Search






Jeff's Amazon.com Wish List

Archive Calendar

December 2024
M T W T F S S
 1
2345678
9101112131415
16171819202122
23242526272829
3031  

Archives

“The vanishing US labor force: New study suggests jobless rate is misleadingly low”

Not to diminish your work, Jimmy P, but you may as well have titled your article, “New study suggests the very same thing all the old studies — not to mention our own eyes and ears and experience — suggested, namely, that the job numbers the government puts out are manipulated, that the press who reports them are either corrupt or illiterate (and most certainly incurious), and that people have probably begun largely to tune them out, feeling helpless to affect a government and a media they know to be lying to them always and forever”.

Of course, your headline has the advantage of being shorter and easier to Tweet.

So I don’t blame you one bit for taking that approach, now that I think about it.

56 Replies to ““The vanishing US labor force: New study suggests jobless rate is misleadingly low””

  1. Parker says:

    If you come here for the pithy, you’re in the wrong place!

    Some things don’t fit on a bumper sticker.

  2. Gulermo says:

    “If you come here for the pithy, you’re in the wrong place!”

    Am not! When you gotta go, ya gotta go.

  3. Gulermo says:

    Sorry, I have been reading to many hf comments.

  4. Parker says:

    Don’t get pithy with me – develop your thought completely. We’ll be doing word counts.

    And we want to see something strongly polysyllabic, mister.

  5. I’ll just stand over here in implacable equanimity.

  6. JHoward says:

    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.

    Link

  7. JHoward says:

    Oh, and why is the stock market up? On the back of US Socialism and a decimated US manufacturing sector?

    Eighty five billion in monthly printing would be your answer. My liberal friends-cum-free-market-capitalists assure me that it’s really just an ode to the success of Progg economics. And you know, they’re right. Because Krugman.

    PS: If I weren’t a kook I’d give the Federal Reserve a pass — surely it’s just a nice private sector banking operation and not the terminal scourge on classical liberalism that kook Jefferson and those other kooks said such central policy was.

  8. LBascom says:

    There’s no need to fear, Obama man is near.

    President Obama has called for an increase in the federal minimum wage – to at least $9 an hour. In addition, President Obama has also proposed indexing the minimum wage to inflation, so it would increase when the cost of living increases.

    The Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2013 has been introduced in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives. If passed, it would raise the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.10 per hour by 2015, and adjust it each year after that to keep up with the rising cost of living.

    Why they don’t go ahead and make it $200/hr and do away with poverty altogether I don’t know…

  9. Why they don’t go ahead and make it $200/hr and do away with poverty altogether I don’t know…

    They need to give DHS time to stockpile wheelbarrows.

  10. mondamay says:

    “New study suggests jobless rate is misleadingly low”

    And who is doing that “misleading”, Jimmy P?

    These rates are the product of someone’s work, and as such, if the rates are “misleading” that implies an effort to mislead, or at the very least, a failure to address a common misunderstanding about the numbers. If we had a media, instead of a government propaganda outfit, they could explain the fairly simple and obvious concept that the unemployment rate can rise or fall based upon not only the taking or losing of jobs, but also based on the number of people seeking employment.

    1. The Fed needs to pay close attention to the labor force participation rate as a threshold for judging the success or failure of its bond buying program. The unemployment rate is giving a misleadingly rosy signal. (And I would prefer the Fed target NGDP rather than job metrics.)

    This is comedy gold. So this guy is suggesting that it is the masterminds at the Fed (and not, say, NBC prime time viewers) who are being misled or are in some way confused by these unemployment numbers? It’s a PERCENTAGE!!! If you don’t have some idea of the size/quantity of the thing it happens to be a percentage of, you’re DOING IT WRONG!

    And then he goes on about “easing”. Is this group supposed to be conservative? You’re doing that wrong, too.

  11. Gulermo says:

    “Don’t get pithy with me – develop your thought completely. We’ll be doing word counts.”

    They told me there would be no math.

    “And we want to see something strongly polysyllabic, mister.”

    Brevity is the soul of wit. I takes my chuckles where I finds them.

  12. JHoward says:

    President Obama has also proposed indexing the minimum wage to inflation, so it would increase when the cost of living increases.

    Jackass is POTUS and doesn’t comprehend feedback loops.

    In that he reminds one of the Fed.

    Or of Keynes.

    Or Marx.

  13. Gulermo says:

    “Why they don’t go ahead and make it $200/hr and do away with poverty altogether I don’t know…”

    The only thing holding them back is the $50.00 loaves of bread.

  14. JHoward says:

    Is this group supposed to be conservative?

