing well.
Another
Dismal Jobs Report from an Overregulated Economy. The American economy added the fewest number of jobs in April
in seven months. The job gains in April were the smallest number since last September, and below the average of 200,000
new jobs. Nonfarm payrolls increased by only 160,000 jobs, a disappointing number when the population continues to
grow. The numbers for February and March were revised to show 19,000 fewer jobs than originally reported. The
unemployment rate held steady at 5.0 percent, but that was because more people were dropping out of the labor force.
Is there
an actual definition for being employed? The Labor Department has determined that 151 million people in the US
have jobs. And that the unemployment rate is 5 percent. You might be impressed by that until you look at who the
government considers "employed" and how difficult it is to actually be "unemployed." This is going to get a little confusing,
so hold onto your seats. But let me start by saying that the Obama administration didn't set this policy. Both parties
have enjoyed a mushy description of joblessness for decades.
94,044,000 Americans Not in
the Labor Force. The number of Americans not in the workforce during the month of April increased substantially
compared to the previous month — again tipping over the 94 million mark — according to the latest Labor
Department data. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports Friday that 94,044,000 Americans were neither employed nor made
an effort to find employment — due to discouragement, retirement, schooling or otherwise — in April.
Employers
Added 160,000 Jobs in April. The U.S. economy added the fewest number of jobs in seven months in April and
Americans dropped out of the labor force in droves, signs of weakness that cast doubts on whether the Federal Reserve will
raise interest rates before the end of the year. Nonfarm payrolls increased by 160,000 jobs last month as construction
employment barely rose and the retail sector shed jobs, the Labor Department said on Friday [5/6/2016]. That was the
smallest gain since September and below the first-quarter average job growth of 200,000.
Year
Eight of Obama's Recovery. President Obama insists — straight-facedly — that in the
context of a wrenching financial crisis, the United States under his leadership performed better than any major economy in
modern history. That isn't even close to being true, of course. Obama's presidency will coincide with a
remarkably weak recovery, with GDP essentially treading water.
As
GDP Flatlines, Obama Brags About His Economic Record. Obama talks about 14.4 million new jobs since 2010,
without noting that working age population grew by 15.8 million over those same months. He touts the 5% unemployment
rate, but fails to mention that it would be more like 10% if millions of Americans hadn't given up looking for work
altogether. Obama does admit the recovery has been sluggish, but when he isn't blaming Republicans he says blames the
"wrenching financial crises," saying it inevitably lead to unusually slow growth. Obama might think that, but a Federal
Reserve Bank of Atlanta analysis concluded that "U.S. history provides no support" for such a claim. Even Sorkin, who
is clearly trying to help Obama burnish his economic legacy, notes out that Obama's two biggest legislative achievements —
ObamaCare and Dodd-Frank — hurt economic growth.
White
House struggles to explain weak economy as Obama boasts of job growth. The White House labored Thursday
[4/28/2016] to explain a weak first-quarter economic report, even as President Obama is trumpeting his economic mastery in a
New York Times magazine interview. The disappointing growth of 0.5 percent in gross domestic product was a result of
"weak foreign demand and low oil prices," said Jason Furman, Mr. Obama's top economic adviser. White House press
secretary Josh Earnest blamed congressional Republicans in part for the weak growth, saying the economy would be stronger if
Congress had agreed to Mr. Obama's proposals for higher spending on infrastructure projects three or four years ago.
Economy
grows just 0.5 percent to open 2016. The U.S. economy grew at its slowest pace in roughly two years, climbing
just 0.5 percent in the first three months of 2016. The U.S. economy reported subpar numbers in the first quarter for the
third straight year. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg had predicted 0.7 percent growth. The Commerce Department
said the low growth was due to a pullback in spending by both businesses and consumers as the first few months of 2016 were
filled with anxiety about the state of the global economy. The economy grew 1.4 percent in the last quarter of 2015.
GDP:
US Economy Braked Sharply In First Quarter, Growing At Disappointing 0.5% Pace. U.S. economic growth slowed significantly
in the first quarter of 2016, easing to an annual rate of 0.5 percent, the weakest since the first quarter of 2014. [...] The
Commerce Department figure, an advance estimate that is likely to be revised, undershot the 0.7 percent growth forecast by
economists surveyed by Reuters. The data also showed fourth-quarter GDP growth unrevised at 1.4 percent.
Of
course: Obama pitches release of prisoners as economic stimulus. The Keystone pipeline will destroy the
planet, but the prison-to-federal-job pipeline is vital to our economic progress. Obama should set an example by
hiring released convicted felons to work at his presidential library as well as his personal post-presidency security detail.
The official unemployment numbers are low because...
America's part-time workforce
is huge. Excluding the Great Recession, the 6 million Americans who work part-time but want full-time jobs
today are at the highest level in about 30 years or so. The number has come down since its peak during the recession
but some experts believe America now has a "new normal" — a permanently high number of part-timers. Experts
call these jobs "hidden unemployment" because these people are capable of working more hours than they can get.
Obama
Boasts In Britain: I Saved The World Economy As President. President Barack Obama boasted of his legacy
during a town hall in Britain, asserting that he single-handedly saved the world during his presidency. "Saving the
world economy from a Great Depression — that was pretty good," Obama bragged when asked by a student in London
what he wanted his legacy to be.
One
of Every Six Workers in United States An Immigrant. The percentage of foreign-born workers in the U.S. civilian
labor force has more than tripled over the past four decades. In an analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data, the Migration
Policy Institute reveals that between 1970 and 2014 the percentage of foreign-born workers participating in the U.S. civilian
labor force grew from 5 percent to 17 percent.
Run Against Obama. Obama has put the private
sector in a half nelson. Under Obama, the labor force participation rate has fallen to its lowest level since the 1970s, and even accounting
for retiring baby boomers, there are still millions of adults neither working nor looking for work. The number of food stamp recipients is
up 45 percent on Obama's watch, and the disability rolls are up 14.3 percent. Among those receiving disability, 35 percent
claim a mood disorder, and 27.7 percent cite musculoskeletal issues (mostly back pain).
The only available jobs are government jobs.
March
Employment Report Shows Labor Market Growing. The March employment report showed continued growth in the labor
market. While the Bureau of Labor Statistics found unemployment ticking up 0.1 percentage points, the good news was
greater labor force participation and 215,000 new jobs created during the month. The payroll survey found widespread
job growth throughout the service sector. The retail trade (+48,000), health care (+37,000), and professional and
business services (+33,000) sectors showed the largest job growth. Total government employment also increased (+20,000),
driven almost entirely by greater hiring by local governments. Employment contracted in the goods producing sector.
How
Good Is Job Growth? The Chart Obama Doesn't Want You To See. "The longest streak of private-sector job
growth on record"! "U.S. businesses have now added 14.4 million jobs over 73 straight months"! "The labor force
participation rate rose to 63% in March, the same level as in November 2013"! All those quotes — minus the exclamation
points — came from White House top economist Jason Furman. And they are all accurate. What's missing, however, is
context. Because when you look at these numbers in context, not only do the exclamation points disappear, but so do any claims of
robust job growth under this administration.
93,482,000
Americans Out of Labor Force in March. The number of Americans not participating in the workforce in March
dipped again compared to the previous month but was still higher than it was a year ago, according to Labor Department data
released Friday [4/1/2016]. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that 93,482,000 Americans were neither employed nor
had made an effort to find employment in March. March's non-participation level continues a multi-month trend of
decline after the number of people out of the workforce hit a record high of 94,610,000 in October — declining
another 206,000 compared to February.
President
Obama's Overrated Unemployment Story. The key to understanding this is a rather obscure statistic: The US
labor force participation rate. From the mid-1960s, Americans' participation in the labor force increased from just below
59% to plateauing just above 67% from the late 1990s through the early 2000s. Over the next decade, it dipped, hovering
around 66%. In 2008's last two months, it fell below 66%, reaching 65.7% when Obama took in 2009. It has since declined
sharply, hitting 62.4% last September. Even having rebounded to 62.9% in February, dismissing the last seven years, this is
its lowest point since 1978. The large effect resulting from participation's drop is seen by comparing employment from the
beginning of Obama's administration to today. When Obama took office, America's potential labor force (the Bureau of Labor
Statistics' Civilian Noninstitutionalized population) measured 234.7 million. February 2016's employment report recorded
it at 252.6 million — a 7.6% increase. Employment over this period rose from 142.1 million to 151.1 million.
Although a net 9 million employment increase, its 6.3% increase is less than the growth in the potential labor force.
Beware
Obama, the Benevolent. When President Obama stages a photo op to publicize signing a measure he claims will
"help" American workers, you can be almost certain that "unintended consequences" will outweigh any intended benefits.
Lacking even an elementary understanding of how a market economy works, he only makes things worse.
Hillary
Clinton: 'No Evidence' to Suggest Raising the Minimum Wage Kills Jobs. Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton
claimed Tuesday [3/22/2016] there is "no evidence" to prove raising the minimum wage costs jobs.
The Editor says...
This page is full of evidence that the minimum wage is a job killer.
Fresh
Evidence That Obama's Economy Is Getting Moldy. [Scroll down] Just last week [Barack H. Obama] was
bragging about the economy "showing the kind of strength and durability that makes America's economy right now the envy of
the world" and about how "the American people should be proud of what they have achieved." Anyone who thinks the economy
isn't doing so hot he said, lived in "an alternative reality" where facts and evidence won't "change their doomsday rhetoric."
"The numbers, the facts don't lie," he said. Well, TrimTabs Investment Research just released some facts and numbers that show
just how Pollyanna-ish Obama is about the economy he's overseen for the past seven-plus years. It finds that weekly earnings
of salaried workers posted their biggest month-to-month decline in February since March 2009, falling half a percentage point.
The only other time earnings showed that big a monthly drop in the past decade was December 2008.
The
ugly truth about Obama's 'great' economy. By almost every economic measure, America is flat to falling.
Obama certainly can boast about the unemployment rate. From his Jan. 20, 2009, inauguration until last month that figure has
fallen from 7.8 percent to 4.9 — down 37.2 percent. But:
• The labor force participation
rate over that period has slid from 65.7 percent to 62.9 (the lowest reading since March 1978) — down
4.3 percent.
• On Obama's watch, the percentage of Americans below the poverty line has grown, according
to the most recent Census data, from 14.3 percent to 14.8 percent in 2014 — up 3.5 percent.
•
Real median household income across that interval sank from $54,925 to $53,657 — down 2.3 percent.
• Food Stamp participants soared in that time frame from 32,889,000 to 45,874,000 — up
39.5 percent.
• Meanwhile, from Obama's arrival through the fourth quarter of 2015, the
percentage of Americans who own homes sagged from 67.3 percent to 63.8 — down 5.2 percent.
Obama:
'The Plans We Have Put in Place to Grow the Economy Have Worked'. With a smiling Vice President Joe Biden
sitting beside him, President Barack Obama gave a speech at the White House today [3/4/2016] declaring that "the facts don't
lie" and that the American economy "is pretty darn good right now." The president took credit for what he says is the
excellent state of the economy, attributing it to his plans.
Obama
accuses economy skeptics of living in 'alternative reality'. Political candidates who are telling voters that
the economy is bad are living in an "alternative reality," President Obama said Friday [3/4/2016]. Touting the jobs report
Friday morning [3/4/2016] that showed relatively strong growth, Obama accused people skeptical of the economy of engaging in "fantasy."
U.S.
Has Record 10th Straight Year Without 3% Growth in GDP. The United States has now gone a record 10 straight years without 3 percent
growth in real Gross Domestic Product, according to data released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. The BEA has calculated GDP for each year
going back to 1929 and it has calculated the inflation-adjusted annual change in GDP (in constant 2009 dollars) from 1930 forward. In the
85 years for which BEA has calculated the annual change in real GDP there is only one ten-year stretch — 2006 through 2015 —
when the annual growth in real GDP never hit 3 percent. During the last ten years, real annual growth in GDP peaked in 2006 at
2.7 percent. It has never been that high again, according to the BEA.
Wealth
and Income Inequality Is Not as Bad as You Think. [Scroll down] Politicians do not mention the inequality of income very much because
it is so much less than the inequality of wealth, especially after tax. Household consumption equals income after tax minus savings. Since
those with high incomes save more than those with low incomes, who often spend more than their incomes a fact called dissaving, consumption is distributed
more equally than income and vastly more equal than the distribution of wealth. Since those at the lowest income levels receive welfare, food stamps,
and some public housing, politicians want to avoid talking about the distribution of consumption. As we pointed out, the estimates of household
wealth do not include the value of social security benefits. The Social Security administration reported that in 2015, over 59 million Americans
received about $870 billion in Social Security benefits.
Weimar America.
Neither the president nor his would-be successors talk much about the fact that we are now nearing $20 trillion in
debt — in an ossified economy of near-zero interest rates, little if any GDP growth, and record numbers of
able-bodied but non-working adults.
Bernie
Sanders has raised $16 million from the unemployed. One of Bernie Sanders talking points on the campaign trail is that the "real"
unemployment rate is much higher than the official 4.9% cited by the Labor Department, and he should know. That's because Sanders' biggest
source of fundraising support comes from the retired or unemployed, according to filings with the Federal Election Commission, as reported by
Bloomberg. $16 million of the $73 million the candidate raised in 2015 came from individual donors who said they were without jobs,
according to the report.
Real Unemployment: 25%. The seasonally-adjusted SGS Alternate Unemployment
Rate reflects current unemployment reporting methodology adjusted for SGS-estimated long-term discouraged workers, who were defined out of official existence in 1994. That
estimate is added to the BLS estimate of U-6 unemployment, which includes short-term discouraged workers. The U-3 unemployment rate is the monthly headline number. The
U-6 unemployment rate is the Bureau of Labor Statistics' (BLS) broadest unemployment measure, including short-term discouraged and other marginally-attached workers as well as
those forced to work part-time because they cannot find full-time employment.
BLS says 665,000 job losses,
unadjusted. A new Bureau of Labor Statistics report shows that there were 665,000 jobs lost in January, before accounting for the seasonal
adjustment. The government said that taking into account the adjustment, 151,000 jobs were created.
Fun
with numbers: The real story behind the unemployment report. We've commented several times over the years about the BLS cooking the books
on jobs. James Pethokoukis lists some other stats that tell far more of the real story about the employment picture than the bare-bones numbers
highlighted by the media: [...] In other words, the job situation in America still [is bad], and the president is blowing smoke by touting the numbers
as good news.
US layoffs surge to
6-month high: Challenger. Layoffs surged in January to the highest levels since July as employers in the retail and energy sectors pulled
out the pink slips, according to a private survey out Thursday [2/4/2016]. U.S.-based companies announced 75,114 planned job cuts last month,
up more than 200 percent from a 15-year low in December, according to global outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. That figure
was also 42 percent higher from a year ago. Retailers were the biggest job cutter, despite a nearly 8 percent bump in U.S. holiday
sales in 2015. The sector slashed 22,246 positions, a seven-year high.
U.S. Economy Adds
151,000 Jobs in January. The U.S. added 151,000 jobs in January, weaker than expected and additional fuel for concerns the U.S.
economy is slowing down. There were silver linings to be found in the clouds, however, as wages and worker participation rose.
The headline unemployment rate was 4.9%, the lowest in eight year. Analysts had predicted the economy would generate 190,000 new jobs
and that the unemployment rate would hold steady at 5%.
New
Obama regulation: White males lose, lawyers and Democrats win. Last Friday [1/29/2016], a new regulation was
proposed by the Obama administration that will make it harder and more expensive for employers to hire and promote white
males, enrich class action lawyers, and do absolutely nothing to accomplish the ostensible goal of raising the pay of women
relative to men. [...] Paying men and women differently for the same work is already against the law. The fact that on
average women earn less than men in the entire workforce is the product of personal choices. Many women take time away
from work to raise children. Women tend to prefer occupations in non-technical fields, often in human services, which pay
less. And women tend to avoid physically demanding blue-collar occupations in the skilled trades, which can pay very
well: construction, auto repair, machinery maintenance, and the like.
Obama's
'diversity' diktat is a giant gift to lawyers. How will this new EEOC reporting affect you? Your employer will
have to lump workers into 12 salary bands. If you're a white male up for a raise, but the band above yours already includes
too many while males, tough luck. Your boss will be pressured to give the raise to a woman or minority to avoid triggering
EEOC scrutiny. This data collection is a godsend for EEOC regulators looking for targets, and it hands class-action lawyers
the statistics they need on a silver platter. But not every difference in pay is actually caused by discrimination.
President Obama parrots the bogus claim that for every dollar men make, women make only 79 cents. This so-called "wage
gap" is shoddy statistics. It merely averages what all men in America make, and compares that with what all women make,
lumping together all kinds of jobs. It proves nothing about what women and men earn when they do the same work.
ObamaCare
Enrollment Is Way Down In January. Last week, just 153,631 people selected an ObamaCare plan through the Healthcare.gov
website, according to the latest weekly enrollment report from the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services. That's far below
the enrollment number from the same week last year, when 400,253 signed up. And it continues the sluggish pace so far this
year, which has seen 311,000 signing up for coverage through January 16 — less than half the number who enrolled the same
period in 2015.
The
Fallacy of Obama's Job Creation. What's the reason for such a strong anti-establishment sentiment this election cycle?
There are plenty of factors worth mentioning, but near the top of the list has to be the steep decline of America's labor force
participation rate. Although the Obama administration has loudly touted reports that the U.S. economy has generated 14.1 million
new jobs over the past 70 months and now sits at a 5.0 percent unemployment rate, the labor force participation rate has been in
virtual free-fall. From March 2010 through December 2015, the percentage dropped from 64.9 percent to a 62.6 percentage,
falling to levels not seen since the Carter administration.
Americans Giving Up on Jobs. Forty
percent of Americans who are capable of working but who don't have a job say they have completely given up looking for work, according
to a new report. The findings of a survey conducted by Express Employment Professionals show that the longer an individual has been out
of the labor force, the more likely they are to say they have given up looking. More than half — 55 percent —
of those out of work for more than two years say they have given up, while 21 percent of those out of labor force for three months
or less say the same.
CNN: Hey, Folks, Relax!
Don't Panic! Everything's Awesome! Forget for a moment that U.S. stock markets have seen their worst start to a new year
since the Great Depression or that some $2.5 trillion in wealth has been evaporated in less than two weeks. CNN says it's
hardly the time to panic. [...] Pay no attention to the fact that last week not a single cargo ship was transporting raw materials in
the South China Sea, the first time in history that it has happened. The economy is is great shape and this is not proof that
global commerce has literally stopped.
Obama
proposes new unemployment insurance as part of 're-employment' effort. President Barack Obama on Saturday [1/16/2016]
proposed changes to the U.S. unemployment insurance system that he says would offer more security to the jobless and encourage
experienced workers to rejoin the workforce, even if it means taking a pay cut.
Obama
Still Blames ATMs For The Lousy Job Market. It's almost as if Obama got his last State of the Union speech mixed up with his first,
where he listed all those problems. In his first month in office, Obama could blame his predecessors for the sorry state of working-class
America. And that's exactly what he did. In his 2009 State of the Union speech, he blamed "an era where too often, short-term gains
were prized over long-term prosperity," where "regulations were gutted," and "critical debates and difficult decisions were put off." But
after seven years at the helm of the nation's economy, Obama can't blame his predecessors, nor does he want to accept any blame himself.
The definition of the U6 unemployment rate: Total unemployed, plus all persons
marginally attached to the labor force, plus total employed part time for economic reasons, as a percent of the civilian labor force plus all
persons marginally attached to the labor force. Note: Persons marginally attached to the labor force are those who currently are
neither working nor looking for work but indicate that they want and are available for a job and have looked for work sometime in the past
12 months. Discouraged workers, a subset of the marginally attached, have given a job-market related reason for not currently
looking for work. Persons employed part time for economic reasons are those who want and are available for full-time work but have
had to settle for a part-time schedule. Updated population controls are introduced annually with the release of January data.
Current U-6 Unemployment Rate: For December 2015 the
official U-6 unemployment rate was 9.8% up from 9.6% in November. While the independently produced Gallup equivalent called the
"Underemployment Rate" was 13.8% in October, 14.4% for November and 14.0% in December. The current differential between Gallup and
BLS on supposedly the same data is 4.2%! or roughly a 43.75% margin of error!
Labor
Force Participation Improves Slightly; 94,103,000 Americans Not in Labor Force. The number of Americans not in the labor force last month
totaled 94,103,000 — a slight improvement from the 94,446,000 not in the labor force in November — and the labor force participation rate
increased a tenth of a point, with 62.6 percent of the civilian noninstitutional population either holding a job or actively seeking one.
For all of 2015, the highest labor participation rate was 62.9 percent in January: the lowest was 62.4 percent in September, and that
62.4 percent was the lowest in 38 years. The Bureau of Labor Statistics says the economy added 292,000 jobs in December, and the
unemployment rate was unchanged at 5.0 percent — for the third month in a row.
Yellen's
Job Puzzle: Why Are 20-Somethings Retiring? How come more people are retiring in their early 20s? Why are middle-age men
becoming stay-at-home dads? What's keeping women out of the workforce other than illness, kids or school? Those are some of the
questions raised in a new Bureau of Labor Statistics report that shows changes over the past decade in why people stay out of the labor force.
Finding answers is key for the Federal Reserve as it maps the contours of a job market that's becoming harder to predict with the aging of the
baby boomers and shifting household priorities.
Obama
Floods The U.S. Job Market With Foreign Competition. Skirting Congress once again, President Obama seeks to admit another 100,000
foreigners to work here when jobs are few and labor-market participation is low. Whatever this is, it's not in the interest of U.S. workers.
The
Obama recovery that wasn't. A new report from Sentier Research based on Census data finds that median household income of
$56,700 at the end of 2015 stood exactly where it was adjusted for inflation at the end of 2007. That's eight years of virtually
zero income gain. And President Obama and his Washington political pundits wonder why voters are in such a cranky mood.
15
Stats That Destroy Liberal Narratives. [#15] "Over the last year, only 1.3 million Americans of working age
have entered the workforce, even as the population of this same demographic increased by more than 2.8 million. Just
over 1 million members of this group found jobs. That's right — of the new additions to the working age
population, less than four in 10 found jobs. The newspapers touted the reduction in the unemployment rate to
5.3 percent as a cause for celebration. Yet for every three Americans added to the working age population (16 and
older), only around one new job (1.07) has been created under Obama. At this pace, America will soon officially have a
zero unemployment rate. But that will only be because no one will be looking for work."
Mixed signals, at best:
Obama's
New Immigration Plan Offers Work-Permits To Foreigners Slated For Deportation. President Barack Obama's new
181-page plan to award work-permits to at least 100,000 foreign college-grads also contains a convoluted section that would
also sneak work-permits to a huge range of foreign migrants — even after courts have formally ordered their
repatriation. In plain English, the section in the rule would automatically provide updated work-permits to 15
categories of migrants who are appealing judges' deportation orders.
New
Year's Surprise: Obama Regulation To Give Work-Permits To Foreign College-Graduates. As the nation prepares to
ring in the New Year, President Barack Obama is preparing a colossal new executive action that could print-up work permits
for a huge number of foreign white-collar graduates every year, above and beyond the levels set by Congress. This
executive action, which directly bypasses Congressional lawmakers, is likely to reverberate across the presidential race, as
GOP voters look to choose a nominee they believe will most effectively roll back the President's still-expanding agenda.
And it will certainly raise new security concerns as it covers categories of immigration utilized by migrants from the Middle
East and nearby regions. President Barack Obama's Department of Homeland Security plans to publish the proposed rule
tomorrow, the last day of 2015.
New
Year's Surprise: Obama Regulation To Give Work-Permits To Foreign College-Graduates. This executive action,
which directly bypasses Congressional lawmakers, is likely to reverberate across the presidential race, as GOP voters look to
choose a nominee they believe will most effectively roll back the President's still-expanding agenda. And it will certainly
raise new security concerns as it covers categories of immigration utilized by migrants from the Middle East and nearby regions.
Obama
to Import Millions More Aliens to Replace U.S. White Collar Workers, Also Stop Deportations. As Neil Munro
observes, this executive order could have been stopped had the massive Omnibus spending bill included language proposed by
Senator Jeff Sessions, chairman of the Senate Immigration Subcommittee. However, the Uniparty establishment's leaders in
Congress — Nancy Pelosi, Paul Ryan, Harry Reid and Mitch McConnell — shelved Sessions' rider. [...] It
is clear that Democrat and Republican leaders have decided to wage economic warfare against Americans, by importing millions
of workers, devaluing citizenship and their votes, and effectively wrecking employment opportunities for legal citizens,
young and old.
Obamanomics Explained in One
Chart. The unemployment rate is going down because workers are leaving the workforce, not because they are
finding jobs. And for the over 93 million workers who have left the workforce the Great Recession is by no means
over as their quality of life and wealth continue to erode. As our friend Ben Weingarten explained in "Everything You
Thought You Knew About the Unemployment Rate Is Wrong" [...] there are [multiple] "unemployment rates" collected by the
government, and while the one that hits the front pages (the U-3 rate) says unemployment is 5%, the one that Obama-friendly
reporters ignore (the U-6 rate) stands at 9.9% or almost twice the more commonly reported rate.
Commentary on the article above:
Obamanomics
explained in one chart. You may be running into friends and relatives at holiday gatherings who claim that the
5% unemployment rate is one of Obama's success stories, and a good reason to stick with the Democrats. [...] But most of our
friends and neighbors do not realize that the more realistic U6 rate, generally ignored by the media, does count the
"marginally attached workers" as unemployed, and it is nearly double the U3 rate (currently 9.9% versus 5%).
Jobless Claims Fall to Near 42-Year
Low. The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits fell more than expected last week, nearing a 42-year low as labor
market conditions continued to tighten in a boost to the economy.
Obama:
Working Class Still Clinging to Guns and Religion. [Scroll down] Look at the transcript on NPR's website.
Even [Steve] Inskeep seemed flabbergasted by Obama's display of egomaniacal indifference to people's suffering after trying
several times to get him to answer his question. Obama can't answer it honestly because to do so would be to admit that
his own policies have been a monumental failure. After promises of "green shoots" and "turning the corner" and a "summer
of jobs," after the massive "stimulus," Dodd-Frank, a government takeover of health care and industry-killing environmental rules,
Obama hasn't relieved working-class anxiety. He's added to it by producing the worst economic recovery in modern history.
Record
25,495,000 Foreign-Born Workers Employed in The U.S.. The number of foreign-born people employed in the U.S.
hit a record high in November, according to data released Friday by Bureau of Labor Statistics. According to the BLS last
month 25,495,000 foreign-born workers in the U.S. had a job, up 375,000 from October's previous record of 25,120,000.
While the foreign-born population gained jobs last month the number of employed native-born Americans declined in November
from 124,597,000 in October to 124,271,000 in November — a loss of 326,000 jobs.
Obama's
Real Legacy: Ten Ticking Time Bombs. [#3] A flat-lined "recovery." Job growth remains so weak that our definition of
what constitutes a "recovery" has been redefined downward. We're generating a mere 230,000 new non-farm jobs a month — too few
to achieve escape velocity. Although Democrats are celebrating the fall of headline unemployment below 5 percent, the real
unemployment rate is closer to 10 percent. Labor-force participation is historically low. Real wage growth is stalled.
The stock market is essentially flat.
Hillary
Clinton's $275 Billion 'Shovel Ready' Sequel Is Based On Two Big Lies. When Hillary Clinton announced her $275
billion infrastructure spending plan, she said what every politician says when they try to get more money spent on roads and
bridges — that the nation's infrastructure is falling apart. "I don't have to tell you what a sorry state we're
in," she said in Boston over the weekend pushing the added spending. "Our roads and bridges are potholed and crumbling."
But is that true? On Monday [11/30/2015], the Government Accountability Office released a report showing that the nation's
bridges, at least, are in better shape than they were a decade ago.
Yes,
Virginia, There is a Recession. Despite the bogus BLS employment report last week (so the Fed could raise rates
before the next financial crisis hits), all economic data confirms an economic recession. Corporate profits are falling, and
their forecasts for next quarter are worse. Global trade is slowing dramatically. Oil prices and other commodities are
plummeting to multi-year lows. Manufacturing and Services surveys are flashing red. China, Japan and European economies
continue to [struggle]. Layoff announcements by major corporations are up 40% over last year. A global deflationary
recession is underway. Only a CNBC bimbo, shill or Ivy League educated economist isn't bright enough to see it.
Retail sales came out this morning [11/23/2015] and they were worse than dreadful.
Obama
shares America's many troubles with another foreign crowd. President Obama returned from a nine-day, round-the-world tour early this morning.
But not before once again detailing for another foreign audience some of the numerous things wrong with his country. [...] Yes, he was unclear. But Obama
had no teleprompter to feed him replies during that Malaysian town-hall with young people. The Democrat who's presided over the slowest economic recovery
in 70 years told students that thanks to his leadership, the U.S. economy "has recovered faster than almost any other country" since 2008.
Oct.
Jobs: Immigrants Gain Jobs At 2.5 Times Americans' Rate. [Scroll down] If these numbers do not look familiar,
it is because the Main Stream Media ignore them. The MSM folks focus on the Payroll Employment Survey, which does not collect
information on the nativity of workers — perhaps because companies do not ask, and do not want to know. Many feign
ignorance on the number of illegal aliens in their employ.
Labor
Force Participation Remains at 38-Year Low; 94,513,000 Not in Labor Force. The number of Americans not in the
labor force last month totaled 94,513,000 — a slight improvement from the 94,610,000 not in the labor force in
September — but the labor force participation rate nonetheless remained at its lowest point in 38 years, with only
62.4 percent of the civilian noninstitutional population either holding a job or actively seeking one. The Bureau
of Labor Statistics says economy added 271,000 jobs in October, well above economists' expectations of 185,000, and the
unemployment rate dropped to 5.0 percent in October from September's 5.1 percent.
The
Most Devious Liars in History. There were a few different stories coming out over the last few days that reveal
the true nature of government and the apparatchiks who use disinformation, devious machinations, fraudulent accounting, and
taxpayer money to cover up their criminality, lies, and the true state of the American economy. The use of government
accounting tricks to obscure the truth about our dire financial straits is designed to keep the masses sedated and confused.
"We
Are Not Manufacturing Anything Anymore" and Other Fables of the Left. A common complaint bandied about is that
we are not manufacturing anything any more, and there are no manufacturing jobs. But we should always check on 'common
complaints' to see if they are actually true. The reality is a bit different. America is manufacturing more than ever.
The Commerce Department's GDP numbers
don't make any sense. Marijuana must be legal in Washington because the folks at the Commerce Department have to be smoking
a lot of it. Commerce announced on Thursday [10/29/2015] that the nation's third-quarter gross domestic product expanded by
just a 1.5 percent annual rate. That's pathetic growth that won't allow the US to create enough jobs for the number of people
entering the workforce. It's also less than half the second quarter's growth.
America's Soft Tyranny is
Hardening. No matter how much Hillary, Sanders, and the rest of the Left rant and rave about the "rich need to pay
their fair share," they pay more than their fair share already. It is the middle class that pays the most for the government
programs that subsidize those who pay nothing and receive so much without earning it. Our safety net for the truly indigent
has become a cushion for millions who do not, will not, or cannot find work. The Obama economy is a wholesale disaster:
92 million out of the labor force; 51% earning only $30k a year or less! This is a sabotaged economy, not
a recovering economy.
[Emphasis added.]
Obama
Fails Again To Deliver On His Economic Promises. The Bureau of Economic Statistics reports that real GDP growth
for Q3 came in at a meager 1.5%, below forecast. That means the economy has an annualized growth rate of 2.1% so far this
year, well below the 3% economists were expecting. It's certainly not the economy Obama described in his State of the
Union speech last January.
Boehner,
Yellen, and bigger government. The Federal Reserve policy of zero interest rates (ZIRP) tilts the scales and
misallocates resources. In this matter of the two-year budget deal, spending is let loose and is free from the market
discipline and costs of floating more debt. During World War II, war bonds were sold in patriotic fashion to raise money
to fund the war effort. In today's world and at the drop of a hat, we float more debt to ever expand a behemoth federal
government, pump some air into the economy if the retail sales slump a bit, or provide a little bump to the stock market
if it sags.
1 In 2 working Americans make[s]
less than $30,000 a year. Fifty-one percent of working Americans make less than $30,000 a year, new data from the Social
Security Administration (SSA) shows. That's $2,500 a month before taxes and just over the federal poverty level for a family of
five. The new numbers come from the National Wage Index, which SSA updates each year based on reported wages subject to the federal
income tax. In 2014, half of working Americans reported an income at or below $28,851 (the median wage), and 51 percent
reported an income of less than $30,000. Forty percent are making less than $20,000.
Feds
dangle $12,000 bonus to firms that hire foreign students. The Department of Homeland Security is readying a
plan to expand a program that pays U.S. employers to hire foreign STEM students taught in America, a move that could end up
punishing American college grads and even the elderly, according to an immigration think tank. In pushing to allow more
foreign students into the so-called "optional practical training program," DHS said that it will help businesses and colleges
by keeping those foreign students in the U.S. following their American-taught science, technology, engineering, and math, or
STEM, curriculum.
Federal Government Bribes Employers to Hire Foreigners Instead of Americans.
The idea is to make sure foreigners stay after entering the country on temporary visas, as part of the systematic displacement of the American
population. That's how the bureaurats in the Department of Homeland Security keep themselves occupied in Orwellian America. What
did you think they were going to do, keep the homeland secure?
US
factory output drops in latest sign of weak growth. U.S. manufacturing production fell for the second straight
month in September as factories cranked out fewer appliances, computers, and electronics.
The
Fake Falling Deficit and the Phony Unemployment Drop. More and more people are voluntarily opting out of the
workforce, and while some of that can be pinned on an aging workforce, much of it — almost everyone agrees —
is because this economy [is bad]. It's thus more likely that the trend of dropping labor force participation rates will
continue, reports Goldman analysts. That in turn will artificially lower unemployment to rates not seen since those heady,
good economic times we enjoyed under the George Bushes. That's what it has come to now: the Obama-Sanders-Hillary
coalition has so broken the economy that if you give up looking for work, you stop being a part of the "problem" and start
being part go their "solution". In other words, Democrat math has it that everyone will be employed just as soon as people
stop wanting jobs.
The
'Income Inequality' Scam. The term 'income inequality' is preposterous; one may as well bewail inequality of
respect. Income and respect are both earned and tend to differ among us. How much that we receive of either responds mostly
to our efforts as judged in the eyes of others. 'Income inequality' mavens are proclaiming that they, not the market, should decide
incomes. Parsing that, one finds the desire to replace economics with politics. Historically, the wealth of Western civilization
appears to rest upon doing the opposite.
Government
On Hiring Spree As Private Job Gains Fade. Government is again behind the curve in adapting to changes in the
economy, ramping up hiring even as weakening global demand prompts private employers to tap the brakes. If the trend
continues, governments could find themselves with more staff than they can afford — and eventually a new cycle of
budget shortfalls and painful cutbacks.
A story of U.S. economic failure.
The measly number of jobs that the Obama economy created last month is raising new fears of a steeper employment decline this year and next.
Last Friday's shocking Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) report stunned economists, shook Wall Street, and offered little if any hope for long-term,
unemployed Americans finding full-time work anytime soon. "There's nothing good in this morning's report," Carl Tennenbaum, chief economist
at Northern Trust, said last week. "We had very low levels of job creation, wage growth isn't budging, and the unemployment rate would have
risen if the labor force participation rate hadn't fallen."
Santa
Claus, the Easter Bunny, and Obama's economic recovery. Friday's unemployment numbers were what economic
experts call a "huge miss." Only 142,000 net jobs were added to the nation's payroll in September, despite expectations of
more than 200,000. Even worse, last month's job creation numbers were revised downward, to an even lower 136,000.
Both figures suggest that the economy cannot create jobs quickly enough to keep up with young workers entering the market. Yet
as it happens, so many people are giving up on ever finding work that there seems to be plenty of room for the new job-seekers.
Record
94,610,000 Americans Not in Labor Force; Participation Rate Lowest in 38 Years. A record 94,610,000 Americans
were not in the American labor force last month — an increase of 579,000 from August — and the labor
force participation rate reached its lowest point in 38 years, with 62.4 percent of the U.S. population either holding
a job or actively seeking one. In other disappointing news, the economy added only 142,000 jobs in September, well below
economists' expectations, but the unemployment rate remained at 5.1 percent, where it was in August.
Jobs
Report: Disappointment Is Routine With This Administration. No wonder voters are seething with anger.
Jobs rose by just 142,000 in September. But even that paltry gain was offset by 59,000 fewer jobs than originally reported
for July and August. We need about 150,000 jobs just to keep up with natural population growth and new young entrants into
the workforce. Worse yet — and stop us if you've heard this before — another 350,000 Americans of
working age disappeared from the labor force, bringing the total over age 16 not working to a record 94.6 million.
The
Fed's Grotesque "Explanation" Why 94.6 Million Are Out Of The Labor Force. In a note seeking to "explain" why
the US labor participation rate just crashed to a nearly 40 year low earlier today [10/2/2015] as another half a million
Americans decided to exit the labor force bringing the total to 94.6 million people.
Where
Are The Million New Manufacturing Jobs Obama Promised? Manufacturing shed 9,000 jobs last month on top of the
18,000 lost in August, completely erasing the gains made so far this year. Since January 2013, the industry has gained
only 338,000. All this flies in the face of President Obama's repeated promise in 2012 that if reelected, he would create
1 million new manufacturing jobs by the end of his second term. Obama said that these new jobs would "put middle-class
people back to work."
Paycheck mystery: More jobs and fewer
people but limp raises. Companies have posted a record number of job openings just when a diminished proportion of
Americans are either working or looking for work.
U.S. Adds 142,00 Jobs in September, Badly
Missing Expectations. The U.S. added 142,000 new jobs in September, a disappointing figure that fell well below expectations.
[...] The headline unemployment rate held steady 5.1%, according to figures released by the U.S. Labor Department, but the labor force
participation rate fell slightly to 62.4% from the prior month, another ominous sign that usually suggests discouraged job seekers are
no longer even looking for work. Economists had forecast 203,000 new jobs and that the unemployment rate would remain at 5.1%.
The
Typical Male U.S. Worker Earned Less in 2014 Than in 1973. The typical man with a full-time job —
the one at the statistical middle of the middle — earned $50,383 last year, the Census Bureau reported this week.
The typical man with a full-time job in 1973 earned $53,294, measured in 2014 dollars to adjust for inflation. You read
that right: The median male worker who was employed year-round and full time earned less in 2014 than a similarly situated
worker earned four decades ago. And those are the ones who had jobs.
Middle
Class Lost In Obama's 'Middle Class Economics'. The Census Bureau's latest annual report on income and poverty
in America shows that there was little to cheer about in 2014. Median family income dropped slightly to $53,657, down
from the year before. Every income group suffered losses, with the lowest fifth of households dropping close to 1%.
The overall poverty number barely budged. But it climbed by almost 600,000 among blacks in 2014, more than half of whom
were under age 18. This isn't exactly the picture that Obama has been painting.
On
Labor Day, a search of the missing American worker. A striking facet of the economic downturn that started in
2008 and the "recovery" that continues today is the unprecedented slack in the American labor force. While statistical
unemployment has dropped to pre-recession levels, labor force participation remains strikingly low and wages have remained
stagnant — affecting consumer demand and economic growth.
Joe Biden
Blasts the Obama-Biden Economy. Sounding very much like a candidate for president, today Vice President Joe
Biden spoke at an AFL-CIO Labor Day event in Pittsburgh, Pa. "I'm mad, I'm angry," Biden thundered, attacking the U.S.
economy as "devastating for workers." Biden, who is openly considering running against Hillary Clinton in the Democratic
primary, thanked "my friend" Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO. "There wouldn't be a single basic right, from a
40-hour week to sick leave, there wouldn't a single basic right out there ... but for labor," Biden said. "You build the
middle class. That's not an exaggeration."
The
Most Important Jobs Chart of the Year. Zero Hedge blog has posted a jobs chart should shock every American and
alter the debate over illegal immigration in favor of the restrictionists. [...] Is it an accident that wages have been
stagnant over the last 8 years? I don't think so at all. I think it reflects the incontrovertible fact
that foreign born workers will work for less than native born workers, and that the more American citizens you remove from
the workforce either through layoffs or discouraged workers, downward pressure on wages will continue.
698,000
Native-Born Americans Lost Their Jobs In August. The one chart that matters more than ever, has little to
nothing to do with the Fed's monetary policy, but everything to do with the November 2016 presidential elections in which the
topic of immigration, both legal and illegal, is shaping up to be the most rancorous, contentious and divisive. The chart
is the following, showing the cumulative addition of foreign-born and native-born workers added to US payrolls according to the BLS
since December 2007, i.e., since the start of the recession/Second Great Depression.
Obama:
I'll veto any budget if it limits spending. President Obama praised the monthly jobs report during his weekly
address Saturday [9/5/2015] and called on Republicans to pass his budget when Congress reconvenes next month. He also
threatened to veto any budget that did not increase spending. "The unemployment rate dropped to 5.1%, the lowest it's
been in seven years," Obama said, noting the August jobs report released on Friday [9/4/2015].
The Editor states the obvious:
The unemployment rate is officially 5.1%, but only because millions of people who should be working have given up on finding a job.
The
sad state of the American worker. My 22-year-old son lives at home, still depends on his old man for spending
money, and my profoundest fear is that like Will Ferrell in the "Wedding Crashers," he will never leave the nest. I'm not
alone. There are some 20 million college grads living at home. A 2014 study reported by CNN Money found that
half of kids who are two years out of college rely on their parents to pay some or all of their bills. It's the new
normal for 20-somethings.
The Government is Lying About U.S.
Unemployment. The Obama administration is telling us that the unemployment rate in the United States has fallen to
5.1 percent, but does that number actually bear any resemblance to reality? On Friday [9/4/2015], news outlets all
over America celebrated the fact that the U.S. economy added 173,000 jobs in August. We were told that the unemployment
rate has fallen to a seven year low and that wages are going up. So everything must be getting better for the middle
class, right? After all, isn't that what the official numbers are telling us? The financial markets are buzzing over
this news because the unemployment rate has fallen into a range that the Federal Reserve has typically considered to be "full
employment", so there is an expectation that the Fed may raise interest rates shortly.
Unemployment
rate falls to 5.1 percent, but Americans are not finding pay increases. Fresh data released Friday —
showing unemployment at a seven-year low and a cooling pace of jobs growth — provided conflicting signals about
the nation's economic momentum as the Federal Reserve considers raising interest rates for the first time in nearly a decade.
The U.S. added 173,000 jobs, slightly below expectations, while the unemployment rate fell to 5.1 percent. Never before
has the nation's unemployment rate plunged so low — a point when companies should be competing aggressively for
workers — while wages have stayed so flat.
U.S. Adds 173,000 Jobs in August Ahead of
Fed Rate Decision. The U.S. added 173,000 jobs in August, fewer than Wall Street expected. The report will
undoubtedly play a significant role in helping the Federal Reserve decide on the timing of the first interest rate hike in nearly a decade.
The headline unemployment rate fell to 5.1%, the lowest level in seven-and-a-half years. Analysts had predicted the rate would
fall to 5.2% down from 5.3% a month earlier, and that the economy would add 220,000 new jobs.
The Editor says...
Stand by for an "adjustment" in two weeks, showing the numbers weren't as good as previously announced.
Record
94,031,000 Americans Not in Labor Force; Participation Rate Stuck at 38-Year Low for 3rd Straight Month. The
number of Americans not in the labor force has continued to rise, partly because of retiring baby-boomers and fewer workers
entering the workforce. In August, according to BLS, the nation's civilian noninstitutional population, consisting of all
people 16 or older who were not in the military or an institution, reached 251,096,000. Of those, 157,065,000 participated in
the labor force by either holding a job or actively seeking one. The 157,065,000 who participated in the labor force
equaled only 62.6 percent of the 251,096,000 civilian noninstitutional population — the same as it was in
July and June. Not since October 1977, when the participation rate dropped to 62.4, has the percentage been this low.
Nine Signs of
the Impending American Collapse. The American economy under the statist and regulatory dispensation of the
present administration is plainly on the verge of implosion. Massive unemployment, the piling on of astronomical debt, the
collapse of the housing market, the insensate printing of fiat money, the downgrading of the nation's credit rating, the high
cost of the carbon conspiracy fostered by the false hypothesis of anthropogenic global warming, a crushing trade deficit, and
the precarious status of the reserve currency all point to a looming and unprecedented fiscal cataclysm in the making.
Facebook
Blocks Job Reports Related to Immigration. An informed debate over immigration requires data and analysis about
its effects. Only with information from a variety of sources can Americans try to understand our current policies, assess
proposed changes, and judge candidates for political office. That is why it is so disturbing that Facebook, owned by
immigration-expansionist Mark Zuckerberg, has banned four reports published by the Center for Immigration Studies pertaining
to jobs and immigration. [... Update:] Facebook has lifted the ban on the Center's job reports pages.
No,
4% Growth Isn't Too Much To Expect. No serious economist, says President Obama's own
top man, thinks 4% growth is "within the realm of possibility." [...] The remark by Jason Furman,
chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, came in response to Jeb Bush's statement
in Thursday's GOP presidential debate that America should start striving for 4% growth —
an obvious upgrade from the current 2% rut.
Everything
you need to know about the July jobs report in one chart. The dominant theme of the
Obama economy is that people continue to drop out of the workforce.
Obama
"Recovery" Objectively Worst on Record. It tells you all you need to know about Barack Obama's character and record as
president, not to mention our lowered expectations under his leadership, that he continually attempts to run victory laps over what
has been the worst cyclical economic recovery in measured U.S. history. In a market economy, cyclical recessions and recoveries
come and go, and it was Obama's fortune to have entered the White House just as our economy was already bouncing back toward recovery.
Any disbelief in that regard can be quickly resolved by examining the nation's gross domestic product (GDP) trajectory for the fourth
quarter of 2008 and the first two quarters of 2009.
24,710,000
Foreign-Born People [are] Employed In U.S.. The number of foreign-born people employed
in the U.S. dipped slightly in July but remained about three times higher than the number of
unemployed native-born Americans, according to data released Friday by the Bureau of Labor
Statistics. According to not-seasonally-adjusted numbers from the the BLS, 24,710,000 foreign-born
people held jobs in the U.S. during the month of July — down slightly compared to June's
24,816,000 level — and 1,369,000 foreign-born people were unemployed. The foreign-born
unemployment rate also increased to 5.2 percent compared to 4.9 percent in June.
Record
93,770,000 Americans Not in Labor Force. The number of people not in the labor force reached another record
high in July, according to new jobs data released Friday [8/7/2015] by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The BLS reports
that 93,770,000 people (16 and older) were neither employed last month nor had made specific efforts to find work in the prior
four weeks. The number of people outside the workforce in July increased 144,000 over June's record when 93,626,000 were
not in the workforce.
Obama
and the Flippancy of Fools. Over the last 7 years of the Obama era, Barack Obama and his team
have regularly responded to serious questions with flippant responses. Don't Americans deserve better
than the flippancy Obama and his top officials dish out to us? [... For example,] When asked why his trillion-dollar
stimulus produced far fewer "shovel ready jobs" than he promised to urgently promote its passage, Barack Obama
laughed off the issue: "Shovel-ready was not as shovel-ready as we expected." The laughter will
be little solace for taxpayers on the hook to pay back the debt that financed that union-enriching boondoggle.
Jobs
shock: 100% of female employment gains taken by foreigners since 2007. All of the employment gains among women since the
recession hit in December 2007 have been taken by foreigners, even at a time when the numbers of U.S.-born women surged more than 600,000,
according to new federal statistics. The jobs data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed gains in the "employment level"
among "foreign born women" and losses among "native born women."
9.6
million Americans Unemployed — 8.1 million Illegal Aliens Employed. Only
one man is responsible for the unemployment rate in this nation — if you, your teens or
your family members can not get a job — thank Barack Obama for his amnesty of illegal
aliens and his refusal to enforce our immigration laws. "Of those 11.3 [million] illegal immigrants,
8.1 million are participating in the labor force. "Unauthorized immigrants make up 5.1% of the
U.S. labor force," Pew says. "In the U.S. labor force, there were 8.1 million unauthorized
immigrants either working or looking for work in 2012." In 2014, there were 1.7 million more
illegal immigrants living in the United States than there were unemployed Americans. According to
the BLS, the average number of unemployed Americans in 2014 was 9.6 million."
Low
unemployment rate obscures decline in Americans seeking work. The Obama administration
once again is touting new data showing job growth and another drop in the nation's unemployment
rate, but beneath the surface lies a more bleak picture of the U.S. economy, as more and more
Americans disappear from the labor force. Last week's Department of Labor report said the U.S.
created more than 220,000 jobs in June, and the unemployment rate dropped to 5.3 percent, the lowest
since the pre-Great Recession days of early 2008. Tucked within the study, however, is a figure that
some analysts say is far more important than month-to-month job figures: The number of Americans
working or searching for a job has dropped to its lowest point in 38 years. Just 62.6 percent
of working-age Americans are participating in the labor force. Participants are defined as those who
have a job or are actively seeking one.
Bernie
Sanders Rips Obama's Fictional Labor Reports; "Real Unemployment is 10.5%!". Self-professed
Socialist and Democrat Senator Bernie Sanders is surging in the polls as Granny Catlady's campaign continues
to implode. Most recently, Sanders drew a crowd of 7,500 in a city with 66,000 residents (in other
words, over 48%, but I'm no mathematician, my numbers could be off). Earlier today [7/7/2015], Sanders
ripped a key White House economic fable stating that the real U.S. unemployment rate is double what the
Obama administration claims.
Non-working
America soars by 640,000 in one month to new record of 93.6 million. It is hard to
believe that one out of every three Americans is financially supporting the other two-thirds. The
unemployment rate appears much lower than it is because of the odd math behind the labor force. The
latest unemployment rate of 5.3 percent sounds great until you realize that last month 640,000
Americans were plopped into the not in the labor force category. 223,000 jobs were added but
640,000 Americans dropped out of the labor force. Take the back of the napkin calculation that
10,000 Americans a day are hitting retirement age (that is roughly 300,000 per month). Assuming all
of these older Americans had the means to retire (not likely according to older Americans working)
this means 340,000 Americans of working age fell out of the workforce for other reasons than age.
