posted August 03, 2012 12:18 PM            

What, you were expecting the unemployment number to go up to 9% so 8.3% is "better than expected"?

Oh and by the way, 150,000 Americans were dropped from the rolls of those out of work and looking for a job...and they weren't dropped from the unemployed rolls because they found a job. They were dropped because they're so discouraged about every finding a job in the O'Bomber economy they quit looking for a job. If these people had not been dropped from the rolls, the unemployment number would have been even higher.

posted August 03, 2012 05:00 PM            

My numbers come from the Bureau of Labor Statistics...the federal agency tasked with keeping score.

posted August 04, 2012 12:36 PM            

Hey usual suspects, how does restoration of the economy by 2025 sound to you? Great I imagine! Is it really bright to say the O'Bomber economy is..."brightening"?

Obama’s economy on track to restore lost jobs by 2025
Published: 5:44 PM 08/03/2012

July’s disappointing jobs numbers won’t lower employment to 2007 levels until 2025, according to The Hamilton Project, a Democratic-affiliated advocacy group.

Even if President Barack Obama’s policies immediately doubled the economy’s creation of new jobs to 310,000 jobs a month, the “jobs gap” would not be closed until the end of 2016, according to an online calculator at the group’s website.

The group is supported by an establishment think tank, the D.C.-based Brookings Institution.

Under Obama, the economy has added roughly 150,000 jobs a month since early 2011.

“We’ve had the slowest job rate growth… since the great depression,” said Steve Moore, a Wall Street Journal columnist.

Currently, 23 million people in the nation’s population of 311.6 million are unemployed or underemployed, according to data produced by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

In July, the unemployment rate nudged up from 8.2 percent in June and 8.1 in May, according to the BLS.

Also, 15.2 percent of workers are unemployed or underemployed or have stopped looking of work.

That’s up from 15.1 percent in June 2012, and modestly down from the 16.3 percent level last July.

The nation’s population is growing steadily, partly via new births, but also because of the arrival of roughly one million legal immigrants per year.

The growth from new births and new immigrants is partly offset by the retirement of older workers.

posted August 04, 2012 03:54 PM            

The era of big government is over.
Kommander Korruption...1996

posted August 06, 2012 06:33 PM            

Are we talking about this Hamilton Project report: http://www.hamiltonproject.org/papers/a_record_decline_in_government_jobs_implications_for_todays_economy_an/

Conclusion
The private sector continues to be an engine for growth as the United States recovers from the Great Recession. However, tight budgets force a number of difficult decisions on policymakers (especially state and local ones), who are forced to lay off workers in order to meet their bottom lines. The result is that public-sector employment has been in sharp decline. This has worsened the current economic situation and the nation’s unemployment rate. These cuts – at least in the case of public school teachers – have also compromised our children’s future in ways that fail the even the strictest cost-benefit test. As state and local governments continue to face challenging budgets, a real risk is that they will be forced to make decisions that are both penny and pound foolish.

posted August 06, 2012 11:04 PM            

The economic outlook is not brightening...and won't under your little Marxist Messiah O'Bomber.

O'Bomber has yet to create a single net new job in America. In fact, about 1 million fewer Americans are employed in America than when your Marxist Messiah began infesting the White House. O'Bomber isn't called President Food Stamp for no reason.

Your nonsense is laughably delusional acoustic. The economy lost more jobs than were supposedly created in July 2012.

posted August 07, 2012 03:40 PM            

Not one of your better efforts acoustic and definitely not up to freshman debate standards.

posted August 07, 2012 04:59 PM            

quote:

---

Btw, your premise that the O'Bomber economy is "brightening" is laughably delusional.

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Repeating yourself?

quote:

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Notice you couldn't find anything to refute what I said about the O'Bomber economy acoustic....because what I said is true.

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posted August 18, 2012 09:55 AM            

So says O'Bomber and his Kool-Aid swilling sick-o-pants.

The numbers tell a far different story.

Notice how the O'Bomber droolers at the AP attempt to soften the bad news to protect their little Marxist Messiah.