    Sure. Because private sector. Printing money and driving global events via unrepresentative fiat power is conservative where money is involved.

    The GOP has tied itself around its neck and jumped overboard.

  15. Gulermo says:

    “Or Marx.”

    A shame it isn’t Groucho.

  16. palaeomerus says:

    “The Omega Man (type of setting), It’s a guy stealing into old ruins of a town, picking through salvage, thinking about the past, having dreams about how it used to be and dodging things that track him him from the shadows. ”

    Or Romney. He proposed the same stupid thing. Christ, am I going to have to tell future generations what having a regular job was like? Why turn into Europe just as Europe is going broke and cracking up?

  17. palaeomerus says:

    —-Okay, LETS TRY THAT ONE AGAIN, THIS TIME WITHOUT THE CLIP-BOARD BETRAYAL.—-

    “Jackass is POTUS and doesn’t comprehend feedback loops.
    In that he reminds one of the Fed.
    Or of Keynes.
    Or Marx.”

    Or Romney. He proposed the same stupid thing. Christ, am I going to have to tell future generations what having a regular job was like? Why turn into Europe just as Europe is going broke and cracking up?

  18. palaeomerus says:

    “I’m Clippy. I’ll show you how to use the features of Microsoft Office Professional Edition. And One day maybe I’ll drink your blood as you sleep and then set fire to your house!”

    http://cache.ohinternet.com/images/2/20/Clippy.jpg

  19. Gulermo says:

    “—-Okay, LETS TRY THAT ONE AGAIN, THIS TIME WITHOUT THE CLIP-BOARD BETRAYAL.—-”

    Not that bad a first shot.

  20. Gulermo says:

    “I’ll drink your blood as you sleep and then set fire to your house!”

    Why not? Your dog greams about that all the time.

  21. palaeomerus says:

    It’s true. My dog is a Russian pyro/phlebo-greamer mix. Or a dachsund. One of those.

  22. Gulermo says:

    “Not that bad a first shot.”

    I guess I should have said it made a certain kind of sense.

  23. palaeomerus says:

    “The only thing holding them back is the $50.00 loaves of bread.”

    But just think if bread was a durable good (I mean bread other than old bollios, which make really great bricks for low heat building applications).

  24. Ernst Schreiber says:

    “The Omega Man (type of setting), It’s a guy stealing into old ruins of a town, picking through salvage, thinking about the past, having dreams about how it used to be and dodging things that track him him from the shadows. ”

    That was Charleton Heston killing hippies. It was awesome!

  25. Gulermo says:

    “Or a dachsund.”

    Yeah, ankle nippers are evil bastids.

  26. mondamay says:

    “I’m Clippy. I’ll show you how to use the features of Microsoft Office Professional Edition. And One day maybe I’ll drink your blood as you sleep and then set fire to your house!”

    Bah. I survived Microsoft Bob and Prody Parrot. What can you do?

  27. Gulermo says:

    Speaking of “old bollios”, you gonna eat that? (And the un-asked question; queso o no?)

  28. Gulermo says:

    “you gonna eat that?”

    My little brother Mikey wants to know.

  29. Gulermo says:

    O O H.

  30. The GOP has tied itself around its neck and jumped overboard.

    I hope it did something else to itself first.

  31. mondamay says:

    So the GOP has gone from elephant to albatross?

  32. BigBangHunter says:

    – All those oxygen generating trees and plants must be killing the environment.

  33. mondamay says:

    OT: Umm I guess this answers the argument about whether the SPLC runs the military’s policies on Christianity.

    “We MUST vigorously support the continuing efforts to expose pathologically anti-gay, Islamaphobic, and rabidly intolerant agitators for what they are: die-hard enemies of the United States Constitution. Monsters, one and all. To do anything less would be to roll out a red carpet to those who would usher in a blood-drenched, draconian era of persecutions, nationalistic militarism, and superstitious theocracy.”

    Spoke too soon. Obama has just exceeded my expectations…

  34. BigBangHunter says:

    – “I’m just the president…..nobody tells me anything.”

    – This promises to be the earliest 2nd term lame duck in the history of the Union.

  35. mondamay says:

    I can’t believe this isn’t catching fire out there.

    It’s all crickets on the blogs…

  36. Ernst Schreiber says:

    Related to mondamay’s 1:36 pm post:

    Pentagon May Court Martial Soldiers Who Share Their Christian Faith (links back to mondamay’s Breitbart link)

    Coincidently, this just so happens to answer a question Glenn Reynolds asked today:

    So we were warned about [Tamerlan Tsarnaev] by both the Russians and the Saudis and still did nothing? What exactly are all those hundreds of billions for Homeland Security going for?