Something is going on behind the headline figures and it seems like more people are waking up to
the funny math when it comes to employment.
AP:
Mass Unemployment, Lower Wages Is 'New Normal'. The AP's subtle point here is we are
supposed to accept Obama's failed economy as the 'new normal.' There's nothing that can be done
about it. And certainly none of this is Obama's fault.
Cultural aggression,
destructive policies, and ceaseless smearing are wearing out a great people. [Scroll
down] Our economy? Destroyed. Obama's America prospers haltingly, if at all — not
a surprise given his boast early in his presidency that he would outlaw the business cycle. The
Democratic Party formerly seethed at Reagan for his allusions to welfare Cadillacs; now, after seven
years of a leftist president, some 93 million of us don't even bother to seek employment.
Our people increasingly think the American Dream is a bad joke, and barely half of us even think capitalism
is worth having. The number of businesses extant in America has declined every year since Obama was
first elected, and those still alive make a practice of refusing to grow. No wonder that consistent
3-4 percent GDP growth, taken for granted in previous recoveries, now seems fanciful.
Bernie
Sanders Says 'Real' Unemployment Rate Is Actually 10.5 Percent, Double The Official Rate. Vermont U.S.
Sen. Bernie Sanders undermined a key Obama administration talking point Monday [7/6/2015] when he said the actual
unemployment rate in the U.S. is double what the federal government claims. "When you talk about the economy
we also have to have an honest assessment of unemployment in America," Sanders told a crowd of 7,500 gathered at a
presidential campaign rally in Portland, Maine.
Labor
Market Runs in Place; More Jobs, Participation Lowest Since 1977. The U.S. labor market took one step forward and
one back in June as job creation advanced while wages stagnated and the size of the labor force receded. The addition of
223,000 jobs followed a 254,000 increase in the prior month that was less than previously estimated, a Labor Department report
showed Thursday [7/2/2015] in Washington. The jobless rate fell to a seven-year low of 5.3 percent as people left
the workforce.
Job
market's new normal: Smaller workforce, sluggish pay. Many part-timers can't find
full-time work. And a diminished share of Americans either have a job or are looking for one.
AP
Calls Crippled Economy 'Healthy' Amid Mass Immigration. In a grim report detailing
America's severe economic decline, the Associated Press brushes off two crucial factors: Mass
immigration and Obamacare's grip on employers. [...] A record 93,626,000 Americans have stopped
looking for work in an economy that managed to create only one job for every two immigrants the
government let in from 2000 to 2014. When all U.S. job growth goes to foreigners at the expense of
Americans, while everyone in the labor force sees their wages suppressed year after year, it makes sense that
some would throw in the towel — and other would tolerate less-than-ideal jobs to make ends meet.
June
jobs report: 223K added, but 432K left workforce, April-May revised down 60K. The US
economy added 223,000 jobs in June, a respectable if unspectacular level of job growth that outpaces
population growth, and the U-3 jobless rate dropped to 5.3%. It's when one looks past the topline
numbers that the problems emerge — chief among them the fact that almost twice as many
people left the workforce as found jobs.
19.8%
of U.S. Workforce Was Foreign-Born in June. The unemployment rate for foreign-born
workers in the United States increased slightly in June, according to data released Thursday
[7/2/2015] by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). BLS counted a total of 24,816,000 foreign-born
workers in June, 282,000 fewer than last month's total. The unemployment rate for the group
increased from 4.7 percent to 4.9 percent. Native-born workers who were employed
increased from 124,251,900 to 124,830,000, bringing the overall unemployment rate down slightly from
5.5 to 5.3 percent.
Record
93,626,000 Americans Not In Labor Force, Lowest Level Of Participation Since 1977. The
BLS defines people outside the labor force as those ages 16 and older who are neither employed nor
have "made specific efforts to find employment sometime during the 4-week period ending with the
reference week." The labor force participation rate also decreased 0.3 percent from last
month to 62.6 percent. The country has not seen a labor force participation rate that low
since October 1977 when the participation rate was 62.4 percent.
The national debt is whatever Big Brother says it is.
15
Weeks: Treasury Says Debt Has Been Frozen at $18,112,975,000,000. The portion of the
federal debt that is subject to a legal limit set by Congress closed Friday, June 26, at
$18,112,975,000,000, according to the latest Daily Treasury Statement, which was published at 4:00 p.m.
on Monday [6/29/2015]. That, according to the Treasury's statements, makes 15 straight weeks
that the debt subject to the limit has been frozen at $18,112,975,000,000. $18,112,975,000,000 is
about $25 million below the current legal debt limit of $18,113,000,080,959.35.
The
real unemployment rate was 42.9%, not 5.5%! At the present time, there are 210
million adult Americans between the ages of 16 and 68 — to take a plausible measure of
the potential work force. That amounts to 420 billion potential labor hours, if we accept the
convention that all adults are at least theoretically capable of holding a full-time job (2,000
hours/year) and pulling their share of society's need for production and work effort. By
contrast, during 2014 only 240 billion hours were actually supplied to the US economy, according to
the BLS estimates. Technically, therefore, there were 180 billion unemployed labor hours,
meaning that the real unemployment rate was 42.9%, not 5.5%!
Obama's
contracting economy. This week, Mr. Obama's Commerce Department issued its second
estimate of how the economy performed in the first three months of this year, announcing again that
it had not just stopped growing, but was declining. After tinkering with its numbers with what
they said was fresh economic data, the government changed its original assessment of the nation's
gross domestic product (GDP) — the broadest measure of our economy. The economy did a
little better than its first calculation of minus 0.7 percent. Instead, it had only shrunk
by minus 0.2 percent. Why? People were spending less. Exports were down.
Businesses were reluctant to invest in expansion. Retail sales were lackluster. The U.S.
economy wasn't just anemic, it was contracting.
If
Your BS Detector Isn't Shrieking, It's Broken. We now inhabit a world where virtually
everything is a con. [...] 93 million people aren't even counted any more — they're
statistical zombies, no longer among the living workforce. If the unemployment rate were calculated
on the number of full-time jobs and the true workforce (everyone ages 18 — 70 that isn't
institutionalized or in prison), the unemployment rate would not be the absurdly delusional 5.6%
claimed by the bureaucratic con artists.
Jobs
Data: 92,986,000 People Not In the Workforce. The month of May saw 92,986,000 people not participating in
the workforce, according to new data released Friday [6/5/2015] by the Bureau of Labor Statistics reveals. May's
total represented slight decline compared to last month's record, which saw 93,194,000 people outside the workforce.
The BLS defines those not in the labor force as people ages 16 and older who are neither employed nor "made specific
efforts to find employment sometime during the 4-week period ending with the reference week."
As
Obama's Economy Falls, White House Excuses Boom. They must be getting pretty desperate
in the White House economic shop these days. When the revised GDP numbers showed a first-quarter
decline of 0.7%, they started blaming the estimates themselves.
The Economy Has No Clothes.
On Friday [5/29/2015], the government's Bureau of Economic Analysis reported that the nation's
economy contracted at an annual rate of 0.7 percent during this year's first quarter, a sharp drop
from the barely positive 0.2 percent it estimated a month ago. [...] Many key components of what the
nation's gross domestic product truly is — "the (real) value of the production of goods
and services in the United States" — turned in seasonally adjusted first-quarter results
far below those seen last summer and fall. In certain key instances, the first quarter of 2015
actually came in below the far more winter-ravaged first quarter of 2014, effectively reversing all
of the growth occurring during the quarters in between.
President
Obama's Alibi Factory. Let's say that next Friday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics
comes out with a really handsome non-farm-payrolls report. Something close to 300,000 new jobs and a
decline in the unemployment rate by a couple of tenths of a point. How do you suppose the president
and his staff would deal with the news? You might safely expect that the president, himself,
would find a way to do a little public bragging. That's what he did when the April number came out
at more than 220,000 new jobs. [...] But the president isn't always so quick to take ownership of the
numbers when they are ugly, as they were last week, when the Commerce Department released its revised
figures of first quarter GDP.
Blame
It on Global Cooling? Obama Has Lowest Average 1stQ GDP Growth of Any President on Record. Even if you leave out
the first quarter of 2009 — when the recession that started in December 2007 was still ongoing — President
Barack Obama has presided over the lowest average first-quarter GDP growth of any president who has served since 1947, which is
the earliest year for which the Bureau of Economic Analysis has calculated quarterly GDP growth. In all first quarters since
1947, the real annual rate of growth of GDP has averaged 4.0 percent. In the seven first quarters during Obama's
presidency, it has declined by an average of -0.43 percent. And if you leave out the first quarter of 2009 and look
only at the first quarters of the six years since the recession ended, it has averaged only 0.4 percent.
The actual unemployment rate is 23 percent.
Seeking
a true picture of unemployment. For starters, the widely-reported "U-3" unemployment
rate only includes those who are actively seeking employment. And more and more job-seekers are
getting discouraged and giving up the job search altogether. This is why the unemployment rate has
declined even as the civilian labor force participation rate has dropped significantly from its peak
of 67.3 percent in 2000 to 62.8 percent today — hovering near a 37-year low.
What
Friday's GDP news means (hint: it's not good). The Obama economic policy has
emphasized income redistribution — for example through expansion of Food Stamps and
Medicaid, and Obamacare subsidies for many middle class families — and the recent
recovery has averaged only 2.2 percent annual growth. Whereas during the Reagan-Clinton
years, greater emphasis was placed on keeping the dollar fairly valued and redressing trade
imbalances — for example with Japan — and the economy grew at a
3.4 percent pace. The president has flat out rejected addressing currency issues in TPP
negotiations and recommendations from economists on the right, left and in the center to more fairly
value the dollar and boost growth. The Fed has refused to comment on the limitations imposed
on its policy options by the administration's recalcitrant attitude that rejects basic tenants of
modern international macroeconomics.
Do
CEOs Make 300 Times What Workers Get? Not Even Close. It is stated so often that it's
become an indisputable fact — CEOs make about 300 times more than the average worker, and
that ratio has been increasing for decades. Hillary Clinton, for example, recently claimed,
"There's something wrong when CEOs make 300 times more than the typical worker." President Obama
said, "Where a previous CEO of a company might have made 50 times the average wage of the worker,
they might now make a thousand times or two thousand times." News outlets routinely promote
studies showing how outsized this ratio has become. There's just one problem with this figure.
It's not accurate. Not by a long shot.
Ed
Secretary Arnie Duncan Says: Chicago Thugs Promise To Stop Killing Each Other If They Have Jobs. It is a
sentiment that runs rampant within the current administration. The State Department says radical Islam will stop
beheading if they can just implement a Jobs for Jihadist program; now the Education Secretary says Chicago gangs will
stop shooting if they have a Jobs for Thugs program.
Education
Secretary Meets With Chicago Gang Leaders: They Just Need Jobs. Education Secretary Arne Duncan said on
Tuesday that he has met with gang leaders in his hometown of Chicago and they've told him that it's a lack of jobs that
keeps them on the streets.
America is a food stamp nation.
The gospel according to Wall Street, the White House and propaganda media is that the U.S. economy
is recovering just fine. Last week, happy-faced talking heads told us that unemployment was down
to 5.4 percent — the lowest rate since May 2008 — even while the number of
Americans not in the labor force climbed to a record 93,194,000. The Labor Force Participation Rate
(the percent of people 16 years old and older eligible to work) stands at 62.8 percent.
Still, government men dutifully claim all is well, that the stock market is bullish. [...] Even though
jobless claims and the unemployment rate reported by the government are down, the Labor Department's
figures are based only on people receiving unemployment benefits. When those benefits run out, a
person is no longer counted as unemployed by Uncle Scam, even though he or she still doesn't have a job.
Obama:
Obamacare "Hasn't Done Too Bad In Terms Of Employment... Just Saying". [Quoting Barack H.
Obama] This this [sic] morning we learned our economy created 223,000 new jobs last month. The
unemployment rate ticked down again to 5.4%, lowest it's been in almost seven years. [...] I should
add by the way, 62 months ago is when I signed the Affordable Care Act so obviously it hasn't done
too bad in terms of employment in this country. Just thought I'd mention that.
The Editor says...
The unemployment rate goes down only because workers are giving up any hope of finding a job, and
dropping out of the job market. Just thought I'd mention that.
Also posted
under Obamacare kills jobs.
All
Net Employment Gains Among Women Went to Foreign-Born Since Recession. Since the
beginning of the recession in December 2007 to April 2015, 1.37 million more immigrant women are
employed — from 9,041,000 in December 2007 to 10,413,000 in April 2015. Native-born
women, on the other had saw net employment decline by 143,000 in that same timeframe. From
59,322,000 in December 2007 to 59,179,000 last month. While immigrant women vastly outpaced
native-born women in employment, the population of immigrant women ages 16 and older experienced
about half the growth of native-born women 16 and older in that time frame.
Americans
Not In Labor Force Hits New Record High: 93,194,000. For the second month in a row,
the number of people not in the workforce hit another record high in April, according to jobs data
released Friday [5/8/2015] by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. April saw the number of people
dropping out of the labor force increase from March's record 93,175,000 to a new record:
93,194,000 people not in the workforce.
The
Stagnant Economy Spells Trouble for Democrats. The Obama administration had made the
argument just before last year's midterms that a spike in third-quarter GDP for 2014 meant that the
economic policies of Barack Obama had finally begun to bear fruit. [...] The ground began eroding
under that argument almost immediately. The growth, especially in the third quarter, had been driven
by unusually high defense spending (an increase of over 16 percent from Q2), and by continuing
consumer confidence as expressed in personal consumer expenditures (PCEs). By the fourth quarter,
GDP growth decelerated to 2.2 percent, leaving 2014's overall GDP growth at the same level.
Once
Again, Economists Promise Strong Growth After A Lousy Q1. When the 0.2% GDP growth
number came out on Wednesday, economists were quick to emphasize that it was just a temporary blip.
As Reuters put it: "U.S. economic growth braked more sharply than expected in the first quarter as
harsh weather dampened consumer spending and energy companies struggling with low prices slashed
spending, but there are signs activity is picking up." [...] Such words would be comforting indeed
if it weren't the fifth April out of the past six that economists made almost the exact same claim.
Don't worry about disappointing first-quarter numbers, they've said over and over again, the economy
is poised to take off. Then comes the disappointing reality.
U.S.
economic growth slows to 0.2 percent, grinding nearly to a halt. The U.S. economy
ground nearly to a halt in the first three months of the year, according to government data released
Wednesday morning [4/29/2015], as exports plunged and severe winter weather helped keep consumers
indoors. The gross domestic product grew between January and March at an annualized rate of
0.2 percent, the U.S. Commerce Department said, adding to the picture of an economy braking
sharply after accelerating for much of last year. The pace fell well shy of the 1 percent
mark anticipated by analysts and marked the weakest quarter in a year.
The Editor says...
Imagine the headlines that would have accompanied this news if the second-term president was a Republican.
Economic
Growth Slows, Networks' Morning Shows Ignore. Economic growth has stagnated so far
this year, catching the broadcast news networks inexplicably off guard yet again. The federal
government's Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) announced April 29 that gross domestic product (GDP)
expansion slowed to only 0.2 percent in the first quarter of 2015. This meant the goods and
services produced by the United States economy grew only minimally, lagging far behind growth in the
previous two quarters.
Thanks,
governor, for showing how wage gap is not the result of bias. [T]his is exactly the
kind of sham social science that the media parrots every year on "Equal Pay Day" — the
date that is supposed to represent how many extra days a woman needs to work to earn as much as a
man works in a normal 365-day year. We are told, thus, that women in the aggregate earn
approximately 70 percent of what men in the aggregate earn during a year. Because that number
is associated with the phrase "Equal Pay for Equal Work," we are suppose to be shocked, dismayed and go
vote for Democrats at the next election. But, of course, the 70 percent number that is
trotted out (or whatever number is used that year) has NOTHING to do with discrimination.
Record
93,175,000 Americans Not In The Labor Force. More Americans dropped out of the labor
force last month, as the number of people not in the labor force hit another record high in March.
According to Friday's [4/3/2015] Bureau of Labor Statics jobs data 93,175,000 Americans were not in the
work force in March, an addition of 277,000 to February's level of 92,898,000.
Why
Are So Many Employers Unable to Fill Jobs? The great conundrum of the U.S. economy
today is that we have record numbers of working age people out of the labor force at the same time
we have businesses desperately trying to find workers. As an example, the American Transportation
Research Institute estimates there are 30,000-35,000 trucker jobs that could be filled tomorrow if
workers would take these jobs — a shortage that could rise to 240,000 by 2022. While
the jobs market overall remains weak, demand is high in certain sectors.
Thanks to Obama's job-killing regulations...
Record
High 12,202,000 Black Americans Not In Labor Force. Anyone doubt for a second a white
Republican president would under constant attack by the Dems for their "racist" economic policies
against black Americans?
What
Went Wrong in the March Jobs Report? March came in like a job-creating lion and left
like, well, some sort of severely disappointing animal. In numbers released Friday morning [4/3/2015], the
Bureau of Labor Statistics found that the economy created just 126,000 jobs. That's barely half of
the 248,000 predicted by economists. It's the first time in a year there haven't been at least
200,000 new jobs for a month. And adding insult to injury, it looks like the great numbers in
January and February weren't as good as they seemed, either — the totals from those two
months were revised down by a total of 69,000 jobs too.
Big March Miss:
U.S. Created Just 126,000 Jobs. The U.S. added just 126,000 jobs in March, well below
expectations of 245,000 jobs, leading to concerns that a long run of labor market momentum has
stalled. The government also sharply revised downward job creation numbers for the first quarter.
Over the prior 12 months, employment growth had averaged 269,000 per month so the disappointing March
numbers were very much unexpected.
America's
False-Front, Movie-Set Economy. Contrary to some folk, the government isn't going to
support everybody; the government has only the money it takes from citizens. Unemployed and
minimum-wage Americans offer little to take, and the Labor Force Participation Rate is
declining. Those growing numbers of non-working people have to be housed, fed, and watered by
those still working. Government SNAP (food stamps), disability, and/or other benefits are
presently paid to 49% of Americans. That is a wobbly crutch resting upon deficits from a
government burdened with debt. Most of the money is taken from workers whose incomes have just
halted a six-year decline.
Surprise:
U.S. Economic Data Have Been the World's Most Disappointing. It's not only the just-released University of Michigan
consumer confidence report and February retail sales on Thursday [3/12/2015] that surprised economists and investors with another
dose of underwhelming news. Overall, U.S. economic data have been falling short of prognosticators' expectations by the most
in six years. The Bloomberg ECO U.S. Surprise Index, which measures whether data beat or miss forecasts, fell to the lowest
since 2009, when the nation was in the deepest recession since the Great Depression.
This money will come from ... where?
White
House pledges $100M to fill tech jobs. President Obama on Monday [3/9/3015] unveiled a
$100 million grant program as part of a new initiative that he said was critical to ensuring the
U.S. remains a global economic powerhouse. Obama called for plans to help thousands of Americans
"fill the new jobs of this new century" by using nontraditional courses to turn them into top-level
coders, programmers and other technology workers.
Working
Class Gives Up On Obama, Fears Job Losses. For several years, Obama said his policies
would produce "bottom up prosperity," and in his State of the Union address in January, he claimed
they were "helping working families feel more secure in a world of constant change." The IBD/TIPP
Poll shows the opposite. Working-class families are overwhelmingly discouraged with the economy and
anxious about their prospects, more so than the country at large and far more than upper-middle class
families, who are generally happy with the way things are going. For example, nearly two thirds
of the working class (64%) say the country is headed in the wrong direction. Nearly as many
(60%) say they're not satisfied with federal economic policies. And 53% say the economy is not
improving.
February
Ties Record: 92,898,000 Americans Not In The Workforce. The month of February tied
December's record number of Americans not participating in the workforce, according to data released
Friday [3/6/2015] by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. According to the BLS, last month 92,898,000
Americans ages 16 and over were neither employed nor had made "specific efforts to find employment
sometime during the 4-week period ending with the reference week." The number of people out of
the workforce increased by 354,000 last month and the labor force participation rate dipped slightly
to 62.8 percent.
Here's
What The Unemployment Rate Looks Like If You Add Back Labor Force Dropouts. The
official unemployment rate masks a problem that's been plaguing the economy since shortly before the
2009 recession: a continuing decline in the labor force participation rate, which basically measures
the percentage of the able-bodied population that's either working or looking for work. After
holding steady at roughly 66 percent from 2004 through late 2008, the labor force participation
has been falling, and falling, and falling some more, with no end in sight.
February
jobs report shows 295,000 jobs added, jobless rate 5.5%. It's the fourth month in a
row of good numbers, although January's previous 257,000 level was revised downward to 239,000 by
the BLS. The status of workforce participation didn't budge from its 36-year low, however, and
recent economic indicators may signal tighter times ahead for American workers.
The
Conservative and Progressive Measures of Success, Clearly Defined. First, let us begin
by saying that any official data citing reductions in unemployment rates are corrupted by one simple
and less publicized fact: the significant drop in labor participation rates. When Barack Obama took
office in January 2009, the labor participation rate was 65.7 percent. Since then, labor participation
rates have plummeted to 62.7 percent — the lowest since Jimmy Carter held office. [...] But even
with that in mind, there might be useful data to extract from the unemployment rates. While unemployment
among whites fell by 1.5 points to 6.3 percent, black unemployment fell by only 1.1 points to
11.6 percent. Black teen unemployment, on the other hand, rose substantially from 35.3% to 36.8%.
Yellen:
Unemployment Rate 'Less Rosy' When You Count Part-Time, Discouraged Workers. Federal
Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said Tuesday at a Senate Banking Committee hearing that the U-6 unemployment
rate — which includes people who are working part-time for economic reasons and those who are marginally
attached to the labor force — "definitely shows a less rosy picture" of employment in the country.
People "marginally attached" to the labor force "are those who currently are neither working nor looking
for work but indicate that they want and are available for a job and have looked for one work sometime in
the past 12 months."
The Economy's Worst
8-Year Run in 62 Years. A couple of publications have noted that 2014 was the ninth
consecutive year during which the U.S. economy grew by less than 3 percent. They're being too
kind. Last year was the eighth year in a row of sub-2.5 percent growth, following four straight
years (2003-2006) of higher growth. It's hardly a coincidence that the first year of that awful
2007-2014 streak just so happens to have been the same year that the Democratic Party took legislative
control in Washington.
Barack
Obama's Job Approval Ratings vs. the Economy. The overall civilian unemployment rate
does not account for these part-timers. It also does not consider those marginally attached to the
labor force. This includes the so-called "discouraged workers," — i.e. people who have
given up looking for work in the past year because they do not believe they will find a job —
and others who are unemployed as a result of work slowdowns or temporary layoffs. When these groups are
included, a much more troublesome picture emerges. As of January 2015, this unemployment rate stands at
11.3 percent. This is the real unemployment rate, and is the lowest it has been since October
2008. It reached an unprecedented high of over 17 percent in 2010. The last and only time
the rate went over 11 percent was in early 1994. (See chart 3.)
True
Unemployment Rate Is Far Higher Than 5.6 Percent. Americans may not be too surprised to learn that the 5.6 percent
unemployment rate the U.S. Department of Labor is touting is entirely misleading. According to Gallup, the real unemployment
rate is currently 12.6 percent. The unemployment rate calculated by the Department of Labor is seriously flawed because
it does not factor in whole groups of people that Americans would recognize as being unemployed, including those who are severely
underemployed. For example, a college graduate who is working only a few hours per week at the moment because he cannot find
full-time work is not considered to be unemployed, even if his income is completely unlivable.
There's
Unemployment, Then There's Unemployment. The BLS January U-3 "official"
unemployment rate is 5.7 percent. "Official" means that this is the percentage the MSM
reports. It does not include "discouraged" unemployed workers who have not looked for work in the
past four weeks because they believe no jobs are available. The U-3 rate makes the Obama administration
economic policies appear better than they really are, so the MSM reports it. This is "unemployment."
The BLS January U-6 unemployment rate, a much more representative figure of economic reality than the U-3 rate,
is 11.3 percent. The U-6 rate includes U-3 unemployed, plus all persons marginally attached to the
labor force, plus workers employed part time. A marginally attached worker is one that wants full-time
work and has actively looked for a job sometime in the past 12 months. This worker is not considered
to be either employed or unemployed, so he/she is not included in the "official" U-3 unemployment rate. [...] Then
there's the ShadowStats Alternate Unemployment Rate for January, which is 23.2 percent. It begins with
the U-6 rate, then adds in the long-term discouraged workers, those who have been discouraged for more than
one year but still consider themselves to be unemployed. They have, since 1994, been excluded from all
government data.
Gallup
Chairman: 5.6% Unemployment Is A Big Lie. Written by the Chairman of Gallup, someone
who does statistics for a living.
Friday
unemployment numbers hide widespread joblessness. Unemployment rose a notch to 5.7 percent,
but that understates the jobless problem, because so many fewer adults are active in the jobs market than prior
to the financial crisis.
Two Immigrants
For Every New Job Since 2000. The United States has accepted two new immigrants for
each additional job created since 2000, according to federal data. The data shows that 18 million
legal and illegal immigrants settled in the United States from 2000 to 2015, while only 9.3 million
additional jobs were created, according to the Center for Immigration Studies, which favors a reduced level
of immigration. After subtracting deaths, departures and retirements among the immigrants, the
working-age population of immigrants has grown 12 million since 2000, according to data at the Bureau
of Labor Standards, said Steve Camarota, the author of the CIS study.
When your government
lies to you. Right now the lie claims that only 5.6% of those who want to work aren't
working. That's simply not true. But it is a lie that banks on you not looking into how the
government computes this number. [...] Yet politicians and the media keep pushing that number out
there without any caveat or qualifier. They too expect you to use your definition of unemployment
while they knowingly push this lie. And, it's even worse than that. Here's another way they pad
that official number: [...]
Pay
no attention to the real economy behind the curtain. While the economy grew 2.6 percent
in the fourth quarter, what most reports don't mention is that 20 percent of that growth was health-care
spending. And the majority of that spending was taxpayer-funded subsidies from ObamaCare. In other
words, the stimulus never ended. Health care is what Americans are spending most of their money on
today — far more than they spend on housing and utilities combined. Or cars, furniture, food
or fuel. Surging medical spending also explains the third-quarter's huge upward revision in GDP growth.
The
Reality Beneath "Low Unemployment" Propaganda: Less than half of adult Americans are employed full-time.
Gallup regularly tracks the percentage of U.S. adults that are employed for 30 or more hours per week, and it is
currently at 44.2 percent. It has been hovering between 42 percent and 45 percent since the
end of 2009. This is extremely low. As I discussed the other day, there are 8.69 million Americans
that are considered to be "officially unemployed" at this point. But there are another 92.90 million
Americans that are considered to be "not in the labor force". Millions upon millions of those Americans would
work if they could. Overall, there are 101 million U.S. adults that do not have a job right now. But
you won't hear that number being discussed by the mainstream media, because it would make Barack Obama look really bad.
Only
44 Percent of U.S. Adults Work 30 Hours a Week or More with a Regular Paycheck. It's
not every day you see you see the chairman and CEO of the Gallup polling organization come out and
declare the official unemployment rate number is extremely misleading, or, as the headline suggests,
"a big lie".
The Big Lie:
5.6% Unemployment. Right now, we're hearing much celebrating from the media, the White
House and Wall Street about how unemployment is "down" to 5.6%. The cheerleading for this number is
deafening. The media loves a comeback story, the White House wants to score political points and
Wall Street would like you to stay in the market. None of them will tell you this: If you, a
family member or anyone is unemployed and has subsequently given up on finding a job — if you
are so hopelessly out of work that you've stopped looking over the past four weeks — the
Department of Labor doesn't count you as unemployed. That's right. While you are as unemployed
as one can possibly be, and tragically may never find work again, you are not counted in the figure
we see relentlessly in the news — currently 5.6%. Right now, as many as 30 million
Americans are either out of work or severely underemployed.
The
Jobs Report Isn't Worthy of the Praise It's Getting. Obama likes to brag that there
have now been 51 months of uninterrupted monthly job gains, which have resulted in
10.3 million new jobs. Sounds impressive, doesn't it? But over that same period,
the working-age population increased by 11.2 million. By that measure, the country
has actually lost ground over the past four-plus years.
Net
U.S. Job Gains Since The Recession Have Gone To Foreign-Born Workers. The Bureau of
Labor Statistics released updated employment data Friday [2/6/2015]. The new BLS figures reveal
that since the start of the recession in 2007 — which is said to have ended in June
2009 — the number of foreign workers employed in the United States rose by 1.7 million.
In December 2007 the number of foreign-born workers was 22,810,000 by January 2009 the number has increased
to 24,553,000. Meanwhile the number of American-born workers employed decreased by 1.5 million,
from 123,524,000 to 121,999,000.
Gallup
rips apart Democratic narrative that unemployment on the decline. [Scroll down]
Conservatives have complained for years that the labor participant rate, which is currently the
lowest it has been in 38 years, is often ignored by the press. Moreover, in the Obama-era, many on
the right have taken to monitoring the U-6 as a gauge of "real unemployment." According to
Gallup, which also conducts surveys to determine the unemployment rate that are based on a rolling
30-day average and are not seasonally adjusted, has determined that only 44.1 percent of the whole
American population is working more than 30 hours per week.
The
5.6% Unemployment Rate Is A 'Big Lie,' Gallup Boss Says. We at IBD often get lambasted
for our gloomy take on the monthly jobs data that emerge from the government. After all, if the
government puts it out, it can't be inaccurate, can it? And it must be honest, right? Well, we're
not alone in casting aspersions on the dicey employment numbers. As we've said many times, properly
measured, the current unemployment rate is somewhere north of 10% — depending on how you
slice the numbers.
Obama
budget calls for largest federal civilian workforce since Cold War. The federal civilian workforce will
reach its highest level since the end of the Cold War under the budget President Obama submitted to Congress on Monday
[2/2/2015], surging by more than 100,000 employees over the next two years as he tries to restock agencies he says have
been decimated by GOP-led cuts. All told, Mr. Obama will have added more than 160,000 civilian workers to the
executive branch since he took office, putting him on pace to top President George W. Bush for the biggest
expansion in modern political history. When civilians at the Department of Defense are discounted, Mr.
Obama is already the leader, with 124,000 jobs added in his first seven years.
The Editor says...
Decimated? Show me the list of federal employees who were laid off at any time
in the last five years due to spending cuts implemented by the Republicans. I doubt if
there is such a person, let alone a hundred thousand or more. If that were true, it would
have been front-page news for most of Obama's presidency, but of course it is a lie. As the
article above states, Mr. Obama has added 124,000 government jobs since he has been in office.
Reaganomics
Beats Obama's 'Middle Class Economics' By A Country Mile. On Friday [1/30/2015], the
Bureau of Economic Research reported that the last quarter of the year produced another round of
mediocre growth — just 2.6%. That undercut the average economist's forecast by about
six basis points and continued a pattern of weak quarters typically following periods of decent
growth. But it didn't stop White House economic adviser Jason Furman from claiming that
"today's report affirms the underlying pattern of resurgence in the economy."
Dangerous
Words From Democrats on Jobs. There is no obligation to work in the United States. The
notion can only be put forth in a society where the individual is the beneficiary of so much Government
largesse, and that's the root of the problem, not the lack of work. Letting Democrats play slight-of-hand
tricks while trying to implement policies based on the world as they see it is a recipe for disaster.
These ideas need to be called out for what they are and laid to rest. Wasn't Socialism a bad thing at
one time in America?
Joe
Biden: the Obama years 'have been really, really hard for this country' — White House
blames Bush. Vice President Joe Biden suggested Friday morning that the Obama years
have not been a time of prosperity and ease, but 'really, really hard for this country.' But he
still insisted that his boss, Presdient Barack Obama, has made the right economic decisions. And
hours later the White House blamed problems Obama inherited from his predecessor for an incomplete
economic recovery.
Sessions:
'We've Got to Ask Ourselves Who It Is This Government Is Representing'. At her confirmation
hearing on Wednesday [1/28/2015], Attorney General nominee Loretta Lynch "openly advocated for the providing
of scarce jobs in America to those who are here illegally," said Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.). Speaking
to Fox News's Megyn Kelly Wednesday night, Sessions said there aren't enough jobs for American citizens:
[...] "And I think that this administration and (Lynch's) statement really opened up and showed what they really
believe about this. They're as committed to finding jobs for illegal people in our country today as they
are people who are here lawfully."
Blocking
Obama's Agenda Created 1.8 Million Jobs in 2014. A new study finds that 60% of the
jobs gained last year were due to the fact that Republicans managed to block one of President
Obama's key "middle class economics" policies in Congress.
Fact
Check: Obama Claims Credit For Incomplete Recovery. The U.S. may not have "risen from
recession" quite as rousingly as President Barack Obama suggested in his State of the Union speech
Tuesday night. Seven years after that severe downturn began, household income hasn't recovered
and healthy job growth is complicated by the poor quality, and pay, of many of those jobs.
The
stomach-knotting state of our union. My fellow Americans, the state of our union under
Barack Obama is fretful and fragile. Polls confirm our kitchen table conversations: Five years into
a gimpy recovery, we still think the economy stinks. Not without reason. Good jobs still are hard to
come by. Wages are flat. And even though the unemployment rate is coming down, dispirited workers
abandoning their searches accounts for much of the decline. At a dismal, unspinnable 62.7 percent —
not a typo — the labor force participation rate is the lowest it's been since Jimmy Carter was president.
According
to the government, there's no inflation. Government data reports are so funny. The
blaring headlines today tells us that prices dropped in December. We are all saving billions from
the drop in oil and gas. Hallelujah!! The corporate MSM never digs into the numbers to get the
real truth. These reports and their distribution to the sheep are designed to keep you sedated and
calm. Facts are not necessary. How this data pertains to your everyday life is not important
to the .1% who control the flow of information.
Hiding
the real economic story. President Obama has had no better ally on the state of the
American economy over the last six years than the nightly network news shows. When the economic
numbers have been terrible or just plain mediocre, the network newscasts have often ignored or
underplayed the larger human story of jobless people struggling to survive. When there was
periodically modest improvement, however brief, they made it sound like the economy was roaring back.
The
December jobs report: Are workers partying like its 1999? Not really. An additional
2.95 million Americans found work in 2014 — including 252,000 last month — the
most since 3.18 million jobs were created during that boom time 15 years ago. But a comparison
between back then and now shows a striking difference between the modest economic acceleration of 2014 and
go-go late 1990s. First, the jobless rate was a lot lower in December 1999, 4.0% vs. 5.6% last month.
Second, a much bigger share of the adult population had jobs, 64.4% vs. 59.2% today.
Labor
Force Participation Matches 36-Year Low; 92,898,000 Neither Had Job Nor Sought One. A
record 92,898,000 Americans 16 and older did not participate in the labor force in December, as the
labor force participation rate dropped to 62.7 percent. The labor force participation had also
been 62.7 percent this September, but prior to that had not been that low since February 1978, which
was 36 years ago the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. The labor force participation
rate is the percentage of the civilian noninstitutional population who either had a job or was actively
seeking one during the month. Those not in the labor force neither had a job, nor sought one.
Population
Equal to Illinois Has Quit Working Under Obama. Since President Obama took office in
2009, the number of people who've dropped out of the labor force has climbed by 12.4 million.
That's basically equal to the entire population of Obama's home state of Illinois — which
measured 12.8 million in 2014 — and nearly 2 million more than the state's working
age population.
Golfing
during tsunami season. As working people close out another year in economic purgatory,
President Obama defiantly promotes tales of progress on numerous fronts that fall apart under
inspection — the American economy is not out of danger, the gulf between the wealthy and
the dispossessed is not narrowing, and global peace is certainly far from hand.
An
'Awesome Economy'? Not Even Close.
• While crashing in recent
months, gas prices at the pump still averaged this year above the pre-Obama annual averages.
• The Deficit for the just-concluded Federal budget year was larger (in both
dollar terms and as a percent of the economy) than in the years before the crisis.
•
Sales of existing homes are weaker than from before the bubble era, and sales of newly-built
homes in 2014 was still weaker than all but two of the 45 years (!) leading up to Obama.
• The Unemployment Rate for all of 2014 is on pace to be worse than any annual average
under Bush and worse than most Clinton years as well.
• Household Income is
4.5% lower compared to when the previous recession started seven years ago.
•
The Poverty Rate — the percent Americans living in poverty — is worse than any
year under Bush and worse than most Clinton years too despite the fact that the elevated Obama
government spending for the poor suppresses the real poverty rate.
The Homelessness Problem Is Still
With Us — and Growing. While the gatekeeping establishment press insists on
promoting the alleged wonders of the nation's still-nascent "recovery," two indicators relating to
homelessness surfaced this month with relatively little notice. Five and a half years after the
official end of the recession and six years into Barack Obama's presidency, these indicators
demonstrate that the problem has not only not lessened, it has arguably gotten worse.
Obama: Most black people
don't use racism as an excuse. Before flying off to Hawaii for a two-week vacation, President Obama said Friday that most
blacks understand America's history of slavery and segregation isn't an excuse for their current challenges. Asked by a reporter to
assess the state of black America, Mr. Obama said most blacks are "better off now" than when he came into office, due to the economic recovery.
Should
You Believe What They Tell You or What You See? The BLS reported 321,000 jobs added in
November and the unemployment rate at 5.8%. Jobs are plentiful, based upon these statistics. A
skeptical critical thinking individual might ask a few questions or point out a few inconvenient facts
the government purveyors of propaganda might not want us to ponder:
• The
non-manipulated, non-seasonally adjusted number of jobs in November FELL by 270,000. The BLS
added 600,000 jobs as an adjustment to achieve the headline grabbing result.
•
If the jobs market is so good, why is the labor participation rate at a 30 year low of
62.8%?
• Since 2007 the number of working age Americans has risen by 17 million,
while the number of employed has risen by less than 1 million, but the unemployment rate is about the
same.
• Why would almost 14 million working age Americans leave the labor force
since 2007 if the economy is booming and jobs plentiful, with 1.2 million leaving in the last
12 months?
• Why would payroll tax receipts be flat with last year if
millions of new jobs have been created?
• If the country has really added 8
million jobs since 2010, how could real median household income FALL by 2.3%?
Labor
Force Participation Remains at 36-Year Low. The labor force participation rate remained at a 36-year
low of 62.8 percent in November, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The participation rate,
which is the percentage of the civilian noninstitutional population who participated in the labor force by either
having a job during the month or actively seeking one, was 62.8 percent in November which matches the percentage
since March 1978.
321K
Job Growth Isn't a Big Deal — Check the Record. Maybe it's because unquestionably good
news about the economy is so rare these days, but economics reporters were falling over themselves to deliver
superlatives about the November jobs report. They called it "a knockout," "boom-like numbers" and "the
strongest streak of hiring in several decades," and said that the report "jumped decisively into 'great news'
territory." Even the White House showed more restraint, simply calling the November numbers "strong."
These reporters would be well served — as would their readers — actually to look at the
jobs data. They'd discover that a 300,000-plus job gain during an expansion isn't earth-shattering.
In fact, it's fairly common.
'Unauthorized'
Aliens With Jobs Outnumber Non-College-Grad Adults Seeking One. Aliens illegally
holding jobs in the United States outnumber all unemployed people who are not in management,
professional or related occupations as well as all unemployed who are 25 and older and who do not
have a college degree, according to an estimate of "unauthorized workers" published by the Chief
Actuary of the Social Security Administration and employment data published by the Bureau of Labor
Statistics. The BLS only counts as "unemployed" people who have actively looked for a job
in the past four weeks.
Even
the Labor Department can't explain the latest job report. As it turns out, last
month's job growth was much more ordinary than the headline figure would have you believe —
and it all lies with the seasonal adjustments Uncle Sam sprinkles onto all its data. [...] The raw,
unadjusted data from Labor showed that 523,000 new jobs were created in November 2013. After that
figure was seasonally adjusted, the growth was reduced to 203,000. The raw, unadjusted numbers
reported Friday [12/5/2014] showed 497,000 new jobs — or 26,000 less than last year's 523,000
raw number. Yet, this November's adjustment resulted in a headline figure of 321,000 — or
a whopping 118,000 more than last year. If the seasonal adjustments stayed consistent Friday's growth
should have been less than last year's 203,000!
No,
China Hasn't Overtaken U.S., And May Not Ever. "It's official: America is now No. 2,"
says the headline on MarketWatch, a website we enjoy. The piece passes on the shocking news from
the International Monetary Fund that China's economy has overtaken the U.S. economy, marking the first time
since Ulysses S. Grant was president that the U.S. was anything other than No. 1. Except,
well, it's not exactly true. Yes, using a calculation called "purchasing power parity," it looks as if
China has passed America. But that calculation is a statistically manufactured one, which supposedly
makes up for different costs of living in the two countries.
Not
working for the working class. [Scroll down] So if Democrats want to win back
the white working class — and they kind of need to, if they want to win elections,
because it's an enormous demographic — maybe they need to start thinking about honoring
and encouraging work, rather than talking about race or class. One person who has some ideas in this
direction is Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who suggests that the government invest heavily in infrastructure,
which would create a lot of blue-collar jobs. That was actually an original part of Barack Obama's
stimulus plan, but it was derailed by feminists within the Obama coalition who thought it would produce
too many jobs for men.
Applications for
Jobless Aid Jump to 313,000. The number of people seeking U.S. unemployment benefits
jumped last week, pushing total applications above 300,000 for the first time in nearly three months.
Eagerly
Awaiting Obama's Sixth Annual Summer of Recovery: 20% of American Households on Foodstamps. It
seems so surprising that a radical leftist community organizer would make things worse rather than better.
Jobless
claims surge to 11-week high. The number of people who applied for new unemployment
benefits in the week before Thanksgiving jumped to an 11-week high and topped the 300,000 mark for
the first time since early September, fresh government data showed Wednesday [11/26/2014]. Initial
jobless claims leaped by 21,000 to 313,000 in the week ended Nov. 22, the Labor Department said.
Economists polled by MarketWatch had forecast claims to total a seasonally adjusted 288,000.
Labor
Secretary: 'President's Executive Action Will Help Lift Wages'. Labor Secretary Tom
Perez said that President Obama's executive action on immigration "will help lift wages" and that
illegal immigrants are "exploited by employers" during a Politico event at the Newseum in Washington,
D.C., on Nov. 20. "There have been a number of estimates of how the president's executive
action will help lift wagesm and I agree with that," Perez said. "What would help lift wages even
more is comprehensive immigration reform, and there is no substitute for that comprehensive reform."
Explaining Away Obama.
Every statistic that Obama has produced on Obamacare enrollment, deportation, unemployment and GDP
growth is in some ways a lie. Almost everything he has said about granting amnesty was untrue, from
his own contradictions to the congressionally sanctioned small amnesties of prior presidents. Almost
every time Obama steps to the lectern we expect two things: he will lecture us on our moral failings
and what he will say will be abjectly untrue.
Is
This the End Game for Liberal Racism? [Scroll down] Then there is unemployment.
Blacks are about twice as likely to be unemployed as a white person. What does President Obama do?
He proposes to legalize 5 million illegal immigrants so they can compete for jobs in the formal
economy — against blacks. That's real racism.
Voters Reject the Green Political
Agenda. What the midterm voters wanted was an economy that returned to its average
3.3% annual growth since the end of World War II. For six years of the Obama presidency, growth has
all but disappeared. In 2013, as measured by the World Bank, it was barely 1.9%
Employment
Situation Improves in October — Except for African Americans. The employment
situation in October improved in every way for most Americans, except for African Americans,
according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The number of African Americans who
were employed in the United States in October dropped by 41,000; and the number of African-Americans
not participating in the labor force increased by 114,000.
Don't
believe the hype — Hillary Clinton can be beat. In October, Clinton was campaigning,
with characteristic futility, for Martha Coakley, the losing candidate for Massachusetts governor,
when she said: "Don't let anybody tell you that it's corporations and businesses that create jobs."
Watch her on YouTube. When saying this, she glances down, not at a text but at notes, and proceeds
with the hesitancy of someone gathering her thoughts. She is not reading a speechwriter's blunder.
When she said those 13 words she actually was thinking.
Democrats
Still Hate Dirty, Greedy Businesses. Hillary Clinton sniffs, "Don't let anyone tell
you that, um, you know, (smirk) corporations and businesses create jobs." Barack Obama chastises,
"If you have a business, you didn't build that. Somebody else made that happen." Analysts around
the country have correctly noted that Obama and Hillary were trying to be Elizabeth Warren, Lioness of the
Leeches, Princess of Thieves. Here's the way Warren said it: [...]
Selling
the Illusion of Economic Success to Salvage Elections. In fact, President Obama used
the same talking point at a Wisconsin campaign rally this week, saying, "When I came into office,
the economy was in free fall. The auto industry was on the verge of collapse. But over the past four
and a half years, America's businesses have created more than 10 million new jobs." When he made that
claim in September, the UK Daily Mail criticized the President for forgetting to mention the 4.3 million jobs
lost along the way. [...] Currently the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) places the number of unemployed or
underemployed at 18.6 million as of September this year, which means that the economy is worse off in a key
marker of prosperity. In fact, Ferrara calculated last year that President Obama's economy had a shortfall
of about 10 million jobs. How many jobs are we missing now?
Obama's
Last Midterm Speech: The Economy's Great! ...Except for Women. In Barack Obama's last
weekly address before the November election, he resorted to his usual chicanery, this time with an
emphasis on the War on Women. Obama started by claiming that over the past 55 months, "Our
businesses have added 10.3 million new jobs." "Our businesses?" Since when did the creator
of the infamous line "You didn't build that," have the right to call them "Our businesses?"
"Added 10.3 million new jobs?" [...]
Unions
And Liberals Are Working Hard To Kill Jobs. How many employees could McDonalds do away
with per store by going automated? Two to five? More? And will the other fast food restaurants
quickly follow suit? You can bet they will. These are low paying jobs because that is the business
model, and always has. They are not jobs meant for adults supporting kids.
Janet
Yellen Echoes Barack Obama's "Income Inequality" Nonsense. "Stagnant living standards
for the majority" for the past few decades? Really?
So Who Does
Create Jobs? Hillary Clinton, doing her no-bull, forceful leader number, tells an
audience: ["]Don't let anybody tell you that it's corporations and businesses that create jobs.["]
The aggressive tone and inelegant phrasing are meant, one supposes, to convey authenticity, which has never been
Mrs. Clinton's strength as a campaigner. No news there. But what of the content — such as it
is — of the remark? Mrs. Clinton could be forgiven for thinking that corporations and businesses
exist solely to provide big paydays for politically connected guest speakers. But then, who does create jobs
in the Clinton universe? If, that is, any jobs are being created.
Hillary
Clinton: Business Don't Create Jobs! This video is sure to make a glorious return in a couple
of years. In it, Hillary Clinton disparages the entire capitalism system in one revealing sentence.
Hillary:
'Don't Let Anybody Tell You' That 'Businesses Create Jobs'. Appearing at a Boston
rally for Democrat gubernatorial candidate Martha Coakley on Friday, Hillary Clinton told the crowd
gathered at the Park Plaza Hotel not to listen to anybody who says that "businesses create jobs."
"Don't let anybody tell you it's corporations and businesses create jobs," Clinton said.
For
Democrats, Obama is the October surprise. No Democrat wants to be tied to a president
who promises prosperity and delivers malaise. "The reminders are everywhere," says Freedom Partners
spokesman James Davis. "The struggle to find a good-paying job, health care uncertainty because of
broken promises, tax dollars taken from their paychecks only to be wasted, special treatment for
politicians and a failure of government to care for veterans. Election Day is Americans'
opportunity to stand up and say 'enough.'"
Obama's
Enablers in the Senate. Is there a single Obama initiative that has actually worked as
advertised, or even one that has improved the lives of most Americans or improved the U.S.'s
standing in the world? [...] For the so-called stimulus act of 2009, Obama promised hundreds of
thousands of "shovel-ready jobs." There were instead, approximately ... none. The president later
tried to turn his own prior promise into a punch line, quipping, at a meeting of his Council on Jobs
and Competitiveness, that "shovel-ready was not as shovel-ready as we expected." Hilarious.
What's not so funny is that every Democratic senator voted for the bill.
There's
no sugar-coating Obama's economy. During his 60 Minutes interview late last month,
President Obama put an old and familiar rhetorical question to the voters: "Ronald Reagan used to
ask the question, 'Are you better off than you were four years ago?' ... And the answer is, the
country is definitely better off than we were when I came into office." Most members of the
public do not share this view, according to this week's Washington Post/ABC News poll.
Why Have So Many
Americans Dropped Out of the Workforce in the Obama Years? Since Barack Obama entered
the Oval Office in January of 2009,the percentage of the working age population actually part of the
labor force (either working or looking for work) has plummeted by 3 percentage points —
to 62.7%. Not since early 1978 has such a low proportion of the working-age population been in the
labor force. In effect, the labor force is 7.4 million smaller than it otherwise would have been
had people either not stopped looking for work or, particularly with the case of younger Americans,
simply failed to start looking for work. In effect, nearly as many Americans have either left
the work force — or never entered — in this recovery than have found a job.
That's a very distressing trend. It also explains the big dive in the official unemployment rate to
5.9%. Unemployment keeps going down as more Americans give up looking for a job.
The Not-Credible
Shrinking Unemployment Rate. The highest-profile metric to which the president can
point as representing a degree of economic progress is the official unemployment rate. It dropped to
5.9 percent in the BLS's Friday [10/10/2014] report, its last such pre-midterm missive. A confidential source
who is in a position to know has told me that almost everyone tasked with gathering and submitting the raw data the
bureau uses in preparing the Household Survey, the underlying report which forms the basis for BLS's calculation of
the unemployment rate, believes that it should be significantly higher.
Why
the White House Fudged the Numbers on Student Loans. Eager to broadcast some good news approaching the
midterm elections, the Obama administration recently announced a welcome dip in student loan defaults, from 14.7 percent
for the 2010 cohort (loans taken out in that year) to 13.7 percent for 2011. Policymakers, alarmed about how
our trillion-dollar student loan burden and soaring default rates are undermining our economic growth, cheered the
report. Unfortunately, it turns out the numbers are bogus.