Unemployment rates rose in 44 U.S. states in July
Associated Press
Friday, August 17, 2012

WASHINGTON (AP) — Unemployment rates rose in 44 U.S. states in July, the most states to show a monthly increase in more than three years and a reflection of weak hiring nationwide.

The Labor Department said Friday that unemployment rates fell in only two states and were unchanged in four.

Unemployment rates rose in nine states that are considered battlegrounds in the presidential election. That trend, if it continued, could pose a threat to President Barack Obama’s re-election bid in less than three months.

Nationwide, hiring improved in July after three months of tepid job gains. But the national unemployment rate ticked up to 8.3 percent from 8.2 percent. Monthly job gains have averaged 150,000 this year. That’s barely enough to accommodate population growth. As a result, the unemployment rate is the same as when the year began.

Still, 31 states gained jobs in July, while 19 lost them. Unemployment rates can rise in a state even when more jobs are created if more people start looking for work. People who are out of work are counted as unemployed only if they’re looking for a job.

In the most closely contested states in the presidential race, unemployment has fallen over the past year. That could help Obama in his contest with GOP candidate Mitt Romney.

But it has started to tick up in recent months. In Nevada, the rate rose to 12 percent in July from 11.6 percent the previous month. That’s the highest rate in the nation, though it’s still much lower than a year ago, when it was 13.8 percent.

And in Michigan, the rate has increased to 9 percent, from 8.5 percent two months earlier.

Unemployment also increased in Florida, Virginia, North Carolina, Iowa, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Colorado, Wisconsin and New Hampshire.

The rate was unchanged at 7.2 percent in Ohio, the only swing state that didn’t suffer an increase. Still, that rate is down sharply from 8.9 percent a year ago.

Most competitive states have unemployment rates below the national level, so even recent increases may not have a large impact on voter sentiment.

Iowa’s unemployment rate, for example, increased to 5.3 percent, still the sixth-lowest in the country. New Hampshire’s rose to 5.4 percent and Virginia’s increased to 5.9 percent, both far below the national rate.

Only four swing states have higher unemployment rates than the national figure: Nevada, Michigan, North Carolina at 9.6 percent, and Florida at 8.8 percent.

Some battleground states reported large job gains that could lead to lower unemployment rates in coming months. Michigan added 21,800 jobs, the second-largest increase in the nation, after California. Michigan’s gains were mostly in manufacturing and government. Virginia reported the third-largest increase, 21,300, mainly in education and health care.

Most other battleground states added small numbers of jobs.

Unemployment rates and total jobs data are derived from two separate surveys and aren’t always consistent each month. But they tend to even out over time.

Many political scientists say voter attitudes may be shaped more by national economic trends than local or statewide changes.

Most Americans probably read or hear more news about the national economy than they do about their local areas, some experts say. And they may not attribute regional economic changes to presidential policies.

posted August 18, 2012 04:12 PM            

August 18, 2012
Potentially Devastating News on the Obama Economy
By William Tate

The Gallup Organization had some bad news for Barack Obama on Friday. It's not that Obama fell behind Mitt Romney by two points in Gallup's daily tracking poll, although that couldn't have helped the the O-Team's spirits heading into the weekend. Between now and the election, polls are likely to be less stable than Joe Biden's thought process.

The really bad news for the Chicago mob is that Gallup's unemployment survey shows the Obama economy is getting even worse. Gallup reported an uptick in joblessness in their latest survey of 30,000 households.

"(T)his suggests that the government's unadjusted unemployment rate could increase to 8.7% ... The government's measurement of the unadjusted unemployment rate has been known to differ with Gallup's findings, but a drop of 0.3% ... is necessary to bring the government's unadjusted rate down to Gallup levels."

However, the figure that is most commonly used in reporting joblessness is the Bureau of Labor Statistics's (BLS's) seasonally adjusted rate. Of that rate, Gallup notes:

"More interestingly, there were no BLS seasonal adjustments in August 2011. If this remains the same in 2012, the Gallup seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for August would be 8.3% while that of the BLS would be 8.7%, assuming a similar increase to that shown in the Gallup data."

