Books, movies, politics, and whatever I want

Archive for April 7th, 2013

Let’s look at the numbers again…

Sunday, April 7th, 2013

The March unemployment numbers are out and the federal U3 number dropped from 7.7% in February to 7.6%.  That should be good news, still over two points over what our Dear Leader promised us we would have if we passed his massive porkulus act, but still moving in the in right direction.

So why did the architect of the Obama economic plan, Austan Goolsbee, call the March unemployment numbers a “punch to the gut”?

To answer that,we need to look at some more numbers.  Like the number of jobs the Federal BLS says were added in March, which is 88,000.  Since you have been paying attention, you know that the US economy needs to generate at least 120,000 new jobs a month just to break even.  So how did the U3 rate drop a tenth of a percent when we missed the break even point by over 33,000 jobs? The Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics calculates the U3 (and 5 other “U” rates) rate as a percentage of the labor force.  While the BLS added 88,000 jobs, it dropped 630,000 workers from the labor force. That gives us a net loss of over a half million workers from the US economy in March 2013.  Just what would the Federal BLS U3 number be if those 630,000 Americans were still counted in the labor force?  One estimate has it at 11.7%.  That is Carter era employment numbers.  It shouldn’t be surprising that Obama’s Worst Recovery since the Great Depression is catching up with the Worst Recession since the Great Depression.

Not a shining moment for the Obama regime and it’s Keynesian economy policies.  Not enough for them to give up on those failed policies though.  For the left, their political agenda always trumps the truth.

Quote of the Day

Sunday, April 7th, 2013

“Very few people know, for example, that the gap between black and white incomes narrowed during the Reagan administration and widened during the Obama administration. This was not because of Republican policies designed specifically for blacks, but because the free market policies create an economy in which all people can improve their economic situation.”

— Thomas Sowell