Obama Blames
The Media For His Low Polls. Americans don't understand that economy is doing great
because the press is biased against good news, President Barack Obama told a group of prosperous
donors Tuesday [10/7/2014]. "Frankly, the press and Washington, all it does is feed cynicism," he insisted,
despite getting six years of favorable coverage from establishment newspapers and TV shows. "Most of you
don't know the statistics I just gave you," Obama said, after listing a series of cherry-picked data that
ignored that roughly 10 million Americans who have given up looking for work, and the $7 trillion
in added debt.
CBO
charts changes in long-term unemployed. A larger share of the long-term unemployed this year have been women,
college graduates and people ages 55 or older, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO).
Comparing March 2007 to March 2014, the CBO found the percentage of women who have been out of work for a long period has
increased by 9 percentage points. Similarly, the percentage of college graduates and people over 55 who account
for the long-term unemployed has each increased by 7 percentage points.
Michelle
Obama: U.S. Has Improved 'By Almost Every Economic Measure'. In a speech in Boston,
First Lady Michelle Obama left behind talk of exercise and school lunches, exchanging it all for
bald politics by claiming that under her husband the US economy is now better off "by almost every
economic measure."
Strange
coincidence department. I guess Obama is just lucky the way unemployment figures
unexpectedly dropped right before the last two elections while he was in office, and then bounced
upward afterwards. Sheer coincidence. Well, whaddya know? Unemployment just dropped
again before the 2014 elections!
Obama-conomy
Wreaking Havoc on Middle Class. While the media has been quick to carry Barack Obama's
mid-term water in pushing the notion that unemployment is down to "5.9% ... its lowest level since
2008," what they aren't pointing out is how disastrous the Obama economy has been for the middle
class. In essence, real wages continue to shrink and any gap with a so called 1%, many of whom
support Democrat policies, has only continued to grow during Obama's time in office.
Record
92,584,000 Not in Labor Force; Participation Hits 36-Year Low. A record 92,584,000 Americans 16 and older did not
participate in the labor force in September, as the labor force participation rate dropped to 62.7 percent, a level it has not
seen in 36 years, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on Friday. Six times in the last twelve months, the participation
rate has been as low as 62.8 percent; but September's 62.7 percent is the lowest since February of 1978.
315,000
drop out of the workforce, now 92.6 million!. Yet again, more people dropped out of
the labor market than got jobs in September 2014. The unemployment rate, which is a complete fraud
dropped to 5.9%, the lowest since 2008. The media will have their numbers to spin in hopes of
helping Democrats for next month's election. But the true story about this latest jobs report is the
315,000 people who dropped out of the labor force. There are now 92.6 million Americans not in the
labor force. With 92.6 Americans out of the labor force, the labor participation rate is at [its]
lowest level since February 1978, during Jimmy Carter days. Thanks Obama!
Obama's
trickle-up economy. Happy days are not yet here again for American workers, regardless
of the cheering generated by the government's latest report on job creation. The number of people
collecting paychecks rose more than had been expected and the tally of people counted as jobless
fell, placing the unemployment rate — 5.9% — at its lowest level since 2008.
While the trends are positive, they offer only distant hope to a middle class that is taking home
less pay than it used to and can only watch as the wealthy enjoy ever greater prosperity.
Captain
Obama handcuffs Democrats to the deck chairs on the Titanic. Just wait until people
realize the "good September jobs report" Obama's trying to talk up is actually just the usual
combination of burger-flipper part-time jobs and a collapsing workforce.
A
Loss of Confidence in American Institutions. The U.S. economy added 248,000 jobs in
September, and the unemployment rate dropped to 5.9 percent. But the labor force participation rate
continued to fall, average hourly earnings seem frozen, and over 13 percent of workers are either out of
work, involuntarily working part time or too discouraged to keep hunting for jobs, and 20 percent of
teenagers are out of work. In short, two cheers for the latest report, but hold the champagne.
Obama Claims
His Economy Is A Success. President Barack Obama claimed Thursday that "the facts"
demonstrate that his economic policies are safely guiding the nation's towards middle-class
prosperity. "Those are the facts," he said. "It's not conjecture, it's not opinion...
I laid out facts," he told his audience of upper-income progressives at Northwestern University in Illinois
Oct. 2. Obama's pitch to the progressives combined a mix of flattery, selective data and visceral
campaign pitches, including promises of cheap loans for his student audience, more power for
would-be regulators and greater wages for women.
Obama: The Country Is
Better Off, People Just Don't Feel It. President Obama firmly believes the United States is better off now than
when he took office, even though the American people cannot "feel" it. During an interview with 60 Minutes'
Steve Kroft, Obama said, "the country is definitely better off than when I came into office."
Obama:
US better off but people aren't 'feeling it'. The president is delusional. Or misinformed. He also has a short
memory. How else do you explain his statement that the US is better off since he took office, but citizens just aren't feeling it
because we haven't spent hundreds of billions more in stimulating the economy.
The Editor says...
The writer of the article immediately above left out one obvious explanation:
Barack H. Obama is a liar.
Americans'
Wages Stagnant at 1988 Levels. Importing more immigrant workers when more than 92 million
Americans aren't participating in the labor market is indefensible. The elite, mostly corporate America,
but also universities and hospitals, profit immensely. For the average American, however, the tens of
thousands of visas issued annually since the early 1990s have taken their toll. Originally intended to be
only temporary, the H-1B is today integrally woven into the corporate fabric.
1 in
4 Americans 25-54 Not Working. A new chart from the minority side of the Senate Budget
Committee shows a startling fact: Almost 1 in 4 Americans between the ages of 25-54 (or prime
working years) are not working.
Who Got the Jobs
in Georgia? Natives accounted for most of the growth in population, but all employment
growth went to immigrants.
Who
Got the Jobs in North Carolina? Natives accounted for most of the growth in population,
but all employment growth went to immigrants.
Who Got the
Jobs in Florida? State ranked high in growth 2000-2014, but most employment gains went
to immigrants.
The
Government and Corporate Media vs. Economic Reality. I never believe government
manufactured numbers. They will always be adjusted, massaged, and manipulated to achieve a happy
ending for the propagandists attempting to control and fleece the sheep. [...] Credit card debt has
reached a new post recession high. They tell me consumer confidence is soaring. Forget about
the 92 million working age Americans supposedly not in the labor force. Forget about real household income
hovering at 1999 levels. Forget about median household net worth still 30% lower than 2007. Forget
about what you see with your own two eyes in malls, strip centers and office parks as you motor
around our suburban sprawl empire of debt. Those Store Closing, Space Available, and
For Lease signs mean nothing.
Obama's
Spin Can't Keep Up With America's Economic Reality. At a Labor Day rally in Milwaukee,
President Obama turned the limelight on himself, approvingly and inaccurately. "By almost every
measure," he declared, "the American economy and the American workers are better off than when I
took office." In contrast to Mr. Obama's self-congratulatory assertion, the Census Bureau reports
that median household income in the United States, adjusted for inflation, is down by more than
$2,000 since Obama's first inauguration in January 2009. Additionally, as an indicator of the
economic downturn, a sixth of the U.S. population is currently receiving food stamps, an increase in
the participation rate in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program of 61 percent since 2008.
Sorry,
Obama Fans: Reagan Did Better on Jobs and Growth. Supporters of President Barack Obama, such as one of his campaign
donors Robert Deitrick, an Ohio financial advisor often quoted in Forbes and elsewhere, insist that the Obama economy has been
much more robust than Ronald Reagan's. Are they right? Let's look at some numbers.
Long-term
unemployed still at record levels. The national economy, now in its sixth year of
recovery, is gaining momentum and the unemployment rate has fallen sharply over the last year to
6.1%. But the number and share of people out of work for more than six months, the so-called
long-term unemployed, remain at historically high levels. Of the 3 million long-term jobless
today, about one-third have been unemployed for more than two years, Labor Department data show. A
small minority — roughly 100,000 Americans like Perry — have been actively looking
for at least five years.
More Americans
than forecast file jobless claims. The number of Americans filing for unemployment
benefits unexpectedly rose last week to a two-month high, interrupting a steady decrease to the
lowest level since before the last recession. Jobless claims climbed by 11,000 to 315,000 in the
week ended Sept. 6, which included the Labor Day holiday, a Labor Department report showed Thursday
[9/11/2014]. It was the highest reading since June 28 and exceeded the Bloomberg survey median
forecast of 300,000. The data are difficult to adjust during holiday periods, a Labor Department
spokesman said as the figures were released.
Lowering the Bar. When they can't meet established
performance standards, the left makes up excuses, lowers the standards, and, if necessary, revises history along the way.
In economics, there's hardly a better of example of this kind of deliberate responsibility avoidance than what has happened to
the idea of "full employment." Full employment is supposed to occur when "all ... who want to work and are allowed to
work are able to find employment."
America's incredible shrinking
labor force. It came as quite a disappointment last Friday when the Labor Department announced that the U.S. economy created
only 142,000 net jobs in August. Even worse, this anemic number came with a downward revision of a combined net 28,000 jobs for the
previous two months. Now add to these a third unwelcome piece of news: The U.S. labor force participation rate —
that is, the share of working-age Americans who are either working or seeking work — has returned to a multi-decade low
of 62.8 percent, down from 65.9 percent before the recession.
Jobs
report: August numbers prove US economy is in crisis. The U.S. economy created only 142,000 jobs in August,
down from 212,000 in July, indicating the economy significantly slowed this summer. Job creation is well below the
pace needed to reemploy all the workers displaced during the financial crisis — the economy is in crisis! [...]
Third quarter growth is likely in the range of 2 percent, and the Obama administration spin doctors will have a tough
time selling these jobs data as anything but bad news.
These 5 Facts
Debunk U.S. Jobs Recovery Myth. Many economists and politicians treated the six-month string of 200,000-plus job
gains as a major achievement. But in fact it was merely a slight pickup in the pace of what has been an unusually slow
recovery in the U.S. since the recession ended in June 2009. The August jobs report is an example. Unemployment
edged down to 6.1% from 6.2% — "good" news until you realize it fell only because more Americans stopped looking
for jobs. A record 92.3 million adults are now "out of the workforce." Economists note that previous August
job reports have tended to be revised upward — and that this report will be, too.
Record
92,269,000 Not in Labor Force; Participation Rate Matches 36-Year Low. A record 92,269,000 Americans 16 and older
did not participate in the labor force in August, as the labor force participation rate matched a 36-year low of 62.8 percent,
according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The labor force participation rate has been as low as 62.8 percent in six of
the last twelve months, but prior to last October had not fallen that low since 1978.
Oh, Well. Can't Win 'Em All. The
monthly guessing games are of interest, certainly. But the larger and continuing employment story might be better understood by
focusing these two depressing facts: [#1] Fewer Americans are now employed than when George W. Bush was in office.
[#2] Labor force participation is at a 36-year low.
U.S.
Payroll Rise Is Weakest This Year at 142,000 for August. American employers hired fewer workers than forecast in
August and the jobless rate dropped because people left the workforce, bolstering those on the Federal Reserve who want to be more
deliberate in removing monetary stimulus. The 142,000 advance in payrolls was the smallest this year and followed a revised
212,000 gain in July, figures from the Labor Department showed today [9/5/2014] in Washington. The reading was lower than the
most pessimistic estimate in a Bloomberg survey of economists. The unemployment rate fell to 6.1 percent last month
from 6.2 percent, reflecting a drop in joblessness among teenagers as well as the decline in labor participation.
Where
are the jobs? Political corruption hurts millions of Americans. Friday [9/5/2014] the Labor Department is expected
to report the economy added 230,000 jobs in August. The pace has picked up a bit but is still far less than needed to
reemploy all the prime aged workers displaced in the wake of the financial crisis. The jobless rate is down to
6.1 percent but that statistic is deceptive. For example, one in six adult males between the ages of 25 and 54
is not working. Many don't show up in the unemployment count, because they are not actively looking for a job.
Millennial
unemployment 15 percent. Younger Americans still can't find a job. The latest employment
numbers have been digested by the millennial lobby Generation Opportunity which pegged August unemployment for
all aged 18-29 at 15 percent, including those who have given up looking for work. Patrice
Lee, director of Outreach at Generation Opportunity, said, "15 percent of young people are still out of
work and it's no secret why — government is too big, spending levels are too high, and opportunities
for us are limited. As we continue to work hard to create opportunities, politicians in Washington continue
to impose policies that harm us."
Researchers:
Unemployment rate isn't accurate. The U.S. jobs report, a key measure of how well the
economy is doing, has gotten increasingly less accurate in the past 20 years. [...] This problem
dates back to a 1994 redesign of the survey when it went from paper-based to computer-based,
although neither the researchers nor anyone else has been able to offer a reason for why the
redesign has affected the numbers. What the researchers found was that, for whatever reason,
unemployed workers, who are surveyed multiple times are most likely to respond to the survey when
they are first given it and ignore the survey later on.
US
Economy Growing Slower than White House Predicted. The U.S. economy has grown just 1.5
percent in the 2014 fiscal year — far slower than White House projections —
while more than $500 billion of deficit spending was added to the national debt, according to
projections released Wednesday by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office. Just last month
the Obama administration forecast 2.6 percent GDP growth in 2014.
Unemployment
rises in most US states in July. Unemployment rates rose in 30 U.S. states
last month, even as employers in two-thirds of the states stepped up hiring.
America's dumbed-down schools produce graduates with no marketable skills.
America's
worker shortage: One million and counting. America has a deficit of workers. Willing workers. Capable
workers. Skilled, or at least semi-skilled workers, who can do a job and do it well. There are at least one million
jobs that go begging day after day if only employers could find workers to fill them. [...] Why is it so hard to fill these jobs?
One reason is the curse of the so-called "skills mismatch." American workers with high school or even college degrees just
aren't technically qualified to do the jobs that are open. This is a stunning indictment of our school system at all levels
considering that all in parents and taxpayers often invest as much as $200,000 or more in a child's education. We're not
turning our kids into competent workers.
Missouri
Democrat: 'They Cannot Find Jobs'. Nationally, the unemployment rate for black Americans is more
than double that of white Americans, according to the latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).
The numbers released on Aug. 1 show the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for black Americans ages 16
and over was 11.4 percent (up from 10.7 percent in July), while the unemployment rate for whites 16 and
over remained steady at 5.3 percent in August. The picture is even grimmer for young blacks: In
August, the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for blacks of both sexes, 16-19 years old, was
34.9 percent, almost double the 18.3 percent unemployment rate for whites of both sexes in
that 16-19 age group.
Obama
claims US is 'stronger' than 'when I first came into office' as economy weakens, debt soars. President Barack
Obama claimed Monday night [8/11/2014] during a Democratic Party fundraising dinner that the United States is 'stronger' than it was
when he assumed office in January 2009. His statement, though, appears to be at odds with key economic indicators, America's
sliding reputation abroad, and the American public's estimation of the direction the country has taken under the Obama administration.
MSNBC
Guest: 'Total Disconnect' Between Obama's Rhetoric and Economy. Wall Street
Journal White House correspondent Carol Lee told Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough
Wednesday morning [8/6/2014] that there was a "total disconnect" between President Barack Obama's
statements about the improving economy and the feeling amongst the American populace. The
comments were in response to an NBC News/WSJ poll showing the public felt dissatisfied with the
economy by 2-1 margin, despite a strong second quarter GDP growth and months of steady
employment gains.
Helping
President Obama grasp his job numbers. In his weekly remarks last Saturday [8/2/2014]
and almost every other week, Obama has declared something like: "Our economy created over 200,000
new jobs in July. That's on top of about 300,000 new jobs in June." [...] Those new monthly job
figures he cites are true, as far as they go. But as usual with this Chicago pol's declaratory
statements, there's much more hidden than revealed. Obama does not mention that July's
unemployment rate ticked up to 6.2%. He does not mention that July's new employment figure was lower
than expected. And, of course, he will never recall that this is the fifth straight summer of the
2010 Recovery Summer that turned out to be as invisible as this administration's transparency.
11,472,000
Americans Have Left Workforce Since Obama Took Office. 11.4 million Americans age 16
and over have left the workforce since President Obama took office in January 2009, according to
data released today from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). In July 2014, there were
92,001,000 Americans, 16 and over, who were classified as "not in the labor force," meaning they not
only did not have a job, but they didn't actively seek one in the last four weeks. This number has
increased by 11,472,000 since January 2009, when the number of Americans not in the labor force was
80,529,000. The number of Americans not in the labor force dropped slightly in July, down 119,000
from the 92,120,000 Americans not in the labor force in June.
A
confident and clueless president. [Scroll down] He [Obama] brags about the "52
consecutive months of job creation" ushered in by his election, takes credit for the energy boom and
suggests to his interviewers that "I think you'd have to say that we've managed the economy pretty
well." Consider this self-assessment. "Since I have come into office, there's almost no economic
metric by which you couldn't say that the U.S. economy is better and that corporate bottom lines are
better. None." This is a president who must look exclusively to Paul Krugman and the folks
at MSNBC for economic facts and analysis.
Obama's
Part-time Nation. [Scroll down] In fact, the number of full-time jobs in June
dropped by 523,000, reported the Bureau of Labor Statistics, while part-time jobs increased by
799,000. Placing the news about the 523,000 decline in full-time employment in June in a
non-headline position, the "288,000 jobs created" headlines produced a false picture of a strong and
continuing economic recovery. In contrast, news reports headlining "523,000 full-time jobs lost in
June" would have been more accurate and less rose-tinted.
Automation [is] the
Joker in the Deck. At the time of the first economic stimulus, Barack Obama referenced "shovel-ready
jobs." He has since made repeated comments about stimulating the economy through infrastructure projects.
What he, and those around him, do not realize is that technology has completely changed the picture. The
Depression-era images that his phrase calls to mind no longer exist.
11,472,000
Americans Have Left Workforce Since Obama Took Office. 11.4 million Americans age 16 and over have
left the workforce since President Obama took office in January 2009, according to data released today from the Bureau of
Labor Statistics (BLS). In July 2014, there were 92,001,000 Americans, 16 and over, who were classified as "not in
the labor force," meaning they not only did not have a job, but they didn't actively seek one in the last four weeks.
This number has increased by 11,472,000 since January 2009, when the number of Americans not in the labor force was 80,529,000.
EPA Regs
Still Busy Killing Coal Jobs. When The Idiot King said he would have a "laser-like"
focus on jobs oh so long ago he really didn't specify whether he would be focused on creating or
destroying them. At least we've cleared that up. These greendoggle regulations aren't
just wreaking havoc on an industry, they're intentionally assaulting one of poorest regions of the United States.
Bouncing
Back, Economy Grew 4% for Quarter. The Commerce Department, in its initial estimate
for April, May and June, reported on Wednesday [7/30/2014] that the economy grew at a seasonally
adjusted annual rate of 4 percent, surpassing expectations. During the first quarter,
output shrank at a rate of 2.1 percent, less than had been reported. The department had
earlier said that first-quarter output fell 2.9 percent.
U.S.
jobless claims turn higher one week after touching 14-year low. One week after falling
to a 14-year low, the number of people who applied for U.S. unemployment benefits rose sharply last
week but remained near a postrecession bottom. Initial jobless claims climbed by 23,000 to 302,000
in the seven days ended July 26, retracing the entire decline in prior week, according to Labor
Department data. The level of claims was in line with Wall Street expectations.
The Editor says...
Watch for a downward revision in two or three weeks. And I do mean watch, because it will be hard to find in the newspapers.
Obama:
'It's Pretty Hard To Find An Economic Measure Where We're Not Significantly Better Off'. President
Obama put his rosy glasses on for an interview with CNBC on Thursday [7/24/2014], claiming "It's pretty hard to
find an economic measure where we're not significantly better off." [...] The president pointed to the massive
ballooning of the stock market and corporate profits under his administration, the decline of workers seeking
unemployment benefits and a recovering auto industry. He even took credit for the nation's natural gas
boom and the moderate rollback of the federal deficit.
Bursting
With Pride (and Ignorance). Jobs and unemployment figures are certainly what we hear
about in MSM. They have been the standard benchmarks by which the economy and certainly the jobs
market is judged. They can, however, be very misleading — even apart from the fact that
the government counts as employed anyone who did any work ("at least one hour") for pay or profit during
the survey reference week. Putting those benchmarks in context paints a very different picture.
Job growth needs to be placed in context with the growth of the labor force. If job growth does not
keep pace with labor force growth then that is hardly progress. In fact, job growth has not kept pace with the
growth of the labor force. The labor force participation rate has declined to a 36 year low.
Obama
Recovery Turns 5: Are You Better Off? Real per capita GDP is up just 6% since the recovery started, and if the
economy had merely kept pace with the average postwar recovery, total GDP would be $1.6 trillion bigger than it is
today. Job growth is about half the average pace of the previous 10 recoveries — which translates into
7 million fewer jobs than an average recovery would have produced.
Right-To-Work
Study Destroys Obama's Claim That Forcing Americans To Join Unions Helps The Economy.
In December of 2012, speaking in front of a union audience, President Obama was cheered when he
claimed that "right-to-work" laws — laws that allow employees to decide for themselves
whether to join a union — were all about politics and had nothing to do with economics.
In other words, he was advocating for forced unionism. Turns out he was incredibly wrong.
GOP:
10 million more Americans are not working than when Obama took office. On the
president's watch, the number of Americans age 16 and over who are not working has jumped to a
record 92 million. That's about 10 million more Americans not working than when
President Obama took the oath of office. Hard-working taxpayers know we can do better.
Jeff
Sessions Challenges Dems: Prove There's a Shortage of American High-Tech Workers.
Speaking on the Senate floor [7/17/2014], Sessions mentioned that just a week before Microsoft's
announcement, Microsoft's former CEO Bill Gates joined with two other "masters of the universe" to
urge Congress to remove limits on the number of guest-worker visas that can be awarded. "So
today I'm going to issue a challenge to Majority Leader Reid and every single one of our 55 Senate
Democrats who voted unanimously for this Gang-of-Eight bill," Sessions said, emphasizing that the
bill would double the number of guest-worker visas that are awarded. "With Microsoft laying off
18,000 workers, come down to the Senate floor and tell me that there's a shortage of qualified
Americans to fill STEM jobs.
The Editor says...
There is no shortage of workers for so-called STEM jobs. Job fairs are full of candidates with
advanced degrees in math and physics, for whom there are no jobs outside of the federal government.
And if NASA were to shut down, there would be a glut of rocket scientists who would have to switch
to a marketable profession.
Obama: treacherous
or incompetent? According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), in 2007 on the eve
of the recession, there were 146.6 million Americans working. Today, after six years of the
Obama Administration, there are 145.8 million Americans in jobs, 800,000 below the previous peak.
Since Obama came into office in 2009, 7.2 million people have left the workforce, making the true
unemployment rate 8.3 percent, not 6.1 percent. Median household income is down almost
$2,300 from what it was when Obama took office. Real wages are lower than they were in 1999.
Growth in the first quarter of this year was a negative 2.9%, the biggest downward revision from the
agency's second GDP estimate since records began in 1976.
What's behind Chicago's
carnage. [Scroll down] Too few also seemed to care that almost everything the
president had promised about Obamacare — keep your health plan, retain your doctor, save
money on your premiums, sign up easily online, while we were lowering the annual deficit and
reducing medical expenditures — was an abject lie. In such a climate, Obama felt no need
to issue accurate data about how many Americans had lost their health plans, how many had simply
transferred to Obamacare from Medicaid, how many had actually paid their premiums, or how many were
still uninsured.
What's behind Chicago's
carnage. The media ignored the serial $1 trillion deficits, the chronic high unemployment
and low growth, the nonexistence of the long-promised "summer of recovery," and the nonappearance of "millions
of shovel-ready and green jobs." The fact that electrical-power rates, gasoline prices, and food costs
have soared under Obama as wages have stagnated has never really been noticed. Nor have the record
numbers of Americans on food stamps and disability insurance.
Your Monday Morning Doom & Gloom.
The United States lost over half a million full-time jobs just last month. 523,000 full-time positions eliminated. We
haven't seen that kind of shrinkage since the dark days of 2008-09. [...] We should cheer that the total number of Americans
with jobs is going steadily up, but those cheers should be muted by the tough reality that when it comes to creating jobs,
the Obama economy isn't quite treading water.
This
month's jobs headlines don't tell the true story. I'll admit I am weary of having to blow the whistle and expose the
truth every time this White House pats itself on the back about this or that piece of economic data. Anyway, here we go again.
Last month, 523,000 full-time jobs were lost, while 799,000 part-time jobs were added. Another way of looking at these numbers
is that almost all of the 288,000 jobs created last month were just part-time positions. And remember, not even that would happen
if President Obama got his way and raised the minimum wage during this anemic recovery. We need more robust job growth in this
country, but, specifically, we need good, well-paying, full-time jobs. Right now, only 47.7 percent of adults in America
are working full-time. Losing more than half a million full-time jobs in one month is not indicative of a strong, growing
economy. It's a red light flashing on the nation's dashboard.
Millennials
Unemployment Report: 15.2% of Workers 18-29 Out of Work. In an unemployment report issued by Generation Opportunity, a
Millinneal think tank, data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) show that 15.2 percent of adults age 18-29 were
unemployed in June. This percentage includes those people who are no longer looking for work. "15.2 percent
of young people are out of work," Patrice Lee, director of outreach at Generation Opportunity, said in a statement on Thursday
[7/3/2014]. "On top of not having jobs and struggling with student loan debt, young people are paying for crony government
policies like the Export-Import Bank." "My generation needs more jobs," Lee said, "not more spending that only ends up
lining the pockets of wealthy corporations." The report, using non-seasonally adjusted (NSA) data, shows the actual
unemployment rate for all adults age 18 to 29 is 10.5 percent.
National
Heartburn, Even With an Improving Economy. Unfortunately, the labor force
participation rate — the share of the population either working or looking for
work — remains at the lowest level in around thirty years. Also on the dreary side of the
ledger: the number of workers involuntarily working part-time rose by 275,000, new jobs are mostly
in the low-paying retail, hospitality, and health-care sectors, which is why average hourly earnings
are up only 2 percentin the past year, and [...]
War
on Women: Record Number Not in Labor Force in June. According to data from the Bureau
of Labor Statistics (BLS), the number of women 16 and older not in the labor force rose to a record
high of 55,299,000 in June, says CNSNews. "This means that there were 55,299,000 women 16 and
older who not only did not have a job, they did not actively seek one in the last four weeks. That
is up 282,000 from the 55,017,000 women who were not in the labor force in May," CNS News explains.
The labor force participation rate for women in June was 56.8 percent, the lowest of this year,
according to BLS. October of 2013 saw the same participation rate for women, but not since October
of 1988 was the rate this low.
Dow
hits historic 17,000 high as U.S. jobs numbers skyrocket. The United States added a
stunning 288,000 jobs last month, sending the unemployment rate down to 6.1 percent and the Dow
Jones Industrial Average shooting over 17,000 for the first time. [...] The unemployment rate
dropped .2 percent to 6.1, the lowest since September 2008.
The Editor says...
A drop of 0.2 percent in the unemployment rate (which does not include people who have given up on finding a job) is hardly what
I would call "skyrocketing," especially since this rosy picture will be revised downward in two or three weeks with a lot less fanfare.
No
President's Ever Dodged Duty As Barack Obama Has. At first, the White House blamed
the underperforming economy on the Polar Vortex, the severe cold weather in the East and Midwest in
January and February. Then, when the gross national product numbers were revised downward, no one
believed a cold winter could cause a 3% economic contraction. A survey of other really cold winters
in the past reveals the economy still managed to grow.
This
is an actual quote from the president — really. "By every economic measure, we are better off
now than we were when I took office. You wouldn't know it, but we are," the president said Friday [6/27/2014].
That's right, the president — the president of the United States, mind you — says Americans are better
off, they just don't know it. That is the height to which the president has raised his level of mendacity. He
has the sheer audacity to tell Americans that he has successfully turned the economy around, that things are all good,
but that there are no real quantifiable indicators by which they could ever know that. In fact, Mr. Obama says
Americans have never had it so good.
Behind the Levitation.
Last week when I commented on the downward revision of the already weak First Quarter GDP numbers,
several commenters wrote in to ask: what is keeping the stock market so high? Great question, with
the best answer being ZIRP, the Federal Reserve's "zero interest rate policy," now matched by many other central
banks (with some actually now employing negative interest rates). [...] It has always been true, however, that
times of loose money tend to send stock prices higher than intrinsic valuation might warrant, as the money has
nowhere else to go to get plausible returns.
They
Took Our Jobs! Study Finds ALL New Jobs Went to Immigrants. A shocking new report
from the Center for Immigration Studies claims to prove that every single new job created in
America for the last fourteen years has gone to immigrants, legal and illegal. This would fly
in the face of those who claim that immigration is an economic boon to native born Americans.
Thanks,
Obama! 1st Quarter GDP Was Actually a Disastrous -2.9%. So basically it was three
times as bad as first reported, but let's all pretend things will improve in the second quarter.
This is all so unexpected.
The
new GDP numbers are terrible. The economy contracted dramatically in the first
quarter of 2014, according to re-revised data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis. The federal
department's initial assessment of Q1 2014 was that the nation's economic activity had expanded
slightly. After getting more data, it revised that estimate to a 1 percent contraction.
The third estimate, however, is much more severe: the economy contracted 2.9 percent.
Big
Losers in GDP Report: Democrats. You can sum up today's report on first-quarter gross
domestic product in one short word: oof. The last estimate had GDP shrinking slightly
from the prior quarter. The current estimate has it shrinking a lot: 2.9 percent
on an annualized basis. If this keeps up for another quarter, the economy will officially
be in recession. How did this happen?
Mr.
Obama, where are our 5 million missing jobs? One of the misleading headlines from
last month's employment report was that all the jobs lost during the recession have finally been
won back. Well, not really. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), in 2007
on the eve of the recession, there were 146.6 million Americans working. Today, there are
145.8 million Americans in jobs. So nearly 7 years later, we are still 800,000 jobs
below the previous peak. That's some jobs recovery.
GDP:
Another 'No Biggie'? When the Commerce Department said two months ago the economy had
eked out a 0.1% gain in the first quarter, the White House and various economists said growth would
have been higher if not for the bitter winter. When Commerce revised that number down to -1% in
May, the same crowd again blamed Jack Frost. Now that it turns out the economy contracted 2.9% in
the first three months of the year — the largest drop since 2009 and the sharpest
downward revision in the government's history of making such estimates — everyone says
"no biggie." These are, you see, backward-looking numbers; all signs point to growth ahead.
The Editor says...
You car's speedometer indicates a number as you drive down the road. Is that a "backward-looking number?"
The Census Bureau announces the U.S. population every ten years. Is that a "backward-looking number?"
Sometimes the only numbers available are backward-looking, because there are some numbers that cannot be predicted.
The
1st Quarter Decline in GDP: Cold Weather, or Bad Policy? This morning, as Steve
noted, the Commerce Department revised its estimate of 1st quarter GDP to show a shocking 2.9%
annualized decline. The White House tried to spin the awful numbers, arguing that the drop was
largely accounted for by cold weather. (Does this mean that we should look forward to global
warming as an economic boon?)
The
Economy Tanked Last Quarter And It's Everybody's Fault But Obama's. The U.S. economy
shrank at an annual rate of 2.9 percent during the first three months of 2014, government bean
counters announced this morning. That matches the worst non-recession contraction of the U.S.
economy in over 40 years. Each quarter, the government releases three sets of numbers gauging the
size of the U.S. economy: preliminary, revised, and final. Today's numbers were the final
version. This is important, because the numbers drastically changed throughout the process, as did
the liberal spin about the economy.
US
economy shrank at steep 2.9 percent rate in Q1. The first-quarter contraction
reported Wednesday [6/25/2014] by the Commerce Department was even more severe than the
1 percent annual decline it had estimated a month ago.
The
Federal Octopus. [Scroll down] The Bureau of Economic Analysis altered its
methodology so that private enterprise's research-and-development expenses are counted as proof of
investment growth. The result was a hoped-for higher rate of GDP growth to report to the public.
In the same vein, before the 2012 election, the Census Bureau massaged survey results so that the
Labor Department could underreport unemployment statistics. The department also changed its way of
reporting unemployment — in a way that we could not have imagined before Obama. Those
out of work for more 52 weeks were no longer "unemployed" but reclassified as permanently out of
the workforce altogether.
Pro-Amnesty
Elites Treat People as 'Commodities'. Rupert Murdoch also recently argued for a
dramatic expansion of the controversial H1B guest worker program. Murdoch writes that "there is a
shortage of qualified American candidates," to fill jobs in STEM fields like computer services and
engineering. But the evidence shows the opposite: the US graduates approximately
twice as many STEM-trained students each year as there are STEM jobs to fill.
As
Millennials Struggle Through Obama Economy, President Offers Pledges, Not Jobs. While
the Obama economy has affected all Americans, stubbornly high unemployment has had a particularly
harsh effect on younger workers attempting to join the workforce. That reality was driven home by
the recent jobs report issued by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). While the unemployment rate
for 20 to 24-year-olds jumped from 10.6 percent to 11.1 percent in May, the true state of
employment for young workers, and recent college graduates in particular, is likely much more tenuous.
19
Reasons Why You Can Laugh When Anyone Tells You That The Economy Is In Good Shape.
Nobody that takes an honest look at the numbers can honestly say that the U.S. economy has recovered.
Unemployment:
the Numbers behind the Numbers. Jobs growth has not even kept pace with growth in the
working-age population, much less restored jobs lost in the recession. The working-age population
increased by 206,000 in September while new jobs grew by 114, 000, and that's down from 141,000 in
August. This isn't just a one month phenomenon. Job growth has failed to keep up
with population growth throughout Obama's term in office.
Is
the unemployment rate really 6.3 percent? Or is it 12.2 percent? The Labor
Department actually releases six different numbers every month. These are called "U-1" through
"U-6" and range from a narrow definition of the unemployed population and to a much broader one.
The department's monthly report always uses the U-3 figure as the "official" number though.
Virtually all media outlets take their cue from the department on this. That's why this month's U-3
result — 6.3 percent — dominated the news reports. Why that figure
and not one of the other five?
Harry
Reid: $1.7 Million Sale of My Home Will Create 60 Jobs! Harry Reid isn't just moving
to Las Vegas from his hometown of Searchlight, Nev., to be closer to his grandchildren — he's also
looking to give the economy a boost. Reid and his wife Landra sold their home in Searchlight for
$1.7 million to Nevada Milling and Mining, a mining company, over the weekend. [...] He also cited
his upcoming reelection campaign in 2016 and the constant travel required to Sin City as another
reason for the relocation.
An Increased Minimum Wage Equals
Greater Unemployment. It's June, a month famed for marriages, but it is likely to be
remembered for the high rate of teen unemployment which has been soaring for a long time. By
February, the national unemployment rate for youth, age 16 to 19, had reached 20.7%. By November
2013 it was three times higher than the national average of 6.6% according to the Bureau of Labor
Statistics.
Where
have all the missing American workers gone? While the overall jobless
level has dropped to non-recession levels, the number of the working-age people with jobs is barely
over 6 in 10, hovering at a level reminiscent of the late 1970s.
US
Job Market Recovers Losses Yet Appears Weaker. Friday's report from the
government revealed an economy healing yet marked by deep and lasting scars.
The
Most Startling Chart of the Obama Era. Adjusted for seasonality, the labor force
participation rate (LFR) has never increased — not once — under Obama!
Normalized by month, the LFR has been on a non-stop ride to progressive Utopia (i.e., full
unemployment). This is a stunning repudiation of the Obama economic agenda.
Every
Month Under President Obama, One Thing Has Always Gone Down. This is the labor force participation rate. If that
sounds like a technical term that only economists would care about, that's a mistake. It's the percentage of the labor
force that is actually working. As Doug Ross points out on his blog, adjust for seasonality and look down the columns for
each month, while paying special attention to 2009. Look closely.
Percentage
Not in Labor Force Remains at 36-Year High. The percentage of American civilians 16
or older who do not have a job and are not actively seeking one remained at a 36-year high in May,
according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In December, April, and now May, the labor force
participation rate has been 62.8 percent. That means that 37.2 percent were not participating in
the labor force during those months. Before December, the last time the labor force participation
rate sunk as low as 62.8 percent was February 1978, when it was also 62.8 percent. At that time,
Jimmy Carter was president.
The Job Killer You
Probably Haven't Heard About. The more we dig into the Export-Import Bank, the more
unbelievable it seems that this agency still exists. American taxpayers' money is at risk —
backing loans to foreign governments and businesses to buy products from politically favored U.S.
companies. This is killing jobs in several American industries. We recently exposed the
Export-Import Bank's false claim that it is a friend to small businesses. Now check out our new
infographic about the bank's impact on U.S. jobs.
Obama's
Little Orphan Economy Growth Is Always a Day Away. The economy "unexpectedly" contracted at an annual
rate of 1% in the first three months of the year. But fear not! The prosperity that President Obama has
promised for five years will be here tomorrow! Obama's top economic adviser, Jason Furman, dismissed the news
that the 1% drop was twice as big as economists had predicted just a few weeks ago. This was, he said, almost
entirely due to a downward revision in the "highly volatile inventories category" and some bad winter weather in some
parts of the country. "More up-to-date data," Furman says, show that the economy "continues to recover."
The media largely parroted his talking point, quoting various economists reassuring us that there'll be strong growth
come spring. CNN, for instance, headlined its story "U.S. economy shrinks, but it's not a big deal."
Honey, we shrunk the economy.
When Brooklyn had its beloved Dodgers, residents coped with disappointment with this oft-repeated declaration:
"Wait 'til next year!" Today's economists have their own version. Amid a five-year economic recovery that's never
quite taken off, they say, "Wait 'til next quarter." Now we're going through another round as the Commerce
Department announced Thursday [5/29/2014] the economy contracted by a rate of 1 percent in this year's first
quarter. That's worse than what experts had expected, the result of a big downward adjustment to investment
in inventory.
'Recovering'
U.S. Economy Unexpectedly Shrinks by 1 Percent. We know that... err... certain things
shrink on contact with the cold, and the winter is among the factors being blamed for an unexpected
1 percent contraction in U.S. Gross Domestic Product (GDP). After healthy growth in the fourth
quarter of 2013, a slight slowdown was expected at the beginning of 2014, but the downturn caught
economists by surprise. The last economic contraction was during the first quarter of 2011.
Obama
Economy Shrivels In First Quarter Of 2014. The economy shrank by one percent during
the first three months of 2014, according to new report by the Bureau of Economic Affairs.
That's almost a four-point drop from the last quarter, when the economy grew by 2.6 percent.
The drop highlights President Barack Obama's economic record, which has produced a very slow recovery from
the 2008 crash. The economy grew 2.8 percent in 2012, and 1.9 percent in 2013, which was
much slower than during previous post-crash periods.
US economy
shrank at 1 percent rate in Q1. This year's weakening reflected slower stockpiling by
businesses, a cutback in business investment and a wider trade deficit.
U.S.
Economy Contracts for First Time Since '11. The U.S. economy contracted in the first quarter
for the first time in three years as it buckled under the weight of a severe winter, but there are signs
activity has since rebounded. The Commerce Department on Thursday revised down its growth estimate
to show gross domestic product shrinking at a 1.0 annual rate. It was the worst performance since
the first quarter of 2011 and reflected a far slower pace of inventory accumulation and a bigger than
previously estimated trade deficit. The government had previously estimated GDP growth expanding at
a 0.1 percent rate.
CNN produces the most biased headline of the month:
U.S. economy shrinks, but it's
not a big deal. Revised numbers released Thursday show the economy shrank in the first
quarter, marking the first downturn since early 2011. Gross domestic product, the broadest
measure of economic growth, fell at a 1% annual pace, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis.
The
6 Lamest Excuses For Failure From The Obama Administration. [#5] Obama blamed ATM
machines and airport kiosks for his inability to create jobs: Barack Obama's far left-wing economic
policies have created a semi-permanent, Jimmy-Carter-style malaise that appears to be on track to last
throughout his entire presidency. Of course, Obama isn't going to admit that his policies are putting
millions of Americans out of work; so he blamed ATM machines and other technical advances, as if that
hasn't been going on since the Industrial Revolution in the 18th century.
Americans
Skeptical About Government Statistics. A recent Yougov/Economist poll evaluated
Americans' level of skepticism concerning government statistics. It found that 59% of respondents
believed there were actually more unemployed people than what the BLS reported. Only 16% thought
the numbers were accurate, and 6% thought there were fewer unemployed than reported. With 806,000
workers dropping out of the labor force in April, it is no wonder that there is skepticism about
unemployment statistics.
Labor
Force Participation Rate Drops to 62.8%. On Friday [5/2/2014], the Bureau of Labor
Statistics (BLS) announced that the unemployment rate had dropped to 6.3 percent in April, down
from 6.7 percent in March. The announcement marks the lowest the rate has been since September 2008
when it was 6.1 percent. However, the number of people who have dropped out of the labor force is
in the millions.
Trick
or truth! Can you even tell the difference? Here are some commonly asserted
falsehoods that you are expected to believe just because they are repeated often enough. [...]
Falsehood Nos. 3 & 4) Inflation and unemployment are both going down under President
Obama! No wonder! Under the current administration the numbers have been monkey-wrenched for
both of these key economic metrics. Unemployment statistics no longer count "discouraged workers," those
people who have been unemployed for more than 12 months but have given up looking for work.
Say what? Is there some universe in which those discouraged workers are not unemployed?
And when you hear any glowing reports about inflation you should be equally skeptical since the
administration years ago removed food and gas prices out of the inflation index even though they
are a huge component of middle- and lower-class consumer spending.
Applications for US unemployment benefits fall to 297,000,
lowest level in 7 years. The Labor Department says weekly unemployment benefit applications
dropped 24,000 to 297,000, the fewest since May 12, 2007.
Economy
Not Keeping Up With Population Growth. Despite adding more than 8 million people to
the working-age population since 2007, total employment has declined by half a million, according to
an analysis by the Senate Budget Committee. Before President Barack Obama took office
259.7 million people were part of the working-age population, or between ages 16 and 65.
Now, the number has risen to 267.7 million.
Sequester Resulted in One
Layoff. Sen. Tom Coburn (R., Okla.) is launching an investigation after revelations that
sequestration resulted in only one government layoff in 2013. According to a report released by
the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the only layoff that occurred to help achieve the
$85.3 billion in spending cuts took place in the Department of Justice (DOJ).
Despite
doomsday predictions, report finds only 1 layoff from sequester cuts. Despite doomsday warnings from the White
House and lawmakers on both sides that hundreds of thousands would lose their jobs as a result of the sequester, it turns out
the budget cuts have only led to one job being lost among 23 federal agencies. Now Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., is
demanding answers as to why the Obama administration repeatedly warned taxpayers that the $85.3 billion in spending
cuts, which went into effect in March 2013, would threaten hundreds of thousands of jobs. The findings were revealed
in a government watchdog report.
Sequester Death Toll: One Job.
Sequestration, after all, was supposed to hack apart the social order as we knew it. Chris Matthews called it a "doomsday
machine." President Obama warned that "people are going to be hurt." The Congressional Budget Office predicted 750,000
jobs could be lost. Sequestration, as the trendy metaphor went, was a meat cleaver when what we really needed was a scalpel.
It now seems the cleaver had a rather dull edge. A recent Government Accountability Office found that the sequester resulted in
exactly one government layoff. One.
GAO
Report: Only one government employee lost their [sic] job due to sequester. Remember the sequester?
When government was forced to cut $80 billion in spending, the cries of pain and outrage from government managers
and the White House was overwhelming. All those poor, federal employees! Administration economists —
and their lackeys in the press — even tried to claim that economic growth was severerly affected by the cuts.
Now comes a GAO report to dash some cold water on those overheated claims.
Sequestration
myths damage public faith in government [and the news media]. Remember those sequestration federal
spending cuts of 2012? How could anybody forget them, considering the apocalyptic disasters they were sure to
cause, according to the endless predictions of President Obama, his Democratic allies in Congress and the dominant
narrative of the mainstream media. [...] Without these government workers, desperately needed programs and essential
services would end. Kids would be tossed out of Head Start, single mothers deprived of food stamps, and Social
Security checks delayed.
What
is the Real Unemployment Rate? When people who are effectively unemployed abandon their search
for work, they are removed by Labor Dept. beancounters from the ranks of the labor force, which means they
are no longer counted as being unemployed. The result of that move is to artificially depress the
headline unemployment rate, hence the large gap between the headline unemployment rate and the dropout-adjusted
unemployment rate.
This Is Exactly Why Democrats Have Lost Trust
on the Economy. While the administration touted last week's announcement that the unemployment
rate fell from 6.7% in March to 6.3% in April, the primary factor in the decline was this: more than
800,000 people either stopped looking for a job or left the job market altogether. Anyway, do the math:
The administration claims 288,000 jobs were created in April, but the 800,000 pushes the total number of Americans
not in the labor force to a record high 92,594,000.
5 Cautionary Signs Tucked Into April's Jobs Report.
The survey of businesses showed 288,000 more jobs. Yet the household survey, in calculating unemployment,
found that 73,000 fewer people had jobs.
Labor
Secretary Dismisses Historical Drop in Labor Participation Rate. According to the Department of
Labor the economy created 288,000 jobs in the month of April, but the labor participation rate dropped
0.4 percentage points back to a historical low of 62.8 percent. Host David Faber put it
to [Secretary of Labor Tom] Perez directly, noting the labor participation rate drop is not due to people
retiring given the participation rate for individuals 55 and older actually increased.
U.S. economy slows to stall-speed. Gross
domestic product, the broadest measure of economic activity, grew at a 0.1% annual pace in the first quarter, the U.S. Bureau
of Economic Analysis reported Wednesday [4/30/2014]. That's brutally slow, even by sluggish post-recession standards.
Since the Great Recession ended in June 2009, the economy has been growing at a rate of about 2% to 3% per year.
Economists think the slowdown is merely a temporary phenomenon due to harsh winter weather. If that theory holds
true, the economy should bounce back in the spring.
The Jobs Report
Isn't as Good as It Looks. At first glance, the new reading on the nation's employment situation is
shout-from-the-roof-tops, pop-the-Champagne fantastic. The unemployment rate fell to 6.3 percent from 6.7 percent,
and employers added a whopping 288,000 jobs, the most in two years. Those types of numbers, if sustained, would signal
something better than just the humdrum, sluggish recovery of the last few years, and something far more robust.
But where the last couple of months have had disappointing top-line numbers with some excellent trends bubbling beneath
the surface, this one pairs the excellent surface news with a soft underbelly.
The Editor says...
Lete's wait a couple of weeks for the inevitable Friday night "revisions" and we'll see how good the numbers really are.
Economic
Report: Growth Flatlines and the White House Blames the Weather. The economy grew one-tenth of one
percent, on an annualized basis, according to today's report from the Department of Commerce. The forecast
was for growth of 1.2%. That's a 96% drop from last quarter's 2.6% growth. Why did the economy's growth
drop to almost zero over the quarter? According to the White House's statement, it's primarily due to the weather.
Why
Democrats Should Avoid the 'R' Word. From time to time, we all read something where
suddenly words jump out from the page, grabbing our attention. This happened to me the other day
while reading a memo from Democratic pollster Stan Greenberg and strategist James Carville, along
with two of their colleagues who work for the Democracy Corps, Erica Seifert and Fredrica Mayer.
[...] The key phrase in the Greenberg/Carville memo was, "As a start, Democrats should bury any
mention of 'the recovery.'"
U.S.
job growth is coming in all the wrong places. Yes, employment is coming back, but so
much of it is not good employment. According to a new analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics
data, the industries responsible for the most job creation over the last four years are also the
industries that pay the least. We're talking about jobs pushing retail (that's a $10.37 median
hourly wage), answering phones ($13.33) and serving dinner ($9.48). Together, these three
industries — retail, administrative/support and food and drink services —
account for 39 percent of the gains in private-sector employment since the recovery ostensibly
began four years ago, according to the analysis by the National Employment Law Project.
Advice to Democrats: Don't
say 'recovery'. Election-year memo to Democratic candidates: Don't talk about the economic recovery.
5 Million Missing From the Labor
Force. [A recent] CNBC article purports to show how complicated it can be to try to figure out what job
numbers mean. Much of it depends on how many left the labor force "voluntarily" and how many would like to look
for a job if they thought there was any chance of success in doing so. The article shows that the official
unemployment rate is a rather meaningless figure. It leaves out many unemployed people because they are not
officially looking for work.
US
employers add 192,000 jobs; rate stays at 6.7 percent. The economy gained 192,000 jobs in March, the
Labor Department said Friday [4/4/2014], slightly below February's revised total of 197,000.
192,000
Jobs Added in March but Wages Fall. The economy created 192,000 jobs in March, down from 197,000 in
February and still well below the pace needed to lower underemployment to respectable levels. Those mediocre
results are consistent with a broadly underperforming economy. Manufacturing employment lost 1,000 jobs and
government stalled.
Millions
of Americans forced to work part time. After five years of being in and out of work,
Tara Dublin found a job a few weeks ago as a hostess at a restaurant in Portland, Ore. "I've
been hired by this restaurant I absolutely love, but it's a part-time position," Dublin says. [...] In
the Labor Department statistics, Dublin falls into the category of people "forced" to work part time.
There are some 7.4 million of them in America.
The
Unemployment Puzzle: Where Have All the Workers Gone? A big puzzle looms over the U.S.
economy: Friday's jobs report tells us that the unemployment rate has fallen to 6.7% from a peak
of 10% at the height of the Great Recession. But at the same time, only 63.2% of Americans
16 or older are participating in the labor force, which, while up a bit in March, is down
substantially since 2000. As recently as the late 1990s, the U.S. was a nation in which
employment, job creation and labor force participation went hand in hand. That is
no longer the case.
Biden economics:
Minimum wage hike worth billions, 'really good for the economy'. President Obama is waging an election-year push with
congressional Democrats to boost the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.10 per hour. Many Republican lawmakers oppose the
action, pointing to a study that the move would eliminate about 500,000 jobs nationwide. Mr. Biden, who filled in this week
while the president was traveling overseas, said there's proof that raising the minimum wage is good for the economy.
Fuzzy
numbers obscure a stagnant Obama economy. The news media were ecstatic when the government
said in January that the economy grew by 3.2 percent in the final three months of 2013. [...] But
1.9 percent growth for all of last year is dreadful by any comparison, and economists aren't expecting
anything much better than somewhere around 2 percent in the first quarter and maybe beyond. By
any relevant comparison, this is another sign that the U.S. economy continues to stumble along at a weak,
subpar pace in the sixth year of Barack Obama's economically unfulfilled presidency.