That would represent a .4% increase over last month's numbers and would raise the official government jobless rate dangerously close to 9%.

Gallup adds:

"Further, Gallup's data show the labor force participation rate to be increasing in August. In turn, that could have an additional negative impact on the unemployment rate for August if the government's data show a similar pattern."

Gallup hints that only something like manipulation of data will prevent the BLS from reporting a substantial increase in unemployment.

"Regardless, barring heroic adjustments or a sharp change in direction, Gallup data suggest the seasonally adjusted U.S. unemployment rate for August will increase -- possibly substantially -- when announced in early September." (emphasis added)

As previously noted, Gallup pointed out that last year's August data was not adjusted. It will be interesting to see if the BLS decides to adjust their data this year.

The BLS has generally enjoyed a favorable reputation. However, under the Obama gang, economists have begun to scratch their heads over some of the numbers produced. Last month, for instance, the Bureau's payroll survey of employers reported the economy added a slightly better than expected number of jobs, but the BLS also reported that the unemployment rate actually increased. That's because its separate survey of 60,000 households, the one that most closely matches Gallup's, reported that 200,000 fewer folks had jobs in July.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics will report its August unemployment figures, the next-to-last report before the November election, on September 7th -- about the time many people start giving the election serious thought. It's been said that the campaign doesn't start until after Labor Day.

With Gallup reporting on Friday that 1 in 4 American workers are either unemployed or underemployed -- not counting the millions of folks who've given up looking for work -- this is simply devastating news for the guy who said he'd be a one-termer if he didn't fix the economy. Or would be if it's reported.

Look for it to be buried, though.

Instead we're likely to see coverage of how many years of his taxes Romney should release, or the differences between Romney's and Paul Ryan's budget proposals, or Obama campaign stops, or, say, Hillary's hairdo. Anything but the one thing that just about everybody predicted would be the central issue heading into this election.

There used to be an old joke that, if you wanted to distract somebody, you'd point in the air behind them and say, "Look, it's the Goodyear blimp!"

So, when you hear or read about Romney's taxes, or Ryan's budget, or even gaffe-a-minute Biden's latest mis-statement, it's the media's way of pointing over your shoulder and trying to convince you that there's a certain dirigible back there.

Don't fall for it. It's a trick.

posted September 19, 2012 02:01 PM            

..WASHINGTON (AP) — A jump in sales of previously occupied homes and further gains in home construction suggest the U.S. housing recovery is gaining momentum.

Sales of previously occupied homes rose 7.8 percent in August from July to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.82 million, the National Association of Realtors said Wednesday. That's the highest level since May 2010, when sales were aided by a federal home-buying tax credit.

At the same time, builders broke ground on 2.3 percent more homes and apartments in August than July. The Commerce Department said the annual rate of construction rose to a seasonally adjusted 750,000. The increase was driven the best rate of single-family home construction since April 2010.

The pair of reports comes amid other signs of steady progress in the housing market after years of stagnation. New-home sales are up, builder confidence is at its highest level in more than six years and increases in home prices appear to be sustainable.

"The U.S. housing recovery is for real," said Sal Guatieri, an economist at BMO Capital Markets, in a note to clients. "Great affordability, pent-up demand and strong investor interest in rental units are driving the market."

The broader economy is also likely to benefit. When home prices rise, Americans typically feel wealthier and spend more. Consumer spending drives 70 percent of the economic growth.

And the Federal Reserve's plan to spend $40 billion a month on mortgage-backed securities to keep mortgage rates low "can only help," Guatieri added.

Still, home sales and housing starts are rising from depressed levels. Sales of previously occupied homes remain below the more than 5.5 million that economists consider consistent with a healthy market.

The number of first-time homebuyers, who are critical to a housing rebound, slipped to 31 percent from 34 percent. In a typical market, that figure is usually closer to 40 percent. Strict credit standards are making it harder for many first-time buyers to qualify for mortgages.

More Americans appear to be taking advantage of near-record low mortgage rates and prices that are, on average, much lower than they were six years ago.

Sales might be higher if more homes were available, the Realtors' group said. The limited supply is helping to lift prices. There were 2.47 million homes available for sale in August. It would take just over six months to exhaust that supply at the current sales pace. That's the typical pace in a healthy market.