    Apparently it’s going to fund “awareness” about Tea Party and Christian extremism throughout the government.

    Also bullets with which to shoot Tea Partiers and Chistians should any of them get uppity.

  37. newrouter says:

    “military’s policies on Christianity.”

    look squirrels

  38. Ernst Schreiber says:

    looks squirrels

    Personally, I’d consider the possibility that economy is the distraction and all the socio-cultural squirrels are the real game.

    But I’m a hatey hating So-Con hater what clutters threads with bullshit, because of hate or something, so take that with a grain of salt.

    he said mischieviously

  39. newrouter says:

    looks squirrels looks better

  40. Ernst Schreiber says:

    Too much Cheetos dust gumming up my keyboard.

  41. mondamay says:

    newrouter says May 1, 2013 at 3:18 pm
    look squirrels

    Did you read it? This is effectively “Don’t ask, don’t tell” for religion. It is obviously petulant retribution for Obama’s recent legislative setbacks. You can see in the story comments that people of faith are already talking about advising their young relatives to stay away from the military, and the progs knew it would have that effect. Couple this with the recent decision to include women in combat, and it seems highly likely that someone will be pushing for a draft before too long, and it will include women. (You may have noticed the Left has a perpetual hard-on for a draft.)

    I see this as being done to shake the relationship between conservatives and the military. Divide and conquer.

    Still seeing squirrels?

  42. cranky-d says:

    I wonder if soldiers proselytizing about Islam will be treated the same.

    I kid, I kid.

  43. If they cn’t proselytize about Christianity, can they proselytize about classical liberalism?

  44. palaeomerus says:

    “I wonder if soldiers proselytizing about Islam will be treated the same.”

    Or Wicca. Or that totally awesome Jedi thing. Or those people who choose to worship the Arisans who are slowly breeding the human race so it can eventually produce worthy Lensman for the coming conflict with the Boskone.

  45. Ernst Schreiber says:

    Or those people who choose to worship the Arisans who are slowly breeding the human race so it can eventually produce worthy Lensman for the coming conflict with the Boskone.

    So that’s who L. Ron Hubbard ripped off!

  46. Ernst Schreiber says:

    Frank Herbert too, I supose, but Herbert didn’t try to make a cult out of it, did he?

    He left that to George Lucas.

  47. newrouter says:

    that people of faith are already talking about advising their young relatives to stay away from the military

    yea that’s the ticket run away from the fight.

  48. cranky-d says:

    newrouter would apparently have us lie down in front of the bulldozer.

  49. If the guy at the controls isn’t a Vogon, or if you’re not Rachel Corrie, there’s a non-zero chance it could work.

  50. SBP says:

    “So that’s who L. Ron Hubbard ripped off!”

    Yep. Among others.

    Elron was a prolific hack SF writer, but not a particularly original one.

    Even the idea of starting a religion was stolen from Heinlein.

  51. newrouter says:

    “newrouter would apparently have us lie down in front of the bulldozer.”

    “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;”

  52. palaeomerus says:

    “So that’s who L. Ron Hubbard ripped off!”

    I haven’t read too much of L. Ron’s stuff beyond Battlefield Earth and bits of Mission Earth. I must admit that now that you mention it is does come off as repetitive variations of ‘ Triplanetary’ only chopped and screwed to go wit dat purple drank.

    Poor E.E. Doc Smith. His work became a seminal ingredient for a twisted monster. They took his weekend fun project written for adolescents, and made bullets and shackles out of it.

  53. Ernst Schreiber says:

    I never read that much science fiction —more into fantasy when I was a teen. But it’s interesting to see E.E. Smith as a parallel to J.R.R. Tolkien.

  54. happyfeet says:

    dad dated an SF writer before he married mom

    this was back when she had to pretend she was a boy to get published

    she came to his funeral it was super-sweet

  55. mondamay says:

    newrouter says May 2, 2013 at 3:40 pm
    yea that’s the ticket run away from the fight.

    What fight? All you see are squirrels here. Why should Christians throw their kids into the bureaucratic grinder, when they don’t even have full support from the “right” on this?

  56. Slartibartfast says:

    So that’s who L. Ron Hubbard ripped off!

    Smith’s estate would kick your ass for even suggesting that.

    If you haven’t read any of Hubbard’s copious drivel, you needn’t bother. It’s as if a nearly insanely egomaniacal fellow put his subconscious on loudspeaker.

    Maybe not “as if”.

    Anyway: unbearably tedious. I wouldn’t say it’s bad writing in the strictest sense of the phrase, because it’s got most or all of e.g. verb tense consistency. But bad in the sense of…have I mentioned unbearably tedious?

Comments are closed.