Reaganomics
Vs. Obamanomics: Two Wholly Different Outcomes. Despite adding almost a trillion dollars to our
national debt and failing to keep the unemployment rate at or below 8% as advertised, liberals consider President
Obama's signature stimulus package — the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act — a
success, in part because of the number of jobs it "saved."
America
Needs A Better Measure Of Unemployment. The threshold for "employment" in any particular month is
quite low: An individual needs to complete just one hour of any type of work for pay or profit. Even
without earning a dime, people who are temporarily absent from work or spend at least 15 hours working for
no pay in a family business will still count as employed. This very crude measure is no longer consistent
with the actual experience of those who lose a job.
Just 11 percent
of US long-term unemployed find jobs. A new study documents the bleak plight of Americans who have been
unemployed for more than six months: Just 11 percent of them, on average, will ever regain steady full-time work.
When
a Child is King, No Peace and No Prosperity. Weekly unemployment claims came in about as expected, which
is good news considering our expectations for this economy are so low. "In the week ending March 15," says the
Department of Labor, "the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 320,000, an increase of 5,000 from
the previous week's unrevised figure of 315,000. The 4-week moving average was 327,000, a decrease of 3,500 from the
previous week's unrevised average of 330,500."
Judging
Obama's Economy By His Own Promises. President Obama gave a speech recently in which he, as he almost always
does, patted himself on the back for what he described as a solid record on the economy. "We've now seen over four
years of economic growth," he said. "We've seen 8.5 million new jobs created. We've seen the housing
market bounce back. We've seen an auto industry that has come roaring back. We've seen manufacturing return
for the first time since the 1990s." Obamaphiles in the press typically repeat these claims, arguing that, given
the mess he inherited, no one could have done any better. But is that true?
Pelosi
Laughably Claims Democrats Are The Jobs Party. Former House Speaker Pelosi supposedly had been celebrating the
fourth anniversary of the enactment of ObamaCare last week. [...] "We just couldn't be prouder," she said of the health
reform that has been separating Americans from their preferred doctors, their health plans and lots more of their money in
taxes and higher premiums. But when a reporter asked if ObamaCare is "a political liability for your party" in an
election year, Pelosi gave a jaw-dropping reply: "We're not running on this," she claimed. "We're running
on what the American people want us to run on, and that is job creation." Then, as if her party had nothing to do
with the economic policies of the last five years that have given the country the worst economic "recovery" of the modern
era, Pelosi added: "Show us the jobs. Where are the jobs?" She then asked, as if incredulous, "Why are
we not here passing a jobs agenda?" Excuse us, Congresswoman, but we did pass a "jobs agenda." Your jobs agenda.
The Hidden Rot in the Jobs
Numbers. Job creation rose from an initial 113,000 in January (later revised to 129,000) to 175,000 in February.
The January number frightened many, while the February number was cheered — even though it was below the prior 12-month
average of 189,000. The labor market's strength and economic activity are better measured by the number of total hours
worked than by the number of people employed. An employer who replaces 100 40-hour-per-week workers with 120 20-hour-per-week
workers is contracting, not expanding operations. The same is true at the national level.
Study
Blows 'Labor Shortage' Claim Out Of The Water. Large numbers of Americans, especially those with less education,
continue to have difficulty finding work, undermining arguments that there is a "labor shortage" and need for increased
immigration, a new study from the Center for Immigration Studies finds. The report, provided exclusively to Breitbart
News, shows that the employment situation of American workers has gradually declined over the past 14 years since 2000.
Obama's Math Game — Fudging The
Numbers On Deportations. We all know how the Obama administration is fond of playing with numbers. We have watched them
announce, revise, and otherwise play with the numbers from the Labor Department for over five years. They are actually quite good at it
because they have had plenty of practice. I've heard it said by mathematicians before, the numbers don't lie. That is usually the case,
unless you happen to work for President Obama. In that case, you can just make the numbers say whatever you want them to say.
Obama Golfs While Americans Seek Jobs.
The U.S. has 866,000 fewer people employed today than when the recession began in the wake of the 2008 recession. Since Obama became
President in 2009, there has been a 3.5 million increase in jobs, but 12 million new working age people. This is supposed
to be a "recovery" according to the White House but the job numbers are not keeping pace with the job-seekers. It's not widely reported,
but the labor force participation rate of 63% remains stuck at or near its lowest point since the late 1970s.
Obamanomics Is
Ticking Time Bomb For Millennial Generation. The unemployment rate for all Americans ticked up to 6.7% in February. But when it
comes to millennials, the jobless numbers are far different. Youth unemployment now stands at a staggering 15.8%, and this doesn't even
give the whole picture. According to the Department of Labor, some 1.7 million young adults have given up and are not actively
seeking employment.
The Job Market's February Crumble.
For those unfamiliar with the process, "seasonal adjustment" is "a statistical method for removing the seasonal component of a
time series that is used when analyzing non-seasonal trends." In layman's terms, it's an attempt to smooth out results which
fluctuate throughout the year to present them in proper context. For reasons which I have never understood, economists,
analysts, and especially reporters seldom go beyond the seasonal adjustment calculations to look at the raw, not seasonally
adjusted data, aka the report presenter's best estimate of what actually happened. This has always been a negligent
practice; but it's especially dangerous now.
Census may have used fishy numbers until
Nov. '13. [Scroll down] [Julius] Buckmon was never fired, but he was eased out of the Census Bureau in 2010.
Nobody else in the Philadelphia office of Census was either fired or prosecuted, even though Buckmon alleged in a discrimination case he
brought against the bureau in 2010 that he was ordered to falsify surveys by higher-ups. Because the CPS is a scientific survey,
each response counts for about 5,000 households. Buckmon, I'm told, created more than 100 false surveys a month, which would
have produced inaccurate data on the equivalent of 500,000 American households. The big question today is whether
Buckmon — on orders or not — was the only one cheating. If there were others, in Philly or in any
of the other five Census regions, then the jobless rate data in its entirety could be tainted and useless.
Weak: ADP Jobs Report Misses
Expectations. National payroll firm ADP reported Wednesday that just 139,000 private sector jobs were added in February.
The number was below economists' forecast of 155,000. ADP also revised downward its estimate of new private sector jobs in January,
falling to 127,000 from an initially reported 175,000.
Employers
add 175,000 jobs in February, unemployment rate rises to 6.7 percent. The Labor Department said Friday [3/7/2014] that employers
added 175,000 jobs last month, up from just 129,000 in January, which was revised up from 113,000.
With
Numbers Like These, No Wonder Harry Reid's Lying. So even though our economy is down, it's still up. Or we're up,
but still down. Whatever... it's all good, because your neighbor pays. And it's another example of the stupid math liberals
use to mask reality. The unexciting nature of the newest unemployment claims is papering over all of the downward revisions
that we are seeing in other areas of the economy.
Obama
Administration's 2014 Message: Everything Is Awesome! According to the most recent figures from the Bureau
of Labor Statistics, there are 10.2 million Americans who are officially categorized as unemployed, with 3.6 million
considered long-term unemployed. There are 7.3 million Americans working part-time involuntarily, sometimes
considered underemployed. There are 837,000 "discouraged workers" — persons not currently looking
for work because they believe no jobs are available for them.
U.S. economic growth revised sharply
downward. The recovery appeared to be reaching escape velocity at the end of December, but it turns out the economy
wasn't expanding quite as fast as initially thought — and that doesn't bode well for hopes of a breakout this year. The
Commerce Department sharply reduced its estimate of fourth-quarter growth to a moderate 2.4% annual rate. Friday's revision
downsized big gains in consumer spending and exports from its initial estimate of 3.2% in January.
Obama: the Pen, Phone, and Failure.
Barack Obama is a failure as president, and with a little less than 3 years before he leaves office, people are starting to notice.
On the economy, he has presided over the worst economic recovery from recession since WW II, and the lowest labor force participation rate
in decades. He spent a trillion dollars of 'stimulus,' rewarding political backers and cronies, while exploding the budget line.
This he touts as a great success, saving the nation from depression and saving or creating 6 million jobs. The 'saved or created'
thing is perfect when trying to cast failure as success. Who can check his numbers?
Sebelius
Denies Well-Documented ObamaCare Joblessness. Secretary of HHS Kathleen Sebelius claims "there is absolutely no evidence" that health
reform is killing jobs. Liars are legion in politics, but they usually stop short of claiming the sun didn't rise this morning.
Obama's speeches are factually
empty. On January 10, 2014 the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the unemployment rate in December 2012 was 6.7 percent, down
from 7.0 percent in the previous month. It was reported that a paltry 74,000 new nonfarm payroll jobs were added to the workforce.
"Uh, wait a minute," a perceptive and educated individual might say. "How does an addition of only 74,000 individuals to the national workforce
produce such a large decrease in the unemployment rate?" Well, what they were not reporting was the number of individuals who simply gave up
the fight and stopped looking for work.
Censusgate: When and what did Labor know? A tipster tried to warn
the Labor Department in 2011 that its unemployment statistics were being fabricated by the people at the Census Bureau who compile the data. But the warning
was either missed or ignored by Labor. That allegedly allowed the data falsification to go on for years.
Healthcare Slavery. This week and last we learned from
Democrats that Obamacare is society's latest liberating influence. Americans can stop and smell the roses now that they are unshackled from
the adult responsibility of providing for their own basic necessities. The need to perform honest yet unpleasant or even difficult work is a
thing of the past. Free at last! However, those of us who work for a living are feeling a lot less liberated now that we must subsidize
the sabbaticals of those who vote for a living.
Obama's Workforce: Discouraged,
Disincentivized, Downsized. Is work becoming optional? In our zeal to alleviate poverty, and to protect our most vulnerable,
have we invited Americans to put their feet up and take it easy? That's how many read the recent CBO report predicting job losses courtesy
of Obamacare. Data on the condition of our long-term unemployed, and the impact of extended unemployment compensation points in the same
direction. After five years of disappointing job growth, isn't it time for the Obama White House to think more critically about why our
workforce participation is at a 35-year low?
The
Democrats' New Rallying Cry: Work Is a Trap and We Applaud Those Who Can Avoid It. The modern Democrat Party looks at government
the same way little kids view Santa. Liberals seem to believe the government has infinite resources that can be used to hand out free gifts
without ever having to worry about how they will be paid for. However, back in the real world, "gifts" aren't free. The money for
those "gifts" has to be confiscated from people who work for a living and all too often these days, it's given to people who don't.
A shrinking workforce is good news!
MSM Whitewashes CBO Obamacare Report. Since
the release of the CBO report, the legacy media have churned out story after story suggesting that job lock is tantamount to slavery.
And, oddly enough, these stories all support the Democrat Party line.
Obama in unemployment wonderland. In
President Obama's wonderland the numbers tell a tale of economic despair, not hope, and nothing changes. After years of standing in unemployment
lines, unable to find work, millions have given up. Only 63 percent of the population is currently employed or looking for work,
down from 66 percent when Mr. Obama took office. In the past year an additional 2.5 million Americans under the age of 55
abandoned the search for a job.
Freedom for the Job-Locked.
The Congressional Budget Office issued a politically explosive report this week, finding that Obamacare will reduce the number of hours
Americans work by the equivalent of 2.5 million full-time jobs. This is different from killing 2.5 million jobs, Obamacare
defenders are quick to insist. This will be a shortfall on the supply, not demand, side. In other words, people with health
insurance will opt not to work in certain circumstances if they know they won't lose their coverage. Democrats insist this is a boon.
1,154,000 Fewer Americans Working Today
Than 6 Years Ago. 1,154,000 fewer Americans are working today than six years ago, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
In January 2008, 146,378,000 Americans 16 and over were employed, and now in January 2014, 145,224,000 are employed, a difference of 1,154,000.
91,455,000 Americans 16 or older did not participate in the nation's labor force in January, meaning they neither held a job nor actively sought one.
That's a 353,000 decline from December, but 172,000 more than November.
Lose Your Job and Feel Liberated. This
week, a report from the Congressional Budget Office acknowledged that ObamaCare would reduce full-time employment by 2.5 million over the next ten
years. And that is on top of news that 92 million Americans who could be working are not. What a devastating assessment for the
unemployed or underemployed, particular millenials seeking to transition from internships and part-time jobs to career-building full-time jobs.
Yet the predictable spin from the White House and major media outlets is that this is good news, liberating workers from the chains of employment.
Jobs: The Report, the Spin, and the Fear. The
monthly employment numbers are out and even the New York Times is dismayed. The economy added 113,000 jobs in January, which was (all
together now) unexpectedly short of the 180,000 economists were predicting.
There
are still 4 million fewer full-time jobs in America than before the Great Recession. The recent CBO report on the labor market effects
of Obamacare has raised the general issue of whether the US is moving away from work.
American Idle. [Scroll
down] President Obama is committed to reducing male wages relative to female ones. In his State of the Union address, he
declared: "Today, women make up about half our workforce. But they still make 77 cents for every dollar a man
earns. That is wrong, and in 2014, it's an embarrassment." Actually, it's an embarrassment that the president perpetuates
this myth — which Slate, in the headline of a 2013 story by feminist author Hanna Rosin bluntly called a "lie."
Employers add 113,000 jobs in
January. The job market showed another weak gain last month as employers added 113,000 jobs, though weather may have
distorted the employment picture for the second straight month. The unemployment rate fell to 6.6% from 6.7%, the Labor
Department said Friday [2/7/2014].
Reid:
Obamacare Doesn't Cost Jobs, It Turns Workers Into 'Free Agents'. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said
the Congressional Budget Office report that shows Obamacare will make the labor force lose 2.3 million full-time workers by
2021 is positive because it lets Americans be "free agents." [...] The CBO report primarily looked at how employers would respond
to the penalty for not offering health insurance to employees working more than 30 hours per week. Businesses could
respond by cutting people's hours, hiring fewer workers and offering lower wages to incoming workers.
White
House Responds to CBO: Claims That Obamacare 'Hurts Jobs' Not Supported by Facts. On Tuesday afternoon [2/4/2013], the White
House responded to the Congressional Budget Office's new annual budget projection, arguing that the details of the report did not support
claims that Obamacare was eliminating jobs. "Claims that the Affordable Care Act hurts jobs are simply belied by the facts in the CBO
report," the statement read. "CBO's findings are not driven by an assumption that ACA will lead employers to eliminate jobs or reduce
hours; in fact the report itself says that there is 'no compelling evidence that part-time employment has increased as a result of the ACA."
Vapor Lock. News that Obamacare would cause the
economy to shed 2.3 million jobs is being greeted with jubilation by some quarters. This was foreseen long ago. FactCheck.Org
pointed out even in 2011 that unemployment is not the right word for the loss of remunerative activities caused by the program. The
word's not "unemployment". "That's a distortion. CBO said some Americans would work less or leave their jobs if they can get
health insurance outside the workplace." It's not a bug. It's a feature.
The
Left's Lamest Defense Of ObamaCare Yet. The Congressional Budget Office determined that ObamaCare would discourage work,
in large part because many middle-income families will find themselves in what amounts to a 50% marginal income tax bracket as ObamaCare
subsidies tail off. As a result, there'd be 2.5 million fewer "full-time equivalent" jobs and a 1% drop in overall compensation.
This doesn't sound so good. But to liberals, it's supposed to be music to our ears. As the New York Times explained, it's "a
liberating result of the law."
Obama's SOTU: 18 Lies and
Distortions That Should Concern Us. [#1] He is proud of the 6.7% unemployment rate.
Jobless claims rise more than
expected. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits increased 19,000 to a seasonally adjusted 348,000, the Labor Department
said on Thursday [1/30/2014]. Claims for the prior week were revised to show 3,000 more applications received than previously reported.
Fact Checking the
2014 State of the Union address. [Quoting President Obama:] "The more than eight million new jobs our businesses have created over
the past four years." The president is cherry-picking a number that puts the improvement in the economy in the best possible light. The
low point in jobs was reached in February 2010, and there has indeed been a gain of about 8 million jobs since then, according to Bureau of
Labor Statistics data.
Obama, the Ingrate. The December jobs report was truly
awful, with 74,000 non-farm jobs created and the labor-force participation rate at a 35-year low. Liberals — the same bunch who insist
that the climate is warming at an alarming rate — were quick to point to cold weather as a factor discouraging job-creation. They also
insisted that the jobs numbers are volatile and that they might be better next time. Of course, they might be worse.
All
Three Networks Fret Over Obama Not Getting 'Credit' for 'Better' Economy. Minutes before the President began his State of the
Union address Tuesday night, hosts on ABC, NBC, and CBS all worried that Obama was not getting the "credit" he deserved for how well the
economy was supposedly doing.
Wall
Street adviser: Actual unemployment is 37.2%, 'misery index' worst in 40 years. Don't believe the happy talk coming out of the
White House, Federal Reserve and Treasury Department when it comes to the real unemployment rate and the true "Misery Index." Because,
according to an influential Wall Street advisor, the figures are a fraud. In a memo to clients provided to Secrets, David John Marotta
calculates the actual unemployment rate of those not working at a sky-high 37.2 percent, not the 6.7 percent advertised by the Fed,
and the Misery Index at over 14, not the 8 claimed by the government.
Unemployment Falls to 6.7 Percent Due to Workers Leaving the
Labor Force. The headline unemployment rate fell sharply to 6.7 percent in December. The drop of 0.3 percentage
points was almost entirely due to people leaving the labor force as the number of people reported employed in December only rose by 143,000.
This was just enough to keep the employment-to-population ratio constant. The establishment survey was also surprisingly weak, showing
a gain of just 74,000 jobs.
The Last Generation of the West and the Thin Strand of Civilization.
Over 90 million Americans who could work are not working (the "non-institutionalized" over 16). What we take for granted — our electrical power,
fuel, building materials, food, health care, and communications — all hinge on just 144 million getting up in the morning to produce what about
160-170 million others (the sick, the young, and the retired who need assistance along with the 90 million idle) consume. Every three working
Americans provide sustenance for two who are not ill, enfeebled, or too young. [...] Given that the number of non-working is growing (an additional
10 million were idled in the Obama "recovery" alone), it is likely to keep growing. At some point, we will hit a 50/50 ratio of idle versus active.
Then things will get interesting.
Limbaugh: Obamanomics Is Killing Jobs; GOP Fiddles. If it weren't for a shamelessly
dishonest, hyper-protective liberal media, the American people would know, unanimously and without doubt, that Obamanomics is killing American jobs. There is no
silver lining in the December jobs numbers. Experts and analysts were expecting this latest jobs report, released Friday, to show 200,000 new payroll jobs in
December, but there were only 74,000, which is 37 percent of the goal.
Seven Devastating Economic Facts.
Seven economic facts underscore America's increasingly dire economic outlook. [#1] A Record 91.8 Million Americans Are No
Longer in the Workforce. The latest Labor Department figures reveal that a record 91.8 million Americans are no longer in the U.S.
labor force. To be included in the Labor Department's calculations for this statistic, a person must be 16 years or older, a
civilian, not in an institution (such as prison), and someone who has not looked for a job in the last four weeks.
Voodoo Economics and Unemployment. Ninety-two millions of Americans
are unemployed yet the spin masters are telling voters with a straight face that the economy is recovering nicely. The much touted 6.7 percent
(U-3) unemployment rate has dropped again miraculously in December thanks to voodoo economics and statistics that totally discount millions of
discouraged workers who have dropped out the labor force and stopped looking for work. If Americans out of the labor force are counted,
the unemployed rate is the U-6 reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, approximately 13 percent.
All Your Health Are Belong to Us.
"Expect the unexpected" has been good advice for anyone following American economic news since 2009. That news has usually been bad, and
almost always "unexpectedly" so. [...] A cynical observer might suggest that there is an element of deliberate spin involved, with reporters
hoping to keep readers' expectations afloat until next month's report.
For Recent Grads, Good Jobs
Really Are Hard to Find. Underemployment is most acute for those immediately out of college: 56% of 22-year-old college
grads in 2009-2011 were working in jobs that didn't require college degrees, substantially higher than in 1990 and in 2001. Historical
data suggest many of them will find better jobs before they turn 30.
How Bad
Is Obama's Jobs Record? Let's Count The Ways. The number of jobs created in December was the lowest in three years, and while the
official unemployment number dropped to 6.7%, that was almost entirely due to more than half a million people giving up looking for work.
Of course, a month of data doesn't mean much. So, for some badly needed perspective, we've created Obama's Jobs Index to show how
Obama's policies have failed to create adequate job growth.
Why are
adults dropping out of work force? The US unemployment rate fell significantly in December, but the big reason for the shift
isn't necessarily a comforting one for the economy. The jobless rate dropped to 6.7 percent of the work force, the lowest level
since October 2008. But the shift came only partly because unemployed people were finding work. Rather, the main driver of the
change was people who exited the labor force by ceasing to look for work. And this wasn't a one-month anomaly. Rather, the trend
of people opting out of the labor force has become a post-recession norm.
Obama's Internal
Devaluation Increases Income Inequality. The Obama Administration's $5.8 trillion of big government deficit spending has
caused the United States to suffer an "internal devaluation," as American worker wages after inflation were forced down in each of the last
five years. American competitiveness increased by over 10% due to worker sacrifices, but all the benefits flowed directly to corporate
officers and financial speculators.
Disappointing initial December hiring
figure expected to be revised. Mainstream economists had expected a December number north of 200,000, based on other economic
indicators that point to an accelerating growth rate. So Friday's number was a huge miss, and initial reaction from economists suggested
December's weak showing was an aberration that'll be revised upward next month.
1,687,000 Fewer Americans Have
Jobs Today Than 6 Years Ago. Although the number of people who had jobs in the United States increased by 143,000 from November to
December, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, that still left 1,687,000 fewer Americans holding jobs than held jobs six years ago in
December 2007 — the month the last recession began.
Thank Labor Force
Dropouts, Not New Jobs, For A Falling Unemployment Rate. Yes, the unemployment rate has fallen significantly from its high of
10 percent in October of 2009. But it turns out the unemployment rate has been falling for a pretty depressing reason: people
dropping out of the labor force. Last month, 347,000 workers dropped out, effectively sending the message that it wasn't even worth
looking for work anymore.
The truth behind Obamacare 6 million figure. The
Obama administration is trumpeting that 6 million people have health coverage thanks to Obamacare. Health Secretary Kathleen Sebelius
said in a blog post Monday [1/13/2014] that "More than 6 million Americans have now either signed up for a private health insurance plan
through the Marketplace or for Medicaid coverage." But the numbers are somewhat misleading.
92 million people
are out of the workforce. The share of Americans in the workforce has sunk to its lowest point in 35 years.
Surprisingly
Weak Jobs Report Puzzles Economists. It came as a shock: U.S. employers added just 74,000 jobs in December, far fewer than anyone
expected.
The Broader Measure
Of Unemployment: 13.1 Percent. A broader measure of unemployment reveals that the job market is worse shape than the official
unemployment rate suggests. [...] [A] better measurement of the health of our labor market is the U6 unemployment rate, which provides the
broadest picture of the current labor situation. According to the new BLS data, the U-6 number now stands at 13.1 percent. It
is nearly twice the official unemployment rate.
MSNBC: December Jobs Report Is 'Awful,' 'Very Bad,'
And 'Ugly'. MSNBC admitted that the December jobs report was dismal Friday [1/10/2014]. CNBC's Michelle Caruso-Cabrera
announced the newly released report number. Only 74,000 jobs were created in December, a number that fell significantly short of the
200,000 anticipated created jobs.
2013 ends with weakest job growth in years.
The job market suddenly looks a lot weaker than economists' had thought. Hiring slumped sharply in December, as the economy added only 74,000
jobs, according to the government. This was the weakest month for job growth since January 2011 and came as a huge surprise to economists,
who were expecting an addition of 193,000 jobs.
Media
Again Humiliated After Hyping Unreliable ADP Jobs Numbers. More terrible economic news hit the struggling American
people today when the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced that only 74,000 jobs were created in December, the fewest number in
five years. The unemployment rate dropped from 7% to 6.7%, but that is due only to the disheartening fact that 525,000 of the
unemployed stopped looking for work. As a result, the labor force participation rate dropped to its lowest point since 1978.
Obama's American Dream Like One Giant Shave Ice. The president
whose mission succeeded in shutting down America's once thriving coal industry; shutting out fisherman from the ability to feed their families;
who sent Gulf of Mexico oil workers to long unemployment lines and who outsourced America's epic car industry to China and Italy had the nerve to
tell "folk, " "our focus as a country this year shouldn't be shrinking our economy, but growing it; not narrowing opportunity, but expanding it;
not fewer jobs, but doing everything we can to help our businesses create more of the good jobs that a growing middle class requires".
White
House pleads for 'emergency' unemployment benefit extension. The White House made a strong defense Monday [1/6/2013] of a U.S. Senate push to
extend 'emergency' federal unemployment benefits by three months, just 17 days after President Barack Obama told reporters that his administration has
done a remarkably good job putting jobless Americans back to work. Fifteen of those intervening days were consumed with a presidential vacation in
Hawaii, placing those two statements on nearly back-to-back working days.
5 Myths Propping Up the Obama Presidency. [#1]
The economy has become strong, and is getting stronger. [...] It's bad enough that payroll employment is still 1.3 million below its January
2008 peak. It's worse that employment in the Household Survey is 2 million shy of where it was in that same month. If we're
lucky and this plodding progress continues, it will have taken almost seven years for that more comprehensive measure of employment to return
to where it was before the recession began — and several more years, if ever, before a recovery in employment catches up to eligible
adult population growth.
10 Forms of 2013 Media Malpractice. [#4] Commit
statistical torture. In February, the Associated Press, aka the Administration's Press, was determined to show that
government employment had steeply declined. Trouble is, it ignorantly and artificially pegged the "peak" at a point
when hundreds of thousands of obviously temporary Census Bureau workers were on the federal payroll. The truth is that
government employment "grew by a ridiculous 1.2 million, or almost 6%," from December 2003 to April 2009, and was long
overdue for a correction.
Report confirms government
effort to alter coal job loss estimates. The Obama administration tried to edit a report on new coal regulations to lower analysts'
estimates of serious job losses, an official investigation has found, backing up reports that the Interior Department pressured a private
contractor to change information in order to make the data more acceptable. The Associated Press and Fox News reported in 2011 that
a company claimed the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement asked it to change variables in a calculation that showed new
environmental regulations would lead to large job losses.
When a guy with a master's degree flips burgers, he isn't counted as unemployed.
Obama will extend amnesty for young illegals, says top
White House aide. [Scroll down] Roughly 20 million Americans are underemployed or unemployed. Wages have been stalled for
several years, and many Americans are forced to take low-skill, low-wage jobs. For example, there's been a sharp jump in the number of college grads
stuck in minimum-wage jobs. Their number is 71 percent higher than in 2002, says the Bureau of Labor Statistics' latest figures. In 2012,
284,000 college graduates were working at minimum-wage jobs, up from 127,000 in 2006, according to U.S. News.
The dark lining to
the silver cloud of Obamanomics. The government's latest reports that the economy grew at a 3.6 percent annual rate
in the third quarter and created 203,000 new jobs last month left out a lot of caveats. Moreover, the network news media's hyperbolic
reports that the economy was surging at full throttle, and that the job market was strengthening, needs to be taken with a large grain
of salt, too. The truth is that the economic-growth rate isn't what it's cracked up to be, and the employment figures contained a
large number of "part-time" holes.
Out of work and hope. America is now a country
where the official count of joblessness is dropping largely because so many people have stopped looking for work. Under the government's
statistical rules, those who have thrown in the towel are no longer counted as unemployed. Perversely, this drives the rate down.
Combined with weak job growth, the trend produced happy-sounding 7% unemployment, the lowest rate in five years.
Warning: Jobless rate may be rigged. The
most curious thing of all about the November jobs report released on Friday [12/6/2013] was the huge drop in the unemployment
rate — and the fact that the Labor Department chose not to disclose that the data going into that figure are under
investigation for falsification.
60 Straight Months of Unemployment
at 7% or Higher. November marked the 60th straight month that the seasonally adjusted national unemployment rate has run at 7 percent
or higher, according to data released today by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Unemployment in November was 7.0 percent, said BLS. That
was the lowest it has been since November 2008, but also extended the second longest streak of 7.0 percent or higher unemployment since the BLS started
tracking national unemployment in 1948.
41% of Net New Jobs in November Were in
Government. Federal, state and local governments hired a net additional 338,000 workers in November, equaling 41 percent of the total
of 818,000 net additional jobs created in the United States during the month. At the same time, the unemployment rate for government workers fell
from 4.4 percent in October to 3.2 percent in November. (The overall national unemployment rate fell from 7.3 percent to
7.0 percent.)
US unemployment
rate falls to 5-year low of 7 percent as employers add 203,000 jobs. A fourth straight month of solid hiring cut the U.S. unemployment
rate to a five-year low of 7 percent in November, an encouraging sign for the economy.
The Editor says...
It is only an encouraging sign if the figures are honest and accurate, if the number of people in the workforce genuinely increases,
and if the newly employed people are working for private companies rather than the constantly-expanding government. Stand by
for an "adjustment" or "revision" in two weeks, when less politically beneficial numbers are announced.
Youth Unemployment: 20.8%. The unemployment
rate for young people, ages 16 to 19, went down slightly between October and November, from 22.2% to 20.8%, according to data from the Bureau of Labor
Statistics (BLS), but it is still nearly three times greater than the national unemployment rate of 7%. The BLS data, seasonally adjusted, show
the following unemployment rates for youth (ages 16 to 19) and the actual number of youth unemployed in the United States for the last six
months.
1,148,000 Fewer Americans Have Jobs Today
Than 7 Yrs Ago. 1,148,000 fewer Americans held jobs this November than did seven years ago in November 2006, according to data released today
[12/6/2013] by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Back then, according to BLS, 145,534,000 Americans held jobs. This November, according to BLS,
only 144,386,000 Americans hold jobs. That is a drop of 1,148,000 in the number of Americans working.
Thanks for
nothing, President Obama. President Obama's war on America has accelerated. We're losing ground on every front. [...] It's
bad enough that the government crows about reduced unemployment rates, all the while ignoring the 91 million Americans squeezed
out of the workforce by the beneficence of our leaders. But now we learn that 2012's amazing jobs recovery leading up to Obama's
re-election was fiction, made up out of whole cloth.
Obama's
Thanksgiving fairy tale — the president wants us to give thanks to him, for good economic news. The president said,
"Our businesses have created 7.8 million new jobs in the past 44 months." However, as economic commentator Kenn Jacobine
points out, that averages to 177,000 jobs per month over 44 months, whereas during the same time period, the working age population
has grown by an average of 213,000 workers per month. Thus, under Mr. Obama, his jobs "recovery" is actually a jobs recession.
Census 'Fake'gate goes back even further.
The decennial census was being conducted from 2008 to 2010, and a lot of part-time workers were needed to knock on doors to get information.
What Census appeared to be doing was hiring people for very short periods of time, then letting them go only to rehire them. This
churning seemed odd and not very efficient because these census takers were required to go through a relatively long training period whenever
they came back to work. But each "hiring" showed up as a created job. What's more, that census taker who was let go, even
if she was soon to be rehired, didn't qualify for unemployment insurance and never showed up as someone who'd lost her job.
'Cooked' Census reported to Obama and Rahm.
Let me be the first to ask: Did the White House know that employment reports were being falsified? Last week I reported exclusively
that someone at the Census Bureau's Philadelphia region had been screwing around with employment data. And that person, after he was
caught in 2010, claimed he was told to do so by a supervisor two levels up the chain of command. On top of that, a reliable source whom I
haven't identified said the falsification of employment data by Census was widespread and ongoing, especially around the time of the 2012 election.
Real Jobless Rate 11.8%
Excluding Labor Force Exodus. Census employees "faked" employment survey data, possibly accounting for an unemployment drop just before
the 2012 election, claims the New York Post. But even taking the government figures at face value, the jobless rate is radically
distorted — and by far more than a short-term drop of a few tenths of a percentage point. The unemployment rate was 7.3% as of
October, still high but essentially at the lowest level since the end of 2008. However, almost all of the apparent improvement has come
from a historic exodus from the labor force.
Did
White House Rig 2012 Jobs Data To Get Obama Re-Elected? An anonymous whistleblower in a New York Post column by John Crudele is alleging
that unemployment jobs data in the current population survey conducted by the Census Bureau and the Bureau of Labor Statistics was manipulated in 2012
to help Barack Obama get re-elected. According to the source, specifically the Oct. 5, 2012 jobs report was faked — just in time
for the election. Worse, the practice reportedly continues to date.
House probes Census over 'fake' results. I don't
know how high up in the Census Bureau the orders to fake employment survey data came from, but the director of the Philadelphia region was aware of
those charges against one of his field representatives back in 2010. Fernando E. Armstrong, the regional director at the time, admitted
as much in an internal Census report I have reviewed. And that field representative, Julius Buckmon, who filed as many as 100 fake reports
a month — and admitted to me faking household survey reports — was not the only field rep to do so, according to a Census
source. And the source insists that the faking of the household survey, which could fudge the unemployment rate, is still happening.
Worse Than ObamaCare. Unemployed
middle-aged men look in the mirror and see someone who may never work again. Young married couples who should be on the way up are living in their
parents' basement. Many young black men (official unemployment rate 28%; unofficial rate off the charts) have no prospect of work.
Jack Welch Vindicated: Obama Regime
'Faked' Pre-Election Unemployment Number. Chicago is known as a political cesspool. From Al Capone, to Rahm 'Dead Fish' Emanuel,
to Mayor Daley, it is a town that reeks of corruption and anyone who emerges, and especially the case of Barack Obama rises quickly, as a leading
force in that political arena should be met with high speculation. After all, a rise to prominence in Chicago means one thing —
you are tainted, a dirty player who will do anything and everything to obtain and remain in power.
Jack Welch Vindicated: Obama
Regime 'Faked' Pre-Election Unemployment Number. Yesterday [11/18/2013], Jack Welch was redeemed as the groundwork is laid once
again for Barack Obama's presidency to answer questions surrounding yet another scandal. In adhering to the Daley premise to 'never leave
an election to chance', the Census Bureau did indeed fake the jobs numbers of September 2012. Days after Obama admitted that he has to win
the trust of the America people once more following his lies surrounding the selling of ObamaCare, Americans learn once more that their president
lied in order to retain power and steal the election of 2012.
Census 'faked' 2012 election jobs report. In the
home stretch of the 2012 presidential campaign, from August to September, the unemployment rate fell sharply — raising eyebrows from
Wall Street to Washington. The decline — from 8.1 percent in August to 7.8 percent in September — might not have been all it seemed.
The numbers, according to a reliable source, were manipulated. And the Census Bureau, which does the unemployment survey, knew it.
Rick
Santelli Rages Against Media Over 'Manipulated' Unemployment Data Allegations. On Tuesday morning [11/19/2013], CNBC's Rick
Santelli raged against the American media in light of a New York Post report alleging that Census bureau employees have
been caught "fabricating" some data that went into unemployment reports over the last several years, including possibly the
controversial report revealed one month before the 2012 election.
GOP to probe 'faked'
jobs report. The House Oversight Committee is vowing to thoroughly investigate a report that unemployment data was falsified
before the 2012 presidential election. The New York Post reported Monday evening that a Census Bureau employee had been
found fabricating unemployment survey data that helped determine the nation's jobless rate.
When the Have Nots Become the Haves. Unemployment reporting has become totally
unhinged from reality as the real rate stays at levels which would easily shine the light of truth on the fiction of a recovery. According to the
government's own Bureau of Labor Statistics the real unemployment rate (U-6) has been continuously above 13% for the last year. This information is
readily available (one click of the mouse) and yet the media (including Fox) have told us day-by-day that it is falling and is now down to 7.2. This
typifies the manufactured reality the federal government and the Corporations Once Known as the Mainstream Media shovel into the public trough. If the
plagiarized opinions I hear my fellow citizens share everyday are any indication the average person accepts the fiction as reality.
The Real Employment Problem. The Bureau of Labor
Statistics reported in October that the unemployment rate, U3, declined very slightly to 7.2%. Concurrently, the BLS noted that the unemployment
rate to include those marginally attached to the workforce, or U6, was 13.6%. These statistics, however, hide a painful and tragic reality.
While unemployment rates have dropped, the labor force participation rate has also declined significantly in recent years. The labor force
participation rate in September 2013 was 63.2%, the lowest since 1978.
The myth of green-job creation. The concept of
green jobs and a green economy is popular among politicians and policy-makers. That is understandable, as they want to be perceived as doing
something about the environment or climate change while simultaneously protecting jobs and the economy. Green jobs are considered to be a way
of addressing two policy issues at once: employment and the environment. Policy-makers can argue that green-job creation will compensate
for jobs lost due to more stringent environmental policy. But what are "green jobs"?
Confederacy of Slackers. If you include the millions of part-time
workers who want full-time work, and millions more who have despaired of finding jobs and so have dropped out of the labor market, the real unemployment
rate jumps to 13.8 percent, or close to twice the official rate. Out of a workforce of 154 million people, that's 21 million
Americans who are under-employed, unemployed, or sitting on the sidelines — able-bodied but not even bothering to look for work.
What Is the Real Unemployment Rate? Employers are said to have
added 204,000 seasonally adjusted jobs [in October]. But as the Associated Press noted, the government, thanks to the 17 percent government
shutdown, had an extra week to retrieve its surveys from employers, and therefore had a higher than usual response rate. It doesn't seem as if this
should matter, but apparently the Bureau of Labor Statistics has a history of estimating high in its initial releases when it has more time to collect
and assemble the data. Additionally, economist Mark Zandi believes that "businesses may have inadvertently counted employment for an extra week."
Americans' Participation in Labor Force
Hits 35-Year Low. The percentage of American civilians 16 or older who have a job or are actively seeking one dropped to a 35-year low in
October, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In September, the labor force participation rate was 63.2 percent, but in October it
dropped to 62.8 percent — the lowest it has been since February 1978, when Jimmy Carter was president.
2014: The Collapsing Obamaconomy. The good news is the U.S.
economy wheezed out 204,000 new jobs in October, despite all the sound and fury (signifying very little) over the 17%, 16-day-long government
semi-demi-shutdown. The bad news is pretty much everything else, so let's take a look at what lies underneath the big headline number.
United States of
Underemployment: Dead-End Jobs Prop Up Employment Growth. On the surface, the addition of 204,000 new jobs looks pretty good, in fact,
it's statistically above the 190,000 average of the last twelve months. The fact that it came at a time when the government was shut down and
its elected caretakers were within inches of defaulting on our debt makes it all the more, well, unbelievable.
720K Americans Leave Labor Force In
October. On Friday, the Labor Department reported that 720,000 Americans left the labor force. This exodus pushed the labor force
participation rate down to 62.8%, the lowest level since 1978. One out of three adults is neither working nor actively looking for work.
'Real' Unemployment: 13.8%. The "real" unemployment
rate rose from 13.6% in September to 13.8% in October, according to figures released today by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Though the
national unemployment rate is 7.3%, the "real" unemployment rate is a broader measure of the number of people in the United States, 16 and older,
currently looking for jobs. Known as the U-6 unemployment rate, this "real" unemployment figure, seasonally adjusted, includes the unemployed
"plus all persons marginally attached to the labor force, plus total employed part time for economic reasons...."
Lackluster Jobs Report Underscores Epic Failure Of
Obamanomics. Here we go again, another employment report showing "unexpectedly weak" job growth. Pretty soon Americans are going to figure out, as
computer geeks like to say, "It's not a bug — it's a feature." Across Wall Street, the consensus was 180,000 net new payroll jobs in September.
But some investment houses had quietly raised the bar to 200,000, believing the economy had "firmed up" in recent months. But just like Charlie Brown trying to
kick the football, only to have Lucy pull it away at the last second, our nation's pre-eminent economic thinkers keep having their predictions dashed on the rocks of
Obamanomics.
90,609,000: Americans Not in Labor Force
Climbs to Another Record. The number of Americans who are 16 years or older and who have decided not to participate in the nation's labor force has
climbed to a record 90,609,000 in September, according to data released today [10/22/2013] by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The BLS counts a person as participating in the
labor force if they are 16 years or older and either have a job or have actively sought a job in the last four weeks.
Why young people are saying 'no' to the workforce. A job used to be
the next step after a diploma. But now, young people aren't in any rush to start working. Less than 78% of people aged 20 to 34 either have jobs or are
looking for work, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That's down from the peak of 83% in 2000, and the lowest since the 1970s. The biggest thing
keeping young people out of work is the weak economy.
Unemployment Down, but Job Growth Still Crawling.
Unemployment hit its lowest point since November 2008, according to the September jobs report, but concern is starting to slowly creep in because the economy failed to add
very many new jobs. The biggest takeaway from September's shutdown-delayed jobs report is that things mostly stayed the same.
Aha! Exactly as I suspected: Publication of the numbers was delayed because they were so dismal.
Just 148k New Jobs in September. The Labor Department
reported Tuesday [10/22/2013] that the economy added just 148k new jobs in September, down from a revised 193k jobs added in August. The report, which had been delayed
by the government shutdown, was a disappointment. Economists had expected the economy to add over 180k jobs last month. The unemployment dipped a notch to 7.2%,
as more Americans left the labor force.
Redistributing Wealth From Working Moms.
[T]he employment figures released this week showed that the percentage of non-institutionalized women over the age of 16 who participated in the labor force (meaning they had
a job or were seeking one) dropped in September to 57.1 percent, a rate it also hit this March, but was otherwise a 24-year low. In January 1948, when the Bureau
of Labor Statistics first started tracking female participation in the U.S. labor force, it was only 32.0 percent. It peaked at 60.3 percent in April 2000,
and since then has been trending down.
Study: 15 percent of US youth out of school, work. Almost 6 million young people are
neither in school nor working, according to a study released Monday [10/21/2013].
Obama: Not Allowing Gov't to Borrow
More 'Would Amount to a New Tax'. Obama said once the debt ceiling is raised and the shutdown is over, "there's a lot we can accomplish
together." He called for more job creation at a time when Obamacare is prompting some employers to cut jobs or move workers to part-time.
And he called for additional deficit reduction in a "smarter, balanced way," which is code for tax hikes.
Weekly Jobless Claims Jump To 6-Month
High. According to data from the Department of Labor, there were 374,000 jobless claims for the week ending on October 5. This is a 66,000 jump
from last week's 308,000 claims, and 62,000 higher than the 312,000 claims that economists had been predicting. It is also the highest number of claims reported in
the past six months. The four-week moving average of claims is now 325,000, a 20,000 increase over last week's four-week average of 305,000.
The Cold Hard Facts of Obama's Economy.
Understand that the unemployment rate is a rather simplistic calculation. The numerator is composed of the number of people unemployed and who have
looked for work in the past four weeks. That number is then divided by the total number of individuals in the labor force. [...] In fact, the overall
labor force declined by 312,000 in August, which is the most recent data available. That means 312,000 Americans dropped out of the labor force in
August. In other words, they gave up looking for a job.
Government postpones jobs report amid shutdown.
The government will not release its key monthly jobs report as originally scheduled Friday, the Department of Labor confirmed Thursday. Citing a
"lapse in funding" amid the government shutdown, Department of Labor spokesman Stephan Barr said the report has not yet been rescheduled for release at
a later date. The only other time the jobs report was delayed was in the previous government shutdown in January 1996, when it was released
two weeks late.
The Editor says...
Obviously the numbers have been calculated, they just aren't being published. Publication of the unemployment numbers would cost about as much as
it cost me to publish this paragraph — which means the numbers must be pretty bad.
Obama: 'We're Still Trying
to Recover;' NBER: Last Recession Ended 4 Yrs Ago. President Barack Obama — now eight months into his second term — said today
[9/21/2013] that the U.S. economy is "still trying to recover" from events that took place five years ago before he took office. At the same time, the
National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), which dates the beginning and ending of recessions in the U.S. economy, insists that the last recession ended
more than four years ago.
Obama's Middle-Class 'Mission Accomplished'.
During his four and a half years in office, Obama has done more damage to the American middle class than any president since Herbert Hoover. That is not a
difficult statement to prove, and it may be an understatement. Recent data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show an official unemployment rate of
7.3%. Not since the Great Depression of the 1930s have so many Americans been out of work, and 7.3% is only the tip of the iceberg. The real
unemployment rate, or U-6, which includes discouraged and part-time workers, still stands at 13.7%. [...] One troubling aspect of the August report was the
revision of the official July unemployment figure — downward from to 162,000 to 104,000. In other words, the July BLS jobs estimate was a
whopping 36% too high. The estimate for June also had to be revised downward, as it often had been in the preceding months.
This Depressing Economy. It is true that 164,000 seasonally adjusted
payroll jobs were added during the month, per the Establishment Survey of employers, but June and July were revised down by a combined 75,000.
The Household Survey used to determine the unemployment rate had even grimmer news, as it showed that 115,000 fewer Americans were working in August
than in July. The only reason that the official ("U-3") unemployment rate fell to 7.3 percent is because the civilian workforce shrunk by
over 300,000, taking the labor force participation down to 63.2 percent, that figure's lowest level in since 1978.
The Editor says...
Job creation figures are often revised downward, weeks after their initial publication. That's because the revisions go un-reported;
or if they are reported, it's in the back of the newspaper somewhere.
U.S. jobs numbers paint dim picture of ongoing employment crisis.
Friday's jobs numbers continued to paint a bleak picture of the ongoing U.S. jobs crisis, and experts said at current rates the country will have to wait
years to return to pre-recession levels of unemployment. The jobless rate inched down marginally in August from 7.4 percent to 7.3 percent,
according to figures from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the economy added a paltry 169,000 jobs.
The Mythical Public-Sector Collapse. At The
Atlantic, there is a story discussing private- and public-sector job-creation under Obama relative to the other presidents since Reagan. The Atlantic's
coverage of this topic illustrates once again the need to normalize data when making comparisons.
Worse than Jimmy Carter. Jimmy Carter must be smiling:
Another president has finally broken the record he had held for the worst rate of participation in the job market by American workers in modern
times. The Bureau of Labor Statistics' Friday job numbers show the nation's "labor force participation rate" — i.e., the percentage
of Americans over 16 who have jobs, or are looking for one — dipped to 63.2 percent. That beats the sad record of
63.4 percent set in 1978, a harbinger of the Carter-era stagflation and malaise to come.
Jobless Rate for Black Teens: 38.2%.
The unemployment rate for African American teenagers aged 16 to 19 was 38.2 percent in August, according to the latest figures released by
the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). This figure is nearly twice the 20.5 percent unemployment rate for white teens of the same age, and down
less than a percentage point from the 38.8 percent black teen unemployment rate BLS reported in August 2012. The jobless rate for black teenagers
hovered in the 40 percent range all summer, prime earning time for students trying to save for college. It peaked in June at 43.6 percent,
compared to 20.4 percent for white teenagers.
13.0%: Unemployment
Climbs in African American Community; 210,000 Fewer Jobs. The unemployment rate in the African American community climbed from 12.6 percent
in July to 13.0 percent in August, according to data released today by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. At the same time, the number of African
Americans 16 year [sic] or older who held jobs dropped from 16,318,000 in July to 16,108,000 in August — a decline of 210,000.
U.S. Adds 169,000 Jobs In August. The headline
unemployment rate fell to 7.3%, according to numbers released Friday by the U.S. Department of Labor, down slightly from July's rate of 7.4%. But
the lower August rate was once again caused by significant numbers of Americans leaving the workforce. The labor force participation rate fell again
last month, dipping to 63.2%, the lowest rate since the mid-1970s.
90,473,000: Record Number Not in
Labor Force — Up Almost 10M Under Obama. The number of Americans who are 16 years or older and who have decided not to participate in the
nation's labor force has pushed past 90,000,000 for the first time, according to data released today [9/6/2013] by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The BLS counts a person as participating in the labor force if they are 16 years or older and either have a job or have actively sought a job in the
last four weeks. A person is not participating in the labor force if they are 16 or older and have not sought a job in the last four weeks.
Labor Day Lies. President Obama used his weekly Saturday radio
address to mark the 131st anniversary of Labor Day. He swore his "highest priority" is to "reverse forces that have conspired — for
decades — against American workers." Yakety yak. Don't believe that demagoguery. The latest Bureau of Labor Statistics
data show that workers — especially low-wage workers — are losing ground under Obama. After four and a half years of the
Obama presidency, an unprecedented number of Americans have given up looking for work, wages are stagnating, low wage earners are suffering most, and
the U.S. is fast becoming a nation of part-time workers.
Labor Day Lies. From January 1 through July 31, 77% of
the jobs created were part-time. Less than one out of four people hired got full time work — the opposite of a normal economy. In
April, news about employers shifting to part-time hiring grew to a drumbeat. Numerous employers cited Obamacare for the change. The new
health law requires employers with fifty or more full-time employees to provide health benefits or pay a fine. Adding a $5,000 health benefit
is affordable when you're hiring lawyers but not entry-level workers.
The Great Shift. The labor
force participation rate is currently at a level not seen since the 1970s — 63.4 percent. While the unemployment rate has steadily
decreased from its high of 10.0 percent in October of 2009 to 7.4 percent in July of 2013, the percentage of Americans in the labor
force has not risen. It has fallen about 2.7 percentage points since the onset of the latest recession. This is a tragedy
in the making, and its impact on the country has been underestimated. When Americans quit looking for work because they conclude not
working beats working, America faces a significant problem.
Labor Force Participation Hits 34-Year
Low. A comprehensive disaster like the Obama administration can't be summed up in one statistic, but the one that comes closest is labor
force participation. The combined effect of many misguided policies — Obamacare, ballooning spending, massive debt, tax increases,
subsidizing of inefficient energy, anti-growth regulation, encouragement of food stamp fraud, and many more — has been to drive many
millions of Americans out of the labor force.
Obama's Long List of Broken Promises. [Scroll
down] Then there was his administration's pledge to keep unemployment from rising above 8 percent. (It remained above 8 percent for
the longest stretch since the Great Depression.) To create five million new energy jobs alone. (The total number of jobs created in Obama's
first term was roughly one-tenth that figure.) To identify all those "shovel-ready" jobs. (Mr. Obama later chuckled that his much-hyped
"shovel-ready projects" were "not as shovel-ready as we expected.")