Homes are selling more quickly than a year ago. The median amount of time that a home spent on the market was 70 days in August, the Realtors' group said. A year ago, the median timeframe was 92 days a year ago.

The median home price dipped in August to $187,400, but that is 9.5 percent higher than August 2011. That's the largest year-over-year price increase since January 2006.

One reason for the price gain is that sales of foreclosed homes and so-called short sales have declined. A short sale is when the seller owes more on the mortgage than the home is worth. Both foreclosure and short sales occur at steep discounts and can drag down overall home prices.

The lower supply of homes has boosted demand for new homes, which has made builders more confident in future sales.

Applications for building permits, a good sign of future construction, dipped in August to an annual rate of 803,000. Still, permits reached a four-year high of 811,000 in July, which was revised higher.

"Since builders are not taking out permits because it is fun to visit their local government office and pay fees, we can conclude that there should be a solid rise in construction in the months to come," said Joel Naroff, chief economist for Naroff Economics Advisors.

Jim O'Sullivan, chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics, said home construction should add about 0.3 percentage point to overall economic growth this year.

"Housing is clearly in recovery mode," Sullivan said.

posted September 21, 2012 11:59 AM            

By ROD McGUIRK | Associated Press – 3 hrs ago

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australia's deputy prime minister warned Friday that the greatest threat to the U.S. economy are the "cranks and crazies" in the Republican Party, a rare foray into American domestic politics that was blasted by the opposition.

Wayne Swan, who also is treasurer and his center-left Labor Party government's ranking finance minister, took aim at the tea party during a speech to a business forum, breaking a convention among Australia's major parties to steer clear of U.S. domestic political debates.

"Let's be blunt and acknowledge the biggest threat to the world's biggest economy are the cranks and crazies that have taken over a part of the Republican Party," Swan said.

He said "the extreme right tea party wing" of the Republican Party had held the national interest hostage during last year's debate over the U.S. borrowing limit despite President Barack Obama's "goodwill and strong efforts."

He said it was imperative that Congress reach an agreement to support growth and avoid a "fiscal cliff" of deep government spending cuts and higher taxes in January, which he said could push the U.S. economy back into recession.

The conservative opposition said Swan's speech betrayed his "hatred" of Republicans.

"The Labor Party is peddling hatred and they're got to stop," opposition treasury spokesman Joe Hockey told reporters. "They hate the Republican Party. I'd like Wayne Swan to say something positive about someone somewhere."

Prime Minister Julia Gillard, who travels to New York next week to address the U.N. General Assembly, defended her deputy's comments as "appropriate."

"What happens in the U.S. economy matters to the world economy and it matters to us," she told reporters. "Wayne Swan was making that very common sense point today."

Adam Lockyer, a lecturer at Sydney University's U.S. Studies Center, described Swan's speech as "a clumsy political move" that left him open to attack from his political enemies.

Lockyer said Swan might have been attempting to link the tea party to the obstructionism of the Australian opposition, which has thwarted Labor's legislative agenda in a finely-balanced Parliament.

Australia has long maintained that its close relationship with Washington, and its 61-year-old defense alliance, remains strong regardless of who is in the White House.

Former conservative Prime Minister John Howard was widely criticized in 2007 when he claimed Obama, then a Democratic presidential nominee, represented al-Qaida's interests.

Howard, a staunch U.S. ally in the Iraq war who lost elections later that year after 11 years in power, created one of the first controversies of Obama's presidential campaign by attacking his plan to withdraw troops.
http://news.yahoo.com/australian-minister-warns-republican-crazies-021946678.html

posted September 22, 2012 09:34 AM            

Oh wait, the economy isn't "brightening", the bullshiiit is getting deeper.

Now if O'Bomber can just discourage the rest of the unemployed who are still out pounding the pavement looking for a job enough so they stop looking too; the Bureau of Labor Statistics can drop them from the rolls of the "unemployed", the "unemployment rate" will drop to "0", and O'Bomber can claim he solved America's unemployment problem.

