What The Latest Household Survey Means

[Schneibster]

Wonkish and heavy. This jobless recovery is killing us, to the tune of US$400 billion per month, is the bottom line. The only reason unemployment is down so much is because of the number of people who have left the labor force and are no longer counted as "unemployed" but as "long-term unemployed." And yes, that really is the difference and has been since Jimmy Carter lost the White House, here in the US and the Reagan administration took over. They marked unemployment down three quarters of a percent and nobody said "Boo." So they did it again six months later and when everyone asked where all the "homeless people" came from they spent a year denying they existed and then another year blaming the Democrats. And well do I remember it, because that was the year I discovered politics. To this day I do not believe that Raygun Ronnie got away with that "There you go again" bullshit. That was when I realized what it meant to say that the average IQ is 100; if you can bluff good enough half of people will believe you.

Anyway, enough of my maundering and on to the meat.