Obama's
Economy — We've Fallen And Can't Get Up. Household incomes are still down 4.4% since the recession ended four
years ago. Meanwhile, the unemployment picture may be even worse than we think.
Gallup: Unemployment Rate Jumps from 7.7% to 8.9%
In 30 Days. Outside of the federal government's Bureau of Labor statistics, the Gallup polling organization also tracks the nation's unemployment
rate. While the BLS and Gallup findings might not always perfectly align, the trends almost always do and the small statistical differences just haven't
been worthy of note. But now Gallup is showing a sizable 30 day jump in the unemployment rate, from 7.7% on July 21 to 8.9% today.
Unemployment rates rise in
most US states in July. Unemployment rates rose in more than half of U.S. states in July and fewer states added jobs, echoing national data that show
the job market may have lost some momentum.
The Editor says...
What momentum?
Obama Rigging GDP Statistics. For example,
consumer price inflation has been running about 8-9% per year under the 1980 method. I don't claim the 1980 method is right; but the
government claims only 1% CP inflation from its newer methods, and that number violates many people's first-hand experience of rising prices
and declining living standards. Or with unemployment: by 1930s methods, it has been running 15-20%, which means we are already in the
Great Depression 2.0.
New jobs disproportionately low-pay or
part-time. Part-time work accounted for more than 65 percent of the positions employers added in July.
Reagan vs. Obama: It's not even close. On each and every key
indicator, Reagan outperformed Obama by a wide margin. [...] The Obama years will be remembered as a wasteland of bad decisions, corruption and incompetence, and missed
opportunities. To compare the Reagan and Obama years is informative: it reminds us of what we once had, what we could have again, and how bad it is today.
Part-time America.
New government figures show unemployment still stuck at well above 7 percent, another reminder of America's economic paralysis.
As worrisome, the number of "involuntary" part-time jobs continues to grow, which makes what happened at a 24/7 California call center,
set up to answer questions about ObamaCare, particularly ironic.
Where's that 5% unemployment rate
Obama promised by now? On the surface, the July jobs report — the unemployment rate dipped to 7.4% last month
thanks to a shrinking workforce as the economy added a disappointing 162,000 net new payrolls — is just another dismal data
point in America's "new normal" recovery. But it's also an important milestone and metric for judging the Keynesian fiscal experiment
known as Obamanomics.
77% of Jobs Created in 2013 are Part Time.
This is the kind of thing that gives you a sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach when the full import of this stat sinks in. Of all the
rotten statistics coming out of these dreary jobs reports, month after month, it is the realization that the face of work in America is radically
changing right before our eyes — to the detriment of young and old alike.
Obama must accept responsibility for the
sluggish jobs picture. The Labor Department reported Friday that the economy added 162,000 jobs in July, after adding 188,000 in June.
Unemployment fell to 7.4 percent, largely because 240,000 adults left the labor force. Businesses continued the shift toward contingent workers.
In July, 103,000 more Americans reported working part-time.
Young Americans Left Out Of
Obama's 'Jobs Recovery'. As the media focus on a slight drop in unemployment, an ugly trend gets ignored: the declining participation of
young Americans in the job market. We'll pay for this for decades to come. We keep hearing the job market is "improving" or even "solid," with
162,000 new positions created in July and unemployment falling to 7.4%, the lowest since 2008. But one group is sitting it out. And it's the one
that most enthusiastically embraced Barack Obama in both of his presidential elections: America's young.
Immigration Reform versus Unemployed
America. With millions of Americans un- or underemployed, it's difficult to see how any political party that's looking out for the
folks would want to import more people. America doesn't seem to be able to provide jobs for the people already here. Yet,
importing more people to compete for jobs in a stagnant economy is exactly what Democrats want to do with their comprehensive immigration
reform bill that the Democrat-controlled Senate rolled out on June 27.
Five Things Media
Aren't Telling You About Today's Jobs Numbers. Using anti-science exuberance, for the last few days, the media have pom-pommed someone's
ethereal projection that the economy had created 200,000 or so jobs in July. [...] If you are wondering why the media are still artificially propping
Obama up at the expense of working people — even after he has been safely re-elected — the answer is simple: After investing
so much in him, the media must now prove they were right to do so.
Data of Prosperity Past. The good news is that the
Commerce Department's second-quarter GDP report shows that the U.S. is richer and the economy larger than previously believed. The bad news is that this
has nothing to do with anything that has happened lately, and certainly not in the last nine months.
Harry Reid's claim that the sequester has 'already cut 1.6 million jobs'. [Senator Harry] Reid's
comment jumped out at us — 1.6 million jobs have already been lost because of the sequester? That seemed rather large. [...] In
fact, there's really no current estimate of how many jobs have been lost because of the sequester. Before the sequester began, there were many
estimates, including one that predicted more than 2 million job losses in 2013. But the size of the sequester was reduced, various functions
(such as air traffic controllers) were spared, and many planned furloughs were reduced, so the impact is probably significantly less than many expected
before the sequester was implemented.
Obama's Keystone Job Claims
As Phony As His Recovery. The president falsely claims that the jobs created by the pipeline from Canada would be but a "blip relative
to the need," ignoring his own State Department and the unions that support him. At the rate President Obama is going, he may claim that
building the Keystone XL pipeline will actually cost jobs. In an interview with the New York Times last Saturday, he argued that the best
estimate is 2,000 initial construction jobs followed by no more than an additional 100 jobs, a mere "blip." The newspaper's transcript
of the interview showed Obama chuckling dismissively as he made his point.
White
House: Restaurants haven't cut hours of workers due to ACA. Scattered news reports say some restaurants are cutting employee hours
or not hiring because of healthcare reform, but U.S. officials say it's not true.
Four Things the Media
Aren't Telling You About Today's GDP Numbers. [#1] GDP growth of 1.7% stinks. In order to artificially prop up President
Obama, the media have created what I call "The Obama Curve." In order to make his failed economic recovery look good, the media
have — for the first time in my lifetime — dumbed down what was once considered acceptable job and GDP growth to
practically zero.
SNAP Shot: Two Food Stamp
Recipients Per Job Created. While the administration laments the distraction of "phony" scandals like Benghazi and Fast and Furious
that leave real Americans dead, it trots out phony statistics about how well the economy is doing. [...] Since February 2009, the first full month
of Obama's presidency, 9.5 million Americans have dropped out of the labor force. Nearly 90 million working-age Americans are not
working today. Doing the math, 1.3 Americans have dropped out of the labor force for every job the administration claims to have created.
President
Adopts Catchphrase to Describe Proposed Recipe for Economic Revival. President Obama says prosperity does not trickle down, and a
rising tide does not necessarily lift all boats. The conservative policies predicated on those ideas, he maintains, amount to a you're-on-your-own
economics, when the country really needs a we're-in-this-together approach: in short, prosperity needs to come from the "middle out" rather
than the top down.
28 states see unemployment
rise in June. More than half the states experienced rising unemployment rates in June compared to May, the U.S. Bureau of Labor
Statistics said Thursday [7/18/2013].
A Jobless Recovery Is a Phony Recovery.
In June, the government's Household Survey reported that since the start of the year, the number of people with jobs increased by 753,000 —
but there are jobs and then there are "jobs." No fewer than 557,000 of these positions were only part-time. The survey also reported that
in June full-time jobs declined by 240,000, while part-time jobs soared by 360,000 and have now reached an all-time high of 28,059,000 —
three million more part-time positions than when the recession began at the end of 2007.
Food Stamp Nation is now
larger than the full-time private-sector workforce. The Obamanomics transformation of America is nearly complete. The most
recent unemployment report, which was supposed to be mildly optimistic, was actually a fresh milestone in the evolution of Waiter and Waitress
America, as full-time career and manufacturing positions vanished, to replaced by a wave of part-time service industry jobs. If the President
was a Republican, the media would be having a seizure over this, but instead they prattle about how job creation was "better than expected."
Why Underemployment May Be Worse Than It Looks. The level of underemployed
workers looks bad on its face but even worse when it's not the government doing the counting. When the Labor Department released its
monthly nonfarm jobs report Friday, it was all sunshine and roses except for one glaring weakness: A big jump in the underemployment
rate that includes those who have quit working as well as those who have had to take part-time jobs even though they'd rather work full-time.
Obamacare Job
Double Counting and Other Economic Distortions. Reader Tim Wallace provided another excellent series of charts on
the employment situation. These charts compare June employment in 2013 to June in prior years.
The
Obamacare Jobless Rate Soars from 13.8 percent to 14.3 percent. While it's true that job growth was robust, it came from the growth of PART-TIME
jobs, which are the only kind available. On a net basis, the economy lost 326,000 fulltime jobs. Obamacare changes the definition of full time
employment to 30 hour a week from 32 hours and requires companies over a certain size to purchase health benefits for all fulltime employees.
As a result, companies are doing what we all knew they would: They are cutting fulltime employment and replacing it with part-time help.
Part-Time America.
The U.S. labor market may be gaining a little more steam, judging by Friday's June jobs report. Imagine how much better it
might do if ObamaCare weren't encouraging employers to hire so many part-time workers. [...] The disappointments include a big jump
of 247,000 in the number of "discouraged workers," those who have stopped looking for a job.
Positive jobs numbers hide troubling developments for young workers.
Hidden beneath the surface of Friday's largely positive jobs report from the U.S. Department of Labor lurk indications that the
U.S. economic recovery is far less developed than the White House's self-congratulatory messages suggest. While the
overall seasonally adjusted unemployment number landed at a 7.6 percent for the month of June, with nonfarm payrolls
growing by 195,000, the number of so-called 'involuntary part-time workers' increased by 322,000 to 8.2 million —
masking a drop in full-time jobs that would otherwise indicate an economic slowdown.
54 Months: Record Stretch of 7.5%+ Unemployment
Continues. [Scroll down] In a February 2013 report on the impact of Obama's stimulus law — the American Recovery and
Reinvestment Act (ARRA) — the Congressional Budget Office said that it estimated the law would have the net effect of increasing federal
budget deficits by $830 billion between 2009 and 2019. CBO also estimated that the stimulus had the impact in the last quarter of 2012 of
lowering "the unemployment rate by between 0.1 percentage points and 0.4 percentage points."
June Jobs Report: Part-Time Jobs Up, Full-Time
Jobs Down. Overall unemployment stayed steady in June at 7.6%. The economy reportedly created 195,000 jobs in the month.
[But the] quality of the jobs created is not good. [...] This is the ObamaCare effect. Obama's health care law incentivizes employers to drop
workers to below 30 hours per week in order to avoid incurring liabilities or fines.
America's Job Recovery Is Only For Part-Timers.
From the media to Wall Street, June's jobs report is being spun as a major positive, a sign the economy is getting back on track. Maybe the pundits
should look at the actual numbers, which are abysmal. To hear some of them, the 195,000 payroll jobs added for the month while the unemployment rate
stayed at 7.6% were a big deal. One investment house called it a "very good report." Another termed it "solid." Really? Let's
take a little closer look at the numbers.
Immigrants account for all job gains since
2000: native-born workers' employment has fallen. Immigrants — both legal and illegal — have accounted for all of the
job gains in the U.S. labor market since 2000, according to a report that highlights the stiff competition for jobs in a tight economy as Congress debates
adding more workers to the mix. [...] Meanwhile, the number of Americans who aren't in the labor force at all has jumped by almost 13 million to
reach 48.6 million — a finding the report's authors say signals profound changes in the American job market and challenges conventional
wisdom that immigration is good for the economy.
Weak Economy Exposes Obama's
Upside-Down Priorities. In the first half of 2013, Obama made dozens of speeches on gun control, immigration and global warming, with the
latter culminating in Tuesday's declaration about how imperative it is to act now to combat climate change. But aside from a little "jobs tour"
and one big speech back in February, Obama has been virtually silent on the economy.
New Carbon Regulations, at Greater Cost to
America. Five years into Obama's presidency, twelve million Americans remain unemployed, ten million others are underemployed, the
unemployment rate is rising, and Obama wants to make it worse. In the fourth year of the Reagan presidency, the national economy grew by 6.8%.
Last year, under Obama, it was still stuck at 2.2%. That difference is not accidental. It is the result of the contrasting policies
of the two administrations. Sadly, the economic destruction of America continues in Obama's second term.
Obama Economic
Policies Guarantee A Jobless Recovery. The recession ended four years ago. So how's that Obama recovery going?
Still rather poorly, if jobs are the standard by which it is measured.
Obama's Tax Hikes, Not GOP
Spending Cuts, Are Killing Growth. Liberals are apoplectic about "austerity," claiming that draconian spending cuts are
killing jobs and economic growth. But it's President Obama's tax hikes, not spending restraint, that are hurting growth prospects.
Obama Recovery: Still
7.6 Million Jobs Below Average. Although somewhat better than expected, the 175,000 net jobs created in May continues the historically
tepid jobs growth trend that has come to characterize the now four-year-old economic recovery. The result has been continued high unemployment,
a vast pool of long-term jobless, and an unprecedented number of people who've dropped out of the labor force.
Food Stamps Up 39% Under Obama,
Disability Up 13%. An analysis by the former chairman of the president's Council of Economic Advisers finds that given today's sluggish
job growth, it will take over a decade for employment to return to pre-recession levels.
Obama Recovery: Still
7.6 Million Jobs Below Average. Although somewhat better than expected, the 175,000 net jobs created in May continues the
historically tepid jobs growth trend that has come to characterize the now four-year old economic recovery. The result has been
continued high unemployment, a vast pool of long-term jobless, and unprecedented number of people who've dropped out of the labor force.
Highlighting the weakness of the May report is the fact that the number of unemployed climbed by nearly the same amount as jobs
created — 101,000 — nudging the unemployment rate up to 7.6%.
U.S. Added
175,000 Jobs In May; Unemployment Higher At 7.6%. U.S. employment rose more than expected last month, and more Americans
entered the workforce, signals that the economy withstood the effects of higher taxes and federal budgets cuts. Payrolls increased
by 175,000 in May, more than the 163,000 that economists predicted, according to Labor Department data released this morning. May's
gain followed a revised 149,000 in April, a figure smaller than initially estimated.
Labor Department: May
unemployment rate rises to 7.6 percent. Economists had predicted the rate would remain unchanged at 7.5 percent.
Obama and the Press Pretend There's 'Clearly' a Recovery.
As of when this column was submitted, it appeared that the government's May report on job growth to be released on June 7 might
come showing seasonally adjusted growth of 170,000. Given ADP's precursor, that seems optimistic. But even if the report
hits that number, there's a good chance, thanks to ObamaCare's 30-hour definition of a "full-time employee" requiring coverage under
an employer's existing health plan, that the total number of hours worked will come down, as was the case in April.
We're
living in a twisted reality, where the best news is not good news at all. You know you've tripped through the looking glass
when the best kind of news is not good news at all. So it is with today's US jobs data. Non-farm payrolls rose by 175,000, a
touch above forecasts, but unemployment edged up from 7.5pc to 7.6pc.
The Hidden Jobless Disaster.
[T]he unemployment rate is not the best guide to the strength of the labor market, particularly during this recession and
recovery. Instead, the Fed and the rest of us should be watching the employment rate. There are two reasons. First,
the better measure of a strong labor market is the proportion of the population that is working, not the proportion that isn't.
Economically,
Could Obama Be America's Worst President? The recession ended four years ago, according to the National Bureau of
Economic Research. So Obamanomics has had plenty of time to produce a solid recovery. In fact, since the American historical
record is the worse the recession, the stronger the recovery, Obama should have had an easy time producing a booming recovery by now.
Obama likes to tout that we are doing better now than at the worst of the recession. But every recovery is better than the recession,
by definition. So that doesn't mean much.
Krauthammer: Obama a
'fraud,' 'Wizard of Oz' — 'what he preaches doesn't work'. On Dennis Miller's radio show on Thursday, Washington Post
columnist Charles Krauthammer reacted to what Miller called "the new normal" — lowered expectations for the American economy —
calling President Barack Obama a "fraud" and comparing him to "a Wizard of Oz."
The Department of Energy Committed $11 Million Per
Job. Unlike in 2008, when Barack Obama pledged to create 5 million jobs over 10 years by directing taxpayer funds
toward renewable energy projects, there were no press conferences or stump speeches. But the data are nonetheless revealing:
for the over $26 billion committed since 2009, DOE Section 1703 and 1705 loan guarantees have created only 2,298 permanent
jobs — that's $11.45 million per job.
The audacity of his audacity.
[Scroll down] In the meantime, unemployment remains excessively high and due to ObamaCare, excessive regulations, and high taxes
thanks to this president and economically ignorant members of Congress who voted for his policies, the jobless "recovery" continues
and there is no sign of any significant economic growth on the horizon.
The Great Sequester is a sham and a farce.
In time of sequesters, federal
government posts 27,000 job openings. The budget cuts known as sequestration were supposed to wreak havoc, forcing the shrinking of
critical workforces including airport security officers and food inspectors. But since sequestration kicked in March 4, the government
has posted openings for 4,300 federal job titles to hire some 10,300 people.
Furloughed feds can tap jobless
benefits, raising questions about sequester savings. Though sequester-tied furloughs have forced federal employees to cut
their hours and their pay, it turns out some of them are eligible for unemployment benefits. That means that while individual
agencies are trimming their own budgets with furloughs, the cost to taxpayers of unemployment benefits could simultaneously
rise — in turn, undermining lawmakers' goal of using the sequester to cut costs.
Good Luck Being Unemployed Under
Obama. Thirty-six weeks. That's the average time an unemployed American is out of work in the Obama-led economy, according
to the latest government data. [...] The latest data from the Department of Labor show the nation's unemployment rate stands at 7.5%. The
Obama Administration and Obama backers are quick to point out that this rate is the lowest of his presidency. However, the deeper we dig
into the state of the unemployed under Obama, the more frightening the picture.
Don't Be Fooled, The
Obama Unemployment Rate Is 11 percent. When Barack Obama entered office in January, 2009, the labor force participation rate
was 65.7%, meaning nearly two-thirds of working age Americans were working or looking for work. When the recession supposedly
officially ended in June, 2009, the labor force participation rate was still 65.7%.
The
big Benghazi mystery: The most over-used trick of Barack Obama's reign of error
in Washington is whenever something adverse happens, just ignore it. Keep on talking happy. And with a complicit or, at best
lazy, capitol media corps the problem will eventually melt away. Remember all those new jobs that almost $1 trillion of
stimulus was going to create by the hundreds of thousands any month now? That was 2009. We're still waiting. And
as recently as last weekend Obama is still claiming that job creation is his top priority.
Why Friday's Jobs
Report Was Ominous. Friday's "Employment Situation" report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) wasn't just bad, it was
ominous. We're going to discuss what was ominous about it, and what progressive economic policies have to do with all of this.
However, first, let's look at why the report was not good news. While most pundits have focused on the BLS Establishment Survey,
which reported that 165,000 payroll jobs had been created during April, the Household Survey* numbers told a much different story.
The job surge is a mirage. I've been telling you for
years that this country's employment numbers are rigged during the months of April, May and June — so when the Labor Department announced yesterday
that the US created 165,000 jobs last month and the unemployment rate dropped to 7.5 percent from 7.6 percent in March, I had to take a closer look.
Sure enough, the report showed that about 50,000 of those new jobs — or 193,000 on a pre-adjusted basis — were based on government assumptions,
not fact.
Job Report Brings No Cheer To Main Street.
The share of working-age Americans with jobs — 58.6% — has barely budged since the bottom of the recession, and we're still some 2 million
jobs short of pre-recession levels. This is unique in post-World War II history. At this point in every other recovery, the job losses had long since
been erased. On average, payrolls were 7.6 million above the pre-recession peak.
NYT: Real Unemployment at 21.9 Million.
Behind Friday's Labor Department figures lies a stark economic reality: America remains in a downward jobs spiral. Consider the following:
according to the Labor Department, the U.S. added 165,000 jobs in April, but to return to pre-recession employment levels, the U.S. would need to add 208,000
jobs a month over seven years.
Economic Misery: The New Normal. The weakest recovery
in the nation's history continues. On Wednesday [5/1/2013], payroll processing firm ADP reported that private sector businesses created a disappointing
119,000 jobs in the month of April. Once again, to use a word that should embarrass those who support the Obama administration's Keynesian economic
policies, this meager total was "unexpected." Economic "experts" surveyed by Reuters had predicted at least 150,000 new jobs.
Economy's 'Soft Patch' Is
Just More Of The Same. Dismal job numbers are inspiring a new narrative that the Obama "recovery" was humming along nicely until the sequester
hit. In fact, it has been dragging from the start. Now that the air traffic system is more or less back to normal, we have something new to worry
about. It's the "soft patch" [—] a term used to describe a slack period in a recovery.
America's
Low Labor Participation Rate: Now For the Really Bad News. March's jobs report showed a curious anomaly: low job
growth (just 88,000), yet a fall in the unemployment rate from 7.7% to 7.6%. The reason such a push-me-pull-you result could
occur was a fall in labor force participation by 663,000 and in the participation rate from 63.5% to 63.3%.
Illinois loses 17K jobs in March,
second highest in nation. Illinois had the second-largest decrease in employment in the nation last month, the Labor Department
reported Friday. The state lost 17,800 jobs, second only to Ohio, where employment fell by 20,400 positions.
Obama's
Labor nominee: Official unemployment numbers 'understate' jobs crisis. Thomas Perez, President Obama's nominee to lead the
Labor Department, told Congress today that the Bureau of Labor Statistics is "understat[ing]" the national unemployment rate. "The
labor force participation is at one of the lowest levels," Perez told Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., during his confirmation hearing today,
adding that "7.6 percent doesn't take into account discouraged workers, so, in that sense, it understates the unemployment rate."
Ninety days of destruction from the Obama White House.
There are no new jobs. There will be no new jobs. Creating jobs in Obama's America is like trying to grow healthy plants in a nuclear blast zone.
Obama has turned the U.S. economy into a "Hostile Work Environment."
America's Economic Disconnect. The state of our
economy has become a constructed fantasy created largely by mainstream media (MSM) narratives. Media accounts of economic performance over the
past four years have ranged from confusing to inaccurate to flagrant happy talk and spin. Rationalization and selective reporting have created
economic 'good' news and false 'hopes' where none existed or should exist. The techniques employed have included consistently biased memes, factual
omission, factual commission, and even misdirection.
Obama's plan hatched at Columbia
University. Under Obama, 660,000 Americans dropped off the job rolls... just last month. 90 million working-age, able-bodied Americans
are no longer in the workforce. 90 million. The workforce participation rate is the lowest since 1979. For men it's the lowest since
1948 (when record keeping began). Almost 50 million Americans are on food stamps (20% of all eligible adults). 14 million are on disability.
Millions more are on welfare, unemployment, housing allowances, aid to dependent children, or 100 other free government programs.
The Real Story Behind The Unemployment Rate.
The mainstream media is absolutely giddy that the U.S. unemployment rate has hit a "four-year low" of 7.7 percent. But is unemployment in the
United States actually going down? [...] Headlines all over the nation boldly declared that "236,000 jobs" were added to the economy in February, but what
they didn't tell you was that the number of Americans "not in the labor force" rose by 296,000. And that is how they are getting the unemployment
rate to go down — by pretending that huge numbers of unemployed Americans don't want jobs.
Cowboy Logic and the
Economy. No matter how much the sycophants in the media and the partial pundits tell us that the debt doesn't matter and that the
economy is making a recovery, 2 + 2 is still 4, and the numbers just don't add up. They point at statistics and
fractional improvements in unemployment and auto sales but they don't tell you that the people who have used up all their unemployment benefits
and have dropped out of the work force are no longer counted among the unemployed.
Four AP
Reporters Make Excuses, All Unacceptable, for Weak March Jobs Report. After telling the world on Thursday [4/4/2013] that "Gone are
the fears that the economy could fall into another recession," it seems that the Associated Press's Christopher Rugaber needed some help explaining
away Friday's weak jobs report from the government's Bureau of Labor Statistics. The AP had four reporters on Friday evening's coverage, all
seemingly in search of a viable excuse for another "unexpectedly" disappointing report.
Economist Cited by WH Blames Obamacare for
Jobs Numbers. Moody's chief economist Mark Zandi, frequently cited by the White House in support of its economic proposals, told CNBC that
Obamacare may be partially responsible for the disappointing jobs numbers released earlier today.
The March Jobs Report:
How Numbers Can Deceive. Last Friday's jobs report was dismal. The labor force participation rate, that is, the percentage
of the total population that is either working or actively seeking employment, dropped to 63.3%. That's the lowest rate since May of 1979.
Under Presidents Reagan, Bush and Clinton the labor force participation rate grew as high as 67.3% in April of 2000. All of that growth is now
gone and the numbers are back to the lackluster growth and economic malaise that characterized the Carter presidency.
90 Million Americans Are No Longer
Looking for Work. In March, the number of Americans who dropped out of the labor force increased by 663,000 which adds up to a
record 90 million Americans who are no longer looking for employment. [...] The White House responded with a report stating this is all
proof the economy "is continuing to recover".
Media Can't Blame
Dismal Jobs Report on the Sequester. The March jobs report is dismal. Economists had expected the economy to add
around 200k jobs last month. The Labor Department reported this morning, however, that the economy added only 88k jobs.
Democrat operatives in the media are quickly spinning the bad economic news as the fault of the sequester, i.e. automatic government
spending cuts. A closer look at the data show the cuts had almost no impact on the job market.
Discouraged
Americans leave labor force. Many Americans are still so discouraged that they've given up on the job market.
Making Work Not Pay.
The lousy March jobs report jolted financial markets Friday, and understandably so. In a trend that has defined this weakest
of all modern economic recoveries, the jobless rate keeps falling but largely because the labor force keeps shrinking. The
unemployment rate fell to a new four-year low of 7.6%, from 7.7% in February. Good news, except the main reason for the
decline was that nearly half a million Americans (496,000) left the civilian labor force. They retired, quit working, went
back to school or gave up looking for work.
Jobless Claims Hit Four-Month
High. For the third straight week, the number of Americans filing for new unemployment benefits rose. Thursday's [4/4/2013]
increase was quite dramatic. Though economists expected new claims to fall to 350,000, claims actually rose to 385,000 —
the highest number since November. The four-week rolling average also increased to 354,250.
Jobless claims at 4 month high.
The unemployment numbers come out tomorrow [4/5/2013] and by the looks of things, it won't be very good news.
How Obama Goosed the Jobs Numbers.
As long as I can remember, people have always complained about the accuracy of government-reported statistics and claims. For
instance, every year, the government reports that the measure generally regarded as a barometer for inflation everyday Americans face,
the CPI, is always much lower than people feel they're experiencing in their everyday lives.
The Great Recession Has Been Followed by the
Grand Illusion. The Great Recession is an apt name for America's current stagnation, but the present phase might also be
called the Grand Illusion — because the happy talk and statistics that go with it, especially regarding jobs, give a rosier
picture than the facts justify. The country isn't really advancing. By comparison with earlier recessions, it is going backward.
CBO: America Will Never See Full
Employment Under Obama. The Congressional Budget Office is now projecting that the U.S. economy will never achieve full
employment during the eight years Barack Obama serves as president. That would make Obama the only American president during the
post-World War II era who never presided over a year in which the U.S. economy offered full employment to the American people.
The Countless Shades of Green
Jobs. Green jobs — or, as our president calls them, the "jobs of the future" — have been notoriously
tough to define and count. The federal Bureau of Labor Statistics recently did it, though, and now it's the result that's notorious.
Facing an admittedly difficult project, the BLS created a definition that is so broad as to make it a meaningless measure of the green
economy. Here's a sneak preview: There are 33 times as many green jobs in the septic tank and portable toilet servicing
industry as there are in solar electricity utilities.
Today's Job
Creation is Pathetic Compared to Reagan-Era. [President Obama] has seen the unemployment rate artificially drop due to a
shrinking workforce. For instance, the unemployment rate dropped last month to 7.7%, but that's likely due to 135,000 leaving the
workforce. It's just fact that if the labor force was as large today as when Obama took office, we would be looking at
an unemployment rate closer to 11%.
More Are Quitting
the Workforce Than Getting Jobs. Who can complain about nearly a quarter-million jobs created in February? Until,
that is, you learn that more people left the labor force than got new jobs, continuing a long-term trend under President Obama.
End the Madness at the EEOC.
Over 89 million Americans are presently out of the labor force. The New York Times seems to offer a muddled explanation
for the fact that employers have money to hire but aren't doing so even when they need extra help. The Federal Reserve's vision
is less cloudy. In its latest beige book the Fed indicates that uncertainty about the impact and requirements of Obamacare is
playing a significant role in the national job freeze cutting into sales and hiring.
To praise the
February jobs report is to embrace the New Normal economy. The headline numbers show a decent month for the US labor market
in February. Nonfarm payrolls rose by 236,000 last month (246,000 in the private sector), the Labor Department said, beating
economist expectations of 160,000. And the jobless rate fell to 7.7%, the lowest since December 2008, from 7.9% in January.
Now here's some of what those headline numbers miss: [#1] In January 2009, Team Obama economists predicted that the
unemployment rate by 2013 would be 5.1%. [...] [#2] The labor force participation rate fell again as potential workers
stopped looking for work.
Notice that the steep decline began in late 2008, at the point
when it became apparent that Barack Obama was about to be elected.
Bad behavior underserving of sympathy or support.
Like most Americans, I sincerely believe we have a moral and civic responsibility to help those who cannot help themselves as well as
those who genuinely want to better themselves through productive employment. But these "people who have left the work force" are
something altogether different. According to the experts, they are predominantly able-bodied men who have chosen to stop looking
for work and are relying instead on the financial support of others. And the others they rely on are more likely to be girlfriends
than spouses and government programs rather than friends or community groups.
Maxine
Waters: Sequester Could Cause '170 Million Jobs' to Be Lost. Maxine Waters (D., Calif.), in an attempt to outdo President
Obama's claims that even minor cuts will bring the republic's long run to an ignominious end, warned today that the sequester could cause
"over 170 million jobs" to be lost.
Personal Income
Drop Is Bottom-Up Economics Failure. The economy racked up another dubious achievement in January, when personal income
suffered the biggest drop in 20 years and disposable income suffered its biggest decline in more than 50. Is this what
"bottom-up" prosperity looks like?
Teacher
pink slips claim by Duncan not backed by evidence. The descriptions of the post-sequester landscape that have been coming
out of the Obama Administration have been alarming, specific — and, in at least some cases, hyped.
The Real State of the Union. A
February 1 Investor's Business Daily editorial, which appeared shortly after the government released its January jobs report,
laid out the primary truth about the current job market: It took an average of just 24 months to regain all the jobs lost
in the previous nine recessions. But at the current Obama job-creation pace, it will take about 80 months to regain those
lost jobs.
State of the Union blues. No matter what your political
persuasion, even if you're the biggest Obama supporter in the world, you have to wince when he says things that are obviously
untrue. I copied the transcript of his speech into Microsoft Word and started highlighting the lies, but that was an
exercise in futility. Almost everything was highlighted. He lies obsessively. [...] Then I tried limiting myself to
outrageous, interesting lies, but that's not really much of a limit with this guy. For example, he started by talking
about the economy and his very first sentence on the subject boasted about creating six million new jobs.
Six million! Just a few months ago he was running for re-election claiming four million, which was up from
three million, which itself was a figment of his overactive imagination.
Rubio's
Thirstiness Trumps Obama's Untruthfulness. Why does a re-elected chief executive, dubiously claiming a mandate from
the people, insult the intelligence of millions of Americans struggling to stay afloat in a contracting economy during the worst
economic recovery on record with ludicrous contentions like this: "After years of grueling recession, our businesses have
created over 6 million new jobs"? Why does he present an electorate that just returned him to power with the wild
claim that "already, the Affordable Care Act is helping to slow the growth of health care costs"?
After ignoring
unemployment, Obama seeks to convince Americans it's his top priority. White House spinners are working furiously in the final 72 hours before
President Obama's State of the Union speech. Their job: convince the recession-scarred American public that economic recovery is Obama's top
priority — after everything he has said and done to suggest otherwise. The unemployment rate is 7.9 percent — one tenth of a
point higher than it was when Obama took office in January 2009.
The President
Admits The "Recovery" Is Smoke And Mirrors. In my view, true recovery is one that has a lasting foundation of effective
business policies, fiscal sanity and monetary restraint. A Democrat recovery, we now know, is a house of cards created and
sustained by writing hundreds of billions of dollars in hot checks (h/t — Lloyd Bentsen). Don't believe me?
Here is what the President had to say today: [...]
Obama's
shotgun photo: Fake or for real? Yesterday Obama was on the gun violence kick. Today, it's immigration reform.
Both of which keep the public's mind off the sagging Obama economy.
Counting the Ways the Media Lies About
the Economy. Pop quiz: What was the biggest news story this week? And I don't mean, what was the biggest news story
according to Obama's media. Obviously, it was the economy taking a nosedive into negative territory last quarter, along with the fact that
hardly enough jobs were created last month to keep up with population growth. Oh, and the unemployment rate increased. Of course the
economy is the biggest story; it affects the most people and Obama's doing it wrong. But not only is the media never-minding the economy,
much of the media coverage related to economic bad news is forever being spun into good news.
As GDP Falls,
President Obama Runs Out of Excuses. When Obama first took office, he forecast 4% GDP growth for 2011 and 2012, as did
most everyone else. Actual results: 1.8% growth in 2011 and 2.2% in 2012. Just last summer, Obama was saying that Q4-over-Q4
growth in 2012 would be 2.6%. Actual result: 1.5%.
Unemployment
rate creeps back up, as Obama lays off his own jobs council. The President's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness expired in
obscurity Thursday [1/31/2013] in an unmarked bureaucratic grave. Created two years ago to display the Chicagoan's alleged concern
with high unemployment, whatever its PR showcase value had long since ended. In fact, as a typical Obama sign of his oft-repeated
commitment to creating hundreds of thousands of new jobs, the Democrat hadn't even bothered to meet with his hand-picked group of business
and union executives for more than half its life.
U.S. Economy Adds 157,000 Jobs in
January. The U.S. generated 157,000 jobs in January, just short of analysts' estimates and another sign that economic
momentum is stagnating. The headline unemployment rate inched higher to 7.9% from 7.8% a month ago. [...] On Wednesday [1/30/2013] the
Commerce Department said the U.S. economy shrank at an annual rate of 0.1% during the fourth quarter of 2012, the first quarterly drop since
2009.
Colorado Energy Office
Misspends Millions in Stimulus Funds. The Colorado Energy Office (CEO) misspent millions in stimulus funds and could not
account for a variety of other financial statements, according to a new audit from the Colorado state auditor. The CEO, charged
with administering energy funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and a host of other energy initiatives, "was unable to
demonstrate that $252 million spent over the past six years was spent cost-effectively," the report concluded. More than
half of that amount, roughly $144 million, came from Recovery stimulus monies distributed between the 2009-2012 fiscal years.
Obama's
jobs council shutting down Thursday. President Barack Obama will let his jobs council expire this week without renewing
its charter, winding down one source of input from the business community even as unemployment remains stubbornly high.
Dem leader Reid: 'We are in a recovery'.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Thursday said the American economy is "in a recovery" despite the decline in the nation's gross
domestic product (GDP). Reid made the remark after Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) blamed the White House for the
unexpected contraction in the economy.
In the same way a crop duster "pauses", right before nosediving into the ground...
US economy has
'paused', says Federal Reserve. The Federal Reserve left its ultra-loose monetary policy unchanged on Wednesday [1/30/2013],
saying the US economy had "paused" in recent months largely due to transitory issues.
The Reality of Long Term
Unemployment. In his "Mission Accomplished" moment, Barack Hussein Obama ended his jobs council on Thursday,
January 31, 2013. Despite the fact that more than 12 million people in the U.S. are still out of work. Obama's
allies will point out that when the jobs council began two years ago, unemployment was above 9 percent and has since improved
to 7.8 percent. What they conveniently overlook is that the unemployment number has shifted downwards in large part due
to people who have exceeded their unemployment benefits are no longer being counted.
Obama's Economy: The Excuses Begin.
Just days after the November presidential and congressional elections which gave President Barack Obama a non-mandate of 50.6% of the
popular vote and the demonstrated supported of less than 27% of all U.S. adults, NBC's Brian Williams actually told viewers:
["]With the election now over, it is once again safe to talk about the economy and jobs. Now that it is not a campaign issue,
it's back to reality.["]
Outgoing
Marxist Labor Secretary Blames Unemployment on... Tea Party. Outgoing Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, who along with Barack Obama
presided over the highest unemployment rate since the Great Depression, spoke with FOX News Latino about her own miserable record.
First Term: Americans 'Not in Labor
Force' Increased 8,332,000. The number of Americans age 16 or older who decided not to work or even to seek a job increased by
8,332,000 to a record 88,839,000 in President Barack Obama's first term, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Obama's Psycho Job Phobia.
Good news everyone: Jobless claims on a weekly basis fell to a five-year low according to the Labor Department. Bad news
everyone: Yet still more people remain jobless. And why is that? Because Obama doesn't care about jobs. When you
reckon out the newest jobless figures using the Obama's best calculus, the weekly decline doesn't mean that fewer people are unemployed.
Obama Jobs Council Has Not Met for a
Year. But how can he find the time to focus on jobs, when he has more important things to worry about, like banning
magazines with too many rounds, playing golf, promoting gay marriage, going on vacation, spending money, promoting abortion, playing
golf, making a speech, illegally providing amnesty to illegal immigrants, going on vacation, giving out money to his billionaire
supporters, playing golf and throwing another party.
Obama
Jobs Council hits 1 year without official meeting. President Barack Obama's Jobs Council hit a notable milestone on
Thursday: one year without an official meeting. The 26-member panel is also set to expire at the end of the month, unless
Obama extends its tenure. The group, formally known as the President's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness, last convened on
Jan. 17, 2012 for a White House session where it presented formal recommendations to Obama. It was the panel's fourth
official meeting since it was created in early 2011.
The Editor says...
It sounds as if Obama's Jobs Council was a sham and a farce, created to give the illusion of decisive action.
The Jobs Scare. With
unemployment stalled near 8 percent, it's tempting to skewer President Obama over the embarrassing news that his Jobs Council hasn't met
for a solid year — 369 days, to be exact. And its future seems to be in limbo. That's just as well. Jobs
councils don't create jobs, businesses do. The most lethal jobs-killer today is the uncertainty coming out of the White House.
Unemployment Rate
Same Today As It Was When Obama First Took Office. Even though much has changed the past four years, President Barack Obama begins
his second term with one thing that hasn't: the unemployment rate.
Bureau of Labor Statistics, Job Deception
Deepens. [Scroll down] A more comprehensive unemployment rate is the U-6 which counts all unemployed individuals 16 years
and older seeking full-time employment (the aforementioned U-3 rate), marginally attached workers and those working part-time despite wanting
full employment. Marginally attached workers include the discouraged who have given up the employment search. The December U-6
unemployment rate is 14.4; the 2012 average nearly 14.8 percent.
The New, Media-Numbed Normal. Associated
Press stories on the economy and the fiscal cliff during the previous week tell us that we're in for four more years of having
the so-called "essential global news network" and the rest of the establishment press tell us that we aren't really seeing what
we can see right in front of us. [...] The AP's headline writers and Christopher Rugaber already had their minds made up about
what last Friday's Employment Situation Summary from the Bureau of Labor Statistics would mean even before it was released.
Where Are The Jobs, Mr. President?
When Nancy Pelosi asked that question in 2003, the unemployment rate was 6.1 percent. The unemployment rate for blacks was
11 percent. GDP, however, was growing at a 7.2 percent clip, and barely more than a year later the unemployment rate had
fallen to 4.9 percent. That didn't stop Pelosi and her allies, including many in the news media, from repeatedly asking the
above question and proclaiming the jobs picture to be the worst since Herbert Hoover.
Obama says Washington
'doesn't have a spending problem.' Really? On the face of it, such a statement is completely ridiculous — and a bit
scary.
Obama to Boehner: 'We Don't Have a Spending
Problem'. In an interview with Stephen Moore of the Wall Street Journal, newly re-elected House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH)
opened up about President Obama's utter unwillingness to cut a single dollar from federal spending. In a stunning admission, Obama
reportedly told Boehner, "We don't have a spending problem."
Yes, Obama, There Is A
Spending Problem. Apparently, President Obama never got around to reading the final report of his own deficit commission.
How else to explain his belief that federal spending isn't the cause of the nation's debt crisis?
The Editor says...
Out-of-control spending is this country's biggest problem, and it is the problem most aggravated by Barack H. Obama. His denial indicates
that either he is trying to dismantle capitalism once and for all, or he
is incompetent, or he is a compulsive liar,
or he's just not too bright. Thanks again, Obama voters!
Net job gain under Obama: 28,000.
The average monthly job creation in 2012 was 150,000. That is the best one year performance during Obama's first term. That is
barely good enough to keep pace with the number of workers entering the job market every month for the first time, meaning that we have a
long way to go to replace the 7-8 million jobs lost during the recession.
The Four-Year Honeymoon.
President Obama never disappoints. When the monthly unemployment rate fails to drop, forget it. What's important
is the number of jobs created. But when the rate actually does drop, forget the growth (or lack of it) in jobs.
It's the rate that matters. And don't blame Obama for the persistence of slow economic growth and high joblessness.
That's the "new normal." As for the millions of dropouts from the job market, that's no big deal, hardly worth more than
a passing mention.
Unemployment Rises for Women,
African-Americans in December. Government unemployment numbers for December showed that while the general unemployment
rate remained flat at 7.8 percent, unemployment for women and African-Americans rose despite an economy that created 155,000 jobs.
Unemployment for women rose to 7.3 percent in December from 7.0 percent while the rate for African-Americans rose sharply
to 14.0 percent from 13.2 percent in November.
The Jobs Report. It's another dreary jobs
report out this morning from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, detailing yet another month of the apparently endless "Obama Recovery," the
worst since the Great Depression lingered on and on in the 1930s.
US Budget for Dummies.
Take the U.S. budget, remove eight zeros, and pretend it's a household budget.
With Election Over, Americans
Find They Were Duped By Democrats And Obama. Yes, the total number of people with private-sector jobs has grown by 2 million over
the last year, as the White House proudly trumpets — and did on the campaign trail. But what never gets reported is that 2.4 million
people have left the workforce entirely over the same stretch — so there is no net real job growth.
Obama's Big Michigan Right-To-Work
Lie: Lower Wages. Campaigning Monday [12/10/2012] in Michigan as it stood poised to become the nation's 24th right-to-work state,
President Obama spoke the exact opposite of the truth to union workers at a Daimler Detroit Diesel plant in the birthplace of organized labor.
"What we shouldn't be doing," he told the small crowd, "is trying to take away your rights to bargain for better wages. We don't want a
race to the bottom. We want a race to the top." Yet looking at the hard numbers, becoming a right-to-work state is a direct line to
the top.
'Bullish' November Data Mask An
Ugly Truth About Jobs. A rip-roarer for job creation and a major drop in the unemployment rate. At least, that's how the
mainstream media sum up November's job numbers. But scratch the data and a different story surfaces.
73% of Jobs Created in Last Five
Months Government Jobs. While the media pants with exhilaration over a dip in the unemployment level that was created by
over a half-million people giving up and dropping out of the workforce, a deep-dive into the employment numbers also reveals that it's
mainly government workers benefitting from what meager job growth we are seeing. Over the last five months, 73% of all jobs created
were government jobs.
Former
Obama Economic Adviser: Unemployment Rate Decline Due To Drop In Labor Force. Still won't stop Obama and his army of hacks
from claiming we're on the road to recovery.
370k New Jobless Claims;
Gallup Reports Unemployment Jump to 8.3%. After a few post-Hurricane Sandy weeks of new jobless claims hitting over 400,000,
it looks as though we've settled back into the new and accepted normal of new claims landing somewhere in the 360,000 to 390,000 range.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, this week saw 370,000 new claims filed. Keep in mind, though, that it's only in Barack
Obama's America that we've learned to celebrate any number under 400,000.
Why a budget deal could push
unemployment above 10 percent: The economy must add more than 349,000 jobs each month for three years to lower unemployment to 6 percent
and that is not likely with current policies. Most analysts see the unemployment rate inching up to 8.0 percent, while a few see it
remaining steady.
Now They Tell Us The Economy
Stinks. Little noticed in President Obama's "fiscal cliff" plan is a demand for a huge new stimulus package. Wait!
Wasn't he and everyone in the press telling us just before the election how the economy was gathering steam? [...] In the crucial last few
weeks before the election, the mainstream media were falling over themselves painting a rosy economic picture. Every upbeat bit of
data made it to the front page; any bad news got buried.
Jobless rate drops to
4-year low, economy creates 146,000 jobs. The dark cloud in the Labor Department's report, however, was a drop in the size of the work
force, which signaled that some people may have given up looking for work. [...] Friday's report included revisions to both the September and October
data showing that 49,000 fewer jobs were created than first reported.
The Editor says...
Imagine my surprise. The election is over, so now they're telling a different story about the emploment reports from September and October.
Militant Socialism in America.
Despite his "colossal economic failures" and a national debt "above $16 trillion" Barack Obama was given a second term. It is
not because the conservative message was wrong; it is because Obama is a master of marketing his message. Seductive and false
advertising as well as outright bribery marked this man's first term and will certainly be the hallmark of his second.
Obama
proposes tax credits for businesses who hire workers they don't need. Typical Obama, and indicative of a guy with zero experience
in the real world who has no idea how or why businesses expand payroll.
Post-election surprise: A slew of bad news.
[For example,] Jobless claims soared. Sure, the president got his minions to drop the unemployment rate to 7.8 percent a couple months before the election ("See?
It IS getting better!") But bam, just like you can be sure that the one relative who drives you nuts will absolutely make it to your house for the holidays, new
jobless claims skyrocketed right after Nov. 6, jumping to 439,000 — up 78,000 from the week before the election. Shocker to those "swing"
voters: The two states with the biggest leaps — Ohio and Pennsylvania, due, according to reports, to layoffs in the auto industry Mr. Obama
"saved." Perfect.
Surprise! Jobless Claims
Up 78,000 Week After Election; PA, OH Worst Hit. The Department of Labor has announced that new jobless claims rose
by a staggering 78,000 in the first week after the election, reaching a seasonally-adjusted total of 439,000. Over the past year,
and in the weeks leading up to the election, jobless claims were said to be declining, dipping as low as 339,000, with the media
proclaiming that they had reached the "lowest level in more than four years." Now, suddenly, the news seems far less rosy.
Mud Pies from the Labor Department. A college
graduate with a degree in biomedical engineering who gets a $90,000 job in his field is counted exactly the same in the government's unemployment report
as a biomedical engineering graduate who can't find a job and is working weekends as a bus boy at Applebee's. Or as the PBS Newshour succinctly
stated it, "If you only worked one hour in the past week, you're counted as officially employed."
Down and Out in Obama's America. The jobs report
for the month of October released on Friday [11/2/2012] reveals a bleak outlook and lack of opportunity for younger workers in the Obama economy.
As CNN Money blog reported, the liberal Center for American Progress hailed the employment numbers while businessmen emphasized their inadequacy.
US employers post fewest
jobs in 5 months. U.S. employers posted fewer job openings in September after advertising more in August than first estimated.
Media Celebrate Increased Unemployment, Lower
Wages. In January of 2009, when President Obama took office, the unemployment rate was 7.8%. Four years and around $5 trillion
dollars in debt later, it's 7.9%. When Obama took office the long-term unemployment (U-6) rate was 14.2%. Today, it's 14.6%.
Obama promised us 5.2%. And, still, the media celebrates the jobs numbers.
Obama's economy added 171,000 jobs last month, but
unemployment also rose by 170,000. The good news for America and Obama is that the US economy added 171,000 people to payrolls last
month. But [...] there is some bad news. The number of those without a job also grew by 170,000, moving the overall unemployment
rate up from 7.8 to 7.9 percent.
Obama Campaign on Thursday: Doesn't Matter What the
Jobless Number Is. With four days until Election Day, the unemployment report coming out this morning takes on added significance —
either boosting President Obama's contention that the economy is improving, or suggesting that it is not.
Unemployment
Higher than Obama Predicted for Oct. 2012 Without Stimulus. Remember when the White House, via their economists Christina Romer and Jared
Bernstein, sold the $800 billion stimulus by saying that if it were passed, the unemployment rate would be 5.2% in October 2012?
Obama eases off 'one-term
proposition,' says economic fix takes more than 4 years. Despite saying in 2009 that failing to right the economy in three years would mean
a "one-term proposition," President Obama on Thursday [11/1/2012] may have moved the goalposts.
Unemployment rate
rises to 7.9 percent, economy adds 171,000 jobs. The final monthly jobs report before Election Day offered a mixed bag of
numbers that would surely become political putty for the presidential candidates, with the unemployment rate ticking up to 7.9 percent
but the economy adding a better-than-average 171,000 jobs. [...] While 171,000 jobs were added in October, the number of unemployed grew by
roughly the same amount — to 12.3 million.
Revising the numbers downward — again.
New ADP Count Slashes Job Creation for September. Revisions to the way payroll
data firm ADP counts private sector job creation have resulted in a sharp drop in the September employment count. ADP's new
calculations put the monthly job creation at just 88,200, down from the 162,000 the firm originally reported earlier this month.
That bad, eh?
Labor Department May Delay Jobs Report.
[Scroll down] There was also a prediction released by a major pollster today that predicted a bad jobs report could be a game-changer and
tip the race to Romney decisively. And then what happened...? Well, lo and behold, the U.S. Labor Department releases a statement
stating the hurricane might delay the release of the jobs report.
Labor Department 'Working Hard' to Ensure Jobs Report Released on
Time. The U.S. Labor Department on Monday [10/29/2012] said it is "working hard to ensure the timely release" of the October jobs report, saying it
intends to released the report on schedule Friday despite Hurricane Sandy.
Obama's Jobs Creation Claims False.
President Obama has lately been touting the claim that he's created 5.2 million new jobs as President. His fantastic boast is featured in a new TV ad.
But FactCheck.org says not so fast. Those claims are "inflated," to say the least. FactCheck notes that the 5.2 million claim is accurate, such
as it is. But what makes it "inflated" is that the jobs number refers only to jobs created after 2010 and does not include the 4.3 million
that were lost earlier in Obama's term.
The October Surprise and the November Election.