Good news Comrades! The economic outlook has brightened!

So far, O'Bomber and demoscats have blamed everyone but O'Bomber...and themselves for the worst economy since the Great Depression.

Bush did it
The Tsunami did it
Bush did it
Fukushima did it
Bush did it
ATM machines did it
Bush did it
The 1% did it
Bush did it
Romney did it
Bush did it

But, we all know what really did it and there's no point in beating around the Bush and trying to sugar-coat this any longer.

MAN MADE GLOBAL WARMING DID IT

We’re going backward
By Ralph R. Reiland
Sunday, September 16, 2012

They say the economy is moving in the right direction, that we should stay the course, that it takes time to pull out of the recession that began in late 2007.

In fact, things are getting worse.

The economy was creating 153,000 new jobs per month last year. That dropped during the first seven months of this year to an average of 139,000 per month. In August, we were down to 96,000.

It takes more than 100,000 new jobs per month just to stay even with the number of people entering the labor force. It would take double that number over a decade to bring today’s jobless rate down to the unemployment levels of 2007.

Factory payrolls were cut by 15,000 workers in August, the biggest decline in two years and a strong reversal of the 23,000 gain in factory payrolls in July.

The dip in the official unemployment rate from 8.3 percent in July to 8.1 percent in August was due to 368,000 people dropping out of the labor force.

The labor-participation rate, the share of the working-age population in the labor force (as either employed or looking for work), dropped to 63.5 percent in August, the lowest labor-participation rate in more than three decades. ***Note: For those of you in Rio Linda, 3 decades is 30 years..but who's counting?***

The decline in the labor-participation rate is due in large part to the extended duration of unemployment in the current economy. “The average length out of the job market continues to be a stunning 39 weeks,” reported The Wall Street Journal (“The Jobs Deficit,” Sept. 10, 2012), “compared to an average duration of between 15 and 20 weeks from 1984-2008.”

Today’s unemployment rate would be 10.1 percent if the labor-participation rate was the same as it was in February 2010, when the job market allegedly bottomed.

And that’s not counting the officially estimated 8 million people who were classified as “involuntary part-time workers” by the Labor Department in August — workers with “hours cut” and people working part-time and “unable” to find full-time work.

Economic growth, too, is still moving in the wrong direction. After expanding at an annual rate of 4.1 percent in the fourth quarter of 2011, economic growth slowed to 2.1 percent during the first three months of 2012 and slowed again to 1.7 percent from April through June of this year.

It takes double the 1.7-percent growth rate to bring down the unemployment rate.

Measured against previous recessions and recoveries, federal reports show we’re doing about half as well as average. “The Joint Economic Committee reports that private payrolls have climbed only 4.3 percent in the last 30 months compared to a rate of 8.3 percent over a comparable time period for the other nine recoveries since World War II,” reports The Wall Street Journal.

Over the past year, the average annual wage increase of 1.7 percent was the lowest in three decades.

Gasoline prices hit $3.80 per gallon on Labor Day, the highest price ever recorded during a Labor Day weekend — and double the $1.79 price on Inauguration Day, Jan. 20, 2009.

Retail food prices rose 3.7 percent last year. This year, the U.S. Department of Agriculture is forecasting a 3.5 percent to 4.5 percent increase in beef prices.

The impact? Income data from the Census Bureau show that the median household income, adjusted for inflation, dropped by $4,019 from January 2009 to June 2012.

posted September 22, 2012 03:59 PM            

quote:

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So far, O'Bomber and demoscats have blamed everyone but O'Bomber...and themselves for the worst economy since the Great Depression.

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News Flash: Obama didn't build that.

posted September 22, 2012 06:32 PM            

My commentary is accurate. O'Bomber and his Socialist comrades in Congress have blamed everyone but themselves for the worst economy since the Great Depression...and they still are refusing to take any responsibility whatsoever.

However, the US economy began to unravel with the take-over of the US House and US Senate by demoscats in January 2007, accompanied by wild out of control spending...and accelerated with the infestation of the White House by O'Bomber beginning January 2009 accompanied by more wild out of control spending.