Two interesting articles:
Factors showing real unemployment is higher than official figures.
Production workers have nothing to do.
# 185,000 workers in the June number were the product of statistical sampling, but could not be verified by the government.
# Companies are asking employees to take unpaid leave.
# 1.4 million unemployed workers weren’t counted because they’re not searching for work.
# Part-time employment has doubled to 9 million.
# The work week is 48 minutes shorter than when the recession began.
# The number of long-term unemployed (4.4 million) is at an all-time high.
Gee, I wonder how all this unemployment could possibly have happened?
That damned Obama. He’s been in power less than a year and just look at all the misery and pain he’s caused!
I think Bush and Cheney should be returned to power immediately before the entire country, indeed the entire world gets raped by the wealthy.
Nooooooooooo! Government figures fudged! For God’s sake, read a book. Here’s a bunch of examples:
http://www.shadowstats.com/alternate_data
“The SGS Alternate Unemployment Rate reflects current unemployment reporting methodology adjusted for SGS-estimated “discouraged workers” defined away during the Clinton Administration added to the existing BLS estimates of level U-6 unemployment.”
This makes the current rate about 20.5% The Great Depression had a 25% rate (IIRC), but back then the vast majority of families were ONE income families, so the effect was much greater (other factors were involved too, of course).
And if you want a nice explanation of how Consumer Price Index figures were intentionally and specifically fudged by the Boskin Commission to lower cost of living adjustments to fedgov entitlement program recipients, read the excellent book, “Greenspan’s Bubbles.” This fudging of an important economic stat to be significantly lower than it should be then led to a continuous maladjustment of the economy via the interest rates set by The Fed. Garbage in, garbage out…