When the fall in the unemployment rate to 7.8 percent — below that resonant 8 percent threshold — was announced
on October 5, many were incredulous that the weak US economy could produce such a robust jobs report. Yet those who
spoke out on the number were clobbered by the MSM[...]
Top 10 reasons to vote Obama out of
office. [#1] Don't let the official 7.8 percent unemployment rate for September fool you; work-force
participation is at a record low and 23 million American [sic] are looking for work. Ten times as many people have
dropped out of the work force during Obama's term than have found a job. His last attempt at helping the unemployed —
the 2009 stimulus package — cost nearly a trillion dollars with minimal impact on creating actual jobs.
Obama's Inflated Jobs Claim. In a new TV ad, President Obama makes an inflated
claim to have added 5.2 million new jobs. The total added during his time in office is actually about 325,000.
Obama Misleads on Foreign Jobs. "You are familiar with jobs being
shipped overseas because you invested in companies that were shipping jobs overseas," President Barack Obama zinged at Mitt Romney during Monday
night's [10/22/2012] foreign policy debate. The president's line of attack has been found to be misleading and inaccurate. Furthermore,
Obama's policies have helped created jobs overseas by sending U.S. taxpayer dollars to foreign companies.
Obama Is Right. From the 23 million
Americans unemployed or underemployed and the 46 million people now on food stamps, to the decline in workforce participation and
the explosion of people on disability, many now realize the fallacy of his reputedly deft decision-making skills. His claim in
the last debate of having created 5 million jobs rings hollow to an electorate seeing fewer people working today than when Obama
took office. Yet, the story he insists on telling America is that he saved us.
Ahead of Election,
Obama Stops Releasing 'Stimulus' Reports. The $831,000,000,000 economic "stimulus" that President Obama spearheaded and
signed into law requires his administration to release quarterly reports on its effects. But "the most transparent administration
in the history of our country" is now four reports behind schedule and has so far not released any reports whatsoever in 2012.
Its most recent quarterly report is for the quarter than ended on June 30, 2011.
Why
would anyone believe Obama will focus on jobs in a second term? [Scroll down] "What I want to do," he said, "is
build on the five million jobs that we've created over the last 30 months in the private sector alone." Even if you accept
Obama's absurdly fanciful job numbers, the net effect is an average 166,000 jobs a month, which is far short of the $254,000 jobs
needed per month for 5 years just to reach pre-recession levels of unemployment.
Surprise! Jobless claims return to
18-month range. It's funny what happens to a data series when consistency returns to its collection. Last week's
weekly jobless claims numbers dropped dramatically to nearly a four-year low, but later it was discovered that one large state didn't
report all of its claims properly. This week, the level returns to the same range we've seen since the spring of 2011.
Plant
that Received $150m Stimulus Cash Hasn't Produced a Single Battery. A local Michigan television station reports that workers
at LG Chem, a lithium-ion battery plant that received over $150 million stimulus dollars, have so little to do that they spend their
days playing cards and board games, reading magazines and watching movies. And they have yet to make a single battery.
Calif.
official whose agency under-reported unemployment stats was Obama campaign donor. Marty Morgenstern, the secretary
of the California agency that substantially under-reported unemployment claims last week, contributed to President Barack Obama's
2008 presidential election campaign, The Daily Caller has learned.
Jobless Claims Hit Four-Month High:
Increase 46K to 388K. It was strange, though, to see last week's jobless claims hit a four-year low right after a
counter-intuitive drop in the September unemployment rate — all of this coming just weeks before a presidential
election. But according to the corrupt media, only "truthers" dare question the government, so let's just get to this
week's numbers [...]
U.S. Jobless
Claims Rise 46,000 on Seasonal Shift. Jobless claims increased by 46,000 to 388,000 in the week ended Oct. 13
from a revised 342,000 the prior period that was the lowest since February 2008, Labor Department figures showed today in
Washington. The median forecast of 49 economists surveyed by Bloomberg called for a rise in claims to 365,000.
Media Suddenly Muted on Jobless
Claims. This week, jobless claims have soared to 388,000 — a four-month high. NPR explained, correctly, that both
changes were largely the result of the fact that California failed to process all of its jobless claims last week and therefore
submitted an incomplete report that was rectified this week. But it did not bother to revisit its cheerleading from the
week before, nor did it try to imply broader conclusions about the direction of the economy under Obama.
Memo To Michelle: What A
'Huge Recovery' Looks Like. A Washington, D.C., hip-hop station host asked Michelle to "in your words, tell us what you
think the state of the union is in right now?" Her answer: "I mean, we are seeing right now that we are in the midst of a
huge recovery. Right? Because of what this president has done." We wholeheartedly agree with the first lady that the
current state of the economy is the result of "what this president has done."
Michelle Obama: 'We Are in the Midst of a Huge Recovery'.
First Lady Michelle Obama said in a radio interview on Friday [10/12/2012] that the United States is in the "midst of a huge recovery" because of what "this
president has done." [...] According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), the real gross domestic product (GDP) increased by 1.3 percent in the
second quarter of 2012, down from 2.0 percent from first quarter 2012. The BEA data also show GDP growth of (negative) - 3.1 percent in
2009; 2.4 percent in 2010; and 1.8 percent in 2011.
Believe it — Employment Numbers Were
Ginned. A couple weeks ago, this column analyzed the inflation rate reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), and concluded that you should
rely on your common sense when the government reports questionable statistics. If they don't make sense based on what you see, experience, and hear from
your friends, then they're probably wrong. Last week's unemployment number — which decreased to a still-dismal 7.8% — should not only
make no sense to you, but should have never made sense to the BLS and therefore should never have been issued.
Jobless Claims Data Skewed Downward.
Coming a month ahead of the presidential election, some have suggested that the numbers are being manipulated for political purposes.
Specifically, some supporters of Republican candidate Mitt Romney have accused the Obama Administration of doctoring the numbers to support
President Obama's re-election bid. The White House and the Labor Department have denied the charges. Because one state left out a
chunk of its weekly reports from last week, the jobless claims numbers will likely be revised upward in the coming week.
Obama's Real
Unemployment Rate Is 14.7%, And A Recession's On The Way. The U6 unemployment rate counts only 2.5 million of those 8.2 million
who have given up hope and dropped out during the Obama years. The ShadowStats website, which counts the long term discouraged workers the
government doesn't count, reports the total rate for the unemployed and underemployed (part time for economic reasons) as 22.8%. Of the
12.1 million the government does count as unemployed, a record 40.1% are long term unemployed for more than 6 months.
Jack Welch quits Fortune.
Jack Welch, the former CEO of General Electric who recently suggested the Obama administration had manipulated last week's jobs
numbers, has resigned from his role as a contributor to Fortune magazine. "Welch said he will no longer contribute
to Fortune following critical coverage of the former CEO of General Electric, saying he would get better 'traction' elsewhere,"
Fortune's senior editor Stephen Gandel reports today [10/9/2012].
We've Gotten To The Bottom Of The Mysterious
Jobless Claims Report! We spoke to an analyst at the Labor Department. According to this analyst, here's what
happened: All states were included in this week's jobless claims. Assertions that "a large state" was excluded from the
report are patently false. However... It is likely that some of the jobless claims in one large state —
California — were not included in the claims reported to the Department of Labor this week. This happens
occasionally, the analyst says. [...] California claims that were not processed in time to get into this week's jobless
report will appear in future reports, most likely next week's or the following week's.
Rush
Limbaugh: If Obama Admin Lied About Libya, Why Wouldn't They Lie About Unemployment Numbers? On his syndicated
radio show Wednesday afternoon, conservative host Rush Limbaugh seemingly likened the debacle over the administration's handling
of the Libyan attacks to former President Bill Clinton's initial denial of extramarital affairs with intern Monica Lewinsky,
and then explained that if the Obama administration was capable of "lying" about the Benghazi consulate attacks then it is not
inconceivable that they would also lie about the September jobs report.
More 'Fudged'
Employment Numbers from Government? The mainstream media are ecstatic; National Public Radio proclaimed the
headline breathlessly this morning: jobless claims are at their lowest levels in four years! New claims fell by an
astonishing 30,000 in one week! It's an unbelievable improvement in the national job market — "unbelievable"
being the key word.
The Reality Behind the Labor
Numbers. The unemployment rate does NOT divulge what percent of the civilian population is in the labor force. As more people
become discouraged and quit looking for work, both the unemployment rate and the civilian labor rate fall. This is what has happened during
the last four years. [...] If the percentage of people participating in the labor force were the same today as it was in 2008 (66 percent),
and if the employment figures had remained the same, the unemployment rate would be 11.1 percent.
Why September's Unemployment Number is
Suspicious. [Scroll down] Of course, nothing can be proved. Rare and improbable events can happen. It's
possible that an event that is expected to occur only once about every 700 years happened to occur for the first time in 65 years just
one month before a presidential election.
Obama Makes Miracles Happen.
This latest miracle of miracles has Obama creating a precipitous rise in part-time workers suddenly finding employment. Talk about loaves
and fishes! Almost 600,000 more people found part-time work than one month ago, a stunning 7.25 percent increase in part-time work
month-over-month. And how do government economists provide this miracle data for Saint Obama? By polling.
Time to Investigate the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
[Scroll down] The BLS also reported on Friday [10/5/2012] that the number of full time jobs actually declined last month
by 216,000. Thank you, President Obama. You are doing a great job. Socialism is finally working. Forward. Why would
we ever consider turning back now? So how did the reported unemployment rate fall to 7.8%, down from 8.1% in August, and 8.3% in July?
That is because the BLS (might consider dropping the L) also reported that the separate Household Survey, on which the unemployment rate is based,
found a giant 873,000 jump in jobs last month, the biggest one month increase in nearly 30 years!
The 'Real' Unemployment Rate Is Still Really Lousy. If you have doubts about the official
jobless rate, there's another rate you can check out instead — the "real" unemployment rate, which measures everybody considered
unemployed plus a lot of others who are falling through the cracks. The government calls this the "U-6" rate, and it has become a
source of considerable intrigue lately. Some critics of President Obama contend that the government keeps the "real" rate a secret,
because it reveals an economy that's in far worse shape than the official unemployment rate suggests.
The Private Sector is Not Doing Fine. President Barack Obama
famously blamed the bad economy on a struggling public sector, but a new Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) report shows that the issuance of pink slips
has slowed among government workers while jumping across much of private industry. In August, nearly 1.8 million private sector employees
were laid off — up nearly 300,000 from July and nearly 100,000 from August 2011. Those layoffs came just two months after Obama
proclaimed that "the private sector is doing fine" and attributed struggling job creation to government layoffs.
Santelli
Smells A Rat: 'I Told You They'd Get It Under 8% — They Did!'. Rick Santelli, the man who helped launch the
Tea Party with his impassioned comments from the trading floor in 2009, sees the hand of politics at work in today's [10/5/2012]
announcement that the unemployment rate has dipped below 8%. Speaking on CNBC's Squawk Box this morning just minutes after the
number was announced, Santelli said: "I told you they'd get it under 8% — they did!"
Meet the Obama Donors at the BLS. At least two economists at the
Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) have contributed to President Barack Obama's campaign. Harley Frazis of Bethesda, MD, has contributed at least $2,000 to
Obama and $9,000 to the Democratic National Committee over the last three election cycles.
Jack Welch: I Was Right About That Strange Jobs Report.
Let's get real. The unemployment data reported each month are gathered over a one-week period by census workers, by phone in 70% of the cases, and
the rest through home visits. In sum, they try to contact 60,000 households, asking a list of questions and recording the responses. [...] Even if
the BLS had a perfect process, the context surrounding the 7.8% figure still bears serious skepticism.
Jack
Welch insists jobs figures ARE dodgy and attacks Obama supporters for acting like communists. A defiant Jack Welch, the former CEO of
General Electric, today maintained that the September jobs report, which saw unemployment drop to 7.8 percent, is 'downright implausible' and
blasted criticism of him from Obama backers as reminiscent of Communist China.
Jobs Report Met with Skepticism. "The big jump in
the household survey is certainly a welcome sign. But take this data with a grain of salt, especially considering the volatile reputation this data
point holds," writes the Wall Street Journal. "No way in the world these numbers are accurate," said Ed Butowsky of Chapwood Capital Investment on
Fox Business. "Somebody needs to do an investigation. ... Investigate these numbers."
A Couple of Thoughts On President Obama.
The unemployment numbers came out Friday and the rate dropped from 8.1 percent to 7.8 percent. Although that sounds like progress, it didn't
happen because people actually found jobs — only 114,000 did so in September, which isn't enough to keep up with population growth.
It was because the Bureau of Labor Statistics "found" jobs that were created months ago.
Economist: Unemployment drop 'implausible ... a
statistical quirk'. This a jobs recovery built on part-time jobs, falling wages, and disappeared discouraged workers.
October Employment Report: What Really Happened?
The key to the change in the unemployment rate is the fact that there were a lot of people who reportedly found part-time work. Bloomberg highlights
this fact in writing[.] Some 582,000 Americans took part-time positions because of slack business conditions or those jobs were the only work they could find.
Here's The REAL Reason The Unemployment
Rate Has Fallen So Much This Year. Whereas the headline unemployment rate has dropped from 8.5 percent to
7.8 percent this year, if there were the same number of people looking for work today, as there were in December 2011, the
unemployment rate would have only dropped from 8.5 percent to 8.35 percent today.
Goldman
Drops A Bomb On People Who Think The Unemployment Rate Was Cooked. [Scroll down] But here's the thing.
This is not technically a measure of job creation. It's a monthly survey of employment that's fairly volatile, and as Ezra
Klein notes, this kind of one-month drop in unemployment is not that unusual.
Dishonest Unemployment Numbers.
[Scroll down] Well, in proper context, 144,000 new jobs creating a 0.1% decrease in unemployment in 2004 does not explain
how 114,000 new jobs makes for an even larger drop in unemployment with an even larger population in 2012. If we were really
seeing an authentic drop in unemployment, that would be cause for celebration. But these new numbers and their illogical
implications represent cause for inquiry and alarm.
Why the unemployment rate won't keep dropping.
The numbers come from a survey of individuals. The unemployment rate can go down because more people have jobs. Great. But it can also
go down if a growing number of people say they have given up looking for work. Not so great. And for much of the past year the bulk of the
reason for the drop in the unemployment rate, which peaked at 10% in late 2009, has been the shrinking workforce.
The
figures are debatable and the recovery is dubious. [Scroll down] But conspiracy theories aside, there are two problems with the
administration's report. First, there's the question of what figure to use to calculate employment levels because there are two data sets
available. One is the establishment survey, which is based on payrolls and puts the jobs gained at 114,000 — an unusually low
number for this time of year. The second is the household survey, which is based on what people say they are doing at the moment. The
household survey puts the jobs gained at 873,000 — an unusually high number for this time of year.
The October Surprise. I was stunned into
silence by this morning's ridiculous unemployment report, showing a magical drop in the unemployment rate from 8.1% to 7.8% despite
not one single other economic or employment indictator suggesting that such a gain was possible.
Media
Jobs Distorters Worse Than Truthers. Predictably, skeptics about the federal jobs numbers released yesterday are being
labeled as "jobs truthers" in many quarters. Those alleging a flat-out conspiracy are being treated as nutcases. As Politico
notes, even some Republicans are trying to throw cold water on the theories being floated that assert the unemployment rate is only
declining because of an effort to cook the figures to benefit President Obama.
Surprise! Unemployment Suddenly Under 8%!
[T]his White House has had more credibility problems than Lindsay Lohan. The Internet video killed our ambassador, GM is doing just
fine (but no, we can't let the government sell its stock because the taxpayers would take a bath), Iran won't get The Bomb, the world will
love America because Obama had a Muslim father who became an atheist. And last but not least — if anyone disagrees they
have to be a racist! Unemployment makes it under 7.8% the month before the election? Surprise, surprise, surprise.
October
Surprise? Unemployment Rate Tumbles Amid Questions. After a week of setbacks to his campaign (Biden's gaffe
of the week and the miserable debate performance), President Barack Obama woke up to a 7.8% unemployment rate, a gift to
his campaign to be sure. This rate is the lowest it has been since Obama took office. But, is this 7.8% unemployment
accurate and do average Americans benefit? The answer is no, not really. [...] The fact remains that one year ago when we
had 9% unemployment, we actually had 2,680,000 more Americans in the labor force. Essentially, that means that over
2.5 million workers have given up looking for work since last year.
Labor
Secretary Solis Misleads on Jobs Revisions. Suspicion about the federal government's September jobs report has fallen on
Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis, who appeared on CNBC this morning and defended the numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS),
claiming — falsely — that upward revisions of 86,000 jobs were from the private sector. In fact, the new number is entirely
accounted for by upwards revisions to state and federal government payrolls.
Even If Obama Did Cook The Jobs
Numbers, They Still Stink. So let's leave aside the fact that the BLS numbers suggest that while the economy created
just 114,000 jobs in September, the number of people employed somehow rocketed up by 873,000 and the number of unemployed plummeted by
456,000. And let's also ignore the fact that this "employed" number has jumped that high only four times in the past 64 years
(not counting jumps resulting from changes in "population controls" used by the BLS). And that every other instance was during a
period of powerful economic growth. It's also all perfectly innocent, we're sure, that as a result of these odd numbers, the
jobless rate just happened to fall back down to 7.8%, right where it was when Obama took office, providing him good economic news
just when he needed it the most.
Unemployment rate drops, but enthusiasm fades
fast. [Scroll down] Meanwhile, a separate critical measure of the nation's job market remained unchanged last month.
The U-6 data which takes into account not just those who are unemployed and looking for work, but also those who want a job but aren't
looking and those can only find part-time jobs remained stuck at 14.7 percent.
1,035,000: Construction Jobs Lost Under
Obama. When President Barack Obama signed his economic stimulus legislation on Feb. 17, 2009, he said that one
impact of the act would be to create jobs for 400,000 people building and rebuilding the nation's infrastructure. But despite
a price tag that the Congressional Budget Office now says was $833 billion, the economic stimulus of February 2009 did not
create 400,000 new construction jobs.
Labor
secretary 'insulted' by claims job numbers were rigged. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis said she is "insulted" by charges
Friday [10/5/2012] from conservatives saying the Obama administration manipulated September's jobs report to boost the president's
reelection chances. Solis said the claims — by Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.) and former General Electric Chairman Jack
Welch — that her department fudged the employment numbers were "ludicrous."
Fuzzy Math?: CNBC Describes
New Unemployment Numbers as 'Contradictory'. As soon as ex-General Electric CEO Jack Welch fired off a tweet questioning
today's just released "unbelievable jobs numbers," the media went into a frenzy talking about how "conservatives" were launching
conspiracy theories. Well, that's handy for the media and the Obama campaign, but it's not just "conservatives" who are
confused by a full 0.3% drop in unemployment when only 114k jobs were created.
Jack Welch Says
White House Games the Jobs Data. Jack Welch used his Twitter account to challenge the Obama administration over the surprise
drop in the September U.S. unemployment rate, saying the data were manipulated for political gain. "Unbelievable jobs numbers..these
Chicago guys will do anything..can't debate so change numbers," the former General Electric Co. chief executive officer said in a message
posted immediately after the U.S. Labor Department reported that the unemployment rate fell to 7.8 percent last month, the lowest
since President Barack Obama took office in January 2009.
U.S. Jobless Rate
Unexpectedly Falls to 7.8%; 114,000 Jobs Added. The unemployment rate in the U.S. unexpectedly fell to 7.8 percent in
September, giving President Barack Obama's re-election campaign a boost a month before the election. The economy added 114,000
workers last month after a revised 142,000 gain in August that was more than initially estimated, Labor Department figures showed
today in Washington.
Hillary:
'Loosen Regulation' Because 'Too Many People Still Can't Find Jobs' — In Tunisia, Egypt, Libya. Speaking
to a group of foreign ministers from Arab nations at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York on Friday, Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton expressed support for loosening regulations, particularly on small businesses, because "too many people still can't find
jobs" — in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya.
Workers give up in Los Angeles. In Los Angeles, the
falling unemployment rate is slightly misleading, just as it has been for the country overall. When surveyed by the government, fewer L.A.
residents say they're unemployed compared to a year ago. But it's not because they're finding jobs. It's because they're dropping out
of the labor force altogether.
Oops Report spills the beans on jobs numbers.
[Scroll down] The biggest fudge factor in the monthly employment report that everyone watches is a guesstimate for newly formed companies that [the
Department of] Labor can't count but assumes exist. So in almost every month Labor adds a generous number of jobs to its report for these possibly
nonexistent jobs. Even if these newborn companies do exist, austerity may be keeping them from hiring quite the number of people as Labor thinks.
Meet America's Hidden Unemployed: The Workers So Discouraged, They
Don't Even Count. Economists, analyzing government data, estimate about 4 million fewer people are in the labor force than in
December 2007, primarily due to a lack of jobs rather than the normal aging of America's population. The size of the shift underscores the
severity of the jobs crisis. If all those so-called discouraged jobseekers had remained in the labor force, August's jobless rate of 8.1 percent
would have been 10.5 percent.
More unemployment statistics for dummies. Generally, we don't like it when our president
callously spouts bald-faced lies at us... but that's exactly what the current president does on a daily basis. [...] His biggest lie is about the
unemployment situation. [...] For example, the July numbers also included another 52,000 jobs added by this adjustment. If you're keeping
track, the official announcement of 163,000 jobs gained was actually 266,000 jobs lost. Under Obama there's been a massive increase in Social Security
disability rolls. Those people — 5.9 million since he became president — are automatically subtracted from the labor
force making the unemployment rate look better.
Top 10 bad economic signs for Obama. [#1]
Unemployment rate: Despite his promise that the nearly $1 trillion 2009 economic stimulus would get America working again, the unemployment rate
has been above 8 percent for 43 straight months. The current 8.1 percent jobless rate woefully understates the reality of problem.
When taking into account people working part-time who want a full-time job and those who have given up looking for work, the rate is over 15 percent.
Add in recent college graduates working at McDonald's at the rate tops 18 percent.
Another Thursday, Another
Unemployment Claims Misdirection. Both the headline and opening sentence at Christopher Rugaber's Associated Press report on today's
[9/20/2012] unemployment claims release from the Department of Labor tell readers that initial unemployment claims fell by 3,000 during the most
recent week. Though Rugaber acknowledged that last week's initial figure was revised up, he didn't say by how much (3,000, from 382K to 385K), and
of course didn't note that based on the track record of the past year, there's a 98% chance that this week's figure will also be revised up.
BLS: Obama Unemployment
Rate Above 8% Longer Than Any Other President Since 1948. Excluding January 2009, the month when Barack Obama was
inaugurated, unemployment has stayed above 8 percent, which is longer than under any other administration since the Bureau
of Labor Statistics (BLS) started measuring the monthly jobless rate: Over 8 percent for 43 months during Obama
compared to a total of 39 months above 8 percent between 1948 and 2008.
The sun never sets on Obama's failures. [Scroll down] Our
country is not well. The Census Department says median income continued to fall in 2011. A separate analysis found that
incomes are down almost 5 percent since the Obama "recovery" began — illustrating that, despite what Bill Clinton might
say, the Obama recovery is not a recovery at all. The drop in the unemployment rate from the recession high of 10 percent
to the current 8.1 percent can be ascribed entirely to the decline in labor participation. Studies find that a majority of the
jobs the economy has created are low paying.
The
Media and Obama are Taking Us Down the Rabbit Hole. To re-elect Barack Obama, the media has a long list
of what they expect us to believe. [...] The media expect us to believe that those millions who have stopped looking for
work must really not want to work. The media expect us to believe the unemployment numbers aren't rigged. The
media expect us to believe that we just have to pay $4.00 a gallon for gas. The new normal.
Regulatory
Tsunami To Hit Business If Obama Wins Second Term. A Gallup survey earlier this year found that almost half of small
businesses cite worries about new government regulations as a reason they're not hiring.
Four Simple Charts to Share With Friends,
Family Members, Neighbors and Colleagues. If you know someone disconnected from politics, unmotivated to vote, or otherwise
sitting on the fence, please share with them [this article's] four graphs. And then ask them one simple question...
Jobless Claims Jump
to 382K; Two Month High. The number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits jumped to a seasonally adjusted 382,000
last week, the highest level in two months.
Obama in the Buff. [President Obama's] promises to
create 5 million green energy jobs have come to nothing, as has his pledge to cut the deficit in half by the end of his first term,
but who in the national media is pointing that out?
How Poor is "Poor"? The rise in
poverty from 36.4 million in 2006 to 46.2 million in 2011 was due initially to the recession and now to the failure of the
Obama administration to restore jobs in the economy. According to the Census Bureau, some 11 million more adults are without
work today than before the recession began. This number has been getting worse year by year. Similarly, roughly 8 million
fewer Americans work fulltime through the year.
Unemployment
would be 11.2 percent if the labor force were the same as when Obama took office. Last Friday's jobs report does not
tell the whole unemployment story, according to American Enterprise Institute blogger and CNBC contributor James Pethokoukis.
He writes, "If the labor force participation rate was the same as when Obama took office in January 2009, the unemployment rate
would be 11.2%."
Obama's
Next Big Bounce May Be Out Of Office. The bounce expected from Barack Obama's Democratic Convention speech collapsed the
following day under the reality check that the current unemployment figure is 8.1%. And 40.7% of those people have been out of work
for 27 weeks or more. Those numbers tell only a small part of Obama's failure to deliver on his promises. The real
unemployment figure is closer to 19%. The official count doesn't include the 8 million unemployed who have given up and
stopped looking for a job, the people who have had to settle for part-time work, those who had to take lower-paying jobs that are well
below their qualifications or the 11 million who are out of the workforce collecting Social Security disability checks.
Study: Recovery For
Burger-Flippers Only. According to new analysis of unemployment data by the National Employment Law Project, while
60 percent of the jobs lost during the 2008-2009 financial crisis were in middle income occupations, the vast majority —
58 percent — of jobs created under President Obama are low-wage. Those jobs include "retail sales, food preparation,
home health and customer service."
In a second term, Obama
would offer more hope, little change. Obama's problem is entirely of his own making. He has spent four years overpromising
and underdelivering. The word "stimulus" never appeared once in any of the convention speeches. But when the stimulus passed,
Obama's economists promised that unemployment would drop below 6 percent by August 2012. In 2010, the Obama team heralded "Recovery
Summer," with Biden announcing: "We have turned this economy around." Instead, the jobless rate has stayed above 8 percent
for 43 consecutive months, a modern record.
Real Unemployment at 19%. When you include the
underutilized labor figure with the eight million Americans who have lost hope altogether and stopped looking for a job, real unemployment now stands at
just under 19 percent. If the labor force were the same as when President Obama took office in January 2009, the unemployment rate reported on
Friday [9/7/2012] would be 11.2 percent.
Un-Spinning Jobs Numbers. I detect some
confusion in the electorate regarding jobs numbers. Obama claims he created 4.5 million private-sector jobs.
His critics claim he lost 4 million. Are we better off than four years ago? Fact-checkers, shockingly, aren't
helping us sort this out very well. So let me try.
Those Jobless Numbers Are Even Worse Than They Look.
Don't be fooled by the headline unemployment number of 8.1% announced on Friday. The reason the number dropped to 8.1% from 8.3% in July was not because
more jobs were created, but because more people quit looking for work. The number for August reflects only people who have actively applied for a job in
the past four weeks, either by interview or by filling an application form. But when the average period of unemployment is nearly 40 weeks, it is
unrealistic to expect everyone who needs a job to keep seeking work consistently for months on end. You don't have to be lazy to recoil from the
heartbreaking futility of knocking, week after week, on closed doors.
White
House broken record: Don't 'read too much into' bad jobs numbers. Friday morning [9/7/2012], after word came that the
economy added just 96,000 jobs in August — while 368,000 people left the work force, too discouraged to keep looking for
a job — the White House faced its monthly challenge: How to soften the impact of terrible news on the employment front?
The answer is by warning Americans "not to read too much into any one monthly report." Perhaps the bad news is an anomaly, Council
of Economic Advisers chairman Alan Krueger warned Friday. Of course, Krueger said the same thing last month. And the
month before. And the month before.
Lost
Middle-Class Jobs Being Replaced by Burger-Flipping and Retail Gigs. There's been a lot of talk in recent years about
the "hollowing out" of the American middle class. A new study by the National Employment Law Project (NELP) confirms the troubling
trend. NELP broke down jobs into low- middle- and high-wage groups based on median incomes. Looking at the period from early
2008 through the first quarter of 2012, the study found:
• "High-wage" occupations accounted for 19% of the jobs lost during the Great Recession and 20% of the jobs
gained during the recovery.
• "Mid-wage" occupations suffered 60% of job losses during the recession but only 22% of the growth during the recovery.
• "Low-wage" occupations accounted for 21% of the losses and a whopping 58% of the growth.
Democratic Platform:
Obama 'Rescued' Auto Industry — GM, Chrysler ... and Ford? According to the Democratic Party platform, President
Obama rescued Detroit's Big Three automakers — GM, Ford and Chrysler — leading to their recovery and resurgence.
However, the claim flies in the face of the fact that one of the Big Three — Ford — managed to turn things around by
itself, without taking federal help.
Young adults drop out of the job market.
The drop in the unemployment rate in August isn't particularly good news for the economy — it's driven mostly by nearly
400,000 people dropping out of the labor force, rather than more people finding jobs.
Why Blame Obama? Let me count the
ways. [...] When the dust clears, the CBO expects TARP to cost taxpayers $32B. Who got that money if banks didn't?
General Motors, Chrysler, and "mortgage programs." But GM and Chrysler went bankrupt anyway. The U.S. auto industry
was not "saved."
The Low-Wage Jobs Explosion. Sure, the economy is adding jobs these days ... but most of those
positions pay pretty poorly. Some 58% of the jobs created during the recovery have been low-wage positions, according to a new report by the National Employment Law Project.
Axelrod To Wallace: Americans
'In A Better Position Than We Were Four Years Ago'. Appearing on Fox News Sunday this morning, President Obama's senior adviser David Axelrod
told host Chris Wallace that he believes Americans are better off today than they were four years ago. "Can you honestly say that Americans better off
today than they were four years ago?" Wallace pointedly asked Axelrod. "I can say that we're in a better position than we were four years ago in our
economy, in the sense that when this president took office, we were losing 800,000 jobs a month," Axelrod responded.
Obama lied about Janesville GM auto
plant, not Ryan. [Scroll down] In other words, everything Paul Ryan said was true: He pointed to Obama's own lofty
promises about the plant being open for the next "100 years" if he were elected and contrasted it with the reality of a shuttered
factory locked up and empty to this day. It was Obama who lied to Janesville workers. Ryan told America the truth.
Why
Labor Force Participation Has Fallen During the Recession. The drop in unemployment since 2009 is almost entirely due to
the fact that those not looking for work do not count as unemployed. Demographic factors explain one-fifth of the decreased labor
force participation. The rest comes from increased school enrollment and more people collecting disability benefits. Six
percent of U.S. adults are now on disability insurance.
Jobless claims hold steady.
The number of people filing for their first week of unemployment benefits was unchanged last week, following three straight
weeks of increases, the government said Thursday [8/30/2012]. The Labor Department said 374,000 people filed first-time
jobless claims in the week ended Aug. 25. That was slightly more than the forecasts of economists surveyed by
Briefing.com. The previous week's reading was raised from the initially reported 372,000.
FACT: Obama is still a net job killer.
On the stump, President Obama likes to claim, "Over the last three and a half years, we've created 4.5 million new jobs." This is
actually false. According to the latest Department of Labor data, even measuring from the depths of the recession, only 4 million
jobs have been created under Obama. What Obama probably means is that the economy has created 4.5 million private sector jobs
since the recession bottomed out.
Obama's Latest
Whopper: He Created More Jobs Than Reagan! Where are those allegedly unbiased fact-checkers when you need them?
Like this week and the fantastic fib that Obama's deputy campaign manager told about job growth under the current president. [...] You'd
think that if the Obama campaign wanted to peddle outright fabrications, they'd at least do it so they weren't so easily debunked.
Not that the mainstream press, so deep in the tank for Obama, will bother.
Labor Secretary Cheers Youth Unemployment
Rate of 17.1 Percent. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis cheered a slight decline in the youth (16-24) unemployment rate, saying that it
was a sign that the job market was improving for America's young people. [...] Solis' statement marked the release of the Bureau of Labor
Statistics' annual youth unemployment report. Solis said that the report showed positive signs for young job seekers, noting that the
youth unemployment rate had fallen to 17.1 percent over the past two years.
Number Of
Unemployed Vets Drops — But, the Number Employed Fell Even More. Yes, according to the Bureau Of Labor Statistics, the
total number of unemployed veterans and spouses is down 223,000 from last year (July 2011 to July 2012). But, the number of EMPLOYED
veterans and spouses is down even more — falling 239,000 — over that same time period. How? Well, 462,000
veterans and spouses have dropped out of the labor force (10,925,000, down from 11,387,000) — and their labor force participation
rate fell from 52.7% to 51.6%.
Obama, Holder Sledgehammer the First
Amendment. Twice this summer, Gallup has published a report calling into question discrepancies between its unadjusted research
and what is being tallied in the adjusted O-fficial statistics. [...] In other words, Gallup said the only way unemployment numbers don't go up
next month is if someone in Obamaland puts a finger on the scale.
DNC to Promote 'Success' of Auto
Bailout. President Barack Obama claims the $82 billion auto bailout "created or saved" one million jobs. But this is the Administration that
claimed the $1 trillion so-called "Stimulus" bill "created or saved" jobs — in non-existent Congressional districts. The administation spent
$80 billion on "green jobs" — but couldn't define what a "green job" was. And when they finally started defining it — counted
things like oil industry lobbyist, bus driver and garbage man. Suffice to say, President Obama and his Democrat cohorts have a long history of being...
disingenuous. And having a great deal of difficulty with math.
The Democrats plan for 9 percent
unemployment. The Congressional Budget Office released its Update to the Budget and Economic Outlook: Fiscal Years 2012 to
2022 today [8/22/2012], showing that if Congress and President Obama do nothing to stop Taxmageddon and the sequester unemployment will rise to 9.1 percent
next year. Sounds bad right? But guess what? This is the preferred plan of a growing number of Democrats.
Phantom jobs are really scary.
I'm still waiting for a reasonable explanation from the Labor Department on why it decided that so many brand-new businesses were suddenly creating so many
new jobs in July. If you missed it, I analyzed Labor's latest employment numbers last Saturday [8/4/2012] and found that its total of 163,000 new jobs
for July included 52,000 phantom jobs.
BLS: unemployment rose to 8.3 percent in July. The U.S. unemployment rate rose to 8.3 percent in
July as the economy added 163,000jobs, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported Friday [8/3/2012]. The real unemployment, which includes frustrated
job seekers and underemployed part-time workers, rose to 15 percent, up half a percentage point from April. The labor force participation rate, at
63.7 percent, remained near its lowest level in 30 years.
Obama's Real Unemployment
Rate Is In Double Digits. No sooner had the numbers come out than President Obama was standing at a podium before the cameras, claiming
credit for the job growth and again blaming former President Bush for the bad state of the economy. "This morning we learned that our businesses
created 172,000 new jobs in the month of July," he said. "That means that we've now created 4.5 million over the last 29 months and
1.1 million new jobs so far this year." But "we" haven't in fact created any jobs. As a matter of fact, since Obama has entered office,
some 1.1 million payroll jobs have disappeared.
I don't believe 'em. I've long
believed the Labor Department's monthly employment statistics are horribly inaccurate. So bad, in fact, that they are hardly worth
compiling. But I never thought the numbers were fudged — until now. The government reported yesterday [8/2/2012] that 163,000
jobs were created in July and that the unemployment rate rose by 0.1 percentage points to 8.3 percent. Those 163,000
new jobs beat the experts' estimates by a lot even though the July growth was still so moderate that it would barely absorb the number
of new workers trying to enter the labor market for the first time.
Obama's Calculated Deception. Contrary
to the Obama campaign's misleading claim of 4.4 million new jobs created, total jobs today are still half a million less than
in January 2009 when Obama entered office.
Unemployment rises, WH
calls it 'evidence' of recovery. President Obama's top economic aide described the July jobs report — which
shows a small increase in the national unemployment rate — "further evidence" that the economy is recovering. [...] He
made the White House's oft-repeated caveat that "it is important not to read too much into any one monthly report," but offered
today's numbers as a ratification of Obama's policies.
Jobless
Rate Rises, Government Says 'Essentially Unchanged'. With a rising unemployment rate set to dent President Barack
Obama's re-election efforts, the mainstream media is about to go into full-spin mode. They can take their cues from the
Bureau of Labor Statistics itself, which announced that the jobless rate had risen from 8.2 to 8.3 percent in July but
called the result "essentially unchanged."
Those Perennially-Crumbling
Roads and Bridges. Just about a year ago, I observed that no matter how much the federal government spends on "infrastructure,"
we still get predictable cries that "we need to do something about our crumbling infrastructure." The need to fix "crumbling roads
and bridges" a perennial rallying cry in President Obama's speeches, even though he touts the stimulus as "the largest new investment in
our nation's infrastructure since Eisenhower." The government spends enormous sums of money, but there's never any sign of it having
an impact, at least in the rhetoric of those who want to spend more.
Former
Obama Backer: 'Secure Job' the New American Dream. In 2008, billionaire publisher and real estate mogul Mort
Zuckerman supported Barack Obama. [...] Mr. Zuckerman catalogues the economic carnage under Obama:
• "Job seekers are only one third as likely to find a job as before Obama was elected. A record number
have been out of work for over six months."
• "Fewer Americans are working today than in the year 2000, despite the fact that our population has grown
by 31 million and our labor force by 11.4 million since then."
• "All the net jobs created during the Obama administration have been part-time jobs. An estimated
35 million Americans are trapped in jobs they would have left in better times."
• "The unemployment rate under President Obama has averaged over 9 percent. Under George W. Bush,
his predecessor, the jobless rate averaged 5.3 percent and was at 6.8 percent in the month his party lost the 2008 election."
Great News Everyone! Obama's Plan
Worked... According To Obama. If you think consistently high unemployment and trillion dollar deficits are good things, you're
in luck. In fact, everything's coming up roses, according to Obama.
Obama on the economy: 'We tried our
plan — and it worked'. Discussing his economic policies at a fundraiser in Oakland, California, last night, President Obama,
told supporters that "we tried our plan — and it worked." "We tried that and it didn't work," Obama said of Mitt Romney's proposed
tax cuts and spending cuts, which he dismissed as a Bush-style "top down" economic policy. "Just like we've tried their plan, we tried our
plan — and it worked," he added later in the speech. "That's the difference. That's the choice in this election.
That's why I'm running for a second term." Obama made these comments in Oakland, where the unemployment rate was 13.7 percent in
May 2012.
It depends on what the plan was.
Obama, After Three
Years of High Unemployment: 'We Tried Our Plan — and It Worked'. Speaking to supporters in Oakland, CA, President Obama
declared that his economic policies are already proven successes. [...] The president mentioned the auto bailouts, and it's reasonable to conclude
that he is also discussing the two signature pieces of legislation he has signed into law, the 2009 stimulus and ObamaCare. Both were sold as
plans to remedy the ailing economy. Obama also sought to convert the US energy economy from fossil fuels to "green" technology, with a promise
of job creation to go along with that. The administration promised that the stimulus would knock unemployment down to about 5.5% by now.
It has not even come close to that mark.
The Artificial Eight Percent Unemployment Rate is
Immaterial. Historically a sitting president's chances for reelection are nil when the unemployment rate exceeds the eight percent
threshold. More significant to the present situation however is the fact that the ostensible improvement in the nation's employment debacle
is clearly contrived. The books are being juggled to a degree that makes Enron accounting look downright virtuous. Yet nowhere among the
nightly news anchors is it suggested that such manipulations coming from the highest levels of the federal government might be a breach of the
peoples' trust, or more accurately, evidence of a political strategy based on total deceit.
Former
DNC Chair Howard Dean Says Economy "Getting Stronger" Despite Evidence To the Contrary. Former DNC chairman Howard Dean, appearing on
CNBC, reinforced the notion that the Obama campaign is out of touch with reality when he said that "by every measure our economy is getting stronger,"
despite government reports showing exactly the opposite. Dean admitted that the economy may not be growing as fast as we want, but he said it's
doing just fine. That's what the Obama campaign wants voters to believe, but government statistics released last week paint a very different
picture.
U.S. 'Drowning In
Unemployment,' Says Federal Reserve Member. On Friday [9/28/2012], Dallas Federal Reserve President Richard Fisher said the
U.S. is "drowning in unemployment" and that the Fed's monetary easing was not the solution; certainty on taxes and regulation are what's
needed to jump start hiring.
Ten Pieces of Bad Economic News the Media's
Covering Up. Except for number ten, all the bad economic news below came out this week — much of it today
[7/19/2012]. And this explains why the corrupt media is making all of our eyes glaze over as they enter day 11,485 of demanding
Romney release his tax returns and Bain-Bain-Bain. By focusing on nonsense and on Romney, the media can protect Obama from what
you see below — which is an economy and Americans in very real trouble.
The Latent Function of
Welfare Un-Reform. There has been much gnashing of teeth over the fact that the Obama Administration's recent
decree on welfare reform means that practicing yoga or bed rest would count as work for purposes of admitting people to welfare
rolls, but there well may be another purpose of the action — intended or unintended. [...] So, clearly, a latent
function, or goal, of the actions is the reduction of the unemployment rate — if you're not seeking work but engaged in
the "work activity" of bed-rest and are collecting welfare because of that status, you are no longer unemployed.
Obama's jobs panel is a sham and a farce.
President Obama's jobs panel missing in action.
President Barack Obama's Jobs Council hasn't met publicly for six months, even as the issue of job creation dominates the 2012
election. At this point, the hiatus — which reached the half-year mark Tuesday — might be less
awkward than an official meeting, given the hornet's nest of issues that could sting Obama and the council members if the
private-sector panel gets together.
Obama's
White House jobs council fraud. The president can't manage his own White House jobs council. The community
organizer who never had to account for how well the community was organized can't even manage his own creation. [...] Revelations
about the comical neglect and disintegration of the White House jobs council come immediately after the president said he didn't
think building a business was much of an accomplishment anyway. His jobs council hasn't met in six months and doesn't have
plans to meet again in the near future.
Obama Hasn't Received His Daily
Economic Briefing Since April 2011. If you look at Barack Obama's calendar for 26th of April, 2011 you will see on
his schedule at 10 AM "The President receives the Economic Daily Briefing," after that nothing. According to the daily schedule
released by the White House, Barack Obama hasn't received his "daily" economic briefing for the past 15 months.
The congresswoman is correct. This article is posted here
because AT LAST even Democrats are admitting the official numbers are wrong.
Democratic
congresswoman: Unemployment worse than 8.2 percent. Participation in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance
Program, or food stamps, continues to increase despite reported decreases in unemployment. According to Connecticut
Democratic Rep. Rosa DeLauro, however, the reason behind the swelling food stamp rolls is that unemployment is worse than
the 8.2 percent reported earlier this month by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
History destroys claims for Obama
jobs plan. The most common excuse President Barack Obama offers for the nation's continuing economic woes is that those blasted
Republicans in Congress are obstructing him from passing new "stimulus" bills that they know would instantly revive job growth. On
MSNBC and in the comments section of media websites, this argument is repeated, with GOP lawmakers called saboteurs, traitors, racists
and worse.
You Didn't Sweat, He Did.
"If you've got a business, you didn't build that." If the World's Greatest Orator turns out to be a one-term president, it is likely
to go down as the most memorable utterance of his career. Mitt Romney certainly hopes that happens.
"You didn't build that?!" Once again Barack Obama has
demonstrated that he doesn't have a clue about how America works. [...] Obama claims that anyone in the US who runs a successful business
has not achieved that success on his or her own volition, but instead has to thank the government for making that success possible.
Obama Insults Small Business Owners.
President Obama insulted small business owners during a campaign stop in Roanoke, Va. on Saturday [7/14/2012]. "If you've got a
business — you didn't build that," Obama told the crowd. "Somebody else made that happen." President Obama said successful Americans
did not become successful on their own — they had help. "If you've been successful, you didn't get there on your own," he said.
"You didn't get there on your own."
The Editor says...
Wait a minute — let's talk about the businesses that Barack H. Obama has built over the years. Oh yeah, I remember
now. He has never built or managed a profit-motivated business in his life. Not so much as a hot dog stand. When
it comes to small business in America, Obama has no room to talk and no experience to draw upon.
President Obama — Public Employee #1.
President Obama gave a speech last weekend that was so utterly out of touch with American values, so clueless as to how things work in this country,
that I have to add a few footnotes to his performance.
Obama's Socialist Mantra: Risk Takers Are
Free Riders. The unbridled disdain President Obama has for the entrepreneurs who work hard and risk everything was made plain when he
told supporters in Roanoke, Va.: "If you've got a business — you didn't build that. Somebody else made that happen."
This was stunning news and a colossal slap in the face to the millions of small-business owners who get up every day and by the sweat of their brow and
the drive of their ambition still pursue the American dream in spite of the obstacles and hurdles this administration has put in front of them.
Barack
Obama says government invented the internet and the American Dream is a fantasy. Of course, capitalism is a team sport.
But the idea that an individual's merit is the product or property of the community is the antithesis of the pioneer spirit. On
Sunday [7/15/2012], President Obama gave us a fascinating insight into his alternative philosophy. In a speech to supporters, he
said that business leaders owed the government more money in taxes because it was the state that made their success possible.
The real 'outsourcer': Obama sends jobs fleeing.
As President Obama was attacking Mitt Romney for supposedly "outsourcing" jobs when he ran Bain Capital (a charge disputed by The Washington
Post's fact checker), tens of thousands of Americans were fleeing the Obama economy to find work in Canada. [... According to Reuters,] "Government
figures show that Canada issued 34,185 temporary work permits to Americans last year, just shy of the record 35,060 handed out in 2010, and
officials expect that number to keep growing." Why will it keep growing? Because the U.S. job market is not growing, while Canada's is.
How the Democratic Media Spin the News.
This morning I participated in a media phone call organized by the Romney campaign. It was led by John Sununu and focused on President Obama's
astonishing claim that "If you got a business — you didn't build that. Somebody else made that happen." Sununu was joined by four
small business owners. Sununu was nuclear. He said that Obama's comments show three related things: 1) The President doesn't
understand how America and business work. No wonder his administration has failed to create jobs. 2) Obama's crony capitalism:
he thinks the way to create jobs is for the government to pick winners and losers, and slide money to Obama's bundlers and allies. 3) Obama's
attitude toward small business also reflects where he comes from, the "murky political world" of Chicago where politicians and felons are interchangeable.
Obama's
Class-Warfare Rhetoric Demonizes Success. Anyone who wants to study the tricks of propaganda rhetoric has a
rich source of examples in the statements of President Barack Obama. On Monday [7/9/2012], for example, he said that
Republicans "believe that prosperity comes from the top down, so that if we spend trillions more on tax cuts for the wealthiest
Americans, that that will somehow unleash jobs and economic growth." Let us begin with the word "spend." Is the
government "spending" money on people whenever it does not tax them as much as it can? Such convoluted reasoning would
never pass muster if the mainstream media were not so determined to see no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil when it
comes to Barack Obama.
Job creation numbers exclude job losses due to higher energy prices.
Wind energy jobs: Are the numbers pulled from thin air. The
American Wind Energy Association has made extending the Production Tax Credit ('PTC') its primary focus this year. Documents
available on the trade group's website show that about $4 million of its 2012 budget ($30 million) was directed toward
securing extension of the PTC. With job growth the number one political issue in the United States, AWEA's strategic plan
calls for rebranding of the wind industry as an economic engine that will produce steady job growth, particularly in the
manufacturing sector. The problem for AWEA is that the industry's own record on job growth lacks credibility.
Accurate information available in the public suggests the industry has inflated its overall job numbers.
Green Jobs Count: Fewer than Before, Sillier than Ever.
Back in March, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released a study showing our economy had 3.1 million green jobs. Recently, it issued another
green jobs study with a headlining number of 854,700 green jobs. Don't worry — the economy did not lose 2 million green jobs in three
months. There were not 3.1 million green jobs to begin with. And there are not 854,700 green jobs now.
Obama's 'Progressive' Tax Plan Actually
Screws Over The Little Guy. What the President didn't say in his speech yesterday [7/9/2012] is far more important than what he did say.
He did not say word one about the 2% Social Security tax break that has been on the books the past few years. What this means is that the FICA tax
break is going to expire. When it does, every worker's paycheck is going to get hit by 2%.
Official:
Total Unemployed at 16.2 Percent. Yahoo!Finance reports: Most of the unemployed no longer
receive benefits. ... Interestingly, if the students (or anyone else) work as little as one paid hour per week,
they are considered employed. I believe a significant number of those who do use up all their unemployment
benefits drop out of the labor force to collect retirement benefits. Such persons want a job but stop
looking and go on early retirement just to have some money coming in.
Biden's
Jurassic Ideas About How Jobs Are Created. On a day when unemployment topped 8% for the 41st month in a row, it's worth noting
Vice President Joe Biden told Ohioans Tuesday that "so-called job creators" don't build the economy. It explains a lot.
The So-Called Recovery in One Chart.
The Editor says...
The employment-to-population ratio dropped like a rock when Obama took over, and has not recovered. Nor will it ever recover, until Barack Obama is
driven out of the White House.
Jobs versus net jobs. The government can create a million jobs tomorrow,
just by hiring that many people. But where does the government get the money to pay those people? From the private economy — which
loses the money that the government gains. With less money in the private sector, the loss of jobs there can easily exceed the million jobs
created in the government or in industries subsidized by the government. The Obama administration's creation of "green jobs" has turned out to
cost far more money per job than the cost of creating a job in the private sector.
Even Scientists Can't Find Jobs In America Today.
We've written about how college students should major in science, tech, engineering or math (STEM). This conventional wisdom is based on government propaganda
(Obama: "This is what will make a difference in this country over the long haul.") and studies showing that science majors from the past forty years have scored
better jobs. Unfortunately today's science job market doesn't live up to the hype.
Obama Has Lied to Us For Years
About Jobs Reports! Once again we get a dismal jobs number from our government. So few jobs were created that
we aren't even keeping up with population growth! And once again Obama tells us not to pay any attention to those numbers.
