Spinning Bad Financial News Into Good

by Dr. Paul Craig Roberts

This article originally posted on: Institute for Political Economy

Friday’s (09/07/12) payroll jobs report says that 96,000 new jobs were created in August and that the unemployment rate (U.3) fell from 8.3% to 8.1%. As 96,000 new jobs are not enough to keep up with population growth, the decline in the U.3 unemployment rate was caused by 368,000 discouraged job seekers giving up on finding employment and dropping out of the work force as measured by U.3. Discouraged workers are not included in the U.3 measure of unemployment, which makes the measure useless. The only purpose of U.3 is to keep bad news out of the news. the U.3 unemployment rate only measures those who have not been discouraged by the inability to find a job and are still actively seeking employment.

The government produces another unemployment measure, U.6, which includes people who have been discouraged by the inability to find a job and have been out of the work force for less than a year. This measure of unemployment is 14.7%, a number that would get attention if reported.

When the long-term (more than one year) discouraged workers are included, the US unemployment rate is about 22%. In other words, the real US rate of unemployment is almost three times higher than the reported--headline rate--of 8.1%.

What is the purpose of reporting an unemployment rate that is about one-third the real unemployment rate? The only answer is deception through Happy News.

Why Are Liberals Ignoring the Obvious?

by S. Paul Forrest

AmericaRevealed.org

Author’s note: I am a moderate and very open to change with regard to my political views.  Being a moderate means I am not stuck within one Party or one ideal; I am willing to listen to both sides of the aisle in order to formulate the best decision within this politically divided country – something the term Liberal once represented but apparently, no longer does.  I see problems on both the Right and the Left and all too often, can only shake my head with disgust at the ignorance so endemic within the blind, political allegiances so many enslave their minds within. If anything, I hope this article opens you up to the possibility that maybe while pursuing your Political Party’s agenda, you have become blind to the reality of our two party system - that it has become a duopoly, based on lies and deceit.

Being called a Liberal in these past four years, has come to represent the agendum of Socialists, Communists and/or Anarchists.  The reason for this association seems to stem from the insistence by many who would call themselves Liberals that America should cater to the poor while castigating the rich - those this author sees as they who have the ability to make money from innovation, intelligence and hard work.  Many in this movement have condemned the Right wing Conservatives for their desire to rid our Land of social care and equal rights for gays and women (to name a few) but in their race to hate their political opposites, they have rather ignorantly or maybe purposely, ignored the obvious: Our current President is more of a threat to this country’s future than any Conservative could ever be.