Monday, November 10, 2008

The Bureau Of Labor Statistics Mind Trick



Just a quick note for anyone who still trusts their government/media to tell them the truth.

When you hear of the "official" unemployment rate put out by the government, you are only getting half the truth (actually, it's 55%, but who is counting?). The government wants you to believe that our unemployment rate is only 6.5%, up from 4.8% when compared to last October.

The truth is the American unemployment rate is an eye-popping 11.8%, up from 8.4% last year.

Part of the problem is how the government calculates the unemployed. If 100,000 people were canned last month, but 120,000 people were designated "not looking for work," then the government tells us that the net amount of unemployed decreased 20,000.

...and we wonder why Fannie/Freddie went kablooie. I can't wait for them to administer health care and use that for political purposes.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (Ministry of Truth) puts out these stats on a monthly basis. Rather than listening to the dim bulbs in the mainstream media, or the various talk show hosts that are in the tank for their president, you need to download the BLS stats and refer to Table A-12. For the latest report, it is on page 18.

Line U-3 is the 'official' unemployment rate. Think of this as the dress size your wife imagines herself to be if she dropped 25 pounds.

Line U-6 is the actual unemployment rate. Think of this as the dress size she wears if it is constructed without Kevlar reinforcements.

The truth is out there. The government just assume we are too dumb and lazy to look for ourselves.

Uhhh....wait a minute...are we not the nation that thought that "real estate always goes up?" Didn't we think we could borrow our way to prosperity? Don't we all own the same 600 stocks and plan on selling them at a profit in a relatively short time frame?

Never mind. I now return you to your regularly scheduled debt-laden, socialist implosion, already in progress.

Friday, November 07, 2008

Bainbridge Island: Post Election Psychosis



Now that Bainbridge Islanders can't engage in their two favorite activities (endless yammering about home appreciation and wallpapering over the entire island with OBAMA '08 propaganda), we are going to have to brace for the next annoying, self-serving, short-sighted, hip-n-trendy corpus of mindless twaddle that they will lord over all of us in the name of neo-enlightenment.