Hunter wants new number as
measure of unemployment rate. The call for a change is partly driven by the fact that labor force participation is shrinking
rapidly and the depth of unemployment is often lost in the unemployment rate. A few months ago, the unemployment rate actually
dropped even though we added only 120,000 jobs. If we had the same number of Americans in the workforce today as we did when Barack
Obama became president, the unemployment rate would be 11 percent. If we calculated unemployment using the workforce when
George W. Bush first became president, the rate would be around 13 percent.
Thirty
Times the Obama Administration Admonished Americans Not to Read Too Much Into a Montly Jobs Report. The Obama White House
deserves credit for its consistency, if not its performance, on jobs. Since November 2009 it has told Americans not to read too
much into a monthly jobs report a staggering 30 times.
Obama
administration repeats same jobs line — for the 30th month. When the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced the
nation's latest national employment figures Friday [7/6/2012], the Obama administration stressed that people should not "read too much"
into the data.
Biden: 'So-called job creators' don't build
economy. Vice President Joe Biden faulted Mitt Romney for believing that "so-called job creators" build the economy, as he suggested
that government spending and increased taxes on the wealthy would provide long-term economic strength. "[Romney believes] somehow, that those
so-called job creators will make everything okay for the rest of us," Biden said at the National Education Association conference.
Obama's Green-Jobs Fraud Exposed.
The administration has a most curious way of describing what a green job is, but if you count just the "direct" jobs, it cost taxpayers $9.8 million
to create each of those long-term jobs. Throw in the indirect jobs supporting the direct jobs estimate of 4,600 (we're confused too) and
there are 5,510 total jobs (direct and indirect). Starting with the $9 billion in grants, the result to establish 5,510 jobs averages
out to $1.63 million per job.
More about
so-called green jobs.
Obama Is A Job-Outsourcing
Hypocrite. The president accuses his likely opponent of outsourcing jobs as his re-election campaign hires telemarketers in Canada and
the Philippines. And what about GM in China and those electric cars built in Finland?
Amateur Hour at the White House. Any fifth-grader knows that
public sector jobs, needed as they are, do not create anything. They do not expand the economy. They don't help the private sector
grow. And adding more government workers certainly does not bring down our ballooning deficit. But these elementary facts seem lost
on President Obama. Recently, the president showed the country his lack of understanding of how the economy works when he declared the
private sector was "doing fine." He also went a step further, insisting that government spending on jobs is the best way to stimulate
the economy.
The Punk President and His 'Gangster
Government' Go All In. Once in office, Obama started with an $800 billion stimulus package which turned out to be little more
than temporary layoff prevention for certain public employees and the distribution of billions to "green" and "clean" energy firms which could
never survive in the marketplace on their own. It was sold to the public largely as a recovery-motivated attempt to bring about
"shovel-ready" jobs. We're supposed to believe that Obama only later discovered, thanks largely to barriers imposed by government red tape
and organized labor, that there really isn't any such thing as a shovel-ready job. In hindsight, it's reasonable to contend that Team Obama
knew this from the start, and didn't care. There were cronies and contributors who needed care and feeding.
70
Facts That Barack Obama Does Not Want You To See. [Barack Obama] is the biggest cheerleader for the economy. He is
attempting to convince all of us that everything is just fine and that the economy is heading in a positive direction. Well, the truth
is that everything is not fine and things are about to get a whole lot worse.
• Back in 2007, about 10 percent of all unemployed Americans had been out of work for 52 weeks or longer. Today,
that number is above 30 percent.
• The amount of money that the federal government gives directly to Americans has increased by 32 percent since
Barack Obama entered the White House.
• U.S. housing prices are now down a total of 35 percent from the peak of the housing bubble.
• The official U.S. unemployment rate has been above 8 percent for 40 months in a row.
• According to one survey, 42 percent of all American workers are currently living paycheck to paycheck.
• Shockingly, at this point 48 percent of all Americans are either considered to be "low income" or are living
in poverty.
President
Obama: The Biggest Government Spender In World History. The U.S. has never before had a President who thinks so little of the
American people that he imagines he can win re-election running on the opposite of reality. But that is the reality of President Obama
today. Waving a planted press commentary, Obama recently claimed on the campaign stump, "federal spending since I took office has risen
at the slowest pace of any President in almost 60 years."
Why is this man whining? Obama's
blaming his predecessor for his own record as his term comes to a close is incredibly unbecoming. Listen to his tone in the video.
The whining makes him unlikable. But it is not just the tone that is off. His comments are ineffective. It's too soon to
rewrite history. We know he is wildly stretching the truth.
Jobless claims on the rise.
The number of Americans filing for first-time unemployment benefits climbed last week, indicating continued trouble for the labor market.
The Labor Department reported Thursday that 386,000 people filed new jobless claims in the week ended June 9, up 6,000 from the previous
week's revised figure. That was 11,000 more than expected.
Obama's big spending feast.
Obama's defenders argue that Bush should be held responsible for the huge spike spending in 2009, because he was president for the first
four months of the fiscal year, which began Oct. 1, 2008. Yet 2009 includes Obama's economic stimulus package and several
spending bills that were OK'd under Obama's watch. Furthermore, though Bush signed the $700 billion Wall Street bailout, Obama
voted for it as senator, advocated for it as a presidential candidate and lobbied the Democratic Congress to release the second batch
of money while he was president-elect.
Cutting Up the Truth. Obama deputy campaign manager Stephanie
Cutter continued her assault on reality in a Tuesday morning [6/12/2012] interview with MSNBC's Chuck Todd. Cutter began by
discussing the Obama campaign's most recent attack ad, which slams GOP nominee Mitt Romney over the debt accumulated during his term
as governor of Massachusetts by the overwhelmingly Democratic legislature. The ad repeats the erroneous claim that Massachusetts
"fell to 47th in job creation" on Romney's watch.
Obama Can't Keep His Jobs
Story Straight. Just how inept is the White House these days? On Friday, President Obama was demanding that Congress
put "teachers, cops and firefighters" back to work. But his own website says he's already accomplished that.
Obama's Public Sector Full
Employment Plan. Last week, President Obama said "the private sector is doing fine." This was not reassuring to those of us
who suspect the Democrats haven't the first idea what "private sector" means.
Obama's 'clarification'
on private sector was really a doubling down. The private sector, as everyone not "out of touch" with reality knows, is not
doing fine. As even The New York Times had to acknowledge, the 69,000 jobs created last month were far less than what is necessary
to keep up with population growth, and the "shabby" job numbers for the two preceding months were revised even further downward.
Obama's Real Spending Record.
After taking office in 2009, with spending and debt already at record high levels and the deficit headed to $1 trillion, President
Obama proceeded to pass his own $830 billion stimulus, auto bailouts, mortgage relief plans, the Dodd-Frank financial reforms and
the $1.7 trillion ObamaCare entitlement. While spending did come down in 2010, it wasn't the result of spending cuts but
rather because TARP loans began to be repaid, and that cash was counted against spending.
The only thing worse
than the economy is Obama talking about it. When Mr. Obama took office in 2009, there were 11.6 million people
unemployed in this country. Today, after all of Mr. Obama's economic voodoo, there 12.7 million unemployed. The
unemployment rate when Mr. Obama took office was 7.8 percent. It was not supposed to pass 8 percent, but, of course,
it did. And didn't stop going up until it hit 10 percent in October 2009. Since then, the rate has been dropping,
though that is largely because of people simply giving up looking for jobs.
Message from the flight
deck. [Scroll down] Well, last Friday [6/1/2012] the cockpit warning lights for our economy lit up.
The Labor Department reported that the number of jobs produced in May was a dismal 69,000 — well below predictions.
Additionally, the job creation numbers for March and April were revised significantly downward and, overall, the unemployment rate
edged up from 8.1% to 8.2%.
Seventy-Six Trombones
and 8.2% Unemployment. This week the economic news is so grim even the media's usual qualifier "unexpected" is
meaningless. We have grown to expect a stagnant economy on the rocks. Meantime, the Obama campaign is heading
into full conman territory, hoping like the Wizard of Oz that we'll just pay no attention to the pint sized amateur behind
the curtain pulling the government levers.
The Real Unemployment Rate.
The nominal unemployment rate is still high, but the real jaw-dropping fact is the number of working-age Americans who are
not working. Today that is 100,000,000 Americans out of a total population of about 310,000,000. Demographically, about
80,000,000 Americans are minors and about 40,000,000 are age 65 or older. That leaves approximately 190,000,000
Americans who are adults of working age. About half of those do not have a full-time job. The situation, according
to the very statistics of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, show an increasingly dismal picture, when the number of people who
could be working but are not is counted.
That Professor Obama
Dog Won't Hunt Anymore. The Obama campaign's days of telling us that what looks like bad news is really
good news that we are just too dumb to comprehend are drawing to a close.
Jobs report a
trainwreck. The U.S. economy added just 69,000 jobs in May, well below expectations of 150,000 job gains, according
to a report by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Not only did BLS report terrible numbers for May, but it made downward
revisions to previous months job growth numbers, which were already considered weak.
Spending? What
spending? Franklin Delano Roosevelt never denied that he created Social Security. Lyndon Baines Johnson didn't
forswear any responsibility for Medicaid. Ronald Reagan never argued that his defense buildup didn't happen. The
Obama White House, in contrast, wants to wish away the historic federal spending that is one of its signature accomplishments.
White House vs. Fact
Checkers: Sticking to Obama's Fiscal Story. The Obama administration is holding firm to its heavily challenged
assertion that federal spending has slowed during his tenure in office. At a campaign earlier this month in Denver, Obama
said, "Since I've been president, federal spending has risen at the lowest pace in nearly 60 years. Yes, we're
going to streamline government. There's more waste to be cut."
President
Obama blames Congress for weak jobs report. President Barack Obama on Friday put the blame for a weaker-than-expected
May jobs report on Congress, saying lawmakers' inaction has stymied economic recovery. "Right now, Congress should
pass a bill to prevent more layoffs," Obama told an audience gathered at Honeywell's Golden Valley, Minn., facility, which
the president had earlier toured.
766,000 More Women
Unemployed Today Than When Obama Took Office. The number of American women who are unemployed was 766,000
individuals greater in May 2012 than in January 2009, when President Barack Obama took office, according to data released
today by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In January 2009, there were approximately 5,005,000 unemployed women in the
United States, according to BLS. In May 2012, there were 5,771,000.
Spending lies run into facts.
Many in the political class, including President Obama and many members of Congress, have an interest in confusing, rather
than enlightening, the public. The effort to misinform about the growth in spending and the impact of government spending
on job creation reached a new level last week when the president claimed he was the most restrained spender since President
Eisenhower and that spending was up only a little more than 1 percent (over what?).
WH:
Obama has demonstrated 'fiscal restraint'. White House Press Secretary Jay Carney insisted to reporters on Air Force One
today [5/23/2012] that President Obama has "demonstrated significant fiscal restraint" and applied a "balanced approach." According
to the pool report, Carney added that any reporting to the contrary, would just be the result of "sloth and laziness."
Actually, the Obama spending binge
really did happen. Until Barack Obama took office in 2009, the United States had never spent more than 23.5% of GDP,
with the exception of the World War II years of 1942-1946.
Obama's big deficit lie. On
Wednesday [5/23/2012] at a Denver fundraiser, Mr. Obama said he was "running to pay down our debt in a way that's balanced and
responsible." He claimed that "after inheriting a $1 trillion deficit, I signed $2 trillion of spending cuts
into law" and that since he has been president, "federal spending has risen at the lowest pace in nearly 60 years.
Think about that." It doesn't take much thought to see that this is the most absurd claim in political memory. [...] The
"savings" Mr. Obama signed into law were all based on rosy economic projections, none of which has come true.
Marketwatch's Rex Nuttting On Obama Spending.
It's been going around Facebook and the Twitters. It's been rated "mostly true" by Politifact. It is the MarketWatch piece on
how Obama hasn't really increased spending all that much. And I'm [very] tired of picking it apart 140 characters at a time,
so I put together this sarcastic infographic showing exactly how sloppy this piece really is.
Fun & Games with Mainstream Media
Numbers. [Scroll down] Now for the whopper of all whoppers. This one comes from Marketwatch, headlined
"Obama spending binge never happened." [...] The real story is that current federal spending is at an historical peacetime high,
as it's been since Obama's inauguration. And that massive (half-a-trillion-dollar) step up over the historical norm came
when Democrats took over budgeting. In all the above stories, the raw facts were technically true (at least I think so).
But the stories were spun more than Regan's head in The Exorcist. Good news was made out to look bad. A historically
massive increase was made out to look historically small. Etc. Up is down, and freedom is slavery.
Nuts to Nutting: Under Obama, Real Spending Has Exploded.
On Tuesday, Rex Nutting of MarketWatch, who per his Linkedin profile is the site's Washington bureau chief, published a column titled "Obama
spending binge never happened." This column will show that it did, but that clever accounting has largely concealed its existence.
Biden: Tea Party stopped us
from growing economy. Vice President Joe Biden admitted to a group of supporters in New Hampshire this afternoon that the President would have been
able help the economy "much, more" if the Tea Party hadn't taken the House.
The Lost 5 Million. Five million Americans have been thrown under the
bus. They are walking around dazed, outcast, and defeated. Worst of all, they are not even counted in official tallies of the unemployed.
They are those whom the Obama administration simply wishes to ignore: working-age adults who have dropped out of the labor market completely.
They are those for whom the economic recovery underway should have created jobs but has not.
Washington Post: Obama Green Jobs Cost $5 Million
Each. The Washington Post might be a day late and $38 billion short, but it's being honest about Barack Obama's failed green jobs
program. According to the Post, the "$38.6 billion loan guarantee program" has created just "3,545 new, permanent jobs" "after giving out
almost half the allocated amount." For those not doing the math at home, that means more than $5 million per job. The Post outlined
Obama administration promises to "create or save 65,000 jobs" in the green jobs category. What it left out was that, while campaigning, Obama
promised to create 5 million "green" jobs. He's about 4,996,455 short.
Obama's inevitable shellacking. Just about every
objective indicator foreshadows a huge re-election defeat for President Obama. With every day that passes, Mr. Obama looks more like a loser.
That's because there is doom and gloom everywhere you look. When government mathematical fudging is stripped away, unemployment is stuck over
10 percent.
President Obama is fooling no one with positive
spin on limp job numbers. For the second straight month, President Obama is spinning pathetically weak job data as "good news." Who is he kidding?
The economy added a measly 115,000 jobs in April. At that poky rate, we wouldn't fully bounce back from the Great Recession until the presidential election in
2016. And the only reason unemployment inched down to 8.1% was that another 342,000 Americans gave up looking for jobs and dropped out of the workforce completely.
The
Artificial Eight Percent Unemployment Rate Is Immaterial. Lengthy analyses of the raw numbers, combined with "revised"
data compiled over the past several months, undeniably reveal a serial pattern of falsified government bookkeeping for the purpose
of putting a positive face on the unprecedented disaster of Obamanomics.
What Is the Real Unemployment Rate? 11.1 Percent?
James Pethokoukis asks, "what is the true state of the labor market?" He offers, "If the size of the U.S. labor force as a share of the total population was
the same as it was when Barack Obama took office — 65.7% then vs. 63.6% today — the U-3 unemployment rate would be 11.1%."
The awful April jobs report. Any
way you slice or dice it, the April jobs report was terrible — and terribly disappointing. Employers added just 115,000 workers to their payrolls
last month, way below the 180,000 Wall Street economists were expecting. Hiring has now slowed in three straight months. Job growth in March and April
averaged 135,000, down from an average 252,000 per month in the three months to February. [...] Then there's the broader, U-6 measure of unemployment which includes
the discouraged plus part-timers who wish they had full time work. That unemployment rate, perhaps the truest measure of the labor market's health, is still
a sky-high 14.5%.
Obama brags as joblessness reaches record high of 11 percent.
More phony job numbers. The White House
crowed on Friday [5/4/2012] about the unemployment rate dropping a 10th of a percent. At the same time, the number of people out of
the labor force reached a record high. The Obama administration can report all the funny numbers it wants, but the American people
know in their guts that things are getting much worse.
The 86 million invisible unemployed. There are far more jobless
people in the United States than you might think. While it's true that the unemployment rate is falling, that doesn't include the millions of nonworking adults
who aren't even looking for a job anymore. And hiring isn't strong enough to keep up with population growth.
The Vanishing Workers. The economy turned in another lackluster
month for job creation in April, with 115,000 net new jobs, 130,000 in private business (less 15,000 fewer in government). The unemployment rate fell a tick to
8.1%, albeit mainly because the labor force shrank by 342,000. This relates to what is arguably the most troubling trend in the April jobs report, which is the
continuing decline in the share of working-age Americans who are in the labor force. The civilian labor participation rate, as it's known, fell again in
April to 63.6%. That's the second decline in a row and the lowest rate since December 1981.
'Real' Unemployment Rate Remains at 14.5 Percent. The
"real" unemployment rate — a broader, more inclusive measure of the country's jobless picture than the one usually used — remained
unchanged at 14.5 percent in April, as the economy created a paltry 115,000 jobs. Known formally as the U-6 unemployment rate, this measure
includes those formally counted as unemployed, those known to be marginally attached to the workforce, and those who are working part-time because they
cannot find full-time work.
The
Unemployment Rate Is Meaningless. Normally, a drop in the unemployment rate would be a welcome sign of an
economy on the mend. But in the upside-down world of Obamanomics, the jobless figure is increasingly useless, hiding
more than it reveals. [...] In fact, the only reason the jobless rate didn't climb in April is because so many people have
simply quit looking for jobs and didn't get counted as unemployed.
Obama's weakly job numbers.
The Labor Department reported Thursday [4/26/2012] that initial unemployment claims for the previous week had fallen by 1,000. This was
the sixth reported decline in the last eight weeks. The overall impression is that the situation is improving, slowly but
surely. Over that same period, however, the actual number of new jobless per week has increased by almost 40,000. The
Obama administration is managing perceptions by revising the weekly numbers upward after the fact. Every week for at least
the last eight weeks, the initial jobless number has been raised after it was released, sometimes significantly. So while
the combined initial figures over that period show a 13,000 new jobless decline, this is only because 49,000 jobless were not
included in the initial reports.
Sickly Job Growth Sets Up
Unhappy Choice for Obama. The U.S. economy added a sickly 115,000 jobs in April, but as discouraged workers continued to
leave the labor force, the benchmark unemployment rate nudged down from 8.2 percent to 8.1 percent. The more important
number, the size of the potential labor force that is not employed, remained at a crushing 14.5 percent. Economists are
alarmed not only at the puny jobs number in April but at the fact that the difference between the two figures, 6.4 percent,
stands near an all-time high.
US
hiring slows sharply with just 115K jobs added. The unemployment rate fell to 8.1 percent, but only because more
people gave up looking for work.
Workforce Participation at 30-Year Low.
Although the national unemployment rate fell to 8.1% for the month of April, the decline is due not to job growth but declining
participation in the labor market. Simply put a critical mass of people have given up looking for work. Consequently,
labor market participation is now at its lowest level in more than thirty years with only 63.6% of the adults in the workforce.
The
incredible shrinking labor force. If the same percentage of adults were in the workforce today as when Barack Obama took
office, the unemployment rate would be 11.1 percent. If the percentage was where it was when George W. Bush took
office, the unemployment rate would be 13.1 percent.
A Surprising Statistic About The
Long-Term Unemployed. Pew is out with a new study about the long-term unemployed in America. The long-tern unemployed
are people who have been unemployed at least a year, and as you can see (and as you should know by know), the scale of the problem these
days is way bigger than it has been during any other period over the last half a century.
Obama campaign
inflates US jobs by 40 percent for pricey electric auto. President Barack Obama's deputy campaign manager got her facts
wrong while she was trying to support the administration's $193 million subsidy for a luxury automaker. "Hi, I'm Stephanie
Cutter, I'm the deputy campaign manager here at Obama for America, and I wanted to arm you with the facts about the latest attack from
'Big Oil,'" Cutter said in her May 2 video. "Let's get the facts out, because it is important that you guys know the truth."
Cutter's speech appears to have been aimed at a new attack ad by Americans for Prosperity (AFP) that dinged Obama for sending "half a
billion [dollars] to an electric car company that created hundreds of jobs ... in Finland."
Obama promises 110,000 new
summer jobs for youth. The White House pledged on Wednesday to help lower-income youth find summer jobs in a move
likely to appeal to younger voters crucial to President Barack Obama's re-election campaign.
Burger flipper alert: flat income growth signals poor job quality.
The other big problem signaled by those flat disposable income numbers is the quality of the jobs we've been adding during the
non-recovery. Flat income growth means "burger flipper" jobs, to quote an extremely popular phrase from the early Bush years
that our media appears to have forgotten.
Obama Is America's
Biggest Job Outsourcer. The same president who used stimulus dollars to build electric cars in Finland and sought to
be Brazil's best oil customer now complains the GOP nominee built his career outsourcing jobs. At least he created some.
Are People Really That
Stupid? The mainstream media, Barack Obama, and Democrats either think people are stupid or fools. Has to be
one or the other the way they talk to folks and the whoppers they tell. Let's begin with the AP this week whose headline; "Faith
In The Economy Holds Steady". Makes sense because faith is belief without evidence. The reason for such faith?
Consumer confidence 'only' fell to 69.2. Doesn't faith in the economy imply a positive outlook? What on earth is positive
about a failing grade? The AP must think we're all idiots.
Lies and Government Jobs Data. For
59 out of the last 60 weeks, the weekly jobless numbers have been revised, after the fact, always in the same direction:
higher. That's unheard of. Those revisions higher make the present week's unemployment number look better in comparison,
more so since the markets often treat the prior week's revision as an afterthought. And there is statistical manipulation in
the unemployment rate, too. The government's reported unemployment number doesn't include people who stopped looking for
work, but who want jobs.
Labor Force Shrinks As
Jobless Swell Disability Ranks. The civilian labor force shrank in April by 342,000 workers, and remains below where it
stood when the economic recovery started 34 months ago, according to data released Friday [5/4/2012] by the Bureau of Labor
Statistics. Had the labor force not declined, unemployment would have been 8.3% in April, instead of the 8.1% reported.
That same month, more than 225,000 workers applied for Social Security disability benefits, and nearly 90,000 were enrolled, according
to new data from the Social Security Administration.
Is the Labor Department playing politics with job
numbers? Whenever a situation appears to be a conspiracy, the explanation is likely to be happenstance.
But, looking at how often (and how much) BLS has revised its unemployment numbers, we have a strange trend
that is, at the very least, worth noting. More Americans "than forecasted" filed applications for
unemployment benefits this week — first we heard that the jobless claims fell by 2,000 but now
the revised numbers show 6,000 above the initial forecast. [...] According to Dow Jones, the Labor Department
had revised its estimate of seasonally adjusted jobless claims upward in 56 of the past 57 weeks.
That's unprecedented.
A Recovery That Never Comes.
The President has been promising an economic recovery ever since 2008, when he promised to create 5 million green jobs
and to "act quickly to help people stay in their homes." With all the promises Obama made, many voters who supported
him expected the economy to begin turning around early in 2009. But then, shortly after his election, Obama let it be
known that the economy had been driven "into a ditch" deeper than he had imagined, and the recovery would take some time.
Then he discovered that the economy he inherited was not just in a ditch, it was actually a "mess" as well. There were
always new excuses for why the recovery never came.
The
Obamunist-Controlled Press Has a Job to Do on Jobs. This week's jobless claims came in higher than
expected tending to confirm that the recovery is: 1) still very slow; and 2) jobless, despite attempts
by the Obamunist-controlled press to paint a different picture. [...] Depending on to whom you listened, the stock
market was up early in trading on the unemployment report or was down midday on the unemployment report.
Obama's Recovery
About to Disappear. For the last several months, liberal journalists have been plugging the idea
that the United States is enjoying an economic recovery after the slow down of the past few years and that President
Obama deserved the credit for rescuing the nation from its troubles. [...] But one of the leading exponents of this
thesis may be about to give up on their crusade to persuade us that everything is just fine and getting better every
day. The New York Times published a front-page story intended to let its readers down gently as they
confront a worsening economic picture in 2012.
Geithner:
Obama's Economic Policies Have Been "Remarkably Successful," You Know. It was not a fun go 'round on the Sunday
morning talk circuit for Team Obama yesterday [4/15/2012], underscored by David Axelrod's accidental de facto
endorsement of Mitt Romney on Fox News. [...] Treasury Secretary Tim Geither — last seen explaining how Obama has
no solution to the gathering debt crisis — informed NBC viewers that the president's economic policies have been
"remarkably successful."
Obama's cooked jobs books. In March, 120,000 jobs were
created, while more than 330,000 people dropped out of the workforce. For self-serving reasons, the Obama administration spins this as good news.
According to government math, March unemployment declined by .1 percent even though more Americans were out of work. This is because the Bureau of
Labor Statistics (BLS) doesn't count people as officially unemployed if they are not looking for a job. So even though the "not in labor force"
figure is at a record high of nearly 88 million people, the administration can keep reporting a drop in unemployment by counting only those it
wants to count.
False Unemployment And Phony
'Jobs' Claim. The current administration predicted unemployment would rise to 9 percent by 2010 if
Congress did not pass the $787 billion stimulus bill, a do-or-die situation. The President also claimed it would
'create or save' 3.5 million jobs and insisted that 'only government' could save the country from a recession.
Record 87,897,000 Americans
Not in the Labor Force. This figure explains why overall unemployment dropped from 8.3% to 8.2%, as the Department of Labor's
unemployment figure does not include people who have given up hope and are not actively seeking employment. When the number of
individuals who have stopped looking for a job and/or who are working part-time but desire full-time employment is included — a
figure known as the "underemployment rate" — real unemployment stands at 19.1%.
Unemployment data not
what it appears. The published unemployment rate of 8.2% does not include those who have dropped out of the
job market or are discouraged. However the Bureau of Labor Statistics does publish a statistic that takes into
account the total unemployed, plus discouraged workers and those marginally attached to the labor force (but not the
entire universe of those who have completely dropped out of the labor force), that they all the U-5 unemployment rate,
which in March was 9.6%. If the labor force participation rate (that part of the overall civilian population in
the labor force) were the same as when Obama took office, then the actual unemployment rate would be 10.5%. As
those not in the labor force has increased nearly seven million since Obama became President.
Obama: 'Google, Facebook Would Not
Exist' Without Government Funding. President Barack Obama insisted Thursday that without government spending, "Google, Facebook
would not exist." Obama made the remark at a campaign fundraiser while criticizing the budget passed by House Republicans. Obama
said the Rep. Paul Ryan's budget would, among other things, cut funding for research.
The Editor says...
This is akin to NASA getting credit for inventing Tang and Velcro.
Unemployment
May Be Down, But So Are Wages and Benefits. As I discuss with Robert Reich, former Labor Secretary in the Clinton
Administration, according to several less-publicized metrics, the overall job market and the experience of workers continues to
decline or remains at highly depressed levels. In addition, while the economy has been expanding for nearly three years and
hiring is picking up, Reich notes, "we also see some major declines in terms of median wage. And that's particularly true
for the bottom 90 percent."
Unemployment is not 8.3 percent — it's 15.1 percent.
Despite all of the data-twisting hoopla from the White House and their compliant allies in the news media, the Bureau of Labor
Statistics' unemployment rate remains at 8.3 percent, which is nothing to write home about. But, dig a little deeper
among the unemployed, and you will find that the [actual] national jobless rate is much higher than that because it includes
numbers BLS leaves out of its employment equation.
Real
American Energy Could Create Real American Jobs. Official announcements from [Obama's] Labor Department reported that
the nation's February unemployment rate is still 8.3 percent. That's a decent decline from previous months. But
the reality is far worse. Most of that job growth was in business and professional services, and half was temporary.
Millions of Americans are working part-time or multiple low-wage jobs to make ends meet. Overall, 23.5 million are out
of work or underemployed. Factor all that in, and the real unemployment rate is 14.9%, according to University of Maryland
economist Peter Morici.
Obama,
Doublespeak, and Why He Will Lose Reelection. Times are worse off now than when Carter was running for
reelection. Unemployment is around the level it was during the Great Depression. Meanwhile, Obama talks
as if he is living in another world, a world where the economy is improving.
Lying About Green Jobs Now.
The BLS [Bureau of Labor Statistics], which is also in charge of counting jobs data, uses a methodology to determine a green job that's not based
on skill differences but instead that has an apparent benefit to the environment. This includes mass transit workers because they are providing
a service that benefits the environment according to testimony from Hilda Solis who testified before congress last year. The rationale for this
lunacy is that lots of people take the bus and not cars so it's saving the environment. I would say it's presumptuous to assume everyone on the
bus had an option to drive a car. But the absurdity of all this is you could actually drive a bus running on fossil fuel and still be considered
a green worker.
Economy
Actually Lost 2.7 Million Jobs in January. Obama's entire claim that the economy is reviving
is based on phony numbers and rigged statistics. Nothing is more misleading than the recent
administration claim that the economy added over 200,000 jobs during each of the past three months
and that unemployment is stable at 8.3 percent. Dr. John Hussman of the Hussman Fund says
that the claims of job gains are based entirely on weighted figures.
What Recovery? The Bureau of Labor Statistics
reported on Friday [3/9/2012] that unemployment remained steady at 8.3 percent in February, as the economy
added 227,000 jobs. "The economy is getting stronger," Obama told supporters at a rally in Virginia that
day. "It gives me confidence there are better days ahead." Republicans do not share that confidence.
The real unemployment
rate? It sure isn't 8.3%. Even if it were a legit number, the 8.3% February unemployment rate,
released today by the Labor Department, would be simply terrible — and unacceptable. It would still extend
the longest streak of 8%-plus unemployment since the Great Depression. The U.S. economy hasn't been below
8% unemployment since Obama took office in January 2009. And back in May 2007, unemployment was just 4.4%.
But, unfortunately, the true measure of U.S. unemployment is much, much worse.
Hidden
unemployment numbers stymie Obama's job growth claims. There's so much hidden unemployment in the
labor force that even Friday's improved jobs numbers failed to decrease the official unemployment rate of 8.3 percent.
In February, the private sector added 233,000 new jobs, but 476,000 non-working people began looking for a job.
According to Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) rules, only by seeking work did those individuals officially become
unemployed.
U.S. Still Down 6 Million
Jobs. The stock market has recovered its losses since hitting bottom three years ago today.
But despite gains in employment during that same stretch, America is still down six million jobs, data shows.
Economic News From Big Brother, 'The
Recession Is Over!' Big Brother sends us today's urgent Newspeak via the Associated Press...
Busting One Myth
Behind the Unemployment Rate. As the economy improves, an abundance of unemployed people once frustrated
by the depressed job market will jump back into the hunt all at once, causing the unemployment rate to rise, right?
Not necessarily. That scenario is a myth, says Barclays, which predicts the unemployment rate will actually
continue to recede despite an influx of new job hunters.
Long-Term
Unemployed Still a Fly in Recovery Ointment. The U.S. labor market is slowly healing. Much of the
recent data point in that direction — but the scars of this financial crisis run deep. Nowhere are
those scars more visible than in the area of long-term unemployment.
Unemployment:
Leveling off or just a retirement influx? Contrary to what most economists think, aging Baby Boomers entering
retirement has largely driven down the unemployment rate.
Obama's Union Speech a 'Load of
You-Know-What'. Speaking before the United Auto Workers union in Washington, Obama, champion of the working man,
challenged auto bailout "naysayers" to "come around" and admit that "standing by American workers was the right thing to do," as
bailouts "saved" the auto industry. (You have to wonder whether downtrodden citizens appreciate just how close they came to
having to roller-skate to work.) "They're out there talking about you like you're some special interest that needs to be beaten
down," Obama told cheering union members. And those who claim that bailouts were just a labor payback are simply peddling
a "load of you-know-what." I do know what, Mr. President.
Note to Obama: Unemployment
is up. The Obama administration keeps reporting supposed good news on the employment front. Americans
sense that something is not quite right about the rosy official numbers, and a series of independent reports confirms
their skepticism.
Welcome to the Brave New
Obama World. The master propagandists of the left have taken on a breathtaking task: selling the public on
Obama's economic disaster as a good thing. The witting left understands that the "fundamental transformation" Obama
promised means permanently high unemployment and workforce shrinkage, as the private sector is squeezed out of sector after
sector of the economy. Thus, it becomes important to propagandize the public that there are benefits to unemployment.
Obama says the economy is getting stronger, and yet...
Gallup
survey shows 'sharp deterioration in job market' in Feburary. Unemployment could rise back to 9 percent
of the U.S. population in Feburary, according to a Gallup survey released Tuesday [2/21/2012], painting a grim picture for
the Obama administration, which had been temporarily buoyed by promising jobs figures at the end of January.
Jarrett:
Unemployment checks stimulate the economy. This evening [2/21/2012], speaking at North Carolina Central
University in Durham, North Carolina, White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett said that folks getting and spending
unemployment checks is a healthy thing ... because it stimulates the economy.
While the official numbers are much lower...
Real Unemployment
Hits 15 Percent. In the past few weeks, Democrats have been trying to claim that the economy is getting
better and that more people are finding full-time work, but when you take a look at the numbers, the real unemployment
number is much higher than the media or the Left wants to admit.
Workforce participation is the metric that really matters.
The True Unemployment Rate: 36%. [Scroll
down] What is the current percentage of working-age Americans, eligible to participate in the civilian
labor force, but not currently working? Answer: 36.3 percent. That's the worst labor
participation rate in three decades, and it's part of the worst employment picture we've seen since the Great
Depression. Labor force participation is the number we should really be looking at, even more than the
unemployment figures cooked up on the monthly basis by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Newest Government Magic Trick: Disability Fraud Holds Down Unemployment Rate.
Looking for another reason for an artificially low unemployment rate? Consider disability fraud, people
claiming disabilities they do not have such as mental illness. Prior to the great recession 33% of applicants
claimed mental illness. The number is 43% now. There was fraud before, of course. There is
even more fraud now.
Can
We Rely on the Executive Branch for Unsullied Data? The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) —
which, keep in mind, is part of the Department of Labor, which in turn is headed by the Honorable Linda Solis as
secretary of labor — is part of the Obama administration. Since the Department of Labor is part
of one of the most partisan administrations in recent memory, how can anyone simply assume that the data that
issues from the BLS is completely untainted by politics?
Fudging the Numbers.
The Obama administration is touting the latest unemployment numbers released last week by the U.S. Department of Labor
as proof its policies are working. But a closer look at the actual number of able-bodied people who are willing to
work, but are not, reveals a different picture. ... The way government counts things, slowing the rate of increased
spending amounts to a cut and reducing the percentage of unemployed people by two-tenths of 1 percent counts as
more people finding jobs, which then counts as progress.
Missing:
5.4 million workers. Millions of Americans have vanished from the US labor force in the past three years,
many of them so discouraged by long, fruitless job searches that they have given up looking for work, convinced that no
employer wants them, according to a new study.
Obama's bogus jobs data.
While the overall population jumped 1.6 million in January, the workforce declined a record-setting
1.2 million. This figure represents those who out of sheer frustration or for other reasons have
dropped out of what the government defines as the active labor pool. They are worse than simply unemployed;
they are both jobless and hopeless. The good news for Obama administration statisticians is that these
unfortunates don't factor into the official unemployment rate, which only counts those thought to be looking
for work. So while five people drop out of the system in despair for every new job created, the official
unemployment rate declines and the White House enjoys a good news day.
Here is what the official unemployment figures don't say:
Economic Statistics for 3 Feb 12:
• In November, 2007, 63.15% of Americans had a job. In Feburary, 2012, it was 57.76%.
• In November, 2007, there were 147,118,000 Americans working. This month, that
number was 139,944,000. That's 7.1 million jobs that have disappeared.
• If the labor force participation rate was the same today as it was in
November 2007 (66.1%), today's unemployment rate would be 12.61%.
David
Stockman: It's True, The BLS Data Is Made Up. After countless attempts to discredit or defend
Friday's jobs report, we can all agree on one thing: The data is complicated. So complicated that the
BLS could make the economy look better than it was and no one would be sure. Former Reagan
budget director David Stockman said as much in an email to Bruce Krasting, in response to Krasting's criticism
of the jobs report. Stockman writes: "If you spend a little time with these numbers you will know
that they are being made up."
Fake But Accurate
Job Numbers. This morning [2/3/2012] we get the January jobs report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor
Statistics. And if this January bears any resemblance to those of the past decade, the report will offer
a misleading, possibly deceptive view of the employment situation in the United States.
It's the Fourth Quarter in America.
Just last month 1.2 million formerly employed people disappeared into the black hole of a political unemployment
equation — never to be counted again. This isn't a game to those millions of Americans who are
out of work or under employed — this is their life. But the other team doesn't see it that way.
Rosy report a ruse.
Some day, the government is going to put out a good economic report and I'll be able to say, "Yeah, that really
is a good report." This isn't that day.
New
BS BLS Report Shows Obama Costs US $20 Trillion. Another 1.2 million people dropped out the
workforce, which means that Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) economists can say that unemployment has moved down
to 8.3 percent without that messy job-creation thing getting in the way. ... ZeroHedge says that if you add
back in the 5 million people who have permanently dropped out the labor force, as reflected in the historical
average workforce participations rates, the "implied" unemployment rate is 11.5 percent and rising, not
falling.
1.2 million driven out of the workforce in a single
month. All you're seeing in the headlines is good news, because the official, heavily-massaged
U-3 unemployment rate fell to 8.3 percent. Fewer people in the workforce means the percentage of
unemployed people in the workforce drops.
It's
Not a Job Loss if They Say You Retired. American Airlines apparently does not need to layoff 15,000
employees. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, all 15,000 employees are retiring and dropping out
of the workforce. In addition, those 15,000 employees will not be counted in the unemployment statistics,
thereby helping to ensure President Obama's quest for 0% unemployment by Election Day.
Why
the official 8.3 percent unemployment rate is a phony number. Does anyone believe an "official"
unemployment rate of 8.3 percent really gives an accurate picture of the U.S. labor market? ... If the
size of the U.S. labor force as a share of the total population was the same as it was when Barack Obama took
office — 65.7 percent then vs. 63.7 percent today — the U-3 unemployment rate would
be 11.0 percent.
Obama
Speech Brags About 3 Million New Jobs. What is the point of all that talk in the [State of the Union]
speech about creating jobs when the federal government is importing so many new workers? Although the number
of work permits issued is primarily controlled by Congress, Pres. Obama could be asking for reductions to give relief
to all those Americans who have been unemployed for such long periods. He said nothing. And he gave no
sign tonight of having the slightest interest in how immigration affects the labor market.
Our "Interesting"
President. Americans need jobs, but Obama is just out to save his. This detachment is nothing
new. We saw it in the State of the Union — when the president repeated old, broken promises but
gave no mention to the millions of unemployed Americans he's ignored or the trillions of dollars in debt he's
created. We saw it also with the Keystone energy pipeline. America had an opportunity for a source of
affordable, secure energy, but the president blocked it.
Obama's Auto Bailout Lies.
In what has become part of his general re-election strategy, president Barack Obama is touting the government
bailout of automakers GM and Chrysler as a great success. "The American auto industry was on the verge of
collapse. And some politicians were willing to let it just die. We said no," Obama told college students
last week in Ann Arbor, Michigan. "We believe in the workers of this state." Yet much like other
pronouncements of "fact" that come from this president, the devil is in the details, many of which don't remotely
square with the reality.
How Obama created
22 million jobs: I have been forced to concede that Barack Obama is one of the foremost and
accomplished economic minds in the US today. Yesterday [1/30/2012] he claimed he has created 22 million
jobs since becoming president, yet those of little faith quickly belittled him and his claim. But they
simply do not understand how a truly brilliant mind operates and that he is infallible and incapable of admitting
a mistake. Therefore he must have created nearly 22 million jobs. He just didn't say where or
how.
Dem
lawmaker says 20,000 Keystone XL jobs 'not that many'. Chicago Democratic Rep. Jan Schakowsky (Ill.) drew fire
from Sen. Dan Coats (R-Ind.) on Wednesday [1/25/2012] when she dismissed the proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline,
suggesting the 20,000 jobs it could create were relatively insignificant in the scheme of the greater economy.
Lying About the Stimulus:
[James] Pethokoukis lists 11 main points that tell us all we need to know about the economic stimulus package
that the Democrat-controlled Congress passed at Obama's behest. Chief among them is this: the nearly
trillion-dollar expenditure package was primarily about implementing Obama's political agenda, not fixing a damaged
economy. The Summers memo is clear evidence that much of the rhetoric put forward by the administration
and allies was patent hogwash.
Whatever he claims,
creating jobs isn't what motivates Obama. Obama himself has insisted time and again he cares only
about "what works" and not about ideological or partisan point scoring. Nary an utterance from the president
doesn't include some claim that his "top," "chief," "first," and "number one" priority is to create jobs and get
America working again. Just last week he announced that he wants to streamline government to cut red tape and
make both government and the economy more efficient. It's all a farrago of lies.
Obama:
EPA Regulations Create Jobs. In a speech to employees of the Environmental Protection Agency on
Tuesday [1/10/2012], President Barack Obama said that EPA regulations are good for the economy and create jobs
and that the agency "touches" the lives of every American every day. "We can make sure that we are doing
right by our environment and, in fact, putting people back to work all across America," Obama told the federal
workers.
More
about the EPA.
Don't believe
bureaucrats, unemployment is really 11.4 percent. President Obama benefits from a flawed formula
that generates a positive outcome when frustrated potential workers simply give up. This is what
passes for progress in the jobless economy. A lower official unemployment statistic makes a good headline
and a good talking point, but it would be better if more Americans were actually finding good jobs.
Obama's
Low Expectations On Jobs. The White House spins the new job numbers as evidence the economy is coming
back from the Bush recession. Truth is, the economy continues to struggle against the weight of Obama's
misguided policies.
On Those New Jobless
Numbers: Break out the party hats! Unemployment is all the way down to 8.5 percent!
Whoo-hoo! Zero Hedge spotlights the steady increase in the number of Americans not in the labor force; he
points out, "the labor force itself declined by 50K from 153,937 to 153,887. In fact, persons not in the
labor force have increased by 7.5 million since January 2007."
Obama's Bad Policies Bear The Blame
For Bear Market. To "it could be worse" — the administration's lame depiction of the
economy — we can add the equally pathetic decree that 2011 was a "pretty good" year for stocks.
Is this what it's come to? The weakest recovery in modern times being spun as fair-to-middling just because it
hasn't plumbed depression depths, and investors being told that a stock market that ends up unchanged isn't all
that bad, especially when bourses were down 20% to 40% from Frankfurt to Mumbai?
Why Obama's 'new
math' is a jobs killer. President Obama's math skills leave something to be desired. As a
matter of fact, based on Mr. Obama's recent interview on "60 Minutes," the president deserves a grade
of F in math. When confronted by the reporter with the reality that his economic stimulus package
failed, he decided to lie to the American people. He said his stimulus had indeed worked just fine.
As a matter of fact, according to Mr. Obama, it created 3 million jobs.
Pelosi:
Extending Unemployment Benefits Would Create '600,000 Jobs'. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi
(D-Calif.) said that extending unemployment benefits would add "600,000 jobs to our economy." She also
said that the money from unemployment benefits creates a "safety net" for the U.S. economy because it "injects
demand into the economy — creating jobs."
Another Load of Trickle-Up Economics.
So... if rich people opening businesses aren't creating jobs in the private sector, then who is? For the
answer, we turn to an even greater economic genius, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA, current net worth
$35.5 million.) Yesterday she repeated a theory she made famous some years ago, and which has become
one of the bedrock principles of the Obama Administration: jobs are created by people who don't have jobs,
through the magic of unemployment insurance, whose extension will create 600,000 jobs.
Obama is the Jobs Grinch.
Labor Department numbers came out recently showing soft job-creation for the month of November. This is
nothing new, of course. Job-creation has been weaker than expected ever since Obama began his attack on
capitalism. What's new is a shift in the quality of jobs available. Most of the jobs created last
month were temporary, low-wage positions in the service industries. Of the 120,000 new jobs created, 50,000
were in the retail sector. Most of these are minimum-wage positions, many of them temporary holiday hires.
DNC
Chair Denies Unemployment Has Gone Up Under Obama. Gretchen Carlson on FOX News interviews Rep.
Debbie Wasserman Schultz, DNC Chair. [Video]
Captain
Trainwreck's White House whitewash. The current Occupiers of the White House will claim the slight
dip in the unemployment rate from 9 percent to 8.6 percent is proof the economy is beginning to lumber
out of the recession they imposed on it. Don't believe the spin. The economy continues to sink.
Once the employment data is analyzed and the economic truth comes out, it will be seen that one of the probable
reasons for the dip in the unemployment rate is that 315,000 more Americans have quit looking for work, making them
persona non grata when it comes to being counted in employment statistics.
Democrat Economic Illiteracy Has
Consequences. The Secretary of Labor, Hilda Solis, visited Capitol Hill last week and claimed that the
unemployment rate will increase if Congress fails to extend the eligibility period for federal unemployment benefits.
My first reaction to this Orwellian assertion was a quiet chuckle. Then it dawned on me that most Democrats will
believe this nonsense. These are, after all, people who believed that health care would be made cheaper by a
law that increases demand for medical services while reducing the supply of health care providers.
Time's up for Obama.
President Obama is horrible at governing. He's not bad, though, at moving goalposts. The stimulus was
supposed to "save or create" a bazillion jobs. When the jobs on the "create" side of the ledger were smaller
than predicted, the administration did away with the term and started using jobs "funded."
Real
Unemployment 11 Percent; Total Unemployment 15.6 Percent.
• In the last year, the civilian population rose by 1,726,000. Yet the labor force fell by
67,000. Those not in the labor force rose by 1,793,000.
• In November, those "Not in Labor Force" rose by a whopping 487,000. If you are
not in the labor force, you are not counted as unemployed.
• Were it not for people dropping out of the labor force, the unemployment rate would be
well over 11%.
Unemployment
Decline To 8.6%: A Statistical Fluke? Americans woke up Friday to the good news that the unemployment rate had
dropped sharply from 9% to 8.6%. On closer inspection, the decline is highly questionable — and doesn't
warrant a surge in optimism.
Unemployment Rate Falls Due To Workforce Contraction.
The November unemployment report is out, and it's one of those good news / bad news deals. Well, actually,
it's more like horrible news that will be spun as good news. The economy created 120,000 jobs in
November, and the official unemployment rate fell to 8.6%, which is a two-year low... but the drop was
mostly due to 315,000 people leaving the workforce entirely.
Emphasis in original.
Steven
Chu's Solyndra testimony: Misleading jobs stats and missing context. We always warn readers to be
wary of claims about the number of jobs created by some government, congressional or corporate initiative.
These are almost always suspect and based on dubious assumptions. (Chu, we should note, carefully used the
word "employ" instead of "create.") As it happens, Carol D. Leonnig and Steven Mufson of The Washington
Post examined the job-claim figure two months ago and found it wanting.
Math
Fun with President Obama. With math skills like this, no wonder the federal deficit is
$1.3 trillion. ... One half of 1 percent of $1.1 million is $5,500, not $500. But,
hey, even though he said it three times, cut the president some slack — he's off only by
about factor of ten. But even if the president meant to say $5,500, his math continues to pose some
challenges. According to the IRS, a total of 235,413 taxpayers earned more than $1 million last
year. If each "was willing to pay $[5,]500 extra to help the country," that would generate only
$1.3 billion in revenue — approximately what the federal government spends every three hours.
Did
the Stimulus Create Jobs? Yes, at $412,500 Per Job. Vice President Joe Biden said yesterday
[10/23/2011] on CNN that nobody can say "that the stimulus did not create jobs," but he did not specificy
how many jobs he believes President Barack Obama's stimulus created and how much each of those jobs cost.
According to the most recent report on the stimulus by the Congressional Budget Office, the law had created a
maximum of 2 million jobs as the fourth quarter of 2011 at a cost of $412,500 per job.
Where
do the stimulus horror stories end? The Obama administration handed $7.2 million to four Oregon
logging companies to hire loggers in a severely depressed industry. But according to a Department of Labor
inspector general report, only two of jobs thus funded went to U.S. citizens: "Only two Oregonians were
listed on the employer recruitment reports, indicating that workers in Oregon were likely unaware these job
opportunities were available. In fact, although 146 U.S. workers were contacted by the three employers
regarding possible employment, none were hired. Instead, 254 foreign workers were brought into the
country for these jobs."
Infallible Obama.
Democrats argue that as bad as things are in the country, they could be worse. Earlier this month, House
Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, San Francisco Democrat, claimed that without the 2009 economic-stimulus plan,
unemployment would be 14.5 percent, a ludicrous claim not even asserted by the cheerleaders of the original
nearly-trillion-dollar stimulus plan. ... The central theme of the Obama 2012 campaign seems to be shaping up
as: Yes, times are bad, but they could be much worse.
Twisting
Words To Political Ends. When it became clear to President Obama and his economic and political
advisers that spending more than a trillion dollars would not create many jobs, they decided that the problem
wasn't their policies; it was the word "create." And so we endlessly heard promises of all of the millions
of jobs their massive stimulus and government takeover of health insurance would "save or create." But
with unemployment at 9.1% — not the under 8% they boldly predicted — and 14 million
Americans jobless less than 13 months before Election Day 2012, "save or create" has worn kind of thin.
Obama
disconnects rhetoric, reality. In President Barack Obama's sales pitch for his jobs bill, there
are two versions of reality: The one in his speeches and the one actually unfolding in Washington.
The
Big Jobs Bill Lie. The president claims economists heartily endorse his jobs bill, predicting
it will boost growth by 2% and add 1.9 million jobs. That would be news to most economists.
Tall
tales from President Obama on employment. There haven't been 850,000 jobs created by
non-government employers in the past nine months — not even close. That's just the way
it is, and repeating a lie isn't going to turn it into a truth.
Applying Alinsky: Why Obamacare Makes
No Sense. [T]he ordinary American can be excused for being confused, frustrated, and angry.
That's exactly where President Obama, the Chicago political mafia around him, Harry Reid, the Senate Majority
Leader, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi want people to be. At one point in the pointless all-day meeting
on Thursday, she even claimed that passing Obamacare would create four million jobs overnight! Even for
Speaker Pelosi, that's a new level of insane babble.
Did
someone mention the big Health Care Summit?
The President's Bogus Green Economics.
The Obama Administration's recently released "Economic Report of the President" devoted an entire chapter to
"Transforming the Energy Sector and Addressing Climate Change". Whenever the government promises to
transform an entire sector of the economy, we know to watch out. ... Since the report says the stimulus
package provided "$60 billion in direct spending and $30 billion in tax credits" to "jump-start"
the transition to a "clean energy economy," there is a whole lot of 'splainin' that the administration
must do.
Is the kettle black
enough? If ever there was a case of the proverbial pot calling the kettle black, it is the
cluster of new financial "reform" regulations Washington politicians are trying to foist on the back of
Wall Street. In a typical political smoke-and-mirrors misdirection, President Obama wants us to
believe greedy Wall Street bankers are to blame for our economy sinking in financial quicksand and that
more government regulations and controls are the answer. Don't believe it.
Deception as a
Principle of Governance. Every economic indicator during Clinton's last year in office turned
decisively downward — the surplus, government revenues, and the markets included. Economic
projections made at the very top of an economic bubble are foolish, but the dot-com bubble had long since
popped, and everything was going south by the time Clinton left office. Consequently, the Democrats'
projections of surpluses years into the future at a time when all indices were falling are not just foolish,
but dishonest.
CBO Report
Was Pre-Ordained to Show the Stimulus Succeeded. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has
produced a new report estimating that the $862 billion stimulus has thus far saved or created 1.5 million
jobs. Yet the CBO's calculations are not based on actually observing the economy's recent performance.
Rather, they used an economic model that was programmed to assume that stimulus spending automatically creates
jobs — thus guaranteeing their result.
Vote for him or the wife gets it!
Yesterday Politico reported that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid pushed for a $15 billion jobs bill Monday
by suggesting that unemployed men are more likely to abuse their wives: "Men when they're out of work
tend to become abusive," Reid said as he argued in favor of a cloture vote on the jobs bill.
Obama
A Moderate? Saying So Doesn't Make It So. To make the Tea Party movement look extremist, the
president's backers are trying to portray him as a moderate. Here is Obama Administration waterboy E.J. Dionne:
"Obama, after all, is the man who saved the banks and the capital markets. Now the bankers are secure and
most of them are still rich." ... [That] is little more than a distortion. Then-Sen. Obama supported the
bank bailouts, which were proposed by then-President Bush. Further, it leaves out the fact that Obama has
since let his "pay czar" Ken Feinberg dictate the salaries of those banks, not to mention the nationalizing of
General Motors.
Con jobs: When
will Obama stop lying about the stimulus? The administration boasts that it has "created or saved" about
1 million jobs, even as the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced a loss of 558,000 jobs in October. Not only is
unemployment still increasing, but the rate of job loss is still accelerating. "The 'created or saved numbers' are
meaningless," Joseph Lawler writes on Politico. "Employment is 3 million jobs below what the president's Council
of Economic Advisers had predicted it would be." The Associated Press discovered that an outfit called the Southwest
Georgia Community Action Council reported that the stimulus had enabled it to save 935 jobs — out of 508.
Jobs
'Saved or Created' in Congressional Districts That Don't Exist. Here's a stimulus success
story: In Arizona's 9th Congressional District, 30 jobs have been saved or created with just
$761,420 in federal stimulus spending. At least that's what the website set up by the Obama
Administration to track the $787 billion stimulus says. There's one problem, though: There
is no 9th Congressional District in Arizona; the state has only eight Congressional Districts.
Obama creates
30 new jobs in non-existant congressional district. Chicago politics, where voting is such a
revered civic duty that people do it even after they're dead, cold, stiff, stuffed, boxed and buried beneath
the permafrost for years, has now come to D.C. with the Obama administration.
Stop
lying about those stimulus jobs. Give the mainstream news media some credit: They have
diligently dug into President Obama's fanciful boasts of job creation. When Obama claimed earlier this
month that his $787 billion economic stimulus package had "saved or created" 640,000 jobs, a dozen news
organizations pounced. They soon highlighted some of the most egregious cases of sketchy job creation
in about 20 states.
Phantom districts in
Texas receive millions in 'stimulus'. According to the Obama administration's latest count, the
President's economic stimulus package has created 45 jobs in Texas' 58th congressional district and
30 jobs in the state's 91st district. The White House's recovery.gov web site declares that
Texas' 52nd district received exactly $8,937,289 in stimulus funds, while the 68th district has had
precisely $310,963 funneled into it. Trouble is, none of these congressional districts exist.
Stimulus Fraud.
We knew something was funny when the White House claimed that 640,000 to 1 million jobs had been created from
this year's stimulus. What we didn't know was that it would turn into a massive fraud. Not only
have 640,000 new jobs not been created from the stimulus — an absurd claim, given the economy's loss
of nearly 4 million payroll positions this year — but it now seems that even the jobs themselves
are fictional.
$6.4 Billion
Stimulus Goes to Phantom Districts. Just how big is the stimulus package? Well for one,
it has doubled the size of the House of Representatives, according to recovery.gov, which says that funds
were distributed to 440 congressional districts that do not exist.
Imaginary Districts Receive Stimulus
Money. There are questions about how the federal government is spending tax dollars. It
appears millions of economic stimulus dollars are being spent in Congressional districts that do not exist.
Many California jobs 'saved' by stimulus funds
weren't in jeopardy. Up to one-fourth of the 110,000 jobs reported as saved by federal stimulus
money in California probably never were in danger, a [Sacramento] Bee review has found.
$230,000
per job. The administration will report this week that roughly 650,000 jobs have been created or
saved on spending of $160 billion. [But] The Associated Press checked the administration's initial
jobs claims and found numerous exaggerations, duplicate counts and outright misstatements. Even using
the administration's more generous projection, it's still $160,000 spent for every job created or saved.
Stimulus
saves nine out of every five jobs. I've always believed that President Obama will take credit
for saving 2 million jobs as long as there are 2 million jobs left in the United States. But
his jobs report apparently goes beyong this, the Associated Press reports, taking credit for saving jobs
that really don't exist.
Lies,
damned lies and stimulus jobs. "If I give you a raise, it is going to save a portion of your
job," HHS spokesman Luis Rosero said. Save a portion of a job? That doesn't make sense on any
level. How can they justify plundering stimulus funds to preserve already existing government jobs?
To do that and claim it's evidence that of the stimulus' success at "creating or saving" jobs is simply deceitful.
The Media Fall for Phony 'Jobs' Claims. "Saved or
created" has become the signature phrase for Barack Obama as he describes what his stimulus is doing for American jobs. His latest
invocation came yesterday [6/9/2009], when the president declared that the stimulus had already saved or created at least 150,000
American jobs — and announced he was ramping up some of the stimulus spending so he could "save or create" an
additional 600,000 jobs this summer. These numbers come in the context of an earlier Obama promise that his recovery plan
will "save or create three to four million jobs over the next two years."
Painting a
street green hasn't stimulated one new job. In Baltimore, the 300 block of
East 23½ Street is getting patched up in time for winter. One economic stimulus program
is paying to insulate 11 rental rowhouses, another is paying for furnaces and a third is covering the
cost for reflective roofs to be installed by prison inmates in a job-training program. The block is
part of one of the biggest initiatives ever undertaken by the federal government, a nationwide push to
improve the energy efficiency of buildings. But ... the work on East 23½ — even with
all of its activity — has so far not produced a single job.
Jobs Created or Saved' Is White House
Fantasy. When the government distributes lucre or loot, people spend it. If your interest is national
income accounting, spending other people's money is great. Spending is a back-door way for government
statisticians to measure what matters, which is the real output of goods and services. But the government
has no money of its own to spend; only what it borrows or confiscates from us via taxation.
GOP on health
care: In 568 words, what's wrong with 1,990 pages. Texas Republicans on Friday [10/30/2009]
ridiculed claims by the White House that President Obama's stimulus package had created or saved exactly
19,571 jobs in Texas — and 640,329 jobs nationwide. Rep. Lamar Smith, R-San Antonio.
Citing recent Labor Department figures, said the Obama administration promised the stimulus would create
269,000 jobs in Texas "but we lost 225,300."
NY jobs don't add
up. [Scroll down] The spokesman could not immediately give a breakdown of what the new
jobs entailed. But a memo issued by Deputy Mayor Edward Skyler suggested the number of stable new jobs
was under 300. The memo had a footnote explaining that the city used a formula required by the feds to
count 2,882 "full-time-equivalent" as created jobs. That number was based on 19,518 youths who took part
in a summer employment program, Skyler said.
GOP challenges
job stimulus data. The government watchdog in charge of tracking stimulus dollars said he
can't be sure how many jobs the $787 billion program has created, admitting it "could be above or
below" the 640,000 jobs the administration touts. Republicans said false numbers amount to
"propaganda" and that the uncertainty should cool Democrats' talk of passing a second stimulus bill.
Kelo,
GM, and the Stimulus: Three Examples of Government-Induced Failure. [Scroll down] The
chairman of the government's Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board has told lawmakers that he cannot
"certify that the number of jobs reported as created/saved on Recovery.gov is accurate and auditable."
What is transparent is that these people don't know what the heck they're doing and that the mother of all
boondoggles looms on the horizon.
A $787 billion
waste. So many billions out the door — and nary a clue about what Americans got in
return. That's the tragic-but-too-true story of last February's $787 billion federal stimulus
program — the first major legislative package out of Washington after the Democrats took control
of the city. What a monumental waste. The Obama folks claim that, as of Oct. 30, stimulus
funds "created or saved" 640,329 jobs. They might as well claim 640 billion. The truth?
No one really knows if the package "created or saved" any jobs.
Stimulus
benefits at least 14 percent phony, and counting. California's state government said it took
its share of stimulus money and saved 18,229 corrections jobs. But fewer than 5,000 of those
jobs — perhaps fewer than 1,000 — were ever in any danger of being lost, according
to a letter released this week by the state's auditor.
The New War
against Reason. Over the last nine months, the official government website Recovery.gov has
informed us how the stimulus has saved jobs — even as hard data reflected the unpleasant truth
of massive and spiraling job losses. In other words, not the real number of jobs lost, but rather the
supposed number of jobs saved by Barack Obama's vast dispersion of borrowed money, was to be the correct
indicator of employment. The message? In superstitious fashion, the public is to ignore what
statistics say, and trust instead in the Obama administration's hypotheses.
These Boots Are Made for
Talking. According to a report from a shoe store in Campbellsville, Kentucky, the Army Corps
of Engineers "created or saved" nine jobs when it used money allocated by the American Recovery and
Reinvestment Act to buy nine pairs of work boots. The Wall Street Journal reports that the store's
owner, frustrated by the government's confusing online forms, enlisted the help of his 42-year-old
daughter, who figured nine — the number of people who would use the boots on the
job — made as much sense as any other answer.
The biggest lie yet. Now,
after a quick assessment of the Obama Recovery through October, one is stuck with the conclusion that his spending spree
has resulted in 10.2 percent unemployment — except, of course, in such places as Washington, DC, where
government jobs are immune to recession. That would be double-digit unemployment — so now you know why
Obama cleverly framed his recovery program in terms of jobs "created or saved." His administration announced that
through October, the American Recovery Act had "created" or "saved" 640,329 jobs. However, a growing number of
skeptics, even among his once-adoring media, found some very questionable accounting methods used to come up with
that figure.
Who In the White House Has Ever Created a Job?
After 10 months and the authorization of $787 billion in government spending, the economic policies
of the White House and the Democratic Congress have failed. 15.7 million Americans are out of work,
3.2 million of them since the stimulus was first passed in February. Unemployment, at 10.2 percent,
is higher than the President promised it would be if he did nothing. The Obama-Pelosi-Reid
economic policies are hurting, not helping.
Time
to corral 'Sheriff Biden'. President Obama's early, overeager claims of his stimulus
package's success have crumbled under media scrutiny. After making big promises, he needed to make
claims about "jobs created or saved," but polls show that the public hasn't bought it.
Jobs Summit Charade. The very idea of a jobs
summit does not make sense. To begin with, we don't wish to create jobs. It is possible to create jobs
by hiring people to dig ditches and fill them up again. The strength of the economic system of market capitalism
is that it allows people to be productive, much more productive than any other economic system. So the very title
of the summit is misguided.
The title is off topic, but the article is not.
I was a
birther before Obama's certificate questions. We now know that the job gains reported by Washington this
past spring were an illusion. Early in 2010 the Labor Department will subtract about 824,000 jobs from its
official count in what is called a "benchmark revision" to more accurately reflect the jobs that weren't created
this past spring.
Jobs or Snow Jobs?
President Obama keeps talking about the jobs his administration is "creating" but there are more people unemployed
now than before he took office. How can there be more unemployment after so many jobs have been "created"?
Stimulus
Watch: Now it's fake zip codes. Recovery.gov, the Obama administration's supposedly
transparent attempt to let citizens know how every dollar of the $787 billion stimulus package was
spent, is turning out to be a lot more comic fiction than fact. Not only have fake jobs been reported
in phantom congressional districts, Steve Allen Adams of NewMexicoWatchdog.org discovered that some of
the $27 million of federal money his state received also went to nonexistent zip codes.
Now stim bill
money being sent to fake zip codes. Jim Scarantino of New Mexico Watchdog was the first to
uncover the fact that stim bill money was being listed as spent in non-existent congressional districts.
Now he's uncovered another tasty tidbit; the money is going to fake zip codes.
Phantom
zip codes also found in Virginia. As much as $9.5 million in federal stimulus dollars
went to 14 zip codes in Virginia that don't exist or are in other states, Old Dominion Watchdog reports.
The fake zip codes were listed on Recovery.gov, the federal Web site that is supposed to track how the
stimulus money is being used.
Stimulus money sent to
phantom ZIP codes in North Carolina. The federal government sent 2.5 million stimulus
dollars to North Carolina ZIP codes that don't exist. The information came from the government's
own Web site — Recovery.gov. ... It lists 479 North Carolina ZIP codes as the destination of
$4.2 billion in grants, contracts, and loans. Four of those ZIP codes — 24858,
28389, 23854, and 27600 — are nowhere to be found on U.S. Postal Service maps. In the
four ZIP codes, the Web site reports, the $2.5 million created 0.5 jobs all told.
The Editor says...
How does the government create half a job, and who has that half-job now?
You
Have to Watch Both of Obama's Hands. It comes down to this: Borrow and spend to create
jobs, regulate to destroy them. The original $787 billion stimulus package is due for a supplement
that will bring the total to around $1 trillion. Spending so far has created or "saved" between
1.7 million and 2 million jobs says Christina Romer, chairman of the President's Council of
Economic Advisers...
The Editor says...
Just a reminder: One trillion dollars divided by two million jobs equals $500,000 per job. That's
assuming that two million jobs are actually created, which they probably won't be.
Democratic
Payoffs, Er, Stimulus. [Scroll down] Consider the $787 billion stimulus bill.
Veronique de Rugy and Jerry Brito of George Mason University report that "a total of 56,399 contracts and
grants totaling $157,028,362,536 were awarded in this first quarter for which Recovery.gov reports are
available. The number of jobs claimed as created or saved is 638,826.54 — an average
of $245,807.51 per job."
A Big Snow Job.
As the economy continues to destroy jobs, we hear a new excuse. Frigid weather, the White House says, made
the jobs report look worse than it is. Actually, even without snow, it's worse than you think.
'Anti-Lobbyist'
Obama Administration Recruited Left-Wing Lobbyists to Sell Bogus 'Green Jobs'. A FOIA [request]
reveals the Department of Energy turned to George Soros and to wind industry lobbyists to help cover up two
economic studies pointing to the failure of European wind energy programs.
How
the Labor Dept. finessed the jobs report. As you know by now, the Labor Department last Friday
[3/5/2010] announced that the country had lost another 36,000 jobs in February. Sure, that's a lot
fewer than the amount of jobs the economy had been shedding last year. But if the pace of early
2009 had been maintained, none of us would be working by now. So the slowdown in bad news was to
be expected.
Media
Plays Along With WH Employment Report Whitewash. As many have pointed out for months, the
expanded version of the unemployment rate has been well above 15% for quite a long time, and it at least
occasionally gets referenced in media reports and political pronouncements. But on the jobs added/lost
front, what the press, pundits, and even opposition politicians are continuing to ignore is the key information
that leads to the "seasonally adjusted" figure on which everyone seems to fixate — to the point
where it's not unreasonable to believe that almost everyone in America believes that 36,000 jobs lost is
what really occurred during the month. It isn't.
Your
"Stimulus" Dollars Hard at Work: Social Engineering and Tax Increases. [The "stimulus"
package] has clearly failed to meet its stated goals (after all wasn't the unemployment rate not supposed to
go above 8 percent with its passage?). Instead, taxpayers have had to watch helplessly as their
money is being doled out to prop up government rather than stimulate job creation in the private sector, and
is being spent on questionable projects under the even more questionable — and debunked —
claim of "saving and creating" hundreds of thousands of jobs.
Lucre for lobbyists.
The American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA), or stimulus, has been subject to a great deal of criticism
since its enactment in February 2009. ... The stimulus package was supposed to alleviate the Great Recession's
burden on struggling Americans. ... Since President Obama placed his signature on the stimulus, 2.16 million
Americans have lost their jobs, total unemployment is at 14.9 million, and the Great Debt stands at
$12.7 trillion.
Underworked
Americans hit 20.3 percent. We've heard it all before, but no matter what the Obama administration
claims, economic recovery has not arrived. Last Friday in North Carolina, President Obama said the economy
is "beginning to turn the corner." At the end of May last year, he claimed, "We are already seeing results." ... Mr.
Obama's profligate policies have destroyed vast amounts of wealth, and all there is to show from the stimulus is
massive debt.
White House Caught Altering Stimulus Baseline Projection by 7 Million
Jobs. The number of jobs in the U.S. is currently 129.7 million. So to
justify the Administration's current claim of 2.8 million jobs "created or saved" by stimulus,
they need to also claim that without that stimulus there would be only 126.9 million jobs. That's
exactly what they do, displayed as the "baseline projection" level in the graphic [shown in this article]
from an April 14, 2010 report.
An Age of Untruth.
Recoil from the word "stimulus" — whether used by a Republican or Democratic administration.
There is no such thing as an easy, fuzzy notion of instant money creating economic growth. Instead it is a
euphemism not for borrowing, but for massive borrowing and unsustainable debt. Indeed, note that we do
not even use words like "borrowing" or "debt," but instead prefer "deficit" (e.g., It's only a year-to-year
thing) and "stimulus" (e.g., spending what we don't have somehow makes us richer in the future).
"Stimulus" is thus a lie as it is used, or at best a half-truth.
$1,152,642.36 for every job created —
if the report is true.
Stimulus created nearly 683,000
jobs in first quarter. The White House's $787 billion stimulus plan funded 682,779 jobs in the
first quarter, administration officials said Friday [4/30/2010].
Only
6,662,000 More Needed in 2010 to Fulfill Obama Promise. Any positive job growth is good news to
be sure. But in order for Obama to meet his pledge of 4 million jobs created by the end of 2010,
the U.S. economy would have to add 932,000 jobs each and every month between now and the end of the year,
taking into account both temporary jobs and the number of new positions needed to keep even with population
growth. According to the BLS, 2,662,000 jobs have been lost since February 2009.
Obama
Hypocrisy on Small Businesses and Jobs. After 15 months in office, Obama has yet to make any
good decisions to help small business or create jobs. Instead, additional levels of Obama Administration
bureaucracy stifle innovation and burden American entrepreneurs with silly new rules buried in thousands of
pages of legislation. In short, Obama is killing the American growth machine. Evidence of Obama's
assault on business, capital and innovation is everywhere.
There's
a noticeable boom in the fake job market. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that 430,000
new jobs appeared in the US economy in May. That, of course, would be reason for profound joy, except
for the fact that 411,000 of those jobs were temporary, part-time positions created by the US Census.
And we don't really know whether the Census is making its employment statistics look better by churning
workers and hiring unnecessarily.
Obama: Not as honest
as FDR. [Scroll down] The United States in the 1930s recognized that government-funded
make-work jobs were not the same as real jobs. To be sure, jobs financed at taxpayer expense were
plentiful. But back then, the Bureau of Labor Statistics didn't count people on work relief as employed.
In fact, persons listed on Depression-era work-relief rolls were not included in the labor force at all.
Nowadays, the unemployment rate equals the number of unemployed persons divided by the total civilian labor
force. If you are working as a temporary census enumerator or planting road signs along the highway
courtesy of a government "stimulus" grant, you are considered employed.
Obama Jobs. The Obama White
House, stung by criticism of the recent May employment report, which showed virtually no job growth beyond
the 411,000 temporary census workers, is attempting to find ways to put as many of the 411,000 in permanent
government jobs. ... Another byproduct of the census hiring? "It's essentially a new job created if
these volunteers move back to the unemployment rolls [and then back to a fulltime job in the federal
government]," says a Senate Democrat leadership staffer.
Obama's Problem Isn't
Leadership — It's Liberal Policy. [Scroll down] People want jobs and,
despite Obama's claim of "saving" them, the most recent job-growth numbers prove that federal spending
is insufficient to the task of raising employment levels. (Nevertheless, the president has just
asked Congress for an additional $50 billion in recovery funds.)
Obama's
endless summer of spending. The White House kicked off a "recovery summer" public relations
blitz yesterday to promote the alleged benefits of stimulus spending. The mood of self-congratulation
was interrupted by a Labor Department report that found initial jobless claims for the week climbed by
12,000. A Conference Board survey showed the average wait in unemployment lines increased from
30 weeks at the start of the year to 34.4 weeks in May. It won't be a summer of love in
those households. Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. was enthusiastic, declaring the stimulus
"an absolute success" on Wednesday [6/16/2010].
The Truth about the
Unemployment Rate in America. Changes in the unemployment rate are driven by interaction of job
destruction, which consists of job losses through voluntary and involuntary job termination and job creation
resulting in the hiring of employees. This interplay of job destruction and job creation drives the changes
and direction of the unemployment rate. James Sherk at the Heritage Institute points out in his latest
article that job losses in the current recession are not as severe as they were during the recession in 2001.
The reason the unemployment rate is so much higher in the current recession is due to the lack of job creation.
Obama's Funny Numbers.
Last week, as Congress failed to pass a bill that would have extended unemployment benefits, the Obama White
House put out talking points for Democrats on Capitol Hill going home to their districts, as well as to the
talking head class, pushing the message that Republicans were "sabotaging" the U.S. economic recovery for
political gain. By Sunday [6/27/2010] those points were being pushed on the blogosphere and elsewhere,
but some Republicans on Capitol Hill are wondering whether the Obama Administration isn't cooking the books
itself...
I'll Take a Double-Dip. While
Obama spins rising GDP and a falling unemployment rate as proof that his economic policies are making our economy
stronger, the Thief-In-Chief is engaging in a campaign of bald-faced lies and he knows it. Our economy is
essentially dying, the victim of institutionalized chaos and growing uncertainty. The only thing keeping
it alive at this point is money seized from those who earned it and given to those who didn't, while the government
coerces them into buying cars, or appliances to prop up the federal government, or its major propagandists and
campaign contributors at General Electric and SEIU.
Results not matching Obama
rhetoric. The administration pushed the $862 billion stimulus package last year as a
measure to keep the unemployment rate from going over 8 percent. It's at 9.5 percent and
would be at 10 percent if hundreds of thousands of people had not simply stopped searching for a
job. A New York Times/CBS poll found 6 percent of Americans believe the last stimulus created
jobs.
Obama awards huge loan guarantees to solar companies promising
scant jobs gains. During his weekly address to the nation over the Fourth of July weekend,
President Obama announced that the Department of Energy was awarding $2 billion in loan guarantees
to two energy companies — Abengoa Solar and Abound Solar Manufacturing. The plan, Obama
said, is for the companies to use the money to construct solar plants and panels to power thousands of
homes — and create 5,000 jobs in the process. Only about 1,600 of those jobs are slated to be
permanent, though, meaning that the total cost to the taxpayer for each permanent job would exceed
$1 million. But over the past week, observers have questioned whether even that high figure
accurately represents the total cost of the president's plan.
Obama aborted the
recovery. The Obama administration has declared "Recovery Summer," basically an ad campaign
claiming wondrous job-creation results for $1 trillion or so in stimulus funding. Even more
impressive, however, are the steps the administration has taken to destroy jobs at the very time it claims
to be focused on their creation. And if we consider the sorts of jobs under attack by the administration,
it's clear there is method to the mayhem. Many thousands of existing jobs have been killed, and many
thousands more that could be created are instead being aborted.
Squandering the Stimulus.
The strategy behind Obama's latest stimulus sales pitch goes like this; a large portion of the stimulus funding is
about to be spent this summer and Obama, like Superman, plans on swooping down upon various stimulus funded projects
to declare, as only a President as arrogant as Obama can, that his policies have saved the day. In truth, the
"Summer of Recovery" is nothing more than a political ploy that was built in to the stimulus with the hope
that it will lift Democrats' prospects in the mid-term elections.
More
about the so-called stimulus.
Recovery
summer? Obama can't spin this one. In May, total non-farm employment grew by 431,000
jobs — and 411,000 of them were temporary Census worker positions. In June, 225,000 Census
jobs ended, and the private sector created only 83,000 new jobs in their place. Last week, Obama
traveled to Missouri and Nevada to sell his "Summer of Recovery" propaganda. But the people
aren't buying it.
"Fruit Loop" Nancy's Stimulus. Does Nancy
Pelosi actually expect Americans to believe extending unemployment insurance is the fastest way to create
jobs? Just a reminder: This ridiculous woman is two-short-steps from the presidency.
Nancy claims that handing out unemployment checks to the 10% of the jobless labor force is "one of the
biggest stimulus' to our economy." The Speaker supports such an absurd statement by saying "economists
will tell you this money is spent quickly." Nancy can you name the brilliant, and I use this title
loosely, economist? Wait; let me guess, economic genius Paul Krugman?
Obama
is pro-growth (of government). President Obama and his top officials embarked on a public
relations blitz last past week evidently designed to portray him as "pro growth." All such political
PR pushes tend to bear tenuous relationships with reality, but in this case the gulf between the truth and
what the politicians are saying is about as wide as the Grand Canyon. Say what he will, Obama's actions
since his first day in office have made clear that his business is growing government.
One Job Forward, Two Jobs
Back. The Great Obamanomic Job Creation Machine rumbled into action again over the Fourth
of July weekend, promising to spend as much as $2 billion to support creation of 1,585 "permanent"
jobs by two solar energy companies. That comes to a potential cost of over $1.25 million
per job.
More
about green jobs.
Signs of the Times.
If you could spend vast amounts of other people's money just by saying a few magic words, wouldn't you be tempted
to do it? Barack Obama has spent hundreds of billions of dollars of the taxpayers' money just by
using the magic words "stimulus" and "jobs." It doesn't matter politically that the stimulus is not actually
stimulating and that the unemployment rate remains up near double-digit levels, despite all the spending and
all the rhetoric about jobs. And of course nothing negative will ever matter to those who are part of
the Obama cult, including many in the media.
If
This is "Recovery Summer," I'd Hate To See "Recession Winter". President Obama is in Michigan
today [7/15/2010], begging voters to believe that his economic plans and policies are helping the state, the region and
the country recover their economic bearings. Voters aren't buying the spin, however, and the White House
aide who came up with the slogan which Team Obama is deploying along with the president, "Recovery Summer,"
must be a GOP plant.
Batteries included
on tour. Just a few years ago, the U.S. produced only 2 percent of the world's
electric car batteries, but the Obama administration says that if the stimulus is allowed to work
that could rise to 40 percent by 2015. ... But so far, it's been a tough sell — voters tell
pollsters they don't think the stimulus has helped much, they have a pessimistic view of the direction the
country is taking, and are increasingly taking a dim view of Mr. Obama's economic leadership overall.
$287,333 per job:
Obama
looks to Bill Clinton for help on jobs as stimulus argument falls flat. President Obama
summoned former President Bill Clinton and business leaders to the White House on Wednesday [7/14/2010] to
talk about how to improve the nation's employment situation, on the same day that the administration
released a report alleging that their $862 billion stimulus has saved roughly three million jobs.
He
came, he saw, he insulted. [Scroll down] But the green economy looks like a lot of
green for the well-connected. The president handed $150 million in stimulus money over to
Korean CEO Peter Bahnsuk Kim of LG Chem. LG Chem is an $11 billion Korean conglomerate that
hardly seems a candidate for the American Recovery Act. No wonder the program is so unpopular. ... Obama
said his benevolence would create 300 jobs in Holland — but that's $500,000 per job.
Real
Joblessness Grimmer Than Gov't Stats. Writing in the New York Times in November 2003, Austan
Goolsbee, then a professor at the University of Chicago, flamboyantly accused the government of "cooking"
the books regarding unemployment. "The situation has grown so dire," he said, "that we can't even tell
whether the job market is recovering. The time has come to correct the official unemployment statistics
to account for those left out." Professor Goolsbee is now a top economic advisor to President Obama.
Would he admit that the official jobless of 9.5% grossly underestimates the pain of job losses in America
and do something to correct the situation?
The
Flight of the Money: Where Has It Gone? If you go to a movie set, you will see perfect-looking
streets, each building front rich in detail, looking as real as real can be. Yet it's only façade.
One thin piece of painted sheetrock propped up. Walk around behind it, there's nothing there. That's
GM. State pension funds in 30-plus states people are counting on, upside down in toto by trillions.
Obama's stimulus. There are signs stuck here or there with his logo on them, proclaiming the dirt
mound or torn up street his "stimulus at work." The sign-maker was stimulated. Who else?
That's this entire economy. A façade.
Update:
Obama Railroading Propaganda Signs.
The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) has dropped its requirement for "stimulus" project propaganda
signage, according to a communiqué from the department's inspector general. As of July 15 the
policy changed, the I.G. says, and signs and plaques promoting the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act
(ARRA) at jobsites and on things like "stimulus"-funded railroad cars were "strongly encouraged" in lieu of
the mandate.
Obama's Economic Time-Bomb Set to Explode
in 2011. If you listen to the lies spewing forth from the lips of the Obama Administration,
the US economy is improving, millions of jobs are being "saved or created" and we're well on our way to a
strong recovery. But, the volatility of the numbers that Obama and economists in his pocket use to
try and convince us that our financial situation is improving tell an entirely different story.
Barack Obama's Endless Crises:
Only [Barack] Obama and Joe Biden believe that the job trajectory in America is positive. Everyone
else — those who actually look at data or look for work — are scared witless. Each job
opening has five to six applicants. The average unemployment period now extends to 35 weeks, the
highest since the end of WWII. Last month, more than six hundred thousand Americans gave up
looking for work. The same report revealed that average hourly earnings for those lucky enough
to be working have fallen. Average hours worked also dropped. These figures simply get worse
from month to month. But somehow, all of this deteriorating evidence leads the smartest man
who ever held the office of president (according to historian Michael Beschloss) to proclaim
that we're on the right track.
Stimulating
Unemployment. [Scroll down] But Mr. Obama was nonetheless obliged to concede that,
18 months after his $862 billion stimulus, there are still five job seekers for every job opening
and that 2.5 million Americans will soon run out of unemployment benefits. What happens when the
99 weeks of benefits run out? Will the President demand that they be extended to three years, or
four? Only last week Vice President Joe Biden was hailing the stimulus for "saving or creating" three
million jobs. This week the White House says we need even more stimulus, in the form of jobless
checks, to make up for the jobs his original spending stimulus didn't create.
Are Barack Obama and Gibbs
really this ignorant or are they being dishonest? Last week President Obama did a photo
op at a GM plant. In remarks to the assembled GM workers Obama took credit for saving their jobs.
In fact, he took credit for saving the "American auto industry." The problem with this is that he was
being dishonest or showing his ignorance.
Presidential Self-Adulation
Hits New High. Since mid July, the president and vice president have been on the road crowing
about all the jobs they have "created or saved" — some three million to eight million jobs in
all, depending on who's talking (Biden and the administration's top economist go with the more conservative
three million figure, while the president jacks it up to eight million). Either way, the number is way up
from where it stood when the president appeared before the nation on the Oprah Winfrey show (the administration
was then claiming to have rescued only about a million jobs). Now this is a remarkable accomplishment,
given the fact that the economy (I mean the real economy) has suffered a net loss of 2.35 million
jobs since the passage of the National Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
Obama:
I saved Ford by bailing out its competitors. They didn't take his bailout money, but the president
claims credit all the same.
Jobless Nation:
Heckuva Job, Barack. Earlier this season, Team Obama launched a PR offensive designed to convince
Americans that a real economic recovery was underway. They called it "Recovery Summer!" Note the exclamation
point. They wanted you to really, really get that they believed we were in "recovery." It wasn't just
a "recovery." It was "Recovery Summer!"
Welcome
to the Second Great Depression. Last Tuesday morning, Secretary of the Treasury
Timothy Geithner "welcomed" us to the recovery. ... In fact, the Second Great Depression is just beginning.
And just as during the First Great Depression, economic liberals are declaring that it doesn't exist.
Barack... You're 30% Right, but 100% Wrong!
Like the fuzzy-math Team Obama uses to tell us that so many millions of jobs have been "saved or created" due
to stimulus funds. ... Yes, I understand that his speech on the state of our American economy was geared
towards pumping up unions and union workers so they feel the need to get out there and raise the dead to
vote for more pro-government interventionist ideologues in November, but Mr. Obama can't even complete
a sound analogy (the teleprompter must have froze).
O looks
silly pushing 'creation' myth. I Don't have the heart to break any more bad news to President Obama.
So, if you happen to have his phone number, please deliver this message: Go easy on the upbeat chatter about
the number of jobs being created by private companies. Your information is inaccurate. The
president, I'm sorry to say, is starting to look very foolish.
What's Holding Back The Hiring? Start With Obama's 10 Job Killers.
President Obama claims that he's concerned about "jobs, jobs, jobs," but he has signed laws, issued executive
orders and approved regulations that create incentives for private-sector employers to lay off people or
delay hiring people. It's no wonder high unemployment persists.
Summer of No Recovery.
Against [a long] list of facts, President Obama claims that the economy is getting better. This administration's
ineptness at promoting growth is equaled by its ineptness at spinning facts. The Obama administration
also touts that the stimulus passed in February of 2009 created or saved 3.5 million jobs. Of course,
the president has chosen a standard of measure that is not and has not been tracked before.
New
fairy tales from Obamaland. [Obama, Reid and Pelosi] spun two new fantasies just this week.
The first was that without the latest Obama-Reid-Pelosi government bailout, at least 100,000 teachers would lose
their jobs this fall. ... [But] the vast majority of those dire warnings of 100,000 teachers being laid off
were mostly just hot air. And here's something else to ponder: If it cost $10 billion to save
100,000 teachers' jobs, they are each being paid $100,000 a year. Since the national average teacher salary
is just over $54,000 a year, somebody — federal bureaucrats? — is making a bundle on
overhead.
Jobbed
In America. Obamanomics has done more than just keep unemployment high during a modest recovery.
It may also be keeping high joblessness permanent by raising the costs to businesses of hiring new workers.
July's 9.5% unemployment level was bad enough. But the real problem is that the private-sector jobs machine,
which is usually going full tilt at this point in a recovery, now seems to be broken. To many, it's
becoming clear that if President Obama's radical job-killing agenda stays in place, job growth will be
nonexistent.
Have You Ever Noticed?
The dog days of August have arrived. The "summer of recovery" is evolving into a "winter of discontent"
as virtually anywhere one looks, reality overwhelms the rhetoric of the ruling class.
Stop
Obama's tax-paid propaganda. Recovery.gov, for example, is a tax-paid website that cost $18 million
to create, yet does little more than peddle job-creation data that are discredited almost as soon as they are posted.
The Ride Down. Revised
numbers from the Labor Department show negative job growth during June 2010. For each job opening,
there were five persons looking for work, and 300,000 fewer workers were hired in June than in May.
The ride down continues. Meanwhile, Treasury Secretary Geithner, erstwhile cheerleader for the Obama
economic team, announces that unemployment rates could rise "for a couple of months."
Obama Job Claims Undercut by Report.
Rep. David Camp (R.-Mich.) revealed Friday that, based on Department of Labor data, 48 of 50 states
have lost jobs despite the administration's prediction that the 2009 stimulus would save or create over
3 million jobs.
Recovery Bummer. [Scroll down]
No matter how well-documented the economic wreckage wrought by progressive "solutions" is, or how many times
Keynesian economic models have failed, we have a Democratically-controlled Congress and an Obama administration
willing to "double down" against history, common sense — and the wishes of most Americans. Ask
yourself how many times in the last year alone you've heard the word "unexpected" attached to an economic report,
as in last Thursday's "unexpected" rise to 500,000 unemployment insurance filings — or the "unexpected"
rise of unemployment to almost ten percent, despite the Obama administration's assurance it wouldn't top eight
percent when American taxpayers were fleeced for $865 billion in a "stimulus" package.
These days, it's best to expect
the 'unexpected'. The national economy is in the tank — unexpectedly. At least
it's "unexpected" by the mainstream media, and professional economists. After all these months, these
pampered pukes remain flummoxed by how clueless their hero Barack Obama has shown himself to be on economic
(and other) issues.
Honey, I Shrunk My
Approval Ratings. In what will rank as one of the all-time presidential PR disasters, we're now
well over half way through what the White House called "the summer of recovery." And what a recovery it's
been. Earlier this month, first-time claims for unemployment hit a nine-month high. The unemployment
rate remains at 9.5% and 18.4% of workers are out of a job, can only get part-time work, or have given up
looking for a job altogether.
Explaining
'Lives Touched' to the Mainstream Media. In late July, a Government Accountability Office report
circulated which analyzed stimulus funding being spent by the Department of Energy. The main gist of
that report involved the cost of each job being generated by the stimulus bill — a staggering
$194,000. Tucked away in that report was a phrase that was new to most of us, a way to calculate jobs
through a term called 'lives touched'.
Biden
Recovery Tour: Making Stuff Up in Toledo. The White House's "Recovery Summer" tour is
beginning to resemble a jalopy wheezing from town to town, consuming whatever fuel will keep it going.
Throw in Veep Biden, and it is a full-blown farce. Biden dove into Toledo, Ohio, on Monday [8/23/2010]
amid evidence of a stalled economy to once again boast to yet another UAW audience of the president's
"transformed U.S. auto industry."
Cooking the books
on job claims. Administration officials passed around the champagne Tuesday [8/24/2010] as the
Congressional Budget Office reported that the $814 billion spent on the first stimulus bill created
between 1.4 million and 3.3 million new jobs. President Obama's policies "put the country on
a path to recovery by getting Americans back to work quickly," Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. crowed.
"We've created 3 million jobs, and we're adding jobs every month." As is obvious to anyone living
outside the Beltway, there's not much cause for celebration in this economy.
How is your "Recovery Summer" going?
Debt, Depression,
Default. America is in Deep Trouble. Consumers are spending less. Small retailers
are closing shop — even cable television subscriptions are seeing a loss in revenue.
A
perfect pitchman. Joe Biden was an inspired choice as spokesman for the "summer of recovery." ... Biden
is still hawking his recovery summer, even as GDP growth slows to a crawl, and he'll still tout the marvels of
the stimulus even if we dip into negative territory again later this year. He makes the late, great
pitchman Billy Mays look restrained and rhetorically scrupulous by comparison.
Obama:
Stimulus Stopped Possibility of Second Depression. Before President Barack Obama began touting
the political bonafides of Michael Bennet — at a fundraiser for Bennet — he made sure
to mention that his year old stimulus stopped a second depression. "One year later, thanks largely to
the Recovery Act, we can stand here again and say that a second depression is no longer a possibility," Obama
said, adding all the statistics about job growth ("about 2 million") and economic growth ("nearly 6%").
15
Reasons Why Obama's Claim Is Dead Wrong. There is no way in the world that Barack Obama should have
ever said that "a second depression is no longer a possibility." In fact, as the U.S. financial system
continues to crumble, it is likely that those words will be exploited by his political adversaries again and
again. If you are a politician and you are going to issue a guarantee, you had better be able to
deliver the goods. In this case, Obama is making a promise that defies all of the economic data.
President
Obama Reacts to August Jobs Numbers. Flanked by members of his economic team — including
outgoing Council of Economic Advisers Dr. Christina Romer, whose replacement has yet to be named —
President Obama chose to look at the silver lining in the economic clouds of today's jobs report —
not even mentioning that August saw a net job loss of 54,000 jobs.
Is
Obama Dishonest, Naive or Both When He Talks About Our Economy? Last week President Obama spoke
to the White House press corps — and by extension the nation — to claim that the nation
saw job growth of 67,000 jobs in August. Even if this number was real it would be a pitifully tiny percent
of the 14,885,000 who are both on unemployment (1 in 10 Americans) as well as those 23,768,000 who
are underemployed (working but not earning enough for basic needs — 1 in 5 families).
The bigger problem for the president, however, is that the number isn't real. The fact is the nation saw
114,000 people added to the unemployment lines in August and the net jobs lost for the month sat at 54,000.
Obama
to offer new stimulus measures. "The key point I'm making right now is the economy is moving in a
positive direction, it's just not moving as quickly as we'd like it," Obama said. Obama was asked if he
regretted describing the last three months as the "recovery summer."
Obama Did Create 3 Million
Jobs — in China. President Obama should be saying, "My economic stimulus plan
has preserved or created 3 million jobs — in China." He keeps leaving out the words
"in China." His plan is stimulating American demand for imports, not demand for American products.
The latest unemployment report (9.6% in August) shows that the U.S. economy is stagnating, not recovering.
Unemployment has stayed in the 9.5% to 10.2% range for the past 13 months...
The Names Have Been Changed to Protect the Guilty.
These days, Barack Obama would rather talk about his birth certificate than use the word "stimulus."
At the press conference that wouldn't end last week, Obama was asked if his latest and greatest spending
proposal amounted to a second stimulus. He answered, "There is no doubt that everything we've been
trying to do is designed to stimulate growth and additional jobs in the economy," but adamantly avoided
the dreaded s-word.
Reaping the Whirlwind.
There is a sense of foreboding rising in this country. ... Every jobs report is a "surprise" of increasing
unemployment, the real level of which is around 22 percent, not the 9.5-percent fiction the Obama administration
touts. Great-Depression levels of unemployment do not support the "recovery summer" propaganda. Teen
unemployment is at levels above 25 percent as adults take jobs traditionally filled by teens. Americans
are not fooled by the government spin; they see the evidence every day.
Even
Obama Is No Longer Pushing Green Jobs. [Scroll down] Whip out your calculators: 82,000
into $20 billion means those green jobs cost about $243,902 each. Let's hope they pay well.
The high cost per job should come as no surprise; despite the hype from green groups and the administration,
cleantech jobs generally require enormously expensive subsidies. For example, back in January, the
administration was touting the $2.3 billion in manufacturing tax credits as creating 17,000 jobs —
or about $135,294 per job. Even that tally proved to be overly optimistic, given the fact that many of
those jobs went to other countries.
Clueless panel declares end
of US recession. Official economy-watchers announced yesterday [9/20/2010] that our worst recession
since the Great Depression quietly ended when we weren't looking — back in June 2009. While it's
hard to swallow for those who stand in longer jobless lines and for others who see paychecks shrinking, a panel
of top economists at the National Bureau of Economic Research concluded that we hit a formal bottom —
and end — to the economic dip 15 months ago. Oh, really?
Obama
team uses flimflammery to inflate job numbers. Are you a financial adviser? You may not
know it, but you've got a green job. Are you a wholesale buyer? You've got a green job, too.
Or maybe you're a newspaper reporter. You, too, have a green job — at least according to the
Obama administration. For months, Republican Sen. Charles Grassley has been pushing the administration to
substantiate its claims of having created nearly 200,000 green jobs. More fundamentally, Grassley has
asked Labor Secretary Hilda Solis to state clearly what a green job is. So far, he hasn't gotten an answer.
Obama's Costly Green
Jobs Project. The transcript of President Obama's weekly address on whitehouse.gov is titled,
"President Obama Lauds Clean Energy Projects as Key to Creating." Creating what? one might ask.
The word "Jobs" seems to be missing, perhaps like the jobs themselves.
Obama vs. Reagan. The phrase "Great
Recession" is an Obama Administration term intended to give the impression that when Barack Obama came to office,
the nation faced the greatest economic challenges since the Great Depression. Actually, Ronald Reagan faced
a much more daunting situation when he first took the oath of office.
Every Month, They're Lying.
Figures for the last significant jobs report before the November election are a major embarrassment for the
administration. On October 8, the labor department reported a decline of 95,000 workers, a figure
much worse than economists had estimated. This decline in jobs is inescapable proof of the failure of
the president's economic policies. As if the September employment numbers were not bad enough, the
figures for August were revised downward by 57,000.
Bam
job-boost claim a lame shame. As head cheerleader of the stagnant and stumbling economy,
President Obama has lost all the frills on his pompoms. Exhausted, he stood before cameras yesterday [10/8/2010]
and, in dreary cadences of despair, did his best to draw lipstick on the mouth of a sick pig. Any way
you try spinning it, the latest job numbers are disastrous for Democrats desperate to hold on to power in
next month's elections.
Oops. Obama's 'Saved Job' Was Just Lost.
Oh, it was a thing to be celebrated when Obama's payoff to the teachers unions back in August "saved" the job of
Ohio school teacher Amanda VanNess. It was such a thing of wonder that the big guy flew the elementary
school teacher all the way to D.C. for an Oval Office signing ceremony. Happy days were here
again... and it lasted less than three months because VanNess still lost her job this month anyway.
'No such thing as shovel-ready projects'
The
political suicide of President Obama. Liberals sit down with the New York Times the way
Catholics enter the confessional: To make a clean breast of their sins and to ask for absolution.
Except that the Gray Lady offers no promise of confidentiality. President Obama has given an interview
to the Times Magazine that will appear in full next Sunday [10/17/2010]. Already, however, his
quoted remarks are causing a political earthquake.
America, we have a problem.
In a New York Times interview last week, President Obama acknowledged that there's "no such thing as shovel-ready
projects." This was one of his main selling points for the $862 billion stimulus package.
He now admits they don't exist, and the stimulus is clearly not working. The public was told that
unemployment would not go above 8 percent if the stimulus package passed. They passed it and
unemployment went to over 9.6 percent and stayed there. So now the president and his economic
advisors say we might have to just get used to high unemployment. And they want to spend even more
money.
Obamanomics 101. Since
Obama came to office in January 2009, the unemployment has risen from just under 8% to close to 10% —
where it has stayed for the past year. There has been a net loss of about 2.5 million jobs.
Even so, the Obama administration continues to claim that it has "created or saved" about 3 million
jobs. That is a meaningless metric, which is not based on any evidence.
Obama's Impossible Leap.
Early on, candidate Obama pontificated about the need to end tax breaks for companies moving jobs offshore.
More recently, the Creating American Jobs and Ending Offshoring Act attempts to institutionalize that goal in
law. Unfortunately, what Obama and many members of Congress on both sides of the aisle fail to realize
is that most of the jobs they propose to save have already left or no longer exist.
White House takes credit for Bush-era wind
farm jobs. The Obama administration is crediting its anti-recession stimulus plan with creating
up to 50,000 jobs on dozens of wind farms, even though many of those wind farms were built before the stimulus
money began to flow or even before President Barack Obama was inaugurated.
The Ego-in-Chief.
Should the president take a victory lap for an unemployment rate that has increased by 2 percent since
he took office? His economic stimulus package, the laughably titled "American Recovery and Reinvestment
Act of 2009," was supposed to keep unemployment below 8 percent. It now stands right at 10 percent.
The fact is that, despite the misinformation that Obama's stimulus kept the economy from getting worse as
some would have you believe, it has only succeeded in slowing the recovery.
Green
lipstick on the stimulus pig. Jobs that carry the "sustainable" stamp of approval will siphon
precious taxpayer resources away from the private sector. It's simply putting green lipstick on the
stimulus pig that has squandered more than a trillion dollars with no positive effect on the jobless rate.
Obama's
'Green' Energy Plan Infringes on Liberty. Since the 2008 campaign trail, Obama has been claiming
that his overall "green" plan would create 5 million green jobs over the next 10 years. However,
Obama's "green" agenda will kill more jobs than it aims to create.
Fantasy Figures, Real Pain.
Early Friday morning [12/3/2010], before the Department of Labor released its monthly jobs report, the mainstream
media was reporting job gains of as much as 200,000 as more or less the consensus figure. Never mind that
200,000 was not the consensus among reputable economists. The mainstreamers wanted the jobs report to turn
up as an assist to the Obama administration, and so they fudged their predictions.
Obama's Green Economy Mirage. In
2008, 1.2 billion cell phones were made and sold worldwide. Not one was made in the USA.
Dell, one of the largest manufacturers of computers, closed its last plant in Winston-Salem in November and
laid off 900 workers. Computer manufacturing in the U.S. employs fewer Americans in 2010 than it did in
1975. Printed circuit boards were perfected in the U.S. after World War II and are used in
thousands of products worldwide. 84% of circuit boards are now made in Asia. In 2001, the U.S.
ranked fourth in per capita broadband Internet use; today we rank 15th. What next? Obama has touted
the "green economy" as the answer to the need for new good paying jobs. It's not happening either.
Green Jobs Promises Dwindle as
Obama Policies Backfire. The subject of green jobs was conspicuously absent from President
Barack Obama's most recent $50 billion stimulus proposal. By contrast, about $92 billion in
taxpayer funds — more than 11 percent of Obama's original $814 billion stimulus package,
enacted in early 2009 — went to an assortment of renewable energy projects. But the jobs that
were supposed to be created never materialized — at least not in the United States.
The Immortal Tyranny Of Climate Change.
A year after the Climagate scandal decisively exposed the fraud of global warming, and acting in the face of a
new Republican House that does not look kindly on climate change flim-flams, the Obama Administration is
preparing to enforce their ideology through EPA greenhouse gas regulations. So much for the latest
"hard pivot to jobs," announced only five days ago by President Obama. These EPA regulations are
guaranteed job-killers, dropping a huge new tax on every affected business... which will, ultimately,
be every business that uses energy.
Hiding A Depression. No, we have not
emerged from "recession" and there will be no "double dip" — because the first "dip" was straight down to a
depression-level economy in 2008/2009, and we haven't come back up. Creating artificial "free money" on
a massive scale that artificially boosts short-term employment is how you segment depression level
unemployment into the separate boxes and hide what is really happening.